The Unknown Creature
The Grand Temple of Demia still looked as grand and beautiful as ever.
Uh, if this were a comic, there would definitely be a giant dollar sign floating above it.
How much would I be able to squeeze out of it?
I've never pulled off a scheme before, but I bet I could pull this off. It just doesn't feel like me at all, and that worries me.
But desperate times call for desperate measures. I have to do things I'm not used to.
“Why? Don't worry. No one can touch you.”
Demyan looked at my face, then spread his palm above my head. Strange words spilled from his mouth.
Ah, so that's it. Incantation.
Magic manifests in three ways.
The first is “Recognition Summoning.”
You sit down that morning and etch the magic into your own body. Where? I have no idea.
Mages simply say they “inscribe” it. Whether you can do it or not decides if you're a mage or an alchemist.
One thing is certain: the larger your mana pool, the more you can inscribe. Even small spells are possible if your mana is big enough. If it's too small, nothing gets inscribed at all.
Yet every morning, mages must inscribe one spell: “Absorption.”
Mana reversal is strong, so they start with Absorption. It's non-negotiable for any mage.
How do I know? Big Brother Bertrand is a mage.
Bertrand wakes up every morning, incantation or not, and immediately inscribes Absorption to begin the day.
To him it's as essential as breathing. Mages unconsciously use magic constantly, so it's even more critical.
Inscribed spells activate instantly if the conditions are met, without needing an incantation.
They're what gamers call “passive.”
So when Demyan cast that spell on the monster, was it also Recognition Summoning? I don't think so.
Inscribing requires far more mana than simply summoning through an incantation. It's like leaving the charger plugged in all day versus plugging in only when you need it.
Apparently, the magic Demyan just used is almost impossible to detect.
The second method is “Incantation.” Many people choose words, but the stronger the spell, the fewer gestures you need. A single wave can trigger it.
Mages prefer the incantation “Whispering Words.”
They're taught this language in the Magic Tower because its rhythm, meaning, and sound help pull magic through more easily.
The song Demyan sang moments ago was precisely this incantation.
The third method is, of course, items. The things that made the Magic Tower the richest in the world.
I looked up and a white feather drifted down from above. It was made of light.
It melted into thin air like the monster's corpse.
Demyan sang softly again.
Then golden light fell. Beautiful light. Like sunlight touched by gold.
Demyan whispered something else.
This time it looked like an aurora veil. I'd always wanted to see the aurora... but every vacation I told myself it was too cold, then “next time, next time,” and somehow I never made it. I ended up falling somewhere strange instead.
Demyan again,
“Ah, stop that!”
Just how many spells are you casting on me?
I shoved him away, but only I got pushed back. Demyan startled and reached out to steady me.
Before he could catch me, I stood on my own two feet.
I wrapped both arms around his waist and glared at him.
“Just what spells are you casting on me? Are you cursing me?”
“Who says that? You little kid, what would I get from cursing you?”
“I might hold a grudge.”
“You're not a viscount and you're twelve years old.”
“You're twelve too!”
“Ah, anyway.”
Demyan shook his head.
“I casted Heal, Reflex, and Defense. You were scared, right?”
I stared up at him in shock.
Before me stood a boy in a brand-new white robe. His purple eyes glowed brighter than usual, catching the light like never before.
Sharp almond eyes, straight nose, plump lips... he was still too young to be a man, too beautiful to be a boy, and far too manly to be a girl. Demyan felt like a creature I'd never seen before.
Unknown things rarely bring good news. Meeting aliens usually ends in a bad situation.
“They said Hamilcar has precious hands, and you really grew up precious...”
“Me?”
“How can you not understand such basic things? One Defense spell would have sufficed. I'm not the Margret Queen, you're not giving me the full royal treatment. This is improper.”
The Margret Queen, mother of the king and widow of the late king, was famous for being easily frightened.
She never showed her face even during palace life. I had never seen her either.
She didn't appear at my birthday party either. When she had to attend rare events, she said she would perform every courtly courtesy and stay only a moment.
That kind of courtly courtesy was now being performed on me. How extravagant.
I muttered, and Petia muttered back.
“Arian hates it, but how about giving courtesy to the saint...”
The only saint in the world spoke up in a sullen tone.
Feeling mortified, I gave Demyan a thumbs-up.
Come on, do it! What are you waiting for!
At my attitude, Demyan frowned.
“This isn't courtesy for the saint. Gerka is going to be furious.”
That was another wrong assumption. The relationship between the temple and the Magic Tower had grown more tense than ever.
But the real reason Gerka would be angry was that the magic keeping Petia safe hung in the cottage, not because of me. Shouldn't he be ashamed instead?
Even as he said that, Demyan removed his own robe and draped it over shivering Petia.
Petia was already wearing the monster-fur coat I had put on when we climbed to the Grand Cathedral.
I was cold, but that was all. Petia could freeze to death.
This was a medieval world. Healing potions existed, but no antibiotics.
Of course, freezing might be fixable with a potion, but using even the few we had indiscriminately in a place without antibiotics or anti-inflammatories was foolish. Better to wrap Petia tightly.
“The door ring is too luxurious, isn't it?”
I grabbed the doorknob and muttered at Demyan. He looked at me with an incredulous expression.
“Isn't this just an ordinary temple?”
“What nonsense! The thousand-year-old Gerka Temple is so impoverished, no, so pure! Compared to this, this is a palace! It doesn't suit someone who worships a god!”
Demyan glanced at the Demia Temple once, then at me.
“A palace is in your territory,”
Ah, the kid lacks common sense.
I knocked on the door knocker—bang, bang—to drown out his voice.
“T-this... was this what the monster wore?”
Standing before Arian, whose eyes had reddened with greed for ingredients, was the head priest of the Demia Temple.
After all, I had received a report last night that one young apprentice priest had gone missing.
I had speculated it was because the child was an orphan with nowhere to go, not because of some incident. But what incident? It turned out the child was a monster and had been exterminated by humans.
Suddenly, the hesitant expression of the senior priest who had reported the missing child yesterday flashed through my mind.
He had said the child wasn't the kind who would run away, yet he had clearly said,
“But the child was rather strange. Unusual. He was originally normal, but lately he would go out at night and come back...”
A bit, I suppose, as if he had lost his fear.
The mountain peaks at midnight were incredibly dangerous.
Although monsters rarely appeared near the temple district, wild animals were frequently spotted.
Especially on lonely nights, the beasts would descend all the way to the temples, drawn by the food left behind by people.
Normally, one wouldn't leave the temple after sunset.
Of course I had only thought the child was odd. I never imagined he was a monster.
The head priest glanced at the boy in priestly robes he had given.
“It's not certain that he was a monster. The boy has purple eyes too. It's not like purple eyes mean he's a monster.”
Demyan flinched and checked Arian's eyes.
She seemed not to know what purple eyes meant. Would she avoid me now that she knew?
At that thought, a sharp pain scraped against my heart as if a hook were being torn out.
Demyan tried to keep his face blank, but Arian laughed.
“Head Priest, whether my friend's eyes are purple or bruised is his own business. He's a perfectly normal person. But the apprentice priest you are responsible for isn't normal—he's not even human! Why are you trying to cover up such a huge fact with someone's eye color?! Don't distort the truth!”
Brui—
That was weird. I knew she was siding with me, but why did every single word make her sound so annoying and impossible to swallow?
Demyan barely managed to swallow the exclamation rising in his throat.
Petia, sitting beside him, patted his back discreetly from behind.
Hold it in. Hold it in. The words must have reached Demyan.
“Moreover, the boy wearing that priest's robe was clearly a monster. The person who witnessed it, testified, and vouched for it is this head priest. Are you now questioning the saint's words?”
The head priest's face twisted with shock and indignation.
Petia, sitting beside the arrogant girl, grinned wider at him, her eyes sparkling.
After all these years of being food for that idiot's laughter, now she had the nerve to drag a mad girl to attack people?
The head priest's face twisted like a demon.