Chapter 26
"Ah... Everyone's caught up in the New Year's cheer, and I'm the only one who sticks out... They're all thinking, 'Why did a curse mage even come to such a joyous occasion?' I know they are... I want to die..."
Ray Albright, one of the Seven Sages of the Kingdom of Ridill and the 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉, passed through the castle gates while spreading a gloomy atmosphere around him.
It had been more than six months since he had last come to the castle. Ray skipped most of the Seven Sages' meetings and only came to the castle for important ceremonies, such as the New Year's ceremony.
In fact, Ray hardly ever returned to the Albright family's main residence in the royal capital, so it had been a long time since he had even visited the capital.
The lively atmosphere of the royal capital did not sit well with Ray's curse-mage sensibilities. The cheerful voices of the people and the music drifting from somewhere all sounded to him like curses rejecting him.
The more happily everyone around him behaved, the more he felt as though they were telling him that he did not belong there.
"...Ah, I want to die. I want to die. I want to be loved. Someone, please love me. I want to be fawned over unconditionally. I want people to say, 'Ray-sama is amazing! Eek, he's wonderful!'"
On his way to the 〈Jade Room〉, where the Seven Sages gathered, Ray wanted to cling to the young maids he passed and say, "Tell me you love me," but the young maids turned around and walked away the moment they saw him.
After all, Ray's purple hair was incredibly flashy and conspicuous.
Apparently, the castle maids had an unspoken rule: Whenever they saw a purple-haired man, the young women were to take an immediate detour.
(...Ah... The world is so cold to me... I want to die...)
As Ray headed toward the 〈Jade Room〉 while cursing the world, a familiar figure approached him from the corridor directly ahead.
It was Monica Everett, the 〈Silent Witch〉, another of the Seven Sages.
Monica was wearing the Seven Sages' robe. When she noticed Ray, she gave him a polite bow.
"It has been a while, 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉-sama. Um, congratulations."
"...?"
Her tone sounded as though she were congratulating Ray personally, rather than simply offering New Year's greetings.
Wondering what could possibly be so worthy of celebration, Ray entered the 〈Jade Room〉. The 〈Star-Seer Witch〉 Mary Harvey and the 〈Cannonball Mage〉 Bradford Firestone, who were already seated, looked at Ray and spoke.
"Oh, Ray-chan. I heard about it. Congratulations~"
"Hey, Abyssal! It's a happy occasion! Shall I fire off a cannon salute?"
For some reason, Ray's fellow Seven Sages continued congratulating him one after another.
What was going on? Ray's vivid pink eyes widened.
(What does this mean...? I... I'm being congratulated...? Could it be that I'm loved now? They're congratulating me because they love me, right? A miracle... A miracle has occurred...!)
Ray slowly lifted his usually downcast face. All his companions were looking at him with kind eyes.
He really was being congratulated!
(Amazing, amazing... Everyone is congratulating me... Even though my birthday was last month!)
As Ray's eyes grew moist with emotion, the door behind him opened. The person who entered was the 〈Thorn Witch〉, Raul Roseberg.
Although a ceremony was about to begin, the 〈Thorn Witch〉 had simply thrown a robe over his work clothes. When he saw Ray, he flashed his white teeth and laughed cheerfully.
"Hey, Ray! I heard you're engaged! Congratulations!"
"...Huh?"
"A friend's engagement! We have to celebrate this in style! Oh, should I give you some vegetables carved with decorations? Or would you prefer flowers? Leave the flowers for the wedding to me!"
After Raul enthusiastically thumped him on the shoulder, Ray trembled violently and forced a sound from his pale lips.
"I-I-I-I-I-I..."
"Hmm? What's wrong, Ray? Did you get diarrhea?"
Raul's extraordinarily rude words did not reach Ray in the slightest.
Because Ray...
"I wasn't told! No one told me I was engaged!"
Indeed, it was completely news to him.
＊ ＊ ＊
The 〈Barrier Mage〉 Louis Miller had a residence in the royal capital, so he normally traveled to the castle by carriage.
However, Louis had nearly been late on the very first day of the new year, so he had no choice but to use flying magic to reach the castle.
The reason he was late was that he had been unable to find his staff even when it was time to leave.
The Seven Sages' staffs were custom-made, and there were no spares. Being without his staff for an ordinary meeting would have been one thing, but being without it for a ceremony was a serious problem.
Louis had searched the entire house in a panic before finding his staff in the garden.
The golden staff, which had been turned into a laundry pole by the hands of that hopelessly incompetent maid, was covered from end to end with his daughter's diapers.
──If you hold that staff aloft and fly through the sky, the laundry will dry faster. I believe this is a highly innovative drying method.
That was what the hopeless maid in question had said.
"That hopeless maid... When will she finally learn how to do housework?"
After arriving at the castle, Louis hurried down the corridor, grumbling to himself, and opened the door to the 〈Jade Room〉.
"Excuse me, I'm late..."
His words broke off unnaturally because his attention was caught by an object lying at his feet.
On the floor of the 〈Jade Room〉, where only the Seven Sages and the king were permitted to enter, lay the 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉, sprawled like a corpse.
Raul and Monica were huddled beside Ray. Raul was poking Ray's cheek with a carrot and saying, "Eat your vegetables and cheer up!" while Monica merely fussed helplessly.
Louis simply thought Ray was in the way, so he stepped on his back without a word.
"Gggh!?"
A strange cry came from below his feet, but Louis calmly walked on and took his seat.
"A-Abyssal Curse Mage-samaaaa!"
"Hang in there, Ray! The wound's not that deep!"
The younger members were making such a racket that Louis looked over at Mary and Bradford, the older members.
The two older members were looking at Louis reproachfully.
"That was rather cruel, Louis-chan."
"Hey, Barrier. Have you no human feelings?"
"My apologies. I assumed he wanted me to step on him."
Surely it was kind of him not to grind his heel into Ray, wasn't it? When Louis said this as though it were perfectly obvious, both Mary and Bradford sighed in resignation. Naturally, Louis was not the sort of man to care about his colleagues' reactions.
"And why has the curse mage been reduced to a carpet?"
"You know, Ray-chan got engaged a little while ago, didn't he?"
Louis stroked his chin at Mary's words. He had spent much of the past year flying all over the country and being away from home, so he had become somewhat out of touch with this sort of information.
"Come to think of it, there may have been a letter announcing an engagement among the mail that had piled up... Ah, I see. His betrothed disliked him and called off the engagement?"
"...Actually, he only just found out about it~"
"The engagement was called off?"
Mary gave a wry smile and shook her head at Louis, who had already assumed that the engagement had been broken off.
"The engagement itself."
"..."
When Louis silently looked down at the floor, the man who had become a carpet covered his face with both hands and finally began to sob.
"Baba-sama did this... It was definitely Baba-sama's doing... It's cruel, so cruel... It's too much..."
Baba-sama was presumably Ray's grandmother, Adeline Albright, the second 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉.
Ray was the head of House Albright, but he hardly ever returned to the main residence, so it was common knowledge that his grandmother Adeline effectively ran the family.
Louis had never met the second 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉, but he had heard rumors that she was quite a forceful person.
"...An engagement... How could they decide something like that without telling me...? And it had already been decided six months ago..."
To Louis, the fact that Ray had not noticed for six months could only be described as idiotic.
This was what happened when a man skipped Seven Sages meetings and shut himself away.
Louis sighed wearily.
Honestly, he did not care in the slightest about the 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉's engagement, but in Ray's current state, the ceremony would be affected.
"What are you lamenting so much about? An engagement is a wonderful thing, isn't it? You have always wanted to be loved, haven't you? Shouldn't you be celebrating the miracle of gaining a betrothed who loves even someone like you?"
"You made fun of me... You casually made fun of me... This is why handsome people are so awful...!"
"My apologies for being handsome—and married, to boot. Please, go ahead and envy me to your heart's content. Ha ha ha."
Perhaps unable to bear watching Ray get beaten down every time Louis opened his mouth, Bradford, who rarely played the role of peacemaker, awkwardly cut in.
"Well, Barrier's saying something a bit much, but, Abyssal, why are you being so gloomy? Getting engaged is a happy occasion, isn't it?"
Ray Albright, the 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉, was famous for wanting to be loved.
For a man who cornered every young woman he saw and demanded, "Love me!", it would have been more natural for him to rejoice at gaining a betrothed.
But Ray was devastated as though the world were coming to an end.
"...Because I have a betrothed. We're promising to marry. If my betrothed hated me... I-I'd die... My delicate heart would be blown to smithereens...!"
It was a melancholy statement, considering that he was already assuming they would hate him.
Everyone hesitated, unsure what to say, until Raul patted Ray on the shoulder and gave him a hearty thumbs-up.
"Don't worry, Ray! Anyone who can go around asking anyone and everyone to 'love me' isn't delicate at all! You're incredibly thick-skinned! You're by far the thickest-skinned person I know, so take confidence in that!"
"..."
Ray rolled across the floor and pressed himself against the wall. With his back turned to everyone, he murmured sadly, "I hate all of you..."