5

After finishing their meal together as well, Beth and Noel walked side by side through the corridors of the Magic Institute, now completely dark.

The moonlight shone down on the two of them and cast long shadows.

(Come to think of it, this is the first time since I was first thrown in here that the two of us have walked here at night.)

On that day, Noel had strode ahead of Beth on his own without even turning to look at her, but today he matched his pace to Beth’s, and the two of them walked side by side at ease.

Beth felt a slightly ticklish awareness of that distance.

(His profile… is very beautiful.)

Looking up at Noel’s well-shaped profile, Beth somehow suddenly remembered that night and blushed.

That night.

Noel had held Beth tightly, and for a long time the two of them had been alone in a world of darkness.

That night when each other’s presence had been the whole world.

Since then, neither of them had yet touched upon that night.

Something precious that was still too faint to put into words, and had only just begun to sprout between them.

Lured by the darkness, the memory of that night grazed the softest part of Beth’s heart.

Slowly, she waited for that feeling to grow, take shape, and then become words.

Neither of them rushed to search for words.

Once they crossed the corridor and turned the corner, the arena was right there.

That place, which was used for mock magic matches, had layers upon layers of anti-magic barriers stretched through the air and over the spectator seats, and it was often used for experiments with new kinds of magic as well, a truly luxurious place in magical terms.

It was said to be a remnant of the training grounds used by the magical army when a mage corps was formed during the war with the neighboring country several generations ago.

“It is dangerous, so stay over there a little.”

Saying only that, Noel left Beth in the spectator seats of the plaza and briskly walked by himself to the middle of the arena.

Then he rolled several magic stones into the center of the arena.

He had said he would unfold a large-scale spell using the magic stones as a medium, but Beth could not understand a single thing Noel was saying.

“Watch from there.”

Noel smiled faintly and then slowly began chanting something.

It seemed Noel was weaving together the magical power within his body.

His silver hair took on light and danced in the air, and Noel’s black robe fluttered in the wind stirred up by magical power.

Beth could see Noel’s well-shaped profile becoming suffused with light.

Illuminated by pale blue magical power, Noel’s beauty shone like a moon goddess.

While Beth was captivated by that beautiful sight, the entire arena was covered in light, and Noel activated the magic.

“Boom!!!!!!”

After the deafeningly loud sound, it echoed throughout the whole arena.

As Beth instinctively lowered her head and curled up, Noel approached her and gently held her shoulder,

“Here, look.”

Saying that, he smiled and pointed up at the sky.

“Amazing… it is amazing, Noel-sama!!”

What she saw there was a sky filled with shooting stars.

The scene from her precious story, which she had read until it had nearly worn out, rose up in Beth’s heart.

At the beauty of large-scale magic, beyond anything she had imagined and the first she had ever seen in her life, Beth could not stop her tears.

It was a beauty too vast to ever draw dry from the small well called Beth’s imagination.

(Yes, after this, the magician-sama and the princess understand each other’s hearts, and the two fall in love, and then…)

A life with her mute, deaf grandfather, and with foreign babies and children whose language she could not understand.

In her daily life, Beth had hungered for words.

Busy days.

A life of nothing in a countryside of nothing.

It had never been unhappy.

And yet.

There had been no words there.

The one and only joy in Beth’s life.

That had been the wings of imagination given to her by the world of books, woven from the jewels called words.

When she deciphered the words being spun, there, before a country girl like Beth who had never seen or heard such things, a beautiful world was written in beautiful words.

Using magic said to be as beautiful as though it had gathered all the light in this world, the magician of the story raced freely across the world and fell in love with a beautiful princess.

At times, Beth yearned for the magician who was the hero of the story, and at times, she became the princess herself, spreading the wings of imagination from one corner of her little mill and going out on adventures into the wide world.

No matter what painful morning came, no matter what sorrowful night came, if she turned the page, another world was there.

The strong and beautiful magician invited Beth on a journey of adventure.

The scene where this magic was used.

It was the climax of the story, where the magician activated a great spell, staking his life on a desperate gamble in order to protect the life of the princess who had been abducted by the king of the demon race.

That day when her one and only grandfather was called to heaven.

That day when, after the funeral ended, Beth returned all alone to the mill.

In that dark, silent house, for Beth, who had collapsed in tears in loneliness and had become all alone, when she turned the page, there as always, the brave magician was waiting for Beth.

“Now then, face life with courage. The world is not a frightening place. The world is beautiful. I will never leave you alone.”

Those were the words the magician spoke to the despairing princess.

And then, facing the terrifying demon race, the great spell the magician released at the cost of his life.

The stars made by magic fell like meteors upon the king of the demon race and saved the princess.

And seeing the great spell that the magician had released at the cost of his life for her sake, the princess, beautiful as a lily, gained the courage to face life.

“‘I am no longer afraid. Because you are with me.’”

Without thinking, Beth had spoken the princess’s words aloud.

The unfortunate princess who had been imprisoned all alone in the tower.

The lonely princess learned the magician’s true love, and then let go of her fear.

At that moment, the princess awakened the holy power within herself, annihilated the demon race, and the kingdom was saved.

Entranced, Beth let tears spill down.

“It was arranged so that the magical essence in the air would react to my magical power. It is a large-scale version of one kind of signal magic, but the mechanism is not all that difficult… wait, are you crying??”

Beth threw herself straight into Noel’s chest, the air around him still crackling and electrically charged from the magic’s effects, and with large tears streaming down, she said,

“Noel-sama, thank you. Thank you for staying with me.”

(The world… surely is a beautiful place.)

The figure of the silver-haired magician before her overlapped with the figure of the story’s magician who had always stayed close to Beth.

No matter how lonely the night, no matter how sorrowful the morning, when she opened the page, the great magician who had invited Beth into a world of adventure.

Beth was not beautiful like a princess from a story, nor was she noble, but merely Beth.

“Hey, do not cry… it is only signal magic…”

Though Noel was bewildered by Beth, who was clinging to his robe and crying, he gently wrapped his arm around her shoulders and held her tenderly.

In the night sky above the arena, magic beautiful as shooting stars spread out.