Mage Reika
I followed the servant into the sprawling mansion.
Along the way I passed several people who looked to be maids.
Being the nation's strategist really is a high station, isn't it.
Zinor's position felt newly real to me. Back when I'd effectively served as national strategist for the Lunarien forces, I'd sometimes slept under a single blanket in a rundown house.
Lost in old memories, I reached my destination before I knew it.
"This way, please."
I opened the door and stepped inside—
There, seated in what was clearly the place of honor and dressed to the nines, was Zinor.
"Swen. You arrived right on time."
"It is an honor to see you, Lord Zinor."
"No need for formalities. Have a seat, will you."
I settled into a chair and carefully posed my question.
"So then… this 'mage' I'm supposed to teach…?"
"My adopted daughter, Reika. She's in her room at the moment. As I told you, the girl possesses a certain talent."
"I see… So she is your daughter."
I'd already known as much from meeting Reika first, but I reacted as though I were hearing it for the first time.
"Go to her room and begin instructing her at once on that 'sensing the power that drifts through the air' you described. I've already informed my daughter that the person who will become her teacher is coming today, so you needn't worry about anything."
With that, Zinor told me where her room was.
"Understood. Is there anything else I should know?"
"Nothing of particular note… though she is rather shy around strangers. I'd appreciate it if you kept that in mind."
"That's fine. I tend to feel the same way when meeting new people."
"Once you meet her, you'll take those words back."
"Is that so?"
I'd said it half in jest, but Zinor was utterly serious.
It was still too early to be certain, but… did he have almost no human affection for his adopted daughter?
"I hope you'll lend your strength so that the girl's abilities may bloom."
"As I said last time, I have no idea how much help I can actually be… or whether I can help at all. Are you certain that's all right?"
"It's fine. Simply convey what you yourself have felt. And as I said before, even if it proves of no special use, the experience of a man who works miracles will itself serve as a kind of education for the girl. You needn't feel too much pressure."
"If you put it that way…"
"Well then, I have business to attend to, so I'll take my leave first. Swen—one request."
Zinor's tone turned extremely grave.
"Within this mansion you may go wherever you please. But do not take her outside."
"Why is that?"
"…I cannot explain in detail. At any rate, I ask this of you."
A father who keeps his daughter under lock and key out of love is a stereotype you see often enough. But the way he said it now didn't feel like that. It was closer to… fear that his own plans might go awry.
"Understood."
"Then I'll take my leave."
After Zinor left the room, I thought, I should head over myself soon enough.
I let a suitable amount of time pass, then made my way to the room where Reika was waiting.
This should be the place, right?
The mansion was so vast I'd gotten a little turned around, but I managed to arrive without too much trouble. I gave the door a light knock.
"C-c… come in…!!"
That voice. I'd heard it before.
So his adopted daughter really was Reika after all.
The moment I opened the door and stepped inside—
BANG!!!
A deafening noise exploded in my ears.
Wh-what was that?
And there before me—
A young woman with long pink hair tied into two pigtails looked up at me, her voice trembling violently.
"W-w-welcome…! Y-you're the one who's going to be my t-teacher… r-right? I… I-I'm… R-R-Reika, and I—"
"…"
A delicious-looking cake sat on the table. The girl in front of me was making a tremendous fuss for some reason.
"…am…"
She seemed to have finished the speech she'd prepared while shaking like a leaf—and the instant her eyes met mine, she let out a short gasp.
"…Ah."
Her eyes went dead in an instant, and she began apologizing to me.
"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… I'm sorry for sneaking out… So you've come to catch me after all… I'm truly, truly sorry…"
"N-no. Wait a moment… just wait."
I let out a long sigh.
No matter how many hours I'd spent controlling her in the game—ten thousand hours, even—I still couldn't know what kind of person she really was.
Once she'd calmed down somewhat—
"Then… y-you're not here to catch me, but you're actually my teacher…?"
"Yes. I came at Lord Zinor's request, to give you lessons."
"Then… d-did you… tell him yet…? A-about…?"
Reika said this while breaking into a cold sweat, looking terrified.
I'd already guessed as much when she said "I'm sorry for sneaking out," but it seemed being found out about going outside would put her in a very difficult position in more ways than one. She'd even come out wrapped tightly in a veil that day.
I offered her a gentle smile.
"I'll keep the other day a secret. You don't need to worry so much."
"What?! Th-th… th-thank you…"
And then the conversation died again.
Shy around strangers, was it? She really did operate on a different wavelength from ordinary people.
I calmly observed the Reika before me.
So this was what the real-world Reika was like.
Her long pink hair was tied into twin tails that hung down on either side, giving her an extremely cute impression. The color of her trembling eyes was a pink a shade lighter than her hair. Her white sleeveless dress was cut a little lower than strictly necessary, which meant the curves of her figure were faintly visible. From what I'd seen when she went outside, she normally wore an outer garment over it, so it probably wasn't an issue.
In this world, she had become Zinor's adopted daughter. One way or another, Zinor had recognized her potential—the makings of the strongest mage.
I still didn't understand why she wasn't allowed to leave the mansion… but given that she'd snuck out on her own, it seemed Zinor wasn't treating her particularly well.
If I want to get closer to her, maybe I should start by working on that angle.
There was no need to rush. For now, I would take it slow—begin by making her understand that I was someone who could give her what she wanted.
Right. Before that, there was something I wanted to ask.
I casually picked up a piece of cake as I spoke.
"Um… may I ask just one thing?"
"What?! Y-yes! Yes! Anything! Ask me anything!"
She answered in a fluster, her face flushed red. There was something oddly endearing about her.
"When I came into the room, there was a loud bang, like something exploding. What was that?"
"Ahh… that!"
She nodded and launched into an explanation. For some reason, she seemed a little excited.
"I gather the floating air and make it burst. The collected air makes a big noise when it pops, and that's all it can do, but I thought… maybe it would help warm up the atmosphere a little when welcoming someone new, or something like that…!"
Oh-ho.
This girl had conceived of the idea of "fireworks" in a fantasy world and actually created something similar. She might look a bit airheaded, but as expected of the strongest mage in the setting, she couldn't hide her extraordinary side.
"I see…"
I cut a piece of the cake and put it in my mouth.
Huh?
It was far more delicious than I'd expected.
"This is really good."
"Ah, i-is it…?"
Reika's eyes sparkled as she spoke.
Don't tell me.
"Did you make this yourself?"
"What?! Um, th-that… y-yes…! I heard my teacher was coming, so… hehe."
"It's incredibly delicious."
"Is it? Th-that's a relief…"
She smiled bashfully as she said it.
She could have lived a perfectly happy life just baking… and yet her talent had locked her away in a place like this. Of course, as an orphan, simply having three meals a day in a safe place might have been enough to satisfy her… but for some reason, I felt a twinge of sympathy for her.
I opened my mouth to change the mood.
"Ah, right. Could you show me something else as well?"
"Something else? You mean other sweets or cakes, or—"
"No, no. I'm very much looking forward to those too, but right now it's magic's turn."
"Ah… I-I'm sorry. Honestly… all right."
She nodded several times, looking sheepish, then took a deep breath and spread her pure white hand open before me.
And then—
"…Ohh."
A small sphere of flame bloomed above her palm. The fire moved freely over her hand, giving off a luminous glow.
But—
"…Hah."
Before even three minutes had passed, the flame sphere vanished. She looked at me while gasping for breath, clearly exhausted.
"For now… this is as far as I can go."
So at this point in time, this is still her limit.
I put on a deliberately astonished expression.
"I can't believe it… Between the bursting air earlier and this, magic truly is a real ability that exists in this world."
"…?"
She gave me a puzzled look. Fair enough—the person who'd come as her teacher was amazed by something as basic as her own power.
But I couldn't afford to look like a liar in her eyes.
I spoke with a sheepish expression.
"You see… as I already told your father, I'm not a mage or anything of the sort. However, I am faintly aware that something other than ordinary air exists upon this land."
"Something other… do you mean mana?"
"So that's what it's called—mana."
I kept my expression deliberately casual.
"When I sense that power and concentrate on it, I strangely feel as though I'm communicating with something beyond the sky—something like an absolute being looking down upon us. Your father seems to have decided that my ability to handle this sensation will be of help to you, Miss Reika."
"Is that so…?"
"Yes. It is."
"…"
She lowered her head, looking somewhat disappointed. Apparently she'd been hoping to learn from a fellow mage.
I sensed that this was something of a decisive moment.
"Um… Miss Reika. May I ask you one question?"
"A question…?"
"Do you have a purpose for training as a mage?"
"A purpose…"
She fell silent in thought for a moment, then spoke in an extremely careful tone. The girl who had been trembling so violently was now speaking with complete composure and gravity.
"…Father told me. That this power of mine is a power that will bring peace to this continent."
"I'm asking because I wonder if that is truly all."
"…?"
"In other words… this is only my guess, but… is it possible that what you truly desire is freedom?"
She started in surprise at my words.
"H-how did you…?"
Well, it wasn't hard to guess after she'd prepared a veil and snuck outside. She seemed to yearn for freedom. That day, too, she had probably slipped out without Zinor's knowledge, run into that incident, and by chance met Irene and me.
At the very least, the future was all but set. In a few years she would awaken to power enough to be called the first mage. She didn't need to train at anything in particular. All she needed was for time to pass.
But from Zinor's perspective, the urgency was understandable. He would think that the weak nation of Asius couldn't hold off the Brans army's offensives forever. Even without Brans, there were any number of ways Asius could fall—the balance in the south collapsing and producing a single absolute power, or Serpina's forces finally pushing into the central regions. So of course he wanted her abilities to bloom as quickly as possible.
My arrival in Asius after using an ability that looked like magic must have felt to Zinor like a pumpkin rolling right into his lap.
This was nothing if not an opportunity for me.
If I spent time with her doing meditation and other vaguely plausible-looking training—
She would grow stronger naturally as time passed. And to everyone watching, it would look as though she was growing stronger by following my training methods. If her abilities visibly improved, my influence would naturally grow as well, and that might open the door to taking her outside.
Giving a girl who yearned for freedom the thing she needed—that was what I had to do.
"I don't know how much help I can be, since I'm not a mage myself… but starting today, I'd like to practice with you, Lady Reika, the training methods I used to better read this power called 'mana.'"
"To better read mana… what do you mean by that?"
"It means sensing the mana that flows through the air in far greater quantity and with far greater precision, and then learning to handle it."
"Far greater quantity… and precision…"
As someone who could already read mana, she seemed to grasp something from my words, and she nodded. Of course, I'd just been saying whatever came to mind.
"Wouldn't that make you an outstanding mage that much faster?"
"…!"
Only then did she seem to understand the meaning of what I'd said.
Becoming an outstanding mage faster—that would mean obtaining her freedom that much sooner. If this was enough to fire her motivation, nothing could be better for me.
"We'll begin the training properly starting next week."
She tilted her head at my words.
"Huh? W-weren't we supposed to start today…?"
"For the past few days, the energy flowing through the land has been unfavorable. If you train in handling mana under such conditions, you risk being consumed by the mana itself. That actually happened to me once."
"Is that so…?"
She looked at me as if to ask what on earth I was talking about.
Of course she did. I didn't know what I was talking about either.
Even so, I kept a shameless expression on my face and continued in an extremely serious voice.
"Yes. And I'd also like some time to organize a proper curriculum of my own. I'll prepare thoroughly over the next week. I'll be sure to bring a full schedule that will develop your abilities, Miss Reika."
"Ah, y-yes…! P-please take care of me…! Um, I…"
"You may call me Swen."
"S-Swen…! Please take care of me!"
And so Reika and I formally had our first meeting.
After Swen left, Reika let out a long breath and sank back against the sofa.
To think… that handsome man who saved me that day would turn out to be my teacher.
She'd heard he belonged to the Asius forces, but she never imagined she'd run into him again. That was why, when they first met, she'd been certain he must have told her adoptive father Zinor everything about her going outside. The odds of a chance encounter reporting her little rebellion had seemed higher than the odds of meeting one of the few people on the continent who could read mana.
But—
He'd said he wouldn't tell her father. And on top of that, he'd seen through her desire for freedom in a single glance.
If there was something that made her even happier than all of that—
It was probably the way he'd eaten the cake she'd made with such obvious enjoyment.
She was terribly shy around strangers, and even during her days living in the alleys she'd had almost no contact with men, so the fact that her teacher was a man had worried her a little… but she found herself thinking that if it was him, she might be able to get along just fine.
…I want to learn to handle this power called mana as quickly as I can.
Her adoptive father Zinor had told her that "those who handle mana must minimize contact with their surroundings as much as possible." Because of that, she had become a bird in a cage, spending a very long time alone in the house doing nothing but magic training. She could feel her abilities improving, little by little—but the pace was far too slow.
He had promised that once she reached the level where she could freely command mana, he would give her her freedom. And now she had a teacher. Perhaps that day would come sooner.
Just imagining herself free again made her heart race.
Lord Swen. Please take care of me.
She had always been rather pessimistic about the future. But right now, she was looking ahead more optimistically than anyone.