[V4C14] Smooth Wingtips
Translated by Jodas 4: Flying Through the SkyGuidance Office Director Melchior John Hegelich was the third son of the illustrious Hegelich Family of Modern mages.
Prior to coming to the Wedge Tower, he worked as a teacher at a certain magic academy. It was his family’s orders that sent him there.
The Hegelich family wanted to make inroads into magic academies all across the Empire and he, the third son, was told to go there to establish a foothold.
…However, it was just his luck that the magic academy he worked at happened to be the stomping grounds of the infamous Samuel Löwenich.
After losing the battle for dominance, his family cut him off, leaving him nowhere to go. Thus, he sought refuge in the Wedge Tower.
—He’d had enough of factional conflicts.
It had been his intention to escape those conflicts, but not long after he came to the Wedge Tower, none other than Samuel Löwenich himself arrived at the Tower. He wondered if he was trapped in a nightmare.
After countless twists and turns, Samuel Löwenich was eventually exiled from the Wedge Tower, yet Hegelich still found himself mired in factional disputes that rocked the Tower to this day.
As a user of Modern Magecraft, Hegelich was treated as a mage of the Modern School, but the current Spiremaster of the First Spire: White Smoke, Abel, was of the Classical School. On top of that, the Directors of the General Affairs and Finance Offices also belonged to the Classical School.
As a result, Hegelich found himself boxed in and isolated, but he did not let that deter him from focusing on his duties.
The Guidance Office’s mission was to develop the new talents that would bear the future of the Wedge Tower.
It was a heavy responsibility, and by secretly sharing information with the four Instructors, they paid close attention to the daily growth of all twelve Apprentice Mages.
He was, of course, constantly swamped with work, but that was precisely why he believed it was imperative for him to live a proper lifestyle.
He always woke up at a predetermined time every morning, washed and dressed himself properly, and went on a morning walk to make the rounds.
If he encountered an Apprentice engaged in morning practices, he would offer encouragement or advice if necessary.
Recently, he’d seen Rose, Oliver, and Sevil often during the morning free period. Although, of course, he was sure that many of the others were engaged in productive studies or practices in their rooms.
(Let’s see, they seem to be having troubles selecting a representative… I just hope that it doesn’t come to a full-on battle between the Apprentices using magic and everything.)
One of the Instructors, Caspar Hütter, said that such battles were acceptable; that they ought to create an opportunity for the Apprentices to let out their true feelings.
He had no intentions of denying that idea, but Hegelich truly wished to avoid any senseless conflict if possible.
(Even then, that might not be easy considering the lineup we have to deal with…)
“Piyopp!”
As he walked, deep in thought, he heard a cheerful voice.
Hegelich stopped and looked up. In front of him, the white-haired girl, Tia, stuck out her right hand towards him with a huge grin.
Resting on top of her tiny palm were several acorns.
“………”
Hegelich wordlessly stared at Tia.
Tia’s eyes glittered and her face beamed with pride as she looked up at Hegelich. He wished she would say something already.
… All of a sudden, Hegelich recalled the dog his family had back home.
His family’s dog was an extremely smart dog, but for whatever reason, it loved to pick up any stick it found.
When they were on a walk, it would start sprinting off the moment it caught sight of a stick, bite onto it, then bring it back. It especially liked sticks that were reasonably thick, had few branches, and had a couple leaves stuck to it.
The dog couldn’t speak a human language. Regardless, its face said this:
—Behold, human! I have found a pristine artifact!
And now Tia, his student, was showing off her acorns with that exact same face.
“……”
“Pefufufufu!”
How about it? Isn’t it wonderful? Her smile communicated without the need for words.
Ultimately, Hegelich had to say something.
“… Those look like acorns.”
“Yeah, really round and smooth ones! I’m gonna get Oliver to roast them for me!” “… Make sure to be careful around fires.”
“Okaayy!”
Once Tia was satisfied she’d shown off the acorns enough, she turned away from Hegelich and walked off.
However, after walking a few steps, she stopped and spun back around.
“Director Hegelich. We picked a representative.”
“……What?”
“Last night, we talked and picked someone. They said they’d report to you before the group lesson today.”
Hegelich was surprised that they’d selected a representative faster than he’d expected.
The representative… surely, it must be that son of Samuel’s, Julius Löwenich.
A deep, laughing voice came to life in the back of his head.
“Ku, ku, ku… You’re as poor at politics as ever, Hegelich. If you joined my faction, you wouldn’t have to go through so much trouble.”
Hegelich tried to bring back the memory of his family dog to drive away the face of that loathsome man.
The power of his beloved dog was formidable.
“Who is the representative…? No, hold that, I’d better wait until I get the report.”
“Okaayy! …Piyo!” Tia responded cheerfully, then chirped while looking at something behind Hegelich’s back. Drawn by her gaze, he turned around to see the exhausted form of Hütter walking up.
“Mr. Hütter! Piyopp!”
“Oh, piyopp piyopp, good mornin’.”
Hütter repeated her greeting with a yawn. Then, once he noticed Hegelich’s gaze, he straightened his posture and greeted him.
“Good morning, Director Hegelich.”
“I seem to recall you requested permission to head outside late last night. I don’t suppose you’ve just returned from that excursion….”
“Sorry about that, boss. My errands ended up taking a lot longer than I expected.”
There were a number of small villages and towns in the area surrounding the Wedge Tower.
Some of the mages of the Wedge Tower were known to take residence in one of those villages or towns and commute from their homes. Director Eigen of the Finance Office did just that.
However, he hadn’t heard any talk of Hütter having a house nearby, so he could only assume he went out for recreational purposes. He was well aware that Hütter spent a lot of time drinking with Director Kappel from the Management Office.
“…Try to keep it in moderation, you.”
When he leveled a glare at him, Hütter gave a forced smile and scratched the back of his head.
Tia stared at that hand, and made a face that indicated she’d noticed something.
“Mr. Hütter,”
“What’s up?”
Tia’s eyes were fixated on Hütter’s hands as she spoke.
“Your wingtips are smooth today.”
“Huh? Wingtips?”
Hütter responded dubiously.
Whether it was a regional dialect or whether she might have grown up in a foreign country, Tia had a unique sort of wordplay that was hard to understand. It was a common occurrence in the Wedge Tower which gathered people from all over. It wasn’t unusual to see people whose grasp of the Imperial language was even worse than Tia’s.
Setting that aside, What in the world is a wingtip…? Hegelich wondered, but he quickly realized what Tia was trying to say.
Hütter’s hands were astoundingly clean today. If he looked closer, he could tell that he’d neatly shaved all the hair off of his fingers.
So by ‘smooth wingtips,’ she must have been referring to the hairless state of his fingers.
Hütter must also have realized what Tia was trying to say, as he muttered “Oh…”
“Well, you know, a popular man has to keep his hands clean!”
“I think you’d be more popular if you were fuzzy.”
“Then Rose must be really popular.”
“Yeah. Rose’s fuzziness is perfect, so I think he’s gotta be popular. Won’t you be fuzzy too, Mr. Hütter? I think you’ll be super popular if your chest hair was all puffy and stuff!”
“I see, so you’re on team chest hair, huh?”
“Team? Yeah, sure, I’ve gotta be. My sister and the others all love it too!”
Tia enthusiastically endorsed fuzziness, to which Hütter clicked his tongue at her and wiggled his index finger.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Clean hands are the fashion of the day in the big city. It’s a mature taste, you.”
“… Is that supposed to be an impression of me?” “Well, hahaha. Didn’t it sound dignified?”
Hegelich sighed. What a troublesome man.
As he forced out a laugh, Hütter internally wiped off his sweat. He didn’t expect anyone would pay that much attention to his fingers.
(Tia’s a lot more perceptive than I thought…)
The reason he’d headed out was to communicate with the Black Lion Emperor’s subordinate and messenger, Heidi.
On top of that, he returned with a whole host of pre-prepared items.
(If my gut feeling is right, things are about to get really bothersome real soon… I should make sure my preparations are ready.)