Ersi immediately knew what she meant by “that.”
“If you mean the ‘darkness’... yes, I’ve seen it.”
[Right, the darkness. That pure, perfect darkness. Why is something like that hanging around Ceres?]
“I heard it was a gift from Lord Artia.”
[Hah, that sounds like him. His face is totally my type, and the way he acts is... even more my type! My Arti is always so entertaining. You never know what he’s going to do next.]
“I believe she told you not to call Lord Artia by that nickname.”
Does she still not understand why she was thrown into the subspace?
Grace got fed up with Elliet constantly hitting on Lord Artia and Lord Kainel, so she tossed her in there. She was worried that Elliet would be a bad influence on her “kids.”
Ersi shook her head and returned to the subject of the “darkness.”
“It didn’t seem dangerous.”
[Not right now. But...]
Elliet trailed off, her brows furrowing.
[If something capable of absorbing that power appears, that’s a different story. It would become incredibly dangerous.]
“Even so, we can’t just get rid of something my master already considers her own. Why don’t you try it, Miss Elliet?”
[Are you insane?]
Elliet shuddered.
[You want me thrown into the subspace again? No thanks! If I get on her bad side again, I won’t be stuck there for 300 years. It’ll be 3,000!]
Whoosh!
Pitter-patter!
“From what I saw, it seemed safer to leave it beside Miss Ceres than to force them apart.”
[Meow. Yeah, I guess it did. Darkness fades when it’s surrounded by a strong light, after all.]
Swish! Swish!
Pitter-patter!
“Let’s just keep watching it for now.”
[Meow. Sounds good.]
Knock, knock.
Just then, the door opened. A young priest stepped inside.
“Lord Ersi, the High Priest is looking for—huh?”
The priest stopped when he saw Ersi playing with a cat, a stick with a long string tied to it in his hand.
Where did that cat come from?
[Me-meow.]
Elliet, who had instinctively transformed into a cat the moment she saw the stick, suddenly snapped back to reality.
She let out an awkward meow, then spotted Ersi smiling at her and let out an even more pitiful cry.
[Meow!]
...Damn it.
***
“Simply put, mana is energy that can be stored in the body. You use that mana to work magic formulas, and...”
Cheion continued his explanation while Zien sat quietly before him, listening. An introductory book on magic lay open on his desk.
“This is magic.”
Cheion casually waved a hand as he demonstrated.
Hummm!
A small sphere of water appeared before him. With a slightly smug look, Cheion made it disappear again.
Kids always get excited over the simplest magic.
“Once you get good at magic, you’ll be able to cast spells quickly without having to work out all the formulas.”
“...Blue.”
“Huh?”
“So I just have to gather the blue.”
“Blue?”
It was the first time Zien had spoken since the lesson began, but Cheion had no clue what he meant. Blue? What blue? This wasn’t art class.
“What are you talking about...?”
Hummm...
“......”
Cheion’s mouth fell open. He stared at the scene before him, speechless.
“This is blue.”
Cheion swallowed nervously. Floating in front of the boy was a sphere exactly like the one he’d just made from water.
“...You made that?”
Nod.
“Have you ever learned magic before?”
Shake.
“Then how did you...?”
“You just showed me.”
“.......”
Cheion didn’t even teach him a formula. He only demonstrated it once, yet the boy simply copied him. How was that possible?
“You just showed me that gathering colors is magic.”
“...Colors?”
“This is red.”
Whoosh!
“—!”
A small ball of fire appeared in front of the boy.
“This is yellow.”
Crackle!
A sphere of lightning formed next.
“And green...”
A small vortex sprang up.
“......”
Cheion stared at the boy, who had done all of that in an instant.
“You... see mana as colors?”
“......”
The boy didn’t answer. He didn’t seem to understand what mana was, either.
“Haha...”
A disbelieving laugh escaped Cheion.
Wow, this kid really is a genius.
No. Even calling him a genius didn’t quite fit. His talent was simply on another level.
Thud.
Cheion walked over and snapped the book shut.
“We won’t be needing this.”
With a faint smile, Cheion beckoned him over.
“We’re going straight to practical training.”
***
The boy’s world had always been full of color. It had been that way for as long as he could remember, though he had no idea what they were.
Pretty.
He simply loved looking at them.
In that cold place where no one ever reached out to him, those colors were the only friends and family he had, the only things that surrounded him with warmth...
“You damn brat!”
Thwack!
“You little sh*t!”
Thwack! Thwack!
He could endure the beatings because the colors were always there, watching over him.
“...Don’t.”
“W-what?!”
“Please... stop.”
Whoosh!
“Aargh!”
The director’s head suddenly caught fire. Startled, he quickly put it out, but his face twisted into an even uglier scowl.
“—!”
The boy was startled too. In a burst of anger, red colors had gathered around him and shot toward the director.
Thwack!
“You motherf*cker! I told you not to open your mouth! Didn’t I tell you to keep it shut?!”
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
“Shut up, shut up! I said shut up!”
Thwack!
“Open your mouth one more time, and I’ll kill you! I mean it!”
The director always beat him, saying that bad things happened whenever he opened his mouth. He was never to speak. That was what the director always told him.
If you didn’t hit me, I wouldn’t open my mouth in the first place...
In any case, the beatings had worked. At some point, the boy stopped speaking altogether. He thought that was only natural.
Just as the director said, something strange always happened every time he spoke. The director would fall, glass would break, or sometimes, something would catch fire...
The boy knew what was behind it. The countless colors that always hovered around him were the ones doing it.
One day, he happened to learn what this strange phenomenon was called. While looking through some books donated to the orphanage, one word caught his eye: magic.
Fire appearing out of nowhere, water suddenly forming... There was only one explanation.
It was magic.
Does that mean... I can use magic? If I can control those colors, could I become a mage too?
“You useless brat!”
“You good-for-nothing kid!”
Could I... become useful? If I did... could I become someone precious to others?
Someone who wouldn’t have to be beaten...
From that day on, he couldn’t stop thinking about magic. He wanted to learn it... Maybe then he could escape this hellish place...
Then one day, a ring suddenly appeared in front of him.
As if drawn to it, he picked it up and slipped it onto his finger. He didn’t know it then, but that ring would give him a new life.
“Having that ring means you have a talent for magic. If you want, I can introduce you to the Magic Tower.”
He had met someone new. Someone who never raised a hand against him like the director did, and who always asked for his opinion.
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