LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 17
After casually placing the master key on the water mill and waiting for two hours,
the hero had been by my side the whole time, except for one moment.
“Rui, eat this. The village lady brought it.”
That one moment was when he briefly left to grab meat skewers.
“Oh, thank you.”
“I took out the bell pepper.”
“·········.”
Thud!
Still, out of respect for his effort, I’ll eat it gratefully.
Thanks to the hero, I don’t even have to dip my fingers in the sauce.
“It’s delicious.”
“Right? This unique spicy seasoning is the specialty of this village.”
“I wonder what it would taste like if put in carrot soup.”
“Carrot soup···.”
With its spiciness, I guess it would taste a bit like ramen soup.
Since Ariya is good at making carrot soup, I think I’ll ask for some later and take a bit with me if it tastes good.
“Rui, can I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
“Where did you learn magic, or where have you lived until now?”
“I learned magic by directly visiting my master. It was a bit hard to find because it was in the mountains.”
“Mountains? Is he like a hermit sage or something?”
Has he really been in hiding? Living in a cave could be considered that.
Is he a sage? Given his knowledge and magical ability, he might as well be··· so it could be true.
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Well, if you went to the mountains just to find him··· you must have been quite the hard worker.”
“It definitely took a long time to find my master.”
In the novel, it didn’t even properly describe where that guy’s cave was.
So, I spent over a week digging with my delicate hands in search of it.
“So before you joined our party, where were you?”
“Near the system. I got a laboratory there.”
“Laboratory···.”
“Yeah, this one.”
He opens a door that leads to the laboratory beside him.
Maybe because he organized it diligently after joining the hero’s party, he didn’t feel embarrassed showing it to me.
“Ah, okay···.”
The hero now looks at it with familiar eyes.
“I see···. Sorry for only asking questions. Should I share my story too?”
The hero’s story. To be precise, it would be the story of his past before becoming the hero.
The past of Hero Aswel only appeared partially in the novel, making me curious about what kind of life he had.
“I was born and raised in a rural village in the eastern part of the Empire. From there···.”
It could be considered a story fit for a king.
The rural boy who admired knights eventually grew up to be chosen as a hero and began to traverse the world.
That story was close to summarizing a person’s life to its extreme.
The hero lived such a life, and from now on, he would continue living that life.
“So sometimes I miss the quietness of my childhood, but··· I prefer now.”
Meeting many people and experiencing much suited him.
The hero said that.
“I’m the opposite.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I like researching in my room.”
In contrast, I’ve lived a life focused on research while hardly meeting anyone.
I even wanted that kind of life. But sometimes, experiencing a life like the hero’s might not be so bad.
Maybe that’s why I joined this party.
“Rui, thank you.”
“Yes?”
“Because you’ve really helped me a lot since you joined.”
I didn’t feel like I contributed enough to receive a thank you.
But the hero’s serious gaze made it hard for me to argue back.
“Oh, uh, sure.”
The mood was starting to get awkward.
Just then, a sound came from the master key.
Vrum···.
“Oh.”
“Is it ready?”
“No, but I think I have a rough idea of the problem.”
It seems the flaw that caused the water mill’s malfunction was there from the start.
In that case, it should be done soon.
“From now on, I’ll focus a bit.”
“Got it. Would it be easier if I moved out of the way?”
I thought for a moment. Is it uncomfortable with the hero next to me?
No, it probably wouldn’t matter much.
“······No.”
“Then I’ll stay a little closer.”
“Well, feel free.”
I focus on the spell while rotating the two rings of Akasha.
The hero’s gaze, which was subtly watching me, began to bother me, but I managed to push it out of my mind.
From now on, it was like a fight.
The great mage of the past and me now.
Thinking about being able to glimpse the fragments of that great mage brought a smile to my face.
*
She is a mage.
While her appearance and the fields she handles are vastly different from the typical mage I knew, she is now a proper mage of the party.
She rarely smiles.
Except when eating carrot soup or discovering interesting magical materials, she mostly maintains a blank expression.
But right now, she was smiling.
The water mill, which was supposedly built by the great mage of the past, was chosen as a request because I thought she might like it.
That choice was correct. Thanks to it, I got to see that smile.
That smile is perhaps akin to a child’s curiosity.
Though she really hates being thought of as a child, there’s no helping it.
She is just that cute······.
“······What am I thinking.”
I shook my head. She is our comrade.
And perhaps, she is someone with magical abilities that far surpass the four of us.
Recently, every time I looked at her, the emperor’s past words came to mind.
[If my plan goes as expected, the hero, the saint, and the mage should team up. But since the mage declined, it was unavoidable that only you would set off.]
The Mage.
Who could that mage the emperor spoke of be?
Although they are often called a sage, it remains unknown whether that person is male or female.
And now I wondered if that sage could possibly be her right in front of me.
The reason is simple. I can’t imagine any mage more powerful than her.
A mage able to decline the emperor’s decree.
If she really is that mage, what master did she learn magic from?
And what is the true reason she joined this party?
I found myself wanting to learn more about her.
“·········.”
Suddenly, a past memory resurfaced. The time I opened the door and walked in by mistake.
My head heats up in an instant.
‘No way.’
This must be mere curiosity·····.
“Is everything going well?”
Just then, I heard a strange voice from behind.
A rugged beard, slouching eyes, and a laid-back posture.
“Wenstone.”
It was Wenstone, the administrator of the water mill.
*
Hmm.
‘This should be good enough for now.’
Next, I need to set the master key to automatic processing.
That should bring about the beauty of waiting once again. Then, well··· I could just chat with the hero.
Just as I was about to turn around, I bumped into something.
“Oof.”
“Oh, Rui. Sorry.”
“Ew···?”
“A guest has arrived.”
Peeking from behind the hero, I could definitely see a guest.
It was none other than Wenstone, the level 3 mage who managed the water mill.
“I was curious about whether it’s working well. So, how is it? Will it be fixed?”
Is that a sneer? Wenstone asked me with a rotten smile.
“Personally, I hope it won’t be fixed.”
At that, the hero wraps his hand around my shoulder, trying to hide me from behind.
“Why? Isn’t the village in a situation where the water mill needs to be fixed?”
The hero’s tone, filled with suspicion, felt very strange to me.
At the same time, the sword of virtue glowing faintly was reacting to the hero’s will.
“Well, yeah. But that’s only from the village’s perspective. I’m different.”
Different?
I felt like there was something off about him.
Perhaps the hero sensed it too and was trying to protect me.
For now, I need to answer his question.
“I can fix it.”
“·········Is that so.”
“Probably by tomorrow morning, the water mill will be spinning vigorously again. It will send water flowing around, solving the village’s troubles.”
“······.”
“So don’t hope that it won’t be fixed.”
I won’t let that happen.
At my words, Wenstone’s hands drooped. His shoulders slumped as if they were about to touch the ground.
“Ha··· then it wouldn’t be good···.”
The hero’s hand gradually moved closer to the sword. His silent glare at Wenstone was quite fierce.
At that moment.
“Dad!!”
“Abra!!”
“Is my resting place··· about to be gone?”
Voices of two kids echoed from afar. With that, Wenstone crumbled.
“······?”
Both mine and the hero’s movements stopped simultaneously.
“Dad!!!”
“I’m here, Dad.”
“Dad!!! Mom said to come home quickly!! Since the water mill will be fixed anyway, don’t slack off and take care of the youngest!!”
“Uh, uh···. But Dad is doing something important right now.”
“If you don’t come, she said to say this!! ‘You impregnated me when you were a magic academy student and came to this village!'”
“Yeah, that’s it!!”
“·········Just say you’re coming now.”
Like a storm, the children charged in and out just as quickly.
As a result, only one man remained, a complete wreck.
“······.”
“······.”
“······.”
The three of us fell into silence. The hero and I began to slowly understand what kind of situation he was in.
And then we simultaneously realized why he looked like that and what he had said to us.
“Umm······.”
“Uh······.”
As we struggled to find words, Wenstone spoke.
“If you’re going to fix it, I would really appreciate it if you could do it perfectly. I don’t think I’ll be able to make any more excuses······.”
With that, Wenstone disappeared. Later, I ran into the village chief and inquired about him.
“Oh, you mean Wenstone? That guy was dating a former academy student who taught him magic, and then, um··· ended up having a kid with her.”
“Ah···.”
“So he was a promising mage, but he quit and came down here. And now, he’s a dad of four kids.”
He even had another one besides the youngest, huh?
‘······So he just wanted some rest after being a dad.’
He must have wanted some rest from his kids.
Then the water mill broke down, and he ended up being in charge of managing it as a level 3 mage.
But realizing early on that he couldn’t fix it, he probably used it as an excuse to catch some sleep.
Now that I say I can fix it, he asked for such a thing.
“Wenstone seems to have realized his wrongs and has been taking care of the house and the kids on his own. But he probably also used the excuse of fixing the water mill to catch some sleep··· but now.”
“······Hmm.”
That won’t do. I think I should give him a little gift.
The next day, before leaving the village, we were talking with the villagers.
Kwahkwahkwah!!
Behind us, the water mill spun vigorously, and beside it, Wenstone’s kids splashed around in joy.
I approached Wenstone, who was blankly watching the kids.
“Wenstone.”
“······Aren’t you the mage? The water mill is running quite well… thanks to you, the village’s worries have been relieved.”
“Well, I didn’t fix it completely.”
“······Huh?”
“I’d say you’ll need to inject mana and oversee it for about three hours, once a week. Otherwise, the chance of it breaking again is high.”
“·········Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
The middle-aged man’s eyes sparkled brightly.
What a rare sight to see.
“Thank you, thank you!”
“But don’t abuse it too much.”
Of course! Now I thought I could stay at home until the kids are independent, without being tied down too long···!
He grabbed my hands and shook them up and down in gratitude.
“Ugh, ugh.”
A while later, I joined the hero’s party after the farewell.
“Rui.”
“Yes, Hero.”
“I just talked with Wenstone.”
“Oh, I gave him a gift.”
“A gift?”
When I told him what I had explained to Wenstone earlier, the hero’s face showed an understanding expression.
Then suddenly, he looked at my hand.
“······I don’t think a handshake was necessary, though?”
“Huh?”
“No, never mind. Let’s get going.”
Leaving behind those perplexing words, the hero mounted Tempest and then we left the village.
I discreetly opened the package I had. It was filled with the remnants of starlight stones.
This was the reward from fixing the mill, remnants of a falling star.
Now there remains only one journey.
Once that’s finished, we’ll head to the Fortress of Dusk.