Sage 21

When Irkus first declared that he was going to work as a mercenary, I thought I was going to faint. If I hadn’t been cursed with eternal life, I might have collapsed from the shock.

I had mentioned puberty a few times, but I wasn’t confident that I could handle my child’s puberty when it suddenly hit without any preparation.

It was a moment when I respected all the parents of the world. Raising children is so difficult, I don’t know how everyone else is doing such a good job as guardians.

Humans who are born with the qualities of a mage face many hurdles in order to become a mage. The most difficult of these hurdles is finding a proper teacher, and the next most difficult is memorizing the complicated magic formulas.

Even if you diligently overcome the hurdles, there is one thing that doesn’t go as planned. Magic is based on mathematical formulas that have clear inputs and outputs, but the output is always unpredictable.

For example, even if I use weather control magic to make it rain for only half a day, the actual weather, my physical condition on that day, and the amount of mana in the surrounding environment can act as margins of error and cause a week-long torrential downpour. It’s true that mages are more cost-effective than witches, but as the old sages said, you get what you pay for.

Unless you’re someone like me who has lived long enough to be able to intuitively adjust the margin of error, or a human born with an innate sense of ‘moderation’, there’s no way Irkus, who had just used attack magic in actual combat for the first time, could have taken his own mana reserve into account in his calculations.

At the time, Irkus was only twelve years old, and although he was a genius, he had only learned magic for a few months. He probably didn’t even have an awareness of how dangerous attack magic was. Because I didn’t teach him.

So, it’s not hard to imagine how shocked Irkus must have been by his first kill. Even though it was a long time ago, I had the same experience.

I’ve lived long enough to be troubled by it for a few months, but there’s no way a much younger Irkus could recover quickly. Moreover, Irkus was a much more moral human than I was. A twelve-year-old who had the right mindset, as much as he needed to be numb.

Maybe instead of holding the child and telling him that everything would be okay, I should have strictly forbidden the use of magic. If I had made another contract saying that he should not use magic in actual combat until he became emperor, Irkus would not have said that he would work as a mercenary to become numb and come back on his own.

“What are you thinking about so much?”

“About you.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah. I was thinking, what made the Third Prince of the Empire work as a mercenary?”

Irkus’s eyes, which had been shining with anticipation, quickly turned to disappointment.

Even though the cute face of his innocent childhood had more than half disappeared in just five years, Irkus was still not good at hiding his expressions.

It made me feel cute to see him so easily swayed by my every word, but it also made me worried. This guy, he wouldn’t be scammed by insurance, but he’d lose everything at a poker table in a gambling den. Psychological warfare is the core of politics, but Irkus was destined not to be able to engage in sophisticated psychological warfare because his emotions were so visible on his face.

“Do you think I won’t nag you just because you make a pitiful face?”

“I never made a pitiful face.”

“So, if you’re handsome, that’s all that matters? Ridiculous.”

“Am I handsome?”

“Look in the mirror.”

Even though he had grown up a lot compared to when he was twelve, a minor was still a minor.

Teriz called for someone to prepare another cup of tea for Irkus. Before the additional refreshments arrived, I pushed the plate of untouched biscuits towards Irkus. Even though he was terribly disobedient, I couldn’t let a growing teenager starve.

“When are you going to quit your mercenary work? It’s about time you entered the Imperial Palace.”

“It’s not urgent.”

“It is urgent. It’s already been five years of delay.”

“…..”

“Now you’re proficient in both magic and swordsmanship, and you’re used to killing people. Am I wrong?”

Irkus split the biscuit I pushed towards him in half and remained silent. He even stuffed the biscuit into his mouth, as if to eliminate any chance of answering. I was dumbfounded.

Irkus was using his mercenary work as an excuse to hone his skills and cultivate his mind, continuously delaying his entry into the imperial palace.

It was frustrating to see him doing this, knowing that there was nothing good to come from delaying it.

It’s not like the emperor of the Robain Empire was on his deathbed, but if that Ra-whatever secretly assassinated his own father and took over the throne, Irkus would be left out in the cold. Of course, if that happened, I would blame it on his lack of filial piety and start a revolution, but still.

“You need to establish your position in advance. I don’t know how you’ve been living in the Imperial Palace, but in order to last long in the emperor’s seat, it’s important to strategically place both enemies and allies.”

“Yoo-an, Irkus has heard that from you for five years.”

“That’s because it’s something that can’t be said enough. What’s the point of being treated like the youngest member of a low-level mercenary group that doesn’t even pay well?”

“Isn’t he more like a prized possession than the youngest member, considering his skills? He can use both magic and swords, so from the mercenary group’s point of view, he’s like a magic swordsman they have to cater to.”

“So what? They only make him do dangerous things.”

The more I spoke, the less Irkus said. It was as if he had become a child forcibly dragged to a parent meeting, just breaking up innocent biscuits and stuffing them into his mouth.

But he must know best that he has no excuse, no matter how many mouths he has.

The Red Hawk mercenary group that Irkus had joined was, to put it bluntly, a no-name group. Even though I had selected and presented a list of famous mercenary groups, Irkus insisted on joining the Red Hawk mercenary group, stubbornly refusing to join any other group.

When I asked why, he said he wanted to try it on his own without my help. I’m his guardian. I was frustrated that a child who wasn’t even an adult yet wanted to do things on his own.

But Irkus, even if he pretended to obey when I told him to die, was excessively stubborn in these matters. He was indeed a descendant of Yekarina.

The Red Hawk mercenary group was much smaller than the Night Fellow, the intelligence guild run by Teriz. It had been so until five years ago, and even though it had grown considerably in the five years since Irkus joined, it was still an unsatisfactory group by my standards.

The fact that the mercenary leader was a disciple of a dragon slayer in the past was annoying from the start. The disciple of a guy who killed a dragon who was my age? Why would I approve of him as my charge’s boss? No way.

I didn’t want to experience firsthand the heart of a parent whose child goes to work for a startup instead of a large corporation, but here I am.

“You can’t look down on Tristan of the Red Hawks like that.”

“No, I offered to introduce him to a retired mercenary king, but he wouldn’t listen to me. And what’s with the name Tristan? It makes me nervous because it sounds like his fiancée’s name would be Isolde.”

“I’ll take care of it myself.”

“Yeah. Why are you interfering when the kid says he’ll take care of it himself? It’s strange that you, of all people, are acting like this when your specialty is neglect.”

A guild member who came in with more tea for Irkus quickly put down the teacups and left. Others would probably think we were having a fight.

I sighed deeply and looked at Irkus’s handsome profile as he hurriedly drank the tea.

“Do you, by any chance, not want to be emperor?”

All of Yekarina’s descendants so far had no interest in the throne. In many cases, their lives and the throne were unrelated, and even if they were interested, it was only to the extent that they coveted power to lay the groundwork for the destruction of mankind, so I had to curb their interest.

Irkus was a protagonist and a prince, but fundamentally, he was a descendant of Yekarina. He wasn’t a witch who would get sick from living among people, but the blood of a witch still flowed through his body.

He might have thought he needed to become emperor to save his life when he fled to the Southern Forest, but now that he was strong enough, he might have other thoughts.

“No.”

But contrary to my guess, Irkus put down his teacup and answered clearly. Judging by the unwavering gaze, it didn’t seem like he was lying.

Teriz, using her cane as support, escaped this uncomfortable situation first, telling us to solve our problems between ourselves. What a shrewd old woman.

“If I say I don’t want to be emperor, you’ll abandon me.”

“Well, that would violate the contract, so even if I don’t abandon you, something will go wrong.”

“See.”

Irkus nonchalantly broke a remaining biscuit in half and pushed it into my mouth.

I was so taken aback by the sudden invasion of the biscuit that I didn’t even notice. He’s gotten so much bolder now that he’s older, it’s really annoying how much he’s picked up from Teriz.

“To be honest, I’m buying time.”

“…….”

“I’m buying time to be with you. Is that wrong?”

The forcibly inserted biscuit was incredibly dry. I couldn’t tell where the Night Fellow was getting their refreshments, but it was clear that the bakery would go out of business the moment this intelligence guild collapsed.

My teacup had long since been empty, and my throat was so parched because of the biscuit that it was hard to say anything.

Is it wrong? Of course, it’s the worst.

My impression naturally crumpled. It was only after chewing the dry biscuit for a long time that I was finally able to swallow it.

“I’ll just do one more job and then I’ll go to the imperial palace.”

“What job?”

“I took on another request on purpose, thinking you’d be like this.”

“Irkus Robain, you really….”

“You said that to be a good ruler, I have to have all sorts of experiences, as you said.”

“…….”

“If you’re upset, help me with my request.”

It’s good that he’s become more defiant since going through puberty, but it’s a real problem that his affection for me hasn’t seemed to cool down.

Despite getting along well with the people in the Red Hawk mercenary group, Irkus still blindly followed me. Even though Tristan, the mercenary leader, had taught him swordsmanship, making me no longer his only teacher. The first teacher is so important because of this.

I often told him to become a good ruler, but I didn’t expect him to take it this way. It’s not uncommon for people to fill up their resumes by getting into a prestigious university through the college admissions officer system rather than taking the CSAT and going the regular route.

I tried to understand Irkus in my own way, but in the end, my frustration didn’t subside. It felt like half a biscuit was stuck in my chest, making me feel queasy.

“Let’s at least hear what kind of request it is. Let’s go to the imperial palace soon.”