"My apologies… Rest."
After Rest left and the door closed behind him, Verroid Hahn — the academy headmaster — let out a sigh-laced apology.
He had been questioned about Leonard Gascoigne, but… there were facts he had not disclosed to Rest.
It was not a deception.
He had judged that Rest, though technically a noble, was still a student — someone who had not yet lived even twenty years — and that these were things he did not need to know.
(For Lord Gascoigne to have gone out of his way to seek out and observe him personally… Rest is almost certainly one of those reincarnated persons.)
Rest had been vague about the details, but the headmaster had seen through every gap he tried to gloss over.
The headmaster knew.
He knew that beings called "reincarnated persons" existed in this world, and that since ancient times they had been bringing change to it in countless ways.
The core members of the Council of Sages — those who called themselves "Planets" — were all individuals who had been reincarnated from other worlds.
(The queen dowager… Lady Frederica, too, was a reincarnated person. If only I had possessed greater power back then, I could have prevented her from falling….)
A bitter expression crossed the headmaster's face.
He had known the queen dowager — Frederica Aiwood — personally.
He had been unable to save her from being chosen by the tyrant and forced into marriage. He had been unable to protect her fiancé, who had also been his close friend.
Because of that… the queen dowager had fallen. She had made the wrong choice in how to use her power.
(If I had possessed the power and standing I have now, perhaps I could have saved her…)
Back then, the headmaster had been nothing more than a moderately talented magician.
He had not yet joined the Council of Sages, and he did not hold the kind of influence that would allow him to speak out against the king the way he could now.
It could not be helped. It should have been something that could not be helped.
Still, the memory of being able to do nothing but watch a woman he might have saved fall into darkness — crushed by his own powerlessness — never faded, no matter how many years passed.
"Rest… do your best. Grow stronger, tougher…"
As he called out to the boy who wasn't here, he recalled the words the youth had spoken during his entrance interview.
*"…I want to be happy. I want to become someone who'd be called a success."* *"The inferiority complex from never being loved by my parents, from being mistreated by the people who were supposed to be my family — it still hasn't gone away."* *"I want a family that can understand each other, that can love each other… We might fight, but no one would bully anyone else unilaterally — a family where our hearts truly connect at the deepest level. As many of them as possible…"* What Rest had wished for was something any human being would consider perfectly natural, yet… the headmaster knew just how difficult it truly was.
*(Just as the Council of Sages works for the peace of the human world… there exist enemies in this world whose very purpose is to sow chaos. Those who desire war, who pray for the end of the mortal realm.)* The existence of an organization opposed to the Council of Sages — it was still too early for Rest to learn of it.
Aside from members of the Council of Sages like the headmaster himself, only the leaders of each nation knew of their existence.
*(Sooner or later, they too will learn that Rest is a reincarnated person possessing immense power. They won't leave him be. Just as they corrupted Lady Frederica, they'll try to drag Rest down as well, branding him an enemy of humanity…)* Gascoigne feared that.
He feared Rest falling into the enemy's hands, and that was why he had driven the warning home.
"I want you to achieve your dreams… so grow stronger, and stronger still."
So that Rest could gain precious family — and protect them.
He wanted Rest to become even stronger.
*(Until the day you can protect the ones dear to you with your own hands… I have to keep pushing myself even harder…)* The headmaster steeled his body and mind once more.
It was still too early to retire.
Even if his back ached, even if his mana no longer flowed as easily as it had in his youth — he still had to keep fighting on the front lines.
To raise the young and entrust them with the future.
That was the duty of a withered pioneer, and of an educator.