The Flight to Solenia
The next day.
Knock, knock.
“I’m coming in, Lena.”
I stepped into Lena’s private room.
Whoosh— Bang!
The moment I entered, a fist-sized rock hurtled toward me, grazing my cheek. If I hadn’t turned my head, it would have taken my skull clean off. The wall where the rock struck cracked deeply.
I wiped all emotion from my face and looked at Lena. At the tips of her fingers floated several rocks she had conjured with magic.
“What exactly do you think you’re doing?”
“I was practicing magic. You walked in without permission, so that’s on you.”
Lena answered brazenly. It was an absurd excuse, but I simply nodded.
“I see. Still, even if it’s practice, you shouldn’t do anything that could threaten someone else.”
“Hah.”
When I calmly sat down across from her, Lena let out a hollow laugh, as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“I came today because there are a few things I need to explain.”
Lena didn’t reply. She simply glared at me.
I kept my smile in place and continued.
“First, let me tell you about the child you attacked. The treatment went well. It looks like there won’t be any lasting aftereffects.”
“Really? What a shame. I should’ve hit harder.”
“Do you know who that child is?”
“Why would I want to know?”
Lena averted her eyes. It was a textbook avoidance response.
“His name is Thierry. He’s a boy who admires mages. He’s one year younger than you.”
The patient Lena had struck was Thierry. A teenager from the slums who had lost his father to a robbery-murder. In that sense, he and Lena were oddly similar—both yearned for strength.
Thierry claimed that “the soul of an archmage dwelled within him.” It was a delusion.
But because he was still young, there was no need to treat this level of delusion as an illness.
What had landed Thierry in the hospital wasn’t the delusion itself, but his habitual self-harm. He would carve strange patterns into his own body, as if drawing pictures.
‘He kept saying that was the only way to awaken.’
Ordinary delusions wouldn’t have been a problem, but when they involved self-harm, hospitalization became necessary.
I didn’t go into those details. There was no need, and it wouldn’t have helped.
“Lena, he was staring at you because he was curious about your magic.”
What I needed to convey was only the message Thierry had asked me to pass on.
“Thierry said he must have misunderstood something, and asked me to tell you this.”
“……So what? What am I supposed to do about it?”
Lena snapped back, looking away. She wasn’t a psychopath. When forced to recall what she had done, she felt guilt and regret.
‘That’s exactly why I have to mention it.’
By bringing it up, I had to make her keep feeling the guilt she had been avoiding. She needed to understand what she had done.
And she needed to repeatedly learn that no matter the reason, breaking the rules and using violence was wrong.
This was both treatment and behavioral correction.
“Is that all you came to say? You came all the way here for that?”
Lena asked. Her tone had grown sharper than before, probably because I had reminded her of her guilt.
“No. There’s one more thing. We’re going to establish some rules. Ward rules.”
Lena didn’t answer. She simply listened.
“There was already a rule that ‘violence between patients is strictly prohibited.’ But the punishment clause was vague.”
The ward already had several rules in place—prohibitions on violence, noise, and other basic standards necessary for communal living.
“Lena, if you break the rules again, use magic to hurt someone, or act threateningly, I’ll make it so you can’t use magic anymore.”
“You’ll make it so I can’t use magic? How?”
Lena’s reply was oddly short. It had been that way for a while now.
It was a timid act of rebellion, so I didn’t bother pointing it out.
I smiled.
“There are ways.”
The moment those words left my mouth—
Swish!
A blade forged from stone flew past my ear. The speed at which she created it and hurled it was astonishing.
The sound of it cutting through the air left my eardrums ringing. When I touched my ear, blood came away on my fingers.
Lena looked at me with satisfaction.
She had broken the rules the instant I tried to reestablish them. Her psychology was simple.
“You wanted to see what would happen if you broke the rules, didn’t you?”
Since the reason was simple, the response could be simple too.
I just had to show her what happened when the rules were broken.
Whoosh.
I quietly moved Osrender with psychokinesis.
This was the advantage of Osrender. Because it was so light, it moved without a sound.
“You said you’d make it so I can’t use magic. What exactly are you planning?”
“I told you there are ways. Now……”
While we continued talking, Osrender slipped silently toward Lena’s feet, its tip soaked in ink.
‘Swish.’ The ink from Osrender touched her ankle. The entire process was quiet and swift.
“Because you broke the rules, I’ve sealed your magic.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Lena raised her fingers, then her eyes widened.
No rock formed at her fingertips. Not even a speck of dust would obey her now.
Lena’s mana had been sealed. And only I could undo that seal.
If she noticed the ink on her ankle, realized it was the cause, and washed it off, she could regain her magic on her own.
‘It won’t be easy.’
The ankle wasn’t a spot people usually paid attention to. It would be difficult for her to connect the loss of magic to the ink in the first place.
Besides, the writing done with Osrender wouldn’t come off with just a few washes. I had confirmed that through prior experiments. It was, after all, a sacred artifact meant for self-defense.
“This, this is, insa……!”
Lena raised her fingers several times, trying to use magic on me.
Each attempt failed. In the silence, only Lena’s screams echoed.
“In two days, I’ll let you use magic again.”
When I stood up after saying that, Lena’s face turned pale.
* * *
Lena didn’t leave her private room at all.
Even before I sealed her magic with Osrender, she had stayed inside. Back then, it was because we had restricted access to keep her and Thierry separated.
Now that I had sealed her magic, we had lifted the restrictions, yet she still refused to come out.
‘She must have been deeply shocked by having her magic taken away.’
It was a punishment for breaking the rules, and the reason was clear, so she couldn’t claim it was unfair. I had also clearly stated that the seal would be lifted in two days.
Even so, the fact that her magic had been sealed must have left her with an enormous sense of loss.
Lena had acted like a tyrant, relying on the power she possessed, and that power came from her magical talent.
‘On top of that, she had developed a belief system that only respected the logic of power. She must have been intoxicated by her own magical talent.’
She might have even felt a sense of omnipotence beyond mere intoxication. At the same time, her contempt and hatred for the weak would have grown stronger.
Yet now, after having her mana sealed, she herself had become the weak person she so despised. The sense of loss must have been overwhelming. No wonder she was holed up in her room.
‘As long as she stays in her room, that’s fine.’
Creak. I leaned back in my chair, almost lying down.
I was staring at the ceiling, lost in thought, when—
“Doctor!”
Cassis burst in.
“Yes, Cassis. Has Lena Caligus disappeared?”
Cassis looked stunned at my words.
“W-wait, how? Did you receive a revelation?”
Her voice trembled, as if old memories had resurfaced.
“It wasn’t a revelation. I just thought it might happen.”
I stood up and began getting dressed.
“Cassis, stay here. I’ll go look for Lena with Eris and Draksan.”
“What? How do you even know where she went?”
“We’ll use tracking magic.”
Tracking magic could locate someone using hair, blood, or similar traces.
“But…… tracking magic doesn’t find people instantly, right?”
Cassis was correct. Tracking magic usually required at least a day or two of preparation.
However, if prepared in advance, it could locate someone immediately.
“I already had Eris prepare the tracking magic.”
“You even had it prepared?”
“For patients in the inpatient ward, we set up tracking magic in advance so it can be activated immediately if needed. It’s for management purposes. It’s also stated in the contract.”
Some patients in the inpatient ward were difficult to control. There was always the possibility they might escape without warning.
To prepare for such situations, we set up tracking magic on anyone admitted to the ward—only after obtaining their consent, of course.
“Cassis, please stay here and manage the patients. If any visitors come—”
“Got it! I’ll do my best!”
Since it was past business hours, there wouldn’t be many visitors anyway.
I decided to trust Cassis and leave the office in her hands for a while.
“Eris, the tracking magic.”
I went straight to the preparation room where Eris was and called out. She immediately closed her eyes.
Blue particles rose around her like dust. A few seconds later, she opened her eyes sharply.
“She’s by the river.”
“The river? Solenia River?”
“Yes. It looks like she’s heading toward the Solenia Dam.”
The Solenia Dam was a famous landmark in the Kingdom of Lumentea. It spanned the Solenia River, which was over a kilometer wide, and was renowned for its massive scale. It also symbolized the kingdom’s advanced magical engineering technology.
“Looking at her movement path, it doesn’t seem like she was heading for the Solenia Dam from the start.”
“She was probably just looking for somewhere to go and ended up there.”
“Yes.”
Right after losing her magic, Lena must have been extremely confused.
‘She probably thought that if she got far enough away from me, she could get her magic back.’
It was a simple escape mentality—believing that distance from the cause would return everything to normal.
‘But no matter how far she ran, her magic never returned, and her anxiety and frustration only grew.’
That was why she had naturally made her way to the Solenia Dam.
When people feel anxious, they want to go to open spaces. Just as worries make you step outside, or heartbreak makes you long for the vast sea or river.
“Draksan.”
I explained to Draksan that Lena had escaped from the ward.
“So what you were worried about has finally happened.”
Because I had given him a heads-up that something like this could occur, Draksan wasn’t particularly surprised.
Instead, with a determined expression, he said,
“……I’ll take responsibility and bring her back to the office.”
“No, that won’t be necessary.”
I shook my head. While both Draksan and Eris looked at me in confusion, I continued.
“If we just go and drag her back by force, it’ll backfire. She’ll start seeing the office not as a place of treatment or rest, but as a place of confinement and oppression.”
I had already sealed her magic with Osrender. That alone was a significant act of suppression. Forcing her to return on top of that could make her even more rebellious.
“Let’s go for now.”
We left the office. As we followed Eris’s guidance toward Lena’s location, I continued explaining.
“Lena leaving like this is a form of self-harm. She’s trying to destroy herself now that she’s become weak, both to prove her own beliefs and to take revenge on me for taking her magic.”
That was why she had suddenly fled the office.
It was similar to the psychology of a child who, after being scolded by their parents, runs away from home and imagines their parents grieving after they’re gone.
Of course, Lena’s case was far more extreme.
“Then what should we do……?”
“I’ll have to persuade her properly.”
The important thing wasn’t to drag her back by force, but to make her choose to return to the office on her own.
Only then would the office become a place of treatment rather than oppression.
In the distance, I could hear the sound of flowing water—the Solenia River.
“There she is, Lena.”
Eris pointed toward the riverbank. Lena was crouched on the embankment, staring blankly at the dam.
The Solenia riverbank was a well-known tourist spot, so it was relatively safe—much safer than the black market district or back alleys.
Besides, the Public Security Bureau had been working hard lately to improve public safety in the kingdom, cracking down on criminal organizations of all sizes without mercy.
‘Director Justin bragged about it every time we met.’
Thanks to their efforts, the crime rate had reportedly dropped significantly.
That meant leaving Lena alone here wasn’t particularly dangerous.
“She needs time to think alone, so let’s just watch for now. When she notices us, then we’ll try talking……”
At that moment—
“Huh……”
Draksan muttered, staring blankly in one direction.
“……Isn’t that a magical engineering vehicle? Over there.”
Draksan gestured with his chin toward Lena.
In the darkness, a magical engineering car was approaching her.
The car door opened, and five burly men poured out.
A short scream rang out, and the men rushed Lena. With practiced movements, they bound her arms and legs.
Then they began loading her into the vehicle. In the darkness, I could see Lena’s silhouette struggling in their grasp.
I recalled the headline from the weekly magazine I had seen the other day.
“Kidnappers.”
The moment I muttered that—
Shing!
Draksan drew his axe and began running.