In the middle of the forest, young Ruvlian woke from sleep at the wind passing through his hair. Unable to fully emerge from sleep, Ruvlian blinked his eyes a couple times in a daze before coming to his senses a bit more.
“……I was in the busy district just now, so why am I here alone?”
The sun was just now rising at that. Rian and that unlucky big Celton weren’t by his side either. Only the usual grass and thick trees entered his view. No matter how much he turned his head and looked around, that was all.
While hearing the sound of tree leaves rustling in the wind, young Ruvlian curled up with his legs drawn together and wrapped in his arms.
He knew Rian hadn’t promised to stay. When he deliberately asked if he’d release that old man later, he wasn’t unaware of the apology that passed through those warm eyes. But couldn’t he at least say goodbye when leaving? Young Ruvlian, who had just turned eight, pouted his lips gloomily.
Thinking that big Celton would be gleefully clinging to Rian, the gloom quickly changed to anger. He said he’d show him around the busy district but cast magic instead! Left him as if abandoning him in the forest and left! Young Ruvlian, who had been fuming, brushed himself off and stood up.
He liked Rian but hated him. He just hated seeing big Celton at all. With a bit of gloom and soaked in anger, young Ruvlian moved to the cabin. When the sun rose a bit more, he’d have to train again.
“You’re here.”
Since it was near the cabin, he arrived quickly and opened the door to find the old man leisurely sipping tea. That sight was particularly unpleasant today. He wanted to flip that table. Probably because of Rian who gave brief affection then disappeared.
Young Ruvlian tilted his head crookedly with a sulky face.
“I’m not training today.”
“If you rest yesterday and say you’ll rest today too, when exactly are you planning to do it? Tsk tsk. This teacher raises a disciple, not a pig. If you truly want to live your whole life rolling around on the ground, I won’t stop you. If that happens, you just won’t be able to meet big Celton’s lover……”
“I said he’s not a lover! And meet again? He didn’t say anything to me?”
Young Ruvlian, who had been standing at the door, quickly approached Scalane. Then he snatched the teacup Scalane was holding and put it down on the table loudly enough to make a sound, urging an answer.
“What kind of disciple rudely snatches their teacher’s teacup! You’ll need to receive etiquette education again.”
“I don’t want to? So what is it? Hurry up and tell me. He’s coming next time? When is he coming?”
Young Ruvlian, who smacked down the back of Scalane’s hand reaching for the teacup, sparkled his eyes. He even raised and lowered his heels several times. It was a gesture fully revealing his anticipation.
Scalane narrowed his eyes, made a subtle face, then asked.
“He left you behind in the forest. You still like big Celton’s lover?”
“I said he’s not a lover! Clean your ears, old man! Wait. You knew I was in the forest? You knew but didn’t come get your disciple? This crazy old man, really!”
Reacting once to the word ‘lover’ and once to the realization that he’d been left in the forest knowingly, there was no time to think about the question of whether he still liked him. This time young Ruvlian snatched the teapot.
Of all things to snatch. Scalane sighed and waved his hand. Float. The teapot rose into the air to escape from young Ruvlian’s hand. Of course, since this wasn’t the first or second time he’d done this, the child was gripping the teapot with strength, so it couldn’t return to its original owner.
“Hurry! Answer and I’ll give it to you!”
“Geez. Stop yelling and show some manners, some manners. Are you a person or a beast!”
Scalane, who instantly pulled out his staff and swung it at the child, raised the corners of his mouth while watching young Ruvlian dodge as if familiar. At the defiant eyes, the smile on his lips deepened slightly.
Scalane opened his mouth as if giving a prize for avoiding the attack.
“He didn’t even make any promise.”
“……”
“But one thing is certain. You will meet big Celton’s lover. So this poor disciple should open the paper in his pocket and go to the training ground first.”
Young Ruvlian, who was about to argue again that he wasn’t a lover, widened his eyes. He roughly placed the teapot on the table and immediately took out the paper sticking out slightly from his pocket.
[Hello, Ruvlian. Sorry about showing you around the busy district. I had something to do, so I moved you to the forest and left. When we meet again next time, greet me first by saying Rian. Even if the me you meet again is awkward, please take care of me. Be well.]
The neat handwriting suited Rian. Young Ruvlian read the note over and over again. The gloom and anger he’d felt thinking Rian left without saying goodbye disappeared immediately. Even the worry of ‘what if he left because he hated me’ that had suddenly arisen, despite knowing the hidden affection directed at him.
His white cheeks burned red. The clear blue eyes that Baek Sihyeon loved were so full of life they could revive a dead plant if one was nearby.
Watching his disciple who seemed about to fly to the sky, Scalane let out a hollow laugh.
“Come to your senses, disciple. I never told you to make such a foolish, unsightly face.”
“Old man, you don’t care what face I make. If you didn’t have Mana, you’d be at an age with wrinkled skin, so why are you doing this to me who’s in my prime youth? Don’t jealously envy so uglily.”
Young Ruvlian snorted. Thanks to Rian’s letter, he was in a good mood, so he could pass over his teacher’s picking without raising his voice.
“Huh…… Huh, really……”
Thanks to that, Scalane let out several sighs at the relatively gentle reaction. To make him this docile after seeing him just once, and briefly at that. As expected, he should have collected blood, flesh, and hair. To think he’d regret it this much.
Not knowing he’d fallen for the face and affection, Scalane truly thought so and felt regretful. Soon he put aside his regret and commanded young Ruvlian, who seemed about to collapse from happiness.
“If you’re not going to wear out the note, go out right now and train. I specially completely overhauled all the trap magic in the forest, so you can do yesterday’s missed portion with a new mindset.”
“Ugh. Even yesterday’s missed portion? Are you trying to kill your disciple?”
“Tsk tsk. I should have fixed that way of speaking from the start……”
Scalane clicked his tongue and glanced at young Ruvlian who was objecting to his words. Then he picked up the teapot, poured tea into the teacup, took a sip, and muttered in an inevitable tone.
“Big Celton would easily break through traps like the new ones, but my disciple would die from just that much. Big Celton will remain by his lover’s side for a veeery loooong time.”
He especially drew out the ‘o’ in ‘very long,’ igniting young Ruvlian’s competitive spirit.
Young Ruvlian immediately left the cabin and headed deep into the forest where many trap magics were laid. He knew his teacher said that on purpose. If he didn’t know that, his head would be empty. However, he couldn’t lightly pass over those words because there was nothing wrong with what his teacher said.
Like that, young Ruvlian worked his teacher Scalane from below for several whole years while waiting for reunion. Sparring, learning how to swing or strike down with a staff to crack heads, handling Mana freely to the point where there was no magic he couldn’t cast.
Thanks to training with fierce determination, young Ruvlian became Master of the Magic Tower at thirteen and gained the title of youngest. It was a monstrous growth rate.
“Mikel.”
“Yees……”
“Why isn’t he still coming? It’s already been 10 years.”
In the Master of the Magic Tower’s room on the very top floor of the Magic Tower, eighteen-year-old Ruvlian, who could no longer be described as young, was burying his body in the sofa with his legs crossed indulgently.
The assistant, Mikel, was tired of the question he heard dozens of times a day or more since Ruvlian became Master of the Magic Tower. At first he answered sincerely, but as he did so, he shot attack magic every single time, so he realized only after several years had passed that appropriately agreeing was the correct answer.
Of course, the problem was that his answers like ‘Perhaps you’ve grown tired?,’ ‘Maybe he found a new love……,’ ‘Have you been completely forgotten?’ etc. didn’t have a single positive one. All the answers were types like growing tired, finding new love, being forgotten, or suffering from amnesia.
Out of frustration, Ruvlian even conducted a survey throughout the Magic Tower on this topic, but there was no way there were any sane mages in the Magic Tower. Only bizarre answers came back like ‘Why love with a human? Love with a monster,’ ‘I love eyeballs and tongues……,’ ‘Real love is trash!’
The most moderate answer was ‘I guess it was just for fun.’ Below it, what was written carefully was words about how everyone originally lives chasing fun and gets tired when you act serious, along with the location of a pleasure district. And after that day, the respondent’s third leg was broken. Everyone among the mages in the Magic Tower knew by whom that happened. And they thought:
For once the Master of the Magic Tower showed mercy.
That’s how much Ruvlian was known as a crazy bastard, a mad dog within the Magic Tower. Fortunately, his notoriety didn’t accumulate since he only went outside occasionally to the imperial palace. Mikel, who served such a Master of the Magic Tower, conveyed words as if just remembering.
“Come to think of it, have you heard? A Divine Oracle came down.”
“Mikel, are you living in some different time zone from me? What’s your intention in bringing up something from several months ago now?”
A look saying ‘pathetic’ was directed at Mikel. Accustomed to that treatment, Mikel laughed it off with a haha. Then he mentioned the main point.
“They say a Hero appeared. I heard it while briefly leaving the Magic Tower to steal medicinal herbs that only grow at the temple.”
“Did you get caught?”
“The alarm did go off, but I fled quickly, so there’ll only be circumstantial evidence. When have I ever left evidence?”
That was right. If he were someone who’d get caught at the temple, he would have been kicked out of the Magic Tower and then some. Ruvlian, who nodded, looked at Mikel with eyes asking ‘so?’ Then Mikel spoke in a lowered voice as if whispering a secret, even though there were only the two of them.
“That Hero apparently has rare completely jet-black hair and light brown irises. They’re also saying he came from another world?”
