207 Music Box in a Dream

The day after he and Amelia talked about magic and spent the whole dawn grinding through grimoires, Amelia finally took the first step toward becoming a mage.

She got up in the morning, took a shower in a solemn mood, and then began meditating on the living room sofa. Outside the window, the sun was just beginning to rise, and the dim light, like a shadow, slid diagonally across the still-unlit living room, beginning to brighten it.

Half an hour later, Ian's bedroom door opened, and he emerged looking disheveled. Ian glanced at her sitting in the middle of the living room, then washed up quickly and gulped down a glass of cold water. As the cold water went down his throat, the last traces of sleep vanished.

Clink.

He set the empty cup down in the kitchen and took out his phone to check the time.

March 21, 6:30 a.m.

It was much earlier than his usual wake-up time. He normally got up after nine, but because of the day, he'd opened his eyes on his own much earlier.

Still, ever since becoming a mage, he hadn't really felt much fatigue from lack of sleep, so it wasn't a big deal. It wasn't as if he had no exhaustion at all, but once he put some caffeine in his body, it would go away on its own.

Mm.

On a whim, Ian took the coffee he'd kept in the fridge and poured it into a cup, glug, glug, glug. The sweet, slightly bland smell peculiar to mix coffee drifted up faintly...