In this world, mages are precious manpower. As I said before, there aren’t that many of them, so it was natural. To ask for magic involving a designated person, which mages commonly find difficult, for free. While doubting my skills, I could see the intention to exploit a naive mage.
This is why I didn’t like nobles. If I wasn’t careful, I’d be getting played in the palm of a noble’s hand without even knowing it.
“Is it difficult?”
When my answer was delayed, the duke who’d passed down his shameless genes tilted his head and asked.
Frankly speaking, it wasn’t difficult for me. I didn’t need to use formulas and complicated ancient language—one flick of the hand and it would be done. I’m a Hero, so there’s no way I couldn’t do that much.
However, right now I was just a naive mage, not a Hero. I had to think from the perspective of the mage I was acting as, not my original self.
I pretended to hesitate, repeatedly opening and closing my mouth slightly before speaking in a tone lacking confidence.
“I can do it. But I don’t think it’ll be perfect. I told you I’d been researching time magic for several years and only recently started researching dimension travel magic, right? Since I was so absorbed in time magic, I’m a bit clumsy with everyday magic… Even though I’ve been working on time magic for more than half my life, my skills aren’t good enough to have succeeded, so I can’t say they’re particularly great.”
“Hmm. Is that so? It doesn’t have to be perfect. Can you do it as a temporary measure at least?”
So he was going to exploit me one way or another. I couldn’t say “I don’t think that’ll work either” here. I nodded a couple of times as if to say I’d do it if that was good enough. Then I put soup in my mouth again.
The duke resumed his meal with a satisfied smile on his lips. The duchess was no different. Their faces showed relief.
The meal with little conversation ended the moment the duke said, “I have work, so I’ll be leaving first. My lady, let us go.” One knight disguised as a maid attached to the wall at the far end of the dining room and the others greeted the departing ducal couple.
I also bowed my head in greeting, then ate comfortably. After eating, I should go to the library and check the magic-related books first.
I started with soup and ate all the way to the meat. I was full, but the table was still loaded with food. The servants would eat what remained, so I got up from my seat. Then the knight pretending to be a maid followed.
“I’ll guide you to the young master’s room.”
“…What? I was planning to go to the library first.”
“His Grace instructed me to guide the mage to the young master’s room once you finished your meal.”
It was absurd. He didn’t say when to cast the magic, so I’d wondered why it was so careless, and this was it. In other words, he’d informed the knight. In short, it was a notification.
It was unpleasant that he was trying to manipulate me as he pleased. However, I had no choice but to comply. I couldn’t change my words now, and I had no intention of causing trouble in this world.
Recalling Alli who’d easily agreed, I nodded with a face that said “I see,” showing acceptance. The knight led the way and guided me.
I walked down the hallway that seemed vast and arrived at the room where I’d confronted that kidnapping bastard yesterday. Inside, one small-framed man and one seemingly older woman stood beside a cradle.
“Hello, Mage-nim. I’m Dabenda, the young master’s nanny.”
“The duke’s house direct mage, Tuirua.”
The one who introduced herself as the nanny smiled with a warm face, and the one who said he was the direct mage greeted me sloppily with a slovenly gesture. The hostility sent by the direct mage was clear, perhaps because he stood next to the nanny who just seemed like a good person.
Every time I met someone, I wanted to knock them all out and put them to sleep. Acting doesn’t suit my temperament, regardless of whether I’m good at it or not. Thinking that, I fashioned a naive expression.
“Hello.”
“What’s your name?”
“Ah, I’m a commoner so I don’t have a surname. You can call me Rian.”
Now that I think about it, since entering the duke’s residence, I hadn’t exchanged names with anyone. The ducal couple hadn’t asked me either, and I’d completely forgotten since I didn’t feel the need. So they didn’t even do a background check? Not that it mattered since my identity was unknown anyway.
At the word commoner, the direct mage burst out with a “Pfft” sneer. It looked like he was going to pick on me for being a commoner, which was already annoying. Normally, Ruvlian would crack his head with a staff before I even had to step up. Thinking about Ruvlian for a moment, I asked as if puzzled.
“But if there’s a direct mage, why am I casting the magic?”
I could guess two reasons why they asked me despite having a direct mage.
First was to check my skills. It would be easy to judge whether I was a dangerous element or not, and it was good for determining my usefulness.
Second was because the direct mage’s skills weren’t outstanding. Of course, it was on the difficult side to designate a specific person and cast magic, but if you’re the duke’s direct mage and can’t do this, isn’t that a bit of a problem? With that feeling, I looked at the direct mage whose face had reddened while biting down hard on his teeth.
“It’s not because you’re better, so don’t get the wrong idea! They’re just not using high-level manpower like me on such an easy spell!”
“Really…? Not using high-level manpower for a precious child. I guess things outside have changed somehow? I’ve never left the Magic Tower since I was five, so I don’t really know.”
I made a bewildered expression and wrapped it up innocently while taking a jab. It seemed he either felt inferior to me because his skills were pathetic, or he didn’t like that the duke told me to cast this magic. Leaving the direct mage who was throwing a fit behind, I sat down on the floor.
“Mage-nim? Don’t sit on the floor, please sit comfortably on the sofa.”
The parallel world Ruvlian’s nanny looked at me sitting on the floor and pointed to the sofa. I’d planned to pretend to think for a bit and cast it on the floor since succeeding right away would reveal my skills and be troublesome. The nanny seemed flustered, not knowing this.
“Hah! That’s just like a commoner. The floor suits you well.”
The direct mage plopped down on the sofa, crossed his legs, and glared at me mockingly as I stood up. If Park Sichan had seen him like that, he would’ve said “Churua Tuihada” and looked at him pitifully, like looking at someone who was sick somewhere.
I was thinking of using that a bit, but the nanny stepped forward. Her warm, embracing face instantly turned fierce. It was enough to think she had a different personality.
“Tuirua!”
It seemed she’d shouted unable to bear it any longer. The direct mage, who’d been confident as if asking what he’d done wrong, gradually lost his momentum. Soon he pouted his lips, showing his hurt feelings.
“What have you done well that you’re hurt!”
That’s what I wanted to say. Listening, it seemed the Ruvlian’s nanny was that direct mage’s mother. She admonished the full-grown man with words like “I really can’t live because of you” and “You know it’s not that I don’t trust you,” and so on.
If I’d seen this scene before becoming a Hero, I would’ve felt sad. Because I could clearly see the family affection I’d longed for. But now, I just wanted that verbal battle to end quickly. My ears hurt.
“Dabenda-nim. How about leaving it at that? The mage-nim is here.”
What cut off the seemingly endless conversation between mother and son was the knight pretending to be a maid. She spoke in a voice with no emotion felt, with the same expressionless face as before.
The nanny who’d been hitting the direct mage’s back looked at me and covered her mouth with one hand.
“Oh my. I’m sorry. I showed you an unseemly sight. Tuirua. You apologize too.”
The apologetic expression turned fierce as soon as her face turned to the direct mage. The direct mage who made a groaning sound had a sullen face that showed he didn’t want to apologize and said quietly, “Sorry….” What’s a full-grown man doing so disgustingly? Contrary to my thoughts, I waved my hands saying it was okay and sat on the sofa.
“But Rian-nim. Don’t you need a pen and paper?”
“Pen… and paper?”
I blinked slowly a couple of times. I didn’t know why pen and paper were suddenly coming up. The direct mage who was watching me like this raised one eyebrow.
“You, don’t tell me you draw magic circles with mana?”
With that one sentence, I realized what my mistake was. Ordinary mages drew magic circles on paper with a pen using formulas and ancient language, then deployed them. When they became familiar enough to recall the magic circle in their head, they could cast it with a single gesture. However, I’d completely forgotten because I’d been solving things from the start by drawing it out thinly like thread with mana, or because I’d memorized magic circles.
“Of course not? If I were that strong, I could’ve opposed the Master of the Magic Tower. I just got excited about casting the magic quickly and forgot for a moment.”
It was fortunate that they brought up pen and paper first, because if I’d done it as usual, it would’ve been a big problem. I didn’t know the path of an ordinary, naive mage would be this rough. I accepted the pen and paper the nanny handed me and worried.
At what level of slowness should I deploy the magic to be treated as a normal mage? The only mages I knew were Ruvlian and that kidnapping bastard. It hadn’t been long with Ruvlian, but he used magic better than me. His magic casting speed was similar to mine, so he wasn’t a reference.
“What? You don’t even know the basics?”
Since I was just holding the pen and not writing anything, the direct mage suddenly butted in. He snatched the pen I was holding and wrote formulas and ancient language.
He was probably by my side for surveillance purposes to check whether I was doing proper magic without fooling around, but it was helpful. I got a sense of what the normal speed was like.
…But at this speed, wouldn’t they die while writing when fighting others? It was too slow, way too slow.
