Magic Assistant Ellen (1)
Tap. Tap.
Something brushed against his cheek.
“Nngh.”
Ellen forced open eyelids that felt as heavy as lead and searched for whatever had dragged him out of sleep.
Coo, coo.
A pigeon stared back at him.
“You little—!”
Still sprawled across the desk, Ellen stretched out the arm he’d been using as a pillow.
Flutter.
The carrier pigeon hopped onto his finger. A scrap of paper was tied to its leg.
New commission. Pay: High. Danger: Medium.
After reading the note, Ellen pushed himself upright from the desk.
Thud.
The book he’d been reading until the moment he fell asleep the night before tumbled to the floor.
Flutter-flutter—!
Startled by the noise, the carrier pigeon shot out through the window and was gone.
Formulas for the Construction of Magic Circles
Ellen picked the book up off the floor. This was already his fifth thorough reading; the tattered cover made that plain enough. He slid it onto the third shelf of the bookcase—the shelf reserved for volumes he’d read five times or more. Above it, even more battered books were packed tight.
I need to buy another bookcase.
One entire wall was already nothing but shelves, yet books he’d finished at least three times still lay scattered across the floor for lack of space. Ellen shoved them aside with a rough sweep of his arm and looked into the mirror.
A middle-aged man stared back: messy brown hair, heavy dark circles under his eyes, and a red crease pressed into his forehead from sleeping on his arm.
“O most pure of all, let thy cleanliness wash away my filth. Clean.”
Whoosh!
Mana bloomed around Ellen and swept him clean from his disheveled hair down to the drool mark at the corner of his mouth. He pulled on his clothes and stepped out the door.
The mercenary company that had sent the commission was not far from his house.
“Ellen, where’ve you been hiding lately?”
“Had enough coin for a while.”
“Hahaha, so the purse finally ran dry, huh?”
“That’s why I came running the second I got the note.”
“Drinks next time.”
“Sure.”
Trading the usual banter, Ellen entered the building. The captain, who should have been in his office, was right there in the open.
“Why the hell is that assistant brat taking so long? How much longer do I have to wait?”
A man in his forties wearing a mage’s robe snapped the words. The captain bowed his head.
“My apologies. He should be on his way right now. If you could just wait a little longer—”
“‘Should be’? So he might not be coming at all? Is this how you’ve been doing business?”
Even under the absurd nitpicking the captain could only stammer apologies.
“No, no, not at all, Mage. I’ll fetch the bastard at once.”
The mage squared his shoulders at the sight.
“You think dealing with a Magic Tower mage is easy? A proper mage standing around waiting on a Magic Assistant—what a joke.”
This is exactly why I hate dealing with mage bastards. All pride and no sense.
But when the mage was the one paying, what choice did a man have? Ellen smoothed the scowl from his face, fixed on a servile expression, and approached.
“I’m terribly sorry. The moment I heard about the commission I came straight here, yet I still kept you waiting. Please accept my apologies once more.”
He bent nearly double at the waist.
“Well, since you’ve apologized so thoroughly I won’t say anything more. Be more careful next time.”
You threw this whole tantrum just for that reaction?
Ellen seethed at the petty display but kept the apologetic look plastered on as he straightened.
“You—you’re Ellen, aren’t you?”
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
“You don’t recognize me? It’s Leonard! Leonard Coleman!”
A smug smile curled Leonard’s lips.
How could I forget a piece of work like you?
Leonard Coleman. His academy classmate. A commoner who had become a mage on nothing but raw talent. Theory, formulas, tactics—he’d failed every subject, yet that monstrous gift had papered over every shortcoming and carried him into the Magic Tower. Once he became a mage he was adopted into the Coleman family and gained a surname.
“It’s an honor that you remember me.”
Ellen was a professional. No matter how twisted he felt inside, his face showed only grateful pleasure.
“I heard you’d ended up a Magic Assistant, but I couldn’t believe it. Who would have thought a friend who worked so hard at the academy would never make it into the Tower? Hahahaha!”
Leonard laughed with deliberate exaggeration.
“Someone like me a mage? I’ll simply do my best to support you, Lord Leonard.”
Ellen forced down the curses rising in his throat.
“Come on, academy classmates don’t need titles. Just call me by name. What’s the point of friendship otherwise?”
“Even so, you’re a mage, Lord Leonard.”
“Well, true enough. If you’re fine with it, keep calling me that. Hahahahaha!”
“Thank you for your consideration. Might I hear the details of this mission?”
“What’s there for you to hear? Just support me. I’ll fill you in roughly on the way. We’re short on time, so let’s move.”
Leonard slung an arm over Ellen’s shoulder and strode out of the mercenary company.
According to the rough briefing that damned bastard gave him, the commission was to clear a mini-dungeon newly discovered by the Magic Tower. The Tower side had sent Leonard and one of his disciples; the mercenary company was supplying swordsmen and a Magic Assistant.
“Burn them. Fireball.”
Boom! Boom!
Two fireballs slammed into the skeletons and blew them to pieces.
“Hmph. Nothing but trash getting cocky. Let’s rest over there a bit. Light it up.”
Leonard dusted off his hands and looked at Ellen.
“O mana, become a single ray of light descending into pitch-black darkness. Light.”
Whoosh—
Bright light flooded the dark corners of the cave. The mercenaries murmured in fresh awe at the display of magic and began setting up camp. Ellen gave a faint smile at the thumbs-up they shot him in jest and moved to start his own preparations.
“Ugh. All that chanting just to cast a first-circle Light?”
Of course. It was the same line he heard every time he worked with mages.
“I have no real talent for magic, so shortening the chant is… difficult.”
The answer was just as rehearsed.
“Martin, unlike us mages who actually passed the Tower exams, these academy-only Magic Assistants are stuck at this level. This is your first time seeing one, so watch carefully how I put them to use. You’ll be using trash like them yourself someday.”
This one, however, was a cut above the usual.
“Yes, Master. Still, thanks to them we don’t waste mana on trivial tasks. Quite useful in their way, aren’t they? Hahaha.”
Master and disciple—two of a kind. Ellen pretended not to hear and walked over to the mercenaries.
This mission’s going to be exhausting. I really drew the short straw this time.