“Ugh.”

“Wake up. Mark!”

Mark woke up from the sudden pain on his chest. Tightly frowning, he stared through sleepy eyes at the person who had hit him. He tried to figure out who it was when he felt another flash of pain from his gut.

“What are you looking at instead of getting up when I say?”

Hearing those words, Mark got to his feet while clutching his stomach. Finally, his vision cleared. Looking around him, he saw they were in a fairly narrow alleyway.

“Hey, Mark. How do you manage to sleep without paying your dues?”

Because the speaker was a tall male, Mark had no choice but to look up. That person had light brown hair that fell to his shoulders, which looked oily as if it hadn’t been washed for days. Although dirty, the clothes he wore had traces of being cleaned. But even so, it looked closer to rags than clothing.

Mark remembered that this person’s name was George.

“Why aren’t you replying? Do you need a beating?”

“Argh…”

George hit Mark on the left cheek with his fist. The sudden pain made Mark dizzy.

“Hah, this kid. He still doesn’t talk. Did you lose your tongue to Jax on the way?”

Mark thought that he needed to say something to avoid more blows. What was certain was that words would definitely help.

“No.”

Perhaps George was satisfied with first reply in a while. The fists no longer came. But the questions continued instead.

“Right. So why haven’t you paid the money?”

“That’s…”

“Don’t even think about lying. Dale saw you going to Hall’s shop and turning over an item for money.”

Mark turned his head towards where George indicated with a nod. Over there were a bunch of children who were crouched down. Mark tried searching out the child called Dale, but he couldn’t before another wave of pain had hit him.

“Aargh…”

“Listen well, Mark.”

George was talking while grasping Mark by the hair.

“Have I ever hit anyone when they’ve paid their dues? Oi, have I?”

George was looking at the group of children while speaking.

“No.”

A few of the children had replied.

“Mark. Aren’t you going to reply?”

Mark was hit on the cheek again.

“No. Not at all.”

“Then why have you missed out on the payments from last week. Did you forget being beat up after that?”

“No. No.”

He had to reply to avoid being hit. He needed to give the answers George wanted to hear.

“Actually…”

“Actually, what?”

“Actually…I went to visit old man Cain.”

“You…didn’t I say not to go? You went to see that crazy old man?”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

George released his hold on Mark and grabbed his own head, letting out a cry of frustration. He then whipped his head around towards the other children.

“Hey. Jill!”

“Yes, George.”

Among the group of children, a scruffy looking child stood up. George looked satisfied that Jill had replied and stood.

“This all happened because you went to see that old man. Tell us about it.”

“Wh-, about what?”

George burst into a shout. He yelled at least once out of three times.

“Tell us about the time you went to visit the old man. You must have learned something. Learned something by giving him money instead of me.”

Jill recounted her story whilst stammering.

“At first, tha-, that old man came near and told me he’d teach me magic. He said he’d teach magic if I gave him 5 coppers…that’s why.”

“Right. So show us the magic the old man taught you. Let’s see what magic worth 5 coppers is like.”

Jill spoke in an embarrassed way.

“The, the mana-.”

“No no. Together with the motions!”.

Jill raised her arms with her left hand outstretched forwards while she made motions with her right hand in the air.

“The, the mana dwelling within me, respond to my calling and de-, destroy my enemy with the force of a hammer, faster than wind, Magic Arrow!”

“Ahahahahaha!”

George exploded with laughter. Then as if having never laughed, he stopped and stared at Mark.

“Mark.”

“Yes.”

“Did you learn that spell as well? The same spell as Jill learned I mean.”

“Yes…”

“This retarded kid!”

George suddenly kicked Mark on the chest. Mark couldn’t stay standing, and when he fell over, he was repeatedly kicked in the stomach.

“Retard! Retard!”

With every word, George added in another kick. Mark curled up his body and covered his stomach with his hands. Perhaps out of exhaustion, George stopped and spoke again.

“Mark. Never go to that old man again. Understood?”

“Yes.”

Fearing more kicks, Mark quickly replied. After hearing the reply, George picked up the box with all the extorted money, and swaggered out of the alley. The other children chased after George’s figure. But when George turned the alley and disappeared, while some of the children followed outside, others scattered and crouched in the corners. One of them came closer to Mark.

“Mark.”

“Jill.”

“Are you okay?”

“Not really…”

He spoke while standing up. He ached all over. Jill was making a worried expression.

“Your face is a little swollen, but otherwise alright. How’s your stomach?”

“It hurts.”

Mark replied with a grimace. He could no longer stand, so sat instead.

“I’ll get you some water.”

Jill picked up the large bowl in a corner and left the alley.

Mark was leaning against the wall, and thought about something. He was definitely Mark. But at the same time, he was Suho. Suho was reading a fantasy novel, as per usual, until he fell asleep. Nothing was out of the ordinary.

He recalled that back then, there was a linked questionnaire at the site he frequented. It was a survey from a novel publishing site. Normally he wouldn’t have even looked at it, but for some reason he had participated until the end.

The contents of that survey bothered him after all. He remembered a part questioning whether you would cross over into a fantasy world if you could. He had probably answered yes. It was because it was something he considered often in his daily life.

He strained to remember more of the survey. One thing was certain: In the life history part, he had checked the orphan route. In most of the novels he had read, he felt that everyone apart from the protagonist were mere hindrances. That was why he favored a story about an orphan without a hometown. Who would have thought it would have come back to bite him this way.

He remembered a few more things. Between martial arts and fantasy, he had chosen fantasy as his favourite. And because Suho thought the focus of fantasy was magic, he had chosen his occupation as a magician. As to the specific story he had chosen, he couldn’t remember.

He vaguely remembered something about saving the princess and defeating the demon king. Because that part had so many options, he couldn’t really remember what he had chosen. If by chance he had chosen the demon king route, it would be a disaster. This situation he was in was definitely brought about by that survey.
That spells, and even magic existed, must be true. This world was no doubt a fantasy world.

If he really had to defeat the demon king, would accomplishing that mission be the only way back to his original world? This was the fantasy he had so wanted to come to, but already he wished to go back. It was different from his expectations.

For the time being, he had to survive. He remembered about Mark. Mark was an orphan. His age was about 11, but not exactly sure of it. He didn’t know when it began, but he had been living around the alleys, panhandling for money. And that was how he ended up entering George’s gang.

Actually, he was just sleeping in one alley, but that place happened to be George’s territory, so he was half-forced to enter the gang. Then he remembered what happened before that. He had heard from Jill about old man Cain, and went looking for him. It was a week ago.

The old man said he would make Mark a magician in return for 5 coppers. So he gathered 1 copper a day before going back to learn a spell. But what he had learnt was only the spell. He didn’t get to learn the hand movements like Jill did.

Just then, Jill returned with the large bowl in her hands.

“I took a while because there was a line at the well.”

Jill pushed the bowl towards Mark. He took it and gulped down the water. There must have been more than he thought, because he put it down after drinking about half. Jill took the bowl and took one mouthful before putting it down again.

“Jill. Can you show me what you did before? That magic arrow.”

“Even you’re going on about that!”

Mark spoke to calm Jill down.

“No, I’m not making fun of you. I just didn’t get to learn the hand movements in my case.”

When Jill pointedly stared at him, Mark made a serious expression.

“Why ask at all. It’s probably all nonsense anyway.”

“We paid 5 coppers, so you never know.”

Jill snorted.

“Hrmph. I’ve been doing it an entire week but it didn’t work. It’s nonsense!”

“Just teach me anyway. I want to try it as well.”

Mark kept on persuading her. In a few moments, Jill, seemingly unable to stand against his pleas, stood up. Mark stood as well.

“It’s embarrassing to do it here so let’s go outside.”

“Everyone saw it already though.”

“I won’t teach you then!”

Mark winced and shut his mouth, and followed Jill out of the alley. While walking behind Jill he thought to himself. He had been practicing the spell he learnt from the old man, all day long. But it never worked well. Back then he thought it was nonsense as well. The 5 coppers had felt wasted.

But after recalling the memories of his time as Suho, he became certain. This body of his had talent in magic. If the contents of that survey was true, then seeing as he selected the occupation of magician, he must have some talent in magic. To confirm this, he was trying to learn the hand movements from Jill.

Mark was sure that in order to activate the spell, the incantation and hand movements must be done together. Just when he thought this in his mind while walking, Jill stopped moving.

“No one should see if it’s here.”

Looking around him, Mark saw that they were nearby a fence in a corner of the village. Just in case Jill might run away due to embarrassment, Mark went ahead and recited the spell.

“The mana dwelling within me, respond to my calling and destroy my enemy with the force of a hammer, faster than wind. This is it, right? Tell me if it’s different from how you learned it.”

Seeing Mark act enthusiastically and reciting the spell, Jill laughed and spoke.

“That’s right. But it’s a little different. You’re pronouncing mana wrongly. Arrows was said wrong as well.”

Jill fixed his way of reciting the spell. The way she spoke was much more dynamic. Her tone was as if acting.

“When I was learning it, the old man taught it to me in a voice like he was dying. To be honest I thought to take back the 5 coppers after hearing the spell. He looked as if on the verge of death.”

Mark thought maybe the old man had actually been beaten by somebody into that state. Perhaps it wasn’t that he didn’t want to teach the hand movements, but just didn’t have the strength to raise his arms.

“Anyway, since I’ll teach you now, make sure to follow it properly.”

Mark put a lot of effort into doing as Jill said. After 5 minutes of practicing the incantation, Jill began teaching the hand movements.

“Fully stretch out your left arm, then stretch out only your thumb while the rest of the fingers are curled into a fist.”

Jill stretched out her left arm and with her right hand made quick movements. It looked complicated as her right arm swished through the air while her fingers closed and opened.

“Show me a little slower.”

Jill didn’t seem to dislike being asked, as she laughed and complied. The movements of her right arm and fingers felt like an authentic magicians. Jill slowly showed the five or six stages of movements. After carefully observing it all, Mark tried copying the movements.

Jill made a surprised expression.

“You’re really good at it.”

“From my point of view, I think you’re better than me?”

“In my case I’ve practiced about three days.”

Seeing him do it so easily, Jill looked a little moody.

Mark tried doing the right hand movements with his left hand as well. He managed to carry it out exactly the same as the right hand. He suddenly he was quite clever.

When he was still Suho, he wasn’t capable of drawing a triangle with his left hand while at the same time drawing a square with his right hand. Even when he tried learning more about the little bit of sign language he had picked up from volunteering, he gave up quickly. Mark was clearly much more clever and talented than when he was Suho.

“Are you happy now? When you become a magician in the future, you can’t forget the service I’ve done you. I’m your mentor.”

“I got it. Haha.”

Jill asked Mark to try it once, but he replied he would show her after perfecting it. Since it was late, Mark suggested going back.
On the way back, he thought to himself that he would sneak out at night to test his magic.