The jester tilted his head.
“What would you like?”
“Since you operate in the shadows, you must be well-informed, right?”
“That’s correct.”
“What about information related to other countries? Franche, for example.”
“I don’t have direct information, but I could obtain some through information exchange.”
I grinned.
“About a decade ago, the Prejean family was exterminated by the King of Franche. I’d like you to look into that. What exactly happened. The overall situation, that sort of thing.”
“The Prejean family, you say?”
“Yes. Prejean.”
His eyes changed slightly.
Has he caught on?
But if I don’t say anything, there’s no way for him to get information right away.
“Take care of it then.”
I entered the building.
Thud.
As the main door closed, I spread out both hands.
“By straightening my shoulders and back… did I gain dignity too?”
Strictly speaking, that was the very first thing I learned from Master Avana.
It seems to have become a kind of magic in itself.
“Magic really is interesting.”
I clenched my fist.
* * *
After finishing up company business, I returned to the mansion with Count Furst. Saying we couldn’t leave on the night road and should depart the next morning, he went to his room.
Since starting to study magic, my need for sleep had decreased significantly. I was sitting on the floor meditating.
In the dead of night.
Amidst the silence, I sensed a tiny thread of will coming from one of the walls. That will, which had pushed through between the wall and floor, crawled erratically until it reached me.
I opened my eyes. There was a beetle with two distinct red spots that caught my eye.
The beetle raised its front legs and rubbed them together. Those repetitive movements seemed to convey some meaning.
I scanned it with my psychic power.
“Ah, come in anytime.”
Then the door opened carefully.
Creeeeak.
Fabre poked his head in with wide eyes and looked at me.
“Ran the mage. I’m not disturbing you, am I?”
“Not at all. And don’t call me ‘the mage’, just call me senior.”
“Senior?”
“In the magic world, we call anyone of equal or higher level ‘senior’.”
“Ah, I see.”
Fabre entered the room and carefully closed the door.
He quickly approached and reached out to the beetle in front of me. The beetle climbed onto Fabre’s hand and up to his shoulder.
“It’s Jangsir.”
“Huh?”
“This little one. Its name is Jangshir. You told me to keep communicating with these little ones, remember?”
Did I say that?
“Well, sure. And?”
“Then I suddenly thought, it’s too difficult to communicate with this friend because it doesn’t have a name. So I gave it a name. Once I gave it a name, we became friends!”
Giving a name.
It means making an individual special.
In other words, it becomes a familiar.
“Did you actually make that beetle your familiar?”
“Familiar? Ah, you mentioned that before. But what exactly is it?”
Not knowing about familiars.
This needs urgent teaching. He could get into big trouble if not careful.
I explained everything I knew about familiars slowly and in detail.
Fabre furrowed his brow.
“You can only have one at a time?”
“That’s right. Because you only have one soul. A familiar connects to your soul.”
“That’s strange then.”
“What’s that?”
“I have more than just Jangshir. Others I’ve named.”
As I tilted my head, Fabre turned his head to one side. Then several beetles appeared from between the wall and floor, gathering around Fabre.
They were all the beetles he couldn’t make into his collection, so he had just placed them on his desk.
Fabre pointed to each one with his finger as he explained.
“This is Jangshim. This is Jangshib. This is Jangshik. This is Jangshihu…”
“W-wait. Wait a minute. You named all of these?”
“Yes! Is that not okay?”
“Your soul will be torn apart. Into as many pieces as the number of familiars you have. Hmm, but you… seem fine.”
Fabre looked up at me with anxious eyes.
His clear gaze certainly didn’t look like that of someone with a torn soul.
Could Master Avana have lied about familiars?
No. That can’t be.
Kalasta also told me to choose a fire attribute familiar over a water attribute one.
It wasn’t just about attributes or characteristics; there was a sense of urgency. It felt like once you chose, there was no turning back.
If you think about it that way, a familiar must be unique to a mage.
This might be a phenomenon even they don’t understand.
“I’m okay, right, Senior Ran?”
“You seem fine for now. Um… hmm. Can you send these little ones to the other side?”
“The other side?”
I stretched out my left hand. Then I summoned my magic book. A completely transparent magic book appeared above my hand.
Fabre’s eyes widened as if he sensed its presence.
“Wow!”
“Like this. Things connected to my soul can be kept on the other side, and I can summon them anytime. It’s the same for familiars. You can keep your familiar on the other side and summon it at will. That’s the advantage of a familiar.”
“Really?”
“Can you do it?”
Fabre frowned for a moment, then shook his head.
“I’m not sure.”
He can’t be unsure.
The moment my magic book connected to my soul, I instinctively understood how to summon and dismiss it.
It should be the same with familiars – you’d understand naturally.
“Then they’re not familiars. You’ve named them and you control them, but we can’t call them your familiars.”
“Oh no. I-it’s okay, right?”
Fabre looked like he might burst into tears at any moment.
I smiled gently and patted his head.
“Yes, it’s okay. Let’s first figure out how this happened.”
“Okay!”
And so, Fabre and I studied beetles until the sun rose the next day.
The beetles each possessed slightly different magical powers. Though I couldn’t identify each one specifically, I was able to determine that they had various different abilities.
I told Fabre to study them in more detail. Fabre cheerfully promised he would figure it all out before returning.
In the running carriage, I spent all night mentally organizing the two things I had learned.
First was the method of properly sending psychic energy to living creatures.
In particular, Fabre’s technique of gently guiding the beetle’s will without harming its mind gave me a great revelation.
The second was controlling multiple entities in a relationship similar to but inferior to a familiar.
This is impossible with fully intelligent beings like familiars, and only possible with creatures of extremely low intelligence like beetles. It’s similar to death magic, strengthening the bond by giving names.
But, corpses would originally have names, so is it okay to give them new names?
“Hm? What did you just say? What about corpses?”
Snapping back to attention, I saw the Count sitting across from me staring straight at me.
His left eye looked more than twice as large due to the monocle he wore.
“Ah, it’s nothing. I was just lost in thought and misspoke.”
He gazed at me intently.
“So? What’s the result?”
“Pardon?”
“The result of your musings. You haven’t said a word for over three hours since we got in the carriage after breakfast. Such deep contemplation must have yielded some good results, no?”
We’ve already been traveling for three hours?
Looking out the window, I saw the scenery had changed quite a bit.
Realizing that, it occurred to me that I may have been quite rude up until now.
He probably tried speaking to me several times? While I remained completely silent.
“I’m sorry. I had something on my mind.”
“No need to apologize. It’s just that I’ve never seen you think this deeply before.”
“Really? I do it sometimes.”
“I know. But not to this extent. That’s why I’m even more curious. What topic could so thoroughly captivate you, who instinctively provides answers others would only reach after long deliberation?”
“It’s related to magic. You probably wouldn’t understand even if I explained.”
“I’m sure that’s true. That’s why I kept quiet until now.”
He lowered his gaze.
A small book was in his hand.
It seems he had been reading.
But he hadn’t turned a page for a long time.
“Count.”
“Yes?”
“Is something troubling you?”
Count Furst maintained a blank expression, then set the book down with a thud.
“I’m not sure if Duke Balkan and Legless Monkey have made some kind of agreement, or if these are independent events. I need to figure this out before meeting Duke Balkan so I don’t get outmaneuvered in our conversation.”
Well, we are heading there without knowing anything at the moment.
Duke Balkan might not even agree to meet us.
I crossed my legs.
“It’s going to take 8 days to reach Duke Balkan’s territory anyway, right? I’ll lend you my brain in the meantime.”
Count Furst glanced at me sidelong.
“Don’t you have your own matters to ponder? It’s fine.”
“Actually, thinking about your situation helps clear my head. It’s like light stretching for my mind.”
“……”
“So go ahead and tell me about it.”
The Count chuckled, seeming to take it as a joke.
But it was actually true.
Count Furst picked up his book again and said:
“First I need to organize my own thoughts a bit. I’ll ask you questions here and there during our journey.”
After that, he didn’t say another word. To the point where I almost wanted to speak up first.
But he was thinking so deeply that I hesitated to disturb him.
So I just studied magic on my own.
About two days passed like that.
Suddenly, he spoke up.
“What do you think Duke Balkan’s intentions are?”
I was in the middle of using psychokinesis to move some nearby insects, so I couldn’t answer his question right away.
But the Count waited patiently, apparently thinking I was considering it seriously.
What a kind man.
I withdrew my psychokinesis and answered.
“Isn’t he trying to establish your position?”
“Position?”
“You know, like ‘You’re beneath me.’ That sort of thing. After all, none of the shareholders returned. It’s a bit childish but…”
“……”
“So, in my opinion, if you beg, he might give you the five native children. If you bow low enough, saying, ‘I’m beneath you.’”
The Count furrowed his brow.
“So you’re saying he had Governor Crom kidnap native children just to make me aware of my position?”
“Probably not that far. The Duke’s daughter likely did genuinely want native children. But given how things turned out, he decided to use it as an opportunity to teach you a lesson… I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize.”
Count Furst seemed to be barely holding back his anger, gritting his teeth.
“You don’t think so?”
After a moment, he spoke.
“It’s purely intuition, but I keep thinking there must be some kind of deal between Legless Monkey and Duke Balkan.”
“You mean Duke Balkan set this up from the beginning?”
“Yes.”
I recalled the events from back then.
“I’m not so sure. Legless Monkey’s anger seemed genuine at the time.”
Count Furst closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh.
“Do you think I’m overthinking things unnecessarily?”
“Would she have worked with Duke Balkan to the point of using children from her own tribe? For what purpose?”
He swallowed.
“I’m not exactly sure about that part.”
If that was all, he wouldn’t have voiced these thoughts out loud.
I asked him directly:
“So what makes you suspect they’re working together?”
The Count leaned forward and spoke quickly.
“Massacring the soldiers was too extreme. It could have easily gone wrong and led to war. And then it’s strange that they let me live despite that.”
I immediately shared the thought that came to mind upon hearing that.
“Maybe Legless Monkey also needed to show something to her tribe members. After all, this incident arose from interactions with people from the Yura continent.”
The Count immediately understood my point.
“You mean a message like ‘I haven’t bowed my head to the people of the Yura continent’?”
“Yes. That explains the motive for the excessive show of force.”
Count Furst nodded repeatedly.
“But then why didn’t they kill me?”
“Perhaps they were confident you would bring the children?”
“……”
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