Chapter 76
It was an endless cycle of fragile Kyle being knocked down and getting back up again.
If you summarize the contents of the original novel that serves as the setting for this world, <The Academy's Gritty Mage>, in one sentence, it's roughly this.
In the early part of the novel, Kyle himself is absolutely terrible at magic.
From the middle of the story onward, once he'd grown somewhat and could shrug off most incidents without issue, he gets attacked by black mages.
At first, the black mages only popped up one or two at a time, just enough to create a bit of tension.
The point where those cockroach-like bastards start blatantly making a scene and showing their presence in earnest is the hellish beast, Nebula's hatching episode.
I stared intently at the egg sitting on the stage platform beyond the glass window.
Irregular gray spots were scattered across the dark, grimy shell.
One corner was slightly cracked, as if it had bumped into something.
And above all, faint ripples of shadow shimmered around the egg like heat haze.
'It really is exactly as described in the novel.'
Nebula's hatching required a large amount of a mage's mana.
Even places packed with mages are basically only the Magic Tower or the Academy.
Trying to make a move in the Magic Tower, which has hundreds of high-ranking mages, would be practically suicide, so they ended up targeting the easy pickings at the Academy.
In the original story, Kyle does manage to deal with the black mage somehow.
But he falls just one step short and can't stop Nebula from hatching.
And who took care of Nebula?
Who else? Naturally, the Ashen Witch, who handled the Academy's cleanup work.
In other words, I was the one who slogged through it and dealt with it.
Come to think of it, Nebula's egg had originally been in the Magic Tower.
I have no idea why it was here, but that was perfect.
"All right, twenty gold coins! We've got twenty gold coins! Any more bidders?"
If I took that and made an egg tart out of it, I wouldn't have to go through all that trouble later, right?
"Student Lunaris? Didn't you say earlier that there wasn't anything you particularly wanted to buy?"
Dean Raymond, standing beside me, asked with a puzzled look.
"I did, but I absolutely need that one."
I answered as if it were nothing and waited for the hammer to fall.
Who would spend twenty gold coins on some mysterious egg like that? This would be an easy win...
"Thirty gold coins."
A mage in robes sitting in one corner of the general seating below the stage suddenly raised his bidding paddle and bumped the price.
"Ah! Customer 145 has bid thirty gold coins!"
"...Ugh."
My head started throbbing, and before I knew it I was holding my forehead.
No... you're buying that? Seriously?
"Would you like to keep bidding?"
A staff member asked me cautiously.
I let out a low sigh and nodded.
"Yes. Thirty gold coins and one silver coin more..."
"I'm sorry, but the auction's minimum bidding increment is gold coins."
"...Then thirty-one gold coins."
No sooner had the clerk contacted the stage than the host raised his voice.
"Ah~ Customer 145 has bid thirty-one gold coins from VIP Room 3..."
"Forty gold coins."
The price jumped to twice the starting bid in the blink of an eye.
No... what the hell is this?
"Forty-one..."
"Fifty gold coins."
"Fifty-one..."
"Sixty gold coins."
"Sixty-one..."
It went from double to triple just as quickly.
Cheers and whistles erupted from below the stage as the auction, which had caught fire from the very start, burst fully into motion.
"Student Lunaris, why don't you give up? In my aesthetic judgment, that thing isn't worth even twenty gold coins."
In the end, Dean Raymond grabbed my shoulder and started trying to stop me.
"I don't know what'll hatch out of there, but it's still a beast egg, right? And things of unknown origin are usually duds when you open them."
"..."
"Why not buy something else instead? If you're interested in alchemy, I can get you a beginner's kit separately..."
"No. I have to get that one no matter what."
By the way, what is that guy doing, constantly driving the price up?
Just curiosity? Or some deranged collector?
That was when I frowned and looked down below.
"One hundred gold coins."
The familiar robed mage had finally pushed the price into the next order of magnitude.
"Ooh! Customer 145, one hundred gold coins! We've got one hundred gold coins!"
...Ah, now I get it.
How the egg that had been in the Magic Tower ended up in the hands of a black mage.
It was bought at this auction.
Just like right now.
'I don't know how a black mage got into the Magic Tower, which hates black magic, but...'
Come to think of it, it's not that strange.
The beast that had even terrorized the train headed for the Magic Tower right on cue was also controlled by a black mage.
If he put his mind to it, disguising his identity wasn't completely impossible.
"Customer, would you like to continue bidding?"
The clerk asked me with a tense expression.
I looked down at the mage in the robe, his hood pulled low, and said in a low voice,
"Two hundred gold coins."
"...Pardon? Two hundred gold coins, is that correct?"
"Yes, that's right. Two hundred."
If it were anyone else, maybe not, but I couldn't afford to be outdone in front of a black mage.
The moment the number I uttered was relayed through the clerk to the stage host.
The robed mage on the lower floor suddenly turned around.
Under the hood pulled low.
His shadowed gaze was aimed precisely at me beyond the VIP room's glass.
He stared at me as if he could see me perfectly.
He rubbed his rough, bearded chin, then suddenly curled his lips into a grin.
Then he mouthed a message to me, one syllable at a time.
Found you.
The moment I understood what that meant, my eyes narrowed on their own.
"...Hey, clerk."
"Y-yes! How may I help you?"
"I heard that the glass in this VIP room is supposed to be one-way, so people outside can't see in."
At my words, the clerk nodded repeatedly.
"Yes, that's right. We've cast a high-level barrier spell, so the inside absolutely can't be seen from the outside."
"Hmm... really?"
I propped my chin on my hand and quietly stared at the guy—more precisely, at the beard on his chin.
"He could see me even though he shouldn't have been able to..."
As I muttered to myself, the host's voice on the stage rang out—thud, thud, thud—like a war horn announcing the start of battle.
*
"Congratulations, customer. How would you like to handle the payment?"
"...Ah, right."
The instant I heard that, it was as if cold water had been dumped on me and I snapped fully awake.
Come to think of it, I hadn't brought a single coin with me.
Two hundred gold coins.
...Where the hell was I supposed to get that kind of money?
I turned my head stiffly and sent a distress signal to Dean Raymond.
"U-um... Student Lunaris?"
But Dean Raymond was sweating too, with an awkward expression.
"I do have gold coins, but... if I buy the Book of the Microcosm, it'll be cutting it close. This is turning into a problem."
"..."
Come to think of it, Dean Raymond had almost never been helpful.
"Or how about I buy this instead of the Book of the Microcosm...?"
"Then what would have been the point of coming all the way to the Magic Tower?"
At my words, Dean Raymond gave a cough and asked the clerk,
"Could you take a check? Or let me pay after the auction ends...?"
"I'm sorry, elder. According to the auction house rules, payment must be made immediately after the winning bid."
At those words, the clerk shook his head apologetically.
"We've had far too many cases of people tossing out blank checks and then failing to pay, ruining the auction... so we can't do anything about it."
"No! But shouldn't my name buy me at least that much leeway? Do you know who I am?!"
"Even if you're a VIP customer and an elder, once we start making exceptions, it'll only turn into a loud fairness issue."
"Grr... you're so inflexible, honestly..."
Apparently, since this place survives on trust, the clerk kept bowing and asking for understanding.
Even Dean Raymond was helpless.
"Then what do we do..."
"If you're short on cash, you can also leave a valuable item as collateral."
The clerk carefully suggested that this was already a very generous concession.
Hmm, collateral...
I thought about it for a moment, then spoke.
"Hey, can I consign an item to the auction on the spot?"
"Huh? Consign it?"
The clerk blinked and asked back.
"If it's something with clear rarity value, that's fine, but what kind of item is it?"
"Ah, I'm going to make one right now. Could you bring me a wizard board? Preferably a large one, with plenty of space for writing."
Even as a VIP customer, you can at least buy me a notebook, can't you?
"What? Ah, understood. I'll go check."
After the clerk left, still looking puzzled, the dean narrowed his eyes and asked me,
"Student Lunaris? What exactly are you trying to do?"
"Ah, nothing much."
I tapped my temple and said,
"I'm going to sell this."
"Hm?"
Soon, the clerk returned carrying a large wizard board.
"There happened to be one left, so I brought it."
"Ah, thank you."
I swept my arm, winding the mana in the air around my right hand.
Then, without hesitation, I poured mana into the wizard board.
With every movement of my fingers, the path of starlight mana turned into equations and letters, engraved onto the board.
"Hmm, trying to lay out the theory and write it down makes it feel a bit awkward..."
My magic depends heavily on intuition and feel.
It's more like, "roughly do it like this and it turns out like that..." kind of thing.
It was a headache trying to organize that into equations and spells.
But once I started writing, it wasn't like I couldn't organize it at all.
"...!"
From behind me, Dean Raymond, who had been watching me with his arms folded, slowly widened his eyes.
"C-could it be that what you're writing right now is..."
Before long, his face was filled with shock.
"The theory of magic that uses natural mana?"
"Yes, well... though that's only the absolute basics."
At my answer, the clerk standing beside us dropped his jaw.
"T-the use of natural mana...!"
As if he were a mage from the Magic Tower rather than merely an auction-house clerk, he seemed to recognize immediately what I was doing.
Good thing. I don't have to add any unnecessary explanation.
"Hmm... maybe this much is enough."
I brushed off my hands and waved the wizard board—or rather, the freshly written magical tome—right in front of the clerk's face.
"This should count as a rare item, right?"
The clerk nodded, trembling like a leaf.
"I-I'll go fetch the manager... no, the host!"