“What do you think I am? Even though I look like this, I’ve lived longer than Ash.”
“Oh, of course. I really respect you.”
Ash said with a sweet tone.
It wasn’t entirely a lie.
Despite being very old, the wizard maintained a youthful appearance, which Ash envied.
The wizard seemed satisfied.
“No, that’s not it. If it were, Owen would have acted like the master and confronted the teacher.”
“Oh, yes. I met Owen Mills. He seems to be a fine master. The soldiers are disciplined, and the servants clearly respect him.”
Ash didn’t want to hear such praise!
“Why didn’t you come right away?!”
He ran toward the door immediately.
As he pressed his ear to it to listen outside, the wizard asked,
“Why are you doing that?”
“Owen is paranoid. If things don’t go his way, he can’t stand it. Since the teacher has come, surely Owen put a watcher behind him. If the teacher escaped right before his eyes, what do you think he’d think?!”
“Maybe he learned the lesson that bad things happen when you spy on a wizard?”
“That’s wrong! He would be certain the teacher came to meet me!”
“Oh. Probably not.”
“Does the teacher know Owen?!”
Ash’s heart raced.
Owen’s false face was shown in every direction, so even people who knew him long didn’t know his true self.
Ash was the only one who knew him.
Ash expected Owen to come after him any moment.
“He seems like someone who doesn’t want to waste time on useless things. Meeting me took only about five minutes to get permission. Isn’t that a reasonable guess? When I swore by my name that I wouldn’t meet you, he let me go.”
“What did you say?!”
Ash nearly raised his voice without realizing it.
A wizard cannot break an oath sworn by their own name.
Just as a priest cannot break an oath sworn by their god.
A wizard pledges to seek truth in their own soul, so swearing by their name is like risking everything.
In other words, a wizard who breaks their oath loses their magic.
And that’s a punishment more terrifying than anything for a wizard.
Ash, who knew a bit about wizards if not magic itself, couldn’t believe the teacher would break his oath so easily. Especially for such a trivial matter.
Wait a moment.
But didn’t the teacher just use magic a moment ago?
“Well, my name is an alias. Only Ayla and you know it, and since one of them is dead, now only you know the truth.”
Ayla was Ash’s mother.
Ash’s eyes went wide with surprise that something he’d always thought obvious was actually a secret.
Shouldn’t secrets like this come with a warning? What if he had been boasting about it to everyone?
“That’s impossible. You don’t even care that much about me, do you?”
Then the wizard patted Ash’s shoulder with a sleepy expression.
“Anyway, I’m sorry about the duke’s death. You must have been very sad.”
“Not that much.”
“Ah, that’s good to hear.”
“The one I’m sad about is that Owen bastard. Because when my father died, he didn’t think of me even a little.”
Ash clenched his fist and slammed it on the nightstand.
His hand hurt from knocking on the door so much, and tears welled up again.
“Oh dear. How could that be? The duke may have thought of you as a troublemaker and a handful, but he wouldn’t have left your name out of the will.”
The wizard asked slowly.
“Yes, that will! I didn’t even get to hear the contents properly. I was stuck here.”
Ash grumbled.
Owen probably imprisoned him to prevent him from hearing the will.
Maybe Owen tried to gain several benefits at once by accusing Ash of causing a disturbance at the funeral.
Such a cunning bastard.
But Ash wasn’t someone who would just take things lying down. He put on a pitiful expression.
“Master, master. Even Tyllian said he wouldn’t help me, and the servants acted like they didn’t hear me at all… You’re the only one who came to see me. I have no one but you, Master.”
“That’s a nice thing to say.”
The wizard smiled, as if amused by a child’s antics.
But since he always wore that expression no matter what Ash did, Ash didn’t pay it any mind.
“How are things outside? What’s the atmosphere like in the castle? Even if that Owen bastard is scary, isn’t there at least one vassal who thinks this is too much? I feel like there should be.”
“Oh dear. It would’ve been nice if there was someone like that.”
“…Ah, I see.”
He really couldn’t trust the vassals.
They had all sworn loyalty to his father, yet none of them protested while the rightful heir was being mistreated like this.
Ash was so indignant he could die.
“Then… What did that Owen bastard say?”
Ash finally blurted out the question he had been hesitating to ask.
“What do you mean?”
“You said you met with Owen. Did he… say anything else about me? Like when he might let me out, or maybe that it’s a shame I’m starving…”
Not that Owen would ever say something like that.
But the wizard suddenly burst out laughing.
A loud “Ahaha!” echoed through the room, making Ash wonder if he’d finally gone mad.
Has anything he said been funny?
Weren’t they all things he ought to be pitied for?
Could it be that his master secretly enjoyed watching people suffer?
The wizard laughed so hard that tears came out.
He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and spoke.
“You’re amazing. There’s not much to laugh about when you’ve lived this long, but you always manage to amuse me.”
Ash was unamused.
“What’s so funny?”
“There are things like that. And Owen Mills didn’t say anything about you.”
“But you said he swore never to meet with me again, didn’t you?”
So how did that come up?
“Oh, I just made that part up. I figured they wouldn’t let me leave otherwise.”
The wizard answered casually.
Ash bit his lip hard.
“Owen… that bastard…”
You lock someone up and don’t even wonder how they’re doing?
He was starving, for heaven’s sake!
As a fellow human being, shouldn’t he at least wonder if Ash had collapsed or starved to death?
Now that he thought about it, everyone around him was incredibly indifferent.
Of course, Ash hadn’t expected anything from Owen anyway!
Whatever lingering attachment he had to Tillion and Owen was gone.
‘Fine.’
They could do whatever they wanted.
So would he.
Quickly changing his expression, Ash leaned against his master.
The magic might have erased the tear stains, but the heat still lingered on his face.
He’d probably wake up tomorrow with swollen eyes…
Well, that was tomorrow’s problem.
With a pitiful face, Ash started to whine.
“There’s no one on my side in this castle. Only you care about me, Master.”
“I see.”
The wizard smiled fondly and stroked Ash’s hair.
Every time he did that, Ash felt like some sort of pet.
“You’re amazing, Master. You fooled Owen, avoided the eyes of all the castle guards, and came all the way here just to see me.”
“Well, I am a genius mage.”
“Exactly! So if you came in, that must mean you know a way out, right?”
“Of course.”
“Wow! I knew it. Taking someone like me with you must be as easy as eating soup with a spoon for you, right?”
Ash clasped his hands together and looked up at the wizard with sparkling eyes.
The wizard pinched Ash’s cheek affectionately.
“That’s possible, but… it’s a hassle.”
‘This insane wizard…’
Ash barely stopped himself from cursing out loud.
“Of course! I won’t be a bother. I just—if I could get some fresh air, I wouldn’t ask for anything else. Just a short walk… the garden! Can we go to the glass garden? You used to like that place too… Staying in here all the time is making my body rot. Look, my skin is pale from not seeing the sun…”
Ash rolled up his sleeve.
When he revealed his thin forearm, the wizard reached out and gently rubbed the soft skin under his arm as if to inspect it.
It tickled… but Ash held still.
If he pulled away now, he’d fail to convince him.
The wizard tenderly touched the delicate flesh for a while, then smiled.
‘Did he buy it?’
Ash beamed back.
“You’re so adorable in your foolishness.”
“…What?”
‘Wait… what?’
Ash stared in disbelief, mouth agape.
“What do I gain by letting you out? I actually prefer having you locked up.”