The Dragon and Her Jealousy
"They're making people cast magic on the mana stone for no good reason? And the examinees themselves? What the hell are they doing?"
"Ah. Yes, yes. Strictly speaking, you can think of it as a supplementary test. The evaluation itself will proceed normally—this is just a way to pick up some extra points."
"Do they even need to? You said they've already dumped every spell they know into it."
"From what we've managed to dig up, it seems they're trying a different approach entirely."
Takanashi, who had staggered away earlier with Rhea supporting her, reappeared looking completely put-together. The cold sweat that had plastered her hair to her face under my mana storm was gone without a trace. She returned in a perfectly coordinated outfit, as if she had known from the start that I would get this angry. I stared at her with pure disbelief.
"If you already knew I'd react like that, why didn't you just try another method? Why take a full-on mana hit for it?"
She ran a comb through her hair as she answered.
"Hehe. If I hadn't done it this way, you never would have stopped suspecting us, Siu-ssi. For a real conversation to happen, we needed to be completely flat on the ground first."
"Man. You're pretty dense yourself."
"I'd just appreciate it if you understood that we put a lot of thought into this as well."
Finished with her hair, Takanashi flicked her neatly combed light-brown locks back over her shoulder and gave me a smiling glance with her eyes.
Beside me, Ha-yan had been watching the whole thing.
"Grr... Hiss!!"
"You a cat?"
She let out a highly territorial little noise and clung even tighter to my arm. Takanashi's eyes crinkled with quiet amusement at the feline display, then she got down to business.
"Alright. Let me say this properly again. One of our people did find this mana stone in South Korea, but it was pure coincidence. If anything I'm about to say sounds suspicious, feel free to cast a lie-detection spell."
"That so? Fine, I'll take you up on that. Better to be sure with this kind of thing."
I cast the lie-detection magic exactly as she suggested and settled in to listen.
"One of our people has a hobby of exploring caves. He'd already cleared every cave in Japan, so he moved on to the closest country—South Korea. Deep inside one of them he sensed dense mana flowing out. He risked his life going in and managed to bring this thing back. I can swear to you he was not wandering Korean soil with any malicious intent, or even with the goal of finding a mana stone."
"...It's the truth?"
"Of course it is."
Just as she said, the spell didn't catch a single thing. That meant every word was genuine.
"So we temporarily stored the mana stone at our Korean branch, then I came over myself to hand it to you personally, Siu-ssi. We figured that would leave the least messy aftermath."
"Yeah. Smart call. If you hadn't, I would have wiped this entire branch off the map."
"Ahahaha. You do love a joke."
"Did that sound like a joke to you?"
"...Ahaha..."
My completely sincere tone made Takanashi break into another cold sweat.
"Well, at least it's in our hands now, so that's something. What exactly is the Magic Bureau planning to do with it?"
"Even though it was found on Korean soil, the first discoverer was one of ours. You're familiar with the relevant treaty, yes?"
"I know it well. Ownership stays with the territory, but the first discoverer gets limited rights to run whatever research they want."
"We tried, but there was nothing we could actually do. You need knowledge to research something."
"No data at all? Not even on your side?"
"If we'd had any... we never would have let them experiment on this mana stone with underage mages who aren't even adults yet, just to see how it reacts."
"Ugh. Still a bunch of research maniacs."
That was the long and short of it. Ownership was ours, but they wanted to study it. And since they knew nothing, their brilliant plan was simply to hurl every kind of magic imaginable at the stone. Crude, sure—but also the most straightforward research method there is. Mana is designed so that even just watching different types collide reveals their properties. It was basically the same idea as a neutron collision experiment.
"They've already forced every useful spell they can cast themselves. Now they're probably hunting for someone whose mana wavelength matches, and tossing in bonus points while they're at it."
"Exactly. Though for Ha-yan-ssi standing next to you, those points are meaningless."
"How would you know that?"
"Just look at her magic evaluation scores. Honestly, Ha-yan-ssi has been posting scores high enough for two years running that she could score a zero on this test and still be recognized as an Adult Mage without question."
Takanashi looked at Ha-yan with genuine envy. Ha-yan, for her part, puffed out her chest proudly and gazed up at me with the sweetest eyes. Under the weight of both their stares I cleared my throat and steered the conversation onward.
"Ahem. Anyway—the magic evaluation itself hasn't changed, right?"
"Correct. You know as well as I do that those people aren't the type to rewrite the rules."
"True enough. Thanks for the info, by the way. And... sorry for going a bit hard on you earlier."
"Hehe. Receiving an apology from Siu-ssi himself? Today must be my lucky day."
When Takanashi smiled at me with that peculiar glint in her eyes, Ha-yan instantly switched to full alert mode. She burrowed into my chest like a cat and snapped at her.
"If you're done, leave! We'll be seeing more than enough of each other at the evaluation site later!"
"Oh my? Isn't this a little early for goodbyes? Since we ran into each other, how about dinner and a nice, deep conversation—"
"Whoops, that's enough! See you next time!"
Snap!
Whoosh!!
Before Ha-yan's temper could climb any higher, I hurriedly teleported Takanashi straight to the dedicated teleport pad in the first-floor lobby. A homunculus was always on standby there, so she could be guided home without trouble.
"Haa... Finally gone."
Only after that bright light-brown hair had vanished—the same hair that had been grating on her nerves—did Ha-yan finally let out a sigh of pure relief.
"Ufu. A little disappointing."
"What's so disappointing? Young miss goes and sticks her neck out, takes a full mana pressure hit for it. If it had been anyone else, that guy's head would already be rolling!"
"It's only possible because it's him. The absolute endgame boss who knows every magic there is. A little arrogance is only natural. The fact that he didn't kill me on the spot is already generous. And 'head'? Do you want yours chopped off first?"
"Ugh, young miss, please don't say such terrifying things."
"Hehe. I know. And I only did it because I knew he wouldn't go that far."
In the car heading for Incheon Airport and the flight back to Japan, Takanashi Misa was replaying Cha Siu's beautiful face, his way of speaking, and his magic all over again, savoring every detail with quiet delight.
"That mana pressure really was incredible. He dialed it in so perfectly that I was right on the edge of passing out—nothing more, nothing less. And when I stepped outside, the other homunculi barely felt even one percent of it. Well, except for a few who looked a bit frail. Not even my mother or father could control mana that finely."
"And he truly refused to teach us how to make those homunculi? If we knew the method, our group's operating costs would drop dramatically."
"As if he'd hand that over so easily. Even now, almost none of them leave the company. And with magic on that level, creating even one would probably be beyond us."
"Y-you're probably right."
Takanashi herself was just an ordinary eighteen-year-old high-school girl who didn't know magic in any deep sense. Still, given her family background, she prided herself on knowing far more magical theory than most mages her age. Yet every time she spoke with him—then and now—she was forced to feel just how insignificant she was.
And there was another reason she had insisted on personally risking danger to deliver the mana stone to Cha Siu, over every objection from the group.
"Haa... I'm always so jealous of you, Lee Ha-yan-ssi."
"That woman. The way she looks at Siu is so filthy."
"What kind of person judges someone's eyes as 'filthy'?"
"There is such a thing. Girls can just tell."
"Uh... by that logic, doesn't Do Ji-yeon look at me the same filthy way?"
"That filthiness and this filthiness are completely different kinds of filth!"
"Aha. R-right."
Even after Takanashi left, Ha-yan showed no sign of leaving my arms. It felt exactly like raising a cat that was terrified someone might steal her owner. She had been like this during last year's magic evaluation too. Back then they had barely exchanged a few words and simply passed each other by, so her reaction hadn't been this intense. Today, though, she was on another level.
Which was why I was currently lying completely still on my own bed at home, reduced to the status of Ha-yan's personal body pillow, arms and legs pinned under her complete claim on my body.
I carefully ventured a suggestion.
"Well, nothing else is going on, so I was thinking of heading off to work—"
"Stay still! I'm still mad, you know?"
"Yes ma'am... I'll stay still..."
In moments like this, the smart move is simply to listen to Ha-yan and not move a muscle.
Why? No idea. Just ten-plus years of hard-earned experience talking.