Chapter 51

That night, at the Saxon Duke’s mansion in the Imperial Capital.

‘Did they summon me all the way here just to show me some brats?’

After several days of absurd commotion, Dale sat cross-legged in his bedroom and pondered.

There’s no way the Crimson Mage would have invited him to the Imperial Academy for such a trivial reason. He recalls the twelve Purifiers who ambushed Dale’s cavalry on the Saxon River that day. Fanatics who wouldn’t hesitate to burn their own flesh.

Compared to them, the noble offspring of the Imperial Academy were mere greenhorns who could only elicit laughter. They doubtless believed without a shred of doubt that they would become mages of the Crimson Magic Tower, indeed the empire’s elite. Unaware that they were nothing but puppets of the Magic Tower.

‘In the end, they’re just children ignorant of the ways of the world.’

Thinking this, Dale turned his head. It was at that very moment.

Knock knock.

“Dale.”

A knock sounded. Along with a voice that was all too familiar.

“Teacher Sepia?”

“May I come in for a moment?”

Hearing Sepia say she was coming into his bedroom, Dale gasped in surprise and swallowed hard.

“Come in.”

His reply came instantly, without a moment’s hesitation.

Watching Sepia step cautiously into the room, Dale held his breath.

She wore a nightgown of pure white silk embroidered with dark, black lace. Her crystal-colored hair was disheveled, damp strands scattered wildly. Through the silk fabric, her skin, as white and delicate as jade, was faintly visible.

“…Hmm, hmm.”

Noticing Dale’s dazed gaze, Sepia deliberately flushed.

“I finished showering and was about to change clothes, but, well, I didn’t have anything suitable to wear.”

After a deliberately exaggerated cough, Sepia perched on the edge of the bed. On the feather-filled bedding. Right beside Dale.

Silence fell. It was a somewhat awkward silence.

“…Thank you for coming all the way to the capital with me.”

After the silence, Dale cautiously spoke up.

“Yeah.”

Only then did Sepia seem to regain her composure, smiling quietly.

“Did you enjoy the Academy’s lessons?”

“It’s nothing compared to Sepia’s teaching.”

Dale smiled mischievously, and Sepia responded with a gentle smile of her own. Silence settled once more.

“…That day.”

It was Sepia who broke the silence.

“I saw the sorrow on your face after losing the knights.”

Sepia spoke.

“I failed to protect you properly from the Purifiers.”

Though she unleashed a storm of cold against the orc riders and made the blue discord resound, Sepia’s power that day amounted to nothing more than ‘barely enough to protect Dale.’ It was nowhere near the strength one would expect from a sixth-circle elf mage.

“Don’t blame yourself.”

That was why Dale quietly shook his head.

“You protected me, and losing Saxon’s swords was my own mistake.”

“No.”

But Sepia shook her head silently.

“Didn’t I promise to stay by your side?”

After shaking his head, he quietly reached out his hand.

“It didn’t just mean protecting you alone.”

“……?”

He took young Dale’s hand in his.

“I only wish for you not to be sad.”

“Teacher Sepia…”

The warm glow of the Snow Elf, Sepia, flowed from hand to hand.

“How could someone so young possess a world of thought so utterly void and filled with emptiness? Surely, I could never understand it.”

Two magicians, resonating and communicating across their worlds… Even knowing that the emotions they felt were merely ‘the result of contact with Dale’s world,’ nothing changed. Desperately suppressing the tenderness and affection she herself couldn’t control, Sepia affirmed Dale.

It was a form of love approaching agape.

For that was the ‘mission’ she had resolved upon when first confronting this child’s world.

At that moment, in the mansion of Walter, the Court Baron.

Leonard returned home drunk from the red-light district. As usual. But the place he headed for as soon as he got back to the mansion was not the usual one.

“Le-Leonard, young master!”

Leonard raised his voice at the head butler of the Walter household, who couldn’t hide his bewilderment.

“Shut up, you old fool!”

“But, but the Count has strictly forbidden access to the basement…”

“The eldest son of the Count’s household is going, and you think you can stand in my way?”

Ignoring the steward’s pleas, Leonard moved forward without a second thought. He headed toward the underground chamber where Walter of the Crimson Tower, the elder of the Bloodline, kept his ‘artifact’. He forcibly seized the key that Walter, the court duke, had entrusted to the steward.

He recalled Dale’s expression this morning, looking at him as if nothing had happened. Only then did he finally understand. To Dale of Saxon, Leonard Walter was someone not even worth acknowledging.

“I have to show that damn brat…”

Leonard, reeking of alcohol, shouted with the strength of his drunkenness.

“I, Leonard Walter, am the most talented mage in the entire empire…”

What the Saxon family’s young master demonstrated days ago was never his talent. It was merely the result of borrowing the ‘power of the artifact’. That’s right. The difference between Leonard and Dale. It was absolutely not a difference in talent.

Only one thing mattered: the presence or absence of an artifact.

Therefore, Leonard did not hesitate. He cared not for the damage that would befall him should someone lacking talent grasp an artifact.

The next day, in the auditorium for the Royal Academy’s top-tier third-circle faculty.

“It seems the monster hunters have finished capturing the ‘monsters’ to be used in the upcoming graduation exams.”

The Imperial Academy’s graduation exam was just a few weeks away.

For Dale, it was a matter of indifference. However, if the ‘graduation exam’ were to be held while he was staying in the Imperial Capital, Dale couldn’t very well just sit around twiddling his thumbs during the exam.

‘Not that it’s anything to worry about, though.’

He wasn’t the type to struggle over some test for a mere third-circle mage. All that filled Dale’s mind was the image Sepia had shown him last night.

The emotions she felt were ultimately nothing more than the confusion of feelings resonating with ‘Dale’s world’. Even after realizing this truth, Dale’s actions didn’t change. Because he wanted Sepia to stay by his side.

He didn’t want to let her go.

That fact alone stirred an inexplicable guilt within Dale.

‘This isn’t something to think about right now.’

After that thought, Dale turned his head away as if shaking off the confusion.

Leonard was there.

“…….”

Unlike usual, Leonard was maintaining an ominously silent silence.

‘Has he finally come to his senses?’

Seeing him like that, Dale didn’t think much of it.

In a way, this was precisely what they meant when they said geniuses couldn’t understand ordinary people.

That afternoon, a mock magic duel class was held in preparation for the graduation exam.

The first participant was Leonard Walter, and unfortunately, his opponent was an undergraduate from the third circle.

Neither particularly inferior nor exceptionally talented, just an undergraduate student obediently following Leonard’s lead. And the professor watching the two duel couldn’t hide his inner anxiety.

After ‘that day,’ Leonard’s state had been strangely off.

It was impossible to pinpoint exactly what had changed. He was just unnervingly quiet. He, who should have reigned over the Imperial Academy like a tyrant, now maintained an inscrutable silence.

The professor found the situation so ominous he couldn’t bear it. Unlike Dale, who dismissed it as mere immaturity, he knew Leonard Walter’s character better than anyone.

“Well, then… Leonard and Valer’s duel shall commence.”

The professor opened his mouth with a trembling voice.

An existence that dare not be defied. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t Leonard himself that was frightening. Even though his talent far surpassed his own, there still remained the barrier between the third and fourth circles between them. The professor’s fear was directed solely at the elder of the Crimson Magic Tower watching his back… ‘Walter the Blood-Stained’.

Like all elders of the Crimson Magic Tower, he too was a tyrant beyond Leonard.

The rulers of the Red Tower, whom a mere 4th Circle mage like himself dared not defy.

The magical flame signaling the start of the duel flared up.

“Hey.”

It was then. Leonard opened his mouth toward his opponent. Without even thinking of casting a spell, he stretched out his arm and pointed at Dale.

“Cast an attack spell at that Saxon brat.”

“Le-Leonard? That’s so sudden…”

“Do you want to die from my magic like this?”

Caught off guard, the student’s expression turned pensive. Leonard ignored him and repeated his demand, channeling the crimson magic surging from his hand.

At the same time, his refusal to dirty his own hands until the very end was proof of his utterly despicable conduct.

“Le-Leonard!”

“Shut your mouth, you talentless old fool.”

The professor raised his voice in bewilderment at the sight, but Leonard replied without a care.

“You’re a 60-year-old loser still stuck in the fourth circle, so where do you get off talking?”

“Le-Leonard…!”

“Before I tell your father, keep your mouth shut.”

The situation was far from ordinary.

“Hey, you damn brats. You’re more scared of that kid than me right now? Huh?”

Leonard demanded again.

“So, you’re saying it’s not Leonard Walter you’re scared of right now, but that damn kid? Is that it?”

To all members of the top faculty of the Third Circle here.

“Fire magic at that brat now!”

Leonard shouted again. Simultaneously, the crimson magic power swirling from his hand took the shape of flames. Flames that could never be mistaken for those of a mere third-circle mage.

‘An artifact…!’

“Everyone, back up!”

No sooner had Dale shouted than a whirlwind of flames erupted at Leonard’s feet. Flames even a 4th Circle professor wouldn’t dare confront. Directly at those flames, Dale plunged his ‘blue magic power’.

A world of emptiness filled with biting cold and ash-gray hues, projecting the very magic forged from that winter night’s chill.

Even with the power of an artifact, it was not something a mere scholar’s flame could dare resist. The swirling flames subsided.

“Ha, ha ha…”

Watching the flames fade away, Leonard laughed weakly.

“Well, it seems my duel opponent has finally arrived.”

It was not a laugh of self-mockery.

“Shall we begin the battle to determine the empire’s greatest talent?”

Leonard asked back with a laugh. Seeing that, Dale too asked back in disbelief.

“Do kids these days hit puberty after they turn twenty?”