Chapter 9
Chapter 9
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: Half-Baked Mage
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The moment I approached the fainted boy.
Two burly men burst out from between the alleys and threw themselves down in front of me.
"Pl-please wait...!"
"Don't take our boss...! Please don't take our boss!"
What kind of situation was this? I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes. From the circumstances, it looked like this mage boy had been on the run from someone.
'I want to hear more details.'
"H-here... We'll give you this too...!"
"Please... please spare him...!"
While I was lost in thought, the two burly men emptied out all their belongings onto the ground. They seemed ready to strip naked if I let them, so I waved them off and made them stand.
"No, I'm not that kind of person."
"Y-yes...?"
"There seems to be some misunderstanding..."
After moving to a more suitable spot, I explained everything to the two burly men. I wasn't the kind of person they thought I was—I'd simply approached out of curiosity after spotting another mage while passing by.
"R-really?"
"Then... please return our boss's soul...!"
"Soul?"
A soul? What on earth were they talking about? As I tilted my head and gazed up at the hulking figure, he blinked his innocent eyes and asked me right back.
"Didn't you take our boss's soul? By summoning that massive thing... and making it devour his soul..."
"No, that's impossible..."
Of course, if my magic skills improved and the total mana I could wield grew, I might one day craft spells that could meddle with human souls. But right now, I was little more than a fledgling just starting out in magic.
The guy had simply fainted from sheer shock.
I pulled the canteen from my belt and dumped its contents over the boy lying there.
Splash—
"Gaaahhh!"
The boy snapped his eyes open and screamed the instant the water hit him. The burly men's reaction was even more of a sight—they jolted upright at the sight of him stirring, then prostrated themselves before me again.
"Th-thank you!"
"Our boss's soul is back...!"
What the hell did these people think a mage was?
"Y-you... no, you are..."
The boy's demeanor had turned far more deferential than before. He must have been terrified by the dragon form I'd summoned—his eyes, brimming with fear, trembled wildly.
"What's your name?"
"Du... Durel... Don't you already know...? If you're the one he sent..."
With the fainted kid awake, I had to repeat the explanation from before. I shrugged and gave the burly men the same rundown: my arrival here was pure coincidence, and I'd only approached out of idle curiosity.
"What... what do you want to know?"
"This and that. Right now, I'm curious why you're being chased and who those people are. Can you tell me?"
Durel rolled his eyes, clearly struggling with how to respond. But that hesitation didn't last. With a resigned sigh, he spilled his story in brief.
"I ran away from home... That's all there is to it..."
"Ran away? Why?"
"The family magic just didn't suit me... I wasn't making any progress."
"You ran away over something that minor?"
"It's not minor... Not when those full-of-expectation stares turned to scorn and contempt..."
The mage boy, Durel, carried quite the tangled family history. Born into a mage lineage, he'd grown up bathed in high hopes. Yet his magic never improved much.
All because the spells his family taught didn't mesh with him.
He'd craved freedom over a life of suppression, he said. So he'd bolted from home.
And here he was now.
"I get it... But if they treated you that badly, why send people to drag you back?"
"Probably because I'm a half-baked mage. They don't want to leave a blemish on the family name."
"Half-baked mage?"
"I... can't properly contain the laws within the mysteries I summon..."
"Why not?"
"I don't know..."
I tilted my head at Durel's response. So what if he couldn't contain them perfectly? He'd already been using his magic to fool people's eyes and make money. That was impressive magic in my book.
"Then what you used isn't magic?"
"It's incomplete... Not true magic... Meaningless."
"Who decides that?"
"Huh...? Well... That's how I was taught..."
It seemed each magic school had its own way of defining magic. Raymond's Golden Wind School hadn't drilled any of that into me.
A mystery summoned by a mage was magic in and of itself. Substance or not, laws or mere illusion—it didn't matter.
I drew mana up and spread my hands wide. I'd drawn inspiration from the magic Durel had just shown me. Long-dormant memories surfaced, offering a flood of applications.
Magic had no single right answer. If you believed it was correct, then it became the true path in that discipline.
"Everything you're about to see is an illusion without any real substance."
"B-but..."
Before Durel could finish, mana poured from my body, enveloping the whole area. Then it happened. A space from my memories—one that only I knew, nonexistent in this world—began manifesting here through the mystery of magic.
The distant blue sky rushed close in an instant. The solid earth beneath our feet bleached white and morphed into clouds. And just like that, we were plummeting from the heavens downward.
But it was all just visual trickery. The rushing clouds, the nearing ground—pure fakes sculpted from mana.
Even so, Durel's reaction was utterly real.
"G-gasp...! H-hic...!"
He gulped down air and flailed his arms. He stretched out his legs to steady himself, but his vision wobbled, and he collapsed right there.
The human brain relied heavily on sight. Fool the eyes, and you could fool the senses themselves.
"U-uwahhh...!"
The ground rushed up. The scenery warped in a flash—crumbling skies, splashing droplets, a tide of blue overwhelming his view, dragging everything into darkness.
We sank deeper into the seawater, but only Durel and I stayed conscious. His two burly followers had already passed out.
Durel didn't look far behind. If I left him be, he'd faint again. I gave the ground a light stomp to shake things up.
The mana rippling from my foot rattled the illusion I'd woven. The inky sea lost its water, leaving only void.
Then came light. Mana whirled around me before scattering outward, birthing radiance. And suddenly, we were adrift in the cosmos.
Obviously, sleight of eye. We were still in that nameless city's back alley. No zero gravity, no vacuum.
I stood amid the glittering starlight and asked Durel,
"How did that feel?"
"..."
Durel said nothing. Entranced, he merely gazed around in a daze. Staring at the starlight scattering across the black expanse, he reached out a hand.
In that instant, the cosmos I'd summoned crumbled.
'Mana's run dry...'
My total usable mana had hit its limit. Beyond the collapsing void, the real world slowly reemerged.
Back in the nameless city's back alley.
I turned to Durel.
"Was that magic meaningless too?"
Words weren't my strong suit. So I'd shown him instead—what magic meant to me. The path he ought to take.
Had it clicked for him? Mana abruptly gathered around Durel. As I watched him swathed in sparkling light,
A gentle breeze suddenly brushed my hair.
No ordinary gust. I sensed a familiar mana pulse. Raymond's magic.
'He's calling me...'
What was going on? He'd told me to go play and come back later, but now he was summoning me home.
"Hey, Durel."
I called to the boy wrapped in light, but he didn't respond. Conversation would have to wait.
"My master's calling, so I'm heading out. Catch you later?"
No reply, but figuring he'd heard, I turned and bolted. Just before clearing the alley, I glanced back.
Durel remained enveloped in the mana he'd drawn.
'Hmm.'
Was he going to be okay?
I hesitated briefly before turning away again—Raymond's breeze had grazed me once more.
I pumped my short legs for all they were worth.
Thud-thud-thud—
I arrived at a large inn.
'Warm... Sunlight? Did I read that right?'
I'd only just started learning my letters. I barely made out the sign above the entrance.