Chapter 56 · Human Hunting (6)

The Utility and Application of Mental Magic

III. A Critique of Indiscriminate Criticism

Santra lumped the noble magic that deals with the conscious world of living beings under the word ‘black magic’ and even forbade its mention. This is a foolish act that forcibly narrows the horizons of magic.

The author agrees with the commandment of magic use that magic should only be used ‘in ways that benefit humanity.’ However, the notion that mental magic is used only ‘in ways harmful to humanity’ is an extremely dogmatic line of thinking, and…

Seeing Leo hide the notebook the moment I arrived, I was curious what an early-teenage boy could possibly be writing in a diary that would make him do that. And so, full of anticipation, I opened it, and…

‘What is this!’

It was content that was not cute at all. No, why was this kid writing a thesis here that he couldn’t even publish?

‘If anyone in Santra—a priest or a mage—were to see writing like this…’

I shuddered, recalling my first life, when I was branded as having dabbled in Kalisan magic, driven from the royal family, and burned at the stake. But somewhere deep in my heart, curiosity stirred. According to scripture, quite a few humans had died because of curiosity—and I was clearly one of them.

“Can mental magic be used in beneficial ways?”

In the end, unable to hold back, I asked him—pale and frozen stiff as he was.

“…What would you do with knowing?”

“If that’s the case, then it’s better to use it, isn’t it? Rather than suppressing it unconditionally.”

“…!”

Leo looked greatly surprised. Was what I said strange?

“Are you really from Santra?”

At the question he tossed at me with a confused face, I felt a pang for some reason. I am from Santra, but I’m currently preparing to bolt, so…

“Mental magic can be used in all sorts of places. Medicine, criminal investigation, monster subjugation, and so on.”

“Weally?”

When I asked with wide eyes, he spoke rapidly, looking somewhat excited.

“That’s right. It can be used to reduce pain for people suffering from incurable diseases, or memory magic can be used on suspects to discover the truth. And mental binding magic is useful for dealing with A-rank monsters.”

Mental binding magic is used that way? Freesia had been locked in prison for over a month just for knowing how to use it!

The only mental magic I knew was that one, but if what he said was true, it all seemed truly useful.

“Amazing…”

When I murmured in admiration, Leo spoke with a strange look.

“…Do you really think so?”

“Of couwse! Tell me mowe, okay?”

“D-don’t cling to me!”

Even though I had only moved a little closer, he recoiled and dodged to the side. Ah, I really can’t get used to this kind of reaction. I’m not some plague victim!

“You really are a strange child. If you were raised in Santra, you should recoil at the mere first letter of ‘mental magic.’”

“Well… I’m, how should I put it… a bit open-minded.”

And I’m also a greedy person who can never pass up something that looks useful. What particularly caught my interest was ‘memory magic.’ If I could learn it, then maybe… maybe I could see that person’s memories.

‘Paeon’s memories.’

Could the answers to the countless questions I couldn’t ask him be found in his memories instead? But looking through someone else’s memories without permission would be wrong, wouldn’t it? Mental magic certainly seemed like something that would spark a lot of ethical controversy.

“But forbidding even its mention entirely makes no sense! And calling it ‘Kalisa’s magic’ on top of that…”

At my inadvertent mutter, Leo flinched. He furrowed his handsome brow deeply.

“They must have wanted to justify it. That you’re right and we’re wrong.”

“Isn’t that too despicable?”

At that, he flared up and cried out.

“Yes! Endlessly despicable! You don’t even properly learn the history of how we came to fight, do you?”

I nodded with a troubled face.

Beginning with the wicked empress of Tranquillum, who was a black mage, the nation split apart while suppressing the rebellion of heretics, and endless war followed.

That was roughly all most Santrans learned. There were no precise historical records, and since it was nearly a thousand years ago, the truth was unverifiable, but Santrans were educated from childhood to harbor hostility toward Kalisa, so almost no one questioned its authenticity.

When a child threw a tantrum, people often frightened them with ‘A Kalisan is coming to eat you!’, when they saw a criminal or a thug they denounced them as ‘a Kalisan-like bastard,’ and when someone lacked piety they sneered, ‘Why don’t you go over to Kalisa?’

It was also widely known that Kalisan royalty had all sold their souls to demons in exchange for power and inherited knowledge of all manner of black magic and curses down through the generations.

‘But the boy before my eyes doesn’t seem dangerous at all.’

Judging by the rumors spread in Santra, Kalisans were supposed to have pointed ears, slit eyes, and purple skin. Leo was a perfectly normal human, and a handsome boy the likes of which I had never seen.

When I looked at him with bright eyes begging him to tell me more, Leo hesitated for a moment, then quietly began to explain.

“The reason Tranquillum split was never something like a rebellion of heretics. The one who actually started the rebellion was Santra’s first king, Epeleus I. He killed the emperor of Tranquillum, pinned the crime on the empress! And then he marched his army into the imperial palace.”

“What?!”

“Fortunately, because the empress, who was a mage just as powerful, resisted along with the nobles and priests who followed her, the entire continent wasn’t completely taken. But the split of the nation could not be prevented.”

I couldn’t hide my shock at this story I was hearing for the first time.

“After the nation split in two, the crown prince of Tranquillum carried on the Kalisan dynasty, which means we are the true bloodline of the Tranquillum imperial family. Though you made it so we couldn’t use that name.”

“Then calling King Pereus the ‘Demon King’ is also…”

“Yes. A childish title you made up as you pleased. Mental magic and the magic called black magic depend on the person using them—there’s nothing wrong with the magic itself. In fact, proper understanding is what prevents people from using it wrongly.”

My breath caught. Yes, magic has no good or evil. Only humans make choices. I couldn’t know whether this was the truth just from his words, but if this was true…

The tragedy of the Tranquillum Empire resembled my first death. A tragedy stained by false accusations and misunderstanding.

“What a sad thing.”

When I spoke quietly, he asked with a startled face.

“…Sad?”

“It was once one nation, but it spwit. So many people don’t know the twuth.”

“…”

He sank into thought. Looking at his profile, steeped in a melancholy unbefitting a child, I too felt troubled.

‘For such a smart, accomplished child to be rotting in a place like this!’

I felt ashamed of my country anew. His hostility was a thousand percent understandable.

“But why wewe you witing that?”

“Because I haven’t written for so long, just for practice… The topic I actually want to research is different…”

“Wesearch? A child as young as you, doing wesearch?”

His face flushed again.

“The way you talk…! I’m definitely older than you, you know?”

“How old awe you?”

“…Eleven.”

“I knew it! I thought you’d be about that age. You’we a weaw baby~.”

“B-baby?!”

He cried out as if dumbfounded.

“You’re the baby! Barely the size of a chestnut…”

I couldn’t help but flare up. I admit I’m small, but I hate hearing others call me small!

“Weo is smaww fow an eleven-yeah-owd too.”

“…!”

His pride seemed wounded, and his face turned red.

“If you want to gwow taww, don’t kick me out. You have to eat a wot to gwow fast.”

I opened the backpack I had brought and poured smoked meat and bread onto the floor. Leo frowned deeply and stared at it. I watched him nervously, afraid he might shout again about being treated like a beggar. He didn’t get angry, but spoke coldly.

“I’m the son of your enemy. Are you stupid, or are you a hypocrite?”

“Son of my enemy, pwince of an enemy nation… I don’t want to think of Weo that way.”

I looked him straight in the eyes.

“Weo saved my wife.”

“…I didn’t save you. I just couldn’t kill you.”

“Same thing. Anyway, let’s just… put all that complicated stuff aside… and stay just one thing?”

“…What?”

“Fwiends!”

His deep violet eyes wavered greatly.

“Oh, wight, since Weo is my fwiend, I’ll show you this.”

I quickly recited the holy word. Come to think of it, this was my real purpose! Leo looked at me blankly as I recited the holy word, then when the white-glowing Nine appeared in the air, he flinched and slammed back against the wall.

“Wh-what is this…!”

“His name is Nine. Cute, wight?”

“Y-you, you, you… could use divine power too?!”

“Yeah!”

At my cheerful answer, he stared at Nine with a face completely drained of sense.

“That’s impossible… Using mana and divine power at the same time?”

“Weo’s country didn’t have anyone who could use both?”

“They appeared occasionally, but… I heard none of them survived…”

So that was true. I realized anew what a brutal crisis I had overcome.

“How did you survive?”

Hmm hmm, I was about to boast that it was because I’m so great, but… I just answered honestly.

“Thewe was someone who helped me. His name is Paeon…”

He sharply asked back.

“So who is this Paeon?!”

He’d asked that earlier too. If I said he was the commander of the holy knights, he might realize he was the number one contributor to the destruction of his country during the war, so I hadn’t answered.

“Um… he’s my teachew.”

“You call your teacher’s name so casually?”

“Ahaha, we’we just cwose, you see!”

He looked at me suspiciously, but I glossed over it and quickly signaled Nine. Attack! Attack that boy! At that, the quick-witted child immediately leaped into Leo’s arms. He stiffened like a stone, flustered.

“Wh-what are you doing…!”

“I guess he wikes Weo!”

At my words, his face turned bright red. So animals do work on him after all, if not me? He was frozen stiff and couldn’t move, but he didn’t seem to dislike Nine rubbing its face against him. He couldn’t take his eyes off Nine.

‘Maybe he’d open up more without me here.’

I smiled brightly and dispelled Nine. Only then did he relax his stiff body and look at me.

“I’ll be going now.”

“G-going?”

“Yeah. I’ll come back soon, so don’t be too sad!”

“Who’s sad…!”

Leaving him huffing behind, I returned to my bedroom, then quickly summoned Nine again. And I sent only that child to the tower. A divine beast can be sent to a desired location within the limits of the prana its master possesses. And if I close my eyes, I can share the sights the divine beast sees.

Leo seemed startled when Nine reappeared. He said something to Nine. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hear the sound, so I didn’t know what he was saying. After muttering like that for a while, he carefully stroked Nine, who had settled into his arms.

‘So he does like animals after all.’

I smiled at how cute Leo was. Did he know I was watching like this? If he hadn’t studied divine power, he probably wouldn’t. I must never let him find out for the time being.

After that, I couldn’t go to the tower for a while because I was watching Paeon’s reactions, so I sent only Nine. Leo seemed wary at first, but soon grew used to Nine’s visits, naturally setting the child on his lap to read. And sometimes he fell asleep holding Nine tight.

That felt really strange. It was Nine in Leo’s arms, but because of the shared vision, it felt as if I were the one being held. I couldn’t hear any sound, yet it seemed as if I could hear Leo’s heartbeat.

At first it was embarrassing, but gradually I grew used to it. Above all, he seemed to have insomnia and couldn’t sleep well, but after he began sleeping while holding Nine, I could feel him improving.

‘…I really must never let him know.’

If he knew I was watching, Leo might really throw me out the window this time.

About two weeks passed like that. Before I knew it, the day of the hunting competition had arrived.