The Disciple's Mage Companion Arrives
"That doesn't taste like it used to."
When my disciple had been around, everything I cooked seemed to turn out reasonably well. Same ingredients, same recipe — and yet it didn't taste anything like it used to.
"'Cooking well is important, but who you eat with matters just as much,' they say… But for the difference to be this severe? It's almost astonishing."
No, it wasn't as if I hadn't known. Back in my mercenary days, whenever word reached me that someone I knew had died, even the finest meal would taste like chewing rubber. That was why I'd gone into seclusion — to forget those things. And after enough time alone, I'd finally managed to forget… only for Sera to bring it all rushing back.
"Getting sentimental in my old age."
How unbefitting of an adult.
My disciple was out there right now, working hard to grow as a Hero candidate, and here her master was, feeling hollow over an empty seat.
"She's doing fine, right?"
Feeling the emptiness of her absence, fretting over her safety, praying for her well-being — that was all a pathetic master like me could do.
"She needs to make sure she eats properly…"
Still, she wasn't a picky eater. She was probably managing fine.
"This isn't the right taste."
"But… I followed the ingredients and the recipe exactly as you instructed, my lord."
"Must be the cook's skill, then."
"……"
So now I'm being treated as a cook…
Archmage William felt his insides twist. To be treated like this… Even as a first-class mage, before that as a second-class, and further back still as a third-class — he had never experienced anything of the sort. Even a third-class mage received treatment no less than a noble's. Being handled this way was something he hadn't endured in so long he couldn't dig it up from memory.
But he couldn't say a word about it.
No matter what anyone said, this silver-haired girl was his lord.
In the end, she had completely annihilated that enormous energy, and as promised, she had performed the Mana Oath.
And so he had come to serve this girl named Sera as his lord — with a leash around his neck, so to speak.
Still, she was the Hero candidate who had saved the Imperial Capital from crisis… No — William was certain she was the Hero. And since she was the Hero, he had believed without a doubt that she would make a fine lord. That belief hadn't taken long to crumble.
"Why do I have to cook?"
"Who knows what might happen?"
"No, being careful is fine, but I'm an Archmage…"
"You said you were good at cooking, didn't you?"
"Well, I couldn't leave my daughter's meals to some clueless fools…"
"If you have the skill, you should use it. You're a cook now, too."
"……"
Being careful was fine — but because of his lord's caution, he had to cook. He was an Archmage. An Archmage treated as a cook. In every possible way, Archmage William's mental state was being thoroughly shaken.
Fine. Let's say he could cook.
He was making an Archmage work as a cook.
Wouldn't a normal person feel some burden — some pang of conscience — about that?
"This isn't the right taste. I can't eat this. Again."
"My lord, I'm not a cook — I'm an Archmage…"
"And?"
"……"
"Who is your lord?"
"…Lady Sera."
"Who holds the authority to command?"
"…Lady Sera."
"Who must obey?"
"…I must."
"Then?"
"…I will carry it out."
Nod. Nod.
In the end, Archmage William had no choice but to obediently go cook.
"……"
It wasn't as if Sera had no reason for this. She had been poisoned countless times after eating food prepared by cooks as-is. The moment she rose as a leading Hero candidate, assassination attempts of every kind came at her, and the most frequently used method was recruiting a cook to slip poison into her meals. Of course, after swallowing that much poison, she had developed the ability to detoxify it easily.
But just because she wouldn't die didn't mean she had a hobby of eating poison for fun. She needed a cook who wouldn't betray her — and Archmage William, bound by the Mana Oath and incapable of betrayal, was the perfect candidate for the job.
On top of that, William's cooking skills were genuinely excellent. Perhaps because, as a mage, he had experience combining various ingredients to brew potions. Even so, it wasn't enough to satisfy Sera.
Same ingredients, same recipe — and yet it doesn't taste like Master's cooking.
It wasn't as if she didn't know why.
Because Master hadn't made it.
Because Master wasn't by her side.
Because Master wasn't here right now.
But that was only natural.
Master couldn't be here.
Master would be in danger.
She would soon become a leading Hero candidate. When that happened, the Demon King, the Demon King's army, and every piece of trash that had gone over to the Demon King would all target her. But being a leading Hero candidate meant she was strong — so targeting her directly carried a burden. That meant they would go after those around her first, especially the easy targets. Did the Demon King, his army, or humanity's traitors care about honor, or how despicable their actions were? They didn't care about such things — that was precisely why they were the Demon King, his army, and traitors to humanity.
Even if she wasn't a leading Hero candidate yet, if she let her guard down and acted carelessly, the resulting damage would fall entirely on her and those around her. So she had to be careful, and even more careful still. To that end, she had already performed special work on Master's hermitage. Even for an experienced A-class mercenary like Master, the techniques were so advanced he wouldn't notice them. It was perfect.
Come to think of it, the balance of his body should start to falter soon.
She had given him emergency treatment with the Elf's Breathing Method, but that alone couldn't be perfect. Of course not. He had lost the core of his body — expecting a single breathing method to fully compensate for that was unrealistic.
"William."
"Yes, my lord."
"Go to the place I told you about immediately. Check whether Master's condition is all right."
"Pardon? What about the cooking?"
"I've lost my appetite."
"But even so, you haven't eaten properly for days…"
"Even if I don't eat for a week, my physical health will be fine."
William knew that much. Given his lord's monstrous ability to control aura, regulating her metabolism would be as simple as eating a meal. Of course, that didn't mean every Sword Master regulated their metabolism and lived without eating. The body might not suffer, but it required expending mental energy. Yet his lord could perform that high-level technique as if it were nothing — as if she were someone who had been trapped multiple times in places where neither water nor food could be expected.
It was absurd, but with his lord, nothing was surprising anymore. Even if the strange became stranger, there was nothing odd about it.
"I'll eat some fruit or something. You go quickly. I'll take care of Ely's medicine."
"If that's the case…"
In the end, he was in a position where he had to crouch when his lord told him to crouch. And curiously, his daughter Ely was extremely fond of his lord, so there was no issue there. It was truly remarkable. When he tried to get her to take her medicine, she would whine that it was bitter and refuse — but when his lord gave it to her, she would smile and take it every time. As a father, it left him feeling a bit hollow, but seeing his daughter grow healthier made him nothing but happy as a parent. So he would simply do as his lord commanded.
"And this is a letter."
"Ah. Yes…"
Surely she hadn't asked for all those sheets of paper just for this one letter? He'd assumed she was doing some kind of magical research… But if it had been magical research, there should have been fluctuations in mana, and there had been none at all. His brilliant mind easily deduced that countless sheets of paper had been burned and discarded, leaving only this single letter as the result. But he didn't bother saying anything unnecessary. A brilliant mind came with equally brilliant social awareness.
The moment he started making a fuss here, he would clearly get a front-row seat to his lord's tremendous Aura Blade.
"I'll be on my way."
And so William resolved to leave quickly.
"For reference — if you go to Master and start spouting nonsense about 'my lord' this and that, you're dead."
"…I'll be careful."
Because his own life was precious.
Archmage William realized that what he'd thought was a simple errand was a grave misunderstanding. This was an extremely difficult mission with his life on the line.
William immediately cast a disguise spell. If a distinguished-looking, experienced Archmage just showed up out of nowhere, the situation would clearly get tangled in strange ways. He needed to make himself look as young as possible — like a mage of moderate standing — and so William began working desperately.
"You're an acquaintance of my disciple?"
"Yes. To be precise, I've joined the candidate's party. The candidate was worried about her master's health. If she can't focus on her work, something unfortunate could happen — so I came to prevent that in advance."
I could only scratch my cheek. Watching him casually cast high-difficulty teleportation magic, the person before me was clearly an Archmage. But there was no way an Archmage would come all the way out here and act this humble. After all, what kind of treatment did Archmages receive? They could swagger around in front of royalty and no one would dare say a word — that was the position of an Archmage.
There's no way this young fellow is an Archmage, so he must be using an artifact.
With an artifact, even a non-Archmage could cast teleportation magic naturally. The problem was that using such an incredible artifact was only possible for high-ranking nobles with enormous wealth — and for someone with that kind of artifact to act so humble in front of me was also absurd.
If my Aura Heart were intact, I could have read his energy. But that's impossible now.
Still, if he'd had any ill intent, he wouldn't be acting this humble and conversing with me. He could just attack, torture me for information, and be done with it. The fact that he hadn't meant he was at least friendly toward me. In other words, as he said, he was likely Sera's companion.
"To become a master only to hold my disciple back… What a pathetic master I am."
"Surely not."
"I appreciate you saying so."
It seemed a good-natured fellow had joined my disciple's party. Every mage I'd ever met had been arrogant, so to find one with such a good personality… I couldn't have been more relieved.
Archmage William was genuinely astonished.
My hypothesis that my lord has two Aura Hearts was correct.
William believed that as someone serving a lord, he should be careful about making hasty assumptions or judgments about her. But at his core, he was a mage no matter what anyone said. Research into the spectacle that had unfolded before his eyes continued to run through his mind. One of his hypotheses was—
Anti-Aura.
It wasn't an official name. After all, the annihilation of mana or magical power was something that had never been confirmed through any phenomenon until now. So the only ones who knew about this Anti-Aura phenomenon were its user, Sera, and its witness, William. Since he couldn't leave this Anti-Aura nameless, William had temporarily given it that designation.
William had formed various hypotheses about the Anti-Aura phenomenon, and one of them was that it was energy created by colliding two Aura Hearts. Externally, when aura collided with aura, they simply canceled each other out — but if two Aura Hearts of the same nature collided inside the body, a new phenomenon might occur. That possibility was the starting point of the hypothesis. But it was so far-fetched that William hadn't considered it a high-probability theory.
The moment he saw Jade, Sera's master, he had no choice but to realize—
That lowest-probability hypothesis was heading straight toward established fact.