The One and Only Sami Chapter 5

The sun had fully set and the sky was a dusky evening hue; throughout the manor, round lanterns were beginning to rise one by one.

“Sami! What happened? Are you okay?”

“Pant, huff… Ka, Kamil… brother…”

The stableman, seeing Sami tumble inside like a rolling bean pod, asked him in shock what was wrong. Unable to even answer the question, Sami could do nothing but tremble violently.

I met a sorcerer.

He wanted to believe it was something he could just erase like a nightmare, but that was exactly how this story began.

Salif’s manor was full of sound, even at night.

The clatter of the spinning wheel, the splashing of water filling the jars, the hiss of a hot iron being dipped into water to cool.

Because the house was filled with the sounds of industry even at night, it was common for a reddish glow to shine through the manor windows until the late hours.

Among them, the light illuminating the young master’s study never went out, staying lit until the pitch-black night faded to white dawn. Antar covered his mouth and gave a short yawn. He used his hand to shoo away a couple of moths fluttering around the lamp.

“You should fly that way.”

Antar placed his hand on the closed door. He was about to open a path for the wind so the moths could fly out.

The moment he opened the door, a curled-up shadow was cast at Antar’s feet.

“…Sami?”

“M-Master.”

The voice sounded startled, clearly showing he had been dozing off until a second ago. Antar stepped back to give Sami enough space on the floor to sit up properly.

It seemed Sami had been huddling against the study door. He was clutching a flat pillow in his arms, and his eyes still held a look of bewilderment.

Antar looked at Sami’s face, which was thick with sleepiness, and tilted his head slightly.

“Sami, why were you by the door? Instead of going to your room to sleep?”

“Well, you see…”

His voice was hesitant. Sensing there was something on his mind, Antar moved aside to make a path for Sami to enter.

“Come inside first.”

He brought Sami into the room.

“You should have just come in sooner.”

“It wasn’t like I was bringing a snack or anything…”

Since Sami was the one who usually brought night-time snacks to Antar’s study, his presence there wasn’t unusual. However, the shy boy didn’t have the gall or the nerve to knock on the young master’s door without a specific reason.

“…Sami, would you like some milk tea?”

“…! I-I’ll prepare it.”

“It’s fine.”

Antar poured a warm, rich milk tea for Sami.

Eventually, Sami took the cup and quietly took a sip. As if the sweltering heat of midday were a lie, the air had grown chilly and damp the moment the sun went down.

People believed in superstitions—that Djinn flew through the boundaries of all things or across the cold night sky. Therefore, to ward off ill-tempered spirits, they would weave long, sprawling stories all through the night, hoping the heroes, treasures, and spells within those tales would drive the spirits away.

However, the events of today were too much to be comforted by the kind of hero stories Aunt Zarta told at night. Sami silently chewed on the thin skin that had formed over the cooling milk tea.

As the warmth spread through his body, Sami’s shoulders began to relax. Once the tension eased slightly, he finally felt able to speak.

“Um, Master Antar.”

Sami spoke with some difficulty. Antar had been reading a book on his desk. Though his gaze remained on the book, Sami knew Antar was ready to listen.

“Yes, go ahead.”

“Well… I met a sorcerer today.”

Antar’s eyelids blinked slowly at Sami’s abrupt statement. Even though he was prepared to listen, he hadn’t expected the word “sorcerer” to come out of the boy’s mouth so suddenly.

“A sorcerer?”

“Yes, it was a sorcerer! With a huge sword—a huge sword! He used magic to make the path not look like a path, twisting it like a coiled snake! And, well, his eyes were as terrifying as the King of the Djinn.”

“Is that so?”

Antar was a virtuous young man who listened carefully even to the words of the young and uneducated. Instead of dismissing Sami’s words as a prank or a joke, Antar spoke calmly.

“I’ve heard that sorcerers exist. But aren’t there no sorcerers left in this country anymore?”

“No, no. I really saw him! But Aunt Zarta and the Chief Steward won’t believe me either.”

Antar looked away from his book and at Sami. Seeing Sami glancing anxiously out the window while inching closer to him made the boy seem as cute as a little brother.

Usually, Sami was a clever boy who blinked his round eyes gently but carried out any task he was given perfectly; yet today, he looked completely rattled, though Antar didn’t know the full story.

“A sorcerer…”

Sorcerers were beings from the tales of A Thousand and One Nights.

“That’s quite a serious matter.”

Since they were so rarely seen in reality, it was hard to take Sami’s words literally, but Antar wanted to soothe him so he wouldn’t be afraid. He finally took his eyes off the book completely and turned toward Sami.

“What did this sorcerer look like to scare you so much? Did his neck grow long like a snake, or did he have an extra eye on his forehead like in the stories?”

“…Well.”

Tracing back through Antar’s gentle words, Sami thought back to the man he had encountered today.

He had been too scared to stare intently at every feature, but the man certainly didn’t have the monstrous appearance Antar described.

He had sweet, lustrous caramel-colored skin, and hair that glowed like sun-baked sand, flowing light as feathers down to his shoulders. The gold trim of the bandana tied around his head had sparkled in the sunlight, and the fingers that touched his oil-stained clothes were long and straight.

“He was the most…”

And the eyes. Those intense golden eyes that seemed to flash even in the shadows remained on Sami’s retinas like the afterimage left after staring at the sun too long.

“Handsome and impressive-looking person I’ve ever seen.”

“Not scary-looking?”

“No, well, he was scary. How should I put it? He was so striking that you’d turn your head to look if you passed him on the street…”

“Hmm… I have heard that sorcerers use transformation magic to enchant others.”

“That must be it, right?”

Sami tilted his head and furrowed his brow quite seriously.

He must have been bewitched by magic. If a wicked sorcerer was a handsome man with such a languid and sensual aura, it would lead to a lot of trouble in many ways—so believing this made Sami feel more at ease.

“Don’t worry. No matter how powerful a sorcerer is, he won’t be able to enter our manor. Didn’t you spend the day applying warding oils to the floors for that very reason?”

Sami nodded. As Antar comforted him, he felt his heart ease a little.

“T-that’s true…”

Antar’s study was the brightest place in the manor at night. Since Djinn and evil magic feared bright light, he felt that staying in this room would help him recover from the shock of meeting the sorcerer.

“But we can’t stay shut up in this house forever… so let’s do this.”

Antar opened his desk drawer and took out a flat powder case. The case was filled with a shimmering powder. It was believed that glowing minerals had the power to drive away evil spirits, so noble people always carried powder made from crushed luminous stones on their person.

“Here.”

Antar opened the case, pressed his thumb firmly inside, and then lifted it. A round patch of glittering gold powder covered the pad of his thumb.

“Lift your hair.”

Sami hesitated for a moment before brushing his hair back. His curly hair was a deep color, like a desert night. Antar pressed his thumb against Sami’s exposed forehead and prayed.

“While you open your eyes and fall back to sleep, neither the Djinn of the thin air, nor the Djinn that drums on stomachs, nor the Djinn that tears at hair shall torment you.”

When Antar pulled his thumb away, the sparkling powder had transferred to the center of Sami’s forehead.

“…Was that a prayer for me?”

“I have to finish it with this: ‘By the Sun of Harut, and the Moon of Marut.’”

By the Sun of Harut, and the Moon of Marut.

Sami repeated the prayer Antar had recited under his breath.