A Black Magician? It was a common class in fantasy novels, but ever since arriving in this world, Satin had never once heard of a Black Magician. Because of that, he couldn’t tell if the woman in front of him was joking or speaking in earnest.
When Satin said nothing and simply stared at her, the woman elaborated on the terms she was offering.
“In addition to payment, I can write you a letter of introduction. I don’t know anyone around here, but once we get to the capital, there’s no one who doesn’t know me. If there’s a particular position you want, I can arrange it for you—no problem at all.”
“Uh… sure…”
Just listening to her, she sounded like a scam artist. If this had happened in the real world and not in one of his sister’s novels, Satin would’ve turned and run without a second thought.
Oblivious to what Satin was thinking, the woman added with a knowing look:
“If you’re looking to get close to the royal family, I can help with that, too.”
“No, I’m fine. I don’t really want for much.”
He hadn’t meant to provoke her, but the woman’s eyes widened at his casual refusal. Surely, he couldn’t have been the first to turn her down—yet she bristled, clearly irritated.
“What do I have to do to get your help? I really need you for this.”
Earlier, she said having Satin around would simply make things easier. Now, suddenly, she needed him. It seemed the more resistance she faced, the more persistent she became. Before she could toss out an even more tempting offer, Satin answered.
“If it’s something that can be done today, I’ll help you. I have to head home tomorrow.”
In an instant, her face lit up.
“Smart choice. Let’s get going then. Want to grab lunch first? It’s on me.”
It was still a bit early for lunch, but Satin gave a silent nod. This was his first time in the area, and he didn’t know of any good places to kill time before the noon hour. Letting her take the lead and just following along sounded far easier.
As they walked away from the temple in search of a place to eat, the woman began to resemble the version of herself from their first encounter—friendly and sociable, peppering him with all sorts of questions.
“So when you said you’re going home, what does that mean? Is it far? You’re not from around here?”
“Yeah. It’s about a day’s ride by carriage. This is my first time in Cloverland.”
“Ah, I see. In that case, I’ll lend you a carriage when you head back.”
Was she offering him her carriage? Or did she mean she’d rent one for him? Either way, if she meant it sincerely, it was a generous gesture.
She must be loaded.
Not being familiar with local fashion, Satin couldn’t tell just by her clothes whether she was rich. But judging from her fair, freckle-free skin, it was safe to assume she hadn’t grown up toiling under the sun.
After a bit of chatter, the woman suddenly asked, as if something had just occurred to her:
“By the way, how old are you? We look about the same age.”
It was a simple question, but Satin found it awkward. He averted his gaze and replied hesitantly.
“Twenty-three.”
He’d hesitated between saying twenty-three or twenty-four. To anyone else, it might’ve seemed like a silly dilemma, but for Satin, it was a genuine conundrum.
In the village where he had lived, there hadn’t been anyone his age. People were either much older or clearly younger. Just by looking at someone’s face, it was obvious whether they were an elder or a junior, so there was rarely a need to talk about age.
Introducing his age out of the blue now felt strange, like it didn’t quite fit.
Maybe I should’ve said twenty-four.
As he briefly indulged in that meaningless regret, the woman lit up and exclaimed:
“Oh! We’re the same age!”
Now that she’d said that, changing his age would only make him look like a liar.
And so, Satin became twenty-three.
***
By the time they picked a decent-looking restaurant to go into, Satin and the woman had already exchanged a fair amount of personal information.
She was a magician. Though she downplayed it by saying she was still inexperienced and had only recently begun studying magic, Satin was impressed nonetheless. After all, she was the first magician he had ever met. She might even be the last he’d ever meet.
From what he’d heard in his village, magicians were incredibly rare—so rare that even in large cities, there were only a handful. Most villagers had never seen a magician in their lives.
Beyond her profession, the woman also shared various trivial details about herself. When she mentioned she’d left home because her scheduled life had become too monotonous, Satin didn’t know how to respond.
Over the course of their conversation, he got the sense that she came from a rather wealthy and prestigious family. Having never lived in such a household himself, Satin couldn’t easily relate to her perspective.
So Satin gave a mechanical “Ah, I see,” in response, but the woman didn’t seem to mind. She went on to vent about how suffocating it had been wandering around with no one to talk to, pouring out one complaint after another.
While she talked, their food arrived. She burst into laughter as she carved into a golden-brown roasted turkey leg. When Satin looked over at her, she waved a hand and said,
“Oh, I haven’t even told you my name yet. I’m Rita. I’d rather not share my last name—there are reasons for that.”
Rita. It was a common name, yet for some reason, it grated on his nerves. It wasn’t exactly unpleasant, but it struck him with an odd sense of dissonance.
Not wanting to seem rude by hesitating after hearing someone’s name, Satin introduced himself as well.
“I’m Satin…”
The trailing off at the end wasn’t intentional.
Satin. Rita. Cloverland. Each word on its own hadn’t raised any red flags, but now that they were all together in one place, they painted a very specific picture.
Isn’t this overlapping way too much with Dark Age?
A black-curled Satin, Cloverland with its temple, Rita the magician hiding her identity.
Dark Age—a fantasy novel his sister had recommended—was originally an old series. Recently, or at least what felt like recently to Satin (though quite some time had passed since then), it had been republished as a webnovel with a revised version.
How did the first part start again?
If he had just arrived in this world, the memory might have been sharper. But with time, the details had faded.
What was the plot again?
The protagonist was Cain. Blond, blue-eyed—a textbook hero type—with the class of a knight.
Not a full knight, though. I think he was a squire or something like that…
In the prologue, Cain gets captured by a sinister Black Magician and is on the verge of becoming a test subject. Just in time, the Temple Knights arrive and kill the Black Magician.
Naturally inspired by the paladins, Cain aspires to join the Temple Knights. But lacking talent for Holy Magic, he ends up joining a different knightly order.
Satin wracked his brain, trying to recall the next part.
That’s right, Rita shows up and the adventure begins.
A magician named Rita appears in Cloverland, where Cain resides. She claims she’s found traces of the Black Magician, and Cain decides to help her.
Wait, wasn’t there also a priest?
Satin vaguely remembered the group being a classic trio—tank, DPS, and healer.
What was his name again? Something formal-sounding…
Alexander? Napoleon? Satin let the names go for now—they wouldn’t come to him.
Cain’s party, formed with all the usual heroic elements, spends the entirety of Part 1 tracking down signs of the Black Magician. Eventually, they locate the real one. But to everyone’s shock, that Black Magician turns out to be the former apprentice of the one who’d captured Cain in the prologue.
That part Satin remembered much more clearly.
He tried to summon the Demon King.
His name was Satin. A black-curled Satin, unlike Cain, had revered the slain Black Magician and sought revenge. His plan? Summon the Demon King in Cloverland, where the Temple Knights resided.
The more Satin revisited the plot, the more suspicious everything felt. The overlap was too glaring to ignore.
I can’t be that Satin… right? I mean, I can’t be. Can I?
There was no way to be sure. When Satin first arrived in this world, no one had known anything about his past.
No, no way. Definitely not. …Or am I?
Brows furrowed, Satin sank deeper into thought. Across from him, Rita tilted her head in curiosity.
“What’s with that serious face? What are you thinking about?”
“Ah, nothing. Just… remembering some old stuff.”
There was no use pondering something like this in front of someone else. He decided to shelve the question until he could sit down and think properly back at his hut.
Meanwhile, Rita had already eaten through nearly half the turkey leg. Satin hurried to catch up.
Once Rita finished her meal, she gave her belly a pat and said,
“Listen while you eat.”
“Okay.”
“Back when the last Black Magician got caught—I heard some stories about it. It was decades ago, and back then, the Temple Knights led the entire operation.”
Satin nodded while chewing. In Dark Age, it had also been the Temple Knights who took down the Black Magician who had captured Cain. It fit the fantasy logic he’d learned from the book: Black Magicians were the natural enemies of the temple, so what Rita was saying felt familiar.
“But you know what? During the most recent crackdown on a Black Magician, the temple played more of a supporting role.”
“The most recent one?”
“You haven’t heard?”
“I live in a really small village. I don’t know much about what goes on outside.”
“Jeez, the information gap in this country is seriously out of control. Anyway, it was about four years ago.”
In Dark Age, Rita was secretly a princess. If this really was the world of Dark Age, then her concern about regional information disparity kind of made sense.
Could this really be Dark Age?
Satin munched on his food, careful not to let his conflicted feelings show.
“Guess which group contributed the most to capturing that Black Magician?”
If he followed the plot of Dark Age, he should answer “Temple Knights.” But Rita had just said the temple had only played a supporting role. Which truth should he follow?
As Satin’s eyes darted around in thought, Rita must have realized he wasn’t going to get there on his own, because she answered for him.
“The Bureau of Order.”
“Oh, the Bureau of Order.”
Satin’s village didn’t have a Bureau of Order branch, but there was one officer stationed there full-time. Since nothing ever happened, that officer usually just drank and hung out with the locals every day.
The Cloverland Bureau of Order was probably a lot busier. Even last night, he’d seen several officers near the city gate. They must work hard to keep the peace in a big city like this. So maybe it made sense they were the ones who handled the Black Magician case.
That part’s different from Dark Age. So maybe this really isn’t the same world after all…?
the Bureau are jerks that love casualties