“It’s not common.”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
Bailey, facing Kalian, just blinked without thinking. Kalian clicked his tongue and tapped Bailey’s head with the rolled-up paper.
“Geez, try thinking before you live.”
“Pardon?”
“Let’s find out where Mr. Adam’s shop is first.”
“Why? Don’t tell me you’re going to visit there yourself?”
“Of course. I’m a mage, you know. Don’t tell me you forgot that too?”
“No. There’s no way…”
Bailey replied with a deflated face and pulled the reins. When he stood beside the horse and cupped his hands as a foothold, Kalian stepped on those hands and hopped up onto the horse.
“My legs just hurt a bit…”
Bailey, walking along while leading the reins, muttered to himself.
* * *
“So that incident was about two weeks ago… was it? Right, Tina?”
The man dusting off the antiques asked toward the inside of the shop.
“Probably. It hasn’t been a month.”
A voice answering softly was heard from among the disorganized odds and ends. Soon after, a woman presumed to be Tina rose from inside.
“Were you also at the scene, Ms. Tina?”
At Bailey’s question, she nodded. Seeing Kalian’s precious clothes rarely seen in the borderlands and atmosphere that unmistakably seemed like a high-ranking mage, they were in a slightly excited state.
“Mr. Adam was furious that day too. He’s always like that, you know. Anyway, some unlucky person got caught up in Mr. Adam’s temper.”
“No, Tina. The unlucky one was Mr. Adam…”
The man and Tina spoke simultaneously.
“That crazy mage turned Mr. Adam into a frog.”
“That handsome mage turned Mr. Adam into a frog.”
The two whose words crossed looked at each other.
“…Was he handsome? That person?”
At the man’s question, Tina answered in shock. As if asking how he didn’t know that.
“Of course!”
“Wasn’t his appearance a bit… like a crazy person? His hair was disheveled too.”
“Right. His appearance was like that. Then let’s say a handsome crazy mage.”
Watching them reach a clear conclusion, Bailey slowly nodded. Kalian, who had been quietly listening to their story as if lost in thought, asked:
“So where is Mr. Adam now?”
“Where would he be? He’s at the shop. He’s watching in case someone steals his herbs.”
The man pointed to the herb shop that was empty without an owner. Bailey moved his gaze here and there looking for Mr. Adam who would be somewhere in the shop.
“Mr. Adam is really strange too. Even if someone really tried to steal, what could he do with just a frog’s body?”
At that moment, Kalian and Bailey simultaneously discovered the frog. The frog sitting in the middle of the stall like a gatekeeper, bulging its throat, was as small as a palm.
“So, mages.”
The man asked.
“You came to help, right?”
Bailey looked at Kalian. Kalian readily nodded.
“First, I’ll need to examine Mr. Adam directly.”
* * *
Croak, croak. Kalian furrowed his brow looking at the frog earnestly expounding its grievances.
From when they said this incident happened over two weeks ago, he’d suspected, but this was truly difficult high-level magic.
People commonly think that mages can easily create anything with a snap. However, in reality, to produce results corresponding to that ‘snap,’ very precise and extensive formula calculations, timing, appropriate location, and even the caster’s magic power are required.
Among them, ‘transformation’ was magic belonging to very high difficulty, and even skilled high-ranking mages would have a hard time accomplishing it easily without the help of magical tools that correct errors in formulas.
Changing a target into a living thing was far more difficult than changing them into an inanimate object, and naturally, the difficulty increased the longer the effect lasted rather than ending temporarily.
Mr. Adam had already been in this state for over two weeks.
Which meant the caster was a considerably high-ranking mage.
“By any chance, wasn’t that mage holding something in their hands? Like a magical tool?”
“No. There was nothing like that. As I said before, their hands were completely empty. They just raised both hands up like this! and then with a bang, in an instant…”
An incredible talent who cast such insanely difficult magic barehanded without even a magical tool.
Even the great mages guarding the holy relics of the temple probably couldn’t turn someone into a frog for over two weeks without magical tools if asked. That’s how crazy this magic was.
“Really a crazy bastard, this…”
“Right? His appearance was exactly like a crazy person too.”
The man chimed in with Kalian’s muttering. Of course, the ‘crazy bastard’ Kalian meant had a different meaning.
‘A crazy talent has appeared.’
Kalian grabbed Bailey’s arm.
“Bailey.”
“Yes?”
Bailey looked at his superior with slightly surprised eyes. A sudden determination appeared on his face.
“Send a letter to the palace. Say our return will be delayed.”
“What? Why?”
“We have more work to do here.”
“…”
“We need to find that person.”
Kalian’s golden eyes sparkled. In his head, a journey was already being drawn of scouting the crazy talent whose face he didn’t even know and returning to the capital together.
* * *
“That bastard stole my money pouch and ran away.”
Adam, sitting with his huge body wrapped tightly in a blanket, said. He had to endure extreme humiliation in exchange for regaining his original body. It was because he had returned stark naked without a single thread in the middle of the market in broad daylight with all kinds of people gathered.
Kalian had been so focused on breaking the high-level magic of complex formulas that he hadn’t been considerate of the difficulty Adam would face when he returned to his original body.
“It would have been really troublesome if I hadn’t been carrying a magical tool.”
To that extent, the process of breaking the magic was very cautious and tricky. If he made even the slightest mistake, only part of the body might return to normal, causing a disaster of becoming a monster that was neither human nor frog.
He cast this barehanded? This? Without any magical tool whatsoever? In that narrow place in an instant?
Every time he broke through each prohibition placed on the target one by one, such questions followed. It truly was shocking and incomprehensible. In the end, Kalian couldn’t even find the exact breaking method. Without the help of magical tools, he wouldn’t have been able to solve it.
He coveted that unknown talent even more. No matter what, he definitely wanted to meet them.
“My money pouch has this exact same pattern embroidered on it. Capture everyone wearing gray cloaks and search inside their clothes!”
Adam, who had pulled down the blanket he’d been covering himself with below his shoulders, showed the tattoo carved on his arm and passionately expounded with flying spittle.
“When I catch that bastard, I definitely won’t let him off!”
Kalian had been half-listening to Adam’s noisy chatter from earlier. Though the goal of catching that person was the same, the reason was different. Though Adam’s anger was regrettable, he planned to pamper and coddle that crazy talent to scout them to the palace.
“That precious talent… no, what else did you talk about with that thief? Did you happen to hear any information like where he came from or what his name was?”
“Not at all.”
Adam completely left out saying that the thief had been carrying a whole basket full of rare mushrooms that were hard to obtain even one of. Because if he said that, he’d have to talk about other matters related to the mushrooms, and also reveal the reason voices were raised during the mushroom transaction process.
“…That bastard tried to steal my mushrooms! Then when it didn’t go as planned, he turned me into a frog!”
Kalian picked out only the necessary information from Adam’s words.
So that talent was dressed like a beggar anyway. And seeing that he didn’t hesitate to steal, he seemed to actually be living a life close to being a beggar.
Estimated to be in his early twenties. Average height, neither tall nor short, with a thin build, long scraggly brown hair, green eyes, sickly pale skin. Though opinions were somewhat divided, anyway fairly handsome and neat-looking features.
“Hmm… I understand for now. If you remember anything else, send word to this place.”
Kalian, who wrote the name of the inn where they were staying on paper, handed it to Adam. Bailey, who hurriedly followed Kalian out to the street, asked:
“Why are you looking for that person? Don’t tell me you’re going to fire me and use him as an assistant?”
He, who served both as Kalian’s magical assistant and attendant, seemed to feel threatened in his job by the sudden appearance of this talent. Kalian, who became dumbfounded, looked down at him as if he were pathetic.
“Him? That’s ridiculous.”
That person wasn’t at a level to be someone’s assistant. Rather, if Kalian met that person, he’d be in a position where he should beg them to please take him as a disciple.
But with his status as chief mage, he couldn’t very well do that, so he was trying to make them a colleague and take them to the palace. Develop magical tools together, do research together… If only he could bring that person, there would be so much to learn that it would be good for Kalian’s own growth too.
…The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to meet them.
He was going crazy wanting to meet them… He felt like he’d die from coveting them. Just who are you, and where are you now?
I don’t know who you are, but let’s go to the palace together… I’ll treat you well…
“Sir Kalian, we should get going to meet that physician now. It’s gotten too late.”
Bailey’s urging pulled him out of his reverie.
“Physician…?”
Kalian asked back in a daze, unlike his usual self.
“That crazy bastard who said his sibling died. Didn’t we decide to go find the physician that crazy bastard brought? If all that story is true, the physician is the only witness.”
“Ah…”
Right. That’s right… Kalian recalled the original purpose for coming here.
The whereabouts of the vampire supposedly born last summer.
They had originally come here to find that in the first place.
