Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Dream-like Future
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Please take good care of me.
Luden sat alone in an empty lot that seemed perfect for a children's playground.
Just moments ago, when he arrived at the clearing, he wasn't alone.
He didn't know what those guys were doing out here at a time like this, but there were a few thugs squatting around and chatting idly.
They approached him with displeased looks on their faces, so he conjured a flame in his hand and spun it around once, sending them fleeing in terror.
It might have been different in a crowded place, but against a handful of delinquents, this level of intimidation was more than enough.
And just like that, he secured himself a small sanctuary with no one else around.
"I'm still not fully ripe, huh."
Over his not-insconsiderable years, he had learned to regard people's stares like sunlight pouring down from the sky or the blowing wind.
That didn't mean it truly didn't bother him at all.
A man who had lived his entire life defined by contempt from others and his own contempt for them summed up his existence in a single phrase.
"Damn bastards."
He had originally planned to eat up on the ramparts, but traces of last night's fierce battle still lingered there unchanged.
Even Luden, who had lived a rough vagabond life, could eat next to corpses if necessary, but it wasn't exactly pleasant.
That was why he had ended up here in this clearing, avoiding such spots.
"Now, let's see..."
He opened the basket, revealing a simple dish of bread, meat, and vegetables sandwiched together.
Sitting on a stump in the clearing and chewing away, Luden couldn't help but think how utterly pathetic he looked.
"Damn those bratty kids. Freezing a guy's side like that."
Luden had his share of good days in his youth too.
As a child, he was born in a castle like a slum and suffered persecution until he ran away, lived wild like a vagrant, met a master, received teachings, and became human.
He wandered various estates, acquiring diverse knowledge, and even visited a small community of mages where he briefly dated a young female mage. Though the ending was bitter.
"Hoo."
In the empty clearing, only Luden's sigh echoed out.
* * *
"What's this, what brings you up here? Lunchtime climb?"
Arsen and Eloise, heading back up toward the village, ran into Zenovia.
Zenovia looked fine at a glance, but faint scratches marked her face, betraying that she had fought last night without her armor.
Especially with the ointment slathered thickly all over it.
"Yeah. We've finished quite a bit of the cleanup. I'll grab lunch somewhere convenient and head back down to work. What brings you here, Lady Zenovia?"
"Came to check on my family. Nothing major, just in case. Turns out it really was nothing."
As she spoke, Zenovia brushed the stone dust off her hands.
Thinking about it, Zenovia was a local from the estate originally, so of course she had family unless she was an orphan.
He hadn't thought of it because they lived together in the lord's residence and saw each other often.
"Checking on Kamin's family too. Kamin's laid up injured and can't move right now. Man, even if he drank a ton, couldn't he have dodged that?"
"Ah..."
Arsen had only learned that morning at the meeting that the knight who had been nobly sent flying by a tentacle last night was Kamin.
He was badly hurt and poisoned, but fortunately, his life wasn't in danger.
Kamin was currently recovering in the injured ward inside the lord's residence.
'I should visit him this evening.'
"It was such a strong magic beast, after all. Anyone could have taken that hit, not just Sir Kamin."
"No need to take his side. Even a kid like you dodged it—should he be proud of eating it solo?"
Grumbling like that, Zenovia glanced sideways at Eloise, who was hiding behind Arsen.
"So, unpacking lunch with your girlfriend and playing around? How cute. This big sis is off to play with her boyfriend too."
"I'll definitely attend the wedding."
Zenovia replied with a cheerful laugh and disappeared up the hill.
* * *
Arsen and Eloise headed to a secluded spot.
To the small, nameless flower garden where they had first had a proper conversation and grown close.
They lightly cleared a spot that was more grassy field than flowers and plopped down.
"Here."
"Thanks."
Seeing what came out of the basket, Arsen thought of a very primitive sandwich.
Not neatly sliced bread, but a round, elongated loaf stuffed with vegetables, meat, and cheese.
At least it was the most convenient type of food for eating in a place like this.
Arsen and Eloise silently chewed on one sandwich.
"Were you really mad about what happened earlier?"
"No, not mad... just, I don't know. I feel bad."
As she answered, Eloise soon buried her face in her knees and huddled up.
"I thought I'd gotten used to it, but it still hurts. Thinking I'll have to live the rest of my life hearing that from people... I hate it so much..."
Amid the quiet garden filled only with her sniffles, Arsen silently patted Eloise's shoulder.
This was something he couldn't comfort her about with words.
"I don't know what to say. Back when things were tough for me, no words helped my mood. All I can say is hang in there."
"You wouldn't get this feeling, Sen, since you're not a mage."
Her thorny tone made Arsen stare steadily at Eloise.
Eloise looked startled at her own words, her face flustered.
Arsen was quite adept at this kind of emotional exchange, so he could guess her feelings well.
She hadn't meant to lash out sharply, but apologizing would hurt her pride...
Arsen didn't want to act childish in this situation, so he spoke as gently as possible, coaxing her.
"I haven't told you about my childhood, have I?"
No reply came, but he could almost hear the illusion of her ears perking up.
Confirming her attention on his story, Arsen continued.
"I was born in a castle at the far eastern edge. My mother died when I was born. My knight father didn't care whether a guy like me even existed."
"...Me too."
Arsen saw Eloise subtly rubbing the locket on her necklace.
He knew what was inside because she had shown him before.
A lock of hair left by her deceased mother.
The hair and the locket were the only traces Eloise's already buried mother had left in the world.
"You said my eye color was cool once? They say my mother had purple eyes. Father brought her from somewhere outside. No one around here has eyes like this."
In the Belluan estate, brown, blue, and green eyes were common, but no one had Arsen's purple eyes.
That was why Eloise had once made him a violet flower crown, saying it suited him.
"People hate anything different from them, anything unfamiliar. Intensely."
Muttering to himself, Arsen fiddled with the dirt lightly before flicking it forward.
An unconscious habit to relieve the stress from recalling repulsive thoughts.
"From age five, I had to clean the barn and yard just to get food. Even that was porridge boiled from others' leftovers. I got beaten for bad cleaning and broke bones once; my siblings with the same mother would douse me in piss when I passed by. If I even looked like I was resting, passersby would dump work on me—laundry, toilet cleaning, handling magic beast or animal carcasses..."
Eloise's eyes widened round at the story from what seemed like another world, one she'd never heard before.
For this innocent girl who had lived almost isolated from the world, the worst malice humans could show each other was yelling to scare, hitting, or ignoring—at most.
She had never imagined a life as miserable as what Arsen described.
"I slept in the barn on straw covered with cloth, but one day someone poured water on me while I slept and ran off. In midwinter, no less. I really thought I might freeze to death."
"No way..."
Her innocent expression of disbelief nearly made Arsen laugh despite himself.
Even as he spoke of those horrific past days, viewing them as overcome history made them feel less heavy than expected.
"So, Elli. Always remember there are people who value you. Me, Sir Luden, the lord... and Mrs. Iva too."
Mrs. Iva was the nursemaid who had cared for Eloise since childhood. Since her brother was one of the knights, Sir Namir, even though she was just a high-ranking maid, the knights called her "Mrs." out of respect.
"As a kid, I believed my life would end in that castle. Everyone saw me as a toy to mess with at will, and I had no hope for the future. But that's not the case, right? Your situation is way better than mine was back then."
"...Yeah."
Now, Arsen was one of the estate's proud knights, respected by all. Unlike the past, no one could despise or toy with him at will. Not even the lord.
After a long silence to sort her thoughts, Eloise spoke again.
"But I'm a mage. I'll be a mage forever. Even if I live and endure like this, will anything get better? What will change in the future?"
Arsen racked his brain at Eloise's valid question.
He thought of something comforting, a hopeful story for the future.
"Remember what Sir Luden told us before? Stories about other estates."
"Yeah."
Luden sometimes shared tales from his vagabond days before coming to this estate.
He had wandered over a dozen estates from the far west to the eastern edge of Belluan, seeing and learning much.
That was why he was treated as the wisest man with the broadest knowledge in the estate.
It wasn't just because he was a mage that the lord sought his stories and wisdom first.
Among Luden's tales were some so fascinating even Arsen was intrigued.
Stories of sky-flying Jins or ancient magic era ruins were among the less wondrous; his accounts of the western regions were mysterious and bizarre.
"Someday far in the future, let's travel west together. We'll find that village of mages somewhere beyond, visit the grand library with over ten thousand books, discover the mysterious waterfall rising upside down from earth to sky, and the massive island floating in the heavens. How about it?"
"Just the two of us?"
"I'll ride the Jin to fend off magic beasts or raiders, and Elli fixes the Jin and casts spells. For food and water, we trade magic beast byproducts at castles or estates we pass. Anyway, since you're a mage too, no problem operating out there."
Of course, it wasn't very realistic.
Losing knight Arsen, a valuable asset, and Eloise, the lord's daughter and an indispensable mage, would be a fatal blow to the estate.
Arsen had replacements, but after Luden died of old age, Eloise would be the only mage left.
If they ran off together, the other knights would chase them down.
"Since Sir Luden had that robe, maybe somewhere in the world there's an item enchanted so mages aren't hated by others. If we find something like that, you could live like anyone else."
"I hope so..."
Watching Eloise's face now fully immersed in the dream, Arsen smiled bitterly inside.
Reality wasn't the fairy tale he had just spun.
"You're already an old soul who's weathered the world, so that's why I'm telling her this," Luden had revealed the truth of this fairy tale to Arsen when Eloise wasn't around.
The mages' village was a refuge for the persecuted but doomed to collapse, unable to raise children.
When Luden was there, most were already elderly.
The grand library estate was rife with a native religion that despised mages far more than in Belluan.
The upside-down waterfall and giant island were just hearsay even to Luden, their existence uncertain.
Arsen smirked at Eloise's resolute expression.
Fairy tale or not, it had succeeded in lifting the gloomy girl's spirits.
That was role enough for the story.
And so, the two sat in the flower field for a long while, chatting about the mystical, fantastical outer world.
Not tales of despair for a hopeless future, but ones filled with dreams and hope.
For a very long time.