The sudden appearance of a visitor made me jump and turn around in surprise.
“What the—there was someone here?”
The woman, with round glasses and her red hair tied up high, wore a white lab coat you’d expect to see in a hospital.
Judging by her healthy tan, she seemed to be from the southern region.
“Larisha, there’s no treatment today. The wolf has completely recovered.”
“What? That’s possible?!”
Ah, so that’s Larisha. The mage from the 79th floor whose name Jen borrowed earlier.
She looked around, perhaps wondering where the large wolf had gone, and soon locked eyes with Taro, who was lying at my feet, rolling around.
“…That pathetic little puppy is the wolf?”
[Pathetic?!]
“I get it now. So the wolf was a summoned creature, and that lady over there healed it, right? If she’s capable of something like that, then she must be Lady Raberia—the one currently making waves in the Empire.”
Spot on.
I found myself nodding unconsciously at her logical and precise deduction.
“Nice to meet you, Lady Rayes. I’m Larisha, a mage from the Magic Tower.”
“Larisha is actually a water mage who used to treat the wolf.”
“Oh, hello!”
Her hand was cool to the touch.
It felt similar to when I shook Jen’s hand last time—must be a trait of water mages.
Larisha looked at me with her mysterious golden eyes and said,
“Someone’s looking for you right now.”
“…Sorry?”
“I can sense events related to people. It feels like someone’s desperately searching for you.”
She smiled mysteriously and said something I couldn’t quite grasp.
“Who…?”
Just as I was about to ask her more, the teleportation circle outside the door activated again.
It was the club president and members we ran into earlier!
“Whew, it took time getting the 79th floor pass.”
“Where are Jen and Larisha?”
“President! The cake crumbs here say they went that way!”
They even talk to cake. Instinctively, I started backing away.
“Larisha, huh? Have I seen those guys before?”
“I kind of borrowed your name earlier. The lady here was visiting unofficially.”
“Hmm, I see. Got it. I’ll send them off nicely.”
“Thanks, sis!”
She looked so dependable and trustworthy that I ended up calling her unnie without even realizing it.
A perfect mage—kind, smart, and reliable.
My biased view of mages was starting to shift.
Larisha walked confidently over to the mages rummaging through the trash can.
“Looking for me?”
“Wait—Larisha?!”
Even though I’d been wearing a deep hood earlier and Larisha and I have a notable height difference, they didn’t seem to suspect a thing.
“If you join our club, we’ll let you use a rare ingredient: the fifth tooth of a dragon we got from the Fairy Swamp in the Western Mountains!”
“Oh wow, really?”
…Huh?
I tilted my head at Larisha’s voice, full of anticipation.
“All you have to do is sign here! Become our comrade and help us develop magical tools! You’ll be swimming in money!”
“In money!”
The members behind the president chimed in cheerfully.
Without hesitation, Larisha summoned a pen and signed the application in beautiful script!
“…She’s a pushover.”
“That’s her nickname—Pushover Larisha. We just call her Pusharisha.”
…Don’t abbreviate that.
As expected, I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up with a mage. I looked at the group of eccentrics with a deadpan expression.
The president grabbed Larisha’s arm as she turned around cheerfully after signing.
“Larisha, where’s Jen? If he joins too, the benefits double!”
The man was a sales king.
Larisha’s eyes lit up at his words.
“Double benefits?! Wait right here!”
She dashed off as if she were about to drag Jen back and force him to sign up.
Watching her barrel toward us, Jen shuddered.
“We need to escape.”
As he said that, we teleported to a magic circle behind the president.
One of the club members noticed and pointed at us.
“President! Over there!”
“There they are!”
But Larisha was faster than the president.
Intent on doubling her benefits, she teleported directly in front of us.
“You think I’ll let you escape?!”
“80th floor.”
At Jen’s words, the teleportation circle beneath us activated just in time.
Larisha reached out her hand just as we vanished.
“Jen! Double benefits! That’s so unfair!”
As her echoing cry faded, Kitty muttered,
[How many times do you think she’s been scammed like that?]
“They say she once pawned her lab for a singing statue that turned out to be painted cement.”
[I told you! I saw that statue’s eyes move!]
The floating sensation stopped, and when I opened my eyes, we were in a completely different place.
“Um… where are we?”
The ceiling was even higher than on the 79th floor.
From what the club president said earlier, going to a higher floor requires a pass, but Jen came here without one.
It looked like a personal space.
Surrounded by gothic décor, the office was filled with magical and experimental tools moving on their own.
Taro was riding around the room on a magically-operated steam train, playing with Kitty.
“This is the Tower Master’s room. Looks like he’s out.”
“Is it okay to just barge into the Tower Master’s room?”
“Of course. This is my lab too.”
I sat down on the sofa next to me at Jen’s words.
“There was a brief commotion due to the unexpected visitors, but you did a great job healing the wolf—especially since it was the dark energy from the Forest of Shadows.”
Though I was nervous about doing it in practice, once I felt the flow of magic, the healing spell activated smoothly.
“I really thought my magic affinity was rock bottom.”
“It is.”
I looked at Jen with a puzzled expression at his blunt response.
Then how did I awaken as a mage? How could I use healing magic?
“You have that much magic, but you’ve only just become capable of using it—so it must be due to low affinity. However…”
Jen removed his cloak, revealing his watery blue hair.
“There are rare mages who can adjust their own affinity. I think what you’ve learned is how to control yours.”
[Even I noticed it earlier. When you healed me, the flow of your magic was being adjusted.]
I looked down at my hands, wondering if that was really true.
Jen said to me gently,
“In any case, there’s no doubt you’re now a healing mage. Wherever you go, if someone gets injured, they’ll look to you first. And each time you help someone, your magic will grow stronger.”
He was warning me again. And I knew exactly why.
Even if that situation really came to pass…
“Don’t worry. I won’t let that happen.”
But something had been bothering me for a while now.
“Hey, about what Larisha said earlier—someone looking for me. She meant the president, right?”
“Larisha can’t pinpoint who exactly. But given the situation, it was probably the presi… wait, what’s this?”
Jen pulled a slip of paper from his pocket.
When he opened it, I recognized it—it was the note I had Jen teleport to my room in case Garnet got worried when I went to the Tower.
“Then what did you teleport earlier?!”
[I think I put a note in that same pocket… something about going out.]
“What note?”
[A note that said ‘I’m running away for a bit.’]
“Kitty! I told you it was going out, not running away!”
[Right, going out! I keep mixing them up.]
I looked down at the sheepish cat with an awkward laugh.
“Then that note’s in my room…?”
“Maybe the one Larisha sensed wasn’t the president—but someone from your family.”
Muttering to himself, Jen looked uneasy. I grabbed his sleeve and said in a panic,
“If my dad and brothers find out, it’s over!”
It really was over. Knowing how they are, they might’ve already deployed knights across the empire.
“Take me to my room right now, Jen!”
“Yes, my lady.”
When we returned to the mansion hand in hand, everything was quiet, just like usual.
“Phew… So no one knows yet, right?”
Yeah, Garnet probably thought I was immersed in reading and hadn’t come into my room in the past two hours.
I let out a breath of relief.
“My lady, I must go now. Please don’t tell the Duke about the Tower! If we lose sponsorship, the Tower Master will cry.”
“Jen, why do you sound like you’re fleeing the scene?”
“I’ll come again soon! Bye!”
That mage is seriously untrustworthy.
I turned toward the table where the note should’ve been.
But…
“Huh? It’s not here?”
[Why do you think that is, Master?]
I laughed.
“Oh, maybe it teleported onto the bed instead!”
[Still in denial.]
Bang!
“This was definitely a kidnapping! I need to gather evidence from—wait, Lia?!”
At that moment, Miller burst through the door.
He held a crumpled note in his hand.
And beyond him, dozens of familiar faces filled the hallway.
My fellow knights, all in full armor, looked ready to mount their horses and charge.
“Jen… what do we do about him?”
No doubt he sensed this overwhelming presence and fled. And now we couldn’t even talk about the Tower.
Awkwardly, I picked up Taro, who was sitting beside me.
“S-surprise…?”
