The Black Room
People make mistakes in life. I’ve made plenty myself. One of my more memorable ones was shattering an orphanage teacher’s leg when I was little. It was a genuine accident—pure, one-hundred-percent unintentional. Leaving a magic orb on the floor was my fault, sure, but the teacher stepping on it and falling was pure coincidence.
The world has always run on repeated mistakes, and that hasn’t changed.
“……”
“……”
The two beasts who had been fighting now stare at me in silence. In my previous life, the soccer player who stopped a war was nicknamed the Black Jesus. By that logic, stopping these two from fighting should earn me the title of Silver Judas, shouldn’t it?
“What did you just say?”
“I said the crow’s feathers looked cool.”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
A reverse scale refers to the scales on a dragon’s neck that grow backward. Touching them makes the dragon go berserk, so they’re famous for being something you must never touch. People have their own forbidden zones too. For beastkin, that zone is their animal nature. It’s the equivalent of the N-word for Black people or “slit-eyed” for East Asians.
Honestly, being compared to a beast isn’t exactly a compliment. Some humans might like fur, but in general, beasts are seen as stupid, irrational creatures driven only by instinct. If I were to put what I just thought into words even a Language Rank 9 could understand, it would be: “Stupid brutes, as expected.”
So why did these two pick up on my inner thoughts? Was it because of that?
Beastkin differ from humans in many ways. Their appearance is the most obvious—animal ears and tails. Their physical abilities and talents also differ. But if you asked anyone what the biggest difference was, they’d all point to one thing: the Gift. That was the decisive factor separating beastkin from humans.
Each beastkin is born with a unique Gift, a kind of superpower. So it wouldn’t be strange if these two had mind-reading abilities. How unfair. Can’t a person even think in peace?
“…Um, Lady Ruina?”
“What is it?”
“You didn’t say that out loud, did you?”
Apparently not. Mistake, mistake.
“I must have done it unconsciously, the way people talk to animals. You don’t think insults at the dog you keep at home, right, Lord Ferant? You say them out loud.”
“How insolent!”
Black particles gather on the crow beastkin’s wings and shoot through the air. Dark-element particles. I’d dealt with this element recently while fighting Valion in his youth, so handling it was easy.
Gulp.
Flames devour the black particles, and soon a magical structure settles inside my body. Instead of assembling it, however, I simply “digest” it. I still can’t properly handle dark-element particles to insert into a spell structure.
I bind the charging wolf beastkin with water ropes and summon wooden soldiers. Then I speak.
“Fighting in the middle of a crowded street isn’t exactly rational, is it?”
The excited expressions of the wolf and crow beastkin cool down. Not because of my words, but because of the wooden soldiers I summoned. They’d realized my strength from the glimpse of my unique magic.
This is why you have to be careful around beasts. Their instincts are sharp.
After a moment of silence, the crow beastkin plucks a feather and throws it at me.
“Then I formally challenge you to a duel.”
I snatch the feather flying through the air with Jeogyeng. In human terms, this is like throwing down a gauntlet. Beastkin culture is hard to understand.
“Why should I?”
“You insulted my honor.”
“It wasn’t intentional. My thoughts just slipped out as words by habit.”
“Fine. If you win, I’ll grant you one wish. But if I win, you—”
“A wish?”
My eyes light up, and the crow beastkin flinches. I raise my hand.
“I’ll do it!”
“If I win, you must obey my command. Do you understand?”
“What kind of command?”
“Living in a beast cage will make you realize what you said.”
“How far does the wish go?”
“Anything.”
She seems quite confident. She’s acting this way while mistaking me for a high-ranking mage, which means she believes she can defeat one. From our brief exchange, her level is around 4th rank. She could never beat a high-ranking mage.
What’s going on? Ah, is it that? A proxy fighter?
“You’re planning to send a substitute, aren’t you?”
“No, I’ll fight myself.”
Really, what’s going on? I narrow my eyes, then nod. I’ll find out when we fight.
At my action, Liesel approaches and asks, “Are you sure?”
“If you don’t take risks, you can’t get what you want.”
Leaving Liesel’s worry behind, I follow the crow beastkin out of the city. We arrive at a reasonably open space outside the city—well, it’s actually a clearing packed with spectators. The crow beastkin flaps her wings.
“I am Raven Crowbart, royalty of the great crow beastkin tribe. You’ve heard of our family name, haven’t you?”
“Crowbart?!”
I feign shock. Raven looks pleased at my reaction.
“So you finally realize what you’ve done.”
“My goodness! Crowbart!”
“Regretting it now won’t help, human. Kneel and beg for mercy. I’ll make it less painful.”
“Crowbart! Wow!”
“…You do know what Crowbart is, right?”
To be honest, I didn’t. But a person must always act confident. I give a suitable reply.
“The garbage-dump bloodbath between the Crowbarts and the cat beastkin is famous, isn’t it?”
“I won’t let this go, human.”
Apparently, no such incident between crows and cats exists in this world. What a shame.
Black light gathers on Raven’s wings. I prepare for impact and summon a wooden giant.
Guuuuung—
The wooden giant collides with the black light, producing a heavy sound unlike an explosion. It feels like a massive iron ball has been thrown. Some kind of mass weapon, then. Opponents who rely on physical force are surprisingly tricky.
I create a spear of rock and fire it at high speed. Raven flaps her wings lightly to dodge and sprays mass spheres from the air. I take cover under the wooden giant’s umbrella to avoid them.
At the same time, I scatter red lines through the air. The red lines, starting from the lantern, split into ten and target Raven. She soars higher to shake them off, then makes a sharp turn to evade the flame bombardment.
A black sword appears in Raven’s hand. Using the shockwave of an explosion behind her for acceleration, she shoots toward me.
Kwaaaang!
The wooden giant barely blocks her. Dangerous. Fighting beastkin really does feel different from fighting humans. Their physical abilities far surpass humans’, and with wings added, their attack trajectories are unpredictable. Tricky.
I click my tongue. The current battle situation is largely because I’m not a proper 5th-rank mage. After all, I only brought my unique magic with me. As a result, certain parameters have shot through the roof while others lag behind. A classic “nail” stat distribution. That’s why facing opponents who target my weaknesses feels difficult.
Still, I don’t think I’ll lose. At least not to this level. She seems far too confident for someone with only this much power. What kind of trump card is Raven hiding?
As if reading my thoughts, Raven curls her lips into a grin and mutters, “As expected, high-ranking mages are troublesome.”
“Thank you.”
“But you’re only a 5th-rank mage at best, aren’t you?”
Flora, who traded Growth with me, was indeed a 5th-rank mage. I nod in affirmation. Raven extends her hand forward and speaks.
“Then in the end, you’ll be under me too.”
A round band forms in Raven’s hand. It spins, and a membrane covers it, creating a dome-like object. Completing the small dome, Raven flicks her hand.
Then—
The black dome expands and covers the entire dueling ground. Raven laughs.
“The Gift passed down in the Crowbart family is called Black Room! Inside here, all order is reversed!”
I clench and unclench my fist. Indeed, many things have changed.
“Your body will feel heavier than usual. Your magic power won’t move as freely. You’ll consume far more magic power than normal. Now, how does it feel to realize the mage you looked down on is actually superior? Tell me, human.”
“Well, that’s…”
I start to reply, then decide to show her directly instead. Red lines from the lantern reach Raven—only several times faster than before.
“Huh?”
Panicked, Raven hurriedly spreads a black membrane, but the power of the flame bombardment is extraordinary. What had been a light probing attack now feels like the devouring flames that had consumed a massive amount of magic power.
After being thoroughly pummeled by magic, Raven rolls across the ground and collapses to her knees. I walk up to her, draw my sword, and press it to her neck. With Blue Night shimmering on the blade, I whisper softly.
“Checkmate.”
“Why?”
Raven’s face is blank with disbelief. Why? She still doesn’t get it?
I’m a 3rd-rank mage, you idiot.