The Magic Tower's Strange Investigation Quest #1
The Magic Tower's Strange Investigation Quest #1
"Y-you really are a mage?"
"What, did you think I was a fake?"
I watched Remington flinch and stagger back in shock.
Bang-! I wasn't about to let the opening slip—I fired a mana sphere straight at Remington's knee. It tore through the air and slammed home.
"Guaaargh...!!"
A single mana sphere carried enough force to shatter a stone floor.
No way his kneecap was intact after taking a direct hit like that.
Remington collapsed on the spot, an agonized scream ripping out of him.
"You son of a deadbeat-mom incubus...!! I'll kill you!!"
He spat venom at me, still clutching his sword.
But even the cheap shot about my parents left my heart still as a lake. Growing up an orphan makes you immune to mom jokes.
"I never had a mom to begin with!"
"Wh-what?! Are you bragging about that?"
Remington stared at me, dumbfounded.
He was thrown for a moment, then his fighting spirit surged back. Sword in hand, he stubbornly started crawling after me.
Was puffing up in front of his lover more important than the pain? Remington squirmed across the ground like an earthworm.
The rule in this world is the same as anywhere else: a sword through you means death. Earthworm or not, this was no fight to let my guard down. I casually put more distance between us.
"Get over here! I'll gut your belly with this blade!"
"Stupid earthworm bastard."
While I moved, I kept weaving hand seals. After training like a machine in my inn room, I could finally cast spells on the move—though it still took longer than casting while stationary.
'Come to think of it, the time has come to use that technique.'
In the midst of the constant finger movements, a thought flashed through my mind. It was a high-difficulty technique I'd come up with in that cramped inn room while drilling Magic Missile—something I couldn't have dreamed of back in my days as a forking mage.
Now that I was proficient at landing Magic Missiles, I could definitely pull it off. And if that's the case, I'm using it.
I chuckled smugly and raised my palm toward the wriggling Remington. In that moment, I was burning with passion, like a kid torching ants with a magnifying glass.
The advanced technique I'd devised was the Three-hit Combo—firing three mana spheres in rapid succession.
The method: weave the same hand seal three times to suspend the mana spheres in the air beforehand, then launch them all at the enemy in a single burst.
Bang-! Bang-! Bang-!
This was my first time trying it, but the results were satisfying. I looked down at Remington, convulsing with his eyes rolled back, and wore an expression of deep satisfaction. After eating the full force of the Three-hit Combo, he was completely unconscious. If they didn't get him to a clinic soon, he'd end up crippled.
"Remington!! Hiyahhhk!!"
Neria burst out from the crowd. The root cause of all this trouble clung to the fallen Remington and screamed.
After wailing for a while, she glanced nervously at me, trembling like a leaf.
"I'm, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Mr. Mage! Please, just spare our lives...!"
"Then apologize."
"Huh...?"
Seeing her bewildered face, my eyes narrowed.
"When we first met, you painted me as a rapist. You said your preconceptions were getting the better of you."
I had never forgotten Neria's words.
"And what was that about 'if you enter a dungeon with an incubus, three come out'? That's pure incubus hate."
"I'm sorry! I've committed a de-death-worthy crime."
"Is an apology just words? Hand over something with monetary value."
I made a coin shape with my fingers, and Neria finally seemed to catch my meaning. She hurriedly dug into her pocket, pulled out a coin purse, and offered it to me.
Jingle-!
"How much?"
"Th-thirty Copper! It's my entire net worth right now! I got fucked over gambling at a casino a little while ago...."
I opened the pouch and quickly scanned the coins inside.
As soon as the money was in my hands, my anger rapidly subsided. Financial therapy really is the best cure for the human spirit, after all.
Thirty Copper is the reward for completing an F-rank Request at the Adventurer's Guild. I'd earned the equivalent of a full quest in just a few dozen minutes. If scrubs like these were my opponents, I could run Makgora all day long.
"C-can we go now? We gave you money. And we won't mess with you ever again, Mr. Incubus."
"Hold on. The sincerity is still lacking. Come to think of it, I'm not quite over it yet."
I glanced down at Remington's hand, which Neria was still holding. Even unconscious, Remington was clutching that longsword tight.
It awakened a greed in me I hadn't possessed before.
"Right now, I'm exactly one longsword's worth of angry."
"What exactly do you mean by that."
"No more, no less. I'm exactly as angry as one longsword. Is that hard to understand? The only way to soothe my anger is with that longsword."
In simple terms: they had to fork over the longsword too.
Neria, grasping my meaning, hesitated for a moment. "This is my lover's bread-and-butter tool."
"Ugh, you want a taste of magic?"
Neria sullenly handed the longsword over to me. I strapped it to my waist as naturally as if it were my own.
Truth be told, I'd been feeling the limits of close-quarters combat with only a dagger lately. Even the cheapest longsword cost a Silver coin to buy separately, so I hadn't been able to purchase a new sword. Now I'd ended up scoring a perfectly usable one right here.
"Nice. The sword's really nice. I'm not angry anymore. Now piss off. You ugly bitch."
"I am an ugly woman! The ugliest woman in the whole world! The only male fit for me is an orc!"
The adventurer couple, fleeced dry, vanished from my sight in an instant. I'd gobbled up money and even a sword—successful farming, if I said so myself. As I was giggling while adjusting the longsword's sheath, Rebecca spoke to me.
"You just clobbered them all by yourself. I was planning to jump in if it looked like you were getting overwhelmed."
Rebecca looked me over from head to toe and let out a sigh of relief. She seemed to be checking if I'd gotten hurt anywhere.
"I'm glad you won without a scratch. So, now we just find some work, right?"
"Doesn't look like we'll need to go looking. We're drawing more eyes now. Since I won that duel, I've basically proven my skills in action."
Murmur, murmur.
After the fight ended, most people had dispersed, but a few remained, watching me with eagle eyes. Most of them were clients looking for adventurers to hire.
I formed a hand seal, floated a shining sphere above my palm, and confidently pitched to the surrounding crowd.
"Bronze Incubus on standby. Magic capabilities available."
Beside me, Rebecca clumsily mimicked my actions.
"Seeking employer for a Bronze human swordswoman. Good with a blade."
Of course, no one stepped up to talk to us yet. Those who were showing interest were still lost in deliberation. I could make out voices chatting within earshot.
"A mage? I admit mages are capable, but... he's an incubus? Wouldn't he go off course in the middle of a request?"
"There are so many horrendous rumors about incubus adventurers. Like using their party members as spank material at the campsite. Or the one who kidnapped a female adventurer and ran straight off on a honeymoon."
"Doesn't his whole look feel a bit... shady? That blonde hair gives him a real delinquent vibe. No way I'd let my wife anywhere near an adventurer like that. My male instincts are warning me."
"But he is a mage. A mage is always useful to bring along eventually. I've never once regretted hiring a mage before...."
In many ways, my existence seemed to have become a major dilemma among the clients. They were reluctant to casually hire me, but by the looks of it, they also didn't want to watch some other client snatch me up.
"......."
In the uneasy atmosphere, old memories suddenly surfaced.
Two years ago, when I'd just become an adventurer. The memory of my first day stepping into a recruitment office. Back then, I didn't have a single skill to my name, so no matter how I stood my ground and called out, nobody would take me.
- I-I'm a Bronze Incubus looking for a party!
- Ah, we happen to be recruiting for a dealer in our party right now.... Huh? An incubus?
- I'll work hard...!
- Party leader!!!! Are we taking the Bronze Incubus!!!!!!
- Wh-why are you saying that so loudly?
- Hah, you have no sense of reading the room, do you? He's telling you to just go.
Countless memories flashed through my mind. The endless humiliation I'd suffered for being an incubus in days past.
- How dare an incubus even!!
- Have some decency and don't apply to parties as an incubus.
- Sorry. Something urgent just suddenly came up for our whole party...
I was filtered out, again and again. I'd show up at the recruitment office at the crack of dawn and shout my recruitment pitch until late in the evening. But I never got hired.
- I know it's probably not gonna happen, but is there any party willing to let a Bronze Incubus tag along on a quest? I've been advertising for eight hours.......
From that day on, I became an adventurer who favored going solo. I thought I never wanted to set foot in a recruitment office again.
But when I came here today, I was no longer the incompetent incubus of those days. The shining sphere hovering above my palm drew people's attention. It was a magical light that fascinated them.
Even if it took a little while.
Thinking back to those memories, a wait like this felt like nothing. I waited in silence for someone to call for me. If no one ended up calling, I could always just take on a suitable quest and find my own party members later.
I was passing the time with my arms crossed when it happened. Someone called out to me in a hesitant voice.
"Um, excuse me. You are the adventurer looking for a quest, right? I saw you using magic earlier."
Had a client finally shown up?
I swiftly turned my head to look at the person who called me.
"That's right! Are you looking to entrust a request?"
"Yes.... B-but wow, seeing you up close, your impression is even more intense. It's my first time seeing an incubus in person."
"I used to hear that a lot back in the day. In any case, my name is Luke. May I ask the client's name?"
"I'm Lili."
The client, Lili, was a girl with an innocent-looking face. Like most boys and girls her age, she didn't seem to have brought a particularly good quest. At best, maybe finding a missing cat or running some light errand.
'Should I refuse if the quest is too trivial?'
Since I was operating as a fixed party with Rebecca now, taking on low-paying quests was difficult. If it were just me, maybe, but if two people had to split the money, there'd be nothing left over.
That was the moment I looked at the client with a half-hearted expression.
"Ah, that's...?"
In a flash, I realized Lili's outfit seemed somehow familiar. A robe with a snake engraved on the back. A snake biting its own tail. This symbol was unmistakably something I knew.
"D-don't tell me you're from the Magic Tower?"
I spoke while swallowing a gulp of saliva. Lili tilted her head and, a moment later, confirmed I was right.
"How did you know? That I'm from the Magic Tower."
"The symbol on your robe. The only people in this city who use a snake symbol are from the Magic Tower."
"Oh, I'm glad you recognized it. It's a relief to meet an adventurer who knows even a little about the Magic Tower."
"......."
"The quest I'm facilitating is a job entrusted by the Magic Tower. I came here to hire adventurers because we need extra hands. And the more magical knowledge a person has, the more helpful they'll be."