A Most Irresponsible Mage

Jay cried until he finally fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. It was that deep, liminal hour of the night when late evening bleeds into the early hours of dawn.

The moment he drifted off, Lucalis’s eyes—which had been shut tight the entire time—snapped open. In truth, he had awoken the very second Jay made the hinges groan. He had spent the remaining time with every single one of his senses keyed into the mage’s movements.

First, the mana had approached. Lucalis had frozen for a fraction of a second, but realizing it was merely a diagnostic scan to check his condition, he quickly forced his body to relax. Sure enough, convinced that the boy was sound asleep, the reassured mage had drawn closer.

‘The important part starts now.’

He would ambush him when his guard was down and knock him out in a single blow. Lucalis tensed his muscles. Yet, the moment the mage perched himself on the edge of the mattress and simply began to gaze down at him, Lucalis found himself utterly unable to move.

Cold sweat slicked his back; his mouth went bone-dry.

The mage did nothing. For a long while, he merely looked down at Lucalis with a gaze the boy had never experienced in his entire life.

Then, every so often, the man would brush the hair from the boy’s forehead or tenderly touch the places where his wounds used to be. It didn’t hurt. All Lucalis felt was a faint, ticklish sensation. Only then did he realize that his body had been completely healed.

His skin, which had been caked in dried blood and filth, was pristine. His clothes, which had been little better than rags, had been changed into a perfectly clean set.

Was this magic too?

By the time Lucalis was born, the war for the throne between his mother and his aunt had already reached its absolute zenith. He had been caught up in all sorts of foul, malevolent spells since his earliest childhood. Because of that, he harbored an almost allergic, instinctive revulsion toward magic. Yet, right now, he felt fine.

It was strange. He used to find magic disgusting and loathsome, even when it was used to heal his wounds.

Why?

The unresolved question swirled around his small head. But the truly shocking event was yet to come.

“I’m sorry.”

With that sudden, completely unprompted apology, the mage wrapped his arms around him from behind. Lucalis was so startled he nearly leapt straight out of the bed.

Even as he desperately tried to calm his hammering heart, the mage’s apologies continued. What on earth was he so sorry for? His weeping voice trembled with emotion. The boy felt as though his own ear, brushed by the man’s breath, was vibrating in tandem.

His heart, which had finally begun to settle, thudded wildly once more. Though he appeared perfectly tranquil on the outside, Lucalis was an anxious wreck internally. In the end, he waited until Jay finally succumbed to exhaustion before hastily opening his eyes.

Which brought him to the present moment.

Gazing down at the exhausted, sleeping Jay, the very words Lucalis had uttered upon escaping the s*ave traders slipped from his lips again.

“Seriously, what kind of freak is this?”

A boy who was barely ten years old let out a sigh that belonged to a world-weary old man.

His disapproving eyes fixed upon the mage. Normally, seeing a grown adult curled up in such a pathetic, miserable ball with raw, swollen eyes should have been repulsive. Yet, for some reason, this mage just looked pitiful… like someone who needed looking after… and looking at him stirred up a tangle of complicated feelings.

Was it because of his smooth, youthful face? Lucalis unconsciously reached a hand out toward him, only to flinch and draw it back halfway. What had he just been trying to do?

“Mmmph.”

The man smacked his lips as if he were eating something in his dreams. Lucalis was utterly flabbergasted.

“How carefree. To sleep like this without a care for what I might do if I woke up.”

Feeling strangely slighted, Lucalis poked Jay’s cheek firmly with the tip of his finger. At that, Jay knit his brows and began to sniffle and weep all over again. Lucalis froze solid.

“Heeg… ugh…”

“…….”

Because the sobbing wouldn’t stop, Lucalis had absolutely no idea what to do. Flustering about wasn’t going to solve anything.

All he could do was wait for the man to calm down on his own. After a short while, a pale-faced Lucalis realized just how absurdly he was acting. His gaze turned fierce once more as he glared at the peacefully sleeping Jay.

‘Should I just kill him right now?’

However, there was a flaw in his logic. If he had been his usual self, he would have snapped the man’s neck without a second thought.

Lucalis failed to realize that the very act of debating whether to kill him or not was proof of his hesitation.

Back when his mind had been slipping away under the influence of the sleeping magic, his inner self had been boiling with lava-like fury. His final thought had been an absolute vow to murder the man the moment he woke up.

Yet, upon opening his eyes, this was the situation he found himself in. Lucalis rationalized his choice. At any rate, the man had dragged him out of the s*ave market, bought him food, and provided him a place to sleep.

Given that the man knew his true identity, he undoubtedly had an ulterior motive. But if that motive was material wealth or power, the situation actually favored Lucalis.

‘He looks pathetic, but his skills as a mage are undeniable. What he wants is probably power.’

In that case, it would actually be better to strike a deal—

“Ugh… Don’t come any closer, you sunfish…”

“…….”

“I’m not your comrade…”

Lucalis looked up at the ceiling and let out a heavy sigh.

He flopped down right beside the sunfish mage. Seeing the man babbling like this made him feel like an idiot for spending the twilight hours agonizing so seriously by himself.

Pitter-patter. Thud.

The sound of the rain, which had ceased for a brief moment, began to fall once more.

Blinking his eyes, Lucalis thought to himself: if someone’s warmth was barely enough to turn falling snow into rain, then the snow would actually be preferable.

‘But at least there’s a roof over my head right now.’

So, just for a little bit. Mulling over the rain and the snow, the boy soon drifted into a quiet sleep.

And later on, he would come to regret to his very bones that he hadn’t smacked the back of the mage’s head and bolted right then and there.

Grooooaaar!

Lucalis was jolted awake by the bloodthirsty roar of a monster. Springing up reflexively, he instantly threw himself into a combat stance. He touched down on the floor and scanned his surroundings, but nothing resembling a monster was in sight.

Instead, the scenery before his eyes was peaceful and cozy. The log cabin, filled with the rich scent of timber, was thoroughly comfortable and possessed a lived-in warmth. Pots of medicinal herbs lined the window sill. A dreamlike tapestry hung gracefully on the wall. A table was crowded with experimental tools and medicinal ingredients. There was even a wooden ladle stirring a pot entirely on its own.

“Oh, you’re awake?”

To top it all off, there stood the mage, wearing an apron. It was, in every sense of the word, a wizard’s cottage. Jay, who had a smudge of flour on his cheek, let out a soft chuckle.

“Looking at you like that, you look less like a cat and more like a flying squirrel.”

Lucalis assessed the situation. And found it utterly impossible to believe.

I was moved to an entirely different location, and I slept right through it without waking up? Me?

He had become fully aware of his circumstances by the time he was three years old. From that moment onward, he had never slept deeply for a single day of his life.

Jay, who saw right through the utter turmoil Lucalis was experiencing, wore a bitter smile.

To the Imperial Family, age was merely a number used to count the years since one’s birth. The supernatural talent passed down through the blood of the First Emperor caused the young royals to mature and grow at a rapid pace. It served as a means to prove the exceptional nature of the Imperial bloodline, granting legitimacy to their rule.

Everyone called it a divine blessing. But in Jay’s eyes, it wasn’t a blessing—it was a curse. A deeply tragic curse that robbed them of their childhood from the very moment they were born.

“For breakfast, we have scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausages, fruit…”

Lucalis merely glared at Jay without a word. Misinterpreting the glare, Jay pointed toward the frying pan. A pancake was currently sizzling away inside it.

“Don’t worry. I made a ton. Around twelve servings? If it’s not enough after you eat, I’ll make more.”

“Where is this?”

“Ah, so that’s what you’re curious about. This is my house.”

“I can see that much. What I am asking is where this place is lo—”

Lucalis never got to finish his sentence.

“Yikes!”

As Jay untied his apron and made his way toward the dining table, his own feet tripped over each other. He took a violent tumble, landing flat on his face on the floor, and didn’t move an inch. Lucalis blinked. Despite having experienced all sorts of bizarre events at such a young age, even Lucalis was facing this kind of situation for the very first time.

“…Hey?”

Something was wrong. An instinctive sense of dread washed over him. Lucalis stepped closer to inspect Jay’s condition. A moment later, his body seized up in sheer shock.

The mage wasn’t breathing. His heart wasn’t beating either.

“He’s dead?”

The words were phrased as a question, but they carried absolute certainty. The mage was dead.

“Just like that? So pointlessly?”

Lucalis’s hand froze in midair just as he instinctively reached out to shake the man’s shoulder. What was the point of shaking him anyway?

Biting his lip, the boy clenched his fists tightly. No, it’s actually for the best. I was planning on running away anyway.

Deliberately ignoring the hollow sensation spreading through his chest, he slapped his own cheeks with both hands. Only then did his mind clear. Snapping to his feet, Lucalis searched every nook and cranny of the log cabin for anything useful. It was a fruitless effort. There was nothing but magical items of unknown utility and various herbs.

What kind of absurd house was this? The dwelling truly took after its master. Exhausted from his fruitless search, Lucalis’s eyes fell upon the breakfast laid out on the dining table. The mage collapsed on the floor also weighed heavily on his mind. Even if he was going to leave, wouldn’t it be better to at least lay him down on the bed?

‘…What on earth am I doing right now?’

A wave of profound exhaustion washed over him. He glared at the corpse of the mage. It was all that bastard’s fault. Ruffling his feathers however he pleased, bringing him all the way to his house without permission, and then just dying like that on his own whim.

“There’s a limit to how irresponsible someone can be.”

The boy’s eyes grew cold and detached. Returning to the state of mind he possessed before meeting the mage, Lucalis packed a wooden flask filled with water and a few pieces of bread, then stepped out through the door of the log cabin.

And froze before an unbelievable sight.

While the front yard of the cabin was a perfectly normal garden filled with herbs and short flowers, the area beyond the purely decorative fence was a dense, sprawling jungle. It was a forest so ancient and overgrown that even the word ‘primeval’ failed to do it justice.

Grooooaaar!

He finally discovered the source of the ear-splitting roars. A massive beast, soaring higher than even the colossal trees, was locked in a tense standoff with another giant creature of its kind.

Lucalis pulled the door shut exactly as it had been. In that brief span of a few seconds, his entire body had broken out into a cold sweat. A bead of sweat rolled down the tip of his nose, leaving a wet mark on the wooden floor.

What was that? What the hell was that?

“That crazy mage…!”

Where on earth did he bring me?!

Turning back to glare at the corpse in a fit of rage, Lucalis’s heart nearly stopped. The mage, whom he had definitively confirmed to be dead, was groggily pushing himself up. Furthermore, the spectacle was incredibly eerie and grotesque. Watching a corpse rise while its joints creaked and popped was a bit too much to handle, even for someone as iron-willed as Lucalis.

Damn it. Does a necromancer live in this insane forest too?

…Right as that thought crossed his mind, Jay let out a heavy groan and straightened his bent spine.

“Ahhhh, my aching bones. Now that I’m old, staying on a hard floor for too long makes my joints creak like crazy…”

“…….”