Jigglypuff's Diary

I was worried last night, but it seems Ms. Eleonora’s hangover passed well.
I made some miso soup with mushrooms to help with the hangover, as well as some rice porridge for when her stomach can handle it.
Meanwhile, the rest of us are having our breakfast.

Over the meal, I shared the information the gods told me under the excuse that it was something my grandmother had told me once upon a time, and Lord Rosenberg groaned as he thought about it.

“The difference in the amount of mana… That would certainly explain it, but that only makes this harder.” [Rosenberg]

“Why not just reduce your mana, nyaa?” [Miya]

“Miya, unlike mana, normal people can’t even sense mana particles.
When you use enhancement magic, you can feel the mana inside your body, but you can’t feel the mana in nature, right?” [Syria]

“Ms. Syria is right.
While you can adjust your mana to half or a tenth of a single spell’s worth, mana particles are much much finer than that.
Such that even if you understand man particles as a concept, it is practically impossible for humans to manipulate them.
If you intentionally dispersed your mana without controlling it, it might be closer to mana particles, but then, is it even possible to manipulate it while dispersed?
We’d first have to verify that, and if it is possible, it would likely require a lot practice.” [Ryouma]

I already have the cheat code that is the slime vision, which allows me to observe mana closely, so I should have a better chance than most in this regard.
More importantly, I also had a collaborator named Cormi.

“Absorbing mana from nature, huh. You drop the craziest of things, don’t you, Boss.” [Yurdum]

“I understand it’s a cheat-tier ability, but setting that aside for now, I believe I can get an answer once I speak with Corm.
However, that won’t be possible until we return to the Great Forest, so I want to continue researching here for now.
That being said, I was also thinking about investigating a method to communicate with Cormi through curses. What do you think?” [Ryouma]

“Well, it’s not like anyone’s chasing you for a deadline, and if you need both, then you’ll get to it either way eventually. I think its fine to start little by little.
Your growth has already been remarkable, truly, and I would also like to hear this Cormi-kun’s opinion.
Do you have a specific technique in mind that you want to use?” [Rosenberg]

“I have nothing on that front yet actually. I’ve come up with a lot of ideas since Cormi’s main body is an old house, but nothing quite concrete just yet.” [Ryouma]

The roads outside of Japan were apparently much wider, and there were some foreigners who chose to load entire houses onto massive trailers to make them portable.
Unfortunately, moving a house from the middle of the Great Forest to the city is probably impossible, even with magic.

We could probably just move the desk that serves as his core, but I don’t want anything bad to happen to Cormi by carelessly separating him from his body, so that’s also on hold.
I’m basing my ideas on communication methods like telephones or radios, but that eureka feeling just isn’t quite coming.

“Then, how about putting the search for a specific technique on hold for now, and instead honing your curse skills to the next level?” [Rosenberg]

“What do you mean?” [Ryouma]

“To use powerful techniques, you need a correspondingly large amount of power. In the case of curses, that means facing your negative emotions and drawing out their power.
Simply put, it’s through ‘challenging your own limits’
You’ve easily picked up the spells I’ve taught you, but you’ve never quite used any one of them at full power, right?” [Rosenberg]

I wasn’t quite sure what to say to that.

“For the record, I respect your earnest and serious attitude in class.
I have no doubts about that, and I don’t intend to blame you at all for not going all out.
Rather, the fact that you carefully handled your negative emotions and power within a range you could control is a testament to your full understanding of the dangers of curses.
But that is precisely why I thought it would be fine to let you try.
This isn’t typically the sort of training a mentally immature child should do, but you are an exception.
At the very least, I believe you are more qualified to attempt it than some inept adult who has merely piled on the years.” [Rosenberg]

I guess he must’ve picked on how old I really am.
But even then, I’m not really all confident about being an adult either.
At best, I’m confident that I’m more mature than a ten-year old kid.

Lord Rosenberg did however add that he should be present in any attempt to challenge my limits.
That way he could step should anything go wrong.
Well, I need to train my curses anyway.
If he’s offering this much support, I have no reason not to rise up to the challenge.

“In that case, I’ll be in your care.” [Ryouma]

“Understood. I will also make some preparations on my end, so let’s attempt it tomorrow.
Ryouma-kun, please choose the technique that you feel most comfortable with.
You may modify it further if it helps.” [Rosenberg]

“So, I just pour as much of my negative emotions as I can into this spell, right? Well, alright.” [Ryouma]

For the mean time, it was about time for the goblins and I to clear the remaining fallen trees from the road construction yesterday.
Mr. Sebas and Lord Rosenberg would check the condition of the warding ropes we strung up yesterday.
Meanwhile, the adventurer team and Mr. Yurdum would plant Kareppashi trees to serve as a firebreak.

Having decided on our respective assignments, we headed out for the day’s work.
Work proceeded without a hitch, and before long, it was time for lunch.
Just as everyone gathered in the dining room again, Ms. Eleonora appeared.

“My deepest apologies for the great deal of trouble I have left you all with last night. Not only did I ramble, I even fell asleep and left Ms. Wereanna to look after me.” [Eleonora]

She gave a deep bow with her apology, but…

“It wasn’t a bother at all!” [Wereanna]

“Making mistakes when drinking is a common occurrence. It’s nothing to worry about, and certainly nothing you need to apologize for.” [Mizelia]

“If anything, I think you had a very elegant way of becoming drunk.” [Wereanna]

“It was to the point where we didn’t even notice when you actually got drunk, after all.” [Syria]

“I mean, that doesn’t even count as a failure. There are adventurers who get hammered at the tavern and start singing and dancing stark naked, or even go on a rampage, you know?” [Jeff]

“That’s more a case of those guys being crazy, or rather, don’t lump her in with those idiot men, nyaa! Well, Jeff’s example is extreme but true, and yesterday’s was definitely on the better side of being drunk, nyaa.” [Miya]

“I see, that’s a relief…” [Eleonora]

She still looked a bit conflicted, but she did raise her head.

“By the way, how are you feeling? Your complexion still doesn’t look too good.” [Ryouma]

“I feel much better now after resting. And the soup helped settle my stomach as well.” [Eleonora]

“That’s good to hear. Do you think you can eat lunch?” [Ryouma]

“Let me see… I think I’ll just stick to bread and soup for now.” [Eleonora]

“Understood.” [Ryouma]

And so, I prepared a hearty meal for everyone, and a light meal for Ms. Eleonora, then we had lunch.
During the meal, we went over the progress of the morning’s work, including a brief explanation to Ms. Eleonora.

“I see… The planting for the firebreak has also progressed quite a bit.” [Eleonora]

“Mr. Yurdum was using magic to grow the saplings between tasks, so the work went smoothly.” [Ryouma]

“The boss dug the holes the same way he does when making roads, so all we had to do was put the saplings in and fill them back up with dirt. Since we could use the scavenger slime fertilizer for the saplings, it was easy to get the branches we collected to take root, too. Because of that, we were able to prepare a decent amount.
However, it’s still not enough to line the entire length of the road. On top of that, we have to gradually apply magic to the planted saplings to grow them into adult trees, so it will still take some time before the firebreak is completed.” [Yurdum]

“There’s no rush on that front, so it’s fine. The removal of the fallen trees is progressing well, and during this stay, we’ll be able to get the road to a state where ‘at the very least, a carriage can pass through.’ Once that happens, I’ll be able to use my mana for the firebreak starting from our next visit, so let’s just arrange things little by little.” [Ryouma]

If I wanted to put more work into the road, I could pave it or add some more drainage features. I could turn the lumberyard area into a field, or install a waterwheel in the mountain stream to allow for simple processing. There is so much I could do.

Once I being tinkering with one thing, the list of things I want to do just keeps growing. There’s no end to it.
Originally, the reason I started working on the mountain was to keep up appearances as the land administrator, but now that I’ve started, I can’t stop.
Then again, I never intended on abandoning it halfway through anyway, but still, there’s no need to get everything perfect from the start.

I can just take my time and handle things as they come.

“With the work we’ve done, we should’ve done a good job of keeping appearances, right?” [Ryouma]

“More than enough. No one will be able to complain about what we’ve accomplished so far. And if someone does, I will take responsibility and deal with them.” [Eleonora]

“That’s very reassuring. I’ll leave it to you.” [Ryouma]

“Understood.” [Eleonora]

As we spent a peaceful time together like this, lunch and our post-meal tea time came to an end.

“Sir Takebayashi, I’ll clean up the dishes…” [Eleonora]

“No, no, I’m just going to have the cleaner slimes do it anyway. Please keep resting, Ms. Eleonora.” [Ryouma]

Willieris had mentioned that Ms. Eleonora was so capable that she had too much free time, but she probably isn’t in perfect condition just yet.
I have no intention of making her push through poor health just to work.

“The work I’ll be entrusting you with, Ms. Eleonora, are secretarial duties.
Once we get back to town, your workload will suddenly increase…
Or rather, I’ll probably come up with all sorts of things I want to do and just dump all the fine details on you.
I think I’ll be a very bothersome type of boss, so please just rest when you aren’t feeling well.” [Ryouma]

“…I understand.” [Eleonora]

Although she seemed reluctant, Ms. Eleonora backed down.
Meanwhile, the cleaner slimes finished washing the dishes for me.

“Well then, since that’s done, I should also—” [Ryouma]

“There’s a pervert, nyaa!!” [Miya]

“!?” [Ryouma]

Just as I was about to return to removing the fallen trees, Ms. Miya, who had gone ahead for the tree-planting work, burst into the dining room like she was going to smash the door down. That’s fine and all, but what does she mean by ‘pervert’?

“What happened?” [Ryouma]

“An intruder, nyaa! And a noble at that!” [Miya]

But what would a noble be doing all the way out here?
Without thinking, I looked around at Ms. Eleonora next to me, then at Mr. Sebas and Lord Rosenberg, who were still in the dining room. It seemed no one had any idea. I certainly didn’t either.

“Could you tell us the details of the situation?” [Sebas]

“We were heading down the road Ryouma made for planting trees, but midway through to the foot of the mountain, there was a man lying on the ground like he’d collapsed on the road, nyaa.
He was conscious, but he couldn’t hold a proper conversation. I furred he was a noble based off his clothes.” [Miya]

An illegal trespasser then, but since dealing with a noble poorly would be bad, Mr. Yurdum is currently handling him.
The adventurers who were with them are reportedly on standby and keeping watch just in case.

It seems Ms. Miya came to inform me and to get someone other than Mr. Yurdum who could handle a noble.

“A noble collapsed in the middle of these mountains and alone at that?” [Ryouma]

“That is suspicious. There is no information about this area being particularly dangerous or having bandits. It’s hard to imagine a noble collapsing without any attendants. Even before that, Sir Takebayashi’s ropes are strung around the mountain.” [Eleonora]

“When we looked around this morning, we confirmed that the effects were still fully active.
The ropes don’t completely enclose the perimeter, so it is possible to enter from those gaps… but since we prioritized the side with the road when putting up the ropes, the gaps are on the exact opposite side.” [Sebas]

“Even if he followed the ropes in search of an exit and ended up on the road, he would have still had to enter this mountain in the first place. That point alone is suspicious.” [Rosenberg]

“We don’t know why that man is here either, but we need you to come help right away, nyaa!” [Miya]

“Right. Let’s head over there for now.” [Ryouma]

Praying that this wouldn’t turn into a huge pain, we hurried over to where Mr. Yurdum and the others were.