I could see the back of a girl who, for some reason, gave off a frail and sickly impression.
The girl with blue hair was named Shishiroka.
She was the one who let me in after my squabble with the gardener.
The gardener’s pathetic expression was something I stored forever in the photo album of my mind.
She was currently guiding me.
Fortunately, she could read, and because she understood the contents of the letter of recommendation, she had let me in.
This is why people need to study.
As we walked, I casually asked, and it turned out she was also a holy mage.
Judging by her lack of a noble title, she probably wasn’t of noble birth.
But her demeanor was quite refined and old-fashioned.
As I followed her, a luxurious corridor came into view.
A plush carpet lay underfoot, and there wasn’t a speck of dust near the windows or along the walls.
It seemed like the servants cleaned every day.
How much money would it take to live in a mansion like this?
It was a world apart from my life where I shared a room with cockroaches in a cheap inn.
“We’ve arrived.”
As I admired the mansion, Shishiroka stopped walking and turned to me.
“This is Lady Raphael’s office.”
She raised her small hand and knocked on the door.
A voice from inside told us to come in.
When the door opened, a woman came into view.
A woman dressed in a formal suit.
Unusually, she had feathers above her ears.
Her peach-colored hair stood out as she silently observed me.
Sharp eyes above her work glasses.
Raphael Vaniola.
She was the holy mage master that old man Bulldog had introduced me to.
Shishiroka stepped forward and handed over the letter of recommendation.
“A letter from Mr. Bulldog.”
At the mention of Bulldog’s name, Raphael’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
Didn’t feel like a particularly good sign.
Sensing that nothing good would come from drawing attention to myself, I subtly slipped into the shadow of the wall.
Meanwhile, Raphael slowly read through the letter of recommendation.
“Haaaah.”
A sigh full of irritation escaped her lips.
This woman clearly had some bad blood with old man Bulldog.
Raphael’s eyes turned toward me.
Her sharp gaze was fierce and unrelenting.
If old man Bulldog was literally a bulldog, then she was a doberman.
“The name written here is Haru. Is that correct?”
“Yes, my name is Haru.”
“So that mutt had the nerve to send you, huh?”
Yep. Bad blood, no doubt.
Raphael frowned, as if she couldn’t stand the sight of the recommendation letter.
“Old man Bulldog is not a mutt.”
Raphael’s gaze returned to me.
“He’s the one who taught me how to survive in this world. At the very least, he’s a good person. Good enough to write a recommendation for someone with no connections like me.”
The only reason I was here was because of old man Bulldog’s recommendation.
It was purely out of the kindness he had shown me.
Even if he had done something shameless to her, he still recommended me in spite of that.
I had no intention of quietly listening while someone insulted him.
“Hah.”
Raphael let out a baffled laugh.
“That mutt slept with me and ran off.”
“…What the fuck?! That son of a bitch!”
No wonder his name was Bulldog!
What a goddamn animal with a dick for a brain!
Seeing me losing my mind, Raphael laughed in disbelief.
Shishiroka who was standing beside us blushed furiously, clearly not used to this kind of conversation.
“Well, I mean, I was the one who followed him around like a lovesick fool, and in the end, I was the one who begged and seduced him not to leave. But in the end, he didn’t choose me.”
She gave me a wistful look. Her eyes were clouded with melancholy from a complicated past.
So, Raphael had harbored feelings for old man Bulldog, but his heart had belonged to another woman.
In the end, Raphael used even her body as a last resort, but still, Bulldog’s feelings never wavered.
So that’s how he ended up marrying his current wife.
There’s definitely a deep backstory here.
But to put it bluntly, old man Bulldog came out on top in every way.
More than that, sending me his disciple to a woman who once had unrequited feelings for him?
That takes some serious nerve.
No wonder Raphael was so irritated.
“So, after all this time with zero contact, that mutt sends you to me with a recommendation letter?”
She waved the letter slightly and looked at me with steady eyes.
“That means you’re no ordinary talent, right?”
“He did say I had great potential.”
“Well, we’ll see for ourselves soon enough.”
Raphael stepped toward me.
Up close, her long legs stood out.
She was quite tall.
Maybe old man Bulldog saved the country in his past life.
“Up close, your skin looks even whiter. Have you never seen sunlight before?”
“I’ve been rolling around like a dog every day.”
“Then it must be natural. That’s rare.”
She gave me a curious once-over, clearly interested in my porcelain skin.
Honestly, I didn’t know why I was so pale either.
Ever since I crossed into this world, my skin had just gotten noticeably paler.
“Lower your shoulder for a moment.”
Since I was slightly taller than her, I bent down a bit, and Raphael pressed her hand against my shoulder.
Her eyes closed behind her glasses.
After a short while, her eyelids fluttered open, and her eyes widened.
“Well, damn. That mutt had good reason to send you my way. You’re a Rank 1 in light affinity.”
“Rank 1?”
Even Shishiroka behind me reacted in surprise.
I just blinked, not really sure what it meant.
Although I followed old man Bulldog around, I was a complete novice when it came to magic.
I only knew that magic exploded with a bang and that it was complicated. Nothing more.
That’s exactly why I had wanted to learn from old man Bulldog in the first place.
“You do know that magic is divided into seven elements, right?”
“Yes, I know that.”
Fire, wind, lightning, earth, water, darkness, and light.
Magic attributes were divided into these seven elements.
“Each attribute is ranked across ten levels. From Rank 1 to Rank 10.”
Apparently, having a talent for magic usually means being at Rank 5.
“If you have a Rank 5 in one attribute, you can generally handle all the others as well. Most people average Rank 5 across all attributes.”
On the other hand, as your ranking in one attribute gets higher like Rank 4 or above, your other attributes tend to drop.
That’s because the more exceptional one attribute was, the less compatibility you would have with the others.
“Since you’re Rank 1 in light, your other attributes are all at Rank 10.”
Now I understood why old man Bulldog had said I wouldn’t be able to learn magic of other elements.
“Is that… a good thing?”
“Of course it is. There are only two other people in the world besides you with Rank 1 in light.
One is the High Elder Holy Mage of the Grace Magic Tower, and the other is the Saintess from the temple.”
Hearing it like that, it really did sound like a ridiculous level of talent.
Hmm, maybe becoming a Holy Mage wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all.
Suddenly, even resurrection magic started to look kind of appealing.
“A kid who’s going to make history just popped up. Teaching you might actually be worth it.”
Raphael’s eyes sparkled.
It seemed my talent had really struck a chord with her.
“Lady Raphael, can Holy Mages fight too?”
Still, rather than holy magic, what I needed more was a way to protect myself.
In this uncivilized world, having a means of self-defense was essential for survival.
“What? Pwahahaha!”
Raphael suddenly burst out laughing.
“Do you know why the temple’s Holy Knights are so feared?”
“Because they’re strong?”
“That too, but more than that, they’re called the immortal legion.”
Raphael raised her finger.
A streak of light gathered at her fingertip, sharpening into a fine blade.
With no hesitation, Raphael sliced her own skin open with that blade of light.
But the wound healed the moment her skin split.
“See? Once holy magic surpasses a certain level, it stays active inside the body and heals it automatically.”
I hadn’t known that.
No, correction.
I had actually experienced something like this before.
The resurrection magic I possessed—
It was never a power that revived me per se.
It could bring others back to life, so it had simply applied the same effect to my own body.
Only now did I understand the mechanism behind resurrection magic.
“Thanks to that, unless we’re instantly killed, holy mages rarely suffer real harm. Of course, not many can regenerate as fast as I do. But even basic auto-recovery is more than useful in battle.”
Holy Knights make full use of that advantage in combat.
They charge in without hesitation, even when injured. They were an immortal legion.
I could now understand why they were so feared.
Ever since dealing with those cultists, I knew something was off.
The religion in this world was clearly crazy.
“I don’t know what it is you’re planning to fight, but the answer is yes. Holy mages can absolutely fight.”
That was all I needed to hear.
I clenched my fists tightly.
“I’ll devote myself to learning holy magic! Please, take me on as your disciple!”
“I’m happy to. Rank 1 in light is a rare gift, after all.”
And just like that, I gained a new teacher today.
***
After that, I moved into Master Raphael’s mansion.
As her student, I now had to study diligently.
It wasn’t the kind of thing I could learn by just dropping by from time to time.
So I happily packed up and made my way to the mansion.
From now on, I’d be living in a noble’s mansion….and honestly, that felt right.
I gave my final farewell to my beloved cockroach roommate.
It was nice meeting you. Let’s never see each other again.
When I arrived at the mansion with my luggage, the gardener who had argued with me at the gate looked like he’d just bitten into something sour.
But he had no choice but to bow his head to me with caution.
Ah, the sweet taste of rising in status.
I couldn’t be more delighted.
While being shown to my room, I asked one of the maids, and it turned out Raphael was far more impressive than I’d thought.
She was the daughter of the Master of the Grace Magic Tower, the very heart of holy magic.
Well now, that just made old man Bulldog even more of a legend.
To sleep with someone like Raphael for just one night and then leave without a second thought in pursuit of love? Truly incredible.
In any case, I was now the disciple of the Grace Tower Master’s daughter.
Tower Masters were officially recognized by the Empire and were granted the noble title of Baron.
That meant Raphael, as the Tower Master’s daughter, was also nobility.
And as her student, I figured that made me… sort of a noble by association.
With that, I took one more step away from the uncivilized people of this world.
Wait—no. I was a different species from the start.
As I reveled in the luxury of my spacious and spotless room, there was a knock at the door.
“Come in.”
“Um, yes!”
It was Shishiroka who entered with the knock.
She looked at me with a moment of confusion, then quickly adjusted her expression.
“Lady Raphael says she’ll begin your training right away. Please come with me.”
“Very well.”
Shishiroka gave me a look like she couldn’t believe the kind of weirdo she had to deal with now.
“Oh, and Shishiroka is Lady Raphael’s first disciple.”
So Shishiroka was Raphael’s disciple too.
Somehow, that made sense.
“That means Shishiroka is your senior, Haru.”
She puffed up slightly, standing a bit taller with pride.
“Got it?”
“Yes, senior.”
“G-Good. Very good.”
She looked a little flustered, probably not expecting me to call her “senior” so easily.
Seemed like she had been planning to assert some authority over me.
A senior deserves to be treated like one.
“Your magnificent legs must be tired from all that walking, senior. Allow me to be your legs.”
“Wh-What?”
Without another word, I rushed over to Shishiroka and swiftly picked her up.
“Eek! Wh-What are you doing?!”
“I simply cannot bear to watch you walk on your own! The world must witness your greatness, Senior!”
Shishiroka was small, and therefore light.
Thanks to that, I could lift her up like a cat.
“Alright, let’s go!”
“Kyaaaa! Put me down! Please put Shishiroka down!”
“Behold, world! This is Senior Shishiroka!”
“I-I don’t want to be a senior anymore! Shishiroka quits being a senior!”
Ignoring her screams, I dashed forward with determination.
I had firmly resolved to show the world the majesty of Shishiroka.
“What in the world are you two doing?”
That was when Raphael caught us and smacked me on the head.
“Shishiroka has a weak constitution, so don’t go bothering her.”
“I only wanted to share the grandeur of my senior with the world.”
“You’re not exactly sane yourself, are you.”
The world refused to understand me.
I turned to Shishiroka, hoping at least she would.
She flinched, then ran off without a word.
Ah, the loneliness.
“Anyway, get ready.”
“For what?”
I was now standing with Raphael in the training grounds.
“Do you know the easiest way to learn holy magic?”
For some reason, Raphael was holding a rather brutal-looking club.
“It’s to get hurt and then pour holy magic into the wound.”
“What kind of madness is that?!”
“You’re a Rank 1 Light Attribute, aren’t you? Instead of learning theory piece by piece, it’s faster to get a feel for it.”
What a lunatic of a teacher.
“You said you wanted to get stronger, didn’t you?”
Raphael gave me a chilling smile.
Yep, she was definitely a witch.
“Do your best to grow stronger.”
I decided then and there to curse old man Bulldog who introduced me to Raphael….forever.
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