"...Ermes. That's my name."
He had plenty of questions, but since she'd asked for his name, Ermes answered straightforwardly.
The wounds he'd suffered from the earlier beating—she'd healed them offhandedly while she was at it, so he no longer felt any pain.
"Um, thank you so much for saving me."
"Oh, don't worry about it. I just beat them up because they ticked me off."
Rose spoke to him in a friendly manner, a complete contrast to the murderous hostility she'd displayed during her rampage just moments before. Combined with her striking beauty, that almost childlike shift in demeanor gave her an otherworldly air.
"But something's strange, huh?"
Just then, Rose tilted her head slightly, as if noticing something.
"Based on that sensing ability you showed earlier, you're a pretty powerful mage, right? Those guys were decent enough, but someone of your caliber doesn't really seem like the type to just get captured without a fight...?"
"Guh!"
He knew she meant no harm by her words.
Yet that question made him remember all over again.
Ermes was a mage so broken that his own family had thrown him away.
The magic she'd displayed earlier—the very embodiment of the great mages he'd always dreamed of becoming—was something he would never reach, not even in a lifetime.
"That... that's because..."
"!?"
Perhaps his guard had dropped now that his life was saved, or perhaps he was simply being confronted with his own wretchedness all over again.
He tried to explain, but the words wouldn't come. In the end, he couldn't hold back any longer and tears streamed down his face.
"W-what's wrong!? Does it still hurt!? I thought I'd healed it perfectly..."
"N-no, that's not... it's not that..."
He tried to force out words between sobs, even as Rose panicked in front of him.
"I... I wanted to become a mage like you... but I can't... it's impossible..."
"...Impossible?"
"I don't... I don't have any magic of my own...!"
Ever since the day he'd been told he had no Bloodline Magic, he'd never given up. Surely someday, surely somewhere—there had to be magic that was his. He kept searching, and in the process he'd developed extraordinary magic power manipulation and the sensing ability he'd just demonstrated.
But—that was precisely why he knew, deep down, that it was time to stop deluding himself.
There wasn't a single trace of magic in his blood. There never would be, not now, not ever.
The sweet fantasy that some unknown magic sleeping inside him would one day awaken... was nothing but a fairy tale.
His highly refined sensing ability was precisely what gave him absolute certainty in that conclusion.
Ironic, really—all that training he'd done served only to guarantee the depth of his own despair.
"So... no matter how much I train... no matter how skilled I get at handling magic power, it's all meaningless! It's all for nothing...!"
Once he'd started speaking, the dam broke.
Ermes kept talking, the words pouring out of him like a flood—about being abandoned by his family, about how he'd been treated all his life, about the one girl who'd believed in him who'd gone far away.
His explanations were probably rambling and disjointed, but Rose listened to every word with a serious expression, looking straight at him.
"...I see."
Eventually, after Ermes had said everything he needed to say.
"I know we just met, so it might be weird for me to say this, but... that must have been really rough."
She slowly pulled him into an embrace.
"Guh!"
He hadn't felt human warmth in so long. The softness of her skin—so gentle it was almost startling—and the sweet scent of flowers enveloped his entire body.
She gently stroked his head, and his heart began to uncoil. The tears came flowing again.
"Don't let it bother you, Ermes. Those nobles are just a bunch of pretentious losers borrowing power that isn't theirs. ...They really haven't changed one bit, have they."
She whispered into his ear. The first half was gentle; the second carried a faint note of darkness.
"Don't take anything those people say to heart. Even without Bloodline Magic—"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on."
But then, her voice cut off mid-sentence. Her body had started to tremble.
"I got so caught up in your ridiculously tragic backstory that I almost let that slip right past me, but—you don't have Bloodline Magic!?"
She pulled back abruptly, her face a mask of shock.
"Y-yes."
So even for this incredible mage, not having Bloodline Magic really was fatal... Ermes's heart began to sink back into darkness once more.
"—That's amazing!"
But the very next instant, something utterly unexpected came out of her mouth.
"Holy crap, I thought running into those creeps made today the worst day ever, but it actually turned out to be the best day of my life!"
Without warning, Rose's eyes lit up, and she grabbed Ermes under the arms and lifted him off the ground.
"Huh—huh—?"
"Incredible magic power, first-rate foundational skills in both manipulation and sensing, and on top of all that—you don't have Bloodline Magic!? This is unbelievable! You're so perfectly flawless it's almost suspicious—I'm waiting for the catch!"
He thought she might be mocking him, but looking into her eyes—shining like a child's—there wasn't a trace of ridicule.
"Plus you've got a great personality, you're honest, you're a good kid, AND you're cute on top of everything else! You're too perfect—I'm in love! I want to raise you in my own image!"
"Wh—whaaaat!?"
To top it all off, she'd muttered something outrageous at the very end, pushing Ermes's confusion to its absolute peak.
"U-um... what exactly are you saying...?"
"Oh, sorry about that. I got a little too excited there, despite my age."
She at least had the awareness to realize she'd left him hanging. With an embarrassed look, she set Ermes back down on the ground.
Then Rose stepped back a few paces and cleared her throat.
"Right, so... what should we talk about?"
After a moment of thought, she spoke in a calm, gentle tone.
"...Ermes. Do you love magic?"
"Huh—"
The question was so sudden it caught him off guard.
But her expression, though wearing a gentle smile, was more earnest than anything he'd ever seen.
So he answered head-on.
Fortunately, there was no hesitation in his answer.
"—Yes. I love it more than anything."
Magic.
A miracle performed by mortal hands. A divine act that makes wishes come true.
He'd been captivated by it since the day he was born. He thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world. He wanted to find his own wonderful magic—magic that was his alone.
Something worth staking his entire life on. That was what magic was to him.
Rose nodded, seemingly satisfied with his answer.
"But I..."
"I don't have Bloodline Magic. So I can never become a truly great mage—"
She picked up the negative words he was about to say, then smiled fearlessly with the setting sun at her back.
"—Then let's start by correcting that misunderstanding."
"!"
His heart gave a jolt.
"Bloodline Magic is certainly an incredible thing. I have it myself, so I know full well just how powerful it is."
Rose casually pointed one finger sideways.
The next instant—BOOM. A beam of light descended from the sky, piercing the ground where her fingertip aimed and blasting open a massive crater.
The Bloodline Magic she'd shown earlier—'Meteor Throne.'
"You can use this from the moment you're born, unconditionally, with no effort whatsoever. And yes, it's absurd. For most people, this alone would be more than enough. It's that powerful."
But.
"But—you will never, ever be able to do anything beyond this."
"...What?"
"Almost everyone, including those noble fools, has it completely wrong. Magic is not something given by the gods. It's a human craft built upon precise principles and logic. If you follow the proper steps, anyone should be able to use any magic."
He felt as though the world had been turned upside down.
"Bloodline Magic isn't some wonderful 'Heavenly Gift.' It's a 'Curse' that locks you into using only one type of magic from the moment you're born, unconditionally."
Magic was originally something you learned through logical progression. Something you acquired through tireless effort.
Bloodline Magic bypassed all of that, granting magical ability from birth.
But in exchange, Bloodline Magic restricted the use of every other type of magic that one could have otherwise learned.
A forbidden power—gaining unconditional strength at the cost of all possibility. That was what she called the 'Curse' of Bloodline Magic.
Rose pointed her finger at the stunned Ermes.
"And you—you don't have Bloodline Magic."
"!"
His heart jolted again.
But this time, it wasn't just surprise. There was something else mixed in—a faint but unmistakable spark of hope.
"You see it now, don't you? It's not that the gods rejected you. If anything, borrowing their own words—you are the one person not cursed by the gods, a mage who has the potential to wield all magic to its fullest."
Rose continued by unleashing a dazzling array of different magic around her—a wall of light, a sphere of flame, a blade of wind—each one as devastatingly powerful as the ones she'd shown earlier.
"You have the talent to wield everything I just showed you. No—forget that. You can use magic that's even more powerful, more beautiful, more elegant than mine, magic that I can never achieve because Bloodline Magic holds me back. You can become the freest mage in the entire world!"
His heart was pounding so hard it hurt.
Abandoned by his family. Driven to despair by his lack of talent.
Wandering in the depths of rock bottom—and then he'd met her. This was the greatest hope he had ever encountered.
"Like I said before, I fell for your potential. I want to see what kind of mage you become. And if possible, I'd love to help you get there. So..."
Finally, with a blush on her cheeks, she gave a bashful, girlish smile.
"I've been looking for someone like you. If you're willing... would you become my disciple?"
...Objectively speaking, it was an absurdly suspicious invitation.
Sure, she'd saved him from a dangerous situation, but everything she'd said completely overturned every bit of common sense he'd built up over his entire life, and her final words were 'become my disciple.'
It would almost be stranger if he didn't suspect some kind of ulterior motive.
And yet, strangely, he felt nothing of the sort.
It would be a lie to say there wasn't some bias from being saved and from awe at her magical prowess.
But more than anything—it was the way she talked about magic, so truly, vividly alive.
Ermes thought.
Ah—she really does love magic, doesn't she.
For him, that was more eloquent persuasion than a thousand words could ever be.
And so, without even a moment's hesitation, Ermes gave his answer.
"—Please... take me on!"
And so the boy who had been cut off from his family and dismissed as nothing became a disciple of Rose, the Sky Witch.
Five years passed. Having honed his skills under her guidance, Ermes would eventually return to the Royal Capital once more.
He, and everyone whose fate had become entwined with his— the time when all of their destinies would dramatically shift was drawing closer with every passing moment.