Chapter 42
Leo took out the glasses that had been hanging around his neck and put them on. With his vision sharpened, he scrutinized Rafaella keenly.
Aside from the unfamiliar aura he sensed around one of her legs, she was nothing more than an ordinary-looking girl. Quite a few nobles hid self-defense weapons or artifacts under their clothes, so he assumed Rafaella was no different.
Hmm~ She doesn’t seem to have any mana, and she’s not built like a swordsman either. But that haughty, down-looking gaze oddly suits her. Just what is she, really?
Leo decided to play dumb a little longer.
“A magician is pretty rare these days, you know. That must mean I look impressive. Or is it that you want my attention? If so, congratulations—you succeeded.”
“I don’t need your attention at all, so take it back with you.”
“Wow. You’re the coldest person I’ve ever met. Since we met like this, it must be fate. Wouldn’t it be nice to introduce ourselves and get along? Hm? Let’s be friends.”
Leo coaxed her with a touch of petulance and charm.
How many people wouldn’t fall for it when an angelically handsome young man pleaded so gently? His friendly tone, easygoing cuteness, and even his moist, smiling eyes—he looked extremely skilled at handling women.
But Rafaella merely snorted softly and answered curtly.
“Friendship denied.”
“Gah, so cold! You’re drawing a line already?”
“I told you earlier. If you’re a magician, I might tell you.”
Her brazen attitude, as if she had already decided everything, finally made Leo ask, half-giving up.
“Why are you so sure I’m a magician?”
“Oh, there are tons of reasons. Where should I even start?”
“……”
There was no lie in Rafaella’s expression.
In truth, Leo had known instinctively from the beginning. He had been found out for sure—he just tried to deny it anyway.
“Tch. This is why I hate sharp ones.”
Clicking his tongue, Leo snapped his fingers at the same time.
Snap—!
Suddenly, a perfect silence enveloped them, as if they had been separated from the shop itself. The place and surroundings remained the same, but it felt as though an invisible glass wall had enclosed only Rafaella’s table, forming a boundary.
“Oh. Not bad.”
Rafaella rounded her lips, genuinely impressed. It was a fairly high-level spell—one that had no physical force but separated and distorted space so that no one nearby could hear their conversation.
With magicians becoming exceedingly rare in the human realm, a magician who could deploy such spatial magic without chanting spells was impressive enough to be protected by a nation.
“Alright, alright. I’m a magician. Satisfied? Feel better now?”
“Not really.”
Leo waved his hand with a tired expression, as if conceding defeat. Even so, the curiosity in his watery eyes toward Rafaella was impossible to hide.
“Okay, now tell me. Your name, and how you figured me out—everything. I wrapped myself up and hid so carefully, so how did you see through it?”
Despite revealing his identity, Rafaella’s lukewarm reaction irritated Leo, and he crossed his legs petulantly as he spoke.
He was asking, but it was practically a half-threat.
By casting spatial separation magic, he was issuing an unspoken warning: With my level of skill, I could take you to another space and erase you whenever I want.
So far, no one had ever failed to be intimidated by that threat. Leo believed all he had to do now was listen.
However—
“Why should I? I never said I would tell you.”
Rafaella was no ordinary person. Or rather, strictly speaking, she wasn’t even human. Her true identity was that of a god.
Leo’s jaw dropped in shock. How could she be this shameless?
“But you said it earlier! You said if I was a magician, you’d tell me!”
“I said I might tell you. That’s a very different meaning.”
“Wow… unbelievable. A scammer.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“How is that a compliment?! And aren’t you scared? You’re inside my magic like this, you know.”
“Not really.”
Leo was left speechless. He couldn’t understand what gave her such confidence.
Is whatever she’s hiding on her leg really that reassuring?
Leo roughly guessed the answer.
Tied around Rafaella’s calf was a spirit-tree club.
If it came to it, she was confident she could deflect magic. Of course, if a serious fight broke out, she couldn’t honestly say she’d win—but with tricks, she could at least escape quickly.
The fact that she had noticed Leo wasn’t combat-oriented by looking at the gems he wore also made her more relaxed.
And above all—
“You approached me because of the cookies, didn’t you?”
Leo’s body flinched.
There was no way Rafaella would have missed how he kept glancing at the stacked cookie boxes when he escorted Chelsea out earlier.
“Seriously.”
When her guess hit the mark, Rafaella laughed in disbelief. A mighty magician, desperate over cookies of all things.
Leo muttered with wounded pride.
“…Just one box.”
“So it really was the cookies.”
“……”
“You’re seriously strange. You could just come back tomorrow and buy them. Why go this far?”
“…I really need them today.”
“A magician going through all this trouble just for cookies, hah—”
Rafaella chuckled, while Leo clamped his lips shut with a sulky expression.
Leo’s original plan had been to rescue the two baby-bird-like girls, get friendly with them, and naturally have them offer him cookies. Instead, he now felt like he was being thoroughly fleeced.
With a grumpy face, Leo continued.
“I’ll pay double. No, ten times the price.”
It was humiliating, but he absolutely needed the cookies from this shop—no matter what.
That picky old man… what a mess.
Leo rummaged through his wallet, genuinely ready to pay. Even the round pouch-shaped wallet was studded with colorful gemstones.
As he tried to pull out gold coins, Rafaella waved her hand.
“Forget it. I have more money than I could ever spend.”
“Then…? You’re not giving me the cookies?”
When Leo asked gloomily, Rafaella smiled faintly, finding him amusing. He looked just like a cat that had lost its favorite toy.
“I’ll give them to you. If you want, you can take all the boxes piled up here.”
“What?”
Leo’s eyes widened in surprise, then quickly narrowed again with suspicion.
“What’s the catch?”
“It’s not really a catch.”
“There’s no way a baby bird like you would just give them away.”
“We help each other.”
“Hmph. After being so cold earlier?”
“I did it because it was fun. I know you kept going because my reactions amused you too.”
“Tch. I thought you were a fluffy baby bird, but turns out you’re a sharp-eyed eagle.”
Pushing his glasses up with long, slender fingers, Leo asked,
“So what do you want?”
“An investigation.”
“Huh? An investigation? Don’t tell me you want me to snoop on some guy you have a crush on—”
“Shut it and listen.”
“…Okay.”
“Why monsters keep attacking this place. With magic, it should be easier to find out, right?”
Leo frowned deeply, replying uneasily.
“Magic isn’t万能. And magicians have ranks. I’m not the kind who can do that. Ask me for a weight-loss potion, or a skin-whitening artifact. Other tools are fine too.”
Rafaella paused, then smiled meaningfully. She opened a box of cookies, took one out, and bit down hard.
Crunch, crack—!
For a moment, Leo felt as though the cookie was being chewed in his place, and goosebumps ran up his arms.
“Leo.”
“Y-Yeah?”
“I know you’re not combat-oriented.”
“Huh? How did you—”
“But that doesn’t mean you’re too weak to investigate, does it?”
“What are you—”
“Hah. Let’s stop dancing around it. This is getting annoying.”
From Rafaella, who was chewing cookies like rebar, a truly irritated aura began to seep out—sharp enough that one wrong word could turn it into killing intent.
Yet Leo, like most researchers, was more curious than fearful.
“Then you tell me first. How you figured it out. I’ll talk after.”
Rafaella wet her dry lips with the now-cold tea and answered casually.
“Those gems. They’re mana regulators and artifacts. You’re wearing so many that anyone who knows would notice immediately. You’re wearing so many that they’ve even hidden the natural vitality a human should have. It’s like you wrote ‘I’m a magician trying really hard to hide it’ right on your forehead.”
“…No, how did you even recognize those? Normal people wouldn’t know they’re regulators…”
“And your looks. You altered them with magic, didn’t you? You tried way too hard since you were going out. It was obvious.”
Leo flinched, scanning himself while muttering, a mix of worry and regret in his tone.
“…Was it that bad?”
“Didn’t you look in the mirror before coming out?”
“I thought I’d just look like a wealthy noble. It’s nice to look impressive.”
“A kid visiting the city for the first time would dress better than you.”
“……”
As Leo avoided her gaze and fell into a long silence, Rafaella let out a dry laugh.
“Wait… don’t tell me.”
“……”
“Was this really your first time out?”
Leo tried to look away and dodge the question, then suddenly burst out,
“It’s not my first time! When I was little, I came out a few times…”
His voice grew smaller toward the end, exposing his lack of confidence.
Rafaella remarked, half-mocking, half-amazed,
“So you really were a greenhouse flower.”
“It’s not that I was pampered. I was just stuck in the lab all the time.”
“Then what money did you use to buy your research materials?”
“……I just used the assets I already had.”
“Let me rephrase. Not a greenhouse flower—a rich household’s greenhouse flower.”
“……”
Leo’s mouth shut tight, as if sealed.
