Chapter 65: Act 1 – The Burning City
The weather was really nice when I looked out the window.
The cute birds perched on the branches of the World Tree seemed to mock me with their own unique cries.
“Hah.”
On a day like this, I wanted to go out and play, but it couldn’t be helped. The power plant never takes a holiday.
Moreover, the recent leakage incident had just been resolved. I was finally able to catch my breath.
Gerard deeply inhaled the smoke from his cigarette and thought, ‘Of all times, it had to happen when I had a kid…’
“Phew….”
He exhaled the smoke, watching it dissipate blankly.
He was tired.
Looking into the mirror, he saw a middle-aged man standing there with dark circles around his eyes that he couldn’t overlook, no matter how hard he tried.
“Speaking of which, I wonder how that kid is doing now.”
Since the weather was nice, he was probably playing somewhere like a playground. The thought of that gave him some strength.
“What was his name again?”
Luke Irushi, was it? It reminded him of the name of a wizard from a fairy tale.
“But typically, don’t girls get named after male heroes?”
If he was going to use a hero’s name, he could have chosen Renie instead.
As Gerard was lost in these trivial thoughts and extinguished the cigarette in the ashtray before stepping out of the smoking room, the phone on his desk began to ring.
He picked up the receiver without much thought.
-Dalak.
“Yes, this is Gerard Collson, the magician in charge of Sephiro02.”
The voice on the other end was familiar.
-“Ah, Mr. Collson. This is the security office.”
“Yes, go ahead.”
-“There’s a kid here looking for you. He said his name is Luke Irushi.”
Luke Irushi…
They say when you speak of a dragon, the dragon comes, so it seems he is something like a dragon.
———
After sitting down for a moment and waiting, Gerard walked out looking weary from deep inside.
Luke sprang up from his chair and approached him.
“Gerard, it’s been a while.”
“Haha. Luke, it’s been a long time. How have you been?”
“Well, I’ve never been sick, so don’t worry about me.”
“That’s a relief.”
Luke looked at Gerard’s appearance. He had a faint, peculiar smell about him and looked extremely tired, reminiscent of a morning Yerna.
“By the way, I’m more worried about your condition. Are you getting enough sleep?”
“Ah, hah… Well, I’m fine. It’s just this much. But what brings you here on a holiday? The weather is nice, and you could be out enjoying yourself.”
“I came to repay you for the last incident, modest as it may be.”
“What’s this about repayment? Let’s not do this here; should we go inside?”
“I’d appreciate that.”
Seeing Gerard pinch his eyelids with his fingers beneath his glasses, Luke quickly took out a thermos from his bag.
It was the leftover tea Yerna had moderately drunk in the morning, transferred from the teapot. He had planned to serve it alongside some treats he had brought, but it seemed necessary to offer it first.
Luke opened the thermos and poured tea into the cap before handing it over.
“Here, drink this. It’ll help relieve your fatigue.”
“Ah. Thank you.”
Gerard took the thermos cap offered by Luke and drank from it.
‘Oh… This is quite good.’
The rich aroma and warmth seeped in. He felt the fatigue lifting more than he expected.
‘Much better than cigarettes.’
As he was sipping the tea, Luke took a few sniffs of the air and asked, “By the way, what’s that smell?”
Luke wrinkled his face at the smell that reminded him of those robbers from earlier.
“Ah, does it smell like cigarettes?”
“Cigarettes?”
Luke stroked his chin and thought. It wasn’t that there hadn’t been cigarettes in the past. Burning special magical herbs to inhale the smoke uplifted the spirit, so while the form might vary, smoking of some kind existed in every country. Luke had smoked water pipe tobacco quite a bit, as some potions were more effective when absorbed through the mucous membranes. Thus, he had no negative feelings about tobacco.
However, this had quite an unpleasant smell. It didn’t seem to be ordinary magical herbs.
Luke’s guess was not wrong.
Modern cigarettes were made by applying various alchemical adjustments to magical herbs. Of course, there had also been alchemical treatments to increase addictiveness for market purposes, so numerous substances that Luke would find concerning if they were classified as drugs were contained within.
However, having only smoked pure magical herbs in the past, Luke viewed this as a defective product. It smelled reminiscent of low-quality products smoked by alleyway thugs, leading him to believe it was flawed.
Therefore, Luke firmly said, “Don’t smoke that. It’s of quite low quality and seems addictive.”
“Haha… I’ll take note of that.”
Gerard scratched the back of his head, feeling a bit embarrassed by the child’s assertive statement.
It had been just over six years since Gerard started smoking, hoping for the fatigue-relief effect. He knew that the smoke from burnt magical herbs wasn’t good for him, but he hadn’t been able to quit…
He recalled making excuses that nothing could compare to the rapid and effective feeling of cigarettes.
In truth, he might have simply become addicted to that effect.
‘Still, with this, I could quit smoking.’
Gerard took off his glasses and rubbed the corners of his eyes, handing the empty cap back to Luke as he said, “I really enjoyed it. It actually feels like my fatigue has eased. What kind of tea is this?”
Luke took the cap and replied, “I brewed it myself. The ingredients are Manello and Tirid leaves.”
“Really?”
Gerard asked again with slight surprise. Luke nodded as if it were obvious.
“That’s impressive.”
He had thought it would surely be something sold somewhere. The realization that it was brewed by Luke surprisingly touched Gerard, and he patted Luke’s head.
“Gerard, I’m not a kid. Please don’t pet my head.”
“Haha, sorry. It just came out naturally.”
———-
A little later, Luke and Gerard arrived in the break room.
Luke took out the snacks he had separately wrapped from his bag and handed them over.
“This is the real gift.”
“Oh, cookies! It’s been a while since I’ve had these.”
Gerard picked up one of the cookies he usually didn’t eat and put it into his mouth. It was sweet and crisp, and it tasted good.
Gerard exaggeratedly expressed his gratitude to Luke.
“This is delicious. Did you make this too?”
If that were the case, he thought he would have to praise him lavishly again.
“No, that’s just something you can buy. You should be able to find it easily at the market.”
“Oh, really…?”
Hmm, why did he feel a little disappointed?
——–
Luke nodded satisfactorily and thought,
‘Indeed, snacks are best enjoyed together.’
Since only a day had passed since the previous commotion at school, he was worried about excessive attention, and Dayton was blocking the Wave in the forest, just like Yerna. Shirud couldn’t enjoy the snacks brought by the elf Yerna with them, as she hadn’t purchased the low-calorie plant-based snacks specifically made to help Luke gain weight.
Thanks to that, he had come to Gerard to repay a debt and exchange phone numbers.
Now he somewhat understood why noble young ladies enjoyed tea parties so much.
Even these snacks were much better when shared with someone, allowing him to avoid getting too parched.
Engaging in various conversations was pretty enjoyable too.
Although the content was somewhat rigid and not as delightful.
“Originally, we measured mana using observation-type magic to cover a specific area, right? We can’t do that.
Even with the most optimized observation magic, we can’t achieve the efficiency needed for commercial use at the power plant.
So, our method of observing the loss of mana is a bit special.”
“Oh? How so?”
“We measure the ‘stabilization degree’ of the mana. Mana always has the property of seeking to stabilize itself… We determine the consumed mana based on how close it is to a stabilized state. Accurate observation isn’t needed to supply mana. We just need to charge what we’ve supplied. Anyway, we supply mana to all the cities continuously to maintain stability.”
“Hmm, I see? The rates are calculated based on the supplied mana at that location…?”
“Right, that’s the rate incurred for the mana supplied to your household.”
“So then, sending mana back to the power plant from home wouldn’t make sense?”
“Exactly. It’s dangerous too.”
“What if someone uses magic outdoors? How do they get charged for it?”
“In that case, they are charged through the identification chip attached to their cane. Oh, unauthorized magical usage is illegal, by the way?”
“I know that. That’s an interesting story.”
… The somewhat amicable atmosphere contrasted sharply with the hard, unappealing content.
In addition to that, they had conversations about various types of magic.
How city magicians need to study laws just as diligently as magic studies, or how the cane has a memory circuit that records when and where any magic was used.
As they continued their conversation and exhausted all topics, there was a brief lull.
Luke suddenly thought of a question and asked, “Ah, Gerard. Do you know anything about spirits?”
Spirits, after magic, isn’t that the next topic?
It seemed out of the blue, but in a way, it was more childish than magic.
Gerard nodded and replied, “Well, I do. But why are you asking about spirits all of a sudden?”
Luke said with a somewhat serious expression, “I was wondering if you know a name related to spirits—’Ere.'”
That was the name Py had initially called himself.
Ere, what could that mean?
It was undoubtedly a noun, but…
He couldn’t figure out who it referred to, which was frustrating.
“Ere?”
However, Gerard was the same. A name related to spirits?
Was it a character from a cartoon or a figure from a fairy tale? He didn’t know much about those.
Well, maybe he could find it if he searched for it?
“Hmm… Well, I’ll look into it and let you know. Oh right, Luke, do you have a mobile phone?”
“I have it here. Thank you.”
Luke handed over the mobile phone.
It was fortunate that even though it had been over three hours of usage and had locked, a call was still possible.
“Here. Feel free to ask me about anything you want while studying later.”
Gerard input his number into Luke’s phone and handed it back, thinking a student who communicated well like Luke was always welcome.
“But, why aren’t you drinking the tea?”
Luke, as Gerard pointed out, was not drinking the tea he had brewed at all. Instead, he was sipping cocoa from a vending machine.
“I had enough to drink at home, so don’t worry. If I drink more now, I won’t be able to sleep at night.”
“Hmm… Really?”
It was important for a child to get a good night’s sleep.
Thus, Gerard ended up drinking almost the entire tea from the thermos he brought, although it wasn’t forced.
‘Once I started drinking, I couldn’t stop.’
By the way, he had been feeling excessively energetic since earlier.
His mind felt clear and vivid.
Before drinking, he had been in a state of mind that felt precarious, but now it felt like he had smoked a full pack of magical herbs, leaving him slightly fearful.
“Luke, by the way, is there any problem with this?”
“Of course not. Unlike me, you’re an adult. The ingredients are just two kinds, so the effect should be very mild.”
“Is that so?”
Thinking it over, that made sense.
It was tea made by a child.
It wasn’t intentionally mixed with poison or anything; it was just magical herb tea with tea leaves added, right?
There’s no way there could be any side effects.
And at most, the efficacy of the tea wasn’t substantial.
Surely it was just a placebo effect.
Phew.
Gerard relaxed and, without a second thought, continued to drink the tea.
It paired well with the snacks Luke brought, and before he knew it, he finished everything in the thermos.
But Gerard didn’t know.
That the standard Luke referred to was slightly different.
The original efficacy of the ‘fatigue recovery elixir’ that Luke considered was an item that turned a person into a berserker for a week without needing sleep or food.
It completely obliterated bodily fatigue and suppressed its occurrence while providing sufficient nutrition, acting as a kind of resurrection agent.
By that standard, it was obvious that the tea he drank would have no effect.
As a result, Gerard, suffering from an overly ambiguous fatigue-reducing effect, would become fatigued once again due to insomnia, but that was another story.
