Chapter 1 Part 5: I, Who Was a Top in Reality

The staff he handed me was surprisingly heavy—almost hard to believe a child’s frail arms had been holding it up.

My wrist stung, but that was actually a relief.

Heavy meant what?

Sturdy.

And sturdy meant what?

Thwack!

Perfect for cracking a skull.

“It feels right at home in my hand.”

The thug, struck on the head by the staff I’d swung with weight behind it, let out an ugly groan and crumpled to the ground.

A trickle of blood ran from his greasy scalp.

Savoring the impact remaining in my palm, I tossed the staff back to El.

The boy fumbled to catch it.

Even I didn’t go around throwing punches in reality.

I’m not a child—I know full well that violence carries consequences, and acting that way would be idiotic.

If someone lacks enough self-control to make that calculation, they should go back to mandatory education.

There was no one to hold me accountable here, and since he was a bad guy, I didn’t need to feel guilty.

Meaning this was a purely rational act.

The faint pleasure spreading through me pulled the corners of my mouth up.

For the first time, I’d found a positive side to this possession.

“Sorry, the staff got a little dirty since it’s new.”

At my gloomy remark, El answered in a clear, shadowless voice.

“It’s fine—I can just use cleaning magic!”

So what you’re saying is, violence and all that aside, the priority is that the staff got dirty from touching that guy’s head.

I roughly patted the kid’s head and resumed walking.

Over just two days, I’d come to vaguely understand how exhausting Rudan’s life must have been.

If he revealed he was a wizard, he’d receive looks mixed with fear and disgust.

If he hid it, sleazy humans would pester him.

Either way, one thing was certain—it was unpleasant for the person involved.

Just then, the round back of the little wizard’s head caught my eye.

I asked casually.

“Not scared anymore?”

“Huh?

Of what?”

“You were trembling earlier.”

“Ah……”

The boy glanced back at me briefly, then turned his head to stare into the distance.

There was nothing particularly eye-catching there.

Probably trying to hide his expression.

“I was thinking about how to teach him a lesson, actually.”

The answer that came back was rather brazen.

Well, children did tend to boast easily.

“Is that so.”

I decided not to press further.

Not because I was considering the child’s feelings about being hurt by an adult’s teasing—it wasn’t that amusing anyway—but because I didn’t want to engage in meaningless bickering.

Three carefully selected books were enough.

Basic Magic Theory, Magic and the World, and Memoirs of the Dawn Star.

As soon as I returned to the castle, I started reading through each book one by one.

Given what I did for a living, I had confidence in my concentration.

Fortunately, the script here was also legible to me.

Once I started focusing, even El’s presence—bustling around me, asking to borrow mana—stopped bothering me.

If I tried to cram everything complicated into my head at once, I wouldn’t digest any of it properly.

After getting a rough grasp of magic’s principles from Basic Magic Theory and information about the conflict between Imera and Nieta from Magic and the World, I read Memoirs of the Dawn Star, which contained myth-like content, as if it were a novel.

The reason I’d bothered to buy this one was that I was following a certain cliché.

In fantasy works, hints were often hidden in places like this.

It would have been nice if things had gone smoothly and I’d found a way back right away, but for now, no clues were immediately visible.

Still, it wasn’t like I’d gained nothing.

I’d learned exactly what Nieta meant by “overturning light and shadow.”

“Hmm…….”

To summarize the first part of the myth:

The primordial god Secreta, to soothe his loneliness, created a new god named Kirios and shared his power with him.

The problem was that the two gods had vastly different temperaments.

Secreta viewed humans as his own flesh and blood or playthings, generously sharing his power without reservation.

Kirios viewed humans as subjects to be ruled, seeking to govern them through strict laws.

Once the two gods’ powers were evenly matched, the one who steadily increased their worshippers would seize the initiative.

Instead of the few special people who received Secreta’s power, the countless followers of Kirios’ laws came to cover the world.

Throughout long history, there were traces of large and small discord, but the ones who always seized victory in the end were Kirios’ people.

Because Secreta never intervened in human conflicts.

Instead, so that his children wouldn’t live persecuted, he created a new world in a place where Kirios’ power couldn’t reach.

A world of shadow, opposite in every quality to the world of light ruled by Kirios.

The indolent god, while granting favor, didn’t want to go through great effort.

So, like a child turning over a ruined piece of paper to draw on the back, instead of creating something completely new, he mimicked the existing world to create a new one.

Thus was completed a world that looked similar on the outside, but where the vitality of the world of light had vanished, covered instead in dense lumps of magical power.

A place optimal for wizards, but where ordinary humans would melt away under the pressure of the energy.

So……

‘Imera’ referred to wizards who had already assimilated into Kirios’ world and didn’t want to change the current situation—those who betrayed Secreta and helped humans destroy the shadow world.

‘Nieta’ meant Secreta’s children who hid in the shadow world, waiting for a chance to destroy Kirios’ world.

This also explained why Nieta’s wizards, who didn’t integrate well into academies and were fewer in number, could still contend on equal footing with Imera.

The units of supplied magical power would be different.

“Tch.”

Not that my opinion—completely unrelated to them—mattered, but for various reasons, I found Nieta’s logic a bit more relatable.

Fortunately, the side that seemed most likely to hold clues for returning to my original world was also that one.

My situation was quite different, but since they were nesting in something called the shadow world, the fact that they could come and go meant inter-world travel was possible.

Good.

I closed the book I’d left open meaninglessly at the last page.

When I raised my head, I saw the boy squatting in front of me.

“You’re done reading?”

“……”

You startled me.

“Um…… this……”

“What is it?”

“It’s tea with a calming effect.

You must be tired, so I wanted you to get a good sleep…….”

What’s with this kid acting all wifely?

It was absurd, but I gladly accepted the boy’s goodwill.

After all, I was indeed tired and in need of rest.

By now, deep darkness had fallen outside the window.

I took the cup El handed me and downed the moderately warm tea in one go.

“And, um, instead of this sofa, please sleep on the bed over there!

It looks a bit rough, but at least you won’t roll off.”

“Yeah, yeah.

Thanks.”

The moment I laid down on the crude bed, sleepiness washed over me in an instant.

In my fading consciousness, I happened to spot a fatal flaw in the conclusion I’d just reached.

Finding Nieta…… was going to be difficult.

Even if I knew exactly where they were, I’d have to worry about the path there, and I needed to meet beings who hid in their own world.

At this rate, I was bound to have nightmares.

The white-haired boy stood still for a long while, staring at the sleeping man’s face.

In the dark room, only the boy’s golden eyes glowed clearly like fireflies.

“He just accepted it and drank it when I offered.”

Muttering in a voice tinged with amusement, the boy paced across the stone floor.

After a seemingly aimless walk, as if deep in thought, the boy reached the window.

Soon, the sound of a horse’s whinny was heard.

The boy could make out a figure in the darkness.

A handsome man with blond hair and blue eyes was approaching on a white horse.

His sculpted, neat appearance made him look like a prince from a fairy tale, but the boy knew he was no prince.

Soon, something strange happened.

The man, having stopped, looked around as if searching for something, then tilted his head in apparent confusion.

He did glance once in the direction of the castle, but soon his gaze extended far into the distance, as if this place were nothing but an empty lot.

He pulled a piece of cloth that looked like a map from his bosom, studied it for a while, then finally mounted his horse again, as if giving up.

“Haha.”

The boy observed this and giggled.

“You’ve got to admit, the timing couldn’t be worse.”

Thud, thud.

With each small sound of footsteps turning back toward the bedside, the boy’s figure, bathed in moonlight, grew in size.

Rudan’s face, sleeping soundly unaware of the world, looked utterly gentle and innocent, unlike when he was awake—like an angel.

The boy—now fully transformed into an adult man—recalled the vivid violet eyes he’d seen over the past few days.

Those cold eyes, filled with the will to gladly sweep away anyone who stood in his way.

“For once, I’ve found something entertaining.

I can’t let any intruders in.”

Ezekiel sat on the edge of the bed and crossed his long legs.

The pitch-black hair that touched his outstretched hand had such fine texture that it was quite pleasant to touch.

He’d received this man’s magical power countless times, but had never once thought he wanted to touch a place like this.

How strange.

No, perhaps not so strange.

“So who are you?

Rudan’s twin?”

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