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Chapter 10
“Honestly, I’m not sure this is the right thing to do…”
Bel Dio handed me the new identity documents with a worried expression.
Ignoring his concern, I read through the papers carefully.
Name: Lirier Simon
Age: Twenty
Appearance: Brown hair, brown eyes
Notes: A stabilizing mage who has just graduated from the Academy. No family. Timid personality with almost no social connections.
The real Lirier Simon had been sent to study abroad on the Eastern Continent to silence her, and I had borrowed her identity.
But Bel still looked uneasy.
“Wouldn’t it be better to enter under Lady Siena’s own name? You could just conceal your abilities to a reasonable degree.”
“That won’t work under the name of the Buittri family.”
The Buittri family had long been the leader of the aristocratic faction and was constantly at odds with the Emperor.
That meant that even if I passed the knight order’s selection through sheer ability, I could still be rejected because of my status.
In the first place, it made no sense for the head of the Buittri family to apply for a job in the knight order.
Bel sighed and asked cautiously.
“Then… are you going to submit your résumé now? To the Imperial Knight Order?”
“No. That’s what amateurs do. Experts create events.”
One day, a stabilizing mage named Lirier Simon would suddenly fall from the sky.
And the Imperial Palace would be given a reason they absolutely had to hire that mage.
Grinning, I slipped a magic tool into my pocket.
I entered Shadow Street immediately after a rift had occurred.
The old shops were still operating, preserving the same atmosphere they had back when I first met Ppuppu long ago. The difference now was that the streets were crowded with knights.
It must have been because of the recent minor rifts. Watching the knights rush around, I smiled faintly.
‘Perfect timing.’
Finally, noon arrived.
The clock tower bell rang out with a ding.
I pricked up my ears and scanned my surroundings when I heard someone walking toward the clock tower.
A man whose eyes were turning blood-red.
The air around him boiled violently.
Looking closer, the veins at his temples were bulging, and he was barely forcing out groans between clenched teeth—anyone could tell he was in a textbook state of berserk.
“What is that?”
“I-is he going berserk?”
“Where’s a stabilizing mage?!”
“Th-that is… none have been assigned here right now…”
“Damn it, contact headquarters immediately!”
Panicked voices filled the air as knights hurriedly evacuated civilians.
Amid the chaos,
I calmly stepped forward.
Yes. I had come here today specifically to stabilize a berserking knight.
In the past, the incident of a knight going berserk here had been reported so widely that the entire Empire had been in an uproar.
I would save a life, make a strong impression in front of the knights, and use that as my entry into the Imperial Palace.
Submitting a résumé and waiting through interviews would take far too long—and I didn’t have that kind of time.
“Ah, hello?”
“Kh—khh…!”
The man staggered as if to drive me away.
Seeing how close he was to completely losing control, the people around us slowly backed away.
“Don’t worry! I’m a stabilizing mage. I’ll handle the berserk state!”
“You mustn’t! We don’t even know if your compatibility matches. Without proper testing, you could be dragged into danger as well!”
A knight shouted urgently. Normally, he would have been right—compatibility was essential for stabilization.
‘But not for me.’
Still, I was sick of being exploited for my abilities.
So I put on a trembling act and spoke tearfully.
“But what if we are compatible? Please, let me try just once!”
“What kind of self-sacrificial madness is that…!”
The knights groaned in despair. Ignoring them, I placed my hand near the dying knight’s heart.
“Ugh…”
“Now, calm down. Take a deep breath.”
To stabilize a bearer of power, a stabilizing mage must do one thing without exception.
Contact.
I gently placed my hand on his body, as if stroking a bird, and focused power at my fingertips.
A round sphere slowly formed near his heart. Around it, faint silver threads appeared, drifting in the air like silk.
Deliberately twisting my face in pain, I raised my hand and crushed the sphere with a crunch.
The surrounding murmurs grew louder.
“My goodness—i-isn’t he dying? Oh no, Rend’s killing someone!”
I’m not dying.
“How do you even pray for the dead? Ohh…!”
Why are you killing me off already?
Amid the chatter, I pretended to struggle, sweat beading on my forehead, and once again placed my hand over his heart.
Gradually, stabilizing magic spread through his body.
When stabilizing someone on the brink of berserk, you come to know their deepest trauma, one by one.
Soon, fragments of his past flooded into my mind.
“My lord, I want to save them. Please—let me stake my life on it if I must…”
I clenched the sphere of light in my hand once more, crushing the dense red energy inside.
Pop—crackle!
With a loud noise, the sphere collapsed in my grasp.
“C-cough…!”
The man collapsed, clutching his chest.
But I knew it—his breathing was far calmer than before.
Looking down at the man sleeping peacefully on the ground, I smiled.
As I casually brushed my hands off and looked around, a man in a splendid knight order uniform stared at me with his mouth agape before rushing over.
“Did you just suppress Sir Rend’s berserk state?”
“Yes.”
“May I ask… who are you?”
“Oh dear.”
Putting on a suitably solemn expression, I glanced at the man sleeping on the ground with pity before smiling gently.
“Hello. I’m a stabilizing mage. My name is Lirier Simon.”
No idiot would let a stabilizing mage who walked in on her own two feet slip away—especially after she had proven her ability so clearly.
And my prediction was correct.
“Lady Lirier Simon… We would very much like to repay this debt!”
I smiled brightly at him.
Now then—time for some serious job negotiations.
Meanwhile, Aldehyde was also on Shadow Street.
Having visited the area for the first time in a while, he sat deep in thought atop the roof of the clock tower—the highest point around.
Cradled in his arms was a teddy bear.
“Mr. Teddy, where do you think my sister is?”
“……”
Hugging the soft bear tightly, he murmured affectionately.
“I miss my sister…”
While the knights dealt with the aftermath of the sealed rift, Aldehyde gently stroked the black teddy bear and studied a map.
“If I finish up to here, that leaves seventy-nine.”
Once peace returned, he would be able to see his sister soon, right?
Just imagining meeting her and acting cute made his chest ache with anticipation.
In a happy mood, he waited leisurely atop the tower.
‘There might be another rift, so I’ll wait.’
As time passed, dark clouds gathered, and evening slowly descended.
‘Maybe it’s time to go.’
Just as he was thinking that perhaps there would be no more rifts—
His exceptionally sharp hearing picked up a faint disturbance.
His eyes snapped open.
“Sir Rend!”
“Snap out of it! At this rate, everyone will die!”
“Grr—graaah…!”
The marketplace erupted into chaos.
Aldehyde witnessed the berserk of Rend, a promising young knight of the order.
There was no one who could help him. To handle the berserk state of someone with such power, at least a mid-level stabilizing mage was required.
‘Then… should I kill him painlessly?’
But then, something astonishing happened.
“Don’t worry. I’m a stabilizing mage. I’ll handle the berserk state!”
A woman appeared, moving like a flying squirrel as she stabilized Rend.
Small frame. Delicate-looking face.
Aldehyde instinctively followed her with his gaze.
At the same time, he felt something strange—the waves of stabilizing magic flowing from her fingertips.
A few days ago, he had seen stabilizing magic formed over a rift caused by a poisonous butterfly, cast by someone in a gray robe.
The magical wavelength was the same as the power this woman was now emitting.
“Found you, Gray Robe.”
Interest filled Aldehyde’s eyes.
At that moment, the woman tilted her head slightly toward her target with her eyes closed.
The berserk state was completely suppressed.
Rend, who had briefly fallen asleep, smiled brightly at her, seemingly fully recovered.
Aldehyde’s gaze continued to track the woman as she darted about.
“Could it be… my sister?”
But the wrist that had burned as if branded on the day he first met his sister showed no change at all.
Still, just the faintly quicker beating of his heart was enough to make him leap down from the tower.
There was no reason to hesitate.
Even if the chance she was his sister was only 0.01%.
Even if she wasn’t human at all, but some kind of illusion—
He had to meet her, no matter what.
