The Mage and the Crow
The Mage and the Crow
A few days had passed since the conversation about our bodies.
Maybe it was the threesome that deepened their bond, but the awkward atmosphere between my lovers had completely vanished.
Honestly, before this, every quest we took felt like walking on thin ice. Now we could laugh and joke around while getting the job done.
With my lovers' issues resolved, I could finally focus on learning magic without a single worry.
My daily routine was simple: magic theory lessons from Rumi in the morning, followed by spell practice in my room in the afternoon.
However, unlike my complete rookie days, there were some spells that were simply impossible to train indoors.
Stone Wall, a spell that erects barriers of rock.
Liquid Ring, a spell that commands a massive volume of fluid like a tidal wave.
Trying to practice these large-scale spells in a cramped guest room would obviously lead to a complete disaster.
Summoning waves and raising stone walls would definitely blow out the walls, forcibly turning the place into a shared two-person room with the neighbors.
'I need to find a place to train these high-power spells.'
Up until now, I'd been practicing my spells on the western street with the abandoned buildings, but lately, even that wasn't an option.
The long-neglected western street had begun redevelopment under the lord's orders.
If I got caught doing magic training on someone else's property, I could easily get arrested for property damage.
In the end, after racking my brain, I decided to talk it over with the innkeeper, Brown.
The inn Brown ran was called 'Tabad'.
The backyard of the Tabad Inn was wide and completely empty, a barren space where you could sometimes see adventurers staying at the inn working out freely.
Of course, even if I was a fellow adventurer, I was still a mage.
There was a chance I might turn the ground into a complete wasteland during practice.
Rather than just starting my training without a word, it was obviously better to get proper permission from Mister Brown.
Around the time the morning lessons wrapped up.
Today, as usual, Rumi finished her magic theory lecture.
[To master magic, you must not study elemental magic alone. Alchemy, necromancy, summoning magic, astrology, and beyond that, you must achieve mastery in rune letters to truly become a mage worthy of the name. Do you understand?]
Rumi's magic theory lessons weren't just about rune letters; she was teaching me knowledge spanning a wide range of academic fields.
Of course, her main focus was rune letters, but whenever she had spare time, she'd also teach me the basic theories of other disciplines like Alchemy.
Granted, it was all just theoretical knowledge for now, so it was still hard to use in real combat.
But what mattered was that I finally had some knowledge in my head. I wasn't just some brainless mage wildly flinging magic around like before.
"Got it. That's it for today's lesson, right?"
[Yes, it is. Have a good day, Mage.]
I closed my notebook, left the room, and headed downstairs.
As always, Brown the innkeeper was manning the counter on the first floor.
"Mister Brown, I have a favor to ask."
"Hm... What kind of favor?"
Brown, who had been nodding off, snapped awake the moment I spoke to him and gave me a response.
I brought up the topic of the inn's backyard to Brown.
"The backyard of the inn. Would it be alright if I used it for training?"
"Ah, the backyard. If you're a guest staying at my inn, you're free to use it like the fitness room. That space was made for guests to use as an outdoor training area in the first place."
"It's not for physical training. I'll be training my magic."
"Magic? ...Ahh, that's right. You're a mage."
I'd never told him directly, but Brown had already figured out I was a mage.
Not long ago, I'd dealt with some thugs causing a racket in front of the inn.
The rumors about me must have spread among the guests and reached Brown's ears.
"I'll be summoning waves with magic and raising stone walls. Of course, I'll clean up everything afterward, but I wanted to ask how you'd feel about it, Mister Brown."
"Hold on. You can summon waves with magic? My inn won't end up flooded because of those waves, will it?"
"They aren't that big, so it'll be fine. I can control it entirely by my will. And you don't have to worry about the ground getting soggy from the moisture either. I can draw all that moisture right back out with magic."
After hearing my explanation, Brown thought for a moment before speaking.
"Alright. Go ahead and practice your magic in the backyard as you wish. If the citizens see you using magic, it might just improve this inn's situation a bit."
"The inn's situation? What does that have to do with my magic?"
"The backyard is wide open, so the people on the street can see everything. If a mage is training there, it'll draw attention. That'll give our inn a nice publicity boost in turn."
"Aha."
"So if any spectators show up, don't chase them off—treat them well. It'd be great if you could put on a flashy magic show to catch their eyes."
I didn't know if it was a wise judgment, but Brown was trying to use me as a walking advertisement for his inn.
If I used flashy magic in the backyard connected to the street, it would naturally grab the citizens' attention.
Maybe the inn would become famous because of me and get packed with guests.
Or maybe rumors would spread about a terrifying mage living here, and the place would be dead as a doornail.
"What if the people on the street get scared of the magic? Wouldn't your inn go completely under, Mister Brown?"
"Hahaha. Doesn't matter. My inn went completely under a long time ago."
"Huh?"
What did he mean the inn went completely under?
Sure, the facilities are shitty and the food tastes like crap, but I thought it was doing okay for itself.
Did something bad happen?
"Haven't you noticed lately? How all the guest rooms in the inn are completely empty?"
"Now that you mention it, yeah."
I nodded in agreement at Mister Brown's question.
Lately, the Tabad Inn was so empty of guests it felt like an abandoned building.
Thanks to that, it felt like Rebecca and I had the whole place to ourselves, which was nice, but still.
"About a month ago, another inn opened up nearby. The facilities are better, the service is better—all the customers are flocking over there. So I'm saying I need to pull out all the stops before this place goes under. I'd like your magic show to be the spark that makes our inn prosperous."
"If the inn prospers, do I get anything out of it? If the inn gets crowded thanks to my magic, you should give me a cut too."
"Of course you should get something. If our inn manages to climb out of the red, I'll give you a suitable gift."
I thought a gift meant money.
But the gift Brown promised wasn't money—it was one of the inn's guest rooms.
"You know that suite room you and your lovers stayed in a few days ago? I'll turn that into your personal room. And I'll charge you the same lodging fee as a standard room."
"If you charge me the same rate, then it's a good deal."
Getting a spacious suite room for the price of a cheap room was a pretty sweet offer.
I decided to accept the deal Brown was offering.
In other words, I'd put on a magic show in the backyard to help save the Tabad Inn.
'Honestly, I have no idea if this'll work.'
I had no clue how much my magic could actually grab people's attention.
Still, it was a request from Mister Brown, who I was always indebted to, so I resolved to draw as much attention as I could while practicing my magic.
*
Day one of borrowing the inn's backyard for magic training.
I stepped out into the backyard in my robe and took a quick look around.
'The fence is so low you can see everything outside.'
A very low fence, barely reaching my thighs, surrounded the backyard.
The street connected to the backyard didn't have much foot traffic at the moment.
Few people meant it wasn't a great sign.
To make the Tabad Inn thrive, I needed to draw attention with my magic.
If there weren't many spectators, the publicity effect would naturally dwindle.
Still, I'd accepted the request, so I had to give it a shot.
Before long, I stopped looking around and began casting my spells.
From the very start, my plan was to go all out and throw every spell I knew into a flashy display.
"Water."
As I cast the Water spell repeatedly, fist-sized water droplets floated into the air. By now, I could use basic magic in rapid succession, so in an instant, I filled the entire backyard with floating water droplets.
"Wh-what is that?"
"Are those... soap bubbles flying in the sky?"
"Those aren't soap bubbles, they're fucking huge water droplets."
The moment the water droplets filled the backyard, the citizens walking along the street turned to look at me and started murmuring.
Seeing magic wasn't an everyday thing, so even with a small crowd, the atmosphere was already buzzing.
"Heh. Their gaze, troubling."
I coolly dropped a dramatic line toward the citizens and focused back on casting spells.
"Liquid Ring."
The Liquid Ring spell could be called the enhanced form of the Liquid spell.
The moment I spoke the incantation, the countless droplets floating in the air merged into a single form.
Shaaaaah!
The sight of nearly a hundred water droplets crashing together at once—scattering spray and creating a wave—was a spectacle.
Even I, the mage casting it, felt a swell of awe in my chest.
It was just so different from the old days.
Was it even real that I, the guy who used to only flick tiny mana orbs, could now command waves?
I might not be the strongest mage on the continent, but it sure as hell felt like I wouldn't be embarrassed anywhere.
"A w-wave just rose up."
"Whoa, is that guy a mage? That's insane."
"But he's an incubus. Isn't he just using magic to rape women or something?"
I could hear the muttering voices talking about me.
I figured being an incubus would draw some unnecessary suspicion, but sure enough, people started recognizing me soon after.
"I doubt he's assaulting women. I know who that is. It's that blonde-tanned dream demon who does adventurer work."
"A dream demon working as an adventurer? Those bastards are too lazy to do anything except chase tail."
"I thought so too, but that guy's different. He's been living here for two years now, just keeping to himself quietly. I had no idea he was learning magic, though."
It had already been two years since I started living in Yoen-su and working as an adventurer.
Doing odd quests must have built up some recognition, because quite a few citizens recognized me on the street.
Although the rumor that I was a mage hadn't spread much among the citizens yet.
But from today onward, that would change.
Since I was openly using magic right in the middle of the street like this.
"Hup."
Shaaaaaah!!
The moment I focused my mind, a wave reaching two meters high raged fiercely across the backyard.
As the wave of magic rampaged, the ground became soaked, and spray flew everywhere.
Faced with a water park springing up right in the middle of dry land, the citizens couldn't close their jaws.
"He's insane, seriously. How can a person summon waves? Are all mages like that?"
"How would we know? We never get to meet mages!"
Today happened to be a holiday.
Citizens who had been leisurely strolling along the street stopped one by one to watch me commanding the wave.
Just from controlling the wave, a crowd of about ten spectators had gathered on the street.
It made sense—if this were Earth, I'd have already been recorded and become the star of a YouTube video with a million views, hands down.
In other words, people in the otherworld found magic just as wondrous as people from Earth did.
"Whoaaaa!"
"Mister Mage, look over here!"
Once the spectators hit double digits, I figured it was time to put on a proper performance.
Pitter-patter!
I sprinted straight at the raging wave and threw my body into it.
After I burst through the wave head-on and revealed myself completely unscathed, the citizens roared with even louder cheers.
"The Gold-Tanned Incubus is brawling with a wave!"
"What did you say? Who's brawling with what?!"
I threw punches, tumbled, and grappled with the magical wave as if I were in a real fight.
Gold-Tanned Incubus VS The Magic Wave!
At this century's match-up—something even the UFC had never seen—more and more spectators swelled the crowd.
As if they couldn't stand to witness this rare spectacle alone, the citizens grabbed passersby and urged them to come see, come see.
'The crowd's growing.'
I'd confirmed the reaction was solid, but it was still too early to relax.
What I needed to show the citizens was a fully directed show.
If I just kept repeating the same act, the spectators would get bored eventually.
Splash! Splash! Splash!
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
While wrestling with the magical wave, I kept my brain running at full speed.
I racked my brain, trying to think of an even flashier show to put on.
Caw! Caw!
Right at that moment.
A mysterious crow of unknown origin flew right over my head and began flapping its wings.
"A c-crow?"
"It must be an animal the mage is controlling!"