Chapter 42

Serpens’s eyes slowly opened.

His mind slowly returned.
The first thing he saw in his faint vision was a familiar greatsword.
And behind it was Lucas’s back.

“So, are you saying you will not do it?”
“I’m not saying I won’t, bro. I need time to organize my thoughts.”

A faint conversation reached him.
Serpens sat up and looked around.

It was not the rough dirt ground where he had taken the examination.
A wooden floor with a moderate trace of moisture.
The walls and ceiling were also made of neatly maintained wood.

“Ah, geez……. Let’s have this conversation later for now. The kid’s awake.”

Opposite Lucas was a man with dark red hair.
Serpens knew him.

‘The bogus archmage?’

Lars Musica.
He waved his hand and smiled slyly.

“You’re very glad to see me, right? Me too.”
“Yes……?”
“No need to thank me.”

Lars approached with light steps and massaged Serpens’s shoulders.

“You’ve had it rough because of bro, haven’t you?”

Every time he put strength into his grip, the boy’s face twisted.
The moment he became aware that he was injured, a tingling pain that began from his spine spread through his entire body.
But it was only an ache at the level of muscle soreness.
He didn’t feel as much pain as he had expected.

“It would be nice to ‘ta-da!’ fix you with magic, but being exposed to a lot of Mana during your growth period is not good. Especially for a special case like you.”

A soft light flickered at Lars’s fingertips.
The golden Mana spreading from it was circling around Serpens.

He frowned slightly and muttered.

“Thinking about it again, this really is too much. Three or four cracked ribs, severe muscle damage, and accumulated fatigue too. You’re a complete mess.”

Lars clicked his tongue and glanced at Lucas.
Lucas was watching with his arms crossed and a blunt expression.

“Was there any need to push him this far? It’s true he grew like crazy since I last saw him, but what were you going to do if he suddenly dropped dead?”

Lars flicked his finger.
Small musical notes floated in the air.
Faint music flowed and began circling around Serpens.

“One grows by facing things with the resolve to die.”

Lucas answered indifferently.

“The resolve to die is great. But this kid really almost died, brother.”

Lars widened his eyes.

“This guy is still thir…… How old is he?”
“Thirteen.”
“He’s still thirteen. No matter how outstanding his talent is, his body’s basic growth rate can’t keep up. Even if he can handle Aura, his body has to support it.”

Lucas silently looked down at Serpens.
Perhaps because of the treatment, Serpens seemed to feel much lighter and was moving his fingers to the flowing music.
Lars let out a sigh.

No matter what he said, Lucas would not listen.
Was he not a man with a stronger will than anyone?
Still, what was unexpected was that he was still traveling with that boy.
And that in that short time, the boy had achieved explosive growth.

‘There’s no explosion quite like this.’

He had occasionally used magic to observe Lucas and the boy’s life.
It was not anything like voyeurism.
He could no longer find enjoyment in magic, his main profession, or in music, his hobby.
Because he had no interest, he could not improve.
Because there was no improvement, no interest arose.
Since he could not find enjoyment in himself, he merely looked for it in others.

At first, watching Lucas and the boy had been entertaining.
But it was not entertaining enough to watch all day.
Unless something special happened.
They repeated the same training every day.
It was enough to bore even the person watching, but as if the people involved never got tired, they repeated the same routine for nearly a year.

As a result, a thirteen-year-old boy learned to handle Aura.
Surpass the Academy’s talents.
And achieved the feat of passing the wandering knight examination.

‘Does this mean I have to endure boring daily life to see something interesting?’

Lars glanced at Serpens.
His wounds should’ve been almost entirely healed.
He didn’t intend to heal the remaining muscle soreness.
Because without muscle soreness, he would obviously keep training too hard.

Tak!

Lars flicked his finger.
At the same time, Serpens let out a dry cough as if coughing up blood.
Lucas looked at Lars with eyes that had narrowed faintly.

“It’s a simple safety measure. A safety measure.”

Lars groaned and stretched.

He had found the wandering knight examination impressive.
Especially near the end.
He had felt genuine interest in Serpens’s Aura.

‘Aura that tries to swallow its user…….’

Aura so ferocious it was excessive.
Several types of such Aura came to mind.
The Aura of monsters that prioritized slaughter and chaos.
And also.

“That is not a safety measure, but poison.”

The Aura of the man before him, Lucas Liberator.

Aura that consumed its user was powerful even among types of Aura.
High risk, high return, one might say.
Since it was Aura that used oneself as collateral, its strong output was natural in a way.

However, as those words implied, such Aura was dangerous.
If one was eroded by Aura, there was no knowing what kind of risk one would bear.
The time one had been given to live might be shortened.
One might become a monster that had lost reason.
Or perhaps one might lose something even worse.

That was why Lars had placed a simple spell on the boy.
What happened during the wandering knight examination had been the early stage of erosion.
Since it would be dangerous to leave it as it was, he restricted the output of the Aura.
If Serpens raised his power to a certain level, he would instead pass out.
Calling it safety magic was the best one could say, but in the end, it operated on the same principle as a curse.

“Using the lesser evil to prevent the worst is also a kind of safety measure.”

Lucas also knew that fact.

It could prevent him from being eroded by his Aura, but it left him defenseless against external danger.
If Serpens used Aura, even unconsciously, it meant he had met an opponent who warranted it in the first place.
If he passed out in such a situation…….

It was no different from offering up his neck.

“Hup!”

Serpens, having recovered his energy, hopped up.
The boy rotated both arms widely to loosen his body and grinned, but then he remembered something, and the corners of his mouth stiffened awkwardly.

“Um…… Lucas?”
“……?”

Serpens timidly approached Lucas.
His steps were as if he had committed a crime.
Lucas looked down at the boy impassively.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t pass.”
“……?”
“I didn’t let my guard down because it was the easiest examination, and it’s not that I didn’t do my best……. I guess my skill was just lacking.”

Lucas and Lars’s gazes crossed.
Serpens lowered his head and opened and closed his hands.

“Serpens. How much of the examination do you remember?”

Lars asked.

Serpens tilted his head and answered.

“There’s not much to say. I got thrown away by that knight person…… and then a big foot went boom! That’s all.”
“…….”

Lars’s expression became quite serious.
But soon, he showed his familiar smile.

“No need to worry, boy. You passed the examination.”
“What?”

Lars made a light hand gesture toward the boy.

Whirik-

The musical notes circling around Serpens gathered into Lars’s hand.
The movement of the notes was light yet dazzling.
At that simple yet captivating rhythm, Serpens’s eyes sparkled.

“They said they misadjusted the difficulty or something. Since all the candidates failed, they decided to pass at least one outstanding candidate. And you were chosen as that outstanding candidate.”

Lars’s way of speaking flowed naturally like water.
But Lucas stared at him silently.

Lars’s words were a lie.
Serpens had not passed through such preferential treatment.

Whether he had used Aura, or been used by Aura.
It was true that he had landed a direct effective hit.
Just because Serpens did not remember it did not make what happened disappear.

Though it was only a drop in the bucket, he had awakened Aura and learned swordsmanship from Lucas.
If that was preferential treatment, then it was preferential treatment, but the preferential treatment of the examiner’s mistake had not been involved.

“Really……? That’s a relief?”

But Serpens seemed relieved by that lie.

“Your effort created a coincidence. You worked hard, kid.”
“To think coincidence helped me……. It feels strange.”

Lucas remained silent.
He knowingly overlooked it.
He didn’t know the reason, but there was surely a reason Lars had gone out of his way to hide the truth.

Lars winked his right eye at Lucas.
It meant there was a reason, so let it pass for now.
Lucas nodded.

“Uh…….”

Serpens stood between them, unable to shake off his awkward expression.

“Then did I become a knight?”

When he was very young.
That is, when he was even younger than he was now.
A dream he had faced reality and given up on had come true.

“You did.”

Lucas’s answer was blunt as always.
That bluntness made the boy’s strange feeling even stronger.

A dream he had concluded was impossible had come true.
And it had come true after he fainted and woke up.

“Haha……!”

He felt happy, yet empty.
A strange feeling where pride and frustration were mixed together.
At the thought that his effort over the past year had not been in vain, the corners of his mouth rose.
But when he remembered the past, when he had been forced to give up on a dream he could have achieved in a single year, that smile soon stiffened.

The boy’s mouth corners repeatedly rose and fell.
Watching his expression twist, Lars quietly changed the subject.

“Now, then. Since the kid has become a wandering knight, let’s have a party, a party.”
“There is no time for that.”
“We have about half a day, don’t we, bro? The sun is just starting to set.”
“There are matters we must resolve before going to meet Kerum tomorrow.”
“Wow……. You’re probably the only one who calls the emperor of the empire by name like he’s your friend, bro.”

While the two continued their conversation.
Below them, Serpens was scratching the back of his head by himself.

“Don’t we just have to go and receive the knight nameplate? Did something change from our time?”
“Serpens only needs to receive the nameplate.”
“What! Then we can have a party!”
“You and I are different.”
“You and…… I?”

Lars looked around.

“Who’s ‘you’?”
“You.”

He looked around once more.

“Are you talking about me?”
“Who else is there?”
“Why would I go see that Kerum bastard?”
“Because you have business with him.”
“…….”

Lars shook his head.
He shook it faster and faster, as if trying to deny reality.

“Are you seriously going to do that, bro?”
“…….”
“Naturally, I understand how you feel, but realistically…….”

Lars cut himself off and let out a sigh.
Those impassive eyes directed at him.
He did not seem to have any intention of taking it back.

“You’re saying this after considering the restrictions placed on me and the fact that you cannot use Aura, right? And you know that we are bound by the Knight’s Oath, right?”
“I do.”

Lars pressed a hand to his forehead, looking utterly resigned.
It was an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Whether he accompanied him or not.
Lucas would carry out his plan.
He would create an irreversible situation, and in that process, Lars joining him was already decided.

At present, among humans, elves, and dwarves, there were only a handful who could face Lucas when he was serious.
And if Lucas fought one of those handful of people…….

‘It would turn into a sea of fire.’

If that was going to happen, it was better to accompany him from here on out.
If there seemed to be any sign of that, he could simply stop him.

“Fine, I’ll go with you.”
“That’s how-”
“But!”

Lars raised his index finger with a solemn face.

“We are absolutely having a party today.”