Push and Pull (1)
“R-Rin, what are you talking about? Spending the whole day with B-Baron Offen?”
This man just said I’m useless. How am I supposed to sit still after hearing that?
“I never said you were useless. I said I have no need for you, Lady Rin.”
To me, that’s the exact same thing.
Rin narrowed her eyes into sharp slits and glared at me. My claim that I didn’t need her had scraped her pride far harder than I’d expected.
Anyway, you’re mine for the day. No objections allowed. That outrageous nonsense you just spat out—I’m going to make you take every last word of it back.
Her shoulders heaved with barely contained fury as she shot up from her chair at the table.
Come on. I’m going to show you exactly how incredible I am through my research achievements!
She strode over and seized my arm.
“R-Rin! Don’t grab him so hard!”
“It’s fine, Lady Eve. She was gentle this time.”
Thanks to Eve’s earlier stern warning, Rin had actually held back. Her eyes and aura, though, remained every bit as fierce.
Aren’t you getting up?
“Mm, all right. If Lady Rin insists that strongly… I suppose I should follow along.”
Pushing any further would probably turn this into a real UFC match, so I stood.
“I’ll be tagging along with Lady Rin for the day. You two rest. You’ve got the day off.”
“Th-that’s…”
“…Young Master.”
For some reason, Eve and Rina both looked at me like abandoned puppies. They’d been working without a single day off until now—shouldn’t a vacation be a good thing? Ah, right. I knew why they were making those faces.
“Almost forgot this. Summon.”
Player’s will confirmed. Summoning ‘Wallet’.
“Rina, take this. Spend every coin inside if you want. There’s not a fortune in there, but it’s more than enough for a full day of eating and playing to your hearts’ content.”
The reason the two of them had looked so miserable watching me leave was because they thought their sugar daddy was walking out on them. This was Birama, the famous tourist city with the best view of the Magic Tower. Enjoying a proper vacation in a place like this required a well-stuffed wallet. Now that I’d handed mine to Rina, there was no reason left for long faces.
“All right, let’s really get going. Lead the way, Lady Rin. You two—have so much fun you won’t regret a single second!”
I entrusted my wallet to Rina and turned my back on the pair with a clear conscience, telling Rin to take the lead. I’d scraped her pride raw up to this point; now it was time to soothe her with warmth. Push and pull—that was the affection-raising method I’d developed specifically for Rin.
That man just pulled a wallet out of empty air. Don’t tell me he can use subspace?
Even while walking ahead, Rin kept stealing glances at Offen following behind her.
Just what kind of person is this man?
She had watched him casually retrieve an object from subspace as if it were nothing. Subspace was a field the Magic Tower had researched for ages—the dream of every mage. Naturally, Rin herself had poured her heart into studying it as well.
Subspace meant a space completely isolated from reality, usable only by its owner. If one could create such a space and treat it like a pocket, countless spatial and temporal constraints that had plagued mages for generations would vanish in an instant. You could stuff an entire laboratory into subspace and research anywhere, anytime. Calling it every mage’s dream was no exaggeration.
Subspace is still considered an unknown realm that exists only in theory… Even I haven’t gotten the slightest handle on it. Yet this ordinary man who doesn’t radiate a scrap of mana can wield it so casually…
Rin’s mouth went dry. Her palms grew slick with sweat. It was a sensation she had never felt in her life.
Offen Termin… this man… could he actually…
The name of that sensation was tension.
Does he possess magical knowledge and capability that surpass even mine…?
Rin, who had been born with talent no one could approach, felt tension for the first time in her life before Offen’s ability to freely manipulate subspace.
From this moment on, I have to show my laboratory to someone who can handle subspace at will?
The place she was heading toward was the private laboratory she had built in Birama. It housed the finest equipment and research results that rivaled anything in the Magic Tower itself—her pride and joy, constructed with two-thirds of every coin she had ever earned. Yet right now, for the first time, Rin found her laboratory and all the achievements stored within it… shabby.
…Do I really have to go to the lab?
She had grown afraid of bringing Offen there.
“Hm? Lady Rin, why did you stop?”
Well, that is…
Before a man who could freely command subspace, any research achievement would inevitably pale. The moment that thought struck her, Rin’s steps toward the laboratory halted. She was certain that whatever she had accomplished would look substandard in Offen’s eyes. But she couldn’t simply refuse to go now.
“To think I get to see with my own two eyes the research achievements of Lady Rin, the greatest genius in Magic Tower history… I’m truly looking forward to it. Please guide me quickly.”
She had already boldly declared that she would prove how incredible she was through those very achievements.
…Fine.
Thus Rin arrived before her private laboratory building, mouth dry with tension.
“Wow, the lab is way bigger than our mansion. Isn’t this the largest building in the entire city?”
…It is.
Offen’s pure admiration made her stomach twist. The moment she showed him the results inside, she was certain he would sneer, Hmm, the building’s big, but the contents are nothing special. Heh. Yet she had already made her grand claim; there was no backing out.
…I’ll open the door.
Feeling like a pig being led to slaughter, Rin approached the entrance of her private laboratory.
Ziiing— rumble-rumble-rumble.
When she pressed her finger to the keyhole of the great doors, the installed magitech sensor scanned her mana. The lock disengaged at once, and the doors opened automatically.
Mana-recognition automatic door.
It was a world-first automatic door she had developed herself after studying magitech—something not even the Magic Tower had adopted yet.
“….”
Yet Offen showed not the slightest surprise at this earth-shaking technology. Having lived as a modern Korean in the 2020s, of course automatic doors didn’t impress him.
This automatic door alone was supposed to seize the initiative, but he isn’t surprised at all…
To Rin, who knew nothing of that fact, Offen’s complete indifference to the automatic door felt terrifying.
Does he think something like this is only natural? Ugh, this automatic door is one of my proudest works. Building that magitech sensor was genuinely hard. Scanning an individual’s mana with a sensor, storing the data, and using it—that’s originally an incredible technique…
Offen displayed zero reaction. That meant anything lesser than the automatic door would surely be met with contemptuous laughter.
“Shall we go in?”
…Yes.
With her back damp from cold sweat, Rin entered her private laboratory alongside Offen.
Wh-what should I show him? Start with my absolute masterpiece? N-no. If I show my greatest work first and don’t get a good reaction, my heart will truly break. I’ll despair at the fact that a genius greater than me exists. Right—start with the achievements on the same level as the automatic door.
Click. Ziiing—
She pressed the switch on the wall. Magitech mana lamps in the ceiling flooded the dark interior with mana-light. The laboratory was arranged around a wide central corridor, with four rooms on each side and a large door at the far end—eight achievement vaults and one central research chamber. Her original plan had been to tour every vault one by one, but Rin abandoned it.
Follow me.
“Yes.”
She led Offen straight to the central research chamber at the end of the corridor. That was where her masterpieces rivaling the automatic door were stored.
Click. Click. Click. Click.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
The closer she drew to the chamber housing her creations, the greater her tension grew.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
By the time her hand closed around the doorknob, her heartbeat thundered through her entire body, and her stomach clenched so tightly it hurt. An unpleasant tension she had never experienced. Having never once met a mage superior to herself, Rin found the situation pure torment. Even while learning under her master, Magic Tower Lord Jerseng, she had never felt this extreme tension and fear of being evaluated by another.
Clack. Click.
She opened the central research chamber door, flipped the switch for the mana lamps, and pointed with her left hand at the first masterpiece sealed inside a magitech glass tube. With her right hand she scribbled explanations using her mana quill.
Th-the first thing I’ll show you is that one over there.
Her hand gripping the mana quill trembled violently from the peak of her tension.
I-I can’t think of anything. I want to run away. It’s hard to breathe. I don’t know this feeling. I don’t know this feeling at all. Why am I even here? What am I doing right now?
S-so, what that is… well, it’s one of my personal masterpieces. The f-f-f-first achievement of my unique technique that grafts magic formulas onto magitech—‘Magitech Formula.’
Even with her mind gone completely blank, Rin kept her hand moving diligently to continue the explanation. It was a feat possible only because she was a genius who poured her heart into her creations.
Th-this is, um… the Magitech Formula embedded in the device uses the mana stored inside as a resource to release magic. It’s a magitech magic staff that even people without mana can use. If mass-produced, ordinary people would gain a means to protect themselves… so I thought it was good…
Why am I explaining it like this?! I can do it more coherently and coolly! I’m already completely outmatched in knowledge and ability—if I ramble like an idiot, of course he’ll laugh at me!
But Rin was halfway into panic, so her explanation came out anything but orderly.
S-so this magitech magic staff is… a good invention that ordinary people can use. Y-yes. That kind of invention. N-no, it is an invention!
In the end she sounded exactly like a freshman college student giving her first unprepared presentation to a professor.
…I want to die. He’s definitely going to mock me. ‘You dragged me all the way here just to show me this garbage?’ and then tear into me mercilessly.
Rin hunched her shoulders and hung her head. The confidence and pride that had been her very identity had vanished without a trace. All that remained was shame and self-loathing.
Should I just apologize for running my mouth? Yeah. Let’s do that. Apologize for the bluff, then focus on treating my throat.
She was so cornered that she made a decision she never would have under normal circumstances.
U-um, Baron Offen…
Just as she timidly began scribbling an apology that read “I’m sorry for acting up,” a solemn round of applause rang out.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
“Truly magnificent, Lady Rin. I’m… moved.”
Offen’s sincere praise sank into her ears.
…Huh?