Chapter 5: Recovering My Body
Kaian had already guessed that becoming close to Eldarin would not be easy.
Even ignoring the fact that she suddenly had another person living in her home...
Their first meeting had begun with Kaian threatening her with a candlestick.
Then he had almost burned the entire house down.
It was safe to say he had completely ruined his first impression.
Still, she said she'd raise me into a hero.
Didn't that mean she saw some kind of potential in him?
Eldarin had even spent several days nursing him back to health.
She gave him medicine and made sure to mention that she had made it herself.
When Kaian's arms hurt too much for him to hold a spoon, she even fed him soup.
Surely she would not go through all that trouble unless she considered him a precious disciple.
At least...
That was what Kaian had thought.
"AAAAH! I was eating! That hurts! It hurts! Put me down!"
"You're noisy."
For some reason, Kaian had been grabbed by the back of his neck in the middle of eating soup and was now being dragged away by Eldarin.
She pulled him upstairs.
The room there was strange.
A tree grew directly from the middle of the floor.
Eldarin picked Kaian up.
Then she threw him at the tree.
CRASH!
"Ow!"
Kaian groaned.
His entire back stung so badly that he could not even touch it.
"Ughhh..."
Eldarin might have looked like a delicate woman on the outside...
But she was unbelievably strong.
That was why Kaian had started wondering if her true species was closer to a mountain goat than an elf.
Of course, he had no idea how strong mountain goats actually were.
Still, judging from his experiences so far, he assumed they must be extremely muscular animals.
Her grip was ridiculous when she pulled my ear too.
And she's thrown me onto the bed several times...
Whenever that happened, Kaian could only hold the painful area and groan.
The difference in strength was simply too large for him to even consider fighting back physically.
Kaian shouted angrily.
"You can't just throw me! I'm a patient! I can't even properly get out of bed yet! ...Ma'am!"
After arguing with her for days, he kept forgetting to speak politely all the way to the end.
Eldarin did not care.
She simply scolded him.
"And yet this patient keeps demanding that I teach him magic."
Kaian felt wronged.
Demanding?
Wasn't Eldarin the one who said she would teach him?
They had even performed some huge, impressive contract.
He now had a slightly embarrassing but admittedly cool butterfly pattern on his left wrist.
And yet, the moment he woke up, Eldarin had immediately told him...
Do not even think about using magic for a while.
What kind of person would simply answer, "Yes, understood," after hearing that?
Ever since then, the two had been arguing every day.
"Teach me magic."
"No."
"Teach me."
"No."
Kaian had become both angry and miserable.
"You said you'd teach me! You said you'd make me stronger!"
Eldarin looked like she genuinely had a headache.
Kaian had learned from storybooks that elves had better hearing than humans.
That was exactly why he shouted even louder.
He wanted to annoy her.
It was basically the only form of attack available to him.
Besides, I grew up with two older brothers...!
The youngest child in a house with two older brothers could never win with strength.
So at the very least, he had to train his voice.
If his brothers ever attacked him, he needed to be able to scream loudly enough for someone else in the house to hear.
Otherwise, there was no telling how many bumps would appear on his head.
Kaian used the powerful voice he had trained through all eight years of his life.
"Liar! Why did you lie?! You promised you'd teach me!"
A vein appeared on Eldarin's beautiful forehead.
Kaian had once read that elves were proud and hated being insulted.
Apparently, that story had been true.
Kaian felt slightly guilty.
But he could not back down.
At this very moment, the people who killed his family were probably enjoying peaceful lives.
They removed our family, their biggest obstacle.
The more time passes, the stronger their power will become.
The longer Kaian remained in bed...
The greater the distance between him and them would become.
That meant he needed to learn magic as quickly as possible.
He needed to become strong.
Kaian shouted with tears filling his eyes.
"I signed the contract because you said you'd teach me magic!"
"You said you'd make me stronger!"
His voice shook.
"I don't have time!"
Anyone else might have felt pity after seeing him like that.
Eldarin only answered in an even colder voice.
"How long do you think becoming strong takes?"
She stared down at him.
"A week? A month? A year?"
Then her voice hardened.
"If it takes ten years, can you endure it?"
"If it takes even longer than that, can you remain patient?"
Kaian finally stopped shouting.
Ten years.
What if it truly took that long?
Or even longer?
Could he endure all those years without losing his mind?
Kaian opened and closed his mouth, searching for an answer while trapped inside that terrible thought.
But Eldarin stopped him firmly.
"I intend to raise a hero."
Her voice was as cold as a blade.
"I have no interest in helping with some childish revenge."
Kaian froze.
"If you are so unable to control your anger that you wish to rush toward death, then leave."
Her eyes showed no mercy.
"I have no need for such a student."
Kaian's heart dropped.
Leave?
Go where?
There was nowhere left for him to return to.
Silence finally filled the room.
Eldarin swallowed a sigh.
Then she grabbed one of Kaian's arms and raised it with ridiculous strength.
"Urgh!"
This time, Kaian did not resist.
Eldarin pulled a dagger from the pouch around her waist.
Kaian's eyes widened.
The pouch looked barely large enough to hold a hand mirror and one snack.
Yet somehow, she had pulled out a dagger much larger than the entire pouch.
That was cheating.
But this probably wasn't the right time to complain.
Eldarin used the dagger to make a tiny cut on the tip of Kaian's finger.
Strangely, he barely felt more than a small sting.
A round drop of blood gathered on his fingertip.
Then it fell onto one of the leaves of the tree standing in the middle of the room.
Drip.
The leaf began glowing turquoise.
Fwoooosh...
The light immediately flowed into the branch.
From the branch, it moved into the trunk.
Then from the trunk, into the roots.
Kaian quickly followed the direction of the roots.
They go beneath the wooden floor and toward that wall!
A full-length mirror hung on that wall.
Its frame was woven from wooden vines.
A mirror?
Could that be the entrance to Eldargrove?
Meanwhile, Eldarin noticed exactly where Kaian's eyes were moving.
She felt pleased.
But her expression became even more serious.
He's definitely more intelligent than children his age.
But he understands far too little about his own condition.
Of course, Eldarin herself had not properly explained anything to him either.
It had been several hundred years since she had last communicated with humans.
Much less a human child.
Naturally, she was awkward at it.
Fwoooosh...
Just as Kaian predicted, the turquoise mana traveled from the roots under the wooden floor and into the vine frame around the mirror.
Eldarin explained in her usual dry voice.
"Trees stretch out their roots and share information with one another."
"Because of that, they know nearly everything that happens across this land."
She gestured toward the mirror.
"This mirror allows us to see that information."
The entire vine frame had now turned turquoise.
The mirror's surface began to ripple.
HUMMMMM.
Soon, it showed the face of a man wandering through the forest.
Kaian found the man's face strangely familiar.
Who is that?
I feel like I've seen him before.
Eldarin spoke.
"They are searching for you."
Kaian immediately turned toward her.
Eldarin ignored his stare and continued calmly.
"They are from House Belore."
His eyes widened.
"They've been searching the forest for several days, saying they are looking for their sister's youngest son."
Kaian stared at the man inside the mirror as if hypnotized.
Now that Eldarin had mentioned it...
The man's face really did resemble his mother, Liana.
The man in the mirror appeared to be receiving a report from one of his subordinates.
"My lord! The mana trace ends here!"
