Chapter 49
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: The Mage of Evermoon (1)
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In the past, there was a mage.
A mage who had discarded even the name of his holy city after his family fell into ruin due to an unfortunate incident.
A mage who grasped dazzling fame with his absolute loyalty to the imperial family, his impeccable manners toward the nobility, and his outstanding magical prowess.
People called him.
"Captain."
At the voice calling to him, the middle-aged mage paused in his packing and flashed a kindly smile.
"You're here, Albert."
Albert, who was now the vice-captain of the Imperial Mage Corps and a strong candidate to become the next captain by year's end.
He too had once been merely a lowly squad member.
A clumsy rookie who had needed someone's guidance.
"Are you really leaving?"
Albert scanned the empty room.
It had once been filled to bursting with the countless documents, magic books, and research equipment he had used, but now it felt utterly hollow.
Feeling an inexplicable emptiness, he tried to hold back his teacher with a voice thick with regret.
"Haha. Frankly, I think I should have stepped down even sooner. I overstayed my welcome."
The mage swept the dust from the windowsill with his hand.
Red sunset light flowed in through the cracks in the window.
Beneath that glow, he diligently packed away even the last lingering shadow from long years past.
"It's about time I handed things over to the juniors."
"True, you're not the only one whose path forward was blocked because of you, Captain."
He said as much, but inwardly he hoped the captain would stay a few more years.
The kindly captain who had always spoken politely even to his most distant juniors.
The reason Albert now spoke formally to Lunaris and the others was because he sought to emulate the man he saw as the ideal.
"I won't try to hold you back, but... are you really planning to leave everything behind and walk away empty-handed?"
"I've received so much from the Empire."
The mage placed his hand atop a neatly packed box.
"So, wouldn't it only be right to leave it all behind when I go?"
Albert gave a wry smile at his jovial quip about not starving even if tossed naked into the world.
"I never expected you'd refuse even the gifts bestowed by His Majesty."
"No, that's not it. If anything, I was the rude one toward His Majesty. As his subject, I dared to request that he put it to good use."
Albert's eyes narrowed.
He fell silent for a moment before cautiously opening his mouth.
"As I thought... it's for Her Highness the Consort, isn't it."
"Let's not talk about that."
The mage awkwardly smiled as he stroked his unkempt beard.
"Not with anyone else, but between us?"
Albert shrugged with exaggerated nonchalance.
"My colleagues all know you never married because of her."
"I've told you countless times—there's nothing between me and Her Highness the Consort..."
The mage let out a deep sigh before continuing.
"We were simply priest and student who crossed paths briefly."
"If you're going to insist it was just 'teacher and student,' the way the two of you looked at each other was hardly ordinary."
"That's enough. The age gap between us is vast to begin with."
A brief silence fell at the mage's words.
Albert couldn't resist adding one final jab.
"By that logic, doesn't she have quite the age gap with His Majesty as well?"
"Even so, it's a more reasonable difference than with me."
The mage finally surrendered, adding the words with a faint smile.
"Well, I can't deny that it gets under my skin, honestly."
His wistful gaze turned toward the window.
The twilight light bathed the room in gold.
Such a nostalgic glow.
He had thought he left everything behind.
Yet a warm haze still lingered in his eyes.
The imperial family still held the mage's final lingering attachment.
There was a brilliant woman etched into his eyes, radiant as sunlight.
And a young daughter just learning to walk, who resembled her.
A dazzling child who sparkled with delight and smiled whenever she saw his magic.
He had wanted to stay by her side for a few more years.
Perhaps it was because he had pushed his body too hard. He could feel that his time left was short.
Like the light outside the window, his life too was fading into twilight.
Albert quietly watched the melancholic mage before asking in a low voice.
"So, why did you call only me here in the end?"
"The others might leave, but somehow I have a feeling you'll still be in the Imperial Mage Corps ten or twenty years from now."
In truth, over a decade later, while all his peers and seniors had departed, Albert alone remained—so the mage's judgment had been spot on.
"That's why I trust you enough to make a request."
The mage patted Albert's shoulder.
"A request? Just give me an order."
"What order..."
The mage's gaze drifted into the distance for a moment.
"Once I seclude myself this time, I plan to hole up in some quiet spot deep in the woods and teach a child with talent for magic. Ideally, one the same age as the Princess."
"Do you have someone specific in mind?"
"Well, I'll have to start looking now. I've got time on my hands."
"Finding a child to your liking won't be easy."
"Anyway... if that child joins the Imperial Mage Corps someday, I'd appreciate it if you looked after her."
Just as the mage had always watched over Albert so carefully.
"Of course. But... how will I recognize the child? You should leave some kind of token."
"I'll prepare a separate letter of recommendation. As for the name... it's hard to say now until I meet the child, but I do have a surname in mind."
The mage gazed at the moon faintly rising beside the setting sun and spoke in the gentlest of voices.
"Evermoon."
Filling the words with all his hope that the child, shining like the sun, would watch over things in his stead.
"Then I suppose the child's father—you, Captain—should be called Captain Evermoon."
"Grandfather would be more fitting than father."
And so the mage quietly departed the palace with only his prized disciple to see him off, fading from the memories of many.
He had left no name behind, so it was only natural.
Even so.
To a select few, he would linger in their memories long into the future—like the eternally enduring moon of Evermoon.
"Yawwwn~"
Lunchtime.
Sitting at a table with the Princess and Claire, I dozed off while chewing my meat.
"Luna, still sleepy? You slept through the entire lecture."
I vaguely blinked in response to Princess Celestina's amused voice.
The question itself was all wrong.
I'm always sleepy.
Sleep is something you can never get enough of, even if you sleep all day.
There was nothing sadder than bidding farewell to my bed every morning.
"It's not just today, Princess."
Claire chimed in from beside me in a thoroughly deflated voice.
"She does this in every class. Almost no one's ever seen her actually pay attention."
"Oh, really? This is the first time I've ever seen Luna attending a lecture right next to me."
The Princess chuckled to herself, mentally crossing off one item from her bucket list.
"Come to think of it, isn't it actually been forever since Luna showed up to a theory class?"
"I might've been able to skip it today too... if it weren't for the Princess..."
I grumbled petulantly at the Princess, who was bursting into laughter beside me.
My undefeated streak against the head maid had come to a miserable end today.
The mana suppression barrier had been annoyingly persistent, but in the end, I couldn't hold out against the combined assault of the maids and the imperial knights.
This... this was cheating. A violation of the WWE rules.
Keep this up, and I'll fight back with UFC rules?
"And to top it off, I had a weird dream and barely slept... yawwwn~"
The Princess tilted her head at my unconscious mutter.
"What kind of dream was it?"
"Hmm... well, it was like these two people—familiar but not quite—standing face-to-face, exchanging this and that..."
Strange.
I'd definitely thought it stuck in my mind right up until I opened my eyes.
For some inexplicable reason, it had left my eyes misty with nostalgia.
But then the morning chaos had swept the memory away with it.
"...Forgot."
"If it's sticking with you this much, it must've been a pretty important dream?"
"Who knows... If I can't remember it, it was probably nothing special."
"Dreams aren't important right now, Luna!"
That's when Claire abruptly slammed down her fork and clutched her head.
The Princess was right there. You've finally lost it, Claire.
"Final exams are coming up!"
Ah, has it been that long already? Time really flies.
I could sort of understand why Claire had snapped.
Ah, I understood intellectually, anyway. Empathy was another story.
"But Claire, didn't you say your midterm scores were pretty good?"
"They were good... but now that Linea Hall entry is basically locked in, I'm even greedier!"
Claire slammed her forehead onto the table and squeezed out tears.
"The Princess is in Linea Hall, you're in Linea Hall—why am I the only one who can't live comfortably?! Why meee?!"
Claire let out an impudently loud wail right in front of royalty.
She'd definitely been too shy to even speak properly to the Princess at first, sneaking glances and all. Now she was closing the distance without a care.
The escorts were scowling fiercely, of course.
But the Princess seemed more at ease with Claire's casual familiarity, simply laughing happily with a "huhu."
"It's okay, Claire. You did well on the midterms, so you'll do even better on the finals."
"Uu, uuuu... Princess...!"
The Princess's benevolence soothed the utterly ill-mannered Claire.
She'd only get worse at this rate, so I decided to wield the whip in the Princess's stead.
"Your problem isn't skill—it's your clumsiness."
This was courage in the face of hassle—the willingness to be hated.
...Okay, truth be told.
I just enjoyed picking on Claire.
There was no greater guilt-free pleasure than backseat-driving with a "that's not how you do it" from the sidelines.
And the best part? No extra effort required.
"You lost points again because of mistakes this time."
"You're too harsh, Luna...! Just baby me! Give me endless cheers and encouragement!"
"Whatever. Just don't mess up this time. The finals don't look that hard anyway."
The Princess tilted her head curiously at my words.
"Huh? I heard from a Magic Department TA that the finals are going to be brutally tough."
"R-right! Now that you mention it, I vaguely heard something like that too. They said the professor started making the final exam problems right after midterms ended. Apparently putting a ton of effort into it?"
Well... the problems they could come up with were still limited, anyway.
"In the end, the questions will come from the textbook. It's not like they're going to pull something insane out of thin air."
I stretched languidly, murmuring with all the drowsiness I could muster.
First-year Academy level? How impressive could it really be?