Chapter 34 - Clearing the Air

“Yes, Azriel.” Rhema put on a faint smile. Dried residue of emotion slowly moved. For the first time since he was called the Wizard of the Horizon, affection for another person sprouted. He was not aware of that fact. “That is enough. Call me anytime. Ask me any question, ask for whatever you want, and tell me what you want.”

“But…”

“You can throw a fit like any other child. I wonder how you’d do that.”

“I, I won’t throw a fit!”

“That’s a shame.” He laughed a little. Azriel hesitated and asked, pulling the hem of his clothes.

“All of that is only good for me, Rhema… Is there anything you want?”

Anything he wanted… The impossible was rare for him. Omnipotent and boring life.

Rhema Reshith looked back on his faded past. About a few hundred years ago, he had turned over and looked everywhere the whole continent frantically. There were times that he would leave everything he was doing to look for someone if there was any possibility. He wanted to meet a person who could see the same thing, mana, as him. It was a wish that had long been dried and given up. He no longer scoured the continent. He did not stop what he was doing even if he felt a unique wavelength of mana. Despite so, if he felt something close to where he was, he would go check after he was done with his work. Such an action was merely a broken fragment of a dead wish. However, that fragment had led him to this girl. “I’ve seen a potential from you. So, it is my wish to watch your growth, Azriel.”

“What potential? How do you want me to grow up?” Azriel tilted her head. Rhema brushed her hair quietly.

“I’ll leave that up to your choice.” For him, it was enough to teach her magic. Creating the environment and making it sprout was enough. Now, it did not matter whatever the result would be. It would be a little depressing if he had to kill her to see the result, but emotions would crumble and disappear in no time, as always.

*

What Azriel asked for the first time was to stay with her until she fell asleep. As she wanted, Rhema held her hand and stayed by her side until she was asleep. The girl fell asleep soon as if she was tired. He carefully let go of her hand not to wake her, fixed her blanket, and left the room. Noir, who was sitting upright near the door, looked up at him with his eyes narrowed.

“Why don’t you buy her a doll?” What came out of the cat’s mouth was a man’s voice. Rhema looked down at the black cat around his feet.

“A doll?”

“She hugs me every morning and clings to me when she gets bored… Why do you think so? Buy her a rag doll or something.” Azriel had not realized this yet, but not a single animal in Rhema’s house was an ordinary animal. The cats, dog, and the colorful bird were all familiar spirits. In addition, none of them were ordinary familiar spirits. Noir was a monster with high intelligence and mana by nature. Originally, it was as big as a house, wild, and even preyed on humans. Rhema was going to kill it who tried to prey on him, but suppressed it after realizing that it was a rare, smart monster. Then he fixed it in the form of a cat and made it his familiar spirit.

Noir, who was resistant in the beginning, was now quite satisfied. It was mostly because he met Blanchet, a female of the same kind. Since they were a rare species, it was not easy to meet someone of the same kind, but thanks to Rhema, he was able to live with her. Noir would repeatedly try to stalk her every mating season and was clawed by Blanchet.

Unlike Noir or Blanchet who were monsters by nature, Largo used to be an ordinary dog. He was a normal dog, but due to chance and error, he was born with tremendous mana and was dying, not being able to handle it. Upon discovering the dying Largo, Rhema made a contract of familiar spirit and gave him intelligence. Up to that point was a similar contract with other familiar spirits, but as the owner of the magic was Rhema Reshith, he far outgrew the normal range.

“Does she cling to you? Are you saying this because you don’t like that?” Rhema put on a strange face. She always seemed to stay distant from him, but she clung to the cat to the point the cat was annoyed. He somehow wanted to chase away the familiar spirit. Noir, who had no way of knowing Rhema’s mind, hissed and raised his fur. “It’s not that I don’t like it, oh, you’re driving me nuts! Just buy her a doll! Why can’t you buy a single toy for a seven-year-old human cub, you nasty! You are filthy rich too, huh?!”

Noir was right. A toy, why did not he think of such a thing? Since he was not sure what she would like, he thought he should buy her toys of all kinds and then buy some more of what she likes. Rhema made a decision that would make the city merchants scream with joy for a new source of income. Before he went out to buy them, he could probably make a rag doll in a hurry. “What kind of animal does Azriel like?”

“Considering that she hugs me every day, she must like cats the most. What about a stuffed cat?” Noir expanded his soft chest. It seemed like he was subtly bragging.

“All right.” Rhema thought he should exclude a stuffed cat unconditionally.