Chapter 5.2

Translator: Lizz

 

“When you showed him the book, Zechs got angry, didn’t he, Nia?”

 

“Uh huh. I called out to him, but he tried to run away.”

 

That must be because Leon had repeatedly warned him not to get close to the villagers.

 

“Did this happen because you forced him to read the book together?”

 

As he asked while brushing the girl’s now healed face, and she nodded.

 

(He has never approached the library. He has completely refused to study magic. Could it be…?)

 

Leon stood up while patting Nia’s head. A sharp pain shot through his left shoulder, making him grimace.

 

“Mr. Bender, I deeply apologize for my apprentice’s misconduct. However…”

 

Before he could finish, Bender snorted in annoyance, and his wife spoke instead.

 

“There’s no point in dwelling on that child’s misbehavior now. First, find him and listen to what he has to say.”

 

Nodding, Leon left the Bender household. He also thanked Old Orga, who accompanied him outside.

 

“Nia said he ran deep into the forest.”

 

“Yeah, probably to his usual place.”

 

“…If he always runs to the same place, it means he wants you to find him. That child isn’t as hardhearted as you think.”

 

“…………”

 

Leon couldn’t help but think it would be nice if that were true. However, he was aware that he was neither a trustworthy person nor a respectable mage.

 

Without saying anything, Leon headed towards the forest.

 

With every step he took and every breath he drew, the impact resonated through his shoulder. It was likely that his bone was fractured. Although such an injury could easily be healed with magic, he didn’t feel like doing so. The pain felt like a form of punishment.

 

When Bender said he would kill Zechs, Leon had thought it couldn’t be helped. ‘That child did something to warrant that’, he had thought. He might have even resented the fact that he had been dragged in and could lose his own life because of the boy’s actions. At that moment, there wasn’t a shred of trust in his apprentice within Leon. He believed the pain in his shoulder was a punishment for that.

 

Why the boy stubbornly refused to study magic and only harbored hatred towards those around him, what had happened in Zechs’ past, and what thoughts he carried within him; why had he not confronted these matters? Even though they had spent two months together, all Leon had done was teach him swordsmanship as an excuse for himself.

 

When he heard that Zechs had hurt Nia, why did he think ‘as expected’ instead of ‘why’? Wasn’t there a part of him that hoped for a chance to have a decisive reason to get rid of Zechs?

 

Without trying to trust or understand Zechs, he felt betrayed every time the boy caused a problem. Who was truly betraying whom?

 

While Ceres recognized that Leon lacked the talent to become a mage, she had discovered another talent within him, leadership, and had guided him. She had believed in Leon and had entrusted him with her private school. Leon knew he could never become a great mage like Ceres, but he realized that he could not match her as a mentor either.

 

Beyond the suddenly appearing azure sky, the boy sat alone, hugging his knees. As usual, he sat on the edge of the cliff, a sense of danger lingering around him.

 

“Zechs.”

 

When he cautiously called out, the boy’s back flinched in response. He turned around, and upon recognizing Leon, he stood up abruptly.

 

“No! I…”

 

“I know. Nia was crying and apologizing, saying she made you angry. You didn’t do it on purpose, and you regret hurting Nia. Is that right?”

 

“…It’s not her fault. It’s because I’m like this.”

 

With that one sentence, it became clear.

 

Zex was definitely not a cold-hearted person, nor did he live solely on hatred. He had a heart that cared for the wounded girl and harbored fear and loathing for the power hidden within him. Yet, he had stubbornly avoided learning how to control that power. That was…

 

“Zechs, you can’t read, can you?”

 

With Leon’s calm words, Zex’s eyes widened. And then –

 

“Tch…!”

 

Leon shuddered as he felt the surrounding magic vein writhing.

 

Standing at the edge of the cliff, Zechs’ lips trembled, his expression frozen. He stood there, looking half-crazed. Only the magic vein was raging like a living creature.

 

Berserk.

 

But this was no ordinary berserk. It was as if the entire area had been rigged with explosives, and the fuse was about to be lit.

 

“Zechs, stop!”

 

He shouted in fear, but it seemed his voice didn’t reach the boy’s ears. Still in a trance, Zechs had connected his guiding vein with the magic vein and was about to wield its power while driven by emotions.

 

It was too late, but Leon regretted his careless words. Although he had reached his conclusion after considering Nia’s story and the past events, if he was right, this was not something that should have been simply exposed, as it was a secret Zechs had desperately tried to hide until now.

 

But it was too late for regrets.

 

Zechs was about to let his hidden power run wild. Its force was unlike anything before.

 

In his current state, he couldn’t hear any voice. There was no power to counter him. On the spur of the moment, Leon shouted.

 

“Connect!”

 

While raising his voice to increase his focus, he connected his guiding vein with Zechs’.

 

Connecting to the guiding vein of a child who didn’t even know the basics of magic control was all too easy; it was like entering the unguarded mind of another. However, the moment he thought they were connected, Leon was stunned. He was overwhelmed by the world surrounding him.

 

Magic vein was the flow of power that constituted this world. You could even say it was the world itself. Mages connected to it constantly felt the breath of the world, but the way they perceived it varied from person to person. It was proportional to the strength of their guiding veins.

 

The world Leon felt was like the light of dawn through a curtain, a single small flower blooming on the earth, a drop of rain falling from the sky, or a faint breeze caressing his cheek on a clear day. It was  those kinds of things.

 

But the world felt through his connection with Zechs’ guiding vein was completely different. It was the sun scorching the earth, a raging stream washing everything away, roots spreading endlessly, the stomping of a beast echoing far and wide, a gust of wind carrying everything to the ends of the world.

 

To know every corner of the world and to hold it all in one’s grasp. If an omnipotent god existed in this world, this was what their perception would be like, Leon thought.

 

The Iron Fortress was wrong. Zechs was not a once-in-a-century prodigy. His talent was so rare that it might only appear once in a millennium.

 

The god-like power was now about to unleash destruction, driven by the raging emotions of the boy. Within Zechs were anger, hatred, and self-loathing so intense that he wished for his own death.

 

Focusing his mind forward, Leon quickly wove his words. The words connected to the ‘form’ he envisioned in his mind, assembling the invisible power into the meaningful shape he envisioned in his mind.

 

(Tch… It’s not going to be that easy, is it?)

 

As he wove the first words of the spell with haste, sweat dripped from Leon’s forehead.

 

Leon thought of his power as a piece of dough that fit in the palm of his hand. Because the absolute amount to shape is small, it was easy to knead and can be finished in a neat shape. Other mages kneaded much larger pieces of dough, making it difficult for them to control magic as precisely as Leon did.

 

Zechs’ power was too great. It could not fit into Leon’s palm. Nevertheless, Leon must somehow shape it with his will so that it would not cause harm, or there was a significant chance the entire area could be blown away.

 

Feeling as if his own guiding vein was creaking and announcing its limit, Leon desperately focused on controlling the magic. Ignoring the beads of sweat that were streaming down his forehead, he wove the words that came to him almost mechanically and molded the invisible force to his will.

 

With a shout, he released the final cue for the spell. At the same time, a cluster of water droplets suddenly appeared in the clear sky and poured down around them, soaking the ground. Leon and Zechs, standing where they were, were no exception, and both got drenched from head to toe.

 

The cold droplets cooled Leon’s burning body and washed away his sweat. He sighed in relief at the success of his work. Originally, the spell was meant to let the magic power rain down after molding them into arrow-shaped water droplets, but by diffusing the power within each droplet, he had managed to reduce the damage to that of a passing shower. By now, the villagers must be surprised by the sudden, unannounced rain.

 

Feeling as if his knees might buckle from exhaustion, he lifted his gaze to check on Zechs’s condition. The boy, having snapped out of his trance, was staring at the sky. No, more precisely, at the rainbow that had formed there. Countless tiny droplets of water had caught the sunlight, sparkling in a myriad of colors.

 

“J-just now… That just now…!”

 

Zechs murmured in a daze.

 

Was that magic control, was what he meant to ask.

 

“Amazing… It felt like… somehow the whole world was in my hands.”

 

Watching Zechs stare at his hands as if he had been reborn, Leon felt a bitter smile rising within him.

 

He felt this way because Zechs possessed extraordinary talent. The thought of this fact made emotions he had long buried threaten to resurface.

 

“Zechs.”

 

As he quietly called his name, the boy suddenly looked up. The cold resignation and fierce anger that had previously marked his face had quietened, replaced by vivid expressions of surprise, joy, and curiosity.

 

“Your power can do things like this. No, it can do even more. So, you must learn.”

 

As he said this, a shadow fell over Zechs’ face.

 

“I… I can’t read. I was taught, but no matter how many times I was taught, I can’t read. It doesn’t appear properly to my eyes like it does for everyone else.”

 

Leon shook his head.

 

“Reading is not essential for learning magic.”

 

“But, the incantations…”

 

“You don’t have to read them yourself. You can listen and memorize. The important thing is to control magic according to your will.”

 

Leon was here to teach him how to control magic.

 

“Really? I can learn magic even if I can’t read?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Will you… teach me?”

 

Zechs glanced at Leon hesitantly.

 

“If you’re willing to learn.”

 

Zechs nodded vigorously and pressed his lips together tightly. After a moment,

 

“…Then, I’ll learn.”

 

Though his voice was not loud, the boy declared firmly.

 

With that single word, Leon quietly exhaled the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. Suddenly, his shoulders began to ache.

 

It felt like they had taken quite a detour to get here. Even so, he had the feeling that they were finally moving forward.

 

They walked side by side on the forest path as what remained of the sun fell. The red sky and the evening breeze suddenly stirred a sense of unease in Leon’s heart.

 

If Zechs learned properly, there was no doubt he would become the greatest mage of this time. When he gained power that no one in this country could match, what would he do with the hatred inside him?

 

This thought made Leon feel as if he was committing an irreparable mistake. However, he could no longer bring himself to let go of the nascent trust he was finally beginning to earn.

 

More than anything, Leon felt a sense of affection for this boy who, despite suffering under the burden of his destiny and harboring hatred towards others, still desperately tried to live.

 

He didn’t know what an inadequate person like him could do for the boy. But precisely because he was inadequate, he would put his whole heart and soul into sharing Zechs’ burden, so that one day, he could overcome its weight and spread his wings freely.

 

In his heart, Leon quietly made this vow.

 

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