The Patient Wizard Chapter 11

Chapter 11 – Calculation (1)

Section 1 The Person Who Goes First

It took a long time because I got lost on the way to the village. The time spent in the village was also long, so I returned it when it was evening.

When I went to the dining room, Juan was preparing dinner. He was usually sullen, but today it was excessive by anyone’s standards. There was a fierce atmosphere surrounding his shoulders that made it seem like he would bite if you touched him.

Chris was hungry but didn’t sit at the table and withdrew to the reception room. After a while, he came out of the dining room with tears streaming down his cheeks.

Crying! Why? How come?

Juan passed through the reception room blankly and went outside.

Why is that person acting like that?

While tilting his head in confusion, Smith came in. He somehow looked depressed.

“Why are you in low spirits too?”

Smith puffed up his cheeks and then sighed.

“It’s like shit.”

His voice had also lost its energy.

“Did something happen at the dormitory?”

“Yes, it did.”

Chris tensed up, thinking a major accident had occurred.

“What is it?”

“Alex… Alex… Alex…”

“Oh, that bastard caused trouble. I knew it. Did he sexually harass Catherine?”

Alice said as she entered the reception room.

“Chris, you really dislike Alex. Alex isn’t that bad of a person.”

“No, that’s not it.”

While making an excuse, Smith threw his words like throwing a stone.

“Alex felt magic.”

At first, I couldn’t understand.

“Ah, yes, Alex felt…”

In the middle of speaking, I fully understood the meaning.

“He felt magic! Alex!”

Chris was really surprised. He had thought that Prince Mark would be the first to feel magic among the Lion Hall apprentices.

Chris didn’t know whether Mark was smart or stupid, talented or not, diligent or lazy, lucky or unlucky. He had only vaguely thought about it.

Since he was a prince, wouldn’t he be different somehow? Wouldn’t he be special?

That’s what he had expected.

Chris was inwardly perplexed by his preconception. He hadn’t thought much about the king, neither during his slave life in the Baronial Estate of Xavier nor in his current life with the prince, but it seemed he had unconsciously regarded the royal family as special.

“Why Alex of all people?”

Chris lamented.

“The king of rudeness getting magic.”

Alex is the person Chris dislikes the most in Lion Hall. He would choose hurtful words to say to others, but when others said something unpleasant to him, he would become serious and get angry. He’s a character wreck with double standards.

Alice said,

“It’s good when a Lion Hall colleague does well. Congratulate him.”

Smith said,

“You’re so good-natured. He doesn’t consider us colleagues.”

“Being jealous only harms us.”

Alice changed the topic.

“Did you drop off the laundry?”

Chris still hadn’t emerged from the shock.

“Huh, what?”

“I asked if you dropped off the laundry.”

“I did.”

“Catherine was really concerned about it. If the clothes shrink even a little, she’ll eat you alive.”

Hearing that made him somewhat anxious.

Can Old Man Stan be trusted? Ah, he’ll do well. He’ll do well.

In any case, it was an arrow already shot, water already spilled. There was no way for him to take it back.

“Let’s just eat.”

The three former slaves gathered and had a meal together. Despite the shocking news, the food tasted good because they were very hungry. While they were eating heartily, their peers came in.

Alex sat down haughtily. The way he tilted his chin awkwardly and stuck out his lips was irritating.

“So the slaves gathered and ate first. Being slaves makes you act quickly.”

Chris brushed off his annoying words with a smiling face.

“Since I’ve been starving since childhood, I’m sensitive to mealtimes. If I miss the time, I have to starve all day.”

Chris slightly bowed his head and changed the topic.

“Lord Alex, I heard the news that you felt magic. Congratulations.”

Alex shrugged his shoulders.

“I knew I would feel it. I thought it would happen in a day, but it was later than expected.”

He’s showing off too much.

Chris criticized him inwardly.

“How did you feel the magic?”

“It just happened when I tried.”

Usually, he only responded when he needed something, but now he seemed to be in a good mood and answered the questions well. Chris didn’t miss the opportunity and poured out questions.

“There must have been a trigger, right?”

“It’s hard to explain in words. As I was reciting the spell, at some point, I felt the magic floating around.”

“What did it feel like?”

“Ah, I just thought, ‘So this is magic.'”

Then, he waved his arms.

“The feeling isn’t much different from air.”

“But it must be distinguishable from air.”

“That’s true. When you’re in a warm room in winter and go outside, you feel cold, right? Conversely, when you enter a room after being hit by a cold wind, you feel warmth. That’s the feeling. There’s air in the air that feels different.”

I don’t understand what he’s saying.

“When you boil a lot of water, the room gets steamy. Is it like that feeling of steam?

“Is it like the feeling of being in water?”

“There isn’t that much magic.”

“It’s difficult.”

“If it were easy, everyone would be a wizard.”

Catherine joined the conversation. She seemed more concerned about the laundry she had entrusted to Chris than Alex feeling magic.

“Did you drop off the laundry?”

“I left it with Stratton’s top expert.”

“Stratton?”

“The village name is Stratton.”

Chris returned the bag.

“I used the bag well. Lend it to me again when I go to pick up the laundry.”

“I’m a bit reluctant to keep lending it.”

“Why?”

“It could get damaged.”

“This time, there’s too much laundry to move to another bag. Just this once, please.”

“I guess I have no choice.”

“Thank you.”

Chris quickly resolved the laundry issue and turned his attention to Alex.

“Before feeling magic, did you do anything different from the past?”

The amount of kindness Alex could bestow on someone of slave origin was smaller than a sauce bowl. Originally, it was as small as a mosquito’s tear, but because he was in a very good mood, it had grown to that size. When Chris continued with his questions, the bowl overflowed.

“Dining with a slave is extremely unpleasant. Although it may be a once-in-a-lifetime honor for you all. Shut up and just eat your food.”

Chris did as he was told. As he ate vigorously for show, Alex clicked his tongue. Mark seemed to have no appetite, just poking at the roasted lamb with his fork.

Five days later, Chris paid two silver coins and picked up the laundry from Stan’s General Store. He was very nervous when Catherine inspected it, but Catherine nodded while exhaling a sigh of relief. And 2 hours later, Catherine succeeded in feeling magic.

When Alice asked Catherine how she felt it and if there was a special trigger, she reportedly answered like this:

‘I was worried a lot about the laundry. I was prepared for about half of the clothes to be ruined, but the laundry was done very well. When that worry was resolved all at once, my mind felt light. I think that might have had an influence.’

Chris thought that wasn’t it. Two hours earlier, when Catherine gave the approval signal for the laundry, Chris clenched his fist in joy behind her back. He had worried about the laundry much more than she had. In terms of relief, Chris must have felt 10 times what she did. Yet Chris couldn’t feel magic. The effect of relief didn’t work for him.

That evening, Alex looked glumly at Catherine sitting on the opposite side of the table. He seemed displeased that a commoner had felt magic the second. Mark and Tony didn’t even come down for dinner. They said they had no appetite. Chris ate deliciously, as always.

*    *    *

A month had passed since learning spells from William, the earth wizard. At 10 AM, all the apprentices were gathered in the classroom. The wizard had not yet appeared.

They were divided into their original six groups and were having bustling conversations. The topic of conversation was simple.

Who felt magic.

All topics were drawn to that. Some students brought up other topics, but those topics quickly withered, and they returned to the issue of feeling magic.

During the month, only Alex and Catherine had felt magic in Lion Hall. The situation was similar in other groups, with only one or two people at most. Chris was relieved about that.

There’s still plenty of time.

Comforting himself, he peeked at other groups. Hoping to overhear precursors or tips.

Then, he witnessed a confrontation between the noble group and the commoner group. The two groups were arguing over who was the first to feel magic.

The nobles claimed that Alex was the first, and the commoners claimed that Andrew was the first. The argument gradually intensified, and the classroom became noisy. The commotion grew so large that there was concern that a fight might break out. Because of that, they didn’t notice the wizard entering the classroom.

“Quiet.”

William’s voice spread throughout the classroom. Only then did people begin to notice his arrival, and the commotion gradually subsided. Still, overall, it was noisy.

“Quiet.”

William said again. This time, anger was mixed in his voice. Chris was tense and kept his mouth shut. But there were still people who kept their mouths open.

“QUIET!”

A shout burst from William’s mouth. Only then did the classroom become quiet. Despite the atmosphere having sunk coldly, there was someone who couldn’t close his mouth, caught up in the excitement of the argument.

Henry, the second son of Count Jefferson, said,

“Welcome, Wizard. Those lowly ones are lying.”

“What lie?”

Henry was insensitive. He didn’t read the warning implied in William’s voice.

“It’s clear that Alex was the first to feel magic, but Andrew is insisting he was the first.”

“Why is that important?”

“Those lowly ones are lying…”

William cut him off mid-sentence.

“The lies you tell among yourselves are not important.”

Only then did Henry sense something ominous, and he hesitated.

“What is important?”

“My words! My words are what’s important. But you ignored my words.”

Henry swallowed.

“Me?”

“How many times did I tell you to be quiet?”

Beads of sweat formed on Henry’s forehead.

“Twice…?”

“Wrong. Three times.”

When William waved his wand, a tree was uprooted from a pot at the back of the classroom. And the soil from the pot flew and hit Henry’s face.

“Ahhh!”

Henry screamed in surprise. The scream didn’t continue for long. The soil covered his face without leaving room to breathe, blocking his voice from coming out.

Henry, suffocating, tried to tear off the soil covering his face. No, he tried to -, but the soil stuck like adhesive and wouldn’t come off.

Henry writhed on the floor. The writhing gradually subsided and, at some point, stopped completely. The strength left his arms and legs, which had been bent from fear and pain. Henry died of suffocation just like that.