Magic Wand

Old Bolo ultimately didn't send his brat away.

After all, he had endured him for nine years already. He was used to it.

Old Bolo had always worried that his second son was too reckless, that he wouldn't be able to earn a living and would instead stir up trouble. Now that Little Bolo had earned enough money to support himself for the rest of his life, Old Bolo was even more worried that he would use it to cause something huge!

—When that brat had no money, he had already caused the Collective Cheating incident.

Now that he had money, wouldn't he be able to fly straight to the heavens?!

Just thinking about it gave Old Bolo a stomachache.

However, compared to the brat at home, what Old Bolo cared more about right now was the release of Magical Girl ☆ Maya.

Of course, a thirty-eight-year-old weapon shop owner standing 1.89 meters tall, weighing eighty-five kilograms, and covered in solid muscle was not Angell's target audience. Old Bolo himself had no interest in children's movies, nor did he have a daughter. The only reason he cared about the movie was business considerations.

It wasn't just Old Bolo. The Item Shop Owner, grocery store owner, Tavern Owner, Innkeeper, and other members of Cecilia City's "Old Commercial District" were all watching the movie's release closely.

After all, orders for Game Tables from Angell's Alchemy Workshop already accounted for ninety percent of their profits, while continuously drawing customers from other regions to the Eastern Territory. According to City Hall, Magical Girl ☆ Maya would bring another surge of visitors and might even reignite the popularity of the Holy Spirit Carnival Festival.

These merchants cared even more about the film's release than Angell did. They had even formed an organization called the Magical Girl Viewing Committee and acquired the first batch of movie tickets through their own channels.

Thus, on the day Magical Girl ☆ Maya premiered, besides trendy young people and parents bringing their children to see it, a group of men and women in their forties and fifties occupied one corner of the cinema lobby, forming a conspicuous sight.

The older men and women weren't afraid of being watched.

When the Item Shop Owner saw Old Bolo enter the theater, he immediately shouted, "Bolo, Little Bolo, over here!"

Old Bolo froze before realizing who he meant.

Ever since the old man in his family had died, he had inherited the title "Old Bolo." Later, after his eldest son was born, that son ran away from home and passed the name "Little Bolo" on to his younger brother. Few people had called him that in public since then.

However, the old man from the Item Shop certainly had the right to do so.

This Old Man was over a hundred years old, a living fossil who had survived from the Magic Era. To the shop owners present, he was from their great-grandfathers' generation.

He was also the one Angell had approached when he first commissioned the Game Tables.

When Old Bolo saw the Old Man, the flesh on his face twitched, yet he forced out an obedient expression. "Old Man, why did you come in person?"

"If I didn't come and see for myself, I wouldn't be at ease," the old man replied. He gave Old Bolo a meaningful look. "Still, you're quite clever, kid. I heard you were even planning to send your son away to cling to the Black Robe's thigh?"

"What are you talking about? My kid's too naughty, so I wanted the Black Robe to help discipline him for a couple of years." Old Bolo laughed awkwardly, looking somewhat guilty. "Besides, didn't he refuse?"

"But I heard that Black Robe thinks highly of your child. He even gave him some kind of patent fee, didn't he? I heard it was more than ten thousand gold! Your family's gotten rich!" another older woman asked gossipily. She was the Tavern Owner.

"How could it be that much all at once? The Black Robe was talking about profit sharing! Profit sharing, understand?" Old Bolo said. "Only after the Black Robe's products are sold can Little Bolo get any money." As his guardian, he could manage it temporarily, but once his son came of age, the future money would still belong to his son.

In fact, Little Bolo wouldn't even need to come of age. If he knew about the money now, he would be able to rebel against his father.

Thinking of that made Old Bolo's stomach hurt again.

The others smiled and said, "That's still not bad. Your son won't have to worry about the rest of his life."

"Heh heh!" That was exactly what he was worried about!

Who knew what that brat might do once he had nothing to worry about? It was terrifying to think about. Old Bolo sincerely hoped the Black Robe would take in his little troublemaker and guide the boy onto the proper path of an Alchemist, but unfortunately, it hadn't worked out.

In the end, the child he had produced could only give him headaches himself.

After gossiping about Little Bolo's patent fee for a while, the group naturally turned to the matter they cared about most.

"Starting at over ten thousand gold—looks like the Black Robe is very confident about the subsequent sales of movie-related products!" the Innkeeper mused, rubbing his chin.

"If they don't sell as many as the Black Robe expects, will he get angry?" the grocery store owner asked worriedly.

"You don't seem very confident!"

"Ah, if they were Magic Items like the Game Tables, of course I'd believe in the Black Robe," the grocery store owner argued. "But all I stocked are ordinary products!"

The grocery store owner was genuinely worried.

If they had been Magic Items like the Game Tables, she could understand why they might sell well. But the products Angell had placed in her General Store were things like schoolbags and pencil cases that ordinary factories could mass-produce. Their designs were indeed more novel than others, and the quality was good, but they were expensive too!

Merchandise printed with Magical Girl pictures cost twice as much. Some didn't even have pictures, only the Magic Gear logo or the Magical Girl title.

The grocery store owner truly didn't understand where the Black Robe's confidence came from.

She was now terrified that if they failed to sell, the Black Robe would make her buy all the products herself.

Several factory owners had the same concerns, but their worst days had already passed. Ever since the movie premiered in Xiesse, the related merchandise had sold even better than expected. Even with the expensive shipping costs, everything sold out. The factories in Cecilia City had therefore begun operating at full capacity, continuously sending new products over.

These past few days, the owners of those factories had felt as though they were walking in the Cloud Realm. They always felt like they were dreaming.

They found it hard to believe those products had actually sold.

They feared that one day they would wake up to be told that it had all been a prank by the Black Robe, that the goods had been sent back along the railway, and that their factories were on the verge of bankruptcy!

That was why they wanted to see with their own eyes what this movie that had sold so much merchandise was like.

"Enough! Stop overthinking it. Won't we know after we watch it?"

In the end, the Old Man from the Item Shop tapped the floor with his cane.

The group then marched grandly into the theater.

Two hours later.

"Boohoohoo~~"

"Boohoo~~"

As they emerged from the cinema, people couldn't help looking at the 1.9-meter-tall burly man squatting in a corner and bawling his eyes out.

Even the older men and women felt a little embarrassed under the stares.

The Innkeeper tried to comfort the weapon shop owner. "Do you have to cry this hard? Didn't it end well?"

"Yes, little Maya is so adorable. What a thoughtful little girl!" Old Bolo wiped his face with a large gray handkerchief, his tears and snot smeared together. As he spoke, he started wanting to cry again. "Why do I only have a bunch of little punks at home? Boohoohoo~~ I want a thoughtful daughter too~~"

"Tch, even if you could have a daughter, could you have one as adorable as little Maya?" the Innkeeper scoffed. "Let me tell you, daughters are different too. Take mine, for example. It'd be one thing if her head were only full of newly released cosmetics, but she thinks about running off to Xiesse every day. All she thinks about are celebrities and handsome men. She's completely hopeless—"

At that point, grief welled up in him as well, and he nearly started crying alongside Old Bolo.

"Little Maya really is adorable, thoughtful and brave. It would be wonderful if I had a daughter like her." The grocery store owner sighed. "But her family's situation is truly not looking good! Still, that makes sense. There's a big department store right near their home. Who would go to a tailor shop?"

"Of course. Aren't the Tailor Shops in our city the same?" the Tavern Owner sighed. "Young people nowadays all like the new fashions from big cities. Only old folks like us still buy clothes at Tailor Shops. They haven't designed new styles in a long time. Mostly, they just mend and patch clothing for people. Last time, the Old Lady of North City Tailor Shop even told me that her granddaughter didn't want to inherit the family business and wanted to go work at a factory in Xiesse."

"That would be such a shame. That tailor shop's craftsmanship is beyond question. They even leave room for enchantments and inlays, and their designs are excellent. During the Magic Era, they were no worse than the Royal Capital or Xiesse!" the Old Man from the Item Shop lamented.

Their sighs reached the ears of passersby, and someone immediately laughed.

"There aren't any adventurers now. Who needs their clothes enchanted?"

The older people turned to look. Those young people were leaving the cinema, most of them dressed in clothes made by factories in Xiesse. Under the dim streetlights, they looked much the same, and it was impossible to tell who had said it.

Besides, even if they found that person, what could they do?

They were telling the truth.

The shop owners looked at one another. The grocery store owner forcibly pulled the topic back to the movie. "Her family has it so hard, and they keep encountering Monster attacks. Little Maya has it far too rough... If those products don't sell, I can take a third of them. Cough, even a quarter would be fine."

"Listen to you," the Tavern Owner said. "If they don't sell, everyone will help out! Right?"

...Had you forgotten that this was a movie?!

The men watched the two women, whose emotions had been thoroughly swept along by the movie and who could no longer distinguish reality from fiction. They didn't dare mock them directly.

Only Old Bolo blew his nose, then said to the grocery store owner with red-rimmed eyes, "Give me a coat with Maya's picture on it first! I saw one in your store."

"You're going to wear it yourself?" The grocery store owner made a horrified expression.

"Why not? I want to cheer Maya on!" Old Bolo said.

Looking at the burly man with his red eyes and nose, the grocery store owner suddenly felt there might not be much need to worry about product sales after all.

And the facts proved that her worries had been entirely unnecessary.

On the second day after the movie's release, the Maya merchandise at the General Store showed explosive growth. From morning to afternoon, nearly everyone who walked into the store began by asking, "Do you have Maya schoolbags/pencil cases/fans/keychains...?"

By evening, it wasn't just individual customers anymore.

Several small shops that regularly bought goods from the General Store came knocking, all seeking to wholesale Maya merchandise.

The shops near schools in particular had somehow sold out all their stock on the first day.

For a time, Maya merchandise could be seen almost everywhere in Cecilia City. Even the fans held by old men and women sitting outside in the evening breeze bore Maya's portrait.

The grocery store owner was so busy that she ran in circles. She only wished there were more factories around Cecilia City to produce more merchandise, having completely forgotten her initial worries.

Naturally, Angell made the most money from this wave.

Although there was still quite some time before the settlement period and the money would not reach Angell anytime soon, with Magical Girl merchandise selling throughout the city, Magic Gear's own magical merchandise naturally couldn't be left out.

Besides the unexpectedly bestselling Magic Hats, the other merchandise also welcomed their spring.

Especially the Magical Girls' Transformation Wands.

They sold out within the first week of the movie's release.

It was said that these Magic Wands reached a second round of prices on the Black Market, with the highest transaction price reaching fifty times the original price. Countless people wept bitterly because they hadn't bought them during the discounted preorder period.

Both Enlise and Mithril had mixed feelings about it.

The little girl and the cat had personally watched this Workshop nearly go bankrupt after its funding chain broke because of these Magic Wands. Now they watched people scramble for them, with each wand impossible to obtain. Even Mithril, who had lived for thousands of years, found the emotional gap unbearable, let alone a young girl like Enlise.

She couldn't understand people's obsession with the Magic Wands. They had been things no one wanted before.

Enlise felt a little envious and a little jealous.

"We were both saved by Mr. Angell!" Enlise said as she polished a Magic Wand. "But your companions can already help Mr. Angell, while I can't do anything... Ah, why am I talking to a Magic Wand!"

She laughed alone in her room, somewhat at a loss.

Logically speaking, as Magic Gear's business improved, Enlise should have been happy. But after the Receptionist Cat took over her work, her only remaining task was going to school. The little girl, who was used to being ordered around, no longer knew what she was supposed to do.

Although Angell had told Enlise to choose whatever she liked, that only made her even less certain of what to do.

It felt like she could do a little of everything, yet she was worse at all of it than genuine professionals.

Watching Angell's affairs grow ever larger, Enlise became increasingly lost.

Mr. Angell is so amazing. Will I really be able to help him once I grow up?

No matter how she looked at it, she was only someone who would hold him back.

Enlise thought sadly.

Unfortunately, almost no one noticed the girl's private worries.

Until one afternoon on a day off, several girls from her class came to play with Enlise and noticed the Magic Wand in the corner of her room.

"Isn't that Maya's wand? Enlise, you have one too?"

"What are you talking about? This was originally a Magic Gear product!"

"...Yes, this isn't a Transformation Wand," Enlise said slowly. "It's an earlier version, one that Mr. Angell hadn't improved yet."

"Is it a prototype? Wouldn't that make it more valuable?" one classmate asked, her eyes lighting up.

"More valuable?"

"Why would something without a transformation function be more valuable?"

"You don't understand. Compared to mass-produced items, the first flawed versions have more collectible value. In a few years, they'll probably be worth a fortune!" the classmate explained. "Anyway, when my father collected stamps, he said it was like that. A defective version of some stamp from a few years ago was worth enough to buy my whole family!"

"Wow! That's amazing. Did your father buy that version of the stamp?"

"If he had, would I still be here...?"

The classmates drifted off-topic as they spoke. Only Enlise gave the Magic Wand a bitter smile.

She had secretly hidden that Magic Wand in her room long ago, even before Angell came to the Workshop.

At that time, the Workshop was about to be taken away to settle its debts, and the former owner, Boris, had been looking at Enlise more and more maliciously. Enlise felt she was about to be sent to the Orphanage again, or face something even worse. So she secretly hid a Magic Wand, imagining that if someone truly tried to hurt her, she would raise it and blind them with its light, or resist in some other way.

However, Enlise knew she couldn't do it.

Back then, she didn't have the courage to run away, much less the Mana to make a Pseudo-Wand shine.

So hiding the Magic Wand had only been a form of self-comfort.

"Ah, it's about time. Let's go to the 'Magic Arena'!" one of the girls suggested.

That was why they had come today.

After Magical Girl ☆ Maya was released, because the game characters in Magic Arena were Magical Girls, some little girls who had initially been uninterested in fighting games joined the game and became addicted to it.

Enlise's classmates, however, had fallen slightly behind.

One girl remembered this and felt regretful. "It's such a shame that we had the Magic Unified Examination recently. Our teacher was too strict, otherwise Liti would definitely be near the top of Magic Gear this time."

"Liti didn't come today either."

"Can't be helped. She hasn't been feeling well lately, right? Speaking of which, it's even more of a shame Maya didn't come. I wanted to see Maya control Maya to attack Maya!"

"Hahaha, sadly Maya can't come either."

Yes, Maya couldn't come to Magic Gear.

In fact, whenever Maya walked down the street recently, people gathered around to watch her. Sir Mandela had no choice but to send a Steam Car to pick her up and take her to school, and he even found a group of Bodyguards. It made Maya look like some huge star.

Maya had been proud of it at first, but after being escorted around like that for three days, she cried and regretted appearing in the movie.

For her, becoming a big star was clearly less fun than playing with her friends.

When Angell heard about it, he rarely revised his opinion of Maya somewhat. "That child can actually keep hold of her original heart."

Thinking of this made Enlise happy that her friend had earned Mr. Angell's approval.

She decided to share the good news with her classmates. "It's okay. Mr. Angell said that later, he'll cast transformation magic on Maya and turn her into someone people won't recognize. Then she can attend school normally and come to Magic Gear too."

"That's not it! If Maya doesn't look like Maya, then it won't be fun anymore! Maya has to be Maya for it to be fun!" the girls said.

What did they mean?

Enlise looked utterly confused.

Seeing her expression, the girls couldn't help sighing. "Little Enlise really lacks a sense of humor!"

"?"

"But you're good like this too." One girl hugged Enlise and rubbed her face against hers hard.

"Yeah! Although Liti isn't here today, we have Enlise!" another girl came over and hugged Enlise too. "Enlise is amazing too. You'll definitely lead us to victory."

"It's a pity the Arena isn't an exam. Otherwise, praying to Enlise would be the most effective."

"Who says the Arena is useless? Although Liti is definitely stronger at the Arena, in my experience, praying to Enlise before any competition or exam is more useful—including Magic Arena."

"Yeah, compared to Maya, at least for our class, Enlise is the real Magical Girl."

"Come on, Enlise, hold the Magic Wand and stand here so we can pray to you!"

Enlise accepted the Magic Wand even more confusedly and watched the girls perform a strange ritual toward her.

Confusing behavior from classmates +1;

As a result of her classmates' confusing behavior, Enlise forgot to put down the Magic Wand even as she left her room. She took the Pseudo-Wand, which Angell had not improved, to the third floor of the store, where Magic Arena was located.

After so much time, the five winners had long since been decided, and Magic Arena on the third floor of Magic Gear had opened normally.

People discovered that the third floor had two entrances.

One entrance was a small door that only Players whose Mana level had reached D-level or above could see. It led into the Mirror Room, where they could choose an Arena. It was also the place where Little Bolo had obtained his cheating hat.

The other entrance was a large door like that of a Theater, and everyone could enter.

This was the spectator stands.

Entering through the spectator entrance, one would find that the entire third floor was divided into five differently colored areas. Each was arranged like a boxing Arena, and people could watch the battles between different Players in the Arenas from the stands above. Depending on the opponent, spectators could also take part in solving puzzles or throw items to influence the fights in the Arenas.

—Although the Players in the Arenas could not see these spectators. They could only receive items at random.

The girls did not head to the Mirror Room right away. Instead, they came to the spectator stands first.

"Enlise is currently stuck on the eighth stage, right? Why don't we watch how other people fight first?" one of the girls suggested.

"Enlise is in the Pink Arena... Over there, right?"

"No, we should look at the battles in the blue area first today." One girl took out a notebook, checked her records, and said, "Last time I watched Enlise's battle, the Witch over there had a line saying this was a battle belonging to blue... I suspect the storylines are connected."

This girl was clearly a Lore Scholar, here purely to complete the Magical Girl storyline.

"So the battles in the blue area might have puzzle-solving conditions?"

"Then let's go to the blue side first."

The girls chattered away as they discussed it, while Enlise merely smiled without saying anything.

Perhaps because she knew the Arena was a "game," Enlise was not particularly obsessed with it, even though she knew it could train her use of Mana. She did not mind even if she lost to someone else.

Angell had once muttered in secret that Enlise was the type of Player he disliked most.

Although Enlise found games fun, she never became addicted to them.

Players like that treated games purely as a form of leisure. Their self-control was terrifyingly strong; no amount of stimulation worked on them. To a planner, they were practically natural enemies.

But saying that in front of Enlise would probably provoke her, so Angell could only complain about it to Mithril in private.

Now, with the same unconcerned attitude, Enlise followed her classmates toward the blue area.

As soon as she entered the blue stands, she heard the spectators over there cheering loudly:

"Bolo! Little Bolo! Go!"

"You can do it!"

Enlise and her classmates looked over to see something like a well opening in the middle beneath the stands. Below it was an azure sky, and an Arena floated in the air. The little boy stood at the Player's seat, controlling the blue Magical Girl in battle.

"Ah, so this is the area where that nine-year-old brat became the Arena champion?" someone immediately said sourly.

Enlise's classmates were not convinced by the fact that the First Kill Player was a nine-year-old child.

Everyone remembered that they had been the Workshop's first batch of Players!

Yet while the upperclassmen were busy preparing even more intensely for their exams, some brat had actually snatched the First Kill qualification away. The children felt that he had stolen the glory that belonged to them.

Enlise did not dwell on it. She merely glanced over there curiously.

Then, a spectator in the nearest section of stands vaguely overheard the little girls' complaints and turned to say, "What do you know! This child's talent has been acknowledged by the Workshop Master. Not only was he given a fortune as a reward, the Workshop Master nearly took him as a disciple!"

"Mr. Angell... a disciple...?!"

Enlise tightened her grip on the Magic Wand in her hand.

She did not notice a black aura spreading from the crystalline Magic Wand into her body.