Chapter 97

The End of a Long Winter (1)

Iliana jumped at the word “sponsor.” With her pale sky-blue hair, she really did look like a little tree frog springing into the air.

“S-s-sponsor me?!”

“Yes.”

Truthfully, recruiting Iliana outright would have been a surer approach than sponsoring her. I was planning to establish the allied army anyway.

But I set that idea aside for the moment.

Not yet.

'It's too early to recruit her.'

It was too soon to bring Iliana into the fold. There were several reasons for that decision, the first being...

'She still has a long way to go.'

The Iliana of today was not the Mage of Truth. She was an apprentice mage who had only just finished her probationary training.

Of course, her abilities were far beyond those of an apprentice. She had surpassed fully qualified mages and reached the level of a high mage.

Even so, she fell absurdly short of what she had been in my previous life. In other words, she had yet to reach her full potential.

Isolde was almost there already. Iliana was not.

Of course, her genius remained unchanged, so it was only a matter of time...

'But I can't get her there.'

I could not teach Iliana, nor should I. My knowledge might amaze and astound her now, but it wasn't mine. It was what she had taught me in my previous life.

And even that well had now run dry.

She needed to study magic in greater depth.

'She needs to stay at the mage tower for now.'

Langrid Mage Tower, where Iliana belonged, held the origins of all magical knowledge on the continent. That was why it was known today as the cradle of mages.

Only the knowledge within Langrid Mage Tower could teach her now. Until she had absorbed everything there, until her talent had fully blossomed, she needed to remain at the tower.

That didn't mean I would simply sit back and leave her to her own devices. There was plenty I could do to help her talent blossom sooner.

For a start, I could support her financially, giving her the means to research magic to her heart's content.

“Why... why...?”

Her blue eyes trembled incessantly as she asked me.

“Why would you sponsor someone like me...? I-I'm just an apprentice mage...”

“You may be one now, but speaking with you has shown me your extraordinary potential, Iliana.”

Her eyes wavered wildly. She was utterly flustered, like someone who had never received a compliment in her life.

“M-m-m-m-me?!?!"

I didn't need Find Weakness[U] to see it.

“Yes.”

“Someone like me...! Someone like me...?!”

She thought so little of herself. Yet there was no hiding the joy on her flushed face.

“No one's ever told me that...! That I... that I have extraordinary potential...!”

She shuffled her feet, not knowing what to do with herself. Just as an incredulous chuckle escaped me, she seemed to begin seriously deliberating over something.

“I really am g-grateful for the offer, but...”

She abruptly set the money pouch she was holding back on the table.

“I can't... accept your sponsorship.”

... That was unexpected.

No, more than unexpected. It was puzzling.

“May I ask why?”

“W-well...”

Her small lips moved uncertainly. Her blue eyes darted from side to side in hesitation, as though she were reluctant to expose something shameful.

Then, seemingly reaching a decision, she gently bit her lower lip.

“I'm actually... a mistress's daughter from House Segretus.”

I knew that already.

A mistress's daughter—a daughter born to a concubine. Among the noble houses of the Kingdom of Battenberg, where monogamy was the norm, her position was no different from that of someone of the lowest birth.

“If you sponsor me, the marquis's house will certainly...”

I understood why she was refusing my sponsorship.

House Segretus and House Whitewolf—a marquis's house and a count's house. Both belonged to the nobility of the Kingdom of Battenberg.

“I c-can't... cause you trouble.”

She was worried that the marquis's house might retaliate against me.

Which meant...

'They've kept interfering even after she left the family?'

In my previous life, Iliana had rarely spoken about her past. In particular, she never discussed her time with her family. Whenever the subject happened to arise, her expression darkened, so I never pressed her.

My own memories of House Whitewolf weren't exactly pleasant either. Neither of us brought up our time with our families.

But...

... Now I understood.

At last, I thought I understood why the Iliana of my previous life was so different from the girl before me.

Iliana's exceptionally developed Peak Human Intelligence[A+] wasn't an unmitigated blessing.

As its description stated, it accelerated aging. Brain damage hit her harder, which made her dangerously susceptible to mental illness.

Her intellectual sensitivity was so acute that everything and everyone in the world became a source of mental stress. Her Insight[L] talent only accelerated that process.

In other words...

'Had she been broken?'

The Iliana of my previous life had been broken. Her genius surpassed even a dragon's, and that extraordinary intelligence had eaten away at her.

“Is that why you joined Langrid Mage Tower?”

A marquis was a high-ranking noble above a count. Marquis Segretus in particular was the chancellor, a political leader second only to the king.

Nowhere within the Kingdom of Battenberg could withstand his pressure.

Langrid Mage Tower, the cradle of all the continent's mages.

It would take an institution of that standing to withstand pressure from the marquis's house.

“H-how did you...?”

Iliana was startled and flustered.

“That's not the only reason...”

Of course, her fondness and love for magic must have played a part. But ultimately, her desire to escape House Segretus would have been the greatest factor.

“Is that also why you won't leave your endowed chair mage's shadow?”

The authority of an endowed chair mage. Langrid Mage Tower's system for protecting apprentice mages.

“And why you've deliberately remained an apprentice.”

By using those two things, she could have kept herself free of her family's interference.

“...”

She said nothing.

I placed the money pouch back into her small hand.

“Please take it.”

“... Huh?”

“I'll bear the full brunt of any pressure from the marquis's house.”

Her sapphire-blue eyes wavered violently.

“What...? What?”

“Use this money to buy whatever you want, eat whatever you want, and research whatever you wish to your heart's content. I'll shoulder all the responsibility and pressure that come with it.”

“B-b-but...!”

“In addition, I'll provide you with one million gold every month from now on.”

“W-whaaat...?!”

“If you need more money, contact the Predator Merchant Company at any time. I'll provide as much additional funding as you need.”

“Whaaaaaat?!?!"

“Financial matters, political matters, everything. The Predator Merchant Company will give you its unconditional support.”

She was utterly flustered, at a loss for what to do.

“B-but I have n-n-nothing I can give you...”

Her gaze dropped. Sponsorship on this scale called for something of equal value in return.

But Iliana had helped me so much, both now and especially in my previous life.

Even though I had given you little in return. Even though it must have been an enormous bother.

Iliana, you had shared your knowledge with me without reservation.

So, Iliana, just as you had helped me for no reason in my previous life...

“I don't need anything in return.”

In this life, I would help you for no reason.

She blinked her blue eyes. Her face was utterly blank, as though her thoughts had ground to a halt.

“Wh-why would you do so much for me...?”

That expression, like a fragile flower that had struggled to bloom from frozen ground...

I had seen it once before.

During the final battle against the Emperor.

[“Please... please... stay alive...”]

Iliana had sent herself into a runaway state to save me. In the end, she lost her sense of self and died as something no longer human.

It was her sacrifice that had allowed me to survive to the very end. To be with Ian in his final moments.

And, through that, to return to the past.

So if she asked why I was doing so much for her...

“Because you saved the continent in your previous life.”

Strictly speaking, she hadn't managed to save it.

But from now on, I would make that true.

“I'll be taking my leave now. There's somewhere I need to go.”

I left.

Iliana remained seated, motionless, as though her mind had gone blank.

* * *

After Adrian left, Iliana stayed quietly in her seat.

Her mind remained hopelessly blank.

At her family's estate, she had always been alone. She had never heard so much as a kind word.

No one had ever called her by her name.

[“You lowborn bitch. How dare you show your face here?”]

[“I hear that whore of a mother of yours seduced the head of the house.”]

[“Well, you can't change that filthy blood, can you?”]

[“Get lost! Even breathing the same air as you makes me sick!”]

Her place had always been in some neglected corner of the estate. She existed in the darkness, out of sight, where no one's attention reached.

Her only happiness had been sitting alone in a secluded attic, reading. When she lost herself in the knowledge within those books, she could forget all her worries.

And so she had grown accustomed to loneliness.

And so she had stopped expecting warmth.

If someone offered her a helping hand, her first response was suspicion.

... She couldn't trust it.

Wasn't it just another cruel prank?

Help with nothing asked in return.

No such thing existed in this world. The law of this world was equivalent exchange.

The total amount of energy in an isolated system never changed. To gain one thing was to lose another. If you received help, you had to pay an equivalent price.

That was the law of the world as Iliana had learned it.

That law held true even at the mage tower.

Of course it did. It was an absolute, eternal truth that governed the world.

And yet...

Now that law had been shattered.

Because she had gained an unconditional sponsor named Adrian.

The weight of the money pouch against her fingertips. The many pouches of money on the table.

They were so hard to believe, yet they were “phenomena” plainly visible before her eyes.

And no law in this world existed without phenomena. If a phenomenon contradicted a law, it implied that the existing law was wrong, not the phenomenon.

In other words, Iliana had been mistaken.

Help with nothing asked in return.

Such pure goodwill did exist in the world.

The moment she realized that, something began to stir within her chest.

As though shattering the ice frozen deep within her heart, as though the emotions she had hidden to avoid drawing attention were finally overflowing, it poured out uncontrollably, soothing the pain and loneliness she had harbored for so long.

A raging storm of emotion.

Yet it did not destroy her heart or mind. Instead, it undid the shackles binding her one by one, melting away her accumulated sorrow and anguish.

Magic was the study of interpretation. It was a continuous process of grasping and understanding the principles behind phenomena.

Iliana could identify the cause of every phenomenon in the world and explain its principles.

She had been certain of that.

But for the first time...

“... Hic.”

Why were tears suddenly streaming down her face?

Why did her chest feel so warm?

“Hic...”

Iliana could not explain this phenomenon at all.

* * *

Free cities had no absolute authority such as a monarch or territorial lord. Within them, various social groups and factions coexisted: ordinary citizens, merchants, adventurers, mercenaries, mages, and more.

Without a rigid hierarchy of rank, all manner of groups existed. Each formed a guild to represent its interests.

“As you instructed yesterday, Lord Adrian, I took the liberty of investigating that endowed chair mage fellow with help from the mages' guild.”

Adlan drew a deep breath.

“He's an absolute piece of shit!!”

His face contorted as he shouted.

“He's an endowed chair mage named Kraven, and even the mages' guild knows what a scumbag he is!”

An endowed chair mage was an elder who had made outstanding contributions to the field of magic. A high mage supported by the tower, they were figures of authority who taught and supervised trainees and apprentices.

“The way he behaves, he's no better than a mage version of a Vister!!”

Most of the abuses within mage towers originated with endowed chair mages.

“For a start, he deliberately restricts this mage Iliana's access to the magical texts, research materials, and experimental equipment she needs—”

Then, when her research failed to progress, he blamed her incompetence.

“And when she somehow manages to produce results, he deliberately undervalues them, finds pointless faults, and then steals them to pass off as his own research!”

On top of that, he gave her excessive workloads and made her run personal errands unrelated to her research.

“He publicly criticizes and humiliates her in front of the other mages!”

He used that as a pretext to prevent her achievements from being recognized.

“And supposedly to punish her for her incompetence, he wouldn't teach her magic properly or provide enough funding for her research...”

As a result, Iliana had always lived in poverty. Even so, she had scrimped and saved what little money she had.

“They say she bought magical texts and research materials in Orpheum every two or three months and taught herself magic!”

In other words...

“He's nothing but garbage that needs to be disposed of right this instant!!!”

There wasn't a more worthless piece of trash among mages.

“Shiiit...!!”

Having finished his report, Adlan breathed heavily and clenched his fists. He was fuming as though it had happened to him.

“How could anyone do such a thing?!!!”

... Somehow, Adlan seemed even angrier than I was.