x
Chapter 6—The Mageka on Duty (Part 6)
The bedroom door swung open instantly, yet, the person who should be coming in was nowhere to be seen. My eyes then locked in on the wristwatch for a straight two minutes.
It’s about time. With a yield, another colourless gusty wind was launched from the spectre. This time, she finally made her appearance.
“Sakura! Where was I? It was all foggy and misty… Was that a magical barrier?” At the sight of my presence, Kou quickly grabbed my shoulders and questioned.
“More like an isolated space, to be exact… Hold up, what gave you that idea?” Her choice of words struck me as a surprise. How on earth does a person without access to magical knowledge and possessing zero magical power know about magical barriers?
“It’s just a wild guess…” Kou’s expression read. “I don’t know anything”.
Nope, she’s faking it. At least that’s what I think.
“No way a ‘wild guess’ can hit this insane level of accuracy, not to mention it’s your first guess!” I just did not buy that. Even when she enjoyed researching in this field, that still was not a logical explanation for such a precise answer for her first time marching into a magical barrier, was it?
She must have encountered a real magical barrier sometime in the past.
“Then it must be a work of my instinct, mm-hmm.” Kou kept nodding as if what she spoke of were straight facts.
“I don’t believe this is something that can be naturally perceived through instincts alone.” Her words simply did not hold water.
“Or maybe it’s because mine works differently from the others?” She was still looking for excuses to revive her theory.
“But from what I see, you’re no different from an average human being, especially in terms of instincts.” I debunked it with a solid “no”.
“From what you see? It could be that you’re deluded.”
“I’m afraid not, as these eyes can see through all facades and stare right into what’s real.”
What I said did not imply that my eyes came with any form of superpowers. Rather, it was my ability to evaluate the capacity of one’s magical power with the vast quantity of lore I possessed. Living with Kou for three years, I was affirmative that she was only an average being without the sufficient potential to become a mageka - nothing extraordinary in particular.
“But are you certain the ‘reality’ that those eyes reflect is in fact the reality?” Yet what Kou responded seemed to differ from what I implied. “Being aware of everything about the world allows you to know everything. Yet ironically, because of knowing how the world works, you cannot understand it all.” She presented a somewhat thought-provoking line.
Indeed - everything which we as humans perceived was solely a product of visual content showcased by our brains. They could put the visual content gathered by our eyes together into pictures, as well as mislead us into interpreting two parallel lines on a slanting line as curved. While the information collected from our eyes must go through our brains for processing before exporting into the visuals we saw, this raised an intriguing question: how much of the product we saw was real, and how much was merely illusions created by our brains? And by what means could we prove the fake from the real?
Plus, even if there was someone who got a hold of all knowledge in existence, would it be the entirety of mankind’s knowledge, or that of all races added up, “the ultimate truth”? Assuming it was the case of the latter, could they then comprehend the complex human world built on deception and hypocrisy?
If I was to dig deep into this, the discussion could have lasted a night long based off the lens of psychology, physiology, philosophy, along with the sets of ideas and beliefs on the magical lane. But I was nowhere in the mood to do so.
“Of course, the power you possess is only on an average level.” I decided to drive the focus back to “the capacity of one’s magical power” - the core of our conversation.
“Are you sure? It could be possible that I’m the reincarnation of the devil, which accounts for my strong instinct - only that my powers haven’t awakened yet.” Kou seemed to settle with the perspective surrounding magical power capacity, yet her imagination ran wild once again.
“There’s no devil in this world, nor does the reincarnation thing exist here…” Has she been reading too much of that fantasy fiction? It’s absolutely out of the question to have so many reincarnations of the devil in reality!
“Enough with this nonsense, let’s get back on track.”
“Which means… you’re giving in?” Like lighting a fuse, what Kou spoke triggered the rage within me.
“What makes you think that? I just don’t wanna waste time any further!” Ugh, don’t get me wrong!
“But judging from the result, you are losing…” She held her ground.
Are you the kind of person who never leaves things as they are until there’s a clear winner?
“Fine, fine, you win. Game over for me. Happy?” Foreseeing how the quarrel would evolve into an endless fight if this went on, I proceeded to patch it up with what she would like to hear. “Anyways, what I meant was I would send our clients to that space for meetings. Well of course, a little decorative work would be needed on its outlook. I’m definitely not letting them into our home.”
“I win? Hurray!” Kou only cheered and hopped in excitement for her victory over our argument like a three-year-old, seemingly neglecting the rest of my speech.
“Are you really still thinking about this? I bet this is the only thing you cared about in the first place, huh?” Honestly, as long as I got what needed to be done, winning or losing the argument did not matter to me at all.
“Oh? Is that the case?” she asked with a naive look on her face.
“Don’t pretend like you don’t know!” I added a little compulsion in my voice.
“But I didn’t say anything…” She did not seem to notice it - more like she intentionally turned a blind eye to the compelling element.
“I can tell from that look of yours,” I replied snappishly.
“Deciphering my thoughts solely by the look on my face? That’s remarkable, Sakura!” Kou’s eyes sparked in admiration.
“Well, first, my gratitude for your appreciation, but…” One could easily tell I was not flattered by her words. Rather, “speechless” would be a better adjective to describe how I felt. “Didn’t you just prove my theory right about wanting to declare victory from the start?”
“Oh? Did I?” She gave me an empty look.
“I suggest that you admit your intentions to end this once and for all…” I mean do you seriously think you can just play dumb and cover the whole thing up?
“Why? I didn’t say anything.” Her innocent gaze remained.
“And I suggest you not play dumb again…” I began clenching my fist as the rage within was on the edge of bursting out like a volcano.
“Neither did I do that. Also, didn’t you say I won?” she asked.
“Ugh! Yes, you’re the winner! Problem?” Unable to put up with her act any further, I decided to draw a brief conclusion, “Anyhow, our clients are not coming into our home, understand?”
Please just put an end to the tedious conversation in this instance!
“Okay, that settles it.” Kou’s blank look shifted into an approving nod upon hearing my speech.
She only wants to hear that after all! Sighing was the only reaction I could give at the sight of her signature smile. I turned around and pulled the wardrobe door open, carefully retrieving a cape that had long been hanging at the corner.
How nostalgic… it’s been three years since I last put it on.
This cape was earned during my time as a mageka back in Glace. I simply could not help but to admire its exquisite craftsmanship, aesthetically pleasing colour match, comfortable texture and superb durability everytime I looked at this piece that held a special place in my heart.
This snow-white cape might seem weighty and difficult to move around in, but you could barely feel it on your shoulders once you put it on. It could also morph in size and appearance at the owner’s will without costing any magical power! Not to mention its excellent protection from any sort of damage caused by physical and magical attacks - though this only applied to areas being covered.
All in all, it could be addressed as an omnipotent cape of significant value, as well as a symbolisation of the name, title and everything that “Sakura Minazuki”, the light mageka entailed.
I took a deep gaze into this “companion” who went through fire and water with me in the old days in Glace. It sent waves of indescribable thrill and touchingness.
Three years went by. The day when you can shine again finally comes.
“Sakura? What’re you doing with this shimmering fella? Could it be that there’s a treasure inside? Or is it one of those… heirlooms?” Kou’s question dragged me back from the waves. I then came to realise that her fingers kept pinching the cape in my hand.
“Stop it! It’s gonna be a lot of work if you tear it.” I immediately wrapped it up and put it back into the wardrobe with caution.
“What’s that?” she asked out of curiosity.
“A cape which I used to wear when I went on missions. Didn’t I show you before?” I had it on during our first encounter, as I recall… don’t tell me she actually forgot about this…
“Mm… did you?” Looks like it really escaped her memory.
“Nevermind, it’s not that important anyways.” I opened my wardrobe and took out a set of clothes. “I’m assuming there’s nothing else left to discuss? Now then, I need to change. Please leave.”
I had been occupied with dinner preparations and the whole discussion surrounding store opening since I got home that I did not even have the luxury to get changed.
Hold up, I should take a shower before getting changed, right? I could not even remember if I had taken a shower after all the hustling.
But I had been through worse: I was once so occupied at the moment to the exclusion of me having dinner, until Kou reminded me of it.
She said that I could be quite forgetful once I got serious about something, though from my perspective, she was in no position to tell me so out of everyone I knew.
“Oh, right!” Just when I was about to walk into the bathroom with my clothes in hand, Kou uttered as if she had something to say.
“Yes?” I thought we were through with the store opening details. Are we missing something here?
“Can I please help out with your store, like entertaining our clients and managing the expenses?” she asked.
“Sure thing, but why?” I could use some help so an addition to the business certainly was something to be grateful for, though I wondered why she made such an offer.
“‘Cause I want to make extra money with another job - I mean, who doesn’t wanna earn more, right?” She put up a silly smile.
Her justification, yet again, left me dumbstruck.
“Are you seriously complaining about not earning enough with that assistant manager job of yours!”407Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvthkwWwcwF
