Talent Cannot Be Hidden. (4)
Talent Cannot Be Hidden. (4)
Wasting time.
Making him do things he shouldn't be doing.
None of these actions could put the mothers' hearts at ease, but there was no other way.
They were afraid that Kael would try to 'teach himself' again.
And before that, they were afraid of the hurt Kael would feel if they forced him to stop studying.
He was so delicate, so warm....
And sometimes, so mature.
They could clearly picture him pretending he wasn't in pain even when he was hurting.
".... Alicia, this might be a good method. Just the Bible alone has over 50 volumes if you divide them by type and translation. If you count the pages, it's well over 100,000. Besides, Kael is going to learn from all of us. When he tries to learn something properly, if we pass the classes off to the other mothers...."
Should they call it selfish?
Alicia could do anything for Kael, but she hated the idea of being hated by her beloved son more than death itself.
"Surely, the class time will end before he can learn anything properly."
They knew they were playing with Kael's life like a mere toy.
They knew that because they were afraid of the Prophecy, they were restricting Kael even more directly than the Prophecy itself.
The three of them knew how difficult and painful it was not to be able to live as one wished.
".... Kael, maybe, just maybe, what Kael wants is for us to be proud of him. We are, well, not as much as Kael, but we are geniuses. So, maybe we can teach him reasonably well...."
Perhaps because Aria knew this, she shed tears.
She looked at Alicia, who was always the leader, with a pitiful gaze as if begging.
She opened her mouth, but she couldn't bring herself to say she would do it this time either.
"I'm so worried. No matter how much we try not to teach him, I feel like Kael will do something reckless for our sake. It was fine for now, but what if he gets hurt trying to practice proper magic, or Laika's archery or assassination techniques on his own? If it's going to come to that, we might as well teach him useless things and intentionally slow down his growth...."
Laika, too, finally broke her smile and teared up a little.
"If.... If Kael grows up to be the child of the Prophecy after learning from us, then I'll do it. Even if I'm hated, I will.... I'll make sure Kael can't go to the battlefield, so please...."
Please listen to us just this once.
"..."
Alicia didn't answer for a long time, then finally nodded.
'Magic' is the product of reason and wisdom pioneered by humans who were always killed by other races.
Alicia, the Archmage, had always teased Aria for not believing in 'God', but....
'.... Was the problem that we wanted to stop being heroes from the very beginning?'
For the first time, Alicia desperately asked the heavens.
Naturally, there was no answer.
...
Kael slept soundly until the sun was directly overhead, as if he were finally reclaiming the sleep he had put off for months.
Preparations for the education to waste 'time' proceeded steadily.
The heroes took turns visiting the places they used to belong to for the first time in a while, and returned with many things.
For instance, Bibles that only differed in title.
Books related to 'mathematics' or 'engineering' that were difficult for even a genius to master.
And needles with smaller eyes than ordinary needles, along with dozens, hundreds of spools of thread.
"Mommy...?"
The mothers spoke to Kael, who rubbed his eyes and woke up at some point.
"Kael. Do you want to learn magic, or prayer? Hmm, or maybe archery?"
They asked again, just in case it was just a whim of the child.
".... Yes!"
".... Why?"
"Because it's what you moms have done.... I want to try it too."
"It'll be really hard, you know?"
"I still want to do it. I want to be like you as much as I love you...."
Hearing the warm words that he wanted to be like them because he loved them, they asked again without being able to smile fully.
"Even if you get scolded a lot by us?"
"If it's you moms getting angry, then I'm okay with it."
They had hoped Kael would say he didn't want to learn, but that didn't happen.
In the end, Alicia held Kael's hand and, with a somewhat sad smile, gave him what he wanted so much.
".... Alright. From today, let's learn everything from us moms."
"R-really?"
"Yes. Since we know how hard Kael has tried, we can't help but teach you, can we?"
Kael smiled and hugged his mothers tightly.
The mothers patted Kael's back and exchanged glances with each other.
"It might be extremely boring, and there might be things that feel useless. Do you still have to do it?"
Laika said to Kael, and as soon as she heard his affirmative answer, she picked up the boy and headed straight for the field.
They had said they would teach him 'something', but in fact, Kael was already years ahead of the curriculum just by having handled mana without a Circle.
"Now, watch?"
Laika threw a spool of thread with thirty needles stuck into it into the sky.
Then, she threw a single strand of thread with nothing attached to it-.
Hwi-i-ik-!
It passed through all thirty needle eyes, and without any explanation, she abruptly said.
".... Now, you try!"
The education to waste time had begun.
...
The education proceeded steadily.
Starting with the impossible task of threading needles stuck into a spool moving around in the sky.
Laying out Bibles, picking one, opening it to a random middle page, and asking what the 12th character on the 6th line was....
The absurdity of presenting such nonsensical tasks as 'prayer' and 'sincerity'.
And even teaching mathematics and engineering under the pretext of developing a sense for calculation before learning magic.
".... Kael, isn't studying boring? It's okay if you don't want to do it."
The mothers inwardly hoped that Kael would get bored and angry-.
But Kael always just smiled brightly.
For a boy whose entire world had become his 'mothers', boredom was an excessive luxury.
"Alicia mom is so kind when she reads the text for me, so I love it...!"
Even when she made him do boring studies.
"Laika mom, um.... plays with me under the pretext of training, puts me up in trees...! And she makes grass whistles for me, so I love it."
Even when Laika threw the spool so high at invisible speeds so that he could never thread the needle.
"I think Aria mom's method helps me get closer to the God I believe in, so reading the Bible is fun too."
This was even when Aria insisted on the absurd demand that he memorize the entire Bible.
However, Kael wanted to resemble his mothers even in the useless education, and he wanted to learn something.
'.... Laika mom uses mana when she throws it.'
His already awakened talent was bringing him learning even from these nonsense activities.
He observed where the trained body poured mana when Laika threw the spool.
How she moved the mana planted at the tip of the thread, which had no weight.
He also thought about connecting the engineering or mathematics Alicia taught him with magic, and how the white light that appeared when Aria prayed made her body move faster.
How she used 'divine power' to look through the book.
Before falling asleep, Kael organized, thought about, and explored the things he had pondered, but since the education was what it was, no immediately visible changes occurred.
The change was only just beginning from within Kael.
".... Is it fun?"
"Yes, it's so much fun."
The mothers felt anxious watching Kael enjoying himself, but that anxiety soon turned into relief.
Time continued to pass, but the incident where Kael handled mana like last time never happened again.
Even after one month, two months passed, Kael just kept brightly repeating his failures.
They began to believe that that day was merely a fragment of talent that had burst out by chance.
And fortunately, that their education was effective.
...
Half a year passed since the day Kael finished his self-study.
Kael turned nine.
Today, as always, Laika went out to the garden with Kael, carrying the spool and needles.
It was training that had now become an annual event. No, it was play.
Without a second thought, she threw the spool high into the sky, simply because she enjoyed the time spent with Kael.
Of course, it wasn't purely for play.
Even though they were relieved, they knew how outstanding Kael's talent was.
The spool soared into the sky, spinning fiercely.
"Heh, Kael! Can you succeed today?"
It was a playful voice.
Since it was something he hadn't succeeded at even once in the whole year, she had no doubt that he would fail again today.
A quiet afternoon without a single breeze.
Kael closed his eyes and placed a single strand of thread on his palm.
At that moment, the wind rippled around Kael.
".... Huh?"
Was it mana?
For the past year, they had told him not to handle mana until he learned magic, but...?
Laika hurriedly approached Kael, fearing he might get addicted to mana again, but.
She soon covered her mouth and stopped.
She saw mana gathering around Kael's heart.
The ring tracing a blue light should definitely have been one, but....
".... Th-three."
Three rings were forming in Kael's heart.
"A-Alicia! A-Aria!"
As Laika urgently called the two, Aria and Alicia rushed out.
".... L-Laika, i-is something wrong?"
"K-Kael is m-making a Circle, w-what should I do?"
"W-what are you talking about? How, how is Kael making a Circle...?"
"See for yourself, look!"
And then, she covered her mouth while looking at Kael.
Huu-k!
A single strand of thread flew into the sky.
It flew toward the spool.
The single strand of thread that left Kael's hand turned in the air like a living snake.
Defying gravity and ignoring air resistance, it drew a graceful trajectory and flew toward the needle eye rotating while stuck in the spool.
Seu-reu-reuk-.
With chilling precision, the thread passed through the needle eye.