Master And Apprentice

“—Master.”

Life for two changed dramatically.

“Master. Good morning.”

First of all, sleeping in late was no longer possible.

“…Mmm…? It’s not even noon yet… If you need something, make it later…”

Shaken by a small hand, Noi mumbled and burrowed back under the quilt. The gentle morning light bathed her bed, tempting her into a second sleep.

But Noi snapped awake and shot upright.

“Breakfast!”

As she jerked up and turned her head, she spotted Kardia standing awkwardly beside the bed.

“Sorry! I have to get you breakfast. I asked you to wake me, didn’t I? That’s right—sorry, sor—oof!”

In her hurry to climb out, her foot snagged the quilt and she smacked her face on the floor beside the bed. Kardia crouched down in a panic to help her up.

“Master! Are you alright!?”

“I’m fine. More importantly—your breakfast!”

Dragging her upper body, still stuck to the floor, Noi wriggled free and stood. Fully upright, she immediately began planning breakfast with a mind that hardly seemed just-awakened.

“It’s okay. I can skip a meal—”

“No! Absolutely not! Don’t ever say that again. My goal right now is to fatten you up!”

—Three days had passed since Noi took Kardia as her apprentice.

Under Noi’s brisk scrubbing, Kardia was looking much tidier.

The ends of his hair had matted into felted lumps; there was no fixing that, so she cut them off. Noi was hopelessly clumsy at anything non-magical, so the trim was quite uneven, but Kardia was happy with how much lighter it felt.

His build had not changed yet, but his complexion and skin looked vastly better. If he kept living with Noi like this, he would surely put on healthy weight in time.

“But—”

“No buts! When it’s mealtime, you eat!”

As she spent time with him, Noi was coming to understand Kardia.

In short, he was a child who struggled to ask for anything.

Unless Noi gave him something, he would want nothing. He even seemed to think he mustn’t touch anything in her house without permission.

(When I was an apprentice—my master’s things were the apprentice’s things. That was my attitude.)

Noi had apprenticed under her grandfather. That made her bolder than his other students, undeniably—but she had never had an apprentice as self-effacing as this.

Master and apprentice were not merely teacher and pupil; they lived under the same roof and shared hardship and joy—a second family, so to speak.

She wanted Kardia to grow quickly into a mischievous brat who played pranks on his sleeping master to shave even a second off study time.

(I meant to dote on him, but after the first day he absolutely refused to let me help with his bath…)

She had finished checking him for injuries, so she respected his wishes and had not bathed with him since.

They still slept together, though, because there was only one bed. When he insisted he could sleep on the floor, she dragged him into the bed and held him as they slept.

Noi flicked her fingers to light the fire with magic, then skewered potatoes onto a long iron rod. As usual, she tossed them onto the logs, and ash puffed up while Kardia watched with a reserved expression.

“What’s wrong? …Oh! More? Do you want more!?”

When Noi moved to add potatoes, Kardia panicked.

As he waved his hands frantically, the clothes of Noi’s he wore flapped and swished.

“I’m fine! That’s plenty!”

“Is it? Tell me when you can eat more. Ten, twenty, whatever you like. Believe it or not, I’m not short on money. I’ll let you eat as much as you want.”

Kardia bowed his head dutifully with a “Yes.” Pleased with such a straightforward apprentice, Noi smiled.

(Master is a strange person.)

She was always eating something, could only cook by roasting, roasted sloppily at that, liked to cast little charms, and wanted to sleep in the same bed.

Kardia had never known the comfort of drifting off in human warmth and waking still warm.

(A strange person.)

Everyone feared and despised Kardia once he became the “Demon King,” but Noi declared him “human.”

On top of that, she said she was the strongest, so there was no need to fear any Demon King.

(And—)

“Not a demon—human! —And from now on, my apprentice!”

She called the untouchable boy “apprentice” and wanted to hold him close.

Watching Noi bite into a mountain of potatoes right in front of him, Kardia drifted into thought.

These past three days, ever since he became her apprentice, he had been wrapped in a warmth he had never known.

—When Kardia was very young, his parents abandoned him.

They weren’t considerate enough to leave him at a home for the parentless; Kardia simply waited, in the place where they had lived, for his parents to return.

He lost track of how many days passed as he waited. At last, a pitying neighbor took him to a church.

At the church, he was treated reasonably. There were morning prayers at dawn, tending the younger ones day and night, caring for the fields, and doing odd jobs for local shops. It wasn’t an easy life, but at least he received two meals a day.

The sisters who cared for him were all kind, but they never offered anything beyond duty. Naturally so—life was hard for children and adults alike.

He was grateful simply to be housed. He vaguely thought he would live that way until he grew up and left—until, a month ago, a messenger came from the palace.

“By the Starseer’s divination, it has been determined this one is the Demon King. By royal command, we take him into custody. Do not resist.”

No one resisted. No one protected Kardia. No one tried to shield him. No one tried to keep him.

Only once did he reach out a hand.

“No! Sister, stop them! I want to stay here!”

The hand he stretched out while armored men pinned him down was slapped away with a shrill scream. The screech—“Don’t call me!”—still rang in his ears.

The fear twisting their faces robbed Kardia of his strength—to face forward, to stand, to reach out again.

He remembered little after that. He only knew no one would help him. He had no parent to offer unconditional love, and the neighbor who had taken his hand and led him to the church wasn’t there. Even if that neighbor appeared, he could not imagine anyone helping him now that he had become the Demon King.

Perhaps that was why—

“Your name?”

Having been cast aside twice, he felt more worthless than sawdust. He couldn’t bear to let someone so radiant know the wretched name that had belonged to him, so the words stuck in his throat.

Dull as she could be, Noi alone sensed the pain in his heart exactly then, and gave him a new name.

—Kardia

The sound of his new name, woven by her voice, made Kardia’s heart race.

He had never felt such joy, such sparkle, such preciousness—and before he knew it, he was smiling.

(A strange person… and truly the kingdom’s greatest mage.)

Noi made Kardia happy so easily. Surely only the kingdom’s greatest mage could use magic like that.