Ch.35The Mage Millia (1)

# Mage Millia (1)

Mages are those who best understand the principles of this world.

They sense mana and manipulate its flow to interfere with the world.

This was a realm possible according to talent and training, but…

“This world is layered.”

Millia could see all those flows from the moment she was born.

An otherness almost too extraordinary to be called mere talent.

Born able to simultaneously see both the world filled with mana flows and the original world, Millia was different from others.

And being different…

“Ugh! This witch!”

…invited discrimination.

Unloved by her parents and regarded as an eerie presence by her peers, Millia first learned how to protect herself.

Yes, she learned how to become numb to it all.

Growing more distant from humanity, Millia drew ever closer to the world filled with mana flows.

The things others called magic.

Abilities accumulated, analyzed, and implemented over dozens, hundreds of centuries.

Powers that twisted and connected flows to interfere with the world.

“So this makes it sparkle.”

Yes, Millia could instinctively implement magic.

A mage becomes useful only when they can manipulate flows.

And Millia had been a mage from the moment of her birth.

A child born not as a human, but as a mage. A child discriminated against for that reason.

It didn’t take long for rumors of such a child to reach the Magic Towers.

“Those who despise and condemn you are all ignorant.”

“You are more special than anyone, a being that shows what lies beyond humanity.”

“You are the symbol of evolution.”

“So there’s no need to listen to or accommodate the voices of mere ordinary people.”

The masters of the continent’s seven Magic Towers. They were beings who had reached the extremes of magic and lived half in another world.

Thus, their perspective was different.

They were beings who viewed a world similar to Millia’s.

So they didn’t mind the otherness Millia possessed from a young age.

From their perspective, Millia was simply superior to others.

But that wasn’t true. Despite seeming similar to them, Millia differed from them in a crucial way.

“What should we do to those people?”

When Millia was sold by her parents for just a few gold coins.

The Tower Masters wanted to punish them. Even they hadn’t expected parents to sell their own child.

They were ignorant fools who couldn’t recognize a treasure, foolish people who couldn’t love their child.

Yes, in some sense, they could be called complete beings.

Their confidence was accompanied by appropriate knowledge and insight.

“What do you mean, ‘what should we do’?”

“Don’t you hate them?”

“No.”

“Are you disappointed?”

“I’m not disappointed either.”

“Do you pity them? Or miss them?”

“Do I need to feel something?”

“I see.”

But Millia was different.

Separate from her exceptional qualities, Millia didn’t voluntarily try to learn about this world.

Seeing the girl who had closed her heart, the Tower Masters sighed.

Not because they had any particular human aspect to them.

Simply because they knew emotions themselves could serve as a driving force.

“For now, we should do what we can.”

And they reached the conclusion of “pending” regarding the situation.

Unless it was a moment that required emotions as a driving force, they couldn’t just let the talent of a girl with innate abilities go to waste.

And so.

Ten years passed.

“Have you understood everything?”

“Yes.”

“Then this is next in line.”

The essence of magic created by each Tower Master, by the towers they ruled, built up over lifetimes and history.

Millia was absorbing all that knowledge like a sponge.

“This is magic you can handle at your current level. Memorize it within three days.”

“Yes.”

Just as emotionless as when the Tower Masters first took her in.

She lived day by day immersed in magic, except for the bare minimum of food, clothing, and shelter.

It wasn’t because she liked magic. She simply did as she was told.

A puppet with almost no self-will, never questioning any order from her masters.

That was Millia.

“Yes, if you stab there…”

Flinch!

“Haha! This is how you can observe rigidity! The human body has as many mysteries as the universe.”

She had lost her morality, her sociability, and her humanity.

For her, even another human was merely an experimental subject if her masters ordered it.

That must be why.

“Mother?”

Just like any other time when she was about to experiment on a human.

When she realized the face of that corpse was familiar.

Whether they had been killed and preserved from the beginning, or truly happened to flow into the tower by chance.

Even seeing her parents’ corpses on her examination table, Millia felt nothing.

Yes, that must be why.

“…I am strange.”

When she was able to notice her own strangeness.

It wasn’t particularly anyone’s intention. The Tower Masters could have investigated whose corpses were placed on her examination table.

But from the moment the surprisingly emotionless girl began to appear not as a disciple but as a mere doll, things had already been twisted.

“…”

Emotions long forgotten sprouted in her heart.

Looking at the remains of her parents that she had dissected with her own hands, Millia shed tears with an expressionless face.

But she still couldn’t understand the reason for her tears.

Why was she crying?

Was it because she felt sorry for her parents? Because she resented them? Or was it simply dust touching her eye membranes?

The current Millia couldn’t even know that. Despite being closer to the essence of magic, she had grown infinitely distant from humanity and society.

And even at such a turning point.

“Is Millia there! Today I’ve compiled a new magic for you! Others might not understand, but you certainly can learn it. This is a simplified version of high-level magic…”

“Yes, I’m coming now.”

No one noticed it. Millia didn’t tell anyone about it either. She thought even this wasn’t a significant matter.

And so, without even realizing it herself, Millia was slowly going insane.

***

And several more years passed.

This time, it was an unusual situation where all the Tower Masters gathered, just like when they first came to find Millia.

“You said a Hero? Hmm, I don’t understand why you’re sharing this information even with us.”

Since the Tower Masters weren’t on particularly good terms, such doubts naturally followed.

Information that clearly would have been more beneficial to keep to oneself.

It was suspicious to share it without any conditions.

“Hmph, would this be for your sake? This is all for the world and for evolution. I thought that despite our disputes, we could at least agree on that much, but was I wrong?”

“That means…”

The Tower Master who first brought the information.

The Sidus Magic Tower, which explored the future and fate through the sun, moon, and stars.

He was the magician who looked furthest into the future in this world and was also the most obsessed with human evolution.

“Millia, keep that child by the Hero’s side for a while.”

“Hmm…”

Though it was a conclusion without explanation, the Tower Masters could understand what the Sidus Tower Master was thinking.

Each Magic Tower differed in the magic they handled and how they operated, but they shared one common ideology.

That was human evolution. Becoming more advanced beings.

And the Hero was destined to become humanity’s transcendent.

That destiny was as harsh as its rewards were exceptional.

And the Tower Masters recognized such Heroes not as humans, but as beings that had advanced beyond humanity.

“With Millia’s eyes, that child might be able to uncover it.”

Creating Heroes artificially.

Making everyone a Hero.

Yes, through that, standing in this world as the only completed race.

That was the common aspiration of the seven Magic Towers.

“If we can research the Hero and unravel the secrets of that existence! Wouldn’t some sacrifice be worth it?”

Thus began the observation of the Hero through Millia.

The instructions Millia received from the Tower Masters were quite simple.

“It’s… nice to meet you. I’m Millia Asrin. Ah, I’m a m-mage. Please take care of me?”

To unravel the Hero’s secrets.

The order was to use even the Hero’s corpse if necessary for that purpose.

“Wow! Thank you everyone! Let’s work together to save the world! We’re the proud Hero’s party after all!”

“…”

But unfortunately, Millia, who received such a special mission…

‘How should I respond?’

…couldn’t do anything with the Hero because her social skills were terrible.

The Hero, Esmeralda, who stared at Millia as she just tilted her head in confusion, soon left to talk to someone else.

That’s how Millia’s journey began.

Of course, she hadn’t been doing nothing all this time.

She had decided to observe the Hero, Esmeralda.

“Is something wrong, Millia?”

“Eck, ugh… N-no, it’s nothing.”

But unlike the already dead corpses, Esmeralda was alive and spoke to her.

That was unprecedented terror.

First of all, her only conversations had been with the Tower Masters who were almost as twisted as she was, so dealing with Esmeralda was too difficult.

Since the Tower Masters had instructed her not to be discovered, Millia couldn’t get too close to Esmeralda or speak to her more than necessary.

A problem with no answer, the first such encounter in Millia’s life.

‘I don’t know what to do. What should I say? What should I ask to investigate? I could discuss magic…’

She simply didn’t know what to say besides magic.

As Millia awkwardly orbited the Hero’s party like this, one day.

“Sob! The monsters living in the forest reduced the village to this state! I want revenge but I don’t have the power! Please, Hero, please…! Please…!”

She met a demon pretending to be human. Yes, she saw through the other’s identity at a glance.

It wasn’t through any special ability.

She just knew. The moment she saw Lug, she knew he was a demon.

As a mage, she was generally confident in her discernment.

Indeed, she had identified Lug’s true nature at first sight.

Yet the reason she didn’t mention it was simply because.

‘Everyone else is keeping quiet, so I should just stay silent too.’

She was just too timid.