The journey continued, and time flowed on as always, waiting for no one.
As I realized every year, seasons were things that, the moment you thought they had arrived, would somehow already be over.
Iliana and Rutina had become new members of our little group, and we had set out again just as spring was beginning.
But now spring had long since gone far away, and even early summer had passed; it would not be wrong to call it midsummer.
Of course, it was likely hotter because we had come farther south, but it was also true that that much time had passed.
Outside the window was a night where the Milky Way flowed across a sky as black as ink.
The light magic I had set afloat in the air softly illuminated the inn room where I was staying.
On top of the large backpack placed in the corner, Rutina was sleeping soundly beneath a blanket.
I sat on the wooden chair in the room, wedged a fountain pen between the index and middle fingers of my left hand, and spun it round and round.
Then, after briefly sorting out my thoughts, I began writing in the small notebook I held in my right hand.
Just as I was writing the first sentence, there was a knock at the door, and then, without any pause, it opened.
I glanced over to see who it was, and Iliana shuffled timidly into the room.
“Teacher…… I, I can’t……”
Iliana spoke in a voice that sounded close to tears. From her expression, it was plain to see she was frightened.
“Okay. You don’t have to force yourself. Sleep here.”
“Okay……”
Iliana quietly nodded, climbed onto the bed, and lay down neatly in the corner.
When I set the fountain pen floating in the air and stroked her head, she smiled faintly, as if she had finally relaxed a little.
Ever since I had first met Iliana, while she was fine after falling asleep, she could only fall asleep properly if I was always right beside her.
She couldn’t live her entire life like that, so recently I had tried a few times to have her sleep alone, but it seemed she was not ready yet.
After stroking her head for a little while, I picked up the fountain pen again and continued writing in the notebook.
“Teacher, what are you writing?”
Iliana, who had been lying down and watching me, seemed to grow curious about what I was writing and asked.
“A diary.”
“A diary…… What’s that?”
“It’s a short record of what happened each day.”
I did not remember exactly when it had started, but at some point, I had begun keeping a diary steadily.
It was not something I particularly hid, but since I usually wrote it when I was alone, many of the people around me did not know I kept one.
If I had nothing to write, even one line was fine, so I wrote something. For example, what I had eaten that day, or if there truly was nothing to write, the shape of the moon.
Because I wanted to leave behind the memories of the life I had lived so far. Naturally, not for future generations, but for myself.
In a manner of speaking, it was like a token proving the continuity of my memories.
Sometimes, when I took out a diary written in the distant past and read it, I could think, Right, that happened too, and reaffirm that it was my memory.
Since one volume had 200 sheets, writing one day per page made it exactly one year.
Once a book was filled, every few years I would open my subspace and convert it into information, after which I could take it out and read it whenever I wanted.
Though I avoided doing so unless necessary, since opening it even once made me terribly exhausted.
“Can I look at it?”
“Hm? Sure. But it’ll be hard to read.”
I opened to the page for today, which I had just finished writing, and showed it to her.
“Uh, um……”
Iliana looked at the book with an expectant face, then turned to look at me as if she could not understand it at all.
Of course she couldn’t.
Since I had written it in a cursive scrawl that was hard to recognize anyway, thinking it was enough as long as I could read it.
There was no way Iliana, who had only finished learning to read and write about a month or two ago, could read it.
……Looking at it again, I did seem to have written it so messily that even a cryptographer would likely have difficulty reading it.
“……I don’t really know.”
“Probably no one but me can read it.”
“But I’m curious……”
Iliana sat on the bed and looked up at me with sparkling eyes.
“Then, since the topic came up, shall I read some from the beginning?”
Now that it had come to this, it did not seem like she would fall asleep any time soon, so reading it to her like a lullaby did not sound bad.
I rummaged deep inside my backpack and took out three more books. Including the one I was currently writing in, it amounted to three and a half years’ worth.
They were labeled “7663,” “7664,” and “7665,” respectively, and of course, the book I was still writing in was “7666.”
“Let’s see.”
I opened the book labeled “7663” roughly around the middle and read its contents.
…
August 19.
Because of the rain that has been falling nonstop for six days already, the Bleur River overflowed.
Fortunately, the flood did not reach inside the castle walls, but it seems crossing the river will be difficult.
That said, waiting for the rain to stop and the water level to fall is a boring prospect.
I suggested to Kasian that we take a detour and cross over the mountain, but he threw a tantrum and said no.
It can’t be helped, so we decided to wait a few more days.
…
August 20.
I read books all day. The rain has eased a little, but there is still no sign of it stopping.
…
August 21.
The rain, which I thought would stop, grew even heavier.
According to rumors, a large boat capsized nearby. I quietly prayed for the souls of the dead.
…
August 22.
Feeling stifled, I looked far out at the sky.
Dark clouds stretch all the way to the horizon, so it seems it will not stop for the next three days.
…
As I continued slowly reading the entries, Iliana became absorbed in them as if she found them interesting.
“Did it really rain that much?”
“Yes. It rained for a full fifteen days. The villages lower down even ended up underwater.”
“Then what happened to the people there?”
“Fortunately, the lord was capable back then, so he rescued the people in advance.”
He had been an exceptionally capable lord, rare for this era.
If it had been in the old days, someone might have said that doing that much was only natural.
I turned a few more pages and found one memory that had remained strongly with me.
●
14th day of the 13th month.
A wolf intruded into the village where we were staying.
It seems it attacked a little boy while I was speaking with the village chief.
But, astonishingly, Kasian stepped in between them and was attacked instead, so the child was unharmed.
I killed the wolf, and though his wounds were severe, Kasian survived as well, so that was fortunate.
When I asked him while treating him, he answered that he thought no one would do it if he didn’t. Seeing that made me feel a little proud of him.
It may be a little early, but has the time come to teach him magic?
●
To be honest, my heart had dropped a little at that time.
Even if I could save him as long as he did not die instantly, if he had been bitten on the neck, even I would have had no answer.
If I absolutely had to save him, I could rewind time a little, but considering the side effects……
……Though I truly feel sorry to Kasian for saying this, he was not worth saving to that extent.
“……Was he hurt that badly?”
“Yes, it was a bit severe.”
I could not tell Iliana, since it would be a little shocking.
How could I say that his arm had been nearly torn off and was dangling, and that his peritoneum had been ripped, leaving his entrails on the verge of spilling out?
Especially when she was a child with almost no resistance to cruelty.
In any case, this incident became a major turning point, and I remembered teaching Kasian magic starting a few days after that.
It was a bit early, but I thought I had to make it so he could at least look after his own body.
●
17th day of the 13th month.
I taught Kasian magic for the first time.
It was only the first day, but judging by the speed at which he learns, he may be able to rank within the top five among the children I have raised.
If we build up from the basics, I look forward to seeing how far he can grow.
The problem is that he has trouble concentrating. He even threw a childish fit, asking if there was no faster way to learn.
As Kasian wished, it pained me, but I had no choice but to administer electric shocks from the very first day.
He has excellent talent, and yet the “magic is a succession of pain” curriculum suits him.
A pity.
●
“Magic is pain……? What is that?”
“If you inflict pain with magic in an appropriate way, it helps quite a bit in improving mana and manipulation ability. You know how Kasian sometimes screams and rolls around? That’s what that is.”
It was similar to building up toughness by being beaten. If stimulated properly with mana, the body would develop mana on its own in order to survive.
Because the more mana one had, the higher one’s resistance generally became against direct attack-type magic like that.
“……”
I could see Iliana’s eyes trembling little by little as she looked at me.
Her gaze was filled with anxiety, as if wondering whether I would do that to her too.
I gently stroked Iliana’s head and said,
“I won’t do it to you. I’ll tell you later, but it wouldn’t have any effect on you anyway.”
Hearing that, Iliana let out a relieved breath and enjoyed my touch.
“Then next is……”
I turned the pages and read to her. When one book ended, I picked up the next volume, turned its pages, and slowly read to her.
And so Iliana, lying in bed and listening to the stories I told her, soon let her eyes drift shut and fell asleep.
I had been reading from around June of the year before last.
I climbed onto the bed, patted Iliana once on the back, then lay down beside her and tried to sleep.
When I held her lightly, Iliana burrowed deeper into my arms, and as I felt her breathing, I gradually fell asleep.
◇
A few days later.
In a village we stopped at during our slow-moving journey, I heard an interesting story.
“Don’t you go crossing over that hill you see over there. A terrifying ghost appears there, you see.”
The extremely hairy restaurant owner said it with large gestures, as if trying to frighten us.
Iliana gripped my hand tightly, and Kasian pretended to be calm, but it was obvious he was a little scared.
I drank the water in my cup and thought,
‘Tomorrow, we absolutely have to cross over that hill.’