Episode 3: I’ve Come to Introduce a Good Product! (3)
‘Hmm…’
Watching his disciple fall silent once again, Chepeshu tilted his head.
Unable to tell whether Sid had given up on his dream or not, the old monk did not know how to console him.
“Let’s go down, Abbot. You worried for nothing, didn’t you?”
“Huh? I’m fine, you brat. Ha ha!”
At the fifteen-year-old boy’s smile, Chepeshu laughed heartily too.
Even if he could not reach a conclusion right now, being able to protect that smile in this moment was a great joy to him.
The two descended the stairs hand in hand, as before.
Perhaps his mood had cleared while he was alone, for not a trace of worry remained on the boy’s face.
“But Abbot. The promise we always made, it still stands, right?”
“Hmm?”
“That if I can shoot a Fireball, I can leave the monastery.”
“Fireball?”
The old monk’s chest grew tight.
The boy, who still had not abandoned his dream, was both pitiful and admirable.
Hiding his complicated emotions, he forced a smile.
“Of course, you rascal! If you shoot even a single Fireball in front of me, I’ll enroll you in the Academy. Why, this means my first mage will come from among my disciples! Ha ha!”
“No lying, okay?”
“When have you ever seen me say one thing and do another?”
Though he had laughed to comfort his disciple, a smile spread across the old monk’s lips.
[Fireball. Based on your current proficiency, 963 mana coins will be consumed.]
A single Fireball that could be fired with ‘963 coins.’
It was a number that would require gathering mana until the next day to fire, but to Sid, who had already read the passage on Fireball, it was a piece of cake.
As briefly mentioned before, Sid possessed a special talent.
The talent to attempt magic just by reading books, without a teacher.
And this was the moment that talent was about to shine.
* * *
Thwack! Thwack!
The crude hoe scratched the earth.
The hoe, gripped in thick arms, dug into the ground like a swordsman’s blade.
Diallo plowed the field, sweating profusely.
The evenly turned soil seemed to testify to the diligence of a man who had handled no small task alone.
“Whew.”
The man who had cleared the entire mid-slope of the mountain with a crude hoe caught his breath.
Seeing the neatly tilled soil behind him, a smile naturally spread across his face.
“Brother! Brother Diallo!”
Just then, a man came running from above.
It was Murphy, the monk in charge of meals.
As Murphy, who should have been preparing lunch, came running over, Diallo’s eyebrows twitched.
His thick jaw and eyebrows, as burly as his massive muscles, twitched along with them.
“What is it? Don’t tell me you’re already calling me for lunch.”
“Sid! It’s Sid! He stood before the Abbot saying he’ll shoot a Fireball!”
“Fireball?”
A heated breath escaped from Diallo’s throat.
He had thought the boy would realize his situation and give up yesterday, yet here he was, acting up again.
It was something the youngest had done since childhood, but Diallo’s face darkened at the youngest who still had not matured at fifteen.
Indeed, to Diallo, who had been so diligent as to plow the mountainside since morning, ‘magic’ was a pie in the sky—nothing but an eyesore.
He set down his hoe and wiped his sweat.
Mumbling in reproach of Sid’s behavior, Murphy grumbled,
“That’s why I should have taught him a lesson yesterday…….”
“Forget it. Let’s go up, Murphy.”
“Yes!”
The two climbed the stairs to watch the Fireball that Sid was about to ‘launch.’
Though his lips remained calm, there was a reason Diallo was angry.
In the past, Diallo too had been a boy who nurtured dreams.
From a young age, he fostered a dream of becoming a knight and boasted that he would become a general.
In fact, he had achieved results satisfactory enough by learning swordsmanship and mastering sword energy, so one could well imagine his passion.
And at the age of fifteen, with Chepeshu’s support, he had headed to the capital.
An age when he believed anything was possible with perseverance and effort.
But such days did not last long.
‘The world was disgusting.’
He believed everything Sid dreamed of was futile.
Perhaps he saw his own past in the youngest, who inflated such vain dreams.
“Brother! You’ve come!”
“Welcome, Brother!”
“Yeah. Has he shot the Fireball yet?”
“He’s shooting it now! He’ll fail anyway. His vessel was small from the start.”
The monks, who had cast aside their duties, gathered around the main hall.
After confirming the nine members of the household, Chepeshu, and Brother Antonio, Diallo smirked.
Chepeshu looked down at Sid with profound eyes, while Antonio also wore a troubled expression.
“Hmph!”
Diallo snorted and crossed his arms.
Today, he intended to give that eyesore a sound thrashing.
Standing straight, Sid puffed out his chest and met the Abbot’s gaze.
Chepeshu too sensed that Sid was different from before.
However, there was no way a boy who lacked the talent to be a monk, let alone any mana, could use magic overnight.
Thinking it merely the stubbornness of an immature youngest, everyone focused their attention on him.
“Try it when you are ready.”
“Yes sir!”
No emotion could be felt in Chepeshu’s tone.
Only his worry about how to handle the immature youngest grew.
Sid exhaled and calmed his mind.
When he closed his eyes tightly and opened them again, the calm message of the passbook was cheering him on.
[Balance] *1,533 (Chepeshu Monastery)
‘Good.’
Conscious of the passbook tucked in his chest, Sid regulated his breathing.
Before using magic, the passbook had asked him to place it near his heart, where the Circle resided.
‘Phew. The mana needed for one Fireball is 963 coins. The mana gathered since yesterday is 1,533 coins. I have enough mana. I can do this. Let’s go.’
A quiet wind brushed past his ears.
Feeling his heart pound, the boy calmed his mind.
Abbot Chepeshu watched him with a serious face.
‘Let’s try.’
The boy clasped his hands and felt the mana circling around his heart.
Closing his eyes and focusing on the image, a faint circle surrounding his heart came into perception.
Sid focused on the circle and let the mana flow.
This one circle, which could barely be called clear, represented the boy’s meager talent.
1st Circle.
It was the moment magic was about to begin.
Rrrrrumble…….
The circle wrapped around his heart rotated, sending mana through his chest and down his arms.
The passbook in his chest reacted to that Circle and released the stored mana.
Soon, a tingling sensation like electricity stimulated his fingertips, and a massive power he had never felt before surged through his body.
The boy savored the overwhelming moment and created the incantation needed for Fireball.
Above his hands, a clear magic circle was drawn.
A circle symbolizing magic.
Complex straight lines clustered and intertwined, forming a shape.
‘Oho?’
Chepeshu realized that it was ‘real magic.’
Hadn’t mana that was definitely absent until last night been rising through the boy’s body?
And if he had drawn out mana and even created a magic circle, only one thing remained.
The name of the magic.
Magic reacts explosively to the voice that calls its name.
Of course, as circles stacked and one grew accustomed to magic, this process would quicken, but Sid, who was ‘succeeding’ at magic for the first time in his life, savored this moment.
Like steamed rice chewed thoroughly between the teeth, drawing out sweetness.
Magic held a subtle sweetness.
Swish!
Finally, the boy’s right arm rose toward the sky.
And vivid red flames burst forth from within the magic circle.
Diallo and the other monks, who had not believed he would succeed, gaped.
At that very moment.
Sid succeeded in magic for the first time in his life.
“Fireball!”
[Transaction] Withdrawal
[Amount Withdrawn] *963 (Fireball)
[Amount Deposited]
[Balance] *570 (Chepeshu Monastery)
[Transaction Complete.]
Kwaang!
A single, distinct fireball shot into the sky.
The monks raised their heads at the smooth fireball that was neither insufficient nor excessive.
As if celebrating the birth of a new mage, the launched Fireball rose high into the sky and scattered.
It was a splendor like fireworks.
“Wow…….”
“Th-that’s real?”
Having squeezed out all his mana, the boy felt a rapidly draining fatigue.
However, the satisfaction of succeeding in magic made the fatigue insignificant.
His heart simply pounded with the emotion of having succeeded and the destiny that would now begin.
“How……!”
Chepeshu, who had not believed Sid would succeed, also gaped.
When he soon came to his senses and looked at his disciple, the former greenhorn smiled bashfully, having become a mage who had ignited a flame.
Sid brushed away the sweat on his forehead and smiled brightly.
“You’ll let me enroll in the Academy, right?”
* * *
“Here. Drink.”
“Thank you.”
Chepeshu handed Sid a steaming cup of tea.
It was a sweet tea mixed with tea leaves cultivated at the monastery and rock honey.
Chepeshu’s personal chamber, where the other monks could not enter.
Inside, the Abbot sat alone with the boy, his expression complex in many ways.
Whether he knew his master’s complicated heart or not, Sid sipped his tea with an excited face.
[Transaction] Deposit
[Amount Withdrawn]
[Amount Deposited] *51
[Balance] *621 (Chepeshu Monastery)
‘I’ve already recovered 51 coins!’
Sid smiled brightly as he watched the recovered mana being ‘deposited.’
The balance alone already far exceeded his capacity.
The sensation of succeeding in his first magic lingered at his fingertips, and his heart, having felt the power of the Circle, thumped loudly.
Moreover, unable to contain his excitement at the thought of being able to enter the Academy, the boy could not hide his exhilaration.
Clearing his throat, Chepeshu slowly opened his mouth.
“I didn’t know you’d really succeed, you brat! If you were going to succeed like that, you should have given me a hint last night. You made me look surprised in front of the monks for nothing!”
“Hehe, sorry. I wanted to surprise you.”
The boy laughed hollowly and shook his head.
In fact, if it had been yesterday, he would not have been able to use it due to insufficient mana.
Without a hint of doubt, the Abbot accepted his disciple’s words.
He raised the teacup in front of him and studied the boy’s face.
A shaved head like the other monks, and skin blackened by the sun.
While Diallo and the other monks cursed Sid as lazy, Chepeshu knew.
He knew the sincerity of the fifteen-year-old boy who had worked harder than anyone.
After taking a sip of the warm tea, he set down the cup and continued.
“So, since when was this possible? Who did you learn Fireball from? Were you hiding it all this time to make a fool of me?”
Suspicion and complicated joy could be felt in his expression.
Sid, who had been sipping tea, smiled bashfully and set down his cup.
“I read it in the book you had hidden away! It had writings on how to flow mana and what mindset to have.”
“You read it in a book? That’s all?”
Chepeshu clicked his tongue.
It would take a full week even learning from a proper magic teacher!
Fireball was not a magic one could use just by reading a few lines from a book.
Realizing his master was genuinely surprised, Sid scratched his head awkwardly.
A red flush appeared over the boy’s darkly tanned skin.
“I thought you’d be happy. I wanted to show you that I could do it.”
“Hah! Of course I’m happy! Naturally!”
Chepeshu laughed heartily and struck the table.
The cup he had drunk from rattled, and he grabbed it in surprise.
Once the cup settled, the two looked at each other and burst into laughter.
In fact, there were a few things Chepeshu intuited.
Among mages, there were cases where the vessel’s size grew late, and the monastic life could have grown his basic mana as much as he had trained his mind and body.
Smiling broadly, Sid waited for talk of the Academy.
Having confirmed the boy’s will and talent were firm, Chepeshu had no intention of stopping him further.
Hadn’t he been the one to bring up the promise not to go back on his word?
“Alright, good. I must enroll you in the Academy as promised! They recruit new students around the time the flower petals fall after spring passes, so I’ll get you in then. However……”
“Yes?”
At the serious atmosphere, Sid took the cup from his lips.
What worried the master was that the source of the boy’s power might be corrupted.
Furrowing his brow, he opened his mouth.
At his master’s sharp question, Sid felt his heart sink.
“Did you by any chance… dabble in black magic or cursed objects? You may be honest. No, tell me honestly.”
- To be continued in Episode 4 -