Chapter 2 – Part-Time Job for Body Cleaning in the Mage Tower #1

“…What do you mean by that?”

I stared at the old man, narrowing my eyes.
It wasn’t until the distance got closer that the old man’s appearance came into sight.
A gray-haired old man carrying a thick bundle.
The old man with a long beard gave off a mysterious aura.

“I’m living a miserable life? How do you know that?”

“You can tell by looking at it. I learned how to read people when I was young. Judging from your features, your life is twisted and twisted and I can’t see the time to unravel. Am I wrong?”

“Hmm.”

How dare you catch people and talk about contemplation.
Do you believe in the Tao? It smells like scammers.
Although it is true that my life is twisted, I have no choice but to be wary of the elderly.

“Besides, judging from the horns on your head, it looks like you were born as an incubus. Most of the dreamer clan live a lowly life. They can’t control their unique intoxication and cause accidents wherever they go. You have a terrible demon in your life. If we continue to live like this, we will surely meet a miserable end.”

The old man continued his story.
As this mysterious old man said, most incubus ends miserably. It is common to live a brutish life with ‘unique abilities to charm women’ and eventually die in a love affair.

‘Of course, I won’t get caught up in a love affair.’

I was an innocent virgin incubus who had never bewitched a woman and had no plans to bewitch her. I don’t like living a brute life by bewitching women randomly like my own people.

However, even if I lived unbecoming an incubus, my future was still unanswered.
Working as an adventurer, I have no money saved up, and I have no solid connections.
If one day you get old and your energy wanes, you won’t be able to find a proper job. The future of starving to death on the cold streets of the city will be waiting for you.

“It’s a miserable end. Are you cursing in front of people right now?”

Whatever the case, I felt very bad after hearing the old man’s words.
Is there any other insult more severe than telling an emchang life to be an emchang life?

“It’s not a curse. I guess I caught you because there was a way to solve everything. As I said before, I have a good thing. A treasure that can change your destiny.”

“I’m sorry. Then don’t drag it out and take it out. You’d better be prepared for useless junk.”

I raised my arms and prepared to bend the old man’s spine.

Aggression against the elderly!
In my previous life living in a Confucian country, I would never have dreamed of it.
However, after living on the continent for 21 years, my mind has changed before I knew it. Anyone who harms me can apply violence equally, regardless of gender or age.

“Cluck. You’re impatient. Wait a minute and see.”

The old man took the object out of his arms leisurely, ignoring my threatening gesture.

“This is it.”

“Book?”

The identity of the object the old man took out is a book.
Hearing my self-talk, the old man shook his head.

“It’s not an ordinary book. This is a magic book.”

In the old man’s hand is a thick book bound in leather.
The moment the old man flipped the inside of the book, he saw a picture depicting a person with a hand sign in it.

“Is it a magic book?”

The moment I realized the identity of the book, I was embarrassed.
I didn’t expect much because something really great came out of the old man’s bag.

“Do you understand now? You have a chance to change your destiny?”
“Are you asking me to learn magic? Buy that book and study it?”
“That’s right. Magic is the power to pioneer life. No matter what kind of inferior race you were born into, if you become a wizard, you will be treated like an aristocrat in the Midgard continent. A skilled wizard is always welcomed wherever he goes.”

I know how amazing magic is.
As long as you’re learning magic, your origins and ingredients don’t mean anything.
Even among the races that are shunned like me, there are cases where they learned magic and succeeded in reversing their lives.

“How about it? Don’t you feel like you want to have this magic book?”
“I would like to have one. But all magic books are ridiculously expensive, aren’t they? If it’s that thick, you’ll have to pay gold coins to buy it.”

On the continent of Midgard, magic books are expensive.
No matter how insignificant a magic book containing knowledge, it could be purchased by paying silver coins.
It’s far from me who collects copper coin memes and sucks for a living.
I sighed and shrugged my shoulders.

“Right now I don’t have a single penny. If you’re thinking of selling magic books, don’t talk to a bastard like me.”

“Even if you don’t have money, don’t you have valuable belongings? Take out something for now. If it’s for the book, I’ll pay for it myself.”

“There are things that can make money, though.”

I opened the sack hanging from my waist.
A bag containing exactly 8 goblin fangs.

Each molar was 2 copper, so all japtems were worth 16 copper. Of course, it was not enough to exchange for the magic book.

However, the old man’s reaction was unexpected.
The old man looked into his sack and opened his mouth.

“That should be enough.”
“What do you say?”

What did I hear wrong?
I asked him with that thought, but the old man’s answer did not change.

“Eight goblin fangs. If it’s an item to exchange for a magic book, that’s enough.”
“Now, wait a minute. What the elder is holding is a magic book? How can I exchange it with such trivial items?”

The old man laughed, revealing his teeth.

“I’m guessing that the molars in that pocket are all your property. The magic book in my hand is like all my property. Since you and I are exchanging the most valuable thing you have, how can you say it’s unfair? “

What kind of weird calculation is this?
It was while I was gaping in amazement after hearing the old man’s words.

Seruk.
The old man snatched his hilt and, in the blink of an eye, put the magic book in my hand.

“Hey, hey! Elderly?”
“The deal has been made. Then learn magic from now on. Become a wizard and turn your life around crawling on the floor. Incubus who has been reborn as a great wizard-. Just imagining the future is exciting.”

The old man passed by me with a laugh.
I couldn’t stop the old man who was leaving.

“What the fuck…”

You just gave away a goblin fang and got a magic book?
It was a magic book that could only be purchased with gold coins, and was obtained by exchanging it for japtem.
Even if you didn’t have to learn magic, if you could resell the book, it would be an overwhelmingly beneficial exchange.

“Ah, I’m so lucky.”

To be honest, I think I caught on.
Maybe it’s an old man whose mind goes back and forth.
At some point, he might suddenly come to his senses and ask for a magic book.

I hurried down the highway and returned to the city.
It was only after arriving at the inn room in town that I could breathe a sigh of relief.
As I ran to the inn, I kept looking behind me, but I couldn’t see the old man chasing me.

Can I learn magic now?
You mean you can be a wizard?

The moment I opened the first chapter of the book with anticipation.

“Uh, how are you?”

I realized.
That I was scammed by an old man.

“There’s nothing! Nothing is written!”

It must have been a full stomach when it was held in the hands of an old man.
There is nothing written on the inside that I have now opened.

A book made up of dazzling white blanks.
No matter how much I spit on my fingers and turn the back page, all I see is blank.

Damn, am I fooled?

I stared at the book with a bewitched expression.
That is until late in the morning.

*

It was when I came to my senses the next morning.
After a good night’s sleep, I woke up and looked at the thick book on the bed.
Even when it was held in the hands of an old man, the book clearly contained the contents.
But now the book contains nothing.
Pictures and texts that filled the entire page evaporated like lies.

If this was Earth, it would be a mysterious phenomenon.
However, because the continent of Midgard is a world where magic and sorcery exist.
If the old man showed an illusion with magic the moment he opened the book, it would be understandable that the contents disappeared.
A worm like me doesn’t have the ability to distinguish reality from fantasy.

‘I saw a phantom.’

The old man was an eccentric wizard who liked to mess with people.
Could it be that he approached me with the intention of giving me disappointment after making me have expectations of a life reversal or something?
To put it in technical terms, it was like being raised and dropped.
The ulterior motive is to [Parkin] The swarms that are swollen with anticipation into despair.

Dechaat ㅡ.

To be honest, I felt deeply upset.
But I’m not angry enough to want to go after him and take revenge.
The old man took me away because it was a cheap japtem.

I haven’t lost anything financially.
If you sell the book to a general store later, you can get the money back.
I’m not sure how much the price is.

I brushed it off, left the inn room, and set off for Yoensu’s adventurer’s guild.
There is no time to dwell on being cheated on.
I have to work today because I don’t have a penny in my pocket.

An adventurer’s guild in Joensu City.
The Guild named ‘Gallarhorn’ was the most traditional and well-established adventurer’s guild in the Western Continent. It has a history of 150 years as an adventurer’s guild, and during that time, it has produced countless great adventurers.

But when I introduce the guild I belong to, there is something more important than that history.
That there is a beauty among the receptionists that deserves attention.

“Wendy, I’m here.”
“Ah, you came early today, Mr. Luke.”

Wendy Bright.
She is a receptionist girl who is like the signboard of the Galarhorn.

A beauty with dark brown hair and sad eyes.
A voluptuous body exposed over neat work attire.
A bursting chest, a waist with no flab, and smooth legs stretched out from under the skirt.
If I had to pick the woman with the nicest body in Yoensuu, I would point out Wendy.
When I first met her, I was fascinated by her beautiful appearance, so it was difficult to properly speak her words.
How excited I was when I realized that he was my receptionist.

Should I say it’s a common man’s delusion?
In anticipation of her private relationship with Wendy, I was unknowingly excited.
Whenever I had light conversations while accepting her requests, I had many delusions about Wendy.

Of course, now, two years later, I don’t have that kind of feeling.

Because now I know

The truth that Wendy is actually a widow with a child.
She is also a widow with a cute daughter who looks exactly like her own.
Although she was so young that it was hard to believe that she was a woman with a child.
Wendy, unable to forget her bereaved ex-husband, seemed unwilling to begin her new love affair.
After arriving at the guild’s reception desk and greeting her lightly, I asked Wendy for an appropriate request.

“Is there any new quest? If possible, it would be nice to have a short quest that can be completed in one day.”
“Is this a quest that can be completed in one day? Please wait a moment.”

After a while, Wendy stared at me and opened her mouth.

“There is one request that pays the daily wage.”
“What kind of request is it?”
“This is a request from the Mage Tower. It is a request to dispose of monster corpses. Does Luke-sama have experience with this job?”

The moment I heard those words, I broke out in a cold sweat.

“A request to dispose of a monster’s corpse? The one in the Mage’s Tower? That, that, that’s a bit…”