"Now, sit down in that chair."
Amy obeyed without protest, and I moved behind her, placing my hands on both her shoulders.
"Breathe in slowly… and out…"
As Amy breathed as instructed, I seized the moment she exhaled—
"Hyah!"
I surged Magic Power into her. Not imbued like before, but flowed through like an electric current.
"W-What are you doing?!"
Amy was startled, but—
"Forget that sensation for now. Place your hand over the bucket again."
—I ignored her and calmly issued my next instruction.
"What is this all about, all of a sudden…"
Muttering under her breath, Amy held her hand over the bucket. This time, though only faintly, the water's surface rippled.
"S-Something moved!"
Amy forgot all about what had just happened and started bouncing with excitement.
She was so overjoyed that Karina and Alié came rushing out of the house.
Yet even that didn't seem to register with Amy.
"Tenma, what happened?"
Karina asked, so I simply told her that Amy had shown the first signs of magic.
Neither of them had expected results to appear this quickly, and both looked considerably stunned.
So, Amy had finally noticed the two of them and was excitedly explaining everything.
However, she was getting a little too worked up, so
"Amy, take a look at this,"
I said, manipulating the water in the bucket and reshaping it into a thin ribbon like an artistic gymnastics ribbon, twirling it around to show her.
After seeing Amy standing there in a daze, I returned the water to the bucket,
"What you did, Amy, is below the basics of the basics of the basics. Don't get so carried away!"
I warned her,
"Yes! Sensei!"
For some reason, she had promoted me to "Sensei." Her eyes had changed from the slightly hostile look she'd had before to one of respect... They were eyes I felt I'd seen somewhere before, and as I was thinking about that,
"Oh, they look just like Primera's eyes!"
I accidentally blurted out.
Since Amy tilted her head in confusion, I played it off as nothing, but
(Wait, does that mean Primera was respecting me too...? Why?)
I ended up lost in thought.
"Um, Sensei... what should I do next?"
Her voice pulled me back... but the imprinting was going exactly as planned. Nice.
Tenma was thinking this, but he hadn't realized that in the eyes of the world, this was called brainwashing.
"For now, just keep repeating the same thing over and over. Getting used to that feeling is the most important thing first."
"Got it, Sensei!"
Being called "Sensei" didn't feel bad... but it was a little embarrassing.
"Aahh, Amy, please, just stop calling me Sensei..."
"Huh? ...But you're the teacher, aren't you?"
I held back the urge to say You were calling me Tenma-san not that long ago! and instead offered a compromise.
"Fine, just don't call me that outside of practice, okay?"
That was the best middle ground I could think of... Otherwise, this girl was going to be shouting "Sensei!" at the top of her lungs in the middle of town... and there was no way she'd stop. So I figured I'd strike first and at least get her to compromise.
"Umm... alright."
She didn't look entirely convinced, but she agreed.
"So that's the situation — for now, we're just doing this drill. Once you get a bit more used to it, we'll move on to the next step. That's it for today!"
"Huh? Already?"
Amy clearly wanted to keep going, but —
"Right now, Amy, your body is more tired than you realize. This isn't the time to push yourself."
When I said that gently, she didn't argue any further. She'd probably let her guard down and finally noticed just how exhausted she was.
Amy turned out to have more talent than I expected. At this rate, she'd be able to comfortably control two Rock Birds without any trouble.
As a way to help her recover, I shared some snacks with her. Amy seemed to perk up a little at the sweet-smelling treats... Meanwhile, Shiromaru was nudging me for some too, so I cut off a small piece for him.
Just then, as Amy turned to head back home, she stepped on a small stone and stumbled.
I pulled her toward me in a flash so she didn't fall, but —
"You bastard —! What do you think you're doing to Amy ——?!"
Out of nowhere, a man came charging from behind with a terrifying expression on his face.
His hostility was so overwhelming that I instinctively manipulated the water remaining in the bucket into a ribbon-like stream, wrapped it around the man's body, and froze it solid.
The man was straining his arms to break the ice, but I'd infused it with a generous amount of Magic Power, so it wasn't about to shatter that easily.
The man, unaware of the ice encasing his body, was trying to shatter it while running, which threw him off balance and sent him tumbling dramatically toward us.
"Dad! What are you doing?!"
I had more or less guessed, but sure enough, it was Amy's father.
It must have been quite a commotion, because Karina and the others, who were some distance away, seemed to have heard it too.
"What do you think you're doing, you idiot?!"
Arie was smacking the man over the head repeatedly with the broom she'd been holding.
Karina apologized sheepishly and told me,
"Sorry about that... That's my husband, Rick..."
I see. It must have looked like I was playing some kind of prank on Amy. That actually irritated me a bit.
But even more furious than me was Shiromaru. What a loyal companion — that's what I thought, until I noticed the snack I'd given him earlier lying on the ground at Shiromaru's feet.
...This guy must have been so startled by the noise just now that he dropped it. More important to him than my safety, huh...
Shiromaru, apparently oblivious to my feelings, growled as he approached the immobilized Rick.
"Whoa! Don't come over here!"
Rick thrashed his body as if to drive him away, but of course, it had no effect.
Before long, Shiromaru had closed in right in front of Rick, and — much like a cat toying with a mouse — began swatting at his head with his front paw.
After batting him around several times, Shiromaru seemed to have worked off most of his frustration, and he returned to my side looking quite satisfied.
I showed the dropped snack to Shiromaru, who had come trotting back to me with his tail wagging, and asked,
"You were angry about the snack, weren't you... You weren't worried about me at all?"
To which he replied,
"Kyuu, kyuu."
It then showed its belly and started crying out.
Seeing that, I was starting to feel a sense of resignation — thinking, "Forget it" — but when I said,
"No more snacks,"
it looked utterly devastated, and then started glaring at Rick.
As for Rick himself, he was surrounded by Amy and the others, getting an earful.
At that moment, in a faint voice,
"Wait — that guy is Tenma?! That monster the rumors talk about..."
...I caught words I couldn't simply ignore.
I slowly approached Rick
and said to him,
"About what you just said... would you mind telling me more?"
...with a smile.
as I spoke.
Rick had his back turned to me at the time, so being suddenly spoken to caught him completely off guard.
Even stranger, even though I was speaking with a smile on my face, everyone present — Rick, Amy, and the rest — seemed terrified.
"Uh — ah — well..."
"Ah, it must be hard to talk like that."
With that, I snapped my fingers. At the sharp crack, the ice encasing Rick's body shattered all at once.
Incidentally, snapping my fingers didn't actually serve any purpose... I just thought it would look cool.
Rick was free now, but he simply crumpled to the ground and made no effort to get back up.
So I crouched down to get on eye level with Rick,
"Come on, tell me all about that rumor from earlier."
I tried to put on the friendliest voice I could manage, but Rick, his face pale as a sheet, refused to answer.
I was racking my brains for what to do when,
"Oh, what's going on, Tenma? Did Rick do something wrong?"
Jin called out from behind me. Along with Jin, every member of the Dawn Sword had shown up.
Rick's complexion noticeably improved the moment Jin and the others appeared.
"Not really — for some reason, there's a rumor going around that I'm some kind of monster, so I was just trying to ask Rick a few questions about it."
Upon hearing that,
"Oh right, I was in a hurry! Sorry, Tenma!"
Jin raised his hand in a "see ya" gesture and tried to slip away from the scene,
"Wait — wasn't that what you guys have been telling everyone about?"
The noble lady who couldn't read the room asked Jin and the others, as if seeking confirmation.
In that instant, all three of them — minus Lina — tried to bolt at the same time,
"Not so fast!"
I snared Jin and the others with earth magic while simultaneously summoning three Golems.
By my spell, their bodies were stiffened like bagworm cases, and the Golems carried them off.
Not only Emilie and the others, but even passing adventurers stared wide-eyed at the whole spectacle.
"Alright, now let's have that talk."
With that, I buried the three of them up to their necks in the garden... I was reminded of a manga I'd read in my previous life, thinking it'd be perfect if I added a buzz saw blade next to them.
"Just wait! There's a reason for this!"
"So, just calm down first, okay?"
"Yeah! Just hear me out first!"
Jin, Garat, and Menace each tried to make excuses in that order.
Well, I'm not a monster... or so I think, so I decided to hear them out first.
"So, the thing is..."
"It was all Jin's idea!"
"That's right! Jin was the one who goaded us into it!"
"Hey, hold on, you two!"
Garat cut Jin off and declared him the mastermind, with Menace jumping on the bandwagon.
"I was doing it for everyone's sake! Besides, you guys were the ones saying Tenma's dangerous, that if you mess with him he'll turn you into ground meat without hesitation. You even said that back in Gunjou City, nobles had to bow their heads to him, didn't you!"
It sounded like each of them had tacked on all sorts of embellishments however they pleased.
I gave a nice, warm smile...
"Stun."
I ran an electric current through the three of them.
If this had been one of those anime I watched as a kid back in my previous life on reruns, their bodies would've gone transparent with their bones visible, they'd be charred black, and smoke would be billowing off them.
As I mused about that, I punished them just enough that they wouldn't die or suffer any lasting effects.
Incidentally, this incident spread rapidly among adventurers starting the next day, and among those who knew of the Dawn Sword, the rumor was feared as the real deal.
Leaving the three of them poking their heads out of the ground, completely spent, I turned to Rick.
"It's nice to meet you, Rick. My name is Tenma — I've been staying here recently. And as things have turned out, I've taken on the role of teaching Emilie how to handle Magic Power. I look forward to working with you going forward."
"Ah, ah..."
Even though I greeted her politely, she responded poorly. She must be worn out from delving into the dungeon.
Thinking that, I handed over a box of my handmade potion assortment (five Stamina Recovery Potions, five Magic Potions, five Healing Salves) as a small token of friendship.
"Oh, thanks... By the way, Jin and the others..."
"Oh, don't worry! They're not dead!"
When I said that in a cheerful voice, she simply replied "Is that so," and retreated to her home with Emilie and the others.
I thought to myself that everyone seemed exhausted and quiet, then—
"Come to think of it, Lina — I'm making tea, so how about a cup? I've got snacks ready too."
I called out to Lina, who had been nudging Jin and the others to check on them.
"I'd love some!"
With that, she hurried over to me.
I took out the snacks I had set aside for myself, divided them into four portions, and started brewing black tea.
"Oh, by the way — what are the names of these snacks?"
I had forgotten to explain them, so after placing the tea in front of Lina—
"The square one is castella, and the one in the cup is chiffon cake."
I told her. However, the chiffon cake in front of her had been slightly modified — I had topped it with whipped cream and fruit.
The fruit consisted of strawberries, grapes, and oranges. Since the whipped cream was on the sweet side, I brewed the tea a bit on the stronger end.
"Time to eat!"
Despite the eager shout, her manners were impeccable. As expected of a noble lady, truly — but she ate quickly. By the time I had finished half my castella, she had already moved on to the chiffon cake.
And faster than Lina was Shiromaru. Shiromaru practically inhaled his, swallowing each piece whole without properly chewing.
In contrast, Slarin was eating slowly, savoring each bite. Moreover, she skillfully extended part of her body like a tentacle, cut a small piece off with a fork, and then carried it to her mouth? body?... I didn't know whether Slarin even had...
taste buds
...or anything like that, but...
Either way, Slarin had the neatest eating habits of any of us... for a Slime, that is...
After that, I chatted casually with Lina for a while.
For some reason, Slarin went outside several times during our conversation. Well, she came back within a few minutes each time, so it didn't really bother me.
After about an hour of talking with Lina,
"Oh, speaking of which, it's almost time for dinner, so I should get going."
As she said this, she was firmly holding a container full of whipped cream.
I walked her to the front door, and immediately after—
"Kyaaah!"
Lina's scream rang out.
What happened?! I rushed outside and found Jin and the others lying there limply with their faces poking out of the ground.
"Crap! I forgot!"
I hurried to dig them up and check on their condition, but all three of them had simply fainted.
As I cast recovery magic on the three of them, I suddenly realized that Slarin must have been going outside to check on them.
Right after digging all three of them up,
"Ugh, ughh..."
Jin was the first to come to. The recovery magic seemed to have worked.
"Huh? Why am I sleeping in a place like this?"
Just as I mumbled that, Garat and Menace opened their eyes too.
None of the three seemed to have clear memories, but they vaguely remembered being hit by my magic.
So I quickly exchanged a glance with Lina,
"You guys alright? I really didn't think you'd pass out from something like that!"
"Right! You must have been worn out from the dungeon!"
We rattled off in a hurry. The three looked puzzled, but—
"Good thing, Lina. All three of them
woke up
right away!"
"That's right, Tenma! I'm glad they came to so quickly!"
We deflected like that. In truth, I'd left them buried outside for nearly two hours, but the three accepted it as "just how it is" (or rather, I made them accept it).
"Dinner's almost ready, isn't it? If we don't get going, it'll all be gone!"
The three seemed to sense something was off about that, but—
"I'm starving~! Let's go already! Tenma, thanks for the snacks, by the way!"
Swept up by Lina's momentum, the three headed off to eat.
However, a few days later, when other adventurers told them the truth, the three came storming back with complaints—
"I'm kinda hurt you called me a monster, you know~"
When I added a physical threat to that mental attack (with a vibe like "maybe I'll go on a rampage right here, monster-style~"), the three apologized with incredible urgency.
From then on, a new rumor spread: pick a fight with me, and you'll end up buried in the ground and then Tamed into becoming a servant.