Chapter 17: Black Magician Kurono

The next day, I woke up at sunrise.

After coming to this different world, I woke up feeling refreshed for the first time. A bed is definitely a great thing. On the fluffy bed I lay completely naked except for the towel around my waist along with Lily who was nude from the very start.

Huh? Hearing up till this point, doesn’t it sound like a suspicious situation?

It’s alright. I didn’t do anything to feel guilty about. That’s because I am a gentleman. YES for Lolita but NO touching. I really am not a lolicon, seriously. Lily asked me to stay at the hut so I decided to accept her kind offer. Maybe because she was an extremely soft hearted person, Lily didn’t seem to mind me completely depending on her.

Of course, I have no intention to only be on the receiving side. I have already resolved to return this favour definitely. But, is it fine to give so much to a man who has barely anything? What if I was just some parasitic bastard?

Oh no, am I getting conceited thinking I that must protect this angel, no, this fairy? It’s fine. I am going to stay with Lily treating her with gratitude and honour.

“Well then, time to change into my clothes.”

Without waking Lily who was still sleeping, I got of the bed and left the hut.

“un, it’s a bit better I guess…….”

Bur I can’t say it’s up to my expectations.

Although I knew while washing, the clothes that had become dark brownish colour due to dirt and blood, has become lighter but it’s nowhere near its original whiteness.

Basically it’s still dirty. It even has holes to top it off. If I went around wearing that in my previous world, I would have been reported instantly.

“It’s not like I have any choice though…..”

I had planned to go to the nearby village today, but I would at least need some clothes to get there.

Lily doesn’t care whether I am in just under pants or just a towel, but that’s an exception among exceptions.

The people of this world wear normal clothes. I saw that at the port town. As such, I will also have to wear at least something. Though, I feel that wearing nothing might be better than wearing this.

But no matter how much I complain the clothes won’t get cleaner. Reluctantly, I wear the ragged robe-like clothes I had become used to wear.

“Now then, how should I get some clothes——“

While enjoying the gentle breeze blowing in the morning, I sat down on one of the boxes kept behind the hut and thought while taking Rodin’s pose. (T/L: he is referencing Auguste Rodin who made the sculpture The Thinker. For more info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinker)

As I sat and thought in an artistic pose,

“Ah, Kurono, Good Morning.”

Lily came.

“Yeah, Good Morning.”

I’ll keep it a secret that I was almost about to say [good morning, princess].

“What are you doing sitting on the treasure box?”

“Treasure box?”

Wasn’t this just another box?

Getting up, I examined the box closely. I see, it does have a keyhole.

“What’s inside it?”

“Don’t know.”

As I saw Lily tilt her head in doubt, I became a bit excited inside.

“Doesn’t a mysterious treasure box sound interesting? On top of it, the owner was a magician. To think something like this would happen in reality, this really is a magic world!”

Everything in this, except for the few things of Lily, all belonged to the magician who had once lived here.

“Are you going to open it!?”

“Yeah, doesn’t it make you curious? Ah, is it bad to open it?”

“Open it!!”

Lily suddenly looked at me with a gaze full of expectations. Being looked at like that by Lily, I was suddenly filled with motivation.

“Alright! Leave it to me!”

Full of motivation, I faced the magical mysterious box.

No matter how you look at it, it’s made of wood. It would be easy to just destroy it but at times like these you should act smart. I think it should be better to destroy just the part with the keyhole.

“fuun!!”

So, I first try to open it with just physical strength. This box is like those that appear in RPGs, the ones that open upwards. As such, there isn’t any place to put my hands at but with my current strength——

“tsk!?”

The moment I put some strength, an electric current ran through the place I was touching. Reflexively, I pulled back my hand but the damage done is not very big.

“Trap, no, it seems to be protected by magic.”

“Kurono, are you alright?”

“Aah, it’s not strong enough to cause damage. But as expected of a magicians treasure box huh?”

If it is protected that strongly, means it contains a treasure better than I had imagined.

My 1st hope = lots of gold and silver. 2nd hope = strong magic item. 3rd hope = clothes (male size XL).

“Could it be a mimic?—–“ (T/L: reference to a D&D monster)

As I unintentionally muttered, I suddenly had a bad premonition.

“Say Lily, It won’t be containing some dangerous never to be released monster right?”

“It doesn’t contain any monster.”

“I’ll ask once more, its fine to open it, right?”

“Open it!!”

Again those sparkling eyes filled with expectations. I can’t leave this for later now. Well, even I didn’t feel like leaving it just because of getting a bit scared.

“If it’s protected by magic then I’ll use magic too—–Blackening!”

Touching the box with both hands, I release the black magical energy at full strength.

Up till now I have only used it on weapons, cylindrical bars etc. but if blackening is successful, it will definitely cancel the electric shock like damage.

I can control without touching, throw it etc. with the help of blackening but I don’t know whether I’ll be able to do something like opening a lock since I have never controlled anything which had a ‘mechanism’ of a key lock.

“Alright, Blackening was successful—–but I can’t manipulate the lock.”

I didn’t understand the structure of the lock or maybe the image is not sufficient, in any case I understood that I am unable to control the lock and open it.

“Then, I’ll have to directly tamper with it.”

Since the electrical trap was not there anymore, I could try using physical strength again but it doesn’t look like it’ll be successful since the box seems to be strengthened above normal.

So I’ll use the only recovery (?) type magic I possess. The one which converts my black magical energy into jelly-like substance to close wounds.

Using the same thing, I’ll pour magical energy inside the lock, harden it there, and then turn it.

I am not informed about the structure of a lock, but I can’t just harden everything inside. I’ll search for the responsive part while delicately controlling my magic—–

“How does it look?”

Since I was clattering for a while, Lily asked anxiously.

“Yeah, a little bit more and—-ohh!!”

I got a response! At the same time, with a *kachiri* sound, the box unlocked successfully.

“”It opened!!””

Our voices perfectly overlapped, no well, in this situation it’s kind of obvious to say the same thing.

“Alright! Open it Lily!”

“yeah!”

The two of us open it with feelings full of excitement.

“Th, this is!?”

Is what I say, but I couldn’t exactly understand what it was at a single glance. That’s because, it was just a black piece of cloth wrapping something up.

Well, I’m glad it’s not a mimic at least.

“What is this?”

“I wonder.”

For the time being, I pulled out the black cloth. It was a pretty thick and well made cloth, pretty big, and above all, a slight magical energy could be felt from it.

“This is………Could it be that this is a magician’s robe!?”

As I spread it, I realized this is definitely a robe. And it’s completely black in colour. Even someone with no prior knowledge would come to the same conclusion that this was a magician’s robe.

“Kurono, try wearing it!”

“oh, is it fine, oh well I might as well wear it!”

It’s my long awaited proper clothes. On top of it, knowing that it’s a magician’s robe increased my tension as well.

As I wore it, the length was perfect as if it was measured in advance. And it felt excellent as well. Although it was quite thick, surprisingly it didn’t feel sultry. The magical energy wrapping the whole body was also comfortable probably because it was the same black magical energy.

“So? How does it look?”

“Yeah! It looks cool Kurono!”

“hahahaha this is embarrassing. But with this I could call myself a real magician now, right?”

I can’t fly with a broom, but I can definitely use real magic.

“Yeah! Kurono is a magician!”

“Is that so? Since Lily has said so, from now on I am a magician, no, a black magician!”

Maybe I got too caught up in the moment, but still, I decided to name myself as black magician from here onwards.