“It’s been a while since I used life magic, so I forgot for a moment. Thank you.”
Having been newly reminded of just how strong I was by the shocking speed, I received the paper and pen back. At the same time, I also realized just how absurdly strong the parallel world Ruvlian was.
Slowly, slowly. As if fumbling through memories, I drew the magic circle at a sluggish pace, mixing formulas and ancient languages. There was one mistake in the part the direct mage had drawn, so I fixed that too. As I wrote it down slowly, the surroundings became quiet. In this room where there wasn’t a single person I liked, I enjoyed this peaceful silence.
The one who broke that silence was none other than the nanny who had been staring intently at my hand drawing the magic circle.
“Thank you.”
It was a sudden expression of gratitude with both the beginning and end cut off. I hadn’t done anything deserving of thanks. Was she thanking me for drawing the magic circle? As if noticing my puzzlement, the parallel world Ruvlian’s nanny smiled with a smile that seemed like it would smell of formula milk.
“I was also at the door yesterday. Thank you so much for saving the young master.”
Then she bowed 90 degrees to me, who was much younger. She even added, “Come to think of it, I don’t think I gave you my thanks,” and at this point, a question naturally arose.
…Under such a nanny, why on earth did the parallel world Ruvlian grow up to be such trash? I blocked my gaze that was automatically trying to turn toward the infant parallel world Ruvlian and put on an embarrassed expression. The various expressions Ruvlian made while gently acting cute came in handy at times like this.
“It was something I had to do. I lost my parents when I was young, so I know well what it feels like to not have parents…”
Once again spouting false stories, I turned my parents—whom I treat as nonexistent but who do exist—into dead people. In a way, it was unfilial, but to them I was as good as a nonexistent child anyway, so it didn’t matter.
The nanny looked at me with pitying eyes. Since I had been trying to lower her guard by receiving such a gaze, I raised the corners of my mouth as if to say I was fine. Since I couldn’t smile properly, it probably looked even more like I was ‘pretending to be okay.’
The conversation that had been going back and forth a few times stopped, and I went back to drawing the magic circle with slow movements. This tedious task could only be finished after an hour had passed. To think I was held up for an hour doing something that takes one second. Do other mages waste time like this every time? Since I’d never experienced this before, it felt particularly frustrating.
“I’ve designated His Grace, the Duchess, as well as the nanny and the maid. Since I cast the magic, I’m inevitably included as well.”
After casting the magic, I looked at the knight and she nodded. The direct mage, whose hostility had decreased compared to the beginning, greeted me half-heartedly, while the nanny greeted me with a warm smile. After politely returning the greeting, I said to the knight.
“May I go to the library now?”
“Yes. I’ll guide you.”
The knight, who looked at me like I was some kind of poisonous creature, moved. The layout I had seen once before appeared, and we arrived in front of the library door. The library’s location hadn’t changed either. When the door opened, the majestic interior that appeared was the same as well. Only the number of bookshelves seemed to have decreased slightly.
It wasn’t surprising since I was seeing it for the second time, but I moved my head side to side diligently. After all, if one is a mage, one should be obsessed with research, so it was right to have sparkling eyes at the thought of exploring new knowledge. I imitated the crazed eyes I had seen when I went to the Magic Tower.
“Magic-related books are over here. I’ll stand here, so call me when you want to go to your room.”
“Are you going to stay here the whole time because of me? If you have other work, you can just go and come back. I’m going to be here for several hours anyway.”
The considerate tone was easy. It was because when I was young, I pretended to be a good child so much trying to get praised even once by my parents.
The knight didn’t budge from her opinion. She expressed that it was fine by shaking her head.
“Alright, if you have any business, you can go and come back.”
I didn’t insist further either, and after leaving a brief remark, I headed to the bookshelf the knight had indicated. <The Origin of Magic 1>, <You Have Talent in Magic? Hey, Me Too!>, <Magic, That Profound Study>, <I Want to Learn Magic>… At least it was more normal than the curse books I saw last time.
Most of these are basics… Looking around the large bookshelf, I searched for books that might be related to crossing between worlds. Since Ruvlian had succeeded, something should come up if I looked through various magic books in this world.
_oOo_
Right then, at the time Baek Sihyeon was stopping Scalane’s baby kidnapping. Ruvlian, separated from Sihyeon once again, roughly ran his hand through his hair.
He shouldn’t have trusted the words of the capricious God. When an irresistible force pushed his back, he should have resisted somehow. Faced with a situation where he had to grasp the world like catching a mouse to find Baek Sihyeon again, Ruvlian kept letting out sighs, then took out a holy relic he had stolen before from subspace and smashed it to vent his anger.
The Temple is always the problem. The Temple ruins everything. Ruvlian, who had hated the Temple since childhood—or more precisely, since he separated from Rian—wanted to scream. He wanted to pour out all this irritation.
‘That crazy bastard better not find him first.’
Having fallen into his own unique world, Ruvlian recalled the parallel world Ruvlian and frowned even more. Last time he destroyed the world to forcibly drag out the God, but that wouldn’t work now.
It was because the God had briefly conveyed that due to his own grand accident, he couldn’t come out no matter how much of a ruckus was raised, before disappearing. This God, though full of complaints, never spoke lies. Knowing this, Ruvlian didn’t immediately overturn another world. He simply stopped by Baek Sihyeon’s unique world and parallel world to check if Sihyeon’s presence was there, and after realizing he wasn’t, moved into the Magic Tower.
“Magic Tower Master?!”
“Mikel, you’re loud.”
“Ye— I mean, no! Why is someone who said they’d never come again…?”
When Ruvlian, who had inherited the Magic Tower Master position and left, appeared, Mikel was glad but mostly bewildered. Why was the person who had thrown away the Magic Tower Master position with crazed eyes and left after ‘that’ Rian departed, here! He was dumbfounded.
Looking at such a Mikel, Ruvlian clicked his tongue.
“I told you not to make that disgusting expression. I came because of circumstances, so don’t make a fuss.”
Despite intruding into someone else’s room, Ruvlian commanded Mikel as if it were his own room. Mikel, who had been about to agree out of habit, stopped himself from getting angry. It was the same as the day he abandoned the Magic Tower Master position and left. His eyes had completely lost it.
There was nothing to gain by provoking him further. That loss would be his life. Mikel quietly protected himself while organizing documents. Somehow it felt like returning to before Ruvlian had left.
“If I blow up the Temple, even a God as busy as that one would crawl out.”
Mikel, who had been immersed in subtle sentiment, heard the small muttering and poked his ear with his pinky finger. He must have heard wrong. The Temple what?
Turning his head to look at Ruvlian exuding an ominous aura, he could tell for certain. He absolutely hadn’t heard wrong. That crazed face was seriously wanting to blow up the Temple.
Because of this, Mikel, feeling extreme fatigue, thought sincerely.
I wish he’d leave again soon…
_oOo_
After resolving to create a Dimension Travel magic circle and pulling out various magic books from the bookshelf, I had been looking only at books without even feeling how many hours had passed from that spot. My tailbone area was starting to hurt. Coming to my senses and looking out the window, the sky was dusky.
A sigh came out naturally. No matter how much I searched, there was no answer. The Belitent ducal library was spacious, but most of the magic-related books were for beginners. There were quite a few old tomes, but I couldn’t create a magic circle to cross worlds with these. Seeing that the magic books I had glimpsed in the parallel world weren’t here, those seemed to be books the parallel world Ruvlian had bought after becoming the duke.
World and world. What connects them? Don’t people usually use that to cross over? As I was investigating from the most fundamental things one by one, and books were invading even below the round table when there was no more space on top, I felt a presence approaching me.
“Mage-nim. Are you going to skip dinner too?”
The approaching knight asked me. She had properly kept her word. She hadn’t left her spot until this time when the blazing sun had been covered by darkness.
Rubbing my eyes that were dry from reading, I checked the time. It was awkwardly late to eat dinner now. I checked the page I was reading, then closed the book. Then I asked while gathering the books.
“Can I eat something simple in my room? Also, may I take just these books to my room?”
“Yes. I’ll escort you to your room and bring dinner.”
After hearing those words, I left the library following the knight, leaving behind the piled-up books. It was because when the amount of books I had taken out kept growing, the knight had already told me that a servant would come clean up later.
The guest room wasn’t far from the library. I quickly arrived at the room, went inside, sat at the table, and opened the book. This book also seemed to be a dud. Finding information about the world itself was as difficult as digging in the ground to find 100 won.
Tapping my nails, I fell into thought. When I went to the parallel world, they said there were separate forbidden books, so tomorrow I should subtly ask the duke. Whether there were any other books.
Just as I was thinking about visiting the Magic Tower, a knock sounded. When I gave permission to enter, the door opened and the knight, still pretending to be a maid, came in dragging the tray. Then she placed simple food on the table and stuck to the wall. It seemed she wasn’t going to leave until I finished eating.
This time too, after purifying with Divine Power, I quickly chewed and put the food in my mouth. Rather than thinking ‘why am I eating fast,’ I didn’t care since I would look like someone wanting to hurry back to reading books.
Since it was late at night, I was planning to go to the Magic Tower when everyone was asleep. That place would be even more active at this time. It was thanks to remembering Ruvlian whining that he couldn’t sleep at night due to the popping sounds.
When I finished eating, the knight left with the cleanly empty plates on the tray just as when she came. Finally alone, I cast the same magic as yesterday and used elaborate illusion magic to make it look like I was sleeping.
After that, I moved to the Magic Tower. The coordinates probably hadn’t changed much from before. My prediction was spot on, and just as Ruvlian had said, pop! pop! sounds of explosions could be heard continuously.
Having been transported to the middle of an endlessly long staircase, I moved to the place where the popping sounds were most frequent. Usually, mages whose rooms made a lot of popping sounds were the type to seclude themselves and focus on only one thing.
Opening the door of the room with incessant popping sounds without permission, I knocked out the mage who was the room’s owner as soon as I saw them. It happened so quickly that the mage collapsed without even knowing who had knocked them out.
