Chapter 32

EP.32 Old Acquaintance (4)

Snap!

The sound of a finger snap echoed. A small spark flew. That was the end of it.

‘Did the spell fail?’

Belnoa thought so at first. Nothing seemed to happen. Then, something caught her eye.

‘...Ash?’

Ash was floating in the air.

Ash of the same ashen color as her hair. Even without a breeze, the ash swirled and lingered in the air.

And.

The swirling had a direction.

-Whoooom?

The undead, now formed into a single wall.

The ash swirled toward the undead. The speed was neither too slow nor too fast, like flower petals fluttering in the wind.

Tick.

The moment it touched the undead.

Tick, tick.

A small spark flew.

A weak, very small spark.

“Close your eyes.”

“Huh?”

“If you don’t want to, don’t.”

Lania closed her eyes.

Belnoa tilted her head.

“It might hurt your eyes.”

It didn’t take long for Belnoa to understand what she meant.

Whoosh!

A flash of light suddenly appeared.

A heat wave followed shortly after.

“...Ouch!”

Belnoa quickly stretched out her arm to shield her face.

She finally closed her eyes. Even with her eyes shut, the light still flickered.

‘What is this...’

The heat didn’t last long. Neither did the flash. It only flickered once, then everything was quiet.

After a moment.

When the heat had subsided, Belnoa slowly opened her eyes.

“Huh?”

Belnoa blinked.

‘...Gone?’

The undead that should have been there were gone. The massive bodies had vanished without a trace.

No, there was a trace.

Ash was flowing along the waterway. It wasn’t hard to imagine what the ash had originally been.

“Cough, cough, oh.”

Lania coughed and waved her hand. She stepped on the scorched ground and headed into the waterway.

“...”

Belnoa stood there, dazed.

‘What kind of spell was that...’

She didn’t understand the principle. It seemed to be a mix of several spells, but she couldn’t even guess the structure.

‘...Just let it be.’

How often did such things happen?

The professor, from the mana spring to everything else, was a person full of things she couldn’t understand.

“What are you doing, not coming over quickly?”

“...I’m coming now.”

Still a strange and unique person.

She decided to think of it that way.

* * *

The end of the waterway approached.

No more undead were coming.

‘Something’s off.’

Lania frowned.

To her, the situation was strange. Moreover, the more she moved, the more her skin itched.

That sensation wasn’t unfamiliar.

It was a familiar, or rather, a sensation she had grown accustomed to.

“...”

Lania narrowed her eyes.

Her senses were still those of the battlefield. She hadn’t yet adapted to a peaceful daily life.

It was strange.

The peaceful atmosphere, everything about the royal road without the presence of mana, was strange to her.

However, now.

Lania felt a sense of familiarity.

The long-awaited familiarity brought a sense of unease.

‘Whatever’s at the end...’

It probably shouldn’t be here. Lania made that judgment and walked a bit faster.

Thud.

Finally, they reached the end of the waterway.

“...Ugh.”

The moment they arrived at the spacious area, Belnoa pinched her nose. A foul smell permeated the air.

‘What is this...’

At the end of the waterway, Belnoa didn’t know what it was. She just felt it was bizarre.

“Huh.”

However, Lania was different.

She knew what it was.

“Of course.”

Her expression twisted into a grimace.

Belnoa unconsciously took a step back.

Rustle.

The sound of fabric brushing against each other was heard.

She rolled up her sleeves and extended her arms forward. The mana responded to her movement.

“...Professor?”

The momentum was not ordinary.

Belnoa cautiously asked, but...

“Stand back.”

The reply was cold.

“You checked what’s at the end, right?”

“...Yes.”

Clap, she clapped her hands.

“Now we can destroy it.”

“Huh?”

What do you mean? Belnoa didn’t have time to ask. She moved before he could open his mouth.

Soon.

Boom!

A massive shockwave hit the waterway.

2.

“...I’m leaving, old man.”

“Sure, Cloe said she’d wait at the fountain.”

“...”

“Are you not answering?”

“A, yeah.”

Creak. Belnoa opened the door and left.

His steps were strangely weak.

Thud.

After he left, Cardi tapped the table. The old man’s appearance faded, and he returned to his youthful form.

I gave Cardi a disapproving look.

“...Is there a reason to hide?”

“To an old man, a young elf might seem less approachable.”

“Hmm...”

He didn’t seem particularly kind.

‘He looked more like a grumpy, fussy old man.’

He seemed quite distant from kindness. As I thought this, Cardi spoke.

“Anyway, Laniel. What did you show him?”

“Huh?”

“Belnoa, he looks completely out of it. What did you show him to make him like that?”

“I handled it a bit noisily.”

It was a bit troublesome to just erase it.

‘The best way would be for Kail to swipe it with the holy sword...’

The holy sword could solve most problems with a single swipe. However, Kail wasn’t here. So, she tried to mimic the holy sword a bit...

‘It was noisy, though.’

The holy sword was always noisy. What else could she do?

“What was there?”

“This.”

She roughly drew a diagram and showed it to Cardi.

Cardi let out a groan upon seeing the diagram.

“...It’s understandable why it might feel like something is crawling.”

“A fitting description.”

“It’s going to get noisy soon.”

“Yeah, probably.”

I muttered, resting my chin.

“From experience, there’s usually more than one of these things.”

“...Well, anyway, you handled it well. Belnoa might have had trouble with it alone.”

Cardi took a box from under the shelf. Inside were about twelve potions.

“One bottle a month, for a year.”

“Hmm.”

I picked up one of the potion bottles.

“Can I drink it now?”

“Why not? It’s a gift.”

I uncorked the bottle and drank the potion.

The effect was immediate. The circuits that had been loudly suppressing the curse began to quiet down.

“Oh.”

The performance is solid.

“You’re really something.”

“I don’t know who’s really impressive.”

“Should I learn alchemy too? Can you make something like this if you master alchemy?”

Cardi gave a bitter laugh at my words.

“The order is wrong, Laniel.”

“Huh?”

“It’s not that I mastered alchemy and then made this potion. I made this potion before I became an alchemist, when my kingdom was still intact.”

He looked at the potion bottle with a wistful gaze.

“I became an alchemist to find the next one.”

“Next?”

“A way to completely expel the curse. But, I haven’t found it yet.”

Saying that, Cardi slowly got up. Then, he extended his hand to me.

“Thank you, Laniel.”

“...Suddenly? Cleaning the waterway was a job, after all.”

“I’m not talking about that.”

I took his extended hand and stood up.

I looked into his yellowish eyes. They always gave me a strange feeling. Today, perhaps because his eyes were slightly narrowed...

‘He looks like an old man, even though he’s young.’

I was reminded of how long he had lived as an elf. After a while of staring at each other, Cardi spoke first.

“You, facing the Demon King and still...”

He slowly began.

“Remaining human.”

He smiled faintly.

“That’s what I’m thankful for.”

“What are you talking about?”

I chuckled.

Even after five years, he was still a peculiar guy who only spoke in riddles.

“See you next time, Cardi.”

“Yeah, next time.”

He muttered.

“Definitely.”

His voice sounded like he was speaking to someone else, not me.

3.

“Ah.”

Resti let out an unintentional sigh.

She pushed the papers piled on her desk to one side and placed a single sheet in the center.

She infused mana into the paper.

Soon, a circuit floated in the air.

“Done.”

Two circuits floating in the air.

Resti muttered as she looked at them.

“...Solved.”

Aphria’s regular rest day.

She spent most of the nearly four-day holiday solving this problem.

“Can you solve it?”

That one sentence kept echoing in her mind, making it impossible to do anything else until she solved it.

“Finally, solved.”

The voice that came out was filled with excitement.

Resti felt her heart racing. Although it took a long time and was incredibly difficult...

‘In the end, I solved it.’

She managed to solve it.

The fact made Resti purely happy.

“Phew!”

After stretching, Resti organized the solution. She drew the circuit on a new sheet of paper.

The more she pondered, the more amazing the circuit seemed.

While it was common to mix circuits, she had never seen a circuit with such a unique fusion method.

‘Not a combination, but friction.’

It wasn’t about connecting lines or overlaying them.

It was about creating friction between lines. The circuit used the resulting distortion as the driving force for the spell.

She didn’t know how to read each spell.

She had only solved the circuit, not how to channel mana through it.

‘I hope the rest day ends soon.’

Then she could ask questions.

Resti smiled faintly and kept smoothing the notebook. She was reminded of Lania’s appearance when she drew the circuit in the notebook.

‘I need to put this in.’

Resti carefully inserted the paper with the solution into the notebook, checking several times to make sure it didn’t get wrinkled.

After completing the task, Resti suddenly checked the time.

3 PM, it was still early for the facilities in Aphria to close.

‘Café.’

She suddenly thought of it.

The café where Professor Lania often visited.

‘Probably not there on a rest day...’

Just in case, Resti took her notebook and headed to the café. It wasn’t far from the Central Academy, so it didn’t take long.

Jingle.

“Welcome.”

Resti nodded slightly at the owner’s voice and quickly scanned the shop.

‘As expected, not there.’

It was a bit disappointing, but she hadn’t really expected it, so it wasn’t a big letdown. Still, she didn’t want to leave just yet, so she ordered a coffee and sat by the window.

While looking out the window.

“Ew.”

Suddenly, a sound came from beside her.

“...?”

She turned to see a boy sitting there.

His face was familiar.

“...Lark?”

A student in the same advanced mana trading class.

Even if it wasn’t for that, Resti knew Lark. As the next head of the magic tower, she had greeted the disciples of the various magic tower heads.

“Hmm.”

Lark, who had stuck out his tongue, turned to Resti and nodded briefly.

“Resti, right? Nice to see you.”

“...What are you doing?”

“Drinking black water.”

...Black water?

“Do you mean coffee?”

“That’s what they call it.”

“Why is your tongue like that?”

“Hmm...”

Lark let out a short groan.

“Bitter.”

“...What?”

“Bitter and hot. It tastes bad.”

“...Then why are you drinking it?”

“I thought if I had become a wise person after listening to that lecture, I should give it a try...”

I couldn’t understand what he was saying at all.

“...If it’s bitter, why not add some syrup?”

“Syrup?”

“Here.”

Resti dropped a few drops of syrup into Lark’s coffee and pushed the cup back to him.

“Here.”

“Hmm.”

Lark looked at the coffee cup as if it were poison. He seemed very skeptical.

“...Bitter and hot.”

“So I added syrup.”

“Still black...”

“Of course, coffee is black, not white.”

“That’s true...”

After hesitating for a while, Lark carefully lifted the coffee cup. He slightly opened his mouth and slowly tilted the cup.

“Oh!”

Then, his eyes widened.

“Less bitter!”

He exclaimed.

“A bit sweet too!”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

‘I didn’t notice at first...’

He’s a bit lacking.

Resti kept a bit of distance from Lark.

Author’s Note (Author’s Postscript)

Fan art has been added!

Please check the fan art tab!

*Even on a rest day, the café is open!