“…Am I not enough for her on my own?”

Helix embraced his lover’s smooth, warm back and buried his face in her shoulder. Her skin’s scent, steady breathing, and slow heartbeat were tantalizingly close. All were within his arms.

Yet why did his heart still feel so unsettled?

“You’re all I need, Leah.”

Helix sighed quietly.

“But perhaps I shouldn’t expect the same from you.”

He pulled her closer. While relieved she hadn’t awakened, he felt a twinge of disappointment that she remained asleep.

“……”

Just then.

A spirit flew toward Helix, who was trying to force himself to sleep.

“Eep!”

The spirit screamed as Helix’s hand snatched it with lightning speed. His grip tightened.

“Be quiet. You’ll wake her.”

“Guh… gup! Guh-guh!”

His demeanor suggested he would crush the spirit if it woke his sleeping lover. Sensing the threat to its life, the spirit nodded frantically.

Helix narrowed his eyes to examine what he’d caught.

“…A spirit?”

The spirit, maintaining the most respectful expression possible, nodded vigorously again. Helix carefully separated himself from Leah. Turning to face the spirit, he asked:

“Why are you here?”

His voice was very soft and low.

The spirit, extremely tense, answered equally quietly.

“I-I’ve come to grant a wish.”

After speaking, the spirit realized it had never been so submissive and trembling while offering to grant wishes.

Feeling somewhat indignant, it added:

“To grant a wish of love.”

“A wish of love?”

Helix raised an eyebrow at this unexpected statement.

“What kind of trick is this? Spirits don’t grant wishes without a price, especially not love wishes. That’s impossible.”

This frightening human seemed quite knowledgeable about spirits.

The love spirit adopted an even more respectful expression and explained:

“I’m not a natural spirit, but a created love spirit. You might have heard of me as Archmage Ander’s spirit…”

“Archmage Ander? You mean that notoriously ugly mage who spent 300 years being rejected by women until his death?”

The spirit waved its hands frantically as Helix’s suspicious gaze intensified.

“I truly only grant pure love wishes! There are no curses involved at all!”

“……”

“Really! Ander may have looked that way, but his heart was so gene… I mean, beautiful!”

“Hmm.”

Inwardly, Helix agreed with this assessment.

‘Though he had a somewhat lecherous personality, he wasn’t the type to curse others.’

Seeing that Helix seemed convinced, the spirit cautiously floated before him.

“Well, you seem troubled about your lover.”

“……”

“Don’t you want to make a love wish?”

The spirit rubbed its hands together.

“I could make your lover look only at you. Or multiply the love she feels when she sees you.”

“No thanks.”

Helix turned away. Looking down at Leah’s sleeping face, he murmured:

“If I were going to use such magic, I would have done so long ago.”

“Huh?”

Leaving the confused spirit behind, Helix gently touched Leah’s cheek. A soft smile spread across his face.

Though he was merely touching her cheek, his heart felt inexplicably full. He stroked her face.

It was truly strange.

When he was with this woman, he felt transformed into a more ordinary and happier person.

A normal man who wished for his lover’s happiness and wanted to fulfill her desires.

Helix turned back to the love spirit.

“This love wish—can it be used on multiple people?”

***

Helix made a wish to the spirit.

He wished that, as Leah desired, mages would be loved by people.

However, the power of the wish proved far stronger than expected.

“A mage!”

“It’s a mage!”

“Mage, please take this and eat it!”

It started peacefully enough.

When the magic school children went downtown to Helkan for snacks, merchants handed them chicken skewers and patted their heads.

“Wow. We get free stuff just for being mages?”

“We must be really important!”

The magic school children, initially pleased and proud, soon became frightened and fled back to the Magic Tower.

“Ahhh! Tower Master! Guardian! Save us!”

“Tower Master! Waaah…!”

Leah’s face hardened when she rushed out at the commotion.

“What on earth is going on?”

The mage children who had gone out looked completely disheveled. Buttons from their magic school uniforms and strands of hair had been pulled out, and some children were missing sleeves or shoes.

“What happened to you all? Did you get into a fight? Who did this?”

“Waaah… the people, the people just…”

“They pulled out our hair and buttons! Their eyes were scary!”

“They made weird bleating noises saying they’d treasure them forever!”

What is this?

Leah felt an intense sense of déjà vu.

‘I’ve definitely seen and experienced this situation somewhere before…’

While she searched her memory, the hatchlings ran out angrily.

“Chirp!”

“Chirp!”

And came running back in just minutes later.

“Chirp…”

Chirpy wailed in a traumatized voice. Leah’s eyes widened.

‘Even Chirpy?’

Who was Chirpy?

A dragon hatchling of several months who feared almost nothing in the world. A creature who knew that whether through strength or cuteness, humans would yield to its cries.

“Chiiiiirp…”

‘Leah, crazy people are coming. Scary. All mages will die.’

Hearing Chirpy’s wails, she steeled herself and looked outside.

People had surrounded the twin towers, forming a siege line.

“Mages! We love you!”

“Mage sister, take me!”

“Move! I’ll climb this tower if I have to see a mage’s face!”

Leah’s face turned pale.

“…Obsessive fans?”

***

Faced with this serious situation, Helix confessed.

“It seems to be because of the wish I made to the love spirit.”

He explained how he had wished that “people would like mages.” Leah’s mouth opened and closed in surprise.

To think this chaos was caused by a wish Helix had made with her in mind.

“I’m sorry, Leah. I had no idea this would happen.”

“Helix, you have nothing to apologize for! You asked for them to like mages, not go crazy with obsession!”

They needed to assess the situation and find the spirit to reverse the magic.

Just as she made this resolution, she heard the screeching of carriages making emergency stops and the neighing of horses.

“Lady Piert! I mean, Tower Master!”

Powerful voices shouted.

“We love you!”

Helix’s face turned blue with rage.

“These shameless people, to my lover…”

“Helix, calm down! These people aren’t in their right minds!”

Leah’s face soured after taking a quick glance outside. Members of the Peirlily Fan Club were arriving one after another, turning the area in front of the Magic Tower into an even greater cauldron of chaos.

“Move aside, you love novices! I’ve been watching the Piert ducal family since before the Tower Master debuted!”

“…Isn’t that person a criminal?”

Helix’s complexion was now turning ashen.

“C-calm down, Helix. Those people have never been in their right minds… Though I really want to beat them up too…!”

“Tower Master! I couldn’t forget that smile I saw once at the ball! You love me too, right? I love you!”

“I’ve been smitten since you shot that fireball during the Sun Festival! Burn my heart too! Slap me like a witch would!”

Goosebumps spread across her back.

‘…They’re not just crazy, but perverts?’

Leah’s restraining hand on Helix gradually lost strength.

Did she really need to stop him?

Couldn’t she just blow them all away?

If she used wind magic to blow these Peirlily stalkers toward the Oken Empire, she’d be cleaning up trash and getting revenge at the same time. Wouldn’t that be killing two birds with one stone?

Just as her gaze grew increasingly dangerous:

“Tower Master!”

An unpleasant voice assaulted her ears.

“Look at me just once! If you don’t, I’ll just die right here!”

Beside her, Helix asked in an ominous voice:

“…Isn’t that Baron Durford?”

“…Yes.”

Both lovers’ patience snapped simultaneously.

***

“Aaaagh!”

Baron Durford’s stout body was caught in a whirlwind and lifted into the air.

“Urrrgh!”

His eyes met Leah’s as he rose to the top of the Magic Tower, retching from motion sickness.

“Tower Master…!”

As he brightened at the sight of her, she frowned and waved her hand.

With a resolute gesture like ordering an execution, the baron plummeted toward the ground.

“He’s falling this way!”

“Run!”

The terrified obsessive fans scattered. Their instinctive fear of death, overriding any feelings of love, made them run.

The tall, silver-haired man caught Baron Durford just before he would have splattered on the ground.

“…Finally seeing this face up close.”

The baron’s knees weakened at Helix’s low voice.

“P-please spare me! Please!”

Ignoring his pleas, Helix grabbed the collar of the baron, whose face was covered in tears and snot.

SMACK!

A large, solid hand slapped the man’s cheek.

“Urgh!”

The impact felt like being hit with an iron pot lid rather than a human hand. The baron’s eyes rolled back halfway.

“That’s for feeding dragon mana to Leah the first time.”

Helix slapped the other side of his face.

“Gack! Kuh!”

“That’s for sending an assassin after Leah.”

When Helix released his grip, Baron Durford rolled on the ground like a broken barrel. Teeth scattered from between the hands covering his face.

Helix looked down at him with a hard, cold expression.

“…Seems too light a punishment for poisoning the Tower Master twice.”

The baron’s face turned white. He spat out blood and teeth, shaking his head frantically.

Leah gracefully flew to Helix’s side and grabbed his arm.

“Well done, Helix.”

She spoke coldly, looking at the baron.

“At least he won’t call my name with that mouth again.”

Baron Durford, now toothless, trembled violently.

He would now have to live on nothing but thin soup for the rest of his life.

Leah looked around at the now-quiet surroundings.

She realized anew that magic was neither omnipotent nor miraculous.

Helix had clearly asked the love spirit to “make people like mages.”

Yet some people gave chicken skewers to the mage children, while others imposed their feelings and acted like lunatics.

In the end, emotions drawn out by magic were merely catalysts.

What people did under the influence of those emotions revealed their true nature.

“…Right. It’s time to take out the trash.”

Leah raised her hand.

Wind began to wrap around her, sensing the harbinger of great magic. Feeling the power of the storm filling her entire body, Leah chanted the activation word.

“TORNADO!!”