Chapter 14 - Job Hunting (4)

Lady Xenonia.

No—Kalia Xenonia, who had in fact turned her father into a puppet and ruled the count's house for several years already, had two main reasons for visiting House Pallatio.

The first was to ascertain Alon's intentions—or rather, the intentions of the man who was now Count Pallatio. He clearly held a card that could deal House Xenonia a devastating blow, yet he had not played it.

Relations between House Xenonia and House Pallatio were not poor, but she knew that, at heart, the count was one of her own kind. She understood perfectly well that he was not the sort to leave a useful card idle out of some pathetic compassion or petty sentiment. That was why she had come to sound out his intentions.

Her second reason was to assess the strength of the organization Count Pallatio commanded, about which rumors abounded. Of course, Kalia knew that merely meeting the count would not reveal the strength of the organization he controlled in the shadows. But she did have a way to glimpse a fraction of it.

The mage Biankel.

He had once earned academic acclaim at the magic tower for proposing a new theory on the magic of the forgotten age, only to be expelled for his excessively inhumane magical experiments.

Expelled or not, however, he was a fifth-tier mage. He was powerful enough to smash an entire division of soldiers single-handedly with ease. Kalia had brought him along as her ally, a relationship maintained in exchange for her support of his experiments.

She had judged that a mage approaching the upper limit of the fifth tier, whose specialty was detection magic, could readily gauge the caliber of Count Pallatio's guards. His guards would not tell her everything, but their caliber would naturally offer a glimpse of his organization's strength.

... That had certainly been her reason for bringing Biankel.

"..."

In House Pallatio's reception room, Lady Kalia glanced aside at Biankel, who still could not quite close his mouth and wore a tense expression. Inwardly, she was astonished. As far as she knew, he was not a man who ordinarily let others see such a foolish look on his face.

Biankel always looked arrogant, and he never spoke deferentially to anyone—not even her, his patron. Of course, Kalia understood why. Though he had been expelled from the magic tower, his attainment at the upper limit of the fifth tier lent his attitude both justification and reason.

Yet the expression on his face now was exceedingly strange. He remained as horrified as before, and every so often she even caught a trace of fear—something she had never seen in him.

'Why...?'

Watching Biankel, Kalia felt puzzled and unsettled. She had never seen him openly afraid of anything.

'If this is how he's reacting... could the spell we saw earlier really have been an Origin...?'

The thought lasted only a moment before Kalia recalled her present circumstances and turned to meet Alon's eyes. They were just as they had been at their last meeting. His utterly impassive gaze swept slowly over Biankel and Kalia, as though he found nothing of value in this situation.

Silence.

"My apologies, Count Pallatio. That was rude of me."

Kalia was the first to break the silence. Still ostensibly only Lady Xenonia, she paid her respects to the newly appointed count and politely apologized for going to the training grounds. She offered a suitably evasive explanation, but peering into another person's training grounds, even by accident, was plainly discourteous, if not a grave insult.

Alon was silent for a moment before replying.

"... I shall let it pass."

"Thank you."

"Ordinarily, I would next ask what brings you to my house, but first I should make one thing clear."

"Please, go ahead."

At Loria's reply, Alon spoke without hesitation.

"What I used was not an Origin. The mage you brought seems to have misunderstood."

"Is that... so?"

"It is. My magical abilities are nothing remarkable. If I had to assign them a tier... the second, roughly."

"..."

Naturally, Loria did not believe him. Ignorant of magic though she was, even she could readily tell that the spell Alon had shown them was extraordinary.

"..."

She glanced at Biankel and found herself even more surprised. His expression looked worse than it had a moment ago. Yet, despite that expression, he seemed to have recognized the hidden meaning in Alon's words: keep quiet about what he had seen here.

"I must have... been mistaken, my lord."

"...!"

Biankel struggled to get the words out. Instead of his usual brusque tone, he spoke respectfully—something Kalia had not heard from him once in five years. She was startled all over again, but—

"Indeed. You seem quite capable, so you must already have noticed that the spell serves no practical purpose. Now then, since that misunderstanding appears to be resolved... what brings you to my house?"

Alon moved the conversation along without delay. At his question, Loria hastily collected herself and answered before she could pursue her thoughts.

"Nothing in particular. I simply had some business nearby, and you came to mind, so I decided to pay a brief visit."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

Alon considered Kalia's answer for a moment before speaking.

"Unfortunately, I have a great deal of work, so I don't believe I can spare much time to talk."

"That's quite all right. I was only stopping by briefly. I merely wished to say hello."

"If you need someone to talk to, perhaps you should visit the Duchess of Altia."

"... The Duchess of Altia?"

"Yes. I believe the two of you would get along quite well."

"If you say so... I'll pay Her Grace a visit."

Lady Xenonia answered with a smile as Alon spoke, his expression impassive.

... But her mouth was dry.

####

"House Xenonia... that's that rotten family out west. What brought her here?"

As Alon watched Lady Xenonia's carriage recede into the distance, he answered Evan's question.

"How should I know?"

"You don't?"

Evan looked bewildered, but this time Alon genuinely had nothing to tell him. He had no idea why Kalia had come, either.

'All I did was let them see me cast a spell, and now it's become a nuisance.'

Alon thought of Lady Xenonia's mage, who had mistaken his magic for an Origin.

'I just hope this doesn't start a rumor that I can use an Origin.'

Rumors wielded more power in this world than one might imagine. A rumor that Alon could use an Origin—magic said to be available only to the most exalted mages—might seem beneficial at first glance, but it would actually cause him trouble. This was a dark fantasy world, after all, where madmen itching to challenge every powerful person they saw were hardly difficult to find.

'... Well, it might be different if I had a powerful backer.'

Without one, a strange rumor spreading about him could go beyond being a nuisance and bring absurdly powerful people looking to pick a fight. He could even think of eight such people by name who would come seeking him out if word spread that he was a mage capable of using an Origin. That was why he had tried to nip the rumor in the bud.

'... He understood me, didn't he?'

He recalled how, before he sent Lady Xenonia off, he had once again tried to clear up the misunderstanding, and the mage had nodded as though accepting his explanation. Still looking uneasy, he continued his train of thought.

'Why on earth is she interested in me, anyway?'

Alon was not merely uninterested in Kalia; he wanted to avoid getting involved with her if at all possible. Befriending her would naturally make it much more likely that he would become entangled with the underworld.

'... I did point her toward the Duchess of Altia, but...'

He knew perfectly well that Lady Xenonia was unlikely to visit her. Even so, his reason for suggesting the duchess was really to convey his meaning one more time: he had no particular desire to have any relationship with her.

'Just don't come to me.'

As Alon put Kalia out of his mind with that final thought, she was asking a question inside the departing carriage.

"... Was the spell Count Pallatio used really an Origin?"

"..."

Unlike his usual immediate replies, Biankel remained silent. Just as Kalia was about to speak again, he opened his mouth.

"It... wasn't an Origin."

"... It wasn't an Origin? Then why did you react like that earlier...?"

At Kalia's baffled question, he exhaled as though trying to calm himself, then began to explain.

"An Origin is both the final destination of every mage and a canvas. A canvas on which one may draw one's own laws, granted only to those who have established magic as a principle."

"..."

"We call a spell an Origin when it has its own unique arrangement and manifestation formula, created by painting one's own picture upon an absolutely immutable canvas. But—"

He caught his breath before continuing.

"—Count Pallatio's magic is different."

"... In what way...?"

"He isn't drawing a picture on the canvas. Strictly speaking, his magic is more like tearing the canvas apart."

When Kalia gave him a look of incomprehension, Biankel explained further.

"In short, he was twisting principles that should be absolutely immutable. I saw his magic for only an instant, but I had activated the Eye of Observation at your request, and I saw it clearly."

Biankel murmured,

"He fixed lightning in place when it should never be able to stop, twisted its laws, and made the manifested spell collapse again—yet it still manifested intact. An impossible miracle. And what lay behind it—"

He abruptly closed his mouth. The image of Count Pallatio he had seen earlier flashed through his mind.

At the same time the count had displayed that impossible magic, Biankel had seen something with his Eye, which could perceive the world itself. Unless one possessed overwhelming talent, it could only be awakened through attainment of the sixth tier. It was only because Biankel had a sliver of that talent that he had acquired it upon reaching the upper limit of the fifth tier.

"..."

What he had seen was an eye.

An eye as black as pitch.

With two red rings attached to its eyelid, it had appeared as the count cast his magic. The instant the spell vanished, it too disappeared, erasing even its own presence. Recalling it, Biankel found himself unable to banish the fear from his eyes.

If his knowledge was correct, what appeared when the count used magic was unmistakably the forgotten great god's—

"... Ngh."

Biankel forcibly cut off his thoughts, even using mana to do so. Having pursued ancient knowledge, he knew how dangerous it would be to think any further and deduce that thing's identity. And so—

"Let me give you one piece of advice."

"..."

"Never make an enemy of him—of Count Pallatio. Do not oppose him, either."

"What—"

"That is all the advice I can give you."

With that, Biankel fell silent. Lady Xenonia likewise closed her mouth.

Kalia recalled Alon watching her with those quiet eyes, his face utterly expressionless, and before she knew it—

"Ha..."

A self-deprecating smile crossed her lips.

Biankel's words had made her realize that trying to ascertain Count Pallatio's intentions had been meaningless from the start. And at the same time—

["If you need someone to talk to, perhaps you should visit the Duchess of Altia."]

["... The Duchess of Altia?"]

["Yes. I believe the two of you would get along quite well."]

She had realized that she was already one of his chess pieces.

Silence lingered in the carriage for a long while on the journey back.

About five months later, Alon had grown quite accustomed to his duties and was handling the count's work with practiced ease when—

"... Ah, my lord. Have you heard?"

"Heard what?"

"Apparently, House Xenonia and House Altia have formed an alliance."

"... What?"

He realized that a crisis had descended upon the Kingdom of Asteria.