Chapter 69

Now then, it was about a magician’s tattoo.

Originally, it was something applied after a certain amount of training at places like the Ministry of Magic, run by the Empire, or the Ministry of Orthodoxy and Heresy, where the church trained magicians, and apparently one could tell a magician’s rank at a glance from it.

However, there were also many rogue magicians in the world, and of course those people got them however they pleased.

For example, boys who dropped out of the Ministry of Magic or the Ministry of Orthodoxy and Heresy for various reasons supposedly ended up with no face to show the parents who had sent them off from their home villages with such hopes, and in the end, the battlefield was where they wound up.

It was said that such boy magicians were taught the basics of fighting by older, battle-hardened rogue magicians, and as part of that, it had become customary for them to receive tattoos as a kind of initiation rite.

At such times, they apparently mixed charcoal left over from a bonfire with magic stone powder and saliva, then tattooed it in with a sewing needle.

When he first heard it was done in such a sloppy way… Gerario laughingly said that, as expected, one out of every two people ended up with the tattooed area festering and getting laid low by a high fever.

No, that was not something to laugh about.

Without antibiotics, if someone were struck down by an infection and ended up with tetanus or something, they really would be forced to pray to the gods.

He had explained things like that to Kururu at great length, but in a world where the microscope had not been invented, concepts like bacteria did not get across. Kururu completely ignored him and quietly kept the fire going, crushed the charcoal, and mixed it with magic stone powder and dragon fat.

Iiria watched the process with curious interest, while curling her tail slightly at the sheer heft of the prepared needles.

“On the left shoulder.”

With that, Kururu loosened her clothes, swept her hair forward, and showed him her back.

Gerario had his on his left hand, but apparently that was because the left hand was the part most likely to remain intact on a magician’s body. The right hand, which often held a magic stone, was said to be the first thing to explode if one misjudged the force of a spell, and enemies aiming to plunder also targeted it. Terrifying.

“Around here, perhaps? It was a fire magic circle, right?”

“It seems like it would hurt if it hit bone, so please make it a little lower.”

“Then around here.”

Pen in hand, Iiria began sketching the fire magic circle as a draft onto Kururu’s left shoulder on her back.

If it became known that Kururu, who carried beastfolk blood, was a magician, all sorts of things would become troublesome, so it was better to put it somewhere inconspicuous and hidden by clothing. Also, even in this world tattoos seemed to carry various meanings, and tattoos on the arms or legs could indicate a slave, so by process of elimination, the shoulder had been chosen.

“Hold still a little, Kururu!”

“Nnh, it tickles… nn, uh.”

The sight of Kururu, half undressed, enduring it while the tip of her tail trembled, was truly provocative.

By contrast, Iiria was completely absorbed in drawing the magic circle, her tail going flap flap.

“If it is too big, it looks like it will be hard to carve, so maybe this is about right. Ah, that is right.”

Just when Kururu relaxed as the pen left her shoulder, Iiria added a few more quick strokes.

“If we are doing this, then let’s make it match the workshop sign.”

A triangle representing beast ears was added to the magic circle.

Kururu tried to somehow get a look at what had been drawn on her shoulder, but of course there was no way she could see it.

“All right, Yorinobu, your turn.”

Iiria handed him the needle.

If he refused now, Kururu would only get even angrier, so he had no choice but to take it.

“Have you steeled yourself?”

Kururu said that over her shoulder, but given the line, their positions were obviously reversed.

“I have not… and besides, if this does not go well, I really will not be responsible.”

“What are you talking about? I saw you practicing on pigskin, and you did it perfectly fine.”

“Wh—”

Gerario must have let that slip.

Kururu, whose tail was swaying smugly for some reason as she wore a triumphant expression, promptly lay face down.

“…Honestly, how did it come to this?”

As he muttered that under his breath, Iiria patted him on the shoulder. She looked like she was having a great time, and Iiria really did have a good personality after all.

“All right. Then please bring boiled water and the brazier.”

“Okaaay.”

Iiria answered lightly and briskly set about preparing both.

He would heat the needle to sterilize it, then wash it in clean boiled water. That ought to reduce the danger of infection at least somewhat. Apparently dragon fat also had the effect of preventing wounds from festering, so it probably contained something antiseptic.

Even after making all those preparations, however, the beautiful back spread out before his eyes still made him hesitate.

It was so beautiful that marring it felt wasteful.

And no matter what, he would have to touch her skin directly.

When he had drawn the pattern on her back, it had only been with his fingertips, but to drive in the needle he would have to almost lean over her, and just imagining that made him self-conscious.

The time he had gotten drunk and ended up sleeping under the same blanket with her did not count, since he remembered nothing about it.

When was the last time, sober, that he had properly touched a girl’s skin?

Probably just after descending from his life before the last one into his last life, in other words, when he had been a baby.

Thinking that it had been a sad life in its own way, he reminded himself that this was important.

The backlash from magic, if things went badly, could easily destroy the caster’s body.

This was to prevent that.

“Well then, here I go.”

“…Mm.”

His hand stopped because it was not her usual brusque reply.

Wondering why she had to answer in such a girlish way at a time like this, he drove in the first needle.