Another month had passed.
The seasons turned, and warm weather arrived.
It was my second summer since coming to this town.
It wasn't exactly hot enough to be called summer, but people's clothing had grown lighter.
The schoolgirls and Aisha's maid outfit had switched to short sleeves—easy on the eyes.
Sylphie had also taken to wearing sleeveless shirts and such around the house more often.
She shouldn't have had that kind of casual wear, but apparently she'd been buying them recently for my sake.
Sylphie, showing a lot of skin. Thoroughly refreshing.
Looking at her petite, white shoulders, I naturally wanted to wrap my arms around her from behind.
Great season.
No black bugs showing up to crash-land in this country either.
Speaking of black things, I hadn't seen Bird Gardener around lately.
Where had that guy gone off to?
---
Anyway, quite a few things had changed over the month.
First, it seemed Norn had made friends.
Not just boys—she'd roped in girls from other classes too, and I'd spotted her moving around in a group of about two boys and three girls.
A ten-year-old girl chattering away happily.
These were Norn's first friends ever.
As her older brother, I felt I should at least go introduce myself.
So I told her to bring them over to the house once, but Norn refused.
Apparently, introducing friends to family was a little embarrassing for her.
Either way, it didn't seem like anything weird had happened as a result of me barging into her classroom.
That was a relief.
My relationship with Norn was also on good terms.
The biggest proof of that was—
A few days ago, she'd asked me to help her study.
I'd gotten excited about the proposal.
I was going to pass down every last secret technique in my arsenal.
But then I realized that if I got too carried away, Aisha would probably start sulking.
So I settled on teaching her in the library after school.
About an hour each day.
Reviewing what she'd studied that day and previewing tomorrow's material.
That alone should make a big difference.
Norn was hardworking, but she kept spinning her wheels.
She probably couldn't apply things flexibly.
That said, she wasn't as bad as Eris or Ghislaine.
If she put in the effort, she'd reach an average level soon enough.
"Oh, by the way—Lord Ruigerd is apparently from the Babinos region, but you traveled the Demon Continent, right, Brother? Do you have any idea where it is?"
"Hmm? No idea. I heard it's somewhere near the Begoya region, but I've never been there."
Through studying, Norn and I had reached the point where we could casually chat.
Though whenever Norn opened her mouth, it was almost always about Ruigerd.
The one topic we both had in common was Ruigerd.
Turns out having shared ground really does matter.
I was happy to have someone I could talk about him with.
"I see… What's the Demon Continent like?"
"The monsters are all huge. The culture's pretty different too, but it's not that different from around here, really. People just live there normally."
Norn spoke to me very politely.
Was she the polite-sister type?
She didn't use honorifics when talking to Aisha, so maybe she was calibrating the distance between us.
"Oh—have you heard about Lord Ruigerd's spear, Brother?"
"That, huh. A tale that brings tears to the telling."
"Right… Is there really nothing we can do?"
"…Yeah."
Maybe it was time to push one of those plans of mine forward a bit.
---
Making Spell Tribe figurines and selling them bundled with a book.
That plan was still alive.
That said, Julie's total mana capacity probably wasn't enough for mass production yet.
But making a test batch might be just the right time.
If I was going to write a book about the Spell Tribe, the problem was the writing time.
A few days ago, I'd mastered Intermediate Healing and Intermediate Detoxification magic.
I was good at memorization, but it still took a considerable amount of time.
What should I learn next?
I was planning to take the Advanced Detoxification class, but there wasn't anything else in particular I wanted to learn.
Maybe I should just learn Holy-tier fire or wind?
No—Holy-tier stuff was mostly weather manipulation, which hardly ever came in useful.
It wouldn't hurt to learn, but I wanted something more practical.
Horsemanship, maybe…
While I was thinking that, something came up that was just right.
I decided to allocate my free time to writing.
And while I was at it, I'd have Norn write during her study time too.
A book that laid bare the Spell Tribe's history.
She wasn't great at putting together coherent text, but she'd manage.
Or so I thought, but when it came time to actually write, I had no idea how to go about it.
Should I structure it like a documentary?
Write it like a diary?
First, I'd heard it was best not to try writing a masterpiece right off the bat.
Maybe around ten pages.
Make it look like a copy-pamphlet and attach a figurine for distribution.
Then a light writing style would be best.
Make it good-versus-evil with Laplace as the villain…
Wait—Laplace was hailed as a hero on the Demon Continent, wasn't he?
Making him too much of a villain might ruffle some feathers.
"Brother, what are you doing?"
As I agonized over all this, Norn asked.
"Oh, I was thinking about writing a book praising Ruigerd's great deeds.
But I don't know where to start."
"Hmm…"
Norn said that, but her eyes were fixed on my hands.
On the draft in progress, there was a page titled "The History of Struggles and Persecution of the Great Warrior Ruigerd."
All I'd written so far was roughly one manuscript page's worth—an overview of who Ruigerd was as a person.
Because it was filtered through my rose-tinted glasses, he came across as practically a saint.
"This is all?"
"Mm, not yet. This is just the beginning."
The truth was, I had no idea where to begin writing.
I still remembered his exploits during the Laplace War.
And I knew the history of his subsequent persecution.
But since I'd only heard about it a few years ago, the details were hazy.
Maybe I should have kept notes.
"I—Could I help too, maybe?"
Norn offered hesitantly.
When I asked her about it, she explained that apparently Ruigerd used to sit with her every evening, put her on his knee, pat her head, and tell her stories.
Unbelievable.
Even I'd never sat on Ruigerd's knee—Norn, you little brat, that's not fair.
No, no—that wasn't the point.
"Oh, that'd be great. But don't neglect your studies, okay?"
"Yes!"
And so, Norn and I began working on the book together.
From that day on, Norn started writing down Ruigerd's stories in between study sessions.
Her writing was rough and unpolished in places.
But strangely enough, reading it brought tears to my eyes as I remembered Ruigerd.
That was the kind of writing it was.
Maybe Norn had a gift for writing after all.
Or maybe that was just my brotherly rose-tinted glasses.
But they say mastery follows passion.
If she kept at it, she might grow into a great writer someday.
For now, I decided to only correct grammatical mistakes and watch over her writing efforts.
It looked like what she produced was going to be far more interesting than anything I could write.
---
Anyway, as Norn and I grew closer, Aisha had changed a little too.
Not that anything was different in how she treated Norn.
They still weren't exactly close, but—
Whether because I'd asked her to, she'd stopped looking down on Norn or picking fights as much.
But that kind of worried me.
Maybe she was bottling up what she really wanted to say.
"Aisha. If there's something you want to say, just say it properly, okay?"
I made sure to tell her that.
Just because my relationship with Norn had improved didn't mean I was going to neglect my bond with Aisha.
"Something I want to say?"
"Yeah. Like, 'You're paying too much attention to Norn—pay attention to me instead.'
Or 'Work is hard, I want a day off.' Or 'I want to sleep all day'…"
"You mean, like being selfish?"
Aisha tilted her head with a finger on her chin as she listened.
Adorable.
"Exactly. You're allowed to be a little more selfish, you know.
No need to hold back."
"Selfish… Then, just one thing."
Aisha grinned mischievously.
What was she going to ask for?
Was she after my body?
I'd told her to speak up, but I hadn't promised to grant every request—would she get mad if I said that?
"I want a salary!"
Aisha's words caught me slightly off guard.
"A salary…"
Come to think of it, she'd been working as a maid quite diligently.
It was honestly strange that I hadn't been paying her until now.
Well, we were family, so maybe it wasn't so strange after all.
In other words, this was basically—
An allowance.
She was helping out around the house, so she wanted an allowance.
That was the flow.
"Alright, understood."
I agreed readily.
However, I discussed the amount with Sylphie, and the three of us decided together.
There was a proposal to give her a bit more, but Aisha turned it down.
Refusing because it was too much—was this kid really ten?
In the end, it landed on an amount that was neither too much nor too little.
"What are you planning to buy with your salary?"
Just asking.
Just asking, just asking.
She could buy whatever she wanted, but still.
"Various things."
Aisha's reply was curt.
I did want to know what those "various things" were, though…
As I was thinking that—
"Okay then. Next time I go shopping, please come with me."
She invited me out.
A date.
A date with my little sister.
What a wonderful phrase.
I let Sylphie know I'd be going shopping.
Leaving my wife to work while I went on a date on her day off.
I felt a little guilty.
But she was my sister, so it was fine.
Not cheating.
But what was Aisha planning to buy?
A burly male slave, maybe?
I'd rather not keep someone so coarse-looking in the house.
Not that we didn't already have a giant, dark, strong guy who occasionally showed up to mooch meals.
Though he hadn't been coming around lately either.
The day of the "date."
Aisha headed for a general goods store.
A small shop in the corner of the market, stocked with everyday sundries.
The place was crammed with merchandise, yet there were no customers.
It gave the impression of being full of old, worn things.
There, Aisha bought about three small flowerpots.
"What are you going to do with those—drop them on the head of some Demon King walking by?"
"No, I just thought it'd be nice to grow flowers. Is that weird?"
Aisha looked up at me with those upturned eyes as she asked.
My answer was obvious.
"Not weird at all."
But I hadn't exactly imagined Aisha growing flowers.
My image of Aisha was an energetic genius girl.
Her favorite things were cleaning, bookkeeping, and cost-benefit analysis.
That was the picture I had.
Gardening was something you enjoyed at a leisurely pace.
You relied on nature's power and took things slowly and carefully.
Even a genius would have plenty of things that didn't go according to plan.
No—maybe that was exactly why gardening was appealing.
Because it didn't go the way you wanted, it was interesting.
"Shouldn't you buy some soil too? The dirt around here is pretty poor—not great for gardening."
"…I was actually hoping to have Big Brother conjure some with magic. Is that not okay?"
Upturned eyes again.
My answer was obvious.
"Sure, no problem."
As a guy, I loved tilling soil and sowing seeds too.
I'd prepare some amazing dirt—the kind where a tulip seed would grow into a baobab tree.
"What about seeds?"
"I collected a little here and there during my travels."
"Wild ones might not sprout, you know."
"Hmm, I'm pretty sure they'll be fine."
While chatting like that, we browsed the shop at random.
I also bought a pair of earrings as a souvenir for Sylphie.
Teardrop-shaped, with a blue stone.
They'd surely look great on her.
"That for Sylphie?"
"Mm. I'm a man who cherishes his wife."
"Sylphie's so lucky. Big Brother, if you have free time, please take me on a date too."
Upturned eyes.
My answer was obvious.
"No way—her dad would punch me."
"Tch…"
After wrapping up that conversation and paying the bill, we left the general goods store.
Next stop was a shop specializing in textiles.
A place with a huge selection of hand-woven, scroll-like fabrics.
It was the shop Ariel had recommended when I'd been buying carpets for my house—good selection, wide price range, and not exclusively high-end.
A broad, practical kind of store.
Where had Aisha gotten intel on a place like this?
There, Aisha bought curtains.
Pink, frilly ones—on the pricier side.
Aisha haggled for all she was worth.
She dropped my name, dropped Ariel's name, used every card she had.
Even so, the final price was still a little steep.
"Want me to chip in a bit?"
"Nope, I'm fine—it's exactly right!"
And she bought them for precisely the amount of her remaining allowance.
She'd spent every last coin—down to the exact amount I'd given her.
Shrewd business sense—or was it something slightly terrifying?
"You should keep a little in reserve, just in case.
You never know when something might come up."
I offered that advice anyway.
You never knew what could happen, or when.
You might get teleported to the Demon Continent without warning.
Actually, I myself hid money in every conceivable place on my body.
The soles of my shoes, for instance.
"I'll do that next time!"
Even so—flowerpots and pink frilly curtains.
I'd always pictured her as a genius, but maybe her aesthetic sensibility was that of a normal girl.
"I've always wanted something cute like this."
"Couldn't Lillia get them for you?"
"Mom said no. She said maids shouldn't be buying furniture for personal taste… Is that not okay?"
Aisha was both a master of the puppy-dog look and genuinely clever.
Upturned eyes plus the move where she hugged my waist.
My answer was obvious.
"Not okay at all."
If I'd been the creepy old-man type, I'd have spirited her away right then and there.
Ever since that "date," Aisha's room had filled up with girly little things.
Aisha, it turned out, loved small knickknacks.
Growing little flowers in little pots,
Arranging fist-sized dolls on shelves…
Before I knew it, she'd embroidered a tiny design on the corner of her apron—she had a sensitivity for fashion too.
Would she become a gal someday?
I was an older brother who worried, just a little.
That was how things were with my two sisters.
---
Nanahoshi had also regained her composure.
In her last experiment, she'd summoned a "plastic bottle."
Currently, that plastic bottle sat on the windowsill of her lab, repurposed as a single-flower vase.
Building on that success, the research moved to the next phase.
"Next, I'm going to summon an 'organic material' from the other world."
Nanahoshi declared.
"Organic?"
"Yes, organic. Food would be ideal."
Maybe Nanahoshi's trust in me had gone up after last time.
She laid out the stages of the research going forward.
1. Summon "inorganic materials."
2. Summon objects made of "organic materials."
3. Summon "living things"—plants or small animals.
4. Summon with "fine-tuned conditions" targeting beings from this world.
5. Finally, conduct an experiment to "send summoned beings back to their original location."
The plastic bottle hadn't strictly been inorganic, so some adjustments had been necessary, but she said those were minor.
"Is that, the 'fine-tuning' really necessary?"
"Yes. If we just sent them back randomly, they could end up shipped off to a foreign country, couldn't they?"
In short, the goal was to gradually make the summoning target closer to a human being,
and ultimately pinpoint their return to Japan.
That was all there was to it, really.
Incidentally, she said that some degree of conditioning was already possible in current summoning.
But it was rough, and individual variation crept in.
For instance, if you summoned under the condition of "cat,"
you might get a calico, a tabby, a tiger, or a leopard.
She was going to research narrowing that down further.
Making sure a cat family member came out as a domestic cat,
and then identifying even more precise subcategories within cats.
"To research this conditioning, I'll need to meet with that person again."
Nanahoshi murmured.
"That person"—she meant that summoning magic authority, presumably.
"Does that person know a lot about conditioning?"
"Well…"
Nanahoshi rested her chin in her hand and thought for a moment,
then nodded and began explaining.
"I'll explain. In this world, summoning magic is divided into two types: magical beast summoning and spirit summoning."
"Oh."
Magical beast summoning, she explained, involved summoning monsters.
You'd use a magic circle to summon a highly intelligent monster, then command it by providing some form of compensation.
It was exactly what we generally thought of as "summoning magic."
The beings that could be called through magical beast summoning spanned a wide range.
From common monsters in the area to legendary creatures said to inhabit other worlds.
And of course, it wasn't limited to living things.
In fact, the plastic bottle from the other day technically fell under magical beast summoning.
Objects could be summoned too.
Master this, and you could probably summon the panties Roxy was wearing or something like that.
Spirit summoning, on the other hand, was a different color entirely.
Spirit summoning was magic that "created" beings called spirits using mana.
You were creating a being out of mana.
Apparently it was closer to programming.
"But you probably shouldn't go spreading this around."
"Why not?"
"Because the common belief is that spirits exist in a void realm and are called forth from there."
So it was treated the same way as magical beast summoning, publicly.
Magical beasts were hard to control but could think and act on their own, with room for versatility.
Spirits were easy to control but could only perform the same set actions.
However, if you programmed them with complex instructions, they could supposedly move almost like humans.
She said she'd actually seen such a spirit in action.
At "that person's" place.
"I see."
"Changing the subject a bit—this is the magic circle I mentioned before."
Nanahoshi handed over a scroll.
Within a single sheet roughly the size of Japanese letter paper, a finely detailed magic circle had been drawn.
"This is?"
"The summoning magic circle for the Spirit of Light."
The Spirit of Light was a spirit that emitted a gentle glow and followed behind the caster.
It would obey simple commands like "light up over there,"
but after a while, it would run out of mana and vanish.
A rather fragile existence, apparently.
The more mana you invested, the longer it lasted.
But still—kind of underwhelming.
As a reward for the first phase of the experiment, it felt a bit stingy…
"That magic circle is an original by that person I mentioned—nobody at the magic guild can use it."
"Oh, really."
Nothing got a Japanese person's heart racing like hearing "limited edition."
"If you succeed in the next experiment, I'll give you something even more impressive. So please—help me out."
Nanahoshi put her palms together.
A nostalgic gesture.
Of course, I had no intention of abandoning Nanahoshi midway.
"If you used your earth magic to make something like a woodblock print, I think you could mass-produce them. Take those blocks to the magic guild and they should sell for a decent price."
"Sell them? Won't the original creator get upset about that?"
"She's not petty enough to get angry over something like that."
Still—a woodblock print.
The magic circle didn't have to be hand-drawn then?
"If you sell them to the magic guild, mention my name. That way, nobody will try to scam you."
"Got it."
And so, I gained a new source of income.
Come to think of it—all spirits were artificial?
This seemed to have some connection to Zanoba's research too.
If you fused them together, you might even end up with a robot going "hwaa-hwaa."
My imagination ran wild.
"Oh, right—if we randomly summoned inorganic materials from our world, wouldn't something good turn up eventually?"
The idea occurred to me, and I threw it out there.
Nanahoshi shook her head.
"Even with inorganic materials, at this stage we can only summon things composed of a single material. Though given that we managed the plastic bottle, I'd say the range is fairly broad."
A single material.
The plastic bottle hadn't had a cap or label attached.
But if we researched conditioning first, maybe we could summon individual parts and assemble them.
"Oh, and I think I mentioned this before, but bringing things from our world into this one is… not really advisable."
The kind of thing about changing history.
"Seems like overthinking to me."
"If you feel that way, try it after I've gone home. I'm not getting involved."
Fair enough.
Well, can't be helped.
---
Speaking of Zanoba—
The red dragon figurine had finally been completed.
It had horns on its forehead that the real dragon I'd seen didn't have, but it looked cool, so I'd take it.
It had taken a long time, but Julie was delighted.
She wasn't the type to smile much, but she held it up, looked at it from below, and let out an awestruck "Ooooh!"
"Master! Grand Master! Thank you so much!"
Julie said that and, with somewhat awkward but elegant gestures, bowed her head.
"Mm—keep up the good work from now on too."
Zanoba nodded grandly.
He looked every bit the authority.
Julie also nodded, looking happy.
"Yes!"
Come to think of it, Julie's human language had gotten quite good.
It wasn't so much that I was a good teacher—it was that Ginger corrected her phrasing every chance she got.
Sure enough, correcting mistakes right when they happened helped her remember better.
"That's wonderful, Julie. Make sure you take good care of it."
"Ginger, I thank you as well."
Ginger was always stationed at the edge of the room,
carrying drinks to Zanoba or handling visitors.
She'd rented an apartment near the school, hadn't she?
I'd told her she could use the guard room next to Zanoba's quarters,
but she'd refused, saying it was presumptuous to sleep beside Lord Zanoba.
Less a knight and more like a commuting wife.
Or maybe a zealot.
If told to die, she'd probably joyfully open her own belly.
"Something wrong?"
"I was just wondering why Ginger is so loyal to Zanoba."
When I asked casually, Ginger nodded as if to say "finally, someone asked."
"I was told personally by Lord Zanoba's mother to look after him.
At that moment, I swore an oath: to serve Lord Zanoba with my life and bones."
"Oh, that's quite the beautiful story… And then?"
"That's it, really?"
Just that, and she'd endured terrible treatment while keeping her oath of loyalty?
No—maybe that was what it truly meant to be loyal.
If a little pushback was enough to shake your loyalty, you were better off without it.
Wait.
Come to think of it, I'd read something like this in a manga once.
Feudal societies were composed of a minority of sadists and a majority of masochists, or something to that effect.
Was Ginger a masochist?
Thinking about it that way, I could almost understand.
Though it probably wasn't that crude in reality.
---
Cliff's research was also showing progress.
Apparently, the first prototype of a magical device to suppress the symptoms of the curse was complete.
Cliff came to me looking like he'd hit the jackpot.
"You channel external mana in to cancel out the internal mana.
It can't suppress it completely, but it can extend the limit several times over."
He gave me a complicated explanation about synchronizing external mana with internal mana and doing something with the curse mana in Elinalise's womb.
As for the theory, it had that same self-aggrandizing quality that everything Cliff said carried, so I'll spare the details.
In short, it could alleviate the symptoms of the curse.
"But there are two problems."
Saying that, Cliff showed me the device.
It looked like a thick mawashi—the kind sumo wrestlers wore—with a front flap attached.
Depending on your perspective, it could pass for a diaper.
"So—one problem is that it's ugly, huh."
"Exactly. I can't put something like this on Rise."
That issue had reportedly caused a rare argument between Cliff and Elinalise.
Elinalise said she didn't care about such things, but Cliff wouldn't budge.
He just couldn't stand the idea of his girlfriend looking uncool.
A very Cliff-ish reason—I was oddly reassured.
For the record, they'd made up after staying up all night.
A lovey-dovey couple.
"Thanks to Zanoba and Silent's help, we've made progress toward miniaturization. The effect is still limited, but for a genius like me, it's no sweat."
The goal was panty-sized, apparently.
I wasn't sure how small it could actually get,
but if they could shrink it down to the size of a glove, even Zanoba might be pleased.
He'd be able to make figurines with his own hands again.
Well, he was pretty clumsy to begin with, so even without the curse it might not work out.
"And the second problem?"
Cliff made a bitter face.
"That's actually why I called you here, Rudeus."
"Oh?"
"The truth is, this device consumes too much mana."
Mana consumption.
A magical device activated when the user channeled mana into it.
But this one's consumption was so high that it wasn't practical.
Ideally, the wearer could keep it on indefinitely with manageable drain.
But as it stood, even Cliff's mana pool couldn't sustain it for more than an hour—let alone Elinalise's.
"I'm going to keep making improvements, and each time I'd like you to help test it.
We can only run so many experiments in a single day."
"Understood. Leave it to me."
Cliff called himself a genius, and he did have a relatively large mana reserve to back it up.
Even so, it was nowhere near enough.
My turn, then.
And so, from that day on, I joined Cliff's experiments.
Incidentally, this magical device—
Did not suppress arousal.
---
Lately, I'd been living a good life.
Wake up in the morning, do my training.
Eat breakfast.
Go to school, meet up with Zanoba, meet up with Cliff.
Listen to the progress on their research, occasionally offer what advice I could.
After lunch, meet with Nanahoshi and help with her experiments,
then after school, teach Norn for about an hour.
On the way home, go shopping with Sylphie,
and when I got back, be greeted by Aisha.
Take a bath with Sylphie, eat dinner with all three of us.
Then chat while doing magic training together.
Put Aisha to bed, then make a baby with Sylphie.
And holding Sylphie as my body pillow, fall into a deep sleep.
Each day was a little different, but I was living—one step at a time, moving forward.
This kind of life was probably what people called "happiness."
Something I'd never been able to obtain in my previous life.
In about a year, Paul would come back,
and then—surely, things would only get happier.