Chapter 4
“What a shame. Such a shame.”
On the way back in the carriage.
Baron Avril let out a long sigh as he gazed out the window.
“To think such talent is buried in a remote village like this.”
The image of the mage girl he had just met, Lunaris Evermoon, still lingered before his eyes.
Overwhelming magic utterly at odds with her small, delicate frame!
He thought he had seen quite a few mages while traveling around to provide aid to the people, but this was the first time he had ever seen a mage of her caliber.
“I was surprised too, my lord.”
The knight riding beside him nodded.
“She could easily become conceited, yet she's humble as well. She'll surely go far one day.”
The baron nodded and smiled bitterly.
“With talent like that, she would be welcomed even by the imperial family.”
“Especially in an age like this, when mages are so rare.”
Mages had always played an important role as a deterrent to war.
Magic was already extraordinarily useful in everyday life.
There were countless ways to use it, but capable mages were few and far between, making every single one precious.
“Besides, Miss Lunaris isn't an ordinary mage, is she?”
“She's a high-ranking mage, and one who has mastered both water and wind magic. And she's supposedly only just old enough to enter the academy.”
“She'll surely become an ace of the Imperial Mage Corps. She might even surpass the commander and become the first transcendent-level mage since the founding of the empire.”
After finishing, the knight fell silent with an awkward expression.
Perhaps he had gotten a little too excited for someone who usually wasn't like this.
But the baron had been even more excited.
“Indeed. If only we could place such a talent in an important position within the imperial palace...!”
He would have received a substantial reward from the imperial family for making the recommendation himself, too.
Deep regret seeped into his lamenting voice.
“But Miss Lunaris is so stubborn. She seemed to have no intention whatsoever of leaving the forest.”
“Hmm. That's just childishness born of not knowing the outside world. Seeing this, I can tell she really is only sixteen.”
Baron Avril couldn't even imagine that Lunaris refused to leave the hut simply because of sheer laziness.
“It seems she only needs a little motivation...”
At that moment, the knight seemed to suddenly remember something and made a suggestion to the baron.
“By the way, my lord. Didn't the imperial court say it was sending a mage to investigate this incident? Why not consult with them?”
Baron Avril's eyes lit up.
He nodded with a satisfied smile.
“That's an excellent idea.”
*
I had finally gotten my life of sound sleep back.
Today, too, the bed was soft and fluffy, and the blanket was wonderfully cozy.
The village had regained its peace, and the forest seemed to have returned to normal as well.
And I had neatly fended off the lord who had tried to drag me somewhere strange.
It really was the perfect, blissful life of idleness.
These days, I had been killing time by researching medicinal herbs.
It wasn't as if I was worried about Lia's injured leg. Absolutely not.
This was merely something to pass the time. I had been bored from doing nothing but reading books every day, so I had simply found myself a new hobby.
I was lying in bed, yawning lazily as I stirred the bubbling cauldron.
“Luna~ Could you open the door?”
I heard Auntie's voice.
I snapped my fingers, and the door opened on its own.
“Come on in, Auntie.”
“Have you been well? Luna, you get prettier by the day, dear~”
“Ahaha...”
“What's your secret? Is it because you sleep so soundly? Goodness~ I need to get some proper sleep too, but the snoring of that wretch at home keeps waking me up every night!”
Auntie entered the room carrying a heavy bundle.
It contained the groceries and daily necessities she usually brought me, along with the things I had asked her to get separately.
“Here, I brought the medicinal herbs you mentioned too. It was quite a hassle finding them, since there isn't a single person in the village who wasn't injured~ Hoho!”
I took a gold coin from the pouch on the table and pressed it into Auntie's hand.
“Oh my, a gold coin? Don't you have any silver? I don't have enough change.”
“It's fine, Auntie. You come all the way here and go through all that trouble every time.”
“Really? Ohoho! You're generous~ Still, this is too much, so let's count it as prepayment for the groceries I'll bring next time.”
To be honest, I had forgotten where I put the other coins.
I could probably find them if I searched the room, but honestly, I couldn't be bothered.
“Oh, right! I really wanted to thank you for what happened last time. The villagers survived thanks to you.”
“It was nothing. I was just lucky.”
I hadn't expected to receive thanks so suddenly, and I felt awkward enough that I merely fiddled with my hair.
“I don't know much about it, but I can still see it so clearly—the way chunks of ice came pouring down from the sky. That was magic, right?”
“Yes, I suppose so...?”
“Goodness, I had no idea you were a mage. You spend all day lying in bed, after all. Honestly, I used to wonder whether you even did any real work at all.”
“Ahaha...”
“Then that person who came to our village must be a mage too, right?”
...Huh?
“No~ Someone who said he was your coworker wanted to meet you, you see. So I came with him~”
“Coworker... what?”
What was she talking about now?
A coworker? There was no way I had one of those.
More importantly, I didn't even have a workplace.
“Oh-ho, so you were living in a place with such lovely scenery and clean air.”
At that moment, the person Auntie had dubbed my ‘coworker’ appeared.
He was a man with gray streaks in his hair and an air of gravitas about him.
“The mana here is certainly abundant as well. What a wonderful place.”
Naturally, I was meeting him for the first time.
“...W-who are you?”
“Who else would I be? I'm Miss Lunaris's coworker.”
“???”
“More precisely, you could say I'm someone who will be your future coworker.”
“??!?!”
Seriously, what was going on?
“Beautiful lady, thank you so much for showing me the way. Thanks to you, I didn't get lost in the forest.”
“Oh, you're too much! What a thing to say, hoho!”
That man must have been suffering from presbyopia.
Otherwise, he couldn't possibly have mistaken me for a coworker.
“Then, Luna, I'll see you next time.”
“Wait. You're leaving that strange man here and just going...?”
“Huh? Didn't he say he was your coworker?”
...You believe that?
“No... Don't you think that makes no sense?”
“What are you saying now? There's no way such a fine gentleman would lie.”
My head was beginning to feel just a little hot.
“Come down to the village from time to time. I'll butcher a chicken and stew it up nice for you.”
But... I'm the one who looks about to be eaten right now.
But Auntie ignored my shout and left just like that.
-Creeeak, thud.
And so, only the stranger and I remained inside the hut.
-Bubble, bubble.
The sound of boiling water alone echoed through the silence.
“Then I suppose I should introduce myself again.”
He slowly opened his mouth, still wearing a genial smile.
“I am Albert Marcelin, Deputy Commander of the Imperial Mage Corps.”
“...!”
I involuntarily flinched.
The name was extremely familiar, after all.
The events of <The Academy’s Tenacious Mage> flashed through my mind in an instant, as if someone were scrolling through them.
I had been living in this world for seven years now.
This was the first time I had ever met a ‘named character’ from the novel in person.
But... the Albert I knew was definitely...
“Deputy Commander... did you say? Not the commander?”
“Hmm? Yes, that's right.”
My thoughts were thrown into turmoil.
Apparently, this was the ‘past,’ before Albert became commander.
The novel's main story...
hadn't even begun yet.
*
I thought I'd barely fended off the lord, but now an even bigger figure had appeared.
And not just someone one or two levels above him—someone practically at the very top had come all the way down here.
My instincts warned me.
If I got entangled with this man, I might be dragged into something troublesome.
As I stood before him, brimming with wariness,
the deputy commander leisurely surveyed the room.
He spotted the cauldron bubbling with medicinal herbs in one corner of the hut and spoke with interest.
“I see you were brewing medicinal herbs. I hope I didn't interrupt you.”
“You certainly did interrupt me.”
At my unenthusiastic reply, the deputy commander burst into laughter.
“I'm sorry about that. But I have a truly important proposal that I simply must make to Miss Lunaris.”
“A proposal...?”
“Our Imperial Mage Corps earnestly wants talents like Miss Lunaris.”
The rest was obvious without even hearing it.
“Would you perhaps consider coming to the Imperial Capital?”
“The Imperial Mage Corps? That would be far too much for me.”
I answered without the slightest hesitation.
“I'm still woefully inadequate.”
The annoyed look on my face was an added bonus.
But the deputy commander wasn't bothered by my insolent attitude. If anything, he burst out laughing.
“Haha! As expected, you're humble. But if Miss Lunaris were truly inadequate, our former commander wouldn't have taken you in as his granddaughter.”
...Huh? What was he talking about now?
“Former commander?”
“What? Surely your grandfather never told you a word about me or the Imperial Mage Corps?”
“...You knew my grandfather?”
When I frowned and asked him again, the deputy commander nodded with a smile.
“Of course. When I was a low-ranking member, I learned a great deal from former Commander Evermoon.”
His words left me completely stunned.
“I was scolded from time to time, but thanks to him, I now lead others as deputy commander.”
This was a bit of a shock.
I had thought the whole commander thing was an absurd lie. Apparently, it had been true after all.
Because the old man I remembered was nothing more than a parrot for the Imperial Mage Corps who had gaslit me every day.
I had assumed he simply had some kind of inferiority complex.
No... even so, the commander of the Imperial Mage Corps would be among the highest-ranking powers in the empire.
Why would someone like that have lived in a shabby hut like this?
Could he have gotten involved in something bad and gone into hiding...?
“Um... Deputy Commander, what kind of person was my grandfather?”
“He was a man who devoted his entire life to researching magic and safeguarding the empire.”
Thankfully, the old man wasn't some criminal whose crimes warranted wiping out three generations of his family.
“Even when he retired, he returned all his wealth to the imperial family and asked them to use it for the advancement of magic in the empire.”
Instead, he was a sucker destined to be resented by three generations of his family.