Chapter 10. The Mage Academy (1)
Rattle, rattle!
The rattling carriage made its way along a deep mountain path.
Inside, the boy and girl sat facing each other, spending an awkward stretch of time.
Of course, this feeling of “awkwardness” was something only Sid felt alone.
The girl in the white dress pressed Sid with a face full of curiosity.
“What’s your name? Where are you from? You’re a priest, right? Right?”
At the questions pouring out like machine-gun fire, he was at a loss for words.
The girl waited for Sid’s answer, her emerald eyes sparkling.
The boy, who had been wetting his lips, subtly raised his head and looked at her.
At that moment, the white-clad girl’s face seemed to radiate light.
“My name is Sid. I came from the monastery up above, and I’m on my way to the Academy. Thank you for giving me a ride.”
“Heeh! There’s a monastery up there?”
At the awkwardly uttered first words, the blonde girl’s mouth fell open.
Between her pink lips, snow-white teeth were revealed—impossibly pretty.
Unable to hold her gaze, Sid looked around sheepishly, and the girl’s excited voice leaked out.
“Going to the Academy? It’s not far from our house! What a coincidence! Right?”
Excited all by herself, the girl giggled.
Her eyes never left the boy, who was like a potato charred black, as if wondering what was so fascinating about him.
Nodding to herself, the girl smiled brightly and held out her hand.
Moving on to a self-introduction without being prompted, she seemed exactly like the stereotypical noble young lady.
“I’m Elizabeth Agnarsdottier Aren! We look about the same age, so let’s be friends!”
“Huh... huh?”
“I said let’s be friends!”
Sid was flustered for several reasons.
If he took that hand now, it would be the first time he’d held a girl’s hand since birth, and if they became friends, it would be the first time he’d made a “female” friend since birth.
Moreover, he couldn’t even memorize the whole name she had rattled off like a magic spell.
After trying to pronounce it a few times and getting tongue-tied, the boy repeated the name.
“Elizabeth Agnarsdot... what?”
“My name’s hard, right? I think so too! Just call me Liz. Liz Aren!”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Sid.”
“Sid? Is that the end of your name? And I told you to speak casually!”
At the repeated questions, his mind grew hazy.
Like a puppy that had woken up from a long afternoon nap, the girl’s energy showed no signs of stopping in the late afternoon.
When the boy finally exhaled and grasped the girl’s hand, he felt soft flesh at his fingertips.
Something as soft as a comforter dried well on a summer day made him feel as though he might drift off to sleep.
“Nice to meet you. Hehe.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
The two, finally at ease, exchanged greetings.
While the carriage proceeded along the hill, their conversation continued.
Stories of Sid, who had lived in a monastery, and stories of the girl, who had lived in a city.
Having grown up in different places, each found the other’s stories fascinating.
Of course, there were things Sid hadn’t told Liz.
It was the story of the “passbook that stores mana” in his chest pocket.
Perhaps growing bored despite their cozy conversation, Sid untied the bundle in his arms.
A spare priest’s robe and a recommendation letter written by Chepeshu.
And four potatoes he had planned to eat on the way were revealed.
Liz’s eyes went wide at the sight of fist-sized potatoes grown in the highlands.
“What’s this? Potatoes?”
“Yeah. Want one?”
He wondered what use a single boiled potato could be to a nobleman’s daughter.
However, Liz nodded with an innocent expression, and a cooled yet fluffy potato was placed in the girl’s hand.
As the girl watched with wide, attentive eyes, Sid took the first bite.
Liz followed suit and bit into the potato.
Considering the distance between nobles and commoners seen in books, this wouldn’t be a very pleasant experience for Liz.
Even so, a bright, innocent smile spread across the girl’s white face.
“Wow, it’s sweet! Delicious! Did you grow these yourself at the monastery?”
“Really? They taste even better when you eat them right after cooking.”
At the words praising the monastery potatoes, Sid felt a surge of pride.
As if to prove her words of deliciousness were no lie, Liz carved away at the potato bite by bite, and soon devoured the whole thing.
Watching her eat with such relish, Sid felt his guarded heart melting away.
While the two conversed, the carriage left the mountain foothills and climbed a high hill.
Poking his head out the window, he saw a city where a massive river wound its way through.
It was a city the boy had only ever seen in writing and pictures.
‘Wow...’
Commoners’ houses with white walls and red roofs.
The village situated alongside the winding river was the first village he had ever seen in his life.
Rattle, rattle.
The carriage cut across the village.
People selling goods, people haggling.
And even the guards patrolling with silver weapons were all fascinating to the boy.
Since they had departed at dawn, the afternoon sun was blazing by the time Sid arrived at the village.
Soon the coachman bought lunch, and once again, things the boy was experiencing for the first time unfolded before him.
Brown bread with white steam rising in puffs.
When Sid hesitated, Liz smiled brightly.
“Can’t you eat meat? I heard some priests can’t eat meat.”
“Ah, no! It’s not that I can’t—I just never had any!”
“Then try it! Is this your first time?”
At the girl’s question, Sid nodded sheepishly.
A flush spread across his face, visible even over his darkly tanned skin.
As if enjoying this sight, Liz bit into the brown bread.
At the crunching sound, something stretching out long caught the boy’s eye.
‘Then I will too...!’
Taking Liz’s tasting as his cue, Sid also bit into the bread.
The moment he took a bite, a sweet and tangy aroma hit his throat, and inside, something greasy tangled with the crunchy bread in his mouth.
And as he pulled back his head, the white something that Liz had shown him stretched from the boy’s mouth as well.
‘Ah, so this is cheese and bacon!’
The boy’s knowledge was all learned from books.
Therefore, even the “bacon cheese toast” seasoned with sweet chili sauce was something the boy was experiencing for the first time in his life.
‘Hoo, hoo!’
Sid blew on the hot toast and swallowed it.
A smile spread across the boy’s face at the joy of a taste he had never known in the monastery.
The thin, watery barley porridge that Murphy used to make and the various potato dishes had long been forgotten.
Liz stared intently at Sid’s face, wondering why he found so much joy in blowing on the hot cheese to stretch it out.
Clip-clop, clip-clop.
The carriage that had crossed through the market proceeded along the river.
The sun that had risen high was setting, and the crops situated on the plains were dyed a crimson hue.
Having polished off a potato and the toast, Liz leaned against the window, fast asleep.
Barley grains ripening while bathed in sunlight.
When he had read it in a book, he had thought the sentence beautiful, but seeing a barley field in person was truly nothing short of a spectacle.
Only when the sun had set and twilight had arrived did the carriage reach a hill slightly apart from the village.
A massive mansion set against the deep blue twilight like a folding screen.
Awakening from her sleep, Liz waved toward the gray mansion, and Sid realized it was Liz’s home.
It was truly as magnificent as the fancy carriage.
“We’ve arrived, miss!”
They had arrived at the gray mansion only after the sun had completely set.
If he had walked on foot, he would only have reached the village where they ate the cheese toast by now.
Sid was rather lucky.
The coachman who let Liz and Sid off gave a brief greeting and left for somewhere.
‘Things are going a little too smoothly.’
It literally felt like things were going too well.
When he first boarded the carriage, he had expected to run into at least bandits or monsters.
After all, in many novels, this was exactly when an attack would happen and the protagonist would show off his skills.
Now that it had ended without incident, the boy felt the fatigue he had been holding back flooding in.
“Is it really okay for me to go in?”
“Of course! If you’re my friend, Father will welcome you gladly too. Besides, it’s only proper to host lost travelers or priests in one’s home.”
Beaming from ear to ear since their first meeting, Liz stepped forward confidently.
A well-tended garden stretched to meet the darkening sky, and she strode boldly along, clutching her dress hem, the fabric sparkling in the moonlight.
Following her golden hair sparkling in the moonlight, Liz arrived at the great gate and kicked it with a thud.
Boom!
“What are you doing!”
“This is how I say hello!”
Sid jumped in surprise, but Liz grinned impishly.
As if this happened every time.
It might have been a privilege allowed only to the princess of this house.
Just as Liz was stamping her feet in front of the gate and about to kick it again, the huge door opened.
It seemed they had been waiting for the girl, as the door did not take long to open.
“Who is it?”
A pale man appeared through the slightly opened gap.
A gaunt frame with long, flowing gray hair.
Though his clothes were refined and luxurious, the gloomy air emanating from him erased the charm of his attire.
Especially since it had been a while since he shaved, a bristly beard like a chestnut burr decorated his jaw.
“Father!”
“Welcome home, Liz!”
As the girl in the white dress ran to him, a bright voice leaked out of the man.
The man, as gloomy as the gray mansion, welcomed his daughter with crinkled eyes.
It was hard to tell where the gloomy atmosphere from just moments ago had gone.
The man Sid had assumed was merely the mansion’s steward turned out to be its master.
“And this is?”
After their noisy reunion, the man turned toward Sid.
Skin burned brown and a rustic, ashen priest’s robe.
And on top of that, close-cropped hair with no sense of style—his eyes went wide.
“I am Sid, who left the monastery today. Your daughter told me to follow... I apologize for the intrusion.”
“He’s my new friend, Father! The road was blocked by a rock and he helped! I heard he’s on his way to the Mage Academy! Let him stay at our house today and send him off tomorrow. Hmm? Hmm?”
“You left the monastery today?”
A smile spread across the master’s face at his daughter’s coquettish tone.
However, while his daughter was cute, putting up a dirty priest for the night was another matter entirely.
Just as he resigned himself to sleeping outdoors if sent away, the mansion owner’s kind invitation came.
He did not seem to be a stingy man despite his appearance.
“Please come in. There are plenty of spare rooms.”
“Ah, thank you!”
“Come in! Welcome to our home!”
Following the man into the mansion, all the lights were off in every room, unlike the grand exterior.
It seemed candles were lit only along the usual paths, and going up the stairs, a small fireplace appeared.
The man threw in a thick log and pointed to an empty chair.
“Please sit here and rest. I’ll warm some bathwater, so feel free to wash up. It seems there’s much to do since the servants have all left for the day, hoho.”
The man moved about the house.
Having changed into light clothes, Liz also helped prepare the meal, and Sid enjoyed the hospitality he received as a guest and changed into clean clothes.
Though it was merely “Clean Priest’s Robe No. 2.”
“Please follow me. It’s nothing fancy, but it should suffice for a meal.”
Even to Sid, who was around his son’s age, the master of the mansion did not drop his formal speech.
Perhaps he was a stiff man who used honorifics with everyone except his own daughter.
In his way of speaking, one could even sense a distance that kept strangers at bay.
“Watch your step; it’s dark.”
“Thank you.”
The man pointed to the candlelit hallway and walked ahead.
Walking down the hallway, dozens of small rooms came into view.
Who would have known that the first house he would stay in after leaving the monastery would be such a massive mansion?
And at the end of the hallway they were walking down, there was one slightly open door.
‘Huh?’
A room from which purple mana slowly crept out.
The man quietly closed the door and guided him to the dining room.
“This way.”
“Ah, yes, thank you.”
Sid recalled the mana from beyond the door and furrowed his brow.
His gaze kept drifting back to the low-lying moisture and cloying fragrance.
‘What was that?’
- To be continued in Chapter 11 -