Chapter 2: Derrick (2)
Ebelstein is a city with a thousand faces.
It was one of the things the bards in taverns would spout after getting thoroughly drunk.
That said, it wasn't something that could be dismissed as mere drunken rambling.
In fact, a city of this size, capable of housing over a hundred thousand people, was hard to find even if you searched the entire continent.
If you only simmered and struggled in the slums covered in gray, it was only natural to feel as if this city were one gigantic prison.
However, if you took a single step out and walked around the city, you would inevitably start to think that what the drunkards in the taverns said wasn't completely groundless.
Derrick left the slums, crossed the commercial district, and walked along the coastal area packed tight with piers.
As he quietly gazed at the coastline like that, he could feel a completely different kind of vitality flowing through the city compared to the back alleys where the poor had been silently settling into stagnation.
The shouts of the laborers. The creaking of ships swaying with the crashing waves.
He slipped through the workers who had been carrying crates filled with seafood since early dawn, and kept climbing and climbing the stairs that led toward the heart of the city.
And when he walked in the direction where the massive walls were visible and turned into alleyways several times, the tavern street where mercenaries gathered finally revealed itself.
In that damp alley from early morning, rough mercenaries who were ready to kill someone for a few silver coins were walking back and forth.
It was a bleak sight, lined with all kinds of deadly blades. It was a place where decent citizens couldn't even think of coming near.
Even in this great city where civilization had properly taken root, the wilderness still had its place.
*
Derrick's second master was a widow named Katia Flameheart.
She was the former lady of the Flameheart Viscount family, which had now fallen into ruin after being accused of treason against the Empire.
Now she was an elderly woman, with wrinkles here and there on her forehead and gray hair beginning to show.
Women of fallen noble status usually failed to overcome the gap in their former standard of living and tended to meet bad ends. Beautiful in appearance but low in status, the fate of such women was usually much the same.
Even so, capable women would become teachers who taught commoners to read, or learn trade, or if lucky, enter a famous noble house as a tutor.
After all, having lived as a noble lady, there was no better human resource for teaching young ladies.
However, Katia was a far more unusual case than even those "well-resolved" noblewomen.
She neither took up the pen, nor bowed her head to other noble families.
As a 3-Star Mage, she chose to roam the mercenary world, hunting monsters and living off the commissions.
Wearing a shabby cloak instead of a dress, and carrying a dagger at her waist instead of a pen, she lived walking among the mercenaries of the tavern street.
Despite her small frame, she adapted well to the brutal mercenary world.
For a woman of noble birth, she lived a rather raw life.
"You can use magic, can't you."
It was by chance that she met Derrick, who was sitting in the corner of a tavern and chewing on some low-quality oat bread.
It had been about four years since Derrick had started rolling around in the mercenary world.
Dust-covered, shaggy white hair, and between it, eyes of a chilling red looked up at Katia.
The faint Mana in those eyes was of a different nature from that of nobles.
Looking at that sharp gaze unique to those from the streets, Katia closed and opened her eyes slowly several times.
"…Me? You mean me?"
"Yes."
Derrick quietly looked at Katia, who had suddenly spoken to him.
There were several reasons he had come into the mercenary world.
First, because he had to eat and live.
No matter how lowborn one was, this mercenary world was a place where, if you staked your life, you could get some kind of commission.
From catching rats in old warehouses to killing weak monsters on the outskirts of the city.
For Derrick, who had some understanding of 1-Star magic, these were things he could manage to some extent.
Second, because he had to meet people.
The old man who had taught him the basics of magic was now dead.
Magic could be self-taught to some degree, but it could never be as efficient as meeting a good master.
No matter how brutal the mercenary world was, from time to time people who could use magic would appear.
People full of circumstances, who had no choice but to rely on commissions to make a living, were everywhere.
He wanted to receive at least some magic from such people who appeared like strokes of fortune.
However, Mages rolling around in the mercenary world were almost never that altruistic.
The plan of "maybe I'll meet a decent person after about a year" had somehow turned into its fourth year.
The little kid of around ten had now started to look a bit like a boy.
But even so, in the eyes of mercenaries who had been through everything, he was still just a brat whose blood hadn't even dried yet.
Sometimes he got beaten up by thug-like mercenaries, and sometimes, with his lacking magic skills, he barely managed to hit back a few times.
As he wandered around the mercenary world like that, he also developed a bit of tenacity.
"…How old are you now?"
Perhaps she could easily guess Derrick's obvious past, because Katia calmly let out a breath.
She too was a veteran who had rolled around in this world long enough.
It was an environment where one couldn't help but become stingy about helping others.
She had seen far too many pitiful people, and usually lived by pretending not to see them.
There was no one in this world without a story.
However, there was one biggest difference between those story-filled people and Derrick.
It was his age.
Derrick was far too young.
The image of her son, who she could never see again, running around the mansion courtyard without knowing the ways of the world, flickered before her eyes.
They were similar in age, but this boy was already trying to make his living, even if only with insufficient magic, among these brutal mercenaries.
Rather than admirable, it was a rather poignant sight.
She thought it was already a story of the past, but she too was, in the end, a mother.
Even if you lose your child, a mother is a mother until the day she dies.
*
"Magic is no different from other fields of study. Theory and practice are completely different things. You must always remember that you need to value both the depth of theory and real combat experience."
Katia would occasionally look over Derrick's magic whenever she ran into him at a tavern.
At first, Derrick tried to keep some distance, but he needed a master either way.
He quickly began to absorb Katia's teachings and started to learn proper magic theory that he hadn't been able to learn from the old man.
"You can only improve if you clearly know your own level."
There were many Schools of magic, but among them, the most mainstream was the noble systematic school.
They divided the level of magic by rank.
By that standard, Katia was a 3-Star Mage.
Even Mages from famous noble families had to struggle a lot to reach the 3-Star realm.
Occasionally, geniuses would appear who entered 3-Star magic around their coming-of-age ceremony, but even that happened only once every few years.
Most people had to start getting some wrinkles on their faces before they could reach 3-Star.
If it was like that even for nobles, then for commoners to reach 3-Star was something close to impossible.
There was a reason why from 3-Star onward they were called "upper-level Mages."
In short, it meant that it was hard to find a master as good as Katia.
"To what extent have you used magic in actual combat?"
"I haven't used anything that amazing. Like lighting a small fire in a dark place, or detecting the directions of east, west, south, and north…"
"By 1-Star standards, it's not an amazingly strong level, but considering your age, it's excellent."
One corner of a tavern where drunkards were shouting wasn't a good environment for magic lessons.
However, both Katia and Derrick were people who were already more than used to this kind of chaotic environment.
"But with just an average level, you can't even step into the entrance of 2-Star. You don't need to completely master 2-Star magic either, even if you just learn the basics to some extent, you'll have no big problems making a living for the rest of your life… At least try aiming for that much."
"I'll try."
Katia didn't have any grand intentions either.
A bit of wandering maternal affection and a grain of sympathy.
She planned to just throw in that much goodwill and leave.
Completely mastering 2-Star magic for a commoner child who wasn't even born with a proper Bloodline was impossible.
Just showing him a taste of the entrance to 2-Star magic would already become a great weapon for the boy to make a living in the future.
That was all the kindness she intended.
So Katia took Derrick around for quite some time, showing him various kinds of Magic and helping him train.
*
The combination of a magic prodigy from the slums and a fallen elderly noble was rare even in the mercenary world, so sometimes there were people who showed curiosity.
However, the relationship between Katia and Derrick wasn't particularly close.
No matter what, Katia was also someone who had spent a long time in the mercenary world.
She knew well that excessive attachment only caused unnecessary problems.
Derrick also sympathized with Katia's values to some extent, so he didn't think of unnecessarily troubling her.
"You may have trained your magic through real combat experience, but you also need to learn the basic theory. Do you know that magic is basically divided into five systems?"
"Combat, transformation, illusion, summoning, and detection. Those five, right?"
"Yes. It seems that old man at least established the basics for you. In each system, there are magic spells of various ranks. If you can use even just one 2-Star magic, then you can proudly call yourself a 2-Star Mage."
The teaching continued even in the middle of the bustling tavern.
If you can use even one 2-Star magic, you can proudly call yourself a 2-Star Mage.
Naturally, even among those called 2-Star Mages, the hierarchy differs depending on whether you can barely handle just one, or can handle many different 2-Star magic spells.
However, symbolism is important.
Even if it's just barely, the status of someone who can use even one 2-Star magic becomes completely different.
By noble standards, 2-Star Mages are more common than you'd think, but by commoner standards, it's a realm you can never reach without considerable effort and talent.
"As long as you're a Mage, you'll inevitably develop a desire to rise. Because of that, rather than learning many magic spells evenly, most people try to quickly learn higher-rank magic in the field that suits their aptitude."
"In short, each Mage ends up specializing in a certain field."
"You're quick to understand, Derrick. It's more important than anything to quickly figure out what your aptitude is."
"…I want to learn everything."
Katia put down the mug of cold water and looked at Derrick with tired eyes.
"Excessive greed will only slow down your achievements. Take my words to heart."
"…Alright."
Katia is an illusion-type 3-Star Mage.
She couldn't use many 3-Star magic spells, but when it came to 2-Star magic, she could use a variety of them.
She couldn't raise Derrick's realm immediately, but at least she could show him the direction he should head toward.
"Up to 1-Star magic, you might have been able to get a feel for it on your own through repeated real combat, but from 2-Star onward, you need to practice constantly feeling and controlling the Mana in your body."
"I kind of had a sense of it. Using Mana feels like swinging around some kind of energy inside your body, right?"
"Yes. Your real combat experience will work in your favor. Try to carefully sense the flow of Mana I'm sending out and manifest something similar."
Katia placed her hand on the wooden table and began to twist and manipulate her Mana.
Following Katia's guidance, Derrick tried to feel his own Mana.
The amount of Mana he was born with in his body was considerable.
He was truly too much of a waste to rot away in the slums.
Even with just the teachings of that braggart old man, he had grasped the basics of 1-Star magic, and even with only crude real combat experience, he had come to understand how to operate Mana.
If he had been born with noble blood… would this child's life have been completely different.
She had seen far too many Mages who weren't even at the level of mediocrity, yet strutted around relying only on their Bloodline.
Looking at Derrick's Magical Aptitude, Katia felt a complex mix of emotions, but at this point, it was nothing new.
The times are always unreasonable.
Katia, who had lived long enough, knew that well.
Becoming unnecessarily sentimental would only hinder one's own survival.
It was while she was teaching him various ways to operate Mana like that.
–Hwaak!
As if he had realized something, Derrick made a refreshingly bright expression, then released all the Mana he had drawn into his body at once.
At that moment, Katia's brow sharply furrowed.
Fwiik! Hwaaak!
Kwaaaaaaaang!
A tremendous explosion filled the tavern.
"W-what is it…!"
"What's going on…!"
The mercenaries who had been venting their grievances all over the shabby tavern suddenly grabbed their weapons and looked around.
A crashing sound, as if an entire building had collapsed, swept over the inside of the tavern, and their eardrums rang as if they were about to burst.
The mercenaries all took combat stances, but no matter how much they looked around, there was nothing unusual.
Even when they looked out the window, the world was peaceful, and the inside of the tavern also showed no changes before or after the explosion.
"What is it…? I'm sure I heard an enormous sound…!"
"Hey! Bartender! L-look around! There has to be something!"
In the middle of that chaos, Katia looked down at Derrick.
Derrick was also quietly looking up at Katia.
"Master. Just now, I…"
–Thak!
Before Derrick could say anything, Katia grabbed Derrick's arm and quickly walked out of the tavern.
*
Katia pulled Derrick's arm and went into a secluded alley off the tavern street.
She walked so fast that Derrick, with his shorter stride, had to almost run to keep up.
Holding his arm so tightly that marks were left, Katia kept walking and walking, farther and farther away from the tavern where the explosion had occurred.
She turned into alleyways several times and went deep into dark backstreets filled with the smell of garbage.
Because of the strange air he felt during that long walk, Derrick couldn't bring himself to say anything.
It was the first time he had seen Katia act so resolutely.
Only after they arrived at a place quite far away did Katia stop, turn toward Derrick, and lower her posture.
"Derrick."
A complicated expression was written on Katia's face.
It was hard to guess why Katia was making such a serious expression.
Derrick could only look at her with worried eyes.
Katia closed her eyes gently, then opened them and organized her thoughts.
In her youth, she had been a noble lady, then the lady of the Flameheart family, and now she was a mercenary who had abandoned her status and wandered.
Even if she had been a low-ranking noble, she had once been part of high society.
That was why Katia knew the way nobles thought and how they worked quite well.
That was the reason her expression had hardened.
"…?"
For commoners, magic was far more often a means of survival than a refined etiquette.
Among commoners, 1-Star Mages appear from time to time.
And once in a blue moon, a 2-Star Mage appears too.
And among tens of thousands, one person might even reach 3-Star.
Most of them were middle-aged people who had spent their entire lives close to magic.
A fourteen-year-old boy whose blood hadn't even dried yet had a completely different life path and density of experience from them.
"Listen carefully, Derrick. The magic you just used is an illusion-type magic called 'Auditory Hallucination.' It spreads sound without substance over a certain area and is often used to confuse and disrupt enemies."
"I roughly imagined something like that."
"Yes. And that is an illusion-type 2-Star magic."
Nobles too feel respect for the will and effort of a commoner who has outstanding magic talent.
However, even that has an upper limit.
This is, after all, the age of nobles.
Magic is a power that is almost a privilege of nobles, and the source of their pride in their Bloodline.
Even they have something like a reverse scale that must not be touched.
Innate power is considered a blessing, but in an age like this, excessive extraordinariness that knows no bounds can sometimes act as poison.
That was why Katia's expression had become serious when she saw Derrick's magic.