translation by mourningmoor
Amidst the hectic comeback preparations, I hadn’t had the chance to check something important.
I led Go Dajin into a secluded alley next to the restaurant and immediately cast a barrier.
At that, Go Dajin, being the magic enthusiast he was, widened his eyes in excitement and looked around.
“It’s amazing no matter how many times I see it.”
I smiled faintly at him and handed him my phone.
“Do you recognize this?”
It was a partial image of the picture I had taken at the Troifle party room.
Go Dajin narrowed his eyes and stared at the phone screen.
“What is it?”
“See this? This seal.”
I zoomed in on the seal part of the image.
Two crescent moons facing each other, an eye perched atop a sharp tower, and an eagle’s talon gripping the eye—all intertwined in a bizarre composition.
Go Dajin tilted his head.
“Do you know it? Or not?”
With an ambiguous expression, as if he both knew and didn’t, Go Dajin asked worriedly.
“Is it something bad?”
Ha, look at this. Yes, you know.
I put my phone back in my pocket and answered with a displeased expression.
“I met someone wearing a ring with this pattern engraved on it. They had a similar trait to you.”
“A… trait?”
“Someone touched by the hand of magic.”
Go Dajin’s pupils trembled faintly.
“You know, right?”
Someone touched by the hand of magic. It’s a bit of a silly expression, but there was no other way to describe it. Literally, someone touched by a hand.
After a moment of hesitation, Go Dajin reluctantly spoke.
“The ring… that mage had it too.”
“……?”
“A mage I met when I was young.”
You remember the ring someone was wearing over 20 years ago? You can’t even remember what happened yesterday.
“That mage was wearing a ring like that.”
“Do you have one too? A ring?”
“No?”
It doesn’t make sense that he doesn’t have a ring.
The pattern engraved on the ring wasn’t just a simple design.
It was a magic circle. A highly advanced one at that.
It was clear that this magic circle was protecting against the ripples of the mind.
There’s no way Go Dajin, whose mind ripples I can’t read, doesn’t have a magic circle. If not a ring, it must exist in some other form.
“Are you sure you don’t have one?”
“Yes, I don’t.”
“You’re lying.”
I smiled coldly and conjured magic at my fingertips.
Even if he doesn’t reveal it herself, I can find it.
After all, magic is found with magic.
“Detect.”
A blue light flickered at my fingertips. Go Dajin’s eyes widened.
Whatever.
I added attributes to the detection and narrowed the range.
Moving my hands as if performing a dance, I slowly scanned him from head to toe with the magic circle.
And finally, I found what I was looking for.
“No, you do.”
I smiled faintly and flicked my finger. Go Dajin’s knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground.
A red light flowed from the top of his head.
“Here it is. Your ring.”
Go Dajin, panicked, brought his hand to his head.
“The ring is on my head?”
“Yes.”
It’s ridiculous. The magic circle was tattooed onto his scalp like a tattoo. And very meticulously at that. Engraving a magic circle of this level would have caused unbearable pain.
And yet, Go Dajin didn’t know about this?
I had judged that he wasn’t evil, so I thought he wasn’t lying, but in the end, it was all lies.
“Ichan-nim?”
At that moment, Go Dajin called me.
His voice trembled seriously.
I thought he was scared, but he wasn’t.
“Can you… take a picture for me? Just once?”
Then he handed me his phone.
His eyes sparkled, filled with excitement.
His damn fangirl side is showing even in a moment like this.
Crazy bitch.
I took the picture and handed it to him. He stared at it with a somewhat dazed expression.
“When I was young, I had an accident.”
Go Dajin stroked the picture with his fingertips and continued.
“I fell from the second floor and cracked my head open, but the mage saved me. My mom cried a lot that day.”
With a distant look in his eyes, he sniffled.
“There should only be a scar here, but instead, there’s this.”
He looked up and smiled brightly.
“Maybe I was destined to become a mage too?”
He said something so innocent with a serious face.
But now, I can’t just blindly trust him.
A being with another mage’s mark engraved on their body? In Armania, that’s a capital offense punishable by erasure.
“I might really have to kill you now.”
“Why, why? Why kill me?”
Because you’ve committed a crime.
“I finally met you, Ichan-nim, and found a connection to a mage, and now I have to die?”
Just a few days ago, he was indifferent to death, but it seems his mindset has changed a lot since then. Developing an attachment to life? I felt a pang of pity for him.
Honestly, Go Dajin is a bit of an absurd existence.
He’s had a magic circle engraved on his body for over 20 years and didn’t even know it. That in itself doesn’t make sense.
With a high-level magic circle like that, some kind of ability should have manifested. Or at least some talent. Aki and Jung Yoobin’s talents might have been something like that.
But this girl has nothing.
In fact, he’s worse than average. All he has is an unhealthy obsession with mages.
How on earth did a being like this come to exist?
“I, I’m your attendant, right?”
“Do you really have the qualifications to be my attendant?”
I didn’t tell him that he’s not an attendant but a prisoner.
I planned to keep him close to figure out why I can’t read his mind. But now, I’m starting to think that keeping him close might bring another kind of danger.
“You, who bear the mark of another mage?”
Not now, but someday, like Aki and Jung Yoobin, he might awaken to negative emotions. Moreover, if someone went through the trouble of engraving such a meticulous magic circle, wouldn’t the owner of the circle come looking for her eventually? That would complicate things a bit…
“Then, then.”
Go Dajin, with his wide eyes even wider, cautiously spoke up.
“You could engrave your mark on me.”
“That’s something only dark mages do.”
Engraving a magic circle on a human is prohibited under Article 192 of the Mage Law. Dominating a human’s mental system through a magic circle is also prohibited under Article 169 of the Mage Law.
Of course, the ripples of the mind serve a similar purpose, but that’s considered divine authority and falls under extraterritorial jurisdiction. Most importantly, the ripples of the mind are completely distinct from ordinary magic using magic circles.
“I don’t do that kind of thing.”
Moreover, engraving a magic circle on human skin?
That’s a cruel act prohibited under Article 216 of the Mage Law. If that law is broken, both the engraver and the engraved are subject to erasure.
“That’s not something a light mage does.”
But this boy seems to have latched onto something completely random again.
“A, a light mage?”
As if forgetting that I had threatened to kill him, he looked at me with eyes full of admiration.
“Wow. That’s so cool. You’re a light mage, Ichan-nim.”
Then he suddenly thrust his head toward me.
“Then can you remove this? Since you’re a light mage, it should be possible, right?”
“It’s possible.”
If it were my original body.
But this body isn’t. The mana tank is small, and the body isn’t fully matured yet. The manifestation circle is inevitably small compared to the mana I possess.
That could put a strain on my heart.
Still, I should try. I need to break Go Dajin’s magic circle and delve into his memories to get a glimpse of that mage.
“It might hurt.”
“It’s okay. I don’t feel pain well.”
As if ready, Go Dajin clenched his teeth.
The stronger the magic, the more power is needed to break the magic circle.
I drew mana from my mana tank. A blue light flickered at my fingertips.
“Purify.”
Then, a whirlwind of mana swirled above Go Dajin’s head. His face contorted in pain.
It’s strong. This is powerful magic.
The mage might be at least an 8th-circle mage.
Suddenly, my heart felt cold, and I coughed violently, blood gushing from my nose.
“Ichan-nim?”
“Damn it.”
I wiped the blood with the back of my hand and quickly activated mana to heal my internal injuries.
“Are you okay?”
As my mana became unstable, even the barrier began to waver.
Then, my phone rang.
“Damn it.”
I frowned as I checked the phone screen.
<2000-Year-Old Trash>
This bastard must have sensed something again.
I wiped the blood on the hem of my shirt and answered the call.
“What?”
—Are you okay?
Yoo Noah’s voice was unusually serious.
This bastard. He’s worried I’ll die and he’ll disappear along with me.
“If you’re that worried, why don’t you fly over instead of calling?”
—You know I can handle that much on my own now.
I couldn’t help but scoff at his words.
How did the being who knows my condition the best end up becoming the Demon King?
—Just kidding. I can’t come. I’m in the middle of filming.
Then he suddenly lowered his voice.
—So, Jesquière. Please follow the order. The mana may belong to the Grand Mage, but the body is just a kid from L.I.T.
A kid from L.I.T?
Who the hell are you calling a kid?
“I’m hanging up.”
—Wait.
Just as I was about to hang up, Yoo Noah urgently shouted.
I couldn’t hang up either.
Because the magic circle engraved on Go Dajin’s head began to glow red.
—The energy flowing beside you right now. What is it? It’s some kind of magic, right?
“You can feel it?”
—Jes. Did you forget that we’re connected as one?
Damn it.
The magic circle I had barely disrupted was repairing itself.
This isn’t just any ordinary magic circle.
“Yoo Noah. Where are you filming? I’ll come to you now.”
—I’m in Paju, but can you make it in that body?
“No problem. And by the way.”
I was going to let it slide, but I couldn’t resist adding one more thing.
“Don’t shorten my name so casually. It’s annoying.”
I hung up.
As I wiped the flowing blood with the back of my hand, Go Dajin approached.
“M, mage-nim? Are you okay?”
“Step aside.”
I pushed him aside and staggered slightly as I dispelled the barrier.
This boy doesn’t even realize that his magic circle is repairing itself, and my condition is a mess.
For the first time since falling into this world, I felt a sense of crisis.
Before leaving the alley, I said one last thing to Go Dajin.
“You. If you do anything suspicious, I’ll erase you immediately.”
Go Dajin nodded so hard it looked like his neck might break.
“Yes.”
“If you want to keep playing mage, keep this a secret.”
“Yes, mage-nim. No, no, master. No, Ichan-nim.”
Seeing the pale light in my eyes, he seemed a bit scared.
Good, keep that reverence.
“Tell the members. I suddenly got a nosebleed and went back to the dorm first.”
Then, I marked the coordinates and flew to Paju.
My heart was racing.