Chapter 88: Librarian Ernst (9) - The Difference in What They've Built Up

#88 The Librarian Ernst (9) - The Difference in What They've Built Up

A cool breeze blew gently. Flowers and grass swayed in the air.

The sun was hidden by clouds, leaving the sky slightly dim, but not gloomy.

Even in such perfect weather and scenery for a stroll, Eris couldn't enjoy it properly.

Her mind was already in chaos.

Why was Ernst here?

Was the stroll actually true, or was it a lie?

Did he see me crying? As long as I didn't actually shed tears, maybe it's fine?

But I did crouch on the ground, didn't I?

What do I say if he asks? Ignore it? Lie my way out?

Come to think of it, I still hadn't properly returned that theory book from last time.

She had been brooding with a gloomy face for a while, but it only lasted a moment.

After sneaking glances at Ernst and gauging his mood, Eris soon noticed something strange.

...Then why the hell isn't this man even looking at me?

Whether Eris was fidgeting beside him or staring at him, Ernst showed no interest whatsoever and simply kept walking on his own path.

He took deep breaths of the clean air, took in the surrounding scenery, and even looked up at the sky now and then.

He looked as though he were enjoying the stroll to the fullest.

“…….”

The extremely complicated mess in Eris's head slowly settled down.

And in its place, an inexplicable irritation surged up.

“…Hey.”

Ernst's eyes turned toward Eris.

“What is it?”

“Weren't you calling me because you had something you wanted to say?”

At Eris's sharp question, Ernst paused for a beat before saying, “Hmm.”

“No, not particularly. I didn't have anything I especially wanted to say.”

A flare of anger.

Eris's cheeks trembled.

It was anger so intense that even she couldn't understand why she was so worked up.

She snapped back irritably.

“Then what is it! Why did you call me over if you didn't even have any business with me!”

“I said I didn't have anything I wanted to say, not that I had no business.”

“Then what business is it! You have to say it before I'll listen or refuse it!”

“You already are listening. You're walking with me, aren't you?”

At an answer she had never imagined, Eris blinked.

Thinking she'd been mocked, she was now even starting to feel betrayed.

“What is that... just to waste my time like this...”

“It's not a waste of time.”

Ernst cut Eris off.

His firmness was so absolute that it sounded as though there wasn't even room for compromise, and Eris was thrown off for a moment.

“Moving your body, breathing in fresh air, and taking in the scenery around you. Finding a path you didn't know and encountering unexpected people. Every one of those acts has value and meaning. This isn't wasting time, and it's not pointless either.”

“You could do that even by yourself.”

“You could. But sometimes doing it together isn't bad either. Just as reading a book leisurely by yourself is enjoyable, sometimes sharing that impression with someone else is enjoyable too.”

“…….”

Eris fell silent.

It would have been easy to deny Ernst's words.

I didn't do that because I enjoyed it. Reading the book, talking about my impressions—everything was only something I had no choice but to do for the sake of the magic book.

I only needed to declare that much.

But Eris couldn't do that.

Was she worried that openly hurting his feelings might get in the way of receiving a new book? Yes, that reason wasn't entirely absent.

But was that really all?

Reading the books she'd dismissed as impractical, sharing their contents with the man in front of her, and discussing them—was that time really only painful? Was there truly nothing enjoyable about it?

No, that wasn't it.

Since childhood, Eris had been tormented by the obsession that she had to become a great mage worthy of her master, and for just a brief moment she had been able to escape that anxiety and impatience.

“Always striving and fulfilling your duties is noble. But I want to firmly reject a life that's nothing but that.”

“Why is that?”

“Because it's far too sad. And not fun at all.”

There was unmistakable sincerity in Ernst's voice.

Enough to show that it wasn't just empty rhetoric, but something he genuinely believed day to day.

Was it because she'd heard that true feeling?

Eris suddenly blurted this out.

“You said you had nothing you wanted to tell me.”

“That's right.”

“Then, can you listen to what I have to say?”

“As much as you like.”

As if that permission were the trigger, Eris began to pour out the words she had kept buried inside her one by one.

That she had revered Delpinaris as both her parent and her teacher.

That she had accidentally learned what her master truly felt.

That she had been striving to become such a remarkable mage that her master's opinion of her would change.

And that, to her bitter frustration, a 'genius' had appeared whose talent couldn't even be compared with her own.

Eris's reason told her she was rambling at someone she didn't even know, but once the words came out, they kept spilling one after another.

It was lament, it was agitation, it was anger and despair.

A child's wail of complaint, stripped of even a speck of the practicality and rationality Eris valued so highly.

The negative emotions that would have been irritating just to listen to, Ernst accepted without so much as blinking.

“A perfect superhuman Crown Prince...? Hmm, seems there's been some misunderstanding. The imperial Crown Prince I know is the sort of man who likes to play and laze around more than you'd think.”

“A man so devoted to fulfilling the Crown Prince's duties day and night that he never even glances at another path... Great Mage, you seem to have mistaken him.”

“This isn't flattery; it's the truth. If you hold that man in such high regard, you'll have no choice but to feel the gap between that and the real thing.”

Although he was unusually vehement in denying anything about the Crown Prince, Eris didn't mind.

Because she assumed the librarian wasn't speaking from real knowledge of the Crown Prince, but was saying it in his own way to comfort her.

After all, if you asked whose words were more credible—a Great Mage who had met and even taught the Crown Prince in person, or a mere librarian from a remote border country—the former had to be the one.

After the long conversation was over.

Ernst, who for some reason had been twitching his eyebrows while staring at his own shadow, soon opened his mouth and said,

“Then the conclusion is simple. Since you'll end up fighting him in the academy tournament anyway, all you have to do is thoroughly crush him then.”

Eris made a bitter expression.

“That's easy to say, but not easy to do.”

At the time, Eris had been ready to go into a duel on a sudden impulse, but now that the heat had left her head, she understood.

The overwhelming sense that allowed him to copy and use a spell he'd just seen on the spot, and the mana quantity to remain unfazed even while intensifying and firing it off by the several-fold.

Her opponent was a genius in a realm Eris couldn't possibly even approach.

“Even if I honed my skills without taking a single break from now until the duel, I wouldn't be able to reach that level. And during that preparation time, the opponent would only grow stronger under the master's guidance, so the result goes without saying.”

“You don't need to hone your skills without a break. You'll probably win even if you take it easy.”

“Huh?”

To Eris, who couldn't make sense of his words, Ernst said flatly,

“Let's prove it to that 'genius' and to your master. Let's prove the results of all the effort you've put in until now.”

***

Marik's biological parents were merchants.

They were self-made types who had risen from the ground up to become tycoons, without any backer or inherited capital.

Unusually for merchants, they valued morality and trust over profit, so their reputation was good, and even the firm's employees and hired servants respected the couple.

But even such a couple had one blemish, and that was the existence of their worthless son.

He hated studying, was selfish, knew nothing of generosity, and treated those below him carelessly—the complete opposite of what his parents were like.

The subordinates would shake their heads and say things like how could such a person be born to such decent parents, and wasn't it possible some fairy had swapped him with another child?

The couple tried their best to guide their son onto the right path, but Marik's remorse was always temporary.

He wasn't truly remorseful for what he'd done; he'd just soften the couple's hearts with tears and snot, then go cause trouble again later.

The couple grew more and more exhausted, and the employees grew more and more fed up, but Marik didn't back down in the slightest.

No, if anything, he got even more annoyed.

“Dad and Mom already made a ton of money, didn't they? Then they can just use that, so why do they keep making me do all this annoying stuff?”

The ones who gave birth to Marik were his parents.

Those two had the duty to be responsible for Marik's life, so taking what they left behind was only natural.

It was a way of thinking that would have shocked the couple into collapse if they'd heard it, but Marik didn't feel the slightest bit of guilt.

No, if anything, he was irritated that he couldn't get even more.

“Why were Dad and Mom born as commoners? If they'd been born nobles, then I would have been a noble too!”

“Why the hell are you wasting money on charity or whatever! If you've got money to spare for those beggar trash, you should leave even a single extra coin for me!”

“Aaah, people born to good parents sure have it nice. If I'd been born a prince somewhere, I wouldn't have had to listen to lectures and could have just played happily every day!”

Human character is heavily shaped by the environment in which one grows up.

However, there were occasionally people in this world who were grotesquely vile despite not having especially tragic or miserable circumstances.

And as if drawn to that ugliness, a 'demon' appeared before Marik.

“─Kekeke! You seem to have plenty of complaints about life! Want me to help? Hmm?”

The gaunt demon, with a vaguely street-thug air about him, granted Marik 'special' power.

“Really? I can use magic without practicing at all?”

“You'll need to learn a little technique, like putting in a bit more mana. But that's all! The rest is just watching someone else use magic.”

The power the demon handed Marik was twofold.

The ability to use any magic he recognized by sight exactly as it was, and a vast mana reserve overflowing to the brim.

If he copied the spell his opponent used and then overpowered them with mana far beyond theirs, he became nearly invincible against mages.

Even if the other side couldn't use magic, it didn't matter.

In that case, he'd just crush them with spells he'd copied beforehand.

The spells someone else had bled and sweated to learn, Marik could acquire with absurd ease and without putting in the slightest effort.

After badgering his parents into inviting various mage tutors, Marik copied their spells and made them his own, and before long he was able to catch the lord's eye as a genius mage.

In the process, he abandoned the biological parents who had originally struggled for his sake, but Marik didn't regret it at all.

Because it was only natural for someone as outstanding and superior as he to rise to a higher status.

Naturally, someone like Marik could never possibly respect the 'master' who was teaching him now.

“Tch, that damn old bastard. What the hell did I even do wrong that he has to make me apologize? Those guys started it first! Ugh!”

The count's villa stood some distance away from Delpinaris's mansion.

Marik kicked the furniture in the room over and over, venting his frustration.

He said to the demon beside him,

“Hey! Balzarez, does it really have to go like this? Wouldn't it be faster to just square up with the old man and strip every last spell out of him, instead of learning magic step by step under him?”

At Marik's careless suggestion, the demon Balzarez burst out laughing.

“That would be a little difficult! Copying spells is one thing, but giving you enough mana to overpower a Great Mage is impossible! To begin with, that mage is stronger than I am!”

“What?”

Surprised by Balzarez's candid admission that he lacked the necessary power, Marik's face filled with confusion.

“That old geezer can't be stronger than you! If he is, then doesn't that mean he figured out my power and your existence too?”

“Oh, friend. Relax! That won't happen!”

Balzarez continued with a snicker.

“Even a first-rate warrior can't compare his sense of smell to a hunting dog's, can he? Even a receptionist who perfectly remembers and handles hundreds of guests can't tell one chick apart from another in a box full of chicks! That's the kind of level it is when humans try to sense us demons!”

If Delpinaris deliberately used a spell or magic tool to detect demons, he might be able to discover traces of the demon left on Marik.

In other words, unless he was already suspicious of Marik as a demon contractor and investigating him, Balzarez's traces wouldn't be exposed.

At Balzarez's explanation, Marik let out a relieved sigh.

“So humans can't find you guys, right?”

“Well, the ones you humans call the 'Seven Ranks' would be exceptions. They aren't even people you can call human in the first place. Other than that... if it's another demon, they might be able to find them relatively easily.”

“I-Is that really okay?”

“Kekeke! Relax, friend! We keep a close eye on the so-called Seven Ranks known throughout the world, and even if there are other demons, they won't be able to interfere with me, who has received the master's 'seal'!”

Balzarez displayed the strange snake sigil etched on his forearm as if to boast.

“Because my lord, 『Deceit』, is one of the three supreme rulers of the demon world! Most demon bastards would probably collapse and tremble just from feeling the aura of this sigil, so relax!”

At Balzarez's confident declaration, a smile bloomed on Marik's face once more.

That's right.

He was the victor.

From now on, there would be no one anywhere who could stand in his way.