Chapter 5
I. The Mage in the Basement
From a young age, Jeina had always possessed an extraordinary curiosity.
“Jeina! Jeina!”
“Jeina? She’s not here?”
“Not here either?… Don’t tell me, again? So soon! It’s starting again! I thought she was being quiet, has she gone to the Barren Lands again?”
“What is it about that place she finds so appealing, running off there all the time? A land with no magic, no fun—what could possibly be there to see?”
Animosity towards magic, indiscriminate witch hunts. Over the long years, the world had unwittingly become a magic wasteland, and the surviving mages had built their own secluded communities, hiding from the world’s eyes.
The mage village, Pamenta. The village’s only child, Jeina.
For the mages of Pamenta, tracking the mana of the constantly disappearing child had become a daily task.
“Luccia! Did you see the traces of this teleportation circle?”
“Yes. How could I miss it… This is the first time I’ve seen one so dense and intricate.”
“Right? Heh… That’s our Jeina for you! I’m glad I’ve lived this long! To see with my own two eyes, before my dissipation! To see and feel a magic circle only used in ancient times…! What an honor, don’t you agree?”
“Yeah, an honor… Wait?”
“Huh?”
The mages marveled at her magic,
“No! Is now the time for marveling?! If she keeps using it so recklessly like this, won’t the child exhaust her mana? Erta, she at least listens to you, so tell her to be moderate! Just a little moderation! Aren’t you worried?”
“Oh my? Can you really think that after seeing this? Her mana wouldn’t run out even if she used it extravagantly her whole life! And so what if it does? Someone of Jeina’s caliber can draw mana from anywhere. Can mages like us even comprehend a vessel like that?”
“Don’t you know that’s all the more reason to be careful? One must always be wary of waste. And… what if she gets caught because of that?”
“Luccia. Trying to stop it is pointless. What is destined to happen, will happen. You know that, don’t you?”
“……”
“Pamenta will disappear soon, and we will soon dissipate. In the end, only Jeina will remain. Let Jeina live freely… Because this choice will save both Jeina and magic itself.”
They saw hope,
“So! Until we dissipate! We must protect Jeina properly, right!”
“…I will protect her. Don’t worry.”
They worried about her, too.
“Stop chattering and just find Jeina!”
Anyway, with her boundless curiosity and overflowing magical power, Jeina was more than capable of giving all the village mages the slip.
And late at night, without fail, she would tiptoe back on her own two feet…
“Huh? Everyone’s still awake? Great! I, uh, got some bread so we could all eat it together! It’s made by the most famous baker in the Empire… Hehe…”
She was a child who would offer a bribe with a cheeky grin, her heart full of apology.
“Jeina! Do you think we’ll just let it slide with a smile every time you keep bringing this stuff?”
“Yeah! What is it this time? Bread?”
“Ha! If it’s bread, you think it’s sweet?”
“Well, isn’t all bread?”
“…What?”
“What! Why! Oh! There’s a tart too! A green grape tart!”
“Save some. And don’t you go scarfing it all down in one bite again?”
And then, the mages, as if they understood her heart perfectly, would noisily gather around Jeina and her ‘bribe’.
“Oh my! We really can’t just magically tie her down to stop this.”
“And you think that would stop this one from leaving? This little rascal, huh?”
“Jeina, what is it about that Barren Land that makes you go out there so often? Let’s ask her, shall we? This old mage’s mind simply can’t comprehend it.”
At Luccia’s question, Jeina rolled her small head thoughtfully.
“Hmm… Well, you see…”
At first, it was just a simple mistake. The kind a young mage might make, one with a vast amount of power dwelling in a small body but no knowledge of how to control it.
Until she was six, Jeina had never been outside Pamenta.
Even though Pamenta was a space created to evade outside eyes, it was a village made of magic. Even if Jeina spent all day rummaging around here and there, there were plenty of new things to play with.
Moreover, even though they pretended otherwise and acted aloof, the mages cherished the young mage born after hundreds of years. Perhaps even more than they cherished themselves. They’d say things like, ‘What does a number like age even matter?’ and, despite not knowing their own ages, without fail on every one of Jeina’s birthdays, they would stick an inextinguishable candle into a giant cake.
If anything, Pamenta had an abundance, a surplus. There was nothing lacking there.
Her first excursion outside of Pamenta happened just before her seventh birthday. As usual, she was scrambling around the village with teleportation magic, but this time she failed to control her power and opened her eyes to another world.
The sights she had never seen, the smells she had never encountered, the sounds she had never heard—they all captivated Jeina, whose attention was always drawn to the new. Even the colorful heads of hair were a marvel to her, who had only ever seen heads of black, albeit in varying shades. The existence of male creatures, who looked somehow different from the mages she was used to, was also fascinating. The act of treasuring clanking hunks of metal as if they were precious, the boisterous noise of the city, the strange scents wafting from women in lavish dresses, the stench of filthy back alleys… Not a single thing failed to be novel.
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