The Innocent Mage's Spellbinding Nights - Chapter 26
Scandal
The moon was full and the night sky was cloudless.
However, Yuta, walking briskly through the back alley, kept glancing around with an anxious expression.
‘This is scary…’
Yuta was returning home after running errands at a tavern until late, to buy bread for his sick mother and young sister. Their dilapidated house was located on the outskirts, far from the bright lights of the entertainment district, making the journey home always frightening. Recent ominous rumors made Yuta’s back damp with sweat.
‘I heard that if you walk down a deserted street at night, you’ll start hearing footsteps behind you. If you look back even once, a monster with a huge red mouth will stick out its tongue and swallow you whole.’
‘It’s all just urban legends. Monsters can’t exist in the city, not with the White Tower’s mages in the west.’
Yuta tried to shake off the waves of fear and quickened his pace. There wasn’t much of the maze-like alley left. As Yuta’s heart began to find a steady rhythm again.
Step. Step. Step.
He heard footsteps behind him, approaching like the Grim Reaper. Goosebumps rose all over his body. The curiosity that is unique to humans urged him to look back, but fear and terror were much stronger.
Biting his lips, Yuta started running frantically as he reached a turning point in the alley.
“Huff, huff…”
His body, exhausted from a day of hard labor, had almost no strength left. Out of breath quickly, Yuta didn’t stop running.
‘Just a little more! Just a little more!’
At that moment, he heard a soft but chilling voice.
“Tsk, what a bother.”
Whoosh!
He heard something whip through the air, and a red tentacle, resembling a long tongue, wrapped tightly around Yuta’s right ankle and pulled him back.
“Ah! Please, spare me!”
Dragged and forced to turn around, Yuta saw it. A man with long black hair and blue eyes, holding a red crystal orb. The orb had a long crack down the middle, like closed lips, and the tentacle had emerged from that crack.
Few would recognize it, but the object was a cursed creature known as ‘Gluttony,’ created from complex spells, blood, life force, and resentment.
“Even though I dislike torture, it won’t hurt. Both in reality and the afterlife, it’s hell, so please assist me in my work,” the man’s voice was angelically gentle.
“Mister, please spare me! My sister and mother are waiting for me!”
Yuta’s sorrowful plea echoed, but there was no response.
As the tentacle pulled the boy closer, the crack in the crystal orb slowly widened. Then, the large mouth from the rumors gulped down its prey.
The dark alley returned to its eerie silence.
***
Like other parts of the continent, summer in the west was a season bursting with life and energy. In the summer, grass grew lushly even on dry land, and vibrant wildflowers bloomed beautifully in the barren wastelands.
However, the mages of the White Tower felt the arrival of summer in another way recently—by looking at their Tower Master.
‘Her face was always beautiful, but now it’s strangely more captivating.’
‘Could she have found a lover? They say women become more beautiful when they fall in love.’
Regardless of whether they liked or disliked Irina, everyone acknowledged her stunning appearance.
Her immaculately porcelain skin and cloud-like silver hair gave her an exotic and mysterious allure uncommon in the west. Her clear green eyes were as beautiful as emeralds, and her pink lips were so enticing that one couldn’t help but want to kiss them.
And on top of all that, recently, a subtle sensuality had been added to her beauty, causing even those accustomed to her looks to be captivated more often.
“Irina!”
“Oh, Senior. Good afternoon.”
As Scarlet greeted her, she stared at Irina’s face intently, causing Irina to ask with a puzzled expression.
“Why? Is there something on my face?”
“Yes, beauty is all over it.”
“Hey, don’t joke like that. Even if you say so, I don’t have time to serve you tea and snacks today.”
“I’m not joking—it’s true. You looked wilted like grass in a cold wind until a few days ago, but now you’re blooming like a flower drenched in sunlight and water.”
What exactly happened?
Scarlet’s face was full of mischief, but her reddish-brown eyes gleamed sharply like a hawk that had spotted its prey. Irina, hiding her throbbing heart, answered in as calm a voice as she could muster.
“Nothing much. As you know, if I’m not on a business trip, I’m just going back and forth between the office and my quarters.”
“Did you perhaps meet a handsome man while out on a business trip, someone who made our usually indifferent Tower Master’s heart flutter for even a moment?”
“Senior!”
Even as she raised her voice in disbelief, Irina momentarily reflected on Scarlet’s words and thought of the man she had been spending her nights with recently.
‘Hesed… he’s a fine-featured handsome man, isn’t he?’
The female mages of the White Tower, or even her assistant Celsia, were constantly busy praising his looks whenever they had a chance. She had seen countless noble ladies blushing at the sight of him at the occasional official banquet.
“Oh my, look at that blush. There really must be something going on, huh?”
Scarlet laughed heartily, slapping Irina on the shoulder.
