The Undying Soul (2)

Kardia still had not woken even ten hours later.

Worried, Ornis said he would descend to the surface to fetch a doctor.

“If anything happens, meet me at the Water-Illusion Post—… ah, right, you can’t even operate it.”

At Ornis’s voice, drenched in disappointment, Noi clenched her fists tight.

By herself, Noi could not use the Water-Illusion Post, nor any of the magical devices in the house.

“In any case, stay with him and watch over him. …This is the first time something like this has happened.”

Forgetting his polite speech, Ornis said that, then threw on a cloak of obfuscation.

“H-hey!”

Noi could not stand still and called out.

“Could Kardia’s condition be from earlier—caused by a magic surge running wild?”

“…”

Ornis looked down at Noi in silence.

“Those strange sparks were flying just now, weren’t they? I’ve never seen—no, not even read—about anything like that in a book. But that was magic!”

From the gap in his cloak, Ornis stared fixedly at the clinging Noi.

“If people with mana crackled with that many sparks every time they got angry, the city would always be on fire. So we should assume there was some other cause that made it happen like that, right?”

“…”

“I’m sure a doctor won’t do it. You might not accept it coming from someone like me with no mana, but…”

Doctors managed bodily health, but when it came to magic they were laymen. Humans possessed mana, so magic could not be used to heal them.

As a child, Noi had also suffered from the vast mana she bore.

But that was only because she could not control it; it had never overflowed when she had no intention of using magic.

Much less would overflowing mana burn like sparks—

Before she knew it, Noi was gripping Ornis’s cloak. He let out a sigh.

“I know.”

Noi had fully expected to be brushed off with a “don’t be ridiculous,” and she jerked her head up.

“I’d never seen anything like that either. Master has a slightly special body—so I was already planning to go consult the one place we can consult. I said ‘doctor’ just to put it simply so someone who doesn’t know magic like you would understand.”

With a grimace that ruined his beautiful face, Ornis raked a hand through his hair.

“I’ll bring someone I can trust—so don’t cry like that.”

Only when Ornis said it did Noi realize she was crying. She scrubbed the tears tracing her cheeks with the back of her hand.

By “special body,” he must have meant that Kardia had lived a hundred years. Realizing he would go to consult a mage who understood that area, she felt relief loosen her chest.

“Thank you, Ornis. I’m really glad you’re here.”

There was someone at Kardia’s side who, like Ornis, put his master first and worried for him. Overwhelmed by the reassurance of that, Noi was moved to tears.

“…—Don’t make it sound so noble.”

But Ornis spat the words out with a scornful twist.

His face was so terribly distorted that Noi caught her breath.

Startled by her reaction, Ornis hurried to cover it up, his words coming fast.

“Okay, I’m going.”

“…Be careful.”

Back when they had gone out before, it had been Kardia who handled the boat—both piloting and descent. Even as his disciple, it would not be something Ornis could manage easily.

Yet Ornis curled one corner of his mouth as if to say “obviously,” and descended alone to the surface.

Half a day after Ornis descended—past midnight—Kardia opened his eyes.

“Ugh…”

But getting up proved difficult, and he let out pained groans in the bed.

In the dark room lit only by moonlight, Noi stayed glued to Kardia’s side.

Dozing, Noi noticed at once, hopped down from her chair, and knelt by the bed. The water-filled basin bumped her foot, rippling the surface.

“Kardia, can you hear me? Kardia.”

She called to him, but there was no reply. It was clearly different from the peaceful sleep of before; his breathing had gone shallow, and he groaned in distress. Perhaps he was sleeping uneasily.

Lately it had grown much cooler, but there were still hot days. Tonight, the room temperature kept rising as the night went on. Wanting to cool him, she had opened the window, but the magic device that controlled the climate remained shut off.

(What should I do, what can I do…)

How many times had she wished, in moments like this, that she had mana? If she had mana, she might have activated the magical apparatus to cool the room, sent word to Ornis, even chased down the cause.

(Without magic, I’m this… powerless…)

She clenched her fist in frustration.

She could do nothing—so little it made her want to cry.

“Urgh… uhh…”

Whether in pain or in struggle, Kardia shifted again and again as he groaned. With her slender, unreliable hands, Noi rubbed his back as best she could.

“…What are you carrying on your shoulders?”

Such an unnatural fevered delirium surely had a cause to match.

She already knew full well he was not only the shady figure he showed on the surface.

“If only these hands—”

—were larger.

(Even without mana—if only I were an adult who could catch you easily without a second thought…)

Right now, Noi had nothing, so very little.

(What did I even come all the way here for…?)

She swallowed back the tears that threatened to blur her eyes. Then, letting out a long breath, she slowly opened her mouth.

“Wind the spool, wind the spool—round and round—”

She hummed a song she used to sing often with Kardia when she was little, and the stiffness in his body slowly unwound.

By the third round of the song, Kardia’s groans had ceased. Relieved, Noi looked at him—and noticed, as always, the clothes that fit him snugly from neck to wrist.

“That’s right, your sash—”

When she reached to loosen the sash, a large hand clamped down on her with a grab.

Startled, Noi snapped her gaze up to Kardia’s face.

Kardia had his eyes half open, looking at Noi.

Because it was dark, he probably could not see well. His eyes were slitted and unfocused.

“Kard—!”

“…Master?”

At the single word that slipped from Kardia, Noi caught her breath.

His hand was hot, almost boiling. His crimson eyes wavered with heat.

With a voice as uncertain as a lost child’s, who could tell him “you’re wrong”?

“…Yes, it’s me. The kingdom’s greatest mage, Noi Galenée. Do you know me, Kardia?”

Not only could she not weave mana, she could not even activate a magical device—what a joke for “the kingdom’s greatest.”

Even so, Noi put on a brave front to set Kardia at ease.

Then Kardia’s face—his eyes vacant, as if it was not even clear whether he could see the Noi before him—crumpled.

“…At last. At last, you came… into the dream.”

From that face, she understood in an instant just how deeply he had longed for Noi.