Sir Mage, You Said We Would Only Hold Hands! Chapter 9 - My Mana is Sweet, You Say?

 

What kind of bullshit is this again.

 

Birkin touched her forehead for a moment, wondering if he was just talking nonsense.

 

Finally, she lifted one of her eyebrows and spoke.

 

“…By the way, why do you keep speaking informally?”

 

“It’s more comfortable this way.”

 

Birkin lightly examined Liam’s face. It’s true that he was good-looking, but even at first glance, he looked younger than her. She responded with an elegant tone, as expected from a vice with many years of experience.

 

“Excuse me, Sir Liam Moore, where did you learn to speak informally when you first meet someone in society?”

 

“Then you can also speak informally.”

 

“I don’t want to be rude like you.”

 

She decided to go out a little more confidently. In any case, it didn’t seem like he had a title since the Chief Ad simply called him ‘Sir Liam Moore’.

 

Of course, there was a big wall between him and Birkin, the Item Development Division and the Service Division, but that was just the situation. Externally, Birkin was a vice and Liam was an ordinary Magic Tower worker, so if only their position were considered, hers was higher.

 

“If you don’t want to… I won’t do it.”

 

“You still said it informally.”

 

“I won’t do it, ma’am.”

 

Although she knew he added it late, she found no reason to scold him any more, so she quit. Birkin led him to the common room instead.

 

As they were walking down the hallway earlier, all the Magic Tower members of the Service Division were glancing at them. She just hated being the center of attention. Especially if that place is the Magic Tower…

 

“…Let’s move to a different place and talk.”

 

“I understand, ma’am.“

 

“That…”

 

Don’t add ‘ma’am’ late, please?… She was trying to say so.

 

(to be honest, korean’s formal speech is adding ‘요’ to the end of every sentence but we don’t have that in english so i’ll just put ma’am everytime there is a separate ‘요’)

 

The reason she couldn’t do that was because she felt that the attention of the Magic Tower members who were hiding in the office and holding their breath was secretly focused in this direction. From somewhere, a scream was heard saying, ‘Mad dog uses formal speech!’

 

Birkin stopped for a moment and looked at the man following behind her. When she stopped, Liam, who followed her and stopped as she did, stared at her.

 

Those extremely innocent eyes, as if he had no idea why she suddenly stopped. Birkin swallowed the words welling up in her throat and quickly walked towards the break room.

 

“Let’s have a brief talk. Why did you come to see me?”

 

“…I don’t want to have a brief talk, though.”

 

Can’t it be longer?

 

Birkin’s head hurt again. At this point, she didn’t feel like they could have a proper conversation. My stomach, which had been in trouble due to stress for a while, felt like it was going to have a hole again.

 

“Either make it long, or brief. Right. What is the reason?”

 

“Birkin.”

 

“Call me ‘Vice’, Sir Liam Moore.”

 

Birkin missed one fact while correcting the title to Liam, who had once again used informal speech. Why on earth does he know her name?

 

“I want to call your name.”

 

If this continues, they’ll be talking all day. Birkin sighed inwardly and continued the conversation.

 

“Do as you please. Going back to the main topic, I asked what your reason was. This is the third time, this question.”

 

“Birkin, one day you ate your favorite food.”

 

“…”

 

“It’s the first food you’ve had in a long time. It’s very sweet.”

 

Liam’s voice was low and deep and had the power to focus the story. However, Birkin, who wasn’t swayed, furrowed her eyebrows and was about to ask, “What are you talking about?”

 

“But someone took it and ran away.”

 

“…The food?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Liam’s face was calm as he said that. He continued.

 

“Then you have no choice but to chase after them, you know.”

 

He briefly moved his neck and swallowed his saliva. It looked just like what an animal would look like when it was getting its appetite… Birkin got goosebumps for some reason.

 

Even Liam stubbornly didn’t take his eyes off Birkin throughout the conversation.

 

“So what does that have to do with the question I just asked?”

 

“Since you ran away, I have no choice but to chase after you.”

 

“…I’m the food?”

 

“You’re delicious.”

 

She’s going crazy. What kind of conversation is this?

 

It seemed like he was joking. However, the man’s face was so serious that it was difficult to see that as such. Birkin asked, closing her eyes deeply once and then opening them again.

 

“Then, what do you mean by the power I gave you?”

 

“I’m a 9th circle archmage.”

 

“I know that better than anyone else.”

 

“But I don’t have any mana.”

 

…What?

 

For a moment, she couldn’t understand what the man was saying. The 9th Circle Archmage has no mana?

 

Just because you have a lot of mana doesn’t mean you can become a high-level mage. Birkin knew better than anyone else that mana and magic weren’t unrelated, but at least they weren’t proportional.

 

She’s a talented person with superior mana, yet she had the misfortune of not being able to become a mage.

 

However, she couldn’t understand Liam’s words at all. Even though mana and magic weren’t proportional, it was strange that he had no mana even though he was a 9th circle archmage.

 

Being a 9th circle archmage means that he has at least 9 mana circles. To perform high-level magic, the most important thing was how many mana circles were used each time magic was used.

 

For example, when using a 2th circle fireball, two mana circles are used. Therefore, a 4th circle mage uses fireball easier than a 2nd circle mage does.

 

…But, his mana circles are all empty?

 

“What on earth are you talking about?”

 

Are you crazy? She was about to add so, but held back. Still, this was the Magic Tower, and the man was her co-worker.

 

The man looked down for a moment, probably because he realized that Birkin was looking at him strangely. And then he spoke in a voice that was somehow sympathetic.

 

“I’m a 9th circle mage, but I have no mana. That means my mana circle is always empty.”

 

“But how do you use magic?”

 

“That’s why I can’t use it often. That’s why I, a 9th circle mage, am in the item development department.”

 

She understood that much. In fact, Birkin also wondered why a 9th circle mage was in the Item Development Division and not the Magic Research Division.

 

Still, all questions weren’t resolved. Can someone who can’t use magic when necessary be called an archmage?

 

“Then I met you.”

 

“…Me?”

 

“You filled it up. My mana.”

 

Liam’s voice was neither loud nor quiet. His low and somewhat slow voice made people concentrate. Therefore, Birkin wouldn’t have thought that he was speaking informally again.

 

“Then, until you meet me.”

 

“I asked someone to do it. I vomited blood often and it didn’t blend well with my mana circle.”

 

Liam, calmly talking about his past of vomiting blood, seemed so ordinary that Birkin felt sorry for him for a moment.

 

Even Birkin knew that it was painful to insert other people’s mana into his own mana circle. Because it was one of the basic theories of magic.

 

“But why me…”

 

“Your mana feels good.”

 

Very much.

 

Liam added quietly and smiled briefly. It was hard to believe that the face of the man who had been quietly telling his story with an expressionless face up until then was incredible. It was a smile that could best be described as a flower blooming.

 

“So, Birkin.”

 

“…Yes.”

 

“Give me your mana. Just a little more…”

 

Liam reached out his hand and tried to grab Birkin’s wrist. But Birkin quickly removed her wrist and hid it against her chest. Then the expression disappeared from Liam’s face, which had been smiling pretty until then.

 

He looked like a hunter who had set a trap for his prey yet failed.

 

“I’m sorry, but that might be difficult.”

 

“Why?”

 

“I belong to the Service Division and am in charge of recharging items. I can’t give mana carelessly.”

 

Birkin bowed her head briefly as if to apologize. She, of course, knew it wasn’t for her to apologize, but since she had unintentionally heard Liam’s weakness, she felt it was right for her to apologize.

 

She fully understood what kind of situation Liam was in. She also understood his feelings a little bit.

 

Birkin was called ‘Mana Bin’ when she attended the Academy. Although she had a lot of measured mana, she didn’t know how to do any magic, so it was a nickname given to her.

 

Birkin doesn’t have a mana circle. If she had created even one circle, she would have become a 1st circle mage and could have used 1st circle magic to her heart’s content with her countless amounts of mana, yet she couldn’t.

 

It wasn’t a matter of effort. It was just a matter of talent.

 

In order to get rid of the nickname Mana Bin, she gritted her teeth and looked into how to make a mana circle, yet the only advice she received from her friends and seniors was ‘Mana circle? ‘If you study hard, you can make it.’

 

Studying magic? Birkin was at the top of her grade during his first year, before she officially entered the magic department. Of course, she never regained her position after that. She was obsessed with her studies even though her nose was bleeding.

 

Only for her to become a mage.

 

“…I.”

 

When she was lost in the past for a moment, Liam suddenly spoke to her. She watched him look at the ground with pitiful eyes. It was a somewhat different face from the way he had been staring at Birkin’s face so persistently.

 

“I’m a 9th circle mage, but I came to Deepdale because I didn’t have mana.”

 

“…Ah. That’s why.”

 

A story passed by about Chief Ad receiving orders from the country. Didn’t she definitely think so herself? Why is the 9th circle genius here in Deepdale?

 

“I didn’t want to use magic until I coughed up blood. Until now.”

 

“…Yes.”

 

“But your mana is different.”

 

There was only one reason why Birkin, who graduated from the Magic Academy, didn’t leave the magic world, which she was sick of. She wondered if she would definitely succeed in this field without becoming a mage or a magic engineer.

 

The company she applied to was the Service Division, and Birkin was gradually being recognized there. They needed mana, which she had thought was useless until now, at least in the Service Division.

 

Birkin was so happy that she cried.

 

“Your mana is… sweet. It’s crazily sweet.”

 

Liam, who had been looking at the table with his eyes closed, looked up. His golden eyes looked straight at her.

 

He made eye contact with Birkin. Liam’s eyes folded nicely and the golden pupils disappeared between them. The man’s smile was unusually warm like sunlight.

 

“I need your mana.”

 

That man, Liam Moore, told Birkin what she had wanted to hear the most in over a decade. Even though he doesn’t know much.

 

***

 

When Birkin’s conversation with Liam ended, he turned around and went back to his office. Liam was the only one left, looking wistfully in the direction she had disappeared into.

 

The person who approached Liam was none other than Chief Willem. He, the chief of the Item Development Division, hesitantly approached Liam.

 

“Uh, ahem, Liam. About this development project…”

 

“Didn’t you feel sorry for me?”

 

“What? W-What do I feel sorry for?”

 

“Didn’t I look pitiful?”

 

The moment Birkin disappeared, the expression disappeared from Liam’s face. He looked down at Chief Willem with a grave expression. Willem’s eyes met his and he swallowed his saliva.

 

Chief Willem recalled a moment ago when a woman named Birkin Redfield left and had just discovered Liam. Now that he thinks about it, what was Liam Moore’s expression like at that time…

 

He looked sullen. Like a puppy caught in the rain.

 

At the Item Development Division, if he had said, ‘Liam Moore looked pitiful even for a moment,’ even the chief would have been scolded. However, Liam just a moment ago was really like that. Completely different from his current dull expression.

 

“I-I think… you did, a bit…”

 

“That’s strange.”

 

Liam glanced at the office Birkin entered. In front of the door was a nameplate that read ‘Service Division Team 3’.

 

“It definitely looked like she was going to fall.”

 

Liam tilted his head with a beautiful face.

 

Born a predator, he was an excellent hunter and was skilled in all methods of hunting. Birkin Redfield, whom Liam realized in a short period of time, was a person who was weak in ‘sympathy’. He just took advantage of it.

 

However, Birkin Redfield didn’t step on the trap he had set.

 

“I missed it again.”

 

Birkin Redfield wouldn’t have known that this was what ignited Liam Moore’s hunting desire.

 

— Wise Magic Tower Life TIP! —

Mana is just like bread. The dough for making bread is mana, and when you break it and divide it into portions, you get mana circles, and the baking process is magic!