The Wise Sheep in the Shadows (3)
The Wise Sheep in the Shadows (3)
#16
"Excuse me."
"..."
"Miss Elysia?"
"Yes?"
"How on earth did you get in here?"
"Why did you abandon me?"
"Abandon you? Under the circumstances, this was the best choice."
"Liar."
Suddenly, moisture welled up in the girl's deer-like eyes.
"You promised me."
"Promised what?"
"That you would join me on the great journey to create a new mage. That we would pioneer the fates of new mages together."
"I never said that."
"You did!"
It looked as if tears would spill from her amber eyes at any moment.
"Liarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliarliar."
"..."
"You're a eunuch, Mr. Do-yun."
"Suddenly?"
"You could have become the first male mage in human history. But you kicked that opportunity away. I shouldn't have trusted someone like you. My mother was right. All men are liars."
Wasn't she the one who tried to jab me with that syringe on a whim? Sure, I agreed to join the experiment in the end, but that was because I had no choice.
If Arcanum has a judicial process, then surely a judge would take my circumstances into consideration.
"It's not that I don't want to be a mage. Being able to use magic... isn't that every man's dream? Of course, I want to be a mage too."
"Then why did you abandon me?"
"First of all, I didn't abandon you, Miss Elysia. If I truly had, wouldn't I have screamed for help the moment I saw you here?"
Sniffle.
Wipe your nose, at least....
"Secondly, what I did was clearly the best choice in that situation. That red-eyed woman, Rubel—wasn't she an apprentice mage from a Count House? I may be a lowly slave who knows nothing about mage families, but even I know a countess holds considerable power."
"..."
As I paused to choose my words and looked out the window, I quietly swallowed my breath. The sky beyond the mansion's garden was slowly splitting at the boundary between day and night.
Below, a deep crimson like a burning pomegranate; above, the lingering blue aura thinning coldly. At the boundary where the two colors met, an indescribable violet seemed to flit past and vanish.
Strangely, the sky of Arcanum seen through the clear window seemed to maintain its noble dignity even in the colors of the setting sun.
"If I had followed you then, Miss Elysia, that woman Rubel might have harmed you later. I didn't want that."
"No matter what anyone says, Miss Elysia, you were the first mage to call me by my real name."
"I'm an apprentice mage. There's no way someone like me could become a full mage. Everyone at the academy calls me a half-baked mage."
"What does that matter? No matter what they say, I'm sure you, Miss Elysia, will succeed someday."
That was the moment. The silver-haired girl, huddled by the fireplace, was bathed directly in the warm glow of the sunset.
The tips of her silver hair seemed to burn with a reddish hue, and the sunset light reflected in her amber eyes was like a tiny sunset refracted inside a glass marble.
Sniffle.
The room grew quieter. The sounds of the blue day retreated, and in their place settled a silence so deep that a single word might sound too loud.
"Do you really think so?"
"Of course."
"Then take responsibility."
"..."
"Take responsibility so that I can become a real mage, Mr. Do-yun."
***
#17
The moment Elysia rose to her feet, the air in the room trembled very slightly. The small sounds created as her huddled body unfolded—
the soft rustle of fabric crumpling,
the sound of a single breath deepening—
those small sounds pierced through the last fragments of the fading sunset outside the window.
With each step she took, the angle of the light coming through the window shifted slightly.
It was as if the lens of a modern camera were slowly adjusting its focus to Elysia's movements.
"Miss Elysia?"
"I told you clearly, Mr. Do-yun, that the reagent I injected you with was my everything."
The sun had already lost its daytime form. The crimson light, once as strong as a flame, now hung thinly on the window frame like a pale ember left from the ashes.
The redness caught on the glass slowly faded, and in its place, a deep indigo quietly rose.
"That was no exaggeration. Because the reagent was made by extracting half of my Imprint."
If there were a sound for the boundary between day and night crossing the threshold, perhaps it would feel like this. Instead of the sunlight vanishing, it was as though the page of an old book were turning—
the warm sunlight gently folding away.
"I explained to you that a mage's Unique Magic is used by imbuing the mana that originates from the life of the heart into the Imprint of the womb."
"Yes. You definitely said that yesterday."
The last light of the sunset lingered on the windowsill.
A single thin, long thread of crimson barely held on along the edge of the window frame—
Then, as if someone quietly snipped the thread, it broke without a sound.
In that instant, the sky outside darkened a breath later, and the garden of the mansion lost its colors, its shapeless form pressing against the window.
The window no longer showed the scenery; it turned into a mirror reflecting the shadows and outlines inside the room.
Where the light folded, a Mana Lamp lit up.
It was not a flicker like a flame, but a gentle ignition as if drawing breath. Instead of flaring up in the air, the light quietly pushed aside the darkness already in the room and spread. As the uniform, calm light spread across the walls, objects regained their clear boundaries.
"So, half of my Imprint is with you, Mr. Do-yun. Would you like to see for yourself?"
Ah.
Her hand touched the hem of her clothes.
The fingertips of the small deer neither hurried nor hesitated.
The hand movements of someone whose resolve had already been set.
As the small motion of lifting the cloth began, the light of the Mana Lamp slid up the soft fabric.
Rustle—
The cumbersome lower garment slipped down softly,
revealing the pure white fabric beneath before his eyes.
And then—her vest and shirt were slowly pushed upward,
The air changed. A cold light spread thinly over the hidden skin, and the silence in the room deepened as far as the light reached.
Elysia's soft stomach was revealed.
The warmth left by the sunset was already gone, and only the subtle gleam of the Mana Lamp took its place. Her skin was not as white as the parchment on a desk.
The faint blood color that only a living person can have, the surface temperature that changed ever so slightly with each rise and fall of her breath—
The soft light painted no red emotions over it; it honestly showed things exactly as they were in reality.
And upon that honesty,
the mage's shining Imprint revealed itself.
The Imprint was closer to a crest than a pattern. Not lines drawn with ink, but traces engraved upon the skin itself.
The lines of the Imprint were so elaborate that they felt cold in their precision, yet that coldness intertwined with her warm breath, creating a strange beauty.
Elysia's symbol appeared to sink in color depending on the angle of the light, then momentarily rose with a brilliant aura.
"How is it? Can you see it well?"
When she stopped holding up her clothes, the brightness of the Mana Lamp had become the small room's sole sun. The window had turned into a complete mirror, reflecting the dark room and the silhouette of a woman standing in its center.
It was empty.
I couldn't fully understand it, but this Imprint was clearly not intact.
It might have looked complete to an ordinary observer, but
in my current state, I could tell just by feeling it up close.
The fact that this was not a whole Imprint.
"..."
"The half that makes me up... is with you, Mr. Do-yun."
"Why—" did you give me half of such a precious Imprint?
Unfortunately—or rather, fortunately—the words that would have followed did not escape my lips.
The blue Mana Stone in the fireplace also breathed faintly, as if responding in the same language as the incomplete lines of the Imprint.
In the place where the sunset had fully set,
light was no longer warmth but a record, and at the center of that record, the lines engraved on Elysia's abdomen shone brightly like the secrets of a hidden world.
The pure deer's revelation was surely neither the provocation of a mature woman, nor the shame of an innocent child.
At the moment the dark night crossed the threshold, a wariness and clarity resembling the stillness of a green forest—
honestly, with bated breath—revealed everything as it was.