When I went downstairs, Roat was standing in the entryway.
But instead of the pure-white armor that practically symbolized a Paladin, he was dressed in ordinary clothes for going out.
“Kano, I brought you a new wand.”
When Roat saw me coming down, he handed me the wand.
‘Wait, did he come all the way back this late at night just to give me a wand?’
“Thank you, Dad!”
My eyes sparkled as I accepted it.
At a glance, I could already tell that more advanced magical formulas had been embedded into it than the previous one.
‘So the last one really was just a toy for children?’
In my previous life, I had grown up poor and had never had the chance to handle a proper wand.
It was not until long after I became an adult that I finally received a fairly decent one, and even then, I did not get to use it for very long.
‘Because that bastard abducted me.’
“Kano, you. You said you were going to sleep.... Oh my, did you get a new wand?”
Prel stood beside me, looking back and forth between the wand and my face.
When I nodded happily, she smiled and said that was wonderful.
“Hmm?”
While examining the wand, I felt someone staring at me and raised my head.
My eyes met Roat’s.
“…….”
But he said nothing.
He merely stared at me with a thoughtful expression.
‘What’s with him?’
“...There’s a magic lecture tomorrow. Why don’t you come with me?”
“A magic lecture all of a sudden?”
Prel blinked and looked at him.
“Prochi Maeda will be visiting.”
“Oh my, isn’t he an incredibly famous mage?”
Prel’s eyes widened as she stared at Roat.
I also looked at him in surprise.
‘Prochi? That Prochi Maeda?’
Prochi Maeda, a 5th Circle mage.
I had heard plenty about him.
His reputation had even reached this place.
Of course, the 5th Circle was certainly a high realm, but not so high that reaching it alone would make someone famous across the kingdom.
The reason Prochi Maeda was so well known was because of the path he had chosen.
Most mages shut themselves away in their rooms and did nothing but pursue knowledge.
Nobles had other responsibilities to attend to, but ordinary mages had no noble obligations, so they often secluded themselves indoors and devoted their lives entirely to magic.
That was what most mages were like.
Yet Prochi Maeda, despite being a mage like them, traveled throughout the kingdom teaching magic without demanding any payment in return.
Some even called him God’s Emissary.
It was not entirely undeserved.
Even a single sheet of parchment containing magic was so valuable that an ordinary commoner could never hope to obtain one.
Because of that, commoners who wished to learn magic often turned all too easily to Black Magic.
‘They probably want to learn magic badly enough to pay whatever price it demands. It could completely change their lives, after all.’
What was more, Black Mages actually preferred taking disciples and teaching them Black Magic.
The will of demons, and therefore the Black Mages’ goal, was to create even more Black Mages and corrupt as many souls as possible.
‘Although most of them can’t even form a contract with a Devil and have to settle for an Evil.’
Forming a contract with a demon was simply that difficult.
Those who fell onto the path of a Black Mage would ultimately offer not only their own souls, but even the souls of others to demons without hesitation, all for the sake of contracting with a Demon.
That meant Prochi Maeda’s work also served to save commoner mages who might otherwise fall into Black Magic.
‘Though plenty of mages dislike what he’s doing.’
For me, however, this was an excellent opportunity.
If I could combine a mage’s instruction with the understanding I already possessed, it would be immensely helpful.
Black Magic gained through contracts with demons was important, but raising my own realm as a mage was no less essential.
If I wanted to contract with higher-ranking Demons—especially those known as Great Demons—the value of my own soul would also have to increase.
“What do you think, Kano?”
Roat looked at me and asked again with a serious expression.
“Yes! I want to learn magic!”
When I answered enthusiastically, Roat nodded.
“Dear, what happened to your assignment? Weren’t you supposed to travel somewhere quite far away?”
“For the time being, I’ve decided to work while staying close to home.”
Prel’s eyes widened for a moment.
Then her face lit up.
“Really?!”
She threw herself into Roat’s arms.
“Really? Really?!”
Prel repeatedly rubbed her face against his chest.
There were even faint tears glistening in her eyes.
‘I suppose that makes sense....’
Her husband only came home once or twice a month and spent nearly all his time away.
Of course she must have missed him.
I quietly slipped back to my room without disturbing them.
Whenever I watched those two together, I sometimes found myself understanding what happiness truly meant.
And then I would suddenly become frightened.
Afraid that I might grow accustomed to this peace and lose my desire for revenge.
That was why, whenever I saw the two of them like that, I remembered my family from my previous life.
My family, who had been sacrificed because of Selveus.
Then my heart would settle again, and the cold desire for revenge would raise its head once more.
The warmth I had felt only moments before would rapidly turn cold.
‘That’s right. I already know what I have to do.’
Repeating those words to myself, I turned my gaze toward the window.
Soft moonlight spilled into the dark room.
‘So this is...!’
The place Roat brought me to was the Blue Mage Tower, located in the heart of the capital.
A Mage Tower was both a single building and an entire settlement unto itself.
Practicing magic required wide, open spaces where any potential damage could be contained.
But since mages also wanted to minimize exposure to the outside world, everything they needed was built inside the tower itself.
Naturally, Mage Towers had no choice but to become enormous.
Living up to the name Blue Mage Tower, blue banners fluttered at the entrance.
An inverted wand and a book were crossed upon each banner in golden embroidery.
I glanced at the banners before entering the first floor of the Mage Tower.
A vast space opened before me, almost like a public square.
Whispers immediately rose from various corners when people noticed Roat and me.
A few people even openly frowned.
I looked back at them with displeasure.
Holy Knights formally recognized by the Holy Order were, by law, granted noble titles by the king.
Among them, Roat had received the title of Count because of his strength and achievements as a Paladin.
He had since become famous, accumulated considerable prestige, and built substantial wealth....
‘But the old nobles probably still don’t like him.’
Most mages, on the other hand, were born into noble families.
It made sense.
Magic was, quite literally, advanced knowledge, and it was not something that could easily be learned.
Even if a commoner was fortunate enough to become a mage, reaching a high realm with only limited access to information was nearly impossible.
‘That’s why people say mages look down on Holy Knights.’
Most mages came from noble families.
Because of that, they often looked down on Holy Knights of common birth for no reason beyond the circumstances of their birth.
“…….”
Several men who had come with their children approached Roat, made the holy sign, and bowed their heads.
Others, however, openly glared in our direction.
‘People who were born into everything without earning any of it....’
I did not like them.
To those people, becoming a mage had probably been nothing more than one possible path among many.
But neither in my previous life nor in this one had the path of magic ever felt like a choice to me.
If I had been born a noble in my previous life, would I have avoided suffering the fate that I did?
“Learn as much as you can from the mage.”
“Yes, Dad.”
When we reached the spacious lecture hall, Roat patted my head and turned away without hesitation.
Looking around, I saw several anxious adults fussing over the children they had brought.
I did not feel hurt that Roat was leaving me behind.
I was far too old for that sort of thing.
In fact, this was exactly what I wanted.
Glance.
Before leaving the hall, Roat briefly looked back at me.
For some reason, I almost laughed.
Roat was not indifferent to me.
He was simply not accustomed to expressing what he felt.
The children found empty seats and sat down.
I quietly took a seat of my own and watched the entrance.
But Prochi Maeda had yet to appear.
‘When is he going to get here...?’
“Hey, you.”
“Hmm?”
At that moment, I noticed a group of children approaching me.
“Yeah, you.”
“Me?”
“You?”
The boy at the front had short red hair.
He had somehow already gathered a small group around himself.
Frowning, the boy jabbed a finger into my chest.
“I heard your family came from commoners.”
“……?”
‘Who the hell is this brat?’
Kids this young were already picking fights over something like that?
What was the world coming to...?
“Yeah. Is there a problem?”
“Is there a problem?”
His expression soured further as he jabbed my chest even harder.
“You’re from a commoner family, and you’re talking to me that casually? Do you think becoming a Holy Knight suddenly makes someone a real noble?”
‘...How painfully predictable.’
Was there some textbook called The Proper Way to Pick a Fight Over Someone’s Birth that people handed out to these brats?
I sighed without meaning to.
“You’re sighing at me? You little...!”
‘Silence. Petrification.’
As the red-haired boy raised his fist and stepped toward me, I discreetly cast magic and locked one of his legs in place.
His own momentum sent him tumbling over it in a ridiculous heap.
“Uagh!”
‘Remove.’
I immediately dispelled the magic.
The boy stared down at his leg in alarm and began touching it all over.
“W-what just happened?”
I quickly approached with a worried expression.
“You don’t look well. Why don’t you go home and rest? Or....”
The corners of my mouth curled upward.
“Stop lying there like an idiot and get up.”
The children behind him began snickering.
“Young Master Frenchel of the Great Mage’s family....”
“He did fall pretty hilariously.”
At the last comment, the children could no longer restrain themselves and burst into laughter.
So that brat’s name was apparently Frenchel.
‘Red hair and a Great Mage.... He must be Count Atona’s son.’
I had seen the family mentioned frequently in the newspapers I read every day after reincarnating.
The red-haired Great Mage.
Count Ignote Atona.
House Atona was fairly renowned throughout the kingdom.
“Y-you bastard...!”
Frenchel’s face turned as red as a ripe apple.
He scrambled to his feet and, unable to contain his anger, raised his fist high.
BANG!
At that moment, the firmly shut doors swung open.
TAP!
Immediately afterward, the crisp sound of a wooden staff striking the floor rang through the lecture hall.
An elderly man who looked well past sixty entered, the hem of his gray robe dragging across the floor behind him.
He had a long gray beard that matched his robes.
His protruding eyes gave him an almost frog-like appearance, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.
I had never seen his face before.
Yet his presence alone was enough for me to know who he was.
The 5th Circle mage known as God’s Emissary.
‘...Prochi Maeda.’
He slowly swept his gaze across the children seated throughout the lecture hall.
“...What.”
Then Prochi slowly opened his mouth.
“What is this collection of half-baked chaff?”
Words that sounded utterly unlike anything one would expect from a renowned mage came out of his mouth.
“Chaff...?”
Frenchel stood frozen with his fist still raised, blinking in disbelief.
“Doesn’t look like there’s a single useful one among you.”
Prochi clicked his tongue and swept his gaze around the hall.
His bulging eyes rolled from child to child.
‘...He’s rather strange.’
He was nothing like the image I had expected.
‘I thought he’d be more dignified.’
“Hmm?”
Then, while looking around, Prochi’s gaze abruptly stopped on me.
His eyes widened.
After blinking at me for a long moment, Prochi raised his staff and pointed directly at me.
There was no mistaking it.
Both his staff and his eyes were aimed precisely at me.
At last, Prochi opened his mouth.
“Why is there someone here who shouldn’t be?”