Magician's Hand

"...Heh, how despicable. Of all places, I never expected to see [The Magician] here..."

When Aoi said that, a spasm of surprise and panic came into me who is still hanging on to the already blackened staff on the wall.

"The [Magician]?! Ehh, this thing?!!"

Shortly afterwards the black staff—now completely bereft with magic—suddenly snapped in two, causing me to fall down the ground with a violent thud.

BLAGGG!!!

"Ren, are you alright? Did you break a bone?!" Lerish asked, as her face tightened with worry.

Seeing someone flare up in extreme pain all of a sudden must've been enough for Lerish's sense of duty to kick in, despite having little to no experience when it comes to situations like this. Especially now that we know that the cause of this ruckus is because of an Arcana, the only thing she could do at the moment is to show concern.

Putting up a pleasant smile, I replied: "I'm fine, hehe. Something of this degree is not enough to kill me."

Ighkkk...it hurts, it hurts, IT HURTS!!! Even though I have already experienced falling in much higher places than this place before, why does it hurt so bad when I fell on my tailbone?!

Guhh, let's hope that this won't be my own equivalent of an Achilles' heel.

The golden flames on my hand disappeared shortly after that, along with the pain. That said, it means that my body has succeeded in absorbing it.

"Aside from the pain earlier, are you also experiencing other adverse effects after you absorbed the Arcana?"

"Hmm. Other than my body feeling lighter than usual, I don't think there is anything sort of a negative reaction in my body right now."

Well, I think that if ever my body were to reject a foreign object as mystical as an Arcana, I would be dead already by the time I got the [Death] Arcana from Aoi. It's all thanks to the [Fool] Arcana in me that I'm able to live almost normally while being 'infested' with a nefarious power, even if it actually has no intention to harm me.

Hearing that, Lerish breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Thank goodness. I was scared that you might have a serious complication from absorbing another Arcana, but it seems like there is nothing to be worried about."

Aoi, on the other hand, started scratching her cheek for some reason.

"...Well, about that..."

"Ahem!" the store manager loudly cleared his throat as he stood at the door, looking at us with a furious stare. He must've rushed here when he saw me flying towards the stockroom, only to see the chaos we created afterwards.

"You brats..." trying to contain his temper, the store manager spoke, "you really decided to play tag in our shop, of all places, huh? You even broke one of our items, which we're planning to put on display today. Do you know how much we spent on getting that staff?!"

As he slowly approached us a slight chill came running on our backs, that even Aoi cowered behind me. In times like this, what she fears the most is an angry shop manager, knowing what terrible things are about to happen.

Yep, this surely won't end well for the three of us.

-----

*sulk*

In a street where there are only a few people passing by, the three of us chose to sit on a bench, our faces visibly downcast. We were lucky that we picked this place, for we wouldn't want other people to see us like this.

"...In the end, we got kicked out of the shop by that guy," Aoi said in a gloomy manner, while slowly swinging her legs back and forth.

"Nn. Not only that we were told to leave the shop, the manager even threatened to prohibit us from going there again," Lerish also spoke dejectedly.

We only managed to resolve the issue after we paid the value of the staff that I broke. Heck, does that thing really cost 20 gold coins? That's like the budget of a small family for a month! Talk about being overpriced...

Regardless, I don't think I'll be able to show my face to Alisha again if she were to hear about what happened from the store manager which is her brother. Even now, I can already imagine her sharpening her blades as she wait for me to go inside the Guild HQ because I ruined the trust she gave to me.

"Haah. It's all my fault. If not because of me, Lerish would've already gotten herself a good weapon..."

Ren Mortel...you really managed to let down three girls in a single day, huh? Even though you tried your best to make up for them, life just seems to have a way to mess up everything.

"It's alright Ren, you don't have to blame yourself," Lerish said to console me, while gently placing her hand beside mine on the bench. "Buying a weapon for me could wait; rather, I'm very happy that you found the [Magician] Arcana instead! Seeing that everything seem to conspire into putting you in that place at the right moment, the feelings of dismay that I have until now were quickly dispelled. At the end of the day, I can confidently say that we were able to obtain a more valuable object than any other weapon available in that shop."

"N-Nn, I guess so..."

The First Arcana, the [Magician].

When I looked at my left hand it didn't look like anything has changed, both in appearance and functionality.

For now, the Arcana behaves just the same as with the other two Arcanas in my system, but I'm worried about how it would affect me—and the people around me—in the future.

"The problem is, I have no idea what this new Arcana can do," I said. "Aoi, do you know anything about the [Magician]?"

Aoi shook her head. "...Aside from my own [Death] Arcana and the [Fool] in you, I didn't cared about all the other Arcanas' existence, nor the things they're capable of doing, all this time. I'm very sorry, big brother."

Ugh, what a bummer. Out of all the things she could ignore, she chose to not give a damn on something as important as that. Was she not in good terms with her former comrades? I'm starting to feel suspicious of her past actions.

"Looks like I have no choice then, but to find it out myself," I said as I start to concentrate.

Hmm, let's see. Based from my experiences, the things an Arcana can do must be at the very least, in close relation to its name or imagery.

For example, let's take a look at the null Arcana, the [Fool]. As with the number 0, the Arcana doesn't have anything in itself—a perfect vacuum. Hence, it has a tendency to take in a whole lot of things in order to temporarily fill the void it has created. Physical objects, magic spells—even abstract concepts such as pain or emotions, the [Fool] can absorb them all. It can also do the reverse, releasing back to the world what it has consumed.

In essence, the 'taking in' mechanic symbolizes the lessons the Fool had to learn as he sets out in a world of journey. As for the [Death], however, I think what it can do is already obvious.

Then, the [Magician]. What's the first thing one would think when hearing the word 'Magician'? Of course 'magic', but what kind? Unlike the other two Arcanas, the scope of this one is very broad. It would take me forever if I were to determine what it specializes in.

"U-Um..." Lerish, seeing me struggle concentrating, raised her hand and said, "I have read that in Yailin, a person who wishes to enter the magic academy must be able to control at least one of the six basic elements, by which their proficiency is rated based on a certain standard. Perhaps you could try that too, Ren? Not only are their concepts easy to form inside your mind, they also readily exist in nature—which is the main reason why almost all magic present in the world has its origins from those six elements."

Six elements, huh? So aside from the usual four, they also added light and darkness, which reminded me of some novels and anime I've seen from Rin. I wonder if the mechanics were the same as those stories...

"So you're saying that if ever the Arcana does allow me to manipulate any one of the six elements, I would be able to at least form a water ball if I were to extend my arm like...this?"

When I said that, the air around me suddenly started to become very damp—then completely dry—as the moisture in the vicinity rapidly concentrated themselves on my hand forming a tiny blob of water at first, then growing into a slightly larger one, continuously getting larger and larger as more water vapor gets collected by the water ball.

"W-What the..."

"...Amazing...you're actually doing it, big brother..."

"Indeed. How astonishing..."

The girls, sitting alongside me on both sides, were stunned to see me successfully create a water ball on the first try.

When Lerish asked me if I'm experiencing something like mana being drained out from me, I said that I don't experience that kind of thing, because I don't have any mana to begin with.

"...That's what makes Arcanas even better than the magic the mortals of this world have created," Aoi spoke proudly. "Not only they were pure and infinite in potential, its user will never be limited by the amount of mana he can store in his body."

Meanwhile, the water ball has already reached the size of a basketball. It kept on growing, but...

"Uhh...girls?"

"...What is it, big brother?"

Letting out a dry laugh, I asked:

"H-How do I...make this stop?"

"Eh?"

"...Eh?" the girls were visibly confused by my question. "You don't know how to stop it?"

"Well, that's why I'm asking you, right?"

"Oh, my! Ren, the water ball...—"

With the water ball growing at such an alarming rate, we didn't have time to react before the ball—already large enough to fit the three of us—exploded into a huge torrent of water. The force created was enough to knock us out of our seats, washing us up a few meters away on the grassy ground.

"...Hrghh...good grief, big brother—are you an idiot or what? I would be killed by that if I were not immortal!"

"Yeah, my bad. It became uncontrollable before I realized it..."

"The Arcana was a lot more potent than I expected," Lerish said. "That said, you should learn first how to control it, before exploring on the things it can do."

With great power, comes great responsibility. No matter how many times I remember that already cliche of a line, its relevance in life never fade away that easy.

"Good thing we're the only ones here, because it would be a problem if—w-w-w-woah, wait!!!"

When I checked to see if the girls were okay, I immediately averted my gaze the moment I saw their clothes completely soaked, causing me to unintentionally see for a split second Lerish's laced green bra—and her ample features—through her white blouse, as well as Aoi's cute white panties through her dress.

"H-He...he saw it..."

"...Even though big brother dresses me up in my clothes every day, it's still not right to look at my panties, you know? Could it be that...you're into those kind of things?!"

"J-J-Just stay still, okay? I'll use the [Fool] to absorb water from your clothes," I said to them with my face feeling hot, due to embarrassment.

After everyone's clothes became dry again, I expected that their disappointment would wane for a bit, but it wasn't. With all the mishaps today caused by me, I'm already prepared to take whatever punishment they would give to me.

Regardless, this day is still a win for me. I know I'll have good dreams tonight.

-----

"Yosh. Now that I've done my official duties for today, I can finally take a warm bath and rest..."

Later that night, while everyone else inside the Sandy Fish is already asleep, Lerish had only just finished writing her weekly report to be sent back to the palace.

Despite being far away from her post in the capital she never reneged on her duty as the country's princess, as she always make sure to accomplish whatever goals she had in mind. For that night, not only did she's done with her report, but she also finalized a draft for a bill she's planning to present to the country's council in the upcoming days, which aimed to make frontier towns like Plate Town to be more accessible to the rest of Narashel and the world, thereby making them more conducive to trade.

Such a diligent worker like her deserves to have a great way to rest, right?

However, as she soaked herself in the bathtub, there's one thing that wouldn't leave her mind.

"No matter how much I do, it's still nothing compared to what Ren does..."

At a glance one would say that compared to her, Ren looks like he's merely living the most of his life doing whatnot, but she knows how great of a burden the world has placed on his shoulders. As much as she wanted to help him, she doesn't have the necessary ability to do so, for she's only a princess—and princesses like her don't usually deal with gods, or Arcanas, or anything that could end the world with just one snap of a finger.

Now that he obtained his third Arcana, the difference between them in terms of responsibility has spiked even higher. She's worried that with an increase in faculty, the challenges he and Aoi must face will be even more dangerous.

"I must continue working hard...I don't want to burden them any further..."

And to achieve that end, she must become more powerful physically, mentally, and politically. For once, she's become eager to gain more influence in the royal court.

"'An arrow flying true to its purpose must—and will always—hit its mark'. That's what the old woman told me when I was still in Harlin..." she muttered, while looking at the card charm she has in her possession all the time.

And, knowing Lerish, she has yet to miss a mark. With all the resources she have in her disposal, she believes she can be of great assistance to Ren whatever the situation is. There's no way she'll make herself helpless again.

"Tomorrow, not only will I continue being a princess, I shall also start working as an adventurer, so that I'll be able to show to the world that I can be relied upon by everyone!" she declared as her emerald eyes gleam with conviction.