Chapter 22

Chapter 22. Mage Arlin (2)

I was pretty flustered, but somehow managed to deal with the situation.

Right.

If she could use magic that powerful without paying any price, then she wouldn't just be a normal mage.

She'd be an Archmage.

I looked at Arlin, who was quietly leaning against the bike.

If I followed my feelings, I would've liked to wait until she completely recovered.

But outside was dangerous.

You could run into a Mystery or raiders at any moment.

It wasn't a good idea to stay in one place for too long.

I seated her in front of me, then grabbed the handlebars from behind as though I were wrapping my arms around her.

This way, I wouldn't have to worry about her falling off.

“Thyank you……”

Her voice was still cold, but I could faintly sense embarrassment in it.

Out of consideration for her, I quietly drove us home.

We saw about two zombies on the way, but we didn't encounter any raiders or Mysteries.

We were lucky.

The roads were also practically empty because of the apocalypse, so we reached home without much trouble.

I put the motorcycle into my bag before hoisting Arlin onto my back.

A tingling sensation ran through my skin wherever our bodies touched.

It didn't hurt.

It only stung slightly, so it wasn't much of a problem.

I carried her into the elevator.

“Are you feeling a little better?”

“Yesh…… a little. I'm fyine.”

“…Please get some rest. Tell me when you're feeling better.”

When the elevator stopped, I cautiously checked the surroundings before stepping out and heading toward my apartment.

I tapped the keypad and opened the door.

Inside, Lee Yeonhee was pointing a gun directly at me.

Once she realized the person entering was me, relief appeared on her face.

Then she noticed Arlin on my back.

Her expression immediately stiffened.

She approached me and carefully looked over my entire body.

“Oppa. Nothing serious happened, right?”

“No.”

“That's a relief… But who is the person on your back?”

I sat Arlin down on the sofa before answering.

“Her name is Arlin. She's a mage, and she'll be living with us from now on.”

“Living with us? Wait, more importantly—a mage!? You mean someone who throws fireballs and stuff?”

Arlin reacted to Lee Yeonhee's shocked question.

She looked at Lee Yeonhee with cold eyes.

Her voice sounded even stiffer than when she spoke to me.

“F-Fireball ish low-level magic. Even a chyild can cast shumthing like that. Of coursh I can use it.”

“Uh… okay?”

Her voice itself was incredibly beautiful.

Unfortunately, the way she spoke ruined the whole effect.

My impression of her changed slightly.

I'd assumed she'd simply be cold and emotionless, but she also seemed to have a somewhat childish side.

As expected, you really shouldn't blindly trust first impressions.

Thinking that, I sat beside Arlin.

My eyes swept over everyone in the living room.

Arlin.

Lee Yeonhee.

And Confirmation Bias, who had just come out of the bedroom.

It had started with Confirmation Bias.

Before I knew it, the number of people living with me had increased to three.

The fact that all three of them were women was surely just a coincidence.

And the fact that all three had beautiful appearances, each with their own unique charm, was definitely another coincidence.

…Was it really a coincidence?

Well, obviously, living with women was better than living with a bunch of gloomy men.

Still.

It felt strangely…

Nice.

Probably closer to nice than anything else.

I shook my head and turned on my phone.

Since I'd obtained a mage from the Magic Preservation Association, maybe I could obtain a knight from the Swordsmanship Preservation Association.

I intended to take care of everything today, so I immediately got moving.

Using my phone, I repeated the same process as earlier and found the location of the Swordsmanship Preservation Association.

According to the most recent post—

which had been uploaded three minutes ago—

they were currently in Busan.

“Guess I'll have to give up.”

According to information on the internet, the Swordsmanship Preservation Association changed its location every time it completed a transaction.

Unlike the Magic Preservation Association, where trading was practically impossible, the Swordsmanship Preservation Association was extremely popular.

That made sense.

You could easily make a huge profit simply by selling sword techniques you found through Googling.

Even if I left for Busan right now, they'd probably finish their transaction and move somewhere else long before I arrived.

If they were somewhere ten minutes away from my house, maybe I'd try.

But if they were any farther than that, I would probably have to give up.

I should be satisfied with gaining a mage subordinate today.

Then again…

Hadn't I already accomplished my original goal?

My previous objective had been to obtain basic military strength.

Enough strength that an ordinary human intruder couldn't break through.

I looked at Arlin and the weapons scattered around the house and tried to evaluate our current combat power.

After thinking about it for a while, I came to one conclusion.

We were still a little lacking.

What I needed was power beyond ordinary human technology.

Something like a Mystery.

Or perhaps…

A Mystery.

Maybe even some other Mysteries.

I possessed plenty of Mysteries already.

More than ten, in fact.

Yet only two of them could actually be used directly as combat power.

One was the Curtain.

The other was Arlin, who belonged to the Magic Preservation Association.

I had over ten Mysteries, yet only two could fight.

What a disastrously unbalanced ratio.

I needed to fix that balance eventually.

“Though it doesn't necessarily have to be right now.”

I pulled How to Have the Most Satisfying Day from my pocket and stared at it.

This Mystery was so ridiculously overpowered that it gave me confidence that I probably didn't even need anything else.

Balancing my collection of Mysteries could wait until later.

Wait.

Then why the hell did I even go outside?

If that was the case, there had been no reason to visit the associations in the first place.

“……”

I glanced at Arlin.

Then decided it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Sure, even if I died, I'd be given another chance to try again.

But strangely enough, I still didn't like dying.

Being prepared beforehand could never be a bad thing.

Besides, since Arlin was a mage, I could probably help her through the Regression-Reincarnation-Transmigration Gallery.

That actually made this situation even better.

Right.

The Gallery.

Since I was at it, I should introduce her to the Gallery and show her all sorts of magical theories.

It would be like raising her affection level.

She had already been hired as something similar to a subordinate and bodyguard, but building a good relationship with her certainly wouldn't hurt.

To put my thoughts into action, I opened the Gallery and called Arlin over.

“Arlin. Can you see this?”

My finger moved through the blue window floating in midair.

At my question, both Lee Yeonhee and Arlin reacted.

Lee Yeonhee spoke first.

“I don't see anything… Ah! Oppa, did you open that Gallery thing just now? I can't see anything, but… Hmm… It kind of feels like there's something there…”

That was Lee Yeonhee's reaction.

Then came Arlin's.

“Shumthing ish floating there. The Regreshion-Reincarnation-Tranmigration Gallery?”

Unlike Lee Yeonhee, Arlin seemed able to see the Gallery.

Lucy had also been able to look at the Gallery together with me before.

Could Mysteries see it?

Arlin seemed fascinated by the Gallery.

Despite her stiff movements, she moved closer to me, her eyes shining.

The posts reflected across her lake-like eyes.

I looked through them together with her before typing magic into the search bar.

I searched for related posts.

[Regarding the Realms of Mages]

While browsing, one particular post caught my eye.

It was about mage ranks.

Come to think of it…

What level was Arlin?

People in the Gallery talked about Archmages and things like that.

Now that I was curious, I immediately asked her.

Arlin answered.

“Practicush.”

I froze.

I'd expected something like "Third Circle" or "Fourth Circle."

What the hell was Practicus?

When I asked for more details, she explained that it meant an apprentice mage.

Wait.

Hold on.

An apprentice?

I was pretty sure the association members had looked extremely satisfied after hearing my theories.

And the reward they gave me for those theories was…

An apprentice mage?

Did they dump their dead weight on me?

I stared at Arlin with trembling eyes.

Then I calmed myself down.

Hadn't they also said that Arlin wasn't fully trained yet, but she was an extremely talented mage?

If I raised her properly, she might eventually become one of those Archmages I'd only ever seen people talking about in the Gallery.

“Then is there any magical theory you need?”

“Yesh. A lot.”

I changed the subject and asked what she needed.

Her answer came immediately.

There were quite a lot of things.

And they were surprisingly specific.

As I searched for them one by one, Lee Yeonhee sat beside me with a strangely displeased expression.

“Oppa. But why does that person talk like that?”

“She used magic, and this happened as a side effect.”

“What kind of magic?”

“Magic that used electricity. She called down lightning.”

Lee Yeonhee's eyes widened.

“Lightning? Like actual KWA-BOOM! RUMBLE! lightning?”

“I think it might've been even more powerful than natural lightning. One whole tree was reduced to ashes.”

While I was answering her questions, Arlin's voice came from beside me.

She had been reading through the Gallery.

Unlike before, her voice sounded noticeably more excited.

“Thish… Thish ish incredible. How could anything like thish…”

She moved closer until she was practically clinging to me, reading each post as though admiring a priceless work of art.

“Who in the world could have written theoriesh like these?”

“Probably an Archmage.”

“An Archmage? …Ah. These theoriesh are certainly beyond anything someone below the level of an Archmage could even comprehend. But still… an Archmage…”

At some point, even the stiffness in her body had disappeared.

In her usual flat tone, she rapidly suggested one search term after another.

Lee Yeonhee was pressed against my left side.

Arlin was pressed against my right.

It was getting a little dizzying.

Lee Yeonhee suddenly asked,

“Oppa? Do you think I could use magic too? If I can… then maybe a genius holy mage who uses both divine power and magic and dominates the entire world could be born!”

Arlin immediately followed.

“An Archmage must surely be an extraordinary being. I cannot even begin to imagine their magnificent preshence. Could you tell me more about them?”

No.

This wasn't a little dizzying anymore.

It was very dizzying.