[V11C34] Shattered Dreams

Silas Page the Dragon Slayer Mage, the newest member of the Seven Sages, employed flight magic to soar through the rainy skies of Sazandol.

“Let’s see, Silent-neesan should live… around here?”

Due to flying around in the rain, his coat was thoroughly soaked, and his tousled blond hair was messier than usual.

Silas used the sleeve of his coat to wipe the rain off his face as he landed in a residential area.


Let’s rewind back to the morning of the day before.

After completing his patrol of the royal capital, Silas returned to the Magic Corps station, which currently served as their base of operations. He was greeted by a stern declaration from the Barrier Mage, Louis Miller.

“I have some good news and some bad news.”

The time had finally come. Silas responded to Louis in a tense voice.

“Barrier-niisan. I hate putting bad news behind good news in times like these. Start with the good news.”

“I highly doubt the order will make any difference… Well, the bad news is that Theodore and Gluttonous Zoe have appeared in Sazandol. He is likely lurking somewhere in the city as we speak.”

Theodore Maxwell had finally revealed himself.

Silas squinted his eyes, his already intimidating face turning even darker. Louis spread out a bundle of documents and continued.

“The good news is that the Silent Witch has completed the shadow removal spell.”

“Seriously?! Damn, that’s fast…”

Silas was not involved in the analysis of the shadows.

Being a valuable combat-oriented Sage, he had been busy with patrolling the capital and improving the dragon detector.

However, he had checked the analysis results on a few occasions.

Honestly, simply reading the analysis was a challenge all by itself.

Silas’s magic was mostly self-taught, with a heavy bias towards anti-dragon techniques. But even for normal mages, analyzing dark magic was ridiculously difficult.

And yet, the Silent Witch had completed the analysis and even created a countermeasure. Her talent was beyond measure.

Meanwhile, Louis pulled a few sheets of paper and thrust them at the impressed Silas.

“…And that is why, Dragon Slayer Mage-dono, you are to hurry to Sazandol and cooperate with the Sages there to recover Gluttonous Zoe.”

Since Silas had been patrolling the capital using flight magic, his mana was not at full capacity.

Full speed flight would allow him to arrive at Sazandol by the end of the day, but then his mana would be completely depleted. That would turn him into dead weight rather than reinforcements.

On the other hand, he could use a combination of flight magic and a carriage to conserve mana, arriving in Sazandol by tomorrow morning.

After calculating his mana reserves, Silas turned his attention to the paper from Louis. It detailed the current situation at the capital, as well as their future instructions.

“Master Rutherford and I will be holed up in the Royal Institute of Magic for the verification work on the spell. There seem to be some victims in Sazandol as well, but tell them to wait for our instructions before applying the spell. Once our verification is complete, I will send my disciple or contracted spirit to relay the message to Sazandol.”

“Got it. I’ll pass on the message.”


Returning to the present, it was the morning after Silas’s exchange with Louis. He arrived at the Sazandol branch of the Mage Association, greeted by the Fourth Thorn Witch, Melissa Roseberg, shouting in anger.

“You’re late!”

“Come on, Thorn-neesan. I rushed here as fast as I could, you know.”

To tell the truth, the rain resulted in poor visibility, so Silas had been lost for a decent chunk of time.

He generally focused on dragon subjugation in eastern Ridill, so he had no familiarity with Sazandol and most of western Ridill.

Silas presented the report along with an apology, and Melissa quickly glanced over it while changing the subject.

“Oh yeah, just a little while ago, the Little One… I mean, the Silent Witch went home for a bit.”

According to Melissa, Monica was in the process of developing a trump card against Gluttonous Zoe. She had returned home to retrieve the research materials and a change of clothes.

Her shadow removal spell was impressive enough, but to think she was already coming up with another trump card!

Ignoring Silas’s surprise, Melissa continued in the same casual tone.

“You go over to the Little One’s house and relay the message to her. Also, tell her to stay at home until tonight since we got reinforcements here.”

Silas had literally hurried through rain and storm, and he was immediately getting sent away on another messenger errand. Quite the heartless treatment.

That said, Silas did not particularly mind physical labor, and he was interested in Monica’s house——or more precisely, the disciple who was living with her. He readily accepted the task.

＊　＊　＊

Silas located Monica’s house right after landing in the neighborhood.

He smoothed out his messy bangs and consciously put on a determined face.

Monica had told him about the live-in disciple at her house.

Apparently, this disciple was incredibly considerate and homely, and likely a well-endowed woman who looked good in an apron——the latter half being Silas’s wishful thinking.

(Your master has taken good care of me… Does that sound like a good greeting? Hmm, maybe I should make it a bit more casual…)

Silas vividly imagined a homely woman wearing an apron, cutting a freshly baked pie with a smile.

Nice to meet you, Silas-san. Thank you for taking good care of my master. She’s told me a lot about you, and you seem like a wonderful person. If you’d like, please have some freshly baked pie.

Sure, I’ll take you up on that offer…

Having started a dialogue with his imagination, Silas was brought back to reality when he noticed a suspicious man in Monica’s yard.

He was a tall blond man, wearing a black eye patch that covered the right half of his face. This made it difficult to discern his facial features from Silas’s point of view.

Silas watched as the man started walking around to the back of the house.

Was he a thief? Or possibly even a kidnapper targeting a house only occupied by women?

Unforgivable. Silas immediately dashed forward and grabbed the man’s shoulder.

“Oi, what the hell are you doing!?”

The moment Silas grabbed his shoulder, the man vigorously twisted his body to counter-grab Silas’s wrist.

Silas assumed that the man was attempting to twist his wrist, but instead, he used the wrist as a pivot, jumping off the muddy ground and into the air.

He swung his long leg like a whip, aiming for Silas’s temple.

“——Ah.”

The man stopped his kick midway, landed on the ground, and widened the eye not covered by the eyepatch.

“Silas-niisan.”

For some reason, his voice sounded familiar.

Silas lowered the arm he had lifted to shield his temple, staring intently at the man’s face.

He was an intimidating man with an eyepatch covering the right half of his face. There was an unmistakable cold atmosphere about him.

But in contrast to his appearance, the man apologized to Silas in a nonchalant tone.

“Sorry, my body moved reflexively.”

This was the type of casual apology one might give to an acquaintance.

Above all, Silas had discovered the features of a familiar boy in that face.

“…Ike?”

“Last we met was in Lugaroa, right.”

As Silas suspected, the man was Isaac Walker, the boy who had once lived next door.

His face had been covered in bandages when they met in Lugaroa, so Silas did not recognize him.

“Ike, what are you doing here…?”

“The blueberries we planted next to the house are ripe, so I thought I’d pick them before they get damaged by the rain.”

“…Huh? Blueberries?”

Upon closer inspection, Isaac wore an apron over his shirt and vest. He was holding a small basket in his hands, which contained freshly picked blueberries.

Isaac’s physical abilities, demonstrated in the earlier altercation, were truly remarkable, ensuring not a single blueberry spilled from the basket.

However, this only made Silas more confused.

Why was his childhood friend picking blueberries in the Silent Witch’s yard?

As Silas stood frozen, the door of the house opened, and Monica rushed over.

“Ike, do we have a guest? …Oh, Silas-san.”

Monica noticed Silas and bowed her head in greeting.

Internally, Silas understood that the appropriate response was to return the greeting. However, he remained thoroughly bewildered, glancing between Monica and Isaac.

Just now, Monica had referred to Isaac with the nickname of Ike.

(Do they know each other?)

The childhood friend picking blueberries in the garden of the Silent Witch. The apron he was wearing.

Once Silas connected the dots, the realization struck him like a bolt of lightning. Trembling, he glanced at Monica and Isaac again.

“Nee-san, could it be that this guy is…”

Isaac and Monica exchanged glances before answering.

“This is my master here.”

“Um, yes, Ike is my disciple.”

Silas went speechless.

Reuniting with a childhood friend was delightful.

…Delightful, yes, but Silas Page had dreamed of being welcomed by a lovely, well-endowed beauty in an apron. He fell to his knees, unable to resist the despair overtaking his facial expression.

——Farewell, the dreams of men.

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