chapter 5

How to Live as a Hero in a Magical World

Recovering His Body

Kaian had already assumed that it would be difficult to become close to Eldarin right away.

Never mind the fact that one more person had been added to the household.

He had threatened her with a candlestick the very first time they met, and he had even burned her entire house down.

It was safe to say he had completely ruined his first impression.

But she did say she was going to raise me into a hero.

Then she must have seen some kind of potential in him, right?

On top of that, Eldarin had nursed him for several days and even given him medicine.

She had made sure to mention that the medicine was something she had prepared herself.

When his arm hurt so badly that he couldn’t hold a spoon, she even fed him soup herself.

It was far too much trouble to go through unless she considered him a precious disciple.

At least, that was what he had thought….

“Waaaaah! I was eating! It hurts! It hurts! Put me down!”

“Be quiet.”

For some reason, Kaian had been in the middle of eating soup when Eldarin grabbed him by the back of his neck and began dragging him away.

Eldarin dragged Kaian up one floor.

It was a peculiar room with a tree growing right in the center.

Eldarin tossed Kaian at the tree.

―Crash!

“Gah!”

Kaian groaned, unable to even touch his aching back.

“Uuugh…!”

Eldarin looked like a slender woman on the outside, but she possessed tremendous strength.

Because of that, Kaian had concluded that her true form probably wasn’t an elf at all, but some sort of mountain goat.

Of course, he didn’t actually know how strong mountain goats were.

But judging from everything he had experienced so far, they must have been animals with incredible muscles.

Even when Eldarin pulled my ears, her grip was ridiculously strong. And she has thrown me onto the bed several times…

Every time that happened, Kaian could do nothing but clutch the painful spot and groan.

The difference in physical strength was so enormous that he didn’t even dare try to fight back.

Kaian shouted in frustration.

“You can’t just throw me like that! I’m a patient! I can’t even get out of bed yet! …Am I?”

After several days of their constant bickering, even his sentences were becoming truncated.

But Eldarin didn’t care.

She merely scolded him sternly.

“If you know that, then why do you keep pestering me to teach you magic?”

Kaian felt terribly wronged.

Pestering her?

Wasn’t Eldarin the one who had promised to teach him?

They had even made a grand contract, and a rather cool—though admittedly embarrassing—butterfly symbol had been engraved on his left wrist.

And yet, the moment Kaian woke up, Eldarin had immediately declared—

―Don’t even think about using magic for the time being.

And she had firmly warned him against it.

But how many people would simply respond, Yes, okay, I understand, after hearing that?

As a result, from that day onward, the two of them had been engaged in a long, exhausting argument about whether she would teach him magic.

Kaian was both irritated and miserable.

“You said you’d teach me! You said you’d make me stronger!”

Eldarin wore an expression that suggested she had a terrible headache.

Kaian knew perfectly well from fairy tales that elves had more developed hearing than humans.

So he deliberately screamed even louder to annoy her.

It was practically the only attack he had at his disposal.

Besides, I have two older brothers…!

As the youngest child in a household with two older brothers, he couldn’t win a physical fight, so he had to sharpen his voice instead.

If he recklessly picked a fight, he had to be able to call for anyone in the house at the top of his lungs in an emergency.

Otherwise, there was no telling how many bumps he would end up with on his head.

Kaian let out a shriek using the voice he had spent all eight years of his life honing.

“Liar! Why are you lying?! You promised you’d teach me!”

Veins began to bulge on Eldarin’s beautiful forehead.

They said elves were extremely proud and disliked being insulted by others.

Apparently, the stories in his fairy tales had been true.

Kaian felt a little sorry, but he couldn’t back down.

Even at this very moment, the people who had killed his family were probably living peaceful everyday lives.

They eliminated our family, the biggest obstacle in their way. The longer time passes, the more powerful they’ll become.

The longer he remained bedridden, the greater the gap between them would become.

That was why he had to learn magic as quickly as possible.

He had to become stronger.

With tears welling up in his eyes, Kaian shouted,

“I agreed to the contract because you said you’d teach me magic! You said you’d make me stronger! I don’t have time!”

One might have expected Eldarin to feel sympathy at the sight.

Instead, she replied in an even colder voice than before.

“How long do you think it takes to become strong? A week? A month? A year? If it takes ten years, can you endure it? If it takes even longer than that, can you be patient?”

Only then did Kaian stop shouting.

Ten years…

No, what if it really takes even longer than that?

Will I be able to endure it without going insane?

Kaian’s lips moved as he desperately searched for something to say within that horrifying thought.

But Eldarin firmly stopped him.

“I intend to raise a hero. I have no intention of helping you carry out some half-baked revenge.”

Her voice was as cold as though it contained a blade.

“If you are so consumed by anger that you intend to rush toward your own death, then leave. I have no use for an apprentice like that.”

Kaian’s heart sank.

Leave?

Where would I go?

He had nowhere left to return to.

At last, silence descended upon the room.

Eldarin swallowed a sigh and once again lifted one of Kaian’s arms with tremendous strength.

“Ugh!”

This time, Kaian didn’t resist.

Eldarin pulled a dagger from the bag hanging around her waist.

Kaian’s eyes widened.

A bag that looked like it could barely hold a hand mirror and a snack suddenly produced a knife much larger than either.

That’s cheating.

But what could he possibly complain about now?

Eldarin used the dagger to make a tiny cut on the tip of Kaian’s finger.

Strangely enough, all he felt was a slight sting.

A plump drop of blood gathered at his fingertip.

Then it fell onto one of the leaves of the tree in the center of the room.

―Plop.

The leaf began to glow turquoise.

―Fwoooooosh…!

The light instantly flowed into the branches, then from the branches into the trunk, and from the trunk into the roots.

Kaian quickly followed the direction in which the roots extended.

They’re passing beneath the wooden floor and leading toward one of the walls!

Hanging on that wall was a full-length mirror with a frame made of intertwined wooden vines.

A mirror?

Could that be the entrance to Eldergrove?

Meanwhile, Eldarin felt pleased when she saw the direction of Kaian’s gaze, but she maintained an even more impassive expression.

There is no doubt that this child is clever beyond his years.

But he knows far too little about his own situation.

Of course, Eldarin hadn’t exactly explained things properly to him, either.

For her, communicating with a human—especially a human child—was something she hadn’t done in hundreds of years.

It was only natural that she would be somewhat inexperienced.

―Saaaaah…

As Kaian had predicted, the turquoise mana traveled from the tree’s roots beneath the wooden floor and reached the vine-covered frame of the mirror.

Eldarin added an explanation in her dry tone.

“Trees spread their roots and share information with one another. Thanks to that, I know everything that happens on this land. This mirror is a device that allows me to view that information.”

By now, the entire vine frame had been dyed turquoise, and the surface of the mirror began to ripple.

―Vrrrrr.

Then the mirror displayed the face of a man wandering through the forest.

Kaian found the man’s face vaguely familiar.

Who is he?

I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere before.

Eldarin spoke.

“They are the ones looking for you.”

Kaian’s head snapped around.

But Eldarin ignored his gaze and continued calmly.

“They are from the Velore family. They have been searching the forest for several days, saying they want to find their sister’s youngest son.”

Kaian stared as though hypnotized at the man appearing in the mirror.

Now that he heard it, the man’s face really did look similar to his mother, Riana.

The man in the mirror appeared to be receiving a search report from one of his subordinates.

―Lord Patriarch! The traces of mana end here!

―End here? What do you mean?

―Exactly as I said. The traces suddenly disappear here, as though something evaporated.

―Then are you saying the child is dead?!

―We don’t know that. We aren’t even certain that the mana we were following truly belonged to the child…

―I’m certain! I can tell! It’s mana almost identical to my sister’s….

―My lord…

―Find him! We must at least find the child’s body! We should be able to lay him beside my sister… Otherwise, how could I… how could I ever face my dead sister…!

Kaian felt a warm light seep into one corner of his heart.

Thank goodness.

It seems they recovered my family’s bodies safely.

He had been plagued by nightmares every night.

What if my family had been abandoned somewhere no one even knew the name of?

What if wild animals had damaged my parents’ and brother’s bodies?

But judging from the man’s words in the mirror, it seemed that his family’s bodies had been safely recovered.

I’m relieved. Truly.

Moreover, if he had relatives, perhaps they could uncover the truth about who had actually murdered his family.

Kaian bit his lip as he felt new hope filling his heart.

Eldarin seemed to understand his feelings as well.

She spoke calmly.

“If you go to them, you can live comfortably as a noble in Sylvaris. They will likely support your revenge in every way they can. It is the faster path you desire. So if you do not intend to follow my words, you may go to them.”

Kaian looked up at Eldarin in surprise.

Her expression was utterly indifferent, making it seem as though she truly wouldn’t care at all if he left.

In contrast, the face of his relative in the mirror was filled with desperation.

Wouldn’t it be better to go to my relatives…?

Hadn’t his mother’s command said the same thing?

That he had relatives on the eastern continent of Sylvaris.

Yet, for some reason, Kaian couldn’t bring himself to answer easily.

Then, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

Has the power of Mother’s command completely disappeared?

Maybe Mother’s command will tell me the answer!

Kaian immediately closed his eyes and steadied his breathing.

Then he imagined the path that would lead him to his relatives and waited for his mother’s command.

He desperately waited to hear his mother’s voice accompanied by that sensation of his soul being constricted.

“….”

But there was no pain.

No voice.

Kaian was bewildered.

Why?

She clearly told me that I had relatives on the eastern continent.

If going to them were the correct path, his mother’s command should have told him so.

Calm down, Kaian.

Think.

Stay calm.

Kaian closed his eyes again.

Then he imagined the life he would live together with his relatives.

A warm welcome.

Gentle and sincere comfort.

Abundant meals and a comfortable environment.

The ordinary life he longed for unfolded easily within his mind.

But… would it really be safe there?

The people who had attacked them were the ones who had brought down Valentin, the greatest family in the Valancia Empire.

Could the Velore family really be safe?

What if their enemies attacked the Velore family as well?

Would I be able to survive there?

―Throb.

At last, the sensation of his soul being constricted returned.

“Ah…!”

But the pain was far greater than he had expected.

His heart pounded as though his veins were about to burst, and his entire body trembled violently as though it might shatter at any moment.

Before he knew it, Kaian was lying on the floor, struggling to catch his breath.

“Huff, huff…”

His entire body was drenched in cold sweat.

Come to think of it, his mother had never told him to go to his relatives.

She had merely told him to survive.

But the moment he saw a comfortable and familiar path ahead of him, his resolve had wavered.

What an idiot I am.

Kaian wanted to cry, but he didn’t even have the strength to do that.

As he lay on the floor, continuing to gasp for breath, Eldarin calmly explained his condition.

“Your body has been thoroughly damaged from forcibly carrying out the command. Your physical body will naturally recover with time, but the real problem is your mental world.”

Eldarin used magic to suspend another drop of Kaian’s blood in the air and let it fall onto the leaf.

The mirror rippled.

This time, it showed a burning forest.

“That is…”

“The state of your mental world.”

“What…!”

The flames within Kaian’s mental world stretched far into the distance.

They devoured everything as they spread farther and farther until, eventually—

They even burned the Valentin estate, which lay deep within his heart.

No.

Perhaps the flames had begun there in the first place.

“As you can see, your mental world has been consumed by fire. The magic you used last time did nothing more than pull those flames out of your body. You may be able to use a similar spell again, but… each time you do, the fire within you will burn even more violently.”

Kaian coughed as though smoke had filled his throat.

“Then, cough, what will happen?”

“Your mental world will be permanently destroyed. Naturally, you will no longer be able to use magic. Eventually, even your soul will burn away, and you will die. There used to be quite a few fools like that in the old days.”

Kaian, who had instantly become one of those fools, flopped onto the floor.

“Ha… You should have told me something that important first.”

He had basically wasted his strength for several days for nothing.

Eldarin looked down at Kaian, who was completely exhausted, and continued.

“So don’t even think about using magic for the time being. Your physical recovery comes first. After that, I will teach you how to control the flames and explain how to repair your mental world. If you dislike my method, you are free to leave. Burning through what little life you have left as quickly as possible is also one way of doing things.”

“Haha…”

Kaian let out a hollow laugh.

She called it a “way of doing things,” but in the end, she was telling him to abandon both his revenge and his dream of becoming a hero and destroy himself instead.

“I can’t do that.”

He wanted to become strong.

No.

He had to become strong.

Strong enough to stand proudly before the relatives who were searching for him.

Strong enough to protect all of them.

Kaian somehow managed to curl himself up and kneel.

“Ugh… I’m sorry! I’ll do as you say! So please let me stay here!”

“Do you truly intend to remain here?”

Kaian stuck out his lower lip and looked up at Eldarin.

“Why do you keep asking…? I said I’ll do it. I’ll be a hero.”

Only then did a faint but satisfied smile appear on Eldarin’s face.

For the first time, Kaian thought that perhaps his mountain-goat elf teacher was actually quite easy to understand.

Eldarin quickly hardened her expression again and said,

“Then you will follow my rules. This is my world, after all.”