What does it mean to become an adult?

Getting older?

Looking more mature?

Well.

I never became an adult in my previous life.

So I didn’t really know, but one thing did seem clear to me: even if I became an adult, it probably wouldn’t change anything about me in some dramatic way.

Because I still wanted the macarons I’d eaten yesterday today too, and the class that had bored me yesterday still made me want to skip today.

Wouldn’t it probably be the same even after becoming an adult?

“But this is different, Ruby.”

Boyd whispered it in a grim voice.

“This is the very symbol of adulthood.”

Gulp.

I swallowed without meaning to.

Dim evening light, a secluded drawing room no one ever came to.

The candlelight from the silver candelabrum flickered dangerously across Boyd’s smooth face, now completely stripped of any last trace of boyishness.

I was newly moved by the fact that he was sitting across from me, because Boyd had suffered so severely from a dreadful middle-school phase that for a while he’d developed the complication of being physically unable to do anything unless he was perched diagonally on a windowsill.

With a melancholy expression, one leg bent up, poetry or an art book in one hand...

It had truly been appalling.

Ah, though of course, there had been people who were delighted. The maids in charge of cleaning the windowsills.

Anyway, having deigned to come down into a chair for once, he spoke in a low voice.

“This is like water from the devil’s spring. It makes people do unpredictable things. So think it over one last time. There’s still a little time left before your coming-of-age ceremony. So...”

“Boyd.”

I opened my mouth calmly.

“Ever since the day I turned seventeen, I’ve been waiting for this moment alone. And I’ve made every preparation.”

Reading the grim resolve in my voice, Boyd raked a hand roughly through his hair.

“Damn it. What’s so great about a coming-of-age ceremony...”

“I’m not going to hesitate.”

“...”

“Just getting older doesn’t make someone an adult, does it? You have to act like one. That’s how you finally become one.”

“Who are you and what have you done with my sister?”

After staring at me for a moment, Boyd drew a deep breath and set his face in firm resolve.

“All right. Then let’s go. Into the world of adults.”

Pop. He pulled the stopper from the glass bottle filled with amber liquid.

Trickle, trickle.

Watching the liquid fill the transparent glass, I smiled faintly.

“Mmm, the scent of adulthood.”

Crossing my legs with elegant poise, I gave my assessment in a soft voice.

“I’m expecting quite a bold flavor. A gentle fruity aroma that will sweep through the mouth and vanish, leaving behind nothing but a pleasant freshness.”

—Yeah, right.

No, no, wait a second.

I was getting a little flustered.

Liam, this smells like disinfectant.

Was alcohol really supposed to smell this ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) vicious? Was this right?

They said it was sweet! Adults always drank it with those absolutely blissful expressions on their faces!

Sometimes they even drank more of it than water!

What exactly did Boyd steal out of Dad’s office?

Poison?

Was someone trying to assassinate Dad?

“What are you doing? Aren’t you drinking?”

“Hohohohoho.”

All kinds of wild scenarios were running through my head, but I couldn’t back down now. I, Rubian, was about to become an adult, which meant I had to equip myself with adult courage.

And maybe it tasted good even if it smelled awful.

“Ahem. Then maybe I’ll try just a single drop.”

To show off the delicate control befitting a mage, I focused all my nerves into my fingertips. Just as I tilted the glass the tiniest bit, trying to let out only the smallest possible amount—

“You two really are unbelievable.”

Whoosh. My hand suddenly went empty. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

“What the—? Who is it?!”

“Your father.”

“Oh! Dad... right...”

I laughed awkwardly and looked up at Dad, whose expression said he found us utterly ridiculous.

Good grief, what was this radiance?

Why did my father only get more dazzling as time passed?

“So that’s why you kept exchanging those strange looks at dinner. You were planning to steal alcohol behind my back?”

“Ohoho.”

“How old do you two have to get before you stop causing trouble?”

“Hmm, about a hundr...ed...?”

“Don’t go sneaking in an extra zero.”

“Aaaagh!”

Dad seized my cheeks and punished me without mercy. I broke free from the villain exploiting my precious cheek fat and hurriedly defended myself.

“No, listen. They say His Majesty the Emperor personally serves alcohol at the coming-of-age banquet. I’ve never had alcohol before, so what if I make a mistake? What if I spit it out? I have to practice ahead of time.”

“Ha. Practicing for something like that. Who was it that very firmly said she’d only drink after the coming-of-age ceremony?”

“Meee!”

“So confident now, aren’t you? Ha, you’re giving me heartburn.”

With a troubled face, Dad poured himself a glass and downed it in one shot. My eyes instantly went wide.

“That’ll only make the heartburn worse! What do we do?!”

I shot to my feet.

“No! Boyd, emergency ice cream deployment!”

“Here!”

“Hyah!”

Splash!

Ah. Total failure in directional magic control.

“Hmm...”

Seeing the scoop of cream-colored ice cream that had bounced off Dad’s broad shoulder and landed neatly in his glass, I scratched the back of my head awkwardly.

“Ah, Dad. That, um, that’s what it is. Affogato? Hahahaha...”

Meaning, here...

“I’m sorry.”

A quick apology was the only answer.

Like an adult.

*****

“Whew. This isn’t easy.”

The road to adulthood was as long and treacherous as ever.

Back in my room, I let out a long sigh.

It was getting close to bedtime, but I didn’t feel remotely sleepy, so I sat down at the table near the window and picked up the disorderly stack of papers lying there.

“All right. Time for some self-imposed overtime.”

These were the magic circles from the steles Dad had found while traveling all over the continent for me. There was already enough to fill a book with ease.

Still, it’s such a strange kind of magic.

I looked through them with renewed fascination.

Most of them were magic unknown to the public, or very old, vanished high-level ancient magic.

Unfortunately, none of them contained the formula for the mark-breaking circle I was searching for.

Still, I’ve gotten quite a lot out of it.

I’d been finding the incomplete parts of those magic circles and finishing them, and lately, now that that work was more or less complete, I’d been gradually modifying the magic circles themselves.

So these spells could be cast with the least possible amount of magic.

In other words: power-saving mode!

Up until now, I’d mostly borrowed Wigeria’s wisdom for that kind of work. But lately, I’d been trying to do it on my own.

“Where did my pen go...?”

Just then, as I looked around, my diary caught my eye, shoved into the corner of the cluttered table.

“Ah.”

Come to think of it, what am I supposed to do about this?

Tap, tap, tap.

The sound of my fingers drumming against the notebook continued in steady rhythm.

They stopped on the last sentence I’d scribbled down carelessly.

—Our house in Zelox. Past the herb hill.

“...No matter how I look at it, this is a bit much, isn’t it?”

At that rate, it was practically the same as saying I had to investigate every gravestone in every graveyard.

Besides, if there really were something on that stele, I should have noticed it myself.

I’d already gone in and out of the memorial garden in Zelox several times. If there had been anything special there, like a magic stele, I should have noticed long ago.

But... I do feel like I sensed something strange in the memorial garden when I was little.

When I met Mom disguised as the caretaker.

Only for a moment, though.

I’ll check it out as soon as we get back to Zelox.

I came to a neat conclusion.

But... what if there really is something there?

That thought worried me too.

I really, really did not want to go prying into someone else’s grave.

More than anything...

How am I supposed to tell Mom and Dad I want to investigate the grave of their dead child...?

Just imagining it made me uneasy.

“Ha, now I’m troubled. I’d rather the stele Khalid went to find turned out to be the right answer.”

Praying earnestly, I got to my feet.

Thinking that hard had made me thirsty, and I wanted some water. At the same time, my eyes met my reflection in the full-length mirror far across the room.

“...”

I approached it carefully and checked the mark on my lower back.