The Archmage's Theory Lesson
The middle-aged woman looking my way twisted her face into a scowl, but when Love Peace clung to her side and pleaded desperately, she finally let out a sigh and went inside somewhere else, ignoring me entirely.
"I'm so sorry… because of my mother… Come inside for now…"
Love Peace, looking suddenly wilted, apologized to me. Together we made our way slowly through the vast mansion.
Her community nickname was love peace. In the novel she had transmigrated into, she was going by the name Riena.
Obviously that isn't her real name.
The Extinction Novel Gallery was a community for Koreans. A fantasy-novel style name like Riena had to be an alias. First things first — I needed to gather information on her.
"Um… are you all right?"
Riena looked at me with open concern, and I slowly took her in.
Beautiful pink hair that, even at a glance, looked carefully tended. A slender jawline and a high, refined bridge of the nose that called Western features to mind — just looking at her was enough to tell she was the child of a noble house.
Simply put, she was pretty. Extremely pretty.
With a nickname like love peace and all that roleplay about protecting peace and whatnot, I had been certain she would turn out to be some net-caféd guy. I never imagined a beauty like this would step out of the screen.
When I just kept staring at her blankly, Riena asked again.
"Is it possible your wounds still haven't healed? I treated all the external cuts and bruises with healing magic… but it can't do anything about the psychological aftereffects, so… if I didn't heal you properly, I'm really sorry."
Watching her hang her head in disappointment, I waved a hand.
"That isn't it. I was just lost in other thoughts for a moment."
Then I steered the conversation naturally toward something I wanted to know.
"It seems you don't get along with your parents."
"…You're right… Even from that brief look, it was that obvious?"
"There aren't many people who radiate killing intent at a guest their own child brought home."
"I'm sorry… My mother is a little… eccentric…"
"You saved my life. Something like this is nothing. I was only worried."
Riena and I exchanged a bit of small talk — what each other's names were, roughly what our relationships with our parents were like. In the process, I revealed that I was the admin. From the pattern of our conversation so far, she hadn't struck me as a threat.
"You're really the admin?! The one who uses the nickname OO?"
"That's right."
Riena, brimming with curiosity, started firing off questions one after another — fundamental ones, like how I had been able to enter someone else's novel.
"Waaah… so with the Admin Warp skill, you can transfer people along with you, not just objects!"
She clapped her hands over and over, looking thoroughly delighted by whatever had gotten her so excited.
Talking with someone this pure was the kind of thing that healed you all the way down to the heart. The only problem was that she was so pure that every so often she would drop a line that hit you right in the ribs.
"But Admin, you seem really weak, don't you? Seeing as you were getting beaten up by an ordinary person who can't even use magic…?"
Pure curiosity. There wasn't a shred of malice in it, so I cleared my throat and answered.
"There were circumstances."
In truth, the one who had been beaten half to death was the other guy — but I didn't bother clarifying. Admitting I had put on an act because I suspected her wouldn't have done either of us any good.
"I see… By the way, what kind of magic do they have in other novels? Do they use the same magic formulas as we do?"
The longer we talked, the clearer it became — this girl had too much curiosity for her own good. Only then did it make sense. The reason she had helped a complete stranger on the day we first met was probably that same curiosity. Explaining magic formulas properly would take more than a full day, so I brushed it off with the excuse that I was a third-rate mage who barely knew how to cast anything.
"That's a shame… If you knew a lot about magic, we could have talked so much more… heeing…"
I had noticed it several times already — those little verbal tics that slipped out now and then were incredibly cute. If some half-baked person had used that kind of odd speech and those little sounds, it would have been uncomfortable. But Riena herself felt so lovable that I found myself accepting all of it. This wasn't romantic attraction. It was just that the person herself was so thoroughly good that I kept feeling it.
"Why did you help me? Did you somehow know I was the admin?"
"No? I really had no idea!"
"So you usually help everyone who falls into danger?"
Riena thought about my question for a moment.
"No… I'm not really like that either… Um… it was just a feeling, like I was supposed to? The road where I met you isn't even one I normally take, but for some reason today I really wanted to go that way! And after I ran into you, this thought just appeared in my head — I have to help him right away! — and I still don't really know why."
Listening to her, I picked up something useful. Whether it was an effect of the Admin Warp function or not, it was possible that when I warped, some force pulled my target toward me even across a distance. Whether that force manifested as goodwill or hostility.
I had gathered quite a bit of information thanks to this.
And then—
Rattle, rattle.
A faint sound of the window shaking. I turned toward it at once and found Choi Yebin, whom I had completely forgotten about, signaling to ask if I was all right.
Ah. I completely forgot.
I excused myself with Riena. And quite naturally, I switched to casual speech. Once I had a sense of her age, it was clear she was considerably younger than me.
"Sorry, but would it be all right if a friend of mine came in here too?"
"A friend?"
"Yeah. I used the warp function and brought one more person. As you can see from the state of this body, I need a bodyguard."
I dressed it up just enough, and Riena nodded in understanding.
"It's fine if they come in… but they'll have to do it without Mother noticing…"
"Don't worry about that."
The moment Riena's permission landed, I eased the window open. And right after that, Choi Yebin vaulted up like a flying squirrel and slipped in through the frame.
"Hiiiek! W-what just happened…?! Is this person a mage too?!"
Choi Yebin paid that no mind at all, came inside, and sat down in a corner. Wary of Riena, she kept a hand inside her clothes, ready to throw a concealed weapon at any moment.
"Um… are you a mage, by any chance…?"
Riena asked killer — Choi Yebin — and she shut the conversation down with a single line.
"I'd prefer you didn't talk to me."
Looking at Choi Yebin, I was suddenly reminded all over again. She was an assassin who had survived for more than a year in a den crawling with killers, and who had taken dozens — no, perhaps hundreds — of lives.
Yeah. This is the normal version of her.
The reason Choi Yebin was friendly toward me was that I had risked my life to save her. She owed me her life, and on top of that I had given her a place to live — it would have been stranger if she weren't well-disposed. But Love Peace, Riena, meant nothing to her. Just some passerby A. A lump of meat she could kill the moment it became a threat.
"You must be the quiet type! Got it! I won't talk to you!"
It would have been natural for her to be hurt, but she answered brightly. Choi Yebin slowly scanned every direction from her corner. I almost told her it wasn't necessary, then decided against it. That was probably just one of her survival habits.
Riena came straight over to me, stared hard into my face, and spoke in a low voice.
"Girlfriend…? Right?"
"No. It's not like that."
"Hmm…?"
Riena narrowed her eyes and playfully poked my shoulder.
"Hmmmmm… Looking at how embarrassed you are, it totally is! You act so weird on the boards, but in real life you've even got a girlfriend? This is betrayal! You weren't part of the Solo Fam at all!"
"It really isn't. More importantly — you said the academy entrance ceremony is coming up soon, didn't you? That's why I came all the way here."
"Oh, right! You said you'd give me a grimoire! Did you bring it?"
"Of course. An upper-grade grimoire, definitely…"
Wait.
I had definitely tucked it into my clothes — and now the grimoire was gone without a trace.
Riena was waiting for my hands with bright, sparkling eyes. Awkwardly, I pulled my hand back out of my coat and told her the truth.
"I did bring it… but I seem to have lost it."
"Whaaaat?!"
She looked down at the floor with eyes that had clearly fallen into disappointment.
"…It's a shame, but it can't be helped…"
Even her hair seemed to droop as the energy left her, and for some reason I felt guilty.
She even healed me, though.
Thinking that, I held out a hand toward Riena.
"Try using magic. I'll guide you."
"Didn't you say earlier that you weren't good at magic?"
"Circumstances for the moment. And theory and practice are different things to begin with. I'm pretty solid on the theory side."
"Euum… is that so?! Then I'll try using some magic first!"
Riena cast without any particular suspicion, and I slowly studied the forms her magic was creating and the formulas behind them. My ability to use magic was restricted for twenty-four hours, but that didn't mean the eye for reading magic had vanished with it.
I focused. She was using basic water magic. Streams of water blossomed in empty air, slowly gathering into something like a band. That band began to circulate and connect without end. Looking at the shape of a single continuous loop, one figure came to mind.
"A Möbius strip."
"Oh! That's right! That's what I was making!"
Riena looked at me with a startled expression, then asked with expectation in her voice.
"How is it? The magic I'm using?"
The intention of trying to give form to a Möbius strip was not bad in itself. But the continuity that mattered most of all never truly stood out. The Möbius strip Riena had made was nothing more than a sideways figure eight.
I was silent for a moment, then answered her honestly.
"Pathetic."
"I… is it…"
In that instant the magic broke, and cold water splashed across the floor. Riena stood there wilted with disappointment.
I spoke to her as she was.
"But don't be discouraged. From now on, I'm going to give you private lessons."
"Really…? Thank you…"
Eyes that weren't particularly hopeful. That was only natural. She believed I couldn't use magic well.
"A magic calculation formula has to possess continuity in and of itself. Keeping that premise is where magic begins."
I took her hands and began to adjust the trajectory of her magic.