“Raiden……!!”
“You mean ‘Lord’ Raiden.”
“Damn you!!”
Apparently deciding that it was already too late to make excuses, Miya threw caution to the wind and launched an attack at Raiden.
“Hmph.”
However, Raiden snorted and vanished in an instant, moving at a speed Jaes’s eyes could not even follow.
“Urgh!!”
He immediately reappeared behind Miya and subdued her before she could react.
“You are fairly skilled for your age. But if you worked in this mansion, you should at least know what my epithet is.”
“Raiden, the Instant God……!”
“Indeed. You have certainly made quite a spectacle of this. I had no intention of laying a hand on you for some time, provided you caused no trouble. But you brought this upon yourself, so accept the consequences.”
“What?! You……!”
‘……Thank goodness.’
Once Jaes confirmed that Raiden had completely subdued Miya with his overwhelmingly superior skill, an inexplicable weakness suddenly washed over him, perhaps because the terror of facing death for the first time had finally passed.
SLUMP.
He promptly lost consciousness.
* * *
‘……Ow!’
A stabbing headache struck him as goosebumps rose across his entire body.
Jaes sprang upright as though propelled by a spring.
‘Urgh. I am alive, right? Where is this……?’
Only then did he remember what had happened before he lost consciousness. As he looked around, someone entered his field of vision.
“You are awake.”
“Uh, Raiden… Lord Raiden.”
It was Raiden, whose presence still felt strangely uncomfortable to him.
“I have treated your injuries. Do you remember what happened?”
“……Yes. Thank you…… for saving me.”
“Hmm. There is no need to thank me. I merely did what I was supposed to do.”
“Ah, understood.”
“However, there are two things I wish to know, so I timed my visit for when you would awaken. Answer me. Why did Miya, an imperial spy, go out of her way to take your life?”
“……She said she wanted to silence me because I discovered something in her incantation that could identify her as being from the Empire.”
Raiden gave a faint, incredulous chuckle at Jaes’s answer.
“Hmm. Is that so? Then she did something truly pointless. To think that she believed we had failed to notice even that much.”
“……? Then are you saying that you already knew her true identity?”
Raiden snorted and nodded.
“Of course. We are not so careless. Duke Ailin is an Archmage capable of using Eighth-Tier Magic, one of only three on the entire continent. It is only natural that flies would swarm around him. Dealing with every last one of them would be tedious, so we simply leave those who pose no real threat alone. After all, we might be able to turn them to our own advantage when necessary.”
‘The fact that Duke Ailin threw a tantrum and insisted it would be more entertaining to leave them alone also played no small part. Ugh.’
However, Raiden revealed none of those thoughts and continued to maintain a solemn expression.
Miya’s movements might have been fairly nimble for someone her age, but someone of her calibre posed no threat whatsoever in a place where Raiden and the Mages of the Mage Tower resided.
Even so, now that she had openly revealed herself and caused such a disturbance, there was neither any reason nor any need to continue pretending ignorance.
“Then what will happen to Miya now……?”
“We will extract information from her, attempt to recruit her, and dispose of her if that proves impossible. But you do not need to know that much. Have you already grown attached to her?”
“……No. She tried to kill me.”
“Naturally. Then here is my second question. What exactly did you do inside that barrier?”
“Pardon?”
“Judging from the lingering mana, the barrier Miya deployed was the Fourth-Tier spell Orb of Shadow. It has no other effects, but it completely prevents anyone outside from sensing any sign of what is happening within. It is beyond the level of magic she could cast herself, but as an imperial spy, she must have brought several Magic Scrolls containing spells with the same effect.”
‘……I see. So proper scrolls capable of storing magical effects really do exist.’
In that case, Miya must have reached inside her clothes to use a scroll.
“That is why even I noticed nothing unusual until immediately before I arrived. The reason I was able to reach you was because I detected a mana anomaly that had broken through the barrier, faint though it was, and spread beyond it. That would be impossible for anyone without considerable skill. Are you hiding something?”
‘Urgh.’
Although nothing changed outwardly, Jaes could clearly feel an intimidating pressure beginning to emanate from Raiden.
It was not the same murderous hostility Miya had directed at him, but the pressure nevertheless made every nerve in Jaes’s body stand on end.
‘Hmm. What should I do?’
Jaes swallowed hard and, for the first time since coming to this world, found himself agonising at length over his answer.
He could not immediately determine whether revealing every card in his meagre hand would benefit or harm him.
‘Would he believe me if I vaguely claimed that I did not know either? Unfortunately, judging by everything that has happened so far, he does not seem like the kind of person who would.’
It was not as though Jaes specifically intended to conceal the fact that he had learned a few spells.
However, he still had no idea what qualified as ‘ordinary’ in this world. Naturally, he had no choice but to be extremely cautious about revealing the only real card he possessed.
After all, his goal was to remain quiet and inconspicuous until he had grown accustomed to this world.
……However,
‘……Whew. But if I stall for no reason and make myself look suspicious, it will only backfire. There are still things about this man that make me uncomfortable, but he did save my life. I should tell him the truth.’
Jaes’s brief hesitation came from the cautious and calculating personality he had developed through his experiences in graduate school.
After deliberating, however, he ultimately concluded that his only option was to trust the man before him.
“The truth is…….”
Jaes told Raiden everything without concealing a single detail, from how he had learned magic over the past week to the spell he had cast inside the barrier as the culmination of everything he had accomplished.
“…….”
Raiden maintained an expressionless face as he listened to Jaes’s explanation, but inwardly, he could not hide his astonishment.
‘Magic Arrow? He broke through the Orb of Shadow, however slightly, with the most basic of basic spells and scattered traces of mana beyond it?’
There did not appear to be any logical flaws in Jaes’s explanation.
Nevertheless, it was difficult to believe that he had accomplished with Magic Arrow something that ordinarily would have required at least a Third-Tier offensive spell.
“You are not lying to me, are you?”
“Of course not. What reason would I have to do that?”
‘……Hmm.’
Furthermore, Raiden could not simply dismiss it as a lie. Something about Jaes bothered him: despite having only just survived a brush with death, the boy seemed strangely composed.
Before long, one particular fact came to mind.
‘Come to think of it, Nasram said that he sensed an unusual spirit presence from this boy.’
Nasram was both Raiden’s colleague and the greatest Spirit Mage in the Mage Tower, so his words were unlikely to have been careless speculation.
Rather than possessing an affinity with any of the four basic elemental lineages, Nasram had risen to become a Mage comparable to the others solely through his affinity with a special Spirit.
Perhaps this boy named Jaes was a similar case.
“Very well. Then cast the spell you used inside the barrier on me.”
“Pardon?”
“I am not saying that I distrust you, but it is admittedly difficult to believe. If you are telling the truth, you should be able to reproduce something similar here.”
“Uh…… is that…… safe?”
Raiden gave an incredulous chuckle at Jaes’s response, which seemed to betray a slight concern over what might happen.
“Why? Are you worried that I might be injured? Do not concern yourself. I may not look it, but aside from Duke Ailin, there are very few people here capable of harming me.”
Nearly every accomplished Mage was an egotist steeped in confidence, conceit, arrogance, and pride.
The destructive power wielded by a technically perfected Mage had reached an unimaginable level in the present era. Raiden, publicly recognised as Ailin’s Chief Disciple, was also regarded as the most promising Mage in the Kingdom of Le Mans. To anyone who knew him, his declaration was not arrogance but an expression of well-founded confidence.
‘Hmm. That line is a little embarrassing, but it does sound impressive. It is one of those things I would want to say at least once in my life, even if it made me cringe.’
Jaes still could not estimate Raiden’s actual level of ability. Nevertheless, he had seen Raiden subdue Miya in an instant at a speed his eyes could not even perceive, and he could infer that the man was an extraordinary Mage by this world’s standards.
He therefore decided to accept Raiden’s proposal without further hesitation.
“Very well.”
‘Now that I have agreed, I should do the best I can.’
In truth, his decision also arose from the pure curiosity that Jaes, as an engineer, could not suppress.
Even if he intended to conceal his abilities, he knew that there would be times when revealing them became necessary. However, there was another reason why he had chosen to reveal them before Raiden now.
Jaes wanted to know how his first spell, for which he still possessed no point of comparison, would appear to Raiden, an authority on Acceleration Magic.
“Magic Arrow.”
Jaes focused his mind and recited the incantation once more.
A blunt projectile, hardly deserving to be called an arrow, formed before him.
“…….”
‘What? It really is Magic Arrow? And it has not even been shaped properly?’
Raiden could not help displaying his disappointment openly as he watched it.
‘There is no possibility that he partially penetrated the barrier with that. It seems the Magic Scroll she used must have been defective somehow. Either that, or my detection abilities were simply that exceptional.’
“Hmm. Enough. You may stop now…….”
Just as Raiden was about to tell Jaes that he could stop, the crude-looking arrow suddenly accelerated to a speed that vastly exceeded his expectations and shot directly towards him.
“……!!”
TWITCH.
‘What was that? A man who only just began learning magic created and fired that Magic Arrow?!’
No matter how perfectly one executed an incantation, every spell possessed an undeniable limit determined by its tier.
Otherwise, there would have been no reason to go through the trouble of dividing magic into ten separate tiers.
Yet the Magic Arrow Raiden had just received, barely managing to minimise the damage it inflicted, had unquestionably surpassed the limits of First-Tier Magic with ease.
“Tell me. How did you do that?”
“Pardon?”
Jaes had expected such an outcome, but he was still swallowing a trace of disappointment after seeing Raiden receive his finest attack so effortlessly(?) even at such close range.
Raiden began questioning him with a sharp, oppressive air.
“I modified the basic Magic Arrow incantation from the book by adding part of the Haste incantation.”
“What? No, even if you did that, producing this degree of speed should be impossible.”
“Yes. That is why I repeatedly layered the effect to increase its speed further.”
“Repeatedly? How exactly did you……. ……No. Never mind.”
FLINCH.
Raiden had momentarily lost control of his emotions and aggressively pressed Jaes for answers. However, he soon seemed to regain his senses and withdrew his question.
As stated before, nearly every accomplished Mage was an egotist brimming with confidence and conceit.
Among them, Raiden prided himself on being the greatest of his peers. No matter how curious he was, he could not tolerate the fact that he had been asking a complete novice who had only just begun learning magic to explain a magical theory that he himself did not understand.
Admittedly, Raiden had only received the attack because he had forced himself not to evade as he normally would, lest the room be damaged.
Nevertheless, Jaes had caused him to feel a faint amount of pain with nothing more than First-Tier Magic. Although he revealed none of it outwardly, Raiden could not conceal his astonishment at Jaes’s talent.
―But every so often, you do find a treasure. There is no guarantee that this time will be any different, is there?
‘This boy…… might truly be the real thing.’
‘……Why is he staring at me so intently?’
Raiden stared silently at Jaes for a while, even recalling what Duke Ailin had once told him.
Later, he naturally reported the incident to Duke Ailin.
“…And that is what happened.”
“Oh? That is extraordinarily fascinating! Then shall we throw that boy into our Mage Tower as well and have him research magic?”
“That is one option, but his foundations in magic are still far too lacking. Therefore, for the time being…… what would you think of doing this instead?”
“Hmm. I see. If that is your judgment after observing the boy for the past week, Raiden, then proceed as you suggest. We can always bring him into our Mage Tower afterward. Hehehe.”
“Hehe. Of course. Hehehe.”
* * *
SHIVER!
“……Hmm. Why do I suddenly feel such a chill?”
<Master’s current body temperature is 36 degrees. No abnormalities have been detected.>
“Ah, I know. I only mean that is how I feel.”
Meanwhile, after Miya’s attack, Raiden had ordered Jaes to remain where he was, leaving him alone in the room.
An inexplicable shiver began to crawl over him. Jaes assumed that it was merely the lingering effect of having experienced a genuine threat to his life for the first time, combined with the excitement of successfully demonstrating his spell in actual combat.
Even so, an unexplained sense of foreboding forced him to spend the entire night wide awake.