novelraw Chapter 88 : Chapter 88
Chapter 88 : Chapter 88
Chapter 88: The Genius Mage of the Academy (1)
Afternoon, on the main street of the capital, Naflansee.
Amidst the chilly wind of the winter air,
“Boring, boring.”
Louise frowned.
She sighed, tilting the steering wheel of the magitek vehicle.
“How can all the news be so boring.”
The voice of the young man in the back seat was annoying.
Being swayed by sympathy had been a mistake. She had seen a young man suffering from dehydration while driving and had picked him up, but he had only been acting sick to get in the car. The young man soon began to rummage through the newspaper, complaining of boredom, and Louise sped up to reach her destination even a little faster.
“Ah, this one's a bit interesting.”
A person called the mysterious masked man, he says.
He seems to be appearing in all sorts of villages and defeating monsters.
He wants flowers, not money, as a reward?
What a strange fellow.
The young man muttered so.
“Anyway.”
Suddenly, the young man leaned his head towards Louise.
Louise flinched and moved back. She had almost gotten into an accident.
“Please, just sit quietly in your seat……”
The moment Louise was about to speak,
“Shouldn't we at least introduce ourselves?”
the young man cut her off, and,
“What the hell kind of introduction……”
the moment Louise was about to speak again,
“I'm Lizer Leinhart. A prospective graduate of the Elemental Studies department at CIAR. And you?”
the young man, Lizer, cut her off without fail.
“……Louise Bourdieux.”
Louise muttered with a sigh.
“I was an employee of the Saint-Pierre family, but not anymore. I got a job at CIAR.”
“Oh, what kind of job?”
“You don't need to know.”
“I want to know.”
“……It's simple repair work.”
“I see. I've heard about the Saint-Pierre family. It was widely reported recently. Everyone was talking about it. That a Sword Saint appeared, or a giant of fire appeared, or a giant flower appeared.”
Louise didn't speak.
She bit her lower lip and avoided Lizer's gaze.
She had just come from seeing Fleur's gravestone. Her final moments would not disappear from her mind. After the Saint-Pierre family was annihilated, the servants had all gone their separate ways, and only the magitek vehicle was left for Louise. It had originally belonged to the Saint-Pierre family, but it had become Louise's.
“Louise, you're sad.”
“I am not.”
“Don't lie. I can smell sadness from you.”
“What's this about a smell, how rude.”
“But it's true. The heart has a smell too.”
“I get it, so please be quiet. You're disturbing my driving.”
It's true, though.
Lizer whispered, slumping into the back seat.
Through his red hair, Lizer observed Louise with a playfully curved gaze. Right, that's right. The taste of fatigue, the sound of secrets, and the smell of sadness. The components that made up Louise were felt by Lizer.
‘It's been a while.’
Lizer thought, raising his head.
Far away, a floating island was rising amidst the clouds.
Cia-Harphe Academy. The empire's top educational institution located on a floating island. He had been living outside of it for a while. He had taken all the lectures in the curriculum, and since he had passed the preliminary exam, only graduation was scheduled. And so, he had been living in the polar regions to help his father. The reason he had returned to CIAR was also because of a task given by his father.
‘Should I review it once.’
First step.
‘Find the professor of the Theology department, Abel Argento.’
* * *
“How can you not even plant a single seed properly?”
Monika said with her hands on her hips.
“You have to plant them in a straight line with proper spacing. Look at how you've thrown them around. They're crooked and there's no space. It's a real mess.”
“……Sorry.”
Abel straightened his bent back.
The sun floating in the winter sky was clear. The sunlight poured through the glass ceiling. The greenhouse left by Fleur was filled with warm air.
“Move aside. I'll do it.”
“……Sorry again.”
Lately, Monika had been spending her time here.
She was tending the greenhouse, wearing rustic overalls. She was struggling, pulling out the rotten flowers that were rampant everywhere and planting new seeds one after another.
It must be her own way of mourning. Abel thought, watching Monika rummaging through a seed bag. He was concerned that she might be too obsessed. Just as she had written a schedule based on obsession in 30-minute intervals on the wall, Monika was rummaging through the greenhouse all day long.
“Teacher Abel.”
Suddenly, Monika looked back at Abel.
Her amber eyes flashed from under her straw hat.
“If you're going to stand there blankly, please throw away the piled-up grass stalks over there.”
“……Alright.”
Abel scratched the back of his neck and straightened his straw hat.
It had been a long time since he had handled plants. If he had to recall, in his original world, he had often helped with farm work in his childhood. Even then, his hands were clumsy and he was busy being scolded.
“──Teacher Abel!”
“I'm going now.”
Abel gathered the rotten grass stalks with a silent expression.
He carried them in his arms and took a step, and,
‘There's a lot to do.’
Monika thought, digging through the soil with a trowel.
Everything in Fleur's greenhouse was perfect except for the flowers. The temperature could be freely adjusted, and it was also possible to burn fuel to maintain the efficiency of photosynthesis.
She had been clearing out the withered flowers for several days. The greenhouse was desolate because she had been planting new seeds. It would be nice if they sprouted soon. Monika wiped her forehead and pursed her lips.
“You're sad.”
Then suddenly, a voice reached Monika's ear.
“I can smell sadness from you.”
Sniff, sniff.
The sound of a nose twitching.
──Thwack!
Monika's prosthetic arm moved.
Something touched the forcefully swung prosthetic arm.
Thud. When she looked in the direction from which the dull sound had come, a young man was on the ground, holding his nose. With his shaggy red hair hanging down.
“Ouch……, that hurts a lot.”
“I'm, I'm sorry. My prosthetic arm sometimes moves on its own……”
Monika's brow narrowed.
Who was he? It was someone she had never seen before.
From his appearance, it seemed he had come from a far place. The travel cloak wrapped around the young man's body was dirty. He was as shabby as if he had been living in the countryside for at least a few months.
“Hello, you're Monika Lohengrin, right?”
The young man opened his mouth with a sly smile.
“I'm Lizer Leinhart.”
“Lizer Leinhart……”
Monika tilted her head. It was a name she had never heard before.
“How do you know my name?”
“Well. Let's just say I learned it through my father.”
“Your father?”
“That's right. My father told me. That he's close friends with your father. Professor Abel Argento, I mean.”
“Why is Teacher Abel my dad?”
“Ah, you and him don't have that kind of relationship?”
Lizer smiled, shrugging his shoulders.
Then he squatted down next to Monika. He examined the seeds that were neatly arranged in the dug-up soil. Lizer poked one of them with his index finger, and,
“I can hear the sound of joy from this seed.”
he smiled, raising the corners of his mouth.
‘What the hell, from a while ago.’
Monika wondered, scratching the back of her neck.
The smell of sadness. The sound of joy. It sounds like the lyrics of a minstrel who hangs around cheap taverns. Thinking so, she took off her straw hat. Judging by the fact that he had mentioned Abel's name, he must be a visitor who had come to see Abel anyway. Was that person's father a close friend of Teacher Abel?
“What do you think is the reason, Monika?”
Suddenly, Lizer opened his mouth.
“How did people come to make a sunny place their grave?”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“The seeds are telling me. That this place is a grave. That you buried someone here. Not death, but life.”
Humans erect gravestones in fields and try to decorate them.
Lizer told such a story. The funeral customs of intelligent life forms are all different. Elves bury their dead near trees, and dwarves place their dead deep in caves. Orcs consider it polite to leave them to be eaten by wild animals, and trolls send the corpses of their own kind far out to sea.
But it was the same.
For some reason, everyone, all races,
seemed to want the world to grieve with them.
“I can see, hear, smell, and taste.”
Heave-ho.
Lizer muttered, standing up.
“This world, I mean.”
A moment of silence.
Lizer's two hands began to stir the air.
Monika stared blankly ahead. She couldn't follow the meaning of Lizer's words. It was to the point where she thought it was a bit rude. But why? She found herself watching Lizer's gestures with her mouth shut. Like an audience member overwhelmed by a performance.
‘I see. It was a performance.’
There was no sound, but sound lingered.
Monika realized with her eyes wide open. Lizer was conducting. With his eyes gently closed, he waved his arms, composing a musical idea by leading the beginning and end of the performance, the tempo and the rhythm.
Then what instrument was he conducting? It was none other than spirits. Soon, spirits began to wander in the greenhouse. The spirits, appearing in the form of small balls of light, swayed, and Monika moved her head busily, observing the movements of the spirits.
The soil became fertile.
The seeds were planted, and moisture seeped in.
The spirits were decorating the greenhouse.
It was as if they were singing. There was no sound, but it was as if sound was coming. It was as if Lizer and the spirits were having a conversation.
“Useful.”
Suddenly, Abel's voice was heard next to Monika.
“……When did you get here?”
“I just arrived.”
Monika looked up at Abel.
Abel, wearing a straw hat, was standing next to Monika.
“Watch carefully, Monika.”
That is the foundation of elemental magic.
Abel muttered so.
‘Elemental magic…….’
Monika's gaze tilted towards Lizer.
She knew little about elemental magic. A spell activated using mana and spirits as ingredients was called elemental magic. The mana concentrated in a magic wand would resonate with the spirits, and the spirits would compose the spell according to the movement of the magic wand. That was all Monika knew.
‘How wonderful.’
Meanwhile, Abel thought with his arms crossed.
Lizer was not holding a magic wand. He was moving the spirits with his bare hands. Not one, but multiple.
Spirits were the smallest unit of matter that made up this world. The spirits would wander the world and choose their own place, and thus they would harden. They would become soil, rock, and water.
‘That's why the compatibility is not good.’
Intelligent life forms had formed civilizations.
They had developed by destroying nature.
Even elves who lived in a natural environment had come to need magic wands. A tool that artificially concentrated the waves of mana and filtered them to resonate with the spirits. A kind of baton. It had become difficult to command spirits without using it.
There weren't many.
The number of spirits that spirit users, or rather, those who used elemental magic, could command.
“Whew!”
After finishing the performance with a refreshing expression,
“How about it, Monika? The work has been reduced a bit, right? The spirits helped you.”
Lizer said, looking back at Monika.
“Oh, Professor Argento. How long have you been here?”
In addition, Lizer's question was aimed at Abel.
Abel shrugged his shoulders. There was no room to question that child's identity. He just took a step and stood facing Lizer.
“Nice to meet you, ‘The Mother God's Left Hand’.”
Lizer's hand was extended towards Abel.
“I am the Mage of ‘The Mother God's Right Hand’, Lizer Leinhart.”
“I know. Nice to meet you, Lizer.”
Abel also extended his hand towards Lizer.
And so, as they shook hands,
‘What's that?’
Monika wondered with a pensive expression.
What's ‘The Mother God's Left Hand’, and what's ‘The Mother God's Right Hand’?
Monika couldn't even guess.