Chapter 4

The journey was arranged at breakneck speed.

Eredith, being a wanderer, was used to traveling.

Ian had no belongings to pack.

"Mother. Father. I'm leaving now."

"Alright. Listen well to the wizard!"

"Study hard! Raven!"

"Brother! You must come back!"

Ian left the domain amid his family's fervent farewells.

Leaving the land he had lived in all his life (10 years) for the first time, he felt a mix of emotions.

"Um... should I call you Master... or something?"

"Not yet. I haven't taught you anything, have I? Just call me sister."

Ian had wondered about this before, but was she really a sister?

A child's perspective is very different from an adult's.

Eredith was confident she looked quite young, but to Ian, she seemed closer to an auntie than a sister.

Eredith was 35 years old, older than Ian's mother.

Ian's younger sister calling her an auntie was a result of chilling insight.

"Sister."

"Yes! What's on your mind?"

The atmosphere suggested he could ask anything, but Ian wondered if his question was appropriate.

Nevertheless, his curiosity was too strong to hold back.

"Why did you choose me as your disciple?"

Eredith smiled subtly, thinking Ian was feeling anxious.

Ian knew nothing about the world of magic, about time wizards and such.

Ignorance breeds fear.

The unknown was causing him anxiety.

Why had a serf's son suddenly become the disciple of a wizard?

It was an adult's duty to alleviate that anxiety.

"I received a prophecy."

"... A prophecy?"

Ian was startled by the fantastic word that popped up unexpectedly.

He knew this was a medieval fantasy world, but he hadn't expected a prophecy.

A prophecy!

Isn't it an event experienced at least once by every important character in fantasy?

There are generally two types of prophecy events.

One foretells great success, and the other, great doom.

Ian swallowed nervously.

"What kind of prophecy?"

"Well? What do you think?"

Eredith brazenly broke the first law of question and answer.

First law of question and answer: Do not answer a question with a question.

But Ian was just as shameless.

"A prophecy that I'll become a great wizard in the future?"

He blurted it out.

Children can do that.

It's embarrassing when adults do it, but for children, it's audacity.

Children possess endless 'possibilities'.

Unlike adults who have closed their growth plates and are merely waiting for death, all children have hope.

"Pfft. Dream big, don't you? Want to become a great wizard?"

Like most adults, Eredith didn't dislike children who dreamed.

Especially if they were her disciples.

"Yes!"

Young Ian answered vigorously.

His enthusiasm appeared incredibly cute to Eredith.

'I did well taking him as a disciple.'

If she had taken a proper disciple, she might have chosen someone much cuter than Ian.

Wizards' disciples are chosen at a young age, typically around five years old.

The younger they are, the faster they absorb information.

The charm of a 10-year-old stands no chance against that of a 5-year-old.

By the age of 10, one should be graduating from this phase and moving on to the next.

At this age, one is simply too old to appeal with cuteness.

It's a merciless rule.

However, to Eredith, Ian, her first disciple, just seemed cute.

After all, he was her first disciple.

For Eredith, who had never had a child of her own, the cuteness of a young child was a novel and refreshing joy.

"Actually, I don't even know if Ian can use magic."

"… What?"

It was a shocking statement.

Ian, who was chosen as a disciple right away, might just be an empty shell!

Although it was just a realm of possibility, it was a terrifying notion for Ian.

If he wasn't a wizard, his prospects for survival were bleak.

However, Eredith believed that this guess wasn't the truth.

It was a prophecy from a time wizard.

He had said that taking Ian as a disciple would bring her good fortune.

And Ian being unable to wield magic wouldn't be a good thing for Eredith.

"To begin with magic, you first need to study a lot."

Ian nodded vigorously.

Just like in other fantasy settings, here too, wizards were the intelligent characters.

In other words, fools couldn't become wizards.

'I am confident.'

Kwak Jae-han, a Korean, was a science student.

He wanted to go to the mathematics department in university, but, dissuaded by those around him who thought him crazy, he ended up in computer science.

He had been admitted to a fairly prestigious university – not SKY level, but still one that drew a 'Oh, that place?' reaction.

So he believed he wasn't completely dumb.

The universal rule for fantasy wizards is formulaic calculation.

Calculation?

Kwak Jae-han would wake from sleep for calculations, a true enthusiast.

Some might ridicule the idea of being passionate about calculations.

However, calculations are surprisingly beautiful and sanctify the mind (omitted for brevity).

'I can handle any formulaic calculation.'

While Ian was lost in thought.

Eredith... just had no particular thoughts.

The prophecy had pointed to him, so he'd surely manage on his own.

And so, the two continued their journey.

Being a wanderer by nature, Eredith had no fixed base.

She had never felt the need for a base in her life.

As a fairly skilled wizard, she solved a few troublesome issues for others and her food and shelter were easily taken care of.

Why buy a house when she was a wizard desired and adored by nobles?

The entire empire was as good as her own home.

However, for the first time in a long while, Eredith decided to acquire a home.

In the northwest of the empire, at the foot of the Golden Mountains.

Eredith purchased a house originally built as a hunting lodge for nobles and transformed it into a cozy dwelling.

It would be their home until her disciple grew and was recognized as a wizard.

"How do you like it? Nice, isn't it?"

Eredith had a simple nature.

If she had liked luxury, she would never have roamed the empire without a home.

But she had splurged on a nice house, all for her cute disciple.

To Ian, who had lived his entire life in a cramped wooden house, this place seemed no less than a palace.

"Yes! It's wonderful!"

"Hehe. Your sister has spent some money!"

The only downside was that the house was in the mountains, making it quite tedious to manage.

However, Eredith, who had lived a nomadic life, lacked the sense for settled living.

In other words, she didn't think much about it.

She was simply delighted by the magic books neatly stacked on the bookshelves.

"Now that we've settled in, shall we start the lessons?"

Ian's heart started racing.

It was a historic moment, the first step towards becoming a wizard.

"Ian Raven, from this moment on, you shall serve me, Eredith Manscal, as your master."

"Yes, Master!"

"Good. From now on, your name will be Ian Eredith Raven."

Ian had gained a nickname.

Ian Eredith Raven.

In full, it meant Ian, the large raven, a disciple of Eredith.

The first official lesson began.

"Magic is an extremely dangerous skill. You can't start anything without thorough preparation."

Eredith was utterly serious, a stark contrast to her usual lax demeanor.

Ian also braced himself for the lesson.

"Open the magic book."

Ian carefully opened the book, ensuring his hands didn't tremble.

Strange characters sprawled before him like an ocean.

Ian was a raft adrift in the sea of knowledge.

"This is..."

"The very basics of magic. The Maronius language."

He felt queasy.

The Maronius language, a magical language, seemed familiar yet new.

It was very similar to ancient Asian characters.

That is to say.

'Chinese characters?'

They were sophisticated hieroglyphs.

Ian's vision darkened...!

'Damn it! Chinese characters!'

Ian could handle calculations even in his dreams.

But Chinese characters were not his forte.

Literature studies were for those dirty arts students!

Arts students need to know Chinese characters to recite poems like 翩翩黃鳥 (though there's no need to study it unless you're a literature major).

But for Ian, a former science student, this was utterly irrelevant.

Yet, now he had to study fantasy-style hieroglyphs!

"From today, you'll study 100 characters a day."

"Isn't that too much?"

"I'll reduce it if it's overwhelming."

This was 100%.

No, 200% overwhelming.

Absolutely indigestible.

Ian thought.

"But this is just the basic thousand characters. It's easy, so you'll learn it all in a month?"

Ian was horrified.

A basic 1000 characters?

He had thought it was similar to Chinese characters.

But this was a true 'Thousand Character Classic'...!

"Shall we start slowly?"

Ian's first magic lesson had begun.

The method was simple.

Eredith taught the name and pronunciation of each character, and Ian diligently followed.

Afterward, Eredith explained how the characters came to have their shapes.

"This character is pronounced 'Ere,' like my name. When Maronius created these characters, many were derived from ancient languages. That's why there are so many overlapping pronunciations."

Eredith, who hadn't spoken passionately about magic in a while, became enthusiastic and energetically conducted the lecture.

She was a born magic fanatic.

She loved magic so much that she hardly remembered any hardships from her initiation to independence.

As a result, she became an incarnation of a too-much talker, able to discuss the same topic on magic for hours on end.

However, Ian was ignorant of magic.

Moreover, as a pure-blooded science student who loathed all foreign languages familiar to Koreans, including English, Japanese, and Chinese, along with Chinese characters, he found learning the otherworldly hieroglyphs of Maronius language excruciating.

After a grueling six-hour marathon lesson, Eredith evaluated Ian's progress.

"Okay, Ian! How do you pronounce this character?"

"..."

Having genuinely taught him all 100 characters, she randomly picked one and asked Ian.

To her, it was a simple and unburdening question.

But Ian's mind went blank.

'What was it...?'

He seemed to recall seeing about six characters similar to that one.

'I'm screwed.'

It was over for Ian.

He regretted not paying more attention to arts studies.

No! He should have chosen arts from the start!

While Ian was lamenting to himself, something appeared.

[Ian Raven - Magic Novice]

[Skill: Magic Language]

[Ability to learn and utilize magic language]

[Maronius Language - In Progress]

'Huh?'

A status window.

Ian was astonished to see the status window appear before his eyes.

It... works?