Chapter 13

Chapter 13

“......!”

For an instant, I hid behind the undergrowth without realizing it and thought. Is it that person? Is that person the mage who deployed that strange formula earlier? How did they make such an absurd mistake....... No, but is that person really a mage? I don’t think so.

No, there was no point in just guessing by myself. It would be better to gather a little more information first. After steadying my breath, I poked my head out beyond the undergrowth and began observing the young man.

The first thing that caught my eye was his height, easily over 190 centimeters at a rough guess, and a build that seemed slender yet firm. And his age was...... I’m not sure how old he is. Maybe because I’ve lived alone for hundreds of years, I really do have trouble telling people’s ages.

In any case, he did look like a young man, so he probably was not that old. But he did not feel immature either, so he should not be a minor...... I guessed he was roughly somewhere between his twenties and thirties.

Around the time I had guessed that much, I realized something was strange. Even though I had clearly judged that this person was a young man between his twenties and thirties, for some reason, I also had the thought that he seemed like an old man over seventy.

Strange. No matter how dull my sense of time had become, there was no way I had become this unable to estimate a person’s age. Feeling slightly bewildered, I rubbed my eyes once and examined the young man closely again. Only then could I realize what the problem was.

Now that I look, this person...... has his time axis tangled strangely. Because of that, all of his causal relationships are tangled together, and his present, future, and past have each manifested multiple times, so to speak.......

In other words, this person’s life up until around the time he was over seventy and his life up until his twenties or thirties were overlapping. Because of that, his causal relationships were not merely twisted into knots; some had vanished, been altered, or even become distorted.

His lives are overlapping. How is that possible? A life is something given to anyone only once.

“This person...... Just what kind of person is he? What is his identity......?”

To investigate more closely, I lifted the young man’s body with telekinesis magic and laid him out properly. As I turned him from lying face down to facing the sky, the young man’s disheveled hair was revealed to be platinum blond, the kind not seen among commoners, and his face had a noble air to it, making him look like a young master from a noble family.

On the other hand, the young man’s clothing did not look particularly noble. Nobles usually wore clothes made of silk and high-grade leather, adorned with jeweled ornaments, but what the young man wore were worn-out old clothes and low-grade leather armor. The iron plates patched over parts of it were thin, as if someone had tried their hardest to save on materials.

There was no way the kingdom’s army would wear such shoddy armor...... Then was he a mercenary? But did mercenaries travel alone in isolated places? I thought they usually moved around in groups.

Of course, I did not know much about the ways of mercenaries. I had no occasion to encounter them normally, and even when I did finally run into them, all I saw was them moving around in groups after being hired by someone, like in the town I had visited for a field investigation before. Honestly, what did I care whether mercenaries went around alone or not during ordinary times?

Anyway, the important thing was...... this person did not seem to be a mage. As proof, the young man’s eyes, which I had carefully opened and checked, were not purple but a deep emerald. It meant the young man was a swordsman who knew how to handle aura. Just as the eyes of mages gradually became purple, the eyes of those who handled aura were bound to gradually become green.

Ah, of course...... it was not as if there were no people with green eyes who were not aura users. But such people only had green irises; even their pupils did not take on a green color. Only aura users had pupils that turned green as well. The young man’s pupils were a deep emerald, just like his irises.

Therefore, what I could know here was that this person had not deployed that strange formula earlier. Swordsmen were a kind that trained only in combat-specialized energy techniques, such as converting mana into aura to strengthen their bodies or creating sword aura. Since they made no effort whatsoever to manipulate formulas, they could not use anything like magic at all.

Right, only mages could use magic. Therefore, it would be best to first check whether that mage was nearby. After thinking that far, I immediately deployed detection magic and examined the surrounding presences. However, I could not feel anything that seemed to be a mage’s presence anywhere. Even when I checked farther away just in case, it was the same.

For a very brief moment, I wondered if they had fled using spatial movement magic, but there were no traces of such magic anywhere. Moreover...... before I knew it, even that strange formula had disappeared without a trace.

“Huh?! What? Why is it gone...... Gah, n-no!”

I had not even completed the research assignment yet, but it had already vanished like this without leaving even a trace. Belatedly, I groped in every direction in search of the traces of magic, but unfortunately, there was nothing to show for it. My vision went dark, and all the strength drained out of my body.

How could this be? I had not even finished investigating, and yet I had lost the most important clue in such a futile way. Then how was I supposed to complete the research assignment now? What should I do...... What am I supposed to do?

After thinking deeply for a while in search of a solution, I soon quietly turned toward the young man. As I looked at the young man, who was still unconscious and limp, I somehow felt as if I had found the solution.

Right, this person might...... know something. He would be a complete layman about magic, but since he knew how to handle aura, he must have mana sensitivity anyway. So he should at least know what had happened right before he ended up like this.

Then should I start by trying to wake him? Letting out a deep breath close to a sigh, I carefully crouched beside the young man and spoke to him. I was so nervous that I broke out in cold sweat.

“U-Um...... There’s something I want to ask you...... so if you could wake up for just a moment...... that would be good.......”

I barely gathered my courage, squeezing the words out as I tried to wake the young man, but he did not move. Feeling as if something had settled on my chest, I carefully tapped near the young man’s shoulder. Likewise, there was no reaction from him. Even his pupil response, which I checked just in case, seemed a little weak for some reason.

Don’t tell me this person...... is dead, is he? Feeling uneasy, I frowned and quietly brought my index finger to the tip of the young man’s nose. Though somewhat shallow, I felt a regular flow of air. Only then did I feel a little relieved.

Hmm, it seems like he’s just asleep without any particular problem. Then what should I do now?

I did not particularly want to shake the young man awake. In the first place, I was so bad at dealing with people that even talking to someone I was seeing for the first time was difficult for me. I felt as if I had not been like this in the old days, but after what happened at the Royal Academy, I had become a little reluctant toward people other than Master.

That said, it was not as if I could just quit everything and turn away. If I did that, the way to complete the research assignment that had already been added would disappear forever. Every research assignment added to Master’s Notebook had to be completed. That was both my promise with Master and the reason I had stayed alive until now.

But even so, I could not sit here waiting until this person woke up. Before I knew it, the sun had begun setting in the west, and gloomy dark clouds were approaching from far away. Even lightning flashed between the clouds, so it seemed a storm was about to sweep in.

I could not let us get soaked, so it seemed I had to move somewhere with this person for now...... but where should we go? Was there a nearby village or something? No, what if I went to a place like that for no reason and drew attention again?

Then was there only one way after all....... After wavering for a long while, I finally steeled myself and deployed a spatial movement formula.

***

“Ugh...... I never imagined I would end up bringing someone to the Magic Tower.......”

And someone I did not even know, whose identity I had no idea of!

No one forced me to do it, either. I did it voluntarily - though because of the research assignment!

Master...... What should I do.......

Your unworthy disciple’s heart is trembling so hard that he feels as if his breath will stop like this.......

“U-Uaaaa...... I did it. I really did it.......”

For some reason, it felt as if I had caused trouble. Unable to stay still at all, I paced around here and there in the top room of the Magic Tower in circles, flustered. My heart pounded violently, and I felt anxious and impatient, as if I had become a child right before being scolded.

Of course, Master would not have been angry. On the contrary, my master probably would have brightened and said, “Have you finally come to feel like making a friend?” After all, Master had been deeply worried that I had cut off all interest in the world and lived speaking only to Master. Therefore, the anxiety I was feeling now must simply have come from letting a third party who was not Master into the Magic Tower for the first time.

How should I put it....... It felt as though that person would leap up at any moment and get angry, saying, “How dare someone like you bring me to a place like this as you please,” then beat me.

Of course, I knew something like that would not happen. Unless someone was fairly insane, people who suddenly got angry and acted violently the moment they woke up were not common. Normally, they would look bewildered and ask something like, “Where is this?” Even if he were insane, I could suppress him well enough with magic.

That should be the case...... It definitely should be, and yet...... I could not help feeling so tense that my whole body grew damp with cold sweat, as if my blood were turning cold. I had to talk to someone I did not know. If that person asked, “Why do you live shut away alone in a place like this?” how should I answer? If we talked, he would realize I had hardly met people at all, so what should I do if he found that strange?

“......Did I bring him here for nothing?”

But it was true that I needed this person’s cooperation to complete the research assignment. If I had just abandoned him in that forest and come back, finding this person later would be a hardship in itself.

But...... still.......

Wiping my palm, damp with cold sweat, on the waist of my trousers, I glanced back at the young man without even being able to breathe properly. Still asleep, the young man lay neatly on the bed, surrounded by all sorts of grimoires, documents, and the like.

Unlike when I had first found him on the ground, I had washed all the dirt and dust off him cleanly - by floating him in the air with magic, then washing and drying him - and stripped off all of his shabby armor. Now that he was lying there in only a shirt and trousers, his appearance, which had already made him look like the young master of a noble house, looked even nobler.

“Seriously, what is this person’s identity.......?”

Before I realized it, I was examining the young man closely. Then the young man’s eyes twitched, and I jumped back without realizing it. I stayed there for a few seconds, clutching my wildly pounding chest. Only after realizing that the young man was still merely breathing softly and evenly could I feel relieved.

It seemed watching him like this was far too bad for my heart. It was not as if the young man was in critical condition, so I should first find some peace of mind and body.

Right, the priority was for me to become comfortable first. And so, leaving the young man alone for now, I went down to the lower floor.