The Wise Sheep in the Shadows (1)
The Wise Sheep in the Shadows (1)
#12
Unexpectedly, the staring contest—no, the standoff between the two apprentice mages ended in a remarkably anticlimactic fashion. The moment the golden-eyed apprentice fired a beam of light that gleamed like gold from her hand, Elysia was sent flying helplessly, tumbling end over end beneath the information desk.
Was this girl even really a mage?
"Aaaaaah."
"Excuse me. Senior Elysia."
"Uweeeeh... uweeaaaaaargh!"
"...You there. Leave that person here and follow me."
I was a little worried about Elysia, but a mage was a mage, no matter how rotten. She'd be fine, probably. Ugh— the smell. What the hell did she eat with her mom for dinner last night? Like Elysia of the House Florentia, I too was a man who respected privacy, so I'll refrain from any further detailed description at this point.
Anyway, this woman had just called Elysia her senior, hadn't she? Just what was Elysia capable of, to be taken down by her own junior?
Incompetent...
Leaving Elysia to hurl violently under the information desk, I followed the golden-haired apprentice mage into a room filled with all sorts of medical equipment I'd never seen in any hospital on the surface. Was this some kind of infirmary?
Green cross markings were plastered all over every piece of equipment, so it was probably medical gear, more or less.
"First, I'll need to draw blood, so please lift your left arm."
Click.
"Ah, and if there are no major issues with the test results, there won't be any experiments until tomorrow, so you can rest easy."
Dark red blood began to fill a glass cylinder through a strangely shaped pipe. That was quite a lot they were drawing.
"What exactly qualifies as a 'major issue'?"
"Well, you might explode in a little while, you know? Since you said you were hit with that senior's reagent out there."
Just what kind of person was Elysia at this Academy...
Perhaps reading my expression, the woman radiating a golden aura continued speaking.
"That senior outside is quite a famous disaster magnet within the Academy. Last summer, she cast an alchemical spell to duplicate desserts at the Kulina Dining Hall and blew up the entire dining hall."
"..."
"So, while you might seem perfectly fine right now, there's a real possibility you could explode in about an hour."
What the hell?
"If that happens, we'd lose a valuable teaching aid, so wouldn't it be better to use you quickly in another experiment before you explode? And if you make it through without incident, we'll give you a day of rest to prevent any reckless experimentation."
Mm.
"Still, don't worry. It's Senior Elysia's first time with human experimentation too, so I trust she used materials with at least some degree of verified safety."
Trust? Wasn't trust something you placed in people who were actually trustworthy?
"Anyway, just to be safe, let me ask— ah, right, what exactly was your name?"
"Subject 601. My real name is Ha Do-yun."
"I'm Estelle. Number 6... no, Do-yun. If there have been any unusual symptoms in your body, please tell me everything. I need to check all related matters before I can ensure your safety, Do-yun."
Could I really say this? I could already see the future where she'd mistake me for a pervert and beat me half to death.
"Why, your expression tells me there is something. Is there some reason you can't say it? This is for your safety, Do-yun. You need to tell me."
Haah...
"No matter that you came to this Academy as a teaching aid, as the successor of the proud House Eurasia, I will treat you as a human being with the utmost dignity I can offer."
I had no choice. With such a beautiful apprentice mage speaking to me while staking her family's pride on it, I had to just go for it and deal with the consequences later.
"Lady Estelle."
"Yes."
"Please listen without misunderstanding."
"Pardon?"
"I am not a molester, nor am I saying this with any impure intentions toward a great mage."
"?"
"After receiving Lady Elysia's reagent injection, my genitalia— in other words, my penis— developed a side effect of glowing. Would you care to confirm it yourself?"
"??"
The golden mage stared at me with flustered, wavering eyes. Her face seemed to be tinged with a faint shade of red, somehow...
"Th-that seems to be beyond the scope of my abilities! I'll go call another senior, so please just wait here!"
The apprentice mage who had introduced herself as Estelle finished those words and bolted out of the room, her shoulder-length golden hair streaming behind her.
Ah. I'd done it now. But she was the one who told me to talk. And who exactly was she going to call?
Still, she was incredibly beautiful. I'd only met a handful of mages since yesterday. Were all mages like this? If they were as kind as Elysia or Estelle, maybe things would work out somehow...
As long as I didn't run into another mage like the red-eyed woman I'd first met, this might actually turn out to be a ridiculously cushy posting. Please, let me get someone with a good personality...
That hope of mine was shattered into pieces the moment I faced the red-eyed mage who arrived about ten minutes later.
#13
"Hey, Subject 601."
"Yes."
"Didn't I warn you clearly yesterday?"
"...I remember the warning clearly."
Burning red eyes stared at me.
The terror etched into my instincts coiled up my spine and constricted my throat, like a giant anaconda opening its jaws.
"But maybe I misheard the situation. Consider this your last chance, so choose your final words carefully. Spit it out."
"That's not it! I simply stated the facts as they were."
"What facts? Your obvious bullshit? Yeah, you're right about one thing. Contrary to what the outside world thinks, the apprentice mages at this Academy don't actually hold that much hostility toward men.
You're the first one they've ever seen, after all. The mages born and raised in the Academy are different from the Hunters outside Arcanum. They're all about honor, treating even the smallest lives with care — sheltered kids who don't know how the world works, so to speak."
"That's probably why, every so often, guys like you who come in as test subjects try to pull some bullshit on the apprentice mages."
Did that mean there were living teaching aids besides me? That might actually be useful information.
But what did she mean by "every so often"? If teaching aids were that rare a resource, wasn't handling me this roughly a pretty contradictory way to act?
"Anyway, what do you think happened to the guys who tried pulling bullshit like you? They got their lustful lower halves sliced off and died, or got disposed of after experiments. You don't know, do you? Either way, you're fated to be discarded soon enough anyway."
I began to feel an invisible force taking control of my body.
"You. It looks like you've been lucky enough to run into nothing but kind apprentice mages so far. I'm different from the others. You dare try to mess with Estelle with your filthy lies?"
I was screwed.
My body froze completely. That unidentified magic again.
At that moment.
Fwoosh!
A crimson flame — like a red sun that could burn everything to black ash — engulfed the room.
Ah. So this was as far as I went.
The whip of flame danced as though alive, surging toward me without affecting anything else around it in the slightest.
Whoosh!
The red serpent blazed right before my eyes.
***
#14
Hot? No, was it not hot?
Was I alive?
Ah— I was alive. Because I was doing this thing called thinking.
What puzzled me, though, was that the flame had definitely come at me.
I was certain I'd experienced that red. So how in the world was I still alive? The answer, surely, was not something I'd be able to extract from the woman frozen before my eyes with a stunned expression.
"Wh-what! How did you not get burned?"
"You're asking me that..."
"What did you do?"
The heat shimmered again, and a newly formed flame was swung toward me once more.
"Wait, wait, wait! First, let me go!"
Beg first. I had no desire to get burned again.
Beg first and survive by any means necessary.
Despite my desperate plea, the flame surged again.
But a brilliant light, blinding enough to obscure my vision, filled my eyes, and when I opened them again a moment later, the flame had vanished without a trace, as though it had never been there at all.
Fwooshah—
I felt the invisible force that had been crushing my body disappear.
"You."
"Y-yes?"
"Do you have any idea what you've just done?"
"Even so, I am nothing but a slave. What could someone as lowly as me possibly know?"
"Magic. You canceled out my magic. What the hell did that bitch Elysia do to you for you to gain an ability like that?"
"I did get an injection. But is canceling out magic really that strange a thing?"
"Why, don't artifacts also exhibit magical functions, after all? I heard about it while working at the Orbis Loading Dock before coming here. The merchant ships that sail up from Seoul Special City to Arcanum, defying the sky, use artifacts that ignore the effects of gravity. Couldn't I have become something like an artifact after getting that injection? Stuff like that happens all the time in novels, doesn't it."
I tried to explain with every ounce of wit I could muster. The question was whether this woman was satisfied with the answer.
"No, no, no, no."
She apparently wasn't satisfied.
The woman with the stunned expression continued speaking rapidly.
"There's no way a living being could become like an inanimate artifact. And to think that a man with no external mana and no imprint of unique magic could wield unintentional magic? Just what... are you."
"I am nothing more than a teaching aid who received Lady Elysia's reagent injection yesterday."
"..."
The force drained from those red eyes that had been filled with shock.
That was when it happened. The red-eyed woman took a few steps forward and whispered into my ear.
"You... Subject 601... can I keep calling you that? Would you consider becoming my exclusive test subject?"
"What exactly do you mean by that."
Her black hair, wafting a sweet cherry scent, brushed against my arm.
"I think we could both benefit a great deal if you did some research together with your big sister here."
"What exactly do you mean by 'research'?"
"It's just... a process of getting to know each other a little better. For the advancement of great magic, of course. It would be a very good deal for you too. Wouldn't it be better to live comfortably under my protection than to die a sudden explosive death as material for some absurd human experiment?"
"If I may be so bold, aren't you still an apprentice yourself, Lady Mage? How exactly would you protect me?"
"I happen to be the daughter of a rather wealthy family. Do you see me working here right now? Why do you think I'm working here?"
"With my limited understanding, I cannot say. In the world below, those of high status tend not to work very much. Though of course, it must be different for someone as noble as you, Lady Mage."
"Ahahaha! Yes. It is a little different. I'm stuck in here doing grunt work because I have a duty I must fulfill."
"A duty?"
"I am the successor of one of Arcanum's six great Count Houses. All successors of titled houses — not just the Count Houses — must serve in their assigned posts before graduating from the Academy."
"Why?"
"Wealth and power come with corresponding responsibilities and duties. Didn't you humans follow that principle well enough yourselves? Noblesse oblige, as they called it. Though I hear it's died out in this era."
Having said that, the woman looked at me with those red eyes and spoke again.
"You. Become mine. Live and die in my embrace."
"What you wanted. What you want now. What you will come to want.
Whatever it may be, I will grant it all."
When I came to my senses,
a hand as white as carved ivory was already coiled around my waist.