Chapter 12
Leaf showed signs of nervousness, fidgeting her fingers as if looking for the staff she always carried.
"It was me who suggested talking with Rei outside on the Sabbath, and I'm the one who sent Roman alone and didn't go... I don't want to pretend I didn't know anything...!"
Leaf, with her hands clasped together and a slightly trembling voice, strengthened her resolve.
Perhaps thinking the atmosphere had become too solemn due to her words,
Leaf quickly returned to her usual cheerful tone and said, "Besides, I have nowhere else to go, you know? I haven't been scouted by other places like Roman, and no place accepts Spirit Summoners..."
Her bright voice began to darken rapidly.
What was with this huge gap?
I've felt it before, but Leaf's extremely low self-esteem was quite noticeable.
Perhaps judging that animal instinct was no longer appropriate,
Rei didn't drag out the conversation and turned the topic towards me.
"What, scout? He's the guy who fought desperately to win a bet, where would he go?"
Rei's gaze turned to me.
It was a look telling me to agree quickly.
"Right. I need to win the bet and get that wish right."
Then Leaf, as if she had received it herself, spoke excitedly again, "That's right! That red-haired woman was too much! Trying to poach a member from another team..."
As the topic turned to the bet, Rei's eyes changed to something a bit impertinent.
"Come to think of it, didn't you help me because of that bet?"
"Oh my! How could that be!"
"Your way of speaking is strange, Roman!"
"You seem guilty?"
"Oh my!"
I absolutely never once thought of Rei as an advanced bio-navigation system or a guide cat.
I was innocent, I swear!
After exchanging a few more giggles, I voiced a thought that suddenly occurred to me, "By the way, how old are you?"
"Huh?"
"You look really young."
"16. Why?"
My hand holding the cup froze at Rei's casual answer.
Sixteen? Sixteen?
Not 26, but 2x8=16? The springtime of youth, 16?
I felt the Confucian dragon hidden inside me awakening.
"Sixteen? Sixteeeeen? Oh my... This is the end of days... If you were born in the Eastern Country of Etiquette, huh? You would have taken the civil service exam long ago, oh..."
Here, there was no Korean age system, and this world used Western ages.
At 16, she'd be a first or second-year high school student at most.
She was younger than when I fell into this other world.
"Eastern Country of Etiquette? Where's that? Your hometown?"
"That's right."
"We don't have that in our prairie. Once you're past fifteen, you're an adult, you know? More importantly, how old are you, Roman? You don't seem much different from me."
"I'm 21."
"...F-five years difference means we're friends!"
"Rei."
Leaf's voice, suddenly interrupting, was more serious than I'd ever heard before, "I'm eighteen."
"Huh? So?"
"I'm! Eight! Teen! Years! Old!"
"...So?"
"B-big sister..."
"Forget it."
Poor Leaf.
Judging by the volume of her voice, it might have been the greatest courage she'd mustered in her life, only to crumble so miserably.
Rei cut off my and Leaf's age attack in one go and said, "To commemorate becoming a real team, let's come up with a team name."
"How about Lowest Three? You know, like Yan Pu, Yin Shang, Cao Cao..."
"What are you talking about? How about Pride? Pride! We happen to have one man and two women."
"Um, I think the team name should be something everyone can agree on..."
§
Funny guys.
Rei chuckled alone while lying on the bed.
How long had it been?
It had been a really long time since she had a comfortable conversation with someone.
Leaf was trying to act like an older sister despite being only two years older.
Roman, who was shamelessly confident despite being despised and oppressed.
They were both unlike anyone she had ever met in her days on the prairie.
They were both so meddlesome.
Trying to get close after knowing each other for such a short time.
Maybe it was because they felt it too, though not to the extent of Rei.
The three of them were similar.
Of course, Roman and Rei herself shared the experience of being slaves, but her beast-folk instinct was telling her something else, though she couldn't pinpoint it exactly,
That Leaf also had aspects similar to the two of them.
She realized anew.
No, in fact, she knew.
That she was tired.
Meeting people who could share the same wounds as her, even her stern resolve started to melt away.
She was tired of being alone.
She had been hoping for someone to reach out to her.
Even if that someone was a Devil Sorcerer, whom she had hated so much...
No. He's different, that guy...
The process that led to her father's death was long.
The Devil Sorcerer who colluded with her uncle.
His skills must have been extraordinary to have done that to her father, who had seemed like the strongest in the world.
However, even for such a Devil Sorcerer, it took a long time because there was a price for borrowing the devil's power for magic.
Price.
The reason mages avoid becoming Devil Sorcerers and why all Devil Sorcerers eventually meet a self-destructive end.
That price, which all Devil Sorcerers feared, Roman willingly accepted.
Again and again, dozens of times.
Paying an enormous price that Rei herself couldn't even imagine.
In the end, Roman killed Malebris, the slave hunter known as the Oppressor, who was feared by runaway slaves.
How much did he use?
What price did he pay, what was taken from him?
I don't know, but it certainly wasn't light.
Not even magic, but with pure mana, he suffocated and killed a Devil Sorcerer of Malebris' caliber.
In terms of lifespan, he must have lost several years at least.
Of course, it was partly for Roman's own sake, too.
His face was exposed, so he was already involved anyway.
There might have been some calculation that it was better to eliminate the witness who saw his face, even at the cost of paying a high price here.
But that was just a temporary measure.
There was no guarantee that another Devil Sorcerer wouldn't be hired to track them down with some bizarre ability.
It didn't even have to be a Devil Sorcerer.
Unlike with Rei, Roman left residual mana.
Mages who could analyze the nature of that residual mana weren't that rare in Res Limen.
And above all, Roman had other opportunities.
The chance to abandon Rei and escape while she was resisting Malebris.
Choosing to give up that path and help Rei fight Malebris together was clearly to help her.
Even at the cost of paying the price.
"This is why..."
Rei hugged the blanket wrapped around her tightly.
With the blanket bundle becoming a hugging pillow, stripped of its original role of covering her body, Rei murmured softly, "...I didn't want this."
She had to repay it.
Rei was taught to repay disrespect twofold.
And to repay kindness ten-fold.
If you don't tell me, I'll repay it on my own!
Rei didn't know the price Roman paid.
So, she'd do as she pleased.
Until she felt she had repaid it in abundance.
§
I'm tired.
Dragging my lethargic body, I washed up briefly and returned, and for the first time in a while, I saw my roommate's face.
He always wakes up earlier and comes back later than me, so I usually see him more during training than in the dorm.
"Hey."
"Huh?"
"Physical enhancement. Did that beast-folk teach you?"
Rei had already been found out, so she took off her hood, saying it was cumbersome.
Beast-folk weren't exactly rare in Res Limen, so she attracted some attention briefly before it dispersed.
Rei's speech was rough, but her face was pretty, so the guys looked a bit longer.
Surely not...
My eyes narrow drowsily as I look at Arthur.
"So what?"
"No, nothing. You must be tired, I've kept you up too long. Go get some rest."
What's this, so pointless.
This guy sure knows how to annoy people too, huh?
The instructor did it last time too.
Did he learn it from that instructor?
I thought about pressing the issue, but I was too tired, so I thought, I'll ask next time, and threw myself onto the bed.
§
Arthur silently observed Roman, who had fallen asleep as if he'd passed out the moment he hit the bed.
He immediately recognized the physical enhancement method Rei had taught Roman.
Even though Arthur's mana vision hadn't reached the level of penetrating sight, he could see the mana inside Roman's body, so much had been packed in.
It's the beast-folk's physical enhancement method.
The method of forming a mana core and instantly drawing mana to enhance specific parts when needed.
This enhancement method amplified physical abilities by manifesting magic itself rather than just using mana's power.
The enhancement method minimizes mana consumption by circulating mana, and so on.
As physical enhancement belonged to basic magic, its methods were very diverse.
Because it was so useful, even long-range mages learned it as an essential magic, leading to various variations.
And the beast-folk's enhancement method directly strengthens by accumulating mana in bones or muscles.
For beast-folk with naturally robust physical tissues and abundant mana, there wasn’t a more efficient method.
Special versions might go beyond this, but the basic mechanism was the same.
Of course, Roman, who learned from Rei, must be using the same method.
In other words.
Roman was following the same method of storing mana, trusting in a robust physique, much more abundantly than human mages.
And with Devil's mana at that.
He used it without restraint.
Is this some new form of suicide?