The Mage and I

Stories

## Illustrations

## 1 In a Nameless Village

Taiwan edition. Reposted from Light Novel Kingdom.

Scans: Wind

Whenever feet in leather boots met the gravel road, they raised a faint rasp of small stones.

He carried an enormous pack on his back, yet the man never lost his balance because of it, and his spine stayed perfectly straight. Aside from the occasional hand pressed to a shoulder strap, he neither looked down nor lifted his face to sigh at the cloudless sky. He simply walked on in silence.

To tell the truth, though, that pack sat absurdly on so small a man. It was not only huge; it was stuffed until it looked ready to split. What was the rod sticking out of the opening? There were other rods too. Could those be pot handles?

Something that looked like a musical instrument even poked its head out from inside.

A single glance said the pack was unbearably heavy. It could not possibly be light. Even so, neatly dressed in a somewhat soiled coat, with a long robe thrown over it against the sun, the man walked without the slightest disorder, keeping a fixed pace.

When the wind crossed the dry borderland, reddish-brown dust rose with it. Even the stubborn weeds and scrub growing all around took on a brownish cast beneath the grit.

The gravel road, skirting the rises and dips, seemed to wind on without end.

And this little traveler, bent under that huge load, looking as if he wandered alone with neither motive nor destination, suddenly stopped.

The traveler looked toward the grass beside the road. He pushed back his hood, revealing gray hair so tangled it was obvious it had never once been combed, and...

## 2 The Border Market-City at the End of Its Patience

The two of them stepped back onto the gravel road and headed west.

All around lay gently rolling ground of reddish brown. Mountains sat far off, barely within sight. There was no river and no forest. One could almost say nothing grew at all. Spring had only just passed, and the clear midday weather was less a matter of high temperature than of sunlight that stabbed until it hurt.

Garul was used to it and had no trouble, but what about Erushi? The answer was unexpected. She looked entirely unbothered.

"So you really are used to traveling."

"Huh? You thought I was lying?"

"Because of how you're dressed."

"Is there something strange about my clothes?"

Erushi touched herself here and there in surprise.

"Not strange. You just don't look much like a traveler."

"Maybe that's true. Actually, there's a very deep reason."

"What reason?"

"I think I already mentioned that I lost my luggage."

"You didn't lose it. It was stolen outright."

"...That was when my only coat disappeared too."

"A coat? Something worn over what you have on now?"

"Mm. Hot or cold, I loved that coat, so outdoors I almost always had it on."

"Your luggage was stolen while you were sleeping out in the open, right? Did you take it off to sleep?"

"Sometimes. That day was a bit stuffy, so I took it off... and used it like this, as a blanket."

"And when you woke up, it was gone?"

"Yes. I really couldn't..."

## 3 As Long as We're Alive

To my dear brother Arean

Brother, how have you been?

Lora and I are both doing well. I believe that if I write it this way you may doubt me, but the two of us really have been in good shape lately. I'm sure it's because you used your pay to rent us a new house. The old one held memories of Father and Mother, and we were used to living there, so it wasn't especially inconvenient, but the house was old after all, thick with mildew and cold in the air. Setting me aside, it still wasn't good for Lora. By comparison, the new house is comfortable. I'm looking forward to the next day off. Lora and I spend almost the whole day talking about what we'll cook for you when you come back.

Brother, when will you be able to take leave? I know your work in the army is hard, so I can endure it, but Lora is only nine, and she asks all day long when you're coming home. It's really noisy. I'll tell you in secret: Lora cried in the middle of the night once. She made me promise to keep it secret, so please don't let on about what I wrote in this letter. Above all, you must never tell Lora. I'm only telling you because it's a big sister's duty. I know you must want to know how Lora is in detail. Even if you already know I'm fine, you still worry about Lora, don't you? Lora is only nine. She's growing little by little, but right now she's still just a child. Even so, I want to tell you this: Lora is trying. Honestly, she may be more of a grown-up than I was at nine. ...

## 4 The Mage and I

Erushi truly could not understand the person called Woodpecker.

There were too many things she wanted to ask him, but she didn't know how to ask, or where to begin. She had no idea at all. And then Woodpecker made a proposal, giving Erushi no time to think: "Oh, right. I've thought of something good."

"Erushi, let's go save them."

"Save...?"

"Yeah. You and I will do the saving."

"Even if you say save, save who?"

"Do you even need to ask? You really don't know? Them, of course."

Erushi knew only one thing: once Woodpecker made up his mind, he listened to no one. Yuzuro, the bear-like leader, and Oiba, the tailed one of the Reto, both tried to stop Woodpecker. Erushi herself had not agreed. Even so, Woodpecker went his own way, grabbed Erushi's hand, and pulled her outside. Kolutapo had changed completely. The streets were packed with people. Shouts of rage and screams rose one after another. Booming sounds came from every direction, and tongues of flame kept leaping up. Everyone seemed furiously agitated, and that agitation had turned into panic. There were crowds who did not know where to go, and people fleeing in every direction like headless flies. When the two of them reached the avenue, they saw a group of demihumans hurling stones with all their strength. Their targets were the guards. In a corner of the avenue, several demihumans had surrounded one guardsman and were beating and kicking him without pause.

Seeing this, Woodpecker actually said with excitement, "Oh! It's started, it's started."

"It's started...?"

"Erushi, ..."

## Afterword

"You're fired."

Honestly, that sentence opened the first forty pages of The Mage and I, which I began more than a year ago.

Garul and Erushi still appeared, and the setting was the same world, but that first "Mage & Me" and this book were entirely different things.

By then there was already a draft for opening another new series, and I turned it over for a long time. But work related to Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, and other manuscripts, already had me too busy, and at the time I simply could not come up with an idea that would astonish anyone. Bringing out the "old Mage & Me" didn't feel right either. My schedule was packed. Was the draft a lost cause? Then, after I had the good fortune to sit in on the first recording for the Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash anime, I exchanged a few words with my editor in the lobby of the recording-studio building, and inspiration struck. If I did this and that with the "old Mage & Me," couldn't it become an interesting novel? Since the thought had come, I had no choice but to steel myself, and right there the editor and I reached the conclusion: let's write it that way.

This book is, without doubt, an idea born under the influence of the Grimgar recording. To put it more specifically, my exchanges with the anime staff, especially director Ryosuke Nakamura, Ms. Mieko Hosoi, and Toho producer Masaya Saito, and the performances of the voice actors, inspired me. Only then did I finally see what I ought to write for OVERLAP Bunko, write with everything I had: a work that more people could read.

I truly never expected that I would actually be able to...

## Special Ultra-Short Bonus Card: Bai'er and Gramps

One day Garul and Gramps stopped by the river, and Gramps suddenly said, "Bai'er, let's do the laundry."

"These old bones will wash them for you. Come on, quick, take off what you're wearing."

"Why do laundry?"

"Because they're already filthy, and they stink."

Garul sniffed his own clothes.

"They stink, sure, but I don't care."

"Just take them off. Come on."

"What about you, Gramps? Your clothes are dirty and smelly too."

"These old bones' clothes need washing too, of course."

"Then wash yours first, Gramps."

"Let's do that."

Gramps nodded and took off his clothes, leaving only a pair of tight boxer briefs pulled up to his waist. Then he looked down at the briefs and fretted.

"Looking this closely, the briefs have gotten pretty dirty too."

"Why not wash those as well?"

"Later."

"Is that so."

"Mm-hm."

Gramps crouched at the riverbank and began scrubbing the clothes. Gramps was a warrior. Though advanced in years, he still kept a tough physique, but some parts had loosened under the years all the same. Seeing Gramps squat there nearly naked, Garul couldn't help feeling a little sorry for him.

Yet Gramps's face was all smiles.

"Gramps, what are you smiling about?"

"That would waste more money."

"I won't do it."

"Oh?"

"Doing that is stealing. Bai'er, you must never."

"I don't need to."

"That's right, that's right."

"They lay out lots of them at the market, right? Just take them without paying."

"It's nothing."

"Gramps, you're really weird."

"Bai'er, your head..."