Chapter 25
“…It should be fine.”
Two people who could barely stand each other — no, one person and one dragon, to be precise.
Since I’d already let slip that I wasn’t the one who killed the Duke’s parents, nothing serious should happen, right?
I forced down my nervousness and tried to pay attention to what the Archmage was saying.
“Something’s odd. You said you’re a mage, didn’t you?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“When did you start being able to use magic?”
“Um, probably since I was born? From as far back as I can remember I was already using magic to dig clams.”
“Using magic… just to dig clams?”
“I’m telling the truth.”
I hate the island, but.
For some reason the phrasing “just to dig clams” grated on my nerves.
‘Digging clams is a sacred job. Has he ever pulled even one freshwater fish up with magic?’ I thought.
Still, I’m supposed to be in the Archmage’s good graces — I have the mission of getting him to bring me to Arines.
I folded my complaints away and shot a business smile at Archmage Ryo.
“By the way, Archmage, I brought the blueprint for an interesting device. Could you take a look at it?”
What I had was a blueprint of Arines’s fan.
Since fans don’t exist in this world, I calculated the Archmage would surely be curious.
‘Look at it and be intrigued. Then use that as bait to get him to bring you to Arines.’
But the world rarely runs according to my scripts.
The Archmage didn’t even glance at the fan blueprint; instead he pronounced my death sentence.
“Jiana, you’re not a mage. You don’t have even a speck of mana.”
His words struck my ears like lightning and for a moment I went dizzy.
‘…What?’
It felt like my identity, which I’d always taken for granted, had been denied. Magic light still shot from my hands, after all.
In a slightly trembling voice I asked him, “Then what is this power?”
“That’s something I can’t tell either.”
The Archmage took a book from the shelf, opened it in front of me, and kindly explained.
“This is a book about the most basic magic. Hmm… could you try conjuring a flame by referring to this section?”
“A flame?”
I tried to follow what the Archmage pointed to, but it wouldn’t work.
“It’s not working.”
I shook my head and he flipped through the book to another section and asked again.
“This explains how to handle mana. Does this part make sense to you?”
“…No.”
“See?”
The Archmage snapped the book shut and said, “You’re completely inexplicable. Extremely interesting.”
Excuse me — I’m about to be struck dumb with shock and you call me interesting?
But I was too stunned to retort.
“It’s my first time seeing someone like you in my ten-plus years as Archmage. I’ll make you a formal offer.”
“…What is it?”
“For the time being, stay at the tower. I want to study you. I want to scrutinize you and uncover the nature of your power.”
The Archmage stared at me as if he would devour me down to my bones.
A chill crept through me.
If I hesitated any longer I’d probably end up with shackles and a cell in the tower’s dungeons, so I quickly played my trump card.
“Sorry, but I’m under contract! I have to see Duke Lupellen once a day, so that would be difficult, haha.”
“Contract… you say?”
The Archmage raised an eyebrow in curiosity and asked, “What sort of contract did you sign?”
“An employment contract. I’m supposed to cook seafood dishes for the Duke every day. I signed it with a contract quill, so it can’t be broken.”
Thank you, Duke.
If I hadn’t made a deal with the Duke, I’d have been trapped in that tower a moment ago.
I bowed in my mind to the Duke.
“I see.”
The Archmage clicked his tongue as if disappointed.
“If you wish, I can research ways to void a contract sealed with a contract quill as well….”
“No! Absolutely not!”
I jumped up before he finished the sentence and shook my hands frantically.
“I don’t want that! It’s a contract that pays ten gold coins a day. How could I give up that much money?”
“At the tower we’re willing to pay twenty a day.”
“I don’t have that choice! I’ll pass.”
I waved my arms desperate to refuse.
“Very well. If I’m to study your power, I’ll have to come to you myself. Where can I meet you?”
Unexpectedly the Archmage backed off easily and said he would come to find me.
Oh — this is an opportunity.
“The royal palace. Tell them you came to see Princess Arines.”
“Do they have princesses digging clams these days?”
The Archmage looked even more shocked than when I told him about the first time I used magic. Apparently he mistook me for Princess Arines.
He ordered me to fire a mana beam as soon as I set foot in the tower. He hadn’t even asked who I was.
I did as I was ordered in a daze and missed my chance to tell him who I really was.
“Pardon the late introduction, Archmage. My name is Jiana Hertin, a mage — from the Ostria Empire’s eastern island, to be exact. Ah, I’m not actually a mage, but let’s just call me that for convenience.”
I extended my right hand for a handshake.
“Right after I came to the Tian Kingdom I caught a dragon with magic and got called a hero. And Princess Arines and I are….”
I paused, thinking for the right words.
“…close friends. So if you go to the palace you’ll be able to meet me.”
The Archmage regarded my face with a wry expression, then gave a faint smile and clasped my hand.
“A combination of someone living predominantly in the palace, a close friend of the princess, and an empire-born hero who uses an inexplicable power. Very interesting.”
He seemed very pleased with me. The handshake tightened as if he were applying force, then he suddenly waved his arm up and down as a belated expression of delight.
“I’m truly fascinated. I’d like to abduct you at once, lock you up, and study you.”
“Archmage, abduction is a crime.”
“Why do people refuse when I say I want to do deeper research in the tower? It’s a great chance to learn more about yourself.”
“You have a very unusual outlook, Archmage.”
“I’m honestly not sure. I think I’m quite ordinary and other people are the ones who seem odd.”
“Yes… precisely.”
I thought Choi Da-hye was eccentric, but Archmage Ryo Blair was in a whole other league.
I worried whether it would really be okay to introduce these two eccentrics.
Suddenly the sky dimmed and a black shadow brushed across the tower window.
“What, what’s that?”
I jumped up in alarm.
The Archmage also rose with a twisted expression.
There was the sound of something flapping endlessly, the calm lake wildly churning.
Screech.
Bang.
Something of enormous bulk struck the tower wall.
I dashed toward the tower entrance, nearly tripping and falling because of the impact.
“Something bad must be happening outside?”
Two ‘mischievous beings’ — no, one person and one dragon — sat side by side on the bank of the clear lake.
But they faced different directions, backs turned toward each other.
“To be treated the same as that dragon brat… hm.”
“How dare he come into my nest and try to kill me. Even if I bit his head off and chewed it, it wouldn’t ease my anger.”
“What’s that little one got to say? He’s not even worth a bite.”
“If I’d smashed that boat into pieces just one more time, that little thing would’ve been fish food by now.”
Duke Lupellen and Gari were arguing at length without looking at one another.
Gari answered every retort without stopping, and Lupellen, growing increasingly hot-headed, suddenly stood up.
“Hey!”
“Why!”
“Huh, why? You’re five years old, right?”
“That’s right. I’m a five-year-old dragon.”
“Then show some respect to your elders! Don’t answer back like that!”
“You expect a lot. Respect is something you show when you honor someone. What kind of respect could a sacred dragon have for a lowly human?”
The anger boiling up to his head made the Duke stride over and grab Gari by the scruff of the neck.
“Give that back, Eek!”
Gari thrashed, but the Duke didn’t loosen his grip.
For a moment his gaze swept across the pattern on Gari’s scruff.
‘There really are only five wave-patterned scales.’
Just as Jiana had said.
A flurry of thoughts crossed the Duke’s mind.
There were definitely dragons eight years ago. The one back then wasn’t this dragon, though.
‘Maybe that one’s already dead. Torturing this dragon brat won’t tell me much.’
The Duke shrugged his hand as if he’d touched something filthy and let go.
