LP 2.8 The Lizard with a Tied Tail

“You want to help me?” Kosha asked, pointing at the lizard still perched dumbly on the woman’s hand.

And she… as if only just noticing the lizard’s presence, stared fixedly at her palm for a while.

“Ah.”

“……?”

“So this was a lizard? Yes, now that I look, it does seem to resemble one.”

She scrutinized the thing on her palm this way and that, then slightly furrowed her brows and tickled the area near the lizard’s head with her fingertip. The lizard trembled its head. At the same time, Kosha somehow felt his own spine tingle.

Her black irises, contrasting with her silver hair that reached her shoulders, sparkled as she looked directly at Kosha.

“You appear to be of Dragonal bloodline, don’t you?”

“…Yes?”

“Take it back. I apologize for keeping it so long.”

She tossed the lizard into the air. The lizard, seemingly even more glittering than before, scattering fragments of light like tears, floundered through the air toward Kosha. Instinctively reaching out his hand, the lizard that clung to Kosha’s fingertip hastily scrambled up his arm and settled on his shoulder.

It looked like a hostage that had been detained and then released.

Baffled once more, Kosha asked again.

“So, you’re saying it’s not your lizard?”

“What nonsense! Why would I do such a crude thing, something a six-year-old might do? Moreover, I am of Ahorne bloodline!”

She frowned deeply as if greatly displeased, then let out a slightly weary chuckle.

“By the way, it’s amusing that you call it a ‘lizard’ with your own mouth. It gets so upset every time it’s called a lizard.”

As expected, Kosha couldn’t understand. Even in his childhood, he hadn’t particularly been called a lizard…

“In this state, there’s nothing more to say, I suppose. To be dragged around by one’s own power, really.”

“……”

“It’s getting late, so you should head back now. You… let me see, were you staying with the king’s fifth child?”

She counted on her fingers as if calculating something. Kosha interjected.

“His Highness Lucian?”

“Yes, that creepy Callot hybrid.”

That was the name. She muttered and clicked her tongue. As if mentioning something very distasteful. Then, suddenly seeming angry, she abruptly raised her voice.

“But why, of all people, did you choose that one? He’s clearly viciously greedy… Well, we do have a tendency to be fixated on beautiful things. But someone like you, wouldn’t just looking in a mirror be enough?”

“……?”

He couldn’t grasp the exact context, but it seemed like words meant to slander or disparage Lucian. Feeling slightly offended, Kosha answered as firmly as possible.

“His Highness is a kind and gentle person.”

“Such a persistent… what did you say?”

“I am indebted to him. And there are things I need to resolve.”

She fell silent for a moment. She seemed either at a loss for words or had forgotten what she was about to say. Then she muttered as if to herself.

“Could it be you’re being influenced by him to act like this…?”

It would be difficult to view someone like Lucian unfavorably. Could she perhaps be from his half-brother’s side? Suspicion and wariness began to bloom little by little. Now that he had even gotten the glowing lizard back, he was contemplating whether it would be better to flee even now, when the woman, who had been examining Kosha as if looking at something pitiful, spoke again.

“If it’s truly difficult, why not keep a familiar close by?”

“…A familiar?”

The sudden word popped out.

Of course, Kosha also roughly knew the concept of a Mage’s familiar. Keeping animals or plants close and controlling them with mana to assist with tasks… But wasn’t that a nearly extinct concept? Compared to the considerable effort required to create one, they were only meaningful when performing large-scale magic…

“I don’t have anything like a familiar.”

“Don’t have one? No need to hide it, I know all about it. Geese or ducks, I heard you made a whole flock of them, the crow.”

That fellow tried to take your familiar’s place and seemed quite disappointed. The woman added.

“So I joked, saying why are you making so many familiars these days, aren’t you using all your leftover mana imitating humans to create familiars…”

“……”

“…You can’t be serious?”

The woman’s expression, which had been speaking with a dismissive wave of her hand as if joking, hardened once more.

“Were you perhaps planning something grand?”

“No…?”

For Kosha, he didn’t even know how to make familiars in the first place, and even if he had made them…

Geese? That was utterly out of the blue. Those creatures?

Weren’t familiars supposed to be creatures that understood and carried out a Mage’s will? In exchange for having their health and safety guaranteed through magic, they became the Mage’s loyal servants and mana reservoirs…

“There’s no way they could be that… They’re just geese.”

Servants of a Mage, my foot—Kosha was their servant. Far from helping the Mage, didn’t they just cause trouble every day and run off into the forest?

“I’m just raising them. I’m a gooseherd.”

“Like you ever herded geese.”

The geese herded themselves, she scoffed. To Kosha, who had worked harder than anyone to herd geese, it was an unfair remark.

“If you made them, you should keep them close. You stand out excessively and still can’t hide your presence well, so in that sense too. They’re like a protective shield.”

She seemed convinced the geese were familiars. Kosha himself thought there was no way, but… even if it were true, it was problematic.

“But I can’t raise geese in the castle…”

“Why not?”

She retorted instead.

“You live with the king’s fifth child, don’t you? That fellow should be able to arrange something somehow.”

…How on earth?

Kosha imagined the geese, who defecated everywhere, happily scurrying through the corridors of Ostbrahe Castle, honking loudly and incessantly.

Even Lucian probably wouldn’t tolerate that…? Even if he had the intention to bring the geese in.

Of course, he likely had no such intention. He disliked messiness and showed some interest in horses and hunting dogs, but didn’t seem to particularly like other animals. Especially regarding geese, he seemed to dislike even hearing about them, didn’t the mood sink every time Kosha brought it up?

He hadn’t even expected it in the first place. But the mysterious woman, as if exasperated to death, snapped at him.

“No, grab one of his arms, pull it to your chest, and blink your eyes three times or something. Wouldn’t he do it for you right away?”

…What on earth is that?

Kosha imagined the act. Grabbing an arm, which arm exactly? The upper arm? The forearm? Should he separate the arm and hug it? Well, if it were cleanly severed with magic, it could be reattached later, but would Lucian allow that? Pulling it to his chest, how exactly? Horizontally? Vertically? Blinking three times, at what speed? Where should he look?—the act.

…In magic, intuition is primary, and calculation is secondary. Specific words or actions are merely auxiliary means. Kosha thought about the kind of magic that absolutely required specific accompanying actions.

“…Is that perhaps some ancient sorcery method?”

“This is truly impossible to communicate.”

She shook her head with a stern expression.

“I’ll really send you back now, so go on. Goodness, the way back is so long.”

She strode forward. It seemed like she only took about one step, but suddenly she was right in front of Kosha’s nose.

She was tall for a woman. Facing her up close, she was almost eye-level with Kosha.

“I hope you’ll be a proper Mage by the time we meet again.”

Then her palm covered Kosha’s forehead. Simultaneously, starting from the area of contact, his forehead grew warm, and his vision swam.

Into his rapidly fading consciousness, the silver-haired woman’s soft voice pierced clearly.

“It was an honor to meet a living descendant of Dragonal!”

And his vision went dark.

---

When he opened his eyes, almost as if having a seizure, he was on his own bed in his room. Lying properly, the blanket neatly pulled up to his chest.

Kosha stared at the ceiling, breathing heavily, feeling bewildered.

…What?

Outside the window, it had already grown pale and bright.

Was it a dream…?

It was a reasonable suspicion. But where should he start? From the bathroom? Kosha hurriedly checked inside the blanket.

Fortunately, the blanket was fluffy and free of any suspicious traces. If something disgraceful had happened, Kosha might have abandoned both Gosrick and Lucian and fled to a place where no one knew him.

Just as he was finally able to sigh in relief, something moved along his shoulder.

A shimmering green lizard was walking down Kosha’s arm with a plodding gait.

“…Oh.”

You were here… As Kosha muttered blankly, the lizard jumped up onto his knee. Kosha, sitting with his knees raised, asked the lizard:

“Did I dream yesterday?”

The lizard shook its head. Kosha’s eyes widened.

“Then, was yesterday’s incident real?”

When he asked again, this time the lizard nodded. Just as Kosha was about to urge it to say something—

“Get up, Mage! Wash up and get to work!”

The door swung open, and a gruff voice struck his ears. Kosha, startled enough to jump up from the bed while still seated, looked bewilderedly between the lizard and Gosrick. Gosrick spoke with a hint of annoyance.

“What’s this, what’s going on. Talking to yourself again?”

“Talking to myself…?”

The lizard was still standing proudly on Kosha’s knee.

“Didn’t I tell you not to do that? …Or is this not talking to yourself?”

But Gosrick acted as if he couldn’t see it, merely stepping closer and waving his hand in front of Kosha’s dazed face.

The lizard, as if teasing him, leaped up and clung to Gosrick’s wrist. Then it crawled up his arm to his shoulder. Kosha gulped.

“Uh, Sir Gosrick.”

“Hmm?”

“Don’t you feel something on your shoulder?”

The trembling voice blended with the bluish light of dawn, creating a gloomy atmosphere. Gosrick’s expression stiffened slightly. He looked around. The lizard took advantage of the moment and climbed from his ear to the top of his head.

Kosha’s eyes filled with even more bewilderment. Gosrick, who had been observing Kosha’s reaction with an increasingly hardened expression, then spoke very decisively.

“I don’t believe in ghosts.”

“…Yes? No.”

No, not ghosts. Kosha’s lips moved, but Gosrick was faster. He quickly brushed off his shoulder and turned away.

“Where do you think you’re trying to fool an adult? Get up right now! Wash up and get to work, I said!”

As Gosrick strode out of the room, the lizard leaped down from the top of his head. Kosha once again instinctively caught it.

The lizard’s blunt tail swayed gently as it landed lightly on his palm.

Under the dawn light, looking closely, it wasn’t just blunt—it seemed tied in a knot-like shape.