Ch.385Episode 15 – Life is Beautiful

# Morning in Abas

The morning in Abas is peaceful.

The light drizzle from last night has moistened the earth, and the mist that bloomed in the city center stretches far beyond the horizon.

I open my eyes, which had been gently closed, to the warm spring sunlight that tickles my skin as it filters through the gaps between skyscrapers—those mountain peaks with clouds nestled against their sides—and make my way downstairs to the living room.

Though I haven’t been able to visit often due to work, the Nostrum family townhouse in the capital is just as comfortable as the mansion back home. Having shaken off the fatigue with a good night’s sleep, I plan to enjoy the morning with my refreshed body.

I take a steaming cup of tea and head out to the yard.

Dew and fallen leaves have settled on the table and chairs in the backyard.

I had sensed something amiss when tree branches tapped against my window last night; it seems there was a rainstorm at dawn. Setting down my teacup, I brush away the traces left by nature with a newspaper.

“……”

Sitting in the now-clean chair and sipping my tea, I take in the view of the capital.

Buildings that reach so high they nearly touch the clouds, and massive roads that cut through the city. Smaller roads branch out like limbs from a tree trunk, connecting to various parts of the urban center.

And the sun, perched upon steel peaks, crossing the universe vaster than any ocean, bestows life upon the sprouts emerging in the garden.

“……”

Setting down my teacup for a moment, I reach out to caress a new sprout. Afraid that even the slightest pressure might break it, I gently stroke only the leaves with my fingertips.

A tiny sprout encountered in the townhouse garden.

Though it was merely an unnamed weed growing in the vast lawn,

“…Hmm.”

It was quite pleasing to look at.

## Episode 15 – Life is Beautiful

After grinding away at headquarters for five months, I finally got some vacation time. Those who don’t work get fired from their jobs, but those who work hard are granted rest.

But now that I was actually on vacation, I found I had nothing to do.

I was alone.

My companions were thousands of kilometers away in a foreign country, while I was by myself in Abas. I did have friends from military academy and regular academy, but those friends approaching 30 were long established as proper members of society.

In other words, there was no one who would come meet me if I called right now.

In fact, since joining the intelligence agency, I had cut off most connections, so there wasn’t really anyone who would even pick up my call. If I had known it would be like this, I should have attended alumni gatherings more often. Belated regret washed over me.

But even for someone with ruined human relationships, there’s usually at least one person who would gladly come when called.

To be precise, there were two.

“Are you up?”

“Yeah, sis.”

As I returned inside after shaking off dirt at the entrance, my sister Adela greeted me.

“Where’s brother?”

“Jerry just woke up too. He’ll be down soon, so get ready for breakfast.”

“Yeaaah.”

I nodded while mumbling with my mouth full of whole wheat biscuits.

Yesterday’s leftover biscuits were so dry they didn’t have a drop of moisture in them. Stuffing snacks into my mouth before even picking up a spoon made me look like a basement-dwelling bum who couldn’t care less about health management.

“I’m thirsty.”

“There’s milk in the fridge.”

Milk? I muttered while breaking a biscuit in half, scattering whole wheat crumbs everywhere.

“Milk at this age? What am I, a child?”

“Is eating snacks first thing after waking up what normal adults do? Just drink the milk. It’s perfect for you.”

I poured milk from the refrigerator into a glass. My sister clicked her tongue as she watched me put another snack into my mouth despite having just complained about being thirsty.

Adela, who was preparing the meal, raised her eyebrows as if finding me pathetic.

“Stop eating snacks, you fool!”

“Why are you two fighting so early in the morning? Raising voices in the morning isn’t good.”

“Jerry!”

Adela raised her voice at the sudden interruption. Jerry’s hair tips were still wet, suggesting he had just finished washing up.

The eldest son of the Nostrum family appeared in the kitchen and, smiling gently at the sight of his elder sister and younger brother bickering, volunteered as mediator.

“Stop fighting, Adela. Freddy is an adult, so even as his sister, should you be scolding him? And Freddy, you too. How can you reach for snacks before breakfast? Adela prepared the meal for you to eat.”

“What nonsense… This breakfast is for me!”

Squawk! Adela screamed and threw a fit, while Jerry dismissed his sister’s words with a good-natured smile.

So this is how Treasury and Foreign Affairs officials greet each other in the morning. How magnificent.

A diplomat shouting without decorum and a treasury official who ignores his sister’s claims with “Yes, yes, you’re right.” Watching the two officials argue, the Defense Department official sighed as he dipped his biscuit in milk.

“The country is running so-o-o well.”

“The country? Don’t you mean the household?”

Same difference.

I pushed away Jerry’s face, which was grinning from ear to ear. It was uncomfortable having a man’s face so close to mine.

After shoving my brother away, I moistened my throat with milk and replied.

“Thanks, Jerry. For sharing an even more depressing fact.”

Watching this scene, Adela shook her head in disbelief.

“Now both brothers are acting up. Are you filming a comedy skit? Grown men over thirty…”

“Sis, that’s not for you to say, it’s for me to—”

“Shut up and eat your food!”

*

After finishing the meal, as the teapot full of black tea was about to run out, Jerry and Adela left for work.

Today was a weekday, and they weren’t the ones on vacation—I was—so it was only natural.

Anyway, being alone from early morning meant I had to do something. Lying in bed for a nap or watching the trending stand-up comedy (the segment where goblin comedians criticize society is popular) wouldn’t be bad, but that’s only good for a day or two.

Moderate stimulation soothes a tired soul and brings joy, but excessive stimulation is harmful to the body.

Today was the last day of my vacation, and I couldn’t just eat and sleep all day, so I needed to find happiness elsewhere.

So I left the house.

There wasn’t much to do inside anyway, and I was too lazy to cook lunch for myself. Eating out every day had unconsciously created this habit.

After leaving the house, I wandered the streets aimlessly. With no appointments or destinations in mind, I just went wherever my feet took me.

The first things I encountered were children playing in the park and an elderly person walking their dog. After sitting on a bench in comfortable clothes and looking around the park, I had lunch at a nearby restaurant and then got on public transportation.

Today’s mode of transport: the subway.

The beautiful common man’s feet that can traverse the capital through loop lines and transfers.

Though I left home without a plan, I didn’t board the subway without any thought. If I were an elderly Korean, I might have ridden the subway around Seoul with nothing to do, but what I needed now wasn’t the scenery outside the window to alleviate boredom, but a noisy space.

Amid the clamorous noise of the railway and the booming announcements, I stood in a corner of the train with my back to the door and quietly took out my mobile phone.

As a familiar melody played, I whispered in a small voice.

“…Hello?”

A bright voice came through clearly, cutting through the surrounding noise. It was a welcome voice.

-‘It’s been a while!’

Only then, confirming that the other person had properly answered the call, could I smile slightly.

“What do you mean ‘a while’…?”

-‘Oh? Haven’t we not talked in a while?’

“We just talked the day before yesterday, Camilla.”

Camilla’s broadly smiling voice came through the signal.

I adjusted my phone while taking in my surroundings.

“How’s the weather there?”

-‘Very clear.’

Weather was a kind of code we had agreed upon beforehand. When one asks “How’s the weather there?” and the other answers “It’s clear,” it means we can talk for quite a while. Conversely, if the answer is “The sky is cloudy,” it means we need to keep it short today.

Since she said the weather was clear, it seems there’s no problem with having a long conversation.

“That’s good. So, Camilla, how are you? Are you practicing magic well?”

-‘Of course! I practice diligently every day. I passed the written test without much trouble, and yesterday I even had a practical exam.’

Camilla was currently training under the Grand Duchess.

Right after the coronation, as the Imperial delegation was preparing to return to their country, the Grand Duchess came looking for her. That day, Alexandra Petrova, the Grand Duchess, proposed that Camilla live with her and receive her teachings.

She promised to provide magic books and all necessary teaching materials free of charge, as well as support for everything needed in daily life, including room and board. It seems she was quite excited about taking on a disciple in her later years.

It was an offer with no downside. No, there was no reason to refuse it.

The teachings of a Grand Magician are not something even the Oracle committee members who run the Magic Tower can easily obtain. It’s commonly accepted in academic circles that the Oracle has paid astronomical sums over the past decades to gain knowledge from Grand Magicians but hasn’t had much success.

And now a Grand Magician was offering to personally pass on her knowledge and know-how, with full support? This was an offer one should accept without a second thought, stamping their seal immediately.

So Camilla followed the Grand Duchess. To Petrograd, the capital of the Kien Empire.

“Seems like you’ve adapted to life in the Empire.”

-‘I’ve been here for five months, wouldn’t it be strange if I hadn’t adapted?’

“Is that so? Now that you mention it, I guess that’s true.”

Although I was separated from Camilla, I didn’t feel sad. It was something I had anticipated. Above all, I was the one who had encouraged Camilla to go to the Empire.

Camilla was a magician, after all. No matter how much I supported her with the backing of the state, there were limitations as someone who couldn’t handle magical power or divinity.

My conversation with Francesca also provided grounds for encouraging her to go to the Empire. The alchemist’s statement that it’s best for magicians to be taught by other magicians was flawless, leaving no room for disagreement, and her advice to seize the opportunity when it came, saying there was no better teacher than the Grand Duchess, was equally sound.

For these reasons, I advised Camilla to follow the Grand Duchess to the Empire. Camilla hesitated at first, but she accepted it positively, saying she honestly wanted to learn magic properly and that a better opportunity probably wouldn’t come along.

But being separated from a companion who had been with us every step of the way wasn’t easy for any of us.

So we would call each other whenever we had time. I usually called when I had free time, but occasionally Camilla would call me first.

We didn’t always call for special reasons. How many times had she called me just to chat before going to sleep?

By the way, I keep in regular contact with Lucia and Francesca too. Perhaps it’s because we talk often, but even though we’re physically far apart, it doesn’t feel like we’re that distant.

“So what did you learn today? Did you learn anything interesting?”

-‘I learned a lot! I learned how to read the constellations with a crystal ball, and how to communicate with spirits. I haven’t succeeded yet, but when I close my eyes and concentrate, it feels like I’m meditating, which is fun in its own way.’

“What else?”

-‘Oh right. Today I figured out how to create shapes with fire.’

Camilla continued with a bright voice. New spells she learned from magic books, techniques for handling magical power that the Grand Duchess taught her, and so on.

She also shared mundane stories, like eating at a restaurant that was delicious, or how a royal chef prepared a feast so grand she thought the table might collapse.

I smiled as I listened to Camilla’s chattering voice. It was good to see she was doing well.

-‘I haven’t quite mastered the shapes yet, but if I get good at this, I think I could transform them into objects or animals. There’s a lot I want to create, but for now, my goal is to make a snake out of flames.’

“A snake?”

-‘Yes, a snake. Wouldn’t it be fun to play a flute in front of a writhing snake?’

“What’s that about…?”

Although she occasionally said such random things, Camilla was doing fine overall.

She herself answered that she was eating well, sleeping well, and living comfortably, and the Abas Embassy in the Kien Empire conveyed similar news. Both reports were reassuring.

Riding the subway through the city center, I only wrapped up the call when I reached the terminal station. I moved between cars and made multiple transfers to check if anyone was following me, but there were no suspicious individuals in sight.

“……”

In the late afternoon, as I came up to the surface, I squinted at the warm sunlight. The spring sun, though less intense than summer, was not to be taken lightly.

Should I buy sunscreen before going home? I’ll need to stock up before my business trip to the Mauritanian continent.

Well, there’s no need to buy it right away; I’ll just borrow Adela’s for now.

With such thoughts, I entered the alley.

*

I walked through an unfamiliar back alley on the outskirts of the capital. The unfamiliar alleyway had the typical appearance of a deteriorating slum.

There were decorated buildings surrounded by yellowed exterior walls, and paint-peeled iron railings that stood shoulder to shoulder, looking grotesque.

Despite it being afternoon, there were hardly any people moving through the alley. Furniture and odds and ends occupied the space in front of utility poles, perhaps from someone cleaning house, and cigarette butts and sticky saliva had dried up in the hollowed blocks.

It was difficult to find any vitality in the dim alley where sunlight couldn’t penetrate.

The path, where dreary concrete and steel formed a bleak harmony, seemed to reject the entry of outsiders.

Deep in that alley stood an old building.

It was a factory.

The factory was close to an abandoned building that didn’t even have a proper sign. The building, without even a company sign, had weeds growing abundantly in its yard, making it look like it had been abandoned for at least several years.

Was this what America’s Old Town looked like in the past, before artists transformed abandoned factories into living spaces? The place, resembling a fallen American factory district, had only an eerie energy lingering around the building like fog.

I checked behind me by glancing at the reflective mirror set up on the road. I had checked several times on the way, but there was no one following me.

I unlocked the rusty red iron gate that would leave rust on your hands if touched, and carefully entered.

“……”

I stood in front of the door of the abandoned factory standing alone in the empty lot. The quiet back alley seemed like it would instantly become noisy if someone were to knock on the iron door, with the sound echoing all around.

So instead of knocking on the worn iron door, I firmly pressed the bell covered in cobwebs once.

No sound was heard. But I sensed a presence.

As I was about to look away after glancing at the surveillance camera mounted above the iron door.

Clank, with a grating metallic sound, the door opened.

“……”

The man who appeared from inside didn’t say a word. He just glanced at me, surveyed the surroundings, and then nodded slightly.

I greeted him as I passed through the door he had opened.

“It’s been a while, Matt. Where did you find such a shitty safe house?”

“I knew someone who was a factory owner, but the company went bankrupt, so I bought it for a reasonable price. No one following you?”

“Would I be here if there were?”

“Good, come in.”