Chapter 12
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: The Master and the Apprentice
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An age where countless people die every day.
In the cemetery for the capital's elite soldiers, a procession of figures clad in black and the prayers of nuns and priests are a constant presence.
There stood those who had momentarily set aside their livelihoods to mourn their families, comrades, and friends.
A coffin is lowered into the deep earth, and soil is quietly shoveled over it.
For a long while, the sound of sobbing filled the cemetery.
Those lying below were all someone's parents, someone's siblings. They were husbands and wives who had promised to spend their lives together.
I watched their funeral from a distance until the very end.
Some couldn't bring themselves to leave until dusk fell, while others placed a small, nameless flower on a tombstone before departing.
“...I heard the news. That you’ve joined the Sword Saint’s party. I suppose I should be saluting you now.”
A familiar voice came from behind me.
It was Rex, the orc who had lost an arm.
His body was wrapped in bandages, and in his one hand, he held a bouquet of flowers. It seemed he had come here after receiving only first aid, to mourn the final journey of his subordinates.
“Our sacrifice was not in vain. After all, we saved a monster like you.”
“...”
I said nothing.
It would be better for him if I kept my secret for the rest of my life.
It would be far better for him to believe he lost his squad protecting the future of humanity, rather than dying to protect a worthless level 1 mage.
I just stared blankly at the empty cemetery and the sunset beyond it.
After saying his piece, Rex carefully made his way up the hill and quietly placed a single white flower on each of his subordinates' graves.
“You seem to have done enough mourning. Why do you remain here?”
Rex asked upon his return.
Again, I couldn't say anything.
Because I didn't know why I couldn't bring myself to leave either.
“...It's just, if I hadn't hitched a ride on that carriage... wouldn't all those people still be alive? That's what I was thinking.”
I blurted out my disorganized thoughts.
“The Overlord was targeting you. If you hadn't been with us, you would have been the one to die.”
“...I suppose so.”
“Don't feel guilty. Protecting humanity is our duty, and you, as a citizen of this continent, are worthy of our protection.”
Rex carefully placed his thick hand on my shoulder and continued.
“We are proud. The fact that we saved a genius who could change the tide of war makes us proud, but what's more important is that we are warriors brave enough to lay down our lives to protect one boy.”
“...”
“Even if you weren't a genius, we would have tried to protect you.”
Rex said this to me as I sat on the bench, staring blankly at the cemetery, then he stood up.
“...For the record, I have no intention of retiring. I plan to get a dwarven prosthesis and become an even stronger warrior.”
“You've lost an arm. Isn't that pushing it too much?”
“The Sword Saint chose to save us instead of killing the Overlord. To prove that the choice of the one who saved my life was not foolish, I have no choice but to become stronger and save more people, do I?”
Rex stood and touched the stump where his arm had been severed as he spoke.
“I can't stand the thought of the one who saved me being treated like a fool. As soon as I get my prosthesis, I plan to return to the army immediately. I will gain experience, fight stronger opponents... and one day, I will grow into a warrior brave and strong enough to protect you.”
Unlike me, Rex was a brave, just, and proud warrior.
“Next time we meet, I'll have to call you General. I will be the first to salute you.”
“...What was your squad's designation?”
I asked Rex one last thing as he was about to leave.
“Capital Guard Division, 1st Infantry Unit, 6th Squad.”
Rex answered simply, gave a nod, and left.
6th Squad.
I owed them my life.
I couldn't tarnish the memory of the dead.
As soon as I saw Rex's back disappear, I got up from the bench and returned to the carriage.
Inside the carriage was the servant who had been waiting for me for hours.
“Tomorrow, could I go on an expedition?”
I asked the servant who got out to open the door for me.
“An expedition, you say? Where are you planning to go?”
“I intend to go to the Enquer Highlands.”
“But Sir Bin, that place is...”
“I know. I know what's there. I don't need a large contingent. Just prepare an infantry squad.”
I cut him off, making it clear I didn't want to elaborate, and the young servant asked no more questions.
Normally, I would have planned to get used to life in the castle and build up my stamina a bit more before going on an expedition...
But I've decided to live as a genius. I can't let Rex surpass me, can I?
***
On the way back to my quarters, the dusk had already faded, and a bright moon and starlight adorned the completely darkened night sky.
After getting out of the carriage, I slowly headed into the castle with another servant who had come out to meet me. The place was so large that I still had quite a walk even after the carriage ride.
“Welcome back, sir!”
“Welcome back, sir!”
The guards at the castle's main gate didn't bow to me as they would to a distinguished guest.
Instead, they offered a crisp salute, as one would to a superior officer.
The moment I became a member of the Sword Saint's party, I was enlisted as a member of the Allied Forces.
The party members who fight alongside the Sword Saint—humanity's ultimate weapon and a living continental power—are treated as soldiers with a rank equivalent to a three-star, or perhaps even a four-star general in my country's military.
Just a week ago, I was an aspiring composer holed up in my room, and now I'm suddenly a four-star general.
Talk about climbing the ladder.
“I heard you're heading out tomorrow.”
He had said he'd take care of it, but I hadn't expected the news to travel so fast. My eyes widened in surprise.
“Ah... has everyone heard about my plans for tomorrow?”
“Yes! We have!”
Truthfully, being far above them in rank, I could have forcefully ordered them to prepare a certain number of men by tomorrow.
However, I chose to convey my message through the servants, who held considerable sway within the castle.
I even made sure to emphasize that they include the word 'request'.
This world must have its own concept of 'seniority'. Imagine some unknown parachute hire suddenly becoming your superior and ordering you around.
They wouldn't show it, but they'd be cursing me out inwardly.
Antagonizing them is a bad idea. In a life-or-death situation, who knows if they might just abandon me and run? Humans are creatures who will do anything when their lives are on the line.
Tomorrow, even if it's not them, I'll have to entrust my life to fellow soldiers. There was no point in getting on their bad side.
You never know. If I treated people poorly just because of my high rank, they might spread rumors on their way back to the barracks after their watch tonight, saying, 'That new parachute hire is a real piece of work'.
'If you're a parachute hire, you should act like one.'
There's no harm in being careful, and nothing to lose by building a good reputation with those around me.
“Thank you. I appreciate you readily accepting my sudden request.”
So, I decided to be as gentle and kind as possible to every soldier I saw.
“Not at all, sir! You're the future of humanity, so it's no trouble for us! Even though it's not our squad being dispatched tomorrow, those guys won't have any complaints either!”
“That's right! Command us as you please! We are all soldiers gathered here to protect humanity!”
I bowed my head to the two guards who were shouting at the top of their lungs despite the late hour, and entered the castle.
“Sir Bin, you have a visitor.”
As I entered through the massive castle gates, before I could even straighten my back, I heard the voice of the middle-aged servant who had guided me on my first day.
“A visitor? Ah.”
It must be a tutor, here to give proper instruction to someone like me who has never learned magic before.
*They found one faster than I expected,* I thought lightly as I began to follow the middle-aged servant's lead.
“Ah, finally!”
In the needlessly spacious reception room on the second floor stood a mage in a blue robe with an impressive white beard.
“A pleasure to meet you. My name is Alter Haindel. I am an 8th Circle mage, and I was the master of the Heter Magic Tower.”
I almost let out a dry laugh at the sudden appearance of such a big shot.
Alter Haindel. A human-born hero who appears in the latter half of the game and makes his presence known.
A mage from the lightning school who reached the 7th Circle, the realm of high mages, at the mere age of fifty-two.
The youngest tower master in the history of the lightning school to establish a magic tower in his own name, and a seasoned master who, even after founding his tower, never neglected his training and eventually reached the 8th Circle.
This was the appearance of a named hero, a renowned mage who had published countless papers and led the advancement of lightning magic.
...However, his self-introduction sounded a little off to me.
“Huh? You *were* the master? Then... you're not the tower master anymore...?”
I asked, looking at Alter's gentle smile from beneath his bushy white beard.
“I heard you have no foundation in magic whatsoever. It seemed that in order to teach you, Sir Bin, I would need to leave my tower for a long time and live in the capital... Well, I passed it on to a capable fellow, so you needn't worry.”
“...”
Alter Haindel was now telling me that he had boldly abandoned the magic tower he had built from the ground up, just to teach me.
...Damn, that's a lot of pressure.
To think the twilight years of a great mage's career would get twisted like this.
“Ah, and you should both introduce yourselves. This is my prized pupil. I couldn't very well leave her at the tower, so I brought her along. She's not on your level, Sir Bin, but as my apprentice, her talent is certainly genuine.”
Next to Alter stood a young woman with fair skin and large, innocent eyes.
She seemed to have an introverted personality, greeting me in a voice so quiet I could barely hear it, all while avoiding eye contact.
Her long, blond hair fell to her waist, and her pure beauty, which couldn't be hidden by her baggy robes and flimsy hat, had a captivating charm.
At a glance, she looked to be about twenty or twenty-one.
As I was inwardly marveling at her considerable beauty, my eyes caught sight of long, pointed ears hidden beneath her large hat.
'...An elf?'
In the game I used to play, the standard way to build an elf was as an archer.
Their naturally high agility and keen senses made them excellent snipers, able to accurately target an enemy's head from hundreds of meters away, and they also excelled as scouts, detecting threats on the battlefield.
'An elf... as a mage?'
There was no merit in raising an elf as a mage.
I had holed up in my studio apartment and researched it a few times myself, but the elf's racial traits were so strong that only a few ranger-derived builds were viable. Most mage builds were complete trash.
But reality is different from a game.
Reality is cruel. Sometimes, it gifts talent along with the wrong environment.
Just like how I, with my musical talent, was born into a family of doctors and ended up leaving home at seventeen as if I'd been kicked out.
An elf with a talent for magic?
Enough talent for a named mage like Alter Haindel to take her as his prized pupil?
Most players of this game would ask, 'But why?'
But in my mind, the question that popped up first was, 'How on earth?'
'...I want to try it, too.'
Just how did you set up the build to make this possible? If I could meet the creator who fashioned this being before me, I'd want to go find them and ask right away.
How did you allocate the stats?
How many types of magic can she learn, and what did you set as her place of birth?
“...I'm twenty-one years old, and my name is Rireu... I'm... a 4th Circle mage.”
As I was seriously contemplating whether I could ask the elf before me who her parents were and where they lived, her small voice echoed in my ear.
...Twenty-one?
An elf?
The fact that she was only twenty-one was even more shocking than the fact that she was an elf mage.
Isn't it a cliché for typical elves to have ridiculous ages like 1,000 or 2,000 years old, just to add to their mystique?
Wasn't the immense passage of time hidden behind that pure and beautiful appearance the very identity of the elven race?
In the game, when you created an elf character, the tutorial started at a base age of 500, or up to 900.
'...This is insane.'
Looking at the young elf mage before me, I felt a sense of awe.
Until now, I had been nothing more than a frog in a well...!
“...Twenty-one, you said?”
“Huh? Ah, yes...”
A being that shatters the stereotype that elves have a significant gap between their apparent and actual age.
A being that shatters my common sense that an elf must follow a ranger-derived build.
A being who, just by breathing, destroys the unwritten rules of this medieval fantasy world.
A being who, just by standing there, deserves to be worshipped by every hipster in the world...!
“My name is Bin.”
I grabbed the elf's hand and shook it up and down, forcing a handshake.
My weak arm muscles screamed from the sudden exertion, but I didn't care.
An elf whose apparent age matches her actual age. Where else in the world would you meet an elf like this?
And on top of that, her class is mage, not archer.
Just imagine this elf in a job interview.
'Name?'
'Rireu.'
'Race?'
'Elf.'
'Pfft... Age?'
'Twenty-one.'
'What?! And your class?'
'Mage.'
'Kuaaargh!'
You couldn't find a bigger hipster if you tried.