Chapter 23
I was silent for a while. As a teacher, should I interfere with my student's interests? I thought it was a question worth discussing. If I let Moli develop freely, I would end up with a little abyssal demon who loved melodramatic webnovels at my side. But if I forbade her from wearing makeup, that seemed too strict. After all, nobody said a mage who liked makeup couldn't be a good mage. It might even put her in a bad mood and affect her academic progress.
...It looked like I ought to discuss this with Mel another day.
I decided to set the controversial subject aside for now and told Moli to keep practicing while I walked over to the storage cabinet. Moli's control wasn't good enough, and she made several mistakes. Eventually, I had to switch to using air shields to put out the fires. Though I wanted to teach my apprentice a lesson, I didn't want her to catch a bad cold because of it, either. Her makeup had long since washed off, anyway. So I took out a bottle of potion to prevent colds and had her drink it after she finished practicing.
"There's even a magic potion that prevents colds?" Moli said in surprise.
"I made it myself," I said.
She tipped her head back and drank it, then her eyes went round. "Teacher! It's sweet! That's great!"
"...I adjusted the flavor."
As I spoke, I took a sheet of paper, quickly wrote down the formula, and handed it to Moli. "Here, you can try brewing it yourself. Come to think of it, I haven't tested your potion-making skills, but I hope you'll develop in all areas. Some mages think brewing potions is a job exclusively for potion makers, but that's shallow and narrow-minded. Sometimes potions are also spellcasting materials. If you wanted to cast a spell that required a potion, would you have to go out of your way to find somewhere to buy one?"
"Got it, got it! But Teacher, give me the flavoring recipe too!"
Moli progressed very quickly. Her talent was almost the best I had ever seen, possibly surpassing my own. After practicing for a few hours, she went from sending flames everywhere to producing no more than a couple of sparks when she occasionally slipped up. Such rapid progress was remarkable, so when she looked at me expectantly yet again, I couldn't help softening and said to her:
"All right, let's eat."
"Yay! Teacher, you're the best!" Moli cheered loudly. Then she bounced over to the table and picked up the food. She even set my portion in front of me first and respectfully laid out my utensils before happily eating her own.
"By the way, Teacher, why were you locked up in prison?" Moli asked me as she ate.
"Mephistopheles and I were arrested and thrown in prison together for destroying public property. You came a little too late, or you would have seen him. He left with those politicians before you arrived."
Moli blinked. "Mephistopheles? Oh, my God of Light! Teacher, did you two hit it off right away and get so carried away exchanging spells that you lost yourselves? And were you exchanging dark magic?"
Huh? I looked at Moli in surprise.
-A girl who spent every day happily absorbed in webnovels had actually guessed the truth right away?
I nodded approvingly. Moli actually had the thought process of a mage. It seemed reading webnovels hadn't held her back. She read those melodramatic stories she was always talking about, like "The Overbearing CEO and the Substitute Lover," purely for entertainment, and kept them quite separate from reality.
That really was good.
"So, Teacher, are you going to start dating Mephistopheles? Then let's go shopping tomorrow! If you're going on a date, you definitely can't just wear a mage robe. Let your student treat you! I'll make you the best-looking mage in the world!" Moli asked, her eyes wide and full of anticipation.
Chapter 23
...I was wrong. Moli, your brain really was broken after all!
Hmm... But come to think of it, I did seem to need a few more mage robes. I only had three formal robes to change between, and one of them was still with Mel, who was keeping it along with my spell notes and magic power ring. I couldn't just keep alternating between two outfits. What would it look like if I always wore the same clothes to see Mel?
...But if I let Moli help me buy clothes, wouldn't a "death-metal smoky-eyed mage" be the one going to see Mel the next day? No, no, no. I didn't want to see Mel in tight leather pants, with my shoulders, chest, and thighs exposed and a bunch of strange chains hanging off me.
As I was thinking this, I suddenly felt a familiar fluctuation in the air-
A moment later, a pitch-black raven appeared at my window. It clearly wasn't a real raven. Leaving aside the fact that modern cities were full of high-rises, with aircraft and mechs everywhere, and wild ravens wouldn't like nesting there at all, even a real raven wouldn't have bright blue eyes.
Besides, I had set up a protective barrier at my window. Without permission, ordinary things couldn't fly in-because last year several drone enthusiasts had flown their little aircraft into my room, and I had even blown up two of them. I guessed they knew they were in the wrong, though, so they hadn't dared ask me for compensation, just like the owners of the phones I had blown up back then.
The raven landed on my windowsill and shook its feathers like a real bird, tilting its head to look at me. Its lifelike feathers were actually made of some kind of all-black metal with a dim sheen, but they were finely crafted, delicate, and elegant. Unless you looked closely, they were almost indistinguishable from real feathers. The pair of eyes in its head were made of high-grade magic crystals, though they actually served as a magic power source, not for seeing. This was clearly a small construct, used as a mage's familiar to carry messages for its master.
After looking around the apartment, the pretty black raven hopped straight onto my arm. Its little claws were cool and not sharp at all—or rather, the metal raven had carefully tucked their tips away to avoid breaking my skin.
The raven opened its beak and, unsurprisingly, Mel's voice came out.
"Xipei, you finally got out." The raven tilted its head. I didn't know if I was imagining it, but I actually saw a trace of grievance on the metal bird's face. "The berserker summit is boring. Their topics are as ridiculous as ever."
I couldn't help laughing, and I deeply sympathized with Mel. Our plan to spend a leisurely holiday in prison had fallen through, but I could still enjoy a couple of quiet days after returning to my apartment. Mel had it much worse. Even if he could turn down every social engagement with the politicians, he still had to attend the summit, and he couldn't have Shadow Dance impersonate him.
So I reached out and stroked the little raven's head to comfort him. The bird obligingly rubbed against my palm.
"Look on the bright side and be content. You already missed a day and a morning, so you were spared more than a day of suffering," I said.
The raven sighed. "Yes, but... there are still three days left. I really don't want to spend another minute here. Those council mages, and the representatives from that Arcane Alliance and the Mages' Association-everything they say is officialese. They go on and on, but there are only a few sentences of actual substance. Some of it might be nonsense from beginning to end. And this afternoon, toward the end of the meeting, those two organizations were going to spend ages arguing over who best represented mages as a whole... The Mages' Association is recognized by all the countries, but the Arcane Alliance has been in the spotlight lately too... While they were arguing, I kept reviewing the runes we practiced and the Absolute Protection you taught me."
"I reviewed Shadow Dance in prison too," I said, and proposed the plan I had thought of long ago. "Don't be upset, Mel. Once the summit is over, we can find somewhere to have a proper spar."
Click, click-
Mel and I turned together and saw Moli holding up her phone. When she noticed us turn, she stuck out her tongue playfully. "Sorry, I forgot to put it on silent."
Mel spread his wings and flew around Moli once, then asked me enthusiastically, "Xipei, this is your apprentice, right?"
"Yes, this is Moli," I said in introduction.
"A very good apprentice." Mel nodded. "But that tongue piercing looks painful."
Moli said, "...You really do have the same tastes as my teacher. No wonder you hit it off right away."
Mel actually nodded and replied, "Of course."