The Sage, Sage Lil (3)
“My real identity?”
“Yeah.”
Leo glanced at Edwin, who had suddenly turned serious, and spoke as if it were no big deal.
“You’re wearing clothes under that cloak that look insanely expensive, but nothing about the way you act screams noble. I was just wondering what the hell kind of guy you really are.”
Not like a noble? What exactly does being noble even look like?
It doesn’t seem like he’s saying I look like royalty, either.
Flustered, Edwin stared blankly into the air.
How do nobles usually behave?
Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t recall ever meeting any other nobles back at the imperial palace. After all, there wasn’t a single noble in the entire empire who would personally come to greet the Third Prince, who held about as much power as a dead fly.
Though the head maid and the other maids from the main palace were all from noble families.
The maids who had since been driven out were far too busy with their own duties to ever spend time with Edwin. Their relationship hadn’t been close enough for that anyway.
“At first, I thought you might be the son of some successful merchant family.”
Leo shrugged as he shared his initial guess.
“That kind of person would have a reason to visit the old man Sage.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“What do you think I mean? I figured you came to buy the recipe for Sage’s cure.”
“Cure? What cure?”
Leo looked genuinely surprised by Edwin’s reaction.
“Hey, are you seriously asking because you don’t know? You came looking for Sage Lil and you don’t know?”
“No, I just… Rachel told me he was the smartest person on the continent, so…”
“The smartest person on the continent? Well, I guess that might be true.”
Leo stroked his chin.
“After all, Sage is the one who created the cure for Scale Disease.”
“W-what did you just say?”
Edwin’s shocked cry echoed throughout the entire forest.
“That’s impossible! Scale Disease is supposed to be incurable! The only way to treat it is with holy power!”
“Yeah, I figured you’d react like that.”
Leo nodded as if he completely understood the prince’s outburst.
“But he made the impossible possible. That’s why they call him a Sage, isn’t it?”
Edwin froze for a moment at Leo’s words, then furrowed his brow.
“Then why are the people here still sick? What about the cure?”
“He can’t make it right now.”
“Why not?”
“Because we don’t have the ingredients. According to Sage, there’s one material that absolutely has to go into the medicine, but we can’t get it anymore.”
“W-what is it?”
“I don’t know what it is either. All I know is that it only grows in the Holy Kingdom.”
“Then can’t we just go buy it from the Holy Kingdom right away?”
“You know that’s not possible. The old man hasn’t left this village in years. You get what that means, right?”
“But still…”
When Edwin recalled the faces of the patients he had seen in the village, his heart grew heavy.
He spoke in a hesitant voice.
“The cure really exists, right?”
“Why the hell would I lie about that? I’m alive today thanks to that medicine from Sage.”
“What? But you just said he can’t make it anymore.”
“There was one bottle left that he had made before he came here. I drank it.”
When Leo had first met Sage, his parents had already died from the disease.
The one who saved him, left alone and infected, was none other than Sage.
“Sage is my savior. That’s why I end up stuck doing all these damn annoying chores every day.”
At the sudden confession about his past, Edwin froze in place.
Both of his parents are already gone…
It had been a long time since Edwin lost his own mother, but his father was still alive.
Though the problem was that his father didn’t show him the slightest bit of interest.
Losing even one parent was this painful. He couldn’t imagine how hard it must be to lose both.
He wanted to offer some words of comfort, but he had no idea what to say.
Edwin already knew that hasty consolation could sometimes cause more harm than good.
In the end, the young prince chose to awkwardly change the subject.
“S-so you got sick too? And you recovered after taking the medicine?”
“Yeah. I did get infected, but I took the medicine before my flesh started rotting, so I don’t have any scars. I got lucky.”
“I see. That really is lucky.”
Unable to find anything else to say, Edwin could only fidget with his fingers.
Perhaps sensing the prince’s discomfort, Leo started walking again.
“Come on, this is the last errand. Let’s finish up and head back. If we’re any later, the old man will start nagging.”
“R-right!”
They walked in silence for a long while after that until they arrived at a small cave located halfway up the mountain.
Leo stepped into the cave, which gave off a faint glow, and picked up a small ore that had broken off from the wall.
“All you have to do is mine stones that give off a bluish-purple light from the surface. Ones that look exactly like this. Got it?”
Edwin tilted his head as he looked at the stone in Leo’s hand.
“What is this stone, anyway?”
“What does it look like to you?”
“Hmm… it sparkles, so maybe a gem? I’m not sure.”
At the predictable answer, Leo shook his head as if he had expected it.
“Not everything that sparkles is a gem.”
“Then what is it?”
Leo gazed at the blue glow coming from deeper inside the cave and continued.
“It’s a mana stone. According to Sage, mages go crazy over these things. They sell for more than gems.”
“Mana stone? If it’s a mana stone, then…”
Even Edwin had heard of mana stones before.
Mysterious ores imbued with magical power.
Mana stones were the main material used to create magic tools.
They allowed people without any magical power to enjoy the benefits of magic, which made them incredibly expensive and rare.
It was probably because the main ingredient, mana stones, was so difficult to obtain.
“Sage and I discovered this place. The villagers and even the gatekeeper don’t know about it.”
Leo lifted his chin proudly as he spoke.
Edwin looked at him with eyes full of admiration.
But at the same time, a question arose in his mind.
I definitely heard that mana stone mines are extremely rare in the empire.
Because of how scarce the mines were, the empire relied heavily on importing mana stones.
That’s right. I clearly remember the head maid saying something like that.
He had once overheard the head maid talking with the maids who followed her.
She was talking about investing in mines or something, saying that if a mana stone mine ever appeared, they should invest in it no matter what.
While Edwin was lost in thought, Leo brought over a pickaxe that had been leaning near the entrance.
“Here’s the pickaxe. I’ll mine this side of the wall, so you check the opposite side.”
“Ah, okay.”
Edwin took the pickaxe and awkwardly copied what Leo was doing as he watched him mine the stones.
Fortunately, the cave walls were soft enough to break easily even with Edwin’s weak arms.
When he swung the pickaxe carefully, a mana stone the size of a baby’s fist popped out with a dull thud.
It felt as satisfying as picking a fruit from a high branch.
“Hey, I have a question.”
“What is it this time?”
“Why does Sage want us to bring back mana stones? He’s a Sage, not a mage, right?”
“I never asked. I’m not really curious.”
“What? How can you not be curious? I’m dying to know.”
“I’m not. It’s not like I’d have any use for that information anyway.”
Leo continued swinging his pickaxe with an indifferent expression.
“I just do what the old man tells me to do. You seem to have way too much useless curiosity.”
“Ah, um…”
Edwin shrank his shoulders at Leo’s words, then muttered quietly.
“Sorry.”
Leo paused mid-swing and turned to look at him.
He let out a sigh after seeing the dejected look on the prince’s face.
“Hey, Edwin.”
“Yeah?”
“My way of talking is naturally a bit rough. So don’t twist my words. I’m not criticizing you.”
Leo adjusted his grip on the pickaxe and started digging out stones again.
“If you hang around that old man all the time, your speech is bound to get rough. I’d appreciate it if you could understand that.”
Edwin’s eyes widened at Leo’s words.
No one had ever asked for his understanding so politely before.
They had demanded it, sure, but never asked like this.
“So please stop saying sorry for every little thing. It makes me look like the bad guy.”
“Okay, s—”
Edwin reflexively started to say sorry again but quickly corrected himself.
“Got it.”
Edwin’s voice sounded much brighter than before.
“Good.”
Leo gave a short reply and resumed swinging his pickaxe.
Soon, the only sounds echoing inside the cave were the clangs of metal striking stone.
“This should be enough. Let’s head back down.”
By now, a red sunset had settled over the sky above Luxen Village.
Leo checked the amount of mana stones they had mined, then started cleaning up as he suggested they leave.
“So… does that mean I passed the test?”
“Test? What test?”
“Well, Sage told me to prove that I wasn’t just anyone, so…”
Before Edwin could finish speaking, Leo, who had been standing beside him, suddenly grabbed him and leaped forward.
“Whoa!”
As Edwin let out a startled scream, a small groan came from beside him.
“Ugh, damn it.”
Edwin’s face turned deathly pale in an instant.
On Leo’s right arm—the one he had used to pull Edwin to safety—there were deep claw marks.
“A-are you okay?”
“It’s not that deep. I blocked it with my axe…”
In that brief moment, Leo must have used the axe he carried on his back to block the claws.
Though the axe handle had been completely shattered.
“Not that deep?! There’s blood… so much blood…”
With trembling hands, Edwin examined Leo’s wound.
There wasn’t a lot of blood, but the injured area was rapidly turning a sickly black.
This was clearly poison.