[V1C7] Night of Stories
Translated by Jodas 1: The Wedge TowerThe sun had set, and as the forest sank into the darkness of night, a middle-aged man with brown hair walked without a light.
The man’s name was Seitz. He was no mage, but rather a mercenary who could also use magecraft.
The reason he had signed up for the Wedge Tower’s entrance exam was not that he had any desire to become a mage at the Wedge Tower.
It was because he had been requested to aid someone in the exam.
“I have returned, Lord Löwenich.”
Beneath a great tree, a young boy had lit a campfire. He had black hair; long, thin eyes; and a snakelike aura about him.
The boy’s name was Julius Löwenich. He was only at the young age of sixteen, but he was Seitz’s client.
Julius, cloaked in a black robe well befitting of a mage, prodded the campfire with a stick as he glanced sideways at Seitz.
“Did you get the keys?”
“Yes, I secured two keys. Counting mine and yours, we have a total of four.”
Seitz pulled three keys out of his pocket.
One was his own. The remaining two were stolen by threatening other applicants with his sword.
Julius took the pieces of wood and frowned.
“…You only needed to secure one. What happened to Rand?”
“He failed.”
Rand—The blond middle-aged man—was also one of the mercenaries hired by this boy.
However, he was defeated by the black-haired woman with a curved sword, so that was as far as he got. It was a fair bet to assume his key had long been stolen by now.
(I thought this job was going to be a lot easier, though.)
To ensure Julius passed this exam with certainty, he had hired both Seitz and Rand.
From the beginning, they had three of the wooden slabs as their keys, so with only one more, their key would be complete.
That’s why they tried to steal the key from that powerless-looking white-haired girl, whether through deception or intimidation. However, the blonde boy intervened, and after chasing them, the black-haired woman neutralized his partner.
(That woman was a real piece of work…)
Seitz bore a sword, but he had no intention of killing anyone on this job.
He had worked as a mercenary for a reasonably long time, so he had little resistance to taking the life of another person, but it would be even more ridiculous if he had to kill someone to do a simple job like this.
He figured he just needed to show off his sword a little bit, and if that doesn’t work he could pull a few magic tricks and the other person would probably give in.
That said, the black-haired woman was totally prepared to kill them. If Seitz had tried to use the kids as a shield against that woman, she would have sent his head flying without a second thought. Of that much, he was certain.
(More importantly, that curved sword…)
Curved swords were favored by the warriors of the grassland nation of Torgai, a longtime thorn in the Schwargald Empire’s side.
The Empire discriminated against the people of the grasslands as an outsider race, and have come to refer to the swords they use as ‘barbarian swords.’
As a result, almost no-one in the Empire liked to use curved swords.
(A woman who uses a curved sword… a barbarian sword? …No way, it can’t be her.)
Chasing away the thoughts that snuck into his head, Seitz considered a course of action.
That curved-sword-weilding woman was most likely going to team up with those two kids. He should try not to get involved with them any more than necessary.
They already have four keys, after all. All they have to do now is to reach the X mark on the map, retrieve a Wedge Medal, and return to the gathering point.
“Shall we head to the mark on the map now?”
Julius’s hand stopped poking at the campfire, and he shook his head.
“No. We’ll test out the keys early tomorrow morning. It would be best not to move around at night.”
The red jewel of a ring on Julius’ hand reflected the firelight, casting a gently waving glow.
He placed the stick that had been poked in the fire on the ground, and softly stroked said ring.
“…Yes, I know. It’s not that I doubt your strength.”
Julius’ words were not directed towards Seitz. They were aimed at his ring—or, more accurately, the spirit residing within it.
Despite his youth, it appeared that Julius Löwenich had already formed a contract with a high-ranking spirit.
The power of spirits was immense. They could manipulate large amounts of mana without any incantations.
And yet, Julius hired mercenaries to the exam rather than use the strength of his contracted spirit because the spirit’s power was far too strong.
On the journey to the examination venue, Seitz had witnessed the moment when Julius’ contracted spirit burnt a dragon to death.
(With such power, he should have no reason to fear the night…)
Seitz wanted to finish with his work as soon as possible and head home. As if reading his desire, Julius shifted his gaze from the ring to Seitz.
“Ku, ku, ku” Julius gave a throaty, mysterious laugh.
“Because nighttime is the monsters’ time.”
He spoke in such a quiet voice… it almost sounded as if he believed that if his whispering was heard, then monsters would actually come and attack them.
Monsters were creatures from the Ancient Era. In the modern day, the most there was were the occasional reports of someone seeing something they thought might have looked like one.
Rather than something so uncertain, Seitz was much more afraid of dragons or spirits—or of Julius, who sat right in front of him.
“Pyororororo, pyororororo….” A peaceful snoring could be heard.
Wren tossed and turned in his sleep on the hard ground. Beside Wren, Tia had curled up into a ball and slept soundly, making bizarre snoring sounds.
On the other side of the campfire from Wren and Tia, Sevil held her sword to her chest as she maintained the fire.
The group had been on the move, aiming for the most distant X mark on their maps.
Along the way, they found the sites of other X marks, assembled their four keys, and opened the hidden metal boxes, but they were all empty inside.
Whether they were empty from the start, or whether someone else had already taken the contents was unclear.
Afterwards, the three of them continued northwards until the sun set, and decided to settle in for the night.
(How do these guys have so much stamina….)
By the time the sun set, Wren’s endurance was at its limit. His legs felt like wet noodles, but Tia and Sevil seemed entirely unbothered.
Now that he thought of it, even when they were getting chased by the man gunning for their keys, he recalled Tia never once being short of breath.
(Even though she’s wicked slow. Her running form is pretty weird too…)
The glow of the campfire washed over her colorless white hair. As he quietly watched, Sevil spoke to him in a whisper.
“If you don’t sleep, you will feel it tomorrow.”
“I’m a well-reared pretty boy, after all. I’m not used to sleeping in the wild.”
“I am also rather well-reared, yet I am quite proficient at sleeping in the wild.”
“………….”
They had decided to rotate fire duty every two hours.
He thought he really ought to sleep as soon as possible, yet his eyes were too alert and he couldn’t fall asleep. Lying on his back, Wren whispered.
“Let’s chat. About some irrelevant bullshit. I think that might help me sleep.”
“Hmph. Then, allow me to regale you with the story of how I straddled the line of death as I faced a fire dragon.”
“Why something so violent all of a sudden? What would I do if I had dreams of getting eaten by a dragon?”
“Fire dragons do not eat people. They burn them to death.”
“Stooppp iiiitttt!”
Realizing. he had raised his voice a little too loudly, Wren stole a glance over towards Tia.
“Pyororororo, pyororororo,” Tia was still soundly asleep.
As he stared in shock, Sevil spoke.
“While we ate, I heard how you and Tia met.”
“What about it?”
He responded bitterly, remembering the taste of the tasteless portable rations. Sevil gave him a bemused smile.
“Why did you save Tia? You are a calculating individual; couldn’t you have also decided to escape using Tia as bait?”
“…That’s a damn cruel way to say it.”
He couldn’t respond any more forcefully because he was aware just what kind of person he was.
Wren rolled over, showing Sevil his back.
“Y’know, I showed up at the exam really early, and I tried to talk to all kinds of guys. But every last one of them either were just there to work as servants or had no need for a guy who couldn’t use any magic.”
—I’m sorry, I’m just here to work as a servant.
—I don’t have any plans of becoming a mage.
With those people who had given up on the exam from the start, their conversations went nowhere.
—Which tradition of magecraft do you follow? Modern? Classical? Huh? You don’t even know what that means?
—Guys who can’t use magic have no right to take this test.
Those who had a talent for magic sneered and refused to talk to someone who couldn’t use any.
“And then Tia came rolling in and fell right on top of that bowl-cut four-eyed old man.”
Tia, the last one to arrive, declared with an energetic voice.
“Hello, my name’s Tia! I came to become a mage! Nice to meet you!”
Oh, this one had neither a robe nor a staff, and she was barely literate, yet she truly wanted to become a mage, he had thought.
“…I thought I just had to be friends with her.”
“Haha,” he heard a faint laugh.
A gentle laugh with no hints of arrogance.
“I’m surprised. You really can say adorable things sometimes.”
“Shuddup.”
Sevil said nothing more.
The crackling sound of the campfire burning, the sound of grasses and trees rustling in the night wind, and the pyorororo of a certain someone snoring rang in Wren’s ears.
Lending his ears to those noises, Wren’s eyes slowly drooped closed, and he gracefully drifted off to sleep.