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#020. Bookstore Veronica (1)
Two pairs of footsteps rang out.
I moved forward, knocking over the silence that had piled up in the bookstore.
“Your clothes have changed? You were wearing a raincoat yesterday.”
Ray answered Veronica’s question without hesitation.
“I threw it away.”
To be exact, I burned it.
As you wander the streets, you might run into the man in the basement.
I also asked Philip to change the clothes I was wearing inside into relatively clean ones.
That alone makes a huge difference in impression.
Veronica kept looking back and glancing at Ray, wondering if it was strange.
“I told you about yourself. You used magic. You helped me a lot in chasing the other kids. And you’re looking for a rainbow─”
“You didn’t say anything else about me?”
“Yeah. Just three. Actually, you didn’t tell me anything else about yourself.”
Ray nodded.
When Veronica mentioned her grandfather, a thick feeling of trust seeped into her stomach.
Still, it was too early to let down our guard.
The wizard of the one-eyed glasses.
The wizard of the basement.
All the wizards I’ve encountered so far have had negative emotions and a high level of danger.
I climbed the stairs to the second floor.
As I walked down the creaking wooden hallway following Veronica.
“… … .”
I found two small faces peeking out across the hallway.
Boys around 7 or 8 years old.
The wariness that radiated from his eyes was quite believable.
The two little ones hid their heads when their eyes met Ray’s.
Veronica said with a sad expression as she looked at the place where her siblings had disappeared.
“These are the younger brothers I grew up with at the orphanage. My grandfather personally chose them. Me, Malta, and Yulpin. Like this.”
“To teach magic?”
Veronica said with wide eyes and a startled voice.
“How did you know?”
… That’s because you said you learned magic from your grandfather.
“Otherwise, I don’t think there would be any reason to take in an orphan. You also said that you learned magic.”
There was also an orphanage in Sector 50.
Although it was not much different from prison, with poor facilities and abuse.
Veronica nodded as if she understood.
“I see. Well, there were no real adoptions at the orphanage I was at either. Everyone who came took the children for some other reason.”
The boy and girl continued walking until they reached a room at the end of the hallway.
“Here it is. Grandpa is inside.”
Veronica knocked on the door and spoke into the room.
dripping.
“Grandpa Graham. Ray is here. He’s the kid I told you about yesterday.”
A faint voice came from inside telling me to come in.
Click.
As I opened the door, the scenery inside the room appeared.
Ray followed Veronica into the room.
It was a room that was neither small nor large.
Although there were only a few pieces of furniture by the window, it didn’t feel empty.
‘This is the guy.’
An old man got up from his bed by the window.
It was because the presence he radiated filled the room.
The old man sat up, leaning his back against the headboard of the bed.
“Sit down.”
It was a word directed at Ray.
The tone was natural, as if he had met Ray before.
“Veronica, stay out.”
Veronica flinched as she followed Ray to the chair in front of the bed.
I turned around and quickly left the room with a regretful look on my face, but my gaze was focused on Ray until the moment I closed the door.
Ray sat down on the chair.
The old man looked at the boy.
The boy saw the old man.
“… … .”
The old man’s eyes were so sharp that they made his outwardly aged body pale in comparison.
At the same time, deep down inside, I felt a sense of helplessness that I couldn’t hide, and I thought it might be because of the illness I was suffering from.
The old man spoke first.
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“First of all, thank you. For helping Veronica chase those guys away. It was something I should have done, but as you can see, I’m not in good shape.”
“It wasn’t that difficult.”
Ray examined the old man’s chest with a mechanical answer.
A ring was visible.
As many as three each.
Although it was a smaller number than that of the wizard with the monocle, it was still a very high level for him at the moment.
I turned my gaze and looked at the emotional bowl.
Red fire. Orange comfort.
Yellow splash. Green panic.
Blue indifference. Navy blue depression.
Dazzlingly colorful colors.
Also, emotions that are impossible to feel at the same time.
If you look closely, you can see that it is not actual mana, but colors engraved on the bowl.
The many emotional storms proportional to the time lived have left their marks on the vessel.
These cases usually fall into the category of people who are older or whose lives are more dense than others.
Ray was the type of person who had difficulty reading accurate emotions.
The old man continued speaking slowly in a dry voice.
“Yeah. He said he had a lot of questions for me.”
“I’ve been looking for a wizard all along.”
“Aren’t you a wizard too? Veronica said you were very good at using magic.”
“I don’t know much.”
The old man laughed loudly.
Then he said with an incomprehensible smile.
“It shouldn’t be difficult to answer your questions. If it’s about magic, that is. But wouldn’t it be polite to first reveal who you are?”
That wasn’t a wrong statement.
If I were the other person, I would have reacted the same way.
“… This is Ray.”
First, I just said the name.
I watched the other person’s reaction.
He wanted to keep as much information about himself as possible from the world.
“Yeah. Your name is Ray. Where are you from?”
“… … .”
I hoped the other person would just let it slide, but that was no use.
Ray hesitates for a moment to answer.
The old man opened his mouth as he looked at Ray like that.
“It seems like there’s a lot to say. If you’re hesitant about answering, how about doing it this way?”
“which….”
“It’s a simple game involving magic. The winner of each round can ask the loser a question. I also became a little interested in you after hearing Veronica’s story.”
The old man snapped his fingers.
The mana at one point in the air rippled greatly.
Multicolored mana swirling and entangled into one point.
They maintained their individual colors without mixing completely.
‘Usually, when you mix a lot of colors like that, the mana just repels each other.’
Ray was impressed by the old man’s skill in handling mana.
The old man also reacted in the same way.
“Oh my. You certainly have a keen sense of mana. Judging from the way you reacted so quickly.”
“What kind of game are you talking about?”
Ray asked quietly.
Actually, I didn’t feel like playing the game.
No matter how hard you try, there’s a high chance that you won’t be able to defeat the three-ring wizard.
So I thought I’d change the subject and try to get the information in another way.
But I changed my mind.
The old man’s skill was very attractive.
What magic should I use?
What other skills are you hiding?
What kind of game would this person suggest?
It was the boy’s unquenchable intellectual curiosity about magic and mana that he had harbored since childhood.
Curiosity surpassed vigilance.
In other words, that’s what happened.
I think it would be okay to at least hear what kind of game it is.
The old man also noticed the boy’s subtle change in attitude and smiled faintly.
“It’s not a difficult game. I play it with Veronica often. It also helps me practice mana management.”
The old man sent all but a small portion of the tangled mana back into the atmosphere.
And then I gathered the remaining mana.
Woof─
The result of the mixing of colors is a dark gray.
The gray mana moved according to the gesture and was positioned exactly in the air between the old man and the boy.
“Yes. Can you feel the mana between us now?”
Ray nodded.
Of course, I could feel it, but I could also see it with my eyes.
“Mana is made up of various elements. It can be considered a magical material.”
An explanation that suddenly came up in the middle of a conversation.
But it didn’t feel that sudden.
“Different elements are used for each magic. Sometimes elements meet to create new elements.”
Rather, it felt natural.
As if the time had been set aside from the beginning to impart knowledge.
The moment the word element came out, all of Ray’s senses flashed.
Ray concentrated all his attention.
It was to not miss a single word the old man said.
“What we have between us now is the element of maintenance. It is an element that plays a big role in ensuring that magic remains unaffected by external factors and maintains homeostasis.”
Every word made the boy’s heart pound.
“Also, because of its nature to maintain homeostasis, it is one of the most difficult elements to move─.”
“What is the element next to it?”
Ray couldn’t stand it anymore and asked.
This was because the mana that was visible before my eyes were of two types.
At first glance, it looks like just dark gray mana.
But if you look closely, you can see that the mana is divided into two through a faint boundary.
Dark gray.
A slightly darker gray.
In fact, it may appear as one color that is connected.
For Ray, who was sensitive to all colors, it was a completely different color.
The old man suddenly stopped talking.
He narrowed his eyebrows as if he was thinking back on Ray’s question, then quickly opened his eyes.
“What did you just say?”
The greatly shaken emotions rose vividly above the colors painted on the bowl.
Surprise. Disbelief. Excitement.
It was the old man’s emotions that Ray read.
‘Did I ask the wrong question?’
Should I muddle through?
No, that’s not it.
The doubts that were rumbling in my mind right now were the kind that I couldn’t bear without resolving.
“The element next to it. You didn’t tell me its name.”
“her….”
A breathless sound came out.
The old man looked at Ray, frowned, and narrowed his eyes.
His face looked like he couldn’t believe the situation at the moment.
“I clearly said it was the element next to it just now.”
“yes.”
“Is it true that the elements are felt as two, not one?”
Of course it was.
What you feel. What you see.
“Yes. Two.”
“Hahahahahahahahahaha──!”
Ray’s firm answer.
The old man suddenly burst into laughter.
Bowing down, and even shedding tears.
“Hahahaha─! Cool─! Heh, cool─!”
Even though I was coughing due to my poor physical condition, I didn’t think about stopping.
During that time, all kinds of emotions were swirling around in the bowl.
How much time has passed like that?
The old man raised his head with reddened eyes.
A regretful soliloquy flowed from the old man’s chapped lips.
“Graham. It’s been a waste of time. I didn’t have to search through hundreds of orphanages. The real gems are in places like this. But fate is a cruel thing. To arrange a meeting like this when you don’t have much time left.”
The old man, who had shaken off the last of his laughter, took a deep breath and looked at Ray as he spoke.
“Judging from your words and actions, it doesn’t seem like you’ve learned magic systematically. I’m even more curious about what kind of child you are.”
“So what is the name of the element next to the maintenance element?”
Ray’s appearance urging the question.
The old man laughed as if he had really met his master.
“It wouldn’t be fun if I explained it to you easily. Aren’t you explaining the game? I’ll leave that for you to ask.”
“… … .”
“Yes. Back to the explanation, there is a lump, a sphere, between us now, made up of two types of elements. The rules are simple. The one who attracts these spheres to each other and lands them in his palm wins. How about that?”
Think for a moment.
Ray opened his mouth.
“Can I handle Mana for a moment?”
“Yes, of course. For the sake of fairness, the ball’s location will start much closer to you.”
Dark gray mana.
It was a color I had never made before, but for some reason it felt familiar.
After receiving permission from the old man, Ray concentrated his mind and moved the gray mana.
Woof─
It definitely feels thicker than the regular colored mana.
‘It’s worth a try.’
Ray recalled the feeling at that time.
The moment when Veronica took control of the mana she had lost.
The mana at that time was also a color that was quite difficult to move, and the distance was actually much farther than it is now.
But it wasn’t difficult to handle.
Gray mana wouldn’t be much different.
Of course, the difficulty level increases dramatically when you consider that you have to compete with the old man for the same amount of mana.
But if you adjust the starting position.
In that case, I thought that this side also had a good chance of winning.
Ray made his decision.
“Okay. Let’s start the game.”