Enjoy the marshmallow in front of him now, and eat the new marshmallow later.
In the end, Danil’s choice caused quite a stir.
*
[Please take a look at this.]
[Huh?]
Danil took out the mid-grade elixir.
Titania’s eyes trembled.
[Wait. Is that by any chance a mid-grade elixir?]
[Yes.]
In that instant, the question that had been occupying her mind—“How can I protect Danil from Rainer?”—evaporated.
They said that when you were too shocked, you were struck speechless and your mind went bleached blank. This was exactly that.
[For real?]
[Pardon?]
[You didn’t drink it?]
[That’s correct.]
[Why?!?!?!]
The scream-like question rang out from beyond the communication crystal.
It was, if anything, the natural reaction.
[I wanted to check first. I can’t have it interfering with my work if I drink this.]
[What? What does that mean?]
[If I drink a mid-grade elixir, the quality of my mana will change, won’t it?]
[Well, of course it will… No. Wait. Danil, don’t tell me?]
Surely not? For real? He was joking, right?
[If my mana changes, my ability to control mana will also change. What I want to ask is whether the current me would be able to adjust to that.]
[Good heavens.]
Realizing what Danil was trying to say, Titania could not hide her astonishment.
‘This man… didn’t drink a mid-grade elixir because it might cause problems with his work? Seriously?’
It was absurd.
An ordinary mage would have drunk it at once, mana adjustment work or whatever be damned.
To advance one more step beyond the realm one currently stood in.
Was that not the desire of every mage, and something like a mage’s instinct?
She had long known that he was a mage unlike a mage, but she had never imagined it would be to this extent.
He was delaying taking an elixir because it might interfere with his work? What was this? A dream?
Since when had she been caught in an illusion spell?
After briefly losing her wits from the shock, Titania finally opened her mouth, stammering.
[S-so, first of all, the adjustment work, the adjustment work will be… quite difficult. For me, in my case, after I became mid-grade, it took me about fifteen days to finish adjusting.]
[If it took even you that long, Department Head, then it would take me more than ten times that.]
Danil nodded.
[I was right not to drink it after all. It’s a shame, but I’ll have to put off drinking it until later.]
[… Are you serious?]
[Of course. Didn’t you just confirm it for me, Department Head? That if I drink this, my current skills will regress. So how could I drink it? There’s still a long time left before the work is finished.]
[…….]
Titania was completely dumbfounded.
No matter the situation, the words she needed to say and the correct answer had always come to her immediately, but this was the exception.
She could not think of what she should answer, nor what the right answer was.
For the first time in her life, she felt like an idiot.
[Then I’ll leave this with the archducal heir for now. If it’s him, he’s trustworthy and the security will be certain.]
[… What reason are you planning to give him?]
[Hm? Can’t I just tell him exactly what I said just now?]
[… Yes. That’s not wrong. It isn’t wrong.]
Watching her subordinate tilt his head, his superior clutched her own.
Fine. It was good that he would not drink the elixir.
Strictly speaking, that thing was a bribe.
If he had taken it, Danil, without even realizing it himself, would have taken one step toward choosing to remain in the North.
But that did not mean she could simply feel relieved.
‘A mage who delays consuming an elixir to prevent it from interfering with his work? There’s no way that talent-collecting maniac will leave such an insane talent alone! Even I’d want him!!!’
Her mind was chaos itself.
A mage who could suppress his desires for the sake of work? As expected, Danil, you’re the best! But I wanted to be the only one who knew that! Why are you appealing to someone else with that charm!?
Push-and-pull? Is this push-and-pull? Ah, this is so damn annoying and frustrating!
What if he really gets stolen away like this?
No! That can’t happen!
As if I’d let someone else steal this insane, work-first rare creature from me!
[Department Head?]
When there was no answer for a long while, Danil tilted his head.
[Has the communication been cut off? Hello?]
[It’s perfectly fine, Danil. Sorry. I had something to think about for a moment.]
[I see.]
Titania, who had barely regained her senses, forced a smile.
[Leaving it with the archducal heir is… yes. Not a bad idea. Mm. Not bad.]
[Right.]
[Yes. Not bad at all.]
She was not confident what sort of expression she was making right now.
Should she be happy, or should she be angry? These complicated emotions pulled her every which way!
After ending the communication, she rubbed the space between her brows.
For the first time, she found herself irritated and frustrated not because her subordinate was lacking, but because he was too capable, and her head began to ache.
She simply could not see how she was supposed to resolve this problem.
“This is driving me insane.”
Titania clicked her tongue.
*
“That is what he said before he returned.”
“Good heavens.”
Even after hearing the report Cyril brought with his own ears, Rainer could not believe it.
Did that make any sense? No matter how many times he heard it, it sounded like a lie.
And yet the item in his hand was genuine.
“He’ll put off taking it because it might interfere with his work. He really said that?”
“Yes.”
“Ha, hahahahahaha!!!”
Rainer burst into loud laughter.
“Amazing. Cyril! We’ve truly met an incredible man!”
“I agree.”
“An elixir that anyone would covet! To think he can restrain himself from it through sheer sense of duty. A mage has accomplished something even the knightliest of knights would struggle to do!”
Rainer was sincere.
He prioritized the benefit of the organization over his own personal desires.
Danil was undoubtedly someone who considered that natural. Otherwise, how could he possibly make the choice to delay consuming an elixir?
Even among the knights under his command, there would not be many who could do the same thing.
‘This is a first. Such an intense temptation. I never experienced this even when I attended the Imperial Academy.’
A heart that had not wavered before the temptation of any beauty now surged.
It was funny that the one who had offered such sweet temptation was a male mage, but that did not matter.
Yes. The important thing was the single fact that his heart was pounding!
“Cyril.”
“Please give your orders.”
“Gather people and establish an operations headquarters. We are going to seriously devise a plan to steal Danil away. He is a talent who must not be tied down to something as insignificant as the Magic Tower.”
“I shall obey.”
Rainer took out whiskey and poured it into a glass.
Though Rainer generally avoided drinking during work, at this moment he could not endure without alcohol.
With every glass he downed, he could see it before his eyes.
In the not-too-distant future, when he had become archduke and ruled the North, there would be one magic knight standing at his side to assist him.
“This is driving me insane.”
He gave a faint laugh.
*
To state the conclusion first, Danil’s choice resulted in simultaneously stimulating the desires of two great figures: a candidate for master of the Magic Tower, and the heir to the archduchy of the North.
One sought to protect him.
The other sought to steal him.
If Danil had known this, his sense of absurdity would have packed up and left.
All he had done was spout a few excuses so that he could enjoy his personal desire known as marshmallows. How could he have known that this would move figures of such magnitude?
“Mnya. Marshmallow. Kooool.”
Danil, who did not know even in his dreams that any of this was happening, was merely lying on the bed in his quarters, recovering from the fatigue of an all-nighter.
If the lyrics “Crushed beneath the disaster I brought upon myself~” came to mind, it was probably no coincidence.
*
The streets of Kazan were in a festive mood.
As night fell, the streets overflowed with alcohol and song.
The Bima tribe had invaded, yet there were almost no dead or injured. It was thanks to a single hero.
In war, there was nothing that made people’s hearts tremble quite like the existence of a hero.
In the square, people danced and sang, loudly calling out the hero’s name.
“Danil~ Danil~ Hero of the Defense~”
“Barbarians~ Barbarians~ tuck your tails and run away. If you don’t, we’ll roast you to death~”
Songs praising the hero and songs disparaging the highland tribes rang out all over the streets.
People laughed and enjoyed the festival.
On this day, Kazan was not a city of war, but a city of celebration.
However… not everyone was enjoying this festival.
—Scratch, scratch, scratch.
An empty hut, its occupants having gone out to enjoy the festival.
A man sat with a small lamp lit, writing a letter.
Like a professional scribe, he wrote with astonishing speed and accuracy. It was not a level of skill that could be attained with just a day or two of practice.
The problem was the characters being written on the paper.
If someone from Kazan had seen it, they would have immediately picked up a club and smashed the man’s head in.
Characters no person from Kazan could ever read. At the same time, characters they absolutely could not possibly know!
That was right.
What he was writing was the language of the barbarians.
“Go.”
—Flap!
The carrier pigeon flew into the sky.
On the report tied to the carrier pigeon’s leg, Danil’s name was clearly written.
The carrier pigeon crossed over Kazan.
Below it were people enjoying their drinks, people singing songs, and soldiers who had loosened their guard in the intoxication of the festival and were resting.
None of the people enjoying the festival knew.
They did not know that there was a traitor blinded by money who had turned his back on his country and his compatriots. Nor did they know that this traitor had informed the highland tribes of the name of the hero who had protected Kazan today.
One loach muddies the water.
It was a proverb meaning that a small cause or action could have a great effect on the whole.
The same was true now.
Because of the actions of a single indefinite-term contract worker, the entire North was about to be shaken.