Elysia was a woman who might just become my savior.
"I, I'm ready too! It's okay, I can do it...!"
"... No, please take off the goggles. It's fine."
Though I wasn't very convinced, we were in the garden of Elysia’s castle. When I forced the goggles off her anxious eyes, she looked like she was about to cry.
"No. Water will get in my eyes!"
"What... are you talking about?"
"... Don't I have to go into the water?"
"Why would you?"
"But that's how you were learning magic, wasn't it?"
It seemed she had misunderstood after seeing me learn Remove. I chose my words for a moment, then just said it bluntly.
"That's... because my case is special. You will be fine, Ms. Elysia."
"Really??"
Seeing Elysia's face instantly brighten, I organized my thoughts. In truth, as was obvious, I had no confidence in my ability to teach magic. All I had learned was what I'd overheard at the academy, and surely, her countless masters must have tried all of that already.
If there was anything I could do, it would be something like this.
"But why are you speaking formally again? Weren't you my master?"
"In a formal setting where I am teaching something, I will use formal language. I would appreciate it if you would do the same, Ms. Elysia, but..."
"Yes! I will!"
"... You can just speak comfortably. Today, let's work on control."
"Control?"
"Yes. In my opinion, the reason you can't use magic, Ms. Elysia, is because you yourself are blocking it."
I created a small gust of wind. Naturally, being right next to Elysia, it dissipated slightly. It wasn't enough, so I pulled Elysia closer and had her sit next to me.
"Please move a little closer."
"Oh, okay?"
We were close enough for our breaths to touch. Strands of Elysia's silver hair brushed against my cheek. Elysia seemed a little startled by the sudden contact.
Sensing my mistake, I backed away slightly.
"Ah, my apologies. Is there some rule that nobles shouldn't touch commoners?"
"No! There's nothing like that, not at all!"
"... Is that so?"
Her vehement reaction bothered me a little, but at this distance, my wind magic was being disrupted enough that it was hard to even manifest.
"Now, let's try to control it. Please calm your heart."
"... Okay!"
Elysia took a deep breath to compose herself and then earnestly attempted something.
"Hnngh..."
I had no idea what she was doing. Nothing was changing. I soothed the trembling Elysia.
"Don't try to use magic."
"... Huh? Then what should I do?"
"Think of magic as a natural and ordinary phenomenon. Even if you can't, just trying is enough."
"Is that all it takes?"
"Of course."
If the world she created was made to reject magic, then she, the creator, had to change first. As for me, I was a resident of a world that was already finished, but Elysia was still young. She should be more than capable of changing it with her own power.
After pondering for a moment, Elysia blinked.
"Umm, I'm not sure. Isn't it a natural and ordinary phenomenon? I think it is."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. I didn't really know before, but everyone uses magic. Of course it exists. It's natural, too."
I tried to manifest magic. It was still the same. It wouldn't move, as if it were sealed.
Well.
I hadn't expected the seal to break so easily just by making her aware of the situation. I looked around. There was no one watching.
"Ms. Elysia."
"Yes!"
"Shall we step out for a moment?"
"Out? Where to?"
"Let's go for a walk outside."
I explained to the tilting-headed Elysia.
"I think I need to stop by my home for a moment."
"?"
Since we were in the capital anyway, it didn't take long to reach the orphanage.
"Hello, Director."
"... Jern? Jern!"
The moment I arrived and waved, the Director, who had been playing with the children, was startled and ran over. His gaze was that of someone seeing a prodigal son who had run away for weeks and finally returned. Which was, in fact, the truth.
"My goodness, Jern! Where on earth have you been!"
"...? Didn't you get my letters? I sent them almost every day."
"I did, but you never said where you were or what you were doing! 'I'm fine, I'm okay, I'm happy.' How am I supposed to believe you're okay when that's all you write??"
"Well, how should I put it... a lot of things happened that are hard to explain. I'm fine, so please don't worry."
"Haa... I'm glad you're safe, but..."
The Director's disbelieving eyes then shifted to my side. Looking at the obviously well-kept clothes and the elegant face, the Director asked with a puzzled expression.
"Umm, who is this child?"
"She's a new friend I made."
"I, is that so? If you had time to make friends, I wish you would have come and explained... Anyway, it's nice to meet you. My name is Albus."
"Ah, yes...!"
Elysia took the Director's large hand and shook it vigorously. At the same time, she looked around with curiosity, as if it was her first time in an orphanage, which was of course true.
"I'm the Director of this orphanage."
"Oh, this was an orphanage?!"
"?? Umm, yes, it is."
Elysia gasped in surprise and covered her mouth.
"Then all the children here are..."
"They are our charges."
As we were talking, the children, having heard the commotion, came over one by one.
"Huh? It's Jern, where have you been all this time?"
"Who's that next to you?"
"A new friend. I was away for a little while for work."
"Right, while you were gone, you won't believe what Shach did to your bed..."
"I told you not to talk about that!"
As the children began to chatter noisily, I whispered to Elysia.
"I apologize for the humble surroundings. This is my home."
"Jern... I knew you were a commoner, but, that."
"Yes. I am an orphan."
"Really??"
Elysia's eyes widened as if she couldn't have imagined it. It seemed Aletus hadn't told her. After a moment of shock, she quickly shook her head.
"Ah, no, it's not that it's strange, but I just thought you were a noble... maybe not, but the son of a hidden family, or the descendant of a fallen noble, something like that."
"Are you disappointed?"
"... No, what do you take me for? Of course not! It's just, I'm curious."
"There are no secrets about my birth. I'm just an ordinary child."
"That's a lie."
I took the suddenly resolute Elysia into the orphanage, where a class was in session. There were children receiving lessons. Keeping our voices down so as not to disturb them, I asked Elysia.
"What do you think?"
"Wow..."
Elysia's eyes sparkled as she listened in on the lesson. It was quite funny. To think she was doing the exact same thing I did at the academy.
She replied with a hint of excitement.
"It's not that different from what we learned when we were little."
"Literacy education is the same everywhere. It will diverge as they get older. You, Ms. Elysia, will learn magic, while those children will choose and learn according to their talents or what they want to do."
"... Ah."
At those words, Elysia's expression darkened slightly, as if she remembered the magic she still hadn't learned. I cleared my throat and asked again.
"However, I believe that is not a significant fact."
"Huh?"
"Ms. Elysia, you seem to be taking this thing called magic too seriously. As my Master said, magic is a simple tool. To assign it any greater value is nothing more than an act of self-torture."
Dersia had said it. It's foolish to fear a tool. I think a little differently.
If you see something like a chainsaw grinding a person to death, isn't it possible to be afraid even if you know it's safe? I can't solve that for her. It's something she must do on her own.
No matter what help others provide, if she doesn't try to overcome it herself, it's all meaningless. All I can do is let her know that the chainsaw was made to cut trees, not people.
"What those children are learning and magic may differ in power, but their essence is the same. It's to not lose to others, to achieve the grades you want tomorrow, or to fulfill a dream... it's merely a means to an end. I wanted you to understand that."
"It's not the goal?"
"Yes."
"But, I can't take it so lightly. A noble who can't learn magic is—" "Still a noble. You may face scorn and slander, but Sir Aletus is still your father. That fact does not change."
Alesia looked at me with her clear eyes, her lips parting and closing several times. I waited quietly for some words to emerge from her mouth. What if nothing works?
I'll have to beg Dersia to save me. For the record, magic still wasn't manifesting.
"... Jern."
"Yes."
As I waited, Elysia hesitated and then opened her mouth.
"... Will, will you go somewhere with me?"
The roles were now reversed.
The place Elysia led me to was a wide hill. A fence, adorned with all sorts of brilliant decorations, was protecting something, but there was nothing inside. Only a single sword was stuck in the ground.
"Where is this?"
"This is where my mother is sleeping."
I didn't realize, since there was no gravestone. Elysia calmly placed the flowers she had brought before the sword, then turned around as if that was the end of it. Feeling as though I were sitting on a cushion of thorns, I stood at attention and asked politely.
"Um, is there any etiquette I should follow?"
"What? Pfft..."
Elysia laughed it off.
"There's nothing like that. My mother was an incredibly, iiincredibly lenient person. She'd probably forgive you even if you danced on her grave."
"She sounded like a kind person."
"Yes. She passed away when I was eight."
"Ahem."
This was truly uncomfortable. Elysia poked me with a mischievous look on her face.
"I felt the same way you do now when you suddenly took me to the orphanage, you know? You said you were going home, so I was preparing to greet your parents, and then you suddenly drop a tragic backstory on me. How am I supposed to react to that?"
"... Let's just say we're even now."
"I guess so, haa."
As if she had come here many times before, Elysia naturally climbed onto the fence and began to walk precariously along it, speaking in a calm tone.
"If, if my world was built wrong... I think I know what the cause is."
"What is it?"
"My mother died because of magic."
"But, the magic that created my mother's final moments was the most beautiful magic I have ever seen."
Elysia looked up at the sky, as if recalling that time.
"I was eight years old, and they said there was no hope for my mother back then. That she only had a few more years to live. In the end, a really famous mage came to visit."
"I don't know who it was, but he said that even his magic couldn't cure her, that she might die if he used it. Still, my father somehow pushed for it..."
"... What kind of magic was it?"
"I'm not sure. It was just... beautiful. All I remember is my mother getting up at the end and hugging me."
Elysia sighed and continued.
"I don't know. Can you hate magic for something like this? I don't really have any ill feelings toward magic. If anything, I'm grateful because my mother's last moments were happy."
"The human heart doesn't work with the precision of a machine."
I'm sure your mother would not have wanted you to hate magic. I didn't say those words aloud. Trying to guess the thoughts of a loved one, even with good intentions, is an act close to violence.
"And, I wonder if you really need to overcome it."
"... What do you mean by that?"
"I'm an orphan, so I can't understand, but losing a parent means you've let go of someone you love. If learning magic is the price for forgetting painful memories... Hmm. Honestly, I think it's a loss. I would just give up and cherish the memory."
I said so without blinking an eye. Elysia, who had been staring at my face with a dumbfounded expression, soon chuckled.
"What kind of foolish thing are you saying? Moving on doesn't mean forgetting."
"Is that so. I apologize. That was a slip of the tongue."
"Jern, you're smart, but you're a little lacking when it comes to human relationships, aren't you? Hehe..."
Whoosh- A small breeze blew across the hill. Elysia looked up at the horizon and muttered.
"Yes, it's not forgetting..."
Watching her silver hair flutter, I smiled quietly and clenched my right hand behind my back. My mana had definitely been drawn out.
"Today was fun. It felt like we just played instead of having a lesson, hehe."
"Not at all. There has been very great progress."
"?"
I waved goodbye to the bewildered Elysia as she boarded her carriage. Even after she left, I watched for a long time, lost in thought.
'It worked.'
It was only for an instant, but a wind had blown. It wasn't my place to say it, but the world of a mage is truly a mysterious thing, I thought, as I returned to the library.
"?"
But the door was open. That in itself wouldn't be strange. Dersia must have made a mistake.
However, seeing the five excessively lavish carriages embroidered with gold thread next to the library, well... it seemed something had happened. Well, I wasn't too worried. After all, the one inside was Dersia.
"Excuse me."
Creak.
I deliberately pushed the already open door, making a sound. But the people inside seemed so engrossed in their conversation that they didn't notice me.
"... So, you're saying you were drawn purely to his talent?"
"I have repeated that at least thirty times now."
"It's hard to believe. If you were someone who moved for such things..."
Several men clad head-to-toe in black robes, looking like a group of villains, were surrounding Dersia and interrogating her. Seeing the swords at their waists, I figured they were knights. I was surprised.
Not because it was a dangerous situation, but because Dersia, in that state, was merely annoyed and hadn't done anything to the knights.
"Ahem."
"... Who goes there!"
Only after I cleared my throat did they look this way. They were immensely tall. Their builds were about twice that of an average adult man.
I had a rough idea of who they were, so I immediately approached, knelt, and bowed my head.
"I am Jern, a disciple of Dersia. It is an honor to meet the Imperial Knights."
"... What?"
The knights looked at me with bewildered faces, then glared at Dersia.
"What have you told him?"
"Weren't you the ones who made it so I couldn't?"
"... You there, how did you know we were Imperial Knights?"
The man who seemed to be the Knight Commander approached, issuing a threat. I shrugged, unintimidated, and replied.
"Your carriages were quite fancy."
"There would have been no Imperial seal."
"Given that you're surrounding my Master and are still alive, I figured you weren't just any ordinary knight order."
"But why, of all the many knight orders, did you single out the Imperial Knights? You shouldn't know anything about the knight orders!"
"My Master has a bit of a fiery temperament. Even if they had power, if they came at her like this, any other knight order would not be able to gather their bones."
"The fact that no blood has been spilled after thirty answers led me to surmise that you must be opponents she truly cannot afford to harm in this country."
The Knight Commander was at a loss for words. Dersia looked at me and smirked.
"I hope that answer was sufficient."
"... You seem to disrespect your master quite a bit. Does that not bother you?"
"I will discipline him for that later on my own."
"The answer... will be judged at the venue."
Without another word, they emanated a formidable aura and left the library.
Bang!
Closing the door with a final, irritation-filled look, Dersia waited until they were all gone before letting out a longer-than-usual sigh and lifting her coffee cup.
"This has become troublesome..."
"What was all that about?"
"It seems the princess is a little upset. Something along the lines of, 'How dare she refuse me and choose a mere commoner?'"
"Ah. I understand. But still, if you refused the princess, shouldn't you not even think about taking another disciple?"
"That's not something the 'other disciple' should be saying."
Trickle.
Dersia poured some coffee and pushed the cup toward me.
"And this is your problem as well, Jern."
"Mine? Why? Not me. This is a matter related to the Imperial Family; I'm too insignificant. I'll leave it to you, Master."
"As you must have heard, my reason for refusal was 'the commoner I chose was so outstanding that I had no choice.' But if that commoner doesn't perform well in the upcoming combat exam... there will be much to find fault with."
"The law can't bind me. That's what you always say."
"But there's nothing I can do against someone whose words are law."
I took a sip of the coffee I was given and coughed up blood from its concentration. This is absurd. This is practically poison.
Dersia drank all of the poison, touched her temple, and made a decision.
"To avoid future troubles, you must win for certain. And you must do it in an overwhelming fashion."
"So the pressure's on me now. But I'm not confident."
"Why not?"
"I mean... the only magic I've learned is this stuff. What am I supposed to do?"
I activated Remove, covering my body.
"It's good, but I feel like all it does is let me take hits. To win while my heart-realm is sealed, I need something more."
"Don't I need to learn something that lets me move beyond being a punching bag?"
Dersia looked at me with pity and said.
"... Jern. No matter how much of a primordial magic the archaic formula is, you are no genius. How do you think you learned it so quickly?"
"Umm... I'm not sure."
"It is because I prepared you for it."
"Pardon?"
Dersia nonchalantly spouted insane words.
"The archaic formula. Originally, it was a magic that a tribal chief in some jungle awakened to as a natural body and passed down through generations."
"The way they interpreted magic was as a price for pain."
"Just the sound of it is horrifying."
"And it truly is. The tribal chief probably performed his usual 'ritual' without even knowing he had become a mage."
"That act of ritual was close to torture, cutting, tearing, and pressing his own body. When mana and desire were infused into that slow process of dying... it became magic."
I immediately turned off Remove. I lost my appetite.
"Surprisingly, Cultivate and Shape evolved in very refined and advanced ways and were able to leave their mark on history. But Remove, which served as the cornerstone, is utterly barbaric. The basic conditions for learning it are absurd."
"Let me guess... you have to be constantly circulating mana throughout your entire body?"
"That is the first. The second is that it requires body‑reinforcement techniques. And the biggest drawback, the final problem that makes it impossible for others to learn the archaic formula."
Dersia looked at me and smiled deeply.
"You cannot breathe while using Remove."
"... Somehow, I thought it was too good to be true."
It had an unbelievable risk. But not for me. I no longer use my mouth to breathe.
"The archaic formula is certainly a good formula. But it's not worth learning by overcoming all these things. That's why it fell out of use. And why I found it for you."
"You have a plan for everything, Master."
"... You only call me Master when it suits you. The important point is that with the training of Remove alone, you will be able to face the children's elemental spells without so much as a scratch."
"I see..."
Indeed.
Dersia was helping my growth far more organically than I had thought. None of her actions were for a single purpose. I looked at her dull eyes and posed a question.
"But right now, it only blocks cold. So, like, how do I deal with the other elements—" "Do not worry. Before the exam, I will make it so you can use Remove against all elements."
"... Thnk yu."
It was practically a declaration of torture. I gritted my teeth and expressed my gratitude, but then another question arose.
"No, but still."
"Yes. Do you still have something you're curious about?"
"I understand that this archaic formula, or more specifically, Remove, is the absolute best for enduring. But how do I attack?"
The fact remained that I had no means of offense.
"You will continue your training of walking with Formula: Rupture and Formula: Acceleration active. Then there will be no problem."
"Why not."
"Because your physical body will be at its peak. Go and beat them with your fists until they surrender."
"Isn't this a match between mages?"
"Who cares."
"... Pardon?"
Seeing my bewildered face, Dersia replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Winning is the most important thing." ...
My head was already starting to ache just thinking about what would be said at the competition.