“No, I’m not.”
“Oh, huh...” The girl seemed a bit disappointed. “B-But you still know who she is, right?”
“Well, I guess...” I didn’t just know her, the Merlin in the statue was likely the same Merlin who had taught me magic. Until I came to this town, I had thought Master Merlin was just some debauched mage, but she was apparently famous here. The town was littered with statues of her—ones that exaggerated her chest area.
“This year marks sixteen since she disappeared,” the girl muttered as she stared at the statue.
Huh... If I recalled correctly, it had been roughly sixteen years since Master Merlin had picked me up off the streets as a child. The timeline sounded right, but since I was still an infant when she found me, I didn’t have any memories of that time.
The girl sighed. “I’d love a chance to meet Master Merlin, even just once...” she muttered, watching the statue as if spellbound. There were a lot of people here in Ishtar who wanted to meet Master Merlin—in fact, it was the majority of the people. But I couldn’t understand how anyone could actually want to meet a woman like her at all. When we lived together, she left all the housework to me, and she forced me to participate in her magic research too. One time, she announced she was going to make an antiaging spell, cast magic on me so I wouldn’t have to sleep, and forced me to work with her for a week straight.
I learned a lot from her, but those days were pure hell. I eventually got fed up with it and escaped to this decently sized city. This world was big, and I wanted to live in it free from Master Merlin’s chains.
For some reason, Master Merlin despised crowded places. I highly doubted she’d come here to find me.
“You probably don’t want to meet her, actually,” I muttered quietly enough so those around us couldn’t hear. This girl was likely a fan of Master Merlin’s, and I didn’t want her dreams to end up crushed.
The girl spent a moment gazing at the statue, but then she seemed to suddenly remember something. She looked panicked. “Wait, that’s right! This is no time for standing around!”
“Is something wrong?”
“You see, our party’s white mage fell sick yesterday! There’s a quest we were gonna accept today, but it’s pretty far away, so we’ll need to leave by tomorrow! That’s why I came here looking for a free white mage.”
Considering she mentioned a quest, she was likely an adventurer. I was wondering what she was up to in the middle of the day, but apparently she had been looking for a replacement white mage.
“Well, I’m actually a white mage...”
“Huh? For real?!”
“Y-Yeah...”
“I don’t recognize you. You’re not an adventurer, are you?”
“I’m not. I’m actually free right now...in a way.” I couldn’t find it in me to tell her I was actually unemployed.
But apparently, that was good enough for her. She flashed me a gleeful grin, but...
“Actually, I don’t think I’m good enough to serve as your replacement.” I had just been kicked out of my party for being too weak, and I wasn’t stupid enough to make the same mistake twice. Not to mention, how well you knew your party members was vital when fighting as a party. I didn’t think I could replace their own white mage, especially because I got the feeling the girl before me was pretty strong.
“Y-You’re probably right. This quest is supposed to be pretty hard...”
Yup. If I joined them, I would just be holding them back. “So, I’m sorry. You should try your hand elsewh—”
“Well, whatever! Come with me for a sec!” With that, she grabbed hold of my arm. She was surprisingly strong.
“Huhm?” I was so shocked, a weird gasp escaped my mouth.
“This way!”
“Huh?! Uh, sure?”