Chapter 72: Ouch

"Sit."

Caelus immediately took the chair opposite Veyra’s desk.

Neither of them spoke.

They simply looked at each other across the room, and the longer the silence stretched, the more awkward it became. Caelus wasn’t particularly bothered by silence, but something about the way Veyra was looking at him made it clear that she expected him to say something.

He eventually gave in.

"To what do I owe the honor, Your gra—"

"Caelus."

She cut him off before he could finish.

"You almost died."

Caelus stared at her for a while.

No shit, Sherlock.

"I mean, yes," he said. "My abdomen was pierced by an S-rank monster nearly ten feet tall, so I was fairly close to death."

"That isn’t what I—"

Veyra stopped herself and sighed.

It was a long, exhausted sigh that seemed to carry every regret of the past several days with it. She leaned back slightly, her eyes still fixed on him, and for once there was something conflicted in her expression.

Caelus watched her for a moment, then his eyes widened.

"Were you worried about me?"

The disbelief in his voice was deliberately exaggerated.

Veyra stared at him with a completely flat expression before slowly shaking her head.

"I’m sorry for asking this," she said, "but do you have suicidal tendencies or something?"

Caelus raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Is it because of your family?" Veyra asked. "You grew up without a mother, and your father has never exactly given you the attention you deserved."

Caelus stared at her in actual disbelief.

Ouch.

The accusation itself wasn’t what surprised him. It was the way she had said it, without hesitation or any attempt to soften the words. She had brought up something deeply personal as casually as if it were an ordinary observation.

Caelus wasn’t used to people being that direct with him. Even when someone had something unpleasant to say, they usually dressed it up in softer words.

Veyra apparently saw no reason to bother.

"What makes you say that?"

"Everything you did during the examination."

Her voice remained calm.

"You kept fighting things that were outside your league. You pushed yourself against opponents you had no business fighting at your level. You were lucky. One mistake, one bad movement, one attack you failed to predict, and you would have died."

Caelus contemplated her words.

Now that he thought about it, several of his decisions during the examination had been kind of reckless. He had known the risks before taking them. He had understood the difference in rank. He had known that his body could fail.

Yet none of that had carried the same weight it probably should have.

Perhaps dying once had changed his relationship with danger.

Lark had already reached the end once. He had felt death approaching and had experienced the final moment himself. The fear of it was still there, but the finality had been stripped away. It was difficult to be terrified of an ending he had already lived through.

That didn’t mean he wanted to die.

It simply meant that some instinctive barrier inside him had become weaker.

"I don’t have suicidal tendencies," Caelus said.

Veyra continued looking at him suspiciously.

"That is exactly what someone with suicidal tendencies would say."

Caelus had no immediate answer to that.

She looked away briefly before continuing.

"Just be more mindful next time. I don’t want a dead disciple. It would ruin my reputation."

The corner of Caelus’s mouth twitched.

Then her expression became more serious.

"But really, expect death. Just don’t get too close to it. Whatever you’re pursuing, whatever you’re trying to achieve, your life still matters more than a result."

Caelus held her gaze for a moment.

"Of course." Your Grace.

He kept the last two words in his head.

Caelus let the silence settle again before looking at her hair.

"Why is your hair loose?"

Veyra’s hand moved to it almost unconsciously.

"I only tie it when I need to be cautious."

She looked directly at him.

"And there is nothing threatening here."

Caelus looked at her, mildly offended.

Then he remembered that the person sitting in front of him was an S-rank mage and decided that his dignity could survive the insult.

Veyra seemed to notice his reaction but chose not to comment.

"Forget that," she said. "How did you manage to create three spells in such a short amount of time?"

Caelus thought about it for a moment.

"Someone I know gave it to me."

Veyra looked at him.

The silence that followed made the answer feel significantly less convincing.

"Don’t play with me," she said. "You’re forgetting that I know everything."

Caelus sighed.

"Didn’t I tell you?"

He leaned back slightly.

"I’m an author who wrote this world. I pretty much know everything about it. I’m the one who invented the magic-circle system as well, so naturally it wouldn’t take me that long."

Veyra stared at him.

Her expression remained perfectly still, but there was enough in her eyes to make Caelus wonder whether she was mentally calculating how difficult it would be to throw him through the nearest wall.

"If you don’t want to tell me, then don’t," she said. "Just don’t joke about it."

Caelus sighed inwardly.

This world is truly messed up.

He had spent months learning that telling the truth could be less useful than lying when nobody was willing to believe it.

Veyra picked up one of the papers on her desk.

"Whatever your source is, from now on you’ll help me with magic-circle development."

Caelus looked at her.

"Why?"

"I need someone who can recognize flaws quickly."

She glanced at the diagrams.

"You’ve already shown that you can break down a structure and understand where it can be improved."

There was nothing unreasonable about the request.

He had already been planning to study more magic, and working directly with an S-rank mage who specialized in magic circles could only be useful.

But even so, he was about to complain when Veyra added,

"I’ll pay you one hundred gold coins per session."

"Deal."

The answer came so quickly that even Veyra paused.

Caelus looked at her, blinking innocently.

"Is there something wrong, Your gra—"

Her eyes sharpened.

The rest of the sentence died somewhere in his throat.

Veyra lowered her gaze back to the papers.

"Good."

Caelus sat quietly, deciding that surviving the examination had apparently taught him many things, though learning when to stop provoking an S-rank mage was probably not one of them.