It was because things had become so perilous that the War Mages were hardly ever able to receive leave.
But he did not grow impatient, and instead scoured every tavern in Feldrian.
And so, several days later, he finally managed to find a War Mage.
In a very large tavern, at a table on the second floor, three or four people were gathered, sharing drinks.
All of them were wearing armor, but the surfaces of their armor were badly damaged, and dried blood was caked all over them. They seemed to have just returned from the battlefield.
The only exception was the middle-aged man seated in the center, who was not wearing armor.
Judging by the blue robe he wore, he appeared to be a mage.
A War Mage, most likely, who had been dispatched to the battlefield and had come out on leave.
Unaware that a pair of eyes was staring intently at him, the mage was eating and deeply engrossed in conversation.
‘I finally found one.’
A sudden gleam appeared in Damon’s eyes as he stood there blankly, watching him.
As if there were nothing more to think about, he strode straight toward him.
Srrrng.
The moment Damon approached, the men seated beside the mage rose all at once and drew their swords.
Their movements were extremely practiced.
One of them, who appeared to be the senior soldier, glared at Damon and growled fiercely.
“Stop. What business do you have?”
Damon spread his hands to show he had no ill intent.
By showing that he carried no weapon, he meant to ease their wariness.
“I mean no harm. I have come because I have a request to make of the mage.”
“A request?”
The man looked puzzled.
Judging by his appearance, this man was clearly a foreigner, and yet he had business with the mage he served…
A suspicious look appeared on his face.
That was only natural, for the mage was someone he had to protect even at the cost of his life.
On the battlefield, mages were ordinarily one of the most powerful assets, along with knights.
In particular, there was even a saying that only one who used mages well could be called a great commander. Such was the destructive power of mages.
But there was one prerequisite.
A mage had to be protected thoroughly.
This was an entirely different matter from the case of knights.
Both were certainly central forces in an army, but knights possessed the ability to protect themselves even in the midst of a chaotic melee.
Mages, however, had no such ability at all, for they were scholars devoted solely to mental discipline.
First of all, in terms of physical strength, mages were incomparably inferior to knights.
Moreover, casting magic took a great deal of time.
For that reason, when battle broke out, enemy soldiers poured all their efforts first into eliminating the mages on the opposing side.
Of course, the reverse was also true.
If a mage was lost in a foolish manner, that side would suffer an enormous loss.
For that reason, armies usually handpicked highly skilled soldiers and entrusted them with the role of guarding mages.
These were the Guards who protected mages.
Naturally, Guards never left a mage’s side under any circumstances.
Whether during meals or while sleeping, they remained right beside the mage and carried out their protection without fail.
As a result, even when a mage received leave, the Guards also received leave with him and had to accompany and protect him.
That was precisely why these men were here.
Recalling that fact, the man decided to refuse the other party’s request, considering even the slightest possibility of danger.
“I don’t know what this is about, but I cannot allow you to come any closer. Leave.”
An urgent expression appeared on Damon’s face.
He could not give up on a mage he had met only after such difficulty.
“This is an extremely important matter. If you still doubt me, you may search me…”
But the man cut him off firmly.
“It does not matter whether we search you or not. If I say no, then it is no. If you do not leave, we will have no choice but to use force. What will you do?”
The man glared fiercely and pointed his sword at Damon.
His conduct was truly exemplary, the sort that could have been written in a manual.
That, too, was only natural, for the man had become a mage’s Guard after overcoming truly fierce competition.
Of course, mages received literally first-class treatment in the army.
Therefore, the Guards who accompanied them also received treatment on a similar level, and soldiers who wished to become Guards lined up endlessly.
Having been appointed as a Guard through such a process, the man was trying to eliminate every possible risk with absolute thoroughness.
Just then, a low voice rang out.
“Wait a moment, Milton.”
At that voice, the man called Milton lowered his sword and respectfully stepped back.
At this point, he had done all that he needed to do.
The mage in the blue robe came walking out from the place where he had withdrawn.
The mage stood in a spot that the man could cover perfectly, then spoke to Damon.
“Now then, what is it? You said you had something to ask of me…”
With a relieved expression, Damon quickly began to speak.
“It is an honor to meet you. My request is…”
Upon hearing Damon’s request, the mage opened his eyes wide as if dumbfounded.
“S-so you are asking me to teach you magic?”
“That is correct. I have a mission that requires me to learn magic no matter what. So I will repay you later, whatever it takes. Please, teach me magic.”
Damon’s tone was filled with desperate emotion.
Damon was someone who had to learn magic, no matter what.
But the other party did not perceive Damon’s feelings at all.
Instead, he let out a laugh as though the whole thing were absurd.
“So, you want me to teach you magic? Huhuhu.”
As the mage burst into hearty laughter, the Guards beside him also sneered.
“Hahaha. Magic?”
“Kekeke. What a ridiculous fellow.”
Damon clenched his molars.
The mage did not understand his sincerity at all.
But since he was the one in the more desperate position, he pleaded again.
“This is truly important to me. I will do anything you ask, so please…”
At those words, the mage suddenly put on a serious face.
“Then how much will you pay?”
“What?”
Damon, not understanding what he meant, looked puzzled.
The mage, still maintaining a playful attitude, continued.
“Well, you asked me to teach you magic, did you not? Then surely you must pay tuition.”
Damon, bewildered by the completely unexpected words, nodded as if he understood.
“Yes, yes. How much should I pay? I don’t have much money…”
He tried to put his hand into his breast pocket.
He meant to take out all of the meager wages he had received while serving as a wall guard.
But at the mage’s next words, he froze where he stood.
“Of course, the more you pay, the better. But don’t worry. I’ll only take a reasonable amount… Let’s see. My leave is exactly one week, so how about ten sel a day? During that time, I will teach you with utmost sincerity.”
Only then did Damon realize that the other man’s intention was to mock him.
“I… I am serious.”
“Ah, of course I am serious as well. Though I may not be a mage of a particularly high Circle, I am confident that I can teach someone like you well enough. If you don’t believe me, shall I give you a demonstration right here?”
At the mage’s still jeering attitude, Damon silently shook his head.
He had judged that it would be difficult to learn magic from this man.
As Damon turned away without a word, mocking laughter burst out behind him.
“What a dull fellow. If you draw a sword, you ought to at least cut a radish.”
“You want to learn magic? Why not learn swordsmanship from me instead?”
Clack.
As Damon opened the door and stepped outside, a sudden surge of sorrow rose in his mind.
Why did he have to live here as the object of ridicule for countless people?
Was there truly no way for him to learn magic?
But when it came to tenacity, he yielded to no one, and so he silently steeled his resolve.
Judging from the situation, that mage clearly could not teach him.
Then he would have to find someone else.
With the determination to endure any humiliation, Damon quietly set out in search of another tavern.
“So the fellow still has not returned to the garrison…”
“Th-that is correct. According to our investigation, after being driven out of the magic faculty, he has not returned and has been wandering aimlessly around the city.”
Sergei looked puzzled as he watched Benitez stammer through his report.
“And what is the fellow doing?”
After hesitating briefly, Benitez soon reported what had been discovered.
“Yes. According to witnesses, he has been going from tavern to tavern looking for someone who will teach him magic. Continuously, for fifteen days.”
A puzzled expression appeared on Sergei’s face.
“Magic?”
“Th-that is correct.”
Perhaps because he had a guilty conscience, Benitez nodded while breaking out in a cold sweat.
He had already suffered a harsh rebuke from Sergei over the fact that he had assigned Damon to the magic faculty.
Of course, Sergei had personally signed the order appointing him as a guardsman, but assigning him to the lecture hall had clearly been an overreach of Benitez’s authority.
In truth, if the purpose had been to have him face medium-sized monsters as Benitez had proposed, he should have been stationed in the central plaza.
But through Garfield, the dean of the magic faculty, the fact that Damon was working in the lecture hall had gone straight to Sergei…
Sergei had immediately demoted Damon back to his original position as a wall guard.
And since he had summoned Benitez and given him a thorough scolding, Benitez was now completely cowed.
After hearing of Damon’s recent activities, Sergei reacted just as expected, with utter disbelief.
“He wants to learn magic at that age? Hah! Truly absurd. He must think magic is some child’s game. It seems he thought he could simply ask to be taught and learn without trouble, but that is out of the question.”
Benitez, who had been listening silently, gave a bitter smile.
Though he did feel pity for the foreigner’s situation, there was nothing more he could do.
To dispel his complicated feelings, he forced himself to speak.
“What shall we do? Shall I send the guardsmen to arrest him?”
“Is there any need to go that far?”
Sergei shook his head.
Now was not the time to move troops carelessly.
In particular, he could not send guardsmen into a place teeming with ordinary soldiers.
Even without that, public sentiment was extremely unsettled because of the indiscriminate conscription order.
Moreover, as befitted a duke of a nation, he had already grasped how ordinary soldiers regarded the guardsmen.
Since there was the slightest chance he might lose guardsmen, he decided to quietly observe how the situation unfolded.
“Simply keep watching him for now. If a month passes and he still has not returned…”
Having said that, Sergei raised a finger to his throat and made a slicing gesture.
“Dispose of him without attracting attention. If we send the Assassins we have been secretly raising, they should be able to eliminate him easily.”
“U-understood.”
Benitez bowed his head to show that he understood.
Recently, a strange rumor had been circulating through Feldrian.
It had begun because a foreigner of extremely hideous appearance had been wandering around the city.
“Have you heard the rumor lately?”
“What rumor?”
“The foreigner going around saying he wants to learn magic. Have you seen him?”
“Ah! That ugly-looking fellow? Of course I’ve seen him. How could I not? His appearance is so unusual that the moment I saw him, it was clearly engraved in my mind.”
“How can someone look like that? He was so grotesque that the food I ate that morning nearly came back up. And the amusing part is that he goes around only looking for mages on leave and begs them to teach him magic.”
“M-magic?”
“That’s right. He is so hideous that I cannot guess his age, but he looks at least well over forty. And for someone like him, he seems to speak our language quite fluently.”
“He must be mad. Trying to learn magic at that age… Even if one learns from childhood under a proper teacher, becoming a mage is difficult.”
“Could he be out of his mind?”
“Well, perhaps…”
Because his appearance was so unusual, and because he was going around saying he wanted to learn magic, rumors about Damon inevitably spread widely throughout Feldrian.