The Mage Who Crossed Time (2)

“…Your disciple really looked up to you, didn’t he?”

Stepping outside with the Hyuetos Magic Count, Noi dredged up the polite speech she had not used in decades.

Noi had become the kingdom’s greatest mage while still young. So young that it was laughable how many enemies she had. Disliking being looked down on, young Noi refused to curry favor unless it was absolutely necessary.

Her rough way of speaking came largely from the grandfather who had raised her, but the reason she stubbornly kept it even after entering society was that she wanted to look bigger—stronger. In Noi’s mind, aside from herself, the only mage as strong as she was had been her grandfather.

As he softly shut the front door, the Hyuetos Magic Count looked up steadily at Noi. Because he was carrying her, her gaze was higher than his.

Being looked up at, Noi tilted her head.

(…Ah. His eye color.)

Now that she was calm enough to see, those deep crimson eyes resembled Kardia’s. As did the two moles in a line beneath them.

Without thinking, Noi stared back. Seeing her stare at him so seriously, the Hyuetos Magic Count’s mouth relaxed.

“You’re a curious child.”

“Eh?”

The sudden, soft laugh looked like the first unguarded expression he had shown.

But when Noi asked back, the Hyuetos Magic Count pasted on the same slightly contrived expression he had worn all along.

“—The way you were talking before. It felt nostalgic and fun. A shame to lose it.”

Though he said “a shame,” he did not truly look disappointed.

And he spoke with the ease of someone who knew that people moved when he spoke.

Noi blinked.

Her speech was rough. She understood that for a first meeting—especially with someone she would be indebted to—it was not suitable, so she had used polite speech; but it seemed the Hyuetos Magic Count did not mind her usual manner at all.

(How tolerant. —Well, maybe when the girl is this small, nothing she does really bothers him.)

She gave a small nod and rephrased herself.

“To him, you seemed a good master.”

The Hyuetos Magic Count’s smile deepened.

“Not just your manner of speaking—what you say is admirable too. It really feels like I’m talking to a sixty-year-old grandfather.”

“What was that? After you’ve gone and called a lady as lovely as this one—”

“I offer my deepest apologies, my bride.”

Chuckling, the Hyuetos Magic Count took Noi’s small hand and kissed her fingertips. At the dry touch of his lips, Noi gaped.

(S—soft…)

Since childhood, Noi had learned only magic. Only magic.

Which was to say, she had never once been treated as a woman.

“Ha— you’re adorable.”

At the Hyuetos Magic Count’s involuntary, beaming grin, Noi pressed both hands to her cheeks. They were burning hot. She loathed how instantly they had flushed bright red.

“I’m a lucky man to have such a cute bride.”

Seeing her look disgruntled, the Hyuetos Magic Count stopped laughing, took her hand, and placed it on his clothing for her to hold. When she obediently complied, he began to walk, one step at a time.

—An island was floating in the sky.

It was a dreamlike magic.

On the not-so-large island, green grew thick, and beams of sunlight that slipped through the trees glittered on the ground. Birds flitted freely among the leaves, their light calls ringing.

At one edge of the island stood the manor where the Hyuetos Magic Count and Ornis lived. As far as the eye could see, it was the only manmade structure.

In the beautifully dyed blue lake, fish played and waterweed swayed. Wildflowers blooming around the lake stirred and cast shadows on the surface.

The sunlit water of the lake’s surface shone and spiraled down toward the world below.

This floating isle in the sky was born of nature mingled with magic. The sight was so otherworldly that for a while she forgot herself and simply stared.

(…Beautiful. And what a magic.)

When she focused her eyes, she could see an elaborate magic circle woven through the entire island. Even without mana, the sense for seeing mana remained, and she felt relieved.

The magic circles Noi knew were flat and circular. But what she saw covering this isle was a belt-shaped circle. Like a fence around the isle, the banded circle traced a ring around its perimeter.

(How much study would it take for someone to even think of a magic like this…)

When she had been alive, Noi had been hailed as a genius for her enormous mana and superb sense for magic. But this was on a different plane entirely.

And to sustain this otherworldly magic would require tremendous mana—far more than even Noi’s peak, when they had called her a monster.

She had no idea how it was being supplied.

(Fascinating…)

Losing her sense of what was “only natural” was something she often encountered when researching magic. But this surpassed anything she had ever felt before.

While Noi contemplated the magic, the Hyuetos Magic Count, standing on a knoll, extended a finger with a smooth motion.

“Look—there.”

She quietly followed where he pointed. When the view spread before her eyes, Noi drew a sharp breath.

The vista was too magnificent for words.

Where he pointed—beyond the island—there was nothing but cloud. A straight road made of cloud. The sun was just now sinking into the clouds, burning bright; the sky graded from deep indigo to yellow. Clouds dyed purple were bathed in orange by the strong evening light.

It was so beautiful she almost trembled. Seeing Noi so moved, the Hyuetos Magic Count beamed.

“Do you like it here, my bride?”

“I do. Enough to want to see it every day.”

“I’m glad. It would be harsh if your memories here were nothing but unpleasant.”

Touched by the kindness of her makeshift fiancé, Noi let out her first real sigh of relief since arriving.

“Thank you, husband. I’m grateful for your kindness, and I vow to devote myself wholeheartedly to my bridal duties.”

“Honestly—what a curious child.”

When he laughed, a canine tooth showed. It was a smile as pretty as a flower opening.

(…Hm? Wait?)

Something snagged in her mind, and she touched her chin.

Still holding Noi in his arms, the Hyuetos Magic Count fixed his gaze on the clouds and spoke, as if musing aloud.

“—I haven’t done anything special for my disciple. I only did for him what my master did for me.”

Perhaps because Noi had praised him earlier as “a good master,” he said so. More than modesty, there was a faint note of resignation and wistfulness in his words.

When you looked back on your master after striking out on your own, that slight loneliness—Noi knew it well.

“…You respected your master, then.”

In a hundred years, family lines, factions, perhaps even magic’s best answers might have changed.

(There may be magic beyond anything I can imagine.)

Noi watched the scenery with a thrill. Unlike earlier, when she had fainted, observing it as an object of study was a joy.

“Of course. A marvelous person. A helper of the weak, breaker of the strong—kinder than anyone, pure, high-minded, possessed of a noble soul.”

It was a torrent of praise. His master must have been truly extraordinary. Accepting his respect for his teacher, Noi nodded along.

“If your master could make an island float, his magic must have been incredible.”

“Heh. That goes without saying. After all, she was the world’s only mage to purify the Demon King.”

“—Eh?”

As Noi blinked in confusion, the man smiled.

The twin moles beneath his eyes lifted.

The Hyuetos Magic Count’s long black hair was caught by the wind high in the sky, fanning out; flooded with the dazzling sunset, it shone orange.

“Her name was Noi Galenée. Coincidentally, the same as yours.”

While Noi stared, the Hyuetos Magic Count chuckled.

“A hundred years since the world was saved by the ‘First Sun’ mage, Noi Galenée—”

To the stupefied Noi, the Hyuetos Magic Count reached out a hand.

“When a girl with white hair is born, she is often named Noi. I imagine that’s how it was for you.”

Her hair, tossed by the wind, was about to get in her mouth. Pinching a lock between his fingers, he narrowed his eyes with a pained tenderness.

“…Your eyes, your features—they’re similar. Perhaps you’re some distant kin of hers.”

His narrowed eyes looked at Noi as if dazzled. Those red pupils, intent and unblinking, seemed to be searching within her for the shadow of the master he spoke of.

Cold sweat ran down Noi’s back.

(Wait. Wait wait wait wait.)

That could not be.

Noi froze stiff, unable to move.

(If that person… were me—)

All this time, the Hyuetos Magic Count had been talking about “Noi Galenée from a hundred years ago.”

And Noi—

(I took only one disciple.)

A bad feeling gnawed at her.

“…Your name?”

She somehow managed to ask, and the man’s lips formed exactly the answer she had expected.

His black hair streamed in the wind and took on the color of sunset.

“Ah—sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. I am the mage of the far horizon, the Hyuetos Magic Count. Kardia Ewelin.”