Tea with Kathe and the Magic Circle

  We were mostly finished cleaning up Kathe’s palace.

  “Is this alright now?”


  “Yes. Thank you very much.”


  Kathe looked happy.

  “Oh, yes. I should serve you all some tea. Wait here a moment.”


  So saying, Kathe stomped out of the room.

  Tea from a dragon. I was a little anxious.

  As we waited for Kathe, Eric said,

  “Locke. Could I ask you to use Magic Search? Just in case.”


  “Of course.”


  That being said, it was rude to use Magic Search in someone’s house without their permission.

  And so I called out to Kathe, who was in the kitchen.

  “Kathe. Can I use Magic Search in here? We want to know if the dark ones have left anything.”


  “I do not mind. But what do you think they could have left?”


  “Small familiars or magic tools.”


  “I see. Yes, that would be troublesome. You should do it then.”


  “Got it.”


  And so I cast Magic Search over the whole palace.

  I was alerted of all kinds of things. There were several tools that were filled with magic.

  But there were no familiars or hidden dark ones, which was what I was most worried about.

  “There are several magic tools.”


  “They were likely here to begin with, but we should still check.”


  And so we decided to go and check every single one. There were five in all.

  None of them were very big, and so I carried them to the table. This was so that Kathe could have a look at them.

  “I brought you some tea!”


  “Oh, thank you.”


  Kathe brought a tray, which she had to pinch with the tips of her fingers.

  Even if it was large for humans, it was very small for a dragon.

  There were bowls and a barrel on the tray.

  The bowls were the smallest cups in Kathe’s house.

  “Here you go. The cups are too small for me to carry, so you have to take them by yourselves.”


  “Thank you.”


  It was big. I would probably have to visit the bathroom very quickly if I drank all of it.

  I took one sip. It was delicious.

  “It’s very good.”


  “Do you mean it?”


  “Yes.”


  “Aye, it really is good tea.”


  “I don’t know much about the different types of tea, but I can tell that this is good.”


  Eric and Goran also approved of it.

  “Gahahaha! I see, I see.”


  Kathe laughed happily. Then she drank her own tea from a barrel.

  “Yes. It looks like it turned out quite well.”


  And then Kathe looked at the tools on the table.

  “What is this?”


  “They are the things that I found through Magic Search. It would be fine if they are all yours. But I wanted to make sure they weren’t left behind by the dark ones.”


  “I see. So I should check them.”


  “Exactly.”


  And so Kathe picked them up with her nails and inspected them.

  It seemed like she would have an easier time as a humanoid, but she didn’t change.

  “I recognize this one. But this……”


  Kathe said after looking through them for a while.

  “Hmm. Yes, all of them were here originally.”


  “That’s a relief.”


  “But……why is this here?”


  “What?”


  “I don’t think this is a magic tool……”


  So saying, Kathe pointed at a mirror.

  It was human-size and not for dragons.

  “Because Magic Search detected something.”


  “I do not think that it would.”


  Kathe tilted her head.

  I tried using Magic Search again, just in case.

  It still detected magic.

  “There is no question about it. It’s filled with magic.”


  “What an odd thing……”


  Kathe said as she looked into the mirror.

  Eric suddenly looked very serious as he listened.

  “No, wait. Maybe the dark ones have modified it to be a magic tool.”


  “There is a possibility.”


  “Indeed. It will be necessary to look into it.”


  I took the mirror from Kathe and inspected it.

  It would require a different spell to find out what magic had been cast on it.

  Not only that, finding out what it was used for required other knowledge that was unrelated to magic.

  That’s how difficult appraising was.

  “It doesn’t seem to have any purpose……”


  “Is such a thing really possible?”


  “It’s hard to imagine……”


  I stared at it and thought for a while.

  “The dark ones like to use mirrors for teleportation, but this one doesn’t have that effect.”


  “.……Maybe they were in the middle of doing it?”


  Eric said. I looked at the mirror again.

  “.……Indeed, the pattern on the back does look similar to a teleportation circle I’ve seen before.”


  “Really?”


  Kathe suddenly seemed very interested. She came up behind me, still holding her barrel, and looked over my shoulder.

  “Do you mean this pattern here?”


  “Yes, yes.”


  “I think I have seen it before as well.”


  “You have?”


  Kathe’s tail slapped the floor once.

  “Wait here for a moment.”


  She placed her barrel on the table and ran away noisily. Then she quickly returned.

  She had a book in her hand.

  “That’s a big book.”


  “It is a dragon book, after all.”


  Kathe started to turn the pages.

  “See, look here.”


  There indeed was a magic circle where she was pointing.

  “Ah, that’s amazing.”


  “But I do not know much about magic circles. I just remembered that I’ve seen them before.”


  It was impressive that she remembered it in spite of that.

  Maybe Kathe was smart after all.

  “What if the dark ones are using dragon magic technology?”


  “It seems rather likely to me.”


  Eric and Goran said with grave expressions.