Chapter 43

As the night deepened.
A splendid yet warm banquet was held.

Lars moved busily with fine beads of sweat on his forehead.
Lars’s house, transformed into a dining hall.
In front of Serpens and Lucas, who sat at the round dining table, fragrant dishes were being set out one by one.

Serpens watched the sight with puzzled eyes.
The sight of the dark red-haired archmage bustling around in a white apron to cook was simply funny.

“Lars, you know how to cook too?”

The boy asked, crossing his arms and snickering.
The red sauce smeared around his mouth suited him better than expected, drawing a laugh.

Lars showed a confident smile with a spatula in one hand.

“I may make the ingredients with magic, but I’m a top-class chef who cooks by hand. Until a few years ago, bro wouldn’t even eat unless it was my cooking.”
“Is that true, Lucas?”
“He left some parts out, but he is not wrong.”

Serpens and Lars talked while laughing.
Lucas sat quietly and watched the scene.

Under his gaze, Serpens would joke around as if he was in a good mood, then suddenly make a face as if he had fallen into thought.

Meanwhile.
Lars completed one plate with practiced hands.
After quietly placing the dish in the middle of the table, he also took his seat.

“Now! Shall we eat?”

Lars’s voice was full of excitement.
Serpens looked down at the plate half in doubt.
Red sauce had been poured over glossy meat.

“Oh? It smells good.”
“It doesn’t just smell good. Try a bite.”

Serpens carefully picked up one piece and put it in his mouth.
And soon, his eyes widened.

“Wow! What is this!”

Lars shrugged and smiled.

“It’s art, right? It should taste like a luxurious harmony ringing in your mouth.”

Serpens ate several more bites in succession and marveled.
Then he naturally picked up the meat with his hand.
His bare hand was still more comfortable than a fork.

Seeing that, Lars suddenly had a thought.

‘Right. This kid was a beggar. There’s no way he would know table manners.’

He looked at the boy and lifted his fork and knife.

“If you happen to eat in a formal setting tomorrow, remember what I’m doing now as you eat.”

Serpens stopped and looked at Lars.
It was not a scolding.
A straight back and smooth hand movements.
It felt less like Lars was trying to correct him and more like he was showing him a performance, so Serpens found himself focusing.
The meat, cut by the knife and still full of juices, entered Lars’s mouth.

The boy tried copying him.
It was clumsy, but Serpens captured the feel of it properly.

“You’re good at this.”
“Haha!”

Lucas was eating his share while watching them.
He put food into his mouth without any particular reaction.
However, his subtly quickening hand revealed his satisfaction with the taste.

The night air was cool.
But this place was warm.
For a while, the quiet meal continued in the soft light of the flickering lamp.
Serpens slowly chewed his food and suddenly fell into thought.

The fact that he had truly become a knight.
It was something he had thought was an absurd dream when he was young.
Since he knew it was a foolish delusion, giving it up had not been difficult or regrettable.
But that dream had become reality.

‘To think it was something I could achieve in a single year.’

It still didn’t feel real.
It felt like he was walking through a dream.
He knew well that it had only been possible because he had the incredible luck of meeting Lucas.
He had the instinct that Lucas could make the impossible possible, so he had wanted to follow him, and he still was.

“You look like you have a lot on your mind, kid.”

Serpens flinched.
Then he nodded with a face mixed with unease.

“I’m just dazed. It doesn’t feel real that I became a knight.”

Lars smiled.

“I understand that feeling. It was like that when I came to be called an archmage too. It’s natural for it not to feel real at first. But as you go into real battles and gain more experience, you will slowly realize it yourself.”
“Hmm…….”
“Of course, without Lucas’s help, it would’ve been absolutely impossible. But it would also have been impossible with that help alone. The result followed because you worked hard.”

Serpens chewed over those words.
It was impossible with help alone.
It was a result that followed because he had worked hard.
Hearing that made his heart feel much lighter.

Then Lucas quietly set down his cup.
Serpens and Lars looked at him at the same time.

“What comes next is more important.”

A blunt statement.
Lars pressed him, asking if it would kill him to give some praise.
But Serpens nodded at Lucas’s words.

Being a knight was not a simple title.
The boy’s goal.
At the very least, it was the first stepping stone toward his dream of creating a better world.
Now that he had stepped onto that stone, the boy had to grow even more.

Enough that he could be worthy of the title himself.
And further, enough that he could achieve his goal.

Under the strange weight only he felt, Serpens let out a breath of resolve.

“I know. I’ll work harder.”

Lucas gave a short answer and moved his knife again.

At that moment, Lars clapped his hands with a bright voice.

“Good! Then let’s enjoy the party again!”

A soft light flickered along with the clap.
Magical notes floated through the air and created a cheerful melody.
The three continued their meal, each with their own expression.

Around sunrise.
The sound of rough breathing repeated near Lars’s mansion.

“Hup!”

Whoosh.

Serpens was swinging his sword in the cold.
Stiff hands and reddened cheeks.
In contrast, beads of sweat had formed on his forehead.
Lucas had not specifically ordered him to, but the boy had volunteered to train on his own.

‘It was definitely an opening…….’

His body swung the sword.
But the boy’s mind was elsewhere.

‘Did that man develop his sense too? Well, if he was skilled enough to supervise the knight examination, that much would be basic.’

The events of the knight examination filled his head.
They had been attacks made with the utmost caution, but there had been no sign that they would work.
He looked back on it and searched for other methods.
But he still couldn’t think of a way to land an effective hit.

Whoosh.

After the sword cut through the air several times.

“Heoeok……. Heoeok…….”

Serpens bent over and breathed heavily.

“This is tiring.”

He had come outside alone to organize his thoughts.
He had woken in the early dawn.
Inside the house, he could not see Lucas or Lars.
Lucas was always like that, so he accepted it, but the fact that Lars was the same was simply strange.

‘Does no one sleep?’

It was curiosity more than worry.
If one was human, was sleep not an essential element?
He almost never saw them sleeping.
Especially Lucas.
Sometimes, he did show the sight of being lost in thought with his eyes closed.
Perhaps that brief time was the closest thing to the act of “sleeping.”
In any case, he was still a strange person.

“Oh? You’re up early, kid.”

Around the time he caught his breath.
Lars walked out of the mansion.

“Huh? Why are you coming out from there?”

Since Serpens had already checked that they were not there, he couldn’t hide his confusion.

Lars stuffed a handful of almonds into his mouth and approached the boy.

“Should I have gone ‘Ta-da!’ or something like that?”
“……?”
“I had something to discuss with bro. I separated the space a bit in case we disturbed you while you slept.”
“That’s possible?”
“Ta-da! It’s possible!”

A voice full of excitement.
But dark circles had settled heavily beneath his eyes.

“Aren’t you tired?”
“A little.”
“Lucas and you too, Lars. Why don’t you sleep?”

At Serpens’s question, Lars smiled.
It was a smile that looked kinder instead because fatigue had softened his eyes.

“I wonder. Is it because today was not satisfying enough? Or because tomorrow is nothing to look forward to?”
“What?”
“Keke. It’s nothing, kid. Train hard. Just don’t overdo it.”

Serpens furrowed his brows.
Lars stroked the boy’s head.

“Practice a little more. I’ll finish my conversation with bro and come out.”

Lars soon returned to the house.
Before he opened the door.
He suddenly turned back with a face as if something had come to mind.

“Try training to create openings rather than aim for them. Lucas’s sword is that kind of sword.”

Clatter.

After leaving those words, Lars entered the house.

Lars had suddenly come out, said only what he wanted to say, and left.
Serpens sighed and raised his sword again.

The boy’s practice continued.
Around the time the sun had fully risen, Lars and Lucas left the mansion.

“It feels strange to go meet the emperor.”

Serpens said while chewing an apple.

Oratio’s morning was even livelier than usual.
Shops opened, and people passed by them, starting their day.

Lucas walked silently at the front.
Lars walked beside him with relaxed steps.
Serpens followed the two and muttered a question that suddenly came to mind.

“I guess ‘the finest orchestra’ wasn’t an exaggeration.”

Lars chuckled.
The boy’s words must have been directed at him.
It was probably because most of the citizens were whispering as they looked at him.

“There is no way a wondrous aria played through magic would not become famous.”

Lars said with a shrug.
Some people even hurried over and showed respect.
Children looked up at him with sparkling eyes.

Lars waved to them with a smile.

“…….”

Once again, Serpens felt that his current situation was unreal.
The two men walking side by side ahead of him.
He was only about one step away from them, but that one step felt like a distance he could never catch up to.

After receiving various cheers and greetings for a while.
The three arrived at the entrance of the palace.

“Huh……? Sir Lars?”

The guards at the entrance blinked with wide eyes.

“Thank you for your hard work. The thing is, my kid came to receive his knight nameplate.”

Lars said, pointing at Serpens.

The guards’ gazes passed over Lars and turned to Serpens.
A boy in his early teens.
For some reason, the light brown-haired boy was looking at them with narrowed eyes.

‘Lord Lars’s kid……?’

The guard looked back and forth between Lars and Serpens.
Judging by their hair colors, they were probably not related by blood.
For someone like that to have passed the knight examination meant…….

‘He must be his disciple.’

Surprise and envy mixed into the guards’ eyes.

“Then this person is……?”

Envy was envy, and work was work.
The guards asked about the silent man carrying a greatsword.
They wondered whether it was even a sword that could be swung.

“He is my companion.”
“Companion…….”

The two guards exchanged glances, then nodded.

“You may go to the audience chamber. Since you are the first visitor among those who came to receive a nameplate, you should be able to enter without waiting.”
“Ahh. Thank you.”

They passed through the entrance and walked toward the imperial palace building.
Serpens looked around the palace garden without even realizing his mouth had fallen open.
It was an artificial space carefully maintained by gardeners.
Yet it radiated a natural beauty greater than most nature.

After that, even while passing through the grand corridor, he had no time to fully marvel at the palace’s magnificence.
Paintings hung on the walls, and chandeliers hung from the ceiling.
The boy nodded in admiration at the splendor.

‘So this is where the emperor lives.’

Before long, the three stood before the doors of the audience chamber.
The guard told them to wait for a moment.
For some reason, Serpens wiped his damp hands on his clothes.

Clatter-

The splendid, stately door slowly opened.
Various people were visible beyond it.
Serpens looked only straight ahead to avoid their gazes.

“Wow…….”

Then Serpens saw him.
A man wearing a brilliant red mantle and a splendid golden crown.
His red eyes were looking down at the three of them.

The first to step forward was Lars.
His steps were without hesitation, but by no means light.
After walking several steps forward, he showed proper courtesy and knelt on one knee.

“Lars Musica, magician of the empire, greets the exalted Kerum de Evgenia.”