Yona’s golden coins had already been poured into the Mana Pool.
The Mana Pool was brimming with kingly liquid, and thanks to that, most of the golden coins that had been poured in melted into a shiny liquid.
“Now, next…”
Escara sneaked a glance at Yona, who was lying behind the Stone Tablet.
It was clear that she had already fallen asleep due to the influence of the engraved golden text on the tablet, but Escara approached Yona and waved her hand above her closed eyes just to be sure.
“She’s really asleep.”
Escara smiled with a triumphant expression.
Mages are naturally curious folks. They’re not particularly interested in wealth they can gather as much as they want, but when something unusual happens, their intense thirst for knowledge ignites.
Once that fire is lit, it burns fiercely, like dry firewood in the dead of winter.
To think that they’d get their hands on a specimen that was a man all along so easily. Plus, Yona even provided the golden coins for drawing the magic circle herself, so Escara didn’t even feel the need to refuse.
“Looks like it’s already started.”
The kingly liquid in the Mana Pool was gleaming with a yellowish golden light. And while stirring that golden liquid with her power-enhanced white mulberry wand, the door opened as Alebians stepped in.
“Yes, it’s already started. The golden liquid is all ready too.”
“You could’ve at least contributed some gold coins, Escara.”
Alebians seemed quite displeased by that.
Drawing magic circles requires golden liquid, and when it comes to large magic circles like Yona’s, it takes a lot of gold coins.
“That’s just how rituals go. The one in a hurry naturally covers the necessary material costs, right?”
“Still, it’s hard to see our pretty girl’s hard-earned money going to waste like this.”
Alebians entered the room wearing a white robe.
Draped over her purple dress, Alebians approached Yona with that unmistakable glint in her eyes.
“Yona, Yona… our pretty Yona. Finally, the time has come to fulfill that wish of yours.”
Alebians’s long, white fingers caressed Yona’s cheek. Usually, Yona would recoil from such touch, but she’d let it slide while she was asleep like this.
With a hint of fondness in her gaze, Alebians gently stroked Yona’s cheek.
“Now I’m going to draw the spell. It’d be great if you could join me, Alebians.”
At Escara’s excited voice, Alebians rose from the Stone Tablet where she had been sitting quietly and stepped out of the circle.
Once Escara confirmed she was fully out of the circle, she stretched her fingers and began drawing stars.
She began to reach out and draw stars.
Wherever her finger touched, hexagonal stars were sketched.
As the lock on the Mana Pool was released, the golden liquid soared into the sky and began to coat the circular magic circle drawn around the Stone Tablet with a swishing sound.
The hexagonal stars, densely filled with black letters, were covered with gold leaf.
The extremely high purity golden liquid filled the outlines of the black letters and emitted a brilliant light.
It didn’t take long for the large circle filled with the hexagonal stars centered around Yona, lying on the Stone Tablet, to shimmer entirely in gold.
Receiving the illumination from the luminous stone, the golden letters sparkled more fiercely, and as soon as they were completed, they began to radiate heat and floated up, hovering about a hand’s height while rotating in place.
It was a wondrous sight.
Even though the luminous stones had all gone out, the room was not dark at all.
The golden radiance filled the room with its own light, and the glow emitted from each letter turned into a brightness as bright as day, painting Yona’s face in golden hues.
Eskara traced the magic circle again with her finger.
The enormous magic circle was too large to be drawn with just her finger, so she had to extend her arm, creating shapes as her fingers traced violet trajectories.
Every time Eskara drew a line, the letters that were floating and spinning in place soared higher and neared the ceiling.
Alebians quietly watched the scene.
Eskara was chanting a spell with her eyes closed, and interrupting her would surely lead to failure.
‘Ceres… I won’t let things go according to your plan.’
As Alebians observed, she bit her lip.
Her face was illuminated by a mix of golden and violet light, creating an odd shadow.
Finally, after completing the magic circle, Eskara took a deep breath.
Somehow soaked in sweat, Eskara opened her eyes and rechecked the magic circle, then deeply inserted her finger into the initiator zone.
“…Now, it’s the last step.”
Turning to check with Alebians, Eskara nodded to her.
For things to flow as she wished, Yona had to turn into a man right here and now.
It had to be that way.
“Well then.”
After receiving confirmation from Alebians, Eskara twisted her finger inserted into the initiator zone.
As her finger rotated, the magic circle followed suit.
Just before her finger completed a full rotation, the magic circle pointed completely in the opposite direction from its original form.
Done.
– Sssssss…
Stars floating from the ceiling suddenly swooped down towards Yona.
As the stars seeped into Yona’s sleeping form, light began to emanate from her body once they were fully absorbed.
The light cascaded down from Yona’s head, slowly radiating throughout her entire being.
Yona, who was already quite tall, began growing even taller.
And her once ample chest shrank so flat that it was nearly unrecognizable.
Then, the moment the light touched Yona’s arms—
– Boom!
An explosive burst of light erupted with a thunderous sound.
*
Waking up due to an unbearable cold was not a pleasant experience at all.
Even when homeless, she always slept wrapped in a sleeping bag; it had never been this cold before.
As Yona blinked her eyes open, the first thing she felt was the cold, prompting her to curse internally without even realizing it.
And when her vision focused, the last thing she wanted to see was Alebians’ face, almost leading her to curse out loud.
“Hey, my pretty one, awake?”
“…Wha-what happened… oh.”
A voice as delicately thin as ever.
And an oddly forward-centered posture.
“…What’s going on?”
Only then did Yona look around.
When she came into this Procedure Room, it had been completely enclosed with no windows, but now—
“There’s no… wall…?”
One wall had practically vanished.
Clearly, one side had been unceremoniously blown open.
That enormous hole seemed to be the cause of the chill.
“My pretty.”
“Calling me pretty means… it was a failure?”
“…Looks like it.”
Alebians wore an unusually awkward expression.
Seeing Alebians, who usually wore a cheeky grin, looking like that was a first for Yona, but that wasn’t the important part right now.
“Why?”
Yona’s voice trembled slightly, without her realizing it.
She had truly believed that she’d wake up back as a man.
She had her doubts about the possibility, sure, but since the Mage Escara had said it was possible…
“Well, they said it would work.”
“So I believed it, but it failed.”
“The magic itself was successful.”
The Alebian said with conviction.
Surely she saw it too.
Yona, bathed in starlight, was transforming back into a male form—hair, body shape, height, everything.
Yet—
“…But that thing on your arm. The tattoo showed a really strong rejection. It’s as if… it refuses to let you turn back into a man.”
Only then did Yona look down at herself.
The white shirt and pants she had been wearing were gone without a trace, leaving her completely bare.
This was the very image of Yona she had seen continuously for three long years since arriving in this world.
Also, there were clearly defined black tattoos on both her arms.
Without a hint of change.
“Because of the tattoo.”
“Yeah. Because of the tattoo. But next time, I’ll pay in gold coins—”
Yona silently glared at Alebian.
*
Explosions at the Mage Tower weren’t exactly breaking news.
As you went higher up in the tower, small and large explosions happened almost every three days, and eccentric mages blowing up their own rooms during magic experiments was just another day in the life, so it wasn’t particularly interesting.
Even if the wall was blown off, the debris wouldn’t fall to the ground.
Thanks to some magical handling, witnessing the spectacle of an explosion while out and about was just a fun sight to behold.
Alex was sipping beer in the dining hall, listening to the chatter around him.
“Another explosion, huh?”
“Yeah, I heard. This time it was a big one.”
“What are those mages experimenting with so violently?”
Surprisingly perceptive, Alex realized that explosions in the Mage Tower weren’t uncommon.
If such incidents were merely the topic of conversation in a tavern, it must be common enough, and Alex didn’t feel he needed to worry about it.
“Blowing things up every day, just making the dwarves working on construction happy.”
“Well, they say moving materials is still work.”
“How many floors blew up this time?”
“13th floor, they said.”
Clank.
Alex’s mug was set down on the table.
A few coins rolled around on the surface before finally teetering off—
And at that moment, Alex was already gone from his seat.
As the heavy lurching sound of the inn’s door came to a halt, Alex was already sprinting towards the Mage Tower.
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