Chapter 163
Chapter 163
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 163
Chapter Title: Magicians Don't Cry
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"Rista, what should we do?"
It must have been some time ago when we found Tureina in a village near Lamburs.
The place looked like it had been ravaged by the abyssal horde before we arrived, but Kies spotted her hiding in a barrel with his sharp senses.
She was filthy, covered in dirt, dust, and blood, and even when Rista or Fride kindly extended their hands, she just fled to a corner and sobbed quietly.
"We can't just leave her here forever. Who knows when those things might come back? We should hand her over to the city."
"Then Kies will have to pull some strings. I don't like doing it this way, but..."
At that moment, I might have felt a strange sense of kinship with her. I could see my younger self in that kid's demeanor and expression.
"You guys go on ahead."
She looked like she wanted to die but was still clinging to life.
"Huh?"
"I'll take her with me. It'll take some time, though."
Just like the chancellor auntie had done for me back then, I stacked up some firewood, lit it with fire magic, and pulled out some meat from my pouch.
The other three just stared at me curiously, but as the peppered meat slowly cooked and filled the air with a savory aroma, she gradually stopped crying and started showing interest.
Then, from her emaciated belly, came a loud gurgle begging for life.
"Come here. Aren't you hungry?"
"......?"
"You idiot, do you have any idea how much delicious stuff there is in this world? You've probably never tasted real food living in a backwater like this. Wouldn't it be a waste to die without trying it? If you're gonna die, at least go on a gourmet tour first."
She wouldn't come close at first, but by that evening, and the next morning... around lunchtime, she was cautiously sneaking up to the fire.
"What's this? This is 'delicious.' Kidding... It's Lin's special charcoal-grilled skewers. The kind where three people could eat and four could die and no one would know the difference..."
I was wiping my nose and excitedly explaining the cooking method when suddenly the kid took a skewer.
"......"
She took a big bite, and tears welled up in her eyes.
Seeing her devour it like someone might snatch it away made the tip of my nose tingle uncontrollably.
- Child, look at the sky.
Was it because I'd reacted the same way the day I first met the chancellor auntie? Was that why her voice echoed in my mind that day?
- All the suns and moons in the sky shine not for anyone else, but for you. And that food tastes good only for you.
- ......!
- It was tough, wasn't it? No need to be sad anymore. In this world of infinite possibilities, your possibilities are infinite too. Come with me. This isn't where you belong.
No matter how much I cleared my throat, I couldn't come up with words as cool as the chancellor auntie's.
It wasn't my style anyway...
So I just got to the point. The core of what the chancellor auntie had said to me.
"This isn't where you belong. Come with me. I'll take you somewhere better."
It took another full day to get her to follow, but she started trailing after me with eyes slowly regaining their spark.
One unusual thing was that, whether from the mental trauma or some innate reason, she couldn't speak.
Still, she was pretty sharp and quick to understand instructions, always following them well.
"Truth shall make you free. Know what that is? It's a famous quote from Emitsa Page, the founder of magic."
And just as the chancellor auntie had done for me, I decided to teach this kid magic.
The greatest gift that had given value to a worthless me.
I'd received it for free, so I'd give it to her for free too.
"People need to have value. Right now, you have none. Not a single one! So shut up and learn magic from me, got it?"
And I gave her a name.
Just like the auntie had given me the name Spring Breeze.
"Dragonkin live lives that match their names, apparently. So I'll give you a special one, really special!"
"......?"
"Tureina. It means 'learning' in dragon tongue. Learn well. If you learn without bothering me, I'll give you an even better name."
No matter how hard I tried, coming up with something as cool as Spring Breeze made my stomach turn, so I went with that.
I figured I'd ask the chancellor auntie or Fride later to change it to something better.
As I thought that, the kid's lips suddenly started moving faintly.
"Tu, Tuure, Tureina...?"
That was the first day I heard the kid's voice, clearer than the spring sky she resembled.
"What? You can talk?"
"N-No, I mean, just now, right now..."
"Sigh, you're even more of a hassle now. Already annoying, and now you'll be chattering away. Make trouble and you're done for."
I grumbled like that, but watching her brighten up little by little brought a smile to my face unbidden.
When we rejoined the others later, they welcomed Tureina warmly too, and eventually, she escaped from the city we'd planned to leave her in and became a full member of our party.
Pipi especially got so close that it always slept perched on her sky-blue hair.
"Wait here. This fight's gonna be a long one."
"Wait, wait, wait."
"Stay put. This mission's a stealth op, can't bring you."
Whenever I returned from battles with the abyss battered and bloody, Tureina would guard my side with those sad eyes.
The kid who bragged she'd study magic harder to help me one day.
It felt like I had one more reason to win against the abyss.
"Fride says my mana circle's badly damaged, so when I get old, I might not be able to use proper battle magic anymore."
"Yeah?"
"So it's tricky. The empire's got a lot of guys who see me as a thorn in their side. Wonder how I'll handle them if they come at me."
I said it without much thought, not really consulting, just filling the quiet during night watch. But Tureina shot up and pounded her chest.
"I-I'll protect you!"
"What?"
"No one will touch Master! I'll protect you!"
"Protect, protect, Lin's a scaredy-cat, poop, protect, protect."
It was absurd.
Annoyed that she'd given Pipi ammo to tease me, I chopped the edge of my hand on her head.
"Hey, ever heard 'even rotten fish is fish'? No matter how washed up I get, I'm a million times stronger than you, punk. Protect who? You can barely cast 2-star magic. I'm the empire's one and only Aquizard-class (5-star) mage right now."
"I'll get stronger! Way stronger than Master! So no one can even touch you with a finger!"
"Sigh, fine, give it a shot. Fail and you'll get endless slaps."
It was so ridiculous I could only laugh, but whether it was a hollow laugh or pure joy, I couldn't tell then.
At some point in our journey, Tureina was always by my side, and I didn't mind.
It was even convenient having a gofer around.
Not that I particularly wanted her there, but as the journey neared its end, I thought it was time to decide her future.
"Hey, you."
It was near the journey's close, somewhere in the desert under a summer night breeze, right in the middle of the night as the campfire quietly burned down.
On watch, I quietly asked Tureina, who was glued to my side studying magic.
"When the journey ends, wanna come to the empire with me?"
"The empire?"
"Who else would I dump a hassle like you on? Fride? She'd write a whole book badmouthing me. 'Hero party archmage dumps trash.'"
"Agree, agree, agree."
"See? Pipi agrees."
"F-Fride might, but I'm not trash!"
"Trash, trash, trashy-trash-trash."
"Pipi agrees too."
"Pipi, you!"
"There's Osarius Academy's magic tower in the empire's north. Most there are hopeless losers, but..."
Thinking of my tower mates made me grin unguardedly, but luckily Tureina was too busy wrestling Pipi to notice.
"They're decent guys. Orphans, yeah, they treated even a jerk like me great."
"Yeah?"
"You decide. Whatever you pick, I'll go there. It's my... heart's home."
She seemed to ponder, lips moving a few times, but said nothing.
I'm glad I never heard her answer.
The next day, heading into the pouring rain toward the final battlefield, leaving her behind, those were my last words.
"Magicians don't cry."
Juyeo Soge Daeban. Trapped in eternal ice, my time stopped that day.
............
............
......
...
The day Lin was brought back in Nils Blantz, the top craftsman, his desert wheel carriage.
"Lin? Lin? Lin?"
Pipi flew around dazedly pecking at the ice, calling the boy's name in confusion.
The girl in the bamboo hat just stared in stunned silence. Unable to believe it, unwilling to.
The three heroes, drenched miserably in rain, blood, and tears, clung to the girl and sobbed.
"I'm sorry, Tureina, Pipi, Lin, he's..."
The flower of life that had bloomed again withered once more that day, and the clock hands moving toward the future stopped.
"Come with me, Tureina. I can't replace Lin, but... I'll teach you everything I have."
In stopped time, for the spring breeze that had blown into her life, the girl stayed up nights learning shamanism from the Fire Dragon's Shrine Maiden and became the youngest witch.
In her endlessly long life, the girl never once liked shamanism or magic.
She'd devoted herself to studies clutching one hope: to tell him the answer she'd been too shy and embarrassed to say back then.
Wherever you go.
I'll go there too.
Just that simple, modest hope, walking endless darkness. But.
"Just wait? M-Master... what do you mean?"
"I said wait until Juyeo Soge Daeban ends. Lin will return, so wait."
"What... We have to help! It's not perfect, that's why he hasn't woken after ten years!"
"Juyeo Soge Daeban is perfect. If he can't wake, his body and soul aren't healed yet."
"It's not perfect."
"Tureina, are you saying you're a better mage than Lin? Lin and I made it together. Wait patiently, Tureina. Lin will come back. He keeps his promises."
Was it that she'd listen only if she surpassed even Archmage Lin and the Fire Dragon's Shrine Maiden?
She never got that answer.
By the time she judged herself that level, her master had already vanished somewhere.
70 years after the clock stopped...
The girl was alone. Rista and Kies dead, Fride and Pipi gone without trace.
In this vast, terrifying world, all alone...
"Heh, want to wake the frozen kid? Not that hard. But you'll need to learn some different magic."
Had she thought herself great, only to remain a girl whose time stopped before her fragile heart could grow?
The abyss exploited the lone girl's gap, and she was no longer the sky-haired kid. Body nor heart.
............
...........
......
...
The world shook with a roar.
The 'kid'—once sky-blue haired, now dark blue—breathed her last.
Someone looked down, crying.
Who?
Her vision failed; the face blurred, only the soul's essence visible.
She didn't recall the name, but knew it was someone precious.
She opened her lips to speak.
But the time left was too short to convey the words cherished all her life.
She wanted to reunite in the present, share the past, discuss the future.
But her body, heart, mind turning blank had no strength or right for that.
So.
With her final gasp, she moved only her hand.
Untying the hat string like ripping cloth, she placed the worn bamboo hat on the crying one's head.
The last fragment of memory: words to return on reunion day.
Words to hide tears seeing each other's faces that day.
Magicians don't cry.
Right?
Her lips trembled, conveying her heart's quiver. The old girl smiled, baring front teeth... and her arm, having placed the hat, fell limp to the ground.
A moment later, the sun parrot stretched its neck and wailed mournfully.
The boy's eyes widened, brows furrowing toward his nose, and the world shattered white.
Rain fell from the boy's face as he smilingly covered his unseeing disciple's eyes with shaking hands.
It poured, poured, poured again.
Now, he had to go.
To clean up the mess his tomboy disciple had made, as her master.
As the boy finally stood, the scroll tied with plain string at the old girl's waist came loose with a snap.
Under dripping rain from the ceiling, the sacred scroll unfurled long.
Its holy name: Clarion Hymnal.
The verses rose, bearing quiet radiance, and seeped into the boy's left hand as an omnipotent power with mystical heat.
Socrafres.
- Inheriting 'Unique Magic' research progress from surrounding environment.
- Progress 69.8% => 76.7%.
>>>
Brante.
- Mana circuit change point confirmed: ‘Fire Alert: Flow Lord (火警 : 流量世尊)’ => ‘Fire Radiance: Flow Lord (火彰明 : 流量世尊)’.
>>>
Camitishia.
Analyzing circuit...
・Upon circuit activation, establishes 'Mental Image Barrier - Fire Radiance: Flow Lord' within 20-meter radius of caster.
Within 'Mental Image Barrier - Fire Radiance: Flow Lord', reciting the sacred words of 'Clarion Hymnal' embodies its power.