MK 034 – The Mage Apprentice Kunon Can See….?

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It all boils down to Water Ball as the base of this magic.

Since Kunon’s eyes, albeit useless, are stuck inside his lids, he can’t use his magic to literally take its place in his head.

The eye (eyeball) he made using magic… Which he will now call ‘Mirror Eye’, floats around Kunon similar to the Water Ball he usually summons.

Kunon falls asleep while drowning in his tears. Then when he wakes up, he tries the spell again and after it works out well, he cries once more before uncontrollably going back to sleep. It was a cycle that repeated itself over and over.

Kunon continued to isolate himself inside his room for another week to get use in using Mirror Eye. Of course, tears fall down every time he uses it.

‘I need to train further.’

The boy arrived at that conclusion realizing that the Mirror Eye will not be usable outdoors if he had to endure a severe headache every time he uses it, even for just a moment.

The amount of information from outdoors will not be comparable to what he can see in his room.
Perhaps if he tries to use the Mirror Eye carelessly, his brain might get fried due to information overload.

Despite the risk, Kunon has no plans to back down from mastering this spell. It is the answer that he finally found after months of working hard and he won’t let it all go down the drain right at the get go.

For starters, Kunon tries to either reduce the resolution or the brightness of the Mirror Eye to the low side and minimize the amount of information that will travel to his head.
He adjusted these settings continuously as his eyes continued to shed tears.

Kunon can’t figure out why he can’t stop crying everytime but nonetheless, he won’t stop pursuing and mastering his Mirror Eye.

Then, one day, when Kunon thought that he had finally cried the last tears he could shed for all of his life, it finally stopped.

[…Un..]

Kunon sleeps from crying in exhaustion, wakes up, casts Mirror Eye, and cries over and over again and now, the cycle finally ends.

As of this moment, Kunon noted the following:

He can maintain the Mirror Eye for a little while if he keeps the scope at a close distance.
The farther the object he wants to look at, the blurry the image becomes.
As such, the most he can do is just vaguely see colors if he tries to look at a distance.

The most optimal scope for him is not enough to cover the whole room with just one look.
But Kunon thinks that it should be enough to be used for day to day life. 

‘Now I can use it to look outside.’

As Kunon can now control the Water Mirror and assess the minimum amount of vision he could look at a time, he’s now confident enough to go for a stroll.

‘This should be fine for now. I hope I can improve it more in the future.’

‘At last…’

Kunon, finally making up his mind, proceeds to wash his puffy eyes and stressed out face with warm water before drying up with a towel and going back to bed to get a proper sleep.


—-

Once he got enough proper sleep to his heart’s content —

[…This feels quite scary…]

He stands up and creates a mirror made of Water Ball in front of him. 

The boy firmly made up his mind.

‘If there’s someone I’d be looking at first and foremost, it has to be myself.’

Kunon hated himself.

‘I wasn’t able to do anything on my own. In fact, I can’t do anything at all… I only made the people around me worried and these useless eyes didn’t do anything but cause me to fall down and get hurt…’

The only time he forgot all these thoughts is when he had awakened his magic.

But does that mean that Kunon now likes himself? No. That is still not the case.

‘—Even just once… I want to take a look at the face of the person I hate the most in this world.’

His thought ended there.

Because after that, perhaps he would be able to learn to like his own self. Or perhaps, hate himself further than it is.

Kunon had seen a portrait of a renowned theater actor in Hyuguria named Ox.

‘Perhaps I’d like myself if I look as cool and refined as Ox.’

‘Hmm, a face that would suit a beard doesn’t sound so bad either.’

Kunon is still a child so he doesn’t have facial hair yet but he is aspiring to grow a beautiful one once he gets older.

‘But if I look like just some kind of vegetable then I’d hate that.’

Kunon likes to be cool and refined.
Even if it won’t suit a beard, that’s fine as long as he doesn’t look like a vegetable by his own standard.

‘But I won’t expect much.’

Afterall, will there be anyone who’d expect anything from the person who hates the most in this world? No. And Kunon is not an exception.

[—Now then…]

Kunon finally puts aside his rumbling thoughts and takes a firm stand in front of his Water Mirror.

‘…Here it goes…’

‘…Finally… No turning back… Let’s do this!’

Kunon then summons the Mirror Eye.
He adjusted the settings and have it look to the mirror and then–

[…I see… So this is what I look like…]

A boy with long brown hair that doesn’t have any particular striking features in his face.

It doesn’t look that much different from the portrait of one of his ancestors  when they were a child that he once saw. Its a type of face one would look at for a second and will never deserve another glance.

Kunon then looks at his unfocused useless silver eyes.
Just looking at it makes Kunon feel unpleasant.
From there, Kunon found silver as the most hateful color in the world.

[Un…]

‘It doesn’t look cool and refined…’
‘Nor does it look like it will look nice with a beard… No, no, no. Maybe it’s not yet too late. I’m still young.’
‘I’m sure I’ll become more cool and will get a nice beard when I grow up!’

The young Kunon comforts himself with hopeful dreams of his own appearane inside his mind.

[….]

Then he gives himself a better look.

‘This is me… This is my face…’

Kunon can’t really believe it. To the point that it feels like he’s looking at a stranger he only met on this day.
As such, he is currently at a loss and doesn’t know what to think about his own self.

[…Un…]

He might have been able to see the thing he wanted the most but that doesn’t mean that he can make a conclusion right away.

‘What am I supposed to do now that I can see?’

Kunon thought that being able to see would give him a big enlightenment, enough to change his values and outlook in life, and perhaps become a different person from who he was once.

But that wasn’t the case.

Kunon remains to be himself and his thoughts and ideas remain the same.
The only thing he found himself thinking was…

‘Oh, so that’s how it is.’

And after reflecting a bit–

[Hey.]

He calls it out.
The creature that was standing behind him all this time.
A giant crab that is staring at him down.

[—Do you think there will come a day when I will love myself?]

The crab didn’t reply. It didn’t even give the slightest reaction after hearing what Kunon asked.

[—So… What are you supposed to be?]

Like before, he didn’t get anything from the creature.

—

Kunon steps out of his room.

In the garden of his detached home, albeit scared and nervous, he uses his Mirror Eye and tries to take a look at the outdoors for the first time.

[Ohhh…]

The sky endlessly expands all over his head in its purple hue.
The grass beneath his feet surrounds him is colored white.
The trees in the garden dance with their azure leaves while the enormous dark sun shines.

[…So this is how the world looks…]

Kunon realized something after looking at all of these things around him.

‘It looks different from what I had in mind…?’

Kunon then falls into a dilemma.

‘Are the things that I read from the books all this time wrong?’
‘Or it’s the world that’s mistaken?’
‘Perhaps… It’s my vision that has a problem..?’

[—Kunon-sama!]

A maid noticed and called out to Kunon after he got out for the first time in a while and immediately came to his side.

[Iko. … Iko…?]

Iko is the first person Kunon saw right after himself.
A girl that appears kind and sweet no matter how much you look.
She is not much different from how Kunon imagined her to be.
She is a girl with dark brown hair tied up in a large braid with a neat and bright face that seems to match her character and personality.

[…Kunon-sama…?]

Iko notices the Water Ball beside Kunon that seems to reflect her face. 

[…C-can you finally see…?]

Iko observes the Water Ball that flies in front of her but she has a strong feeling about it despite not knowing how it works.

[Un. I can see now, Iko.]

[—Kunon-sama!!]

*Squueezzeeee!*

Iko didn’t care about the Water Ball anymore and pushed it aside to embrace Kunon.

[You did it! You finally completed it! You finally achieved your dream!!]

The longer you know a person, the stronger the attachment will be.
As such, Iko’s genuine happiness overflows and touches Kunon.
For Iko, Kunon isn’t just a son of a noble she has to serve. He is more than that.

And Kunon feels the same way for Iko.

To see Iko so happy made him glad.
It gave him more happiness than looking at his own boorish face.
But his face isn’t important right now.

Kunon can’t really stand well in Iko’s lovingly tight arms.
Also, as Iko pushed aside the Mirror Eye, Kunon’s vision shook and his surroundings continued to zoom in and out and it looked like it turned upside down a lot of times.
Considering this is his first time, the sudden change gave the boy quite the mental shock.
Kunon’s vision, that he just recently acquired, is literally spinning.

[Thank you, Iko.]

They took this moment to share their own happiness as they rested in each other’s embrace before leaving the garden.

—–

Afterwards, Kunon takes a better look at Iko.
She’s currently laughing.
Her smile looks beautiful, but…

[Iko, I’ll ask just in case.]

[You can ask! But – even though I’m looking for a lover, I have a blind date coming soon so please keep it in mind!]

[Oh, yeah, sure… Hey, Iko, do you have a horn on top of your head?]

[No..? Well, there will be horns growing up there when I get mad but right now I kind of feel sad about what you just asked.]

[…Yeah, alright…]

‘So Iko doesn’t have a horn…’
‘Then what am I seeing?’

In what Kunon can see from his Mirror Eye, a long sharp horn stands firm from Iko’s head.

‘It seems it was the right call to pull back that line.’

By the way, this was the line that Kunon was supposed to say–

‘I can now finally see your charming smile and seductive horn, Iko!’

[…So there isn’t, huh… Alright…]

‘But I can see it…’

[Oh right, can you see anything behind me?] (K)

[No..? Wait, are you scaring me? Is this some kind of horror story!? I love those!] (I)

It appears that Iko can’t see the giant crab behind Kunon.

From his room all the way to the garden, the giant crab accompanied Kunon, staring down at the boy all this time.

Kunon then had an epiphany.

‘It seems like I can see things that aren’t supposed to be.’

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Translator’s Notes:

1. Hi Everyone! We’re now resuming Kunon’s story! To be honest, at this point, more than Kunon finding out more about his vision, I hope to read the story where Kunon would learn how to love himself. This broke my heart. My poor boy.
   
2. Also, I feel the rating for Kunon in Novel Updates is kind of low 🙁 I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I hope if the people who dropped this series read my version and interpretation, I hope they can give this series a second chance. It isn’t action packed compared to Wuxia, Mahuas, reincarnation and such, but it should give you a different kind of emotion. T.T I hope we, as translators, can do better work in communicating the beauty of this work T.T If you agree, it would be really great if we can improve the rating and get more support for this translation so we can make it more sustainable T.T
   
3. MGA’s Que Sera Sera comes to mind as I translate this T.T. Anyway, have a good week ahead, everyone!

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