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With a steady, unhurried pace, Axel reached his destination and handed me the cup of water. “Drink up. We have a long conversation ahead of us.”

I eyed him skeptically as I accepted the cup.  

Axel, this guy… He’s always been the one to have others pour him water, not the type to offer it himself.

But then I remembered that, even back in the day, he had been surprisingly kind to children. During our journey with the expedition, he would often share snacks with the kids we encountered, dropping his usual stiff and annoying demeanor to smile first. Remembering that softened my suspicion a little.

*Even with my past life memories, I’m still just a child now!*  

So I was entitled to Axel Elpinard’s kindness.

Axel watched me quietly as I gulped down the cool water. As soon as I finished and the cup was empty, he began to speak again, perfectly timing his words.

“The truth is, I don’t believe in gods. Most mages don’t.”  

I nodded to myself, agreeing silently. Despite how different we were in almost every way, Axel and I saw eye to eye on this point.

“But if the voice of the god you supposedly heard is revealing the truth behind an incident that involved my comrade… well, that’s a different matter.”

There was something odd about the way Axel casually referred to me as “my comrade.” We’d always been at each other’s throats, never using such familiar terms.

I stretched up on my tiptoes to place the empty cup back on the table, then put my hands on my hips, adopting a more confident stance.

“I don’t believe in gods either.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be a Saint?”

“That’s just what the quack priest said.”

Axel’s eyes widened slightly at the term “quack priest.” It was a rather irreverent way to refer to Cardinal Bael, who was held in high esteem by the people of the empire. But the only ones who would dare call him that were us, the disrespectful mages.

Encouraged, I began to spill a series of secrets that only a fellow member of the expedition would know.  

“The quack priest is a swindler. The Spirit Sorcerer sleeps with his socks on. And the idiot White Mage…”

With each name I mentioned, Axel’s eyes grew wider and wider.

“The idiot White Mage has athlete’s foot.”

“That’s nonsense!”

Axel, his face flushed, quickly refuted the claim. And he was right to do so. The fastidious noble would never in his life have suffered from something as common as athlete’s foot. I only said it to see him get worked up.

Seeing Axel react so similarly to the way he used to made the situation feel all the more real to me. It confirmed that, despite everything, this was indeed my reality.

As I chuckled to myself, Axel took a deep breath and asked,  

“Why haven’t you mentioned Kirke?”

Kirke, the prince who had led our expedition, had now ascended to the throne as emperor.

“Are you crazy? Messing with the royal family is asking for trouble. You shouldn’t be throwing his name around so casually, either.”

As much as I enjoyed being cheeky with Axel, I knew better than to take such liberties with royalty. Even a reckless black mage like me understood the dangers of crossing someone as powerful as the emperor.

Axel’s brow furrowed as he stared at me with a mixture of confusion and suspicion, clearly feeling a sense of déjà vu. It seemed he was starting to realize that I wasn’t just spouting nonsense.

“What exactly… are you?”

There it was—the question I’d been waiting for. If he asked who I was, the answer was simple.

“Greslin. And Reshia.”

“What…?”

“I’ve been reincarnated.”

“What…?”

“Well… it just happened.”

Axel was at a loss for words, his mouth hanging open as he processed my nonchalant explanation. I waited calmly, giving him time to sort through his thoughts. I understood that reincarnation was a lot to take in—after all, when it first happened to me, I was just as dumbfounded.

“If you really are Greslin… then why do you talk like such an idiot?”

That was a sore point for me too. The brain ultimately controls speech and actions, and the brain of a child who’s nearly five years old is more like that of a dolphin than a fully grown human. No matter how adult my mind might be, when filtered through a brain at the level of an immature dolphin, everything gets downgraded.

So, while I wanted to explain, “It’s because I have the brain of a four-year-old dolphin, and my physical body can’t keep up with my adult mind and thoughts,” what actually came out of my mouth was…

“I’m a dolphin. Four years old.”

…this ridiculous nonsense.

To make matters worse, it was all said in a childish, lisping tone, which only made it sound even more foolish. Me, the mage who had reached the pinnacle of black magic! Me, the scholar recognized by everyone! And here I was, reduced to declaring something as absurd as being a dolphin.

Axel, who had just been calling me a fool, was so taken aback by my bizarre statement that his eyes widened before he burst out laughing.

“Haha! A dolphin?”

It was a rare sight to see this prickly nobleman laughing. Life seemed so dull to him that he always wore a serious and stiff expression. To have made him laugh so heartily was an achievement, I suppose. Even the surroundings seemed brighter when a handsome man laughed like that, but I felt no sense of pride.

“Stop laughing…”

I gritted my teeth and tried to warn him, but there was no real force behind a warning coming from a four-year-old’s body.  

“D-Dolphin!”  

Axel kept repeating the word, still laughing uncontrollably. I could only sigh and throw up my hands in surrender.

* * *

After what felt like an eternity, Axel finally managed to stop laughing and return to his usual serious demeanor, as if he hadn’t just been doubled over in laughter. Watching him go from one extreme to the other was both astonishing and exasperating.

“All right. Now, explain everything in detail.”

“Like I said…”  

I began recounting everything I had gone through. I told him about my doubts regarding the Mad Dragon’s death, my journey to the site of the final battle, how I had been caught in a mysterious force and lost my life, and how I had reincarnated as the Saint, adopted by the Elpinar family, only to regain my memories after encountering that strange message window.

Axel listened carefully, and when I was done, he responded briefly.

“It’s a hard story to believe. But I have no choice but to believe it.”

His words mirrored exactly how I felt. It was difficult to accept, but reality left us no other option.

“You’ve seen the book, so you must know that if your true identity is revealed, people will claim you used dark magic to possess the Saint, and you’ll be arrested on the spot. Right now, the black mage Greslin is considered a public murderer.”

“I didn’t do it.”

“I know.”

There was a surprising firmness in his voice that carried a sense of genuine belief. For a moment, I felt a touch of emotion…  

“But you’re a cunning black mage who only does what benefits you. What gain would there be in killing your disciple and fleeing? If not for that, you could have lived the rest of your life as a celebrated hero, enjoying luxury.”

So much for being touched. His sharp assessment crushed the fleeting sense of warmth I’d felt. He never gave me more than a second to feel anything positive.

Seeing me silently seething, Axel merely shrugged his shoulders.

“Until we clear your name, it’s best you avoid using magic. Your spells have a very distinctive signature, and it could easily give you away. I already thought something was off when I saw what you did in the storage room.”

“What are you talking about? Not just anyone can figure it out. Maybe someone like you, but…”

Only someone as sensitive as Axel could easily detect the flow of mana and identify the caster. Still, it was probably wise to avoid unnecessary risks and refrain from using magic unless absolutely necessary.