Chapter 29:

Together

Saga of the Three Warriors


“It’s mogage,” Jarred corrected me. “Theoretically yes, but the material is notoriously brittle to non-magical forces, so I find the concept questionable.” And then he frowned. “I’m not selling you my lump, boy.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s fine. I admit it could be useful, but… it would inhibit my own magic, right?”

“Depending on where you store it, that might be the case,” said the old man but still glanced at the drawer where I knew the metal was stored. I noticed this a few times before, but he would cast a covert defense spell of some sort on it after putting it back.

“Say… how does that work?” I said, looking at the drawer too. “Doesn’t it cancel the defense?” I had a feeling I already knew the answer to this, but I wanted to hear an expert confirm it.

“Silly boy—the metal absorbs magic only through touch. I cast the spell on the outside of the drawer.”

I nodded. I suspected as much. After all, even if Two’s knife really was made of the material, I did manage to cast the levitation spell on her.

That made me wonder about One, though. If it was so rare and hard to process, surely he hadn’t been built entirely from it, right?

Maybe I should ask his builder the next time we meet. She was crazy enough that she might actually give an answer.

That caused me to wonder about something else, though.

“Say,” I asked. “Have you ever heard about a sword you can summon into your hand even if it’s far away?”

Jarred looked confused as expected. “A magical sword…? I suppose that’s not outside the realm of possibility. But enchanted items aren’t my specialty.”

I figured. “And something like that wouldn’t be made of mogage, right?”

“Mogage? Obviously not. Only a fool would craft a mogage sword, and no magic would work on it.”

I’d been suspicious of Saga so conveniently “finding” a sword for quite a while now, and had been wondering whether she found some magical abilities of her own.

It was a pity Jarred didn’t know, because the girl herself would definitely not answer my questions. Ah well.

My eyes strayed to the wardrobe again. “I do wonder if it would’ve given me some edge against Three… but oh well.”

“Going against him is suicide anyway, stupid cub.”

“I already told you—I’m the warrior from the prophecy. I’ll make it happen somehow.” During our lessons I pretty much spilled the beans on everything, but true to his nature thus far, the old man didn’t seem impressed in the least.

“Load of nonsense,” he spat. “That prophecy’s worth nothing. I can see why you think you’re some sort of hotshot, but to attach any importance to something like a prophecy is beyond foolish.”

“And what would you even know?” I asked back. “I’m clearly special in many ways, so wouldn’t that support the prophecy? Or what, are you old enough to have heard it in person or something?”

He gave me a glare. “No, though it had been a hot topic for discussion back when I was a whelp myself. A lot of people think it’s been misinterpreted.”

“How, exactly?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“Mainly to do with the number. Some are unsure if it’s really supposed to be ‘Three Warriors’. Others claim that the great evil will be defeated not by three warriors, but in three centuries. That kind of stuff.”

Hmm, so basically the exact wording and its meaning was unknown, then. It made sense to assume the prophecy had undergone some distortions on its way across the kingdom and throughout history, after all. In fact, that made it all the more amazing even the isolated Harko Forest knew of it.

This raised a new question, though.

“Now that I think about it, where did the prophecy come from, anyway?” I asked. “I didn’t think to ask because I kinda took it for granted…”

“Hmm, I don’t rightfully know myself. I heard some stories about oracles having existed before, but nothing concrete.”

Since he knew nothing else about the subject we just continued our session. He showed me other kinds of useful spells and even taught me how to preserve energy while casting.

“This might be our last time,” I told him as we decided to finish for today. “We’ll probably be leaving by tomorrow.”

“That so? Good riddance,” the man said gruffly. “Take care of yourself, hatchling. Three’s going to eat you alive, and I’m not going to shed tears over this.”

Despite his harsh words, I could see his expression soften just a little bit. He almost looked like a kindly grandfather for a moment there.

“Well… I might come say goodbye tomorrow morning. See you, anyway.”

“Goodbye, stupid puppy.”

“And don’t come back!” added Marita as I passed by her on the way out. She liked to eavesdrop on our conversations, the nasty hag.

On my way back I found an unexpected individual: Saga had apparently come back from some hunt or something, since she was carrying a rather heavy-looking bag and heading toward the market.

Despite her constantly cold demeanor, she almost seemed to be glowing under the sun… or wait, were my eyes seeing things?

Wondering about this and seeing her struggle with her burden besides, I walked up toward her.

“Need some help, Saga?” I asked and touched the sack.

She stopped in place, confused by my sudden appearance, and what she was carrying faintly rose into the air. She widened her eyes.

“Hah… what are you doing?” she asked, more confused than cold.

“Levitation magic,” I said simply. “I actually also have a weight-decreasing magic, if you’d prefer that.”

“Probably better, so people don’t see,” she said, glancing around.

I actually didn’t even think about it, but some people noticed the clearly supernatural effect. Saga and I hurried away elsewhere as I stopped the levitation.

Even cold and brusque as she acted, I already knew she had a softer side; she probably just couldn’t show her feelings well.

One of these days I’d melt her heart for sure.

“Say… is it just me or is your hair getting kinda blonde recently?” I asked conversationally.

Thinking back on it, it had been a steady process over these last few days. Little by little, strands of brighter hair peeked from her head.

“Hah,” she breathed. “I can’t keep dyeing my hair here, after all.”

I blinked. “Wait… what? Your hair’s dyed?”

She gave no answer, which I took to be a “yes”.

“So you’re originally blonde? Huh.” There’d never been even the tiniest hint of that. Did Kai know about it? “Why did you dye it, then?”

“Stands out less,” she mumbled in response.

“Surely you realize you stand out regardless,” I noted.

Saga actually stopped in place and stared at me. It wasn’t an angry look—just an empty one.

But I got the feeling I could by now understand some of the intricacies behind her expressionlessness; there were subtle changes in her eyes, for example.

Eyes that were cold yet also so beautiful. I somehow grew used to it during our travels together, but someone like me would usually blush from interacting with such a cute girl. She had an amazing figure, flawless skin and she was even very strong and athletic to boot.

Pretty much the perfect woman. Even if she hid those beautiful eyes behind glasses, concealed her hair color and tied it, that changed nothing. She would be eye-catching no matter where she went and what she wore, whether for good or bad.

I almost proposed to her on the spot—almost suggested to her that we could rule the world together afterwards. I didn’t even think about Kai at the moment.

But I had the feeling this wouldn’t inspire any positive feelings in her, so I decided to appeal to something she wanted to do. Despite her motives being as opaque as ever.

“Let’s beat Two,” I said, “and then Three as well. We’re not going to fail in this quest.”

“Hah,” she scoffed, as she usually did. “Of course we will.” She turned away and continued walking with her haul, not even waiting for me.

But I did notice she used the plural there, and that made me smile.
WALKER
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