Sage of the Stars (5)
"……"
Oscar held his silence at first.
Then, keeping his expression under the strictest control, he sank into thought.
What is this?
Back in his previous life, when he had met the Sage of the Stars, the atmosphere had been far warmer. The old man had poured him tea, offered him a seat — as though he had been waiting for his arrival all along.
But now the mood was unmistakably different.
He's wary of me.
The reason was obvious enough: the Sage was almost certainly certain that the man before him was not Oscar Crucian.
Which raised a question.
How on earth did he notice?
As far as Oscar knew, the Sage of the Stars was not a divine being. That conviction had not changed even now — he had met a few beings of that caliber in his past life, after all.
If he truly wielded godlike power, he wouldn't need to bother with questions like that.
Gods needed only to glance at the shape of a soul to know everything about its owner. Whatever they wished to know, they simply knew; even the smallest lie was a privilege denied to mortals in their presence. That was what made a god a god.
So Oscar denied it outright.
"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean."
"……Mm."
The Sage of the Stars stroked his beard, letting out a knowing, noncommittal hum.
Encouraged by that ambiguity, Oscar turned the question back on him.
"More to the point — what makes you think so?"
"Hm. To explain that, I must first tell you what manner of being I am."
Snap! The moment the Sage flicked his fingers lightly, the world drowned in pitch blackness.
In the next instant, Oscar realized that the space around him was the cosmos itself — and a gasp of shock tore from his throat.
"……!"
But the sound died the moment it left his lips.
Flustered, he moved to raise his mana — and then the Sage's voice reached him.
"I have loved watching the stars since I was very young."
At the same time, a vast galaxy unfurled out of the empty void.
It was a magnificent sight — hundreds of millions of stars gathered together, flowing across the dark like a river cutting through the land of space.
"Stars are truly radiant things, are they not? I was captivated by the brilliant light they poured forth."
Even within that immense cluster, there had been stars that seized the eye. Brilliant lights that drew the gaze whether one willed it or not, dimming every lesser twinkle around them.
"But no star shines forever."
The most radiant of them lost its light and guttered out.
"In most cases, it was simply that the star's lifespan had ended. A star that has once gone cold can never blaze as it did before."
"……"
"It grieved me deeply. I so wished for their brilliance to carry on to the generations that followed."
Oscar realized then that this was no mere tale of stars and space.
"Do you know of a way for a single life to change the rules of the world?"
He shook his head.
A single life rewriting the laws of the world itself. Even the records stretching back hundreds of years, to the founding of the Magic Tower, held no such account.
I imagine it's impossible.
The moment that thought crossed his mind—
"You must think it impossible."
"……!"
"No need for surprise. I thought the same, once. But I found the key to it in the texts of antiquity."
Fwoooosh!
Out of the empty blackness, a tremendous light was born.
"It is simple. One need only make oneself into a single Order — a new universe. That is all."
A single Order? A new universe?
As Oscar furrowed his brow, the Sage offered an explanation even he could grasp.
"By your people's measure, one might call that realm the Tenth Level."
"……!"
A Tenth-Level mage. A Tenth-Level knight.
Realms that existed only in theory, for never once in the whole history of humanity had anyone reached them.
Wait — then does that mean……
Was the Sage of the Stars the first mage ever to ascend to the Tenth Level?
As Oscar's eyes wavered, the old man answered the unspoken question.
"Do not look at me so. I neither established an Order nor became a universe in the end. I fell one step short."
"……"
One step short. Even so, there could be no doubt that he was a truly extraordinary being.
A Ninth-Level Archmage from an age so distant that no record of it survived.
"I offered up my soul in supplication to god. I begged that I might watch over new stars — that what the blazing stars of old left behind might be carried safely to those who came after."
At last, the Sage of the Stars revealed himself.
And with him, the backdrop changed once more.
This place……
A library.
No other word could describe it.
"God granted my plea."
The stars that had formed the galaxy scattered in every direction — and each one became a book, shelved in neat, orderly rows.
"To me, the first to nearly build a universe in a mortal body, god graciously entrusted this post."
"……And what post would that be?"
The Sage cast a leisurely glance around them.
"People call me the Sage of the Stars, but if you insist on a classification, I am closer to a librarian. The librarian of the Starlight Library. I remember each departed star at its most brilliant and beautiful, and my charge is to pass on what it was to those descendants who resemble it most."
"……"
Oscar steadied his breathing, slowly and carefully.
He had never imagined the Sage of the Stars was such a monumental figure. He had simply taken him for one of the world's many inexplicable phenomena — a curiosity, nothing more.
"You asked why I believe you are not Oscar Crucian? It is quite simple."
The Sage raised one hand and pointed at him.
"Because I know of a star that looks precisely like you."
"……"
Oscar chose his words in silence for a moment, then asked abruptly,
"That person…… what kind of star was he?"
"Truthfully, at first he was ordinary. A genius of exactly the sort every age produces, no more. But when the war against the demons broke out, and dragged on and on, he burned brighter and brighter."
"……"
"Toward the end, it was frightening merely to watch. Shining so fiercely, I thought, that one day he might consume even himself. And…… indeed, he met much the same end."
The Sage's eyes, answering only in short words, sank low.
"If we should meet again, I should very much like to tell him — thank you."
"……"
Oscar closed his eyes.
An old man with a rather twisted sense of hobby.
"You knew from the very beginning, didn't you?"
"A needless question. A star carried in the breast like yours — once seen, it cannot be forgotten."
A weight seemed to lift from his shoulders, all at once.
"Oscar Sage, Oscar Crucian. Which do you prefer?"
"Just Oscar, if you would."
He let out a faint sigh as he said it.
"My congratulations. You're the third person ever to learn my true identity."
"Oh-ho. Two people already know?"
"The Wind Spirit King. And a dwarf king I happen to know."
"Hm. Not a bad choice of confidants."
The Sage nodded — and snapped his fingers. At once, two sofas drifted over to them.
"Have a seat. Age makes it hard to stand about for long, you see."
No sooner had the old man settled into his seat than he asked outright,
"I was terribly surprised, you know. A star that had already burned out entirely, shining once more — I wondered if I had finally gone mad."
"Does that sort of thing normally not happen?"
"It is altogether impossible."
The Sage answered flatly.
"That is why I watched you for so long. Only when I confirmed the existence of the Wind Archive did I finally understand what you were."
"Ah."
Oscar nodded.
The magic he had received in this very place, in his previous life, had been the Wind Archive.
"It's a rather late thank-you, but it served me incredibly well."
"Heh heh. Good to hear. And it was thanks to that you defeated the demons, so the bargain was no loss for me either."
"……"
Having quietly observed the old man's mood, Oscar ventured to open his mouth.
"Um, by any chance……"
"You're wondering whether you might receive a new magic this time as well?"
Is it because he's pushing a thousand years old? The old man reads intentions infuriatingly fast.
"So it really is out of the question, then?"
Hearing the uncertainty in Oscar's voice, the Sage smiled broadly.
"It is not. In truth, all the trouble I went through to uncover your identity was so that I could be certain I was right to grant you magic at all."
"……What do you mean by that?"
"Oscar Crucian. The genius of a new era. Is it not possible that the one who seized that extraordinary body might be a wicked man?"
Oscar found himself nodding along despite himself.
Though he thought it time and again: if not for the twisted Twelve Extraordinary Meridians, this body was far better than the one he'd possessed in his previous life. That was, in fact, the greatest reason he believed he might one day gaze upon the Tenth Level.
"Has something like what happened to me occurred before?"
"You mean the dead of ages past claiming the flesh of later generations?"
The Sage pondered for a moment, then shook his head.
"Not that I know of. Though mind you, the human specimens I can observe in detail are mages — and only those who have climbed this mountain, at that."
"The powers you showed earlier were certainly impressive."
"Merely the parlor tricks of a old country recluse."
The Sage laughed heartily and rose from his seat.
"Up with you. Let us look about and see what new gift we might find for you."
Hands clasped behind his back, he strolled through the stacks as he spoke.
"Any particular magic you'd like? This place holds every magic that exists — save the ones it doesn't."
Oscar weighed the question with great care before answering.
"If I must fight the Great Emperor again, I'll need a magic that can kill him — more certainly than last time."
"The Great Emperor? Did he not already die?"
"……Well, I'm someone who died once myself, you see."
"Ah, of course. You mean to say — if you could return, the other fellow might as well."
The Sage glanced back over his shoulder, then shook his head.
"But you need not trouble yourself over that. Why do you think I was so startled by you that I went and examined the Great Emperor's star, hmm? It is in pieces — shattered utterly. It will never shine again."
"……Truly?"
"I give you my word. Besides, a dead man returning to life is nonsense on its face. A miracle that any ordinary magic could not even dream of."
A miracle ordinary magic couldn't even dream of?
Oscar tilted his head at that.
"Then the fact that I came back means someone meddled with my soul, doesn't it?"
"Hm. It seems you don't quite understand what resurrection means."
The Sage shook his head.
"Raising one already dead cannot be done simply by fetching the soul back. If it were possible, the black mages of old would have revived every soul they ever loved."
"……Did they not, in fact?"
"Oh, a few black mages attempted such things, certainly. But do you imagine the results were ordinary humans?"
They were not, of course.
No matter how fresh the flesh they poured a dead soul into, the body would begin rotting away just as the original corpse had. All those rituals ever produced were horrifying monsters wearing the faces of the people the mages had loved.
"Ah — this should suit you nicely."
At that moment, the Sage of the Stars stopped before a certain shelf and drew out a single book.