“Ha... Ha… Ha… Cough COUGH!”
Mr. Bozzelli's breathing echoed in the darkness. I was looking down at him as blood spilled out from his wound.
“…To think I’d lose to an unranked mage…”
“…”
“In order to get to where I am I’ve had to lie, kill, and betray all my life…”
“Tell me what the Order is planning.”
Mr. Bozzell’s eyes were dark and lifeless. I could tell he didn’t have much time.
“…You have no idea how powerful they are… they have followers in every corner of this Kingdom. You will never be able to run away.”
“I’m not going to run.”
“Haha…ha…”
He looked up at the ceiling.
“…For the Great one…”
At that moment, I saw him biting something inside his mouth.
Before I could react to it, Mr. Bozzelli unleashed an explosion of black mana that pushed me away.
“KRAGHHH!!!”
His body stood back up like a puppet on strings. I could see his body growing in size and his skin turning black. All his hair was falling off his head and four more eyeballs grew on his face.
He looked like a demon.
All six of his eyeballs rolled in different directions, until they stopped at me.
I could feel sweat forming in my palm as I held the white sword, and I could feel Rene shaking inside my shirt.
‘I- I can’t win.’
The amount of mana coming out from him now was nothing compared to before. I could feel that this new demonic form was also physically stronger, so none of my slow attacks will even touch him.
‘Was I too overconfident in myself…?’
A wave of regret came over me in the face of hopelessness.
In an instant, the demon flew towards me.
***
“The merchant is dead.”
“What about the land?”
“We’ve secured the land, but there’s a problem. The one who killed the merchant is part of a guild working for the orphanage.”
“…?”
“Why not just kill them?”
“One of the members is the brother of Xalen Winters.”
“!!!”
“!!!”
“…”
“Then it’s better to settle this quietly.”
“I agree. We mustn't attract too much attention until everything is ready.”
“Wait, so the brother killed the merchant?”
“No. It was… a mage I had never heard of.”
“What about the seed we gave him? Was he killed before he used it?”
“…”
“Don’t tell me he used it but was still killed?”
“How is that possible?”
“Not even a Magi could have, are you telling me he was a master?!”
“…When my servant saw him, he said his mana wasn’t even at the apprentice level.”
“…”
“…”
The black mages sitting around the round table all fell silent in the seriousness of the matter.
Most were wearing a black robe in order to hide their identities from one another.
On the center seat of the table there was just one man who was not wearing a robe, but instead a white mask.
He was taping his fingers.
Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap
Only those who knew him well, knew he was amused right now.
The man in the mask spoke for the first time.
“Settle the matter with the land quietly, and find out everything you can about the unknown mage.”
“Yes, sir.”
“It will be as the First says.”
“All for the Great one.”
***
“You guys won’t believe this!”
Peter came running into the office where Kale and I were waiting.
A week had passed since the attack and Peter was finally healed from his injuries.
Today, we were supposed to meet up at 11am but Peter arrived an hour late.
“Read this!”
Peter threw down a newspaper onto the table in front of Kale and I.
The headline read ‘Vincent Bozzelli’s mysterious disappearance and suspected of being a demon worshiper!’
Kale grabbed the paper to read more closely.
“Mountain of bodies found in the basement… traces of black mana… currently working with the church to purify…”
Kale dropped the newspaper and leaned back on the couch.
“So this is why…”
Kale also remembered the night when we overheard the Captain and Mr. Bozzelli talking.
“Wait, so what happened to the orphanage?”
“That’s what’s even crazier. Before Bozzelli disappeared he moved ownership of the contract to a new owner. The new owner wanted to keep the land, so in exchange he bought the orphanage a new building in the marketplace!”
Peter talked fast in excitement, but Kale had a frown on his face.
“Why would he go that far?”
Peter shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t know that, but it looks like this new owner has more heart than Bozzelli. I was just meeting with the director, and I’ve never seen her so happy.”
Kale continued to frown but didn’t say anything else. Instead he turned to look at me with suspicion in his eyes.
“You didn’t go back that night did you?”
“…No.”
“Ha…”
Kale knew I was lying but he didn’t ask me any further.
In fact even if he did… I wouldn’t be able to answer his questions.
I looked at the newpaper again, wondering why there was no mention of Mr. Bozzelli turning into a demon.
‘I remember seeing him transform into a demon… and right when I thought I was going to die, I woke up from my bed. My memory was cut so perfectly that for a second I thought it was all a dream.’
When I woke up that day I was confused, but something else had happened that shocked me more.
Faye wasn't floating next to me like it usually was. Instead it was on the desk, silent with no emotion.
Faye was asleep.
Next to Faye, Rene was also asleep.
I thought about waking Rene up, but decided not to.
Instead, I reached for the other things on the table.
There was a black book and a small bottle with a white glow inside.
I remembered seeing Mr. Bottelli drink out of a similar bottle during the fight.
‘This must be.. life energy.’
I didn’t know why or how this got here, but I placed it on the table for now.
I picked up the black book next and opened it to the first page.
Fwooooosh
The moment I opened it, a flood of information came into my head. Once it was done, the book disappeared.
‘A skill book!’
Skill books were rare in the story. They gave mages the ability to learn any magic spell just by opening a book. They were sold for millions of gold, and I had just used it without even thinking.
I was sad about the money for a moment, but then realized I wouldn’t be able to sell it anyway.
After accepting the fact, my heart started to race. This was the first magic spell I learned.
‘Black bullet..’
I remembered when Mr. Bottelli used it during our fight.
The only problem was that this was black magic. In order to use this spell I would have to use my own life energy, and that made me hesitant.
I looked at the bottle with life energy for a moment but shook my head.
Then a different idea suddenly hit me like a lightning strike.
I could tell that my new understanding of this magic spell helped me take one step closer to understanding the magic that Faye had been casting.
‘Maybe I can cast… a magic missile instead.’
Magic missile and black bullet especially felt similar in my head. I just had to use light magic instead of dark magic. If anything, Magic missile felt simpler because it only required mana.
I took a deep breath.
In the story, there were many different ways to gain a magic circle around your heart. You could do it with the help of a stronger mage, with a powerful potion, or by casting a spell.
Getting the 1st circle by casting a spell was known to be the most difficult way.
That’s because most people are unable to understand the flow of mana well enough, until they have either one first.
I could only attempt it now because I had felt the flow many times through Faye.
I held out my hand and closed my eyes.
I felt the mana around me as it passed through my body.
By concentrating, I could tell that my body had more condensed mana flowing up and down.
In the center next to my heart, I could also feel my life energy. My life energy was like the sun, surrounded by a river of mana.
I remembered the feeling of when Faye cast the spell, and started to lead the mana running inside my body towards my heart. I needed to make it even more concentrated.
‘More, more, more, more!’
The mana started coming together, and as it got smaller it started to form itself into the shape of a ring.
I could feel my back wet with sweat.
The ring was unstable around my heart. If I lost concentration for even a moment I knew it would release itself.
I started moving the mana from the unstable ring onto my open hand.
‘Magic missile!’
I opened my eyes.
I could see a small ball of light coming together in my hand. It was shaking, unable to keep its form.
I continued to pull more mana from the ring until the ball of light was no longer shaking.
As the ball of light became stable, I could feel the ring tightening around my heart and also stabilizing.
“Whewwwww….”
I let out a deep breath.
“Haha… I did it..!”
I had cast my first magic spell.
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