# Chapter 81
“What the hell…! How dare you use petty magic here!”
“You didn’t say not to open the door.”
“Is this guy insane?”
The voices gradually grew quieter until no more could be heard. Worried that a fight might break out, Arden hurriedly approached Rite.
As he reached the threshold, the first thing he noticed was the chaotically cluttered interior. Books piled without any apparent order, large and small potted plants, and various colored lamps lit between them all combined to create a visually confusing scene.
Where is Rite? Arden looked around frantically as he carefully stepped inside. Entering someone else’s house without permission was extremely uncomfortable, but he had no choice since Rite was inside.
Thick tree branches crossing the ceiling had plants tied to them with strings, hanging down like fruit. Thyme, mint, henbane, foxglove, and others were hanging upside down to dry. Arden advanced forward, carefully pushing aside the plants that obstructed his view.
“What else would it be? It’s a dragon scale.”
“And you expect me to believe that? How would I know if you just peeled some lizard skin?”
“Dragons still live in the Winter Forest.”
“…You, you came from the Winter Forest?”
Arden walked toward the direction of the conversation between Rite and the magician. The passage was so narrow that one wrong step could topple the high stacks of books, so caution was necessary.
“That’s none of your business. Don’t you want it?”
“How many of those do you have? Is that your only one?”
“I have plenty. Enough to give to a reclusive magician hiding in the mountains.”
“Who says I’m hiding?”
As the magician retorted, Arden opened a door. The interior of this room was relatively neater than the other areas. Relatively.
Whoever lived here wasn’t particularly organized—despite having bookshelves that nearly reached the ceiling, they were packed full. Various books were crammed into every remaining corner and gap.
Beyond Rite’s back, Arden saw a small woman. Her skinny frame was covered by an oversized robe, and her red hair, grown past her waist, showed how disconnected she was from the outside world. Her impression wasn’t as bad as he’d expected. Rather than fierce, she seemed more absent-minded.
“Why are you giving that away?”
Arden abruptly joined their conversation. Both Rite and the magician looked at him simultaneously. The magician quickly lost interest and returned to examining the black fragment in her hand. It was a scale torn from Rite’s arm.
‘I had no choice.’
Rite communicated silently, only moving his lips. Arden felt frustrated. He didn’t want to make a request that involved tearing off pieces of Rite’s skin. Especially not to someone so hostile. Inappropriately for the situation, Arden felt an urge to snatch the scale back from the magician’s hand.
“Show me everything you have. Let me see how many you’ve got.”
“I told you I have many. And I don’t plan to give you all of them. Give that one back too. I’ll give you one each time you help.”
“Why? For things like this, payment comes first!”
The magician crumpled her face and hid the scale behind her back, but it was futile. The arms of a scholar who mostly just read books were easily pulled forward by Rite’s strength, forcing her to hand over what she held.
“Why would I pay upfront without knowing how great a magician you are?”
The magician gazed at the confiscated scale with desperate eyes.
Arden couldn’t help but wonder—would Rite’s scales really have the same effect as dragon scales? Even if not dragon scales, monster body parts could have special effects, but if the magician discovered they weren’t actually dragon scales, the deal would fall apart.
“…Fine. Alright. What do you want to ask me?”
At the magician’s question, Rite pointed his thumb at Arden. The magician naturally shifted her gaze to Arden. Suppressing both his dissatisfaction and questions, Arden repeated the same request as before.
“He was unaware that he possessed magical power. He had no opportunity to learn how to use it, nor even basic knowledge about it. We’re looking for someone who can teach him.”
The magician turned her eyes back to Rite.
“What’s your name?”
“Dennear.”
The magician’s brown eyes turned to Arden.
“And you?”
“Eden.”
“Fine. Call me Aigle. I don’t have a hobby of teaching people, but… let’s give it a try.”
The deal was made.
* * *
“I should know your purpose for learning to teach effectively. What’s your goal in learning? Money?”
It was a difficult question. While Arden was searching for a fabricated answer, Rite was quicker.
“The purpose isn’t your business. What I want to do is… be able to burn down a castle.”
“A castle? What castle? How would you do that alone?”
Arden’s eyes flew open in surprise at Rite’s answer. Unlike him, Aigle’s expression remained unconcerned.
Sitting a little distance away, Arden brought up the most important matter.
“…We can’t stay long.”
“How long?”
“About five days.”
Aigle was more astonished by Arden’s statement than the talk of burning a castle.
“What do you expect to learn in that time?”
“…How about a week then?”
“You people. Do you think magic is like ordering food?”
Arden was ignorant about magic, but he knew his proposed timeframe was short. However, they couldn’t afford to spend months or a year leisurely taking lessons here.
At that moment, Rite lightly pounded the desk with his fist to draw attention.
“We can at least try.”
“You say that because you don’t know any better. What am I supposed to teach a grown adult in a week?”
“So you’re not going to do it?”
When Rite pulled out a black scale and waved it, Aigle groaned. It was too tempting a lure for the magician.
“Then promise to follow whatever I say without complaint.”
Before Rite could nod, Arden abruptly intervened.
“That doesn’t seem fair. Asking for blind obedience without specifically stating what you’ll require…”
“What do you know? Are you… a doctor by any chance?”
“No.”
Despite Arden’s answer, the magician scrutinized him with suspicious eyes. She muttered that doctors always act this way. Rite, who had been watching quietly, casually dropped the truth.
“Eden is an engineer.”
“I knew it! Damn science worshippers!”
Aigle shuddered like someone who had suffered a lot at the hands of doctors. Arden wanted to correct Rite’s statement, but thought it best to remain quiet for now.
Rite offered an answer that somewhat accommodated the magician’s demands while addressing Arden’s concerns.
“I’ll generally follow your instructions. That should be enough, right?”
Aigle seemed dissatisfied but began rummaging through a pile of books with her foot while twisting her hanging hair up.
“Since we don’t have time, let’s move forward. Do you know the nature of your magical power?”
Rite shook his head. Aigle neatly tied up her hair and put on a pair of glasses.
“Just from looking, it seems like basic magic power, which usually has healing properties.”
“That’s not it. Are you a quack?”
“What did you say?”
The conversation between Rite and Aigle was anything but smooth. Arden cautiously intervened between them.
“We tested it before, and it wasn’t healing.”
Aigle frowned as she looked at Arden.
“How would an engineer confirm such a thing?”
“We tried an experiment by cutting my palm.”
“…And?”
“He couldn’t do it.”
Arden indicated Rite with his eyes as he spoke. Rite furrowed his brows in displeasure. He was still harboring resentment from that incident.
Aigle opened her mouth in disbelief.
“You confirmed it with such a primitive method?”
“Well… imagination is the first step…”
“You.”
The magician, who had been listening to Arden, turned her head and pointed at Rite.
“How have you been doing it until now? When opening the door to my house, or using other magic?”
“I just had to imagine it.”
“You’re still using a method that even illiterate toddlers use?”
Aigle sighed heavily, placing a hand on her forehead. Rite appeared confident, but Arden felt uncomfortable. It felt like being summoned to school and scolded by a teacher.
“I have to teach you completely from the basics.”
“You just said we’d start from the basics. Not confident? If you’re not, we can find someone else.”
“When did I say I wasn’t confident?”
Aigle jerked her head up. At the same time, a book lying on the floor floated up into the air. The book flew to the magician, turned its own pages, and showed the needed section.
Arden watched the entire process with fascinated eyes. While Rite showed no surprise, Arden was full of questions. What’s the principle behind it? Can Rite do that too?
“Magic power is energy. It’s produced by the body and has limits. The amount of that limit varies from magician to magician, and it can decrease or increase.”
The magician drew a circle in the air with her finger, and the book turned around to show Rite an illustration.
“We haven’t discovered 100% about magic power, but there are accepted theories. Magic power flows in the blood.”
“Blood?”
“It means you have to be born with it. That’s why magicians are called those blessed by the gods.”
Arden, listening to their conversation from a distance, also focused on the lesson.
If magic power flows in the blood, could magicians be artificially created through blood transfusions?
Arden stiffened at this thought. Experiments to artificially modify humans should never, under any circumstances, be conducted. But… had such experiments truly never been performed?
