The Cellphone
"Ah, is that so...? I understand...."
Yerna let the phone slip from her ear as the call disconnected, then slumped forward onto the table with a heavy sigh.
Watching her, Luke stepped closer and gave her back a gentle pat.
"Something not going well?"
"Well... I'm trying to find a facility that can take Ru, but it's not easy."
"I figured as much. It's not as though I can keep living in this house forever, after all.... It would be nice if you could secure one of those facilities soon."
"...Ah."
Luke had meant it simply as a matter of not wanting to impose any longer, but to Yerna the words landed with an entirely different weight.
Of course. Someone like me has no business staying in a nice house like this forever....
On top of that, Luke's composed demeanor only piled more guilt onto her shoulders.
"No, that's not it! I-I'm a forest ranger, and I have to pull night shifts a lot, which means you'd be left alone in the house! You might even meet a better family than me...."
Seeing Yerna fluster, Luke thought he understood perfectly well why she was reacting that way.
She was still a woman living alone. Having a child like him under her roof could unintentionally ruin her marriage prospects.
That sort of inconvenience was the last thing Luke wanted either, so he answered in the quietest, most assured tone he could manage.
"I understand. I'm not that young. This is the first time I've said it, but I've lived a rather long life myself. So I can look after myself well enough."
To Luke it was a calm, resolute statement delivered without a second thought. To Yerna, watching him, it could only sound like the typical bravado of a little kid putting on a tough front.
After all, Luke looked nothing like someone who had "lived a long life." He was a pitiful child who had been kidnapped and abused, whose memories were still scrambled, who couldn't even bathe alone, and who didn't know what cocoa was—utterly ignorant of the world.
Yerna felt her conscience cracking under the weight of responsibility.
For a fleeting moment the terrible thought even crossed her mind: what if she just adopted this child herself?
Ugh, no. Absolutely not. A child isn't a pet; you can't take something like that lightly. I am completely incapable of raising a kid. Still... Ru is so mature, and so well-behaved....
She agonized for a long while between the choices of raising him or not raising him, and in the end she postponed the decision yet again.
"Haa... Let's stop looking for today. Ru, you can play with the phone if you want."
"Is that really all right?"
"Of course it is. Just don't stay on it too long like last time."
"I'll do my best!"
Yerna handed the phone over, and Luke's eyes sparkled as he accepted it as though it were treasure.
Watching the little girl fiddle excitedly with the device, a radiant smile blooming across her face, Yerna thought:
Is it really that wonderful to her?
It was a truly heartwarming sight.
Yerna found herself remembering a few days earlier.
"Yerna, what in the world is that?"
Luke could not contain his awe at the artifact Yerna was operating—an object of staggering sophistication.
Lightning magic, light magic, communication magic, preservation magic....
The varieties of magic revealed to his Mana Sight were beyond counting, yet the artifact itself was no larger than a palm.
To cram that much magic into something so tiny....
Even the dwarves of Helkensan, once called the god of blacksmiths, could never have approached such delicate craftsmanship.
Moreover, those countless spells meshed without the slightest error, dozens activating and deactivating in perfect simultaneous rhythm.
The uncanny balance alone was astonishing to behold, and at the center sat a core that tuned and adjusted every last one of them to near perfection....
Never in his life had he seen an array of magic so beautiful.
Of course his gaze was stolen.
"Truly... a divine wonder...."
"Pfft, is it that amazing? This is a cellphone."
"A cellphone?"
"Yeah. You can make calls or watch videos with it. Want to try?"
"M-may I really? Something so precious... for me to touch...."
"What's the harm? Just don't break it."
"I shall take care! Thank you so very much!"
Luke took the phone and immediately turned it this way and that before his eyes, examining every part with Mana Sight.
Good heavens... even my Mana Sight can only glimpse the barest fragments of this technology. Incredible.... So lightning and light magic can be combined like this? Then what purpose does this particular array serve?
Yerna simply watched with a fond smile as Luke scrutinized the phone.
From the side, the sight of a mage satisfying his scholarly curiosity looked no different from a little child turning a fascinating new toy over and over in their hands.
"Ru, do you like it that much?"
"Of course I do! I have never seen a magic tool like this in all my life. I feel my horizons expanding!"
"Honestly...."
Yerna marveled at the rich vocabulary that did not match Luke's age (his apparent age, at least).
Where does a kid even learn to talk like that? Maybe he used to read a lot of books? What an interesting child.
Then, suddenly recalling that the light from a phone was said to be bad for a child's eyesight, she spoke up.
"Ru, you'll ruin your eyes if you hold it that close. Don't play with it right up against your face."
She knew it was nagging, but she couldn't help it.
Still, she expected that well-behaved Ru would understand and obey right away, just like always.
"...."
But Luke, already lost in deciphering the rules and arrangements of the countless magic circles inside his head, heard none of her words.
Yerna grew a little flustered.
"Ru? Ru Irushi? Hello? Luke—? Can you hear me?"
Even after calling several times with no response at all, the shock must have been considerable; Yerna's expression stiffened slightly.
R-right. This is how normal kids are. No matter how mature Ru seems, this was inevitable.
Even so, as an adult she couldn't just leave a child pressing a phone right up to their face without a thought for their eyesight.
Steeling herself, Yerna snatched the phone away from Luke.
"Ah—what are you doing all of a sudden...!"
Luke let out a voice mixed with panic and anger at having his object of observation ripped away without warning.
A mage valued their own curiosity above all else.
Even an archmage could not completely hide a flash of emotion when the subject of their research and observation was snatched from right under their nose.
But Yerna took it for nothing more than a child's whining. She resolved to use this chance to lay down a firm rule, and spoke in a deliberately stern tone.
"Ru! Big sister already told you—looking that close will ruin your eyes!"
"That...."
It was only because the magic arrays were so delicate that I couldn't see them unless I got close....
Ruining one's eyes... certainly, in this child's body he might have to worry about such things. But a mage's physique was different from an ordinary person's.
A Circle was the mark of will engraved upon one's own flesh.
The most fundamental foundation of magic—the Circle—was the act of becoming aware of oneself, understanding and attuning one's body, and finally bringing it under complete dominion.
Therefore, the moment he engraved even a single Circle upon his heart, he would be able to command the mana of his body by will alone.
In theory, then, it was impossible for a mage's eyes to "go bad."
He still had no Circles yet, but once enough mana gathered he would surely be able to engrave them.
So for now, there was no problem in calling himself a mage.
Luke declared proudly:
"I am a mage, so my eyes will not go bad!"
Hearing it as pure childish stubbornness, Yerna shot back at once.
"What are you talking about? Mages' eyes go bad too!"
"Th-that can't be...?"
Her shout left Luke flustered on the spot.
A mage's eyes going bad? What kind of joke was that?
"Th-that's a lie! A mage's eyes going bad?!"
"So what, Ru? Are you saying Big Sister is a liar right now?"
Yerna's words hit Luke like a bucket of ice water dumped over a head that had been boiling with heat.
He finally realized exactly what kind of nonsense he had been spouting.
From the beginning the artifact belonged to her, and she was a kind elf who had treated him with nothing but pure goodwill.
And he had just made her out to be a liar.
"Th-that's... not what I meant, but...."
As the academic fervor cooled, the emotion that rushed in was pure embarrassment.
This was, after all, an unknown artifact from five thousand years in the future.
It was entirely possible that it carried a powerful risk capable of damaging even a mage's eyesight.
She had only been worried about him.
Out of pure kindness.
And what I just did was nothing more than a child's tantrum.
Luke poured every scrap of sincerity he could muster into his next words.
"Yerna."
"...."
Yerna planted both hands on her hips and lifted her chin as if to say, go on then.
At that, Luke bowed his head deeply and offered a formal apology with full courtesy.
"I apologize for the disgraceful display just now. Truly.... It was only because I saw such a wondrous artifact. Will you forgive me? From now on I shall never miss the sound of your voice, so please, set aside your anger."
"...Pfft."
Yerna could not hold back the laugh that burst out.
"Pwahahahaha!"
"W-why are you laughing?"
"What even was all that?! Ru, do you go around memorizing lines like that?"
"I-I just said it normally...."
Luke felt heat rising to his face.
"Please don't tease me too much...."
"Pwahaha! You little old man, seriously!"
"...."
A little old man. Luke thought the description fit him with perfect accuracy.