The World of this Fantasy Novel is in Crisis

“What did you do to Rufus, Satin?”

Karen whispered the question quietly. Satin looked away and smiled faintly.

Even though Karen couldn’t possibly know what had happened the night before, Satin understood why she was suspicious. Satin’s plate was stacked high with nothing but peas, while the other kids had a balanced mix of vegetables.

Do kids hate peas in every world or what?

It was unfortunate for Rufus, but Satin didn’t mind peas at all. He’d never been picky about food—not when he grew up in a place where he couldn’t afford to be.

He picked up his tray and searched for an empty seat. The one across from Cain was open. In fact, the spot in front of Cain was always empty.

“Morning.”

It felt silly to greet someone after waking up in the same room.

“What.”

Cain snapped back like he was facing a mortal enemy. It was honestly kind of funny. Satin smiled to ease the tension.

Last night, while Rufus was out chasing lizards, Cain had explored the kitchen. Despite his worries, it turned out waste disposal wasn’t handled all that thoroughly. Cain had come back just as Rufus was in the middle of his lizard-hunting chaos—his hair wet like he’d just taken a bath. He’d returned much earlier than Satin had expected.

“I wonder what exciting things happened.”

When Cain shook his head from the doorway, clearly unimpressed, Rufus’s face turned beet red with embarrassment. Then he stormed off, snapping that they could do whatever they wanted without him.

After that, it was Satin who caught the lizard. In fact, it had been Satin who had gone out and caught the lizard in the first place—just to lure Rufus.

When Satin asked Cain if he found anything unusual in the kitchen, Cain shook his head. Said it was exactly as expected. When Satin laughed and said “Told you so,” Cain didn’t respond—just went to prepare for bed.

Now, chewing slowly on peas, Satin mulled over what to do next.

There’s not much time.

He hadn’t kept exact count, but the supply wagon seemed to arrive roughly every two to three weeks. He could ask Rufus directly, but that wouldn’t be smart. It wouldn’t help to show interest in the outside world.

What kind of message would actually get a reaction from the temple?

He didn’t know how much influence the temple knights had here—or how diligent they were.

They won’t listen if I just say “please help,” not when nothing’s officially happened yet.

Of course, something had already happened. But would they believe him if he said kids were disappearing? They’d probably just think it was some ungrateful street rats making up stories. Cain had said as much himself.

“If there’s a thief, yell ‘fire.’”

People respond more to communal danger than to individual problems.

What if he wrote something like “a dark mage is killing children and researching a spell to overthrow the world”?

Even I wouldn’t believe that.

If it sounds too dramatic, they’ll brush it off as some kid’s fairy tale fantasy.

It needs to be serious without being exaggerated… short and urgent. Maybe it’d be better to just sneak in one solid piece of evidence.

He finally understood why Cain was so eager to get into the teacher’s lab.

But even if we get in there, will we actually find any concrete proof?

Satin didn’t know jack about magic. Even if the teacher had posted their entire research on a giant board, he probably wouldn’t recognize it. He was completely clueless when it came to that stuff.

Satin sighed deeply, poking at his peas. Across from him, Cain glanced over. Catching that look, Satin smiled and asked,

“What are you looking at me like that for?”

“What do you think? You’re sighing right in someone’s face—it’s annoying.”

With Cain always replying like this, how was he supposed to fake growing closer to him?

Still, Satin faked some camaraderie, layering it with a touch of concern.

“Cain, want some peas?”

“No.”

“If there’s a fun book in the library, will you recommend it later?”

“Find one yourself.”

“Wanna take a walk together after dinner?”

Cain didn’t even answer that one.

Satin scratched his cheek awkwardly, and Heather—who was sitting one seat over—let out a short snort and shook her head.

As soon as Cain finished eating and left the dining hall, Heather slid over to the empty seat next to Satin and asked,

“He doesn’t seem even remotely interested in being friends. Are you really going to keep trying?”

“Of course. It doesn’t cost me anything, after all. Heather, want some peas?”

“…No, I’m good.”

***

After seeing the same pattern play out for about three days, the kids had grown desensitized. Even when Cain snapped at Satin, no one tensed up anymore—everyone just went about their business.

“Laundry run? Want company?”

Even when Satin trailed after Cain, who was heading to the laundry room with a basket in hand, no one paid them any attention.

Before stepping inside, Satin glanced around. A group of kids had just run down the hallway a moment ago, but now there were no signs of anyone nearby.

He entered the laundry room and lowered his voice.

“I went to the teacher’s study earlier.”

One of the kids who had left after finishing lunch early came back quickly and passed along the message— The teacher was asking for Satin.

Apparently, the teacher used to call Satin often for random tasks, but that hadn’t happened in a while. More accurately, not since Satin had lost his memory. It had been a while since he’d asked to be taken in as the teacher’s apprentice. Maybe the teacher had finally decided.

As he mulled over the thought and responded that he understood, Satin suddenly felt eyes on him. He turned—and saw Rogers.

Rogers, who’d been eating a few seats away, was silently staring at him.

Satin couldn’t quite read the look in his eyes. Was it envy? Spite? Or maybe he’d just looked over without meaning anything by it.

Either way, Satin headed straight for the teacher’s study. He had been there before, so he wasn’t expecting much this time either. The teacher, unaware of their scheme, had no reason to rush the decision about an apprentice.

“He just asked me to help organize some class materials,” Satin said.

Cain, looking like he couldn’t care less, kept scrubbing at the laundry. His hands moved deftly as he plunged a shirt into water and rubbed it clean. Well, of course—he probably always did his own washing. It would be weirder if he weren’t good at it.

Satin kept talking, unbothered by Cain’s apathy. Just because they weren’t making eye contact didn’t mean Cain wasn’t listening.

“I didn’t realize it before, but the materials were impressively neat.”

It’s easy to keep things clean when working on a computer—mistakes can be deleted, paragraphs rearranged without a trace.

But when something’s handwritten, revisions are a pain. Even if you use pencil, you’ll leave marks erasing and rewriting. But the teacher had used a pen—a fountain pen, dipped in ink. If you made a mistake with that, there was no way to fix it cleanly. If the mark bothered you, you had to start over from scratch.

“So how does someone write that neatly by hand, without a single correction? I was honestly impressed.”

Looking at that pristine document, Satin had genuinely admired it. If it had been done in one draft, that was amazing. If not—if he’d redone it over and over until it was perfect—that was even better.

“Someone who puts that much effort into basic class handouts wouldn’t be careless with their research notes.”

Only then did Cain lift his head to look at Satin. Satin smiled faintly and went on.

“So there’s got to be records of the teacher’s experiments in the lab.”

“Yeah, probably.”

“But then I had a thought.”

“What kind of thought?”

“What if it’s encrypted?”

It wasn’t an unfounded concern. Totally plausible. Would he really write something important in a way just anyone could read?

Cain frowned, then seemed to remember something.

“There’s a language only mages use. I read about it in a book. That crazy old man probably used it too.”

“Do you think we’d be able to understand it?”

“…Probably not.”

They might sneak into the lab and end up stealing notes about some basic fire spell. That kind of thing would be useless to the temple.

After a short silence, Satin spoke again.

“That’s why—I think I need to get closer to the teacher.”

Before Cain could object, Satin added quickly,

“I mean, maybe I can pick up a clue. Even if we can’t go through all his notes, if I can just find one solid piece of evidence to steal—”

“How do you plan to get close to him?”

“Huh? Oh… I was thinking I could pretend to be super obedient with his instructions, like really eager to please…”

As he glanced at Cain, the other boy’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. Satin cleared his throat and laid it out more specifically.

“I was gonna tell the teacher stuff about you. Feed him info. Like your personality, preferences… just little things.”

Cain said nothing. The silence dragged on, and Satin’s mouth went dry. He licked his lips a few times, almost like trying to excuse himself.

“It’s ridiculous, I know. I get it. Just the other day I was saying how I didn’t want you getting hurt—”

“No, it’s not ridiculous. Do it.”

“You’re okay with that?”

Satin was thrown off by how quickly he agreed. Cain turned his eyes back to the laundry as he replied.

“You’ve been pretending to be friendly with me all along just to get in good with that old man, haven’t you?”

“Well, yeah, but still—”

“Use whatever means you have to. If it gets us what we need.”

It had already been a few days since the last supply wagon came. There were only about ten days left before the next one.

In that time, they needed to sneak into the teacher’s lab, steal evidence, and hide it in the trash bags outside Rufus’s room.

Even if they pulled it off without a hitch, they couldn’t afford to relax. The teacher could use Cain—or any of the other kids—for an experiment at any moment.

“So do it right. Even if you have to betray me, make it look like you really want to be that old bastard’s apprentice.”