[V11C11] The Troublemaker and the Mysterious Boy

Two people were walking down the road leading to the Minerva Institute for Mages: a slender redhead man and black-haired boy.

Both were dressed for travel, but they moved at a leisurely pace. This seemed to be because the boy was busy reciting the incantation of a recently learned spell.

After practicing the incantation a few times, the boy turned to the man walking beside him and asked a question.

“At this pace, it will be quite a while before we reach Minerva. Are you sure we don’t need to hurry, Dee-sensei?”

“Hmm-mmm, no problem. The entrance exams are long over by now, so there’s no point in rushing.”

“Eh!?”

The boy, Norman, was on his way to Minerva in order to take said entrance exams. He looked up at his mentor, Hubert Dee, with wide eyes and a dropped jaw.

Norman was an orphan from the small rural village of Sechen. He had self-studied magecraft using the textbook of his late father in order to repay the villagers for taking care of him.

However, after a fortunate encounter with the Silent Witch last year, Norman received a letter of recommendation for the Minerva Institute for Mages.

That said, her recommendation would not exclude him from the written exams and interview. Thus, the Silent Witch assigned Hubert Dee to tutor Norman on the rest of the curriculum.

Hubert was an exceptionally skilled mage, and after studying under him for half a year, Norman had learned all the basic spells used by novice mages.

Would someone as smart as Hubert forget the timing of Minerva’s entrance exams? No, of course not. There must be some other reason.

“Hmm-mmm, normal applicants can only take the entrance exams in late winter or spring. However, Monica’s letter of recommendation includes a scholarship, and that means you can apply at any time you want. The optimal timing for your exams would be right before the beginning of the school year, so you can study until the last minute.”

Made sense. Thanks to Hubert’s arrangements, Norman was able to use the entirety of spring to prepare for the exams.

This felt a bit unfair to the other applicants, but his mentor had always told him to “use everything at your disposal, and play all the cards you have.”

Norman nodded and returned to reviewing the exam topics in his head.

“…By the way,” Norman said. “I was a bit curious about the reasoning for the exam topics.”

“If there’s something bothering you, resolve it immediately,” Hubert replied.

Never leaving questions unanswered was also one of his mentor’s teachings.

After a brief reflection on not asking the question sooner, Norman voiced his question.

“Why doesn’t the exam cover anything about light and dark magic?”

Technically speaking, there were a lot more elements when using detailed classifications, but most mage training institutes teach the basic six: fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, and ice. These were considered the forms of elemental magecraft.

However, the Spirit Kings of Light and Darkness made frequent appearances in the stories and legends of Ridill. And yet, hardly anyone mentioned the existence of light and dark magic. Norman did not know why.

“Why do you think that is?”

Hubert answered Norman with another question, as if testing him.

“I don’t have any basis for this,” Norman answered. “But maybe because handling light and dark magic is too difficult and dangerous…?”

“I guess that’s technically right, from a public point of view at least.”

In other words, perhaps there were additional circumstances that could not be discussed publicly.

After a moment of contemplation, Norman voiced the thought that had come to mind.

“I’ve heard that only people descending from certain bloodlines can manipulate light and dark magic. Perhaps they intend to monopolize that power for themselves… or something like that?”

“You’re on the right track, but that’s not the real issue… In the first place, exam questions need to have a correct answer, right?”

Norman nodded in response, so Hubert chuckled to himself and continued.

“Light and dark magic is just too complex; not even the professors of Minerva can fully understand them. And anything they don’t understand can’t be turned into an exam question.”

“Eh? It’s too complicated for the professors of Minerva…?”

Norman blinked his eyes in surprise. Meanwhile, Hubert created a fox-shaped shadow by touching his right middle and ring fingers together with his thumb.

Hubert moved his hand, causing the shadow fox to move back and forth at his feet.

“What are light and darkness to begin with? Hmm? Some people have come up with a theoretical weapon by converging a bunch of light onto a single point, but what about darkness? How do you turn the darkness of night or the shadows at your feet into a weapon?”

Come to think of it, that was a good point.

Mages could use imbuement magic to infuse mana into substances with mass, like rocks and plants, and control them. However, was it possible to control shadows the same way? That seemed to be beyond the bounds of imbuement magic.

“For example, you know how the fire attribute is the result of manipulating thermal energy in the positive direction, and the ice attribute is the result of the negative direction, yeah?”

“Yes.”

“In the same way, the light attribute is thought to manipulate a specific type of energy in the positive direction, and dark attribute for the negative direction. However, no one has been able to decipher what this ‘specific type of energy’ is. We call them ‘light’ and ‘dark’, but who knows if that’s really accurate.”

In other words, the concepts widely known as ‘light magic’ and ‘dark magic’ were actually under provisional names.

As Norman went speechless at this realization, Hubert continued his explanation while moving the shadow fox.

“A fairly credible theory suggests that the goddess of heaven who sends forth new life is the Spirit King of Light, and the queen of the underworld managing the deceased is the Spirit King of Darkness. Another theory has them as the same goddess. Either way, a lot of people say the light attribute governs life, and the dark attribute governs death.”

“It seems that magecraft involves a lot of theology and folklore.”

“Legends and folktales are usually modified to suit the interests of the people in charge, so they’re not wholly reliable. If you seriously intend to approach it from that perspective, you’ll need a good understanding of history, especially about the royal family during the old era.”

“Got it. I guess studying magecraft requires a variety of seemingly unrelated fields.”

The two continued forward while discussing the energy theory of light and darkness attributes, until Hubert suddenly paused his feet.

It seems there was something of interest up ahead, and it was only visible to someone of his tall stature.

Hubert put a hand above his eyes and squinted.

“Hmm-mmm-mmm? …Is that a person lying on the ground?”

Norman squinted in the same direction, but all he could see was what appeared to be a bundle of cloth on the ground. Perhaps that was actually a collapsed person?

“Someone might have collapsed!” Norman shouted. “Let’s hurry, Dee-sensei!”

“Mmm? This is…”

Hubert quickly approached the fallen person, and Norman followed suit.

What they found was a black-haired boy who seemed around five or six years old, even younger than the twelve-year-old Norman.

He did not appear to have any obvious injuries, but there was a ominous black mark on the back of his neck.

The boy had forcefully tied the sleeves of an adult robe around himself, trying to wear it like a cloak. They had mistaken him for a bundle of cloth because he was buried in the oversized robe.

He didn’t appear to be carrying any luggage, but there was something clutched in his hand.

“A staff…? No, a smoking pipe?”

“Hmm-mmm… Mmm?”

After a few glances at the collapsed boy’s face and the smoking pipe, Hubert put on a wicked grin.

“Change of plans, Norman… Looks like something very interesting is going down.”

Hubert lifted the collapsed boy onto his shoulder and began walking in the opposite direction of Minerva.

＊　＊　＊

After discovering the collapsed boy, Hubert headed to the nearest inn and laid the boy on a bed.

To most observers, this scene would look like a kind-hearted young man helping a stranger in need. If not for his eyes gleaming with delight.

Norman respected Hubert’s skills as a mage, but at the same time, he understood what drove the man. Hubert was both rational and hedonistic.

In other words, this act of helping a stranger was either a logical decision, or simply entertainment.

Norman examined the sleeping boy.

The boy was around five or six, which was clearly too young to be traveling alone. His short black hair was messy, and his strangely prominent eyebrows were also unkempt.

“I don’t see any external injuries. Does he have some sort of disease?” Norman asked.

“Nah, this is a standard case of mana deficiency. Not often we get such a good example, so make sure to get a close look, Norman. When humans exhaust their mana to the limit, they experience symptoms similar to anemia and collapse.”

At the end of Hubert’s explanation, the eyelids of the sleeping boy quivered slightly.

The boy groaned, slowly opening his eyes and…

“Geh.”

For some reason, he flinched upon seeing Hubert’s face and jumped up with a start.

Meanwhile, Hubert carefully readjusted the fallen blanket as he spoke in a gentle tone.

“Come on, kid, you need some rest after collapsing to mana deficiency.”

“R-Right… Where are we right now…?”

The boy asked in a stiff tone, awkwardly glancing around the room.

His face was pale and covered in visible beads of sweat.

Norman, acting on behalf of his mentor, answered the boy’s question.

“This is an inn in the town of Orva, right next to Minerva. We found you collapsed on the road between Minerva and Orva.”

“I-I see… Thanks for helping me…”

To Norman, the boy’s manner of speaking seemed a bit advanced for someone so young.

He began questioning the boy in a gentle tone.

“Hey, can you tell us your name?”

“…”

“Where are your mom and dad?”

“…”

The boy remained silent, glancing back and forth with his eyebrows twitching.

Perhaps some sort of tragedy had befalling his family, similar to how Norman lost both his parents.

Even so, wouldn’t it be fine to at least give his name? As Norman struggled with his next approach, Hubert hummed a tune while spinning a smoking pipe in his hands. This was the same pipe that had been clutched in the boy’s hands.

Immediately, the boy reached out for the pipe with his short arms.

“You little, give that back…!”

“Mmm~? No can do. A little brat like you shouldn’t be smoking a pipe, right?”

“Well… er… it’s a keepsake from my late grandfather…” the boy mumbled.

Hubert threw his head back, holding his belly as he burst into laughter.

“Ahahahahah!! Then tell me, when the hell did you die? Well? Professor Rutherford?”

“Damn you! You were playing me the entire time!!”

The boy addressed as Professor Rutherford shouted, raising his bushy eyebrows.

Meanwhile, Norman frowned and looked up at Hubert.

“Dee-sensei… are saying this kid is really… a professor?”

Hubert nodded at the confused Norman with a grin. Making a theatrical gesture, he placed one hand on his chest and pointed the other at the boy.

“Here we have the esteemed Smoke Mage Gideon Rutherford, a professor of Minerva. Though he seems to have undergone quite the image change, huh?”

“Dammit,” Rutherford spat out with annoyance.

Hubert continued spinning Rutherford’s pipe in his hand.

“Modern magic does not have the power to return an old man to his youth. In other words, you got caught up in a big incident involving either an ancient artifact, a forbidden tome, or some sort of forbidden art. In addition, we found you with your back to Minerva, which suggests that said incident happened there. Either some internal conflict happened at the academy, or you were attacked by an outsider.”

“…Sharp guy, as usual. Can’t you ever focus your brain on something productive?”

Rutherford, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed, gave Hubert a nasty glare. An odd mismatch with his youthful appearance.

“Oi, Dee. I remember you being pretty good at flight magic. Deliver a message to the capital for me.”

“Too bad. I can’t use magic right now, since I’ve been collared by my queen.”

Hubert waved his fingers, showing off his collection of rings. These rings had been modified by the Silent Witch, turning them into magical tools that sealed away his magic.

Upon hearing Hubert’s answer, Rutherford frowned.

“You’re still chasing after Everett’s tail…?”

“If you know of any monsters crazier than her, I’d love to hear about them.”

Rutherford clicked his tongue and extended a hand toward Hubert.

“Fine, in that case, lend me some money.”

“Mmm~? Now you’re robbing a student you kicked out of Minerva? How the mighty have fallen, Professor.”

“Shut your mouth. It’s an emergency. Our only option is to send a fast horse to Minerva… but I don’t have any money on hand.”

Apparently, Rutherford had left his wallet behind at Minerva, and the situation was so urgent that he had no time to go back for it.

“Hmm-mmm, the capital, you say…”

Hubert put on a meaningful smile and signaled to Norman with his eyes.

Norman hesitated a bit before explaining.

“We only just heard about it from the innkeeper ourselves, but… it seems the capital is in a dire situation too.”

“What?”

Rutherford squinted his bushy eyebrows and pursed his lips.

Meanwhile, Hubert patted Norman on both shoulders from behind.

“Now then, Norman. Sounds like Minerva isn’t in any state to accept new entrants… Might as well use this time to get on the professor’s good side before the exams, shall we?”

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