Chương 65: Chapter 65
Kira Laventa. 19 years old. Unemployed.
This was the status of the summoned wizard.
But unemployed? Wasn't she a wizard?
No, she wasn't.
Strictly speaking, Kira Laventa was... a con artist.
Kira Laventa. 19 years old. Con artist.
That was her real spec.
She was a war orphan.
In an era where war was part of daily life, the world was full of war orphans.
Most of them died before reaching adulthood.
If lucky, they might meet a kind-hearted neighbor or someone connected to a monastery and manage to survive.
But nine out of ten weren't so lucky and ended up starving to death or becoming food for beasts.
Kira, too, without parents, was destined to die just like any ordinary war orphan.
However, a passing nomadic traveler changed her fate.
"No, you thieving wench!"
"I-I'm sorry! Please spare me!"
On the verge of starvation, Kira saw a traveler and, literally losing her mind, attempted to steal from him.
She had no skill or anything, but with death by starvation so close, she had no choice.
And the first pickpocket attempt of 7-year-old Kira's life...
Ended disastrously.
"Who dares to steal so arrogantly!"
"I'm sorry...! I won't do it again!"
"You, a child, should obviously be begging!"
"...Begging!?"
The person Kira attempted to steal from was a jester who had come from the south.
He was a foreigner, a heretic, a wanderer, and a good-for-nothing in terms of productive work.
"This won't do. Follow me! I'll show you the essence of begging!"
"Yes... Yes!"
For some reason, the jester took Kira under his wing and taught her his skills bit by bit.
Perhaps he felt pity for the orphan child, followed a custom of his heretic faith, or maybe he was just bored of wandering alone and took Kira in for amusement.
But that wasn't much of an issue because.
Kira had talent.
"Oh! You have quite the knack for this!"
"Hehe."
Kira's hands were incredibly fast and accurate.
So fast that they were faster than the eye could see.
Had she fallen into a dark path like rigged gambling, she could have become a master gambler, but her teacher was a kind-hearted heretical jester.
The heretical jester mainly taught Kira "how to beg for food."
Shouting confidently in front of others, pretending to be cool, exaggerating trivial things, and so on...
He taught her ways that would make the public happy and willingly offer food.
Kira and the jester wandered the Empire, showing off their unique skills and begging for meals.
Even though the earnings were meager and there were more days of hunger than of being well-fed...
On the road, Kira was happy.
Unlike her orphan days, waiting for death under the cold rain, she had someone by her side keeping her warm.
Of course, Kira being human, had times where she envied the lives of others.
"Mister. That person's clothes look similar to ours, but why do people bow to them?"
"Shh! That person is a wizard!"
"A wizard?"
"Yes. Unlike us, the miracles they perform are real. Not mere tricks like ours!"
Kira looked at the existence called [wizard] with sparkling eyes.
Though their appearances were similar and their situations as wanderers the same,
Jesters and wizards received entirely different treatments.
Jesters were scorned and, at best, could beg for a meal.
In contrast, merely revealing their identity as wizards brought fear and respect.
"Mister. Should we try pretending to be wizards?"
"Kira!"
"We look similar anyway, and if we deceive well, we could eat delicious meals too..."
"Be quiet! Someone might hear!"
That day, for the first time, the jester hit Kira.
Both the jester, who struck the child in desperation, and Kira, who was hit, were shocked by the action.
But the message was unmistakably conveyed.
Pretending to be a wizard was taboo.
"We must never... pretend to be wizards."
"I'm, I'm sorry. I just..."
"If caught, you'll be gruesomely killed. No, you might end up grateful to be killed..."
The jester calmly explained the dire consequences of being caught pretending to be a wizard.
Kira understood the dangers of pretending to be a wizard and why the jester had reacted so violently.
However...
A small seed of doubt started to grow in a corner of her heart.
Couldn't she just close her eyes and pretend to be a wizard?
If everyone is deceived, there wouldn't be any problems, right?
Don't you want to seize the authority, power, and fear that comes with the name of a wizard?
For Kira, who had lived a nomadic life,
The name [wizard] was a yearning, a shining ideal like the stars in the night sky.
If she could become a wizard...!
After that day, Kira practiced pretending to be a wizard in secret, away from the jester.
It was a childish rebellion, but she was happy when she was pretending to be a wizard.
She felt a sense of immense power, something the jester could never attain.
Then, one day, an event that shook Kira's life to its core occurred.
On a night when cold rain was falling, Kira and the jester were attacked by thieves.
"Mister!"
"Ru-run! Kira!"
Their grimy performance props were thrown into the mud.
The thieves kicked and destroyed the jester's tools while spewing curses.
"What's this? This trash?"
"Damn. Nothing useful here! Just a wandering beggar!"
"Let's at least capture the b*tch and sell her."
The jester tried to buy time by grabbing a thief with his bare hands.
But what time was there to buy?
The thieves easily stabbed the jester with their knives.
A jester was something they could kill without a twinge of conscience.
The jester was dying.
Watching the dying jester, Kira was seized by a strange thought.
If we had power, would we have ended up like this?
If we had started pretending to be wizards and saved up money... would the future have been different?
For the first time, Kira thought that the jester, her teacher and father figure, was wrong.
They should have pretended to be wizards long ago.
Just as this thought boiled up, Kira was gripped by a very strong emotion.
The name of the emotion that dominated her was... rage.
She clearly remembered the jester's last moments.
The grief of losing a loved one turned directly into anger, and then into madness.
Kira remembered a group of mercenaries she had passed by earlier and ran desperately in that direction.
"The b*tch is running!"
"Chase her!"
Running under the cold rain, Kira clenched her teeth.
Memories of her practicing to be a wizard alone came flooding back.
Her prepared act was perfect.
So perfect that the jester would have acknowledged it with a pleased smile at first glance.
"Huh?"
"Hey, look. Something's coming."
When she encountered a group of mercenaries, her madness exploded.
"Hey, you motherf*ckers!"
"What, what the hell?"
"Is she crazy?"
The mercenaries froze at the sight of Kira suddenly screaming.
In a world filled with all sorts of monsters and superhuman beings, encountering an irrational being naturally put them on edge.
Kira, with tears streaming down her face, shouted,
"I am a wizard! Wizard Kira Laventa!"
"A wizard...?"
Kira displayed the trivial tricks she had learned from the jester.
She scattered gunpowder in the air to create an explosion, a firework technique.
"Whoa!"
"A wizard!"
The mercenaries immediately recognized Kira as a wizard.
A youthful appearance that could pass for a 12-year-old, explosions bursting from her fingertips,
And eyes dyed with rage and madness!
To anyone, Kira was a fearsome wizard!
"Thieves will attack soon! Help me fight them!"
"What? Even if you suddenly say that..."
"Stop dawdling and draw your weapons!"
"Ah, screw it, I don't care! Guys! Get ready!"
The ensuing battle ended in a easy victory for the mercenaries.
The "thieves" the so-called wizard mentioned turned out to be merely four in number.
It was baffling why the wizard made such a fuss over them.
"...Thanks for the help."
Kira looked down at the thieves, now cold corpses.
Just that much.
They were that insignificant...
"It was nothing, really."
The fight was over, and she had survived.
She had kept herself alive with the shallow acting skills and lies she had learned from the jester.
"Well then..."
Now that the performance was over, she should stop pretending to be a wizard, following the jester's advice.
Even she thought it was an extremely risky gamble.
A performance where failure meant death.
But Kira couldn't bring herself to stop acting.
"Ah! Wizard! Would you join us?"
"...Huh?"
Kira was a bit taken aback by the polite address she received for the first time in her life.
When she was with the jester, she was just seen as a performer's daughter.
But Kira, a mysterious teenage girl wandering alone in this harsh world, casting strange magic...
Was an intimidating wizard that no one dared to mess with.
The name [wizard] was too sweet for the young Kira.
"...For a little while, then."
"Wow! Thank you, wizard!"
Just a little.
Let's act just a bit longer.
Kira thought.
Until she adapts to this harsh world.
Until she can deliver a perfect performance as an actor...
Let's continue this sweet lie just until then.
Thus, Kira became a wizard.
...Though really, she was a con artist.
Kira's wizard cosplay lasted an unexpectedly long time without being caught.
It was the result of combining the rich acting skills and quick hand techniques she learned from the jester.
She deliberately avoided populous cities and moved from one sparsely populated countryside to another.
Naturally, it was because she feared being exposed as a fraud.
In the days of the ancient Golden Empire, fake wizards like Kira were rampant.
There were so many fake wizards that strange customs like [Calling a Wizard] were created.
Even now, if you go somewhere and say, "I am a wizard~," suspicion is the first response you get.
"Are you really a wizard? Not a fraud?"
Kira also received countless skeptical looks but managed to get by with her excellent acting and hand skills.
However, she never stayed in one place for long, because she had no way to deal with a situation that truly required magic.
Now in her 7th year, Kira, almost a professional con artist, sensed something was wrong and wisely fled into the mountains.
A wizard is another name for war.
Where there's war, there are wizards, and the battlefield is precisely where wizards make their names most fearsomely known.
However, there had been quite a buzz in the area recently.
The news of (former) Baron Talian's death was a pivotal moment.
"This is... my cue!"
What cue? A cue to bolt.
Kira, who knew nothing more than setting off fireworks and cosplaying, would be exposed the moment she was dragged onto a battlefield.
So, Kira made a run for it at a speed faster than light.
To where? A remote valley.
But the valley she fled to...
Turned out to be the hideout of a thug claiming to be Baron Damon...
"... Damn it."
A grown woman who walked into a den of bandits couldn't just say, "Oh my, sorry~ Wrong place~" and turn back.
"I should stop... It's time to stop..."
Naturally, Kira began her wizard cosplay again.
It was a choice she had to make for survival.
"A wizard? Hahaha! What luck!"
"..."
"Since we've met like this, work for our territory!"
Kira couldn't scream that a wizard wasn't a being to be oppressed and that threatening a wizard like this would bring trouble!
The opponent was an ignorant thug.
One wrong move and she might be on the receiving end of a blade.
Above all, she wasn't a real wizard.
She had no magic to turn a critical moment around.
So, Kira chose to endure and wait.
She planned to escape when an appropriate opportunity arose.
But the situation became seriously twisted.
Baron Damon dragged Kira along to collect taxes...
And among the travelers, there was someone claiming to be a wizard!
"A wizard, you say! If you're a real wizard, then you might know my friend here?"
'I don't know you, crazy!'
"The name's Ian Eredith? Who are you?
If you're a real wizard, don't get extorted by mere thugs!
Kira was freaking out with anxiety, but she couldn't stop her wizard cosplay now that she had come this far.
The show must go on.
It's Kira time.
She walked out with a haughty expression and said,
"Ian? Ian, you say? Never heard of such a dog-bone name in my life!"
"Oh! Lady Kira!"
"Truly a great wizard!"
As Kira sharply criticized, the bandits cheered excitedly.
Behold our awesome wizard!
With just a word, she turned the nobody Ian into a dog's bone!
As Kira abruptly dissed Ian,
Those following Ian were plunged into anxiety...
"Ian."
Belenka frowned as she looked at the slender red-haired wizard.
"The opponent doesn't seem ordinary."
Belenka's reaction was utterly normal.
Though Ian hated to admit it, wizards tend to be held in higher regard the more eccentric they are.
A wizard who throws insults right from the first meeting?
Wow... must be incredibly skilled!
There was enough reason to think so.
"Right. That wizard seems pretty sharp, doesn't she?"
Ian also had a high opinion of Kira, the wizard.
Above all, he was surprised that she was unfazed even after hearing the name Eredith.
Not to boast, but Eredith is quite a well-known wizard.
Especially a fire wizard who shines the brightest on the battlefield.
There were plenty of soldiers who'd claim PTSD just from hearing the name Eredith.
Yet, she was so calm even after revealing she was a disciple of Eredith...
It confirmed she was no easy opponent.
However, Ian had no intention of surrendering just like that.
No matter how much he was at a disadvantage, showing his magical skills was necessary to receive at least a minimum level of respect.
He planned to demonstrate his competence as a wizard and then negotiate.
It was time for the beautiful custom of mutual respect among wizards to shine.
'The sun's still too bright for Dark magic.'
Ian looked at the shining sun and thought.
Forcing darkness to appear would work, but it would likely result in the magic not listening to Ian for days, upset by the forceful call.
Too expensive a price for just showing off.
But considering the warm air and the steep mountainous terrain...
"[Wind,]"
Ian extended his staff and spoke the language of magic.
"[Come to me!]"
Choosing the most appropriate magic was also a skill of a wizard.
Ian chose air magic, and that choice was apt.
"Oh...!"
"A whirlwind!"
As Ian summoned the wind, a fierce whirlwind began swirling around Ian and his group.
The bandits gaped at Ian's display of air magic.
"Incredible..."
"That wizard is amazing!"
Most of the bandits had never seen large-scale magic like this before.
That made sense since Kira had never shown them any large-scale magic until now.
"How about that! You thieving bastards!"
"This man is the famous wizard, Raven!"
Talian's mercenaries shouted excitedly.
Showing off impressive magic was nothing new for Ian.
They had strong faith in him.
When Talian's mercenaries taunted, the bandits flinched.
Feeling a bit intimidated and as if they were losing somehow...!
"Hmph, what a joke! Calling that magic?"
Unable to hold back, one of the bandits shouted.
It was a matter of momentum and pride.
"Our side has an awesome wizard, unlike you guys. Still want to go for it?" was essentially the response to Talian mercenaries' taunts.
"Wowww!"
"Yeah! We have Lady Kira!"
"Kira! Kira! Kira!"
"Go show them what you're made of!"
The earth-shaking roar of cheers echoed.
Within that massive support,
Con artist Kira Laventa took a bold step forward...!
'Please just shut up...! You bastards!'
No one knew about her true feelings.
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