The First Hello

I planned to slip out of the house tonight in secret.

Not to leave Hugo for good — only to step away for a little while, just long enough to run an experiment.

Even now, thinking back on my meeting with Redrago that morning made me feel as if I might cry. Those tears had been for show, but a little of the real thing had mixed in with them.

How was I supposed to deal with being genuinely terrified?

A side effect of my past life, maybe. My head felt as if it were slowly syncing with this body — as if my mental age were getting younger by the day…

Night deepened. Hugo and Hwia both seemed to have fallen asleep.

Now.

I slipped soundlessly down from the bed and stepped out of the house.

The streets looked nothing like the ones I knew by day. All the clamor was gone; only the dust of the road drifted on a cold wind. The moon was the only light there was, and even the rows of darkened shopfronts seemed to have gone to sleep.

When I reached the entertainment district, bright lights began to appear here and there. Plenty of people were weaving unsteadily along the street, so I guessed the place was a tavern district.

I still had not seen a mage with my own eyes, so I had no idea how people here thought of them. Using magic somewhere crowded made me uneasy. Nothing good would come of being found out as a mage.

I turned into a quiet-looking alley.

How was I supposed to get outside the walls?

There were plenty of ways. Teleport past the gate. Cast Invisibility and walk out. Fly. Flight was too easy to spot, so that one was out. Teleport or Invisibility, then.

I chose Teleport — the one that could take me far. For an experiment, I wanted somewhere quiet, with no one around.

"Teleport."

As expected, the magic I knew came out exactly as I knew it.

I reappeared in the middle of an unfamiliar forest. Teleport only worked to places I had been at least once, so this had to be somewhere in the woods I had already walked. The midnight forest was utterly still. Aside from the rustle of leaves whenever the wind moved, there was no sound at all.

I was out. Now — which spell should I try next?

While I was thinking, a dissonant noise rode in on the wind.

Thud. Thud.

Footsteps, drawing closer.

I murmured under my breath.

"Invisibility."

My body faded slowly out of sight.

Not long after the spell settled, two soldiers came into view.

"Haaah — why are we even patrolling a forest like this? No monsters out here."

"Search magic went off around here, apparently. Nothing we can do about it."

"Horn, those bastards — using search magic in an atmosphere like this, I swear…"

I didn't catch the exact insult, but it was clearly a curse. The reason they were out here had to be the search-magic incident Redrago had mentioned before. And that incident… was probably me.

I trailed after the patrol and listened to whatever scraps of talk I could. Only then did I realize I still didn't even know the name of the country I was living in. I would have to ask Hwia later.

The kingdom I was staying in and the nation called Horn were on bad terms — war was all but imminent. At that exact moment I had shown up and cast search magic, and I had been caught. No wonder Redrago had been so on edge. Even to me, it looked exactly as if Horn had been scouting for intelligence before a war.

I wanted to clear up the misunderstanding, but that would mean revealing I was a mage. They would figure out it was me eventually if they kept investigating. Wouldn't it leave a better impression if I came forward myself?

I decided that once tonight was over, first thing in the morning, I would tell Redrago that I was the one who had used the search magic. I did not want to turn the city I was living in into an enemy.

Leaving the patrol behind, I returned to my original spot to cast more spells. Before I spoke, I took a long breath and steeled myself.

What was going to happen?

I opened my mouth carefully.

"Hello…?"

A greeting of this country.

An unintelligible word rang through my skull. No idea what kind of magic it was. What was about to happen?

A little mana drained away — and, astonishingly, nothing happened…?

I repeated the greeting like a maniac, and only then did I understand. The ground around me had turned into a field of flowers.

Uh… a flower-blooming spell…?

Trivial, compared to what I had been bracing for. If I had known something this cute would come out, I would have been fine saying hello ages ago.

Saying Hwia's name still felt a little scary, but while I was thinking of it, I tried that too.

"Hwia."

I half expected storm clouds and thunder the way it had gone last time, but a breeze simply swept past my face, and nothing else happened.

Same resonance — different magic triggered…?

I kept trying other words. Nothing came of them but harmless, pretty little spells of about the same scale. At this level, I could probably go home and manage a conversation.

How long had I been talking to myself? The moon was setting, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and the sun was beginning to rise. I needed to get back before anyone noticed.

"Teleport."

It was clearly a long distance, but I arrived at Hugo's house without any trouble.

I nearly fainted first thing in the morning.

I thought Tiable had simply gotten up earlier than usual — and then she spoke to me.

She looked me straight in both eyes, said the words, and then shyly looked away.

"Hugo… hel… lo."

Not fluent. But I heard it perfectly clear.

An angel had said hello to me.

I clutched a heart that felt ready to stop and pulled Tiable into a hug. She had finally opened the door to her heart. I still didn't know what story she was carrying, but the fact that she had greeted me made me happier than I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could say.

"Hwia! Wake up! Just now Tiable said hello to me—"

Hugo went on about it to Hwia for a long time, glowing with excitement. Hwia had been the first one whose name was spoken — but he had gotten the first greeting.

"Hugo… hel… lo."

It was a phrase I had already proven safe out in the forest, but saying it to his face still made me a little shaky. After the greeting I glanced around, half-afraid some spell might have gone off nearby. Luckily, Hugo didn't notice a thing.

He wore the happiest expression I had ever seen on him and pulled me into his arms. To be this glad over a simple hello… I should have tried speaking sooner.

Without meaning to, I smiled.

More news about Tiable arrived.

Hugo came clattering in with his mouth stretched all the way up toward his cheekbones and reported that Tiable had said hello to him that morning. Was this kid already treating her like a new little sister?

I still didn't know exactly what Tiable was, so I couldn't afford to drop my guard. Would I finally hear something from her own mouth today?

I told Hugo to bring her.

While I waited ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for him to arrive with Tiable, I went slowly back through the report we had put together on the search-magic incident. Every trail Redrago's eyes could find pointed at Tiable. That would mean she had cast search magic alone — but how, exactly?

Redrago clutched his head. Just as the headache of worrying over it set in—

Tiable and Hugo came in.

And then something he had not expected at all happened.

Tiable strode forward faster than Hugo and spoke first.

"Redrago. Search magic. Me. Did."

The grammar was clumsy, but the meaning got through. Tiable was saying, with her own mouth, that she had been the one to use the search magic.

That she had spoken at all was hard enough to believe. What came next was even harder.

I said it.

I had gone and said it.

The spells that fired were Investigation — and one unknown magic. Double casting didn't even ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠surprise me anymore.

The Investigation spell turned on Redrago, and information about him poured into my head.

Full name: Redrago In.

Half-Orc…?

A race I had only ever seen written about in the world I used to live in — orcs. In that previous life, races other than humans had been vanishingly rare. Humans despised other peoples so thoroughly that non-humans were invaded and killed simply for what they were… or so the books had said. By the time I lived, magical knowledge belonging to any race but humans had all but disappeared. A pity.

I was not given any more time to think.

I felt the unknown magic take hold. Mana drained away. Something seemed to be forming in my right hand; when I looked, a black sphere was swelling larger and larger. The black mass born from my body looked ready to fly free at any second.

Vmmm—

Judging it dangerous, I lifted my right hand toward the sky — and the instant I did, it left my palm and shot upward.

The black sphere punched through the ceiling at tremendous speed. The path it left was a clean, open hole, cut as if by a blade. It kept climbing into the sky until it finally dissolved.

Uh… this was a long way from anything I had expected.

Hugo and Redrago both stared at the vanishing sphere with expressions that said just making sense of the situation was already more than they could handle.

Magic used without warning. What was going to happen to me now?

When I had spoken alone, the same words had only made water dribble out of my hand — a worthless little spell. I never imagined something this vicious would come out of them.

I should have shut up and written it down on paper.

I regretted it deeply, but regret at this point changed nothing. Hugo and Redrago just stared at me, speechless, eyes empty of any idea how to react. Hugo was looking at me with fear in his face, and it hurt before I could stop it.

It's a misunderstanding.

No — I'm not—