Summoned by the family head, Rohan came to the main castle. Even Rohan wondered what could be so important that he'd been called out on a training day.
'It must be about time for Father to go into secluded training.'
He remembered it being when he was eleven. When his father came back out of that cave, he had become an overwhelming power that even the head of the Andelians couldn't hope to match.
Rohan had benefited from that himself. The head of the Andelians had worked off his bitterness at falling behind Gion as a warrior through Rohan instead.
The man had never said so, but that was how Rohan saw it.
Rohan stood in front of the family head's office. Even Rohan, who had come back against the flow of time, was nervous now.
'Anyone else, maybe, but I can't fool Father. He'll notice the fire rings inside me.'
That wasn't all. Dark mana had settled inside Rohan's body too.
How would Gion judge it?
Knock. Knock.
"My lord. It's Rohan."
"Come in."
Rohan opened the door and went in. He had an excuse ready. It wouldn't fool Gion, but it should get him past this one time, at least.
Rohan knelt on one knee in front of the family head's desk.
"Rohan Baltran. I greet the family head."
Unlike usual, not a single document lay on Gion's desk. He was focused entirely on Rohan.
"I heard from Ron. That there was an assassination attempt."
"Yes. They drew swords in my bedroom."
Entering the lodgings of a direct-line Baltran and drawing weapons without permission was proof enough that they were assassins.
"How did you know to respond?"
"I'd just woken up needing to go to the bathroom."
The corner of one of Gion's eyes twitched.
"You happened to need to relieve yourself just as the assassins came in. You truly are a lucky one."
Even though he hadn't said it outright, Rohan knew that luck included opening the stone gate. Officially, Rohan had opened the gate thanks to the heaven-sent luck of lightning striking it.
"Yes. I seem to have been born with luck, if nothing else."
Rohan answered calmly. If anything, this was more convincing than the truth. Who would believe that, thanks to coming back against the flow of time, he had captured a black mage who could hide inside paper?
"Hmph, well, luck is a skill too. Be that as it may, those two were 4th-Stage knights. They were not full knights, but even one of them should be too much for a trainee like you. How did you beat two of them?"
Without a word, Rohan stretched both arms forward and opened his palms. From one hand, mana blazed up as red flame, and from the other, square ice crystals froze and stacked into a tower.
"I don't know how this happens either, but every time I made an ice ring, a fire ring formed."
Rohan stole a glance at Gion's expression. There wasn't the slightest movement on Gion's face.
However unexpressive he was, this should have been enough to make at least an eyebrow twitch.
That made Rohan certain.
Gion already knew fire rings existed inside his body.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"Because I couldn't explain it."
"You couldn't explain it. For that, you seem to have made a great deal of progress. Fire and ice in balance."
Rohan was surprised. That Gion had noticed even that much.
"I-If you will give me your teaching, I will humbly accept it."
Rohan prostrated himself until his forehead touched the floor. Gion's sharp intuition had truly flustered even the Mercenary King who had once held the continent in his grip.
"Kahahaha. You have done what even I could not; how could I possibly teach you?"
Rohan looked up in surprise. He couldn't believe what had just come out of his father's mouth.
The Gion Baltran, admitting there was something he couldn't do.
"Why are you looking at me like that? If I could do everything, I would not be a man but a god."
To the young Rohan, Gion had been like a god. Utterly unapproachable. So he had never felt a father's love from him, and had never even expected it.
But now.
Rohan felt the love between father and son in Gion's eyes.
"Among the family history passed down only to the family head, there is this anecdote as well. They say the third family head, Amon Baltran, once handled fire mana."
"Our ancestor did?"
In his surprise, Rohan did something he normally wouldn't: he asked back. Amon Baltran was known as the family head who had come closest to the level of the founder, Gondor Baltran.
That someone from his own family. A former family head, no less. And of all of them, Amon Baltran, had handled fire mana surprised even Rohan, who had experienced everything imaginable before his regression.
"Yes. Amon Baltran had active dealings with the Andelian family. That was before relations with the Andelian family soured."
Gion didn't forget to add a remark for the sake of the family's honor.
"Of course. It was possible only because, when Lord Amon was family head, the Andelians were nothing more than a newly formed family."
It wasn't a lie. Rohan also knew that the Andelian family had formed about 100 years later than the Baltrans.
"Since even he did it, there is no reason you cannot. But. In the end, even he completed the 10th Stage purely with ice rings."
Rohan listened seriously to Gion's words. Even Amon, the greatest prodigy after Gondor, had ultimately failed to find a way.
But he himself had brought fire and ice into balance.
Even Gion would be surprised if he knew Rohan intended to make ten ice rings and ten fire rings each.
'Even Father doesn't know exactly what dark mana is.'
And what kind of man was that Doflamingo? Rohan guessed he was a man from an era even before Gion's.
"Thank you for your advice. I will not grow careless, and I will devote myself even more to training to make progress."
Gion nodded. Then Rohan heard something he had never expected.
"I am glad you are safe."
Rohan stared blankly at his father. He was lifting the teacup on his desk and drinking his tea. It was a gentle expression he had never seen in his past life.
'Father.......'
Rohan felt two sides of emotion at once, fondness and hurt. Part of him wondered what he, who had lived close to forty years in his past life, was doing.
But he found it hard to shake the thought that if, just once, his father had shown him that gentle side, his past self wouldn't have gone astray.
After drinking his tea for a while, Gion spoke again.
"Now I should tell you why I called you."
Hadn't he been called about dealing with the assassins?
Thanks to that, Rohan snapped completely out of his idle thoughts.
"I am giving you a mission. If you carry it out properly, I will arrange for you to move up to the advanced course next year."
Rohan cheered inwardly. He had been worrying a lot. Winning against the trainees up for promotion wasn't hard if he set his mind to it. The problem was that he couldn't show his magic power freely.
Half of Rohan's full strength was magic and his high level of mana. Fighting someone three or four years older with both of them sealed away?
Even for Rohan, it wouldn't be easy.
'The previous bouts were possible only because it was a pure contest of weapon skill without mana.'
That was why Rohan was determined to seize this chance.
"Cross the Wall. Walk northeast from there and you will come to the Shadow Forest. A forest where shadows take the place of leaves on bare branches. Bring back a Perilla flower from there."
Gion picked up the small wooden stick lying beside his cup. With it, he fished out a petal floating on his tea.
"A petal like this."
The blue petal shone transparently. Even though it had just come out of the tea, its surface shone transparent as if frozen.
Rohan's expression went flat as he looked at the petal. He already knew well what a Perilla flower looked like.
After all, it was a product that sold at a high price even in the south.
One reason was that it helped mana training, but the bigger reason was that it was horrifically hard to come by.
'And he wants me to go pick it?'
Rohan tilted his head slightly.
A father's love? A gentle smile?
Nothing had changed after all.
'Sending an eleven-year-old into the jaws of death.'
Rohan forced down his seething mana and bowed his head.
"Yes. I will accomplish it."
As a son, he did feel hurt.
But as a warrior, it was by no means a mission he couldn't accomplish.
***
After Rohan left, Gion picked up his cup again. He emptied the rest of his tea into his mouth and set the cup down.
Looking straight ahead, he spoke.
"Ron. What did you make of it?"
Ron slowly emerged from the shadow beside the bookshelf. He walked forward a few steps and bent one knee.
"Ice mana and fire mana coexisting. I cannot even begin to grasp it."
Gion smiled. He no longer even tried to hide it. Both corners of his mouth were clearly raised.
"I suppose not."
The story of Amon Baltran, supposedly passed down only to the family head, was a lie. That the third family head had handled fire mana was something he had only heard from his father.
If not for the story his father told him the day Rohan was born, even Gion would not have been able to accept Rohan refining fire rings.
"Make sure what you heard today never leaks anywhere else."
"As you command! No one will ever know that I know of this."
Gion laughed. This time he even threw his head back and opened his mouth wide.
"Kahahahaha! Someone already knows."
"What do you......."
"Do you think Rohan did not know you were hiding?"
It was a reproachful tone, but his eyes were gentle. If anything, he looked as if he wanted to boast about his youngest son's level.
Though Gion's intentions were plain for once, Ron couldn't help being flustered.
"Th-That cannot be. Even if the young master harbors fire mana, his level is only around the 4th Stage. It is still too early for him to notice my concealment......."
Ron couldn't finish. There were too many things Rohan had shown so far that couldn't be explained by common sense to be certain.
"You let your guard down. Rohan did not notice you for some time after entering this room either. But the moment you saw the fire mana, your breathing faltered, and one of Rohan's eyes turned toward the bookshelf."
It had truly been a split second. But Rohan hadn't missed it.
Forgetting he was in front of Gion, Ron looked dazed.
He couldn't believe a mere eleven-year-old had read his presence.
As if reading Ron's thoughts, Gion spoke in his place.
"No need to blame yourself. It is hard to call it your fault. It truly was a split second. Unless someone has been exposed to assassination threats to the point of exhaustion, it is hard to sense. But Rohan is far too young for that.... Even I wonder where that brat learned such a trick."
Contrary to his words, Gion's mouth was full of smiles. Whatever secret Rohan had, he looked simply delighted at his son's achievement.
Seeing that, Ron realized. The mission just given to the youngest son was no simple task.
"Is there perhaps another reason you sent the youngest young master beyond the Wall?"
Normally he wouldn't have asked. But now it felt as if he could. Gion looked to be in a better mood than on almost any occasion since Ron had met him.
"A few years ago, I found a spirit there."
"An ice spirit, you mean?"
"Yes. Judging by the amount of mana it held, it was a high-ranking spirit."
"You just left it there?"
"Spirits cause us no harm. And forming a contract with it did not seem like it would help me much."
Ron nodded slightly too. A contract with a spirit was meaningless to Gion. Unless it was a Spirit King, it might make a conversation partner, but in battle it would only get in the way.
"You mean to give that spirit to the youngest young master as a gift."
"Who knows. Whether he can form a contract with the spirit is up to him. It will not be easy, by the look of it. The spirit will surely notice he harbors fire mana in his body."
Ron, who knew little about spirits, didn't catch it right away. But he inferred, reading between the lines, that being an ice spirit, it must hate fire mana.
Just like the relationship between the Baltrans and the Andelians.
"Even so, the youngest young master will form the contract."
Gion raised one eyebrow.
"Why do you think so?"
"Just a hunch. Looking at how the youngest young master acts, it seems he refuses to let slip even a single thing that could make him stronger."
Haha. Gion gave a short laugh. That laugh carried the meaning that he agreed.
Rohan, his eleven-year-old youngest son. Yet he was growing stronger more greedily than any of his siblings.