Chapter 32: Everything Resolved

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Looking down at the floor, Sugar appeared to be in a daze.

Her pale, pink-tinged hair spread gracefully across the floor.

Every time the wind brushed through it, a sweet scent wafted through the air. It was strange—they all used the same cheap soap, but only Sugar seemed to carry this sweet fragrance.

When she nestled into his arms, the scent filled his lungs, making him feel incredibly at ease.

‘What am I even saying, what am I saying, what am I saying—!’

Riley shook his head vigorously, trying to suppress his embarrassment.

He had already decided on a gift for Sugar, but her hair kept bothering him.

It was partly because Sugar had mentioned the other day that she wanted to cut her hair.

While the gift could work with shorter hair, longer hair was still preferable.

The way it swayed when she moved, the faint scent that brushed his nose when they walked side by side.

And when she smiled brightly, the way her hair shimmered around her was just so pleasing to the eye.

“…”

Thinking about it made him feel somewhat annoyed. Why did he have to think about these things? A sense of dissatisfaction crept in.

He poked her arm with the back of a pencil.

“Hey. At least give me your hand. I’ll infuse the pencil with magic.”

“I’m sleeping…”

“You can do it while sleeping.”

Back in the day, Rainer, the first disciple of the Saint, had fended off hundreds of enemies while unconscious. It was one of Riley’s favorite stories.

“It’s good practice for not breaking your magic flow while sleeping.”

“You should sleep too… You’ve been looking tired lately… Let’s sleep together…”

Sugar lifted the blanket she was under.

Riley grabbed the blanket and flung it over Sugar’s face.

“Hueeek…”

She made a groaning sound but didn’t seem to mind staying still. Covering her face made her feel cozy.

The blanket rustled, and soon only her hand peeked out.

“Fighting…”

Oh, you.

He held her hand and focused his consciousness, causing the pencil to float. Even though she said she was sleeping, it seemed she was still willing to infuse it with magic.

The pencil spun in the air, touching the floor and then the ceiling, moving back and forth.

All of this was possible solely through Riley’s will.

‘I feel like I can do something with this…’

Since training was on hold for now, he decided to use the remaining time to experiment with proxy manipulation.

The phenomenon itself was simple—just the ability to “manipulate on behalf of someone else”—but something kept nagging at him.

There was an unexplainable potential that kept revealing itself.

Riley loved uncovering new knowledge. Studying, forming hypotheses, and verifying them. While part of it was for recognition, he also genuinely enjoyed the process.

‘Being able to manipulate movements on someone else’s behalf…’

In other words, it was akin to manipulating someone else’s magic.

Didn’t that mean something beyond mere “manipulation” was possible?

Sugar’s magic was pure magic—a unique type that could change its nature.

‘If I can control it like my own magic, does that mean I can completely transform it into my own?’

There was a basic offensive spell that involved creating and launching a magic sphere.

The spell’s power varied greatly depending on the user’s magic quality, density, and size. If Sugar used it, her attack power would likely be much lower than others.

The moment it was created, it would disperse into the air, and even if it hit the target, much of it would be neutralized by the target’s inherent magic.

‘But if I change its nature…’

If Sugar created the sphere and then Riley held her hand to transform it into his own magic nature.

If he could go beyond “manipulation” to induce “transformation.”

The attack power would increase significantly.

‘…But is it really necessary?’

While theoretically possible, there was no practical need for it in real combat.

The process of Sugar gathering magic, holding hands, and transforming its nature was too cumbersome. It was much faster and easier to just create and launch the magic sphere himself.

This idea was scrapped.

He’d verify it later, but it seemed unlikely he’d ever use it again.

Still, once he started thinking about it, more hypotheses began to emerge.

“Hey… When are you ever going to use magic…?”

The endless possibilities made him eager to experiment. He chided her with this in mind, but there was no response.

Soon, the pencil dropped. It seemed she had fallen asleep, as the magic flow had stopped.

Riley wiped his sweaty hands on his pants with a displeased expression.

Then, something suddenly occurred to him.

The idea he had discarded earlier—a way to compensate for its necessity.

-It felt like I was supposed to go left but went right instead? Then I hit a wall. But now I’ve found the right way.

It was something Sugar had muttered to herself before.

Back when she was struggling with the second level due to the influence of natural magic around her. After going to the factory and experiencing a series of events, she had finally mastered the second level and said this.

Riley had pretended not to care but had listened carefully. It suddenly came back to him, leading to this hypothesis.

What if Sugar had continued on that path?

If she had broken through the wall, not by following the right or wrong path, but by going wherever she wanted?

If she had blurred the boundaries between herself and others, between herself and all things.

Like water merging into one stream—

“Hmm…”

This was going too far.

He picked up the fallen pencil and spun it around, but his movements suddenly stopped.

No matter how absurd the idea, he could entertain it, but this was a bit too far-fetched.

Clicking his tongue, Riley moved to a spot far from Sugar and lay down. Since Sugar was asleep, there wasn’t much else he could do. He thought he might as well get some sleep.

He had to go out again tonight. He needed to save money for the gift he was going to give her and also decipher the grimoire.

The boy was busy in many ways.

He sighed but didn’t feel too bad, so he chuckled softly.

Thinking about the future was quite fun. By his side, there would always be Sugar, causing trouble and doing all sorts of unpredictable things.

‘Hmm…’

What will we be like when we grow up? Will we have safely made it into Steele?

Will we be studying together, preparing for exams, laughing and chatting?

Or maybe I’ll pass, but Sugar won’t. Then she’d cry her eyes out.

Imagining that scene made me chuckle.

The future is unpredictable. But there’s something to look forward to.

Hmph, I snorted and continued imagining.

How long are we going to keep playing these childish games?

“…”

In an instant, the smile disappeared.

I know.

It’s something Riley knows deep down too.

I know we can’t keep doing this forever, that we’ll have to make a decision eventually.

But I don’t want to think about it yet, so I closed my eyes and pretended not to know.

After a nap, I felt much better.

A sense of vitality surged through my body. Sugar had good recovery.

Looking around, I saw my friend sleeping far away. I draped the blanket I was using over him.

Riley squirmed and burrowed into the blanket, which carried Sugar’s scent.

Hehe. Sugar smiled contentedly and left the attic.

Looking up at the sky, the sun was still shining brightly.

I must have woken up at the right time. I hadn’t received today’s request yet, and there was still time before dinner, so I could quickly go out and come back.

As usual, I headed to the rest area in Cafe Street, where the request broker was sitting.

“How about a cup of coffee? (Any requests?)”

“Sure. (There is.)”

“How about… one spoon of sugar? (Any easy tasks?)”

“Two spoons would be better. (Only medium difficulty available.)”

“Alright. (I’ll take it.)”

After roughly estimating through the code words, we moved to another spot to discuss the details. It was the basic method of request brokering.

‘Sugar’ was the term for the difficulty level of the tasks—the easiest being 1 spoon, the hardest being 3 spoons.

The broker arbitrarily set the levels based on the children’s success rates and the content of the requests.

Sugar had wanted to take the easiest tasks lately, considering her condition, but medium difficulty wasn’t a big problem either.

The money was almost all saved up. Just one or two more tasks, and it would be over. She just had to hold out a little longer.

Arriving at the back alley, the man pulled out the payment for the last job and the request form from his pocket.

“I said it’s 2 spoons, but the content itself is easy. It’s just investigating a location and writing a report. You know how to write, right?”

“Of course.”

“Anyway, I’ll write the report in my handwriting. You just need to take detailed notes on anything unusual and pass them to me. Refer to the request form for the exact details.”

“Got it.”

Opening the heavy pouch of money, the amount was surprisingly large. Sugar’s eyes widened in shock.

“Isn’t this too much?”

She wanted to wipe her mouth, but she didn’t want to give him any reason to doubt her. When it came to money, honesty was best.

“Ah, it’s the additional payment for the ground squirrel tails you collected earlier. It just came in.”

“Oh…”

All that hard work paid off.

She quickly counted the money.

One, two, three, four, five……–

‘This should be… just about enough?’

If this was the case, after completing this task, she would have reached her goal.

Yay!

“Sir, I’ll quit after finishing this job.”

“Huh? Why? You were doing so well.”

“Actually, I started this to buy something… I planned to quit as soon as I saved up enough money for it.”

“I see…”

Her cheerful demeanor made the broker look somewhat disappointed.

At first, the broker hadn’t thought much of this small girl. She was tiny, and while she could use magic, there didn’t seem to be anything particularly special about her.

However, after working together, she consistently completed tasks on time. She was efficient and thorough. He had grown fond of her so it was a shame to see such a capable worker leave, but he was a professional request broker.

He didn’t stop those who wanted to leave, just as he didn’t force those who wanted to stay.

“Alright, it was good working with you… but I understand. If you ever need to make money again, come back. You’re always welcome.”

“Haha… okay.”

Sugar scratched her head awkwardly.

She swallowed the words that had risen to her throat—like suggesting he find a proper job.

After all, it was thanks to him that she had earned money and trained. She could only wish him good luck.

‘Ah, I should visit the request office later too.’

She wanted to thank the burly man who had subtly introduced her to this job. If he hadn’t, Sugar would probably be crying in a chimney party by now.

Grateful for that, she headed back to the orphanage with light steps, not forgetting to glance at the request form along the way.

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[Underground Waterway Investigation]

Recently, there has been a strange phenomenon of a rapid decrease in the number of monsters in the city’s underground waterways. We are recruiting investigators to enter the waterways and determine the cause.

(Details omitted)

Thoroughly investigate and write a report. If you can provide any evidence that could serve as a clue, that would be even better.

Deadline: ……

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.

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‘It doesn’t seem too difficult.’

But maybe the location itself warranted the 2-spoon difficulty rating?

After reading the details, Sugar tucked the request form into her pocket, lost in thought.

First, let’s go back and have dinner.

Then work at night.

Once I receive the payment tomorrow, I’ll head to the general store, and everything will be resolved.

Translator Note

4 chapters today, 2 right now and 2 at the regularly scheduled times. I was convinced in the Kat discord if you too want to try and convince me to update faster then JOIN NOW