Book 12 Chapter 14
Side Story Part 2, Chapter 7
The Child Who Weaves Hearts (7)
“W-Welcome to the [Exploding Bread House]!”
This foolish shop name was created by that hateful Friede. She even directly interfered with the signboard, making only the letters glow dazzlingly at night due to a spell, which really grabs attention in the evening. As expected of a master of magic, there was absolutely no artificial feeling like a spell; it was so natural that passersby even asked if Ain's advanced technology had been used.
“Ugh, what exactly is this ‘Exploding Bread House’?”
As Rain sighed, pinching his brows, Miria let out a small laugh.
“You’re one to talk, saying that if you defeat Uruk ‘High Tark’, it becomes ‘Bye Tark’, aren’t you?”
“Stop memory assault. That was when I was a teenager, so it’s legally a no-count.”
“Anyway, I like it. When people come in, they actually ‘explode’ with laughter when they hear Nen’s greeting.”
Business was booming. Since money wasn't the goal to begin with, they only intended to sell about 50 loaves of bread a day. However, less than three months after opening, people now even lined up to buy bread during lunchtime.
‘I worried what would happen if Nen’s condition worsened when there were suddenly so many people… but I guess it was needless worry.’
It could be said that Miria's plan worked out wonderfully. A place where one can comfortably rest… People who stay in such a place are bound to have happy thoughts and imaginations. That soon became Nen's nourishment and, furthermore, a source of curiosity.
“Everyone worked hard on this quest!”
Curiosity, directed towards adventure.
Because it was a peaceful area, the adventurer's guild branch office was just a tiny hut. An old man who was an adventurer in his prime managed it, but there were hardly any quests to speak of. Most importantly, Rain had dealt with all nearby dangers as soon as they appeared, so skilled adventurers naturally stopped visiting. Yet, even in such a greenhouse, does the longing for adventure blossom? Adventurers, who had just entered their mid-to-late teens, set out to catch kobolds or gnolls that interfered with livestock farming or agriculture. And on days when such quests ended, they celebrated joyfully like that. They said this place was better than restaurants where adults made a mess with alcohol or tobacco. So, the day before they went on an adventure, these guys would first 'raid' the bakery and reserve seats. Since Setsunen seemed curious, Miria readily allowed it.
“It’s not just because of Nen. When I look at them… doesn’t it remind you of something? How we were back then.”
“Not at all? When I was their age, I was kicking the butts of disaster-class monsters, you know?”
“Ugh, do you always have to compete over every childish thing like this? Yes, you’re so great.”
Rain, deflated by Miria's cold reaction, wished Nen would heal that wound, but Nen was listening to the novice adventurers' stories with her ears perked up.
“At first, we struggled even against a single gnoll, but we’ve grown! Now we can each take on one!”
“That’s right!”
“At this rate, won’t we be promoted to Bronze rank soon?”
“To do that, we’ll need to grow tall, right? Adventurers shouldn’t be underestimated, so being tall is unconditionally good, they say! Come on, let’s eat deliciously!”
Nen, while longing for the adventures the young adventurers spoke of, also found the ever-changing emotions within them difficult to understand.
‘My condition isn’t so great today…’
‘Ah, that guy, he hasn’t been performing well since a certain point… is it really okay to keep bringing him along?’
After the adventurers left, Nen revealed the thoughts they had harbored to Rain and Miria.
“Hmm… it was harmonious, but they each harbored such thoughts. But thoughts that arise in the mind are very volatile. They might not have any particular meaning.”
Miria said.
Rain’s view was different.
“It seems like it would have a bad influence on Nen, so I should eliminate it early… Just kidding.”
It was actually his true feeling, but he saw Miria clench her fist. In such a situation, he had no choice but to submit to the iron fist rule of blood and tears.
‘You two, don’t get married. If I say don’t, then absolutely don’t.’
Miria sat Nen in front of her, gently brushed her blonde hair, and said.
“Nen, aren’t you curious why appearances and true feelings differ? You could say that’s both humanity’s weakness and strength.”
“Weakness and strength at the same time?”
“Because they’re weak… they envy others who have what they don’t, and those who have ignore those who don’t. But acting kindly without revealing that is humanity’s strength.”
At that moment, Rain thought. The concept of human emotions would naturally be difficult for Nen.
‘Because Nen grew up among people whose outsides and insides were exactly the same…’
Nen’s closest human friends, Rem and Bart, were top-tier adventurers, so they were far from jealousy, weren’t they?
‘Akina and Mir, who are like biological siblings, are young dragons, but as dragons, they are born in their complete form, so they wouldn’t possess the ‘weakness’ unique to mortals living finite lives…’
Why do emotions change moment by moment, and why are they dual-natured? How on earth should one interpret and understand this thing called emotion?
‘How should I teach this? Ah, yes… I must teach it.’
Rain had to accept it. He had to understand. He wondered if it would feel like this to teach mathematics to a child who knew nothing.
‘Mathematics?’
At that moment, there was a powerful shock to his head. It was the light he used to encounter when reaching enlightenment, from his previous life.
1+1 = 2
2+2 = 4
3+3 = 6
Rain picked up a twig and wrote numbers on the mud in the yard. Nen gazed intently at it, then soon wrote other numbers below it.
4+4 = 8
5+5 = 10
6+6 = 12
Nen, perhaps thanks to their souls being bound together when she lent Rain power as a wish-fulfilling orb, understood and was good at basic arithmetic.
“Nen can do it too!”
Nen looked up and smiled brightly. Rain found Nen so adorable that he smiled along with her. Next, he used the twig to write new equations below.
1+x = ?
y+2 = ?
Nen tilted her head left and right, up and down, repeatedly. She seemed to want Rain to write down the answers quickly.
Rain took a breath.
‘I must make her understand, and make her accept.’
That Nen was different from typical dragons.
‘Dragonic language comes from the noble nature unique to dragons, which is almost complete from birth…’
The training process for witches' magic focuses precisely on emulating this draconic nature. The closer one becomes to the dragons, who were the envoys of <The Arrived>, the more powerfully one can wield their power. However, Nen is not a being ‘born that way’ but a being ‘who must become that way’.
‘In other words, she must be reborn.’
From now on, he had to make Nen accept and understand that fact.
“Nen, listen carefully to what I’m about to say. You are different from Akina and Mir.”
“Nen is different?”
“Yes, those two are already complete. They were born with noble hearts as dragons. But Nen, you are not like that.”
Nen seemed not to fully understand Rain’s words, yet she smiled with a hint of sadness and kept tilting her head. It felt like his heart was tearing apart. However, if Nen did not accept this reality, the door to the next stage would never open. He had to push her forward.
“These x and y are called variables. An equation containing variables is called an algebraic equation.”
“Variables and equations!”
“Nen, this very equation… is the ‘heart’ that you must learn and solve throughout your life.”
There are multiple methods to solve a single equation. But unlike mathematics, these solution methods couldn’t be taught by someone else; there was no way but to confront them directly and learn. Just like himself, who departed for the world (世界) on that day 300 years ago.
‘Ah, Dean…’
Was it to make me understand this ‘heart’ that you sent me there? I wanted to keep holding onto it… I wanted to keep being by your side… Forgive this foolish disciple, who only now understands your heart that pushed me forward to make me an adult.
“Nen doesn’t really understand what it is.”
“You can understand. From now on, you just have to learn one by one.”
“I just have to learn?”
Magic is a higher theory of mathematics, and the heart is a higher theory of that very magic, so it could be called the highest stage of mathematics.
‘If I can’t wield draconic language, then isn’t wielding magic enough? Just as the way to wield the power of the Black Sun Kalenden was subdivided into magic and sorcery.’
Rain chuckled. He looked up towards the far end of the garden and saw autumn leaves already piled up in autumn colors throughout the garden. Rain reached out his hand towards it.
“The method of altering providence: from now on, I will gather those autumn leaves with wind and then burn them.”
“Wow!”
“Wind. This is an attribute. To gather, this is a quality. These are attributes and runes. They are the fundamental basis of magic.”
The rest is to calculate new mathematical equations so that when these runes are applied, providence is altered to be ‘aesthetically pleasing’.
The wind, blew. That wind caused the autumn leaves, which had scattered autumn colors throughout the garden, to flutter faintly, and as heat imbued the wind, the autumn leaves crumbled into powder.
“This is magic. Do you want to learn it properly from now on?”
Nen was extremely happy when Rain used magic. She liked it to an inexplicable degree, wondering what was so good about it. Rain soon saw. Beyond the veil of memories, hadn't he himself looked with such eyes when watching the Dean's magic? Was that why the Dean always smiled when she saw him?
“Then putting heart into mathematics is magic!”
Nen said this at that moment. Rain was speechless at that moment.
‘Magic is the desire to mend the world to be aesthetically pleasing.’
Hadn't it taken him decades, combining his past and present lives, to realize this truth?
‘And she, like this…’
So incredibly pure. Therefore, so incredibly clear. In other words, because she retains the very form of creation, can she immediately recognize the will of Genesis like this?
‘I can’t say something so presumptuous as entrusting the future of magic…’
At this moment, he was certain. At that very moment, he decided. That he would entrust the magic he, Rain, had spent his entire life building, to none other than Nen.
“Alright, then let’s start studying properly today.”
“With Papa?”
“Yes, with Papa.”
As Rain smiled, touching his forehead to hers, Nen also smiled brightly. Miria, watching the scene with satisfaction, said.
“Will just magic be enough?”
“Don’t spoil the mood and just be quiet.”
Whack… As Rain clutched the bump on his head and rolled on the floor, Miria picked up a twig.
“Nen, don’t you want to go on an adventure like Rem and Bart someday?”
“Nen wants to go on an adventure too!”
“Then just magic won’t be enough. Mages are fools who can’t do anything without a vanguard.”
“Mages are fools?”
“Yes, they’re *all* fools! So, how about Nen learns swordsmanship too? A sword, you see, shows you the possibilities of the world. Even a single twig like this can generate the power to cut down a tree. Watch.”
A surge of magical power erupted from the twig, a *geomgang* (sword energy) symbolizing reaching the pinnacle of the sword path…!
“No!”
As that blade was about to cut the tree, Nen blocked its path and shook her head vigorously.
“Nen will learn swordsmanship! So please don’t harm this tree. The tree is scared.”
Miria barely managed to disperse the *geomgang*’s magic to prevent Nen from getting hurt.
What a dangerous thing she did…!
She tried to scold her, but seeing Nen gently smile while placing her hand on the tree, she simply couldn’t.
“It’s okay! No one will harm you now!”
Therefore, Miria had no choice but to put down the twig helplessly, wearing a hollow smile.
“Actually, perhaps it’s us… not Nen… who need to learn something.”