Creak—
Aion opened the door to the consultation counter and stepped inside.
“Excuse me.”
“Not at all. This is certainly something worth considering from your position, Aion.”
“…Then I have made my decision.”
His finger passed over the brightly marked dormitories on the map and moved farther outward.
To the boundary of the academy grounds, marked with a mist symbol.
It was a sparsely populated, heavily forested area.
“Deep within Mistveil Forest… are there not some abandoned cabins there that are no longer maintained?”
“…Pardon?”
The employee’s eyes widened at the unexpected question.
“How do you know about that, student Aion? First-years should not have gone anywhere near that area yet.”
Aion calmly improvised an answer.
“Ah… I heard about it from an upperclassman I know.”
【Flame: Heh heh… Not exactly a lie. We are your seniors, after all. Extremely senior seniors.】
【Earth: Your lies are improving faster than even your magical ability.】
Those seniors cackled in his mind.
“Uh… um….”
The employee still could not hide her puzzled expression.
“There certainly are some old caretaker lodgings once used by hunters, but… why are you looking for them? When there are dormitories with better facilities and locations, like Lumenia or Sirwen?”
“Are you aware that I am from the North?”
“Of course. Everyone knows that House Iskar has guarded the northern Empire for generations.”
Aion seized upon those words and put on a deliberately grave expression.
“That is precisely why.”
“…Pardon?”
As the employee tilted her head, Aion continued slowly.
“By my family’s will, I underwent relentless training from a young age. I was raised to walk the path of a warrior rather than a mage. Cold floors and cutting winds were simply part of life.”
Aion lowered his eyes sadly.
The employee’s expression gradually stiffened.
“Perhaps because of that, I cannot sleep in comfortable places. Soft beds and warm air… only make me uneasy.”
“Ah… I see… But according to the regulations….”
The employee let out a sigh.
How harshly must he have been raised, at such a young age, that he would reject a fine dormitory and seek out a ruined house?
Aion did not miss the wavering in her eyes.
After pausing for a beat, he spoke in an even quieter voice.
“Even now, whenever I lie in a soft bed, I feel as though I can hear the voices of my dead comrades in my ears. Asking why I am lying somewhere so comfortable, why I abandoned them… why….”
“Th-that is enough. Enough. I understand.”
The employee looked at Aion with pity.
“…What is it that you want?”
At last.
The atmosphere was right for negotiation.
“To be direct, I would like to use that abandoned cabin.”
“Th-there? It has been neglected for decades… There will be more inconveniences than I can count.”
“I do not mind. In fact, I would prefer it that way.”
“Hmm….”
The employee rubbed her chin, looking troubled.
Still, Aion had priority, and she had no grounds to stop him when he was deliberately asking for poor conditions.
He had been adequately warned, and he had accepted it.
That left only one hurdle.
“Please wait a moment. I will check.”
Using a crystal ball, the employee contacted someone. After a brief exchange, she shuffled through some documents and raised her head.
“It is possible. It is possible, but….”
“Is there a problem?”
“It is an affiliation issue. That cabin lies at the very edge of the outer grounds, so it will not be classified as belonging to Lumenia. Lumenia is relatively close to the main building.”
“…Then?”
The employee pointed to a section of the map.
It was a dark, dreamlike-colored area bordering Mistveil Forest.
“Since it is near Nocturna territory, it will be classified as Nocturna-affiliated. As you know, Nocturna… has quite a lot of unusual students.”
Nocturna.
A place favored by the more particularly aggressive sort of mage.
Most troublesome incidents at the academy tended to begin there.
Aion closed his eyes, pretending to deliberate.
‘What do you think, old men?’
【Water: Being affiliated with Nocturna… Was that not what you expected?】
【Flame: Well, it should not be a major problem. Only your affiliation will change.】
【Earth: There will be no problem.】
A unanimous decision.
Aion opened his eyes and nodded.
“I do not mind. Please arrange it that way.”
“Are you truly certain? You may regret it….”
The employee looked at him with concern.
“That will not happen.”
***
Step, step.
Mistveil Forest.
True to its name, a thick mist hung over the forest path like a curtain as Aion walked through it in silence.
With a large backpack full of supplies and bedding on his back, and cleaning equipment and various tools in both hands, Aion looked every bit like a refugee.
The only saving grace was that he was accustomed to carrying such weight.
“Huff….”
Even so, his breath had risen to his throat.
It was not merely the weight of his belongings. The dampness blanketing the entire forest seemed to drain his stamina.
【Flame: A man born and raised in the North is already panting after walking such a short distance? What a baby.】
【Earth: Tsk tsk… Still, the soil here is not bad. One could grow crops here.】
Ignoring the Terminuses’ chatter, Aion fixed his gaze on the sight before him.
“……I have arrived.”
A clearing where the mist had parted.
There stood a decrepit log cabin.
It was not the only one.
Perhaps hunters had once lived together there; there were five or six cabins, though most had collapsed roofs or crumbling walls.
The place felt so desolate that even in broad daylight, it seemed as though ghosts might appear.
“What could possibly be in a ruin like this that made you insist it had to be here?”
Aion asked the Wind Terminus in his mind.
Yet Wind remained silent.
The reason Aion had rejected modern, well-equipped dormitories and come all the way to a remote ruin was because of what Wind had said to him.
— Mist… veil’s… ab… an… doned cabin… Go there….
The voice of Wind, who had remained silent until now, was unique.
It would not have been strange to mistake it for the sound of the wind itself rather than a voice.
“Ha…. Whatever it is, I need to unpack first.”
Among the cabins in the center, Aion chose the two-story one whose frame seemed the most intact.
Creeeak—
Clatter—!
The moment he opened the door, dust billowed out like a storm.
“Cough… What a sight. It really has been left unattended for decades.”
【Flame: …I did not expect it to be this bad.】
【Water: It is worse than anticipated. I wonder whether you will even be able to sleep tonight.】
【Earth: What good will complaining do? Why are you not getting to work?】
Ding!
***
[!] A new quest has been assigned.
***
『Quest: A New Home』
— 『Quest Overview: You chose a cabin in a remote location instead of a comfortable dormitory. At the very least, you must make this place suitable for sleeping tonight.』
— 『Objective: Clean and repair part of the cabin.』
— 『Conditions: Secure firewood, improve cleanliness by 10%, close all doors and windows.』
— 『Reward: Vitality +2』
***
“…Cleaning is a quest now?”
【Earth: You fool, is that not a good thing? You need an objective before you start moving. Did you think we did not know you? Judging from the habits you were raised with, you would have shaken out the bedsheets and called it a day.】
Aion did not bother to argue.
It was not wrong.
“To think you saw through me that thoroughly….”
Thud.
Aion set down his luggage and rolled up his sleeves.
Riiip…
He first tore away the rotten shutters, then swept away the dirt and dust piled on the floor with a broom.
“…It is hot.”
Aion took off his coat and began working in earnest.
Before long, his shirt clung to his body, soaked with sweat.
What was revealed was a physique far too solid for a student aspiring to become a mage.
Hard muscles filled his arms and shoulders.
And scattered across his body were countless large and small scars.
They seemed to silently testify to the road he had walked.
‘Have I not fully recovered yet…? My body feels somewhat sluggish.’
He gathered fallen deadwood from the forest and began chopping it with an axe.
Crack!
Craack!
The sound of splitting firewood echoed through the quiet forest.
Though it was late spring, the temperature would plummet at night.
He did not know whether the fireplace would work properly, but firewood was essential if he did not want to freeze to death.
“The windows… There is no glass, so I will have to cover them with wooden boards for now.”
He placed planks over the broken frames and drove in nails.
The wind would still find its way through the gaps, but for now, it was the best he could do.
After working without rest for several hours, the view beyond the window had turned red with the setting sun.
“Whew… No matter how much I clean, there is no end to it. This is as far as I can get today.”
Ding!
***
[!] Quest complete.
[!] Reward granted: Vitality +2
***
Wiping the sweat from his brow, Aion looked over the results of his labor.
“I somehow managed to finish within the day.”
He checked the stats that had increased through the quests.
‘…They have all increased.’
Every stat was still F-rank, but the plus signs beside them filled him with satisfaction.
Even if slowly, he was definitely growing.
‘Starting from the bottom is something I am quite familiar with.’
That was when it happened.
While wiping down the wall of what appeared to be a study, something caught Aion’s eye.
“……Hm?”
He had thought it was an ordinary wooden wall, but there was a faint gap between the knots.
When he tapped it with his hand, the hollow sound that returned was different from the usual dull thud.
‘Was it exposed because the wood rotted away? Let us see….’
Aion immediately picked up a tool.
When he wedged an iron pry bar into the gap and applied force, the rotten boards tore free with a loud crack.
“This is….”
What was revealed was a staircase leading downward, and an iron door tightly bound by rusted chains.
“A basement…?”
It might have been a storage room, but there was something strange about it.
In this wooden building, only this door was made of sturdy iron.
Aion paused to consider it.
“Well, there is no reason I have to investigate this today—”
Bang!
Despite his words, the iron pry bar in his hand violently struck the lock.
The rusted lock shattered without resistance and fell to the floor.
Creeeak….
The iron door opened with the scream of rusted hinges.
A stale smell of mold accompanied a stream of cold air from below.
Holding up the magic lamp he had brought, Aion carefully descended the stairs.
“…….”
This was not an ordinary basement.
Shelves filled the walls, alongside workbenches and the remains of a complex magic circle drawn across the floor.
“…A mage definitely lived here.”
【Flame: I do not know what Wind is plotting, but… it appears so.】
【Earth: Well, well? The previous owner set this place up rather nicely.】
【Water: It is a workshop. Someone’s atelier.】
A magic workshop.
“There are barely any usable items left.”
Most of the materials on the shelves had rotted away beyond recognition.
Withered, twisted herbs. Broken flasks. Books covered in dust.
Yet among them were bottles sealed in wax and still intact, as well as ores that retained faint traces of mana.
“……Blood?”
There were bloodstains.
【Flame: There are signs that someone fled in a hurry.】
【Earth: So what? Would it not be perfect if you repair it and use it?】
“A workshop… I never expected there to be one in a place like this.”
【Flame: That sly fellow Wind must have known. That is why he led you here.】
“…Perhaps.”
Aion wanted to search the place more thoroughly, but night had fallen long ago.
It was completely dark outside.
“…That is enough for today.”
Leaving his regret behind, Aion returned to the first floor.
He then went straight to the bedroom and lay down on a bed from which he had only roughly shaken the dust.
“Ha….”
As he stared at the ceiling, he could see stars in the night sky through gaps in the rotten roof.
There had not been enough time to patch them during the day.
Starlight poured through those holes.
It felt familiar.
‘How long has it been since I lay down beneath the stars?’
It was more comforting than a ceiling closed tightly overhead.
His first night in a ruined house frightening enough to scare ghosts away.
The fatigue of physical labor washed over him, and his eyelids grew unbearably heavy.
Drift….
Just as Aion’s consciousness sank into deep sleep—
Whoooooosh…
His eyes snapped open.
Click.
Aion’s hand immediately fell upon the sheath of the dagger lying beside him.
A chill ran down his spine.
Then a clear voice rang in his ear.
【Who… are you?】
Aion’s hand froze over the dagger sheath.
It was not one of the Terminuses’ voices.
It came not from within his mind, but clearly from outside.
Silence.
Holding his breath, Aion stared into the darkness.
Nothing was visible.
Yet the voice was undeniably there.
Then came another voice he had been waiting for all along.
【Wind: ……It has come.】