Chapter 281
Chapter 281: 4th Knights Commander (3)
"Then how should one approach it?"
Terkan asked.
His expression was serious. He seemed to be asking in earnest.
'A real model student.'
Harad found that refreshing.
The North wasn't ignorant. They were less-ignorant honey badgers who wanted to become even more ignorant.
The Terkan before him was the opposite.
An ignorant knight who wanted to become smart.
Harad pointed to Terkan's massive hands.
"Imagine gripping a sword with those hands."
He'd said imagine, but Terkan actually gripped a sword.
"Done."
"Gripping the sword like that, you'd need strength to swing it."
"Indeed."
"But if the force of your grip or swing is too strong, the sword would break."
That was when it happened.
CRACK--! The sword's hilt crumpled in Terkan's grip.
"Like this."
Terkan said innocently.
'Child.'
Terkan had called Kalinos and Kesera that earlier.
Right now, Harad felt like he was teaching a child.
"But magic is an attack."
"It's an attack to us. To the Otherworld, it's usually their ally's tool."
"Ah!"
The world shook again.
Terkan had clapped.
"Let's return to the question. Think of fire as your hand."
"Why?"
"......It's a metaphor."
"I see."
"Your sword is the earth. Let me rephrase. That sword is earth magic, and the hand is fire magic."
Terkan nodded.
"Moderate fire helps the earth. Think of it as Serzila growing warmer."
"It would make flowers bloom."
"Exactly. But too much fire would burn the flowers. The earth would be ruined too."
"Like my ruined sword."
Terkan said, tossing aside his crushed sword hilt.
"Earth is like the North, then. Fire is needed, but excess of anything is never good."
"Exactly."
Harad beamed.
Beside him, Ellen was impressed.
Harad was a seasoned hand at handling the ignorant.
"I won't acknowledge it."
"Just be honest. You have many questions."
"Shrewd, Mage Harad."
Terkan glanced at Ellen but readily conceded.
He was a man parched with curiosity.
"I know it all."
Terkan said, gesturing at the papers and notebooks scattered everywhere.
"But one could say you understand none of it."
"You memorized it. You could recite explanations if asked, but you don't understand them."
"A perfect description."
Terkan's aged eyes sparkled.
Such was the power of curiosity -- it could turn even an old man into a child.
"I want to understand."
That was the wish of the monster called Terkan.
Harad found himself at a loss for words anew. Because the past life surfaced in his mind. Had only the present been like this?
'No way.'
The Terkan of the past life must have been the same as this one. He would have taught himself magic and been stumped by countless questions.
As that single sheet of paper had just proven, the problems that stumped Terkan were nothing to Harad.
'My blunder.'
The Harad of the past life had been indifferent to the North.
The same went for the Wall's knights. Even Gullen, the exception, had annoyed him more than once or twice.
That was what knights had been to Harad.
Not friends, but targets to be tricked -- and later, ignorant brutes beyond communication.
'Instead of marveling at Gullen, I should have made the others into something to marvel at.'
In this life, he was doing just that.
But looking at Terkan left his heart restless.
If Harad had been just a little more proactive, like he was now, Terkan would have sent a mage's severed head as a gift.
And would have shyly confessed.
That he wanted to learn magic.
If he had, things might have been different.
Even having grown old enough to become human, Terkan was still a monster...... Harad's regret trailed off into a dry laugh.
"What about this one."
Because Terkan had picked up a new sheet of paper and held it out.
The paper was caked with grime from handling. It was so worn it seemed ready to tear at the slightest touch.
How many times must he have looked at it, puzzled over it.
He had to repay that effort.
Rather than regretting what had already passed.
"You can ask as much as you want, whenever you want. I'm a mage who exists for exactly that."
Harad smiled warmly.
"So let's gather them up first."
Harad picked up the papers scattered all around.
Terkan's efforts -- things that would become the reward of regression.
***
Terkan was serious about magic.
Harad was realizing that fact anew.
"What about this one?"
Terkan's eyes sparkled as he held out a new question.
"Think of magical power as similar to Aura."
"I know."
"But unlike Aura, magic isn't used solely for offense. Depending on the Origin, its applications are endless."
It was like watching a retired old man absorbed in a new hobby.
Though the hobby in question was finding different ways to fight.
"There are probably more Origins in the world that aren't suited for offense. It's just that the Otherworld favors aggressively inclined ones."
Terkan seemed uncomfortable with the idea that magic wasn't attack.
Understandable, if expected.
Every magic Terkan had encountered in his lifetime would have been aimed at him.
"How many?"
"It's easiest to think that everything in the world exists as an Origin. Objects, phenomena -- all of it."
Whoosh.
"I just swung a broken sword. Does this phenomenon exist as one too?"
"I can't be certain, but probably."
"Wondrous."
Terkan described magic as wondrous.
An unfamiliar expression on the continent.
Proof that Terkan distinguished between mages and the Otherworld. The old monster was an aware man.
'The oldest is the most awake.'
Knights were a breed you thought you understood until you didn't.
Not that Harad was blameless. If he'd paid more attention in the past life, he might have known.
"Magical Beasts also possess Origins, I hear."
"Correct. To be precise, they construct them. Such Magical Beasts are called 5th Rank."
"Construct?"
"Build, in other words."
"Can I build one too?"
No.
Harad was about to say so but found himself speechless.
Because Terkan's eyes were far too pure.
"I perfected Aura. A Magical Beast perfected its Origin. What's the difference?"
"......"
Not every model student was bright.
And being ignorant didn't mean being ignorant every time.
"Too advanced a question for me yet, it seems. Let's move on."
Terkan held out a new sheet.
The word "island" was written on it in large letters.
"I once killed a mage whose Origin was Island. I cut down both the island and the mage. If it weren't me, how would one kill him?"
That was only possible because it was me.
That seemed to be what Terkan was saying.
"What Rank was Island?"
"5th Rank."
"Is the one doing the killing me, or a knight?"
"A knight."
Terkan had no interest in fights between mages. Because he wasn't one.
Terkan studied magic because he wanted to fight differently from how he had his entire life.
"I'd think Aura is an important factor too."
"Assume ordinary Aura. But well-versed in magic."
Not the easy option of Terkan Tun.
An option the old monster had never chosen.
'Tun, who did all there was to do.'
A method the monster called Tun had never tried.
"If that's what you're after......"
Harad pondered briefly and was about to speak.
That was when it happened.
HOOOOOO--!
A horn sounded from somewhere. The signal that the patrol knights had returned.
"......"
Terkan's face went rigid.
"Does this need to stay secret?"
Terkan nodded.
"The 4th Knights will be studying magic soon enough anyway."
There was nothing strange about Terkan, the 4th Knights Commander, studying.
Grand Duke Aratus had sanctioned the magic study. Justification was on their side.
"It's embarrassing."
"Learning magic?"
Terkan shook his head.
"That my head is on the dim side."
"Ah."
Harad's mouth fell open.
A blunder, if one called it that.
He should have denied it immediately.
That level wasn't dim at all.
"So it was true."
Terkan grew melancholy all by himself.
***
Harad was a seasoned hand at handling the ignorant.
"There's no dim Superhuman in the world."
He meant it too.
No truly dim Sword Master existed. At least, the reverted Harad had never seen one.
"The truly dim don't even know they're dim."
"Shrewd."
Terkan brightened as though he'd never been gloomy. He rose to his feet. Since every knight had been sent on patrol, Terkan had to open the gate himself.
"Wait here. I'll send them back on patrol and return."
"......?"
Terkan was a model student.
A model student who made study time by wagering his subordinates' lives.
"Don't do that."
"The children would love it."
True enough.
The Wall knights were mad for patrols.
Enough to study magic for the privilege.
"But the standard isn't high yet."
Terkan murmured that as he stepped outside.
He wanted to study more but would restrain himself because his knights were still too weak.
CREEEAK--. A tremendous sound rang from outside. The gate opening. Stepping outside, Harad saw that what five knights would have had to push with all their might, Terkan was heaving open with one hand.
"Once a monster, always a monster."
"Because it's Sir Terkan."
Ellen could now call Terkan by his given name. Thanks to the study session just concluded. Terkan had acknowledged Ellen as somewhat shrewd.
"I've never seen Sir Terkan talk that much."
"He never had anyone he could talk to."
Terkan must have been desperately bored.
He'd done everything a knight could, couldn't enter the Boundary, his magic studies were barely progressing, and the knights only chattered about knightly things.
Harad stared at Terkan's enormous back.
"You didn't know in the other world."
Ellen said abruptly then.
"Right?"
Reading his face to guess his thoughts.
Also an exploration of the other world.
"Right. I told you, he was no different from a stranger. I had no bond with Sir Terkan."
Ellen nodded slowly.
The Harad of the past life hadn't been much to look at. Ellen had seen that Harad several times through dreams.
"But this time, you've forged a bond."
"I'm doing this because of how things were over there."
"And?"
"......?"
Ellen demanded praise too.
"What happened over there doesn't matter. What matters is that I can see you forging bonds with the knights."
She'd asked first.
Harad didn't say that. Being pressed for praise wasn't half bad.
"The 3rd Knights' Sir Kalinos. The 5th Knights' Kesera. You went out to all of them. It's different here. Even if he was no different from a stranger, you'd roughly know what there is to know if you served in the same place."
Ellen murmured.
She was in her rare genius mode.
"You truly came here to earn the 4th Knights' recognition. Not because something happened with the 4th Knights. I'm glad."
Ellen said she was glad, but only in words.
Her face was plainly disappointed.
She'd been hoping something would happen.
Just as knights were mad for patrols, Ellen was mad for fighting and the Boundary.
"Magic!"
That was when it happened.
The Wall rang out. Before the knights returning from patrol, Terkan's eyes were gleaming.
"I'll go."
"Sir, how would you even get in?"
Someone said. The 4th Knights Deputy Commander.
"We'll handle it, sir."
The Deputy Commander's complexion was pale as he said this.
"I can go alone."
But his eyes gleamed as brightly as Terkan's.
"Shall we go?"
Ellen said from beside him.
To Harad's eyes, hers gleamed the brightest.
"Go where."
"There. If it's magic, you should go."
"......"
Ellen grabbed Harad and pulled.
Harad couldn't bring himself to refuse and was dragged along.
"Yes!"
Because she was that happy.