Sage 16

“Say hello to each other.”

“…….”

“This is Adelaide Perlburn. As you can see, she’s the granddaughter of Teriz, whom we saw before. They really look alike, don’t they?”

“…….”

“And this is Irkus… Irkus, what was your last name again? Robain?”

“Irkus Sakrina Robain.”

“That’s right. Irkus Sakrina Robain. He’s a prince of the Robain Empire. Although he’s currently on the run.”

It was all well and good that I had coaxed Adelaide, who insisted on going to treat our grandmother right away, and brought her to my atelier, but when they actually met face to face, Adelaide and Irkus didn’t greet each other in a friendly manner. Instead, they just stared at each other with wary gazes.

I was going to force them to shake hands, but I thought it might have a negative effect if an adult intervened in the children’s relationship, so I kept my mouth shut as well.

Behind them, Gilbert gestured to me, asking why I had brought Adelaide here. Why did I bring her? I brought her here because a peer friend would be better for a child’s mental health than a 400-year-old Great Sage and an oak tree spirit who, although younger, is still over a hundred years old.

I’m a responsible adult in my own way. No matter how annoying it is, I had no intention of just neglecting the child. If you’re not going to send them to school or training, an adult should help them make friends at the right time. Food, clothing, and shelter are important, but mental care is the core of a child’s education.

“Are you two shy with each other?”

They say a boy and a girl shouldn’t sit together after the age of seven. Are they perhaps shy with each other because they’re of the opposite sex? I looked anxiously at the two teenagers who were still not saying anything to each other.

When I was a teenager, I think I tried to actively talk to new friends and find common interests, but young people these days were very lacking in social skills. Between the two children, who were as cold as ice, only Gilbert stood rooted to the floor in a state of bewilderment, as if saying, ‘There are… two young humans?’

“I don’t have time to waste on this. Take me to Carabel right now. You promised.”

In the end, it was Adelaide who broke the silence first.

As soon as Adelade grabbed my arm and started grumbling, Irkus approached and grabbed Adelaide’s arm. In an instant, a ridiculous situation was created where they were holding each other like a train.

“What? Let go.”

“You let go first.”

“I don’t have business with you. Get lost.”

“He’s my teacher. You get lost.”

“Hey, kids, you have to get along. And what’s with the ‘get lost’? Speak nicely.”

When Irkus pulled on Adelaide’s arm, Adelaide also grabbed my arm like a leech and pulled with all her might. As expected of Teriz’s granddaughter, my robe, which she was holding onto, wrinkled dramatically. I was worried that my poor robe would be torn if I left them alone.

How dare they try to tear a robe made of tough fabric gifted by a dragon and tailored by a dwarf. It seemed that Adelaide was also not an ordinary teenager. She’s a fine sprout of an overpowered character.

I leaned toward Adelaide to stop the two from bickering. I only brought her to the atelier to introduce them first, but I made a mistake. Due to her concern for Teriz Perlburn, Adelaide didn’t seem to care about the prince of the Robain Empire right now.

I reached out both arms to lift Adelaide, just as I had lifted Irkus. It was better to keep your body close like this when using spatial movement magic.

“Wait.”

But before I could lift Adelaide, Irkus quickly squeezed in between us.

Rarely flustered, I looked directly at Irkus, who had wedged his body, which was well-built for an average twelve-year-old, into the narrow space between Adelaide and me.

“Why? We’ll be back soon.”

“Take me with you.”

“You’re being stubborn again. We’re not going to Carabel to play. We’re going to see Teriz, whom we saw before, because she’s sick.”

“You promised to take me out with you if I solved the formula correctly.”

Adelaide looked at Irkus, who was insisting on being taken along, with an expression of exasperation. It was as if she was thinking, ‘Kids these days…’ Even though she was a kid herself.

I had already experienced how difficult it was to dissuade Irkus once he became stubborn during our previous outing, so I asked Irkus to show me the magic formula he had solved first. No matter how much of a protagonist and a genius this guy was, there was no way he could have found the correct answer in just a few hours.

Instead of showing me the parchment at my words to bring the formula, Irkus grabbed Adelaide’s arm.

The mana that always lingered around the forest fluctuated wildly. It was a large-scale use of mana that could be immediately detected by any other mage in the vicinity if there was one. Of course, it wasn’t very precise compared to the scale, and it felt like he was just pulling everything together.

There wasn’t even time to scold him, saying that practical application was still a long way off since he was still in the theoretical stage.

Ordinary mages usually take a long time to cast spells when the formula is difficult, but Irkus, perhaps because he was the protagonist, just ignored the general laws of the world. It’s not fair that I have to be jealous of the protagonist.

Before I could stop him, Adelaide, who was grabbed by Irkus, was moved from inside the atelier to outside in front of my eyes.

“Irkus!”

If Irkus’s solution of the formula was even slightly wrong, Adelaide could have gotten her body stuck in a spatial gap, or in the worst case, she could have been forcibly moved to a strange place due to a faulty magic formula and never returned. It meant that she might end up like me, who had fallen into this world from modern-day South Korea and couldn’t go back.

I hurriedly flung open the atelier door. I could immediately see Adelaide’s bewildered face, wondering why she had been forcibly moved from inside the atelier to outside, but I couldn’t calm my surprised heart right away.

The fact that Irkus had successfully performed spatial movement magic on someone else, not himself, on the first try was more shocking than the fact that he had cast magic without my permission.

He’s a novice, so what the hell is he doing? I knew that geniuses were bold, but when the genius I was raising was being disobedient, I couldn’t handle it.

“I solved it correctly.”

“You… do you know how dangerous that was?”

“I knew it was solved correctly.”

“What if you were slightly wrong? You’re still learning, it’s too early for practical application.”

“Yoo-an.”

Even though I grabbed his shoulders and started nagging him, Irkus didn’t look intimidated or dejected. Instead, he looked up and stared straight at me.

Irkus’s eyes were closer to those of a skilled mage who was sure he had done something dangerous, rather than those of a child who didn’t realize it.

In other words, it was a face without any excuse or remorse. Witches’ descendants grow up fast and don’t age easily. Irkus was overly mature for a twelve-year-old. Sometimes, he was unfathomable for a child.

“…You, you’ve been deliberately writing down the wrong answers all this time.”

Only then did I understand why the solution had always been perfect, but the answer had always been wrong.

Irkus Robain was more of a genius than I thought. He was humane, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t deceive people. So, he was able to survive with all his limbs intact until he was twelve years old in the imperial palace, which had no supporting force.

Until now, Irkus had just been matching my teaching speed. In order not to ruin the curriculum I had set up, he was pretending to follow the lessons at a level that seemed appropriate.

He knew the answer, but he deliberately wrote down the wrong answer to show that he ‘couldn’t do it yet,’ and he could have made it snow heavily from the beginning, but he only made it flurry.

While waiting for me to teach him again, he was pretending to clumsily imitate something he already knew how to do. I thought he learned ten things when I taught him one, but in fact, he learned a hundred when I taught him one and pretended not to know about ninety.

I wasn’t this flustered even when I faced a dragon for the first time. Irkus’s innate magical talent was so astounding that it sent shivers down my spine as a mage to mage. He had lived long enough, but this was the first time in his long life that he had seen a genius who could achieve this level of achievement at this age.

Even Yekarina, who was born with strong powers as a witch, was far inferior to Irkus’s genius. If I didn’t have eternal life, I would have soon been robbed of the title of Great Sage by this twelve-year-old.

“Just because you’re my teacher doesn’t mean you have to make friends for me, too. I like that you worry about me, but.”

“Why did you pretend not to be able to do it all this time when you knew how to do it right away?”

“…Because I knew you’d want me to go back to the imperial palace right away once I reached a certain level.”

“Of course. That’s the magic contract you and I made. You become emperor, and I die by your hand.”

“…….”

“That’s what’s good for you, too.”

A certain sadness settled in his purple eyes, which had been full of confidence in his magic. I could quickly recognize the emotion Irkus was showing me.

“Can’t you stop talking about dying?”

“Irkus, you just haven’t had many people around you yet. You’re too young now, so you’re confused.”

“You always talk about dying to me. I don’t want a friend my age. I just want you to keep…”

Like a baby duck that has just hatched from its egg and imprints on the first object it sees as its parent, Irkus trusted me, who had taken him in, too much.

Positive emotions that children might feel for adults who treat them kindly, such as favor, admiration, and some degree of affection, were entirely directed at me.

Usually, the relationship between a guardian and a dependent becomes affectionate. And the immature dependent in front of me now is trying to forget the contents of the contract we made out of affection.

“No, you need a friend.”

That can’t happen.

I didn’t dislike my smart disciple, who was obedient and good at magic. I admit it. I said I would never get attached, but I actually did, a little.

But my desire to die was greater than my liking for Irkus. It was irrational to promise to stay by Irkus’s side because I was swayed by him.

If Irkus were to be murdered or suddenly die due to some twist of fate, I would have to remain alone in this harsh world and live a long life without being able to die.

That can’t happen. Even if it’s not good for a child’s education, I needed to constantly remind Irkus that he had to kill me.

The fact that I’m not a good adult and that he shouldn’t feel so affectionate towards me was the least I could do in this relationship.

A duckling that follows the first crocodile it sees because it thinks it’s its mother is bound to be eaten in one bite, no matter how much of a golden duck it is. I bit my lower lip tightly, trying not to show my disturbed feelings.

It was much more difficult not to get attached than I had expected. Irkus was more cunning than I had anticipated, and I was more soft-hearted than I thought.

“The moment you become emperor, you have to kill me. Then I won’t be by your side.”

“…….”

“No matter how great a human being is, it will be difficult to maintain the position of emperor alone. To get help while living, it’s good to know many people early on. I’m trying to help you now.”

“Even if I don’t want it?”

“Yes. Even if you don’t want it, our contract is valid.”

Even though I deliberately said hurtful things and tried to distance myself, Irkus didn’t frown as before. Instead, he nodded with an ambiguous expression. An answer of ‘I know’ followed as an added bonus. It just made me feel even worse.

“You act all kind, but then you say things like you’re itching to hurt me.”

“Yes, to borrow your expression, I’m talking like a god.”

“Even though you won’t become a religion.”

As if there had never been a gap to begin with, Irkus came in without waiting for my permission, just like when he had squeezed between me and Adelaide.

Whether it was because he was a descendant of Yekarina, or because he was the protagonist of this world… or if it was just because Irkus was that kind of person, it was hard to tell.

“Do you think I’m just following you because I’m young?”

“You may not think so, but that’s right.”

“Then just think that.”

“Ir.”

“Just keep thinking of me as a child. I’m not an emperor yet. Just think of me as a child you still need to take care of.”

“You’ll grow up soon.”

Irkus cannot become a witch. Because he was born a boy.

Nevertheless, those words spoken by Irkus felt like a witch’s blessing or curse. It was a sentence that seemed to be able to be executed without the cumbersome formulas and procedures like a magic contract, and to linger around me forever.