Jigglypuff's Diary

Emotional Resistance Skill/Mental Resistance Skill is the same. It just means defense against intangible painful stuff.

Volume 3 Chapter 29

The sun was beginning to set by the time we finished preparing our camp.

“Should be about time for the undead to come out.” [Rheinbach]
“Yeah… they should be coming any moment now.” [Remiri]

Said Remiri-san as she caressed my sleeping bag. I guess she really likes it.

“Hmm… This is a really good mattress.” [Remiri]
“I could make one for you if you want.” [Ryouma]
“Really? Then please.” [Remiri]
“Sure.” [Ryouma]

She’s teaching me magic after all, so this could be as  thanks. But just a mattress doesn’t seem to be enough, I wonder if there’s anything else I could do for her.

As I thought that to myself, I entered my ‘Dimension Home’, and began making a new mattress.

Carefully sewing the sheets together, I created a sack. Positioning and repositioning the sheets over and over, sewing even the ends, filling up the mattress with fluff equally, and taking measurements repeatedly. Doing all this by myself would take a lot of time, but I had the metal slimes’ help, so I was able to finish quickly.

While I was creating a new bedding in the past, the metal slimes suddenly learned the sewing skill.

The metal slimes would extend their bodies, turning the extended portion into a needle. And after inserting a thread into that needle, they would pierce it into the cloth. The needle would exit, and then enters, delivering the thread. Exiting, and entering, the process would repeat itself over and over resembling a wave.

Naturally, surprise took me when I first saw that scene, but brushing that shock away, I taught the slimes many things. And nowadays, the metal slimes can backstitch or even do a loop stitch. And through the help of such metal slimes, I was able to quickly complete the fluff slime’s fluff mattress.

However, I found myself with too many fluffs, so I made some mattresses for the other as well. Unfortunately, the materials weren’t enough for all four, so three was the most I could make.

As soon as I finished, I left the ‘Dimension Home’. When I got out, I noticed that there were now undead outside the holy space.

Looks like the undead have finally started coming out, I thought. But powerless, the undead could only stare at us as from a meter away, unable to enter the area of the holy space.

Staring blankly at the undead, I heard Remiri-san call out to me, so I turned towards the voice. There, I saw them drinking tea peacefully.

“Ah, Ryouma-chan. Did you finish making the mattress?” [Remiri]
“Yes. I also had more materials than expected, and I was able to make two more on top of yours.” [Ryouma]
“Two more?” [Remiri]
“I thought to make one for everyone, but unfortunately, I didn’t have enough materials.” [Ryouma]

Although I was talking with Remiri-san, I couldn’t help but look back to the surrounding undead.

“Are you worried about the undead?” [Shiva]
“Yes, I haven’t had much opportunities to drink tea with monsters nearby who aren’t slave demons.” [Ryouma]
“I guess it can’t be helped then. But still… do try not to worry yourself too much. It won’t be good for your health, you know?” [Rheinbach]

After Rheinbach-sama said that, Remiri-san suddenly burst out loud, saying,

“Exactly!” [Remiri]
“What is it all of the sudden?” [Ryouma]

When I asked that, Remiri-san laughed loudly as if she’d just thought of something good. Then she puffed her chest out, and said,

“Since we’re lacking a mattress, Ryouma-kun, you should share a mattress with me and sleep with me instead!” [Remiri]

…Haah!?

“What do you mean?” [Ryouma]
“You don’t have enough mattresses for everyone, right? Well it’s not very nice to leave one of our friends without that comfy mattress of yours, so in order for us all to have a good night’s rest, Ryouma-kun and I should sleep together!” [Remiri]

Wait, wait… That might be true, but…

“If I recall correctly, there’s an old saying that goes, ‘girls and boys at the age of seven shouldn’t sit on the same chair’ right?” [Ryouma]
“No problem!” [Remiri]
“What do you mean, no problem!?” [Ryouma]

This isn’t working… Someone please help me, I thought, sending a glance at the others as I did. But to my dismay, the other three only quietly shook their heads.

“Ryouma-kun, Remiri sometimes acts like this, and it’s a little difficult finding out whether she’s serious or not… She seemed to be joking this afternoon, so I stopped her. But she looks to be serious this time around, so unfortunately, we won’t be able to stop her… sorry.” [Rheinbach]
“Just sleeping together shouldn’t be that embarrassing though, so isn’t it fine?” [Shiva]

But that puts me at a bad spot… In my past life, I had little interaction with women apart from my mother and the women in the office. There weren’t any beauties on the level of Remiri-san either. It’s not like I’ve had zero interactions with the female workers in the office, but they didn’t really like me either, so the most interaction I’ve had with them was the absolute minimum when we had to communicate for work.

In my private life, the only contact I had was my mother. I’ve never had any relations with the women in my office either. So naturally, I’ve never had any experience sleeping with women. And of course, that includes just sleeping together. I’ve never even dated… Actually, forget dating, I haven’t even so much as held a girl’s hand. Ah, actually I think there were one or two times back in elementary school because of an event, but the girls hated it so much, I can still remember the look of unwillingness on their faces.

While I was caught in my own thoughts, thinking of stuff like that, Remiri-san suddenly proposed this.

“No matter how much you dislike the idea my decision stands… But alright how about this then? More undead will be coming out of the labyrinth soon, so how about we compete in who kills more undead? And naturally, should I win, we sleep together. Alright?” [Remiri]

Somehow the discussion’s finally progressing… Although I’m not really that against it. It’s just that stimulation I’m not used to will cause unnecessary burden on my mind, so… Sigh… I’m supposed to have an emotional resistance skill, but it’s not doing its job at all, is it? Even though this situation is something I would normally be happy about when thinking of…

Wait! This isn’t the time to be thinking of stuff like that! Aren’t I the one in a disadvantage in a magic showdown!? Remiri-san can wipe out the undead in one shot!

“Isn’t this duel too favorable for Remiri-san?” [Ryouma]
“Then let’s decide on a rule. How about we both only limit ourselves to using ‘Light Ball’ in this fight? This way there won’t be that big of a difference between us.

And then let’s add a time limit as well. You have too much of an upper hand if we make it until we run out of magic power, and the opposite would be true if we limited the number of shots we could make as I have more experience than you. So a time limit would be the fairest, right?” [Remiri]
“True, that’s definitely the fairest.” [Ryouma]
“Good. As for the referees, Sebasu-san and the others will be the ones to count how many undead we’ve each killed.” [Remiri]

Ah! Did I end up agreeing to her!?

Like this, I was partly-forced to enter a match with Remiri-san.

We needed to wait for the undead to gather first, so we sat there in the holy space, drinking tea peacefully. One hour passed, and Sebasu-san mentioned that there were enough undead.

We will be fighting the undead from inside the holy space. Currently, there are zombies and skeletons in every direction, while souls and semi-transparent human-shaped bodies and mist-like bodies could be seen floating in the air.

The balls of flame floating are known as wisps, and the mist-like and human-like bodies are called wraiths. They’re both weak to light magic, but the wraiths can attack mentally and haunt and possess humans.

“Are you ready?” [Remiri]
“Yes, I’m ready anytime.” [Ryouma]
“OK, let’s go.” [Remiri]
“The time limit is 10 minutes. Start!” [Sebasu]

The operation to defeat undead began. This is going to be a war of attrition so I fired a ‘Light Ball’ to the skeleton right in front of me.

“ ‘Light Ball’ “ [Ryouma]

The ‘Light Ball’ I fired went straight for the head of the skeleton, extinguishing it. But the light ball didn’t disperse there as it continued to fly in a straight line, piercing through a number of undead, and extinguishing them. The undead tend to crowd together, so it’s not that weird. I ‘ve also done it a number of times in the past.

“’Light Ball’ ‘Light Ball’” [Remiri]
“What is that!?” [Ryouma]

Remiri-san, who was behind me, chanted only once, yet immediately 10 balls of light were summoned. And she shot those 10 balls of light with deadly accuracy, destroying the heads of the undead.

“This is a technique called, Parallel Casting. Using a lot of magic power, and the right image, I can cast the same spell several times with one chant of ‘Light Ball’. But being able to do something like this takes a bit of practice.” [Remiri]

Remiri-san continued to fire off her spells while explaining, not even stopping once. And after finishing her explanation, she showed me a smile that seemed to say she’s won.

And it was then that I realized it. Could it be that the reason there’s no limit in the shots taken… was for this!?

Seeing my expression, Remiri-san spoke, saying,

“A bit too late to realize it now, ‘Light ball’.” [Remiri]

I knew it! Now that it’s come to this, I don’t have any choice but to use parallel casting as well. Remiri-san did teach me how to use it just now after all. Most likely because she thinks she’s won already.

“’Light Ball’ … ‘Light Ball’ ‘Light Ball’ “ [Ryouma]

Or so I thought… But what is this? It’s ridiculously difficult.

The first time I tried it, I used a lot of magic, and I was able to cast the magic several times. But the most I was able to make were five balls. Anymore and I couldn’t maintain the spell.

The second time, I went ahead with just the five balls, but I couldn’t move the balls in different direction, and they all attacked the same spot.

The third time, I only made two balls, and I was able to move them in two different directions, but it was hard to aim. One failed to kill the undead, and the other actually missed. It’s like writing with both hands at the same time. Remiri-san mentioned it herself too, but this really isn’t something I can do right away.

Since parallel casting won’t work, there was nothing else I could do but just cast the normal light ball. I’m able to kill the undead fairly fast with this method, but the difference in our scores just keep increasing.

Remiri-san fires 10 shots in one chant, but the most I can do in that time is fire two or three shots… I know there’s no point asking for it, but it would be great if I could sweep the surrounding area quickly… Isn’t there any way?

While thinking of that, I kept firing the light balls.

There’s no problem hitting with the light balls accurately while deep in thought.

After all, it’s safe since the undead can’t enter the holy space even if they tried. Then with my alertness lowered to the minimum, I ended up likening the situation to them time when I was playing in the arcades back in my previous life. And since the zombies aren’t even attacking, it’s as if we’re playing super easy mode.

What if I tried doing this like I was playing super easy mode? …Nah, that would just end up like those target shooting in festivals.

Ah… speaking of which, I haven’t played any games since coming to this world, huh? I wonder what happened to that series.

There was a point in time when I got into it quite a bit… But I didn’t have any money, so I couldn’t go to the arcade much. But there were some times when I really wanted to shoot at some zombies, so I would go there for just one round. If I recall correctly, it was important to choose the appropriate ammo for each area. I was bad at it, so I don’t know that much about the game, but I’m sure there was an explosive shell, a machine gun, and a shotgun…

My thoughts were getting further and further, but it was here that I suddenly thought of it. And I thought to myself, why not improve the light ball spell and turn it into a bullet?

Immediately I tried it out… I don’t understand the explosive shells much, and the machine gun would drain my magic power quickly, so… I guess shotgun would be for the best? The shotgun’s shells fires buckshot. Its small shell supposedly releases its contents in a scattered manner… So with that in mind, I visualized the image of the light ball into a small bullet that scatters itself…

“ ‘Light Ball’ “ [Ryouma]

The light ball scattered exactly as I had visualized it, but the damage was weak. The zombie in front of me was wounded, but it didn’t die. Apparently, I spread the light ball too much, causing the damage of every individual shot to weaken.

Since that’s how it is, I put 10 times more magic power into light ball than normal, and fired it. The result? Not only were the zombies in fan-shaped spread in front of me killed, even the wraiths in the air died. Since it’s not really needed for the light ball to spread even in the air, I guess 10 times is a bit too much.

I have enough magic power, but this time I decided to compact the area affected. As a result, the power required was reduced to half of the last shot, requiring only five times as much magic power as a normal shot. Then adding to that, I thought of how the shotgun shells also had different sizes for the shots inside it. Visualizing that, I visualized the essentials of holy space into each of those shots, distributing magic power at the same time… as a result, I was able to equally divided the five times of magic power into 50 different shots. Then I fired it.

“ ‘Light Ball’ … Ku” [Ryouma]

Not good, the magic power is hard to control, I thought. And just as the fired light ball shot towards the target, it dispersed before even hitting it. As a result, only two zombies were killed. Focusing, I tried one more time.

The match continued, as I continued to focus on my control, honing the new magic as I killed more and more zombies. Soon Remiri-san began to panic a little at my light ball’s newfound power as she would throw glances at me from time to time, checking up on me.

But then Sebasu-san’s countdown began.

“10, 9, 8, 7, 6…” [Sebasu]

It’s almost over! Then in that case, I’ll have to fire this new magic, ‘Lightshot’, now! Visualizing the image… I fired it! Fire!

“’Lightshot’” [Ryouma]

That last cast was the normal five times more magic power than normal, but all the zombies within 3m area in front were filled with holes, and exterminated. The power’s much lower, but having decreased the consumption to half, it’s not so bad.

“Stop casting!!” [Sebasu]

At Sebasu-san’s words, the match ended. And the result…

I lost.

I was able to take back the loss from the start of the match with the improved light ball, but, the last shot was a foul. I kept improving my light ball, and in the end, that last shot that I made was good, but at that moment, I called it ‘Lightshot’…

Rule 1: The use of magic other than ‘Light Ball’ is prohibited.
I thought it was fine at first since I was just improving light ball, and actually, Sebasu-san thought so as well. But at the last moment I called it a different name, so in the end it became a foul.

In other words, I lost because I lost myself in focusing too much in improving the new magic that I ended up forgetting the rules.

“I started to panic halfway through, but in the end, it’s my win! I didn’t expect you to come up with a new magic in this short time though.” [Remiri]

Said Remiri-san with a laugh. After that, she asked me how I did it, and I explained it to her. Having aroused her curiosity, Remiri-san tried it herself, and she understood. Then with a serious face, she said this,

“Ryouma-san, this magic is amazing. 100 magic power for one cast of ‘Light Ball’ is 500 for ‘Light Shot’, but although it’s only an elementary magic, it can actually affect a bigger area than the intermediate magic, ‘Exorcism’. It’s an extremely useful magic when fighting undead. But I think it’d be better if you don’t teach this to other people so freely.” [Remiri]

Why?

“Is there a problem? Like with the improvements I made?” [Ryouma]
“Nope, this magic is well-made. The problem isn’t the result, rather it’s the fact that it’s too difficult.” [Remiri]
“You mean just like how there are few people who can use advanced light magic?” [Ryouma]

After nodding once, Remiri-san explained. Light shot is a magic that requires high control of magic power. And because it’s a spell that tries to bring out much power at the cost of little magic power, only those that can use light magic at an advanced level will truly be able to bring out its power.

But because there are few people who can use light magic up to the advanced level, there are very few who would be able to learn the magic. And the people who can’t learn the magic won’t be satisfied with just accepting their own incompetence.

In other words, they will start blaming me, saying that I’m a bad teacher. They might also accuse me of hiding some secret that’s causing them to be unable to use the magic correctly. Apparently, this is something that commonly happens when trying to teach advanced magic to others.

Hiding the secrets behind a spell I made myself isn’t really something that would get me in trouble, but it’s still better to just keep quiet, and not risk causing trouble, so Remiri-san asked me not to teach it so freely.

At the same time, Sebasu-san, who was listening, also asked me to keep quiet about it.

Apparently, Sebasu-san has also experienced something similar in the past, causing his words to be heavy with emotion, and he said that depending on the person he’d rather not teach dimension magic. It’s rare seeing Sebasu-san show such negative emotions… actually, it’s my first time, so I couldn’t help but be shocked.

Anyway, let’s keep their warning in mind.

And then evening came.

We decided to take turns sleeping. And so me and Remiri-san entered the mattress to sleep. And since I lost, naturally, I had to sleep with her.

But… I can’t sleep…

The mattress is big enough so that there’s room even if I turn around, but I ended up becoming Remiri-san’s pillow. And because of the height difference, there are two soft things on top of my head right now.

Let me say it again. It’s time to sleep, and yet… I can’t sleep!

Seeing me like that, Remiri-san called out to me.

“Can’t sleep?” [Remiri]
“Y-Yeah…” [Ryouma]

As I said that, Remiri-san began to rub my head.

“What are you doing…?” [Ryouma]
“Mn? I used to this a lot for my younger brother before when he couldn’t sleep. And right after, he’d fall asleep immediately.” [Remiri]
“You had a younger brother?” [Ryouma]

As I asked that, Remiri-san replied.

Apparently, Remiri-san has a younger brother whose much younger than her. She hasn’t met him since leaving the dark elf village, but during that time, her younger brother’s height was around mine. And apparently he was also good at magic. I resembled him a lot, she said.

After that, I asked her what dark elf life was like.
The dark elves are few in number, but they live in villages. Amongst the dark elves, there are also those who cultivate land, and those that live as nomads. And although the actual frequency differs from each village, there are many villages that move every year.

When I asked her why they won’t settle down, she mentioned that cultivating and travelling are for the sake of teaching their children how to live. As for cultivating the land, it depends on the villages, but there are many reasons such as to make money or as trade in order to get something they need.

In Remiri-san’s village, they’re doing it both as training and a way to make money, but the villagers in her village are eccentrics, and they find satisfaction in cultivating lands that are difficult to cultivate. A village full of cultivation enthusiasts in other words.

Apparently, the dark elves are famous for cultivating lands. Be it asking them to cultivate one, or for advice.

Incidentally, the elves pass on their lands in the forest for generations, protecting their land as they live on it. The opposite of the dark elves. But of course there are exceptions for both, and there are those that leave their respective villages to become adventurers, and those that choose a place they like to settle down in.

As for Remiri-san, she became an adventurer, and because of her achievements, she was asked by the previous king to work for the kingdom. As a result, she became a royal court magician, but now that her contract has ended, she’s currently a freelancer, and is at a loss whether to go back to adventurer work or go back to her family.

As Remiri-san continued to talk like that, she fell asleep.

But I still can’t sleep. Why? Because the one thing keeping me from sleeping is still here.

Even if I’m like this, I’m a guy. On top of that I’m an old uncle, so this situation is quite difficult for me for various reasons.

For the meantime, I closed my eyes, enduring the softness behind me, and the almost painful beating of my heart. Like this I quietly waited, without waking Remiri-san, for the time to switch with someone else.

When the time to switch finally came, I killed lots of undead, and drove away all of my worldly desires. I managed to subjugate over half of the undead coming out of the labyrinth, but in the end, I couldn’t get a wink of sleep. I’m used to all-nighters back in my previous life, and I have sleep resistance, so it’s not really a problem, but if I were a normal child, I’d be tottering by now.

And then, dawn came. After breakfast, I took a peek at my status board, and I noticed that a new skill was there.

Charm Resistance Lv1

It’s the proof that I overcame last night’s trial.

“Good work~” [Remiri]
“Oops!” [Ryouma]
“Why did you dodge!?” [Remiri]

As we finished subjugating the undead, Remiri-san called out. Realizing I was about to be hugged, I dodged, and Remiri-san started pouting.

“But you suddenly jumped at me, so…” [Ryouma]
“Fine, then… Come on!” [Remiri]

Said Remiri-san as she spread her arms wide open.

… She wants me to hug her?

“What are you doing? Come on!” [Remiri]
“No, it’s not come on!” [Ryouma]
“They’re soft, you know?” [Remiri]
“Sof–!?” [Ryouma]

Shocked and confused, I accidentally bit my tongue.

“Weren’t you looking at my breasts when we first met~? I won’t let you touch them, but it can’t be helped if they touch you while I hug you, right~?” [Remiri]
“Ah, that’s…” [Ryouma]
“Lying’s bad, you know? You can’t trick oneesan.” [Remiri]

What should I say? What should I do? Flustered, and caught in a dilemma, my head began to spin, when Sebasu-san intervened.

“Remiri-sama, please don’t tease Ryouma-sama any more than this. We’re currently near the labyrinth, so magical beasts could come at any time.” [Sebasu]
“And Ryouma-kun, aside from magic, you shouldn’t take what Remiri-san says so seriously.” [Rheinbach]
“Remiri, since when did you start thanking people for a job well done?” [Shiva]
“Sheesh… But I can’t help it, Ryouma-kun’s normally so serious, so I thought it’d be funny.” [Remiri]

Saved, I thought. But at the same time, I couldn’t help but feel some regret too. Remiri-san is a beauty after all. And I am a guy, so…

Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve been teased like this since coming to this world. Not that stuff like this happened a lot back in my previous world, but it did happen quite a bit when I would get an annoying job pushed to me… My head would also cool down quickly during those times.

“Sorry, Ryouma-kun. I ended up teasing you. It’s normal for boys to want to see breasts, so don’t mind it. I’ll teach you magic, so forgive me, ok?” [Remiri]
“Ah, yes.” [Ryouma]

Unintentionally, I gave a half-hearted reply. Let’s change the topic.

“Anyway, it looks like we’ve already defeated the undead in this area.” [Ryouma]
“Looks like it. The undead tend to gather to where living beings are. And they have a number of ways to detect the living, but for the meantime, it should be safe.” [Rheinbach]
“That was quite a lot of undead though. I guess we just caught some bad luck, and ran into a horde of them before they were whittled down by someone else.” [Shiva]

This maze isn’t really popular. The road is a mess, so fighting monsters is a pain. On top of that, there’re less magic jewels here compared to other magic-made labyrinths, so the profit here is less.

Because of that the undead rarely gets whittled down, and knights and clergymen need to be sent in order to get rid of the accumulating undead. It’s a good opportunity, so they’re apparently doing it both as training and as a job.

“Let’s go and find a safe place where we can rest first.” [Shiva]
“Yeah, I guess we should. If we just go in now, we’ll have to deal with more undead, so let’s just enter the labyrinth tomorrow.”  [Remiri]

When there are a lot of undead roaming outside the labyrinth from the afternoon onwards, there’s a chance that the undead within the labyrinth are so numerous that they can’t help but go outside. We can just go in, and defeat them. But the magic the others used a while ago can’t be used consecutively, so defeating the undead will require a ton of effort.

So with that, we decided to create a safe area with ‘Holy Space’ to camp in instead. And just whittle down the undead coming out of the labyrinth until sunrise.

With that, we started to prepare our camp.

I used ‘Holy Space’. And inside that, I opened my ‘Item Box’ and brought out the special camping tools that I prepared beforehand. When Sebasu-san saw that, he asked,

“Ryouma-sama, what is that?” [Sebasu]
“Camping tools.” [Ryouma]

What was in my hands were four iron rods. On one end, was a sharpened tip like that of a stake. And on the other end, was a circle pedestal to which something could be affixed to.

Cladding those rods in ki, I stabbed the sharp end of the iron rods into the north, west, south, and east borders of ‘Holy Space’ on the ground. And then I took out a spherical-shaped object from my ‘Item Box’, and placed it on top of a pedestal.

The shape of that object was a bit weird, but any Japanese would recognize it at first glance. It was an alcohol lamp.

Half a year ago, around the time when I was fuzzing over the drunk slime’s abilities, and was trying to create fruit wines with it, I concluded that the slime could mostly only be used for my personal amusement. As for why, it’s because Serge-san told me that alcohol is a tricky commodity to sell.

Sugar is expensive in this world. And sugar being one of the main ingredients of fruit wine, would mean that I can’t make any profit with liquor unless I sell it at a high price.

Moreover, while there are magical beasts that are publicly accepted as consumable meat (so I could technically sell the slimes’ alcohol) but at the same time, there are also those that don’t want to consume magical beasts depending on the species. Because of that, we concluded that there’s a possibility of slime liquor not being popular. As such it’s not something worth venturing into unless one is ready to suffer losses.

With that, I decided that it’s better to just use it for personal use. At the same time, I wondered whether there were some other ways I could use it, and using alchemy, I was able to create disinfectants, solvents, and fuel.

Although metal content could be found in the alcohol (ethanol) on earth, both drinkable and undrinkable. I couldn’t get any metals.

But even then, plenty of soot would come out, so I thought it was fine. But when I created an alcohol lamp out of the sticky slime’s concentrated hardened liquid, an idea hit me, and I thought of melting the concentrated sticky liquid. With that it went even better.

Moreover, while the fire lit from just ethanol was pale blue, and was hard to see in bright places. The fire from ethanol mixed with concentrated sticky liquid was bright enough to be useable as a torch. I created this alcohol lamp to make use of that. The alcohol goes into this tube here, and it lasts around an hour per cylinder without having to add more fuel, making it a pretty good tool in my opinion.

There’s nothing wrong with using light magic as light, but having options like this would mean being able to save up on magic power. It can also be used for kettles or cooking, so it’s no waste either way.

As I lit it, I taught Sebasu-san how to use the normal-sized alcohol lamp I created for kettle use.

“I see. It’s brighter than candles, and also quite hot. Like this it’ll definitely be useful even for cooking outside. Ryouma-sama, if you don’t mind, could I use this for a while?” [Sebasu]

In response, I just gave Sebasu-san a few points to be wary of when using it, then I lent it to him. At that, Remiri-san called out to me.

“Hey, Ryouma-kun.” [Remiri]
“What is it?” [Ryouma]
“What did you make this bedding out of? It’s really light, and it feels really good.” [Remiri]

Looks like she’s interested in my sleeping bag. Although I say ‘sleeping bag’, it’s not the type where I completely insert my body into. Rather I took a mattress, cut it into two, and sewed it up at the base. I made it that way so I could easily run away in case I need to. Well, I’m always in my ‘Dimension Home’ though, so I’ve never really had any situations where I needed to go outside immediately.

Incidentally, the materials used in this sleeping bag are the fluffs of the fluff slime that I caught half a year ago. While I was researching the fluff slime, and was watching the fluffs fluttering about in the air, I thought to use it to create pillows and mattresses.

When I first tried it out, I just filled a nearby jute bag with the fluffs, so the resulting product had a horrible texture. But I was at least able to prove that it’s possible. So after that, I dropped by Serge-san’s store, bought some sheets, and sewed them together. And like that, I was able to create a sack that had a nice texture, was soft, light, and warm, resulting in a product similar to that of a quilt.

Then I went a step further, and even treated the sheets with waterproofing. I also made it so that the fluffs inside would be uniform and not randomly arranged. After that, I revised it a few more times by trying it out, until finally I was able to complete my sleeping bag.

I also took the fluff slimes with me to the abandoned mine in Gimuru to observe it. As a result, I understood that the fluff slimes reproduce in the same way as the dandelions do.

At the start, a majority of the nucleus wouldn’t grow even without splitting, and died. Apparently, just like any other seed, the nucleus of the fluff slimes won’t grow unless it receives the proper nutrients. So it needs to fall to the ground, and absorb the nutrients around it. If the nutrients in the soil are insufficient, then it won’t grow either.

As proof of that, they barely grew with normal soil, but a great number of slimes were born with the soil that’s been cultivated with the scavenger slime’s fertilizer. Soil isn’t needed for its growth later on, but for a fluff slime to become a fluff slime from its fluff, it needs to have the proper nutrients.

And because I’ve been using the fertilizers of the scavenger slimes so much, I had to take on the latrine pits request. Then again I don’t only use it for the fluff slimes, I also use it for plantations, and growing medicinal plants for my wood magic, so it’s not really a waste.

Because of the scavenger slime’s deodorizing and cleaning abilities, it doesn’t stink, so that’s good. Also, I never realized this back in the forest because I would use up the fertilizers immediately, but apparently, I can use alchemy to dry the fertilizers, and turn them into powder form. Which in effect allows me to preserve them.

Cleaning the latrine pits is also a request from the guild, so while it doesn’t make a lot of money, it’s still income. The other adventures often ask me why I’m still doing jobs like that, but it’s actually a relatively good job for me.

“Ah, I have to make the scavenger slimes spit out fertilizers now…” [Ryouma]

Immediately, I opened the ‘Dimension Home’ and brought out two large wine barrels, and a staircase made out of stone. There I had all the scavenger slimes throw up fertilizer.

They had a great banquet with the zombies just now, so if I don’t let them throw up the extra nutrients, they’ll end up reproducing again. Because I’ve been having them do the latrine pit requests for the fluff slime’s sake, they’ve been gradually increasing. And now, they currently number 5,009.

I don’t mind them splitting a few at a time, but if they all split now, it’ll take me more than a day to finish contracting with them. It’s difficult managing slime reproduction with slimes that reproduce quickly.

Moreover, according to Caulkins-san and the others, there’s a limit to how much the slimes can split. Once they go past this limit, the affected slimes will reproduce rapidly, causing a phenomenon known as ‘Slime Stampede’. The burden placed on the affected slimes are great, so after the phenomenon, the slimes will be weak.

I’m digressing, but the ones who discovered this was a slime research lab in the past that’s still being treated coldly today. Their hypothesis was that big slimes would appear after feeding a slime continuously. As a result, the slimes blew up, and started splitting rapidly. Causing their numbers to overflow even into the other rooms of the facility. After that, because of the extermination of the slimes, and the weakened slimes trying to get whatever nutrients they could get, a large number of research materials and theses were lost, which in turn cased the slime researchers then to be greatly hated.

Now, going back to the story.

I gathered over 5,000 slimes, but I couldn’t get any more slimes other than a king slime. I don’t know whether this means that there’s no more transformations, or that the number’s only insufficient. I want to solve this question soon, but I can’t have them reproduce now all at the same time.

I continued to let the scavenger slimes throw up fertilizer. Whenever the scavenger slimes would fill up a barrel, I would use my alchemy, removing all the water content, and filling bags with the powder fertilizer. There’s not much meaning in hiding anything from the others, so I’m not even trying anymore.

For a while, Remiri-san and Sebasu-san stared at me, wondering what I was doing. When they asked me, I explained to them, and they helped me out. Thanks to them, I was able to finish everything in no more than 20 minutes.

Speaking of which, not even a single undead came out during that time.

Taking the opportunity, Remiri-san also taught me the light magic, ‘Beam’. But the only thing I could cast was something that looked like light with no power at all behind it. The magic power consumption was also high, so I still can’t use it in battle.

If Remiri-san’s ‘Beam’ was like the ones from the robots in manga and anime, my beam was nothing more than the light from the magnifying lens, amplifying the sun’s light. Joking aside, I’ll have to gradually work on it.

TL Note: Remiri-san said ‘Come on’ in English. Written in katakana, but English nevertheless.

We ate breakfast, and then we walked through the narrow path of the canyon again.

Shiva-san is leading without looking at a map, but if it was just me, I would definitely end up lost because of all the turns.

From what I heard, it’s because Shiva-san has used this same path plenty of times before as part of the training of fresh recruits. It’s definitely not the most accessible place, but with all the cliffs that could be climbed, it just might be perfect for training.

And speaking of geography, I noticed that the geography here in this area is sometimes weird. It’s probably the effect of Masaharu’s magic, but there are rock cliffs here that are actually perpendicular to the ground.

If it at least had some slope I’d understand, but I don’t think it’s natural for terrain to be that perpendicular. Geological formations are things that form after the accumulation of earth and sand after all. And then there are those places that form from hardened lava.

I’ve also heard that jewels and gold were reported to have been spotted here. It wasn’t a meagre amount either, and people would mine out the veins immediately after finding one, so there were quite a number of people searching for them here. But after most of them failed to find anything, they gave up. And the people who found some couldn’t make enough of a profit to make it worth the effort either.

We talked about things like that as we walked. And then Shiva-san said,

“We’re near the labyrinth. Undead roam in the area near the labyrinth, so get ready.” [Shiva]
“Understood.” [Ryouma]

As I said that, we walked. The path was at most just big enough for three people to walk side-by-side. There were plenty of places before where the road was wider, but this area we’re in right now feels eerily artificial.

“Well we’ve made it this far, I guess we can take a rest for a bit. This path’s connected to the execution grounds that became a labyrinth, so it’s being maintained.” [Remiri]
“I see, although it doesn’t seem to be a straight line.” [Ryouma]

The road’s being maintained, and yet it has so many turns.

“It’s a precaution against escapees, something to buy time in the one-in-a-million chance that a convict for death row manages to escape. For a similar reason, the road before here isn’t being maintained as it’s not part of the main road, so it’s quite hard to cross.” [Remiri]

I see… that makes sense. But right after Remiri-san finished talking, the smell of rotting flesh wafted to my nose.

“This rotting stench, could it be?” [Ryouma]
“Yep, it’s the undead. Most likely a zombie.” [Rheinbach]
“Good timing. I’ll go ahead and teach you how to deal with them.” [Shiva]

20 seconds passed, and a rotting corpse walking towards us entered our vision.

According to what I’ve investigated beforehand, the undead of this world like places with little or no sunlight, so they can usually be found is such places. But that doesn’t mean they can’t function under sunlight.

My impression of my first time seeing a zombie is that they’re disgusting. Their flesh is rotting; they stink… But unexpectedly, they can move quite fast.

I expected them to be disgusting, but I didn’t expect them to move that fast. Oh, but while I say they’re fast, they’re only really faster than my expectations, and are walking around the pace of an adult man. So it’s not like I’m feeling threatened or anything.

It’s just a bit different from the image I had in mind is all. I expected a zombie groaning as it walked one step at a time, very slowly. So it’s a bit unexpected that it’s actually walking normally.

“Well then, before all else, let’s go and confirm the property of the zombies. First––“ [Shiva]

Shiva-san ran to the zombie, and swung his halberd diagonally from his shoulder, cutting the zombie in two halves in one swing. After cutting it two more times, Shiva-san came back.

“Just now, I cut it without using any magic, but my attacks had no effect at all. And the zombie just regenerate, and start walking again.” [Shiva]

Exactly as Shiva-san had said, the cut zombie began to gather its remaining parts, and started putting itself back together.

“It’s not just zombies either. Other undead-type magical beasts can also regenerate. So beating them with only weapons is extremely inefficient. If you really need to beat them with just weapons, then it would be better to use a blunt weapon rather than a sharp one. As that would allow you to crush their bodies thoroughly rather than just cutting them to pieces. Lastly, there are also magical beasts that can’t be beaten with such methods, so it’s imperative to exercise caution.” [Shiva]

Around this time, the zombie finally finished regenerating, and has started walking towards again. Then suddenly, Shiva-san casted ‘Wind Cutter’ and cut off the Zombie from its waist. The zombie started to regenerate again, but it’s far slower this time around.

“You might’ve noticed it, but these magical beasts regenerate at a slower rate when attacked by magic compared to when they are attacked by weapons. This is said to be because of their dark attribute magic power being dispersed by the magic power of a different attribute. And the most effective magic are those under light attribute. Try hitting it with ‘Light Ball’ once it finishes regenerating.” [Shiva]

After some time, the zombie finished regenerating. Just as I was told to, I casted ‘Light Ball’.

“’Light Ball’” [Ryouma]
“a’ ,aa’ !” [Zombie]

A ball of light appeared on my chest, and in the next moment, it flew towards the zombie in a straight line, piercing through its chest. The zombie groaned in pain as a giant hole could be visibly seen on its chest. The flesh and the bones near the affected area were thoroughly extinguished.

“As can be observed, light magic is extremely effective against the undead. Even the elementary magic, ‘Light Ball’, can pierce through its body, extinguish it, and greatly weaken it. However, a single shot from ‘Light Ball’ isn’t sufficient. If you wish to kill it in one hit with only ‘Light Ball’, then you’ll have to target its head or chest. Any other place will require two or three shots.” [Shiva]

“I understand. I’m surprised to know though that ‘Light Ball’ could extinguish an undead’s body… I’ve heard that people who die become undead. If by chance I do die, my body won’t disappear when hit by ‘Light Ball’ will it?” [Ryouma]

“Right, your corpse won’t disappear from being hit by ‘Light Ball’. Only, it’s said that a change occurs once a body changes into an undead, but it’s not fully understood. Moreover, not all undead come from corpses. There are also those that just naturally appear.” [Shiva]

As I received that explanation, another zombie came. As I was about to fire another shot of magic at it, Remiri-san stopped me.

“This time I’ll show you how it’s done with intermediate magic.” [Remiri]

As she said that, she aimed her wand at the zombie, and chanted.

“ ‘Exorcism’ !” [Remiri]

A ball of light as big as a basketball appeared in front of her staff, and hit the zombie. But that ball didn’t pierce the zombie. Instead it wrapped it in its light. It was as if it was extinguishing the zombie.

“With this magic, it won’t matter where you hit. You’ll be able to kill them in one hit no matter what. It costs around 1,500 points of magic power though, so it’s a waste to use this kind of magic against zombies. If it’s just zombies, ‘Light Ball’ will do. Just use this when you really have to, or alternatively, you could use fire magic instead of light magic as that’s also effective.” [Remiri]

Like this I was able to study how to fight undead-types. And I was also able to practice by shooting at the zombies and skeletons that were roaming on the road.

As a result, I’ve learned ‘Exorcism’, and am now even able to clad my blade in ‘exorcism’, which was quite effective as the undead could be extinguished with a slash.

It’s a waste though, as although I’m able to kill three zombies with one cast, a single elementary magic, ‘Light Ball’, could kill a zombie in one hit… Ah, come to think of it, I wonder what would happen if I just used light attribute magic power instead of an actual magic?

As I thought that, I clad my sword in light attribute magic power, and slashed at an undead. Oh, hey, it worked. It’s not the same as ‘Exorcism’, but I think I can work with this.

After I finished my experiment, Shiva-san and Remiri-san were shocked and went, “What just happened!?” as they hurried over.

As we got closer to the labyrinth, more and more undead have been appearing, causing our pace to greatly slow down.

Also, the labyrinth that was once the execution grounds is apparently located at the center of an artificial bowl-shaped geographical formation. Right now, we’re on top of a hill where we can see the entrance to the execution grounds.

We can see a huge, ancient gate from afar that’s connected to a tall wall. The door on the right side of the gate is collapsed, so we can also see what’s inside the gate. There, we could see some iron bar windows and some buildings made out of stone. As well as an uncountable number of undead.

“That many is a little annoying.” [Remiri]
“Couldn’t you just make do somehow with consecutive casting of light magic?” [Rheinbach]
“I could also ask my slimes to help.” [Ryouma]
“We risk getting surrounded by entering through the gate, so let’s lure them here to the hill instead. It’ll also help once they clump up.” [Shiva]

After our short meeting, we decided to lure our opponents. Everyone else aside from me will be casting advanced magic, while me and my slimes will be cleaning up the remaining undead.

So I opened my ‘Dimension Home’, and called out my scavenger slimes, acid slimes, metal slimes, iron slims, and light slime. The slimes were itching to go.

The scavenger slimes and acid ones in particular were very excited. Apparently the dark magic power and the rotting meat of the zombies have turned them into quite the delicacy in front of the scavenger slimes. In a similar fashion, the acid slimes were also quite taken by the bones of the undead. I’m happy they’re full of spirit, but I’ll have to remind them to prioritize safety.

“Alright, let’s go! ‘Flare Bomb’!” [Rheinbach]

Taking my slimes with me, I neared the gate. And when I was around 700 meters away from it, Rheinbach-sama fired an intermediate fire spell. A ball of fire the size of a basketball was summoned at his spell, and it flew right between me and the gate, causing an explosion. The undead reacted to that booming sound, and the undead began to climb up the hill.

“They’re coming, let’s go! ‘Beam’ !!” [Remiri]

Immediately after Remiri-san’s chant, a beam of light fired towards the undead, extinguishing almost all in its path. Most were killed, but I couldn’t count how many in all.

But the undead wave doesn’t end there, and more of them came after the ones Remiri-san extinguished.

“Next is my turn. ‘Fire Storm’!” [Rheinbach]

At Rheinbach-sama’s spell, a whirlpool of fire was summoned, swallowing the crowd of undead that neared. That blazing whirlpool filled my vision, and I couldn’t count how many undead died at Rheinbach-sama’s magic.

But more undead came, and they too climbed the hill. But once they gathered, Shiva-san made his move.

“ ‘Storm Cutter’ “ [Shiva]

At that moment, a powerful tempest was summoned, and the undead were blown away. After a while, the undead came falling down from the sky as scattered pieces. Again, I couldn’t count how many were killed.

As I was thinking such things to myself, the undead began to climb again. And this time, it was Sebasu-san’s turn.

“ ‘Water Fall’ “

Sebasu-san raised his hand as he chanted that, and in the next moment, a giant ball of water that looked as if it contained all the water within a swimming pool appeared in the sky, floating.

In the next moment, that giant blob of water fell down to the cliff with a rumbling sound. The blob broke, and it washed away the zombies. The total number of zombies washed away… again: uncountable.

Ah… on top of all the zombies, they even killed the left wall that was fine just a while ago.

Aren’t these people a bit too strong? And speaking of Shiva-san… if he had used that ‘Storm Cutter’ of his in our previous match, I would have definitely lost. Saved by the rules I guess.

“You guys are amazing…” [Ryouma]
“Ryouma-sama, you’ll be able to do something like this in no time at all.” [Sebasu]
“Advanced magic packs a lot of heat, and can affect a huge area, but it also requires a lot of magic power and control. On top of that, it takes time to cast. It’s not something that can be casted consecutively. Save for advantageous situations like just now, it’s not something that could be easily cast.” [Shiva]
“That aside, it’s your and your slimes turn next, Ryouma-kun.” [Rheinbach]
“Do your best!” [Remiri]

Oops, I almost forgot!

“I’m going.” [Ryouma]

I had the light slime ride on my head, while I went down the cliff with the rest of the slimes. Before me were the undead who appeared to have not learned their lesson as they continued to climb the hill. The skeletons were at the front.

The iron slimes were the first to attack those skeletons.

Using the slope of the hill, the iron slimes rolled towards the skeleton, and then jumped for their chest. The skeletons received a direct hit! Those iron slimes that were basically lumps of iron scattered the skeletons, causing them to collapse. There were also other iron slimes that simply body slammed their foes, crushing bones and flesh alike.

With just this the undead could still regenerate, but at the same time, they were now defenseless. The undead that was now in the middle of regenerating was left unable to fight, so the scavenger slimes feasted on zombies and skeletons alike without any reserve.

But the slimes weren’t numerous enough to take on all the fallen undead, so some of the undead would still become able to fight them. During that time, the slimes would fight with the techniques we’ve trained, spitting their digestive liquids, melting the foes’ limbs, taking away their ability to fight, and clinging to the arms that their enemies use against them, and feasting on them.

Around that time, the metal slimes and the iron slimes neared the gate, and they started using the new fighting ability they have learned.

Lately, the iron and metal slimes have become even better at transforming. And the iron slimes are now able to transform from their wheel form into something thinner that resembles the blade of a katana almost immediately. Coupled with their weight and rotation, the sharpness of that form can cut its opponent apart.

They probably learned it since I kept turning them into a blade. From the outside, they look like a chakram when transformed. I tried it using against goblins once, and they were able to easily cut their necks and limbs off. It’s quite terrifying honestly.

As for the metal slimes, they rolled, and then they jumped. And having learned how to change even in mid-air, they transformed into a rod-shaped object with a sharp end. Following the force from their previous jump, they thrust themselves into their foes like a throwing spear.

They pierced into the chests of the zombies and the undead, stopping their movements, and leaving them wide open for the scavenger and acid slimes to feast on.

…At first, I thought to watch them quietly from behind, only to interfere when they’re in danger, but… I don’t think either me or my light slime need to make a move. I just realized this, but… These guys are actually peerless when it comes to zombies and skeletons! Well, that’s the way it is, so I guess I’ll just go to the front lines now.

I neared the gate as I ignored the slimes that were trampling all over the undead. There are still a lot of slimes even in this area, so there’s no danger of getting surrounded. At the same time though, there’re also still a number of enemies.

“A’ –“ [Zombie[
“U-“ [Zombie]
“…” [Skeleton]
“ ‘Light Ball’ ‘Light Ball’ ‘Light Ball’” [Ryouma]

First, I fired off light balls toward the two zombies and one skeleton, headshotting them, and killing them. With a light slime on top of my head like this, we can fire light balls together, killing any undead that comes before us.

Speaking of which, with the light slime on my head like this, I’m able to feel it’s magic power. As such I’ve realized that although the magic casted has the same effect, the slime seems to use less magic power.

Thinking about it again, the wind slimes that I learned chantless casting from might’ve also been using less magic power… It’s just a hunch, but the slimes might actually be able to use magic more efficiently than humans. Remiri-san did also mention that it’s possible to become more efficient with magic through training, so it just might be possible.

I continued to kill one undead after another as I thought that to myself. When we finally finished killing everyone, no more undead came to attack us near the gate anymore.

Volume 3 Chapter 26

The next day.

I woke up early, and left the town with the others, passing through a canyon known as Troll Canyon.

The Troll Canyon is a large canyon located west of the country. It’s a maze that has naturally formed after many years.

The roads narrowed as we entered the canyon, and tall cliffs could be seen at every direction.

As this canyon is at the border of the country, there is a fortress watching over the border west of Teressa at this canyon. The Town of Departed Spirits that we will be going to however, is located north-west.

It’s about a 2-day walk from Teressa. We can’t ride on horse to go there because of all the cliffs, so we’ll have to go on foot with a rope in hand.

I have to say though; this is quite a valley. I just can’t help but look around at everything.
Then having noticed me, Remiri-san asked,

“Is it your first time seeing this kind of scenery?” [Remiri]
“Yes. It’s amazing. I wonder how much time it actually took for such a place to form naturally.” [Ryouma]
“This one took around 1,500 years.” [Remiri]
“Eh?”

1500 years? Only?

“Can something like this be made in such a short period?” [Ryouma]
“True, it’s definitely a short time to create a valley. But that only holds true for natural valleys.” [Remiri]

This isn’t natural?

“Was this valley made by humans?” [Ryouma]

Remiri-san looked a bit worried for a moment, then she said,

“Mn………… Well it’s definitely influenced by man. But it’s also wrong to say that it was intentionally made by man. Actually, this place used to be the training grounds of a godchild. And because of the influence of his magic, the ground changed.” [Remiri]

Interjecting, Sebasu-san continued,

“Our country was at war when this canyon was created. Just as the country was about to be destroyed, a child of god, carrying great magical power appeared. Records speak of his absurd and powerful magic.

At the godchild’s training, mountains would be born, the earth would be split, broken, and washed away in heavy rain and waves. Because of that, this canyon and the surrounding mountain district were born.” [Sebasu]

Haa!? An otherworlder created a canyon with his magic!? No way… Ah, wait… This might be that peerless magician that Gayn and the others were talking about. He was also supposedly around during wartime too…

How crazy was his magic though, I wonder.

“Can you do it too?” [Remiri]
“No way!” [Ryouma]

No way I could! Don’t put me together with that guy! Wait, actually, since there was a guy who could do something like that, I guess it’s only a given that they would be cautious with other godchilds… If anything, I suppose I should consider myself lucky for not being persecuted.

As I thought that to myself, I felt like I remembered something. But right before I could remember that something fully, a magical beast attacked us, so I focused on that instead.

The beast that attacked was a harris crow, a bird-type magical beast. There were 20 of them. It’s an E Rank magical beast, so they’re not that strong. But with the place being so narrow, it’d be better to attack them with magic instead of weapons. But just as I was thinking to do just that, Shiva-san had already gone ahead to use a weak tornado with little killing power to drive them away.

“That sort of weak opponent; you can just scare them away with a little bit of power. There’s no reason to actually waste magic power fighting them.” [Shiva]
“I see, thank you very much.” [Ryouma]
“Don’t mind it. Something like this, I can do as many times as needed. After all, you made me realize that I’m still more than capable! Ha Ha Ha!” [Shiva]

… Somehow, Shiva-san’s a bit different compared to yesterday. Rather than cheerful, I guess you could say he’s more lively now.

We walked through the canyon with Shiva-san in the lead. From time to time, we would cross rivers, climb cliffs, fight magical beasts. It was in this way that we proceeded until the sun began to set. We looked for a place that was a road’s width wide, big enough for us to make camp. There we decided to rest.

Being at the bottom of the valley, there was little moonlight, and as soon as the sun had fully set, the whole area was submerged in darkness.

Remiri-san then began to use magic.

“Ryouma-kun, this is a good opportunity, so I’ll teach you a light attribute magic now.” [Remiri]
“Thank you very much, please do, master.” [Ryouma]
“… You don’t feel like calling me oneechan?” [Remiri]
“Please teach me, master.” [Ryouma]

I called her master a second time, and Remiri-san made a sulking face.

“Fine. Until you decide to call me oneechan, I’ll be strict on you! I’m not going to hold back at all because I’m not as nice as Elize-chan.” [Remiri]
“Yes! By the way, why did you suddenly mention the madam’s name?” [Ryouma]
“Oh, didn’t I mention it? I used to be Elize-chan’s teacher on magic.” [Remiri]
“Really? I didn’t know.” [Ryouma]
“That’s right. And not just magic, I thought her all sorts of things too. Because of that, I’ve actually also met with her daughter many times, but Elize-chan has a bad tendency of being overprotective.” [Remiri]

Ahh… I can somewhat understand.

“Anyway, let’s start. First, I’ll show you how to do it, so pay attention. ‘Holy Space’” [Remiri]

Remiri-san released light and magic power as she chanted that. Using not only my senses, but also using my magic detection, I saw a cube of magic power appear with Remiri-san at its center. Its center was teeming with magic power. It was somewhat similar to barrier magic.

“This is an intermediate magic of the light attribute, ‘Holy Space’. With this magic, you can temporarily create an area where weak undead, like the zombies or the skeletons, won’t be able to enter.

The duration and the size of the barrier depends on your ability. Also, stronger undead will be able to enter the area affected by ‘Holy Space’ by force, so be careful. Now, how about you try it yourself. Creating a small space that’s at least big enough for one person to sleep in will be good enough for your first try.” [Remiri]

Just as Remiri-san said, I gave it a shot. Using light attribute magic power, with the same concept as that of barrier magic, I designated the area. And as I filled the designated area with light attribute magic power, I visualized the image and chanted the magic words.

“’Holy Space’” [Ryouma]

I invocated the magic according to the image in my mind, but it’s a lot more difficult to control compared to barrier magic. How to put it… A normal barrier magic is like a wall, with the magic power as water inside it, but this one is closer to that of a cloth. Water can’t pass through the wall, so it just stays inside, but with a cloth, the water seeps out. If I let my concentration up for even a moment, the magic power within the designated area spills.

Well, in any case, I seem to have successfully casted the magic, so I asked Remiri-san to confirm that, saying,

“Remiri-san, how is it?” [Ryouma]

To which Remiri-san replied with a hint of disappointment somewhere in her voice.

“It’s a success. You succeeded at your first try. Congratulations in succeeding at learning ‘Holy Spell’…………… Even though it was supposed to be the hardest magic amongst the intermediate class spells to control.” [Remiri]

You know I can hear what you’re mumbling there at the end of your sentence, right!? Asking for something so unreasonable, did you really want to be called oneechan that much?

I thought that to myself as I looked at Remiri-san. Then noticing my gaze, Remiri-san brought up a new topic.

“Ah, umm… Well for the meantime, since you succeeded with ‘Holy Space’, let’s try to perfect it this time around.” [Remiri]

If there’s a place that can be improve, then lets.

“Please take care of me.” [Ryouma]
“Before that, can you show me your status board?” [Remiri]

Status board? What for?

Anyway, I brought it out just as she told me too. And then she told me that she wanted to see how much magic power I’m using by looking at the value of my magic power before using and after using the magic.

Incidentally, elementary magic costs around 50 to 999 magic power, intermediate magic from 1000 to 4999, and advanced magic from 5,000 up.

‘Holy Space’ being an intermediate magic, consumes somewhere around 4,000 to 4,900 points of magic power. But my previous successful cast of ‘Holy Space’ apparently consumed too much power. When I went to check how much magic power I used after casting ‘Holy Space’ again, I found out that I had used over 10,000 points of magic power.

The more the magic power, the longer the duration, but the 4,000 to 4,900 points of magic power are already supposedly more than enough to last a night. So naturally, using enough magic power to last several days for a place you won’t be staying in for more than a night is a waste, right? Or so said Remiri. It makes perfect sense though.

Incidentally, a similar method is being used at the imperial capital’s academy that Elia is studying at, but the standards are far lower. For example, if casting a fire ball would normally be considered efficient at 100 points of magic power per volley, and thus be considered a pass. In order to allow the nobles to have good grades, the school would let them pass even at a consumption rate of 500 points of magic power per volley.

With that kind of standard, the students use enough power to cast five volleys, but can’t even cast more than one volley. Something like that might not matter at the academy, but if they do something like that out in the real world, they’ll run out of magic power quickly. Which then effectively makes their magic useless. So Remiri-san says that in order for me not to suffer a similar fate, I need to train properly.

After that I practiced ‘Holy Space’ for a bit, adjusting it repeatedly. And eventually I managed to keep the duration up while keeping its consumption to only 4,900 points of magic power.

Actually, I could lower the magic power even back when I first used it, but this magic takes a bit of skill. That so-called skill is the distribution of magic power. Without that, this magic won’t work.

When activating ‘Holy Space’, one needs to fill the designated space with magic power, while controlling that magic power with another force of magic power. If the magic power that controls the magic filling the space is too weak, then the magic power will leak out, causing the effect of the spell to weaken, fail, or consume more magic power.

After practicing the spell for a bit, I started to change the image in my mind from that of barrier magic to that of a balloon. After which, it became much easier to cast.

It’s thanks to my huge reservoir of magic power that I was able to train up to this point. After all, I was already close to my limits by the time I managed to properly keep my magic consumption in check. If it was a normal magician, it would’ve taken him at least several days.

According to Remiri-san, it’s possible to become so efficient at one’s control of magic, such that one would be able to cast magic with the same effect but at a lower cost. Right, I should continue to practice even more.

By the time I finished training, we were able to have our supper immediately because Sebasu-san made supper early.

After we finished eating, they talked about the godchild who created this canyon. They noticed how interested I was this morning, so since there was time to spare, they decided to talk about it.

Come to think of it, didn’t I remember something around that time? What was it again?
Ah, well… whatever. Let’s just hear their story first.

“Hmm… where should I start… The name of the godchild who created this canyon is Masaharu. That name has now become rather famous because of his tyranny though.” [Rheinbach]
“Tyranny?” [Ryouma]

At that question, Shiva-san answered.

“Yes, tyranny. You know that he appeared when the country was in dire straits, right?” [Shiva]
“Yes, I’ve heard of it.” [Ryouma]
“At that time, the king was desperate to break through that situation, so he wished to gain the power of that godchild at all costs. So much so that he ceased to care about appearances.

So the king spread a lie that the godchild was his illegitimate child, gave him a cordial welcome, and then bound him to the country as part of his war chest.” [Shiva]

So that otherworlder, Masaharu, became royalty, huh?

“There were three children before the king, so it was believed that there would be little chance of Masaharu becoming the king. But then one of them was betrayed by his allies, while another went out to war to encourage the soldiers, only for himself to die. And the last one was killed by an assassin from an opposing country. Then the king himself after winning the war through the use of his adopted child that he turned into knight-commander, and after making use of another godchild, died of illness right after the war.” [Shiva]
“So, then… No way…” [Ryouma]

Shiva-san silently nodded, then he continued,

“Masaharu inherited the throne.” [Shiva]

Seriously? Didn’t anyone protest?

“Of course, there were those who were against Masaharu becoming the king. But after the war, he was hailed as a hero because of his achievements. And even the commoners were aware that he was the king’s illegitimate child, so rather than find some reason to take the position from him, it was decided that it would be best for him to become king instead.” [Shiva]

Then Remiri-san interjected, adding,

“The nobles then thought to turn Masaharu into a puppet. After all, despite his power, he was a coward and an obedient man.” [Remiri]

There’s no doubt about it, that Masaharu is the peerless otherworlder magician. A hero, and at the same time, an otherworlder and a coward. It’s exactly as what I’d heard from Gayn’s group.

After that, I asked them how Masaharu acted, and apparently he did whatever he wanted. So I guess he really was a tyrant.

But then again, although it wasn’t implemented, he did try to enact a number of policies, such as compulsory education, free healthcare, and pension for those who can’t work.

That kind of thinking isn’t strange at all for someone like me who lives in modern Japan. But as for whether this world can understand that way of thinking or not is another story. There were many who protested against him, and he met those with his two powers as a king and as a powerful magician, silencing any who stood against him.

“The nobles who plotted to turn Masaharu into a puppet, were left unable to do anything but find ways to compromise with the king.” [Shiva]

The man they were against was not only the man who saved the country, but also the man who could overturn the battlefield with his magic alone. Moreover, each time he would leave for war, he would say, “I’ve casted a self-destruct magic on myself. So if ever I should die, I’ll be taking the opposing nations with me.” Whether that self-destruct magic of his could take the other nations with him is true or not, it was a fact that his magic was beyond the understanding of people, so no one tried to do anything foolish.

The one exception was the other godchild who was referred to as a hero. His name was Shuu. He was a strong knight wholeheartedly trusted by Masaharu. And unlike the other nobles, he didn’t fear Masaharu, and exchanged opinions with him.

It was he who aided Masaharu and mediated between him and the nobles; an irreplaceable person that allowed compromises to be made.

“In the end, it wasn’t until four years later until Masaharu was to be succeeded. During one of his trips, an assassin attacked him, and he died. The only thing that remained of him was a giant hole that’s believed to be the effect of his self-destruct magic. Of course, neither the assassin or the servants, or the escort knights, or the horses and the carriages were left. Not a scar, nor trace could be seen. All of them had vanished.” [Shiva]

An assassin, huh? ………… It’s true that Masaharu might be a tyrant, but it’s not like I don’t understand his feelings… His methods might have been bad, but I can’t deny him either without hearing his side first.

An academy was built in the capital instead of the compulsory education. And the fact that anyone can enter as long as they pay the fees seems to be very much like him. So it’s not like he didn’t anything for the people at all.

There are many good people who’s helped me out, but for Masaharu, he might have had no one else but Shuu beside him. And even if he did become a part of the royal family by his own will, he was still only wanted for his power. After he became king by chance, the nobles tried to turn him into a puppet. If I was in his place, I too would have relied on my powers alone, and tried to threaten others to protect myself.

After I thought those things, I said,

“Rheinbach-sama, Sebasu-san, truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything.” [Ryouma]

They were startled at my words, but continuing, I said,

“I just realized it now, but I’m really glad that the first people I met were members of the Jamil Household.” [Ryouma]

Continuing, I told them that I imagined myself in a situation where I had no allies, surrounded only by people who wanted to take advantage of me. Hearing that, the two understood.

“There’s really no reason for you to be grateful, you know? And besides, Elia’s been much more cheerful since meeting you, Ryouma-kun.” [Rheinbach]
“Really? So Elia…!” [Ryouma]

Oh, right! What I remembered this afternoon was Elia! Elia’s ancestor is that peerless magician, meaning Masaharu should be her ancestor according to Gayn. But wait a moment… If that’s the case, then… madam is royal family? …But then again, they are the household of a duke, so I suppose it’s not that weird.

“Something the matter?” [Sebasu]

Suddenly stopping mid-sentence, Sebasu-san became concerned, but I just told him that it was nothing.

After that, the conversation shifted to Elia, and this time I was thanked. They were grateful for me becoming Elia’s friend, and helping her make friends.

Elia possesses an enormous amount of magic power, making it difficult for her to control her magic, resulting in her causing a number of accidents. Exaggerated rumors of her spreads causing many of the noble children to fear her. And eventually, even the children who were her friends started to evade her, staring at her with eyes full of fear. Not long after, Elia herself grew to fear herself.

So that’s why…

“So what happened then?” [Ryouma]
“Around the time Elia learned how to successfully use elementary magic, she learned how to control her powers, and the rumors petered out. But it’s still not something that could be forgotten completely. Making friends is another story, but if it’s just acquaintances then there’s no problem.” [Rheinbach]
“Ojousama had to endure being stared at with fear by her good friends, so she was hesitant to make friends herself. But after becoming friends with Ryouma-sama, that fear has mostly faded.” [Sebasu]
“I didn’t really do anything noteworthy though. And besides, we were only together for such a short while.” [Ryouma]

Sebasu-san and Rheinbach-sama shook their heads at that response.

Even though I just did whatever I wanted? It was only now that I came to understand the situation too…

“That you did not fear Ojousama, looked at her face-to-face, and accepted her… That is more than enough.” [Sebasu]
“That’s right. Ryouma, you are the impetus that allowed Elia to take her first step. For her to ask you to become her friend on her own volition… Honestly, I was shocked at that time, but at the same time, I was relieved. Besides, I heard that you’ve been helping her make friends recently as well.” [Rheinbach]

Ahh, it’s about Miyabi-san. She mentioned in her letter that they’ve become friends, but it looks like she mentioned it to her family as well.

“Then in that case, you’re welcome. But you know… Elia couldn’t have made friends unless she moved by herself.” [Ryouma]

I’ll take their thanks for the meantime, but Elia was definitely the one who worked hard.

You were able to make friends because of me! Is not really something I feel like throwing my chest out for… If it was around seven or something, then maybe… but it wasn’t really anything like that.

I was thinking of all sorts of things like that, but since storytelling was mostly done now, I went ahead and slept.

TL Note:
King Ryouma and Queen Elia, anyone? 😀