The Great Sage, Lill
“H-how did you know?”
Edwin was utterly astounded that Sage Lill had seen through his royal identity in a single glance. The young boy’s eyes went as wide as saucers.
“That outfit you’re wearing. That is silk from the Kingdom of Asha, virtually impossible for anyone outside the imperial family to obtain. If you’re going to bother wearing a disguise, at least do it properly.”
Edwin stared up at him in utter bewilderment. He seemed dumbfounded that the old man had deduced his identity simply from the fabric on his back.
“So, you expect me to repay my life debt by becoming this brat’s tutor?”
“That is correct.”
“Well, playing tutor isn’t difficult.” Sage Lill looked down at Edwin with an arrogant sneer. “However, I have no intention of taking just anyone as my disciple.”
“A prince of the empire is hardly just anyone.”
“Well, that depends entirely on what kind of prince he is, doesn’t it?” Sage Lill snorted contemptuously. “Frankly, I could just settle that life debt with my actual life and be done with it. I’ve lived long enough anyway, and I don’t harbor a single lingering attachment to this world.”
Excuses, excuses.
I knew full well that his words were a brazen lie. There was no one in this world who burned to leave his mark upon it more than this old man.
Sage Lill ran a weathered finger along the parchment stacked high on the table before continuing. “Still... I suppose raising one proper disciple before I kick the bucket wouldn’t be the worst thing.”
“Then there is no reason to hesitate. We should depart at once—”
The moment I stepped forward, offering to escort him to the carriage this very instant, Sage cut me off.
“Did I not just say it? I don’t take just anyone.” His piercing gaze turned back upon Edwin. “So go on and prove it, little prince. Prove to me that you aren’t just ‘anyone’.”
The smile that creased the old sage’s deeply wrinkled face was undeniably mischievous.
The Great Sage, Viscount Lill.
Some forty years ago, barely past the age of twenty, he had claimed a full professorship at the Imperial Academy despite his commoner origins. He was the first scholar in imperial history to shatter the unwritten rule that no commoner, regardless of brilliance, could ever sit in a professor’s chair.
Perhaps it was only natural, considering he possessed unparalleled mastery not only in literature, history, politics, and philosophy, but in medicine as well. Moreover, in stark contrast to his vile temper, he had consistently proposed relief policies for the disenfranchised lower classes.
Those who envied Sage mocked him as a hypocrite. Yet their slander did nothing to erase his monumental achievements. The proof lay in the fact that the vast majority of the empire’s social welfare programs still in effect today were born from his mind.
Having received a noble peerage directly from the Emperor in recognition of his illustrious service, the people had sung his praises without cease, honoring him as ‘Sage the Great’.
Yet, as was often the case with geniuses, Sage possessed his own peculiar quirks.
“I told you, prove to me that you aren’t just anyone.”
For instance, being far too serious with a mere child.
“Uh...”
Edwin wore a thoroughly troubled expression. The fine beads of sweat gathering along his brow laid bare his inner turmoil.
This foul-tempered old codger. Must he nitpick everything?
“Viscount Lill, have you forgotten your pact with me—or rather, with Guildmaster Kyla? A life debt is to be repaid at any time, unconditionally.”
“And didn’t I just say so? At this point, I’d rather fling myself off a cliff than pay that debt.”
“You had better watch your—”
Did you think I dragged myself all the way here just to watch this infuriating farce? If it were up to me, I would have yelled right then and there that I was Kyla, and that if he kept refusing to cooperate, I would happily shove him off that cliff myself.
Just as my already thin patience was on the verge of running out, Edwin slowly spoke up.
“...H-how am I supposed to prove it?”
Before I knew it, a solemn resolve had settled over the boy’s face as he looked Sage straight in the eye. That was, of course, despite the cold sweat still glistening on his skin.
“What must I—no, what must I do so that I’m not just ‘anyone’, but fit to become Grandfather’s—I mean, Master Sage’s disciple?”
“Hmph. Not bad. From the looks of you, I expected you to tuck your tail and flee on the spot.”
Even I was caught off guard this time. Given Edwin’s timid temperament, taking the initiative with a complete stranger was supposed to be near impossible. Yet right now, the boy held his chin high and spoke his mind directly to Sage’s face.
“Bwahaha!”
Looking down at him, Sage burst into a hearty laugh.
“Little prince, how old are you?”
“I am twelve.”
“Twelve, is it? Just about the age when that brain of yours should start spinning properly. But I don’t care much for smart brats.”
“Pardon? Why?”
“Because no matter how much they grow, they all turn out dumber than me anyway! Bwahahaha!”
“...”
After his bout of frivolous cackling, Sage suddenly straightened his face, his tone turning deadpan. “That is why I don’t look here.”
He tapped Edwin’s forehead lightly with an index finger, then trailed it downward.
“I look here.”
His finger, withered and dry like a dead branch, pointed straight at the center of Edwin’s chest.
Staring down at his own chest, Edwin merely blinked in bewilderment.
Flashing the prince a faint smirk, Sage abruptly swung open the back door.
“Leo! Leo! Get over here!”
“I’m busy as hell, why the hell are you calling me again?”
A boy emerged in response to Sage’s shout.
He’s grown quite a bit.
I recognized him immediately. If I recalled correctly, he was a child native to Luxen whom Sage had taken in and raised on his own back.
“What is it? I’m nowhere near done splitting the firewood.”
The boy, who appeared to be around fifteen, answered gruffly as his gaze swept over us. Contrary to his youthful face, his sharp glare and sturdy, robust build left quite an impression.
“Ah, I haven’t introduced you two. This punk here is Leo. Roughly your age. He’s practically my assistant.”
Leo irritably smacked away Sage’s hand resting atop his head.
“Assistant, my ass. What did you call me for? I told you I haven’t finished chopping the wood.”
“Forget the wood for now. Take this kid with you and go mine some stones. And don’t forget to check in on the villagers along the way.”
“Fine, whatever.”
Shoved forward by Sage, Edwin stiffened the moment he stood before the boy.
“U-um...”
Leo towered over Edwin by nearly two heads. Between the boy’s imposing stature and an inexplicable hostility radiating from him, Edwin was visibly on edge.
After studying Edwin for a long beat, Leo turned his back without a word.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming?”
He called back to Edwin, who was still lingering at the threshold, glancing nervously back and forth between Sage and me.
“Didn’t you hear him tell us to go together?”
“Ah... y-yes...”
“If you’re not coming, I’m leaving without you.”
“Wait, I’m coming!”
Edwin cast one last look back at me, and only when I gave him a reassuring nod did he hurry after Leo.
Once the two boys vanished from sight, the house fell deathly silent.
It was Sage who broke the stillness.
“Well then, we’ll see what the little prince is made of soon enough.”
Folding his arms, Sage glared in my direction.
“You really are an odd one.”
Standing about five paces away, Sage began walking slowly toward me.
“You appear to be an attendant, yet you don’t revere the prince, nor do you seem particularly inclined to protect him.” He muttered in a voice laden with genuine curiosity. “Showing up without a single guard, and letting the prince wander outside alone... No sane attendant would ever do such a thing.”
Naturally. Anyone who didn’t know that this place was far less perilous than it seemed would never have allowed it.
“Regrettably, I am entirely in my right mind, Viscount Lill.”
“And that tone of yours is bizarre too. Who on earth are you, really?”
What’s wrong with my tone?
Instead of answering, I merely fixed him with a quiet stare.
Meanwhile, Sage furrowed his brow in deep thought before speaking again.
“Tell me, how do you know Kyla?”
“...We have been close for a very long time.”
“So you’re friends?”
“...Something like that.”
“Don’t give me that rubbish! You expect me to swallow that? When has that girl ever had a friend? Even I don’t have friends!”
Is this old lunatic serious?
“Whether you believe it or not is entirely your prerogative. But I came here solely at Kyla’s bidding.”
At my words, Sage’s face twisted in displeasure before he tilted his head thoughtfully.
“Hmm. Well, I suppose you must have been close enough. My whereabouts are practically a state secret, after all.”
He accepted it far more readily than I had anticipated. Then again, Kyla was nothing short of his savior.
Still, I thought he would harbor at least a shred of doubt.
It felt slightly suffocating to realize that the one person this scholar—a man who doubted everything in the world—placed unquestioning trust in was ‘me’. After hesitating for a long moment, Sage spoke again.
“Is she still alive? That wretched girl, Kyla.”
Well, could I say she was neither alive nor dead? Her physical body had perished, yet her soul remained very much alive right here.
“She is not dead, so you need not worry.”
“...Is that so?”
His expression shifted subtly for a fleeting instant, but it passed in a heartbeat. Reverting back to his irritable demeanor, he snapped out of nowhere.
“Vicious little wench! If she was going to dump an old man in a backwater hole like this, the least she could do is show her face every now and then! Not a single peep in four whole years!”
Instead of answering, I studied his wrinkled face for a long time.
Upon the face of the Great Sage, once overflowing with unyielding confidence and arrogance, only a profound loneliness remained.
Strange.
In my memories, his face had been far more venomous and fierce.
“The world outside has long forgotten the name ‘Sage Lill’. That is simply how people are. They never forget their enemies, yet they are all too quick to forget their benefactors.”
Now, he simply wore an exhausted face. He had devoted his entire life to the empire and its people, only to be met with frigid abandonment.
“I was a fool. I thought I knew everything, but in truth, I was nothing more than an ignorant simpleton who knew nothing of the ways of the world.”