Vitality Returned to the Academy (4)
There are times in life when you have to mean every word. When you've had a bitter fight with a close friend and go to ask for peace. When you want to show the people dear to you just how much they matter. And not only then — plenty of other moments demand your whole heart.
A once-in-a-lifetime chance comes along. Or you simply will not make a single coin unless you are utterly sincere.
If the world truly holds ten thousand affairs, as the old saying has it, then it holds ten thousand confessions.
What I was facing now was only one of them.
"You'd better answer properly while I'm still asking with words. There are more ways to make someone spill the truth than you can imagine."
"Hold on. Even so, I won't stand by and watch you hurt Jinwoo."
"You think I want to hurt him? Everything depends on Kang Jinwoo."
"Wait — time-out. I'll talk, so please put that hand down."
Why was everyone in such a rush? It wasn't as if I could run.
A mage on the level of a strategic weapon, extending a hand toward a civilian — wasn't that a serious violation of the laws against violent crime? For a harmless man who knew nothing but cooking, the pressure was far too much.
Ermia lowered her threatening hand and fixed me with a look that demanded an answer.
I'd been busy selling toast, then I'd gone into my status window and come back out, and now a hearing had been convened on top of it all. I was thoroughly confused.
Right. The facts — nothing but the truth. If I lied now just to wriggle free, things could spiral into something far worse.
I drew one quiet breath and opened my mouth.
"First of all, I really am an ordinary cook. What is it you want to know about me?"
"That question was vague, I'll give you that. Let me be clear. What trick did you pull with the food? What did you feed my students? It isn't some elixir, and yet a meal increased their mana. Do you honestly think that makes sense?"
"And why wouldn't it?"
A healthy body makes a healthy mind, and good food is what builds that healthy body. That's how it has always been. People in the modern world and people in this one alike take dietary therapy far too lightly. Cook proper ingredients the right way, and isn't a little rise in mana only natural?
I spoke in earnest, but Ermia's face went cold.
"Are you messing with me? If we're going to do this with words—"
"Wait, wait, wait! I don't really know either — how the mana increases, I mean. It was just toast."
"What? If you don't know, who does?"
"Beats me. Either way, I'm the same ordinary cook I've always been. Just... a little exceptional."
"Jinwoo, then... what about the ingredients? You definitely didn't bring them from the mansion. And nothing was delivered along the way."
My unsatisfactory answers soured Ermia's expression. From my side, I had only told the truth. I genuinely had no idea how my food increased mana. Only my status window — or whatever had given me that window — would know. I didn't.
Once Ermia's questioning ended, Eilenna put in a question of her own. It was the sort I couldn't slip past with clever wording.
This... I had no choice. I'd have to meet it head-on.
"I'm a human who's never studied a single spell, but there is one magic I can use."
"And that magic has something to do with where the ingredients come from?"
"Yes. It'll be faster if I show you."
My mana was fully restored anyway. I was in peak condition. I picked a single apple from Mana Market and exchanged for it at once.
A faint rush — and a very small trickle of mana left my body. It was only one apple; had I not been paying attention, I might not have noticed the cost at all. A moment later, a luscious red apple appeared in my empty hand.
The two who had been staring holes through me jolted and cried out.
"What?! Where did that come from all of a sudden?"
"J-Jinwoo. How did you do that? Is this the magic you meant...?"
"Yes. By spending mana, I can obtain whatever ingredient I want. Amazing, right?"
"Amazing doesn't begin to cover it. This is... impossible. You can't even call this magic."
The first time I'd used Mana Market, I'd been so startled I nearly jumped out of my skin. Their shock didn't seem much different. Both of them went round-eyed, turning the apple this way and that. From above or from the side, it was a splendid red fruit.
Crunch—
I took a deliberate bite, as if to prove the point. Cool, sweet-tart juice washed over my tongue, and the crisp flesh gave a satisfying chew.
Ermia muttered to herself, her expression grave.
"It isn't sleight of hand. I definitely felt the flow of mana. Neither the wind nor the space showed any disturbance... so when?"
"I don't know the principle either. It just became something I could do, all of a sudden."
"Demonic energy? No. There's none of that ominous aura at all. If anything, it's thick with the purity of spirits and elves..."
"I-incredible. I've never even heard of an ability like this. Even the World Tree's best is only hastening the growth of plants, and this is the power to create them outright..."
Ermia sank deep into thought over whatever it was she had sensed. Eilenna, too, had spoken only after watching my demonstration of Mana Market with her own eyes.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't a power of creation. From the time Iseria first warned me about the ability right up until a little while ago, I myself had thought I was producing ingredients out of nothing. But then there was the vast ingredient warehouse I had seen in that dream — Mana Market itself. Having witnessed it, I could say for certain that my ability was not creation. It was exchange.
"This is closer to exchange than to creation."
"On what grounds? If it's an exchange, that thing has to have come from somewhere, and I didn't see any movement like that at all."
"Just... a feeling. My instincts are telling me."
I had no choice but to pass it off to Ermia as a subjective hunch. I had said I would tell the truth. I had not said I would tell all of it. Whether they would believe a scene from a dream was anyone's guess, and if I mentioned Mana Market outright, I would end up having to explain the status window as well.
I wanted to keep the status window to myself. The moment I spoke of it, I had a feeling the way people looked at me would change. Right now, even if my appearance was a little different, they simply took me for someone from the East. But if they learned that this black hair came with seeing strange phantoms? They'd brand me a madman without a second thought — or, failing that, someone not quite right in the head.
"Hmm. A feeling. If you say so, then that's what it is. I'll accept it."
"Huh? It feels strange coming from my own mouth, but... aren't you suspicious?"
"In scholarship, objective fact is what matters. In practice, it isn't. Nothing influences magic or swordsmanship more than the caster's own subjectivity."
The title of Academy principal wasn't just for show. Ermia laid out a logic that made a fair amount of sense, and if she was willing to see it that way, that was convenient for me. Had my sincerity gotten through? A faint smile touched her face. It seemed I had cleared the worst of her suspicion.
"The ability you showed me is closer to a miracle than to magic... but I don't think you'll be branded a heretic. Isn't that right, elf?"
"Right. Anyone who can sense mana will recognize how pure Jinwoo's is."
Whether my mana was pure, I couldn't say. I couldn't sense mana, or anything else. Still, I'd heard it often enough in Nuardel, and if an elf and an archmage both called it pure, then it probably was.
In the slightly eased atmosphere, Ermia pointed at my apple.
"And that apple — could I have a bite?"
"Huh? Oh, yes. Here."
Some time had passed since the toast. Had she gotten hungry? I handed her the apple without a second thought.
She nibbled — Ermia worked at it with her tiny mouth, then let out a short laugh.
"Haha. So that's what it was."
"Sorry? What was?"
"Yes... that's what it was. Interesting. Very interesting."
"No — I'm asking what 'that' is supposed to be."
"Hehe. I've revised my opinion of you, Kang Jinwoo. Learned something from you, even."
"Ugh. Seriously, if you weren't an archmage..."
Couldn't someone do something about that loaded way of talking? A kid who didn't even come up to my chest, playing the mastermind over things only she understood — so that's how it was, that's what it was — it was maddening. If it concerned me, she could at least tell the person involved.
Whether I liked it or not, Ermia walked toward the infirmary door, as if every question of hers had been answered.
"I'll keep this a secret. That'll be better for you too, won't it?"
"Yes... I suppose so. Thank you."
"Don't mention it. I'm the one who should be grateful for your devotion. Thanks to you, I feel as if my eyes have been opened. Thank you."
"Huh? All of a sudden?"
"Rest as much as you like, then head back. I'll speak to the school nurse."
A creak, then a thud — and with that, Ermia left the infirmary, leaving behind strange words only she could understand.
My devotion? Her eyes had been opened because of me? Eilenna wore the same look one gives a strange person: what's gotten into her all of a sudden? It was bizarre, and I wasn't sure what any of it meant, but the situation was settled for now.
"Shall we head home, Lady Eilenna?"
"Yeah. What a hectic day. By the way, don't use that ability too much. What are you going to do if you collapse again?"
"You're right about that. Let's pick up some ingredients on the way."
"Hehe, sure!"
Thankfully, Eilenna had already closed up the stall properly. So we left the Academy without incident, did our shopping, and returned to the mansion. Carrying the ingredients for business myself would have been exhausting, so I had placed a delivery order for the next morning. Money, whether in the Middle Ages or the modern world, was convenient in direct proportion to how much of it you had.
I had recovered to full condition, but tomorrow's business still needed preparing, so I forced myself to lie down in bed. All in all, it had been a first day of trade packed with confusion.
The setting sun dyed Belegrad in beautiful color as it sank. For ordinary people, it was the hour to finish the day's work and go home. But Edman, financial director of the Academy, was still waiting there in his work suit.
A mountain of budget documents needed approval before the day was out, and Principal Ermia had yet to return. From what he had heard, the cook who made the hardtack — Kang Jinwoo — had collapsed while running his stall, and she was waiting for him to wake.
To Edman's way of thinking, it made no sense. They had only signed a contract. Until then they had been strangers. Why was she spending so much time on him? A collapse was unfortunate, even regrettable, but what mattered right now was not nursing a cook.
There were the various problems caused by cutting the noble houses' merchant companies off from the ingredient supply. He needed to review the report documenting those problems as soon as possible and come up with a solution. The sharp rise in unit prices from switching suppliers. The sudden death of commerce inside the Academy, and the drop in rental income. And, as retaliation for the cutoff, the sponsorship money sent by the noble houses had been slashed. He also had to report, urgently, a reorganization of the operating budget in light of that reduction. Work had piled up like a mountain.
Just then, a familiar sound of shoes came down the corridor outside the principal's office.
Click—! Click—!
Because her shoes were looser than other people's, the clicking was far louder.
"Oh, Treasurer? Why haven't you gone home?"
"Khh... Lady Ermia. I've been waiting."
It was Ermia Belfast, principal of Arcadia Academy. Edman barely suppressed the urge to flick her on the forehead and followed her, as naturally as he could, into the principal's office. With a soft thump he set a heap of reports down on her desk.
"This is the unit-price report from switching ingredient suppliers. This is the report on the slump in commerce and the drop in rental income. And this is..."
"Ah, hold on a moment, Treasurer. Hear me out first."
"Yes? What is it?"
Ermia dropped into a chair far too big for her and waved a hand, telling him to stop. Even if he got the approvals right now and tidied up the small things, by the time he left it would already be late at night. What on earth could be more urgent than this?
While Edman looked at her with displeasure, Ermia spoke.
"Did you go outside during lunch today?"
"Yes. Kang Jinwoo's stall was packed shoulder to shoulder. It did feel lively, for the first time in a while."
"Right? That's exactly it. A place where young students gather ought to have that kind of atmosphere... I didn't know what I didn't know. I didn't know it at all."
Ermia let out a short laugh. Not the arrogant laugh of an archmage who always stood above others, but the self-mocking smile of a person blaming herself. Edman's eyes, sunk in exhaustion, opened a little wider. What wind had blown in, that the great Ermia would show an attitude like this?
"To be honest, I think I was hasty. Cutting off the ingredient distribution."
"Yes. Frankly, it was an absurd overreaction."
The reason he was still here past quitting time was to clean up after that very thing. Edman answered without a shred of pretense. Ermia, however, took no offense.
"The students' mood had been sinking for a while, and Kang Jinwoo made them laugh with just the two of them. Even while he himself collapsed from mana exhaustion."
"Yes. And so?"
"Don't you think it's a truly miraculous ability? Hehe."
The way she oddly stressed the word miracle nagged at him, but Edman was more concerned with where this loaded conversation was headed.
"So the conclusion is, I'm going to permit ingredient distribution again. Only I'll revise the contract terms, so they can't fight over the rights."
"What? If you do that all of a sudden — no. It's true that's the fundamental solution, but..."
"Right? Then I'm counting on you."
Ermia wore a triumphant expression, as if she had corrected her own mistake. If the noble houses' merchant companies resumed supplying ingredients, most of the problems he had brought in would indeed be solved. But then... what became of the Finance Department's effort in making all of this? At the flip of Ermia's mood, the all-nighter the department had worked through yesterday turned to foam.
Whether she knew of that labor or not, Ermia went on muttering to herself.
"Did we get through the Monster Wave thanks to that miracle too?"
"I could recruit him outright as a nutritionist..."
And so Financial Director Edman finally could not hold it in.
Thwack—!
"Ow!! What was that for all of a sudden?!"
"That's my line!!!"
The karma of a tyrannical principal, pressed down and piled high. That karma burst now. Edman did not even register that he had flicked the forehead of the Empire's greatest archmage. He was too busy pouring out the grievances that had stacked up, until the sun had fully set and the moon had risen.
The day's vitality, which Kang Jinwoo had sent soaring. Because of it, the Finance Department had to endure enormous pain...
Even so, vitality had returned to the Academy.