The boy’s thick eyelashes fluttered with each blink. His long hair touched the floor as he crouched down.
Though there were hints of masculine features here and there, one would have to look closely to notice.
At a glance, he could easily be mistaken for a girl.
The child was huddled in a corner of the hallway, intently watching the floor.
To be more precise, he was watching a crack in the marble.
Even more precisely, he was observing the insects moving in and out of that crack.
Various kinds of beetles.
“Oh my! Young Master Fabre!”
The maid who had followed behind me approached the child and sat down next to him.
The child called Young Master Fabre didn’t react at all and continued to silently observe the insects.
The maid moved closer to him.
“Young Master, you should be in your room. You shouldn’t be out in the hallway.”
Despite her continued words, Fabre showed no reaction.
But the maid seemed accustomed to this and kept talking to him.
He must be either deaf or mentally ill, one of the two.
“Are you watching the insects again? We can bring them into your room for you. So, will you go back to your room?”
At those words, Fabre suddenly stood up.
Then he turned and looked at me. His gaze focused on the staff I was holding.
“Are you a mage?”
Thud.
At that moment, the maid fell on her backside.
Her face had turned pale.
“Y-Young Master! Did you just… speak?”
Fabre looked at the maid with indifferent eyes.
As if she had seen a ghost, the maid’s face turned completely white.
She covered her mouth, took a few steps back, and then ran away down the hallway.
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Well, something like that.”
As an apprentice, I’m somewhere in between.
At those words, Fabre’s eyes widened.
And suddenly he came over to me. He reached out his hand towards the staff, then glanced at me.
“Can I touch it once?”
“Oh, sure.”
If it were a magic book, I wouldn’t have allowed it.
The child swallowed once, took a deep breath, and then, as if resolved, gently stroked the staff.
“I’ve never seen a mage before. It’s amazing…”
His eyes were sparkling so brightly that it seemed tears might fall at any moment.
“It’s amazing for me too. Since you’re seeing me for the first time, you probably don’t have a master, but I can sense magic. Quite refined magic at that.”
“I do have a master. The beetles taught me.”
“Is that so?”
I guess he naturally learned while playing with the beetles.
Fabre reluctantly took his hand off the staff. Then he looked up at me, hesitated for a moment, and spoke.
“Would you like to come into my room?”
If there’s the oldest law in this world, it’s the custom of hospitality. The absolute rule that guests and hosts do not harm each other.
As an ancient tradition, it carries powerful magic, and even the most powerful mages cannot ignore it.
“Alright. I’ll be your guest.”
As if light had filled him, Fabre’s face brightened.
At the same time, the beetles he had been watching began to move in a single file along one side of the hallway.
It was as if they were making a path.
Grab.
Fabre took my left hand and led the way.
How should I put it, there was a cute roughness in his touch.
“You seem to like beetles, don’t you?”
“‘Like’ isn’t enough to describe it.”
“Love?”
“That too, a little. Because I don’t want to live in a world without beetles.”
After walking a few steps, he opened a door on one side.
No sunlight entered the room at all, and only dozens of candles dimly lit the interior.
I followed Fabre inside. And at that moment, I felt as if I was entering a new world.
Because everything was made up entirely of beetles.
Not only the walls, but also the ceiling and floor, every direction was made of glass, and inside were hundreds of thousands of different beetles.
As if they were preserved.
But I couldn’t sense any thoughts from them.
“They’re all alive, aren’t they?”
Fabre stopped walking and turned to look at me.
“As expected, you noticed right away. Most people think they’re all dead.”
“Well, they’re being held by your psychokinesis.”
“Psychokinesis?”
“It’s a physical force created by your will. You’re probably using it unconsciously.”
Fabre furrowed his brows for a moment and then made a sad face.
“Then, am I forcibly holding these children against their will? I thought they were all here because they wanted to be…”
As if there are any insects that stay still because they want to.
But there’s no need to shatter his innocence and fantasies. After all, it’s directly connected to magic power.
“There’s no difference.”
“What?”
I looked at the sad Fabre with a faint smile.
“There’s no difference between you forcibly holding them with psychokinesis and making them stay still because they want to.”
Fabre made a strange expression and then nodded once.
“I see.”
He understood this in one go?
A child who looks about eight years old?
Fabre walked to the center of the room. There was a desk large enough to sleep on, and on top of it were about twenty more beetles.
They were all lying still on their backs, but if you looked closely, you could see their legs trembling slightly.
“Mr. Mage. Come over here and take a look. These are new ones. But for some reason, I’m having trouble adding them to my collection.”
“Trouble adding them to your collection?”
“Ah, yes, that thing you just mentioned. Um, psychokinesis? It’s not working well. Even if I put them in the glass, they escape after a day or two.”
“…”
“Can you help me? You’re a mage, after all.”
Seeing his expression full of pure expectation, I felt an overwhelming desire to help him right away.
It was the same feeling I had with Psyche and Speria. The power to move hearts with just a word. It’s a characteristic of mages who can transmit their will to the outside world.
Hmm.
I wonder if my words carry such energy too?
“I haven’t studied much about living things, so I can’t promise anything, but I’ll take a look.”
I went to the chair and sat down. Fabre scurried over to my side and looked back and forth between me and the beetles with even more expectant eyes.
This is suddenly becoming too much pressure.
I scanned the beetles on the desk.
And I tried sending out some psychokinesis.
Sending psychokinesis to the beetles felt different from sending it to natural objects or corpses.
It felt like injecting my will while breaking their individual wills and intentions, despite them having their own.
It’s difficult to do just by thinking about it for the first time.
I took out the staff I was holding in my right hand and brought it close to the beetles.
Then, one by one, the beetles who were lying on their backs flipped over with a tap.
“Wow! As expected!”
Fabre clasped his hands together in satisfaction.
I turned my gaze to scan the beetles fixed behind the glass walls.
The beetles on the desk certainly had a much stronger will.
“They possess magic.”
“Pardon?”
“The beetles that you can’t add to your collection possess magic. They’re not ordinary beetles.”
At those words, Fabre’s eyes widened like full moons once again.
“Really?”
“Just as there are mages like me among humans, there are also extremely rare beetles with magic.”
“S-so that’s why!”
The child scurried off to one side.
Then he came back, struggling to carry a book almost as big as himself, and opened it on the floor right next to me.
350,000 species of beetles.
He frantically flipped through the pages, then pointed to one side.
“Look here. This one. It’s a Unicorn Beetle with fire wings! But this one!”
He jumped up from his seat and pointed to a beetle on the desk.
“This one has two horns. No matter how much I search the book, there’s no species like this. And there’s no other species with horns growing vertically in pairs like this.”
Now that he mentions it, I can sense particularly strong magic from the horns.
“Hmm, I can’t say for certain, but it’s not a different species. An extra horn probably grew due to magic. It must have some mysterious power, right? That’s what magic is.”
I leaned down to meet his eye level.
He looked up at me with round eyes.
I guess it’s okay to ask now.
“I’ve kindly answered your questions, so I’d like you to kindly answer mine too. What do you say?”
“…”
Fabre made a strange expression.
I raised my hand and patted his head.
“The humans you killed. Where are they?”
“……”
Fabre’s expression stiffened slightly.
Now he’s not acting like a child.
“If you don’t want to show me, at least tell me why. Otherwise, I’ll have no choice but to tell your father.”
Fabre’s eyes suddenly turned fierce.
He looks just like his father.
“Don’t tell him.”
“Why?”
“Humans don’t need to know, right? What’s the point of telling them about this?”
Humans?
What an unusual way of thinking.
“So that’s why you didn’t say anything? Because they’re ordinary humans?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I just didn’t like it. Getting involved.”
Judging by his hesitant expression, he seems to realize that his thinking is a bit strange.
As I remained silent, Fabre couldn’t hold back and asked:
“Am I thinking wrongly?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“That’s the rule you’ve lived by all your life, so it will affect you magically in some way. It’s certainly not normal, but breaking it now wouldn’t be good.”
His face brightened.
“Right?”
“So? The corpses?”
Fabre’s face darkened again.
His lips protruded forward and he made an expression as if he was about to cry.
Anyone seeing this would think he had secretly stolen some candy.
“Don’t worry. I’m a mage too. Tell me what happened. Then I won’t tell anyone.”
Fabre’s lips twitched several times before he finally spoke in a low voice.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Alright.”
Having said that, he stood up.
Then he walked to one side.
There was a black curtain hanging from the ceiling, and he grabbed one side and looked back at me.
“They’re here. Shall I show you?”
“Yes.”
The child slightly pulled the curtain aside.
Dozens of stacked skeletons were revealed.
That’s when I started to feel the remnants of their thoughts.
This is Fabre’s castle, so everything happens according to Fabre’s will.
But how should I put it, they’re so clean they look like decorations.
Even the corpse that seems to be the most recent is just bones, so he must have cleanly removed everything except the bones.
How he removed them… never mind. I don’t want to think about it anymore.
“Hmm, that’s quite a lot of corpses?”
“They came often. I don’t know who, but they kept coming.”
“Ah, so it’s not just today?”
Fabre nodded.
“About three years ago? They seem to have been coming since then.”
“Hmm.”
I slowly walked over to the skeletons and examined them closely.
Judging by the remaining thoughts, they did seem to be skeletons that had accumulated one by one since three years ago.
However, among them, there was one that strangely had strong remaining thoughts despite being old.
I used psychokinesis to look at it. I could feel the deeply hidden thoughts within the corpse.
It was enormous.
Even if I gathered all the thoughts left in the other corpses, they would not compare to a fraction of this one.
Strange.
After death, thoughts should scatter more as time passes.
Why has that one become even more intense?
And why is it hiding?
I want to research it right away.
I want to take out my magic book and use death magic right now.
But death magic should never be shown to anyone.
Even if it’s an eight-year-old young mage.
Caution.
That’s the most important thing Master Avana taught me.
“Now that I’ve shown you, you won’t tell Father, right?”
Fabre’s eyes looked as anxious as his tone.
“Yes. I won’t tell. So you’ve been protecting your father all this time.”
“Yes.”
Hmm.
It’s certainly a contradiction.
I looked straight at Fabre and asked.
“If you don’t even talk to humans, why protect them?”
Fabre crumpled one side of his lip, then spoke with a pout.
“Three years ago, when these people came to the mansion, I didn’t care much. But that day, my mother died.”
For a moment, I doubted my ears, his expression and tone were so indifferent.
“Suddenly, I started to care. It’s not something I should care much about… I’m busy making my beetle collection, but I kept getting annoyed thinking about my mother. So I thought it would be more troublesome if Father died too.”
Looking at his face, it doesn’t seem that way at all.
“Actually, it was Father who gave me this room and made these glass walls. I’m just protecting him in return, I guess.”
I suddenly remembered something Master Avana said in passing.
Those who awaken to magic on their own.
They have extremely unstable and imperfect magical power, and their mental state is the same.
Born with the awareness that they are mages, everything seems trivial to them. Then they often end up destroying themselves before long.
Magic is too dangerous to self-study.
“I’ll introduce you to my master. She’ll guide your magic well.”
Fabre shook his head.
“I don’t want a master. I just wanted an answer. I got it, so it’s fine now. Beetles have magic too. It’s an answer I never imagined.”
“If you have a proper magic book, staff, and familiar, you’ll be able to fully control those children and even more powerful individuals. You’ll be able to meet not just 350,000 species, but incomparably more beetles.”
“…..”
“Think about it carefully, Fabre. Don’t you want to become friends with all the beetles in the world?”
I put my hand on his head and stroked it.
However, my gaze naturally fell on that corpse with the powerful lingering thoughts.
If there are mages among humans.
And if there are beetles imbued with magic.
Who’s to say there can’t be among corpses?
Then Fabre muttered.
“I still don’t want to be someone’s disciple. Instead…”
“Instead?”
Fabre looked at me with a bright smile.
“I’d like the mage to become my friend!”
I felt a chill run down my spine for a moment.
Is he thinking of preserving me too?
“F-friend?”
“Yes! Let’s be friends! Hehe!”
Fabre stretched out both arms and hugged me.
In my embrace, he was just a child.
But why?
Why do I feel like all the numerous beetles around us are looking at me?
Fabre’s eyes filled with curiosity. He clenched his fists and asked, trembling:
“Mysterious power? W-what is it?”
“Figuring that out, researching, discovering, and applying it – that’s probably what you should do as a mage.”
“Pardon?”
“You like beetles, don’t you? Don’t you want to research and classify beetles?”
Fabre shook his head vigorously.
“No!”
“Then?”
“I want to become friends with all the beetles in the world!”
“Friends?”
“Yes! Friends!”
Hmm, kids these days keep their friends fixed in rooms, I see.
But I can’t point that out. He’s already unstable with his magic, having no master.
“I see. Be good to your friends then.”
“Of course! I’m already so good to them! Look how I’m protecting all of them!”
Fabre spread his arms and spoke cheerfully, seeming sincere.
How creepy.
TL : Nah this kid, weird as fuck
