Magic is something those who can't use it look upon with longing.
Before I despaired over my own lack of talent, I wanted to become a Mage too, and after the first aptitude test back in our hometown when they told me flat-out that I had no talent for magic, I trailed after Lucia endlessly as she discovered her aptitude as a Mage and threw herself into training.
Back when I was still ignorant, magic was a miracle that made anything and everything possible.
I know now that's not how it works, but I was just a kid back then, so I'd gleefully shove my self-proclaimed "Ultimate Magic Compendium" onto my sister to bug her, craft my own homemade staff and sulk if she didn't use it—basically acting out however I pleased.
Lucia was serious and studious, so even while pulling a face she'd do her best, combining existing spells to reproduce the "Ultimate Magic Compendium" I'd dreamed up.
I'd clap my hands gushing "amazing, amazing!" and then nitpick every detail, which earned me a punch from Lucia.
Now I truly feel awful about all that.
Well, none of that childish nonsense is directly related to any of this—but before long, she'd mastered immense mana reserves, vast magical knowledge, and countless original spells, becoming one of Zebuldea's most celebrated Mages.
Meanwhile, I lost interest in magic and became obsessed with Treasure Weapons—things I could actually use myself.
Citry brought over a small glass jar and carefully dropped in the tiny Tino.
The pitch-black frog sat inside the transparent jar, gazing up at me with glistening eyes.
"This should be fine now..."
No, I really don't think it's fine at all...
I lift the jar holding the now impossibly shrunken Tino, eyes wide, and furrow my brow.
"'Secrets of the Witch's Art , Frog Edition'... so you actually completed it?"
This was precisely that spell I'd read about in fairy tales as a kid, wanted to see with my own eyes, and was told flatly by Lucia was impossible.
It appeared in the third or fourth volume of the Ultimate Grimoire I'd designed myself. She'd torn it apart—saying such magic doesn't exist, asking what about conservation of mass, telling me to think about ethics, pointing out that even if you could transform something, there was no way to reverse it.
And now, after so many years, I was seeing it with my own eyes. Facing it in reality, I honestly didn't know how to react.
"...Can you turn him back?"
"Ribbit!?!"
"I think it's fine as is? He's very cute like this, after all..."
"Ribbit! Ribbit ribbit ribbit!"
Citry was saying something outrageous.
For an Alchemist , frogs were supposed to be potion ingredients.
The Tino-frog was slapping desperately at the glass wall.
Could the Divine Creation Potion fix this...? Hmm...
For that matter, I didn't even understand why Lucia would fly into a rage and turn Tino into a frog in the first place.
Lucia and Tino got along like real sisters. Lucia's draw in the lottery of siblings compared to her smart sisters was weak, so Tino had always been particularly attached to her.
Citry clapped her hands together with a beaming smile, looking like she'd just had a brilliant idea.
"Why don't we go greet Lucia! Her mood might improve a little!"
"I'd love to, but we're stuck in here..."
If Lucia and the others were here, it might be better not to move.
Lucia was strong. In the Mourning Specter , she was a Level 6 Mage —second only to Anthem at Level 7 (and very close to that, at that). Her power was especially devastating in group-versus-one battles, and (par for the course for a Mage) she held the highest kill score in our Party.
Every class had its matchups. Against a horde of Thieves, Lucia should be able to dispatch them easily. She could take them out or put them to sleep.
No—if Lucia was here, then Luke and the others must be too. Anthem and Elisa were one thing, but Luke... as long as he didn't go too far.
The Tino-frog, the same color as Tino's hair, slapped the jar and looked at me with pleading eyes.
Fine. Citry was here too, and we'd manage the Thieves somehow.
Just as I stood up, the door burst open and Arnold came charging into the room.
His armor was spattered with blood—he'd clearly been fighting hard—but his expression was completely different from when he'd left. He was pale as if he'd seen a demon.
"Hah... hah... hah... ah... ah... Krai. This place is... bad. I don't know what's happening... but... what the hell is going on?"
Muttering incoherently, his thick arm extended, and the fist clenched before my eyes slowly opened.
Inside were seven colorful frogs.
...This is bad. Tino's in there.
§ I wandered the streets collecting the dazed, ribbiting frogs into a basket, circling around the inn's vicinity.
The collection crew was Kirukilu—one of Citry's magical creatures. Whenever it spotted a frog, it would pick it up and toss it into the basket.
Kirukilu was in top form today. Its gray, sickly-looking body was in fact absurdly well-developed, and its bright-red boomerang pants stood out like a sore thumb. The paper bag on its head, the token ribbon—no wonder Citry had once said it would get nabbed if you took it outside. All very understandable.
Apparently when it was taken for a walk normally, Lucia used illusion magic to hide its appearance—but when it had come charging out at high speed the moment we tried to leave the inn, even I, who had seen Kirukilu before, found it a hundred times more terrifying than any Thief.
Citry had run over with a smile on her face. Her sense of normalcy really was a bit off.
And since Kirukilu served under Luke's group, it confirmed that Luke and the others had indeed arrived in this town.
Setting aside why they'd come all the way here, the timing couldn't have been better—we'd been in a real pinch.
Arnold, already pale from having his companions turned into frogs, had the final nail hammered in by Kirukilu's appearance. His soul was completely gone.
He seemed to have gone entirely past the point of comprehension. Reverently placing his companions into bottles, he trudged along behind me.
It wasn't just around the inn—frog choruses were erupting all over the city of Surus.
Apparently, Lucia hadn't been targeting Tino specifically. Her magic had been indiscriminate. The scale was completely beyond what I knew of her abilities.
Before I could be impressed, I was terrified.
"As expected of Lucia... she must have drunk a whole lot. She's got quite the headache now, I bet."
"...What do you think I did wrong?"
"I... think it's because you told her to deal with the Thief gang when she came expecting to soak in hot springs on vacation."
That's not on me. Go tell the Thieves.
"...If only the Gradius Order had made it in time. Useless lot, honestly. Wasn't the request supposed to be joint?"
Well, I never actually intended to accept it.
Frogs were scattered all over the city, but here and there among them were people who hadn't been transformed—who remained human.
Moreover, none of them appeared to be Thieves. They were all unarmed, wandering around in confusion, calling for help.
Listening in, it seemed they'd been captured by the Thieves, who had then vanished without warning.
"Is there some kind of condition?"
"I think it only targets combatants. It excludes non-combatants."
"How?"
"Well... Lucia did complain that Krai had made an unreasonable demand—asking her to create a spell that wouldn't affect ordinary people..."
...I did say that. Yeah, I definitely said that.
It was for the Treasure Weapon I possess, the one that can store a single spell— Yearning for a Foreign Land .
Yearning for a Foreign Land , as a Treasure Weapon, simply releases whatever spell has been stored in it—meaning the caster can't control things like the area of effect. So I'd asked her if there was any way to craft a spell that would only affect combatants.
"I heard she distinguishes targets by Mana Material density. Arnold didn't change because resistance to transformation-type spells is actually quite easy to build up compared to, say, poisons. As expected—you're everything I saw in you! Arnold!"
"...Yeah."
I see... so that was why it didn't work on me either, even though my Mana Material levels were on par with a regular civilian's.
Citry's praise was met with nothing from Arnold—just an exhausted murmur. I'd try to comfort him later, if I got the chance.
Still... with Lucia, I wasn't too worried—but if we couldn't turn everyone back, we'd be criminals on a level that made the Barrel look like a joke.
There'd probably be weird rumors again. Gaark would definitely call me in, and I felt like throwing up.
The basket was about half-full of frogs. As we approached the city gate, Ririzu suddenly came flying in from midair.
Without even time to cry out, she kicked Arnold aside, spun in the air, and launched herself at me. Way too free-spirited.
Arnold let out a strange yelp from the surprise attack and tumbled across the ground.
I caught her slight body. Ririzu pressed her cheek flush against mine and called out cheerfully: "Krai! I'm! Hooooome!"
"...You're not exactly just getting back, are you."
That happened the other day at White Wolf's Den too.
"Don't worry about the details!"
I felt a rapid heartbeat from her chest pressed against me. Her hand traced gently along my back, and the grinning Citry pulled me away by my tied-up hair.
And then, for the first time, I spotted Anthem's massive head poking over the top of the gate, along with Luke putting on a one-man stage show—wielding an axe and a greatsword in each hand against the giant, armed with nothing but a wooden stick. I waved and shouted out loudly.