Another World Magician
Alt Korean Title: 속임수의 마법사 (The Magician of Deception)
Written by: [Xirus]
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The rain from earlier had left behind a damp chill in the air. Puddles clung to the worn floorboards, and the scent of wet earth drifted in through cracks in the old windows. The orphanage creaked like an aging ship, groaning as wind swept along its sides.
Tap, tap, tap…
Footsteps pounded against the hallway.
"Jiwon! Where do you think you're going?!"
Nari's voice echoed down the corridor like a siren. It carried through the creaking halls, bouncing off the damp walls with a sharpness that made Jiwon wince.
He ran faster, breath ragged, socks slipping slightly on the damp floor. His heart thumped against his ribs—not from fear, but frustration.
"Can't you just finish your chores like the others, you bratty little kid?!"
That part got under his skin.
"Bratty?" he muttered, gritting his teeth. "I'm not bratty. I'm just—busy."
Lately, Nari wouldn't leave him alone. It wasn't that he disliked her. She was… kind. In a nosy, smothering kind of way. Always hovering, always nagging. Asking if he'd eaten. If he wanted to read. If he was feeling lonely.
"Ugh, she's so annoying," Jiwon muttered as he bolted past the laundry room. "Always buzzing around like a mosquito."
He skidded around a corner and entered the west wing of the orphanage.
It was colder here. Quieter too. The kind of quiet that almost hummed in your ears.
The west wing hadn't been used in years, not since the second-floor ceiling gave in. Only the ground floor remained barely intact, and even then, Miss Baek had warned everyone to stay away from the outer wall. Said it might collapse.
Which, of course, made it the perfect place to hide.
Jiwon rubbed his arms to fight off the chill, stepping into the long-forgotten corridor. The windows here were grimy with age, letting in barely any light. Dust floated in the air like ash. The wooden floor creaked beneath his weight, but only faintly.
It was quiet again… until—
"When I catch you, you're getting double duty!" Nari's voice drifted from somewhere far off, muffled but persistent.
Jiwon ducked into the shadows, pressing his back against the cold wall.
He didn't want punishment. But more than that, he didn't want to be followed. Couldn't she just leave him alone for five minutes?
As he caught his breath, something strange caught his eye.
At the far end of the hallway, an old wooden cupboard stood crookedly, as if shoved against the wall in a hurry. It looked out of place. Its left side jutted slightly away from the stone.
He narrowed his eyes.
That wasn't right.
Carefully, he approached it. The air was thick with dust and decay. As he got closer, he noticed it: a thin gap of darkness between the cupboard and the wall. Just wide enough to hint at… something.
He hesitated.
A faint sound echoed again behind him—Nari's voice, this time threatening some "special punishment" if she caught him.
Jiwon turned back to the cupboard.
Curiosity lit a spark in his chest. He reached out and pressed both hands to the wooden frame.
"Come on…"
Creaaaak…
The cupboard groaned as it shifted slightly aside. A breath of cold air drifted out from the wall behind it. The stone bricks were crumbled, and at their center—a hole. Not a child-sized one. A person-sized one. Roughly dug and hidden, like someone once used it long ago and never sealed it properly.
Beyond the hole was a tunnel. Low, dark, damp. The faint scent of earth and rusted metal reached him through the opening.
His pulse quickened.
"No way…"
He crouched and peered in. A faint line of light trickled from the far end, spilling in through slits in wooden boards.
The toolshed. Of course.
The orphanage's toolshed had always stood right against this side of the wall. Adults probably forgot there used to be a passage here—maybe it was blocked off during renovations years ago.
Jiwon didn't even hesitate.
He ducked into the hole.
The tunnel walls brushed his shoulders as he walked, every step echoing faintly through the cramped space. Cold droplets fell from the ceiling.
Plink… plink… plink…
Water. Or time ticking.
He moved forward in silence, steps slow but certain. The light at the far end grew larger until he stood before a rotted panel of wood.
He pressed on it.
Creeeak…
It gave way with a low groan. A gust of colder air brushed past him as he stepped through.
The toolshed.
Old. Dusty. Forgotten. Stacks of broken tools and moldy sacks filled the corners. A single narrow window let in a soft gray light from outside.
But Jiwon grinned.
He had vanished from the orphanage. Just like that. No one saw. No one guessed.
Not because of magic.
Because of design.
He sat down between two rusted buckets, still catching his breath, and pulled out the small leather notebook he always kept hidden in his shirt pocket. The cover was worn—Nari had given it to him, jokingly, calling it a place for his "genius plans."
The title of the book:
Unveil the Trick.
As he started wrote something in the book while smirking by himself.
The disappearing act — hidden passage behind the west wing cupboard. Toolshed exit. No one saw. It worked.
He paused, staring at the page.
Then added:
No mirrors. No smoke. No misdirection. Just a false wall and timing. People believe what they see. Not what's real.
He flipped back through earlier pages.
Levitation trick — thread attached to sleeve. Light from below hides angle.
Floating rose — wax thread burned mid-performance, dropping flower. Assistant swaps real rose offstage.
Card prediction — false shuffle. Misdirection through coughing fit.
Split body trick — two boxes, trapdoor beneath, mirror illusion from above. Spotlight hides movement.
His handwriting was small but sharp, like his mind—methodical, hungry, always asking: how?
Outside, the wind brushed tree branches against the shed's walls with a soft scritch scritch scritch, like invisible fingers tapping.
Jiwon looked at the notebook, heart still thudding.
This wasn't magic.
It's the truth.
Truth, hidden in plain sight. A trick of space. Of timing. Of design.
"I'll prove it," he whispered. "All that 'magic'... It's just deception. "And I'll uncover every last trick of these damn magicians."