The Magic Contest
Just like yesterday, it was an ordinary morning at the Magic Tower. The moment I rose from bed and made to leave my room, I spotted a paper envelope waiting at the door.
[Magic Tower Regular Mission]
It seemed my first mission as a mage had finally arrived. I glanced up and down the empty corridor, then stepped back inside.
The contents looked simple enough. All I had to do was recover a single mana crystal currently in use outside the Magic Tower—within two years. That was my first assignment. No location was specified, which meant I could go wherever I pleased.
Haven had kept his word. If I simply set a departure date and filed a report, I could leave the tower right now.
I began packing in a hurry. I hadn’t brought much when I arrived, so there wasn’t much to take with me either. I just stuffed the spare robe and hat Rain had given me into my bag and cinched it shut.
Bag in hand, I headed straight for Haven’s quarters. His room sat on the top floor of the Tower of Dawn, always thick with strange currents of mana.
Creeeak—
The door swung open on its own the instant before I could knock, as if it had already known a guest was coming. Beyond the threshold lay a cramped, dilapidated chamber.
I stepped inside slowly. The moment I did, the space itself began to warp. It felt much like the first time I had been whisked away by teleportation magic.
The narrow white-shimmering room expanded, revealing furniture that had been hidden until now—a table, chairs, bookshelves lining every wall. A campfire burned low against a distant stretch of stone.
It was hard to believe this had ever been the cramped little space I first saw. By now the process felt familiar. I frowned as I watched the mana around me. Blue mana flowed in bizarre patterns, stretching the narrow room itself wider and wider.
Haven appeared without warning. The sudden entrance startled me a little, though I knew he was a mage who could move anywhere inside the tower at will. I took a single step back.
“Leaving already?”
“Yes. I thought it was about time I headed out.”
His gaze flicked to my bag, then away. He nodded slowly.
“If the mission grows tiresome, you’re welcome to return whenever you like.”
“What happens if I go past the deadline?”
“Hmm. So long as you can send word of your whereabouts, I’ll extend the period at my discretion… but no more than a month at most. Keep that in mind.”
“And if I exceed even that month?”
“Then search parties looking for missing persons will come find you.”
“Umm… they won’t drag me back by force, will they?”
“Well, that depends on you.”
Once you belonged, they wouldn’t let you leave easily—was that what he meant? I nodded and turned to go. Just as I was about to step out of Haven’s room—
“Have you any interest in entering the contest?”
“The contest…?”
“A grand tournament open to every mage of the Magic Tower. The winner earns the right to learn any magic they desire.”
I looked into Haven’s eyes. Those strange geometric patterns were slowly rotating. He had called them a way of seeing the world, but they were magic as well.
“Aren’t you curious how far your magic will hold up inside this tower?”
“You’re not just asking because you’re curious yourself, are you?”
“Hmm. I won’t lie.”
Haven gave a small laugh and nodded. I frowned and asked,
“Can those eyes be learned too?”
“If you win.”
“All right.”
I tilted my head slightly and answered lightly. Just as Haven said, I had been wondering how far my magic would go in the Magic Tower.
“When does the contest start?”
“In a month. Once every mage out on missions has returned.”
“You’re leaving too…?”
“Yes.”
I nodded calmly at Rain’s question. Word that I would enter the Magic Tower contest had, of course, reached her ears.
Rain loved mingling with people, so the rumor that I was competing would soon spread like wildfire.
“You’re entering too, right, Rain?”
“Huh? Yeah. I’m in.”
“I won’t go easy on you if we meet.”
“What… you?”
Rain burst out laughing as if the idea were absurd. Then something seemed to occur to her; her expression turned uneasy.
“You’re going to use that…?”
By “that,” she meant the artificial monster’s fear I had created by clashing a fork and knife. I thought of the sword resting in my room and nodded. If I needed it, I would use it.
“I-I’ll need earplugs…!”
Rain grinned again, looking as if she had found the perfect solution. I smiled back at her.
Time passed, and the date of the contest drew near. Mages who had been out on missions began returning one by one, and the overall atmosphere grew heavy and tense.
The rules of the contest were simple. Two mages stepped onto a designated ring and tested their skill against each other. Victory went to whoever shattered the opponent’s mana shield.
Because anyone could enter, matches were happening all over the grounds at once. Flames and ice erupted across the arena while blue mana drifted like smoke through the air.
“Ceris of the Tower of Dawn!”
My turn. I loosened up lightly and stepped onto the ring. With so many participants I had expected little attention, yet a surprising number of eyes were already on me.
“Vermilion of the Crimson Tower!”
Mere coincidence? Or something else…
I watched Vermilion climb up from the opposite side. He wore a peculiar smile as he looked at me. Mages on the ring were given a short preparation period. Some checked their staves; others concentrated mana for a powerful opening spell.
Vermilion was no different. He pulled a small pair of earplugs from his pocket, fitted them, and began channeling mana into his staff.
I did nothing. There was no need.
“Begin!”
The moment the referee mage shouted, I kicked off the ground and charged. My mana circle spun briefly; starlight raced down my arms and both legs.
Instant acceleration. The long distance closed in a heartbeat, and Vermilion’s startled face filled my vision.
The starlight mana that had begun in my heart reached my right hand. I thrust that hand toward Vermilion’s stomach.
Thud—!
A solid impact, and Vermilion’s mana barrier began to scatter. Immediately afterward, starlight mana burst from my palm.
A delicate silence settled. The flames gathering on Vermilion’s staff died, and his body went flying backward.
I dusted my hand lightly and turned to the referee. He looked back and forth between Vermilion and me in open shock.
“May I step down now?”
“W-Winner! Ceris of the Tower of Dawn!”
I left the ring lightly and glanced around. The mages who had watched our match were murmuring among themselves.
“She looks young, but she’s incredible.”
“Didn’t they say Tower of Dawn? The way she moves is just like a battle mage from the Twilight Tower…”
“I heard she’s Haven’s disciple.”
With so many entrants, the contest stretched on. On the first day roughly half the participants were eliminated; the second day halved the remainder again. The third day was the same.
Thus the fourth day of the contest arrived. Having crushed every opponent in a single move, I had earned a new moniker as a mage.
Starlight of Dawn
It came from the brief flash of starlight mana that leaked out whenever I used Balgyeong.
The name was rather embarrassing, but it was still far better than “Fairy Swordsman,” the one I had picked up during my adventurer days.
“Do well out there!”
“I will.”
Rain cheered as I headed for the ring. She had been eliminated before she ever faced me. If she hadn’t fallen, she would have been my opponent today.
Today I would fight the one who had beaten Rain to reach this point.
“Ceris of the Tower of Dawn!”
At the call I stepped lightly onto the ring. The referee immediately announced my opponent.
“Leoniss of the Twilight Tower!”
A familiar figure appeared on the far side. Leoniss’s gaze as he looked at me was utterly flat.
“Hello?”
It was our second meeting, so I offered a greeting. Leoniss ignored it. He simply pulled on a pair of leather gloves fitted with thin mana crystals across the knuckles.
A brief silence settled.
The moment Leoniss cloaked his body in mana, I drew the sword from my back.
Shiiing—
The elegant blade that had never once been drawn until now caught the light. Seven stars glittered along its length.
We were given time to prepare powerful magic, yet neither Leoniss nor I concentrated mana.
“Begin!”
The instant the referee’s signal ended, we charged each other.
Clang—!
His fist and my sword met. Blue mana and starlight mana collided, and a fierce shockwave burst outward.
We held the short standoff. Faint voices drifted from the spectators.
“A sword…? Isn’t that against the rules?”
“That’s no ordinary sword. Look closely—mana crystals are set into the blade.”
At that moment blue mana rose around Leoniss’s body—thirty orbs in all, twice as many as the last time we met.
The crystals on his leather gloves flashed, and thirty Magic Missiles streaked toward me. I retreated at once, swinging my sword.
Clang! Clang-clang!
I batted the blue mana aside with the blade and thought: the old me would have launched countless starlights to counter Leoniss’s Magic Missiles. Now there was no need.
“Huu…”
I exhaled softly and swept the sword in a gentle arc, as if guiding the oncoming blue mana.
More than twenty Magic Missiles began to follow the tip of my blade. Leoniss’s face twisted in shock as he lost control of them.
I widened the distance further and slowly rotated the sword. The dozens of Magic Missiles clinging to the tip stretched out, then fused into a single line.
With that line of mana I drew a circle—just as I had once formed a mana circle from a fragment of Kashipa’s scale.
The circle made of Leoniss’s own mana drifted slowly and settled behind my back.
Kiiing—!
The external mana circle and the one inside me began to spin together. The moment their rotation resonated, dozens of tiny stars rose into the air around me.