My ‘seniors’ in the 1st-circle simultaneously shrank back. Normally, when someone calls you a bug, you’d either get angry or scared. However, I was currently in a state of ‘hiding my power and infiltrating.’ And I had the duty of making them angry while keeping my power hidden.
“That’s right~”
“…?”
“Gi… no, Bella is totally a maggot, that’s for sure~”
“…?”
The three mages looked bewildered and glanced at one another. But since I needed to investigate them seriously, I ignored their expressions and spoke. “So what?” I was genuinely asking. “Bella is a maggot~ Did you contribute anything to that~?”
“…”
“Ah, please don’t take that the wrong way~ It’s a genuine question~”
“…”
“Then who are you to call Bella a maggot ~?”
“Ha.” They curled the corners of their mouths and snorted. “How insolent for a mere 1st-circle mage. As for me, I’m a 3rd-circle mage. I’ve even been featured in [Coconut Page], one of the empire’s three major weekly magazines. Know it?”
“Bella doesn’t know, though~?”
“…”
“Bella doesn’t know what [Coconut Page] is~ Never knew~”
“…”
Contempt appeared on their faces. Naturally, there was no one in the empire who didn’t know what [Coconut Page] was. They probably thought I was ignorant.
“But maybe~! Bella didn’t know because you weren’t in the headline~”
“…”
“If you’re way down at the very bottom, how would Bella even know about you?”
“…W-What?”
Right. They weren’t famous enough to grace the headlines.
Recently, Magic Tower of the Desert had declined, and it wasn’t a place with enough prestige to make that kind of impression. It was known only as a place where they conducted unusual research, and recently its achievements had fallen behind those of the other magic towers. They might have been idiots, but what I said wasn’t technically wrong.
He gritted his teeth and searched for something to say in rebuttal, then turned his cold gaze away. “Hmph, I look forward to seeing the results of your research as well.”
Oh? This guy was saying exactly what I was about to say for me.
I smiled sweetly. “Yess, please look forward to it lots~!” My shameless retort seemed to gradually get on their nerves.
“Ha! But that way of speaking…”
“Yes~?”
“What’s with that disgusting way of speaking?”
“Ah, Bella’s tongue is naturally a little short~ Can’t help it~”
“Do people with short tongues normally talk like that?” They looked at one another and shrugged.
You idiots. If my tongue were actually short, how would I be able to speak everything else perfectly? But I smiled benevolently. Ah, I really liked these guys. I was genuinely looking forward to figuring out how to torment them.
Just then, the 1st-circle mage friends beside me hurriedly grabbed my hand and spoke. “Be-Bella! Don’t do that.”
“Sorry. She’s new here, so she doesn’t know the rules of our magic tower very well.”
“Oh, she’s new here, is that it?” They exchanged glances, then grinned. “We’ll see you again. There’ll be a day when we see you soon.”
After the people who had been bullying us swiftly went up the landing above the stairs, the 1st-circle mages beside me looked dejected.
“T-This is bad…”
“Why~?”
“Their names are Gold, Silver, and Bronze. They hand out research assignments. Depending on the result of the research, they sometimes steal the achievements for themselves, and usually get the person expelled from the magic tower…”
“Aaah~ I see~”
So those guys were the thieves who stole other people’s research assignments. They’re exactly the people I was looking for.
I didn’t know which of them was the mage who had researched time travel. Could it be those pieces of trash? But if that was the case, I could simply have their minds reconditioned and make them produce research results. And if they weren’t? Then it meant I would have to defeat those pieces of trash. There were also rabbit-like mages here whom I needed to protect.
I looked around with an interested expression. “I understand what you mean~”
Should I shake the knowledge out of their heads and turn them into my subordinates?
“Bella, everyone normally has a probationary period, so it’s okay. As long as you don’t step forward too much from now on.”
But that was when it happened. Whoosh! Crash! A window flew open, and a noisy gust of wind blew in. It was a sandstorm-like gust that commonly blew through the desert.
“Was the window o-originally open?”
No. It seemed there were 3rd-circle mages who used wind magic.
I chewed on the grains of desert sand that had blown into my mouth and thought. Things are getting very interesting.
* * *
Splash! It was the next morning, inside the dormitory, an annex of the magic tower. I woke up to a noisy dousing with water.
“Get up, maggot.”
They burst into mocking laughter as they looked at me, drenched like a drowned rat.
“What the? The security at this lodging is pretty bad.”
Is it really okay to enter someone else’s room this easily? More importantly, a bucket of water?
“What the? I was expecting something impressive, but you’re just a bunch of small fry?”
“Small fry?”
I lightly dried off the dirty water while humming. “Hmm… I got it! You watered the flowers, didn’t you~?”
“What…?”
I pulled a magical tool out of my pocket. It took less than three seconds for the dirty water to turn into fresh, sparkling water.
“Ah, how cliché. Come up with some more creative ways to bully people.”
I was deliberately provoking them. That way, once they keep acting up like this, I can get to the reason they’re able to behave so boldly and find out where the corruption actually lies, all the way down to its roots. If they kept bullying me, that was. They were bound to get irritated. And then they’ll start blabbing about what their strengths and weaknesses are.
Of course, something like this would be possible enough with the power of Duchess Giselle Kalinos as well… But hiding my strength is way more fun. It couldn’t be helped. Humans were creatures who naturally acted according to what interested them.
“So you’ve been driving out mages who came to the magic tower like this all along?”
“Ha… of course not. Normally, if we scare them, they leave pretty easily.”
“But what are you going to do?” I grinned at the small fries holding the basket that must have been full of dirty water. “I’m not leaving, though.”
I’m going to class. Now that I had been officially enrolled in the magic tower, I had gained the opportunity to train within the tower. The magic tower conducted research, but it was also a place where mages trained. How could I pass up an opportunity like this? No way I’m missing it!
* * *
I entered the training room of the magic tower and was idly twirling my pen while waiting for the professor. But then my roommate, the girl who was taking the lecture with me, whispered cautiously.
“That… Bella, are you okay?”
“Yep. What’s there not to be okay about?” When I answered casually, my roommate’s expression darkened. Is something going on? I stopped fidgeting with the pen and looked at her. “Is there a problem?”
Apparently, word that I was being bullied had spread to the other mages as well.
“Don’t worry. It’s nothing.” I wasn’t saying this to reassure them. In reality, my attention was focused elsewhere.
Something… feels incredibly exciting. I was looking forward to the magic tower’s curriculum. Actually, basic magic was as boring as learning how to breathe. But attending a lecture was a different matter, wasn’t it? Every professor’s level is worlds apart, so maybe one of them will teach surprisingly well and make it fun.
Just as I was waiting for the professor with my heart pounding, the front door of the classroom was roughly thrown open.
“I suppose we’ll begin today’s class. Today is the day to distribute the research assignments, correct?”
The small-fry bullies from the magic tower who had been tormenting me had appeared.
Whoa, they are teaching assistants? This magic tower really is a complete mess. I clicked my tongue inwardly and gripped my pen. Just then, an ominous shadow fell over my head.
“To conduct research into magic, we’ll need test subjects, won’t we?”
“Yes~”
“Among our mages, I was thinking of selecting a test subject.”
No way, that…
“Me~?”
“That’s right. You’ll have to be the test subject.”
They hung disgusting smiles around their mouths. Faced with bullying that was clearly deliberate, I likewise hung a smile from the corner of my mouth.
My roommate beside me hurriedly whispered. “Quickly lower your head and apologize. Bella, that’s just bullying. They’re using an experiment as an excuse to…”
“Aah.”
“If things go wrong, your ankle could break, or your organs could rupture. If you apologize and say you’re sorry, maybe they won’t go as far as making you a test subject!”
No. I needed to know why such absurd things were happening so casually inside the magic tower. And I needed to know why the tower master was unaware of the situation, and why the people who did know were turning a blind eye.
I shot to my feet.
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