"Konrad," the crowd yelled.
An excellent proof of his success. The transition, though—
The exhaustion he felt before the Green Mage whisked him away didn't return.
It crashed over him, multiplied.
His head was a mess, too, and those outside voices invading it all at once didn't help, either.
He couldn't even distinguish them, although Maple's thoughts were louder than the rest. Not that he could understand a single word, but the dragon must've been close, while the others—
People looked at him in disbelief, strangers swarming Konrad from every side.
"What happened?" Helena demanded, the first one he recognised. "Where have you been?"
A better question would have been where he was now.
At least that was something he could answer if he took a look around.
All signs pointed to the swamp where he disappeared moments—or hours?—ago. It felt longer on the other side, but if it had been years, all these people wouldn't have been here.
Helena looked relieved, her hands trembling, but her lips curled into a smile.
She grabbed his arm as if she were afraid he might disappear again, the crowd pushing closer as well. His men-at-arms, nobles he didn't recognise, and Lord Schwertburg were there, too.
"So he was cheating after all?!" the duke of Aset yelled, wherever that notion came from.
Meanwhile, Konrad had a hard time putting the pieces back together.
How could he answer, when his mind—no, his entire world—was all but flipped on its head.
Things he had learned, he forgot about. Places he had been to seemed like they never existed.
All he could remember was that he took a gamble, learned a new spell, and now he was here.
He felt like he was that wizard from an epic story, who had now returned.
Before he could stop himself, he even quoted his lines.
"I am Konrad the White, and I come back to you now at the turn of the tide," he said. All the yelling and the murmurs around him died. "S-sorry, that was a cool line I've read somewhere."
"The White?" the princess—or queen, whatever—looked at him, dumbfounded.
Of course, nobody got that reference. He might've read that book in his other life.
But now that he had said it—
"Does it mean you've become a mage?" Lord Schwertburg asked, colour draining from his face.
Well, yeah. Why did he have to say that? It was so obvious that they would misunderstand.
"I recognise this staff," Helena exclaimed, her grip tightening on him. "It belonged to the Silver Mage. So if you have it, it must be true. Kasserlane lost a duke but gained a new mage today."
Oh, for the love of—
"Let's calm down, everyone," he tried to reason with them, but the crowd went out of control.
"The White Mage," the people chanted. "Then we're saved."
Why. The. Hell. Did. He. Say. That?!
"Please, listen," Konrad tried and tried, but his voice was too weak. "No, I'm not—"
His legs buckled. He was too tired, confused, and well, he had more important things to do.
"Okay, that's enough, paws off meow boyfriend," Lily's voice cut through the din.
His demonic lover in the form of a redheaded catgirl squeezed through the swarm to push Helena away. Konrad felt so relieved that he almost collapsed right away.
"I take my eyes off you for one second, and you turn yourself into a mage," she complained.
Not her, too—
"Look, that was a quote from a book," he muttered, but nobody listened anymore.
"How did you get out of there, though?" Lily asked, her voice only a whisper, but he could still hear it inside his head. "The angels were in full panic mode, you should've seen it."
At least she had fun. Like a true chaos incarnate.
"Well, I wasn't—" That was as far as he could go when Gabrielle appeared on his other side.
"Dear husband to be," she exclaimed, her dramatic tone more fitting for an actress than for a noble. "When they told me you disappeared fighting my father, I—I thought—"
What her telepathy projected into his mind was much less romantic.
'Where the fuck have you been?! I completely lost track of you.'
Yeah, that was much more like her. But either way, he had no chance to say anything through the cacophony of voices. He wanted to be elsewhere. Alone. Asleep. But no dice.
"So this staff," Helena pressed the matter. "If it's with you, does that mean that the Silver Mage—"
She let her voice trail off, tears gathering in her eyes.
Konrad knew it wasn't about the wizard, but the man he travelled with. He wished he could say something comforting about the king, but he still had no idea whether he was alive or not.
"The staff is proof that the saints gifted him immense power," Vargas said, appearing by his side.
"Wha—that only happens to bishops, idiot," Konrad groaned.
The old fox must've been scheming something already.
It was best to extinguish the rumours before they even started.
"You got it all wrong," he gathered his voice. His lungs felt empty. "The Silver Mage himself let me borrow his staff, and he's still alive. Which reminds me—"
He slammed the butt of the staff into the ground.
A bad idea in a swamp, but he had to. Then, he did his best to recite that complex spell again.
The crowd finally pulled back a bit. The lights gathering around must have been more convincing than his words. He needed the space anyway, even Lily taking a step back.
He was low on mana, but he didn't have to fight time itself now.
His second attempt at opening a portal was much easier than the first.
Ripping through space made him feel powerful.
Having them think he was a mage—it might not have been that big of a mistake.
Through the tear in the fabric of this world, he could already see the country road, not that far from where he stood. The Silver Mage was there, waiting for him, leaning against a tree.
"Finally," he coughed the words out. "What took you so long, child?"
He said that, but by the time he crossed the portal—with the haste of an old man—Konrad trembled from the strain. The gate crashed, the tear in the fabric of space healing itself fast.
"Zoltan will have to walk," he groaned, running on fumes. "Take your staff back."
And in the meantime, the crowd fell silent.
People stood and watched the impossible scene with mouths agape.
Konrad was too tired to care—but there were three women by his side he couldn't ignore.
"Silver Mage," Helena gasped first, rushing to support the elderly wizard stumbling forward.
"Oh, that was a neat new trick," Lily whispered with a smirk, squeezing his arm now that the queen finally let him go. "When did you learn that? I don't recall stuff like that in the books."
But again, before he had a chance to answer—having a hard time even to stand straight—
"What in the salvation was that?!" Gabrielle demanded. She claimed his other arm, pulling him away from the demoness. "You'll have to tell me everything. In chronological order. Now."
And all he wanted was to sleep.
It—and the control over his own life—still had to wait.