Day 14 of the wyvern attacks / Week 6 of the Kazan dispatch.
“Ugh.”
Danil opened his eyes.
“Ow, my head.”
An unfamiliar ceiling swayed above him.
No, was it my eyes that were swaying?
His body felt light, but his head was as heavy as a lump of lead.
It was the worst possible awakening.
‘Wow. This reminds me of when I had COVID.’
This bout of mana exhaustion really was a nasty one.
With a bitter smile, Danil somehow managed to sit himself up.
“You’re awake.”
“Hm?”
Beyond his half-asleep, half-awake vision, he saw someone.
He thought it might be a maid, but strangely, the voice sounded familiar.
A beautiful woman with wavy blue hair.
Danil knew who she was.
“Grade 5 Elena?”
“Good morning, Chief Danil.”
His coworker Elena smiled softly.
Beyond the window beside where she sat, he could see the stars and the moon.
*
Grade 5 Elena. A mage at the upper rank of 5th Circle Expert.
And Titania’s secretary, aide, and close confidante.
Danil was bewildered.
Had he been carried back to the Magic Tower while he was unconscious? Why was his superior’s shadow standing in front of him?
“What brings you here?”
“There are several reasons. One of them is to nurse Chief Danil, who collapsed from mana exhaustion.”
“It was only mana exhaustion, though?”
“If you wanted to say ‘only,’ you should have collapsed in the Magic Tower. That’s not something someone who fell from mana exhaustion in a place without an expert like me should be saying.”
‘Huh? Is that how it works?’
The indefinite-term contract mage, whose only experience training magic until he hit mana exhaustion had been during his special training with Titania, learned something new.
He wasn’t particularly happy about it.
“Take this.”
Elena handed him a bottle.
“It’s a recovery medicine. You should feel a little better.”
“I’ll drink it, then.”
Danil drank the medicine. It was definitely effective.
His leaden head grew much lighter.
‘Phew. Now I feel like I can live again. But why is Grade 5 Elena really here? Did I make some kind of mistake?’
Danil tilted his head.
*
To resolve his question, let us briefly turn back time.
*
Right after the battle began between the one who wanted to protect and the one who wanted to steal away a capable sucker… no, a capable indefinite-term contract mage.
The first to move was the one protecting him.
“First, I need to secure intelligence!”
Titania did not make the foolish mistake of trying to win this fight through the prayer meta.
The first thing she did was send people from her family to Kazan.
Instead of waiting for slow information-gathering through regular reports, she decided to gather information in real time.
And that was a divine move.
[Wh-what did you say?]
[It’s true, my lady! I saw it clearly with my own two eyes!]
[No, really? Truly?]
[I told you it’s true!]
A week ago, when Titania received an emergency report at dawn, she wondered if she had not fully woken up yet.
She pinched her cheek.
She did not wake from any dream.
“He took down twelve wyverns by himself?”
Even saying it again, the sentence did not feel real. But there was even less reason for someone from her family to lie.
The moment she accepted reality, the first things that came to her mind were not promotion, advancement, or plans to strengthen her faction.
‘Danil is going to be stolen from me!’
She sprang up from her seat.
Danil was not a perfect talent.
If he scored 100 points in work, he scored 0 in politics.
The structure of power, the names of factions—none of it was anything but another world’s story to him.
That was an advantage, but at the same time, it was a disadvantage.
‘He might just thoughtlessly grab the hand of alliance that Rainer offers him!’
From now on, Rainer would attempt headhunting even more aggressively, using every means available. Because she herself would do the same!
Even at this very moment, he must be plotting to somehow bring Danil over to his side!
If she stayed still, she would be the one who suffered!
‘That can’t happen!’
Defense ended here.
Now it was time for her side to use an offensive move as well.
“Elena!!!”
She summoned her secretary and close aide.
Despite the early hour before dawn, Elena came running to Titania’s house without complaint at her call.
“You called for me?”
“There is something I need you to do.”
“Please say anything.”
“Go north.”
Titania shared the information.
“…This is dangerous.”
“Yes. So you are to protect Danil.”
“I will remain by his side under the pretext of assisting with his work and preparing for any possible issues with his condition, and establish a political barrier around him.”
“As expected of you, Elena. You understand at once.”
“Shall I depart immediately?”
“No. Wait on that. There will soon be contact from above, so we should move together then.”
“By above, do you mean…?”
“Think about it, Elena. A mage who shot down twelve wyverns. It is an unprecedented event in the history of the Magic Tower, and an achievement that will be spoken of for ages.”
Titania smiled for the first time.
“The higher-ups are not so politically inept that they would leave such a mage alone.”
*
—Back to the present. On the sickbed—
“How are you feeling?”
Elena asked with a gentle smile.
After checking his condition, Danil whistled.
“Other than my head being a little heavy, I’m fine. If anything, I feel healthier than before.”
“That’s a relief. It was worth feeding you Blue Geyser.”
“Pardon?”
Wait. What did I just hear?
What did I eat?
“I said Blue Geyser.”
“You’re joking, right?!”
“Why would I make a joke like that?”
Danil froze with his mouth hanging open.
Blue Geyser.
One of the high-grade elixirs produced by the Magic Tower itself.
A precious item that could only be created through advanced alchemy and the first, second, and third heart crystals of the giant magical beast Kraken, which could only be hunted in the ocean.
Even in the Magic Tower, annual production fell below twenty units.
A legendary item said to permanently increase physical ability, bodily recovery, and mana recovery speed upon consumption, with reservations backed up by at least three years!
And now he had just been told that he had eaten one.
It would be a lie to say he wasn’t surprised.
“Wasn’t that something that only passes with the Magic Tower Master’s approval?!”
“Yes. That’s why we received it.”
“What?”
“The Magic Tower Master personally ordered that it be given to Chief Danil.”
“……?!”
“So you don’t need to feel burdened.”
No. Why is the Magic Tower Master’s name coming up here?
Elena’s eyebrow rose slightly.
“Chief Danil. You haven’t forgotten what you did, have you?”
“Ah.”
The defeat of twelve wyverns. And with the absurd record of zero casualties, no less.
It would be fair to call it a great achievement and triumph that would remain in the history of imperial warfare, not merely the magical world.
If not for the current wartime situation, the Grand Duke of the North would have personally visited Danil and bestowed a reward and medal on him himself.
“Chief Danil, you accomplished an unprecedented feat to that extent. If the Magic Tower failed to properly acknowledge such a person’s merit, what do you think would happen?”
“…There would be an uproar?”
“That is quite the humble way of putting it.”
Elena could not stop herself from sighing.
‘This is why the department head was so worried. It was the right answer for me to be dispatched.’
What was she supposed to do with this political disaster of a man?
The worries of a permanent employee over an indefinite-term contract employee only deepened.
*
Danil did not know.
He did not know how much had happened before Blue Geyser was delivered to him.
As soon as the news that Danil had slain the wyverns arrived, the Magic Tower quite literally erupted into chaos.
The indefinite-term contract employee, whose name had lately been coming up often from the lips of the higher-ups and making the permanent staff uncomfortable, had done it again!
On top of that, this time it was a massive achievement on a scale even permanent staff could not dream of replicating.
“He took down twelve wyverns alone?”
“That’s bullshit, right? It’s real?”
“Insane. How the hell?”
If this had happened within the Magic Tower, the permanent staff would have used any means necessary to diminish his achievement.
But this had happened in the North, and moreover, it was an achievement guaranteed in the name of Rainer, the next Grand Duke of the North.
Touching this? That would be nothing more than declaring to Rainer, “Please have a life-or-death political soul duel with me!”
For the permanent staff, there was no other choice but to consider it untouchable.
And Titania did not let that opportunity slip by.
“A mage dispatched from our department protected Kazan all by himself! Unlike you lot!”
“Urgh!”
While her other competitors were unable to move, she focused on solidifying her position and expanding her faction.
The other factions gnashed their teeth, but they could not stop her.
That was how overwhelming the achievement of Danil, which she held up, was.
Titania’s influence grew by the day.
The number of permanent mages trying to get in her good graces also increased by the day.
Amid all that, the Magic Tower Master’s reward was announced.
“Blue Geyser shall be bestowed upon the indefinite-term contract mage Danil.”
Not only Titania, but every mage in the Magic Tower was shocked.
Not a mid-grade elixir, but a high-grade elixir!
No matter how great a feat he had accomplished, wasn’t this too excessive a reward for an indefinite-term contract employee?
“So? You want to settle things with a few mid-grade elixirs for the hero of the North who beat down twelve wyverns? I’m sure Young Grand Duke Rainer and the Grand Duke of the North would be delighted. Right?”
“……!”
“It pains me too. It’s a waste, I’m saying. But everyone besides him made a complete mess of things. Am I wrong?”
“……”
“It’s because you lot are so pathetic that I have to do this, you useless fools. Of all the mages dispatched this time, the only name His Grace remembers is Danil, whose face he has never even seen. Does that make sense? Hm? Does that make sense?”
“……”
“Tsk. Honestly. Your Circles are high, but there isn’t a single thing about you I like. What are you doing? Get out.”
At the Magic Tower Master’s scolding, the executives who had come to protest were rendered speechless and had no choice but to turn back the way they came.
And so, Blue Geyser, a high-grade elixir too precious to give to a mana exhaustion patient as a recovery medicine, yet also impossible not to give, was delivered to the hero of Kazan.
And that hero of Kazan was currently—
“Ugyagyak!”
“Wow. Look at this medicine at work. Even if it’s just an imp, zero recoil is real?”
“…What are you doing?”
“Hm? As you can see, I’m summoning imps and renewing contracts.”
“I’m asking why.”
“If I’m better, I have to return to work. So I’m preparing. Is there a problem?”
“…This is why everyone covets you.”
“Yes? What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
Elena pressed a hand to her forehead.
Thanks to Blue Geyser, a patient whose recovery period should originally have required four weeks in bed had been cut in half, but instead of preparing for discharge, he was preparing to return to work. Watching that scene made her head ache.
‘If it’s a joke, then the joke is that this workaholic is the eye of the storm shaking up the Magic Tower’s political scene.’
His talents were also extreme: 0 in politics, 100 in work. And the fact that this imbalance drove the people around him insane was another comedic point.
‘When I see things like this, God truly is fair. So this is what it means when they say outstanding talent always comes with a shortcoming on one side.’
The beautiful mage, having gained new knowledge, looked at the workaholic mage who was repeating the process of summoning imps and forming contracts.
If she were to learn the gap between what she thought of as a “workaholic” and what Danil thought of as a “workaholic,” what expression would she make?
It was truly a question whose answer one could not help but wonder about.