Volume 1 Finale: Ice lizard lives on?

I'm lying unconscious in a small alley with a splitting headache.

What the hell was I even doing? Did I get defeated by some kind of magic beast?

I quickly check up on all my limbs. They all move as I intend to, and I don't seem to be bleeding anywhere. When I stand up, nothing is hurting either.

Something around my chest feels weird, though.

As I focus on the sensation, a magic circle appears in front of me.

I grab my sword, but there are no magic beasts around. A tiny piece of ice in some weird shape forms in front of me. It looks like someone took a small handful of water and threw it in the air, yet it didn't fall back down. And it's frozen not only in place, but in the literal sense of the word as well.

"So the prince finally woke up?"

It's the voice from far away again, but this time it sounds close. I grip my sword a little tighter.
"Who or what are you?"

"I suppose the most accurate description would be... The remnants of what you called a twice-evolved ice lizard. To think the one to hear my plea and absorb me would be a human... Maybe this is my punishment for so desperately clinging on to life."

"I heard you and did what?!"

"Don't shout like that! Or even better, just think your answers and don't speak at all."

Wait... so that ice magic...

"Yes, that was your lousy attempt at using magic, waking me up from my slumber in the process."

"I finally did it!"

"STOP SHOUTING!
Why did I get absorbed by such an oddball? What use is magic like that going to have anyway?
You're extremely strong with a blade. Why would you throw that away to chase a sliver of magic?"

You don't understand, do you? Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to become a magician. Being able to use magic might not make me a master magician, but it finally gives me a point to start from!

"And a way to get executed, I don't want to die a second time"

How do you know that?

"While you were out cold, someone moved you... Or us. I overheard him saying something along the lines of 'You're lucky I'm who saw this. If anyone knows, you're dead.'
Because I didn't want to die a second time on the same day, I started frantically looking through your memories for information on who he was and why we would die if someone found out."

You can look into my memories? How much have you seen?!

"I saw the fighting and your internal thoughts over the past month."

That's so embarrassing. Why the hell can this lizard even read my memories?

"I can read your internal voices that aren't aimed at me as well."

Shit.
What is your plan from now on, anyway?

"I would have preferred to be an active part of an already existing magic beast... The situation is what it is.
I can't even take over your body, so I'll just accompany you as I live my second life on the passenger seat."

What the hell is up with the first part of that last sentence, but I don't think I want to know.
Instead, I'll just ask what it meant by the first sentence.

"If I had ended up in an existing magic beast, my evolutions would have powered it up while depleting the mana from my soul crystal, while our minds would be fused. You seem to have turned into some sort of magic beast-human hybrid. We don't share the same mind, but our minds are connected, or something like that.
I'm as confused as you are. I just had a few more hours to think about it. When you didn't wake up for hours, I ended up going to sleep as well."

This is so weird and pretty cool.

"I am an ice lizard. I suppose that could explain your feeling cold"

Was that a lousy attempt at a joke, or are you not as good at human speech as it seemed this far?

"I understand the vocabulary, but why do humans use the same sounds for things with completely different meanings? It's so confusing!"

Someone is approaching; keep silent for a moment.

"I regret getting absorbed by you already, giving me orders like that"

Just shut up

"So you woke up." As I hear the words, I see Pierre turning the corner.

"Oh, that's the guy who said you would die if others find out"

Thanks for the information, but I thought I told you to stay quiet.

After lashing out at the voices inside my head, I respond to Pierre's question:
"Yes, I just woke up. I don't remember anything after I was chasing a rock deer, though. Did I fall off the roof and hit my head or something?"

"Such a lousy excuse. He saw you eat me and use magic on par with a class five magic beast. Do you really think he'll buy this?"

Class five magic beast? I thought I could only make a tiny weird piece of ice?
Actually... Shut up already, I don't need a lizard making things even more confusing right now!

"You don't know?"
Is it just me, or is Pierre really a man of few words? It's like he conveys the general idea of what he's saying in as few words as possible.

I'm not sure if I should trust Pierre. He doesn't seem like a bad guy from the times I saw him, but if I'm similar to a magic beast, doesn't that make it his job to kill me? Does it even matter if I trust him? If I try to run away now, he'll kill me for sure! I'm not sure if I also got physically stronger after absorbing this lizard, but there's no way I'm stronger than Pierre!

Pierre breaks the silence: "I will pretend I don't know."

"Thank you."

I suppose that solves the matter. I'm not entirely sure how I'll train to become a great magician without anyone finding out, but that's a problem for later.

Pierre starts walking in the direction he came from, as he waves at me to follow him.

We can see the lizard's corpse in the distance as we're walking, presumably back to camp.

"It's kind of sad, seeing your own corpse"

You can see as well?

"Oh yes, I can use all your senses, I just can't send signals for some reason."

The closer we get to the lizard, the more giant blue pillars I see protruding from the ground. It takes me a minute to realise that these hundreds of pillars, metres tall each, are not actually pillars. They're giant icicles, and some are partially painted red. Corpses of magic beasts and humans alike are littered across the floor. There are at least a hundred monster corpses and a third as many humans. It's nauseating, but I can hold it in.

That is, until we pass by a corpse I recognise. It's the kunoichi girl from yesterday. She's missing the entire bottom half of her body, which is probably buried by the giant icicle on top of her. .

I start throwing up on the spot. Pierre rubs me on the back as he silently apologises.
"Sorry you saw that."

When we reach the campsite, Thomas , August, Andy, Henry and Leo are gathered around a campfire. One is bandaged even more than the next, but they're still in one piece.

Leo, Henry and Thomas get teary eyes when they see I'm still alive. Thomas and, surprisingly, August are the only ones to actually wipe away a tear. Oh, and me as well. I can't help being a bit emotional finding out they all survived right after seeing that many bodies, okay?

The voice inside my head interrupts our reunion: "Why are you all crying now? You're all alive and perfectly healthy, aren't you?"

Please just shut up for today, will you? You're the reason all these people died.

"You know...
Actually, Fine."

Thank you

Thomas raises his hand, as if for a handshake. "I almost thought I wouldn't be able to say this, but would you like to officially join our party as a full-time member?"

So the kunoichi was right?

As I think of her again, more tears well up. I take his hand and respond as I start sobbing at the realisation that she'll never be able to speak to anyone again, just like the other deceased. "Y-yes"

I fulfilled my first dream of becoming a magician. Well, at least a little bit.
I won't be able to return home to fulfil my second dream and propose to the cute daughter of a great blacksmith.

But both of those dreams pale in comparison to my desire to travel the entire empire with these six people. Talking about travelling, I should say hi to Clover tomorrow.

As my worries slowly melt away, I fall asleep on the log near the campfire.
We'll have great adventures together, but for now, I hope we can just rest together for a few weeks or months.