Miss Red Wizard

After giving it some thought, Marvin ultimately took off the storage ring.

With limited funds, he could only buy one fine-quality magical item. He couldn't have it both ways.

Compared to anything else, a storage item was what he needed most right now.

And although the "Packhorse Sack" looked unremarkable and couldn't store magical items, it could still enhance his combat ability and broaden his options for attack if used well.

Several good ideas for combining Enhanced Mage Hand with the "Packhorse Sack" had already surfaced in Marvin's mind.

Once the deal was made, Marvin asked the bald uncle to return with him to collect the money.

However, the other man had a different suggestion. "You know, Mr. Rodhart, my physical condition makes me dislike outdoor activities. Let my young mistress accompany you instead.

I forgot to formally introduce her. This is Miss Zorana Infennar. I have served her family for many years, and in all likelihood, I will give my life in this position."

At the bald uncle's introduction, the female mage behind the counter, who had been leafing through account books, rose to her feet and looked at Marvin, lowering her hood.

The sight of her made Marvin's eyes light up—and then go dark.

They lit up because the female mage was a rare beauty, with bright, clear eyes and delicate features.

If she walked out of the shop now, she would surely draw a chorus of suggestive whistles from the adventurers outside.

They went dark because she had a bald head!

That was truly a terrible waste.

Marvin examined her more closely and noticed what seemed to be a scar on Miss Zorana's completely hairless scalp.

He quickly realized his rudeness and withdrew his gaze.

"I'm sorry you had to meet me looking like this, Mr. Marvin. A failed magical experiment not long ago left me with a minor injury, and I had no choice but to shave my hair," Zorana explained.

The reason sounded perfectly reasonable.

Zorana probably did not want everyone who saw her appearance to ask about it, so she tried her best to hide her true face beneath her clothing.

"Accidents in magical experiments are understandable. I was once accidentally injured during one of my teacher's experiments too. My eyebrows and hair were burned off together," Marvin said with a nod.

He decided that from now on, he would call her "Miss Wuke."

It was a perfect nickname. Even if he let it slip, she would not find the word "Wuke" insulting.

After all, even on Earth, only a few old-timer anime fans understood that nearly extinct joke.

Of course, a nickname was just a nickname. Marvin's vigilance toward Miss Wuke had instead risen sharply.

Injured in a magical experiment and forced to shave her head?

What a clumsy excuse.

Miss Wuke was no weakling, and she was not short of money either. If the injury was so minor, couldn't she just find a priest for healing, then use magic to grow her hair back?

Judging by her fine skin, smooth as high-quality white porcelain, and the faint citrus perfume on her body, she was a lady who cared greatly about her appearance.

So for a great beauty to deliberately keep such a bizarre bald hairstyle, there had to be another reason.

"The shop is called the 'Eastern Warehouse.' It has many magical items from Thay, including the 'Packhorse Sack.' Uncle Borey and the mage lady who owns the shop both dislike having hair..."

Marvin pieced together the scattered clues and reached a conclusion: they were both Red Wizards!

Red Wizards possessed a special technique that strengthened their spellcasting through magical tattoos.

Red Wizard apprentices could only draw magical tattoos on the backs of their hands and arms, and the designs were merely simple spirals.

Full-fledged Red Wizards could tattoo the symbol of their specialized school of magic onto their bodies. The usual locations were the forehead, cheeks, and scalp.

Red Wizards needed to regularly rub specially made essential oils into their skin to maintain the activity of the magical circuits within their tattoos.

Thick hair would obviously affect how well the skin absorbed those oils.

That was why all full-fledged Red Wizards, male or female, were bald.

If this had been a century ago, when Thay's Red Wizards were at the height of their ferocity, striking everywhere and terrifying all who spoke of them, Marvin would have turned and run without hesitation upon encountering these bald people in red robes.

But after the brutal civil war, although Szass Tam now barely maintained his rule over Thay, the Red Wizards' power was long past its prime.

Many losers of Thay's civil war had fled into exile across Faerûn and begun new lives.

Perhaps they merely wanted to live quietly in seclusion. Or perhaps, still harboring dreams of restoring their nation, they had no choice but to compromise with reality and change their ways.

In game terms, the alignment of these Red Wizard exiles had shifted from lawful evil to lawful neutral.

The residents of the Sword Coast had long forgotten the Red Wizards' fearsome reputation, seeing them only as eastern mage expatriates who made their living through trade.

Marvin was almost certain that Miss Wuke and the bald uncle were Red Wizard exiles.

Although the Red Wizards of the Sword Coast no longer belonged to an evil alignment, Marvin still needed to consider whether he should keep his distance from this shop.

What if Szass Tam lost his mind and sent assassins to eliminate these "remnants of the old regime"? Wouldn't Marvin easily become collateral damage?

"Wait... the surname Infennar sounds familiar."

Marvin remembered that, during the original owner's dull life of drudgery in the mage tower, he had read a book for entertainment called Death and Conspiracy: How Szass Tam Rose to Power. It contained a detailed account of Thay's civil war.

The surname Infennar appeared frequently in that book.

A century ago, the head of the Red Wizards' school of conjuration had been the patriarch of the Infennar family: Nieron Infennar!

"Miss Wuke really has quite the background!" Marvin marveled.

During the civil war, Nieron had attempted to use a summoned demon army to fight Szass Tam's undead forces.

Just when he had finally assembled a powerful army from the Abyss and was preparing to launch a counterattack, the Spellplague erupted.

With the collapse of the Weave drastically weakening him, Nieron instantly lost control of the demon army. He was killed by a balor, his soul falling into the Abyss and transforming into the lowest kind of demon, a dretch.

Among the leaders who had resisted Szass Tam, Nieron had died in the most unexpected, absurd, miserable, and thorough manner.

Naturally, this had been a devastating blow to the Infennar family.

But for Marvin now, it was good news.

Szass Tam certainly would not still be thinking about an old rival who was thoroughly dead.

The most important reason the Infennar family had survived to this day was probably that they were too weak to be worth the legendary lich's attention.

"Looking at it this way, maintaining a cooperative relationship with the Eastern Warehouse won't bring me much risk," Marvin assessed inwardly.

To Marvin, Szass Tam was naturally an existence as powerful as a god, but the long-declined Infennar family was not someone a mere level-two mage like him could contend with either.

If he immediately fell out with them and cut ties with the Eastern Warehouse after learning Miss Wuke's identity as a Red Wizard exile, wouldn't that offend them as well?

The best choice was to pretend he knew nothing of their true identities, maintain the relationship, and absolutely avoid getting deeply involved in the mess left behind by Thay's civil war.