A few days after the graduation ceremony.
In front of me sat a large magic circle.
At first glance, it looked like a stone tablet.
It was a magic circle made by stacking many sheets of A2-sized paper, each face densely covered with drawn magic circle patterns.
There had to be over a hundred sheets.
The edges were framed in wood, and the frame itself incorporated magic circle designs.
It had become, for all intents and purposes, a piece of magical equipment.
Creating this had taken a considerable amount of time.
I helped where I could, but
"Then, shall we begin?"
Nanahoshi spoke from the other side of the magic circle.
They had both contributed to this research as well, so I'd asked them to be present at each stage milestone.
Nanahoshi had initially resisted, but once I pointed out it was her right, she reluctantly agreed.
That was the official reason, of course. The real one was that if Nanahoshi went on another rampage after a failure, we'd need people to hold her down.
And to comfort her, on top of that.
Being comforted by the opposite sex was remarkably effective, no matter how you sliced it.
It might be different between men and women, but at the very least, it had worked for me.
So I'd shower her with praise. I'd roll up to some bar and do the whole "Don Pérignon, por favor!" thing.
With Cliff and Zanoba, the three of us together.
That said, I was confident this time.
Cliff had given his stamp of approval back at the blueprint stage, and Zanoba's technical skills had improved significantly thanks to using the "Zarif Prosthetic Arm."
There would be no failure... probably.
Alright.
"Starting mana infusion."
I placed my hand on the edge of the magic circle.
"......"
I fed mana into it.
Immediately, the mana was drained away as though being dragged.
The consumption was staggering, as expected.
I doubted anyone else could operate this thing.
Come to think of it, that made sense.
Back in the day,
And there were over a hundred of them stacked together.
Thanks to Cliff's contributions, the consumption had been reduced somewhat, so it probably wasn't a hundred times as much, but it easily exceeded ten or twenty times.
"This is taking a while. Maybe we should improve that part too..."
"Shh."
Nanahoshi silenced Cliff's grumbling.
Mana flowed out of me like blood pumping from my heart.
In response, the magic circle began to emit a faint glow.
Nothing felt off.
The mana flow was smooth.
The intricately drawn patterns lit up.
The color of the light shifted.
Yellow, red, blue, white...
A sense of déjà vu washed over me.
I'd seen this light before.
Just before the teleportation incident.
The same kind of light had appeared back then.
What should I do? Should I stop?
If another teleportation incident occurred, Zanoba and Cliff would be caught up in it.
No—if it happened over an even wider area...
Sylphie and
No, it might not even be limited to the school—the whole town, Lucy, everyone...
But there was no premonition of anything happening.
After all, our magic circle didn't have any such function.
We had built up the theory precisely to prevent that from happening.
I could do this.
It was fine. I could do this.
"......!"
The light grew stronger and stronger.
Then the scattered light began converging onto a single point.
Thump.
A small sound.
The mana flow cut off abruptly.
The glow of the magic circle subsided.
"......"
At the center of the magic circle.
There sat a single green object.
A beautiful sphere of green and black.
Lush with moisture, like the Earth itself brimming with water—green and black stripes.
A watermelon.
"We did it."
"We did it!"
Nanahoshi shot to her feet and pumped her fist in a victory pose.
"Congratulations, Master!"
"You did it!"
Zanoba and Cliff burst into applause.
Their faces were beaming with joy.
"All the same, though..."
Cliff approached the watermelon with great interest, poking it with a finger.
"Green and black, huh? What an ominous pattern... Is it safe to pick up? It won't bite or anything, right?"
"Yes, but be careful not to drop it. They're surprisingly fragile."
"Oh... it's actually pretty heavy."
Cliff lifted the watermelon with fascination, turning it this way and that.
But "ominous"?
So this was how the people of this world saw green-and-black stripes—creepy, apparently.
The inside was bright red, of course, but they'd probably still find it unsettling.
Then again, there were plenty of oddly shaped and colored fruits and vegetables in this world too.
If you looked hard enough, you could probably find something watermelon-like.
I was pretty sure I'd seen melons somewhere.
"Hey, Nanahoshi."
"What?"
"Now that I think about it, shouldn't we have summoned a Yubari melon or something?
They were developed through selective breeding, so they wouldn't exist in this world..."
"......Can you actually tell the difference between varieties of selectively bred melons?"
That gave me pause.
The difference between a Prince melon and a musk melon was about the extent of my knowledge.
"I can't really narrow it down that far yet. This time, I was actually planning to summon cabbage."
Nanahoshi made a complicated face as she said it.
This world did have vegetables similar to cabbage.
But could you tell the difference?
Between this world's cabbage and the other world's?
I wasn't a farmer.
Neither was Nanahoshi.
Summoning vegetables had been flawed from the start, hadn't it?
"......"
No. It was fine.
We had followed the theory, conducted the experiment, and produced a result.
Therefore, this was a watermelon.
There was no way to verify whether it was a watermelon from this world, but—
A result was a result. A watermelon was a watermelon.
Calling it a success was no overstatement.
"Hmm, if it's a success, then let us celebrate tonight."
Zanoba seemed uninterested in the watermelon, perhaps because it wasn't shaped like a person.
"Yeah, let's."
Bardigadi, Linea, and Pursena.
The number of people who partied without holding back had dwindled. Feasts were starting to feel a little lonelier.
But there was no point worrying about that.
---
That evening, a feast was held.
Linea and Pursena were absent.
In their place, however,
In terms of headcount, it was the same as without Bardigadi.
We were missing our chief hype person, and my own people now made up the bulk of the group. The atmosphere was a little different because of it, but there was no real problem.
Nanahoshi was drinking like water, cradling
Elinalise listened with a benevolent smile as Nanahoshi talked.
Zanoba and Cliff were deep in conversation with Roxy about something.
Judging by their serious expressions, it was probably about research.
Those three were the studious type, after all.
"Here you go,
"Thanks, Sylphie."
Sylphie had been at my side the whole time, refilling my glass.
"You're not drinking, Sylphie?"
"If I drink, I get all weird, so I'm trying to hold back."
"...Right."
"I'm not staying over tonight, so I have to say goodnight to Lucy properly, you know."
"I know."
Drunk Sylphie was cute, though. The way she'd cling to me without any restraint...
But this restrained version had its own charm. Very wife-and-mother-of-the-household.
As I was thinking this and flirting with Sylphie, Roxy came over.
"Rudy. Might I join you?"
"Sure. What do you need?"
"Just move your chair a little, please."
I pulled my chair aside as instructed, and she perched herself lightly on my knee.
Roxy's parting was right in front of my eyes.
I could feel the weight of her backside on my knee.
What a sight. Magnificent.
Oh, but I shouldn't...
"Roxy. Are you drunk?"
Sylphie asked with a wry smile.
"A little."
Looking at her, Roxy's face was faintly red.
She rarely drank, so what was going on?
Could I witness the rare sight of Roxy letting her guard down?
"Hmm."
Roxy leaned back against my chest.
Her slight weight pressed against me.
I could hear her heartbeat—thump, thump.
Oh.
From this angle, if I tugged at the front of Roxy's robe, I might be able to see inside.
What do I do?
I wanted to look.
Maybe I should get her to drink more first...
"This is nice... You should let me sit on your lap later too, Rudy."
"Of course, Sylphie."
If anything, I wouldn't mind having Roxy on my left knee and Sylphie on my right.
When the three of us had shared a bed the other day, it had been Roxy on the left and Sylphie on the right, and that had been wonderful.
Happiness too great to hold in both hands.
"...Big Brother."
I looked up from my thoughts to find Norn glaring at me.
No good, no good.
I'd been neglecting Norn.
She didn't know many people in this group. She'd met everyone, sure, but wasn't at the level where she could casually chat with them.
She'd been sitting quietly right in front of me this whole time.
"Sorry, Norn. Are you feeling out of place?"
"No, I'm fine. Actually, there was something I wanted to talk about, if that's okay?"
"Sure, what is it?"
I set Roxy down on the adjacent chair and turned to face Norn.
"So, about the student council..."
"Ah, that."
On the day of the graduation ceremony.
Norn had been standing at the very end of the student council members.
The awkward look on her face when she spotted me had been truly memorable.
"Ariel-senpai invited me. She said something like, 'Your grades aren't outstanding, but you have the kind of presence people are drawn to.'"
"I see... Did you know about this, Sylphie?"
"Yeah, I did."
When I asked Sylphie, she nodded.
She'd known.
And when I glanced at Roxy, she clearly knew too, her eyes darting away.
I was the only one left out of the loop.
What a world.
"Sorry. Norn was going to tell you herself, so I kept quiet."
"Oh, right."
Sylphie apologized with a troubled expression.
Maybe she'd skipped the alcohol specifically so she could help smooth things over with Norn.
Norn continued with a complicated look on her face.
"Um, Big Brother. Would it be okay if I officially joined the student council?"
Of course.
I was about to say just that when I stopped myself.
Norn was currently doing two things: swordsmanship training and writing a book.
The book wasn't urgent, and even if she only worked on it once a week—or put it on hold entirely and came back to it in a few years—that would be fine. But swordsmanship required daily practice.
Swordsmanship, plus regular studying.
If student council work was added on top of that, would Norn be able to manage?
Norn wasn't a poor student by any means, but she wasn't exactly top of her class either.
Could she juggle three—or four—things at once?
"Norn."
"Yes?"
"Can you really handle that much?"
"......"
Norn bit her lip.
She'd probably been thinking the same thing—that it might be overwork.
"I'm not opposed to you joining the student council, but I'm worried things might end up half-done."
"I can manage."
"You were the one who insisted on writing the book and training in swordsmanship, you know.
Well, the writing was originally my job anyway, so that's fine.
But what about the swordsmanship? And studying is supposed to get harder starting in the third year."
"I'll do my best with both the studying and the swordsmanship."
She was eloquent enough. But the truth was, a person could only do so much.
Trying to do two things at once meant one of them would suffer.
"Rudy."
Sylphie sent me a concerned look.
"Norn's been doing well so far."
So that was how it was. So far, at least.
But what would happen if this continued for long?
Would she burn out?
"Come to think of it, when did you start helping with the council?"
"The helping part? It's been over a year, I think. Definitely before you left on your trip, Rudy."
"Huh? That's actually a while."
Before my trip.
So that meant even before I started teaching her swordsmanship?
...Wait a second.
"It's fine, Rudy. I guarantee it.
Norn can handle being a student council member properly,
and she won't let anything else slide either."
Sylphie said it firmly.
I see.
It wasn't about whether she could do it—she'd already done it, and was now telling me.
In that case, I couldn't exactly object.
"Is that so... You've been working really hard, Norn."
Even when I wasn't watching, Norn had been giving it her all.
I felt genuinely happy.
It was the kind of happiness that words couldn't quite capture.
"Alright. I don't think I'm the one who needs to give permission anyway, but—granted. Norn, keep up the good work."
"Yes, Big Brother! Thank you!"
Norn nodded energetically.
In the end, it came down to her own effort.
But supporting that effort was the duty of everyone around her.
I'd cheer her on as much as she needed.
Just as I was thinking this, I heard Nanahoshi's voice:
"Let's cut the watermelon."
The watermelon summoned that day was served to everyone midway through the feast.
Compared to what I remembered, it had slightly less sweetness and juice.
It was probably California-grown or something.
Setting the taste aside, the watermelon itself—
When we cut it open, we discovered something.
It was seedless.
Cultivation methods for seedless varieties weren't really practiced in this world.
In other words, the experiment had been a success.
---
The feast was in full swing.
Or rather—it had already passed its peak.
Nanahoshi was singing, Norn was being made to dance, Zanoba had launched into a lecture about dolls directed at Julie, Roxy had gotten drunk and was being tended to by Sylphie, and Cliff was making goo-goo eyes at Elinalise.
The unique, boneless exhaustion that settled in at the tail end of a party.
I let myself sink into a pleasant tipsiness, reclining in my chair.
It felt good.
"...Good work today."
Nanahoshi made her way over to me.
"...Cough, cough..."
She looked a little queasy.
She'd probably overdone it.
She shouldn't have been drinking in the first place while sick.
"Want me to cast some detox on you?"
"...Please."
After I applied detox and healing magic, Nanahoshi seemed to feel somewhat better.
She let out a relieved breath, her face a touch more relaxed.
"Either way, thank you for this. Now I can finally move on to the next stage."
"Yeah."
It had been three years since I started helping with Nanahoshi's research. Time really did fly.
Compared to the first stage, the second and third stages had gone smoothly.
Part of that was thanks to Zanoba and Cliff, but it had also gone far more smoothly than I'd initially expected.
"The fourth stage—was that the one about specifying details of the summoned object?"
"That's right. There's someone who's an expert on that, so I'm planning to go ask them."
The authority on summoning magic, apparently.
"Don't tell me it's
"It's not. Orsted can use summoning too, but it's someone else."
Someone else.
Still, Orsted really could use summoning, huh.
According to the Human God, Orsted could use every technique and art in the world.
Being able to use something and being an expert in it were different things, though.
Developers and users were always different breeds.
"So, I have a proposal."
"What is it?"
"You never got a proper thank-you for the cap experiment, did you?"
"Right, that."
Come to think of it, I'd forgotten to collect on that.
I'd been busy raising Lucy around that time, after all.
When you had everything you needed, you lost your hunger.
"How about I introduce you to that person, combining it as thanks for both times?"
"An introduction?"
"Honestly, I think you'd learn more about summoning magic by learning directly from this person."
Well, I didn't really need to know about inter-world summoning or anything.
It would be convenient to be able to pull things from another world, sure.
I'd love to summon a baby bottle or a stroller for Lucy.
But it wasn't something I desperately needed.
I had more than enough already.
Ordinary summoning magic—I wouldn't mind learning it in principle. There probably wouldn't be many opportunities to use it, so it was pure curiosity.
I was a little curious about what had caused the teleportation incident, but it wasn't a burning need.
"But would this person really be impressive enough to count as thanks for two favors?"
"Yes. They might even be able to help with your mother's memory loss."
"What...?"
Her words made me lean forward involuntarily.
Norn, who had been listening, moved closer.
"Is that true?"
"I can't say for certain, but they've lived for a very long time, so there's a good chance they'd know something."
I thought her recovery was progressing steadily even now.
But when it came to memory, it was hard to say whether things would fully improve.
Even if a complete cure wasn't possible, if I could learn the diagnosis name or hear about similar cases, and combine that with knowledge from my previous life, maybe things could get a little better.
My knowledge from my previous life wasn't much to speak of, but even so, perhaps something could be done.
"Is this the master of Nanahoshi's teacher we're speaking of?"
"If they're someone you're willing to introduce, I'd very much like to meet them as well."
Before I knew it, Zanoba and Cliff had gathered around.
Behind Cliff stood Elinalise, who had been intently kneading Cliff's earlobe for the last little while. I had no idea what she was doing, but she looked happy about it.
"Well... you did help out, so I suppose that's fine."
Nanahoshi made a slightly conflicted face.
Was this someone whose name she shouldn't mention too freely?
"Oh, I'm a little interested too."
While I was thinking along these lines, Sylphie had also joined us.
As for Roxy, she had lined up a chair and was lying down on it.
Norn was watching from a distance beside Roxy—whether out of interest or not, I couldn't tell.
If we went, they'd probably want to come along too.
Seven of us including Nanahoshi.
"Wouldn't it be a problem if too many of us showed up?"
"That shouldn't be an issue. She said up to twelve people would be fine. Even with everyone here, we wouldn't exceed that."
Nanahoshi nodded as though she'd given up on arguing.
At any rate, Zanoba and Cliff would be coming.
Well, even if there was no issue on Nanahoshi's end, I had my own concerns.
"But meeting them would take a long time, wouldn't it?"
How many months on foot?
Using that teleportation ruin might speed things up, but getting there alone took five days.
Ten days round trip.
And then there'd be more travel from there, so I should count on at least a month.
I didn't want to be away from Lucy for that long.
"If you wanted to meet them, you could do it in one day."
"Oh, they live nearby? Have you been meeting up with them from time to time?"
One day.
Two days round trip.
Even with a few nights' stay, I could be home within a week.
I could even bring Lucy along.
"They don't live nearby, and we haven't met up, but there is a way to meet."
Through mana-infused items, presumably.
I'd never seen a telephone-type magic tool, but there had been teleports.
So there was no reason a messaging tool couldn't exist.
Sending a full message apparently took some time, but a simple signal could be transmitted if you prearranged it.
Like a signal flare, essentially.
"I see. So, what's this person's name?"
Nanahoshi furrowed her brow.
She scanned the surroundings, confirmed there were many people about, and gestured for us to lean in closer.
We huddled in, as though sharing a secret.
Nanahoshi spoke in a low voice.
"I'd like you to keep this between us—is that alright?"
She prefaced it with that single line, and everyone nodded.
Nanahoshi said:
"The Dragon King, Pergius."
The name of one of the Three Heroes Who Slew the Demon God, who had led humanity to victory in the Laplace War four hundred years ago.
---
End of Volume 14: Youth Period, Daily Life Arc
Next Chapter
Volume 15: Youth Period, Summoning Arc