"Feel free to ask anything. I'll answer as best I can." I reply.

"No need to be so formal..." Her voice loses strength as she finishes the sentence. "Are you really a child?" What kind of question is that!? Did her powers reveal anything about my past life??

"What do you mean?" I ask, breaking out in a cold sweat.

"I mean, you're way smarter than the kids I see. Not to mention, you seem well-mannered. Are you nobility or something?" It must be quite impressive to her indeed, even to me.

"I... am the son of peasants..." I answer, looking at the floor, not wanting to face Zoe's judgments. "I learned everything by myself with the books I had at home..." I add.

Looking at her, Zoe opens her mouth slightly in surprise, but holds it back.

"We're talking about a prodigy, then." She quips good-natured.

"I don't like being called that, but I understand why."

"It's annoying when people put you in specific boxes, isn't it?" she asks. "It's like everything you do is reduced to one word."

"It will always be like this. People don't see the challenges I go through, only the results." I add in my speech.

Zoe stops and looks at me again with a contemplative look. It would be useless to imagine what she is thinking of me, since I can't even read her eyes.

"Haha." She lets out a short laugh. "What a tough life we have as prodigies, huh?" Zoe smiles.

"To be honest, it depends on what you're doing."

"I know, I just wanted to lighten the mood a little..." Tsk, my sense of humor didn't detect that! "Tell me, what magic do you use?" She asks right after.

"Huh—Forest Magic; Earth Magic... and Thunder Magic..." It almost feels like I'm lying when I say this. I admit that I feel a little embarrassed to say my powers, I don't want to seem superior.

"Cool." Zoe responds as if it were something ordinary, without much surprise. I thought she would have a more flashy reaction. Apparently, being the strongest mage doesn't make you surprised by anythi— "WHAT, THREE SPELLS?!?" Forget everything I argued...

"Yeah..."

"This is unbelievable!" She gasps. "Excuse me." Zoe walks over to me and bends down.

In a way I can't comprehend, she rubs her hands through my hair and rubs them on her arms, in an action similar to applying skin cream. Zoe does this over and over, as if she's taking something from me.

"Can I ask what you're doing?" I say, without interrupting.

"Pass on talent, pass on talent, pass on talent." She starts repeating as she messes up my hair. Actually, my hair was already messed up anyway.

She then stops and puts her hands on her waist.

"What the hell was that?"

"Wasn't it obvious?" No, it wasn't to me. "I was taking some of your talent for myself." Why is she gesturing like she's right?

...

"Do you think talent is passed on by osmosis!?"

"You just made up that word!" Now that I'm a little more familiar with the Supreme Mage, I can say with some certainty that she's a complete idiot!

"I'm afraid of the fact that you're the strongest person in the world..." I say with apprehension about the future.

"Big-mouth brat." What did she call me?? "Anyway, your magic explains a lot." She sits cross-legged on my blanket. Her physical posture is completely incorrect, with her hand supporting her head and supporting herself on her thigh with her elbow.

"You have seen me and my brother without mana, on the ground, when you found us."

"That hole in the wall... was that you?" She must be talking about the final blow before we passed out.

"Yes. It was our last attack before the mana ran out." I reply.

"That's pretty impressive."

"Even after doing all this, I couldn't save an important person..." Yanma, I was wrong not to save you...

How could I be so helpless...

Zoe lowers her head, and her light countenance takes on a neutral expression, leaning towards seriousness.

"Is this the first person you've lost?" Zoe asks in her serious yet soft voice.

"Yes..."

"I don't know if you want to become a mage, but I have to warn you about this life..." I already know exactly what she's going to say.

"You're going to tell me that being an adventurer means being surrounded by dead partners, aren't you?"

"So someone told you before." As I guessed.

"I decided that I want to be the strongest, to protect everyone, without anyone suffering. I want to be able to protect the people in my life."

Zoe goes silent. She shifts into a calmer face and places her fingers on her chin.

"And how do you intend to do that?" She asks with a bit of arrogance in her voice, not taking what I said seriously.

"I will become the Supreme Mage." I'm saying what my heart tells me. Whether it's ridiculous or not, impossible or not, I have to believe that I can do it.

"It's a beautiful goal, and it's a noble cause, but it seems to me that you're forgetting something." What?

What could be more important than that?

"So tell me, what am I forgetting?" I ask. "What do I need to do to be as strong as you?"

She lifts one of her legs and leans on it. Her small smile, combined with her blindfold, points towards me. I know she's looking me in the eyes, even though I can't see them.

Zoe's speech is interrupted by William's murmurs, who seems to have woken up.