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༺ Memories of the Hero and the Mage ༻
"…Ugh."
I let out a groan, then slowly opened my eyes.
I found myself in a place engulfed in darkness, without a glimmer of light.
"What's this place?"
Bewildered, I radiated stellar mana in all directions, but for some reason, it didn't work.
'…Damn it, I hate darkness.'
I really loathe the dark.
To be precise, I truly hate being in a dark room without a glimpse of light.
Of course, the room I'm in right now, although it seems vast, I don't like it because I don't know where it ends.
"Ugh…"
Because of this, I was struggling with disgust. But soon I felt a presence at my feet.
"Meow."
"…A cat?"
A black cat… No, a cat doll was nibbling at my feet.
"…I'm glad you're here with me."
I lifted the cat doll up, feeling a bit reassured because of its presence. The cat doll, however, meowed and began licking my face aggressively.
"What's wrong?"
"Meow… meow…"
I was trying to get the cat doll away from me, but suddenly it lashed out at me and knocked me down, then began licking my face.
"…What?"
Having been suddenly defeated by that little cat doll, I ended up scratching the back of my head while the cat kept licking me for a while.
"Meoww…"
By the time my face became glossy, the cat curled atop my chest and began rubbing its face.
'…Is this sleep paralysis?'
The dream seemed way too wholesome for it to be sleep paralysis, so I kept lying on the bed. But suddenly, the surrounding darkness began fading.
– Woosh…
Eventually, green fields and trees entered my field of vision, and only then did I realize what situation I was in.
'…It's the same dream I experienced back then.'
Perhaps, the situation now is similar to that time when I saw Ferloche's past.
"…Mom?"
Sure enough, soon, I saw my younger self.
"…Yes, didn't I get lost while playing hide and seek in the woods?"
Back then, I got lost in the woods while playing hide and seek with my mother.
I'm sure I did.
It should have bee…
'…Something's strange?'
Now that I think about it, something really is strange. Why did I get lost while playing hide and seek? Why was it that my mother, the greatest stellar wizard, couldn't find me?
"Mom… where are you…?"
Eventually, the words that came out of his mouth were quite different from what I remembered.
"Mom… how long do I have to hide…? Mom…"
With an anxious expression on his face, my younger self continued to cry out to my mother, but he couldn't see a glimpse of her, and as such, the night deepened in the woods.
"I-I'm scared… sniff…"
My younger self, who had been crying and trembling in fear while waiting for my mother for a long time, soon leaned against a tree as he fell asleep after being exhausted.
"Sob sob…"
And after a while, a wolf, who found him asleep, slowly crept up to him.
'…That's what happened?'
I tilted my head because the memory seemed completely different from what I remembered. And at the next moment, a fireball flew in from somewhere at high speed.
– Whoosh!!
"Whimper!"
Then the fireball hit the wolf in its tail, and it ran away with its tail still set on fire.
"H-Huh..?"
My younger self woke up from that commotion, and after looking around for a moment, he found a red-haired girl in front of him.
The girl was Irina from my childhood, whom I used to play with secretly in the streets for several months at that point in time. Eventually, we became acquainted because I kept talking to her unilaterally.
"Y-You're…"
"Frey, why are you here?"
"That's…"
The young Irina, who ignited a fire in one hand while examining the crude paper in the other, crumpled it up and put it in her pocket. She then muttered.
"All right, now that I have found the missing first son of the Duke… If I get the amount written here, I can live on my own for a year."
"…What do you mean?"
When he inquired with a slightly scared expression, Irina frowned and replied.
"The handsome 'Noble Master' doesn't need to concern himself."
"But still…"
"Fine, I always say this, but… I hate talking to nobles. I'm doing this for money in the first place."
"…Huh?"
"Just get up already. Don't you want to go home?"
While Irina was getting irritated by his constant barrage of questions, my younger self stood up in a hurry and exclaimed.
"I want to go home! I miss my mother!"
"Then shut up and follow me."
"All right…"
Thus, my younger self and Irina began heading down the mountain through the darkness.
"…By the way, what was that paper from before?"
"..."
"And how did you find this place? Hm?"
"…Ugh."
Irina, who was quietly going down the mountain, closed her eyes tightly upon hearing my constant questions, and soon became annoyed.
"Be quiet!! You're hindering me from finding the way!!"
"…But I know the way as well."
"What?"
But when my younger self answered clearly, Irina looked slightly perplexed. She then frowned and asked.
"Then why were you missing?"
"Missing? Me?"
"Yes, according to this paper…"
Having said that, Irina closely inspected the paper. However, she soon froze on the spot and turned around while letting out a cough.
"Ahem… Anyway, let's go down."
"If I go down the mountain, will I get to see my mother?"
"....."
"My mom told me not to come out and remain hidden."
"…Let's go."
So, once again, the two of them, having finished their conversation which never existed in my memory, began trudging down the mountain.
"'"Howl…!"""
"…Huh?"
However, the howls of the wolves resounded from somewhere.
""Grrrr…""
Soon, a large pack of wolves emerged and surrounded Irina and me. Meanwhile, Irina, who was watching the wolves with a condescending gaze, smirked and ignited flames from both of her hands.
Then, the pack of wolves crouched down in preparation for the attack. My younger self got frightened and stuck close to Irina's back. He then poked his head out and began watching the scene.
"…Come at me all at once, you bastards!"
The moment Irina said so, and pointed her flames at the wolves.
– Rumble!!
Suddenly, the ground began quaking, and they were taken aback when they noticed something standing two feet away in the distance. The creature began approaching them.
"We-Werewolf…? What are high-level monsters doing in a forest like this…?"
'Werewolf,' a high-level monster, infamous for being a challenging foe, even for most knights and mages, was glaring at them.
"…Hic."
As my younger self let out hiccups in fear, Irina, who was quietly stepping back, whispered to him.
"Hey."
"Yea…"
"Run."
And, in the next moment, Irina shot a fireball behind and blew away the wolves. She then grabbed his arm and began running.
"Hooowlll!!"
Then, the werewolf and the wolves all started chasing after them.
"Damn, because of this… even if the pay is a little less, I'll have to call for backup."
Irina, who was running frantically while holding his arm, frowned, then ignited a fireball in her other hand and shot it into the sky.
– Boom!! Booomm!!
The fireball that soared high above, exploded and began decorating the sky with dazzling flames. While I was watching this scene curiously… Suddenly, everything froze.
"…What's happening?"
While I was perplexed for a while at this sudden situation, the scene in front of me was erased, and then a new scene began appearing in front of my eyes, akin to a painting being newly drawn.
"Groowwwl…"
"Gasp… Gasp…"
The newly appeared scene showed quite the desperate situation.
Because the pack of wolves and the werewolf were glaring at them through the flame barrier that Irina had conjured.
"Wh-What do we do now?"
"…Fuck, it's just not my day."
In addition to that, behind them, there lay a cliff.
"…If we go on like this, we won't last long."
"Well then…"
"So listen carefully."
Little Irina momentarily frowned, then began whispering to my younger self, who was scared.
"On the count of three, you run sideways. I'll deal a blow to the werewolf, then follow along."
"Bu-But…"
"Wolves won't be a problem. If I can deal some damage to the werewolf, I'll easily be able to outrun them."
Having said that, Irina pushed me aside and began counting.
"One, two, three!!"
At that moment, Irina charged in front of him with fire blazing in her hands. Meanwhile, my younger self also began running.
"Haaa!!"
"Growl…!"
Irina broke through the flame barrier and punched the Werewolf's abdomen, then immediately turned around and tried to escape…
"Hooowlll!!"
"Shit!!"
The Werewolf grabbed her cloak, and Irina ended up being suspended in midair.
"… Let me go!"
The werewolf lifted her up while Irina kept struggling to free herself. As the other wolves instinctively stepped back, the werewolf glared at her and bared its fangs. Upon seeing this sight, Irina closed her eyes…
"Hey, let her go!!"
My younger self, who had picked up a branch from somewhere, yelled and slammed it on the werewolf's leg violently.
"Yo-You moron…"
"Growl?"
Seeing this, Irina looked dismal, while the werewolf tilted its head for a moment, then kicked him with full force.
"Puhak!!"
My younger self, who had been hitting the werewolf's leg hard until then, didn't react on time and got kicked by it. In the aftermath, he rolled over the ground and ended up near the edge of the cliff.
"Hiiik!!"
Irina, who had been watching the scene blankly, soon ignited flames in her hands and began flailing them aggressively at the werewolf.
"Hey, let me go! Let me go…"
"Groooowl!!"
"Aarghh!!"
The werewolf, who was grabbing her arms, slammed her belly hard, hoping to get revenge for being punched in the stomach earlier. Irina went limp from its attack and was flung away.
"Hoooowl…"
After looking at her limp self for a moment, the werewolf licked its lips.
"…It's a female werewolf."
"…Meow."
While I was watching this crisis with the black cat, I noticed the Werewolf's gender and heaved a deep sigh.
"Kitty, I remember… I got lost while playing hide and seek in broad daylight, and when I got attacked by a single wolf, Irina came to my rescue. However, while doing so, she scarred her face."
"Meow…?"
"But why is a female werewolf drooling over at the sight of them in this dream? I don't think it's just a dream, considering I'm getting a similar feeling like last time."
"Meow…"
"And why do you always appear alongside me whenever I have these dreams…"
"Kyaa!!"
While I was confiding the various questions that flashed through my mind to the cat doll, who was avoiding my gaze, suddenly I heard a scream in the distance.
"F-Frey…"
"Hold my hand tight! Irina!"
My younger self grabbed Irina's hand, who was about to fall off the cliff when the werewolf had flung her.
"Grooowll!!"
The werewolf, who got annoyed by this situation, charged at them, but…
"U-Ugh!!"
As a result, the ground quaked violently, and my younger self, who was holding Irina in a precarious manner, lost his balance and stumbled forward.
"Aaaaaah!!"
"Nooooo!!"
Thus, both of them fell down the cliff helplessly.
"…Is it a dream? If it's real, there's no way Irina and I would have survived the fall. "
"Meow."
As I stared blankly at the scene, I speculated for a moment that this scene wasn't real and it was just a dream…
– Whoosh…
But in the next moment, when the scene began to change slowly, I changed my mind.
"Hey… wake up…!"
"Uh… uh…"
Because Irina was shaking my younger self, who lay there unconscious. Both of them were drenched in water.
– Ripple… Ripple…
To their right, a river was flowing briskly, and to the left, a firewood was burning that Irina had ignited with her magic.
– Crackle! Crackle!!
"…Damn it, when are they coming?"
Irina, who stopped shaking me for a while, sparked a flame in her left hand and shot it into the sky. Upon seeing his unconscious self, she became anxious.
"You moron… you should have just run away… Why did you come back?"
Having said that, Irina ignited a flame in her right hand and began warming up his frozen body. Soon, she muttered with a look of incomprehension.
"You are an esteemed noble Young Master… you go out on the streets to play around with commoners like me just for your amusement.. You're just an annoying noble…"
"Ugh…"
"But then… why did you come back…"
Irina muttered to herself while staring at my younger self as he moaned and groaned for a while. However, when she sensed a presence in the distance, her expression stiffened and she quietly stood up.
"Grrr…"
The werewolf, who had been chasing them all the way to the bottom of the cliff, was slowly approaching them at that time.
"Haaa!!"
Irina, who was glaring at the werewolf, soon tried to ignite flames in her hand with all her might, but…
"Damn it, I used a lot of mana on the search magic spell…"
With little mana left in her body, she soon stumbled and collapsed.
'…❰Search Magic❱ spell is a large-scale magic that can only be performed by 5 mages from the Magic Tower…'
"Grrr."
I was momentarily amazed by the discovery that Irina could use ❰Search Magic❱ at that young age, and before I knew it, the werewolf approached my younger self. She drooled at the sight of him.
– Boom!!
"Hooowll!!!"
However, Irina, who was lying on the floor, mustered all her strength and shot a fireball right at the face of the werewolf. As a result, the werewolf covered her face while rolling on the ground.
"Qu-Quick… I need to get out of here…"
At that moment, Irina staggered up and tried to move, but …
"…Hooowl!"
She stopped when she glanced at the unconscious body of my younger self. Soon, she began dragging him along.
"If I just make it to the bushes over there… I can hide his body…"
"Hooowl!!"
"Kyaa!!"
However, her clothes were soaked wet, and her abdomen was hurt pretty badly. As a result, she soon reached her limit while dragging him, and eventually, the werewolf caught up to them.
"Roooaaar!!
"Kyaa!!"
Before long, the furious wolf slammed her fist on Irina.
Then the sharp werewolf's claws tore her clothes and left a deep cross-shaped scar on her cheeks.
– Pow! Pooow!!
"Ugh… Ugh…"
The werewolf adjusted the intensity of her punches to inflict utmost pain on young Irina. The werewolf then grinned when she saw that Irina was about to lose consciousness and aimed her sharp claws at her throat.
"Grrr…"
"What a shitty life…"
Seeing the scene, Irina burst into tears and spat out curses in a melancholic tone. In the next moment, just as the werewolf's sharp claws were about to pierce her throat…
– Thud!!
"Hooowwwll!!"
Suddenly, a dull sound resounded, and the werewolf collapsed while foaming from her mouth.
"Why… did you come back…?"
Young Irina, who was staring blankly at that figure, soon found my younger self holding a thick stick behind the collapsed werewolf.
"I'm a Starlight…"
"F-Frey…"
"…We're a family of the Great Hero… Weak or strong… We protect them all."
After saying those words, my younger self uttered a few more words before losing consciousness, collapsing into Irina's arms.
"…That's what my mother always told me."
And soon silence lingered for a while.
"Here!! The signal has been fired from here!!"
"Young Master!! Are you okay?"
"Son!!"
Eventually, the servants of the Starlight household along with my father arrived at the scene, and at that moment, my eyes were once again dyed with darkness.
"…Sigh."
Having glimpsed through the memories of my past, I heaved a deep sigh and muttered.
"I… was supposed to awaken my stellar mana after seeing the prophetic book… it was also mentioned in the setting…"
"Meow…"
"Now… I don't know."
Having said that, I hugged the cat doll, who was staring at me with a sullen look, and lay down in the dark room.
.
.
.
.
.
"Young master… please wake up…"
Meanwhile, at that time, in Frey's dormitory.
"…You promised to go out with me."
Kania, who just came out of Frey's subconscious, muttered as she looked at him with a haggard face.
"How can you delay the promise for 3 months..?"
Before long, the first semester of Sunrise Academy was already coming to an end.
You can read 505 episodes for $10. p.*atreon.com/Astrid02