Chapter 7: Illegal Alien (5)
My master, whom I miss dearly, used to say that when landing in a remote wasteland, your top priority before acting recklessly is securing what you need to survive.
A place to rest.
Food and clean water.
And finally, information.
My master always insisted on that exact order.
No matter how powerful a mage might be, sleep deprivation dulls the mind, and no one is immune to hunger or thirst.
And without information…
You die.
After all, there are deaths that even magic can't stop.
* * *
A year had passed since Kael began working with Harune.
Just working here took care of food and a roof over his head.
On top of that, he had saved some extra money, giving him a modest emergency fund.
Even so, whenever his work was done, he steadily gathered information about this place called "Magiterra" while keeping his true identity hidden.
Magiterra had no king, nor was it ruled by nobles.
On paper, authority belonged to the City Council and the Public Safety Bureau.
In reality, the city was run by a coalition of massive corporations known collectively as MegaCorp.
It was astonishing.
Almost everything here was built and owned by them.
Magiterra was their private playground, and its "citizens" were little more than registered assets.
The overwhelming power of MegaCorp far outstripped any emperor or ruler Kael had ever encountered.
The city was divided into multiple levels: Upper, Surface, and Lower.
Falling into debt, committing a crime, losing citizenship, or simply crossing a corporation—there were plenty of ways to drop down here from the surface.
Conversely, there was virtually no way back up.
The Lower Level was a completely lawless wasteland.
But Kael had a much bigger problem.
Even after a full year, his mana circuits showed no signs of recovery.
At first, he had hoped time would mend them, but that delusion was shattered soon enough.
A mage who couldn't cast magic… there was no joke more absurd.
Without magic, Kael was just an ordinary person who happened to know a bit of theory.
That was his new reality.
His combat strength was laughable at best.
It was not as if he lacked sword training entirely, but he was neither a warrior nor a hero.
Without mana, even a demonic beast the size of a stray dog would pose a lethal threat in a direct fight.
"…"
Just as Kael sank deep into thought, Harune's voice called out from ahead.
"Hey, Kael! Order's in!"
The moment he looked up, something came flying through the air.
By reflex, Kael reached out and caught it.
It was a magitech device about the size of a palm.
A crystal plate was embedded inside a black metal casing, with three mana input terminals on its side.
It was likely a stabilization module used in small magitech lamps or low-grade security alarms.
Kael flipped the device.
Over at the counter, Harune clinked a small stack of credits against the worn iron top.
"Three more where that came from. You can wrap 'em up today, right?"
"Yeah."
"That's my circuit tinkerer."
"Don't call me that."
"Don't wanna."
Harune smirked.
Kael did not bother replying and opened the side panel of the device instead.
As expected, the interior circuitry was a mess.
Two conversion circuits were scorched from overheating.
The stabilization crystal was intact, but the current was running in reverse.
But it wouldn't take long to fix.
He picked up a thin metal needle and scraped the circuit board.
To him, these circuits weren't all that different from spell formulas.
Except here, they called them magitech.
Bzzzt.
The first device lit up.
He immediately picked up the second device.
Then the third.
Then the fourth.
His hands moved faster than expected.
Lately, Harune had been bringing in orders like this more and more often.
At first, it was just a matter of repairing a few devices no better than junk.
But at some point, rumors began to spread that there was a stall in the LL-19 Scrap Market that could fix anything.
Thanks to that, the old man grinned much more often.
"I'm telling ya, we're getting regulars. Regulars!"
He said that whenever he got the chance.
"Everyone's finally recognizing the true worth of the great Harune."
"But aren't I the one fixing them?"
"You fix 'em at my stall!"
"Yeah. Things you can't fix yourself."
"Let's call it a joint venture."
"You mean exploitation."
"Don't put it so harshly. Down here in the Lower Level, we call that business."
He wasn't wrong, so Kael didn't bother arguing.
Besides, the work was manageable.
More importantly, it was necessary.
The more discarded magitech he handled, the better he understood the circuitry used in Magiterra.
"Whew…"
"All done? Time to close shop."
Even down in the sunless underground, there was still a time to call it a day.
Harune reached up and began pulling the iron shutter down over his stall.
The rusted metal rasped noisily as it slid partway down.
Kael set down the last device.
"Finished."
"Got faster, huh?"
"Only because you keep tossing them at me."
"There's no teacher like real experience."
"My master used to say the exact same thing."
"Used to? Is he dead?"
Kael remained silent for a moment.
Seeing his expression, Harune shrugged.
"Won't say I'm sorry for asking. People ask those kinds of questions all the time around here."
"Sounds about right."
Kael replied curtly.
Harune stared at him for a moment before dropping the subject.
Kael liked that about the old man.
Harune was a loud, greedy miser whose eye lit up at the scent of credits, but he knew where the boundaries were.
That made him a pretty decent person by Lower Level standards.
Of course, whether that held true by surface standards was another story.
Then again, Kael hadn't seen many people from the surface anyway.
He wrapped the last repaired device in a scrap of cloth and slid it across the counter.
"This one just needs its output stabilized again. You won't have any trouble selling it."
"It better not. The guy picking it up tomorrow has a nasty temper."
"Do you have any customers who don't?"
"Sure do."
Harune spoke as he pulled the iron shutter all the way down.
"The rich ones."
"Yeah, right."
The old man locked it up and straightened his back.
Grimacing, he pulled a thin metal cigarette from his pocket.
After he tapped the end a couple of times, a blue spark ignited at the tip.
"So."
He exhaled a puff of smoke.
"Why were you zoning out so much today?"
"I just had a few things on my mind."
"You've always got stuff cluttering up that head of yours. If I could convert half those thoughts into cash, I would've moved up to LL-18 by now."
Kael looked at him silently before speaking.
"I was thinking about how to get up to the surface."
Harune's hand froze.
The glowing blue ember at the tip of his cigarette snapped off and fell to the floor.
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