Chapter 18 – Wizard’s Trouble (3)
Merim, who had suddenly woken up in the early morning hours, felt her throat feel dry, and she groped in the dark to pick up her canteen.
ㅡ gulp gulp.
“Whoa… “
After she quenches her thirst, she tries to fall asleep again, but the more she does, the more her mind gets clearer.
Not wanting to continue like this, Merim sighed halfway up and quietly chanted her spell and created a sphere of soft brightness on her palm.
‘Maybe thanks to that experience, you’ve become much more proficient at using spells without mediators? Come to think of it, it was the first time in my life that I had cast spells like that with my bare hands.’
The softly glowing sphere in Merim’s hand reflected the image of her younger brother sleeping soundly right next to her, within reach of her breath.
The twin sisters usually book a double room, but now they share a single room and the same bed as they have to save money.
‘Oh, supporters… I can’t change this habit. Just looking at him like this, nothing has changed since I was a kid. It’s cramped and uncomfortable, but sometimes sleeping in the same bed with him isn’t too bad.’
Seeing her sister sleeping, Merim smiled and covered her shoulders again with the disheveled blanket that exposed more than half of her upper body, then quietly stood up from her seat.
She began to read her old book, which she had found, while tucking at her rucksack, which had been set down in the corner of her room.
When she can’t sleep, she often takes out a book and reads it like this until she gets drowsy again, a habit that has continued since her childhood.
While reading her book, Merim’s eyelids gradually began to close.
She extinguished her sphere of light and returned to the seat next to Marill, to her bed, and slowly fell asleep.
… Could it be the effect of her reading a book right before she went back to sleep? Merim had a dream related to it.
A dream in which a black swordsman from a foreign country, who will later be called a hero, begins to perform brilliantly as an adventurer.
Feeling like a child, Merim enjoyed watching her dream of a hero she longed for, but for some reason, she saw the benefactor and the hero overlapping.
* * *
Loden, who had been slowly filling the display stand with the potions he had made in the workshop since morning, glanced at the window.
‘It’s time to come soon…’
“Master. Can someone like me really learn magic?”
“We talked about it several times yesterday, right? Be confident, because you can definitely learn. Just do it like you did when you learned human language from me.”
Roden, who had comforted her by stroking Loxia’s hair as was her habit, added a word that was half-joking and half-serious.
“Hmm, to be honest, maybe it’s a bit more difficult?”
“Ahaha… ，I have to learn harder than then.”
Roxia had been feeling a lot of pressure since the day before, but thanks to her owner’s encouragement, she was able to shake off her tension.
Loxia’s heart throbbed at the fact that she could learn her magic, which she felt was only a word that had nothing to do with her, and that only those with a natural talent could use.
By the time the shelves were filled, I saw a short-haired woman running toward her store in the scenery through the window.
Of course, the identity of the woman who looks like a wizard but behaves like a wizard is Merim.
“Huh… ,Omg… ! Isn’t it late?”
“Nearly.”
“Hello! Sister Merim!”
After catching her breath for a while, Merim adjusted her hat and shook hands with Roxy, who vigorously greeted her.
“Whoa! Can you convey the desire in your voice? This older sister will definitely teach you!”
“Yes, please take care of me!”
Roxia nodding her head politely must have been cute, so Merim hugged her lightly like her doll.
“Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve seen you and your sister apart. What is Marill doing right now?”
“Huh? Aah, Marill says she’ll do some repair work on the exterior wall until her right arm is healed. .”
Merim, scratching the back of her head and blurting out her last words, made a circle with her index finger and thumb. It is a gesture that symbolizes various meanings, but in this case it clearly symbolizes money.
‘… Well, at first glance there, most of the equipment was broken. If you look closely, it seems that the staff have not been saved yet.’
“I told you yesterday, but please teach me well.
“Haha, even if you look at it like this, when you learned at the Magic Tower, you wore the title of a genius beautiful girl, so don’t worry.”
Laughing at Merim, who raised her thumb with a very confident look on her face, Roden let her and her Loxia into the space inside the store.
“Wow, the inside is like this. It feels cozy, and I want to live in a house like this in the future, like you.”
“To do that, you’ll have to work hard to earn money. Whether it’s the living room or Roxia’s room, teach in a place that’s comfortable for you. Don’t go into the basement.”
“Okay.”
“Loxia. I said it a while ago, but don’t be too burdened by the word magic itself, and make up your mind. You can definitely do it.”
“Yes, Uncle! I will learn hard.”
Roxia, who nodded her head vigorously, showed her determination by clenching her fists.
‘If this child could use magic… The difference between having knowledge of magic and not having it is quite large. Yesterday, just in case, I brought up such a proposal to Merim, and it went well in many ways.’
Lately, when Roden thought about it calmly, she often had delusions about the lovely girl Roxia that she didn’t know when and where bad guys would seduce her, and she felt uneasy inside.
That’s why I thought that child should have at least one ability to protect himself.
Ordinary wizards are generally proud and closed-minded, so they seldom share magic-related knowledge with people who are not members of the Mage Tower.
In such a situation, the existence of Merim, a magician with a strangely easy-going personality and talent, felt like the first rain of a drought.
‘It is the role of a guardian to make her learn the skills to protect herself. If it were Roxia, she wouldn’t hurt others by wielding her power recklessly…’
“It’s time to do some business. See you both at lunch.”
After stroking Loxia’s head, who reiterated that she would study hard, Roden returned to her shop area.
Merim, who carefully watched his back, thought about asking Loxia a few questions about her uncle right away, but for now, she decided to proceed with her class diligently first and slowly investigate.
“Umm~ I don’t think it matters much which side I teach, but where is Roxia more comfortable?”
“Then, please teach me in my room. Merim unnie.”
“Uhhh… Yes, this ‘sister’ will do her best to teach you. If you have any questions or don’t understand anything in the meantime, ask this ‘sister’ at any time.”
“Yes! Sister.”
‘Aaaaah, this fantastic echo of unnie is truly the best whenever I hear it… That supporter of Marill doesn’t have a cute taste because she calls her by her first name after her head grew a little bigger.’
The corner of her mouth went up, Merim took Roxia’s hand and went into her room together and sat down side by side on her bed.
Soon after, she started explaining the basics of magic, and Merim explained it as easily as possible, mixing appropriate metaphors in between so that an ordinary child, Roxia, could easily understand.
“I’ll give you a basic explanation next time. By the way, Loxia doesn’t know how to concentrate mana or tips… You know that?”
“Yes, I did learn from her uncle.”
“Then it saved me a bit of trouble. Let’s see…”
Merim rummaged through her pocket and took out a colorless crystal the size of her go stone.
“This is a fragment of a mineral called seven-color stone, and it has the characteristic of changing its color in response to the natural mana floating around it. Often used to check properties.”
As soon as Merim finished her explanation, she concentrated mana into her hand holding her seven-colored stone, and the color of the seven-colored stone changed in the order of red, sky blue, and yellow, then quickly returned to colorless.
“If you detect the mana of a person who can handle fire, ice, and electricity attributes like me, show the same reaction as now.”
“Wow… Do wizards basically have three attributes?”
Merim shook her head with a smile at Roxia’s question and began to explain one by one.
“The types and numbers of attributes that each person can handle are very different. For one thing, those who are naturally incapable of using magic can only manipulate physical mana, which is classified as non-attribute. Even if such a person blows mana into the seven-color stone No reaction.”
According to Merim’s endless explanation, about two-thirds of magicians can only handle one attribute, and relatively few are naturally able to handle multiple attributes.
“How is it? How is it? Isn’t it great? Isn’t it awesome~? This older sister isn’t even a double, what a triple-ripple? Doesn’t it make you sick?”
“Uh… ,Hmm… ,Yes… ,It’s amazing. Merim sister.”
“Whoa, whoa, this older sister is a bit sick.”
Seeing Merim openly liking compliments, Roxia thought in her heart that she was a very immature person.
After finishing her explanation of her seven-colored stone, Merim gently placed it on Roxia’s palm.
“Good! Now, let’s check what kind of mana Roxia can handle. There is a possibility that Roxia is also a triple like this sister, so look forward to it.”
“Yes!”
Roxia, who focused her mind according to the tips learned from Roden, concentrated mana in the palm of her hand supporting her seven-color stone, and the color of the seven-color stone began to change immediately in response.
… First of all, red.
“Oh, congratulations. Loxia has proven she has the aptitude to be a wizard.”
… Then dark blue.
“Oh oh! What’s more, it’s a double! This means she can handle mana of the water attribute.”
… Then brown.
“Uh huh?! Me… ，The same triple as me… ?”
… The change of seven colors does not stop there, yellow, sky, gray… Finally, it returned to colorless after emitting seven kinds of light in order, one at a time in a brilliant golden color.
“… What… ?”
Merim, who had been unable to continue her speech since the seven color stones changed four times in a row, stared blankly at Roxy A and the seven color stones with her eyes wide open.
