Book 19 Chapter 5

You and I,

The Archmage's Apprentice (2)

Lin wondered what she needed to do to become like the Dean.

‘Maybe it's easier than I thought?’

Wouldn't it be enough if she could act like the Dean?

‘If I can charm an orphan just like my past self in one go, wouldn't I be able to reach the same level?’

How did the Dean charm me? Yes, that's it!

"Hey, aren't you hungry?"

Lin asked, forcibly opening the barrel's lid with telekinesis. The girl was crouched inside, hugging both her knees.

"Oh dear~ You're hungry? Yes, I thought so. I knew it. Just wait a moment."

At that time, as the desert expanded, desert foxes could also be caught in the Lambrus region.

What could be different about a desert fox compared to an arctic fox!

Only the fur color and ear size are different, but the skeletal structure is the same! Cooking? You can do it too.

"Step-1: Skin it!"

"Step-2: Remove the entrails!"

"Step-3: After finely mincing the entrails, mix them with meat pieces and form into meatballs."

"Step-4: Skewer and roast it!"

"Step-5: When it's fully roasted, squeeze the fox's eyeballs over it like a sauce, and it's done."

By sticking the desert fox's large ears between the meat pieces, a decorative effect was added, making it nothing short of an ambitious creation.

"Here, take it. Before it gets cold."

The girl stared at the 'Lin's Special Super Special Desert Fox Eyeball Skewer' with lifeless eyes.

And then she came out of the barrel!

‘It was nothing special after all! This kid is too easy!’

As she thought that, the girl picked up the barrel lid that had been tossed aside outside… then went back inside and closed the lid.

"Hey, what's wrong? Try it! It's so delicious!"

Sval, looking at the girl with pity and sadness, ate the skewer instead.

"Hey! Why are you eating that! I didn't make it for you!"

"Kyoo-oot!"

"Spit it out right now! Aren't you going to spit it out?"

No matter how much she pulled, Sval would never let go of the skewer in his mouth! A master!

"Tch! These Republic folks, this one and that one, they casually discriminate against regions. To disregard Archmage Lin's ambitious creation like that. My self-esteem is going to collapse."

Hmm… Is it just that northern cuisine is really tasteless? If you go south past the Eleonore River, are there more delicious foods?

‘I thought it would be really easy… or was it just me that was easy?’

What did the Dean do for me when we first met? He did give me food, but was it really that impressive?

‘Perhaps it was because I was an orphan, and it was the first kindness I had ever received…'

Wait. Food wasn't everything.

In the meeting with the Dean…

In that heart-pounding moment, which she could still never forget, there was definitely the emotion of witnessing magic for the very first time in her life.

"Hey, want to see the [Strongest Magic]?"

"…"

"I'm an Archmage, you know? It's something you can't see even if you pay for it anywhere. You'll regret it?"

Silence!

This won't do. I don't understand.

If someone had offered to show the strongest magic to her younger self, she would have drooled and nodded her head like crazy.

She thought.

How cool it would have been if the Dean had said this to that swindler innkeeper back then.

- Wait!!! Why are you trying to hit that child? Do you want to see my [Strongest Magic] right now? Can you handle it? I am, [The Strongest], you know?

Hmm, or not?

‘Tch, if only I could have found a book on parenting somewhere…!’

No… it wasn't books, but there were plenty of opportunities to learn through experience.

The Dean brought various gorillas back whenever he went out, as if picking up stray cats, and cared for them until the Senior Disciple adapted to the magic tower.

Every moment in the magic tower, she was busy reading books. Selfishly, she had devoted herself only to her own studies.

‘Has the Senior Disciple always handled such difficult tasks so effortlessly?’

So, it might have been a natural result that the Dean favored the Senior Disciple above all other apprentices.

‘Favoritism?’

Suddenly, Lin laughed at her own thought. The Dean was not one to show favoritism. And if he did show favoritism, she would have been the object of it.

No apprentice of the school.

Had never accompanied the Dean on all his outings. Because her growth rate was abnormally steep, hadn't Atlante always taken Lin with him when she turned eleven?

‘Even if I live a lifetime, I probably won't be able to become like the Dean.’

I can't smile innocently like Rista, nor can I deliver elegant sermons like Frie.

‘But even for someone like me, there must be something I can do. If I use the knowledge I learned from the Dean during those times of accompaniment…!’

* * *

The girl suddenly opened her eyes, barely awake from a light sleep tangled with nightmares, amidst a trembling that shook the world.

The girl had forgotten her original name.

Her parents, who had given her her name, died of a plague when she was three, so she didn't know their faces, and her aunt, who had raised her with parental love until now, was massacred by monsters along with her cousin sister.

So, she decided to forget.

She decided to forget everything.

If she did nothing until this hunger, this pain, swallowed her entire body and mind…

She would be able to reach complete oblivion.

Though it was an age where she should be dreaming of becoming a princess, the girl, pitifully, already understood death at that age.

"…?"

But the world kept shaking. Even if she tried to ignore it, even if she tried to forget that tremor, it continued.

She heard the sound of trees colliding, and the sound of earth being poured from somewhere.

She thought curiosity was surely gone now, she thought such a luxurious feeling had vanished, but why was she out of the barrel, looking out the window?

"…!"

Much later, after the girl became the 'Shrine Maiden of Ash,' revered by all, she would recall what she saw at that moment to her disciples like this:

[It was, light.]

Light danced enchantingly, warmly embracing the ruined village.

The planks of the wretchedly collapsed houses were being reassembled into coffins.

At the same time, a pit was dug at each original location of the houses, and the coffins were interred in those spots.

And seven-pointed star decorations (since the number of <Those Who Came> was seven, the seven-pointed star was a symbol of primeval love) were placed one by one on the earth-covered graves.

- Animals just leave their dead family members and go, so I don't understand why only humans make such a fuss. Aren't they just going to decompose and become nutrients anyway?

One day, during their days of accompanying each other, Lin had raised such a question to Atlante while resolving the task of repairing a village cemetery.

First, Atlante smiled.

He didn't mock or scold his apprentice's question; instead, he first showed immense benevolence, conveying, 'Ah, one might think that way…' His Q&A sessions were always like that.

- Lin, you're mistaken about something. A grave, you see? It's not for those who have departed to the heavens, but for those who are left behind on this earth.

- Those left behind?

- It's true that the veil of death prevents us from speaking to them again. But if there's a grave like this, when you're sad or struggling, you can come to the grave and talk to the deceased. You can speak of the sadness, pain, or longing buried in your heart. Or, when something joyful happens, you can boast about it.

- Why do I have to say such things? The other person can't even hear it anyway.

- Remember this. A person's heart is not infinite. It's like a bag… if it's filled only with sadness, it will eventually burst. What's more terrifying is that if it just bursts, that's fortunate, but that bag can also completely rot away. Do you understand what I mean? It means ending one's own life.

Atlante gently placed his hand on Lin's head and, with his usual warm smile, concluded that day's lesson.

- In that sense, Lin, you have practically saved the hearts of the people who will come here again and again. A mage, that's how they save a world, one at a time.

The residents of this village had already died at the hands of the Uruk and Blashurfs. Although no trace of life could be found, wasn't there one person left behind?

If so…

If the Dean had been here now, he would have turned the village into a graveyard like this. Along with these words.

- So that at any time, one can come here, recall the past, and gain the strength to move forward into the future.

Lin had never once spoken to her apprentice about the mindset she held that day, but the apprentice recognized that heart.

With the light…

From the fingertips of the young Archmage, the melody of a miracle unfolded, and amidst the trembling, resonance, and shaking of that light, it was possible to see that what was embodied was the light of the heart.

[Not a single day, not even one day… have I ever forgotten the light that person showed me that day. That light that allowed my dying heart, my soul, to live and walk again…]

Toureina, the Shrine Maiden of Ash, confessed that when she later confronted Atlante, the Dean of the Osarius School, who had been promoted to one of the Eight Great Schools.

[I had always intended to tell him this after becoming a great mage, but now there's no way to do so…]