Saikyou Mahoushi no Inton Keikaku (LN) - Volume 6 - Chapter SS

Bonus Short Stories 

Relief for a Rusting Heart 

The heart can rust. 

And said rust can spread, and by the time one notices, its effects can reach the other parts of the body. 

Magicmasters are humans too, and the harsh experiences they have to live through in the Outer World constantly cause their hearts to rust, such as when they hear the hellish screams of a comrade’s last moments before a Fiend feasts on them. The sight of them being torn apart is burned into their eyes and seeps into their souls like a poison. In the Outer World, there are too many toxins eating away at the heart to count. 

To pick up a mental disorder or two from that is not unusual. No matter how strong they might be, a Magicmaster is still only human, and they’re unable to avoid their very soul being hurt. 

Some would help to end the life of a comrade that couldn’t be saved, while other squads would scatter and leave a companion that couldn’t move behind. Many spent countless sleepless nights filled with regret while thinking about the companions they were unable to save. 

The more that happened, the less they tended to think about it, in a desperate attempt to protect their hearts. The result was that they ended up becoming used to it. But even then their hearts were worn down. They were simply unaware of it, and eventually the heart wouldn’t be able to bear it any longer. 

That was why it was important that Magicmasters, with some exceptions, made sure to get some rest. When their hearts reached their limits, they would heal by spending leisure time in the Inner World. 

That allowed them to reaffirm that the Outer World wasn’t the norm, that the comfortable life in the human domain was the proper one, and it kept their senses from numbing.

It was a simple incident that made Loki realize how broken her heart was. It was when she’d started being sent out on more missions in the Outer World, and the experience of other people dying around her had started to make her feel nothing. 

It was a symptom that she herself hadn’t been aware of. 

The incident happened when she was eating dinner with her squad after returning from a mission. The food didn’t have any taste whatsoever. When she noticed that, she hugged herself and her small shoulders starting trembling from fear of the situation. She didn’t know how long she’d been like this. And she shuddered at the realization that she hadn’t even noticed how much she was breaking down. 

This kind of taste disorder had been normalized among Magicmasters and was seen as an occupational disease. The military didn’t really see it as a problem. 

However, that was actually just an initial symptom, a warning signal of something worse. It was a form of emotional dilution necessary to protect the mind and survive that sacrificed even joy and happiness. At its most extreme, it cut away everything unneeded to maintain a proper balance. 

That’s why Loki found it so terrifying. 

She couldn’t taste anything. In that case, it wouldn’t be strange for some other sense to go out of whack next. Would it be her vision, her sense of smell, her sense of pain...? It was very frightening to her. She wasn’t breaking down as a Magicmaster, but rather she was falling further away from what it was to be human. She was exhausting the life she wished to spend for his sake, which was something she couldn’t accept. 

There was even the fear that her feelings of wanting to devote her future to him would fade. Her everything had to be used for his sake. 

However, since the symptom was only in its initial stage, she was able to have it treated right away. Taste disorder was common in the military, and its treatment was well established. 

Loki hadn’t ended up in that situation because her mind was immature. In fact, it was statistically more common in the higher rankings. Perhaps overcoming death was the same as surrendering a piece of your humanity, one bit at a time. Whether they survived or had a merciless death, as long as Magicmasters continued on like that, they would end up breaking down little by little.

After that incident... As Loki was bringing the military food to her mouth to confirm its taste, she had a sudden thought. Oh, right. That’s what I have to do. 

She had come to a realization. Alus’ ranking was already in the top five of Alpha. And it wouldn’t be long until he stood at the top of all the Magicmasters. 

When that happened, he would surely have lost more precious things than just his sense of taste. He probably wouldn’t care about others. He probably wouldn’t feel anything about death. Just what would he have left as a result of his mind protecting itself? 

That kind of thinking led Loki to a certain conclusion. I will do whatever I can for his sake. In order to get him to feel happiness... I must first... 

“Uhm, please teach me how to cook.” 

The cafeteria’s cook was a little surprised by the girl’s sudden request, but eventually smiled and invited her into the kitchen. The only person in the military related to cooking that she could think of was the middle-aged lady working in the cafeteria. 

Loki used any free time she had practicing her cooking. She also learned to be particular about the ingredients. If Alus were to get a severe taste disorder, cooking skills alone might not be enough. In that case, she wanted to remind him of what taste was, through carefully selected ingredients. She felt like that kind of build-up of commonplace happiness would save him. That’s why the first thing Loki set her eyes on after becoming Alus’ partner was tea. 

Taste disorders in the military were primarily psychological in origin, and one of the remedies was to develop the habit of enjoying tea. 

Once she became his partner, she looked for chances to serve him tea frequently. She was relieved to see that he didn’t specifically hate it. 

Like she’d anticipated, it seemed Alus’ sense of taste was rather dull at first, to the point of him completely guessing at the wrong kind of tea. 

But the symptoms improved over time... probably. When he called her homemade cooking delicious, that was probably his honest opinion on its taste. 

Loki decided in her heart to slowly mend it in a way he wouldn’t notice, through careful selection of tea leaves with a gentle fragrance. 

*** 

“I see, that’s a dream you had recently? It does sound like it could be true.” 

Alus took a sip of tea as he nodded at Loki’s passionate appeal that his taste disorder needed further fixing. At the same time, he said, “This stuff’s good,” not showing much interest in Loki’s sentiment. 

Loki furrowed her brows and puffed up her cheeks. “It’s half true. At the very least I...” 

“If it’s only half, then it’s still different from the truth.” 

Alus’ unnecessary nitpicking caused Loki to sulk and draw closer to him. “It’s more than half! You only saw food as a necessity to get nutrition too, Sir Alus! That’s why I thought you might not be able to taste things.” 

“Well, it’s not unusual in the military. But don’t you think your imagination is a little too vivid? You’re really stretching your interpretation of reality here.” 

That couldn’t be true, Loki thought, and she continued pushing her point. Alus had fought in the Outer World more than anyone; he knew of those tragedies better than anyone. He just wasn’t aware of it, and should already have multiple symptoms. 

“... I was just worried... t-then what about the taste of the tea?” 

“Like I said, it’s delicious. Tastes good,” Alus said with a soft smile to avoid the question. 

And so, a moment in the afternoon passed. 

A Weakened Girl’s Pride 

It was just another day. 

Enough time had passed since Loki became Alus’ partner and they started living together for her to think of it as just another day. 

Alus’ laboratory was an entire floor of a research building, so there was quite a bit of space. The majority of it was filled with research equipment and a vast number of books and documents, making the actual living space feel rather cramped. But it was still large for just Alus and Loki to live in by themselves. 

Due to the master of the room’s personality, cleaning the laboratory on a daily basis was essential. With him having zero organizational abilities, Loki living here was necessary for Alus to devote himself to his research. That said, she seemed to enjoy it, so nobody complained. As she was now, she couldn’t repay her savior, so she gave him her everything in the hopes of being of some use to him. 

In the end that might be just self-serving, but to Loki, who’d tirelessly worked for him since making up her mind, that sensation had become part of her and she put herself second or third. 

Without any chance to be of use in the Outer World, she believed that it was only natural that her dedication should be put to use in taking care of Alus. 

Loki didn’t exactly love doing chores. She was simply happy to do something for Alus’ sake. And by now she had a much better idea of where everything was than Alus. 

For example, most of the books in the laboratory were rare, with some that could even be considered priceless. That’s why whenever Loki organized the books on the bookshelves, she treated them with the utmost care. 

Books that had been scattered across the floor or desk were returned to their usual spots on the shelf exactly as she remembered them. 

Alus wondered if she really had to go that far, but seeing Loki treating books filled with precious knowledge so carefully, made him somewhat happy too. 

That said, Alus also had the sobering thought that in the end, books only contained information. They might be rare, but they weren’t worth more than anything else. 

As usual, Loki spent the day after finishing lessons with Alus watching over Tesfia’s and Alice’s training, and doing some simple cleaning. She didn’t overlook dinner preparations either. 

However, she looked a little off today. She normally took care of chores swiftly and efficiently, but today Alus saw her being clumsy and making a lot of careless mistakes. 

Thanks to Loki, he could devote himself to his research even now, but his thoughts were drawn back to reality by a loud noise. Wondering what it was, he hurriedly stood up. 

Tesfia’s and Alice’s training would get noisy as well, but this sound was clearly outside the norm. Hearing something like glass shattering during training due to Tesfia or Alice being careless was well within expectations, but he couldn’t think of a reason for this dull, heavy sound of something hitting the floor, with the possible exception of one of the big pieces of equipment falling over. 

“What’s wrong, Loki!!” 

The scene he saw made him realize what was behind the sound. Loki was leaning on the bookshelves, and at her feet were several books she’d dropped. Each one was as thick as an encyclopedia. 

She was supporting herself on the bookshelves after losing her balance, with her forehead against one arm. 

“I-I am sorry, Sir Alus... I dro... I dropped the books...” 

Loki was having a hard time breathing despite being indoors. She bent over to try and pick up the books at her feet, but collapsed as she was unable to support herself. 

Alus quickly stepped in to catch her small body. Through her clothes, he could clearly feel her elevated body temperature. “The books don’t matter. More importantly, if you’re not feeling well, why didn’t you say something sooner?” 

Lately, Alus had been cutting down on his sleep to research more. And that might have put a lot of strain on Loki, who’d been staying up with him. No matter how many sleepless nights Loki could spend on missions in the Outer World, things were different here. Besides, even if she could stay up without any sleep, it could hardly be called healthy. 

Touching Loki’s forehead, Alus could feel how hot she was. 

“I’m sorry. I’ll start making dinner right away.” 

“Don’t worry about that. For now, you need to get some rest.” 

Alus sighed at Loki’s drive to continue doing chores out of a sense of duty, as he lifted her up. He pushed the books lying around away with his foot and carried Loki into his room. “You’ll have to deal with using my bed. It’ll be easier to nurse you here.” 

Loki opened her eyes hazily and weakly apologized. “I-I’m sorry...” 

“I said don’t worry about it. It’s my fault for leaving you to deal with everything.” 

“Am I... just causing unnecessary trouble.” 

Alus couldn’t help but want to poke fun at Loki despite her sickness. “Oh, look at you being so weak. Well, it’s probably just a common cold from exhaustion, so get some rest for now. I’ll take care of everything.” 

For the time being, he put a wet towel on her forehead and had her drink some medicine. After that, maybe her exhaustion finally reached its peak, because Loki closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Time passed, and it was already well into the night. 

Loki groaned from a nightmare, and suddenly woke up. As she turned to look to the side with blurry sight, she could make out Alus. 

He seemed troubled. Having reached a lull in his research, he was in the middle of cleaning up but he didn’t know where everything went. 

Alus always left clean-up to Loki, so she was the only one who knew where everything belonged. Eventually he got sick of it, and just started cramming things in wherever there was space. 

Once he was done, he noticed that Loki had woken up, and brought over reheated food from the kitchen. “I thought I’d be able to make something simple, but I guess not.” With a wry smile, he put down a tray at Loki’s knees. On it was porridge with vegetables, and if he was right, its taste was as bland as it looked. 

“Thank you very much.” 

Perhaps the medicine was working, as she seemed to be getting better. He handed her a spoon while saying, “Maybe I should study up on chores, too,” which caused Loki to freeze up. Seeing that, he gave her a puzzled look. 

“I will take care of all the housework for you, so you mustn’t learn, Sir Alus.” 

“Ah, okay, okay. I’m glad you’re feeling better. It’s not like I’d learn in a day or two... Anyways, don’t get too emotional or your cold will flare up again.” 

Loki gave him a small nod, and with a frown she brought the porridge to her mouth, one spoonful at a time. 

“Want me to wipe down your body once you’re done eating? You’ve been sweating quite a bit.” 

“I-I think... my fever would only get worse...” 

Alus didn’t know whether that blush was from embarrassment or her fever. Either way, the only one who knew why her cheeks were as red as a tomato was the girl herself.