Chapter 106
“Why did you have to kick the door off its hinges!?”
No, the door was old and creaky.
“I broke it because I was going to buy a new one and replace it anyway.”
“Then couldn’t you have just brought some tools and taken it apart...?”
Aris was puzzled, but it didn’t really matter.
The sun was shining, and I was in a good mood.
That was all that mattered.
“Let’s clean up the little things for now.”
I was in top condition, and I’d even finished making all the high-grade potions.
Thanks to Aris’s Purification Magic, I felt refreshed.
“But could you wash up before you come out? Purification Magic is only a temporary measure...”
“Why? It’s fine for a day or two, isn’t it?”
“You’ve been holed up in there for several weeks.”
“Has it really been that long?”
Honestly, I wasn’t sure.
“But was there really that much to study?”
“It was a little difficult. I also studied for my final exams.”
Aris looked around my workshop.
Well, I was still human, so I cleaned up from time to time while I worked.
That kept it from reaching the level of a shut-in’s room.
Aside from the trash can in my Inventory starting to spew out its contents.
“You studied magic engineering too?”
“Yeah. Apparently, I need to be able to repair simple things like flying magic tools.”
Of course, it didn’t really matter since I could fly.
“Flying... magic tools? Ah, you were preparing for questions about simple repairs to magic tools!”
“Exactly.”
“But have flying magic tools ever appeared on the exam...? Though I think they were included in the magic engineering final exam’s scope.”
“Does it really matter?”
Knowing it was useful either way.
Aris looked around my workshop, then turned to me.
“Yumia, you studied barrier magic?”
“Can you tell?”
I had honed Oz Caster and barrier magic.
After using it in the modern world last time, I’d realized it was definitely useful.
Since the Inventory could also be considered a barrier, I thought I might as well study it.
And I’d achieved some results of my own.
“I can’t catch up to you in barrier magic anymore...”
Aris wore an awkward expression.
“What did you do, Aris?”
“I went over the Unique Magic passed down through my family, as well as basic magic in general.”
“Yaaawn. I did what I usually do.”
Linia came down to the first floor, rubbing her eyes.
Since Linia’s magical abilities were superior to mine anyway, she would probably pass without much trouble.
Practical ability and everything else meant nothing in the face of overwhelming skill.
Ah, should I just bulldoze through with mana too?
‘Still, I’ve practiced Oz Caster a lot, so I should give it a try.’
I couldn’t use it without a delay like Karnarof, but its range and casting speed had improved considerably.
I could now move freely anywhere within a 200-meter radius.
I accepted the documents Aris handed me.
“This is the schedule for the Rank 1 mage exam.”
“Oh.”
I tore open the envelope and pulled out the parchment inside.
[Rank 1 Battle Mage Exam [Practical]]
I’d look at it later.
“Then shall we get going?”
“Let’s do it! I’ll smash everything and come back!”
“...I don’t think you’re supposed to smash things....”
“Huh? Really?”
“Of course.”
“Hmph.”
I thought being a battle mage meant smashing things.
Linia and Aris seemed to be ready.
I packed a few things, then set off.
* * *
After meeting Robert, who joined us along the way, we boarded the carriage we’d reserved.
The exam site wasn’t in the imperial capital near Reinhart, but at the Water Mage Tower in the western Empire.
We had to travel to Lien, a small city near the tower.
So even though we took a fairly luxurious carriage, it still took a long time.
But I wasn’t bored.
I had recently started playing a survival game set in a forest.
“Hyahahahaha!! Hand over everything you have, and I’ll spare your lives!”
Because events like this occasionally happened.
In real life.
“Huh?”
“They’re women! Three women and one frail man! And there’s only a coachman! No guards!”
It seemed bandits had surrounded the carriage.
I stopped playing and stuck my head out of the carriage.
I saw a bandit with a menacing face.
He had some mana wrapped around him, but he was weak.
“Hey.”
“What?”
“Think about it. Three women and one shrimp. So why are there no guards, and why would I have a sword in my hand?”
“Kheheh, who cares about that crap!?”
“Really?”
Well, if they had the intelligence to figure that out, they probably wouldn’t be bandits.
A few minutes later.
Linia’s magic had bound the bandits tightly.
“Gaaaaah!! Please spare me!!”
“You never said anything about a mage!”
“My poor liiiiife!!!”
“Boss, should I spin him around some more?”
I was holding one bandit by both legs and swinging him around.
I could have tormented them more, but I stopped there because Aris was watching.
I had to keep it all-ages.
“Why am I your boss?”
“Would it kill you to play along?”
Besides, if we were counting age, I was older anyway.
“Anyway, what kind of idiot attacks us?”
“Actually, I think it’s stranger that they’d rob us for traveling this far without hiring guards.”
“Then shouldn’t we be more careful?”
There was a saying that you should be careful around women, children, and the elderly.
Though this was a somewhat different situation.
I also caught all the ones who had run away using the combination of Oz Caster and Dragon Eyes, then put them in my Inventory.
“You really are strong. Those men are the Wet Rabbits gang, notorious around here, but...”
“They were fairly strong.”
Around C- to B-rank?
Every one of them could manipulate mana, even if only in a crude, makeshift way.
“So, how far have we come?”
“About two-thirds of the way. I’ll ensure the rest of the journey is comfortable.”
* * *
“We’ve arrived. What shall I do with your luggage? Shall I take it to your lodgings?”
“No, just give it all to me.”
It was much easier to put everything in my Inventory and carry it that way.
Besides, we didn’t have that much luggage.
“Waaah! So this is Lien!”
“There are... a lot of streams here.”
And the faint mana in the air felt pleasant.
“This is Lien, the city of water magic.”
Linia said that as she pulled a strand of hair off her face.
“It’s a city with a mage tower, as well as the Empire’s largest supplier of mana water.”
“Oh?”
Mana water.
I’d heard it was unstable liquid-form mana used in making potions, processed so it could be used in other magic tools.
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to buy some of the water here. It really does have health benefits!”
“Really?”
Isn’t that just some scam like negative ions?
“It functions similarly to a simple elixir. Of course, it can’t compare to a true elixir, but it does seem to have a definite restorative effect.”
Robert answered my question.
“I see.”
It seemed to have some benefits after all.
Then should I buy some?
But there was something I had to do first.
“Shall we find the lodgings we reserved?”
“Let’s do that.”
By the time we walked to the lodgings, it was already too late to do anything.
The lodgings weren’t bad.
I didn’t know whether the money came from the school or Karnarof’s pocket, but it was awfully generous.
I immediately threw myself onto the bed.
“Nya-ha! This is nice!”
I turned on my portable game console.
This was pretty fun too.
“Yumia, you should wash up before lying down.”
“You wash first.”
This is an important scene.
Robert was staying in another room with the other person who had come along.
We had booked the carriages individually and billed the school, but the school had arranged the rooms for us.
“By the way, what are you planning to do with those bandits?”
“Oh.”
Come to think of it, I hadn’t dealt with the bandits yet.
“Where should I dump them?”
I’d rather sell them if possible.
“Or should I deal with them the Hunter way?”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s a little hard to explain here.”
It wasn’t exactly good for one’s sensibilities.
“How about using the Adventurer Guild?”
Linia suggested it to me.
“Huh?”
“There’s a high chance these men are wanted criminals.”
“The Adventurer Guild, huh?”
I’d heard of it before.
Maybe I should go.
I was bored, too.
Playing games was fun, but I was starting to feel stiff from sitting around.
Dealing with the bandits wasn’t enough to satisfy me.
“I’ll be back!”
“What are you going to do about dinner!?”
“I’ll eat something on my own!!”
* * *
The Adventurer Guild was quite large.
But finding the reception desk wasn’t difficult.
It practically announced its presence by shouting, I’m the reception desk!
There were a great many counters, too.
“Welcome to the Lien Adventurer Guild. How may I help you?”
I unloaded the lot onto a counter, stacked up like a game of Tetris.
The receptionist’s exhausted eyes instantly widened.
“I-isn’t this the Wet Rabbits gang!? How did you capture these slippery men...?”
“I caught them on the way here.”
“First, I’ll check whether they match the wanted posters. Also, do you have an adventurer’s card or another form of identification?”
“Nope, don’t have one. I’m a student.”
“Then please wait inside the guild building. I’ll call someone to handle this!”
“Hmm.”
After saying that, the employee zoomed off somewhere else.
...Was that really okay?
I hoped this would be resolved by dinnertime.
Waiting around was boring, but it felt awkward to play games, so I decided to look around the guild.
“Boss, one piece of jerky and a mug of beer, please.”
“Haha! We don’t sell alcohol to young folks!”
“What?”
“If you really want a drink, come with an adult! You might be able to get a sip!”
“Ngeh. Really? I can’t?”
“You cannot!”
But now that I thought about it, the beer here had tasted bad.
It must have been terrible beer.
As I turned away, I saw a woman sitting at a table and shouting.
“Damn it, why won’t this work!? I definitely did it exactly as the book said!”
She was quite beautiful, and wrestling with a magic book.
‘Sliiink.’
I pretended not to look as I sneaked a glance at the magic book.
But the problem looked similar to the book Karnarof had given me.
No... it was almost exactly the same.
That was magic circle theory.
And fairly advanced material at that.
It was a chapter on various techniques for reducing a magic circle’s mana cost and speeding up its activation.
She flipped to another page in her practice notebook and began writing formulas in the blank space again.
“Hmm.”
A formula was being written.
But there was something...
“Hmm. Hmm.”
Ah, I couldn’t stand it anymore.
I approached her and said,
“Ah. That’s not how you do it.”