房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"No, my lord. That was great."

The boy hurriedly shook his head and assured.

"Is... is any attribute discriminated by the public...?"

Zoemi felt as if his head was about to explode, but he still asked, this time much more directly, about what he originally wanted to know.

"Not really? Just like me, many people are biased in favor of their own attributes, and there is not a single person who would like everyone so some sort of form of discrimination is bound to happen – but nothing o the level of open hatred or ridicule or anything..."

Ludier furrowed his brows thinking about the question but in the end, he shook his head and declared, clearly biting his own tongue at the end as he was going to add some venomous comment about the attribute that he personally despised.

"Still, it might be that you will not have to worry about any of it because you took after your father who was a martial artist."

The pale-blue-haired man pointed out with a serious expression.

"While we have mana, people living in another continent behind the ocean use something called spiritual energy to fuel the star power. Still, even though your father tried to explain it to me in detail, I... did not understand or memorize a single thing... sorry. All I know is that spiritual energy is a counterpart to mana and star power is the counterpart of magic. Magic gets weaker in their continent and star power is weaker out here, but they still can coexist fine. You might have been sleepy and missed it, but your father left me with a set of instructions as to what to do in case you will not awaken to magic – and they are directly connected with star power."

|...and there is no line of death, the knowledge about the land of martial artists is well known, apparently mana isn't poison, and there doesn't seem to be a war between the two continents as of now... this.... this might be interesting...|

Zoemi's eyes turned round as Ludier continued to talk.

"Uncle...! Can we go see the star chart?"

"You... weren't half-asleep then, huh..."

The black-haired child pleaded, grabbing and tugging on Ludier's shirt, making the pale-blue-haired man sigh with a bothered expression.

"Your father said that it should wait until you were nine so it would be certain that you would not awaken to magic... but on the other hand, that whole star chart is only supposed to tell you your predisposition and pass on some knowledge only if you have said predisposition... we are quite close to the place the wreck is hidden anyway..."

Ludier took a deep breath, looking to the side as if judging the distance...

It was a good thing that in this timeline Ludier didn't turn murderous and stop trusting everyone – as he was now, it wouldn't be wrong to call him reckless.

"Well... I am not going to tell you the way to activate the star chart anyway, and while we go there we might check out whether we could take that thing from the wreck anyway. If I remember it right, we buried the whole thing as it was, and I can't imagine that storing it that way is the recommended method of preservation... Mizoe, a slight change of plans. We will take two days detour before we go to my friend's territory."

The luck was on Zoemi's side, Ludier seemed to not know that the star chart was too large for them to transport without a cart, and built-in one of the ship's walls, so he caved in and agreed to the boy's request.

"I understand, my lord."

Mizoe nodded, not really in the position to question the pale-blue-haired man's decision.

---------

|Huh... this place really was in the Banemor territory...|

Zoemi thought to himself as they arrived at the desolate beach that he vividly remember from his fight with Cherro in the previous timeline.

Yes, it was definitely the place where his original personality, the second princess's protector, a toy bear Zoemi sacrificed himself to free his most cherished master from the burden of his existence.

"Mizoe, this terrain elevation is man-made, use your magic to gather moisture at this spot, it can be just one inch wide, but make sure it penetrates through all the sand and ground."

Ludier get off his horse and took Zoemi with him before motioning at the light-blue-haired boy.

"Of course."

Mizoe furrowed his brows, looking at the spot pointed out by the pale-blue-haired man with suspicion, but ended up nodding and jumping off his mount.

The boy walked to the spot and put his hand against the already wet sand.

"Water gathering."

He closed his eyes to concentrate and muttered – since the fact that he had very little mana didn't change between the timelines, the single spell took a lot out of him. Not enough to push him into the state of mana depletion, but definitely enough to tire him out.

"It's ready. There really is something underneath here."

"Of course there is. My memory might not be the best, but even I would have a hard time forgetting hiding an entire ship to protect the origins of my best friend, you know?"

The boy breathed out honestly surprised, to which Ludier scoffed, letting go of Zoemi and grumpily putting one hand on his side while reaching the other one towards the resting place of the shipwreck.

*click* *SHINK*

Ludier snapped his fingers and in an instant, a growing circular frame made of ice created a pathway through the earth and sand leading to the slanted doorway leading under the deck.

Of course, the door wasn't originally slanted – it was just that the old wood began giving up under the pressure of the soil and started bending out of shape.

"Yeah, it was the right choice. Just look at it, in five or six years most of it would be gone."

The pale-blue-haired man declared, waving his hand to the side and shaking his head.

"..."

Zoemi glanced at him and used this chance to trot his way into the wreck.