The Black Mage is Hungry (2)
Nai Hyun clicked her tongue as she gazed at the pitiful man. What the hell kind of backstory does this guy have to make him scarf down food like that?
Raban noticed her stare and timidly raised a hand.
"Uh... did I eat too much?"
"Nah? It's fine. I don't usually eat a ton at night anyway. If you're still hungry, we can hit the convenience store again."
The black mage's conscience was remarkably flexible. He'd devoured a high school girl's daily rations without a second thought—thanks to the brazenness he'd cultivated in his home world and his sheer for the modern marvel known as triangle kimbap.
MSG really is the taste of heaven.
The things he'd had to eat—and more bluntly, digest—in his world had been utterly horrific. Melted-down monster remnants, or chunks of corpses half-buried in mud and rotting just enough to be "tender." He'd been so repulsed that he'd mastered body-altering spells just to dump the sludge straight into his stomach without tasting it.
Nai Hyun's sympathy deepened at Raban's teary-eyed monologue.
"Mister... what the..."
The question—what the hell happened to you?—rose to the tip of her tongue. But with magical-girl-level patience, she swallowed it back.
"Uh, I got caught up in a magic disaster."
"Huh?"
In this world, magical girls weren't a secret. Raban had gathered intel using his scant remaining mana as efficiently as possible—scavenging discarded newspapers from the streets, wandering the city until he found the public library, and searching the catalog on a dusty corner computer for terms like "magical girl."
It was surprisingly out in the open. The phenomenon known as magical girls was common knowledge.
I have no idea who came up with "Evil Pings" though.
For whatever reason they popped up, the generic term for monsters wreaking havoc on Earth. Most Evil Pings got taken down by magical girls, and any civilians caught in the crossfire returned to their daily lives unscathed.
Probably thanks to the restoration magic I saw.
But sometimes, incidents exceeded even a magical girl's capabilities. When their failure left scars on reality, those were called magic disasters.
The most recent one in Hikarius City was the Na Ju Pharma disappearance.
"...You were a Na Ju Pharma researcher?"
Nai Hyun's hesitant question hung in the air. Raban lowered his gaze. The subtle silence created an awkward chill.
In that icy quiet, Raban's brain spun at full speed.
I didn't flesh out the backstory that much.
But he had a Plan B for questions like this. A competent black mage always prepared insurance for when a contract went south. He felt a swell of pride in his foresight—until he remembered the most recent scam he'd fallen for, and his mood soured. At least the gloom lent credibility to his excuse.
"Sorry, uh... I don't remember."
The simplest, fastest way to shut down all questions: the amnesia button.
This one's a catch-all for pretty much anything!
What's your name? → Don't know. Phone number? → Forgot. Why are you living like this? → No memory.
A true universal response. Raban committed to the amnesia concept.
"I was wandering some godforsaken place, came to, and here I was. Don't even remember who I am."
It was common for amnesia victims from magic disasters to retain basic social knowledge. Cases of people trapped in pocket dimensions and returning with memory wipes weren't unheard of.
Raban was confident this would satisfy the curious student. Hikarius City had a recent magic disaster on record—who'd pry further if his memories were gone? Besides, this world had a certain laxness to it. No history of dissecting magical girls to steal their "magic." People's heads seemed a bit softer than in his Earth.
"I... see. Yeah."
The silver-haired girl nodded blankly. Raban wiped his mouth with a napkin and spoke up.
"Come to think of it, what's your name? I've mooched off you this far and don't even know."
"Oh, Yi-hyun. Nai Hyun."
"Huh?"
He'd seen it in the papers. The "Na" surname belonged to Na Ju Pharma's owners. And she'd joked about industrial spies targeting their tech the moment they met. Plus access to the "private property" of Black Forest's Western-style house...
"Oh. Rich girl."
Nai Hyun sighed and shook her head.
"Eh. Kinda related to the Na Ju Pharma prez's family, but I ain't got money? I drop by here sometimes for odd jobs like cleaning."
A lie. Raban caught the hesitation in her voice—there was a hidden reason. But it wasn't malice aimed at him.
Some messy family drama, probably.
From his drama-fueled Earth knowledge, chaebol families were always tangled webs. Raban took it at face value and didn't pry.
Instead...
"My memory's fuzzy on feng shui, but..."
"Huh?"
"This place has bad vibes."
Gratitude for the meal, in the form of advice.
"You should avoid coming here on new moons or full moons if you can."
Nai Hyun's mind blanked. It was the exact opposite of her uncle's request to visit specifically on new and full moons.
"What're you talking about?"
Raban scratched his head. Hard to explain. It wasn't proper feng shui—it was a black mage's intuition.
Uncontrolled mana was leaking from Black Forest. Dark mana, rich and... unsettling. That's why he'd tried munching on mugwort there.
But mana outflow meant inflow to balance it—that was the world's law. By his rough calc, on new moons without moonlight, the forest sucked in ambient mana. Refined—or corrupted—into something black-mana-like, then spewed out at peak on full moons.
Avoid new moons to dodge draining normal mana (human life force). Avoid full moons to skip the black-mana shower—which wasn't healthy unless you were a black mage.
How to explain this?
Too weird coming from an amnesiac homeless guy, not a magical girl. Straight talk might get him labeled a magical-girl obsessive or, worse, a monster suspect.
"Memory's spotty, can't explain well. Just a gut feeling."
Universal fix, deployed again. Nai Hyun let out a dry laugh.
"Mister, head to Hikarius City Hall tomorrow morning."
She kept treating him like a homeless dude. Raban felt a bitter pang. Once courted as a marquis by the demon lord himself, and his noble advice got this?
"...Sure."
What could he do? She'd fed him and owned the house. Obey the great landlord's decree.
"Thanks for the grub. I'll head out."
"Huh? What're you saying? Sleep outside on a night like this and you'll catch a cold or worse. Plenty of rooms—crash anywhere tonight."
"Aren't you too trusting of strangers?"
"Fancy house like this has security in every room. A real bad guy wouldn't ask."
The real reason was her magical-girl senses. They could detect malice or dark thoughts in people—the source of monster power, which they purified.
This amnesiac homeless mister had stress, sure, but no evil intent.
The gray-haired man stroked his chin, then nodded.
"Alright. Mind if I borrow the porch? Been roughing it a few days—I'm an early riser anyway. Don't freak if I'm gone by morning."
"Heh, more disciplined than you look!"
"Huh? Why're you here, mister?"
"Eh. It just... happened."
Nai Hyun ran into the mister again at high school!
Raban scratched his head. Something felt off, no matter how he sliced it.
He'd figured the (tentative) mascot gang had government hooks. Buildings smashed nightly, roads cratered—government wouldn't just magic it away without involvement. Absurd.
He'd avoided city hall on purpose. If it was the mascot dictatorship's mana-control forward base, it'd be suicide central. Sneak in, trip a barrier? A magical girl's mana storm would shred him.
Those two girls seemed infinitely mana-rich. He could beat Heavenly King-level spirits with tricks, but raw-output erasure? Different story.
Tech only works if the weight classes match.
Their finishers made his knees shake. No clue how many pieces he'd end up in—16 at best, but why test it?
So he'd dodged city hall for days. But last night, kind Nai Hyun dropped a hint: rehabilitation programs could let him scout legitimately!
Dawn broke; he hit city hall, filed rehab papers with "memory loss from mana disaster." The clerk bumped him to suspicious 3rd floor.
Cursory Q&A with the Mana Disaster Support Office later...
"Sent me to Lux Tierra High School. Janitor/security gig?"
Incomprehensible.
"Yes, Principal. Sent him your way again. But is handling it like this really okay?"
"Of course. Sudden amnesia cases are usually: monsters infiltrating as magical-girl hunters, real amnesiac monsters, monsters redeemed to sacrifice for magical girls, or mystery transfers who become new magical girls. Stats don't lie."
The last mystery transfer had been Ivory Tower's Heavenly King Salamandine, in fact.
The school liaison whispered confidently to the city clerk.
Mohu-mohu.
The city clerk replied in kind.
Mohu-mohu.
Soon, a new report winged to Fairy Kingdom HQ, adding the mystery man to the watchlist.