Book 11 Chapter 8
Episode 260
#5 The Epilogue of the Boy and Girl.
“No, you……?”
“Lillian!”
“Young Master?”
“Nora!”
[Wow, really?]
“Caden!”
“Wow, you’re really alive.”
“You’re…… who was it again?”
“Wibert, it’s Wibert! Ha, really, this is ridiculous, you forgot me?”
“It’s a joke, you idiot, how could I forget you?”
As he put his arm around Wibert's shoulder in a friendly manner, Wibert tried hard not to show his embarrassment.
“No, what the, damn, are you making fun of me as soon as we meet again?”
Not just Wibert, but Nora, Caden, Lillian. And even Logan.
“Those muscles tanned by the southern sun! It’s truly excellent that you haven’t forgotten your muscle training, Young Master!”
Rain matched biceps with Logan and gave a hearty smile.
“Of course. You’re really trying to follow Professor Owen now, aren’t you? You’ve grown quite a bit too.”
“Umhahahaha, not yet! That person can rip all their clothes with their muscles while greeting, you see.”
“But you guys, you don’t seem very surprised that I’m back?”
“Well…… actually, we had a feeling you were alive even before you achieved the 7-star rank, Young Master.”
“How?”
“Because of Casena Page★ Everything shows on that young lady’s face, you see.”
“Oh dear…….”
He had somewhat expected it, but the reunion was an inexpressibly joyful time.
To the extent that the days of enjoying magic volleyball together spontaneously came to mind.
His friends, who had somehow become third-year students, said they were about to graduate soon.
“The four of us have been assigned to the special operations division after graduation.”
[I’m thinking of studying abroad in Solonde.]
“Really? Should I write you a recommendation letter?”
[Recommendation letter? To whom?]
“I’m very close with the current king there.”
[???]
“Close with a king of a nation, what on earth did you experience in the lower lands?”
Lillian asked with an incredulous smile.
“This and that…… a lot of things. It was tough but fun. But if I could have graduated with you all, every moment would have been truly enjoyable.”
A quiet, reflective smile lingered among them for a moment. It was Wibert who broke that awkward and embarrassed atmosphere.
“Well. Since the competition for top honors itself couldn’t be established, we would have been quite angry, I think. We even thought it was good that you disappeared.”
“Ignore what Wibert is saying♣”
[Seriously, that guy never got top honors against Christa or Lillian while Young Master was gone lol]
“Shut up, you guys. I gave way, okay? I’m a person who has realized that modesty is a virtue, you see.”
“So who’s the valedictorian? It won’t be the modest Wibert, surely.”
“No, wait a minute.”
Interrupting Wibert, the one who answered Rain’s question was ‘herself’.
“Who else? It’s me, of course.”
The beauty who appeared with her dark brown bob fluttering in the cool autumn breeze, Christa Warden. It felt as if they had met like this many times before.
“Now, the sun of <Delaiten> is me, and I did my best so as not to hear that I took top honors by taking advantage of your absence.”
“Not bad.”
“Indeed, she was quite impressive. After you disappeared, Young Master, she was incredibly, hm, almost obsessively diligent.”
Christa’s attendant, Gertrude Fenton. The fellow pretended to wipe away tears that weren’t even flowing as he spoke.
“Perhaps because she was lovesick, she became a Gladis (4-star) mage at the beginning of her third year. Was she planning to boast to you when she met you again in heaven?”
“Stop joking. I don’t have such a lukewarm relationship with this idiot.”
With a sigh, Christa chopped Gertrude’s head with the side of her hand.
The embarrassed, blushing look she used to have at Gertrude’s jokes was now gone, replaced only by a mature demeanor.
While that was how it appeared to Rain, any feelings akin to infatuation he had briefly harbored in his first year had long since vanished before his zeal for magical research.
“You became a 7-star mage? It’s a huge mistake to think I’ll respect you for that. Though it might be a bit late, I, Christa Warden, will definitely—”
“—Abbaat!”
Just then, a smiling girl appeared, interrupting Christa, and jumped onto Rain’s back, rubbing her face against him affectionately.
“Aki, I told you to wait outside the school gate.”
“Abbabab.”
And following her, Setsunen also appeared!
“Such an act of openly disobeying Daddy’s words is evil (惡)! I shall arrest you here and now in the name of justice…… is what I mean!”
Who on earth was the older sister?
Rain’s classmates’ mouths dropped open so wide, it felt like their jaws would dislocate from the series of commotions.
The level of bewilderment reached its peak when a heavenly beauty appeared, holding a pure white handsome boy who looked like the youngest.
“Sorry, I lost her. She was too fast for me to hold onto…….”
As if her beauty had captivated the hearts of many in a previous life, her aesthetic itself became a noble dignity, overwhelming anyone who faced her.
“W-what……?”
As someone uttered such a bewildered sound, Aki immediately replied, just as she had been professionally trained when passing through the Lanoa Grand Bridge.
“Aki is happy. Daddy and Mommy got married 6 years ago.”
“6, 6 years ago?!”
“Aki was born that way. Thank you. Da, dad? Da, dada da.”
Gertrude collected himself and asked.
“Wait, she’s six, and that big?”
Aki is bad at lying.
Setsunen stepped in for the stuttering Aki!
“If you only have a heart that loves justice, there’s no such thing as impossible!”
“???”
“You don’t have a heart that loves justice, so you can’t believe it!”
It was a ridiculous sophism, but veins popped out in Christa’s eyes.
“Six years old, you say? Then you, that, whatchamacallit, eleven? Twelve? At that time, huh, what an obscenity…….”
“Wait, there’s a huge misunderstanding here.”
“I, I, I, Rain Ludwig, can never forgive your way of life! On behalf of the anger of all mages living solitary lives in this world, I will definitely defeat you someday! Understand? Just you wait!”
He seemed to huff and turn to leave, but then he sidled closer and whispered in his ear.
“But what about Pipi? No, it’s not that I particularly want to see her or anything, but I received a gift and I have no use for it…….”
He’s still not honest.
Thinking that some things in this world truly don’t change, he burst out laughing.
In fact, there was one more person among those he had to meet who wasn’t honest.
“Don’t think that just because you appeared after two years and achieved a 7-star rank, bringing glory to the family, I have forgiven you.”
Elin Ludwig.
His aunt, who had taught him how to use Bell Sides in his childhood.
These were the first words his aunt, who had long glared at Rain after even chasing out her assistant, uttered.
“To do such a thing and then appear confidently before me, you really are something else.”
“I apologize, Aunt. There were circumstances…….”
“You know what, I thought you were dead. Why wouldn’t I? We even held a funeral. How much did Seri suffer taking your place for heir training?”
“…….”
“And I only found out that wasn’t true half a year ago. Before that, with what heart I…….”
Elin, who had calmed her lava-like boiling rage with a deep breath, sighed.
“Let’s stop. Talking about it here will only lead to us saying things we don’t like to each other. As you know, my personality is quite explosive.”
“Auntie…….”
“My temper is really rising and I’m just irritated, but I’ll say only what needs to be said at this moment, so as soon as you hear it, get out of my sight.”
Elin, who had been fiercely glaring at Rain from across the desk, spun her chair towards the window.
To hide her tear-streaked face.
And to say these words that she had buried deep in her heart.
“Still, damn, I’m really glad you returned safely…….”
* * *
The reunion at <Delaiten> wasn’t just pleasant as described above. In fact, the reunion with Casena was close to the worst.
“You’re going to withdraw?”
That reunion happened quite unexpectedly during a conversation with Madelia Page, perhaps even as if he had been half-tricked…….
So, he even felt that it turned out well.
Because delivering that news face-to-face might have been quite difficult for both of them.
“Yes. As you know, there’s nothing more for me to learn by attending college now, and it’s also the point where I’ve been on unauthorized leave for two years.”
“You returned safely, and all of a sudden this? I understand your intentions well, but it will be difficult to grant your request.”
“Pardon?”
“If I approved that, I wouldn’t be able to forcibly keep you within the framework of the school while I persuade you to get engaged to Casena, would I?”
Madelia said with a faint smile.
If it had been in the past, he might have pushed away that subtly thrown joke, and the sincerity it implied, with a wall of empty laughter.
But now, having already received someone’s true feelings, in this very moment, he felt it wouldn’t be right to do so.
“I apologize, President. I have someone in my heart.”
“Hmm?”
“We have already promised each other a future. An engagement with Young Lady Casena seems difficult.”
He carefully took off the black dragon scale, a token of recognition from Casena and Madelia, which he had always treasured around his neck throughout his arduous journey.
And he respectfully placed it on Madelia’s desk, holding it with both hands.
This was given by Carenden to Emmisa, meaning it belongs to the Page family.
Naturally, it was a gift that Casena should give to the person she would form a bond with later.
“I wanted to return it to her directly, but since she cannot be found anywhere……”
Madelia’s careful expression revealed even bewilderment.
He immediately understood the reason the moment he faced the pale purple-haired woman who crawled out from under the desk.
Casena Page.
Casena held her breath and stared silently at him. Clenching her fists at her chest, she let out a hesitant breath.
“Why……?”
“…….”
“If it was going to be like this, why didn’t you take me with you back then?”
Even if they had gone to the ends of the earth together, the outcome likely wouldn’t have changed, but he didn’t dare utter those words.
“…….”
That gaze, staring at him as if wanting an answer, as if feeling helpless, as if conflicted, made his heart ache as if it were being squeezed.
Casena, somehow interpreting the meaning of his silence, let out a hollow laugh for a moment before abruptly turning her head away.
In the next moment, moisture sparkled in her crystal-clear eyes.
“Young Lady.”
Not knowing what to do, as he tried to take a step closer, Casena swung her hand and cried out.
“Don’t come near me!”
Heavy breaths and sorrowful eyes.
Although he had never given her affection as a romantic partner, he realized for the first time then that its meaning could be different for the other person.
Casena glared at Rain, then lowered her head, her bangs falling to obscure her facial expression.
“Rain, you’re the worst in the world…….”
“…….”
“Why…… why don’t you even give me…… a chance……?”
When Casena raised her head and their eyes met again, Rain couldn’t bring himself to speak.
Because that face, stained with tears beneath her pale purple hair, was beautiful enough to make any other man’s heart pound, if not his.
She gazed at Rain for a long time with her elegant and innocent purple eyes, as if being drawn in, then kicked open the door with telekinesis and left the President’s office.
“…….”
“…….”
Rain was left in a suffocatingly uncomfortable silence.
He felt his mind was numb, bewildered by the situation, when Madelia approached with a wry smile.
“Casena is quite shy, so my plan was to ascertain your intentions clearly on her behalf, but it turned out this way. I’m truly sorry.”
“No, um, it’s not that, it’s just that I’m a little, the things that just happened are hard to process.”
“Rain.”
“Yes?”
“If your intentions are set, I also have no desire to force you. Because I know better than anyone how much a marriage without love can torment both parties.”
Rain’s head was so disoriented that he couldn’t discern the shadow hidden in Madelia’s voice.
“However, my intention not to approve your withdrawal hasn’t changed.”
“Why?”
“You don’t have to attend school. You will receive an honorary graduation with your classmates of the same intake.”
“……?”
“A <Delaiten> diploma is more valuable than you think. Especially for you, who will soon become the focal point of a new generation of mages.”
“……!”
“I’m saying this is for your benefit, but while I’m President, I could at least establish the prestige of <Delaiten> having produced a great sage to succeed Emmisa Page, couldn’t I?”
Her gaze contained gentle affection.
Compared to the question-and-answer session with Casena, where he couldn’t answer rashly or easily, this was not difficult.
“Yes, that would be fine.”
As he repeatedly glanced sideways at the spot where Casena had left, unable to meet her gaze, Madelia gently placed a hand on his shoulder.
“There’s no need to be so troubled. That child will also find her own new destiny. With the possibility you gave her.”
“But…….”
“People naturally lose something as they become adults. For Casena, that was just you. As a mother, it’s truly painful, though.”
What Madelia said seemed, strangely, to precisely pierce through the sad truth of the world that Rain had felt throughout his life.
“Why can’t people become adults without losing something?”
“Perhaps it’s because loss teaches people the value of what is precious. People are sad creatures who cannot truly understand anything without experiencing it themselves.”
Casena’s mournful expression, which he saw for the last time that day, never left his mind.
For a moment, he wished Aki, Mir, and Nen wouldn’t experience such loss, but he knew it was a fleeting fantasy.
On the day my hundred-year journey ends, I will leave their side…….
Those children will then learn what loss is.
“Humans are truly sad creatures.”