71 – Episode 71
# 71
The not-so-long blade still shimmered with the sunlight.
A magic sword emitting pure white light.
Seeing the pure radiance that could never be imitated by torches, the mercenaries all drew their swords without hesitation.
“Oh my heavens…!”
“The heavens have protected us!”
Even Belenka drew a holy symbol along with the mercenaries.
It wasn’t as if they were deeply moved like the mercenaries, but rather similar to uttering words of admiration at the astonishing sight.
It’s like when Westerners exclaim “Oh my God!” when surprised.
“You were amazing, Wizard!”
“No matter how formidable a vampire may be, they’re nothing but a mere mosquito before the Wizard!”
“Hail to the Wizard, Ian!”
Ian felt annoyed by the mercenaries chattering beside him.
Praise is nice to hear the first time, but if you keep hearing it, it becomes subtly tiresome.
Above all, he needed time to think about the mystery sleeping in Anorisil.
So Ian politely asked the mercenaries, without losing his dignity as a Wizard.
From Noble mtl dot com
“Quiet down. Stop chattering so irritably beside me, and if you have nothing to do, call the Viscount.”
A polite request, in and of itself.
The mercenaries were moved by Ian’s noble request and replied.
“Of course! Wizard!”
The mercenaries, feeling excited, sang a song like “Ian, who burned the mosquito larvae~” and disappeared.
Ian still didn’t quite understand the mercenaries’ taste.
Do you guys really like it when I talk like a foul-mouthed old lady?
I remembered the time when I accidentally used polite language and they begged me profusely, rubbing their hands together.
The eccentric wizard Cosplay was a bit uncomfortable, but Ian had no choice but to go along with it since it was what the other person wanted.
As expected of me. A warm man with a manners temperature of 100 degrees.
Ian extended his hand to Kira with a gentlemanly attitude.
“Are you alright?”
“…”
Kira stared at Ian blankly.
“Yeah.”
Ian held out his hand and slowly stood up.
As soon as he got closer to Kira, a pungent smell of gunpowder pierced his nostrils.
As expected. The identity of the explosion was gunpowder.
Ian couldn’t help but recognize the smell of gunpowder.
These days, the world has become better, and children play with cyber guns using smartphones.
In the past, children played with real guns loaded with gunpowder (it’s true).
No, you might think, who plays with guns? But the past Republic of Korea was a country where romance lived and breathed.
The sight of neighborhood children sticking toy guns in their jeans and walking around was one of the common evening scenes of that time.
The smell of gunpowder that wafted with a sharp sound seemed to be a boys’ romance, so for those who wanted a little thrill, the thing they touched was a toy gun.
With toy guns loaded with gunpowder and even BB pellets and bean bullets, they were fully armed and ready for a rebel.
Unfortunately, Ian’s parents were conservative (?) and didn’t buy him a toy gun, but when he played with his friends, he naturally came to know the smell of gunpowder.
Again, I want to emphasize that Ian is definitely not a Somali person. He was a citizen of the Republic of Korea.
Ian sniffed his nose.
After the fireworks display. Or the lingering smell after a gunpowder fight…
Ah, I want to see fireworks.
Should I ask Kira if there’s any leftover fireworks set?
Kira noticed Ian wrinkling his nose and quickly made an excuse.
“Is, is there a smell? But, you know, my magic is a bit…”
“Magic?”
Suddenly, magic?
Ian paused for a moment. In this neighborhood, do they call gunpowder magic powder?
In the East, gunpowder (火藥) means “medicine that ignites fire,” but ignorant Westerners call it “gun powder.” So, they casually referred to it as “gun powder,” meaning “powder for guns.”
This is the powder used for shooting guns, right? So, it’s gun powder!
In the Sacred Empire, calling it “magic powder” didn’t sound too strange.
When you think about it, gunpowder is indeed a kind of magical powder. This is proven by the meme of Harry Potter shooting his wand.
“You mean it’s not fire powder?”
“… What?”
“That magic powder, I mean. I thought maybe we could call it ‘fire powder.'”
Ian stumbled through, translating modern language into imperial language.
It was almost like directly interpreting a foreign language, so translation issues occasionally arose.
However, the “fire powder” translated by Ian happened to exactly match the imperial name for gunpowder.
In more detail, it was called “flame powder.”
Kira was astonished to hear the word that came out of Ian’s mouth.
“Fire, you know about fire powder?!”
Fire powder is not a product produced by the Empire.
It is a rare item that is imported in extremely small quantities by the heretical traders from the southeast.
Therefore, even in the Empire, the chances of meeting someone who knows about the existence of fire powder in this northern region are close to zero.
But it’s just close to zero, not zero.
There were people like Ian who knew about the existence of fire powder.
Of course, now Kira is just shocked.
No one would have known that the person who used to shoot gunpowder guns and play with fireworks in his past life would be wandering around the sacred Empire’s northern region.
“Yeah. Fire powder. You know about it too?”
Kira was shocked, but like a pro con artist, he didn’t show any signs of being greatly affected.
Ian nodded.
Until now, Kira hadn’t realized that he was a complete empty vessel who knew nothing about magic.
Showing off a fireworks show with gunpowder wasn’t evidence that he was a fake magician.
But…
It didn’t take long for Ian to accidentally discover Kira’s true identity.
#
On the road, Ian would occasionally draw his magic sword and wander around.
A magic sword that supposedly contained the power of the sun and moon, Anorisil.
But it was just talk, and Ian didn’t really know what power it had exactly. He didn’t know what mysteries were contained within it.
It was said to have been made by the Fairy Queen, who put all sorts of strange ingredients into it.
What, did they make it using a woman’s beard or the sound of a cat’s footsteps as materials? The dwarves of Norse mythology used such things to make objects.
It was an ambiguous object, but Ian succeeded in harnessing the power of the magic sword last night.
He succeeded in making it shine brightly like sunlight.
Congratulations! Your magic sword has evolved from a portable lighter to a flashlight lighter!
Although there was no significant upgrade in terms of functionality, he was pleased psychologically.
This was also a kind of magical achievement.
By extracting sunlight, Ian realized one thing.
The power of the sun contained in Anorisil was not a metaphor, but actually borrowed from the real sun.
In the past, Ian and Inrian had tried to harness the power of the magic sword in the Marquis’s tomb.
But Ian’s fire magic and Inrian’s photon magic did not work, so they had no choice but to use a lighter.
But now, thinking about it, the approach itself was wrong.
Could the power of the sun be defined as fire or light? It was not.
It shared the nature of fire and light, but it was a kind of mystery that could not be called fire itself or light itself.
The sun is just the sun.
The moment Ian realized this fact, Anorisil showed him a part of the power it held.
It was a pleasant situation for Ian.
In fact, compared to medieval people, it was easier for Ian to learn magic.
It was not the presence or absence of a status window, but a difference in mindset.
Modern people, especially students in South Korea, had a rich general knowledge thanks to a solid education.
Even science students learn classical Chinese literature, and liberal arts students learn calculus. Moreover, South Korea is a country where art and music students also study Korean, English, and math.
Medieval people may have thought of the sun as nothing more than a bright shining dot. But Ian could imagine the celestial bodies of the universe and the stars of the solar system. And Ian’s thoughts were close to the essence of the existence called the sun. This was similar to the principle of controlling sound by analyzing the relationship between echoes and air, using magic. Knowing the essence of the sun more explicitly made it much easier to approach and imagine. “… But what about Marquis Talian?” As he pondered the mystery, Ian’s thoughts wandered to Marquis Talian. Let’s say the fairies managed to harness the power of the sun and the moon in a bizarre way. But did the newly appointed Marquis Talian know how to handle it properly? Did he just ignorantly swing the magic sword around, exclaiming, “Wow, it’s a fairy’s sword!”? If that’s the case, then the only ones who really made use of Anorithil were the fairy folk who used it to weave fairy silk. Anyway, Ian roughly figured out how to approach the power of the magic sword. He would look at it as it is. Mystery must be something very close to its essence. “Ian. Can I talk to you for a moment?” While lost in thought, Kira approached Ian and called him. Kira looked around and whispered, “It’s an important conversation…” “An important conversation?”
Kira nodded vigorously.
“I hope you’ll consider it as a matter of honor, Master.”
Wow. He even mentioned the Master’s honor. It wasn’t a typical serious conversation.
Ian listened attentively to Kira’s story.
Kira’s story was serious, but at the same time, it was funny.
“The Marquis won’t let me go?”
“Yeah! Isn’t that insane? I’m not some slave! He can’t keep me from leaving!”
That’s right.
While hunting vampires, the exploits of the two mages reached the ears of Marquis Daemon.
Even if it was Ian’s scene of killing a vampire with his magic sword…
During Kira’s exploits, the Marquis couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.
Of course… Kira is… Marquis Daemon’s mage!
Wow! Our Kira is amazing!
Kira was so overwhelmed by that part that she thought she would die.
Marquis Daemon was ignorant, so he didn’t know the relationship between mages and nobles. In fact, Daemon wasn’t a Marquis nor a noble.
Of course, Kira wasn’t a real mage either, but she had enough experience dealing with many nobles to have a rough idea of their nature.
There are no nobles who oppress mages.
Just like nobles, mages are well-known figures once you cross paths with them. There are so few of them that it’s inevitable.
But who dares to provoke a mage?
Not only the mage’s Master, but also the Master’s acquaintances, friends, friends’ acquaintances, and even the lord they serve, all rush in for a collective lynching.
And the northern part of the empire was a neighborhood where the breath of the magicians was strong. This was because the Dranheim Magic Academy was located in the north.
If Lord Daemon had been a normal noble, he could never have allowed the crazy act of forcibly keeping Kira by his side.
But Lord Daemon… is actually just a bandit.
To put it bluntly, this might trigger a seizure, but that’s a fact. Even if he developed his territory and made a covenant with the residents, since there was no lord to serve, he was nothing more than a bandit leader.
Lord Daemon considered Kira his subordinate. And it was only natural for a subordinate to serve the boss. It was the logic of a gangster.
What if Kira were to leave for somewhere else?
Kira, are you betraying the organization right now…?
Immediately, a shiver ran down his spine.
That was the situation Kira was in.
Ian, being a magician himself, fully understood Kira’s plight.
There was no need to blabber about the honor of a mentor or anything grandiose like that. A magician helps a magician. That was obvious.
If the roles were reversed and Ian was captured by bandits, if he encountered a passing magician, he would naturally ask for rescue.
“I’ll take care of it as soon as you step off the path.”
“Really?!”
Kira looked at Ian with sparkling eyes.
How are you going to take care of it?! Are you going to hire mercenaries to come and save me?! Or is it some amazing magic?!
“Go and spread the rumor that the magician Kira has been captured by rude bandits!”
“Oh, no!”
That won’t work, you crazy bastard!
Who would believe rumors about a swindler spreading around town?!
Kira was still in her youthful prime. She didn’t want to be executed for a fraud charge.
But Ian couldn’t understand Kira.
“What? Why not?”
Once the rumor spreads, Kira’s acquaintances, the magicians, will come rushing to her rescue.
To Ian, it was common sense.
“No? Don’t you have any friends or noble acquaintances?”
“… No!”
Even so, it was like that.
Even if it was about owing a debt to a magician, even if it was the first time meeting a noble, that kind of reaction was unexpected.
Was she planning to shout and run away alone?
But even if Kira was an eccentric magician, that was a plan that he couldn’t possibly agree with.
There’s a limit to recklessness. At that point, it’s not eccentricity, it’s madness.
“Well, there is something…”
Kira twisted her mind to somehow come up with an excuse.
No matter what she said, it would be a poor excuse, but she had to do it.
The opportunity to escape from the Marquis, who already believed her to be a powerful magician, was only now.
That’s when it happened.
“Ahem.”
“Hmm.”
The Marquis’s subordinates silently approached the two. They were eavesdropping on the conversation between the magicians.
If there was any valuable information, it was worth a try to extract it…
To the two who were planning their escape, it was an annoying surveillance.
It would have been quite awkward for an ordinary person, but Ian was a magician.
Ian immediately switched to Maronius Aero language.
You want to eavesdrop on our conversation? Fine! Listen up!
What’s the big deal about speaking Maronius Aero?
“[So, what’s the reason we can’t escape?]”
Ian was a certified Maronius Aero master who had been conversing with Eredis in Maronius Aero for almost a year.
In fact, almost all magicians did the same.
Learning Maronius Aero was crucial because it was a matter of life and death, with even a slight communication mistake.
Ian silently waited for Kira’s response.
But…
“???”
No matter how long he waited, Kira didn’t reply.
Why is there no response?
Could it be…
Ian glanced briefly at the bandits.
Could these bandits be super over-spec bandits who can eavesdrop on Maronius Aero?
They must be Seoul National University graduates who struggled with severe job scarcity in Korea!!!
“…”
Damn, that can’t be possible!
“Hey. You… Maronius, do you not know?”
“Oh, no? Do I not know?”
“What do you know?”
“…”
Ian stared blankly at Kira.
This guy… doesn’t seem like a magician?!