Confidence

“Hmm? You sure look upbeat today, C,” noted Kai as we met up again.

The place was an alley right by the main market—we had already designated this spot for meeting up again after concluding our business.

“Am I?” I asked with a wide smile. I glanced at Saga, but she looked as uninterested and cold as always. “So? How’re things on your side?”

“We found a cheap room. We should be set for the night, at any rate.”

“Make that at least a few nights,” I said.

“Oh? So did your meeting go well?”

“You bet!” I said, finally able to brag. “Guess what? It turns out I have the sort of talent that only appears once in a century! I can learn in hours what the biggest experts take years to master, haha!” Aah, but it felt so good telling that to someone, even if my current crowd wasn’t that appreciative of this fact.

Kai sighed. “So that’s why you’ve been wearing that creepy smile since you came back… Well, good for you, I guess.”

“Yup. The Sage told me that even Three himself took many years to become a master mage and that I might actually overtake him.”

“Hmm, since we’ll be fighting him at some point that’s good to hear,” said Kai dryly.

“Done boasting yet?” said Saga, sounding bored.

Meh, they were just jealous. Or maybe they still underestimated me—but surely I’d have a chance to show them at some point.

“So anyway,” I continued, “he’s started teaching me new spells. Remember I told you I wasn’t able to create new ones no matter how much I tried?”

“I do recall something like that… does he have any unique teaching method?”

“Not at all. You see, it turns out I can only replicate spells I’ve seen with my own eyes, but I’m such a genius I can learn any spell I see. Is that awesome, or what?”

I still had no idea how this world worked, but maybe a similar logic applied to my starting spells, i.e. those that I’d already seen and used countless times during playtesting my game.

Kai whistled. “Fine, I admit that is impressive.”

“…Does he know any combat spells?” asked Saga.

My face twitched a little. The truth of the matter was… that the great sage himself admitted he knew only various utility spells.

Since normal people (meaning, not awesome like me) would spend literal decades honing their craft, he’d left the fighting to other people and focused on relatively mundane things.

Not to say that they were useless, though.

“He’ll teach me useful spells, don’t worry. For example, let me show you—”

Kai raised a hand. “I don’t think you should do that here right now… We’re supposed to keep a low profile, right?”

I lowered my hand. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Point is, I’m going to kick ass from now on.” I widened my smile. “Three’s supposed to be some kind of master mage too, but imagine his face when I copy his every move then throw it back at him harder!”

Despite my words, Kai did not look relieved in the least. “That actually sounds like a problem… we’re not really well-suited to fight magic users, are we?”

“Hah, magic’s not worth much anyway,” said Saga, then turned and walked away.

“Hey, where are you going?” I asked her.

“I have my own business,” she said curtly. “I’ll come back this evening.”

I looked at Kai, but he shook his head; apparently he had no idea about this either.

“Oh, right,” he said, “I do remember her discussing something with someone at the inn while I was checking the prices… hmm. Oh well, she can take care of herself.”

“…You complained when I went on my own.”

“That’s completely different.”

“Is it because she’s a girl?”

“What? No… C, stop being like that.”

I had half a mind to throw him into the air with my new spell—but there was no need for that.

An annoying fly or something buzzed near my ears so I waved it away, then turned to Kai. “Whatever. Is there anywhere we can grab some lunch? I’m going back there this afternoon for more lessons.”

“Well, as long as you’re enjoying yourself… Maybe I should look for some archery instructor, too?” asked Kai. “We should probably finish our own supplies before they go bad, but I guess checking out some stalls wouldn’t hurt.”

We found some slop to eat, then I went back to the Sage to learn a few spells—we decided the best way of doing this was him showing me as many as possible and me refining them by myself—and then went back to the inn for the night.

While it was a cheap, dirty place and much worse than the previous town’s accommodations, at least it was better than the forest.

Me and Kai were in quite the shock when Saga also arrived—smeared in some blood.

“Whoa, what the hell? Are you fine?” Kai immediately asked.

She gave us her usual cold stare. “Hah, don’t worry. It’s not my blood.”

“I guess that’s good to hear…” Kai mumbled, frowning. “Maybe?”

“Who did you kill?” I followed up. “Wait… don’t tell me you found Two or something like that!”

If something as absurd as Saga finding and stealing my kill occurred without my knowledge, I really was going to lose it.

She shook her head. “Don’t be ridiculous. I just went out hunting.”

“Hunting?” parroted Kai.

“Lots of game around,” she said, then put down her sword. “It makes money.”

Ah, so that was what she was after. Well, that was fair enough; I certainly wasn’t planning on doing any work here, so that was convenient.

“Keep up the good work,” I said with a thumbs-up.

Kai seemed to pick up on the nuance. “…Are you just planning to slack off?”

“What do you mean, slack off? I’m training.”

“Sure… you could at least contribute a little. Haven’t you bragged about all your new spells? I’m sure some could be used for hunting or whatnot…”

“Sorry, we’re focusing on quantity right now. We’ll be going up against a master mage, remember.”

“Suuure…” said Kai, still eyeing me suspiciously but saying nothing further.

Following that, we retired to our rooms—Saga had a room alone, at Kai’s insistence though the girl herself hadn’t seemed to mind—and went to sleep.

It was a very productive day, all things considered.

I really wished we could stay there for longer so I could learn more of the old coot’s spells, but we already agreed it was for the best if we only remained here for a few days.

I drifted into a nice, relaxed sleep filled with dreams about spells and girls—

To suddenly wake up with one of the latter in front of my face.

“Make no move. Utter no word,” whispered to me a figure in the darkness. I jolted awake, feeling a weight on my body and a hand clamped over my mouth. As well as something else.

A cold, metallic sensation against my throat.

It was still dark, but I could somehow still make her shape in the dark. The sweet yet dangerous voice was also familiar to me.

Two straddled my sleeping body while pressing a knife against me.