CREEEAK.
'It's cleaner inside than I expected.'
When we opened the old wooden door, we were greeted by a room containing two neatly made beds.
The space between the beds was barely wide enough for someone to squeeze through, but the mage smiled in satisfaction at the room's unexpectedly tidy appearance.
“I was half expecting to see insects or rats scurrying around. This should be more than adequate for a night's stay.”
“Are you afraid of insects and rats?”
“Dislike would be a more accurate word. I'm not frightened of them, but seeing them makes my skin crawl, I suppose.”
So even mages aren't all that different from ordinary people.
I felt as though some of my fantasies had just been shattered.
“What's with that look? You seem disappointed about something.”
“…It's nothing. Let's put our luggage down first.”
“Hmm.”
I deliberately ignored the mage's gaze and approached the bed on the left.
The bed I had chosen consisted of a hard wooden frame topped with a rough mattress made of straw wrapped in cloth.
Despite my misgivings, I sat down on it with a faint sense of hope. Sure enough, as one would expect from a straw mattress, it offered almost no resilience, and the area beneath my backside simply sank.
“As expected, it's just an ordinary straw mattress.”
“I wasn't expecting the luxurious beds they have in the Imperial Capital. Still, there aren't any insects or rats hiding inside, so I'd say it passes.”
When I turned toward her from where I sat, she had also seated herself on the bed beside mine and was looking back at me.
“So? We still have some time before bed. What would you like to do?”
“Shall we have dinner? We left our territory in such a hurry that we barely had time for breakfast.”
“Hmm. Now that you mention it, I think I saw a door leading to a dining room on the first floor… But it seems something has come up that I need to take care of first.”
“Pardon?”
Something she needed to take care of?
I looked at her with a tense expression, wondering what she meant. Contrary to my expectations, however, she turned toward me with a faint smile.
“I didn't expect us to encounter one quite so soon, but this might turn out to be a valuable experience for you, considering you're an incoming student at Academia.”
“What do you mean?”
“Remember what I told you in the clearing? Academia was established to train mages capable of dealing with mysterious beings that threaten the Empire.”
“Yes, I remember.”
She had certainly said something along those lines in the little forest clearing where we had stopped the carriage.
The world consisted of Matter, the Soul, and Aether. Mages, whom Academia had been established to train, could resonate with Aether and confront mysterious beings whose existence ordinary people could scarcely perceive.
“The Imperial Capital is particularly notorious for such things, but even outside the capital, you'll often hear strange rumors. Stories about the vengeful spirit of someone who died unjustly appearing in a well, or people dying one after another after coming into possession of a cursed taxidermy specimen. There are even tales of bright, handsome children being replaced through the mischief of fairies… All sorts of peculiar rumors like those.”
“Ah, you mean those outlandish stories about shadow wolves running through barley fields, or someone cutting open a goose's belly and finding a golden egg inside?”
“Exactly. Most rumors mixed with such absurd claims turn out to be misunderstandings or outright lies. But among them are some that are 'real,' things the Empire cannot afford to ignore. If left alone, they won't necessarily stop after killing a handful of people. Some can grow into disasters capable of having a tremendous impact on humanity.”
“Oh-ho.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the mage plunged her hand straight into the bed she was sitting on.
The straw mattress swallowed her arm without the slightest resistance, as though it were made of pudding.
And then—
“SKREEEEEEEE!”
The agonized shriek of a beast filled the room, assaulting my ears.
“Ugh!”
“Ordinary inns have rats and insects. Those little creatures are practically born out of thin air, so it's impossible to get rid of them completely. But didn't you find it strange that this room was so clean the moment we opened the door? Almost as though something invisible had been continuously devouring them.”
Her hand rummaged around inside the mattress as though searching for something. Then, apparently finding what she wanted, she tightened her grip and pulled her arm free.
BURST!
Straw exploded from the mattress, scattering in every direction.
It looked like a mischievous child had torn open a mattress to play with the straw inside, but I barely noticed the mess.
That was because the creature struggling in the mage's grasp was simultaneously familiar and unlike anything I had ever seen.
WRIGGLE! WRIGGLE!
Its short legs, bumpy skin, and enormous eyes resembled those of an ordinary frog found in a lake or pond. However, its body repeatedly faded into transparency before becoming visible again, as though it possessed some supernatural power of invisibility.
It was a fascinating creature that seemed to be constantly attempting to vanish into thin air.
What should I call that thing?
A Shadow Frog? Or perhaps an Invisible Frog?
“Hmm, so there was a Void Frog after all. Just what I expected.”
“…A Void Frog?”
“That's right. They're not particularly dangerous, but Void Frogs can teleport to nearby places as long as there's a narrow gap for them to slip into. That makes them rather troublesome creatures to catch.”
What did the mage just say?
A frog could teleport?
“Did you say that frog can teleport? Can all beings that resonate with Aether possess such absurd abilities?”
“Yes. Is there a problem?”
“Then, if I become a mage, would I be able to use magic to teleport like that frog…?”
I struggled to calm my pounding heart as I questioned the mage, who was still holding the wriggling Void Frog.
Teleportation.
Now there's a word that stirs the heart with the romance of fantasy. It's been a long time since I felt this excited.
“Pfft! That look in your eyes is hilarious. You're like a little boy obsessed with swords who's just seen a steel sword for the first time.”
“…Is there something strange about my expression?”
“No. Your eyes are filled with such pure curiosity that it's adorable.”
The mage regarded me with the affectionate gaze of an older sister looking at her beloved younger brother. Then she brought both hands together and firmly enclosed the frog between them.
The creature, which had been struggling desperately to escape, gradually lost its strength. Its short limbs, which had been flailing wildly moments earlier, went limp.
Is it dead?
“It was making too much noise, so I put it to sleep for a while. Void Frogs are difficult to find under normal circumstances, so they fetch quite a high price.”
With that explanation, the mage brought the limp Void Frog toward the opening of a small pouch she had taken from inside her clothing.
And then—
WHOOSH!
Like dust being sucked into a vacuum cleaner, the frog was drawn into the pouch at an invisible speed, leaving an afterimage in its wake.
“Hmm. It certainly lives up to its price. I suppose spending half my annual salary on this was the right decision after all.”
“…What exactly is that?”
“Just what you saw. It's a pouch capable of storing mysterious beings. Of course, if you try to put something inside that resists too fiercely, the pouch can break, so you can't simply stuff an unlimited number of creatures into it.”
The mage glanced at the pouch containing the Void Frog. Apparently satisfied that the creature had been safely secured, she nodded and tucked it back inside her clothing.
“Void Frogs are relatively docile, so leaving this one alone probably wouldn't have caused any problems for several years. The trouble is that they never stop growing. Once it became large enough to eat people, this territory would probably have started experiencing a series of mysterious disappearances.”
“…So they eat people.”
“From a Void Frog's perspective, insects and humans are all just food, aren't they? It's only because this one is still small that it hasn't eaten any humans yet. Once it grows large enough to swallow a person, there would hardly be any prey easier to hunt than humans.”
“Of course, that's also because they aren't intelligent enough to learn that eating humans inevitably brings retaliation. Void Frogs simply don't possess that level of intelligence.”
Having finished her explanation, the mage took a moment to survey the devastated room.
“It looks like sleeping here tonight might be rather difficult.”
“Can't you use magic to clean up this mess all at once? Something like turning back time, perhaps?”
“Magic isn't quite that all-powerful, you know. There are certainly mages capable of doing things like that, but I don't possess that kind of magic.”
She shook her head at my question, then sighed and spoke with a resigned expression.
“Well, it can't be helped. We'll just have to pay extra and ask someone to clean the room. We can have dinner while they're tidying up, so it should work out.”
“Money… Somehow, this is very different from how I imagined a mage would handle things.”
“Pfft! Sorry to shatter your romantic notions of magic, but most things that can be accomplished through magic can also be accomplished with money. They just tend to cost more and take longer.”
With those words, she led me back to the counter on the first floor and explained the situation to the girl who had given us our room key.
The girl was furious when she heard what had happened. However, the moment the mage handed her a substantial sum for the trouble, her anger vanished. She became as meek as a lamb, nodded obediently, and went upstairs to clean our room.
By the time we finished dinner and returned upstairs, the room had been restored to its original spotless condition, almost as though by magic.
It seemed the mage had been right after all.
Anything magic could accomplish could apparently be accomplished with money, too.