It Was a Dragon and a Prologue
As everyone already knew, for a dragon, manipulating mana was far easier than breathing.
But not for humans. Even for those called mages, freely controlling it as they pleased took quite a long time, or so I'd heard.
Yet Ha-yan, who hadn't even lived twenty years, was fairly smoothly moving my mana—which I controlled more easily than breathing—using her own.
At first I'd been startled by the sight of her like this, but it had already happened a few times, so I no longer found it surprising.
Well, even if her school exam scores slipped every now and then, I had yet to see a human more outstanding than Ha-yan in anything magic-related. Even her mother was a little short of Ha-yan when it came to mana manipulation.
"I still find it astonishing every time I see it. How a human could..."
"Shh. Quiet. Ha-yan's concentrating. If you need to talk, use mana."
"Understood."
Watching Ha-yan sink into a mana trance through sheer momentary focus, Rhea spoke to me as if she couldn't believe it.
Why wasn't I concentrating myself while feeding her mana?
Hmm. Even if Ha-yan was a fairly capable mage among humans—high mana, sharp focus—compared to me... that was a bit much.
I was concentrating in my own way, but it wasn't any real burden.
I even had enough leeway to freely admire the clean skin of her back, the slim curve of her waist, the jet-black hair tickling my hands, and the rather firm lines of a woman's body.
For quite a while, the mana I had poured into Ha-yan's body worked like a program I had preloaded, teaching her mana the most efficient way to use it for spatial transfer magic.
After about thirty minutes, Ha-yan began to show the limits of her concentration; cold sweat slowly beaded on her skin. Judging that was enough, I drew my mana back in and slowly took my hands from her body.
And then—
She swayed.
"Whoa there."
"Ugh... d-dizzy..."
"If you've been concentrating and manipulating mana for thirty minutes, of course you'd be wiped. Anything wrong besides the dizziness?"
"Thirsty..."
"Got it. Hang on."
Still holding Ha-yan firmly in my arms, I used magic to pull an electrolyte drink from the corner of the room into my hand.
As it flew to me the cap even twisted off with neat skill; I carefully brought the mouth of the bottle to Ha-yan's lips.
She didn't even seem to have the strength to lift her hands, so she simply drank what I offered.
There I was on the training room floor, cradling her small frame in my lap.
I wasn't thinking anything of it, but from the look on her face she was a little embarrassed by all the personal details of herself drenched in sweat. My clothes were getting damp from it, too.
But I didn't care in the slightest. There was no time to care about something like that, and even less need to show her I was paying it any mind.
Instead I casually used my free hand to gently brush the sweat-soaked strands of hair stuck to her face and said,
"Was it hard? It took a lot longer than usual."
"Hehe... i-it was a little tough. I don't think I've ever had a spell take this long."
"And I was going to do it in stages. When I tried to pull the mana back it latched on hard. Did you do that on purpose?"
"Hm? Mm. I just wanted to finish it all at once."
"Try finishing it all at once and you'll die of dehydration."
"Hehe..."
"That wasn't a compliment."
"Ack!"
She could take other studies however she liked, but the moment magic got involved she somehow always pushed herself too far.
There was no need to take everything in one go, and no need to strain herself like this.
"Mmm... too tired... gonna sleep a bit..."
In the end her stamina hit its limit, and Ha-yan simply drifted off while still nestled in my arms.
"You can't. If you fall asleep soaked in sweat like this you'll catch a cold."
I looked worried, yet I still couldn't bring myself to stop her.
So there she was, breathing soft little sounds as she slept in my arms.
I draped my training jacket over her and called to Rhea, who had been standing quietly behind me.
"Call the kids, look after Ha-yan, and put her to bed in my room."
"...Are you all right?"
"Who knows. At least she didn't go berserk like last time, so that's something. Back then I was a little short myself and pushed her too hard... I nearly cut the lifeline of someone far too precious to me. Do that again and I'm not a dragon. Just a piece of trash."
"...Understood."
Rhea listened, then left the training center.
I kept holding Ha-yan close so she could sleep comfortably until Rhea returned with the other homunculi assigned to her.
"Tch. Annoying bastards."
At that same hour, in Ha-yan's house.
"What's wrong, dear? Another weird one fly in?"
"Not weird, exactly. It's because of our daughter. She's so brilliant it's a problem."
She let out a long sigh and handed her husband a single letter.
Her husband watched her expression carefully even as he looked over the letter he had been given.
And then, soon enough—
"They didn't figure out our son-in-law's identity, did they?"
"If they really knew, they'd have stormed in already. There are only two mages in all of Korea—me and our daughter, right?"
"True. If they knew a dragon that only existed in ancient texts was actually alive, they wouldn't have stayed quiet until now."
"Ugh. I'm so anxious I can barely stand it."
"Think we should send two people for this exam?"
"That's exactly what's been giving me a headache lately. I don't know why those quiet ones are suddenly acting up."
She pressed her temples hard and spoke in a voice thick with irritation, but the answer was already decided.
"We just have to trust Siu. He's caused a little trouble so far, but he still lives completely wrapped around our daughter's finger, doesn't he? He's already our son-in-law."
"Good grief. Never thought I'd live long enough to take a dragon as a son-in-law."
"Heh. Do you know how much effort I've put in since way back? How much I suffered trying to turn that wild zebra of a kid into a proper person?"
"I know. I know that very well."
She was the only mage in Korea, yet if you expanded the view to the whole world she was just another common mage.
Even so she had made her own preparations, so receiving the letter didn't leave her especially worried.
Thanks to their "prospective son-in-law," of course.
And so the two of them decided to leave everything to their "prospective son-in-law," cracked open some beer cans, and settled in for a pleasant evening.
"Mmm..."
After Rhea returned with the other homunculi in charge of Ha-yan, scooped her up, and vanished, I tidied the training room and came back to my own room to start organizing the schedule ahead.
In the meantime a now-spotless Ha-yan had been carefully laid on my bed, and she was still lost deep in dreamland.
"Mmph mmph..."
"Aigoo. Hair isn't food. You do this every time."
I gently freed the strands she was chewing on and went back to the desk.
Looking at her curled up like a snail, tightly hugging the blanket, I picked up the letter from the magic world that had been delivered through Ha-yan's mother in the meantime.
According to Rhea, who had brought it, it contained details about the upcoming exam and its location.
It had always been like this, but the people living in the magic world seemed to have no idea electronic devices even existed.
It wasn't some bizarre world out of Harry P*tter, either.
Magic was convenient in its own ways, but hadn't someone said that sufficiently advanced science was indistinguishable from magic?
How nice would it be if they just accepted the convenient things.
Damn useless higher-ups.
Anyway.
The magic world could basically be called a closed society.
With magic on their side the chance of ordinary people discovering them wasn't high, but as science advanced day by day they seemed to have retreated even further into hiding.
And the location of this magic exam written in the letter was, fortunately,
"Japan... At least it's not some Middle Eastern country."
Right next door: Japan.
Korea had only three people who could even be called mages if you included me, so the odds had been near zero.
Japan, the neighboring country, was said to have well over ten thousand, so this was the natural course of things.
Being a nearby country at least meant going and coming back wouldn't be a major problem.
Even if it had been Europe it wouldn't have been a big issue for us, but still.
I burned the letter until nothing remained and stood up, walking over to the bed where Ha-yan lay.
"Mmph mmph mmph..."
"Did you put honey on that hair or something?"
Ha-yan was chewing on her own hair again, working it around in her mouth.
I brushed it away once more and gently stroked her cheek with my hand.
"Uuung... mmm... hehe. Feels nice..."
"You are asleep, right?"
Apparently she sensed my hand on her cheek even in her sleep; she wriggled and wriggled until she ended up using my thigh as a pillow instead of the actual one.
"Warm... heehee... like it... cozy..."
"Yeah. If you like it, that's enough."
I hadn't planned on it to begin with, but I adjusted my position and stretched both legs out on the bed so Ha-yan could lie as comfortably as possible.
Even while using my thigh as a pillow she also clasped one of my hands tightly in both of hers.
As if making sure I couldn't run off somewhere.
I stayed like that for a while, simply feeling her warmth, until a mana signal arrived.
Naturally it was Rhea outside the room.
"Master. I have something to report."
"Yeah. What is it?"
"An interim report on that unpleasant mana stone. May I speak like this?"
"Don't come in and risk waking Ha-yan. You said interim report? What's in it?"
"Well... we have confirmed the original location of the mana stone."
"Where?"
I asked curtly without much interest, but once I heard the answer I couldn't stay uninterested.
"The basement of the school Master attends. However... the human who placed the mana stone there... was personnel from the Japanese side."
Hearing Rhea's words, I felt the pieces of a puzzle click lightly into place.
And in that same instant I felt a rush of heat climb up my neck.
These bastards?