The Sage, Sage Lil (1)
“H-how did you figure that out?”
Sage must have startled him by seeing through the fact that he was the imperial prince in a single glance.
Edwin’s eyes grew as wide as they possibly could.
“That outfit you’re wearing. Isn’t that Asha silk? The kind that’s nearly impossible to get unless you’re royalty. If you’re going to disguise yourself, at least do a decent job of it.”
At Sage’s words, Edwin looked up at him with a dazed expression.
He seemed genuinely impressed that his identity had been deduced from his clothes alone.
“So, you’re offering to become the boy’s teacher as payment for saving your life?”
“That’s correct.”
“Becoming a teacher isn’t difficult.”
Sage looked down at Edwin with an arrogant expression.
“But I have no interest in taking just anyone as my disciple.”
“The prince of an empire isn’t exactly ‘just anyone,’ is he?”
“Well, that depends on the prince, doesn’t it?”
Sage snorted and continued.
“Honestly, even if you paid with my actual life, it wouldn’t matter. I’ve lived long enough, and I’ve got no attachments left in this damn world anyway.”
What an excuse.
I knew his words were a blatant lie. No one in the world craved recognition more than this man.
Sage ran his fingers across the stack of parchment on the table as he spoke.
“Still, the idea of properly raising one disciple before I die doesn’t sound half bad.”
“Then there’s no reason to hesitate. We’ll leave immed—”
When I stepped forward, saying I would prepare the carriage right away, Sage cut me off.
“I just told you. I don’t take just anyone as my disciple.”
His sharp gaze turned back to Edwin.
“So prove it, little prince. Show me that you aren’t ‘just anyone.’”
The smile on the old sage’s wrinkled face looked distinctly mischievous.
The Great Sage, Viscount Sage Lil.
More than forty years ago, when he had only just passed twenty, he was a remarkable figure who had seized a full professorship at the Imperial Academy despite his commoner birth.
He was the first scholar to shatter the unwritten law that no commoner, no matter how brilliant, could rise to such a position.
It was perhaps only natural. He was versed not only in literature, history, politics, and philosophy, but in medicine as well.
Moreover, despite his eccentric temperament, he frequently proposed policies to help the marginalized lower classes.
Those who envied him insulted him by calling him a hypocrite.
Yet that did not erase his accomplishments. The fact that most of the empire’s current relief policies had originated in his mind proved as much.
He had even been granted a noble title directly by the emperor in recognition of his shining contributions.
People had praised him without end, calling him “Great Sage Sage.”
However, like most geniuses, Sage had his own peculiar quirks that set him apart from ordinary men.
“You told him to prove he’s not just anyone.”
For example, being excessively serious even when dealing with a child.
“Um…”
Edwin looked troubled. The beads of sweat forming on his forehead spoke volumes about his state of mind.
This ill-tempered old fart. Why does he keep nitpicking?
“Viscount Lil, have you forgotten your deal with me—with Guildmaster Kyla? The life debt is to be repaid anytime, without conditions.”
“I just said it a moment ago, didn’t I? At this point I might as well just jump off a damn cliff and be done with it. I’ve lived plenty long enough.”
“You—enough with the—”
Did I come all this way just to deal with this nonsense?
If I followed my heart, I would have shouted that I was Kyla and that if he kept being this uncooperative I’d happily throw him off the cliff myself.
Just as my short patience was about to run out, Edwin slowly opened his mouth.
“…How exactly do I prove it?”
At some point his expression had turned resolute as he stared straight at Sage. He was still sweating coldly, though.
“What do I have to do to prove I’m not just anyone and become your—Grandpa, I mean, Lord Sage’s—disciple?”
“Hmm, not bad. From the look of you I thought you’d tuck your tail and run.”
This time even I was surprised.
Given Edwin’s personality, I had thought it would be nearly impossible for him to approach a stranger so proactively.
Yet right now the boy was holding his head high, looking Sage straight in the face and speaking his mind.
“Puhahaha!”
Sage, who had been looking down at him, burst into laughter.
“Little prince, how old are you?”
“Twelve.”
“Twelve, eh? Right at the age when the brain starts working properly. But I don’t much like clever boys.”
“Why not?”
“Because no matter how much they grow, they all end up stupider than me anyway! Puhahaha!”
“……”
After laughing crudely for a moment, Sage suddenly grew serious again.
“That’s why I don’t look here,” he said, tapping Edwin’s forehead with his index finger before sliding the finger downward, “but here.”
His finger, dry and thin as an old tree branch, pointed at the center of Edwin’s chest.
Edwin looked down at his own chest and blinked in confusion.
Sage gave the prince a bright smile, then suddenly flung open the back door.
“Leo! Leo! Get over here!”
“I’m busy as hell. Why are you calling me again?”
The one who appeared at Sage’s summons was a boy.
He’s grown a lot.
I recognized him immediately. He was the orphan from Luxen Village that Sage had taken in and raised.
“What is it? I still have a mountain of firewood to chop.”
The boy, who looked about fifteen, answered bluntly and then glanced in our direction. Despite his youthful face, his sharp eyes and sturdy build left a strong impression.
“Ah, I forgot to introduce him. This is Leo. He’s about your age. He’s basically my assistant.”
Leo irritably swatted away the hand Sage had placed on his head.
“Assistant my ass. Why’d you call me? I told you I haven’t finished the firewood.”
“Forget the firewood. Take this kid and go gather some stones. And while you’re at it, check on the villagers.”
“Got it.”
Edwin, who had been pushed outside by Sage, stiffened when he saw the boy standing in front of him.
“U-um…”
Leo was nearly two heads taller than Edwin. The inexplicable hostility and pressure radiating from him made Edwin look extremely tense.
After staring at him for a long moment, Leo turned away indifferently.
“What are you waiting for? Aren’t you coming?”
He called out to Edwin, who was still standing on the threshold looking back and forth between us.
“Didn’t you hear me say we’re going together?”
“Ah, y-yes…”
“If you’re not coming, I’m leaving first.”
“No, wait! I’m coming!”
Edwin kept glancing back at me until I gave him a small nod. Only then did he hurry after Leo.
Once the two boys had disappeared, the house fell into a silence so deep it felt as if even the mice had fled.
Sage was the one who broke it.
“Well, we’ll check how much capacity the little prince actually has in a little while.”
With his arms crossed, Sage stared at me.
“It really is strange.”
He slowly walked toward me from five paces away.
“You seem like an attendant, but you don’t act like one who serves the prince. You don’t seem like a guard, either.”
He muttered in a genuinely curious voice.
“Coming here without a single escort and then letting the prince wander outside alone. No sane attendant would behave this way.”
Of course. Anyone who didn’t know how unexpectedly safe this place was wouldn’t act like this.
“Unfortunately, I am perfectly sane, Viscount Lil.”
“Your way of speaking is odd too. What exactly are you?”
What was so strange about the way I spoke?
Instead of answering, I simply stared at him.
Sage frowned as if pondering something, then spoke again.
“So how do you know Kyla?”
“…We’ve been close for a very long time.”
“Friends, then?”
“…Something like that.”
“Don’t lie! You expect me to believe that? That bastard doesn’t have any friends! I don’t even have any!”
This old man…
“Believe it or don’t. That’s up to you. I only came because Kyla asked me to.”
Sage made a face but then tilted his head.
“Hmm. You must have been quite close, then. My location is practically a state secret.”
He accepted my words more easily than I had expected.
Well, Kyla was practically his savior.
Still, I thought he would be more suspicious.
It felt somewhat burdensome that the scholar who doubted everything in the world had decided not to doubt me.
After hesitating for a long time, Sage finally spoke again.
“Is she still alive? That Kyla brat.”
Should I tell him she was in a state of neither life nor death?
Her body had burned away, but her soul was right here, perfectly intact.
“She hasn’t died, so don’t worry.”
“…Is that so?”
For a brief instant his expression turned strange, but it was only for a moment.
Soon his face returned to its usual irritable state and he suddenly exploded.
“That damn rotten girl! If she was going to dump me in a place like this, the least she could do is show her face once in a while! Not a single letter in four years!”
Instead of answering, I studied his wrinkled face for a long time.
The face that had once been filled with confidence and arrogance now held only loneliness.
How strange.
In my memory, it had been far more venomous and fierce.
“People outside have long since forgotten the name Sage Lil. That’s how people are. They never forget their enemies, but they forget their benefactors in the blink of an eye.”
The man before me now simply looked exhausted.
He had given his entire life for the empire and its people, only to be met with cold indifference.
“It was my own foolishness. I thought I understood everything, but in the end I was nothing but a fool who knew nothing of the world.”