Chapter 044
“It was just open.”
“The door?”
His repeated questions puzzled me, but I simply nodded in response.
“Did I not lock it properly…?”
The magician muttered softly to himself as he ruffled his hair.
With each touch, his messy hair seemed to puff up even more.
As I watched him with curiosity, he suddenly turned his head sharply.
“Anyway! You can’t just barge into someone’s house like this! Don’t you know this is trespassing?”
Now fully alert, the magician was making a fuss, acting as if I had committed a serious crime.
“With your hair and face looking all pale, I thought you were a real ghost! I nearly had a heart attack!”
I wondered if he realized that he himself looked just as pale from head to toe.
After offering him an apology, I shifted the topic.
“I’m sorry for coming in uninvited. I really needed to ask you something.”
“What was so urgent that you came by this morning? I was sleeping soundly.”
He seemed genuinely disappointed, completely unaware that he had just had a nightmare.
“It’s about the potion you sold yesterday.”
At my words, the magician let out a short exclamation and replied with a laugh in his voice.
“Well, my potion is quite something, isn’t it?”
He suggested we discuss it downstairs instead of lingering here and led me outside.
Once back downstairs, I sat across from him just like yesterday.
“So? What are you planning to buy this time? Just so you know, coming here twice doesn’t mean I’ll give you a discount.”
The magician handed me the same box from yesterday, speaking in a firm tone.
I stared blankly at the potions inside the box, then looked directly at the magician and spoke.
“What was the potion you sold me yesterday?”
“What do you mean, what? I said it was a potion that helps with love…”
“No magical potion can interfere with a person’s mind like that. What exactly are you selling here?”
I could see the magician’s smile stiffen at my words.
“…From what you’re saying, it seems you know quite a bit about magic, don’t you? What do you do for a living?”
“First, you answer my question.”
After a moment of silence due to my firm attitude, the magician shrugged his shoulders and replied.
“Well… to be precise, the potion I sell is just an ordinary magical potion. It’s just that its effects are a bit stronger.”
I frowned, not understanding what he meant, prompting him to elaborate.
“The potion you took yesterday had a spell that loosens the boundaries of your suppressed unconscious. In other words, it helps you express desires that you’ve kept inside.”
“…Desires I’ve kept inside?”
“Yeah. Drinking it will only give you the effect of confessing your feelings at best.”
‘So all the actions I took yesterday were just desires that were inside me?’
Hearing his words made my mind go blank.
Hugging Evan, stroking his hair, begging him to call my name—was all of that just my hidden desires?
As I recalled the last image of Evan’s face I had seen, I found myself momentarily lost in thought, mouth agape.
It was because I realized what I was currently thinking.
‘I want to see his flushed face again because of me.’
More than anything, I wanted to see Evan’s red face from yesterday once more.
At that moment, feeling confused about desires I hadn’t even been aware of, I heard a knock.
“Alright, now it’s your turn, customer?”
The magician tapped the desk in front of me, breaking my train of thought.
“What is your identity, customer, that you know so much about magic in this remote village?”
His previously light tone had dropped significantly.
Though I couldn’t see them, I imagined his green eyes intently staring at my face behind that messy hair.
Recalling my other purpose for being here, I straightened my posture and spoke to him.
“Before I answer, I have a request.”
“A request?”
“I’d like you to cast protective magic around the Duke’s territory. Strong enough to withstand multiple attacks if war breaks out again.”
As soon as I finished speaking, I heard a loud exhale from him, as if he were incredulous.
“Ha? There’s no way I could do something like that.”
“You can do it.”
I interrupted the magician, asserting confidently.
“You demonstrated magic right in front of me yesterday.”
My assured tone left him momentarily speechless.
Finally, he asked in a much lower, serious voice, “Customer, what exactly do you do?”
Noticing his fingers tapping the table irregularly and quickly, I realized he was quite anxious.
Since raising the magician’s wariness any further wouldn’t benefit me either, I hurriedly spoke up.
“I’m sorry for the late introduction. My name is Dahlia Ballestain.”
“No, who asked for your name? Wait a moment, Ballestain…”
The magician repeated the name several times, and then, with a sudden realization, he looked at me with wide eyes.
He pointed at me with his finger and asked again, as if confirming, “Ballestain?”
When I nodded, the magician let out a long sigh, as if in disbelief.
“Ha, customer. Can you stand up for a moment?”
I unconsciously stood up, following the suddenly rising magician, who then pushed me out of the tower.
“What, what are you doing? I asked you to answer, not to kick me out!”
I questioned him, bewildered by his indifferent shove.
Leaning against the entrance of the tower, the magician looked down at me and bluntly replied in a flat voice.
“Customer, one of my rules is to never get involved with high-ranking individuals. You have no business here, so just go back.”
“Wait…!”
The magician turned his back on me without hesitation and closed the door behind him.
Bang.
Just before the door shut, I faintly heard him mumble, “Should I leave this place too?” I realized that if I went back now, I might never see him again.
Bang bang.
“Excuse me. Could you open the door for a moment?”
Considering the magician’s consistent attitude of dismissing me even though he knew I was the owner of the Ballestain Duchy, I decided to change my approach a bit.
“I’m not just asking for this; I’ll pay a sufficient reward as well.”
Recalling his attitude when he sold me the potion yesterday, the answer came easily.
“300 gold.”
No more, no less, I shouted just that one phrase.
I stood there for what felt like an eternity.
Squeak─.
The door, which seemed like it would never open again, slowly creaked ajar.
I added my prepared second statement.
“If you complete the protective barrier, I’ll give you an additional 500 gold.”
The slightly ajar door had now swung wide open.
The magician, reappearing from inside, lowered his head and stared at me for quite a while.
I, too, stared intently at the place where I presumed his eyes were.
After a brief standoff, it was the magician who spoke first.
“Welcome, customer.”
Stepping aside at the door, the magician had returned to his overtly capitalistic tone.
After a moment of disbelief at his demeanor, I followed his lead and stepped back into the tower.
Once again seated across from the magician, I placed the money pouch I had brought in front of me, taking the initiative.
“This is an advance payment.”
The magician quickly reached for the pouch I offered, checked the money inside, and then smirked as he spoke.
“Ahem, normally I wouldn’t take orders from anyone for this kind of work, but I’ll accept it considering your sincerity.”
Seeing his obvious excitement at receiving the money despite his pretense, I couldn’t help but wonder.
‘Why was he selling potions here when he clearly loves money so much?’
Just from the level of potion-making I had witnessed, it was evident that the magician possessed far greater power than any other magician I had seen.
Setting those questions aside for now, I turned to the magician, who was counting the money.
“Shall we start discussing the job now?”
