The Scales of Good and Evil
“This is something my mom said was super precious! She told me she only has two of them!”
“Is it a magic stone?”
Just looking at it, I could tell it was an incredible gem. An intense energy I had never felt before radiated from it, and staring at it made me feel like I was about to get sucked inside.
Before I could get sucked in, Magi casually tossed it into the pot.
“Here, Jeanie. Take it.”
“……It doesn’t look like an ordinary jewel. Are you really okay giving it to me? You said your mom gave it to you.”
If Magi’s mom was a dragon, she probably wasn’t as carefree as her son. She was most likely a perfectly ordinary dragon.
In other words, the normal kind that viewed humans as nothing more than insects!
I suddenly felt a chill of fear at the thought of accepting something too valuable and getting caught later, only to suffer the consequences.
Like a breath attack. Or a breath attack. Or maybe a breath attack!
The pressure I’d felt at the party hall came rushing back, sending shivers down my spine.
“It’s fine! Mom gave it to me, so it’s mine!”
“That’s technically true, but……”
“If I need more, I can just ask Mom for them!”
It was a huge help for me, but Magi seemed eager to stuff Rai’s new body with as many good materials as possible.
Well, a dragon’s promise was as good as their life, so it should be okay. As long as Magi’s mom never found out.
“Thanks. I’ll take it then.”
[…….]
“Rai, why are you suddenly so quiet?”
[Uh…… that thing…….]
“Jeanie! I’ll show you something amazing. Touch this! It’s Tokka’s Globe!”
Magi cut Rai off and suddenly thrust the orb toward me.
It was a sphere swirling with two colors in a mysterious blend, and the mixture shifted moment by moment as if it were alive.
When Magi had been holding it, there had been far more yellow, and much deeper in shade. But the moment I took it, the black suddenly surged.
“Tokka?”
“It’s a globe that seals a demon who maintains neutrality! The demon’s name is Tokka.”
“Pfft……”
“They say you can use it to distinguish between good and evil in intelligent beings.”
You should’ve given me some warning before dropping that on me! Damn it! I already heard it!
Startled a beat too late, I glared at the globe with a serious expression.
I didn’t even fully understand what kind of person I was, yet this thing supposedly did. It was both nerve-wracking and downright creepy.
“Black means evil, and yellow means good!”
“Ugh.”
“The ratio will change while you’re holding it.”
Tense from Magi’s explanation, I waited for the colors to tip to one side.
But no matter how long I waited, the globe showed no sign of changing. It remained perfectly balanced for a long time without the slightest movement.
“Huh?”
Finding it strange, I set the globe down on the floor for a moment.
It was still perfectly even.
After staring at it intently, I picked it up again, but nothing changed.
Fifty-fifty. Still fifty-fifty.
“Magi…… I think this thing might be broken?”
“Eh?”
“Look. It’s not moving at all.”
“That’s weird? It shouldn’t be like this.”
A flustered Magi took it back, rubbing and stroking it with his hands. The yellow immediately and noticeably increased.
“It works?”
“Apparently.”
But the moment I took it back, it returned to its original state.
That exquisitely balanced fifty-fifty condition.
“Hmm?”
“Why is it doing this?”
Magi looked utterly confused, but I was convinced it was broken.
After all, the dragon who had crashed the empire’s founding anniversary party, destroyed the hall, stolen jewels, and kidnapped people was coming up as “good.”
Well, she clearly wasn’t evil…… and now that I thought about it, Magi did lean toward the good side. At least by dragon standards.
“This is weird! I’ve never seen anything like it!”
“It’s either broken, or it means I’m neither good nor bad.”
“Ehhh? Can that even happen…….”
“Why not?”
“Perfect neutrality like this is impossible!”
Is that so?
Unable to believe what the globe was showing, Magi suddenly shoved it toward Rai, who was nearby.
“RaiRai! You try it too.”
[What the—! You damn lizard! Kgh, ptooie!]
“Hey, just try it, Rai.”
Rai, who had been pretending to spit at Magi, reluctantly wriggled forward at my command.
[I don’t have hands, you know?]
“Magi, Rai doesn’t have hands. How do we do this?”
“Just needs to touch it with his body.”
“He says just touch it.”
I set the globe on the floor, and Magi and I put our heads together.
Then we stared at Rai.
It was silent pressure telling him to touch it already. Rai looked reluctant but lightly brushed the tip of his tail against it.
The globe remained completely still.
“Do it properly.”
[What’s the point of this anyway?]
At my command, Rai grumbled and wrapped his tail around the globe, lifting it up. Still, there wasn’t the slightest change.
It was the same when I picked it up with my hand.
Perfectly split in half.
But when I handed it to Magi, the yellow surged dramatically, proving that it did react.
“This is strange.”
“Why is it acting like this? It can’t be broken…… My father’s father gave this to me!”
“Then it’s about time for it to break.”
“But it’s not……?”
Magi looked wronged, but whether it was broken or not, I had no desire to put it in the pot.
“Anyway, let’s leave this one out. Even if it’s not broken, sealing a demon inside feels sketchy. It gives me the creeps.”
“Hng……”
[That’s exactly what I was thinking, Master!]
“I wanted to give it to RaiRai though.”
[Who are you calling RaiRai! You snot-nosed brat! Don’t call me whatever you want!]
Rai and Magi didn’t exactly get along.
It was a huge relief that they couldn’t actually communicate with each other.
If they could, those two with their similar mental ages would probably fight all the time, and I’d be the one stuck in the middle suffering. That much was obvious.
“What is Rai saying, Jeanie?”
“Uh…… he doesn’t like being called RaiRai.”
“Then how about Rai-ching?”
[Gyaak!]
I don’t know. Whether spirits or dragons, why did everyone around me have to be so abnormal? It must be…… my imagination, right?
Teaching magic theory to a dragon—who was literally called the ancestor of magic—when I wasn’t even a mage myself felt like some absurd gag, but it was the truth.
Moreover, I was actually a pretty decent teacher, even by my own standards.
I was teaching surprisingly well.
“Ughhh……”
“You’re doing great. If you don’t understand something, just ask.”
“No! I think I get it! I can solve it myself.”
It was the fifth day of magic theory lessons.
Magi wasn’t as dumb as I’d expected. By human standards, he was talented enough to attend Drike Academy.
The only unfortunate thing was that he had been born a dragon.
“Magi, if you solve this, I’ll let you choose whatever you want for Rai’s seventh body.”
“Really?”
Since I was someone who hated studying with a passion, I knew exactly what people who hated studying needed.
The carrot worked better than the stick. It was important to praise them as much as possible and acknowledge that they had done their best.
When it got difficult, I soothed them gently instead of scolding. When they got tired, I gave them a break.
Most of all, I had to give them a clear goal.
For me, that goal had been someone like Robenin Pedri.
Without something to strive for, there was no motivation to make an effort.
Studying was usually a semi-forced activity that demanded effort without any clear purpose, which naturally led to resistance.
No one wanted to endure something that gave them no sense of accomplishment.
“Wait a second! If I do it like this…… hmm, was it this theory?”
Magi pursed his lips and scribbled in his notebook for a while before finally seeming to find the answer.
Magic theory was, simply put, a combination of mathematics and mana. And my math skills weren’t bad.
After all, I had once been a Korean high school girl, even if it was a long time ago.
“Amazing. Magi, you got them all right!”
Giving exaggerated praise when they solved something on their own was one way to help them feel a sense of accomplishment.
“Whoa! Then can I use a dwarf?”
“……Ugh.”
I wanted to give him a sense of accomplishment, but that was a hard no.
“Your tastes are something else. Why do you like dwarves so much, Magi?”
“Because they’re all excellent blacksmiths?”
“I can understand that, but…… no dwarves. No matter how dead they are, using an intelligent being feels too weird for me.”
“Ehhh, but you said I could choose whatever I wanted!”
“Sorry. Humans are liars. Take this as a lesson too.”
I should correct myself. I wasn’t a good teacher. Sometimes I was an unlicensed quack who didn’t keep her promises.