Shining Gold (8)
As Serpina drew closer to the rocky cliff, it became clear what the man had meant by a "hidden white sand beach." Beyond the cliff, magic had been set up to make it nearly impossible for ordinary people to approach. It was a classic repulsion spell—one that simply made you feel like you didn't want to go there for no particular reason. Anyone who'd come for a normal day at the beach would find it too much of a hassle to push past it, and locals would have grown up feeling the same aversion. The sheer willpower it must have taken that guy to overcome it with nothing but raw lust... well, maybe it deserved a little respect. Not that she wanted to admit it.
Serpina stepped over the rocky cliff and onto the hidden stretch of white sand.
"Now that I'm seeing it myself, I get it. There's more than one magic circle here, huh?"
A single repulsion array wouldn't be enough to truly hide a place. As the man from earlier had shown, its effect weakened if someone had a strong enough reason to push through. That's why truly secret locations usually layered multiple spells. In this case, the second one was a concealment array—one that made things invisible. In simple terms, it hid everything from sight. The same kind installed at ML Mart to keep the nighttime magical lights from leaking out.
Of course, none of that posed any real problem for Serpina. She lightly brushed her fingers across the magic circles, exempting herself from their effects, and stepped fully onto the hidden beach.
But what unfolded before her eyes was completely unexpected.
"There's... nothing here?"
It was just a beach. A wide stretch of sand every bit as expansive as the public one, completely empty of tourists, umbrellas, or even a single beach towel. If you wanted to call that strange, you could. But at the same time, it was exactly what it looked like—nothing.
No way that's all there is.
Serpina scanned the area with absolute certainty. Magic circles consumed mana just by running. Unless someone had infinite mana like she did, there was no reason to keep arrays spinning in a completely empty place. Maybe there were more spells hidden somewhere? She searched carefully, but that wasn't it either.
At this point, her curiosity was officially piqued. Serpina examined the beach more closely. That's when she finally saw it. Something entirely unexpected.
"...Pervert?"
"Who are you calling a pervert?!"
The pervert who'd been lying flat on the sand shot upright at Serpina's mutter. With so much open beach, a quick glance had completely missed her. Especially since she wasn't wearing normal clothes. If she had been, the color might have stood out. In other words, this pervert wasn't wearing anything that could reasonably be called clothing.
"I'm not a pervert!"
"Then what do you call that?"
Serpina pointed at what the woman was wearing. Though calling it "wearing" felt generous. The amount of fabric was so minimal it barely qualified as clothing. In polite society, having three measly band-aids covering your body wasn't generally considered "dressed." Maybe four, but that wouldn't make any meaningful difference.
"Band-aids?! These are completely different! These are nipple patches! And this is..."
"Yeah, I'm really not interested."
Band-aids or nipple patches, it didn't matter. Either way, it was the kind of getup that would get censored in anything aimed at all ages.
"So why are you out here looking like that? Covering this entire huge beach in magic circles. Trying to indulge some weird fetish?"
"Now that's just rude! A fetish? I'm not doing this for some vulgar, personal reason!"
"Then what is it?"
"Hehe... prepare to be amazed. Since you broke through the magic circles, I assume you're a mage. In that case, you'll surely understand this brilliant idea!"
The pervert spread both arms wide in an exaggerated, theatrical gesture. She thrust her chest toward the sky, chin held high. Her short bob, cut at shoulder length, fluttered gently.
"I am! With my entire body! Absorbing the sun's mana!!"
"......"
"It's common knowledge that on nights with strong moonlight, lunar mana increases! It's also common knowledge that when moonlight is blocked, lunar mana is blocked too! So wouldn't the same apply to solar mana?! I am! Like this! Without a single thing covering me! Bathing my whole body in the sun's mana!!"
A single bead of sweat rolled down the pervert's body as she passionately explained herself. It dripped from her chin, tracing a glistening path down her tanned, bronze skin and into her cleavage.
Serpina watched the whole display and nodded.
"Yeah. You're not a pervert."
"Oh! You understand! I knew it! You seemed different from the other mages! In that case, why don't you join me! I have spare nipple patches ready in case you start sweating..."
"You're not a pervert. You're just crazy."
"What?!"
The pervert—no, the lunatic—looked genuinely shocked. Maybe she'd thought Serpina could become a fellow believer. Of course, there was zero chance Serpina would fall for that and end up wearing nothing but stickers.
Serpina sighed and pointed out the obvious flaw the woman had missed.
"If you're trying to absorb solar mana, you should at least be storing it. How can you say you're receiving it if you can't even hold onto any?"
There was indeed a tiny amount of solar mana accumulated in the woman's body, just as Serpina said. But the quantity was laughably small. In terms of the scale the Magic Alliance used, it was only about 40 units. Everything else was dissipating uselessly into the air. It was like building a dam one centimeter high to catch a raging river. No matter how much water flowed around it, the water level behind that dam could never rise above one centimeter.
"Hmm? Hmmm?"
The lunatic tilted her head this way and that at Serpina's observation, then suddenly clapped her hands together.
"I see! So just sunbathing isn't enough! No wonder all my comrades tried to stop me!"
Hearing that, Serpina felt a complicated mix of emotions. Should she be surprised that this lunatic had comrades who shared her beliefs, or relieved that those comrades at least had enough sense to try talking her out of it?
"But still, the solar mana definitely passed through this body! Haha! Thanks to this experience, I'm sure I've grown even closer to the sun! Hahahaha!!"
"Ah. Sure."
This one was beyond saving. Serpina was certain of it.
......
That night, Ayoung—who only joined them as evening approached—listened to Serpina's story and nodded.
"Ah. She must be from the Solar Research Society. There's no way anyone else would do something that weird."
"Solar Research Society?"
Serpina picked up a piece of meat sizzling on the barbecue grill and popped it into her mouth.
"Yes. Um..."
Ayoung made sure Heerin—who knew nothing about magic—was far enough away, running along the beach with Heemang, before continuing.
"You know we usually use lunar mana, right? And why that is."
"Yeah. You said solar mana is too strong, so it gets reflected off the moon and weakened before we use it."
"That's right. But just as moonlight is faint compared to sunlight, lunar mana is nothing but a drop in the ocean compared to solar mana. So people started thinking, 'If we could somehow use solar mana, wouldn't we be able to cast incredibly powerful spells?'"
With a soft clack, Ayoung tossed more firewood onto the grill. She pulled out fresh sausages and pork belly and laid them on the grate.
"The guild that formed around that idea is the Solar Research Society. They're literally a group that tries every crazy thing imaginable to use solar mana. What you saw today—naked sunbathing—is actually one of the tamer activities."
"That was tame?" Serpina muttered. "Well... I guess when you put it that way."
Lying on the beach in nothing but stickers was the kind of thing only a true lunatic would do, but it didn't harm anyone else, so maybe it was relatively harmless. Plus, she must have felt at least some shame, since she'd set up those concealment circles.
Serpina thought back to the magic arrays she'd seen and suddenly found something odd.
"Wait. Why did she cover such a huge area with magic circles?"
It seemed excessive if it was just for one person sunbathing. The array had covered the entire beach.
"Well, obviously because she'd be embarrassed. Even if normal people can't see her, she wouldn't want to be practically naked while people walk right past, right?"
"I guess?"
Serpina nodded vaguely, accepting the explanation. It had been quite a while since she'd become a woman. She thought she'd grown used to it by now, but there were still a few things she couldn't quite understand. One of them was shame—specifically, sexual shame. If, by some miracle, a man saw her naked, she wouldn't exactly brush it off. But the feeling she'd have would be disgust, not embarrassment. Since shame was such a hard emotion for her to relate to, any action stemming from it was equally difficult to grasp.
"Anyway, you're going to play with me tomorrow, right? I came so late today that I didn't even get to go in the water!"
"That's not my problem. If you want to enjoy the ocean that badly, should we make tomorrow's training a beach run instead?"
"Senior?!"
And the next morning.
"Nice to see you again! Let's feel the sun together this time!"
"Get those stickers out of my face."