"Guild Master..."
She was burying her face in his chest and rubbing her cheek against him repeatedly. Both Sakika and Gaia sighed at the familiar routine.
Her name was Stella Meily, the brave and beautiful Master of Moonlight guild.
"Not 'Guild Master'—'Mom,' right?"
Stella pouted. She looked like a woman in her twenties, nowhere near old enough to be a mother. Which made sense, since she and Sakika weren't blood-related. Stella was his adoptive mother.
"M...Mom."
He could never get used to calling her that. Heat rushed to his face from embarrassment. Stella smiled with satisfaction and finally let him go.
"So what did you want to talk about?"
Gaia, who'd probably been forgotten, spoke up. Sakika shot him a resentful look for not helping, but when their eyes met, Gaia's red gaze looked almost amused.
Apparently he'd deliberately chosen not to stop Stella.
"Oh right, I almost forgot. I want Sakika to—"
Finally getting to the point, Stella turned serious as she stared directly at him. He couldn't think of anything he'd done to warrant being called in. With nothing to feel guilty about, he met her golden gaze.
"I want Saki to enroll in school."
"Huh?"
"WHAT!!!?"
The statement was so out of left field that both Sakika and Gaia made weird noises.
"I said I want Saki to enroll in school."
"Wh-why...?"
His surprise made him slip back into his natural speaking style.
Up until now, Sakika had lived a life completely removed from school, which kids normally started attending at age six. But why now, when he'd just turned sixteen a few days ago?
Stella spoke gently:
"I want you to experience what it's like to be a teenager. I've been too busy to let you go before, but things have calmed down quite a bit. Of course, you'd be in the same class as Gaia, so what do you say?"
School from ages six to eighteen was mandatory, but there were special exceptions. For example, if you were already independent and earning decent money, or if you were traveling and picking up essential knowledge along the way, or if the school was too far away to attend.
Adventurers who lived by adventuring typically fell into the first two categories. The third applied to people born and raised in remote areas.
Sakika qualified for the exception because he had extensive knowledge and his own income.
But he'd always wanted to live a normal life. Until now, circumstances had made that impossible.
That's why Stella's words filled him with surprise and even more joy.
"Really? You're really okay with me going to school?"
"Yes."
When Stella smiled at him, the reality of it started sinking in. He felt his mouth and cheeks relax into a grin. But anxiety crept in too.
"What about requests and missions?"
He had work responsibilities. He couldn't just abandon them.
"You can handle those when you have time. There are way fewer requests than there were a year or two ago, and you could do them in the evenings or on weekends, right? So don't worry about that and just focus on school."
Stella's words brought his smile back. He could go to school—that place he'd only dreamed about.
"Thank you, Mom."
He smiled from the heart, and Stella looked satisfied seeing it.
"Just make sure no one finds out who you really are."
He was well aware of that. Sakika nodded firmly.
Stella pulled two blue bracelets from her chest pocket. They looked like leather cord with three beads threaded on them, but even at a glance, the center bead was clearly no cheap crystal ball. The two flanking it were probably crystal balls, but they were obviously finely crafted magic stones.
The surfaces of the magic stones and the back of the leather cord were covered in tiny letters and symbols.
"These are magic power suppressors. They're called magic sealing tools for short. One of them can reduce your magic power to about one-hundredth."
From the flow of magic power around them, he could sense what these tools did. If he read the inscriptions carefully, he could easily spot the characters for "Magic Power - One Hundredth."
"Here."
Sakika took the bracelets from Stella and put both on his left arm. They were a bit heavy, but wouldn't interfere with daily life or combat.
"My Saki still way too strong~"
Stella put her hand to her cheek with a troubled expression, making Sakika feel bad.
One-hundredth times one-hundredth—so one ten-thousandth of his magic power—and his body still had about as much magical energy as an average AAA-rank.
Truth was, even without the bracelets, Sakika constantly kept his magic power sealed to one-tenth, and without that, he probably wouldn't have been able to wear the magic sealing tools at all. His magic power was so enormous that the tools would've broken the instant he put them on if he hadn't been suppressing it.
Stella pulled out a white bracelet different from the previous ones from her desk drawer and handed it to him.
Reading the magic circle carved into the bracelet, he could tell this one would reduce his magic power to one-fifth.
Sakika silently put it on his left arm.
"Even with all that, you're still about low-level AAA-rank…."
Stella sighed lightly.
"Can't help it. I am EX-rank, after all."
"Exactly. It's only natural that Saki has so much magic power."
Because he's the strongest.
That had been the reason he was too busy to attend school before. But now that the wars were winding down, he wasn't as busy as before and could actually go.
And that same reason had kept him from interacting with kids his own age, leaving him with only Gaia and two other boys as friends.
He couldn't see those other two friends anymore, so effectively Gaia was his only friend now.
"I wonder if I'll be able to make friends."
He muttered without thinking.
"Yeah, you'll make them in no time."
Even though it had been meant as an aside, Gaia answered him.
"I guess so."
Would someone like me really be able to make friends?
He'd had so few chances to talk with kids his age, and he'd probably struggle to find common ground.
What if they shun and hate me like before?
He tensed up. But Sakika couldn't show weakness. As someone called the strongest, someone everyone relied on, he couldn't let others see his vulnerable side.
To hide his anxiety, he forced a smile and turned it toward Gaia.
Gaia's expression darkened slightly, but Sakika pretended not to notice. He didn't have the emotional bandwidth to ask what was wrong.
"Well, you start school tomorrow, so get to bed early tonight. Oh, and I already talked to the principal about you, so when you get to school, head straight to the principal's office. Neither of you needs to attend the entrance ceremony. Gaia, please show him around."
"Yes, understood."
Gaia nodded his agreement.
"Gaia, I'm counting on you."
"Sure bro"
He'd be relying on him even more from now on. As he added even more than before in his mind, Gaia gave him a firm nod.
"Now go to your rooms."
"Okay Mom, thank you. Sweet dreams."
Sakika pulled his hood back up and opened the door, feeling slightly embarrassed at his cheesy parting line. Gaia followed him out of the room.
------
Once the door closed, Stella was alone in the silence. She sat in her chair and leaned back against it.
"Have fun, Saki. You're still just a kid."
From a young age, she'd forced her child to push himself too hard. Even if it was to protect people and this country, she'd made him do things that were too much too soon for a child, loading that small back with an enormous burden.
This was her way of apologizing to him. At what was really just self-indulgent sentiment on her part, he'd shown a happier smile than she'd ever seen.
—Even if we're not related by blood, he's my sweet, precious, wonderful son. Even if my own work gets a little busier, I want him to have a happy life.
"I love you… my sweet boy."
She smiled gently. And her voice faded away without even an echo.