The Grand Mage Enji Hasegawa

Chapter XXX

The Grand Mage Enji Hasegawa

“The king wants to reward you for what you did.” Galakei patiently waited for Enji to climb into the carriage.

“Can he just e-mail me some thanks and send whatever he wants over the mail?”

“What nonsense are you spouting? Get in!” Galakei furrowed her brow.

Enji sat next to Galakei. Silma, Popa, Nilsei, and Skia, from the other bench, smiled at their comedic exchange.

Eithea had offered to take Oma, the goblin tribe, and the orc boy to Enji’s villa. With her traveled Kasus, the twins, Elpinia, accompanied by her two vampire guards, and Simier, with his party.

Oma had protested at first; she had grown attached to Enji and didn’t want to separate from him. Enji told her that her tribe needed someone used to dealing with ‘hairy’ people, convincing her. Tona returned to the capital with her original companions in a separate carriage.

“What can you tell me of this Dangoor. I heard that Shakos called his kind [osmels],” Galakei asked once the carriage was set in motion.

“He looked like any man except that his skin was of a dark red, like the color of blood, his eyes... the sclera was black, with white or grey pupils,” Enji replied to the mage.

“Anything else?”

“His clothes were of excellent quality. They fitted him perfectly like they were his own, and not as if the nobles had provided them,” Skia commented.

“His head was shaved, and the shadow of where his hair was growing back could be seen.” Nilsei made hand motions around her head to indicate what she saw.

“He... wore perfume,” Popa added after giving it some thought.

The three girls had seen the red-skinned mage closer than anyone else when they approached him in their attack.

“I was too far away to notice anything,” Silma said.

Galakei remained silent for a few seconds. “If we leave aside his strange eyes and skin color, it would describe a vain noble hiding his receding hairline and accentuating his importance by wearing expensive clothes and perfume.”

Huh? Enji realized the implications of what Galakei was getting at. “Could this Dangoor be a man from a different race and not a monster?”

“Who knows. He might come from the other side of the world or someplace similar to where you came from.”

The four girls looked at Galakei, confused. They didn’t know Enji wasn’t from this world, so the wording of the mage sounded strange.

How big is this planet? Without a reliable measurement standard and knowledge of mathematics and astronomy, it would be impossible to find out, in Enji’s opinion.

“I wonder if Dangoor is an isolated case, or are there others like him causing chaos in other places?”

“I might have seen their kind before.”

“What do you mean?” Galakei stared at him.

“When I carried Skia on my back, I saw a different kind of monster from the ones attacking. It looked like a man, and now that I think about it, it wore clothes.”

“Could it be the same monster?”

“Can’t say for sure, it was pitch black and raining, but... it just observed me and I didn’t feel hatred in its eyes like I did from Dangoor.”

“I see... Nevertheless, let’s sit back and relax for now.” Galakei flashed them her characteristic skeletal smile.

***

The king bestowed great honors and rewards upon Enji, things he considered to be more of a nuisance than anything else.

Not only did they begin calling him Grand Mage at the court, but they also gave him the titles of Kingdom Defender and Knight of the Crown. Enji refused again to be named lord of some unknown domain and a position on the palace court. Both had become vacant after Shakos’ death.

They even wanted him to marry someone of very high noble blood, for which he too refused without asking who she was. He understood why the king was so desperate to award so many things. They wanted to keep him in this kingdom. He was considered highly valuable for the contributions he could provide.

The mage’s guild wooed him into enrolling in their corps not as an apprentice, but as an instructor. Then, of course, each noble house either wished to adopt him into their family or marry him to one of their daughters, and, if they didn’t have a marriageable daughter left, they would resort to the extreme of divorcing one of their older girls from her current husband so that Enji could marry her.

I have a headache. Enji propped his elbow on the table and rested his head on his hand. To anyone who saw this, it would appear that he was lost in deep thought.

Enji was currently sitting at the king’s council table, where high officials were discussing what to do about the Tilek Theocracy, which had been complicit with an unknown enemy in orchestrating the graks’ attacks throughout the kingdom.

“Lord Enji, what do you think we should do? Lord Enji...?

Who is this lord who is not responding? Right! That lord is me. Enji sighed and opened his eyes.

“I think it is premature to declare war on the Theocracy without knowing precisely what compelled them to act this way and how and what they would gain by doing so. This is what Lord Enji told me earlier,” Galakei lied as easily as she breathed.

Enji closed his mouth and lowered his finger, and with a serious expression, looked at Galakei and nodded. Nooo! Please don’t get me into more trouble! I was about to ask to be excused to use the restroom.

A new round of heated discussions began.

“My liege, what is your opinion?” one of his counsels asked a few minutes later.

“Let’s get our spy corps involved in these meetings; they might already have some of the answers we seek. Let’s adjourn for now.”

“Yes, my liege!”

The meeting was scheduled for the next day. For which Enji felt relief, even if only for that day.

***

“What’s wrong with you? You hardly had said a word since we left the capital. Are you sick?” Galakei asked Enji, who had been extremely quiet since they left the palace by carriage.

“I’m going to become a hikikomori once we get home,” Enji uttered. He had been overwhelmed by the presence of so many people back in the capital that he wanted to be left alone.

“You are spouting strange things again,” Galakei reprimanded him.

“Leave me alone.”

“Go and sit with the girls if you feel so much discomfort with my company.” Galakei pouted, turning her face away from him.

Enji glanced at the four sleeping girls on the bench across from them. He faced Galakei. “Sorry, that’s not it. It’s that I’m tired.”

“Then lie on my lap.” Galakei pulled him down to her lap.

Strangely, Enji didn’t feel discomfort at what he thought would be all bones. After a while, with the rocking of the carriage and Galakei’s delicate perfume, and her gently caressing his hair, he fell asleep.

“What is this place?”

“That’s your villa,” Galakei replied.

Enji and the four girls got out of the carriage and stood enthralled in front of the mansion. The building was as large as the Galakei’s mansion, but more elaborate in its exterior architecture. There was a fountain in the front and gardens all around.

And that fat pig had several of these?

“Let’s meet everyone,” Galakei pushed Enji forward.

By the main door, several people waited. Enji recognized some; others were strangers.

Eithea and Elpinia, followed by Lia and Maka, approached the just-arrived travelers.

“Welcome to your new home, Lord Enji. Welcome to House Hasegawa.” Eithea greeted them.

“Huh?”

Elpinia curtsied. “Welcome, Grand Mage Enji.” Lia and Maka bowed.

Pol and Sol greeted Enji and his companions, and the rest of the people by the door also bowed and greeted them.

Two men stepped forward. One was the big fellow who had pushed the domain lord’s carriage with Enji back at Galakei’s mansion, and the other he didn’t recognize; he had a peg leg.

“Oi, lord lad, I’m in charge of security.” Koll thumped his chest proudly. “Don’t worry, everyone here will be safe with me.”

“Huh, thanks?” Enji stared at the giant who had just flexed his muscles.

“You don’t know me, but I’m alive because of your valiant rescue. I was their party’s captain,” the man with the peg leg said as he pointed to Koll, and continued, “My name is Sarko, and I’ll be taking care of the villa’s grounds. My wife, Ninia...,” He pointed to one of the women behind him. “...works in the kitchen.”

Enji nodded.

Three maids and another man completed the welcoming party. Enji was so stunned that he didn’t catch their names; he only remembered that they were of the four-ears race.

Once inside, they were led to the receiving hall. Once seated, Eithea spoke, “Nilsei, Silma, Popa, from now on, you will be living in this house.”

“Mistress...”

“Don’t call me that. None of you were my slaves to begin with. You had been free from the moment I purchased you. The same goes for you two.” She looked at the twins.

Sol and Pol thanked her.

Later, I’ll give you your parchments, which state that you are part of House Hasegawa.”

“Mistress, where will you go?” Nilsei asked. Silma and Popa’s faces reflected the same question.

“Go? I’m going nowhere. I, too, will live here.”

The three girls jumped from their seats and hurried to hug her.

“Lady Eithea, what about the farm? The animals... I didn’t ask before, but when we went to the capital for the duel, I didn’t see them at the farm.”

“They weren’t there. They were in the village and will arrive shortly; the Raarea will need livestock in their settlement.”

One girl had remained sitting in silence. Skia stared at the floor.

It hadn’t escaped Galakei’s notice what the girl was feeling. “Don’t worry, my dear, you too will stay in this house.”

“Yes, you’ll have the name Hasegawa attached to yours, just like me. I’ll be called, Melieithea Hasegawa!”

“Huh? If you do so, people are going to assume something else!” Enji rose from his seat.

“What of it?” Eithea swiveled her upper ears toward Enji.

“In my country, adopting a family name means that you are married!”

“I don’t see any problem with that.” Eithea crossed her arms under her bosom, emphasizing it. “I may as well be your wife, you already caressed my tail.” She coiled her tail forward and hugged it.

“Then I shall change my name too. I’ll be Galakei [Kilai] Hasegawa of Deadleaves!” She did one of her poses. “I’ll be his wife too, because Enji slept in my lap!”

Eithea and the mage started arguing about who was a better wife, while the four girls talked among themselves in whispers, and Enji sat back down, holding his head in both hands.

***

To Enji, the designation ‘Villa’ had another meaning. He had imagined a vacationing chalet in the mountains, with perhaps a horse stable and a river or lake nearby to spend the summers away from the city leisurely. The reality was that this Villa had more land than some cities back on Earth. It featured a river, a lake, a forest, grassy plains, and the remains of a small village.

Several people worked on reconstructing the once-inhabited village. Among them were the goblin women.

“What do you think?” Eithea smiled as she proudly showed Enji the houses being fixed or built.

“What happened to the people who lived here?”

“Mitage drove them away, because he didn’t like to look at commoners.”

“I hate nobles!”

“You are one now.”

Before Enji could reply, someone came running to him. She jumped and hugged him with force. Enji thought his ribs were going to crack.

“Oma missed Enji.” She bawled on his chest.

Enji patted Oma’s head, not because he was comforting her, but because he couldn’t breathe.

Finally, she released him.

“You have some strange power to enchant women,” Eithea, pouting, commented.

“That’s not true!”

“Oi, isn’t it the lord lad!” Simier with a young girl approached.

“Ah, hello, Simier and...” Enji couldn’t remember the girl’s name.

“Gloram, her name is Gloram.” Simier smiled.

The girl did an awkward curtsy. Enji just nodded. He then turned to Simier.

“What are you doing here?”

“I work for you. For any odd jobs, we will be the ones.” He did an elaborate pose.

Enji thought that there were too many chuuni characters in this world. He turned to Eithea and asked in a whisper, “Who’s paying for his salary?”

“You are, my lord. You received more than titles from my brother. Besides the rewards, you will receive a stipend for the positions you attained.”

“Ah!”

“It’s small now, but as soon as more people settle, it will become a fully functioning village,” Simier stated as he swept his arm to show the houses behind him.

More people... Enji looked toward the village. “Where is Silsil?”

“Silsil, there, learn to speak.” Oma pointed to one of the houses that was already fixed.

“Lady Aslei, the same as the laborers you see here, sent an instructor for the Raarea children. Silsil is there too, learning our language,” Eithea informed Enji.

Enji had just realized that what Oma had spoken was in the region’s language. “Oma, show me around.”

The goblin woman took Enji’s hand and pulled him toward the main street of the village.

***

After dinner, excepting Elpinia and the twins, they all met in the receiving hall.

Enji had the two grimoires he had collected on the labyrinth lying on a low table in front of him. “Because of these, I can now use magic without breaking any spellstones.”

“Thus, they let you channel the [sug].” Galakei took one of the books. She opened it and flipped through the pages. “There are passages written in here that I don’t know what they mean.”

“They look the same.” Eithea took both books and examined them. She knew a lot about grimoires. “It seems like their bindings came from the same animal hide.” Eithea passed the books to the girls, who, one by one, examined them.

“A matched pair,” Galakei observed.

Enji received the books back. He looked at them over again. There were no titles on the cover or the spine.

“Erm... I did notice something,” Nilsei bashfully said.

“Dear, don’t act so retracted in front of Enji. I know I said that all of you were now his betrothed, but in the end, it’s up to him to decide, so cheer up.”

Eithea’s encouragement had a different effect than intended; Nilsei’s cheeks turned red, and not only hers, but Silma, Popa, and Skia’s too.

“Nilsei, what did you notice?” Enji asked.

“On the back, there are faint lines.”

Enji flipped the books on the table. Then he rearranged them one next to the other.

“It looks like an incomplete drawing!” Eithea remarked.

“It means that there should be a third grimoire!” Galakei added.

“Then we must go back to the labyrinth to find it!” Skia rose from her chair, her eyes shining brightly.

Enji hoped that his misguising wouldn’t come true: that Dangoor had found it first.

***

Enji’s party, together with Silmier and his, raided the Forest of Thorns’ Labyrinth, searching for the third book. Oma and the boy Lumo from Simier’s party, who was a tracker, led them to all the clearings. Only two of them contained altars, the one with the trap and the one in the orcs’ cavern. Therefore, that labyrinth didn’t yield the searched grimoire.

Eithea notified her contacts in the grimoire trading business that she was looking for a specific grimoire. Their first lead came from the mages’ guild. A top-ranking instructor mentioned that he might have seen such a book in the palace’s library.

The king had no problem parting with the book on the condition that Enji considered the offer of marrying someone from high nobility. Enji, to get the king off his back, promised he would consider it, to which the king made the cryptic remark, “Talk it out with Thea.”

Thus began the slow process of deciphering the three grimoires in Enji’s possession.