Chapter 25: Let’s Change the Mood

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As I sipped tea inside the inn, a bird tapped on the window.

A large crow.

Louveci couldn’t see, so she only sensed it through sound. The familiar flapping of wings and the familiar knocking told her it was a friend.

She lightly tapped her cane twice with her finger, and the window opened on its own.

[Report the situation.]

“Hmm. The kids are really adorable.”

[Report the situation.]

“Things are progressing in a positive direction. They’ve already warmed up to shy little me, you know? If we keep building this rapport—”

[We need faster progress.]

“Sigh… You’re no fun.”

She let out a deep sigh, feeling like she was talking to an inanimate object. Compared to the lively kids, this felt dull and boring.

“Can we have a serious conversation for once? It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other. I’m retiring soon, you know. Is it really okay to just keep sending crows like this?”

[It’s fine.]

Louveci tapped her cane slowly, expressing her disappointment.

They used to be on good terms. When did things become like this?

Before, she would talk directly to the crow’s owner and even go on missions together. They had maintained a harmonious relationship. After all, they had known each other for a long time.

But a few years ago, communication between the church’s ‘leader’ and the followers became strained. That’s when things changed. They stopped meeting face-to-face.

[You can’t see faces anyway.]

“How cold…”

[You have a more important mission than preaching. You must carry this heavy responsibility.]

“I know. But what’s the rush? The leader knows my heart is with the church, so don’t worry.”

[…We hope you complete your task as soon as possible and return.]

“Is the situation that bad?”

[We’re just prioritizing. Preaching can be left to us.]

“Well…”

Before Louveci could respond, the crow flew off into the distant sky, as if it had no interest in continuing the conversation.

Louveci had an important mission. More important than bringing Sugar or Riley into the fold—her true ‘final mission.’

When the followers of the church reached the end of their lives, they would throw themselves into the leader’s embrace.

They would offer their entire being to the leader, who longed to be closer to humans.

If they wished to be buried, they weren’t forced, but most chose the former after spending their lives in the church, unable to fathom betraying their faith.

The apostles were no different. However, in their case, they called it ‘retirement’ and held grand farewell ceremonies to celebrate.

Louveci was still young for retirement. She could still be active, but she had chosen to retire early.

In recent years, communication with the leader had become impossible, and the leader had even begun to act strangely. Louveci, who had been deeply involved with the church for so long, wanted to offer herself to soothe the leader’s heart.

But then she found Sugar.

She had been worried about what would happen to the church after she left, but she had found a promising talent.

If she could raise this child. If she could use that unique magical power to breathe new life into the stagnant church.

She would raise the child with her own hands, making her the successor. If she poured all her essence into raising her, she could leave for the leader’s side without worrying about the future.

She couldn’t know what her fellow apostles were thinking. She just hoped the child would take her place and lead well.

Lately, something felt off.

Since announcing her retirement, she had sensed that the others were avoiding her and secretly planning something.

They were plotting something, leaving her, the most senior apostle, out of the loop.

In times like these, ‘recruiting talent and training a successor’ was a perfect excuse to delay her retirement.

Louveci set down her tea and looked out the window. Though her eyes saw nothing but darkness, she knew the star-filled sky above was dense and overflowing.

Her unique eyes could see what others couldn’t, but there were things even those eyes couldn’t see.

She could see the magical energy flowing through people’s bodies, but she couldn’t see deeper—into their hearts.

Frustrated, she simply stared at the sky.

“Haaa…”

Yawning loudly in the middle of a meal.

Sugar, watching from across the table, gently stuck her finger into his open mouth. He instinctively tried to close it but quickly realized what was happening and jerked back.

“Ew, what are you doing?!”

“Sleepy?”

“Can’t you tell?”

Riley, who had barely slept after hunting monsters all night to fill the grimoire’s pages, was irritable.

He was always irritable, but the lack of sleep made it worse.

“Didn’t sleep well last night? Why not? Hmm?”

Sugar asked casually, then narrowed her eyes and smirked.

“Couldn’t sleep because you were thinking about me?”

“Ugh.”

Here we go again.

Riley ignored her and got up from the table. Despite the fact that his entire life’s direction had shifted because of his thoughts about Sugar, he stubbornly refused to acknowledge it.

Sugar, who had already finished her soup and was waiting, followed him.

Without saying a word, they both headed to the same place.

The attic on the top floor of the orphanage building.

It was used as a storage room, but they had pushed the clutter aside to create a small hideout where a few kids could fit.

The sunlight streaming through the small window made it cozy.

Opening the window let in the cool autumn breeze. It was already October. Time flew by since the memories of midsummer had returned.

As Riley focused on organizing his magical energy, he stared intently at Sugar.

“Tommy, why?”

Sugar still didn’t know Riley’s real name. She didn’t even know he was hiding it.

She called him by a name that could be heard anywhere.

Hearing it made Riley uncomfortable. He just felt that way for no reason.

Suppressing his unease, he spoke.

“We were going to talk about it before, but we didn’t get to. What happened at the factory. Your current level, etc.”

“We were?”

That day, the day he had run out after Sugar’s declaration about her preferences.

He had originally gone to talk about what happened at the factory and reflect on it together.

However it wasn’t until today that he could finally do it. Riley placed a stone he had picked up somewhere on the floor.

“First, this. Try infusing it with magic without touching it.”

“I’m really bad at that…”

Sugar was decent at manipulating magic inside her body, but external manipulation was her weakness. She couldn’t control the intensity—it was either too weak or too strong.

“It’d be safer to put it by the window.”

The open window. Sugar placed the stone on the windowsill and infused it with magic.

“…”

Nothing happened for a while.

“Are you even trying?”

The moment she asked, the stone shot off with a whoosh. It flew in a straight line and disappeared without a trace.

“…”

“See? This is what I mean.”

“This is a serious problem.”

Riley had always been able to manipulate magic freely, so he had no idea how to guide someone who struggled with it.

To reach the third stage, you had to perfectly master the second stage.

[Stage 3: The ability to convert magical energy into spells through incantations, gestures, etc.]

What is magic? It’s using magical energy as a resource to create phenomena that don’t normally occur in this world.

It’s processing the magical energy inside your body and outputting it externally.

However, Sugar struggled even with the basics—releasing raw magical energy outside her body. That was the problem.

‘Her magical energy is just too unusual.’

As soon as it was released, it tried to dissolve into the air. All magical energy had this property, but Sugar’s was especially strong.

To control it properly, you had to calculate the amount of energy that would dissolve into the air and the amount needed to move objects. This could only be learned through experience.

In other words, it would take a long time.

“Let’s set this aside for now. This time, let’s verify what happened at the factory.”

“You mean when you manipulated my magic?”

The day Sugar’s magical energy had flowed out uncontrollably, causing the loom and other objects to float.

Since Sugar couldn’t control it, Riley had taken her hand and manipulated it for her.

It was an absurd feat, but he had done it.

Normally, to manipulate an object within someone else’s magical influence, you needed to overpower their energy and take control. But he had done it just by holding her hand.

“Hmm… For now, let’s try thinking of it as wrapping the object in magic.”

Since the stone had flown away, he rummaged through the storage room and found a suitable object.

It was Riley’s favorite stubby pencil.

“Hey… Why that?”

“I won’t break it. And it’s good for testing.”

He focused and released his magical energy.

“Done?”

“I think so.”

Sugar held out her hand.

Riley hesitated but took her hand. He could feel something flowing through their connected hands.

Come to think of it, it was the same at the factory. Back then, Sugar’s magical energy was running wild, making her hands feel warm, so I didn’t pay much attention.

“This… I think it’ll work this time too.”

I focused on the pencil.

If I imagined it floating, it floated.

If I imagined it moving left, it moved left. If I imagined it moving right, it moved right. It moved freely.

“It’s working well. Try writing something.”

Sugar had deliberately chosen the pencil for this. Following her words, Riley wrote the letter ‘ㄹ’ on the newspaper spread out on the floor, and it moved smoothly.

“Wow.”

Soon, another word was written.

‘Idiot.’

“Change it to ‘Sugar-chan.’”

Sugar wiggled her fingers mischievously, and Riley reluctantly wrote it. If he had to describe the way it looked, it was more like ‘Ssuuuugaaaaaar-chan,’ but he did as he was told.

“Good. I like it.”

“Annoying…”

As Riley grumbled and let go of her hand, the pencil immediately stopped in mid-air. Then it fell to the floor with a tap.

“It’s kind of amazing.”

Even though it was Sugar’s hand holding the pencil, it was Riley who made the hand move.

Sugar picked up the fallen pencil and examined it from all angles.

Riley reflected on what he had observed.

‘It didn’t feel like I was just taking control.’

It was as if Sugar and I had become one. As if our magical energies had merged.

Was it because we had exchanged magical energy before? Or was it just because of her unique nature?

I couldn’t tell.

While pondering this, Riley looked down at Sugar. She was peacefully puffing away with the pencil balanced on her nose. He wanted to ask her what she thought, but it was so ridiculous that he forgot.

“Aren’t you amazed by what’s happening right now?”

“Of course I am. But is this really that important for learning magic? I don’t really get it.”

“…”

Sugar was cold.

But, to be fair, figuring out how to make Sugar capable of direct manipulation was more urgent than dissecting how this proxy manipulation was possible.

So, how should I teach Sugar?

I need to get this clumsy girl to reach Stage 3, study hard, and send her to magic school.

Somehow, feeling like a parent, Riley sighed, realizing how far they had to go.

‘It would be nice if she had a wand…’

Not only would her magical energy manipulation and precision improve, but a mage without a wand isn’t even considered a mage.

Basic magical energy manipulation, like what we’re doing now, is possible without a wand, but anything beyond that requires one.

But there’s no way to get one.

Wand shops are full of them, but we don’t have the money.

Suddenly, he remembered the wand Louveci had tried to give him, but the thought made him uncomfortable, so he quickly dismissed it.

That kind of thing. I’ll get it with my own power.

As he frowned, Sugar quietly approached.

“…Should we go out for now?”

“Huh? Where are we going all of a sudden?”

When he asked, confused, she smiled brightly. It was a cheerful smile, but there was something oddly sinister about it.

“To change the mood.”

I have no idea why she said that while giggling like that.