The Guardian Knight of Affection-Starved Young Ladies

23 – The Missing Thing (02)

024.

When Kallen mastered the second hierarchy combat attribute magic ‘Explosion’, a large pit was dug in the makeshift training ground in the backyard.

The difference in magic is extreme even with just one step in hierarchy. If you saw that pit, you could easily guess.

But now it seemed that Blamia had filled it up.

The place where the pit was was filled with soil of a slightly different color.

Kallen turned his head back to Blamia’s back.

“Was that, little one, your doing?”

It was a question with an unclear subject.

It could have been the breakfast from a moment ago.

It could have been a breakfast from a long time ago.

But Blamia does not ask meaningless questions.

Given his nature of avoiding unnecessary words, it was wrong to think it was difficult.

Having removed the sinat, it was clear what he wanted to ask.

“Are you referring to Lady Rakatus?”

Blamia, who had been looking slightly towards the sky, nodded and turned towards Kallen.

“Yes. There isn’t a person in society who doesn’t know. Not long ago, someone even came to confirm it with me.”

All wizards must go through the process of confirmation with Blamia.

When the number increased, it was unknown, but there are still not so many wizards that they overflow.

Kallen recalled those words but felt it was a bit lacking.

He couldn’t guess exactly what part of the incident with Eliana he was asking about.

“That masterpiece. They asked if it was you, kid.”

“Are you talking about the imagery?”

“Yes. That masterpiece.”

Kallen was a little surprised.

It was because Blamia had never used such an expression before.

No matter how beautiful something was, his eccentric personality would only go as far as to say it was tolerable.

There was only one thing that even such a great wizard would call a masterpiece.

The winter island engraved in the imagery.

Blamia was talking about Eliana’s world.

“I saw that child’s world. I saw the winter island too, but there was something more.”

“…”

“Why are you there, kid?”

There can’t be a person in the imagery.

In that world, like a painting, there can’t be a person.

Only in very rare cases.

At most, there would be a vague image of oneself.

But Eliana’s imagery was different.

Not only was Kallen’s image clearly imprinted, but the main figure was that of a boy.

Those who were not captivated by the Winter Island could not help but wonder.

“It was extremely beautiful. It felt like I was going blind.”

“Yes.”

“The idea that one could create an image thanks to someone else is such a vain delusion, but seeing that masterpiece, I couldn’t help but doubt it.”

Blamia approached Kallen and grabbed his wrist.

He felt the flow of mana and a familiar sensation.

What slowly unfolded was Kallen’s dark world.

Blamia was stimulating Kallen’s mana.

The world that unfolded was still dark, burning, and appeared as if it was broken with straight lines.

It was far from beauty or greatness, something Blamia had advised him to hide.

However, there was a slight difference from before.

“Huh.”

Something invisible was twisting, convulsing as if it was struggling.

It resembled the ‘disease’ that had driven Eliana to the brink.

The already horrific scenery was even more grotesquely distorted.

In a world where the more beautiful the image, the more it is favored.

It was easy to imagine what would happen if Kallen’s image was shown to others.

“It was indeed your doing.”

Kallen could not help but be flustered.

It was true that he had taken a clue from Eliana’s words to cure the disease.

But he had no intention of creating an image or bearing the disease himself.

As Blamia withdrew his mana, Kallen’s world closed.

What lay before him was what he had handed to Blamia when he returned.

It was the papers and records he had received, claiming it was what he wanted from Duke Everchan.

All the documents that traced the traces of Eliana’s disease.

It was what Kallen had thought when he linked his peculiarities with Sinat and Eliana’s affairs.

With Sinat.

The baseless idea of forcibly extracting his image and blocking mana.

With Eliana.

The words that her pain eased when he was by her side, perhaps due to her mana-less constitution.

Kallen is an oddity who uses magic despite having no mana.

He asked Everchan for help to understand himself.

However, even after reading the records on the way back, nothing came to mind.

So he asked Blamia for help,

and faced an unexpected reality.

The answer also came from Blamia.

“I’ll teach you a spell, try it.”

“Right now?”

“Yes.”

Blamia immediately recited a slightly complex magical formula.

No matter how you looked at it, it wasn’t a first-tier calculation.

Nor was it a familiar type.

Kallen, though puzzled, faithfully implemented the magic.

What flickered at his fingertips was a cold wind.

Without adding anything, Blamia spoke again.

“Try using Explosion.”

Following Blamia’s words, Kallen deployed the second-tier combat attribute magic, Explosion.

Clunk-

The magic that should have manifested smoothly was blocked by something.

“Stop. That’s enough.”

It was Blamia who stopped Kallen after several more attempts.

Then, with a serious expression, he began to speak.

“The first magic you used. Do you know what it was?”

“I don’t.”

“It was second-tier natural attribute magic, ‘Frost Wind’.”

Kallen’s pupils slightly widened.

If he had heard correctly, it was an impossible feat.

Not mastering multiple attributes evenly is due to its difficulty.

It’s as hard as drawing the blueprints of a complex building simultaneously.

Yet Kallen had done it effortlessly.

I knew it was second-tier magic.

I just thought it was combat attribute magic.

It took a long time to master the explosion, but the frost wind was done in an instant.

It’s definitely strange. Second-tier magic is not something that can be approached so easily.

But now, I couldn’t use the explosion magic.

“Do you know what attribute of magic Eliana was recognized for?”

“Nature attribute…”

A little, it gave me chills.

It was too exquisite to be a coincidence.

“I thought you had an aptitude for combat attributes because you awakened them. But it wasn’t.”

“Then is the reason I can’t use explosion magic because of the nature attribute?”

“It wasn’t a combat attribute from the beginning. No, it probably isn’t any attribute.”

Blamia tapped the various records that Kallen had handed over.

“The fact that it took several months for the explosion, but the frost wind was done as soon as I taught you the calculation is the proof. Kid, it seems your aptitude is not within the five attributes.”

“Then is the reason I can’t use the explosion because I used nature attribute magic?”

“What did you hear? I said you don’t belong to the five attribute system. And that might be related to what you did to Lady Rakatus.”

Mental image.

Blamia said that Eliana could have a mental image thanks to Kallen.

“Your constitution without mana. The terrible mental image. I don’t know why it happened, but that’s why it cured the disease where mana has seizures. To put it simply… Yes, that would be good.”

Blamia put down the records, looked around, and picked up any stone.

He roughly brushed off the dirt and placed it on one palm, extending both hands.

“Do you see it?”

“Yes.”

“One side has a stone, the other doesn’t.”

Blamia alternated his hands and continued.

“Simply put, it’s the difference between having and not having. The side with the stone is already full, so nothing can be put in. But the side without it can hold anything. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“You are this side.”

Blamia roughly threw the stone behind him and only maintained the hand that had nothing.

“Because you have no mana, nothing, paradoxically, you can devour anything.”

“…”

“Those who have, choose and pick what they bite into, but those who don’t, put anything in their mouths. Because they need to survive.”

The life of wandering the streets before being taken in by Blamia.

That time flashes through his mind.

“But if you keep eating just anything, you’ll get sick. And your hunger won’t be properly satisfied.”

Blamia withdrew her other hand and strode towards Kallen.

“They say you gained nature magic as a result of eating something strange, like Eliana’s disease, you little brat.”

The records glimpsed behind Blamia.

There, the traces of writing were so dense they seemed to overflow.

All of it was in Blamia’s handwriting.

Kallen had no words to respond.

No, was it shameless?

In Blamia’s angry tone, a faint worry for him was seeping through.

“Look at your heart and your body. Does that look normal to you?”

The heart’s edge, blackened, and the lines spreading out like cracks.

It was not within the bounds of normalcy.

“Whatever it is, if you keep doing the same thing, you won’t survive.”

“Then what should I call my attribute?”

“What? You want me to name that too?”

The name Kallen was given by Blamia when she took him in.

But Kallen felt a bit lonely.

Thinking of Blamia, they would part ways someday.

Hometown, constitution, mind, magic.

Even the name.

Everything about him was peculiar.

No, should he say strange?

Because anything not ordinary was called abnormal.

“Attribute of nothingness.”

Blamia stroked her graying beard and pondered for a while before speaking.

“Attribute of nothingness would be good.”

Fortunately, beside Kallen,

there was someone to give him a name.

*

Kallen is powerless.

Sinat suddenly thought so.

It took a little while to notice because the glasses and cane he had gifted suited him so well.

Kallen is a bit calm…

No, no, he has a cold side, and even though he has a serious side, he is a warm person.

He could confidently say that he knew this better than anyone else.

The Kallen reflected in his eyes looked a bit lonely.

Then Sinat also felt weak for no reason.

What happened when he talked to his grandfather earlier?

It was a bit awkward to pry into such a secret, so he couldn’t ask.

“That shouldn’t be.”

Maybe Kallen doesn’t find playing with him as fun as he does?

Maybe his heart injury hurts a lot, but he can’t say it because he’s being considerate?

“That shouldn’t be.”

His fingers unconsciously went between his lips,

Tap, tap.

Maybe he misses the world outside the cabin, not his side?

Crunch-!

“Ouch.”

When he looked down at his fingers, blood was flowing from the worn-out nails.

Sinat’s expression as he looked at it was terrifyingly indifferent.

For a long time.

“Ah!”

Sinat clapped his hands and stood up, walking lightly.

His expression was still a bright smile as usual.

“Let’s go play with Kallen~.”