“What about you? What can you do?”
“I…”
Elijah shook his head while fidgeting with his fingertips. He was sorry to Igrit, who seemed to keep wanting something from him, but he truly couldn’t do anything.
“That’s strange… Then why did Master bring you here?”
Master must be referring to the old man who brought him to this place. He just followed because he was given bread… Was he not supposed to come?
“…Do I need to know how to do something?”
At Elijah’s question, Igrit observed him with a slightly puzzled expression.
“How old are you?”
It seemed Igrit was a child with many questions. He didn’t answer the other’s questions but only asked what he himself was curious about.
“…I don’t know, how old I am.”
“You don’t know? How can you not know that?”
“…”
Someone had said he looked like six years old, and someone else had asked if he wasn’t ten. Neither Elijah nor the merchants who saw him every day on the street knew his exact age.
“I was born on the street.”
Instead, Elijah told him what he knew. However, Igrit’s reaction was more indifferent than expected.
“Well, that’s obvious. I was born on the street too. That’s how we met like this.”
It was incomprehensible words to Elijah.
“But at least I know my age. You don’t even know that?”
Hmm… Igrit, who narrowed his eyes and pondered, looked Elijah up and down. Then he came close, compared heights, and nodded clearly.
“Let’s say you’re eight too. Because you’re about my height.”
“Eight years old…”
Elijah readily agreed. He tended to easily accept the age others assigned him. It was because he had always lived that way. Whether six or ten, starving was the same, so age didn’t matter.
“I met Master when I was six.”
Igrit continued toward him.
“You’ll be studying together with me from now on.”
“What kind of studying?”
Igrit pressed his lips close to Elijah’s ear and whispered very quietly.
“We’re going to become the greatest mages in the world from now on.”
“…”
Elijah held back from asking what a mage was. He also held back from asking what “greatest” meant. He just felt like Igrit wanted some kind of reaction from him, so he belatedly opened his mouth.
“…Wow.”
“Cool, right? I’m going to become the Avatar of Fire who can freely control fire.”
“I see…”
Igrit draped his arm over Elijah’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry, Elijah. You’ll soon find something you’re good at too. Then I’ll give you a cool name too.”
“Okay…”
He hadn’t particularly been worried about anything, but it was fortunate he didn’t seem to be hated for not being able to do anything. In the streets where he originally lived, beatings would suddenly fly even if he just sat still and breathed, so Elijah found this kind of welcome a bit unfamiliar.
Clang, clang. A sharp, clear bell sound was heard from behind.
“Igrit, what are you doing there?”
Shadow fell over the two small children’s faces. The old man had long hair close to white neatly tied in one, and his face was full of wrinkles and age spots. Gray eyes, impossible to tell if that was their original color or faded from aging, gazed at Igrit.
“Boy, didn’t I tell you not to bully the new friend?”
Even though he wasn’t talking to him, Elijah’s shoulders shrank at that stern gaze. However, Igrit wasn’t scared of him and protested confidently.
“No, Master! I was just trying to get along. Right, Elijah?”
Elijah nodded in affirmation.
“Elijah, come here. I’ll show you where you’ll be staying from now on.”
Elijah took the hand of the old man called Master and followed. He was also the person who had brought him to this place. The hand he held was very warm.
The stairs following along the damp stone wall were very high and difficult for young Elijah to climb with his short legs. The old man sometimes stopped walking to match his pace and said,
“You must have already exchanged names. That child is Igrit. From now on, besides you and Igrit, many other children will come.”
The stairs continued endlessly. Elijah thought at this rate they would climb all the way to the sky, and looked down below the railing.
“Hic…”
Warm arms wrapped tightly around Elijah’s shoulders.
“Don’t look down. There’s no need to feel unnecessary fear.”
Elijah walked looking only straight ahead while desperately gripping his clothes. Just when he wondered how far up they would go, they entered a corridor connected to the landing on the very top floor.
“This is the room where you’ll stay.”
A fact he learned only much later, but this building was originally a monastery. The rooms assigned to the children were private prayer rooms used by priests, and what was inside was actually not a bed but just a low table used as an altar with a cotton quilt laid on top.
Elijah looked into the space so narrow that only a small bed could barely fit. Though it was dark and damp, surrounded by stone walls on all sides, for him who had always laid his body on streets wet with sewage, it was an extremely comfortable space.
“My name is Jade Ilisian. Have you ever heard this name?”
Elijah stared blankly at Jade, who had knelt down to match his eye level, then shook his head.
“Well… there’s no way a vagrant child would have heard the name of a royal palace mage.”
Hearing the muttered words like a soliloquy, he looked curiously at Jade’s white hair.
“You don’t need to know my name. You can just call me Master.”
He was the oldest person he’d seen in his life so far. Having never looked at an old person’s face this closely for so long, he found Jade’s features fascinating. The gaunt old man’s face looked as if it had shriveled under invisible pressure.
“From now on, you are Elijah Ilisian. Since you’ve become my disciple, you can rightfully add my surname after your name.”
Elijah Ilisian… Elijah, who had been repeating that name for a moment, fidgeted with his sleeve.
“Igrit is… the Avatar of Fire.”
He said… Seeing Jade’s slightly frowning face, he trailed off. Jade clicked his tongue and waved his hand.
“That’s just something he says by himself, so don’t mind it. A fellow who’s only just learned basic magic acting all high and mighty.”
The wrinkled hand gently touched the small shoulder.
“Elijah, you will become the greatest mage in the world. Incomparably more than that Igrit fellow.”
He was sure he had heard similar words from Igrit, but when an adult much bigger than him said such things, it somehow felt truly impressive.
“…What is a great mage?”
Eventually Elijah asked what he hadn’t been able to ask Igrit. He felt like he would somehow give an accurate answer.
“Hmm… that means you’ll become very strong.”
“If I become strong… what’s good about it?”
“You’ll be able to do everything you want to do.”
What I want to do… A question fell to Elijah, who was slowly mulling over his words.
“What do you want to do most right now?”
“Right now…”
After thinking for a long time, Elijah raised his eyes and looked up at his Master.
“I want to eat bread.”
Jade’s brow wrinkles deepened. Letting out a short laugh, he readily nodded and took Elijah’s hand.
“Yes, you’re hungry, right? Let’s go eat bread.”
“Can I eat bread without becoming strong…?”
At Elijah’s question, Jade’s smile deepened.
“It’s okay. You’re already strong.”
* * *
‘It’s okay. You’re already strong.’
There’s something strange about dreams. They make the boundary between what’s illusion and what’s actual memory unclear.
Elijah thought he had a strange dream. He didn’t remember the detailed scenes, but it was really strange for Igrit and Master to appear in one dream at the same time.
“Elijah-ssi falls asleep whenever he gets in a carriage.”
Elijah looked at Bailey sitting across from him.
“…I’m a bit tired.”
It was embarrassing but true. He thought his stamina had improved quite a bit, but it still seemed far short of normal standards. His legs hurt, his head hurt, and his body, drained all day, drooped.
“Sleeping is also a type of motion sickness. You seem to have a constitution prone to severe motion sickness. Sir Kalian also has severe motion sickness.”
He indicated Kalian with a nod. At a glance, he just looked like he was bowing his head lost in thought, but a small snoring sound could be heard.
Bailey handed something to Elijah. Elijah didn’t take it right away but examined it carefully.
“It’s candy, candy. Not poison.”
As if displeased at receiving unwarranted suspicion, Bailey spoke curtly. Elijah had no choice but to accept his candy. He really didn’t want to, but since the other person was watching right in front of him, he couldn’t not eat it.
The candy he reluctantly put in his mouth wrapped around his tongue. A cool mint scent spread throughout his mouth. Now that his mouth was cool, his headache seemed to subside a bit.
“…Thank you.”
“Please bear with it a little longer. We’re almost there.”
Emboldened by Bailey’s kindness, Elijah cautiously brought up a question he had been curious about since he first got in the carriage with them.
“But why… don’t you use teleportation magic? Didn’t you say you definitely used teleportation magic when you first brought me?”
Anyone listening would think him shameless and tactless, but among Elijah’s reasons for accompanying them was such an expectation. The calculation was that since they could use teleportation magic, he could distance himself from Rose that much faster.
