TBCOS 50

Chapter 50…

“No! I have a brother!”

Ellie shouted at the top of her lungs.

But Nillite merely picked at her ear as if she were listening to a distant child crying somewhere.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure you do. But as far as I know, there’s no such genius archmage in the Magic Tower.”

For a moment, Ellie had hoped—maybe her brother was in the Tower, or somehow connected to this world.

But judging by Nillite’s reaction, that clearly wasn’t the case.

Her shoulders drooped as she mumbled weakly,

“M-my brother’s not in the Tower, he’s in the forest…”

“The forest? Foooorest? Pahahaha!”

Nillite burst into open laughter.

The bells and ornaments on her body jingled noisily as she shook with mirth.

“Oh dear… this little bean must’ve heard too many archmage adventure stories. Dreaming big, huh?”

For children, tales of archmages were the stuff of dreams and fantasy.

Academy scholars were just bookish people—not exactly exciting figures.

Children were drawn to something more primal—like knights or mages.

But unlike knights, magic couldn’t be learned through training. One had to be born with mana—chosen and special.

So mages, regardless of age or gender, were figures of awe and envy.

The Academy had built its standing on intellect and numbers, making itself independent of any kingdom’s rule.
But the Magic Tower had always stood above humanity since the day it was founded.

When the first sorcerer, Yorntha, built the Tower to have a place of his own—
that act became the first step toward uniting all mages.
And soon, their laws became the laws of all magic.

So the “genius archmage brother who can drop fireballs from the sky and heal wounds” that this bean-sized little king was talking about could only be a fantasy.

“Listen, bean-sized Majesty,” Nillite said, her voice edged with emotion. “Even if you’re still young enough to dream, I can’t overlook you bossing mages around and mocking an archmage’s power.”

Ellie flinched.

Instead of being grateful that Nillite had come all this way, she’d met her with doubt and disbelief.
There were limits to how much childishness an adult could excuse.

“No! Luden-oppa really exists! He even taught me magic!”

“Oh yeah? Let’s see it, then.”

“Fine! I’ll show you!”

Ellie hesitated, wondering what spell to perform, then decided to copy Nillite.

She had never tried fire magic before.

Her brother had warned her never to use fire—it was dangerous. She might burn down a house like he once did.

“Our house is fine,” he had said, “but if you burn someone else’s, you’ll be in real trouble.”

But now, proving she could use magic mattered more than anything.

Ellie cupped her hands together as if to hold water and focused her mind.

Fire, fire, fire!

She felt mana gathering in her palms.

Good thing she was in good condition today.

A warm energy swirled within her hands.

Whoosh!

“Kyah!”

Ellie screamed as a pillar of fire burst from her palms, roaring up to the ceiling. She fell backward with a thud.

“Huh?!”

Nillite gasped, frozen in shock.

Even after Ellie let go and fell, the flames continued to burn fiercely in place.

“N-no! Stop!”

Ellie flailed her mana and swept her hands through the air.

Thankfully, the flames vanished instantly when her focus broke.

“Huff… huff…”

Panting, Ellie looked up at Nillite.

“……”

Drip.

A bead of cold sweat rolled down Nillite’s cheek.

The two stared at each other, wide-eyed, speechless.

“What… are you?” Nillite finally managed to ask.

“Well, um… I just copied you… I didn’t know it would get that big.”

“You just copied me?”

“Y-yeah…”

“Copied what? Who did you copy?”

“The archmage… just now…”

She told the truth—but for some reason, she felt guilty saying it.

Nillite shook her head stiffly.

“That’s impossible.”

“W-why?”

“Who taught you?”

“I-I learned other stuff, but not that one…”

“Other stuff?!”

Nillite’s voice shot up an octave.

Ellie shrank even smaller.

“H-hide-and-seek butterfly magic… and barrier magic… and soap bubble magic… h-hngh…”

The more she spoke, the darker Nillite’s face grew.

Finally, Ellie couldn’t hold back her tears. Her eyes welled up as her lips trembled.

Seeing that, Nillite ran a hand through her hair and began pacing around the bed in agitation.

“Unbelievable! What the hell is going on here? A brother, you say? You’re telling me your brother is an archmage? Where is he?!”

Her bracelets jingled violently as she pushed her hair back.

Ellie burst into louder sobs.

“I don’t know!”

“You said he lives in a forest! Which one? Sate Forest? Rotul Forest? Garente Forest?”

“I don’t know…”

She hadn’t even known forests had names.

The forest she’d lived in with her brother was just the forest.

But it wasn’t an ordinary one.

‘I made this forest myself,’ he’d said. ‘Humans can’t just wander in… though bugs still do.’

If only she knew the name of that forest—maybe she could find it in this world somewhere.

Just when she was about to miss her brother again, she blurted out,

“My brother said I’m a genius too! I’ll be a genius archmage someday!”

“You already seem like one,” Nillite replied weakly.

“I’m a genius! …Huh?”

Ellie blinked. She’d expected Nillite to deny it.

“Yeah. I don’t know what kind of guy your brother is, but you’re already a genius.”

“…Huh?”

“It’s true,” Nillite said seriously.

“But… my mana’s weird.”

“Your mana?”

“Mm-hm. That’s why I wanted to meet a mage.”

Nillite tilted her head, gesturing for her to go on.

To be able to copy that level of magic at a glance—such talent would be remembered in history. And yet she said her mana was strange?

“What do you mean, weird?”

“Well… it grows and shrinks… and sometimes it feels empty…”

Ellie couldn’t explain it clearly.

How could she describe that her “mana vessel” felt larger than before?

“Hold still.”

Nillite sat on the edge of the bed and grabbed Ellie’s wrist.

Ellie obediently held it out.

“Do you know how to move your mana?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you sense someone else’s mana?”

“Umm…”

Had she ever felt her brother’s mana?

No—he’d said sensing strong mana could be dangerous and forbade her from trying.

“I haven’t tried…”

“That’s strange. You can move your own mana but not sense others’? Normally you’d have to imitate someone first. You can’t even know what mana is at first—so how did you learn that?”

Nillite tilted her head again and again, the bells on her body chiming softly each time.

The clear, delicate sound was so pleasant that Ellie found herself staring dreamily at Nillite’s earrings.

While Ellie was distracted, Nillite focused on sensing her mana.

It’s really there?

Of course it was—if that fire earlier wasn’t an illusion.

But even so…

“……”

Nillite released her wrist.

“Why?” Ellie asked.

“……”

Nillite’s face had gone pale.

Inside this innocent-looking child was a violent, terrifying torrent of mana.

What on earth have I just met…?

“Hey, isn’t living… hard for you?”

“It is…”

All of a sudden, it turned into a life counseling session.

Ellie sighed deeply and began pouring out her frustrations—things she could never say to the hopeful people around her.

“Studying’s fun, but there’s never enough time… and if I study too long, my eyes go blurry… I want to read more, but I get sleepy and fall asleep… and when I wake up, time’s already gone by! So it makes me anxious… I’m a king now, so I have to know everything—but there’s just too much to learn…”

“Wait, wait—no! I don’t care about your royal life!”

“Huh?”

“I mean—can your body handle that mana?”

“?”

What did that mean?

Aside from that one time she fainted from exhaustion, Ellie had always been healthy.

The worst she’d suffered was catching a cold from sleeping with the window open or getting a stomachache from overeating.

“Did your mana suddenly increase one day?”

“No?”

“No? So you were born like this?”

“I don’t know… but my vessel—got bigger all of a sudden.”

“…Ah, that part.”