Tou No Madoushi

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Lynn and Illia walked through the forest, sticking to what could be called a path only for the sake of practicality .

For a time, they walked as part of a larger group who had entered the forest together, but every time the path forked, the large group dwindled in numbers .

They occasionally pa.s.sed pairs who had paused along the way to pick herbs and plants, and sometimes they even spotted pairs who wandered in the thicket between the paths .

Before long though, they were alone in the forest .

Every time they reached a fork in the path, one of them would place their staff just in front of them and let it fall to the ground . They chose their route in this way .

“Is it a good idea to choose our route this way?” Lynn asked .

“Yeah, at least in the blue zone . No matter which route you take it doesn’t differ all that much . Besides you were given a map, right?”

“Yeah” he said, and reached inside his bag for the map .

The map covered most of the blue zone, and there were symbols indicating the various camps that were used as meeting points, as well as common routes to reach them .

There were areas that were well doc.u.mented, and consequently well mapped out, but there was still a lot of uncharted land .

While the routes in the blue zone were for the most part well mapped out, the number of routes which ended abruptly increased as you glanced at the deeper areas of the yellow zone, and indeed the red zone . In fact many areas of the forest were opaque, in that they weren’t charted at all .

“Map, display current location”, Lynn chanted .

A point of light appeared in the middle of the blue area on the map, indicating where they were .

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The route they were on was by no means the fastest way to get to the camp, but it wasn’t as if they had strayed too far of course .

“Does it seem like we’ll be able to get there by 5 o’clock?” Illia asked Lynn, who was studying the map intently .

“Yeah, it shouldn’t be a problem” .

“Then let’s continue a little bit further” .

When they arrived at another forked path, Illia let her staff fall to the ground . This time, it fell ever so slightly to the right . They pressed on .

As they were walking along inside the forest, occasionally Lynn began to notice brief sparkles of light . It turned out that the fleeting twinkling of lights he was seeing in his vision was the magic ring burning the poisonous insects that tried to attack him .

He noticed that the number of poisonous insects were far greater than there were a little while ago .

It really was dangerous to go in without a magic ring after all, he thought to himself .

On the other hand, there was absolutely no twinkling or flashing of brief lights around Illia .

It seemed that even the insects could sense the power of Illia’s accompanying spirit .

She possessed a well of power, the bottom of which he could not sense- or imagine .

They had little to do as they walked along the forest path, and so they spent the time chatting away .

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“Have you ever received any wizard training outside the tower’s academy, Lynn?”

“No, I’ve only ever had any training or lessons about magic inside the academy . How about you? Have you had training outside the academy?”

“I studied magic under an agency that’s controlled by the royal family . From a very young age in fact . It was a good education, but I had few friends… I was a little bit lonely, I suppose . I’ve been meaning to mention this, but did you really manifest the Vesper sword on your first try? That’s really something”

“Oh, it’s not that big of a deal” .

“Hey, it’s not something just anybody can do . Well… I did manage to do it when I was an infant though” .

“No no, I’m telling you it’s really not- wait what!?”

“Yeah,” she said, laughing, “I tried to manifest it many, many times, and one day it just clicked . Lynn, I think you’re really something, you know” .

However Lynn didn’t hear the compliment . He remembered what Elios had said to him, and let out a heavy sigh .

There’s always going to be someone better than you .

He had thought that he was the only one who could manifest the Vesper sword at such a young age . Secretly, he had even entertained the possibility that he may have had some talent that was just waiting to be awoken .

He felt his perception of himself crumble a bit .

Just how did he rank in terms of talent in the world of wizards? Was his level of talent even all that great? He felt restless, agitated . He hadn’t realized how much he had been clinging to the possibility there might be something more to him, and so now he couldn’t stop his mind from worrying .

“You haven’t had any training outside the academy . So you’re a commoner”, she said in a springy tone .

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“No… Actually, the thing is, I was born a slave” .

“Ah, and because of that you have no surname on the register” .

He managed to answer her honestly, but he felt his face become hot and flushed . He lowered his gaze .

“Well then,” she continued, “that makes me lucky” .

“What?”

“I’m a member of the royal family, but because I’m in a position of rule, I’ve been wanting to learn about the lower cla.s.ses . There are lots of slaves and working cla.s.s people in the Kingdom of w.a.n.gold too, but usually I’m surrounded by no one but royalty and elite members of society, so to be able to spend time with someone like you isn’t something I can experience easily . I suppose this is one of the good things about the academy right? To be able to socialize with people of the other cla.s.ses” .

She smiled sweetly and let out a pleasant laugh .

He looked at her for a few, long moments, and read her face . In her expression he couldn’t sense even the slightest disdain, or even any hint that she was being less than entirely sincere .

Her smile was truly angelic .

He felt that she was genuinely enjoying their acquaintance .

What a peculiar person . She’s really grateful she knows me…

“You’re different”, he said .

“Is that so?”

“This is the first time someone’s ever told me they could learn something from a slave like me” .

“My philosophy that I live by is that everyone other than myself is a teacher I can learn from . I think that you can learn something from anybody . Lynn, what can you learn from me?”

She studied his face carefully . Her steady, earnest gaze caught him off guard .

“I… I don’t know . What could someone like me learn from someone as highly esteemed as you?” He looked down at his feet again .

“Then let’s think of that together . That can be our homework for today”, she said with a sweet laugh .

“Homework?”

“Yeah, homework that we can both do together . We’ll think of what things you can teach me, and what things I can teach you . Hopefully we can think of lots of things by the time we leave this forest” .

She turned to give a heartwarming smile as she walked, and her braided chestnut hair flicked and flashed in the few rays of sunlight that penetrated the canopy overhead .

He pondered again what motives she had for wanting to learn about someone like him who came from a slave background . What on earth could she possibly want to learn from him?

Her expression, however, only showed true curiosity . He couldn’t detect a trace of any other motive whatsoever .

“It’s important to understand oneself . And it’s also important to know what you yourself can offer other people . That goes for you too . Can you first tell me about your living circ.u.mstances? When you’re not in cla.s.ses, where do you spend your time? Where do you live and what do you do? How about starting from there” .

Brief flashes of light continued to spark around his face and body as he walked . The residents of the forest took every opening they could to try to attack him . Only the ring protected him from their poison .

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