Chapter 5 - Chapter Four: The Magic-Loving Boy Prepares to End His Childhood
The dinner that evening, in honor of my grandmother’s visit, was a lavish affair, though the guest of honor herself was absent. I had intended to see her off, but it seemed she had departed without even informing the staff. And so, the banquet proceeded without its main guest, but with both my parents at the manor, the meal was livelier than usual. They were often away, attending evening parties hosted by other nobles or holding their own, so sharing a meal as a family was a rare occasion.
There were six of us at the table: myself and Ruria, and both our parents. Normally, I enjoyed a relaxed dinner with Ruria’s family, but tonight, I refrained from opening my mouth wide to take a bite of bread. I was careful not to clink my utensils as I spread what looked like a meat pâté on my roll. The main reason for my good behavior was that Gill-san, the chief steward, was serving us in place of the usual attendant, a change made to properly welcome my grandmother.
"Honestly, the former master is quite incorrigible. The entire staff was prepared to welcome her, and yet…"
With every new dish he brought out, Gill-san grumbled to my father. I could sympathize. They had scrambled to prepare a welcome upon hearing of Grandma’s sudden visit, only for her to leave without so much as settling in or saying goodbye. It was only natural he’d want to complain a little.
I heard she had done the same when we were born, leaving right after seeing our faces. Did she have some reason for not wanting to stay in this manor? Perhaps it’s a classic mother-in-law versus daughter-in-law problem… I mused on such pointless things while eating my appetizer—a salad of what was probably steamed chicken and vegetables, tossed in a citrus dressing generously flecked with chopped herbs. Suddenly, a commotion erupted from the direction of the manor’s entrance. The noise grew closer, until the dining hall doors were thrown open with a great shout of, "Pardon the intrusion!"
"Well now! So this is where you were, Levi! Where is the Master?"
The man who burst into the dining hall, his voice practically a yell, was a large figure who appeared to be in his fifties. He was dressed in a black robe of visibly fine quality, his chest adorned with several badge-like objects. They look like the service ribbons or insignia from my past life. His eyebrows, a mix of gold and white like the hair on his head, were furrowed in a deep frown as he strode toward the long dining table. By the doorway, an attendant bowed apologetically, a look of distress on his face.
"Commander Azadh, it is good to see you in such fine health as always. As you can see, we are in the middle of dinner. Would you care to join us?"
Father addressed the intruder without a hint of panic, while Gill-san pulled out the chair next to me, gesturing for the man to sit. The seating arrangement tonight had Father, as head of the house, at the head of the table. To his left were Mother and me, and to his right were Ruria’s family. Placing the commander to my left made sense for the arrangement, but did this old guy have to sit next to me? He was a little scary.
"No need! More importantly, I heard the Master came to this manor! Where is she?!"
"My mother did indeed visit, but she has already departed."
"Again! Levi, why did you not stop her?"
"…Do you truly believe she is someone who would listen?"
"Hmph… Well…"
His tone softening slightly, the old man finally settled into the chair beside me. Seeing this, Gill-san promptly brought out a serving of food for him.
"This is a good opportunity. Allow me to introduce you, Commander Azadh. This is my son, Saki. He turned three this year. Saki, this is Lord Azadh, the commander of the Royal Magic Corps. Offer your greetings."
So he is a soldier, I thought. And a commander, no less. He must be quite important. A Magic Corps… a military unit composed of magic users? That sounded incredibly cool. Not that I wanted to enlist.
In any case, since Father had introduced me, it would be rude not to offer a proper greeting. I slid off my chair and, placing a hand over my chest, bowed toward the commander.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Commander Azadh. I am Saki, son of Viscount Levi Arcalai. I am pleased to make your acquaintance."
"What a polite greeting. I am impressed. I am Ahab Azadh, Commander of the Hanoku Kingdom’s Magic Corps. Everyone in this house calls me Commander. Think of me as your grandmother’s disciple, and a senior to Levi and Sarah. You too were born into the Arcalai family, so you will surely become a fine magic user one day. I have high expectations for you."
At the commander's words, I saw my parents and Maria-kaasan exchange somewhat strained expressions. Whether Commander Azadh noticed or not, he continued speaking.
"And that must be Maria’s little girl over there. She looks just like Maria did when she was young."
Climbing back onto my chair, I looked across the table and, ah, just as I thought. Ruria was clinging to her mother, refusing to even look at the commander. I couldn’t blame her. Any small child would be frightened if a scary-looking man suddenly barged in during dinner and started shouting.
"My apologies, Commander. My daughter, Ruria, is a little shy around strangers."
The commander gave a magnanimous nod at Maria-kaasan’s explanation and began to speak while picking at a platter of ham and cheese that had been brought to him. I assumed they were made from pork and cow's milk, but I couldn't be certain, as I had yet to see a pig, cow, or chicken in this world. In any case, I decided to listen in on his conversation while carefully sipping my soup so as not to make a sound.
"They may call me Commander, or the senior disciple of the Arcalai school, but my magical skill is not even a shadow of the Master’s. It is not that I am disrespected, but my words simply do not carry the same weight as hers. With the Noble Faction making unsettling moves, we need the Master to return to the royal capital and keep them in check, both at home and abroad…"
"Their expansionist policy itself is not necessarily misguided… but are they in such a hurry?"
"It seems a large-scale conflict has broken out among the Orc tribes of the Central Plains. They see this as an opportunity to intervene with an army and carve out the southern part of the plains for themselves. To top it off, they have the gall to demand that the Magic Corps dispatch units to assist them."
"This is not a war between human nations. Territory cannot be won by military force alone… Even if they wipe out the Orcs, we must send settlers, build roads, and defend the villages and farmlands from external threats before the land can truly become part of our kingdom. All the while, the dispatched army must remain garrisoned in the occupied territory. How long would it be before we could ever hope to recover such military expenses?"
"The country could collapse before that happens! All they want is military glory, and they fully intend to push the cleanup onto the bureaucrats. I will not cooperate in such a war!"
The commander and my father were having a difficult conversation. Words I didn't recognize were used frequently, and I was listening with all my might when my ears caught a term I couldn’t ignore. I instinctively waited for a pause in their conversation and jumped in.
"I apologize for interrupting. What sort of creature is this Orc you speak of?"
That was right. Orcs, the staple race of light novels. Did they exist in this world, too? Were they the sworn enemies of female knights? I had to know.
"Ah, an Orc, you ask? They are a savage race, different from us humans. They are all larger than humans and have terrifying faces with tusks like wild boars. They are a warlike people who wander the plains and forests, often fighting with other races and other Orc tribes. I have not heard of them using magic, so they are not something the kingdom needs to fear."
The commander answered cheerfully. I noticed he now held a wine goblet, and Gill-san was standing behind him with a bottle of wine. As expected of our household’s chief steward, he knew how to handle troublesome guests. The man had been quite agitated at first, but eating and drinking tends to calm people down. It seemed the principle of "Let's talk over a meal" was effective in other worlds, too.
"Such a race exists? Are we likely to get into a conflict with these Orcs?"
"We would never bother with the likes of them, though some fools seem eager to stir up trouble."
"Orcs raid other tribes and races for plunder, but each tribe is not very large. The kingdom has built forts along the northern border to prepare for them, so the Orcs do not attack us here," Father added as the commander waved a dismissive hand, his tone one of utter exasperation. It seemed the Orcs of this world were not so different from the image I had from my past life. But to think that not only magic but other races existed as well… this world was truly overflowing with fantasy. At this rate, there might even be monsters and magical beasts. Part of me wanted to see them, and part of me really didn't.
"Well, it is best to let the Orcs fight amongst themselves. There is no need for us to get involved. However, the Noble Faction is not our only problem…"
The commander trailed off, his gaze sweeping over the people at the table before settling on Uncle Dani. My uncle nodded back at him, then rose from his seat. He took Ruria from Maria-kaasan and turned to me.
"Alright, my little princess and Saki, are your tummies full? It is about time for bed, so let us go back to your room together."
I knew instantly. Looking at who was staying and who was leaving, this was their usual cue for a "conversation not meant for non-magic-users." Left out again, I thought, but I knew well enough by now that the people they called magic users were uncompromising on this point. I cast a final, longing look at the main dish—the rest of my salt-cured meat with the chef’s special sauce that took days to prepare—before reluctantly setting my knife and fork on the table. Then, I slid off my chair and bowed to the commander.
"Well then, Commander Azadh, it was a pleasure speaking with you. Good night to you all."
A wide smile spread across the commander’s face. He placed a hand on my head and said, "Once you are allowed to go outside the manor, come and visit me anytime. I will tell you as many stories as you like about things you do not yet know."
"You have to promise," I said, making him swear to it, and then left the dining hall with Uncle Dani, who was carrying Ruria.
On our way back to the children’s room on the second floor, Uncle Dani spoke, holding Ruria, who already looked to be asleep.
"The Commander is lonely, you know. He gave all sorts of reasons, but deep down, he just wants his master to be close by."
I looked up at my uncle and saw a distant, lonely look in his own eyes. It felt as though he was speaking to me, but that half of his words were meant for someone else entirely.
"The person he spent decades with, who he looked up to like a mother and a sister, will no longer see him. A disciple is meant to leave their master and stand on their own one day, but I suppose this is a different matter entirely."
"Is that how it is?"
I thought of my parents from my previous life, the parents of Shirasawa Aki. We weren’t on bad terms, but after I became a working adult and moved out, I never saw them. Now, even their faces were a blur. When I realized I had died, I felt sorry for preceding them in death while they were still healthy, but that was all. I wasn’t particularly sad that I would never see them again. Maybe I was just lacking in familial affection.
"That is how it is," Uncle Dani said, his voice a whisper as he smiled gently at me.
"I don't get it," I replied, taking his hand as we climbed the stairs to the second floor.
Back in the children’s room, I lay in bed and watched the mysterious, glittering particles that illuminated the ceiling, as I always did. In the end, Grandma, who apparently could see the light just as I could, never told me what it was. But I had a growing suspicion that it had something to do with her and the other magic users.
I turned my thoughts to my own body, which barely glowed at all. This is it, isn't it? The reason they wouldn’t tell me what the light was. It had to be related to the fact that all the magic users glowed so brightly, while I was even dimmer than Uncle Dani and Hanna, who were ordinary people.
Shaking my head to dispel the thought, I glanced beside me. Ruria was asleep, clutching my arm. Her soft breathing was steady, and her small form radiated a light that was incomparably brighter than the particles floating around us.
To use the star-brightness analogy I’d thought of earlier, if my parents were Vega and Altair and my grandmother was Sirius, then Ruria was the full moon. Not even a star. Her magnitude would be something like -13. Maria-kaasan was a second-magnitude star, while Uncle Dani and Hanna were about fifth-magnitude. I was dimmer than that. Sixth-magnitude at best.
A wave of depression washed over me, and I looked at Ruria’s sleeping face once more. What I was thinking was pure speculation. Nothing was set in stone. Magic users were real in this world, and my family members were among them. Compared to my last life, I was undoubtedly blessed. Even if I was born into a family of magic users but wasn’t suited for magic myself, that was no reason to feel inadequate next to my childhood friend, who might have a real talent for it.
I had to do what I could now, instead of just waiting to be told. A book I read in my past life had a line: ‘Magic is the act of imposing one's will upon the world.’ In other words, any act intended to change the world, to change the status quo, is an act of magic. I will impose my will upon this world: "I will become a magician." To become in this life what I could not in the last.
This is the fourth chapter. I apologize that it is shorter than the first three chapters. I hope to continue posting weekly with chapters of about this length. Thank you for reading.