Please, Just Read It

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Chapter 18

City of Magicians (3)

“By the way, why did you try to kidnap a little kid like me?”

“Curious, huh?”

Riley nodded her head.

Then the man smirked and replied.

“Yeah. It’s probably your last question before you die, so I’ll answer it.”

The man spoke briefly.

“I needed test subjects.”

“Was I the first subject?”

“No. You’re like the 13th or something. I’ve done this a ridiculous number of times already.”

“You’ve kidnapped a lot of people, huh?”

“Everyone falls for my smile.”

The man spoke with a voice full of confidence.

Even before a battle, he seemed remarkably carefree.

It was as if he completely underestimated Riley’s abilities.

“You say they fell for your smile?”

“Yep. Well, I gotta admit, I’m kinda good-looking.”

“…Huh?”

“I often get told that I’m good at making women cry.”

“Oh, right.”

Riley replied nonchalantly.

“Thinking about your mother’s nightly sobbing, that’s not exactly a wrong statement.”

“…?”

“In that sense, you must really be good at making women cry. Impressive.”

A question mark appeared on the man’s face.

“Oh.”

Realizing a bit late that it was a jab, he twisted his face into an ugly grimace.

“…You little brat!”

The provocation was a success. The banter before battle ended here.

The man, having lost his composure, immediately began casting a spell.

Woosh─!

Magic swirled around him. The magical energy gathering at an unimaginable speed soon ignited, taking on the nature of flames.

Fire Intensity─.

Attribute Awakening.

Fire.

A spear of fire sped toward Riley.

Whoosh─!

Even if it was a low-grade magic, the man had a mastery beyond that.

Now I understood why he had acted so casually in front of Riley.

His attack magic was intricately constructed.

The flaming spear, spinning wildly, charged toward Riley’s chest with the ferocity to break through any defense.

Clang─!

It was a terrifying speed.

If a normal person had sensed that attack, they’d have lost their life the moment they recognized it.

I was curious how many lives had been taken by that one spell.

A moment of carelessness could kill even a mid-tier magician in one strike.

However…

It was not the same for Riley.

Through her training with Rich, her depth perception had long surpassed that of a normal human.

While others couldn’t even fathom the speed of the attack, she was leisurely watching it approach.

Woosh─.

Riley sent her magic to her brain.

Her mind quickened, and her thoughts accelerated. Through “Power of Bonding,” she began to see the world unfold before her.

Woosh──!

Suddenly, the world slowed down. Everything but Riley’s focus became blurred.

She saw the flame arrows conjured from magic.

She observed their flight and each rotating moment.

Very, very slowly.

Everything began to resemble slow motion to Riley’s eyes.

[…….]

It was slow.

Really slow.

I don’t know how others might feel, but for Riley, this attack felt downright boring enough to yawn.

So boring, in fact, that she even looked away.

She gazed at the sky.

Of course, she couldn’t see the cloudy blue sky. Tall buildings obscured her view, casting only dark shadows over the alley.

Emma worked her way through the gap between buildings to capture just a single beam of sunshine.

How was the ground?

Let’s see.

It felt slightly damp. A mystery black liquid flowed, emitting a funky smell.

Having confirmed this, Riley turned her gaze back to the spear of flame.

Hmm.

Still far off.

She shifted her gaze again.

This time, it was directed at the man.

He, who had cast the spell, wore an unpleasant expression.

It seemed he was still grappling with the emotions stirred up from Riley’s provocation.

It was amusing.

For a magician, he couldn’t even maintain the basic virtue of composure. That would be the downfall of this fight.

Well.

Have I had enough?

Riley thought that again and looked back at the flaming spear.

Clang, clang──!

The spear was now just about to pierce her heart.

The tip of the spear still spinning slowly was hazy in Riley’s vision.

“……”

Yeah.

Now’s the time.

So,

Boom.

[Now.]

Whoosh──. Dispel!

And just like that, it was over.

Having already grasped the construction of his spell, Riley dispelled the flame spear in an instant.

The attack that had oxidized in mid-air transformed into a handful of residual magical energy scattered into the atmosphere.

Whoosh─.

The spear vanished.

Emerging from the immersion granted by the “Power of Bonding,” I could now see the world again through my own eyes, not Riley’s.

Among everything, the first thing I noticed was the man’s expression.

“……?”

As expected.

The man looked extremely flustered.

His all-out attack.

The single strike that had claimed countless lives disappeared in an instant.

With just a gesture from a girl.

Without a trace.

Shocked by the situation, he slowly opened his mouth and muttered.

“W-what kind of trick is this…”

“Well…”

“……”

“Isn’t this what you called the difference between heaven and earth?”

At that short response, Riley began to cast a new spell.

Woosh──.

Brute magical power surged into her grasp.

The essence of condensed energy, “Magic Missile.” The arrowhead started flying toward the man.

Whoosh──!

It was fast.

Unlike the flame spear he had cast, there was no spin, no application. Not even a hint of gimmick.

It was simply fast.

However.

The fact that it was unbelievably fast was the problem.

Whoosh─.

“……!”

The man’s eyes widened.

It was beyond human speed, into a realm where he couldn’t even comprehend it. Perhaps it was a speed that transcended that level.

“Ugh, huh…!”

Not a mere lump of magical energy thrown around, but a real Magic Missile.

It was an attack spell that fired magic as a projectile.

“Cough, cough, ugh…”

A bloody sputter filled the man’s mouth.

His focus flickered wildly, and his legs lost balance, collapsing to the ground.

Riley began to speak slowly at that man.

“Well, thanks to you, I learned a good lesson. In return, there’s something I want to tell you.”

“……”

“Just because your magic is high-level doesn’t solve everything. Especially in battles, successes and failures swing wildly based on characteristics and talents…”

Riley halted.

“Ah, gosh. You’re dead.”

Thud─.

The man’s hands, once gesturing in the air, fell weakly.

That was it.

The man, lying on the ground, showed no signs of getting back up. His breath had stopped. The blood foaming in his throat indicated he had suffocated.

[…….]

And witnessing that sight, I couldn’t help but let out a hollow sigh.

[What the hell.]

No way.

Is this really how it ends? You flaunt all that bravado and then just…?

It was hollow.

I had followed him to help Riley gain real-world fighting experience, yet the battle ended in just two exchanges.

[Ah…]

I mumbled while staring at the man who died with wide-open eyes.

[…Did we defeat him?]

“You’d better be careful talking like that.”

[You mean it’s an intentional setup to bring disaster upon ourselves?]

“……”

[Did we defeat him? Did we defeat him? No, damn it! You idiot! Come back to life!]

“……”

[I put so much effort into coming here for your fighting experience, and it ends so anticlimactically like this! What a disappointment!]

Sadly, despite my desperate yearning, the man was not resurrecting.

Riley’s first real combat experience ended in such a bleak manner.

*

After that.

We spent half a day searching for the Management Office.

“Management Office? Well, I’m pretty sure it was at the edge of the city up until last year.”

“The Management Office? Hmm, I don’t know much about it.”

“What? Management Office? I don’t know! Get lost! Can’t you see I’m busy, you little brat?”

Strangely enough, there wasn’t a single person who knew the whereabouts of the Management Office.

Consequently, without anyone’s aid, we had to find it through our own efforts.

Riley’s “Pathfinding” and her experience from the Thieves’ Guild were extremely helpful.

If it hadn’t been for that, would we have taken even more days?

I didn’t know.

I didn’t even want to imagine.

‘Of all the places, the last 10th building had to be the Management Office.’

[Right.]

Thanks to Riley’s “Pathfinding,” we were able to confirm ten locations presumed to be the Management Office.

With no other options, Riley and I had no choice but to check each building once.

Since the buildings were in significantly different locations, it took quite some time.

And all nine places before this were failures.

Some were empty buildings, and some were locked up entirely.

It just had to be that the building we chose as our final destination was the Selection Test Management Office.

[Our luck is unbelievably bad.]

I thought that as I looked ahead again.

Before us was a building.

‘…Finally made it.’

Riley said in a voice drained of energy, looking up at the building.

On the entrance of the two-story building hung a sign that read “Selection Test Management Office.”

‘Why couldn’t we detect that sign with “Pathfinding”?’

[Right.]

There was a sign so prominently displayed, yet Riley couldn’t sense it.

Something felt off.

It wasn’t on the map.

And it was hard to detect with “Pathfinding.”

It felt as though they were intentionally concealing their location…

[Oh?]

Wait a minute.

Concealing their location intentionally?

[Riley.]

‘Yes?’

[Do you remember the locations of all the buildings we’ve visited so far?]

‘Yes. I marked them all on the map.’

[Show me.]

Hearing my words, Riley rummaged through her pockets to pull out a map.

Nine dots were marked on it.

All were the locations of the buildings we had been to.

[Mark this new building on there too.]

‘Give me a second.’

Swish─.

Riley took out some ink and a quill from her bag.

Then, she marked the position of the last 10th building on the map.

“…Ah.”

Riley sighed, as if she had finally realized something.

Swish, swish─.

Even though I hadn’t told her to, she hurriedly began connecting the dots.

“……”

[…….]

One by one, she connected the dots.

Without missing a single one.

Then, a star appeared on the map.

[Huh.]

A star.

To be precise, an inverted pentagram.

This figure serves as the foundation of all magic circles and acts as the central circuit that comprises their core.

‘It’s a magic circle.’

[Yep.]

‘They used this to intentionally hide the location of the Management Office.’

[Exactly.]

These Management Office folks were using the entire City of Wilhelm as a magic circle.

They activated the magic circle by placing special buildings at various locations.

Obscured recognition.

Blocked magic.

Invisibility, illusion, and mirage.

….

And so on.

Within this massive magic circle lay countless high-tier spells hidden away.

These were mechanisms designed to make anyone searching for the Selection Test Management Office suffer.

‘Why did they do something like this?’

[Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out.]

Riley and I looked towards the door of the Management Office simultaneously.

“……”

[……]

Creak─.

With the sound of old hinges, the interior of the building came into view.

A neat white room.

A woman magician sat smiling in a chair.

That magician looked at Riley with a relaxed smile. Her soft voice echoed throughout the room.

“Congratulations on passing the first trial of the Selection Test.”