# Chapter 84
There was no problem with the binding spell. The proof was that all the roots of the tree caught in the same binding had been ripped out. It seemed the magic couldn’t release the strongest roots, so they had been torn out instead.
“Use that strength to either restrain me or stop the fire, damn it!”
“How am I supposed to do something that’s impossible!”
It seemed like he was born into the wrong profession. With such physical strength and power, wouldn’t it be better to wield a sword or an ax rather than magical energy?
It was do or die. Aigle gritted her teeth and conjured fire once more. Seeing this, Rite, who had been catching his breath, barely managed to get up. The tree bound to him was heavy, making his body disobey his commands.
“Hey, hey. HEY! Are you crazy?”
“You’re the crazy one! Can’t you do it properly? Do as I taught you!”
Watching him running around so easily despite carrying a tree on his back, Aigle now began hurling fire recklessly.
“Fire! The tree’s on fire!”
Feeling the heat on his back, Rite looked behind to see the treetop blazing fiercely. He shouted urgently, but the magician showed no signs of listening. This time she created fire larger than her own head, making Rite gasp in shock.
“Is there any need to start fires?”
“I can put them out!”
Aigle was also drenched in sweat. The way she aimed at Rite and threw fire looked truly desperate. Rite seemed too exhausted to dodge anymore. As he tightly closed his eyes with flames approaching his face, for just a split second, the fire stopped as if it had hit something.
“……”
The bright red ball bounced in the opposite direction, brushing past Aigle. Feeling the momentary heat, she held her breath. She rolled her eyes to look to the side. The field behind was visibly ablaze. Her heart pounded wildly.
“Haah… ahh……”
Rite collapsed face-down on the ground. The tree weighing down on his body didn’t seem heavy to him as he breathed roughly.
“……How did you do that?”
“Don’t know. I just… haah… did what you told me to.”
“You’re truly a monster.”
Rite stopped breathing at Aigle’s words. Monster—he reacted instinctively to that word. His face hardened as he stared fixedly at the distant figure while holding his breath. He couldn’t see her expression. All he could see was her robe dragging on the ground and her small jawbone. Rite heightened all his senses. He tensed his thighs and waist, preparing to rise.
Will she throw stones at me? Curse at me? Will she be disgusted that a filthy monster like me is using magic?
But his teacher was small and fragile. Regardless of her magical abilities, she was physically weak and small in stature. It wouldn’t be difficult to tear her apart in an instant, before she could even chant a spell or throw a stone.
“There’s probably no magician with stamina as good as yours.”
“……”
“It’s your constitution. You were born with it. Just become a human weapon.”
Rite burst into empty laughter and sprawled out on the grass. What are you laughing at? That wasn’t a compliment, it was an insult! Despite her reproachful voice, he continued to chuckle. His laughter scattered like the wind, carrying the scent of grass.
“Yeah. You don’t have to tell me that. I’ll do it anyway.”
He intended to become ‘human.’ He planned to stand proudly beside Arden as a human.
“I have no idea what you are, but… no, as I said before, I’m not curious. Don’t explain.”
Aigle hastily denied interest as she plopped down beside Rite. He glanced up at her, only moving his eyes.
“Do you really have to do this? Even while keeping such a grueling schedule?”
“Yes. Even Eden couldn’t stop me. Don’t think about trying.”
It was a refreshing answer. There was no hesitation or anguish whatsoever.
“It would be a waste of talent to die like a dog……”
“Then I just won’t die. Want to know what my plan is?”
“No. I’m not curious. I don’t want to know. Aaaah, don’t tell me.”
Aigle covered her ears and shook her head. Seeing this, Rite burst into laughter again.
“But Aigle.”
“What.”
“Shouldn’t you put out the fire?”
Aigle screamed as she jumped up and ran toward the back.
* * *
His resolution not to go outside had been broken. With Rite gone, Arden had found new companions to talk to.
“You’re going to Moran?”
“Have you been there before?”
“No, never. And hey, you can speak more casually to me.”
Corol said as she took a big bite of her apple. Arden also had a bright red apple in his hand, but he was just holding it politely without eating. The reason for his stiff speech was to maintain distance.
While leaning his arms on the window of his lodging and gazing at the mountain where Rite would be, someone called out to Arden. “Hey there!” Looking down at the loud voice, he saw the two people he had met yesterday waving at him.
Although he didn’t particularly want to go out, he couldn’t ignore such an enthusiastic greeting. Told that he wasn’t on investigation duty today, Arden finally went outside.
“I wanted to live in Moran when I became an adult.”
“Not me. I like Idelven.”
Kaiyu quietly shared his opinion in response to Corol’s words. The three were exchanging conversation in a corner of the market alley without any particular purpose. The sun was high in the sky, but thanks to Kaiyu standing with his back to the sun, Arden’s eyes weren’t dazzled.
Arden gestured toward a wooden box, suggesting that Kaiyu sit beside him, but Kaiyu just shook his head. Corol, seemingly accustomed to her brother’s behavior, ate her apple in the shade. Whenever clouds moved, she would nudge Kaiyu’s foot, giving brief commands like left, right.
“So you came from Moran?”
“……That’s right.”
“What brings you to Idelven? Is there any reason to come all the way here from there?”
“We came because of a magician.”
“There must be magicians in Moran too. And in Rosmunt as well.”
“……”
“How long does it take to get here from there? Eight hours?”
Arden quickly unfolded a mental map in his head. Since he didn’t actually live in Moran, such details didn’t come to him immediately.
“About that long, I guess.”
“How can anyone ride a train for eight hours? I couldn’t do it.”
“Since you have to get off at intervals, it’s not eight hours straight.”
“Still, it’s basically the same thing. So you must have been to Rosmunt too? Is the city really floating on water?”
While Corol chattered away, Kaiyu silently shaded them from the sun. He seemed to be listening to their conversation, his expressions changing moment by moment. Currently, he was looking down at Arden, unable to hide his curiosity.
Having never thought of them as siblings, Arden looked back and forth between their faces in wonder. He hadn’t thought they looked alike, but now that he knew they were siblings, they appeared similar. Arden’s powers of observation varied greatly depending on his interest. Kaiyu’s hair color was slightly darker, but their eyes were identical shades of green.
“The city isn’t floating on water; they built a foundation on the lake and constructed the city on top of it.”
“I want to go see it too.”
“No way……”
“I know.”
Corol glared up at Kaiyu with sharp eyes. The siblings, whose age difference didn’t seem great, acted as though they might fight at any moment. Having observed them for a few hours, Arden no longer felt anxious. They weren’t really fighting; this seemed to be their daily routine.
“Originally, I wanted to work at a newspaper in Moran as soon as I became an adult.”
“A newspaper?”
“I wanted to be a journalist.”
Corol fidgeted with the skeletal remains of her eaten apple as she spoke.
“No matter how I look at it, today’s newspapers are too strange. They only talk about winning wars, gaining this much land, making this much money from that land… It’s all just that kind of talk. They say what we’ve accomplished, how Artalis will develop further, how we can all be happier.”
“……”
“I just don’t understand why none of it feels real to me.”
Thump, thump. Corol’s foot tapped the ground rhythmically. Arden watched the movement, keeping silent.
“There are so many homeless people wandering around, and so many who can’t survive without stealing from others. Yet they don’t care about any of that.”
Arden recalled the young pickpocket he had seen before. A child forced onto the streets to make money at such a young age.
The buildings in Rosmunt grew taller with each passing day, and the knights of Moran continued to march forward. The sun during the day and stars at night illuminated all of Artalis, but they never reached our daily lives.
“You can do it if you try.”
Arden had been the same. He became an engineer to gain recognition and had risen to the position of an imperial engineer. Though it was now a fleeting dream, Corol was still too young to give up.
“Mom’s pregnant. So that’s all ruined because of the baby, I guess. When the baby is born, there will be expenses coming from all directions. Still, I haven’t completely given up. Once the baby grows a bit and we have more leeway, I’ll try again then.”
Corol, whose voice had somehow returned to its cheerful tone, chattered away with explanation. Though she sighed deeply, she didn’t seem genuinely displeased about the baby in her mother’s womb.
“The age gap will be quite……”
“A super late child, for sure.”
“Your mother must be having a difficult time.”
“Her mood changes thirty times a day. One moment she’s rubbing her belly saying, ‘my baby,’ and the next she’s pulling at dad’s hair.”
Remembering made Corol burst into laughter. Kaiyu also laughed silently. They looked like a harmonious family.
Arden, having no siblings, didn’t know much, but it felt somewhat different from his experience raising Rite. Although Rite was peculiar, don’t children normally want to monopolize their parents’ affection to some extent?
“Aren’t you jealous?”
“Jealous?”
Corol looked at Arden with complete incomprehension, then broke into refreshing laughter.
“Of the baby? One that isn’t even born yet?”
“When the baby is born, your parents’ attention will focus on the newborn. And your planned dream has become difficult for now.”
“We’re not little kids. Why would I be jealous of my sibling because of our parents’ attention? As for being a journalist… well, it’s disappointing, but I can earn money and take it slow.”
Arden looked up at Kaiyu. He seemed to agree with his sister, nodding his head.
But… but… Arden wasn’t sure how to explain. Don’t people usually feel jealous towards their guardians?
Although he wasn’t particularly a greedy person, he couldn’t say he had none at all. Plin was aloof, and he himself wasn’t an affectionate person. While they might have appeared distant on the outside, young Arden had only Plin to rely on.
Aren’t you going to get married? Whenever someone asked Plin such a question, Arden would shrink back. If Plin got married and started a family, what about me?
Fortunately, Plin had no interest in marriage and provided all the support he could to Arden, but back then, it had been different.
Unlike Arden, Rite had never hidden his possessiveness since childhood. His childish tantrums weren’t strange enough to raise eyebrows, but even after growing up, his obsession only intensified rather than diminishing.
As far as he could guess, Rite and the siblings before him were of similar age, or perhaps Rite was older. By this age, did everyone’s attachment to their guardians typically diminish?
“Less nagging too. It doesn’t sound too bad, right?”
Hearing Corol’s voice, Arden fidgeted with the apple in his hand. He brought the tempting-looking apple near his mouth. Crunch—the fruit was bitten with a fresh apple scent and juicy flesh.
“Oh, over there.”
Corol pointed toward the busy pathway beyond the alley. Arden, who had raised his head without much thought, quickly pulled his hat down. It was the knights.
