The Mage Who Crossed Time (3)

(…What in the world was going on?)

Slurp slurp. As she drank the soup packed with Ornis’s sweet corn, Noi stole glances at the Hyuetos Magic Count sitting diagonally across from her—or rather, at Kardia.

On the dinner table sat herb-grilled fish, an assortment of cheeses, pumpkin in cream, and the soup.

(This guy… Kardia? Really? That angelically cute disciple of mine??)

While staring daggers, Noi kept munching.

The kernels of corn popped pleasantly in her mouth.

(That angel is… this, now??)

She did not mean to wallow in nostalgia like a fussy fan who starts complaining the moment a favorite stage actress becomes popular, but even so, Noi wanted to shout it.

“The old days were better”—she wanted to say.

(Because my adorable Kardia wouldn’t use a helpless little girl, wouldn’t block off someone’s escape route, wouldn’t… like that…)

Noi licked the last of the corn soup from her spoon and looked down.

(—wouldn’t flash such a fishy smile.)

Traces of scooped soup remained on the bottom of the plate. While scraping every last bit with unseemly thoroughness, Noi pouted.

“My bride?”

Kardia, who had been eating with elegant knife and fork, addressed Noi gently.

“Does it not suit your palate? Or are you still feeling unwell?”

To Noi, who continued wearing a dark, damp scowl, Kardia inquired softly.

Noi shook her head hard side to side, then took the empty corn-soup plate in both hands.

“No. It’s delicious. Very. Seconds.”

Perhaps because she had learned he was her disciple, Noi lost even the slightest sense of restraint and thrust the plate at Ornis.

The world of mages was vertical. A disciple’s disciple was as good as Noi’s own disciple.

Ornis, who was eating with them, seemed unable to put on too much authority with his master’s fiancée, and so he pulled back his chair and stood. He ladled the soup deftly into Noi’s bowl and set it before her without a sound.

“Thank you.”

Ornis did not answer. Noi scooped soup with her spoon and, watching the cool-faced Ornis resume his own meal, spoke.

“It’s delicious.”

“…”

Even when she offered her thoughts, Ornis still did not answer.

“Very. Truly delicious.”

“…I get it. Stop staring holes through me.”

When a worn-down Ornis answered Noi with put-upon annoyance, a tiny “heh” of laughter escaped.

Noi looked at Kardia; he was smiling with a flash of canine teeth.

“To make that Ornis yield on the first day—impressive.”

“I did not lose. I merely gave way.”

“Good. Keep that up. In this house it helps to have a strong heart.”

Kardia said it to Noi with a cheerful smile. As always, he ignored Ornis’s sharp retorts.

Noi, however, could not smile back. Seeing Kardia’s smile, she hastily dropped her gaze.

Though she knew Kardia had raised one eyebrow—oh?—and was watching her, she could not lift her face.

(—The way he smiles is the same.)

Since the man himself had said he was who he was, “the same” or not no longer mattered; he was the same person. And yet, inside Noi there was still some room left that wanted to make excuses.

(…But his mana is different.)

There had been a reason that Noi and Kardia had not recognized each other as themselves right away.

When mages identified one another—first they judged by mana, not by looks, names, or personalities.

Looks, names, and personalities could change with circumstance. In fact, all three had changed in Kardia a hundred years later.

But no one’s inborn mana changed.

That was the law of nature.

And yet Kardia had altered that nature. The pure springwater clarity of Kardia’s mana had become like a river muddied after foul weather.

(When the Demon King hatched, the powers must have mixed…)

Just as you could not perfectly separate ink that had once been mixed into water, even after the Demon King was gone, traces of it likely remained in Kardia’s mana.

(…Haaah. In the old days he was so “Master, Master”—)

Noi put some side dish in her mouth and fell silent with the fork still between her lips.

(…No. Even now, perhaps. He still treasures me.)

On purple clouds, smiling as he melted into the orange sunset, Kardia had spoken as if his master, Noi, was his greatest pride.

(Wait—oh? Then he really is Kardia, isn’t he? He still loves me, after all, doesn’t he?)

With that, she started to feel like everything would be alright.

The Demon King within Kardia was gone; he respected his master; he had even been ennobled as a Magic Count; and he was properly taking a disciple.

(—It’s just that he’s become a little shady and the sort of adult who’ll easily use even a child.)

At the abundance of faults, Noi wanted to hold her head.

(…No good. Not good at all. What use is kindness only to the dead? Kardia still has to live on. I have to make him a proper adult.)

Even though she understood he was older, a noble, her fiancé and guardian, and already a mage superior to Noi, knowing he was Kardia brought out the master in her. Only yesterday—no, this very morning—she had been with adorable Kardia. It could not be helped.

(But, hm. To come out and say it now…)

Who would believe it if such a shabby, mana-less girl suddenly declared, “I used to be your master!”?

—That was merely the official reason.

The truth was simply that Noi did not want to be a disappointment.

“Th—this is amazing…! The plate is floating.”

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

To Kardia, who had once turned such beautiful eyes on her.

And to Kardia, who even a hundred years later still held his master, Noi Galenée, in his heart as if praying to a distant star.

“To me, Master is the most wonderful person in the world!”—he had said—well, he hadn’t actually said it, but surely he would have.

(I don’t want him to know that I’m this powerless—that I would become the fiancée of some suspicious stranger simply to survive—that I’m a helpless, base, foolish girl—!!)

It was a desperate wish.

If wishes could move the stars, hers would have caused a meteor shower.

(…I will absolutely keep it hidden.)

Noi thrust her emptied corn-soup bowl out to Ornis again, with firm resolve.

“Seconds!”

“You are commanded to sleep here tonight. Under no circumstances are you to try anything foolish.”

Ornis, who had coolly shown Noi to her room, fixed her with eyes worthy of hellfire, then shut the door and left.

(I am extremely… not trusted…)

She blinked as she watched the closed door.

Ornis had been ill-mannered toward Noi from the very first moment. At first she had thought he was the usual sort—the fools who envied Noi’s mana and tried to win by means other than magic—but at present the chance of envying Noi was, like her mana, zero.

(—Well, if a mana-less child were alone in a place like this, of course it would look suspicious…)

In any case, this floating isle was too high.

Even a mage could not come here on their own. Saying she had been carried off by a bird would be absurd. Surely a Sigil-wing Bird would not make it here; only a few existed in the whole kingdom. If it were a Zephyrai, the winged lion, then perhaps—with an effort—it could reach this place.

(That said… I don’t know why I’m here either… Since we’ll be living together, I’d like to get along a little better.)

The room she had been shown to lay just up the stairs from the living room.

A plush carpet, a leather sofa. The glossy writing desk was well polished, and the glass window behind the closet was large. Tasteful furnishings filled every corner of the room, not a speck of dust to be seen. It was clearly well kept. The room was not large, but it was a fine guest chamber.

“Time to change.”

Of course, Noi had no change of clothes. She had been lent some of Ornis’s, who had a build more similar to hers than Kardia’s, to use as sleepwear.

The clothes she wore now were ones she had worn a hundred years ago. They were women’s adult garments, but in the Esria Kingdom, clothing used generous cloth tied with a sash, so she had managed without much discomfort.

Just as Noi untied her sash and let the cloth slip from her shoulder, the doorknob rattled.

Startled, Noi turned around to find Kardia standing in the doorway, eyes widening slightly.

“Oh—pardon.”

In a tone far too light for someone who had just walked in on a maiden changing, Kardia slid inside and shut the door.

“Please, go on.”

He smiled.

Noi kept her hands on her clothing and drew her brows together.

“I’m changing.”

“I know. That’s why—look.”

With a gesture that all but said, “See? I closed it,” Kardia pointed at the door.

Even if it was closed from the inside, it meant nothing. Noi wrinkled the bridge of her nose.

“If you have business, come back later.”

“My business is with that.”

Noi followed where Kardia pointed.

There stood a neatly made bed.