Chapter 3 - Volume 1 (2/2)

I wonder if you could call it childish of me. But I’d already grown up. My good ear had gone bad with age. I did somehow feel a gaze on me sometimes, but I was more crazy over the magical books in front of me then. The magical language was always difficult to understand, and I had trouble reading it even when I read each word carefully. But that trouble was more than just trouble, it was more like having fun.

Once, as I was struggling to read a magical book with my 7-year-old mind, a human shadow fell across the pages. Was it my brother who’d run away earlier, coming back to ask me to read him a picture book as usual? I wondered, as I raised my head, and then reflexively blinked. Blinking was only natural then. Because looking straight down at me were a pair of sunrise-colored, wavering eyes.

How had he gotten in front of me before I even noticed? I stiffened out of surprise, and he simply looked down at me, expressionless. He stared intently at the book I was holding in my hands, and then began to leave.

At that very moment, the page I was on was not written in magical language but in the everyday alphabet, an entry called: About Magical Power and Physical Appearance.

According to it, black hair was a sign of magical power. The closer to black someone’s hair was, the stronger their magical power was. In other words, with his jet black hair, that boy’s magical power was endless.

But to me, that black hair was so commonplace in my 『past』 world, yet rarely seen in this one…… No, not just that, that boy had black hair like no one else did. Before I felt fear or awe, I felt an indescribable nostalgia looking at it. That was the only reason I wasn’t scared of him.

But that had to be why he suddenly approached me. I’d approached him earlier on a whim, holding my hand out to him, a wounded animal. If I hadn’t done that, no doubt he wouldn’t have approached me either.

「Um, Sir Agedilus? Why don’t we read this from the beginning together?」

「……!」

Pronouncing his name was no small feat for a seven-year-old. He turned and looked at me with a terribly surprised face. Maybe you could’ve called it a face about to cry, as it was apt to do. But I don’t know now. But his only response was the fact that he silently sat beside me.

Although he could read to a certain extent, he had neglected learning the magical language, so we read the magical book together with me helping him. I dare say that might have been the beginnings of what led to today.

And then, in those days I carefully watched him beside me as the animal who had never been held by anyone slowly became tamed.

Whenever he came over, I’d go into my father’s library, take out magical books as I pleased, and read together beside him. On sunny days, we’d read on the bench in the courtyard, and on rainy days in my room.

Whenever he’d visit, my brother would always hide at first. Before I knew it, he grew very hostile towards him. There were times he also said 「He’s more important to you than I am!」as he wailed and howled. Of course, that wasn’t it at all, but my brother couldn’t help seeing it like that.

He would be crying, wet eyes the same color as mine, clinging to me and glaring at Agedilus, as the latter one simply looked at my brother, expressionless. It wasn’t as easily worked out as a pleasant little fight between fellow children. To be precise, it was like a small battlefield of carnage.

By the way, presently they’ve fallen into a sour relationship – if they’re forced to meet, they smile and begin a war of words. It all happened before I could realize, until it was too late. Well, I’ll leave that story be for now.

Well then, me and him would sit together on the bench in the courtyard just like that, a magical book in front of us, turning the pages absolutely slowly and gently. I really did love that time.

The first time I sensed his magic was that day. We were sitting out on the bench in the courtyard under a clear sky, reading together as usual. By that time, his behavior had gotten better than in the beginning, and although he still spoke far less than normal children, he was incomparably better at talking than he was at first.

「Um……. Spirit Magic, which involves borrowing the power of spiritual beings, has spread extremely, due to the fact that the magic is induced by one’s compatibility with the spirit, no matter what one’s personal aggregate amount of magical power is…….?」

「…….It says that each and every single person holds a certain amount of magic, but it’s not like you can use magic with just that. But in Spirit Magic, if you have an affinity with a spirit, at least you can use the spirit’s power too, and be able to use large amounts of magic.」

「Is that so?」

「Yes. It was written in one of my step-father’s magical books.」

He replied with no hesitation, but I broke into a cold sweat internally. Although being influenced by him meant I was progressing at a faster pace, I was made to realize once again about how he was not only good in looks but brains as well.

At the time, my knowledge of the magical language was still more than his, but I could see that if I was careless, I’d be quickly overtaken. Preparing for the next time we read together is vital, I decided childishly as I turned the page. It was then that I sensed it.

「Ouch!」

I’d carelessly cut my finger as I was turning the page. Paper cuts are just simply painful. As I looked at my cut finger, groaning in pain on the inside, he grabbed my hand.

「..?」

Compared to when we first met, his hand was finally rounder and child-like. He gently pressed it to my cut fingertip.

「 」

His lips spoke ancient words, indifferent to me as they made me blink. Without warning, a ring of water suddenly appeared and surrounded my cut,and then vanished. Dumbfounded, I speechlessly looked at it to see the wound I’d been watching over had cleanly disappeared along with the ring of water.

「…….Was that Spirit Magic?」

「Right. I simply borrowed the power of a water spirit.」

「……」

Even I, who still was in half-doubt over the topic of magic despite the amount of magical books I read, knew that suddenly using magic and succeeding at a crucial moment was not something a normal person could do. I understood, ah, so this is magic. To experience it directly didn’t make me full of adrenaline — rather, I was just surprised at how it looked like a mysterious Buddhist miracle of some sort.

As I stared at my fingertip, now painless and scarless, I somehow felt eyes on me. I turned to look at him, meeting his sunrise-colored eyes. Although his eyes were unexcited, unimpressed as usual, I realized by chance that there was more to it this time.

Why was he looking at me as if he was anxious, worried? Was he anxious because I gave him only silence after having magic done on me for the first time? It would be normal for any other child to be full of pride, and yet he was just anxious. It was somehow sad. That was probably the reason I grabbed his hand as he silently tried to let go of mine. He blinked in surprise, and I smiled at him.

「Thank you, Sir Agedilus.」

That was all I could do then. But even so, he nodded slightly, a light of reassurance in his eyes. That’s why I want to believe my actions then weren’t wrong.

「…….It’s not a big deal.」

I’m the only one who knows his ears were slightly red as he turned his face away, saying that. I wanted to say that no, it really is a big deal, but I swallowed those words up.