[A-an intermediate elixir? Not a potion?]
[As if I couldn’t tell a potion from an elixir. He even offered me tea, so I had a cup. That Frost Black Tea is something else. I thought the mana recovery effect was just a rumor, but it turned out to be true.]
[Even Frost Black Tea?!]
[Yes. And he seems to overestimate me. It’s a bit burdensome. I’m not that impressive a man, so I’m not sure I can live up to his expectations.]
[Overestimate? What did he say?]
[Hmm. Well. He said my abilities are those of a mage, but my spirit is like that of a knight.]
[……!]
[I nearly jumped out of my skin when he jokingly called me Sir Danil.]
Danil chuckled and spoke as if it were nothing, but Titania could not take it that way.
Her heart seemed to drop into her stomach.
‘Good heavens! How on earth did he notice?!’
She knew Danil’s true nature.
A mage unlike a mage.
A mutant whose abilities were those of a mage, but whose inner self was closer to a laborer or a soldier.
It was Danil’s secret, known only to her. Yet now, the number of people who knew that secret had increased by one.
‘How on earth… Ah!’
She bit her lip.
A piece of information she had forgotten until now came to mind.
‘Come to think of it, that man’s nickname was the Talent-Collecting Maniac!!!’
In the not-so-distant past, Reiner had enrolled in the Imperial Capital Academy and created a legend still spoken of to this day.
The Talent-Collecting Maniac! A madman for talent who poured vast sums of money into collecting any renowned talent, regardless of status!
By the time he graduated, the number of talents he had taken north exceeded a staggering one hundred.
Among them were not only academy students, but professors and teaching assistants as well.
Thanks to that, he was a great figure and an eccentric who had given rise to the not-quite-joking ghost story that the Imperial Capital Academy had nearly had to close for a semester.
Titania trembled.
‘Did I just send a talent to the Talent-Collecting Maniac?’
“Aaaaaaah!!!”
A scream slipped out of her unconsciously.
Once she realized how foolish a thing she had done, she simply could not endure it.
They said he had quieted down after returning to the North, but there was no way his true nature had gone anywhere. And yet she had made such an absurd mistake!
[Chief? Is something wrong?]
[N-no, nothing at all! I just had a sudden headache!]
[Are you overworked? Please don’t push yourself. Your health comes before work.]
[Yes. You’re right, Danil.]
Hiding her thoughts behind a smile, she asked casually.
[More importantly, Danil. Did the Grand Duke’s heir perhaps offer you an honorary post or some position?]
[There was no talk of that.]
[Good. If such a topic comes up, don’t answer on the spot. Contact me first. It’s a matter that requires consultation.]
[Consultation?]
[Yes. Even a simple honorary position could turn into a political issue between the Magic Tower and the North. Things are sensitive enough as it is, aren’t they? There’s no harm in being careful.]
[I see. You’re right, Chief. Understood. I’ll do that.]
[Good. Ahem. And there’s something I’d like to ask.]
[Please go ahead.]
[How is the North? I’d like to hear your impressions, Danil.]
She asked with a forced smile.
She had to confirm it.
The true feelings of this man who had received not only an intermediate elixir from Reiner, but even the title of Sir Danil!
[Hmm. It’s a good place. The people are kind, there’s plenty of good food, and the scenery is incredible. Personally, I think it’s nicer than my hometown.]
[I-I see.]
Her expression stiffened.
[I think it would be livable if only the weather weren’t so bad. But I just can’t get used to this cold. Especially at night, my lungs hurt every time I breathe, to the point that I’m sick of it. I have no idea how people live in a place like this.]
[I see!]
Her expression brightened.
‘Good! It’s still safe. I believed in you, Danil! That’s right! I even taught you magic, so there’s no way you’d switch sides right away!’
Titania let out a sigh of relief inwardly.
Of course, it was still too early to feel at ease.
The talent thief had already begun to move. If she simply sat back, it was obvious what would happen.
‘How shameless, setting his sights on a talent I claimed first! As if I’d let him steal him!’
Cursing Reiner, who in an instant had gone from a political connection she needed to befriend to a competitor she needed to keep at a distance, she pressed her fingers against her temple.
How could she protect Danil, who had been dispatched to the North, from his clutches?
An unexpected difficulty made her head ache.
[Oh, right. Chief. Come to think of it, there’s something I’d like to ask.]
[What is it? Go ahead, anything at all.]
[Actually, you see.]
[…Pardon???]
Her expression froze.
*
The next day. Danil, who had woken early in the morning, went to the castle where Reiner was staying.
“Oh my. Sir Danil.”
Cyril, whom he happened to meet in front of the office, greeted him.
“What brings you here so early?”
“This is perfect. There’s a favor I’d like to ask of you, Sir Cyril.”
“A favor. What is it?”
Cyril asked.
The man before her was a talent her lord coveted. She intended to grant most ordinary requests.
“I’d like you to hold on to this for me.”
“Huh?”
But she had not expected to hear a request like this.
When Danil took the intermediate elixir from his breast pocket and showed it to her, Cyril’s expression stiffened.
“W-wait. Why this?”
It was shocking enough that he had not drunk it, but he was giving it back to her?
What was this? Did it mean he had no intention of becoming her lord’s subordinate, so she should take it back?
“Are you perhaps saying that you refuse the reward from the Grand Duke’s heir?”
“Of course not. Didn’t I tell you? I’m asking you to hold on to it.”
“To keep it for you, you mean? Why on earth?”
“I don’t intend to drink it right now.”
“Pardon?”
Why did this man keep saying things she could not understand?
“Wh-why not? If you drink this, the quality of your mana will rise by at least one level, you know? Needless to say, your realm will advance as well.”
“You’re right. Since I’m around the lower Expert level right now, reaching at least the middle level would be certain.”
“You know that, and yet why?”
“That’s why I’m not drinking it. It would be a loss.”
“Pardon???”
The more she spoke with this man, the more she felt as though she were becoming an idiot.
They were using the same language, so why could she not understand him?
Advancing in realm would be a loss?
For a mage, was advancement not a value equal to life itself?
“If I drink this, the quality of my mana will rise. A view I’ve never seen before will be waiting for me.”
“Well, of course.”
“If the view changes, that means the state of my mana changes. In other words, my ability to control magic, which is tuned to my current realm, will also change.”
“…!!!”
Only then did she realize what Danil was trying to say.
“So what you mean is… if your realm rises, the precision of your magic may decrease, so you’re postponing taking the elixir?”
“Yes.”
Danil nodded.
“My current sense of mana control is perfectly tuned to the state of a 5th Circle lower Expert. If my realm rises, that will be thrown off. Since I’m no genius, it will take me ages to readjust. Naturally, my magical ability will decline during that time. At the very least, while I’m working, shouldn’t I avoid anything that would reduce my work efficiency?”
Cyril stared blankly at Danil.
Before her, Danil placed the intermediate elixir down.
“For me right now, advancing in realm would be regression, not evolution. Once the barbarian subjugation work is finished, I’ll take it then, with time to spare. So please hold on to it. I ask this of you.”
Cyril was stunned. She had no choice but to be.
The desire to advance in realm, something everyone who handled mana clung to desperately. And he was postponing it because it might interfere with his work! What mage in the world could display such restraint?
She could state with certainty that, other than the man before her, it would be impossible.
‘A mage whose spirit is that of a knight.’
The words Reiner had spoken echoed in her ears.
Her lord’s judgment had been accurate.
The mage before her was a knight.
A knight among knights, possessing a noble will and ironlike self-restraint that no knight she had ever seen had possessed.
Cyril bowed her head to Danil.
“I pay my respects to your choice.”
“My respects? You’re too kind.”
“I mean it. In respect for Sir Danil’s choice, we will hold on to this for a while. I will inform the Grand Duke’s heir on your behalf.”
“Thank you. I’ll leave it to you.”
Having finished his business, Danil turned around.
As Cyril watched his back while he left the castle, her expression was filled with respect.
*
‘Thank goodness. I was worried she might be offended. Well, if I say it would interfere with work, how could she refuse?’
On the way back.
Danil, having left the castle, stretched.
‘With this, I won’t have to fret over losing the intermediate elixir.’
Danil was a mage too.
If he went by his feelings, he wanted to take the intermediate elixir immediately.
They said he could become a mage of a higher realm than he was now; he was not a person with enough patience to endure that.
It was just that this case was special.
‘Right now, I already have a marshmallow I can enjoy.’
Danil stopped for a moment and chanted a spell.
“Magic Missile.”
—Flash!
An arrow of light split the air and struck an icicle at least twenty meters away with precision, knocking it down.
“Yes. This is it.”
After confirming once again that his magical ability had improved vastly in range and precision compared to before, Danil smiled in satisfaction.
‘I’m glad I read the marshmallow story.’
Danil thought it was fortunate that he was a reincarnator.
*
Do you know the marshmallow story?
It is a self-help fable based on a psychological experiment in which, if you endure for a set amount of time while leaving one marshmallow in front of you, you receive a bonus marshmallow.
Danil’s current situation was exactly that.
As a result of enduring a full month of harsh training with Titania, he had received, as a reward, the marshmallow that was perfectly attuned mana control.
He had only just begun to chew, tear into, taste, and enjoy it.
In that situation, another marshmallow had suddenly appeared: the intermediate elixir.
If he ate it right now, he would gain the benefit of reaching a higher realm. However.
‘I still haven’t properly enjoyed the marshmallow I got first. But if I eat this… that marshmallow will disappear, won’t it?’
Then what should he do?
The conclusion Danil reached was simple.
‘Both. If I’m a mage, I should do things like a mage and take both!’
For now, he would enjoy to his heart’s content the marshmallow of perfectly refined mana control.
Then, later, when he had grown tired of it, he could eat the intermediate elixir marshmallow he had received as a reward.
A plan that was greedy, yet reasonable and efficient!
“Maybe I should plagiarize a self-help book someday. I think it’d be a huge hit.”
Danil stretched as he said, in an offhand tone, a plan that might change the history of this world.
“Haahm. I should hurry back and rest. I’m sleepy.”
Yawning, Danil headed for his lodgings.
Without the slightest thought as to what consequences the choice he had made because he wanted to eat both marshmallows would bring.