“Did you come to Korea because of your role as gatekeeper? Or was there another reason?”
“It’s true I came because of the gatekeeper thing, and it’s also true there’s another reason. Personally, I didn’t want to come, but when the Tower Master tells you to do something, you do it. What else can you do? My shop itself is structured to live off the Clock Tower, so it’s hard to ignore the Tower Master’s orders.”
“What kind of orders?”
“That’s a secret. You think my lips are that loose?”
“Hmm.”
On the way down underground, Ian and Pleas stood side by side as they talked. A drop of water fell from the ceiling and landed with a tap on the bridge of Amelia’s nose in front of them. Watching it, Ian asked,
“By Tower Master, do you mean the Clock Tower Master?”
“That’s right. That old geezer of a mage. Among officially active mages, he’s probably the only one who has two grimoires. As for the unofficial ones, there’s nothing known about them anyway, so it’s hard to judge.”
“What kind of abilities do those grimoires have, for him to go around bragging that he owns two?”
“They’re both famous grimoires. One is the Key of Solomon, and the other is the Book of the Offices of Spirits. You’ve heard of both, right?”
“……Yeah. He only picked out the big names, didn’t he.”
“The Key of Solomon is less well-known and less powerful compared to the Lesser Key of Solomon, or the Lemegeton, but it’s still a very powerful grimoire. The Book of the Offices of Spirits contains, just as the name suggests, laws for handling spirits, and magic that forcibly grants authority to command others.”
“…….”
“Well, I say all that, but I’ve never actually seen the Tower Master fight, so I don’t know the details. Still, there are plenty of records saying he’s incredible, so he’s probably strong, right? He’s one of the representative figures called an archmage.”
“What’s the standard for an archmage?”
“Probably a mage who can do something similar to a nuclear explosion is called an archmage?”
“……Mm.”
Ian shoved his hands into his coat pockets and let out a low hum.
A nuclear explosion, huh.
If nothing else, it was a fairly clear standard. It also suited the title of archmage well enough.
It did feel somewhat excessive, but considering there were hardly any people called archmages in the first place, it wasn’t too bad. The only archmages currently known were the Tower Master of the Clock Tower, the leader of Laplace, and the Witch Chief of Walpurgis. It would be fine to think of them as Little Boy, Tsar Bomba, and Fat Man, respectively.
‘And I’m basically an archmage too.’
Without needing to think too deeply, just having the Deep-Sea Travelogue would allow him to immediately create damage on the level of a nuclear bomb.
No, forget nuclear bombs. One “what are you gonna do about it” Forerunner and he could wipe out Earth. Something that couldn’t be done even by throwing dozens of nuclear bombs could be done with a click-click, just by summoning a single whale.
However, if Earth disappeared, Ian would naturally die as well, so unless the world was truly so fucked that there was no answer, he had absolutely no intention of summoning the Forerunner in reality. Unlike some certain someone somewhere, he would not suddenly unleash a Furube Yurayura and attempt mutual destruction through the Forerunner.
After all, if Earth got blown away because of a single person’s judgment, wouldn’t the people who had been living perfectly fine feel a bit wronged?
The Maginot Line was exactly around the level of the Deficient One. Even that alone could easily cause nuclear bomb-level damage.
Of course, if there really was no other choice, Ian would have no choice but to summon the eldest daughter with tears in his eyes. That day would probably be the day Earth Online’s service ended.
“Now then, we’re here.”
While he was thinking, Ian and the others arrived at the entrance to the Owl.
At the same time, the strange scent of all sorts of medicinal herbs and alchemical ingredients pricked at his nose, and Pleas took in a deep breath with an expression that said she could finally live.
“Suuup, hua……! As expected, my sense of smell is duller when I’m human than when I’m a cat. This much is bearable.”
“When you possess an animal’s body, do you share its senses too?”
Amelia asked. Pleas answered while roughly tousling her hair.
“You take only the good parts and leave out all the bad ones. For example, you keep a cat’s hearing and sense of smell as they are, but you bring over a human’s vocal organs. Got it?”
“Ah, yes. So that’s why you could speak like a person even when you were a cat, unni……”
“If all you did was slip right into a cat’s body, how would that be any different from a superpower? Magic has to be approached more intricately, more accurately, and more precisely than that. Make sure you remember it.”
Pleas pulled Amelia’s cheek out wide, then let go. Amelia jumped up and down in place from the throbbing pain, but Pleas paid her no mind and turned to Ian.
“The reason you came to the Owl is my general store, as expected?”
“That’s right. I’m here to buy materials for Amelia’s magic practice.”
“Nyahang! You’ve come to the right place, dear customer! Come, come, right this way, nya! I’ll treat you to the full course, nya!”
Pleas’s waist bent like a bow. Not backward, but forward.
With bouncy steps, she slipped into the general store ahead of Ian and Amelia. Amelia’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the store reflected in the window.
“Wow…… There are so many fascinating things……”
“Haven’t you been here before? When you were nursing Eric, you were inside the Owl too.”
“Back then, I had just woken up after passing out, so I didn’t have the leisure. I didn’t have time to look around either.”
“Really?”
“Yes. They said the grimoire handled the test to enter the Owl on its own. The price it took was blood, but since I was unconscious at the time, I didn’t even know it had taken anything. I only found out later after Grandfather told me…… M-more importantly, oppa! The things over there. Is it okay if I buy all of them? Or should I save money after all?”
Amelia asked, her eyes brimming with excitement. Ian smiled at her.
“I’m paying, so it’s fine to buy anything you want.”
“Ah, r-really?”
“That’s why I brought you here in the first place. Look through the grimoire, decide on a few spells you want to try, and pick out all the materials needed for them.”
“Waaah……! Thank you, oppa!”
Amelia bowed deeply to Ian. Then she grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the general store. Ian didn’t bother refusing her hand.
Jingle.
When they opened the door to the general store and went inside, a familiar sight greeted him. Pleas was already sitting at the counter, beaming at the two of them.
“If there’s anything you’re looking for, call me anytime, nya! I’ll even bring out everything from the storage room, nya!”
“Thank you, unni! Then…… First, I need to find a venomous snake’s poison sac and mercury……”
Amelia, who had summoned her grimoire at some point, buried her face in the book as she selected materials. Ian left her be and took a look at the other materials on display.
[Virgin’s Blood]
[Elf’s Heart]
[Spirit’s Corpse]
[Debris from a Building Destroyed by a Typhoon]
[Mirror That Reflected a Lunar Halo]
[River Water Where a Drowning Ghost Lingered]
All kinds of materials filled an entire wall. Ian lightly picked out only the ones he could use for alchemy and brought them to the counter. Pleas, who had been leaning back against the chair, looked up at him and grinned.
“Gold, a silver kettle, gunpowder, and a doll. Altogether, it’s 130 million, but I’ll make it 100 million, nya. I can do at least that much for a regular customer, nya.”
“Nice. I won’t refuse.”
Ian smiled and held out his card. Then he took out the smoking herbs from his pocket.
“Pack plenty of this too. I’ve been smoking quite a lot lately, so I’m almost out.”
“Already, nya?”
“Things happened…… Phew, don’t you ever do this kind of thing.”
“What a load of bullshit, nya.”
Pleas shook her head and brought a bundle of smoking herbs from the back of the shop. When she rang everything up, the total came out to 200 million. Since he hadn’t bought rare materials, it was cheaper than he’d expected.
If the kettle and doll hadn’t been made by a mage, he could have bought them for even less, but he couldn’t lower the quality of the magic by going that far. It would be one thing if he were short on money. But that wasn’t exactly the case.
‘It’s not even “kind of,” is it? Mage is just blatantly a job you shouldn’t take up if you don’t have money.’
While Ian was thinking that, Pleas placed the items in a bag and handed it to him. It had a fairly heavy weight to it.
“Thanks.”
“Yeah, yeah, be grateful to this noona, nya. You won’t find another noona like me anywhere, nya.”
“Noona, my ass. How old are you?”
“I’m twenty-six this year, nya!”
“……So you weren’t noona, you were nuna-nim. Nuna-nim, aren’t you embarrassed to be going ‘nya, nya’ at your age?”
“You seriously want to die?”
Pleas’s act broke. Ian let out a small laugh, and Amelia, who had gathered an armful of materials against her chest, groaned as she placed them on the counter. With a clattering sound, the materials spread out to the side.
“Haaah…… Haaah…… Please ring all of these up……”
The types of items she had brought were rather varied. Metals were a given, along with cloth, animal internal organs, colored glass, daggers, and more. She had simply swept up every material that could be used for magic. At the number far exceeding his expectations, Ian let out a hollow laugh.
“Can you even use all of this?”
“You might fail at magic, you know. So they’re spares! I have to retry as many times as it takes until I succeed!”
“No, well, that’s true, but……”
Ian trailed off with a reluctant expression, then stepped back with a bitter smile.
“Fine. I told you to buy everything. I can’t change my words now—”
“Mm! Altogether, it’s 2.8 billion, nya! I’ll swipe the card, nya!”
“Wait. There’s no law saying words once spoken can’t be changed. I retract my statement.”
Ian said it with a serious expression. However, his retraction was not accepted. The card was swiped, and the money was emptily drained from his account. Pleas’s general store did not allow refunds or exchanges, so there was no way to get back the money that had been extorted from him.
“…….”
“…….”
Ian stared straight through Amelia, and Amelia avoided his gaze while fidgeting with her fingers.
“I’m sorrryyyy……”