〈 Episode 334 〉 Given Time (3)
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Summer has passed and fall has come.
Some time had passed since the leaves began to turn color, and the leaves barely hanging on the branches began to fall. The trail was dyed yellow and red.
The hill where the Trias family’s mansion is located.
The road leading to the hill is full of crumbled leaves. There are people heading towards the mansion, rustling the fallen leaves. They are students of Aplia. There is no need to say the purpose of their visit.
Rania van Trias.
To meet her.
Two weeks have already passed since Professor Rania stopped appearing in Aplia. Although she heard that she was not feeling well, she became worried when she and Professor Rossell did not show her face for two weeks.
Even though many people expressed their intention to visit, Professor Rossell coldly dismissed them, saying, ‘This is not the situation.’ However, he did not stop Aplia’s students from coming to visit.
Only a small number of students headed to the mansion.
Only Lark, Belnoa, Resty, Chloe, and Ayla, who were in frequent contact with Rania, arrived at Trias Mansion. When they knocked on the door, the door to the mansion opened with a squeak.
“···Are you here?”
The first person to meet them was the wide-eyed Roselle van Trias. Roselle, who seemed to be several years older and without his usual sharp expression, greeted them.
“Thank you for your visit, princess.”
As Rosell describes the students’ identities one by one, the last thing his eyes focus on is Resty.
“···The next Gray Magic Tower lord, Resty Eleanoa.”
“Yes, Elder Rossell.”
“I’m not a senior anymore, but anyway, thank you for visiting. “I’m sure he’ll like it when he sees your face.”
Roselle laughed bitterly.
“Thank you so much for coming.”
It’s a weak voice.
Rosell said he would bring the car so go in first and pointed to the room where Rania was staying, and the students started walking.
It is a mansion that originally did not have a separate manager.
Everything in the mansion is managed with magic tools and circuits, as befits a wizard family… but when you look around, dust is accumulating. It looks like it hasn’t been managed. The only thing that has been managed is the room where Rania stays and the road leading to that room.
smart.
The students opened the door with a short knock.
The moment I opened the door, a breeze blew. The dry autumn wind. It is a wind with a slight coolness.
“Professor Rania.”
Resty called her name.
Rania, who was leaning on the bed and looking out the slightly open window, slowly turned her head. Her gray, matted hair fell down. Her dull blue eyes that had lost their shine looked at her resty.
The reaction is a bit late.
Rania belatedly smiled and nodded.
“Come on.”
The students swallowed their dry saliva and walked closer to her. With everyone heading towards Rania, only Resti stood still.
“······.”
Resty’s eyes wavered as he looked at Rania.
Elder, Cranbel Eleanor.
An old man rushing to his destined death.
The expression he made before the approaching end and the expression Rania made now were surprisingly similar.
2.
“It’s okay, it’s okay.”
Rania joked with the students, waving her arms, which she could barely move after two weeks.
“It’s because I used up too much mana. “It’s a symptom of exhaustion, just wait a little longer and it will happen.”
“···Symptoms of exhaustion?”
“There was also a time when I behaved a bit harshly.”
Rania laughed bitterly.
“I pierced the highest level magic, that is, an ancient spell, with my bare body, but this is a relatively cheap price to pay.”
The students’ facial expressions are subtle.
Rania lowered her head slightly, hiding her trembling hands. Her gray hair falls down. Rania let out a short breath, her lustrous hair sticking to her dry skin.
One deep breath.
After compiling herself, Rania raised her head.
“Why is your expression so grim?”
Rania chuckled.
“If anyone saw me, I thought I was going to die.”
“···Status.”
Belnoa opened his mouth.
“Isn’t your condition very bad?”
Belnoa remembers the black magic tower lord who came to see Rania, canceling all overdue work and leafing through banned books.
“I am a businessman.”
“I act by weighing the pros and cons of everything. That’s how I learned it. I acted like that. So, this action can also be viewed in that way…”
I don’t want to do that.
The Black Magic Tower lord muttered that and sighed.
“It can’t happen.”
“I’m not a very emotional person, and I’m not one to envy heroes, but still, this isn’t right.”
If it weren’t for the gray mage like he always said, he was the black magic tower owner who was muttering like that.
“He’s a person who shouldn’t go that way.”
At some point, he was saying that.
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Belnoa didn’t know what he saw to make him react that way, but he could infer that Rania’s condition was serious.
“if···.”
At that time, when you saved me.
At that time, I put my life expectancy on the scale.
“no.”
Rania abruptly interrupted Belnoa, who was about to mumble. She said firmly.
“That has nothing to do with it.”
Rania looked at Belnoa.
“It has nothing to do with you. “It’s just that a problem that has been building up has exploded… and it will be resolved soon.”
She said, shrugging her shoulders.
“Who am I?”
“···You are the Gray Wizard.”
“okay. It is also a fact that has now become an open secret. “Ashen Wizard Raniel Van Trias.”
Rania chuckled.
I tried to hide it, but somehow, all these kids knew my identity.
“After finding out that I am such a big person, what do you think? “It gives you some respect, doesn’t it?”
“He is a great man.”
“Yes, I am that great…”
I flinch.
Rania’s ears turned red.
Rania turned her head and glared at Ayla, who muttered the word ‘great’.
“That’s right, the great Raniel.”
“Well…”
“Because you are great.”
Ayla said, biting her lip.
“Are you going to wake up soon?”
“sure.”
Rania smiled and answered.
“Who am I? He is a gray wizard and a soldier who has experienced many magical encounters. “I’ll wake up soon, so don’t worry, just do your homework.”
After a brief chat, the students left the visitation gifts and turned around. As the doors were opened one by one, only Resti remained there.
“Professor Rania.”
“huh.”
“Ashen Wizard.”
“···Did you find out then?”
“yes.”
Raniel van Trias.
Resty slowly opened his mouth as he pondered the name.
“At one time I hated you, at one time I was jealous… but I still admire you, Raniel.”
You were my rival.
You might not think so, but I thought so. I’ve fantasized about surpassing you several times. Imagine becoming a gray person who is better than anyone else and leading the magic tower.
“therefore.”
Resty clenched his fists.
She bowed her head in front of Rania. With a suppressed gasp, Resty swallowed her tears.
“Don’t die.”
Please don’t leave my side.
“The elder has passed away.”
A small funeral was held amidst the chaos.
Resty felt a sense of emptiness, as if there was a hole in the middle of his chest. It will take a long time to fill that emptiness, but before you can adjust to that emptiness, another loss is about to come.
Resty, who sensed this, pleaded.
“My father and teacher passed away, and Professor Rania is the only one who cares for me now. “The only thing I look at is the professor.”
A teacher and a gift.
At the same time, you were my goal.
“Don’t leave.”
As for you, please don’t leave.
Rania could not give any answer to Resty who was pleading. She simply lifted her arm with difficulty and placed it on Resty’s head.
“I’ll try.”
I just answer like that.
* * *
All the students left.
The sun had set and the night was deep. Unable to fall asleep, Rania looked out her window. Only her own face is visible in her tightly closed window.
A face that has changed a lot.
However, my face has now adapted.
Rania reflected in the window is expressionless.
This is the facial expression he kept as a wise man. Act cool-headed no matter what you see. It was a role that was required of her, and Rania has performed it well over the years.
He was called a wise man.
He showed a perfect appearance as a warrior’s companion.
To act it out, Rania put a mask on her face. He played the perfect version of himself, leaving behind neither fear nor despair. The more Kyle shook, the more solid Rania’s mask became.
That mask.
The mask that has been perfect for years.
So, the mask that I thought had now completely become my face.
Crispy.
It’s collapsing now.
The mask falls away and what remains is the girl’s terrified face. Rania let out a dry laugh as she looked at her expression reflected in the mirror.
“Ha, aha…”
Death approaches.
Rania calculated the time remaining for herself. She knows how long she can hold out. Her mind, which is so quick to calculate, even throws away that conclusion in an instant. She counts not just hours and minutes, but even seconds.
One second passes and falls.
1 second and 1 second add up to 1 minute.
One minute turns into an hour, and an hour becomes another day. Like that again…
Wow.
Rania gritted her teeth.
I try to get rid of the clock that fills my head, but I can even hallucinate the ticking of the second hand. I just can’t get it out of my head.
The fear of death comes rushing in.
It is impossible to escape from it.
Naturally, it is also impossible to overcome.
In the end, humans just rationalize themselves and turn their eyes away from death. Rania has also looked away from death like that until now.
Determination to achieve great feats.
The desire to burn what little life is left and leave a brilliant mark on the world.
With determination and longing, Rania turned her gaze away from the approaching death. That is truly a mindset that someone called a wise person would have. Rania thought it was ‘right’. It will actually be a glorious death.
I can be satisfied with that kind of death.
‘Death like Galahal.’
He was proud of having lived well, and thought that dying for future generations by shedding his blood was the best death he could hope for as a wise man.
‘But what about now?’
Lifting your arms.
Showing off in front of children.
Even that is barely possible. Even if we get better here, we can’t fight like we used to. It means that we cannot face disaster.
Dying life in a hospital room.
A life that will be broken like that.
The ending is not as bright as Galahal.
Shabby. It’s like crumbling fallen leaves. Now that such an end is planned, Rania cannot ignore her death. She looks straight at her approaching death.
How to escape from that death?
There has to be.
It is to crush the path you have walked and defect. Hear the whisper of the seed. We fall for those sweet whispers and become something other than human.
‘That’s impossible.’
However, Rania cannot choose that option.
Rania can never turn away those who died for her. Rania cannot turn her eyes away from the weight of her own life.
but···.
‘Maybe if it were me.’
If it were me, wouldn’t it be possible?
Wouldn’t it be possible for me to maintain my sense of self even after being swallowed up by the shadows? Even the ancient heroes of hundreds of years ago couldn’t do it, but if it were me…
Those arrogant thoughts keep coming back to me.
It is arrogance without any basis. He tries to overconfident himself just to run away from death. Rania feels disgusted with herself for thinking such things.
“···Ugh.”
In the end, Rania couldn’t choose any of them. She just feels death approaching.
Tick.
Time flows.
Tick, tick, tick.
approaching death.
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.
The sound of death rings in my ears.
The approaching death eats away at Rania’s spirit.
In front of him, he is just a human being. He is not a hero with a grand title like a wise man, but a shabby, helpless human being. and.
“···no.”
A human being who feels fear.
Rania lowered her head and muttered. I could taste blood from my tightly bitten lip. I felt something flowing out of the corner of her eye and down her cheek.
I don’t want to die.
“Toouk,” the tears fell on the blanket.
My tightly bitten lips trembled. Rania’s shoulders trembled in extreme fear. Her thin breath escaped through her lips.
A thin sound.
A sound that will be scattered by the blowing wind.
There is someone listening to that sound.
Roselle, standing beyond the slightly open door, is listening to Rania’s mutterings. He repeatedly put his hand on the doorknob and let go.
···Wizards are a damn race.
Because he is so cool-headed and has lived a calculated life, he understands all situations very objectively. Rossell knows there is nothing he can do in this situation.
The night was deep.
Another day passes by.
The given time gradually flows towards the end.
3.
Cardi van Armiel.
The ancient great sage is mixing reagents with reagents with his wide eyes. He is squeezing all the knowledge he has accumulated over hundreds of years to come to one answer.
However, there is no answer.
Cardi gritted her teeth.
I roughly swept the reagents on the desk with my arms. The test tubes thrown here and there turned into pieces of glass with a clanging sound.
“Whoa…”
Cardi threw her head back.
Some time has passed since I visited Raniel and checked on her condition. Time passed, but no answer came. Cardi hit the wall.
It’s like hundreds of years ago.
Cardi hit the same wall again. I can’t see the answer. No matter where I went, I couldn’t find an answer. Cardi wiped the corners of her eyes.
“···shit.”
A wizard who shined brightly.
A wizard with the same brilliance as his companions hundreds of years ago. She is falling apart. She is losing her shine little by little.
Cardi can’t stand it.
Cardi saw an empty desk.
This is the moment when I reach out to make a reagent once again.
smart.
Someone knocked on the door of the store.
It is deep night. There are no customers to come. At least not among those where you can find this store. Cardi opened the door to the store, frowning at her.
“Cardi.”
A person standing in front of the door of a store.
“Cardi van Armiel.”
The moment he made eye contact with the person, Cardi’s eyes opened wide. Bigger than ever.
“long time no see.”
The person standing in front of the door laughed.
Cardi gasped at the sight of the person who was much older than she remembered.
“···how?”
Cardi just asks that question.
The person did not answer that question.
Just step inside the store.
“There will be a lot to talk about. “You and me too.”
midnight.
“Let’s sit down first.”
Old store.
The two talked for a while at a store in a corner alley where not even the stars could reach.
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fantasy,
