Chapter 64

The afterimages of the past that had risen like heat haze seeped into the night sky and vanished without a trace.

Only the cool night air cycled in and out of Julien's lungs, carried on each ragged breath.

"Hah… ngh…."

The feverish blur inside his head cooled. His consciousness, which had been drifting between waking and dreaming, began settling back into the reality beneath his feet.

Julien steadied his body—creaking like a rusted hinge—and raised his head to look straight ahead.

Fsssshh….

A haze of pale dust and mana fragments filled his vision.

Deep gouges scarred the dirt floor.

"…!"

And with that, what had just happened slammed back into his mind.

[Shut up.]

[No. There's no way he would've wanted to see that.]

[Close your mouth. Please.]

He'd crumbled with every word Mikhail spoke.

[Julien, you did it to survi—!]

[I said shut up!]

And in the end, he'd lost control of his emotions entirely.

Pzzt.

Mana he could no longer rein in had surged to his fingertips.

And then, finally—

"!"

A pale blue blast had fired straight ahead.

Every drop of blood in his body turned to ice. Julien stood frozen stiff, his mouth fumbling open.

"I… what did I just do. I—"

Despair bloomed across his parched lips. Each breath that clawed upward pressed down on his chest like a stone.

Julien staggered forward on unsteady legs.

"…Mikhail. Are you there? Mikhail."

No answer came to his wretched, broken call. Only thick dust billowed in the air.

Julien stared blankly ahead, then dropped his gaze to his own hands, trembling violently.

Over the scene still seared vividly in his mind, worst-case assumptions began falling like raindrops, drowning his thoughts one by one.

He's hurt. He has to be. He was standing there wide open. There's no way he took a direct hit from my magic—my mana—and came out unscathed.

Julien groaned and shook his head. Self-loathing surged up his throat like bile.

Losing control of his mana hadn't been enough—he'd attacked Mikhail on top of it. He hadn't even managed to protect his own secret—

"Julien."

…What?

Julien flinched and snapped his head up. The voice that rang out from across the way—could it actually be real?

For someone who'd just been struck by an unprovoked attack, the tone was far too clear. Far too calm.

Julien gaped at the space ahead, then scrambled to open his mouth. He'd been about to ask if Mikhail was all right when—

"Don't underestimate me."

The low, almost growling voice drove straight into his ear, and a chill crawled down his spine.

The air currents warped—unstable, jagged—radiating a threat he could feel in his bones. A spike of danger jabbed at his cheek like a needle.

Julien threw his hand out on reflex, readying a defense. He pushed mana to his outstretched fingertips—!

SHRIIIEK!

But before he could form a single spell, a deep blue mana sphere came hurtling in faster.

Julien couldn't hide his shock. His eyes flew wide. He choked down a rough gasp and forced himself to face what was coming.

The dark blue sphere struck his outstretched hand, shattered into fragments, and unleashed a violent wave of repulsive force.

WHOOOOSH!

The blast shoved his entire body backward. Julien lost the strength holding him upright and stumbled.

Then, in one lurching instant, his body tilted past the point of no return.

Julien was flung backward and slammed into a tree behind him.

Julien tumbled across the ground and skidded a good distance before finally coming to a stop.

"Kghh… cough."

A high-pitched ringing clawed at his ears. Dirt coated his tongue and dull aches needled through every joint.

But he wasn't in any position to lie there feeling sorry for himself.

Julien forced strength into both arms and dragged his upper body upright, inch by agonizing inch.

Through the dust rising off the ground, a figure approached—perfectly composed, as though nothing in the world could disturb him.

Thud.

The footsteps stopped a few paces short of Julien.

Julien coughed through the last of the grit in his throat, then tipped his head back to look up at the face looming above him.

"…Mikhail."

An expression as still as a winter lakeshore.

Eyes like fragments cut from the deepest point of the night sky gazed down at Julien.

Without so much as a scratch—not even the smallest hint of disarray.

"……."

Julien pulled his gaze away and let his head drop to one side.

The very first thing that filled his chest the moment he confirmed Mikhail was unharmed was relief.

Julien let out a long breath and spoke.

"I'm sorry. And… I'm glad. That you're not hurt."

No answer came from across the way. Julien kept his head bowed and swallowed a deep breath.

Once the relief ebbed away, what flooded in to take its place was everything he'd been trying to do just moments ago.

Hunting for gaps in Mikhail's information to twist the situation in his favor. Insisting there was no secret to begin with. Countering every counter, over and over, trying to drag things into a stalemate…

But none of it mattered anymore.

Julien tugged at his trembling lips and managed a thin smile.

"Haha… after a reaction that raw, I can't exactly deny it anymore. …You're right, Mikhail. Everything you said. Every single thing you figured out—it's all true."

Between the lips that offered up those candid words, damp breaths hitched and broke, bleeding into his voice.

"I'm a mage, but I'm not allowed to be one. Wielding mana, casting spells—I'm sure it would be incredible… but those are things I can never reach for. I'll probably never… become a real mage. Not ever. And all of it is just… unbearable."

Julien pressed down on the trailing end of his words and closed his eyes.

If he didn't do this much, the part of him threatening to collapse would spill over before he could stop it.

Worst-case scenarios and spiraling thoughts churned through his head.

Julien swallowed the silence. Then, haltingly, he forced out the few words that could stand in for every question weighing on his mind.

"Mikhail… what are you going to do with me now…?"

The answer didn't come right away.

Instead, there were footsteps drawing closer.

"……."

Julien slowly turned his head to look. Before he knew it, Mikhail had closed the distance and stood right in front of him.

Mikhail gazed down at him for a quiet moment, then stepped one pace to the side and dropped heavily to the ground beside him.

"Hah."

It was impossible to read. Julien let out a sigh and stared blankly at Mikhail's profile as he sat there next to him.

Mikhail faced forward with an unreadable expression. Then he turned his head and met Julien's eyes.

Between Mikhail's slowly parting lips, a voice spilled out—smooth and gleaming, like silver script.

"What am I going to do with you?"

Julien didn't move his gaze from Mikhail's face.

A strange sense of déjà vu seized him, and he couldn't bring himself to look away.

[So if anything ever gets too hard to bear, come find me. I'll help you.]

The scene from the past—once faded to a dull gray—took on living color and began overlapping with the one before his eyes.

Mikhail wore the same face as his father.

But the smile resting on his lips wasn't quite the same. It was a little more… self-assured.

"—I'm going to help you. That's what."

Mikhail held Julien's dazed stare for a moment, then turned his head and looked up at the sky.

Dozens of stars dotted the night sky, their light filling the reflection in his eyes.

Then this would be the final act.

Mikhail carefully assembled the words that would steer things the way he wanted and opened his mouth.

"Julien."

"……."

"At this rate, it won't be long before your mana spirals out of control. When that happens, hiding your power won't even be an option anymore."

Julien offered no response. He understood full well what those words meant.

Mikhail let one breath's worth of silence pass.

Then he lowered his gaze to the cratered ground—carved out by the blast of mana—and spoke.

"Up until now, you've been managing it by dumping mana somewhere to bleed off the excess. But you already know that's nothing more than a stopgap. A surface-level fix. From here on, you'll need to find something a little more fundamental."

"……."

"Something like… yeah. An approach that addresses the will and desire that govern your mana's control. Resolving those factors, too."

Mikhail paused, lifted his gaze from the ground, and looked at Julien.

Julien sat utterly motionless, as though frozen in place.

But the eyes fixed on Mikhail were unwavering.

"Julien. You said it yourself just now—that wielding mana and casting spells would be incredible. …Yeah. You're right. Weighing what you have against what your opponent has. Reading the situation, the environment, the conditions in play, and clashing with all of it in real time. That's the polar opposite of stagnation. Of monotony."

"……."

"If you could move in that direction… it'd go a long way toward keeping that desire in check."

Mikhail tilted his head to one side, as if measuring the moment.

Then he put force behind each syllable and spoke.

"Train with me. From now on."

Julien's breath snagged short. The eyes fixed on the space ahead went wide.

Mikhail watched him in silence.

Then, with a decidedly mischievous smile settling on his lips, he raised one finger and pressed it to them.

"There's nothing left to hide between us anyway. Right?"

At some point, the crickets had begun to sing—a soft, pulsing chorus.

The still night scenery drew breath with the rhythm of their sound.

Julien stared at Mikhail's face without moving.

But soon, the gaze that had been locked in place drifted downward at an angle, and he bit down hard on his faintly trembling lower lip.

Before long, Julien's head sank low.

The corners of his mouth, which had been drawn tight, curled gently upward, and tears fell one by one, spreading dark across the ground.

"……."

Mikhail watched in silence, then drew a breath weighed down by something complicated and heavy.

He reached out and gave Julien's trembling back a few gentle pats.

Then he glanced up. A night bird cried its mournful call and took flight, wings beating hard.

As the fierce wingbeats melted into the night sky, a halting voice spilled from Julien's lips.

"Yeah… okay… let's do that…."

---

The next day arrived. Mikhail woke a little later than usual.

"Kang! Kang-kang!"

Every inch of his body ached mercilessly while Han and Ul's barking buzzed in his ears.

Mikhail let out a faint groan and pulled himself upright in bed.