The Stone Mage Thief (3)
Shadow Light.
The shadow transformed into light.
Lawrence formed a sphere of radiance and stepped out from beneath the trees’ shade.
Emily had already begun the inspection.
Lawrence’s place had been prepared behind her.
As they had agreed beforehand, he took his seat with Shadow Light hovering beside him.
Was it because of the robe that proved he belonged to the Magic Tower?
Or was it because of the brilliant Shadow Light?
One by one, the people waiting their turn stole glances at him.
“Excuse me, could you tell me what this is all about? What in the world is going on?”
“We’re sorry for the inconvenience. A theft has occurred within the Magic Tower. We’d like you to take everything out of your belongings.”
“No, but can the Magic Tower just do this out of nowhere? I haven’t the faintest idea what’s happening here.”
The peddler grumbled, but he still took out his bag.
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
Emily turned the bag upside down and dumped out its contents.
“H-hey now! Be careful! What if something breaks? And let me guess, you don’t plan on compensating me if it does, do you?”
“If anything is damaged, we will reimburse you in full.”
“……”
At that crisp reply, the peddler fell silent.
Emily took from her chest a piece of jewelry that resembled a pendant.
With a click, the ornament opened, revealing a needle like a clock hand fixed in the center.
Holding the pendant, she checked every item one by one.
She missed nothing, not even the tiniest trinket tucked into a pocket.
Then she moved on to the peddler himself.
Not his body, exactly.
Still holding the pendant, Emily circled him once.
“Thank you for your patience. The remaining inspection of your belongings will be handled by the mage behind me. If he finds no problems, you may go. Thank you again for your cooperation.”
“Honestly… what a mess.”
Lawrence inspected the peddler’s belongings and body.
It was a purely formal check.
Thanks to Emily’s earlier search, there was hardly anything left worth examining.
“That’s your coin purse.”
The purse was full of glittering silvers.
Lawrence swept the coins aside and checked the bottom.
There was nothing else inside.
“Thank you for your cooperation. You may go now.”
“You take care too, mage.”
The peddler bowed and left the Magic Tower behind.
That was only the first person finished.
There was no time to look anywhere else.
Like Emily, Lawrence continued the inspection.
The tedious hours went on.
It wasn’t especially grueling work, but since every item had to be checked one by one, it inevitably ate up time.
And not everyone was cooperative, either.
“So what if you’re a mage? What, you gonna hit me with magic?”
Cursing was the norm, and there were plenty who behaved as if they’d rather split their own bellies open than cooperate.
And this was despite the Shadow Light hanging plainly overhead.
“……”
Lawrence had no idea what gave them the courage to act that way toward a mage.
No, maybe they hadn’t thought it through at all.
Perhaps they were simply so frustrated by the situation that all the blood had rushed to their heads.
“If you keep this up, I’ll have no choice but to use force.”
Lawrence cast Water Ball.
“What, are you gonna kill me with that?”
“No. It’d be a waste to draw blood. But I can make it hurt badly enough that you’ll wish I had.”
“……”
At Lawrence’s warning, the man silently handed over his bag.
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
Sometimes, you really did have to show a little strength before people calmed down.
Some were like this, and others were like that.
The reactions of those being searched largely split into two types.
First were the residents who normally lived near the Magic Tower.
They tended to be relatively casual about magic.
Even when they saw Shadow Light, they didn’t flinch.
Many of them barely reacted to Water Ball, either.
On the other hand, those who visited the Magic Tower as laborers or outsiders were different.
The robe that marked one as a mage of the Magic Tower.
The sphere of light illuminating the surroundings.
Fear showed plainly in the eyes of those who looked at magic.
It was the latter group that reacted too sensitively.
Lawrence quickly understood the difference.
The residents near the Magic Tower did not fear mages.
People who came from outside the tower feared them.
Human beings naturally fear what they do not understand.
They did not know magic, so they feared it, and because they did not know it, they wanted to keep their distance.
Trying to change that was pointless.
If you had no talent, magic was something you could not even approach in the first place.
How long had they been conducting the inspection?
Lawrence looked at the shadows stretching across the ground.
The sky had turned the color of sunset.
His eyes felt dry, and time seemed to have slipped away quite a bit.
But the line still showed no sign of shortening.
No—if anything, it almost felt longer than before.
He wasn’t sure they’d ever catch the culprit this way.
Emily kept silently carrying on with the inspection.
Maybe she understood it too, at least vaguely?
The thief who stole the mana stone was no fool.
They would not be so dim-witted as to get caught by a search like this.
And if the mana stone had been hidden somewhere else, there wasn’t much the two of them could do.
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
Hearing Lawrence’s concern, Emily held up the pendant.
“This is an artifact called a mana stone detector.”
“An artifact.”
That surprised him a little.
He had thought it was no ordinary object, but he had never imagined he’d see an artifact he had only heard about in stories.
“Even if there’s no mana stone in someone’s possession, traces will always remain. The mana stone detector is an artifact that finds those traces.”
Unlike people, traces did not lie.
But that raised another question.
If such a convenient artifact existed, was there any need to inspect everyone’s belongings one by one?
“Even with an artifact, it never hurts to be cautious in everything we do. At the very least, I’d rather trust people than tools.”
The two of them started the inspection again.
By now it had become work, and perhaps that was why Lawrence had gained some sense for it—he’d learned where people usually hid things.
“Would you mind taking off your shoes?”
“Take off my shoes? What are you talking about?”
“You’ll understand once you take them off.”
“……”
The man hesitated, then removed his shoes.
The stinking shoes seemed perfectly ordinary at first glance.
But once the sole was lifted, a black pouch appeared beneath it.
The man averted his eyes with a small groan.
When Lawrence opened the pouch, red pills were inside.
“What is this?”
“Couldn’t you just let this one slide?”
“I asked what this is.”
At Lawrence’s firm tone, the man spoke up in a subdued voice.
“It’s... medicine for women. Even the high-and-mighty whores are done for after one of these. It’s a hell of a thing.”
“……”
It wasn’t just talk—truly, all sorts of bizarre things were turning up.
With a tiredness he’d never felt before, Lawrence let out a sigh.
“Heh-heh-heh. If you just let this one go, mage, I’ll even share a pill with you. What do you say?”
The man forced a servile smile.
“Your treatment will be decided by the Magic Tower.”
“M-mage! Please, just think of it as saving a man’s life and—”
Save your own hide, maybe.
If someone overheard, they’d think he was trying to buy some legendary potion.
After handing the man over to the mercenary, Lawrence returned to his seat.
“Next.”
“At last it’s my turn, then.”
The next person was a strangely familiar peddler.
“Mr. Lionel?”
“Huh? Lawrence?”
Why was Lionel here?
The question flashed through both of them at once, but Lionel reacted first.
He slapped Lawrence hard on the back without warning.
“Congratulations, boy! You’ve become a mage of the Magic Tower? I knew it! With your skill, the Magic Tower should be a walk in the park!”
“Could you lower your voice a little, Mr. Lionel? That’s not it. There are reasons for this.”
“Reasons, my foot. That robe of yours suits you splendidly. Don’t get too big for your britches and forget me now that you’ve made something of yourself, hear?”
Ha-ha-ha, Lionel burst out laughing.
“Why are you still at the Magic Tower? Didn’t you leave already?”
“Ah, that. I came back once more.”
“Once more?”
“Mm. Things worked out that way. The pay was pretty good, too.”
He shaped his hand into the sign of coins and lifted the corners of his mouth.
But Lawrence noticed that Lionel’s gaze kept drifting behind him.
There, he saw a woman with light brown hair.
It was Miriam.
She was handing her lute to Emily.
“Mr. Lionel…”
“Ahem. Say nothing.”
Did he really like women that much?
Lawrence honestly didn’t know what to say about that.
“But what in the world is all this?”
“There’s been a bit of trouble at the Magic Tower.”
“Even I can tell it’s not just some ordinary trouble. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen the Magic Tower take the risk of criticism and clamp down on the area like this. The merchants are in an uproar because of it. After they report back to the guild, they’re all saying they’ll file formal complaints with the Magic Tower. I don’t know how this mess is going to be cleaned up.”
“Don’t worry. This uproar will be over in a few days.”
His eyes met Miriam’s.
Lawrence gave her a slight nod.
A bright light appeared in her expression.
“If we were going to be searched anyway, I wish that maid over there had done mine instead of you. What a shame.”
“Sorry I’m the one inspecting you.”
“If you’re sorry, can’t you just switch with her now?”
“……”
“Wahaha! I’m joking, joking!”
Lawrence let a small smile show.
What had been nothing but fatigue started to feel a little more pleasant.
“Well, I think I’ve got the gist of it. If the Magic Tower is going this far, then they must’ve had some mana stone, artifact, or some such thing stolen.”
With that confidence, Lionel asked, as though certain of his guess.
“Mr. Lionel’s eyes can’t be fooled, huh? I need you to keep this secret.”
“Of course. How many years do you think I’ve spent as a merchant? This is nothing compared to the time I spent in the royal capital. Speaking of which, there are rules in the royal capital too, and not just any peddler can...”
“I’m terribly sorry, Mr. Lionel, but is this something you absolutely must say right now?”
Guessing the conversation was about to drag on, Lawrence cut in quickly.
Miriam was waiting for her turn after all.
“Hmm. No helping it, then. I’ll tell you my trump card next time.”
“If there is a next time, that is.”
Lionel moved aside.
“It’s been a while, Miriam.”
“I was wondering if you were well, Lawrence.”
At Lawrence’s greeting, Miriam answered with a smile.
“I had no idea you were staying at the Magic Tower all this time. Are you leaving now?”
“Yes. Since Mr. Lionel had also returned to the Magic Tower, I shamelessly ended up relying on him again.”
“There’s no journey safer than one traveled with someone you know. In that sense, Mr. Lionel is someone you can trust.”
Mm-hm, Lionel said, straightening his collar.
“That’s right. I’m a man you can trust. If you ignore the fact that I talk a little too much, that is.”
“I agree with that. If you just cut back on the talking a little, you’d be ten times more charming than you are now.”
Mm-mm, Lionel looked wounded by that.
Seeing that reaction, Miriam covered her mouth and laughed.
“Have you seen any magic?”
“The mages from the workshop came to the village from time to time. They didn’t always show us magic, but over the past few months I’ve seen all kinds of things.”
“I’m glad to hear it. It would have been disappointing to come all this way to the Magic Tower and not see any magic at all.”
Lawrence knew very well how skilled Miriam was at singing.
The fact that the mages from the workshop had come all the way into the village instead of just performing at their stalls meant one thing: her singing was good enough to justify the trouble.
In other words, her efforts had borne fruit.
“Did Lawrence achieve the purpose of coming to the Magic Tower?”
“Half of it.”
Of course, the other half was the Lost Sanctuary.
It wasn’t a bad result, but it was still disappointing in its own way.
“If we had time, I’d like to talk slowly, but there are still many people waiting their turn.”
“I understand. I’m planning to return to Mistra with Mr. Lionel. If you have time after this is over, please come visit the Mistra Merchant Group.”
After taking up her lute again, Miriam went on.
“I’ve finished the song. You helped me so much, Lawrence, so I’d really like you to hear it.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
At his sincere answer, she smiled shyly.
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