What does it an to beco an adult?
Getting older?
Looking more mature?
Well.
I never beca an adult in my previous life.
So I didn’t really know, but one thing did seem clear to : even if I beca an adult, it probably wouldn’t change anything about in so dramatic way.
Because I still wanted the macarons I’d eaten yesterday today too, and the class that had bored yesterday still made want to skip today.
Wouldn’t it probably be the sa even after becoming an adult?
“But this is different, Ruby.”
Boyd whispered it in a grim voice.
“This is the very symbol of adulthood.”
Gulp.
I swallowed without aning to.
Dim evening light, a secluded drawing room no one ever ca to.
The candlelight from the silver candelabrum flickered dangerously across Boyd’s smooth face, now completely stripped of any last trace of boyishness.
I was newly moved by the fact that he was sitting across from , because Boyd had suffered so severely from a dreadful middle-school phase that for a while he’d developed the complication of being physically unable to do anything unless he was perched diagonally on a windowsill.
With a lancholy expression, one leg bent up, poetry or an art book in one hand...
It had truly been appalling.
Ah, though of course, there had been people who were delighted. The maids in charge of cleaning the windowsills.
Anyway, having deigned to co down into a chair for once, he spoke in a low voice.
“This is like water from the devil’s spring. It makes people do unpredictable things. So think it over one last ti. There’s still a little ti left before your coming-of-age ceremony. So...”
“Boyd.”
I opened my mouth calmly.
“Ever since the day I turned seventeen, I’ve been waiting for this mont alone. And I’ve made every preparation.”
Reading the grim resolve in my voice, Boyd raked a hand roughly through his hair.
“Damn it. What’s so great about a coming-of-age ceremony...”
“I’m not going to hesitate.”
“...”
“Just getting older doesn’t make soone an adult, does it? You have to act like one. That’s how you finally beco one.”
“Who are you and what have you done with my sister?”
After staring at for a mont, Boyd drew a deep breath and set his face in firm resolve.
“All right. Then let’s go. Into the world of adults.”
Pop. He pulled the stopper from the glass bottle filled with amber liquid.
Trickle, trickle.
Watching the liquid fill the transparent glass, I smiled faintly.
“Mmm, the scent of adulthood.”
Crossing my legs with elegant poise, I gave my assessnt in a soft voice.
“I’m expecting quite a bold flavor. A gentle fruity aroma that will sweep through the mouth and vanish, leaving behind nothing but a pleasant freshness.”
—Yeah, right.
No, no, wait a second.
I was getting a little flustered.
Liam, this slls like disinfectant.
Was alcohol really supposed to sll this ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) vicious? Was this right?
They said it was sweet! Adults always drank it with those absolutely blissful expressions on their faces!
Sotis they even drank more of it than water!
What exactly did Boyd steal out of Dad’s office?
Poison?
Was soone trying to assassinate Dad?
“What are you doing? Aren’t you drinking?”
“Hohohohoho.”
All kinds of wild scenarios were running through my head, but I couldn’t back down now. I, Rubian, was about to beco an adult, which ant I had to equip myself with adult courage.
And maybe it tasted good even if it slled awful.
“Ahem. Then maybe I’ll try just a single drop.”
To show off the delicate control befitting a mage, I focused all my nerves into my fingertips. Just as I tilted the glass the tiniest bit, trying to let out only the smallest possible amount—
“You two really are unbelievable.”
Whoosh. My hand suddenly went empty.
“What the—? Who is it?!”
“Your father.”
“Oh! Dad... right...”
I laughed awkwardly and looked up at Dad, whose expression said he found us utterly ridiculous.
Good grief, what was this radiance?
Why did my father only get more dazzling as ti passed?
“So that’s why you kept exchanging those strange looks at dinner. You were planning to steal alcohol behind my back?”
“Ohoho.”
“How old do you two have to get before you stop causing trouble?”
“Hmm, about a hundr...ed...?”
“Don’t go sneaking in an extra zero.”
“Aaaagh!”
Dad seized my cheeks and punished without rcy. I broke free from the villain exploiting my precious cheek fat and hurriedly defended myself.
“No, listen. They say His Majesty the Emperor personally serves alcohol at the coming-of-age banquet. I’ve never had alcohol before, so what if I make a mistake? What if I spit it out? I have to practice ahead of ti.”
“Ha. Practicing for sothing like that. Who was it that very firmly said she’d only drink after the coming-of-age ceremony?”
“ee!”
“So confident now, aren’t you? Ha, you’re giving heartburn.”
With a troubled face, Dad poured himself a glass and downed it in one shot. My eyes instantly went wide.
“That’ll only make the heartburn worse! What do we do?!”
I shot to my feet.
“No! Boyd, ergency ice cream deploynt!”
“Here!”
“Hyah!”
Splash!
Ah. Total failure in directional magic control.
“Hmm...”
Seeing the scoop of cream-colored ice cream that had bounced off Dad’s broad shoulder and landed neatly in his glass, I scratched the back of my head awkwardly.
“Ah, Dad. That, um, that’s what it is. Affogato? Hahahaha...”
aning, here...
“I’m sorry.”
A quick apology was the only answer.
Like an adult.
*****
“Whew. This isn’t easy.”
The road to adulthood was as long and treacherous as ever.
Back in my room, I let out a long sigh.
It was getting close to bedti, but I didn’t feel remotely sleepy, so I sat down at the table near the window and picked up the disorderly stack of papers lying there.
“All right. Ti for so self-imposed overti.”
These were the magic circles from the steles Dad had found while traveling all over the continent for . There was already enough to fill a book with ease.
Still, it’s such a strange kind of magic.
I looked through them with renewed fascination.
Most of them were magic unknown to the public, or very old, vanished high-level ancient magic.
Unfortunately, none of them contained the formula for the mark-breaking circle I was searching for.
Still, I’ve gotten quite a lot out of it.
I’d been finding the incomplete parts of those magic circles and finishing them, and lately, now that that work was more or less complete, I’d been gradually modifying the magic circles themselves.
So these spells could be cast with the least possible amount of magic.
In other words: power-saving mode!
Up until now, I’d mostly borrowed Wigeria’s wisdom for that kind of work. But lately, I’d been trying to do it on my own.
“Where did my pen go...?”
Just then, as I looked around, my diary caught my eye, shoved into the corner of the cluttered table.
“Ah.”
Co to think of it, what am I supposed to do about this?
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of my fingers drumming against the notebook continued in steady rhythm.
They stopped on the last sentence I’d scribbled down carelessly.
—Our house in Zelox. Past the herb hill.
“...No matter how I look at it, this is a bit much, isn’t it?”
At that rate, it was practically the sa as saying I had to investigate every gravestone in every graveyard.
Besides, if there really were sothing on that stele, I should have noticed it myself.
I’d already gone in and out of the morial garden in Zelox several tis. If there had been anything special there, like a magic stele, I should have noticed long ago.
But... I do feel like I sensed sothing strange in the morial garden when I was little.
When I t Mom disguised as the caretaker.
Only for a mont, though.
I’ll check it out as soon as we get back to Zelox.
I ca to a neat conclusion.
But... what if there really is sothing there?
That thought worried too.
I really, really did not want to go prying into soone else’s grave.
More than anything...
How am I supposed to tell Mom and Dad I want to investigate the grave of their dead child...?
Just imagining it made uneasy.
“Ha, now I’m troubled. I’d rather the stele Khalid went to find turned out to be the right answer.”
Praying earnestly, I got to my feet.
Thinking that hard had made thirsty, and I wanted so water. At the sa ti, my eyes t my reflection in the full-length mirror far across the room.
“...”
I approached it carefully and checked the mark on my lower back.
User Comments
0 comments from readers