Right after waking up in the morning, I hurriedly finished the cleanup I hadn't gotten to last night, then rushed toward the city's east gate.
"You're late."
And there was Laila, who had arrived before me and was glaring at me with clear irritation.
Since I had definitely shown up later than the client, I bowed my head deeply and apologized.
"I'm sorry."
"...Hmph."
But given this world's lack of widespread clocks, we hadn't set an exact time for the meeting anyway. Laila just snorted once and turned toward the gate.
I'd been nervously wondering if she might cancel the request and find someone else, but I let out a sigh of relief and followed after her.
'Damn. Because of what happened last night...'
Normally, I wouldn't have been late, but the unexpected events of the previous night had left me passing out from exhaustion.
On top of my ability's surprising new use, it was the first time since arriving in this world that I'd experienced a woman's body...
"......"
As last night's events came back to me, I found myself staring at Laila's hands and face as she walked ahead.
Smooth skin without a single blemish, and hands that looked so soft.
Remembering how I'd used those hands last night to satisfy my lust, a strange tension stirred below my belt again.
'Maybe again...'
The thought of last night brought a rising desire to recreate it.
Of course, I couldn't do that to the real Laila. Was I insane? If she even caught a whiff of such thoughts, I'd end up skewered on an ice spear.
But if I could replicate Laila again...
"Are we heading to the same ruins as yesterday?"
"Yes."
Swallowing those desires, I casually tossed the question at Laila, who answered indifferently without even looking back.
'Then why did she hire me?'
She didn't seem to lack combat power, and she didn't even need a porter...
Yesterday, sure, she needed a guide, but we'd already been there, so she should know the way now, right?
And sure enough, she was striding ahead without any guidance from me, as if she already knew the path.
'Whatever the reason... works for me.'
Getting paid for doing basically nothing was nothing to complain about. And if I didn't have much to do...
'Today, I'll observe her properly.'
I planned to use this request period to scrutinize Laila from head to toe, then replicate her again.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
'Nothing special.'
Today, too, Laila sighed as she toured the ruins with the adventurer named Yuseong in tow, following her master's orders despite her reluctance.
For her, who had long surpassed most formal mages in skill, this request—fit only for an apprentice—was unbearably boring.
'If it were an Evil God's ruins, maybe, but investigating something this insignificant...'
She might care if it were traces of an Evil God worshiped by those parasitic cultists still plaguing the world, but a request to probe ruins like these left in some backwater village held no appeal.
Especially since it wasn't even some unexplored site; the investigation had been completed ages ago.
'Just remnants of local natives praying for good harvests and rain rituals.'
No traces of faith in any specific deity—just animistic worship of natural phenomena.
And no valuable artifacts unearthed, just animal bone fragments.
All she had to do here was check the murals' condition and measure the surrounding mana density.
Such ruin sites often had higher mana concentrations than other areas, and this forest was no exception—denser than average.
If not for that, no one would bother with regular checks on trivial ruins like these.
'Mana's... the same. A bit denser, but not enough to call it a ley line.'
Sometimes dense mana spots birthed unique monsters or dungeons, but nothing like that here.
In the end, she'd jot some notes from the ruins' records into her report, declare it fine, and be done.
She might need another day to observe, but tomorrow wouldn't bring any big changes.
'More importantly...'
Laila set down the mana gauge she'd been using for the survey and glared at Yuseong behind her.
'Staring at me like that all the time... Hm?'
Yesterday he'd been discreet enough, but today he was sending unusually persistent glances. As she turned to scold him, she noticed his gaze fixed somewhere else entirely.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
'...Just now again...'
Captured by the desire to replicate Laila once more after last night's events, I'd been staring at her nonstop to deepen my understanding.
From what I'd figured out about my ability, the better I understood the target, the less power replication cost and the longer it lasted, among other benefits.
I was watching Laila start recording something in the ruins again when...
-Drip!!
A strange noise echoed from one corner of the ruins.
"That's odd."
Once might be coincidence, but twice? And from the same direction as yesterday's sound. I pulled my gaze from Laila and looked toward it.
This time, I moved carefully to avoid disturbing her, staying out of sight. But again, the corridor was empty—not even a mouse.
"What have you been doing since earlier?"
"Laila..."
Suddenly, a sharp voice came from behind. Laila stood there, arms crossed, eyes narrowed like daggers.
"I told you not to interfere, but you're wandering around making noise again..."
"No, it's just..."
"Staring at me all morning... Ugh. You're really getting on my nerves."
"......"
She must have caught me observing her since morning.
No excuse for that, even with ten mouths. I clamped my lips shut and bowed my head silently.
Even I knew I'd been acting like an idiot, lost in lust up until moments ago.
'Fuck... Yunseong. Get it together. What's to gain from pissing off an amazing mage like her in this world?'
If she got serious, burying me would be child's play.
And yet, just because I'd vented on her replica last night, my head had gone stupid for a moment.
Gawking at Laila lecherously, no less—someone way above me in status and power.
"Haa... Fine. Request canceled when we get back. You can't even sit still and do nothing..."
"...!!"
Facing the fallout of my idiocy—the sweet gig slipping away—I shoved lust aside and racked my brain desperately.
Mess this up, and not only no pay, but the guild would hear negatively, too.
'Fuck. Can't let that happen...!'
Scraping by as an adventurer, rumors of rudeness to Magic Tower folk would end my career.
Desperate to salvage it, I pointed to where the sound had come from.
"Th-that aside, I really did hear a weird noise!!"
In the end, a lame excuse. Trying to divert her with yesterday's and just-now's odd sounds, but Laila's eyes stayed icy.
"Hah. Pathetic excuses even now. Like I said yesterday, detection magic..."
Predictably, she wouldn't fall for my shallow ploy. About to chew me out, she glanced down at the item in her hand.
-Zzzt. Zzzt.
"...?"
The mana gauge for measuring local flows.
It was faintly reacting, picking up oversaturated or alien mana.
"Why is this...?"
Shifting focus from Yuseong, Laila zeroed in on the gauge.
It was borrowed from the Tower for the survey. Breaking it meant no face to show her master.
But as she stepped back, it went quiet again, like nothing happened.
Puzzled, she approached the spot Yuseong mentioned, gauge in hand—and it started reacting faintly.
'Reacting only here?'
This gauge, lent by her master—an Elder Mage one of the Tower's few—was far more precise than standard ones.
She checked it over. No damage; seemed fine.
Which meant...
'An alien mana flow subtle enough that even Master's gauge barely detects it... here?'
Her expression turned serious.
She tapped the walls, cast spells more intently—but no anomalies by any means she used.
Only her top-tier gauge picked up something faint.
'Then...'
After a moment's thought, Laila stepped back from the wall. She chanted a spell, and a blazing fireball formed over her staff.
"Gah...!!"
Thinking it aimed at him, Yuseong flinched away. Instead, Laila hurled it at the reacting wall.
-KABOOM!!
Something exploded amid thick fog. Laila summoned wind to clear it, revealing an otherworldly something where she'd cast.
"Stairs...?"
Not in any prior reports from mages who'd surveyed these ruins multiple times.
Stairs differing from the outer ruins' architecture peeked through the shattered wall.
And Laila's bored eyes sparkled.
"A hidden space. This is..."
So expertly concealed that even her master's gauge needed close proximity to detect it.
Gauging the concealment's level, Laila swallowed hard.
'What is this place...?'
A twinge of fear crept in.
But so did a mage's curiosity for the unknown—and desire for whatever lay within.
"W-what is it? See? I was right, huh?"
"...Yes. You were right."
"Actually, staring earlier was to clear up yesterday's misunderstanding..."
Watching the scene, Yuseong stammered excuses, seizing the chance to gloss over his gawking.
Laila half-heard him. No time for trivialities now.
'Even my master...'
Instead, she thought of her mentor.
The one who'd become a Tower Elder at a young age.
Her rapid rise owed much to a 'ruin' discovered mid-request.
Undiscovered by others, it held ancient magic knowledge and mythic elixirs.
Recalling her master's tales, Laila felt greed stir.
'Maybe me too...'
Her longing to emulate that propelled her, backed by mage's curiosity and confidence.
She decided swiftly.
"...Let's go in."
"Huh? We don't even know where..."
"I'll pay triple. No, three times the fee."
"After you."
Keeping the witness who'd found this with her—to prevent bolting—they'd enter the unknown space together.