Reborn as the Head of the Stolen Mage Family

Chapter 65

Eddie turned around.

As expected, the person approaching was Joy.

After confirming that there was no one else around, Eddie spoke freely.

"Did you find it?"

"Yeah, it's under here. This tree is the door to that secret place."

"This big tree is a door?"

Joy was surprised and approached the tree.

Then she placed her hand on the tree trunk and gauged the energy she felt.

Even she, in her immaturity, could feel it.

It definitely wasn't the feeling of a normal natural object.

"So Kirhausen is Kirhausen… it's not just bold, it's downright brazen……."

Joy looked at the tree and shook her head as if she was dumbfounded.

Valcon Ruins, visited by tens of thousands of people a day.

To install such a huge artifact in the middle of it.

She was dumbfounded by the thought that the scale of any action taken by the top magical family was different.

"So… you're saying you're coming back here alone at night? To investigate this place."

"Yes. They'll only start operating the facility in earnest after we leave."

"Won't it be dangerous for you to go alone? Maybe we should change the plan so I can go with you……."

Eddie shook his head firmly at Joy's concern.

"To be honest, with your current skills, you're not yet helpful in such a serious matter."

"...That's true."

"Right. And in this plan, I'm enough to break the school rules. You need to show your side as a leader that the students can trust and rely on."

"...Alright. But be careful."

Eddie nodded as if to say not to worry.

This plan.

The grand plan to uncover Kirhausen's shame and break free from the shackles they had imposed on him was as follows.

Eddie would secretly leave the campsite at night and investigate the ruins.

The professors would form a search party, saying they had found traces of Eddie's departure and the appearance of a magical beast.

And Joy would participate in the search and show her side as a grade representative who takes the lead for the students.

When the search party finds Eddie and returns, the fame-building is over.

Eddie becomes ‘the owner of the magic that summoned a magical beast after decades,’ and Joy becomes ‘the student council that took the lead and fulfilled its duty despite the appearance of a magical beast.’

The people of Embas and Lacania still worship Phoenix Embas, who became friends with the magical beast king and controlled the magical beasts.

Because he is a hero who reminds them of the good old days and their dream.

So if they show a feat that can be called his second coming, people will be enthusiastic, even if the protagonist is a child.

If the enthusiasm from not only the Lacania region but also the city-state, which is just a foreign country, is added, it will not be easy to ignore, no matter how great a family of Luxorin.

It would be difficult to touch two commoners while risking international problems for a regional issue.

That was the way for Eddie to break free from Kirhausen's shackles, and for Joy, who would be with him, to also get a shield.

But there was one twisted point in this plan.

He had told Joy that ‘no real magical beast will appear.’

Eddie explained the plan and said this to Joy.

That he was not skilled enough to summon a magical beast.

That the appearance of the magical beast would only be conveyed through traces and rumors.

But tonight, Joy was scheduled to see a real magical beast.

This was a change according to Brenda's advice.

‘Right. It's hard to find a real mage just by looking at their skills.’

In a situation that could threaten her own life, how would Joy act?

Eddie stared at Joy for a moment.

There was only one thing that bothered him about this plan change.

The fact that he was also putting others at risk, even though it was to protect himself and Joy from Kirhausen.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"It's nothing. Let's head back now."

Eddie cast aside his slight guilt at Joy's question.

In the end, for someone with a weak hand, adventure is not a choice but a necessity.

He had to hope that the adventure would yield great results and that nothing would go wrong.

"But why Valcon Ruins of all places? There are many other ruins."

"They probably thought it was the most effective place for magic absorption. Besides, the mayor is a bit of a dimwit, so it would have been easy to handle him, whether by persuasion or by force."

The two of them headed for the center of the ruins, continuing their discussion of the plan.

The topic soon came to deducing Kirhausen's intentions.

Joy refuted Eddie's words.

"But even if it's suitable for magic absorption, it's a place with too many risks to take. It's a tourist spot, so many people come, and most importantly, magical beasts might appear and attack."

"...It's surprising that you think so. Everyone thinks that there's no way a magical beast would appear."

"Of course, normally that's the case. Mages strong enough to make a magical beast appear are very rare, and the ruins are closed at night."

"Right."

"But this is a situation where the magical beasts can't just stand by. Not only has their territory been invaded, but their magic is also being absorbed."

"Hoo…. You've already thought that far?"

Eddie looked at Joy as if he was impressed.

Joy's guess was quite plausible.

As she said, the current situation was no different from an emergency for the magical beasts.

So even if there were no strong mages, there was plenty of room for them to go on a rampage and cause an accident in their attempt to fight against Kirhausen's conspiracy.

Eddie looked at Joy as if she was praiseworthy and said.

"I had the same guess as you. And my conclusion is this."

"What is it?"

"That they chose to absorb more magic, even at the cost of all those risks."

"Hmm… 'high risk-high return,' huh."

"They probably already have a countermeasure in place for when the facility is discovered. They must have started this with all the preparations for cutting their losses."

"You're saying they wouldn't have placed any Kirhausen people in the facility."

Joy immediately understood what cutting losses meant.

As she was getting involved in a frightening plan, she was gradually getting used to gruesome imaginations.

Eddie nodded.

As they continued their conversation, the two reached a rock in the shape of an altar.

But someone was sitting on the rock with their eyes closed.

A face full of freckles with grayish-brown hair.

It was Alexein's tail, Hendricks.

Not only Joy, but Eddie was also surprised by the unexpected person.

"Isn't that Hendricks Dean? What's he doing here alone?"

"He seems to be meditating… I'm not sure either."

"There are things you don't know too."

"Do you think I'm some kind of prophet?"

The two of them lowered their voices and cautiously approached Hendricks.

The atmosphere of Hendricks, sitting with his eyes closed, was somehow strange.

As if he couldn't feel their voices or presence, he didn't show any movement, like a statue.

Even when they got closer, Hendricks was moving his mouth slightly and muttering something to himself.

It was then, as they were quietly watching him.

Crack-!

The sound of a branch breaking came from under Joy's foot.

The startled Hendricks opened his eyes with a flash and made eye contact with Joy, who was right in front of him.

"Hyaaaak-!!"

Hendricks screamed and rolled down from the rock.

He wasn't seriously injured because of the soft ground full of leaves, but his clothes were instantly a mess.

"Ouch… ouch ouch…."

"Are you okay?"

Joy approached the pained Hendricks first and offered her hand.

Eddie watched the scene from behind with a faint smile.

He was quite satisfied with Joy's changed attitude.

Joy originally hated all the tails, including herself and Hendricks.

Because she thought that by volunteering to be the servants of the upper-class children, the tails were lowering the dignity of commoners themselves.

But Joy, who had accepted Eddie's advice, had changed her mind about the tails, and as a result, she was now approaching even Hendricks first.

But now the problem didn't seem to be Joy.

"Ah……."

Hendricks' expression as he looked at Joy's outstretched hand was not good.

An expression hardened not by displeasure but by discomfort.

Eddie knew the reason for that discomfort well.

It was because of Hendricks' unresolved guilt.

In the previous exchange ticket theft incident, Hendricks had directly participated in framing a commoner child.

Of course, it was by Alexein's order, and he himself was genuinely distressed, but being distressed didn't make the sin disappear.

"……."

Hendricks hesitated for a moment and then took Joy's hand and stood up.

"Let's go together, Hendricks. We were on our way back too."

"Uh… yeah……."

Hendricks couldn't find any words to refuse Eddie's suggestion to go together.

Throughout the way to the center, only superficial conversation was awkwardly exchanged between the three.

In fact, that was more natural.

Considering their public relationship, it would have been a more suspicious picture for the three of them to be close.

Besides.

"How did you end up in the Dickens family?"

"Ah… it just happened……."

"Your entrance exam scores were quite good. Have you ever learned magic separately?"

"Well… I have……."

The conversation was superficial.

To Eddie and Joy's questions, Hendricks consistently gave vague or evasive answers.

‘A tail is supposed to be tight-lipped, so it's not a strange attitude.’

It wasn't that he didn't understand.

But it was a little strange that he even trailed off on questions he didn't have to avoid.

Didn't he know that such an attitude would actually look more suspicious?

Eddie didn't care about his troubled reaction and continued the conversation.

"So you're also trying to become a mage from the academy……."

"Wa-watch out!"

Whack-!

It was then that Hendricks, surprised, pushed Eddie hard.

Eddie staggered greatly from the unexpected blow.

He might have been injured if Joy hadn't caught him.

Joy was about to get angry in her bewilderment.

But Hendricks' hurried apology was faster.

"S-sorry! There was a ne-nest where you were about to step, so I did it without thinking……."

"What… a nest?"

"Yeah… here……."

Hendricks trailed off and slowly knelt down.

Then he began to clear away the leaves piled up on the spot where Eddie was about to step, one by one.

But even after all the leaves were cleared, no nest appeared.

Only the ordinary dirt ground was visible.

Joy grumbled, thinking Hendricks was making it up.

"What, where on earth is the nest……."

"Shh."

But Eddie, as if he had felt something, quieted Joy down.

Then he slowly bent down towards the dirt ground.

Then a moment later.

A small hole appeared in the dirt ground, and a small mother bird poked her head out through it.

"Kiyiri have a habit of making nests under the dirt ground and covering them… usually they make nests much deeper, but I don't know why this one made a nest here."

Continuing his explanation, Hendricks used his hands to clear a path for the baby Kiyiri to come out easily.

Five or six baby birds with fluffy down came out of the nest in a line, following their mother.

Eddie and Joy quietly watched what Hendricks was doing.

They wanted to exclaim in amazement, but they didn't make a sound, thinking the baby Kiyiri might be startled.

Finally, when the Kiyiri family left, Joy exclaimed as if she had been waiting.

When she asked Hendricks how he knew, Hendricks showed his shyness again.

"I just… I have a good sense."

"No matter how good your sense is, how did you know that? It wasn't visible to the naked eye at all."

"Well… maybe I just felt it better because I'm usually very interested in animals. Haha……."

"Ah… could that be?"

"It could be."

Eddie cut in and moderately cut off the questions.

Hendricks was relieved that the barrage of questions was over, but he didn't notice Eddie's gaze, which was staring at him intently.

"Anyway, thanks to you, we saved several precious lives. Thank you, Hendricks."

"No, not at all……."

And so, the Kiyiri nest incident opened the door to conversation between the three.

Although it was still awkward, they continuously exchanged words and arrived at the center of the ruins.

When he saw the students, Eddie cleverly went in a different direction from Hendricks.

If Alexein saw the three of them together, Hendricks would be in trouble.

"Bye."

"Yeah… you too……."

Eddie walked in the opposite direction with Joy.

Then he stopped for a moment and looked back at the retreating grayish-brown back of Hendricks with the sharp eyes that Hendricks hadn't noticed earlier.

"What's wrong?"

"...It's nothing. Let's go."

Eddie only answered Joy's question with a mysterious smile.

Soon, the free time was over, and the students gathered together again.

The representatives began to count the number of people according to the professors' instructions.

"97… 98… 99… hmm?"

Eddie counted several times and tilted his head.

One person was missing.

And he soon found out who it was.

It was Marcel.

‘Where did he go, this kid?’

Eddie was about to discuss the missing person with Alexein.

But he had already roughly counted the number of people and, thinking it would be fine, was chatting with his group.

Sending another lament to Eustaf, who was probably in the underworld, Eddie turned to inform Fred and Brenda.

But then.

"Sorry I'm late."

Marcel, who had run from the other side, caught his breath and joined the line.

As he passed by, a fluctuating aura of magic was felt from him.

It meant that he had been actively reacting his mana circle until a moment ago.

‘He was late trying to absorb the magic of the ruins.’

As expected, Marcel couldn't let go of the words Fred had said jokingly.

He probably spent the entire free time in a secluded place, struggling and overworking his mana circle alone.

But the magic of the magical beasts that had been passed down since ancient times was not so easily absorbed.

"I don't know if you've all gotten much stronger during your free time. I'll look forward to your skills in the midterm exams."

Fred once again spoke jokingly to the gathered students.

The students chuckled lightly and let it pass, but as expected, Marcel was the only one who couldn't laugh this time either.

The professors' explanation of the ruins began again, and the students moved in a line for the remaining tour.

Marcel looked back at the forest twice in the meantime.