Do you happen to know what the sentence for arson is?
If it’s judged to be intentional, you get fifteen years in prison. Even if it was a mistake, you get around three. Considering that the price for murder—a grave crime no human being should ever commit—is only about ten years, you could say the crime of arson weighs even heavier than murder.
Raised as a model citizen under an aunt who took care of me so well my own parents could have stepped aside, I knew very well how terrifying arson was.
And yet I had accidentally set a fire.
If there was one silver lining in this misfortune, it was that the fire I’d raised wasn’t burning reality, but a community forum.
[Guys, but wasn’t 9th-rank supposed to be the highest rank?]
[If the Archmage is here, please look at this post]
[Where did all the alchemy punks gooo? T_T Running away because you’re scared won’t help, you knooow?]
[From now on, I will treat newbies with care]
[Actually, this is all part of the Archmage’s grand design]
…Would it really be okay to just leave this alone?
Whether favorable or malicious, I knew that attention in communities like this was never exactly a good thing. First, I had to do something about it somehow.
For now, I decided to delete the post I’d written.
[Where should a newbie learn magic?](452)
No, how long had it even been since I posted it, and there were already four hundred comments? Shaking my head, I entered my post and tried to find the delete button. But no matter how I looked, I couldn’t see a delete button anywhere.
“Wait, there’s no delete function?”
A sigh escaped me on its own. Unfortunately, it seemed I’d just have to leave the post as it was.
Before coming up with another method, I glanced at the state of the gallery.
[Emergency!!!!!! Great Alchemists, assemble!!!!!]
[I can’t stand watching those magician vermin act all high and mighty lolololol]
[Isn’t this basically the first time a 10th-rank mage has appeared in the gallery?]
[I want to be an Archmage too]
[Lord Archmage, can I become an Archmage even if I don’t have unique magic?]
[Everyone, be careful with newbies from now on]
The gallery was still blazing away.
It didn’t look like it would be put out on its own.
“Mmm…”
Swallowing a groan, I decided to bring out the final method.
“Should I just sleep for now?”
Time sometimes became medicine. Things that wouldn’t be solved no matter how hard you tried could, in everyday life, quite often resolve themselves if you simply left them alone and watched for a while.
So I decided to leave the extinguishing of the gallery to time.
***
The next day, I woke up early, washed up simply, and left the house.
I walked toward the address Gu Sechan had sent me. Every now and then, the desire to take a bus raised its head in my chest, but when I recalled my utterly empty bank account, it naturally lowered again.
Anyway, after walking for quite a while, I saw Gu Sechan waiting for me in an empty lot. His dazzling hair was a bonus.
“Hey! You’re late!”
“I arrived exactly on time for our appointment.”
“You should’ve come thirty minutes early and waited like me!”
“What are you saying, delinquent? And what’s with that hair?”
At my question, Gu Sechan laughed, swept back his brightly shining hair, and said,
“This? Haha! How is it? I dyed it to refresh myself in celebration of becoming a mage!”
“It suits you.”
It wasn’t empty flattery. It really did suit him. The guy already had the impression of a delinquent, and now that he had hair like that, someone who didn’t know him might genuinely mistake him for one.
“Oh, by the way! Did you see the community yesterday? A 10th-rank mage appeared!!”
As if he’d suddenly remembered, Gu Sechan clapped his hands and began bringing up a familiar topic.
“…Is a 10th-rank mage that amazing?”
“Of course! Starting from 7th-rank, mages are called Archmages, and among them, 10th-rank is the highest!”
As far as I knew, this guy had joined the community not too long before I had. Yet he seemed to know far more than I expected. Just how much of the gallery had he looked through in that short amount of time?
“People were saying this is the first time a 10th-rank mage has appeared in the community! It’s incredible!”
Looking closely, the area under Gu Sechan’s eyes was dark and smudged. Judging by the dark circles, he must have stayed up all night looking at the community.
“…I see.”
I played dumb and gave him a vague nod. It wasn’t exactly the atmosphere to say that the 10th-rank mage who had heated up the community all night was actually me.
“Uwaaaah—! I want to see a 10th-rank mage too! They must use incredibly cool and beautiful magic, right?!”
Watching Gu Sechan grin like a madman as he stared up at the sky, I shook my head. I was scared of the reaction he’d show if I revealed the truth. He’d always been the type to be interested in occult things like this.
Originally, I’d planned to explain the situation to him and ask what I should do, but it seemed I’d have to resolve this matter on my own.
“Ah! This isn’t the time for this! We have to go to work!”
“Hold on. You should at least explain what kind of work we’re doing.”
“The broker will explain that. I don’t know yet either. So let’s hurry up and go!”
No, was it really right to go without even knowing what kind of work it was? Or maybe it was an issue with Gu Sechan’s intelligence, since he’d jumped at the job just because it paid a lot. I wanted to think there was no way someone like that existed, but because I’d seen him act stupid so many times, my suspicions grew and grew.
“Where are we supposed to meet?”
“It was somewhere around here… If we go behind that alley, he should be there.”
Following behind Gu Sechan, I saw a shabby-looking office.
“A licensed real estate agent?”
“Follow me.”
It was an out-of-the-way place, an alley with no people at all. As Gu Sechan confidently strode forward and opened the door, I followed him inside before it closed.
The inside of the office was completely different from how it looked from the outside. Desks and chairs were arranged neatly. The bookshelves, packed full of books, were filled not with books related to real estate, but with English-language originals that seemed related to magic.
“Don’t touch them. They’re expensive.”
Just as I was about to pull out a book and read it for a moment, a cold, toneless voice reached me. I awkwardly withdrew my hand and bowed my head slightly.
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
It was a man who seemed to be the owner of this office. Wearing a stiff suit, he adjusted his glasses and asked us,
“You are the mages who applied for the ghoul hunt, correct?”
“Ah! Yes, that, that.”
When the blockhead Gu Sechan nodded, as if only now remembering what this was about, the cold man in the suit wordlessly began leaving the office.
“Now, let’s follow him!”
Gu Sechan grabbed my wrist and pulled me along.
“Fine, I’ll follow, so let go.”
“Wahaha! It’s work, work! I’m a real mage too!”
Apparently happy to be called a mage, Gu Sechan grinned to himself and let go of my wrist.
Pfft.
Seeing Gu Sechan like that made me laugh despite myself. He had a talent for making situations feel less serious. I trudged along after him.
***
We moved in the suited man’s car.
After sitting in the back seat of the luxury sedan and driving for about ten minutes, the car came to a stop. It seemed we’d arrived at our destination.
“What kind of place is this?”
“I dunno.”
Ignoring the useless Gu Sechan, I looked at the suited man as he slowly got out of the car. Perhaps noticing the meaning in my gaze, he looked at us and began explaining.
“…I assume you were briefed in advance, but I’ll explain it simply once more. The objective is the disposal of ghouls discovered in the sewer. According to the report, there are about three of them, so I believe it will be over quickly. I’ll be waiting here.”
After finishing his words, he got back into the car. I turned my head and looked at Gu Sechan. He was still scratching his head with a blank look on his face.
“So what do we do now?”
“We go hunting, what else?”
Gu Sechan took a baseball bat out of the duffel bag slung over his back.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
“Mm, feels good.”
After swinging it through the air a few times, he nodded in satisfaction.
“You’re not using magic?”
“My magic is close-combat type.”
Close-combat? Wasn’t it common sense that all mages fought at range? Between the community I’d seen yesterday and now close-combat mages, the romantic ideal of mages I’d carried was breaking apart.
“But what am I supposed to do? I haven’t learned magic, and I didn’t bring a weapon.”
I’d come here without bringing anything, even though I knew perfectly well it was dangerous work. At first glance, anyone would naturally call me a complete liability, but I was confident. After all, Gu Sechan had told me to come empty-handed.
“I brought your weapon too. Here, take these.”
Gu Sechan pulled a whole bunch of yellow paper bundles out of the duffel bag and handed them to me.
“What are these?”
“Talismans.”
No, you have to tell me how to use them. Wasn’t that explanation way too short? When I complained without holding back, he grinned as if he’d expected it and said,
“Throw them with your heart in it. That should do it.”
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
“I don’t know anything more. I saw it on the community too.”
“No, then…”
“Ah! It’s already this late? Let’s hurry!”
Gu Sechan looked at his watch, startled, and hurriedly began running toward the sewer. Was it just my imagination that it felt like he was running away because he couldn’t be bothered to explain?
“Hey! Switch weapons with me!”
Watching his back disappear into the sewer, I followed after him.
***
It had been fifty minutes since we started wandering through the sewer.
“Ah, fuck.”
I’d thought we were getting used to this job, taking down the ghouls roaming around easily enough, but apparently not.
“Kkyaaaaaaagh—!”
I realized that fact when I saw Gu Sechan surrounded by a pack of ghouls.
His limbs were torn apart, his entrails scattered, and his once-flamboyant hair was dyed with blood.
This was already my second time seeing a person die.
I learned something important.
The fact that even a mage, if he let his guard down, could not escape death.