There's a part in the story with a huge sense of incongruity, but please don't worry too much about it.
Second post today.
When I woke up, I tried to give magic power to the egg just as I'd been advised in the dream, but...
"How the heck am I supposed to do that?"
I'd forgotten to ask the crucial detail, stumbling right at the start.
For now, I tried channeling magic power using the same sensation as when imbuing magic into items.
"Oh, it moved!"
I don't know if this is the right way, but I figured I'd try continuing with this method for now.
I've only just started exploring the dungeon, but for the time being, I think I'll stop delving and focus on continuously giving magic power to the egg. I modified a cloth bag to feel like a backpack, slung it over my shoulder, and placed the egg inside.
Today's plan is to gather ingredients for making sweets.
There were still some ingredients left in my bag, but I felt insecure about it, so I decided to stock up on this occasion.
The nearby general store didn't have a great selection, so I asked a passerby for directions to a large trading company nearby.
The name on the sign read "J Trading Company." It vaguely reminded me of a certain person, but I ignored that and went inside.
"Welcome! Is there something we can help you find?"
I asked the employee who came to assist me about the ingredients I needed for making sweets and where I might find other useful items, then began browsing.
Once I'd gathered a fair amount, I went to look at the spices and found something.
"Um, what is this?"
I was pointing at something that looked like the dried branch of a tree.
The employee
"Ah, these are vanilla branches, yes. They're used to infuse fragrance into things like alcohol."
They opened the lid and offered me a whiff, and sure enough, they were exactly what I recognized as vanilla beans.
"I'll take these too."
With that, I bought every last one they had in stock.
The fragrance was weaker than what I remembered from my previous life, but catching that familiar scent of vanilla after so long made me desperately crave ice cream.
So I decided to pick up some additional tools and ingredients for making ice cream as well.
After returning to the room, I broke the vanilla branches into pieces and steeped them in warm milk.
In addition, I took out the remaining Rock Bird eggs from my bag and separated them into yolks and whites.
There were still a few eggs left, so I took out two and gave them Magic Power the same way I had with the egg on my back. After that, I had Slarin warm them... Asking a Slime to warm something sounded ridiculous, but Slarin had learned Fire Magic and could now cast a spell on itself to heat its body, essentially becoming a living hot water bottle of sorts. Incidentally, I had it set the temperature to roughly match my own body heat. Regular chicken eggs would have called for a lower temperature, but the Rock Bird I'd hunted before had a body temperature around that range, so I figured it was just an experiment and it didn't really matter.
After that, it was mostly up to Slarin — I just periodically injected Magic Power and flipped the eggs over.
I alternated between pouring Wind-attribute Magic Power into the Rock Bird eggs and Non-attribute and Light-attribute Magic Power into the egg on my back.
By now the vanilla fragrance should have infused into the milk, so I removed the vanilla branches and began cooking.
First, I mixed the egg yolks with sugar, vanilla-infused milk, and melted butter. Once it had turned into a nice gooey mixture, I sifted in flour while stirring and continued to mix.
Next, I whipped the egg whites to make meringue. Once they were stiff enough to hold peaks, I folded them into the previous mixture.
Being careful not to deflate the meringue too much, I poured the batter into molds.
I used metal cups as substitutes for molds, greased the insides with butter, poured in the batter, tapped out the air bubbles, and then all that was left was to bake them!
However, since there was no oven here, I used the pizza oven I had built during my travels.
I heated the inside of the pizza oven thoroughly with magic, then simply placed the batter-filled cups inside.
All that remained was to bake them for about twenty minutes.
In the meantime, I moved on to the next task.
I put sugar into egg whites and whipped up a meringue.
Next, I dissolved honey into milk, then sifted in flour and baking soda.
Once those were mixed together, I folded in the meringue I'd made first. I had to be careful not to deflate it this time too.
After that, I just had to butter a square metal pan, pour in the batter, and tap out the air bubbles — and the prep was done.
The first batch of sweets should be about done by now, so I pulled them out and poked them with a skewer—
"Looks good — the batter's baked through properly."
Just to be safe, I rearranged the cups inside and baked them for another two minutes. Once I pulled them from the oven, I let them cool a bit before stowing them in my bag.
I heated the oven up once more, this time putting in the square pan.
This batch would bake for about thirty minutes, rotating positions now and then. Once they were done, I let them cool briefly before putting them in the bag too.
Right then, I thought I felt the egg shift behind my back. I hurried to check, but it didn't seem like it was about to hatch yet.
It had been moving around a lot more lately, though, so the hatching had to be close.
I stepped outside on a whim—
"Oh."
My eyes met with Amy, who had been peering in at me.
"Sorry! Something smelled really good, so..."
Once I'd stepped outside, I noticed it too — a sweet fragrance was indeed drifting from my room.
So I decided to share some of the sweets I'd set aside in my bag — the ones for myself (which double as treats for Shiromaru) — with Amy.
I invited her up to the room, and as I was getting the sweets ready—
"Tenma! The egg—!"
At her words, I looked over at the bed... and sure enough, the Rock Bird's egg had hatched.
"Wow! We just started warming them!"
The speed was staggering, but with two chicks sitting right in front of us, there was no point just standing around gawking.
"First, we need to clear the shells away and make them a nest..."
The chicks were under twenty centimeters long, so I grabbed a box about fifty centimeters wide that was inside the Magic Bag, lined it with scraps of cloth, and turned it into a makeshift nest.
"Oh, right—Amy. Do you feel anything when you look at these little ones?"
"Yes! They're adorable!"
Looks like I worded that wrong. I regrouped and tried again.
"No, I mean—do you feel any sort of connection through Magic Power?"
She tilted her head at that question, but then said,
"I feel like... something warm coming from the two of them..."
That settled it—Amy most likely had the makings of a Tamer.
When I told her as much, Amy lit up and eagerly asked how to form a contract, but I said,
"Go talk to your mothers first."
She hurried off to her house. In the meantime, I tidied up the room—which really just meant stowing everything into the Magic Bag—and waited.
Before long, Amy came back with Karina and Arie in tow.
"Are you really sure this child has the talent to be a Tamer?"
That was the very first thing Karina asked. I wasn't exactly an expert on taming—certainly not confident enough to lecture anyone on the subject—but
"As long as what Amy felt isn't her imagination, then yes, she has the talent for taming."
If her experience matched what I had felt, she would satisfy the conditions.
The conditions for taming were talent, enough Magic Power to form a contract, and compatibility.
That was what I'd been taught — that when all of those conditions were met, you could turn a Monster into a Familiar.
Having explained all of that, I added one more thing.
"However, I can't guarantee that Amy will be able to fully control the Rock Bird."
Whether Amy — who had never practiced controlling or channeling Magic Power before — could force the Rock Bird to obey her in a pinch was anyone's guess.
At those words, Amy's shoulders slumped.
"That said, it's not impossible."
"What do you mean?"
Karina asked on Amy's behalf.
"Have you heard of imprinting?"
"I believe it's when creatures like geese come to think of the first moving thing they see as their parent, right?"
Karina answered.
"Yes, that's exactly right. But whether imprinting will work on a Rock Bird — I can't say for sure."
The three of them looked at me as if to ask "Then why bring it up?", so I continued.
"What I'm saying is, there's another kind of imprinting — one where Amy raises the chicks herself from a young age and teaches them to recognize Amy as their parent. By feeding them, disciplining them, and giving them Magic Power while they're still small, the chicks will come to believe that Amy is the one taking care of them, their parent."
The plan was a double-imprinting strategy: if the bird imprinting worked, great. If it didn't, we'd bank on the second possibility — the familiar imprinting — and make the chicks Amy's Familiars either way.
"Giving them Magic Power will take practice, of course. But fortunately, Amy is still in a growth phase, so depending on how she trains, it's entirely possible for her to develop a decent amount of Magic Power."
At those words, Amy's face brightened. On the other hand, Karina and Ari fell deep into thought.
"Tenma, would you teach me how to practice using Magic Power?"
Karina asked, looking anxious.
"I can't sit with you through every session, but I'll look after you until you've got the basics down. Besides, the method I'm planning to teach is the same one I was actually taught when I was four years old, so there's virtually no danger involved. At worst, you'd pass out from overexerting your Magic Power."
At those last words, the two looked worried, but Amy herself was
"I'm counting on you!"
so fired up that they reluctantly agreed.
"Amy, I'm telling you upfront — I'm only going to teach you the basics. I can't take responsibility for anything beyond that. And just because you've learned the basics doesn't mean you get to play at being an adventurer. If you won't follow the rules, I won't teach you."
I laid it out clearly for Amy. Adventurers who die are generally considered to have accepted their own risk.
But if I taught a child the fundamentals of magic and she got cocky and got herself killed, I couldn't bear that responsibility.
So, as a condition for teaching her the basics, I stated upfront that I had no intention of teaching her if she planned to play adventurer, and Amy listened in front of her mother and grandmother.
However, Amy declared
"I'm gonna become an adventurer and go dungeon-diving with Dad!"
So when I asked Karina and Alie once more,
"It can't be helped. Maybe it's better to let her try rather than stopping her in some strange way... If she's with her father, the danger should be much less..."
they gave half-resigned permission.
"But you have to tell your father yourself!"
came the condition.
"And one more thing — if Amy gives up or can't learn Magic Power manipulation, these chicks are going to become meat."
"What?!"
Amy stared at me blankly, but I pressed on without hesitation.
"Think about it. They're cute, but I don't need Rock Birds as Familiars. And even if it was by chance, I'm the one who hatched them — so if Amy can't control them, the Rock Birds are just Monsters. Before they can hurt anyone, it'll be my responsibility to put them down myself."
Understood? I may have been a little cruel, but I wanted Amy to understand my resolve.
"That's why Amy needs to keep that in mind while she practices."
"I understand! I'll absolutely make sure no one kills these kids!"
She declared her resolve to me with what could almost be taken as hostility.
"Then let's get started right away. Before that, I need to step out for a bit, so change into some clothes that can get dirty and prepare a bucket of water while you wait."
With that, I ran off toward the Guild.
The reason was that I was originally supposed to deliver the sweets to Lina tomorrow, but since I'd be teaching Amy the basics of magic, I wanted to minimize the gap as much as possible — so I figured I'd try to hand them over today if I could.
However, things didn't go as planned, and Lina wasn't at the Guild.
Just to be safe, I headed to the dungeon entrance, and luck was on my side — Lina and the others were just about to head inside.
"Hey, Lina!"
Some people around turned to look at the voice, but I ran over without paying them any mind.
"What's up, Tenma?"
The first to greet me was Garat, who was standing closest. I explained the situation and tried to give Lina the sweets when—
"Everyone, something urgent just came up!"
She said that and tried to drag me away, so—
"Wait just a minute!"
Menace grabbed her by the collar.
I heard a sound like "Gueh," but I deliberately pretended not to notice.
"You—! Which do you think is more important, sweets or dungeon exploration!"
"Of course, the sweets! ...Ah."
She blurted it out almost instinctively, and Lina made an awkward face.
"Well said, Lina... Now sit down."
"Um~ the floor here is stone tiles, you know..."
She protested something along those lines, but—
"Sei·za!"
Caving to Menace's overwhelming force, she reluctantly sat in seiza.
I told her it didn't matter and left the sweets with Menace.
As expected of a top-class party, Jin and the others all apparently carried Magic Bags.
"All right, I've officially handed them over!"
I raised my hand in farewell and quickly left the scene. From behind, I could hear Lina's voice—
"Heartless~ Traitor~ I'll curse you~"
Something like that drifted after me, but after a loud "thud" sound, the voice was no longer audible.
While silently praying for her soul (note: she's not dead), I left the dungeon.
Waiting for me upon my return to the room was an enthusiastic Amy.
"Let's start right away!"
Amy rolled up her sleeves and had a headband tied around her forehead. She was quite fired up, but—
"Okay, I'll teach you, so—"
I said, waving my hand over a bucket filled with water, creating ripples on the surface.
"First, try doing what you imagine."
She looked slightly deflated at those words, then quickly waved her hands and started groaning.
"Hah!"
Thirty minutes later—
"Yaaah!"
1 Hour Later
"Uryaah!"
2 Hours Later
"Unyuu!"
3 Hours Later
"Why! Why won't it budge an inch?!"
"Well, it is just water, you know."
"I don't mean it like that!"
I ended up getting scolded for being snarky. Amy kept glaring at me from there,
"Why won't you teach me?!"
she asked, still angry.
"Well, you never once said 'teach me', so..."
I said coolly. Those words left even Karina and the others, who had come to check on us, dumbfounded.
"If you don't know what to ask, you need to say that. Otherwise, I can't tell what you don't understand, Amy."
I was aware that I was being spiteful and argumentative, even as I said it. However, I wanted her to understand that seeking a teacher was important, if only to prevent her from trying to learn magic on her own in the future.
After all, when I tried to skip steps and learn magic, my grandfather told me I'd die if I kept it up.
Our situations and abilities were different, but I wanted to drill it into her head that it was impossible without proper instruction.
"I... don't know how to do it. Please teach me."
It seemed Amy had finally reached the starting line I had envisioned.
The part that felt off was with the Rock Bird's hatching.
The setup is that the egg had already been partially warmed before Tenma collected it, and then Tenma infused it with an extremely high concentration of Magic Power, causing it to "evolve" directly from egg to hatchling in one burst. (Like a certain pocket monster, you could say...)
This time I was torn on whether to title it "Sweet Magic Power 2," but in the end I went with this one, since I figured Lina had also been imprinted — or rather, brainwashed — with the idea that Tenma's sweets are the best!