If I had to be honest, whether someone was going around spreading poison or killing people was not something that greatly concerned me.
Of course, if someone were dying right in front of me, I would help them, but I had no particular intention of getting involved beyond that.
Even at this very moment, wars were breaking out somewhere in the world, and people were dying for all sorts of reasons.
When I thought about it carefully, I supposed a great many things had changed compared to the old days.
There had been a time when I ran all over the world, saying I would save the people dying here and there.
But at some point, I realized I no longer saw each and every person as a precious life.
It could not be helped. If I grieved over every single person who died in what was, to me, an extremely short span of time, my mind would not have lasted.
But that was that, and this was this.
Not caring was one thing, but the moment that mage’s irritating actions caught my eye, he was out.
Then he had to die.
That said, it felt like a waste to simply kill a mage who, at a glance, seemed fairly skilled.
So since he was going to die anyway, I decided to use him as Cassian’s practical training material, so that he might be of even the slightest use to the world.
If he died at the hands of someone who would become an archmage in the not-too-distant future, that nameless mage would surely consider it an honor.
“……But do we really have to go now? We could go tomorrow.”
We were climbing a mountain path in the direction the farmer woman from earlier in the day had told us.
Beside me, I could hear Cassian grumbling.
When I gave him a rough explanation that the guy was a villain, he didn’t seem dissatisfied, but his face said he wondered why we had to go like this during sleeping hours.
Perhaps it was even more so because we had left Illiana behind, since it could be dangerous.
“He’ll probably move early tomorrow in his own way. We’re going to do it anyway, so let’s get it over with and go back.”
I wrapped mana around my legs and advanced at a speed where two or three trees passed behind me every time I blinked.
If there was a large rock, I leaped over it, and if the slope was steep, I simply kicked off quickly and climbed.
When I had seen it during the day, it had looked decently far away, but once I used magic, it was not that great a distance.
“Ah, Master. I think it’s over there.”
“Yeah, I can definitely feel it.”
The higher we climbed, the more I could see mana leaking out from just below the summit.
It was faint, as though he were hiding in a cave, but judging by the feeling, it was definitely a person, not some bear or tiger-type demonic beast.
Sure enough, after searching briefly in the direction where the mana felt strongest, the entrance to a cave hidden by the undergrowth revealed itself.
When I peeked inside, I saw that the inner part of the cave had been blocked off with a wooden wall and door to form a house, and beside it, a mana lamp was lighting the place.
It was completely blocked off, so I could not see properly, but the density of the mana seeping out was already quite considerable.
“Get ready in advance.”
“Okay.”
Cassian aimed the tip of his staff toward the entrance, circulated the mana inside his body, and concentrated it into the staff.
Cassian’s eyes, which usually seemed somewhat distracted, were now aimed solely at one point as he entered a state of extreme concentration.
It was good growth.
As his body began to grow rapidly, I could see his rank rising month by month. This was the taste of raising a disciple.
I pointed at the door with my finger and cast a spell as though firing a gun.
“Bang.”
―――Boom!! Craaack!!
Mana converted into the form of pure kinetic energy flew straight toward the door, knocking the door and wall backward with a thunderous roar.
Stone powder and dust rose up, obstructing the view, but to Cassian, who had already locked onto the opponent through mana sight, it was not much of a problem.
Almost at the same time as the wall collapsed, Cassian transformed the mana condensed in his staff into a spell.
【Arc Discharge】.
He had used it so often that it had now become Cassian’s main technique.
Pale blue electricity shot forward at a speed no human could react to.
Because of the cloud of dust, the spell was slightly dispersed and absorbed, but it still had enough power to render a single person unable to fight.
However.
“Hoo, uninvited guests again.”
A deep voice came from inside. There was no tremor in it; instead, it was filled with annoyance.
No matter how I looked at it, he did not sound like someone who had been scorched by powerful electricity.
As the cloud of dust slowly cleared, the owner of the voice gradually came into view.
Though he had shaved, the face that still bore a thick shadow of stubble looked younger than I had expected.
His hair was a vivid brown, and more than anything, the fact that there were almost no wrinkles on his face made it possible to roughly guess his age.
The monocle over his left eye seemed to be a magic tool, judging by the faint mana I could feel from it.
The staff he held, which I had no idea when he had picked up, looked as though it had been carved from a spirit tree several centuries old, and the mana crystal shining at its end alone seemed worth dozens of gold coins.
Cassian slowly looked him up and down, and though it was not obvious, a faint fear of his opponent overlaid his face.
“Master…… I don’t think I can win.”
“He’s stronger than I thought. But you can win.”
The amount of mana conveyed through mana sight was truly considerable. He was probably slightly superior even to Morwen, who had been close to the threshold of becoming an archmage.
Judging by the quality of his formulas, his rank would be lower by about one and a half levels, but compared to Cassian, there was quite a gap.
But if I were asked whether he was an opponent Cassian could not beat, well.
I did not remember raising Cassian into a mage who was that weak in real combat.
“Do it as if you were facing me.”
“……Okay.”
Cassian nodded, focused on his opponent, raised his mana, and in an instant composed three spells.
What manifested were fire, water, and electricity.
When a whole cask’s worth of water suddenly gathered in midair and rushed at him, the mage blocked it with defensive magic as though it were nothing.
A little of the water he failed to block splashed over and wet the mage’s body, but he treated it as trivial and did not so much as blink.
Immediately afterward, a ball made of blazing fire charged into the defensive magic that had blocked the water and caused an explosion.
Most of the water remained as it was, but even the small amount that evaporated was enough to create steam that obscured the view.
“Excellent casting speed. Your mana is also at an impressive level. But with only that, you cannot……”
Ignoring the mage’s words, Cassian wrapped an anti-physical barrier around his whole body, raised his sparking staff, and charged.
His physical enhancement magic, which had now reached a high level, strengthened Cassian’s legs and helped him close the distance to the mage in the blink of an eye.
The mage’s eyes widened in surprise, as though he had not expected another mage to charge at him.
Still, as if it were no big deal, he deployed defensive magic against Cassian in the same way.
Then a sharp spear made of rock, cast by the mage, rapidly rushed in from Cassian’s blind spot.
But Cassian chose to trust his anti-physical barrier and endure it with his body, and while the rock spear pierced the barrier, its force was greatly reduced, leaving it to merely lodge in his back.
And then the staff Cassian swung touched the defensive magic.
The result was instantaneous.
Cassian’s staff, made of Immutable Gold, shattered the defense with ridiculous ease and struck the body of the mage whose clothes had been soaked with water.
“Gaaaaaah!!!”
Because the water made the electricity conduct extremely well, the mage’s body leaped once like a freshly caught live fish.
At the same time, the mage struck by the staff was sent flying, rolled several times across the ground, and slammed hard into a bookshelf attached to the wall.
It was a little amusing, since he looked like Cassian when he was being given electric shocks.
Meanwhile, Cassian panted and caught his breath, apparently having strained his stamina by pouring out too much mana in a short time.
“Ghhh…… What, what is this……”
The mage planted a trembling hand on the ground and stood up.
It was impressive that he had not let go of his staff even while being electrocuted and sent flying.
No sooner had he stood than Cassian rushed in and launched a mana-infused kick.
“Khaak!!”
The mage, kicked in the chest, spat up a little blood and rolled several times again, this time slamming into a bare cave wall.
He slowly braced himself against the cave wall and supported his body, but he swayed little by little from the pain.
At that moment.
“Why, why is it! Why does no one understand!! No matter how much I explain, why does everyone say that I am in the wrong!!”
Perhaps because he had unexpectedly been driven into a corner, the mage suddenly clutched his face with his hand and began shouting as if delivering an impassioned speech.
A faint madness gleamed in his eyes. He was certainly a lunatic.
Considering he had not even learned black magic, that was impressive in its own way.
“What do you mean? You’re the one who spread poison in the river.”
I picked up a crude glass bottle that had been sitting on a nearby table and held it up with a shake.
Inside was the same mana poison I had seen in the stream earlier that day.
“That’s right!! I did it!! For everyone’s sake!!”
“What?”
“In order to cure poison, one naturally needs people who have been poisoned!! It was unavoidable in order to test the antidote!!”
As he slowly stood up, he shouted in a voice so forceful that spit flew from his mouth.
“Do you know how many people have been saved by the antidote I made!! If it weren’t for me, all of them would have died!!”
As he glared at us with bloodshot eyes and approached, Cassian, overwhelmed by his momentum, unknowingly took a slight step back.
“At most, it was only hundreds. By having a few hundred suffer, I saved tens of thousands of lives!!”
In other words, sacrificing the few for the many.
It was the logic that if it meant saving more lives, a small sacrifice could be willingly borne.
If it had truly been to the extent that people suffered from stomachaches for a few days and then got over it, I might have pretended not to see it and passed by.
“To that end, I kidnapped a few people!! And so what if some people died whenever I ran experiments!! Why is everyone so desperate to tear me apart over such a trivial thing!!”
Of course, this guy had crossed the line.
“A wanted notiiiice??? After all I have done for those things, how dare they do this to meeeek……”
As the mage continued spouting incoherent nonsense, Cassian’s staff came crashing down onto the crown of his head.
Though it was not heavy, the attack was loaded with overwhelming speed, caving in his skull and sending the mage’s soul beyond to the other world.
Cassian looked down at the corpse with a somewhat unpleasant expression, but in any case, one matter had been resolved.
It was unfortunate for the villagers, who had mistaken him for a kind mage helping the village, but that could not be helped.
All that remained was to heal Cassian’s back, set fire to this place, and burn the research materials and corpse.
And we had to go back quickly.
If we went to sleep too late, I would be tired again tomorrow.