The Scourge of Mana Mosquitoes
I leaned against the wall of the Sibalsaegi club room, already lost in thought for a full ten minutes. No matter how hard I racked my brain, I couldn’t come up with a single invention that would earn genuine acclaim at the upcoming product evaluation meeting.
“Hmm...”
My first idea had been a refrigerator. The versions in this world had obvious limitations compared to the cutting-edge models I remembered. But its potential impact felt far weaker than an air conditioner. Besides, keeping food fresh was a problem for commoners and servants, not nobles. Unless they were fallen nobles, their mansion chefs handled every ingredient, so it simply wasn’t a concern that would interest them.
What inconveniences do the nobles actually face?
Inventions are born from solving the small frustrations of daily life, so I began pondering what might truly bother them.
Transportation...?
Cars, motorcycles, trains—I ran through them all. But there was no need. Teleportation magic tools already solved that problem perfectly. There was a reason nobles still rode in carriages.
A ballpoint pen?
I tried starting with the little things. Nobles still dipped quills in ink every time they wrote a letter. Wouldn’t a fountain pen delight them?
No. Too ordinary.
A fountain pen lacked the overwhelming, game-changing impact of something like the air conditioner. So what would work?
What about a gaming chair? An ergonomically designed one might get a decent response. After all, the chairs in this world were basically wooden frames with a scrap of leather thrown on top. But even that felt mediocre. Nobles trained their bodies with mana; almost none of them whined about back pain.
Microwave? Gas stove? Electric lights?
I considered every candidate I could think of, but none of them felt right. Light magic orbs already replaced electric lights, and cooking appliances would appeal more to chefs than to nobles.
This isn’t easy.
It felt like my mind had hit a brick wall. I knew so much about modern civilization, yet nothing seemed usable here. All because of sorcery and mana. Those two forces had prevented scientific technology from developing, while simultaneously providing substitutes—or even superior alternatives. On top of that, the requirement that it must be something nobles would like made the conditions brutally strict. If I were designing for commoners, the possibilities would be endless.
“Haah...”
Just then, a long, heavy sigh drilled into my ears. I was the one who wanted to sigh, yet someone else had let out a groan that sounded like the earth itself was collapsing. I snapped my head up to find the culprit.
It was David.
The guy I had gifted the General Physics textbook was flipping through its pages and letting out that exact sigh.
“David. Why the sudden sigh? Is there something wrong with the textbook?”
I smiled and started walking toward him. At the same time, I reached out into empty air. A bracelet tore through space, locked around my wrist, and began forming the gauntlet.
“If there’s anything you don’t understand, tell me anytime. I’ll teach you personally.”
David, who had somehow become president of the Sibalsaegi club, broke into a cold sweat as he stared at the brilliant light. The memory of his friend Max—reduced to a half-corpse by that same beam—flashed across his face.
“M-Master! It’s not what you think! I-I just couldn’t sleep last night, so it slipped out! I’m only tired, that’s all! The textbook is perfect! Hahaha!”
He frantically babbled an excuse. Given my current mood, getting on my bad side would only end badly for him.
“Hmm. Is that so?”
Luckily I decided to let it slide. I dissipated the repulsor beam’s glow and noticed him scratching at his arm again.
“But why do you keep scratching your arm? Are you the type who breaks out in hives from stress?”
He had been scratching his right arm—and his whole body—ever since I arrived. When I asked, David bit his lower lip and answered.
“No… it’s not that. It’s the mosquitoes.”
“...Mosquitoes?”
“Yeah. They ate me alive all night while I was sleeping. Our family doesn’t hire Dream Guardians, so...”
Dream Guardian? I tilted my head. Aside from the bites, the reason being that they didn’t hire a “Dream Guardian” left me completely lost.
When I pressed for an explanation, David continued.
“You don’t know about Dream Guardians? Ah… that makes sense. You only recently became a count, after all...”
He gauged my reaction carefully before continuing.
“Dream Guardians are the people who keep the mosquitoes away while we sleep. They fight off those vicious creatures for a full eight hours, which is why their fees are ridiculously high.”
So it was a specialized profession dedicated to battling mosquitoes. What kind of job was that?
When I asked why such a profession even existed, David looked at me like I had grown a second head.
“...What are you saying, Master? Dream Guardians aren’t some random job. They’re heroic professionals who protect their clients from the mosquitoes!”
“......?”
His strange enthusiasm for defending the profession only made me more suspicious. Was repelling mosquitoes really something to be so grateful for? I asked for details about the mosquitoes in this world—their traits, what happened when they bit.
David scratched his right arm vigorously, his expression turning grim.
“They’re utterly vicious. Probably the most hated monster in the entire world. They’re so damn small they’re practically invisible, yet so damn fast they’re nearly impossible to catch. And they’re so damn tough that ordinary physical force can’t even kill them.”
The more I listened, the more I found myself nodding. Smaller, faster, and tougher than anything from my original world—mosquitoes you couldn’t even kill by slapping them. It was horrifying.
On top of that, their greed for mana was enormous. Instead of taking what they needed and leaving, they kept sucking until their bellies were ready to burst. The itching from having both blood and mana drained lasted half a day, which explained why Dream Guardians were in such demand.
“There’s also the mana distortion syndrome problem. There was a huge outbreak about thirteen years ago because of that disease.”
Mana distortion syndrome—one of the infectious diseases carried by mana mosquitoes—was the worst kind. It contaminated the body’s mana receptors. For mana-obsessed nobles, it was a nightmare. Diseases that tainted the receptors themselves couldn’t be cured even with healing magic.
“The price of hiring a Dream Guardian skyrocketed back then. If you caught mana distortion syndrome, it would destroy both the output and precision of your spells.”
David shuddered, saying their value had increased tenfold during that time. When I asked about their approximate fee, he told me that, adjusted for current rates, a single night cost four million Orden.
“But it’s worth paying. A Dream Guardian uses their entire body to condense mana, drawing every mosquito to themselves to protect the client. That’s why people pay the price. One mistake and they could become mana cripples for just four million Orden.”
It finally made sense. The insane daily rate of four million Orden was hazard pay. They were literally staking their mana abilities as collateral.
“...Still, there’s one thing that doesn’t add up.”
According to his explanation, Dream Guardians needed to be able to manipulate mana. Yet in this world, only nobles could wield mana. When I pointed this out, David nodded.
“Well, yes. But there are people who need money even more than they need mana. Fallen nobles… or those who used to be nobles.”
Used to be nobles.
My mind immediately went to Kroto, Eguwa, and Arjie—the three who had recently been stripped of all status and reduced to slaves. Throughout the empire’s hundreds of years of history, there must have been countless families who suffered the same fate.
“By the way, Master. Haven’t you ever been bitten by a mosquito?”
David looked at me as if my ignorance was incomprehensible. In this sweltering summer, sleeping without a Dream Guardian should have guaranteed bites.
“No. I’ve never been bitten.”
I didn’t need a Dream Guardian. My quarters already had every countermeasure prepared.
Good thing I prepared so thoroughly.
I absolutely loathed mosquitoes. That was why I had installed electric insect screens instead of ordinary ones, and modified my bedroom so that a plasma mosquito net deployed while I slept. Thanks to that, I could sleep peacefully even during peak mosquito season.
“H-how are you not getting bitten? You didn’t hire a Dream Guardian either, right?!”
Watching David’s desperate face as he begged for my secret, I finally decided on the theme for this product evaluation meeting.
Mosquito eradication.
In a room veiled by soft darkness, Charlotte listened to the middle-aged noble’s request and nodded with determination.
“Then I’ll be counting on you tonight. Please protect my bedroom well.”
With the mosquitoes growing aggressive again these days, she could not afford to fail at the start of this high-income side job known as Dream Guardian. She had to ensure not a single mosquito entered the room. She needed to build an impeccable reputation among the nobles.
Only then could she earn the tuition and living expenses for next semester and attend the academy together with Ed.
I’ll exterminate every last mosquito!
Charlotte clenched both fists tightly, her eyes blazing with resolve.