Ossan, becomes the wind

*DISCLAIMER: I DON’T REALLY KNOW MUCH JAPANESE, THESE ARE MACHINE TRANSLATIONS THAT I TRY TO PUT INTO PROPER ENGLISH. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.

*I HAVE A DISCORD SERVER IN CASE YOU WANT TO BE NOTIFIED WHEN I’M ABOUT TO POST A NEW UPDATE. HTTPS://DISCORD.GG/VQZKXQJ

*Probably Should’ve said it months ago, but I’m restarting college after a year-long ABSENCE, so I’m going to have even less time to do this. Still, if there’s no one interested in picking it up, I’ll Keep translating but there might actually be a new chapter every 6 months.

Magic Forging[1]. One could argue to be the secret technique of production jobs – mainly Blacksmith, Alchemist, and Apothecary[2] – and could only be used by those who’ve advanced their art to a special stage. 

This useful magic worked by placing materials in the middle of the magic circle and programming the forging process while injecting mana into it, allowing the user to produce all manner of things. Well, it had some limitations, however: while the convenience of omitting the compounding and/or manufacturing process was indeed advantageous, the success rate was relatively low, plus the items created were inevitably inferior to those crafted by hand. 

Whether it was weapons or magic potions, it definitely yielded results, but for them to possess the same efficacy as hand-crafted ones, there was the need for the user to be very proficient at their art. In the same way blacksmiths improved their skills by smithing weapons over and over again and alchemists needed a lot of time and effort to compound their mixtures, for magic forging, the user couldn’t make high-quality items without having gone through crafting a large number of items prior.

This held true in both this otherworld and in the once digital world. Probably the only ones who could make high-quality items using this technique were the elves, who had shut themselves in the depths of Far-flung Forest. 

All in all, there wasn’t even a handful of people who could utilize this magic technique – that could well be called ‘the ultimate technique’ – and even supposing there were some out there, they’d be most distinguished for their legendary abilities no matter how underwhelming the crafted items were.

Presently, there was only a single person capable of using this supreme spell – Zeros, the middle-aged magician.

“Fumu, the sealed magic stone[3] is ready. Now, to compress it…”[Zeros]

A sealed magic stone was a regular magic stone with a formula engraved inside. To confine a spell within it the magician did the same as when they learned a new spell themself. In other words, the difference was that the formula wasn’t imprinted in the brain but inside the stone itself. Therefore, it didn’t take much time, however, since the magician still needed to draw up the magic formula at the initial stages of the process, they still ended up doing manual work.

Fortunately for Zeros, the magic formulas and item recipes he made in the game were stored in the memory region of his brain. He could retrieve them and use them at will.

After his reincarnation in a body materialized out of the data from ORG, he could now use all the techniques he learned in the virtual world of the game. One might think it unfair, but all of these techniques were developed and improved by players over a long time, and in a sense, they were the result of their blood, sweat, and tears. Even in this world, people obtained a [power] compensation according to their job proficiency and their level, and therefore, this kind of cheat was merely the result of his devoted study, albeit in a different world, so to speak.

For someone born and raised in this world, it’d be an unprecedented and awe-inspiring achievement they’d be proud of. Zeros, however, seemed to think of it as a power he acquired messing around in a game and nothing to boast about. 

However, it was an undeniable fact that the experience he gained through repeated trial and error in the game was his own. The life from his original world and the ‘life’ he had in the game were only interchanged when he was reincarnated in this otherworld.

Hunting innumerable monsters and making all kinds of items with their materials wasn’t a simple illusion. Of course, being in a world where he couldn’t actually die could be considered a massive advantage, but still, the penalty for returning from the ‘virtual’ death was unusually harsh – His status would go down and he wouldn’t be able to move properly for a few weeks. This was all in-game, naturally, but the penalty was so severe that it prompted many players to take safety measures as much as possible. They were afraid of ‘death,’ albeit a pretend one.

As the knights and magicians of this world also fought while employing their own distinctive tactics, the game world, although vast, wasn’t greatly different from this otherworld. The reality was practically the same, except for the fact that the real ‘death’ was lurking right beside its inhabitants.

Well, there were some inconsistencies (like the gacha) but the life Zeros had been living up until this point was undoubtedly reality. There was no reason for him to look down on his own abilities. Nevertheless, it all depended on to what extent he was willing to accept them; each and everyone possessed free will, and therefore, decided their own fates. 

Considering he had a production job, Zeros was able to reconcile with them somewhat. Still, since his reincarnation, he’d been pondering ever so often about the relationship between these three worlds and the things he’d done in the game, and he couldn’t help but feel that it wasn’t a virtual space but another reality entirely. In fact, he was wondering if this was actually the third one in a sequence.

Anyhow, the middle-aged magician was crafting items by himself. 

The most troublesome part of the process was the preparations before the actual magic forging. That is to say, making the sealed magic stone. 

The magic stone itself was made of condensed mana that had been mineralized, but when the stored mana ran out, it turned into transparent glass and would eventually shatter into pieces as it could not sustain its shape any longer. To prevent that scenario, several of that same type of magic stone were combined and compressed, which increased both the stored mana and the structural integrity. 

A spell’s magic formula was engraved on what was essentially the core of the stone, and by combining multiple of them, one large sealed magic stone could be made. Then, by compressing it and reducing it further, the stone’s performance would increase dramatically.

A problem that could arise, however, would be that during the process of compressing the magic stone, the magic formula would end up deforming and not be able to maintain its intended efficacy. Nevertheless, that was where his production job and skills would shine; something he was already accustomed to.

Zeros was able to get the ‘Great Sage’ job because of his skillfulness in performing very precise work, as well as his vast experience crafting countless items and inventing a lot of new spells. It seemed that the techniques he polished in the game could be applied in the world that had become his new reality.

“…It’s weird now that I think about it. When the humans of this world raise their levels, part of their physical abilities and knowledge would also increase, right? And even with the compensation given by skills, the techniques of the game are too similar to this world’s. Seriously?”[Zeros]

He started to recall many strange points. For example, players could craft items; it was just an incredibly elaborate VR world where they could perceive their five senses, and get precise feedback in their hands and a sensation when they were about to fail. That sense of realism, as if one were making something in real life, was so fun that Zeros became obsessed with it.

However, now that he was away from what he thought was the real world, he clearly felt something out of place between the game world and this world while he was making an item. That sense of incongruity started from something like: ‘Can we really create such a realistic and elaborate world with Earth’s technology? Is it really just a program?’ 

The laws of the game’s world – Franriede – according to the setting, and this world’s were almost the same except for a few points. It’d be stranger not to feel something odd about it. If the aforementioned was the case, it’d mean the game world could not be fictional. If we consider it to be real, then it’d explain how the people that died playing the game could be reconstructed based on their avatars. After all, players could “return from their deaths,” in the game. Nevertheless, their stats would be penalized with an unreasonable debuff after their resurrection. In addition, they would lose items and experience points gained in the area where they died; even rare equipment.

In reality, the dead could never be brought back to life, but if a person on the verge of death were to be fused with their avatar in concordance with the laws of this world, it wouldn’t be outlandish to think it could be done. Otherwise, there was surely no way they could’ve been reincarnated so simply and smoothly. Then, for the sake of coherence, they just had to use the bodies of the people who passed away at the same time back on Earth. [T.N: Implying the gods isekai’d their dying bodies and cloned their minds or smt, that’s my best guess] 

“It’s probably the case, but was the game based on this world? But, why? Even if it were possible, could humans make something like that? Nah, there’s obviously no way… Normally, though…”[Zeros]

It’d have to be someone that could obtain information of other worlds, that is to say, a God. Now, Zeros wasn’t sure if it was the same God that humans believed in. What he was certain of, however, was that this God was whimsical and had too much free time on their hands. Still, he could venture some guesses about the world of the gods based on the current situation. Supposing his guesses were correct, there was a high possibility that the world of Sword and Sorceress wasn’t a game. If what he thought was a mere game was actually a different world created by the gods, and only their souls were transferred to an avatar via the gaming console[4]– DreamWorks – and could travel back and forth between worlds, it would explain why he didn’t doubt it until now: He was being manipulated.

To Zeros, from the perspective of game programming, Sword and Sorceress was too sophisticated to have been created with Earth’s technology. No matter how many supercomputers, able to process colossal amounts of information, were used, it was simply impossible for them to process that much data. Even NPC’s possessed free will in the same capacity as humans. Therefore, assuming the world was a program, it’d be unable to process the amount of information it’d have to constantly store and would eventually crash. Not to mention how high the electricity consumption would be. 

In the end, all of that was just his conjecture as he didn’t know exactly what was the case.

“Anyway, I imagine finding out there was an evil god must’ve been a hell of a surprise for the god that managed my previous world. Now that I think about it, some god from another world suddenly threw it inside, right? Thanks to that, Earth was affected. I would’ve liked to have at least dropped some sarcastic comment…”[Zeros]

He thought about it as when in a company, an irresponsible employee that was supposed to work on a project with another coworker, dumps all the work on the latter. 

Being from a world where magic doesn’t exist, he looked at this world from a different point of view. It might have been in a higher dimension than his previous one, however, what would happen if a god from another world decided to use its powers in a material world with different laws of nature?

Zeros pondered about the matter based on his knowledge from light novels, but without conclusive evidence, everything was merely his own fantasies or speculations.

Still, from the message he received from one of the Four Deities, in other words, the goddess that manages this world, Zeros thought that she seemed to be quite irresponsible and hedonistic. He couldn’t help but think that he was right about it.

He seemed rather creepy muttering to himself while lost in thought, but he didn’t rest his hands as he prepared to craft the items. 

“Alright… Preparations ready… let’s not dawdle.”[Zeros]

Zeros immerses himself in his work as he continued to make theories in his head. 

He was making a ring, but he didn’t want to wear too many on his fingers because they’d just get in the way. Taking that into account, he decided to make an amulet-type of magic tool that he could wear around his neck to protect himself. 

There was still an abundant quantity of materials in his possession from his mining trip. Moreover, he made the same item for Celestina and Kreuz, the latter he’d never met. But, he knew Kreuz was a very dedicated researcher from the report he sent. Zeros had the feeling they might be kindred spirits. 

The preparations needed to be done before magic forging were fairly bothersome, but once that was completed, the rest was easy. All that was left was placing the materials on top of the magic circle and operate it. 

Since the equipment Zeros was making was merely an inferior version of previously-made items, the work was over in no time.

He finished just as he was getting into it. 

“Ah, guess I’m free now. I finished surprisingly quickly. What now?”[Zeros]

The middle-aged magician’s skills were already in the realm of masters. He was unusually fast at making things from scratch with that technique. Though he wasn’t a fan of repairing items because it was incredibly tedious, Zeros was really good at this kind of creative work. Moreover, the same sensation he felt when playing the game remained here. It would’ve been too disappointing to stop now. More importantly, though, a troubling side of him would show at this point – He’d usually get carried away when doing this sort of work. Therefore, he started to make something completely unrelated to kill his free time. Without holding back.

That work continued for three days.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

About three days after Zeros accepted the escort request and started making preparations for it. 

Iris was looking at the request board in the Mercenary Guild, searching for a suitable job. All of the requests were too far away and would likely result in a loss for them, and to earn their living expenses, they’d have to take multiple other requests close to the place of that first one. They wouldn’t be able to cover their losses and most likely not even complete the requests in time.

For Iris and her party, who were struggling to live by, it’d be too expensive to pay for a carriage, lodging fees, and food if they had to travel far, and considering their ranks were low, they’d run out of money for their living expenses before they could even get there. 

After doing the math, all of that excluding the lodging fees would only amount to a modest increase in their expenses but they still couldn’t afford to stay at an inn and they’d rather not sleep outdoors if they didn’t have to.  

“Ugh… There aren’t any good requests. I should’ve learned a production skill.”[Iris]

They were pressed for funds. The previous Wild Cuckoo subjugation request was completed by Zeros and Kaede, and so, they didn’t get any of that money. In fact, even though the two of them weren’t even mercenaries, the client ended up presenting them with the request’s reward. Iris and her party members ended up failing the request and obtaining nothing, on the other hand. 

They weren’t hurt but, in the end, they weren’t much different from the mercenaries that were beaten by the chickens.

For the past three days, they’ve been staying at the orphanage, living off the kindness of Luceris and Zeros for their meals, and going to the guild to look at the request board.

Luceris, on one hand, while looking after the children in the church-slash-orphanage, earned some money by treating injuries, charging a reasonable price for it. The middle-aged Zeros, on the other hand, seemed to always have funds although he was supposed to be unemployed, and boasted that he could always go hunting if he ever was in the need of money. In any case, he didn’t have to worry about starving because he was already self-sufficient. Iris thought her new life was going to be the typical fantasy life, but the reality of it all was terribly harsh. 

“How long we’ll have to wait to go to a dungeon…? Haaah…”[Iris]

By this world’s standards, Iris could be considered to be really strong. However, Rena and Jane were weaker than her. Though power wasn’t determined by level, her physical abilities were superior to her teammates. 

Jane was too cautious and tended to choose requests to defeat relatively weak monsters. Rena seemed strong, but she’d go out of control and disappear before anyone noticed. 

Well, her skin was all glossy for some reason by the time she’d come back, but that probably wasn’t going to make her much stronger.

Unlike her acquaintances, Iris was still a cheat to some capacity. She felt like a fool for earnestly living as a mercenary. However, even if she went hunting for monsters alone, she wouldn’t be able to dismantle them. Iris didn’t possess a dismantling skill because she arranged all of her other skills to suit adventuring. In any case, even if she had it, it didn’t look like she’d be able to use it in practice. It was precisely because of it that she started to worry about the discrepancies between reality and the game and its harmful effects.

“One way or another, Mister was still being realistic. Compared to him…”[Iris]

Having acquired a plot of land and a house and started to live self-sufficiently, Zeros seemed to have been planning his life properly and realistically. Although an ordinary example, Zeros could be considered a successful person because he was only aiming for an ordinary life. In comparison, Iris could well be living on the streets by the next day.

Trust was the most important thing for mercenaries; the ones who earned enough to live comfortably were high-ranked mercenaries, the people trusted to bring results.

Rewards for the requests taken by mercenaries increased according to the latter’s rank, and naturally, the level of difficulty grew in proportion. 

Iris might’ve been a high-ranked magician but she lacked experience as a mercenary, and her inability to retrieve materials from defeated monsters was a crucial flaw. She was accompanied by Rena and Jane, so she could ignore it so far, but with them out of the equation, no matter how strong she was, she wouldn’t be able to put food on the table[5].

“Haah… This sucks. It’s an otherworld but it isn’t that much different from Earth. Whatever, I’ll ask Mister to teach me alchemy or compounding. He pretty much promised as much…”[Iris]

Iris now realized that this was reality. Even if the world resembled a fantasy world loosely based on medieval Europe, it was still the real world, and people had to work to live. Being a mercenary takes money, most of which goes to repairing equipment like weapons or armor rather than the living expenses per se. It could only be helpful to have a second job. One would die without eating, after all. 

Even though she was looking for an exciting new life, she understood once again that albeit a fantasy world, it was the real world for her now. And so, she headed to Zeros’ house looking dejected. 

At any rate, she had to earn money to live.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

 Unable to find a job that’d catch her eye, Iris arrived at Zeros’ house in low spirits. 

The chickens were in the front yard sparring and practicing stances, but she didn’t know how far those strange animals will go. However, she guessed that they were preparing themselves to clash with someone stronger than themselves.

They were strong enough to knock mercenaries out cold, and strangely enough, they’d end up following their strongest opponent. In that way, it was only natural that they’d follow the overwhelmingly strong Zeros. Moreover, they served as excellent guards for his house. Surely, any unsuspecting burglar would be instantly killed. 

After all, their previous owner was a level 200 former A-rank mercenary. If they fought against that kind of person every day, it was no wonder they’d become so strong. 

Leveling up didn’t necessarily mean killing one’s opponents.

Iris lightly knocked on the door. 

“Mister?? You there? It’s Iris.”

“Come, it’s open… Just kind of busy right now.”[Zeros]

He seemed to be in the middle of working on something, which made her hesitate for a moment, but her livelihood was on the line. Without extra help to improve for the better, Iris’ dream of challenging dungeons would not come true. 

“Excuse me,” Iris said, as she opened the door and saw Zeros making something completely out of place for a fantasy world. It was a machine with a metal frame and what looked like an engine attached to it. Iris immediately thought – ‘A motorcycle,’ when she noticed the number of parts and wheels carelessly thrown around the place. 

At first glance, it resembled an off-road type of bike, but it probably gave that impression because the frame itself looked to be in the rough and the big wheels weren’t attached yet. However, there seemed to be magic tools installed in several places. The bike was apparently a 1000cc type.

The exterior parts wouldn’t appear with a name if one were to use appraisal on them, but they seemed to be some sort of dragon scale. Also, they were of a jet-black color one could sense the evil from. It was the fitting companion for a certain Rider appearing gallantly on the scene.

The middle-aged Zeros was destroying the fantasy-world look incredibly well. 

“Mister…… Why are you making a motorcycle?”[Iris]

“I tried making one to kill time because I thought I might need it. I’ve fiddled a bit with bikes with Ichinose-kun around the neighborhood in the past, so I had an idea of how to make one. Also, since we’re in a world with magic, there’s no need to worry about fuel.”[Zeros]

“Who even is that!? And this is supposed to be a fantasy world! A world of swords and magic! Why’re you trying to destroy that dream!?”[Iris]

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Cars and motorcycles appear in fantasy worlds all the time. On top of that, there’s a ton of them with all sorts of things; from plane fighters to flying ships, and even aerial battleships. I think there’s also one with robots…”[Zeros]

“Ugh… that’s true. Still, this world is underdeveloped, so please there’s no need to make that kind of futuristic stuff, alright?”[Iris]

It was totally a technological cheat. However, since he didn’t have any intention of selling anything like that, the fantasy-world feel would be preserved for the moment.

Zeros was only using modern-day technology to build stuff to pass time; just for fun, although he could even make tanks if he wanted to. Nevertheless, with Iris having been beaten down by reality, she felt immensely disappointed in Zeros. She had no right to criticize him for his very aloof and lacking-in-common-sense actions, but as she’d been looking for dreams and adventures in this fantasy world, indescribable emotions swirled all around her heart.

“Mister, are you gonna play card games on top of it? You know, it’d be just like that.”[Iris]

“Ah… So I could do that, I’d completely forgotten. Yeah, I think I can manage. Right, I’ll start remaking it.”[Zeros]

“Wai— it’s a joke. A joke! Stop it, I don’t wanna see a super intense card battle of dudes shouting ‘Acceleration!‘ in a fantasy world!”[Iris][6]

“Recently there were things like ‘Fusion‘ and ‘Rank up‘. It might not be possible to do all of those, but I could think about it later.”[Zeros]

“Are you serious!? What are you even aiming for!? Stop ruining this fantasy world please!”[Iris]

He was seriously considering it. If he used Arcana to create a familiar, it’d be possible to make some sort of summoning imitation. Zeros felt he could even get a high-ranking summon if he spent some time programming it. The problem was that he had to take safety into account, considering they’d be used for serious combat. 

Familiars became stronger according to the Arcana’s user’s level. Therefore, even if Zeros were to summon the weakest monster, it’d probably be as strong as a last boss-type of monster. In that case, it’d be possible to limit the strength by messing with the settings of Arcana, but that would make the magic formula more complicated. It wouldn’t be something that would fit in a small card.

“It’d be difficult… Probably impossible to write such a detailed magic formula by hand. But, what if I make a special machine for it? Luckily I’ve programmed a robot arm before…”[Zeros]

“I’m begging you, please stop! Don’t destroy this fantasy world any further!!”[Iris]

“…In a sense, wasn’t that anime also part of the fantasy genre? It’s weird that they fight for the fate of the world just using cards, right? Also, why do they use racing cars powered by electric batteries, and why does it always end up in a battle for the world? Why? Ahh, There was also this robot that’d fight inside cardboards, right? But like, she – HoiHoi-san – there’s no way she can actually fight, right?”[Zeros][7]

“How do you know so much about anime!? And, HoiHoi-san’s purpose is to exterminate pests! Don’t go sending her to fight for the world!”[Iris]

He could recreate the anime he liked one way or another with golems in this fantasy world. In his mind was HoiHoi-san standing on top after destroying all the other robots inside the cardboard box in a battle while doing a cute and cool pose.

“Damn, I wanna try! Wanna see HoiHoi-san, the strongest robot!”[Zeros]

“The robots are supposed to be the pests!? They’re getting exterminated like pests by HoiHoi-san now!?”[Iris]

“…In a way, wouldn’t it be easier for her to deal with them rather than pests? She’s got real weapons and all, right?”[Zeros]

“…I can’t deny that. She used them to kill in the story.”[Iris]

It was at that moment when she realized that if Zeros were serious, the world would undoubtedly be plunged into chaos. On the inside, however, she still wanted to see HoiHoi-san being the strongest robot in real life. Iris liked cute things, after all.

Nevertheless, the two hadn’t yet realized that when HoiHoi-san would fight inside the cardboard box, she would already be a weapon.[8]

“That reminds me, if we use our combat skills in a football match, we’d probably turn it into a brutal game…”[Zeros]

“No, that’d be impossible, or rather, wouldn’t that be kung-fu football already!? Anyway, are you planning to turn sports into a war!? Noo, why did you make my fantasy world so scary and dangerous now!??”[Iris]

“Like that one middle-school football team whose matches eventually evolve into a battle that transcends time and space.”[Zeros]

“Stop that, really. I feel like you could transform this fantasy world into a super dangerous one just based off your delusions.”[Iris]

“Iris-san… What we, humans, dream can be realized to a certain extent with technology. The old mobile phones were awfully big but now they fit in our palms. Technology is always evolving, good or bad.”[Zeros]

“Don’t say it with a serious face when you’re just trying to destroy my fantasy world!!”[Iris]

Iris now recognized some of the dangers of fantasy worlds she was previously unaware of. Precisely because of the existence of mana, which could well be called a clean[renewable] energy, it seemed like the technology that had started to take its first steps would continue to develop infinitely and cause a war that would engulf the whole world as a consequence.  

Even if Zeros didn’t, if someone else were to create that sort of technology, it’d be used for the same reasons and develop in the same way. 

It was certain that it was bound to happen, the question simply was whether it was sooner rather than later. That is because the history of humans is the history of wars…

“Anyway, why did you come today?”[Zeros]

“Yes, well, I’m actually having problems making ends meet, so I was thinking if I could get you to teach me some alchemy… but it looks like you were busy.”[Iris]

“Ah, you come just in time, then. I received an escort request and I thought I’d invite you and your party, Iris-san. It’s better to have more hands on board, right?”[Zeros]

“An escort request? Are you guarding the lord?”[Iris]

“Well… Almost. It’s a bit different. Actually…”[Zeros]

He started talking about the contents of the request. The escort target was one of the lord’s sons – Zweit. Zeros was planning to participate as a guard in the Magic Academy’s combat drills, during which, he’d be protecting Zweit.

The issue was that each of the mercenaries would be guarding a different student, and he didn’t know if he’d be able to stay close to Zweit, the target of the request. Therefore, there was the need for some extra help. 

The middle-aged magician had already planned to stay in close communication with each other and be able to rush to the scene at any time. 

Iris and her party were to act as guards as well as Zeros’ eyes so he could be quickly informed of any attack. Fortunately, Iris’ detection skill was at a high level, while he was making a motorcycle to be able to quickly arrive at the scene.

“Mister… we don’t have a choice, do we? Did you accept the request knowing we were struggling?”[Iris]

“You’re free to refuse if you want. I know it’ll be dangerous, so I won’t force you. I’ll just bring the three strongest chickens.”[Zeros]

“Three of them… Then, aren’t we unnecessary if those chickens are going to be there?”[Iris]

“After the recent training sessions they’ve had, their levels have already hit the three-hundred mark. Makes sense considering they can evolve into Cockatrices. They even have high poison resistance. In a way, they’d very powerful guards. It’s just that…”[Zeros]

“Just what? Is there a problem? I mean, how? Aren’t they getting super strong!?”[Iris]

“They just love fighting way too much. They’d start attacking other monsters as if they were deliriant or something, so I think they’d forget about guarding.”[Zeros]

“They’re birds, after all. Bad memory and everything.”[Iris]

It wasn’t like the chickens would forget everything after walking three steps, but they did tend to lose sight of their surroundings when they were roused up.

Zeros only chose Iris and her party members to work with him simply as a way to compensate for that weakness. He casually invited them and wouldn’t think too deeply about it if they refused.

“By the way, what happened to the other two? I assume they must also be in dire straits, right?”[Zeros]

“Jane helping out Luceris, and Rena… she’s probably doing something somewhere…”[Iris]

“Yeah… she might indeed be doing something. You know, the other day I saw her coming out of an inn… with a few young boys.”[Zeros]

“She couldn’t control her super libido, right? We’re having it tough living by already. Just what the hell is she doing?”[Iris]

Leaving Jane aside, Rena was quite unrestrained. One could call it being faithful to her desires, albeit somewhat perverted as she’d rather have a fruit yet to mature over a ripe one. 

Be that as it may, that was allowed to a certain extent – Men could marry at the age of fourteen while women at thirteen.

Due to being raised in the modern world, although Iris was old enough to marry, she felt like she wasn’t ready for it. She wanted to live her life freely, hence, she wasn’t thinking about the future for the time being.

Yet, there was an extremely annoying disease in this world that no amount of medicine could cure. It was like a behavior ingrained in the very core of living beings, and that, once triggered, not only it would go out of control, it could lead to social death.

“As I said the other time, it’s better to have a second job. This is not a game anymore. Reality is hard.”[Zeros]

“Yeah, I’ve already realized. Being able to use magic isn’t enough to survive in this world.”[Iris]

“It’d probably be better if you also knew how to make a couple magic tools on top of alchemy, as well. You can put support magic into magic stones, and once you get the knack of it, I think you could manage to produce magic tools fairly quickly and with a reasonable performance.”

“You can make a lot of stuff, right? But Mister, why don’t you use your skills to make money?”[Iris]

“If I did, there’d be a lot of bad stuff out there. Explosive, and explosives, and also explosives…”[Zeros]

“Only explosives!?”[Iris]

The Black Annihilator was pushing it close to being a terrorist. He could make as many magic tools that contained support magic as he wanted, but considering the historical context of this world, they’d be complete overkill. If that happened, he’d be immortalized in history.

In any case, he didn’t feel like making support items. On this occasion, however, he had no choice but to do it due to the nature of the request. 

Still, he did like making joke items. For example, he once made an annoying item that had high defensive abilities but gave nasty curses at the same time. 

In the game, one of his most used lines was, ‘well, choose. You can either get an item with outstanding performance and just as bad of a curse, or a trivial curse but with just as trivial of a performance.‘

His nickname was the ‘Laughing Peddler,’ or the ‘Shady Hawker.’ But, his true identity was said to be shrouded in mystery. 

“Anyway, teach me how to compound something easy. I have some medicinal herbs but I don’t know what to do.”[Iris]

“That’s okay. A potion for wounds should be easy to make, and if you mix magic stone powder and inject some mana, its efficacy will increase. I think you could sell that for a generous price.”[Zeros]

“How much do you think?”[Iris]

“I don’t know the normal market price. I’ve never bought any sort of potion, I could just make them with my friends, so I’ve only sold them. Ever heard of the ‘Shady Hawker’?”[Zeros]

“I have! Was that you, Mister!? I heard he was selling some pretty weird and sinister items.”[Iris]

“Well, it was ‘we’, to be exact. We all shared the money to fund our other stuff. How nostalgic…”[Zeros]

Once again, the lack of common sense of the Annihilators came to light. 

While having such an ordinary conversation, Iris asked the middle-aged magician how to compound medicinal herbs. 

Incidentally, on that day, Iris learned the Compounding skill, which was part of the production skill tree. Since she was also a magician, once her compounding level went up, it’d eventually develop into alchemy.

Zeros started putting together the motorcycle while teaching Iris how to compound the potion for wounds, and he completed it by the time she managed to learn it.

At dusk, he took the bike out of his inventory and went out in high spirits. Naturally, for a test drive.

A middle-aged man became the wind.

Later rumors spread that a jet-black monster was rushing through the streets at super-high speeds, but Zeros had no way of knowing. He became a highway star, beating the wagons of peddlers and the fast horses of knights that were on the street at that time. The knights, thinking it was a monster, went after him, but no one could catch up with his bike. It went without saying, because the horsepower was extremely different, to begin with.

A jet-black whirlwind ran through the highway while laughing like an idiot.

As an aside, he realized halfway that the brakes didn’t work, and so, he had no other choice but to wait until it ran out of mana.

There was nothing he could do if he couldn’t stop the bike, so he could only laugh.

After, he said, “That was scary… No, really, I seriously thought I was gonna die.”

In the end, he walked home and arrived at the city by early morning. He walked all night from Far-flung forest to get home.

---

Translator’s Corner

---

[1] 魔導錬成; from now on magic forging. The term 錬成 is more used in the sense of tempering/making smt stronger, but I don’t think it conveys the meaning of creating a whole item from scratch; beginning to end. Magic Smithing might sound cooler but the term in JP is not supposed to be strictly related to metalworking. I’m open to suggestions tho.

[2] 薬術調合師; I think I translated it as something else in a previous chapter. My bad I can’t remember which one, but I decided on Apothecary because that’s the name given in the JP version of Perfect World(thanks linguee reverse context), which certainly conveys the feeling of being a fantasy herbalist/doctor. This is the author’s own version of it, though, seeing as he added two extra kanji to the term, literally ending up as something like “Medicine Technique Compounding Expert”

[3] 魔封石; technically magic seal stone, but it’s more in the sense of a magic stoned sealed with something inside.

[4] ゲーム媒体; more specifically, it refers to the platform you play games on. I’m assuming the author had in mind something a bit more sci-fi like in SAO.

[5] 幾ら個人では強かろうと半人前なのだ。; Written as an old proverb, don’t know if the author was paraphrasing it or was just a rhetoric figure because I couldn’t find it verbatim on the internet. Still managed to find what it meant tho. seems like the last part is a common saying.

[6] a reference to that one yu-gi-oh 5d anime that I barely watched as a kid.

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichigeki_Sacchu!!_HoiHoi-san
yeah, haven’t heard of it either

[8] Not sure I think it is because in the manga/anime/game she uses real guns?; 　だが、某段ボール内で戦った時点で、○イ○イさんは兵器の仲間入りする事を二人はまだ気づいていなかった。

---

Ossan, receives a designated request.

*DISCLAIMER: I DON’T REALLY KNOW MUCH JAPANESE, THESE ARE MACHINE TRANSLATIONS THAT I TRY TO PUT INTO PROPER ENGLISH. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.

*I HAVE A DISCORD SERVER IN CASE YOU WANT TO BE NOTIFIED WHEN I’M ABOUT TO POST A NEW UPDATE. HTTPS://DISCORD.GG/VQZKXQJ

The lord’s mansion was located in the middle of the New Town. In addition, a section of the building served as the offices for the Solisthea Firm. It was a long way from the Old Town, though relatively close to the previous lord’s villa, which in turn was more or less a ten-minute walk from Zeros’ house. He pondered if it would’ve been faster to head toward Creston’s residence and take a carriage from there. Nevertheless, even if DelSasis’ mansion was far from the Old Town, the time it would take to go there by carriage, including the hike through the forest path to reach Creston’s villa in the first place, wouldn’t be much different from walking. There would just be a small difference in the amount of time he would lose. Walking would require him to make his way through the crowded New Town avoiding the passersby and the carriages stopping on the road. And, if he took a carriage, he would have to put up with driving at slow speeds by the many intersections along the way. Additionally, although going directly from the Old Town would be pretty much a straight line with scarce pedestrian traffic, in the end, both routes entailed the same amount of time. This occasion, taking into account that he was accompanied by Dandyce, they decided to head toward the mansion through the sufficiently-paved streets of the Old Town in consideration of the carriage that came to pick them up.

Zeros was looking at the cityscape through the carriage’s window, but honestly, he was feeling restless. The refined interior might have been pleasant to the eyes, but it was still a carriage used by nobles, nonetheless. It was hard for a middle-class uncle like him to be in that sort of place.

From the window, Zeros sighted an acquaintance. It was none other than Rena, one of the members of the all-female mercenary party, coming out of an inn. Though for some reason, her face was gleaming and the five young mercenaries that exited after – who seemed to be young boys – were looking pitifully haggard. Rena wore an ecstatic and erotic expression while the youths seemed to be both exhausted and happy at the same time.

‘Rena-san, what in the world did you do? No, I can imagine what, but still, why do you look so glossy!? And what happened to those boys!? They look half-dead! You’re human, right!? You’re not a vampire or a succubus, right!?’

The last time he saw Rena was during the Wild Cuckoo subjugation request but she vanished the moment he took his eyes off her and it had been several days since then. She also wasn’t in the church-slash-orphanage with her other party members.

Waving to the haggard boys, Rena parted ways with them in front of the inn. Her gait was unequivocally light.

She seemed to have “eaten” the boys. The young mercenaries collapsed after a few steps, however, as power left their waists. Something truly unbelievable must have happened to them.

“Let’s pretend I didn’t see anything.”[Zeros]

“Beg your pardon?”[Dandyce]

Dandyce replied to his casual murmur.

This would prove to be the morning when he found out that his common sense might be useless in this world where polygyny and polyandry were accepted as the norm. The fact that these young boys were mercenaries meant that they were recognized as adults and therefore were around 14-15 years old. In other words, they were old enough to be the target to carnivorous beasts, and also, once they became mercenaries, they were completely on their own. The moment young people became fully-fledged members of society, they had to take responsibility for themselves, and even if they got themselves in a relationship with a depraved woman with perverted inclinations, they had no right to complain. Tough world.

Laws concerning the protection of minors were infrequent and undeveloped in this world.

The middle-aged magician offered a prayer to the boys, and while feeling somewhat heavyhearted, the carriage soon arrived at the lord’s mansion.

It was a beautiful building that, although not lavishly ornamented, carried the glamour and the spirit of the state-of-the-art gothic techniques. It was the second time Zeros had come here but he still couldn’t help but release a sigh of admiration.

“As always, it’s such a wonderful mansion. Truly a work of art.”[Zeros]

“The building is to be the symbol of the city, so we’ve put a lot of care in both the exterior and the interior. Everyone who comes here praises the beauty of the mansion.”[Dandyce]

Zeros was knowledgeable of the fact that after a long time, structures that were impressive from an architectural point of view would be treated as important cultural assets. The feudal lord’s mansion was marvelous enough to deserve that treatment. However, when he thought of the fact that it was the dwarves from Hanba Constructions the ones responsible for remodeling the building, and that they danced all around while working on it, he couldn’t bring himself to honestly praise them.

For example, if one tried to imagine a group of workers restoring a historical and cultural heritage building, doing moonwalks, backflips, dancing twist along with other moves like in a musical. Normally one would be worried, ‘is it alright to leave it to these guys?’ But in actuality, it was terrifying how perfect their work was. He already experienced it first-hand, so he wasn’t in the position of being able to retort[tsukkomi] there.

He was led through the entranceway by Dandyce. Just like with the carriage, he was restless knowing he was entering a noble’s residence. Inside the mansion, servants and staff of the Solisthea Firm were busily moving to and fro.

The area where the personnel and the duchesses lived seemed to be separated. Although it was supposed to be an aristocrat’s estate, the scene reminded him of what he would normally see happening in a company office.

––Batan!

Suddenly, he heard a loud noise and when he turned his head in response, he saw a man abruptly opening a door to a nearby room and shaking his head vigorously, scanning the surroundings as if he were looking for someone. Zeros noticed the man acting suspiciously similar to a drug addict.

“Annie, Annie. Where’s Annie!?”

“What do you want!? I’m working right now, don’t bother me!”

“I love you. I’m truly in love with you. Please marry me!”

“Wha!? What, so suddenly… Wait, hold on!”

The woman was greatly bewildered by the man’s sudden confession. It wasn’t that she was disturbed by the confession itself, but she was flustered due to having so many eyes watching them, making her uncomfortable.

“I love everything about you! It’s true! From the top of your head to the tip of your toes, even to your assholeeee!!!”

“That’s your fucking love confessioonnn!!??”

She added a spin to her punch to amplify the power and then hit the man who professed his love square in the jaw. It was an almighty blow that could’ve aimed for the world. 

The man spun around high in the air only to comically fall headfirst onto the ground with a ‘Gyaah!’

When the woman saw that, she chuckled, ‘fu,’ with a smirk. In many ways, it was a lousy marriage proposal.

“T-The Corkscrew Upper—”[Zeros]

“A splendid strike. Seems like her skill has improved once again. That was simply perfect.”[Dandyce]

“Is… Is it always like this?”[Zeros]

“No, no. It would appear that he suddenly developed symptoms of Love Syndrome. It was an incredible confession, wasn’t it?”[Dandyce]

“Love Syndrome!? What in the world is that!?”[Zeros]

Love Syndrome, also known as the rut [or estrus cycle]. A phenomenon in which people of the opposite gender suddenly start to yell love confessions and pledges at each other. It seemed like a made-up story not meant to be taken seriously, but it wasn’t fictitious in the least. These people were drawn to each other and feelings of carnal lust would well up within them and go out of control regardless of the time and place.

People with relatively high mana capacity would tend to be affected first – One day they would suddenly confess their love or propose to the other person in a very loud and grand manner. Still, that didn’t mean everything was set in stone by then. 

There was always someone to whom these romantic feelings were directed, however, instinct wasn’t infallible. Even if they declared their feelings to that person time and time again, it didn’t mean they were a-hundred-percent compatible. No matter how much they longed for them due to their magically-heightened instincts, if their would-be partner showed no particular interest, it was practically the same as being rejected. Conversely, if they agreed, their compatibility was bound to be exceptionally good. When things went well, the spouses would be able to build a happy family, but if not, it could result in a very bad situation. Anyhow, it was a common sight in the city throughout the year, though especially prevalent during early Summer and early Autumn. 

Naturally, all living beings instinctively sought stronger genes for the next generation. However, that instinct merged with mana and altered the mind, leading to this phenomenon in which people would go out of control. Of course, many stable relationships were formed as a result, including plenty of polygamous families.[1]

Well, there was already a very clear example of what would happen if it didn’t go well. 

One would expect a lot of issues to arise from forming a large family in such a way, but for some reason, major problems don’t occur, and it were the monogamous families the ones more likely to have them. That is because, if the number of family members increases, it would be easier for the spouses to discuss the issues inherent to the household with each other. And on the contrary, when there are few, solving the problem would usually be the burden of a single person, causing them to eventually fail. It goes without saying that not all large families are completely harmonious but they are less likely to collapse in comparison.

Incidentally, many large families are farmers, so they don’t have to worry about labor shortages. In addition, they tend to be relatively poor in terms of income, so for them, taxes might end up being less than otherwise. In the end, although it might make child-rearing and other tasks more difficult, as in every society, there were advantages and disadvantages in everything.

Zweit went out of control due to the combination of the influence of this phenomenon and the brainwashing magic, oddly causing him to act like a douchebag. 

Zeros, on the other hand, was shocked to find out about this phenomenon in a different way.

“What the hell? That sounds scary… Imagine going out of control like that not knowing what you might blurt out. You’d die socially.”[Zeros]

“It’s amusing to watch from a distance, but I admit it would be terrifying to shout that kind of confession myself.”[Dandyce]

Even while expressing his ‘fear,’ Dandyce wasn’t particularly agitated. Considering that this phenomenon was common knowledge and part of the day-to-day lives of the inhabitants of this world, Zeros was the odd one out for being astonished in this case. 

“A-Ahem. Must suck being rejected like that…pfft!”

“Hahaha! What an idiot!”

“This guy’s the worst.”

“I didn’t know he was that kind of pervert. Even though he’s got a nice face and all…”

“He’s gonna get called ‘the dude that loves assholes’ his whole life… Hahaha!” [*T.N: I fail to see how that would be a shameful nickname but ok]

“Yeah, even after he dies! Haha!”

“Still, you just can’t propose to someone like that… I feel bad for the guy.”

Shouting a proposal in that manner and getting shut down immediately would earn that person being the butt of the joke for their entire life as well as being practically terminated from society. A tragic scene that left Zeros feeling nothing but pity even if the person in question had gone crazy [due to being in heat].

“He’s gonna be found dead on a street corner by morning, isn’t he?”[Zeros]

“We can’t help but laugh while we still can because we never know when our turn might come.”[Dandyce]

“Scary… It sounds actually terrifying. ‘Tomorrow might be your turn,’ right?”[2]

Love Syndrome was a sinister illness that could lead to a happy family if it went well, but it could also leave an indelible scar in people’s hearts for the rest of their lives. ‘Lovesickness’ would be a good way to describe it. And, when thinking that someday he could be the one yelling a proposal like that, Zeros just couldn’t stop himself from trembling. His dark history from ORG would look adorable in comparison.

This natural physiological phenomenon blew one’s reason away and made them bear their fangs, although in a different sense…

Though harrowed by the creeping anxiety burdening him, the middle-aged magician headed toward the duke’s office.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

“Master, I’ve brought Zeros-dono.”[Dandyce]

“Thank you. You may come in.”

Duke DelSasis was inside the office in the middle of his duties as a lord, busying himself with a stack of documents on his desk. He was scanning through the documents and stamping his seal on them, and not only was he doing it at an unusually fast pace, but he also seemed to understand the contents of the documents at the same time. Like that, he would quickly separate the problematic documents into separate piles. 

Fortunately, his wives weren’t there. 

“It’s been a while, Duke DelSasis. What can I do for you, today?”[Zeros]

“Yes, I have a request I’d like to make, Zeros-dono. It’s somewhat of a troublesome matter, so I judged that it would be for the best to have someone with as much experience as possible for this, but to my knowledge, there isn’t anyone as skilled as you.”[DelSasis]

“A request? …I don’t know, something about this seems a bit dubious.”[Zeros]

“And you’d be correct. Soon, the students of the Magic Academy will be heading to Rahmuff Forest for combat training, and to put it bluntly, I’d like you to be Zweit’s guard.”[DelSasis]

“I’d like to hear more details if it’s possible. When you say ‘guard,’ I get the feeling that some suspicious individuals would be scheming from the shadows.”[Zeros]

“Well, yes, it’s a bit of a long story, but…”[DelSasis]

It started when Zweit returned to the Academy. There was an internal conflict within his faction – the Weissler faction – which researched the incorporation of magic in military tactics to defend the nation. The two main figures of this dispute were Zweit, representing the sector that believed in the aforementioned ideals, and Samtroll, leading the pure-blooded aristocratic magicians obsessed with the pursuit of power and who were flaunting their money to intimidate the people around them. 

Zweit contended Samtroll’s power-hungry and childish tactics, which lead to divisions within the faction. Furthermore, the situation seemed to have escalated to the point in which Samtroll used brainwashing magic on his opponents. 

The problem was that Samtroll, the second son of the Marquis of Weissler, was a problem child. He had shown time and time again an attitude that seemed to disavow his family’s belief in military tactics involving magic. On top of using the yet-unreliable research of wide-range annihilation magic as a shield to twist the arm of every faction, he’d been possessed by his own delusions of grandeur and has started to form connections with underworld organizations. It seemed like he couldn’t bear the fact that his household had never had any expectations of him, resulting in his deranged behavior. 

Some denounced him outright, but he used the authority of his family to silence them and began to harass them in other ways, making him a nuisance to the Academy.

The same happened within his faction, in which he was supposed to be the central figure because of his bloodline, but now, his position hanged in the balance.

“And the Weisslers haven’t said anything? That’s this Cold[Samu] something-kun’s House, right?”[Zeros][3]

“It’s Samtroll… They’ve given us permission to punish him as we see fit. They naturally didn’t take too kindly to having to deal with our grievances. I’d venture to say that they will be disowning him sooner rather than later.”[DelSasis]

“So, they are abandoning him? Or in other words, the parents finally ran out of love?”[Zeros][4]

The House of Weissler was one of the most prominent families when it came to the military defense of the country, and as such, it had strong ties to the Chivalric Order. The problem arose when one of its members became a bloodline supremacist and formed a clique with others of his kind and started to go out of control. On top of all of that, they became involved in criminal activities in connection with underworld organizations. 

The Weisslers were a relatively upright family and not well-regarded by the nobles who believed in the superiority of their bloodlines. They had always been meritocratic; if someone was incompetent, they would discard them even if they were part of the family.

Nevertheless, in this particular case, they couldn’t simply cast Samtroll away because his mother came from a powerful family and they couldn’t carelessly ignore their influence. 

However, the situation started to take a sudden turn. The reason being the sudden expansion in the power of the Solisthea faction whose head was the man currently in front of Zeros, DelSasis. He had been financially crushing those who stood in his way, both behind the scenes and publicly, and also providing talented people with a suitable treatment. 

Moreover, the business he started as a hobby had been yielding quite the profit, enough to overshadow the other factions in terms of capital. As a result, the factions that were already troubled had even more difficulties raising funds, and presently, there was also a never-ending amount of magicians in the city who jumped ship and switched sides. 

Magicians always needed to spend a lot of money on their research, but DelSasis had created an efficient and systematized organization in which the magicians who researched magic and the ones employed for whatever other reason[5] were separated into two different departments. 

Those who normally wouldn’t be able to work on their own research without being affiliated with a faction were now relatively free to conduct them and practice their magic, and naturally, traitors from each of the factions had begun to appear. 

The braggarts who used the name of the Weissler faction started to find themselves in deep trouble as they were running out of money to administer the faction and couldn’t manage to keep a hold of their magicians. DelSasis had the faction in the palm of his hand.

As long as they were alive, magicians needed money to live. However, staying in the current Weissler faction would make that very difficult. For example, the Saint Germain faction earned enough money from their research and production of magic potions. Moreover, all of their members were researchers in some capacity. The Weissler faction, on the other hand, had been forcefully deprived of funds and now it didn’t have any to sustain its activities or care for its magicians. Furthermore, Zweit had set out to reform the faction, and now his only opponents were the bloodline supremacists, but since they were all nobles who relied on their families’ power, they couldn’t make a living for themselves. It was a matter of time before they were financially ruined. 

“I see… I think I understood the gist of it. From the point of view of the bloodline supremacist magicians, disposing of Zweit would allow them to make a comeback, right? And also, the criminal organizations pressing them for money would send their assassins…”[Zeros]

“It’s incredibly bothersome to deal with these fools. I wish they’d stay low and quiet, but obviously, once they get a taste of power, they won’t let go. Also, it seems the organization behind it is Hydra.”[DelSasis]

“Hydra?… Then, do they also have several heads? And when you cut one head it grows another? That sort of thing?”[Zeros]

“Umu, they’re a nasty bunch. I’ve been crossing swords with them since I was young. I’ve gotten rid of about ten of their heads but they still won’t disappear. Most of the rival organizations and their people have been taken in by us— Ahem! Forget you heard that.”[DelSasis]

“When you were young? Just what the hell did you do? I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure that’s not in the job description for a feudal lord!”[Zeros]

He didn’t know what this feudal lord was doing out of the public eye. His question was brushed aside with ‘we all need a little bit of stimulation in life.’ The lord likely enjoyed fighting against underworld organizations.

“Anyway, to make that request so suddenly… Did something happen?”[Zeros]

“The other day, a black market merchant opposing Hydra was eliminated. The room was locked from the inside, and from the small traces of mana remaining, they think the assailant used Shadow Dive.”[DelSasis]

Shadow dive was a skill that assassins and dark magic users could use and would allow them to move by diving into shadows. However, they couldn’t slip into places with magic barriers or mystical wards[6]. This was not an almighty ability that granted its users entry everywhere. Moreover, hiding in the shadows required a constant supply of mana, with the consumption being fairly high.

Naturally, there wasn’t any sort of barrier in ordinary people’s dwellings. The only other means to defend against this kind of intrusion was to use a magic tool, but in the Academy, however, it was possible to slip through practically everywhere. 

“Well, I highly doubt they’ll trespass into the Academy. Nobles always carry magic tools that deploy barriers with them. Sneaking in and assassinating someone would be too risky for them.”[DelSasis]

“In other words, this event would be the perfect guise, right? After all, Zweit-kun already caught the eye of some troublesome people.”[Zeros]

“Both knights and mercenaries will participate in the drill as guards, and the Order aside, anyone could be the assassin. This is precisely the reason why I need a skilled guard.”[DelSasis]

“Let’s leave the matter of me participating as a mercenary for later. Anyhow, I don’t think it necessarily has to be me the one to guard Zweit-kun during the excursion.”[Zeros]

“I’m afraid I have to ask you to do just that. I can’t even say anything about the Academy’s instructions this time. I don’t mind if you get the help of some other reliable people for this. I’ll put up the money to make it an official request.”[DelSasis]

Zeros was very troubled by this. Since he had to join as a mercenary, it was very likely that he would separate from Zweit, in which case, he’d have to think of another way to protect him.

‘Wouldn’t it be possible to make a magic tool that’d let me know when there’s an emergency? Also, I better take those 3 chickens with me. The Stone Golem can be destroyed in one hit but it’s still stronger than most mercenaries.’

Thinking of every possible avenue, the middle-aged magician was already concocting a suitable plan to prevent an assassination. 

“It seems you’ve made up your mind.”[DelSasis]

“Well, my student is being targeted. Naturally, I wouldn’t refuse.”[Zeros]

“I leave Zweit in your hands.”[DelSasis]

“I’ll work on preparing a few useful items. I’ll do what I can, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop them completely.”[Zeros]

“That’s fine. Anyway, did you come to wage a war, by any chance? That equipment is completely overkill.”[DelSasis]

“Everyone’s told me that. Unfortunately, I don’t have any formal attire. This was the most decent one I had.”[Zeros]

As one would expect, his armor looked out of place. He looked like a magician, but that vicious equipment was enough to deal with an entire country. Meeting the feudal lord in that get-up could only look like a declaration of war. Zeros was seriously pondering if he should make a new suit. 

“I see… Alright, I’d like you to wear that equipment while you’re guarding Zweit. It could deter them from making a brazen attack if they notice there’s a skilled fighter with him. That will keep them in check.”[DelSasis]

“…Can I hide my face? I don’t want to stand out.”[Zeros]

“…Isn’t it late for that? Well, I’ll leave it at your discretion, Zeros-dono.”[DelSasis]

“When does the combat drill start?”[Zeros]

“Two weeks from now. If possible I’d like you to depart a couple days earlier. It’ll be faster by ship.”[DelSasis]

“Alright. Then, I’ll go back and start preparing. Luckily, I know a few mercenaries that happen to be free right now.”[Zeros]

Like that, Zeros started preparing for his escort request. Although it was troublesome, he didn’t want to leave Zweit on his own. 

“By the way, how do you get information from within the Academy? Do you have a spy disguised as a normal person or something like that?”[Zeros]

“…The less you know, the better. Only those prepared to step into the underworld are allowed to know.”[DelSasis]

The lord seemed like he had no intention of answering, but his words revealed that he had his own secret agent working from the shadows. 

It was at that moment Zeros realized that Duke DelSasis was a dangerous person who should never be made an enemy. Likewise, there could not be a more reliable ally. 

There were many mysteries to this capable man. 

In any case, the middle-aged magician would be reuniting with his student.

From that day on, he started making items to protect Zweit, but it goes without saying that he got carried away and made some extra things. 

The Black Exterminator had a production job. 

As an aside, he bought soy sauce, miso, and vinegar from the Solisthea Firm. It seemed to be tamari soy sauce[7], which tasted good with Cuckoo eggs. Now he only needed to make sake and mirin, though he had no clue how to make the latter.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

Some time before. 

A woman entered a back alley and stepped into a deserted tavern at the end of the street. It was filled with men that obviously seemed to have not the most honest occupation and who were busying themselves with their drinks. 

They smiled vulgarly when they noticed the woman, but were stopped by the master of the tavern who was pouring drinks behind the counter. As soon as they heard his words, they paled and cowered in their seats. 

The woman went to the back of the tavern and pulled a lever hidden next to the shelf with liquors being on display. With the sound of something being released outside, the shelf slowly started to move aside – The liquor rack was a hidden door. 

She descended through the underground passage that appeared behind the rack, though shortly it became a straight tunnel.

The city that used to be above ground had been reclaimed over time, and a whole new city had been built by now, but it was precisely because of that fact that the underground tunnels turned into a stronghold for the underworld. 

Following the path illuminated by the magic stone lamp, the woman came upon an abandoned building that was once the mansion of a wealthy merchant, but it had become the place where her employer resided.

She opened the door without hesitation and found several men there. No, they were too young to be adults. Seeing the traces of immaturity remaining on their faces, she judged them to be naive young masters from a well-off family.

Taking a look at the youths, the woman walked toward the man in a suit across the table and leaned on his back. He was definitely wearing a suit, but he fancied a not-quite-flattering shade of purple while wearing several rings on his fingers, each with unusually large jewels, and a golden necklace. Put in other words, his appearance was completely that of an underworld don instead of someone with a respectable occupation.

“Ara? Darling, we had customers? They look awfully young, though.”

“Hm, so you’re back. And? How did it go?”

“A piece of cake. It’s hard for me to see how your men could have so much trouble dealing with someone like that, Darling. I wonder what they were even doing.”

“How reliable. With that, we’ve gotten rid of one eyesore and we’ll be able to monopolize business for a while.”

“Ufufu… great. There’s going to be a lot of money coming in.”

The man stretched his hand towards the woman and lovingly ran his fingers on her bare skin.

The youths, exasperated by the couple’s unreserved flirting, slammed the table with a loud ‘bang!’ They actually weren’t excessively quick-tempered, but they couldn’t put up with being ignored. 

“We were in the middle of a discussion. Answer me! Are you accepting the job or not!?”

“Boy, if you want us to do the job, you’ve gotta learn how to act like a grown-up. We’ll take care of anyone as long as you have coin. So, who’re we killing?”

“Him. Don’t want this guy to keep dividing us any further. I want him gone as soon as possible.”

There was a photograph on the table. Well, rather than a modern photograph, it was made with a magic tool that imprinted the outlines of an object onto a sheet of paper, though in a fairly intricate manner. Despite those limitations, it was more than enough for the individuals working in the underworld. 

“Heh. Quite the good-looking [ikemen] guy. Someone stole your sweetheart from you or what?”

“Shut the hell up! Just kill this fucking guy!”

“Watch your mouth, boy. It’s not like we have to humor your request, right? I heard your faction has been on the decline lately and all your revenue streams have been completely destroyed.”

“Ugh…”

“You’re the ones with the problem. We couldn’t care less, really. Don’t forget we’re only talking to you right now because we owe a favor to our contact.[8]”

The man was one step ahead of the youths. He already knew from which families they hailed from and the internal conditions of their faction. Just by revealing a bit of the information in his hands, he could make them realize who was really in control of the situation. They had no choice but to swallow their annoyance and keep quiet if they wanted the man to accept their request. It was as if they’d already established the hierarchy between them.

“Still, your guy is the son of the Silent Lion[9], you know? You chose a very annoying person to target.”

“Oh, the boy is quite famous then?”

“It’s his old man. He’s the one responsible for crippling most of our organization and now he’s set on taking down the Weissler faction. That man is really something.”

“What!? You’re telling me the duke himself did all of—”

“Shut your fucking mouth. Don’t you dare interrupt me, you damn moron.”

The youth was promptly silenced by the venomous words of the man.

The underworld organization, Hydra, was just short of taking over the criminal world that spreads throughout the Magic Kingdom of Solisthea, but the organization was driven to the brink of destruction at the hands of a single man.

Not only were his numerous attempts to kill the duke unsuccessful, but they also backfired against him, as DelSasis snatched away most of the organization’s hands. The man knew for a fact that the target’s parent was an extremely dangerous man. The moniker “Silent Lion,” given by those in the underworld, comes from his ability to act undetected by his opponents. Eventually, however, that nickname spread to the public and he came to be known as the Silent Lion, the Silent Lord, or the Strongest Philanderer. Though, that last one was given to him by jealous men because women would come to him even when he was just drinking alone in silence. 

“I was genuinely surprised when he became the head of the family. He may give off that calm-guy air, but he’s more of a villain than us.”

“Wow, that’s amazing. I’m shuddering all over~♥”

“What a frightening man. If he’s moving, then that Weissler faction is already dead in the water. All I can do is tell you to give up.”

The youths were left completely speechless. If they killed the son, the father would come to destroy them with everything he had. Furthermore, they felt overwhelmed at the prospect of turning the monster who defeated a big part of the criminal underworld into their enemy. In the worst case scenario, not only their faction would be annihilated, but also their own families.

“Well, whatever. We’ll take your request. You’re gonna be the next to be targeted, anyway.”

“N-no, w-we’re…”

“You’re seriously thinking you can get away now? By the time you guys arrived here, he probably figured out everything you had planned. He’s not only good at using people, he’s the kinda guy that’ll move himself if he has to. Quite the dangerous situation, right?”

Despair takes over them. They were stepping into a place where they could no longer turn back. To survive now, they had to eliminate all their opponents, or else they won’t be able to sleep in peace ever again.

They put themselves in great peril without even realizing it and made an enemy out of an extremely dangerous individual. 

It couldn’t be helped that the man called them “boys”, but their immaturity was far from childish. 

“Still, we’ll get to take revenge on him by dealing with the target. These fellas will take all the responsibility and everything will be alright for us.”

“Hm? Then, we’re taking the job?”

“Uh-huh… Can I leave this to you, Sharanra[10]? I’m sure they’ll be well prepared to deal with these guys.”

“Well, if you put it like that… Got no choice but to accept, do I? In exchange, you have to buy me some things, alright?”

“Yeah, I’ll get you anything you want. You’re our lucky ticket, after all.”

The die was cast. He tried to have a mere eyesore disposed of, but the youth – Samtroll – couldn’t stop himself from shivering after realizing there was such an incredible person shielding his enemy.

It would’ve been incomparably easier if Samtroll’s target were Zweit alone, but his father – Duke DelSasis – was much more formidable than the son. No, he was someone even Zweit couldn’t even dream to match. 

Although crazy as it may seem, he alone declared war on the criminal underworld and drove them to the brink of extinction. And, not only that, but he also came back alive. The word ‘monster’ doesn’t do him justice any longer. 

It was only at this moment that they’ve realized how foolish they were. Now that there’s no escape. 

This was the result of his own foolishness, and in any case, whether the assassination was successful or not was irrelevant because the outcome would be the same.

Samtroll and his followers would regret opening the door to Hell.

---

Translator’s Corner

[1] You guys probably noticed by now that the author really likes to repeat the same idea over and over again. I tried to re-word it more concisely, but I’m still considering skipping some paragraphs altogether because it literally doesn’t add anything new, but I dunno, I feel like it’s more the author writing while looking at the word counter than it is something that’s just part of the Japanese language. So that’s why this part in specific read like I copied and pasted the same paragraph twice.

[2] 明日は我が身; means you ought to be careful because the suffering of others might befall on you someday. Not complicated but it sounds like an old expression, kind of like quoting Shakespeare I’d guess. Just couldn’t find a way of representing that in English without being too over the top

[3] Probably a pun with the guy’s name. 寒[samu] means cold and the first syllable of his name is spelled as samu in Japanese. idk I guess it works for a dad joke.

[4] Might be a huge a bit of a stretch. I’m not sure what exactly the author meant by 愛されない馬鹿な訳ですね. Scraping through Japanese blogs for an hour with Google-sensei, I got the impression that when you say 愛されない[to not be loved] referring to a person, it usually refers to someone who’s super pushy and has an unlikable personality and that’s why their relationships fail, or simply someone without much luck in love. Don’t quote me on that, though. So, it literally means ‘idiotic reasoning/conclusion of not receiving love, right?’ I’m kinda assuming that Zeros is talking about the situation abstractly, like ‘huh, so it has come to be an idiotic situation such as this one thing lonely people in their thirties experience.

[5] So, after some googling, I found that although the word used here 派遣[haken] literally means dispatchment, as in, ‘to dispatch troops,’ or ‘to send an envoy,’ the modern use of the word is related to temporary workers that are dispatched from an employment agency of some kind under a lax contract with dubious wages [派遣社員]. I still have my doubts, because it reads in a super ambiguous manner. I take it as in magicians that were hired as freelance or temporary workers to do some odd jobs here and there and not as in magicians who already work for you and are sent somewhere else. Could be wrong. 魔導士を派遣する

[6] 結界[kekkai] I think here it refers to the kind of ritual barrier of eastern tradition, like the sort of barrier that would appear in inuyasha or smt. I don’t know where the author is going with it, he then combined both words in a single term as if 結界 was just a synonym for barrier, so I’ll leave it like that until it’s clarified what the author is referring to exactly.

[7] a kind of soy sauce that apparently has a richer flavor and doesn’t use much or if any wheat in its manufacturing process.

[8] as in intermediary or liaison

[9] 沈黙の獅子; a lion whose one of its qualities is silence. In context, it’s actually more like stealthy rather than the quality of being unfriendly and uncommunicative.

[10] シャランラ

---

*DISCLAIMER: I DON’T REALLY KNOW MUCH JAPANESE, THESE ARE MACHINE TRANSLATIONS THAT I TRY TO PUT INTO PROPER ENGLISH. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.

*I HAVE A DISCORD SERVER IN CASE YOU WANT TO BE NOTIFIED WHEN I’M ABOUT TO POST A NEW UPDATE. HTTPS://DISCORD.GG/VQZKXQJ

Ossan, makes a sword

The next day, Zeros started using a transmutation magic circle early in the morning to make the components for the winnowing machine. Currently, he was wearing a straw hat and had a towel wrapped around his neck. He continued to work donned in that outfit. 

A winnowing machine is a tool that separates the chaff from the rice grains. However, the device he was building was remodeled, so it could now also separate the different types of rice grains. Said function was necessary because, according to their size, each variety of rice had different properties.

The unprocessed rice grains are put into the container on the upper part of the machine, then, due to the slope, both the chaff and the grains fall. Taking advantage of that, by way of wind power, the rice grains will be sorted out depending on their size. Nevertheless, it was the first time Zeros had ever made this kind of agricultural machinery. Unlike with the desiccator, he had a lot of difficulties making the smaller components. 

Instead of using metallic bolts for the hardware, he carefully shaped the small components so they would perfectly fit with each other. Then he made and installed only a few metallic fittings, which in its own way, made the machinery quite sturdy. 

Initially, the wind was to be produced by a hand-crank mechanism. However, when Zeros eventually realized it would become annoying to operate, he made another type that would use a magic stone to rotate vanes to produce a wind current. Still, the old man felt just a tiny bit anxious about it, so he ended up making three prototypes, one of which used a conventional hand-crank mechanism. He could use the third one to adjust the wind pressure required for the final model by comparing it with this prototype, and even if it ended up being a failure, he could dismantle it and turn it into iron ingots.

Because the structure was rather simple, the assembly itself was an easy process, so it didn’t take too long to give it form.

And so, in front of him were the three winnowers with slightly different appearances. 

“The magic stone is inserted, now I just have to try it and see if it works… but, why do I feel like it’s going to break down…?”

For some reason, he thought that the prototypes wouldn’t be a resounding success.

The designs for the machines were close to being flawless, and he had already made some improvements to them, so he was hoping that the likelihood of failing would be low given that the devices installed on them were only made to circulate air. Nevertheless, he felt strangely uneasy after installing the magic stone.

It was the same sensation he felt when he was a salaryman and was working on the development of the system architecture of an O.S., or when he was making a high-performance tool in ORG; that sensation ended up becoming an omen of failure.

To give an example, at the time he was working for the company, he only had to finish some of the work required for things like programming-bugs and system errors, however in ORG, when he tried to make a sword with an extreme destructive power by imbuing the four primary magic attributes, they ended up canceling each other out without displaying any of the intended effects. Or when he tried to make a time bomb by using a magic stone, and it exploded the moment he set it off. In other words, he always had a lousy time whenever he felt that. 

Nevertheless, were his hunches always right on the mark? In truth, they were correct about 30% of the time. A prediction may or may not come true. The causes of his failures, whether it was in real life or in-game, were either because he overlooked basic things or because he used the wrong materials. Nevertheless, after finding out afterward, he made use of all of those things to improve on his work. Well, even without those hunches, in the end, if he fails, he fails. [lo que será, será]

“I feel like it’s going to end up in failure this time, I’m sure I thoroughly checked the magic formula… I don’t know.”[Zeros]

One flustered middle-aged man. The prototypes were more or less completed, but the only way to see if they would fail or not was to put them to test. Though they wouldn’t explode, anxiety washed over him for some reason. 

“Good morning, Zeros-san.”[Luceris]

“Ah, Luceris-san, good morning.”[Zeros]

Behind Luceris, the three girls of the women-only party, Jane included, were waiting. It seems they came due to the agreement of repairing Jane’s sword they made yesterday.

“We’re here, Mister∼♪”[Iris]

“No way, there was a house behind the church… the garden— no, the fields are huge.”[Jane]

“Good morning. At any rate, to build a house this fast… Hanba Constructions really is amazing.”[Rena]

In Santhor, the dwarves of Hanba Constructions have a myriad of nicknames with slightly different connotations; they are known as the “construction lunatics,” “stubborn men obsessed with details,” “Warring Constructions,” “dancing construction workers,” and so on. They were entertainers who can sing and dance. Moreover, they had an abnormally fast work speed and the corresponding skill to back it up. They were an absurd group that would use any means necessary to work merrily. They would try to develop new techniques regardless of the financial cost, and would not shirk from tempering their dance and construction skills day and night. Furthermore, their way of working started infecting other people in the construction industry, as well as the craftsmen that have worked with them, who, by the time the construction work is finished, end up becoming just like them. The dancing construction workers were beginning to spread across the country. 

“Farmers might also start dancing sooner or later, huh?”[Zeros]

“What are you even talking about?”[Iris]

Iris tilted her head at Zeros, who looked up at the sky with a faraway look. A chill crept up his back when he imagined the sight of merchants and artisans across the country, all singing and dancing while working. The scene of the city being a merry festival every day, sort of like a musical, seems peaceful in a sense, but a fantasy world where all the residents could sing and dance flashed through his mind like in a certain anime seemed all too bizarre to him. 

“Yes, repairing the sword, right? Just a moment, please, I am going to test this machine.”[Zeros]

“The hell’s that?”[Jane]

“Ah, is this a farming tool you made, Mister?”[Iris]

“I’ve never seen anything like this. What is it used for?”[Rena]

The three tilted their heads at the unfamiliar machine. However, the middle-aged Zeros just pressed the switch to activate the device instead of answering. The windmill that had incorporated a wind magic formula made a “bururu…” sound and started rotating. Then, from the back of the winnower, wind started being propelled forward. For a moment, it looked like it was a success, but then, the wind gradually began to grow stronger, making the winnower start moving forward little by little. As the bad feeling he had before became real, he reached for the off switch in a hurry.

“Huh? I pressed the off switch, but it’s not stopping…”[Zeros]

He went around the front and held onto the machine to prevent it from moving, but it kept accelerating regardless, and at that moment, as it got thrown out of balance for an instant, it lifted itself and began shooting up, soaring high up in the air.[1]

Just like that, the winnower started rising very high towards the sky. On this day, the world’s first farming machine that controlled the skies was born.

““““………””””

“…Was it supposed to fly, Mister?”[Iris]

“Prototype No.1… Difficulties adjusting the wind power. Was it a flaw in the activation of the magic formula? I probably would have to re-examine it…”[Zeros]

The winnower escaped from the confines of gravity and obtained freedom in the skies. 

He made three different prototypes, giving priority to efficiency. The first one was an automated winnowing machine, however, it presented flaws in the activation formula, considering that the rotation of the vanes turned out to be too fast. That made him anxious about the rest of the prototypes. 

“Prototype No.2, starting.” [Zeros]

“Please wait! Just now, the other prototype flew into the air, right? Maybe you should take a break from working on—”[Luceris]

Just as Luceris was finishing her sentence, his finger had already pressed the starting switch. 

The second prototype’s distinctive feature was its screw-shaped cylinder that was unlike a regular tube-shaped barrel. The machine emitted a high-pitched, screeching sound that loudly echoed through the surroundings. The cylinder converges the air pressure into a single point, making it more powerful than with the first machine. With a loud boom, the winnower accelerated at ultra-high speeds, destroying the wall that enclosed the plot of land, only to then shoot up towards the sky, and while zigzagging due to the excessive air pressure it accumulated, it soon disappeared into the heavens. On this day, the world’s first farming machine that managed to break the sound barrier was born.

“The barrel’s shape was a poor design decision, huh? I’ll have to re-examine the designs later.”[Zeros]

His original idea of producing wind with a mechanism similar to that of an electric fan was good. Still, the mana contained within the magic stone enhanced the desired effects more than expected and made the vanes installed inside the winnower rotate at high-speeds, thus causing the increased air pressure to be suddenly released. It can be thought as – the more batteries are connected to a motor, the higher its rotational speed will be. And, naturally, given that the winnower wasn’t fixed in place, it started moving as its velocity increased. Besides, the cause can also be attributed to Zeros, who put an excessively high concentration of mana into the magic stones. In short, both machines went out of control due to the defective mechanical fan that started moving with the wind power ultimately produced by the magic stones.

“I’m so confused… I used the smallest magic stone I could find, but it seems I should use an even smaller one. Still, if it is too small, it would be remarkably challenging to engrave the magic formula precisely. Even if I manage to do it, I wouldn’t be able to check it unless I make a tool that allows me to magnify it…”[Zeros]

“Sorry to interrupt, but ain’t that super dangerous!? What the hell did you make, old man!?”[Jane]

“It clearly wasn’t a farming machine. It just shot up into the sky, so…”[Rena]

“Mister, did you want to build a rocket?”[Iris]

It was hard even to know where to go to recover the flying winnowing machines, especially the one that went faster than the speed of sound. There was no choice but to give up on that. Probably, gravity will pull them back after the magic stones’ mana is exhausted. Indeed, all things bounded by gravity must eventually return to the ground.

“Zeros-san… what if they fall on someone…?”[Luceris]

“It would be a horrible tragedy, wouldn’t it? I hope it falls somewhere people don’t live, at least.”[Zeros]

The farming machinery, now released from the fetters of gravity, somehow vanished somewhere far away into the sky with its newfound freedom. On the other hand, the middle-aged Zeros kept praying in his heart —“please don’t let them fall in this country.” Luceris as well, she prayed to God while also imploring that no victims come out of the situation. 

Even though Zeros made those machines, he didn’t feel incredibly guilty about it.

Incidentally, Prototype No.3 was the machine with a hand-crank mechanism he first made. Nevertheless, only the sorting of the rice grains was automated and was also significantly larger than the previous prototypes, which added to the tedious task of disassembling it and assembling it once again in the storage room. 

The more convenient the machine is, the larger the initial manufacturing process becomes. From there, a lot of time and effort is required to downsize it by reviewing and optimizing the design. Zeros decided to re-examine his plan for improving the winnower carefully. 

The question remains, however, what happened to the prototypes after they went flying…?

　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇

【Prototype No.1】

“Run!! You must survive even if it’s only you and bring these medicinal herbs to the village.”

“No! I won’t leave you, dad!”

“Please understand… without this herb, your mom and the others will die…”

Deep within a forest, a father and a child were in a tense situation. The village where they lived had been afflicted with a disease endemic to the region, and they had to trek deep into the forest to find the medicinal herbs needed to treat it. Naturally, many monsters were roaming around the woods, and they had to avoid them and find the herbs. 

As a hunter, the father knew the forest very well, but just when they were about to reach the village, a monster that wasn’t supposed to appear in said area suddenly came out. 

  ——Guooooh!

A colossal bear whose entire body was covered in crimson fur appeared – a Fire Grizzly. Its distinctive feature is its usage of flame magic[2] that is far more powerful than the average magician’s.

Moreover, just one swing from its massive claws can smash apart a big tree, but most importantly, due to its extremely aggressive nature, they will relentlessly chase their prey once they come across it. It was a ferocious monster that attacked anything that moved.

The Fire Grizzly smelled where they were hiding and charged at them in blind rage. 

“Hurry up and run! I’ll attract its attention!”

“Dad!”

The bear was rapidly approaching even as they had that exchange of words. As the father thought that he at least had to save his daughter, a strange object came down from the skies. 

“Guoh?”

Sensing something unusual, the Fire Grizzly stopped in its tracks and looked toward the direction of the sound. However, that action proved to be fatal. 

  ——Gowashaaa!!

The metallic object that hit the Fire Grizzly instantly killed it.

“W—What just happened?”

“I think that something came down from the sky.”

The winnower was traveling at such a high speed that its mass and velocity were enough to bury the Fire Grizzly in a single hit completely. Only the corpse of the monster torn to shreds and metallic fragments scattered about remained.

At any rate, two lives were saved, and the medicinal herbs were delivered safely to the village. Thanks to them, no one died from the disease, and the villagers rejoiced thinking it was a miracle of God.

Later on, the story of the village would be called – ‘The Miracle of the Village that Was Saved by God’s Mercy,’ and in a few hundreds of years, it would be remembered as a fairy tale, but for now, no one knew the true identity of the flying piece of metal. 

The metal recovered was made into tools like hoes and sickles by the villagers, the meat provided nourishment to those weakened by the disease, and the magic stone and gall bladder was sold for extra income for the village.

【Prototype No.2】

The incident happened in the territory of a small country located next to the Magic Kingdom of Solisthea. The victims were the only son of the feudal lord that governed the whole surrounding area, and his henchmen, the three escort knights. He was a person who had been guaranteed the title of Feudal Lord in the future.

Said person was now reduced to finely-minced pieces of flesh scattered on the ground.

“How terrible… But, what even are those fragments of metal thrown all around?”

“Inspector, it seems like the victim was searching[3] for some city girls in the nearby area. Most likely, he planned to pick some women up on his carriage and have some fun with them tonight.”

(T.N: searching in the sense of looking for something to steal.)

“He was the useless son of the feudal lord, right? A lot of people seemed to have a grudge against him.”

Perhaps because the victim knew he was going to become the next lord, he was doing whatever he wanted with his power. He seemed to have been a notorious lecher, and the guards who accompanied him also tormented the city’s residents quite a lot. Moreover, the current lord had no successors other than his only son, the victim. The lord also eventually lost his people’s trust and earned their loathing, and yet, he never even bothered to try reversing the situation. Now, however, he had no choice but to adopt a child from another noble family and make him his successor. By now, there was no point in using his power to cover up the incident. 

“There are four victims, including the escort knights. Was it a magic attack, I wonder?”

“No, the residents who witnessed the incident said that some metallic object dropped from above with a roaring sound and hit the victim.”

“That man had a pretty bad reputation, and he preyed on more women than I can count. Serves him right.”

“Honestly, it’s a relief now that he’s dead. The Lord’s pressure helped bury the incident, and we too can only pretend not to have seen anything…”

The spot where the metallic object fell was gouged out and turned into a crater, and from its traces, it was clear that it fell with considerable speed. The mass and velocity with which it crashed into the ground created a powerful shockwave, and the descending air currents that came afterward – the sonic boom – brought forth enough destructive power to be felt in the whole area.

The scattered metal fragments became deadly weapons that completely turned the escort knights into pieces of meat, which were then spread on the surroundings due to the shockwave of the impact.

However, the city’s residents, who holed up in their homes to hide from the feudal lord’s son and his knights, miraculously only sustained a few injuries, with no one dying.

“The residents are happy too…”

“I know, right? If it weren’t for my position, I’d be thrilled with his death… I’m at a loss as to what to do here, you see.”

“What do we report this as? ‘the victim received God’s Judgement?’”

“It’s a dead-end since we don’t have any clue about the culprit. I don’t know what fell from the sky, but even if it came from a foreign country, we can’t do anything about it.”

“That’s right. More importantly, what comes now is the hard part, we have to collect all this minced meat…”

“That’s just an impossible task, right? We’d be better off reducing them to ashes, it will save a lot of time, and honestly, I don’t want to recover these guys’ corpses. Just burn them as they are!”

The officers abandoned their professional duties as if it were a matter of course. 

The bodies of victims must be collected and returned to their families. Still, given that the corpses were practically minced meat that was scattered on the surroundings, the recovery process would be an arduous task. Frankly, it was more trouble than it was worth. 

Crows and stray dogs had already absconded with pieces of meat as their food, and patrolmen who had built up a lot of resentment, also started incinerating the remains with magic earlier on.

Each of the bodies of the four individuals was already wholly transformed into small pieces of meat, and not only couldn’t they be identified in this world, but without DNA tests, it would also be impossible [in modern Japan]. That was probably why other officers also started using magic before even receiving the order. 

The victim hated by the residents with such intensity was eventually disposed of so carefully that his body was never recovered and not even dust, not to talk ashes, remained.

The lord was furious when he was informed of this. Nevertheless, he was also responsible for not stopping his son’s outrageous behavior and was forced to take responsibility for what was later reported to the king, which resulted in him being stripped of his title and sentenced to mining labor.

The king, a pious follower of the Four Deities, declared the incident to be a divine judgment, apologized in front of his people for his inadequate management by appointing a competent person to be his lord, and asked for God’s forgiveness at the temple. 

Thus, the case was closed, and an evil disappeared from the country. 

The fragments of metal that were recovered were sold as rosaries, and it would seem that many nobles bought them at exorbitant prices. [4]

The things the middle-aged Zeros made performed acts of mercy at places unknown to their creator.

　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇

“Well then, about Jane-san’s sword.”[Zeros]

“Mister, did you just abandon the farming machines that went flying?”[Iris]

 “Since I can’t collect them, I don’t have a choice, do I? Given that they started flying at such high speeds, I have no way of telling where they will fall, and one of them even flew faster than the speed of sound, would you be able to retrieve it, Iris-san?”[Zeros]

“Ugh, impossible. I wouldn’t be able to catch up to a winnower flying at the speed of sound even if I could fly in the sky.”[Iris]

Even with his flight magic, it would be impossible for him to fly as fast as a fighter jet. Even more so crossing the sound barrier with his own body.

“Whatever, but can you really smith a sword, old man? No matter how great of a magician you say you are, no way you can pretend to be a real blacksmith.”[Jane]

“Your argument is quite reasonable, Jane-san. However, I have a production-type occupation[or job]. I’ve made equipment – swords included – before, and I’m even capable of producing magic tools, assuming that I have the right materials, that is.”[Zeros]

“Seems as if you could also make secret medicinal potions[5]. I’m starting to feel like you can do anything, Zeros-san.”[Rena]

“I can make them, you know? I just don’t do it because it’s too much trouble. Depending on the materials, I have to defeat some truly fiendish monsters. Besides, I have no intention of selling them, even if I make more than I need.”[Zeros]

The middle-aged Zeros is aware that his power is absurd. He can produce as many powerful weapons as he wants, but he doesn’t wish for them to be used for war. 

Mercenaries are particularly conscious of other people’s equipment, and there has been a not small amount of cases of people being killed and their weapons being stolen. The list of mercenaries having their weapons taken after being murdered is endless. Not to mention, Iris and the others were a women-only party, so if they have powerful weapons, they are more likely to be attacked and to be involved in dangerous things in other ways as well. Since they have an appearance that would make slave traders and the sort very happy, it’s highly likely that they would be sold off to another country after thoroughly being toyed with.

“I’m just going to make a regular weapon, alright? It will be done right away if I use magic forging.”[Zeros]

“After being scammed by that bastard, you saying that just makes me more anxious… Are you gonna make a normal one, old man?”[Jane]

“It’s just an iron sword with a little mithril. It won’t take much time. More importantly, what sort of property shall I bestow it with? Please choose whether you would like to make it into a magic sword or maybe grant it undead resistance, for example. I can also add whichever other property you want.”[Zeros]

“It’ll be effective against the undead if it has mithril, so … a magic sword with fire attribute, please.”[Jane]

Truth be told, Zeros had already deployed the forging magic circle and was ready to make the sword at any time. The magic stone was harder than diamond, but it would soften as it got infused with attribute-less mana. Thus, he grounded it up in a mortar, arranged the broken sword, and the mithril ore inside the magic circle and proceeded to activate it. 

“What would you like the sword to look like? Should I make it look like a normal sword, or would you prefer it to be a little bit showy*[6]?”[Zeros]

“No, the hell is with making it showy!? Just make a normal one, okay? Don’t do anything weird!”[Jane]

“Then, an ordinary-looking sword, am I correct? A crude appearance without any distinctive features, right?”[Zeros]

“Yeah… I don’t like flashy things, a normal one is fine.”[Jane]

In this world, swords were mainly made by casting instead of repeatedly striking them to strengthen them like with Japanese swords. On the other hand, magic forging[7] was capable of skipping that complicated process and producing a sword with a reasonably strong metallic bond. 

If there’s a problem, it would be that a magician would also have to be a high-level Blacksmith and Alchemist to use it. And given that it also consumed a considerable amount of mana, it wasn’t a technique that could be casually utilized. It took a befitting amount of training to get to that point, and the residents of this world would need to spend a lifetime to reach the realm in which they could use magic forging. Needless to say, they could also raise their levels through battles. Yet, most magicians would never reach that realm, given that they only spend their time researching instead of accumulating actual combat experience. 

As long as they were fighting moderately, their levels would have risen, and the number of mages with appropriate skill techniques would have increased. However, in the Magic Kingdom of Solisthea, magicians mostly aimed for scholarly positions, and for that reason alone, there weren’t any magicians who reached a higher realm [in magic].

“This is the magic circle used to repair the sword before, right? Can you really smith a sword with it?”[Rena]

“It’s faster to make one from scratch than to repair it. Previously, I repaired the damaged parts of the sword, but the detailed work is tedious. I would have to repair the small cracks while examining the damaged areas, and it’s also not practical because it uses nearly twice as much mana. It would be quicker to make the same sword again.”[Zeros] 

Zeros languidly answered Rena’s question. Even during that moment, he continued working. Inside the magic circle were the broken sword and the prepared materials floating in midair, squirming loosely around as if they were made out of liquid mercury or slime. By mixing small amounts of charcoal to create carbon bonds, the molecular bonding of the metal could be seen at plain sight, and with the addition of the magic stone, the metal, which has become red-hot without releasing heat, changes its shape into a sword again.

The process took around 30 minutes in total, but it was a mysterious sight for Luceris, who had never seen magic forging before. 

“Amazing. So magic can do this sort of thing…”[Luceris]

“I’ve seen it once before, but I didn’t realize how easy it was to make weapons like this…. The blacksmithing business is up in smoke.”[Jane]

To the dazed Luceris, Jane expresses her thoughts, although somewhat dumbfoundedly.

“Speaking of which, do the two of you know each other? It seemed like you two had a more intimate relationship than that of an acquaintance.”[Zeros]

Zeros asked a rather simple question as he continued with the forging process. He was curious since the exchange they had at the diner-cum-inn yesterday.

“Jane and I grew up in the same orphanage. When we came of age, I went to the temple to become a priestess, and Jane became a mercenary, so we went our separate ways.”[Luceris]

“Luceris has helped me a lot. There’s healing magic for when you get hurt, right? She treats a few injuries at a reasonable and honest price.”[Jane]

“I just wanted to be like the priest who raised us. I want to help as many people as I can, but I’m still an apprentice, so I’m hoping to be inducted as a cleric in due form.”[Luceris]

“I owe a lot to the priest, too. That person taught me all sorts of things.”[Jane][8]

(T.N:( ͡°( ͡° ͜ʖ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ʖ ͡°) ͡°))

“So the priest was quite the character… And, about the priest… Hm?”[Zeros]

In response to Zeros’ casual remark, their eyes were swimming all over with all their might. An awkward air fills the place.

“The priest was… how should I put it… a bit of a strange person.”[Luceris]

“The woman liked drinking and gambling way too much, and she had a talent for both. Also, she was insanely good with the sword. She was so quick-tempered that, whenever she got mad, she would immediately start using her fists.”[Jane]

“…Are you sure she was a priest?”[Zeros]

“Yes, she was indeed a priest. It seems she caused some problems and was sent to manage the orphanage, but to this day, I still have no clue about what she did.”[Luceris]

“She was also my sword teacher. She used to say ‘God is dead,’ ‘God is the enemy,’ or ‘God must be killed, I must do it.’”[Jane]

Although she was supposed to be a priest, she was an outlaw who didn’t fear God. Moreover, she had already been removed from her position as a cleric by the time she fell into alcohol and gambling.

“Are the temples of the Four Gods really that lacking in human resources? No matter how much I think about it, that’s not how a clergyman should be, right?”[Zeros]

“No, well, it isn’t really like that…”[Luceris]

“She had a strong sense of both duty and empathy[9], but she was also a believer of not relying on God to solve all her problems. Even during her sermons, she used to say: ‘Do not think that God will do everything for you! Do you really believe that humans can’t judge human crimes? That by pleading to God, all the problems in the world will disappear? Are you idiots?’ 

She was a bit of an unorthodox priest, but she was really popular for some reason.”[Jane]

“That’s not just a bit, you know!? Wasn’t she clearly a heretic!?”[Zeros]

It seemed there was virtue even in the most absurd of behaviors. Zeros again learned that the world was full of many different kinds of people. 

“Wow! It’s a lot prettier than how it was before!”[Iris]

“It really is. I wonder if he would make one for me, too. Luckily I have materials.”[Rena]

Iris and Rena were watching the magic forging process and were beginning to wonder if they should ask him to also make weapons for them.

Although it wasn’t as strong as a customized weapon, it was still a fairly powerful weapon. 

“It’s finished. It might feel somewhat… unpleasantly warm, but please try swinging it a couple of times for now.”[Zeros] 

“Sure— Woah, it really does feel weird.”[Jane]

When performing magic forging, somehow the temperature of weapons and medicines ended up being the same as the human body’s. Depending on the item that is produced, it could be an extremely unpleasant feeling.

Jane swung the sword a couple of times to feel its response. Her chest shook violently as well. It was poison for the eyes [extremely tempting] for the middle-aged Zeros, who was not used to a female’s presence.

“Perfect. As if it was made to fit my hands.”[Jane]

Jane, who smiles in satisfaction, and the appeased uncle who admires her furiously swaying mounds. A sight for sore eyes.

“If you pour mana into it, you can release a fireball, but please refrain from trying it here, alright?”[Zeros]

“Got it. Then, with this, I can kill those chickens…”[Jane]

“Chickens? Ah, the Wild Cuckoos, right? Are you planning on getting your revenge?”[Zeros]

“Obviously. Our livelihood depends on it.”[Jane]

“Fumu…”[Zeros]

Zeros was planning on raising chickens. That being the case, he was contemplating whether he could actually get chickens to raise for their meat. Luckily, the Wild Cuckoo was mostly unpalatable except for its eggs, so the possibility of procuring some of them was relatively high. Calculations started running off in Zeros’ mind. 

“In that case, I will accompany you as well. I was planning to raise chickens anyway.”[Zeros]

““““!?””””

The four girls’ expressions transformed into one of utter astonishment as if they saw something unbelievable.

“Z–Zeros-san… Are you really planning to raise Wild Cuckoos?”[Rena]

“Wait, are you really!? That thing is so violent that  the word ‘wild’ can’t even begin to describe it!”[Iris]

“Hey, give up, old man. You’ll be grappling with chickens every day, you know?”[Jane]

“Zeros-san. It might look like a chicken, but it’s a bona fide monster…”[Rena]

The middle-aged magician couldn’t distinguish between a Wild Cuckoo and a normal chicken. And, as long as that was the case, there was no reason to draw that line between them. On the other hand, he was underestimating the Wild Cuckoos at this point in time.

“If they lay such delicious eggs, doesn’t it make you want to try them even more?”[Zeros]

“The problem is that the bird that lays them is too vicious!”

“It’s a dangerous creature! It’s seriously strong, you know!?”

“Stop this nonsense! What if something happens to the children of the orphanage!”[Rena]

The victims speak about the dangers of these chickens. It would be odd if Zeros did not think they weren’t chickens by now, and yet, he wasn’t able to make that distinction. Rather, he wanted to confirm it with his own eyes.

“This one also wants to be permitted to join you in subjugating that monster.”

Before they knew it, a certain high-elf with emerald-colored hair appeared. It was Kaede, donned in a shrine maiden [miko] attire.

“Kaede-chan!? How long have you been here for!?”[Luceris]

“She’s been waiting in the shadow of the storage room since a short while ago… Aiming at me and already prepared to draw her sword at any time, but…”[Zeros]

“But you noticed me, isn’t that right? I was trying to fathom the extent of your skill by observing your openings, but sadly, I couldn’t find any to exploit.”[Kaede]

In actuality, she intended to attack Zeros by first eliminating her presence, and then striking after finding an opening. However, her presence had already been detected, thus her surprise attack ended up in failure. 

“We’re talking about real combat, though. Well, if our opponents are just chickens, isn’t it fine?”[Zeros]

“No, that’s what I’ve been telling you… They’re not like any normal bird.”[Rena]

“I don’t think we can convince him. I think Mister is serious about raising Wild Cuckoos.”[Iris]

“There’s no point in trying to stop him. Maybe he doesn’t know how vicious those things are, so he has naive fantasies about it.”[Jane]

Zeros actually wanted to get Wild Cuckoos. The three mercenaries who had faced them already, knew of the monster’s strength, but they are yet to fathom the old magician’s might. They have forgotten that ordinary monsters can’t even put up a fight against an opponent with a vast level difference. And, that was exactly Zeros’ case. He simply was looking for chickens that could lay eggs. Even if they were monsters, as long as the eggs were delicious, that was all that mattered.

Reminded of his longing for TKG, he suddenly realized something. 

“Ah, I don’t have soy sauce… How frustrating. I haven’t made it yet, so the taste would be…”[Zeros]

The middle-aged Zeros finally remembered that crucial predicament causing his tension [excitement] to drop. TKG without the soy sauce would be nothing but an imperfect product. However, when one door closes, another one opens, and likewise, there was someone who extended their helping hand. 

“Soy sauce? This one possesses some, and I could share it with you if you’d like.”[Kaede]

“You have soy sauce!? Please, by all means! TKG without it is basically eating plain rice with an egg, after all.”[Zeros]

“Then, I will offer you soy sauce on the condition that you let me join this monster subjugation. I just want to test my abilities a little.”[Kaede]

“YES! I’d sell my soul to the Devil for some soy sauce!”[Zeros]

“Is this one the Devil…?”[Kaede]

His reply came immediately. 

The island nation in which the elves lived apparently possessed a method of producing soy sauce. It could be said that there were no more obstacles to eating TKG. 

“Well then, please lead the way. Finally, I will get my hands on TKG!”[Zeros]

“【Kogarashimaru】 is already thirsty for blood tonight… fufufu”[Kaede][10]

(T.N: 木枯らし[kogarashi] means winter wind and 丸[maru] is a suffix for sword names)

“Kaede-chan… It’s daytime now, though…”[Luceris]

There was no stopping the two of them now. Their enthusiasm was so great that they didn’t seem to be able to hear anyone else anymore, prompting Jane and the rest to heave a sigh. On the other hand, Luceris seemed to be worried they might get hurt and was restlessly fidgeting around.

The duo of the strongest magician and the heavenly demonic swordsman has been temporarily formed. Thirst for blood and gourmandism, the two of them walk down the same road, each for their own purpose…

---

Translator Corner

• [1] it literally says “aerodynamic lift was generated” but my brain too small, so I assume the scene described here is the winnower being lifted in the air due to Zeros grabbing it while it continued to move forward in the direction he is standing, a lever-like movement, if that makes sense.
• [2] uses the kanji for flame instead of fire, but I don’t remember if it’s appeared before and I just translated it as fire magic; 炎系統の魔法, but i’ll keep it like this anyway
• [3]
• [4] for the non-catholics, the rosaries are those necklaces with beads used to count the number of prayers, the author most likely meant it in the sense of an object used in a religious practice or ritual, though it could also be that they simply used the fragments to make rosary beads.
• [5] 秘薬, literally, secret medicine. Most likely in the sense of a super effective medicine whose production method is unknown. I initially wanted to translate it as “elixir,” but I’m fairly certain that the author used a different term in a past chapter. I’ll change it if it appears differently afterward.
• [6] literally: 自己主張, self-assertion; to try doing it in a way that shows self-assertion.
• [7] the author’s been using the term 魔導[madou] to talk about this specific thing instead of what he had been using to refer to magic in general, 魔法[mahou], so I’ll translate both as “magic” for now because I don’t believe he has explained if there are any differences, e.g., I’ve seen other translators use sorcery for madou and magic for mahou, that sorta thing.
• [8]( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
• [9] The terms used here (義理[giri] and 人情[ninjou]) refer to broad cultural beliefs that are more or less unique to Japan or Asian cultures in general, which are hard to translate directly. Both terms complement and directly oppose each other, but in short, they refer to the conflict between one’s obligations toward the collective – giri – and the feelings the individual possesses, which might oppose the duty toward the group – ninjou – think of Romeo and Juliet for example.
• [10]

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*DISCLAIMER: I DON’T REALLY KNOW MUCH JAPANESE, THESE ARE MACHINE TRANSLATIONS THAT I TRY TO PUT INTO PROPER ENGLISH. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.

*I HAVE A DISCORD SERVER IN CASE YOU WANT TO BE NOTIFIED WHEN I’M ABOUT TO POST A NEW UPDATE. HTTPS://DISCORD.GG/VQZKXQJ

*I already said on discord that I was stopping the weekly releases because I didn’t have much motivation recently, but that, in exchange, I would put a bit more effort into them, so I hope the quality is reasonably better than previous more rushed chapters

Everyday life without Ossan, part 5

Adjacent to the Istor Magic Academy’s High School section, there is a research building made for the exclusive use of the students with the highest academic performance.

The main purpose of this building was to encourage talented young magicians to develop their skills to a higher level, but it has now become a cesspool where factions only quibble at each other.

The members of the research-oriented Saint-Germain faction with their ‘not my business’ policy, continue to focus solely on their research. But, besides them, there is another faction that has been particularly notorious for its obsession towards certain extreme beliefs – the Weissler faction. 

At one point a faction created by magicians aiming to nurture the next generation of young magic users who would carry the duties of the defense of the nation and the study of military tactics on their shoulders, but, somewhere along the way, they ended up changing into a group of magician supremacists. The reason for this could be attributed to the discovery of the plans for the magic circle of a wide-range annihilation magic in an ancient historical ruin. However, the reality of the situation was that said magic circle was just an incomplete prototype. 

In the first place, it could be said that there exist great differences between the dimensions of the historic ruins from the past.

From the period of the start of civilization to the era of wars fueled by territorial conflicts; the times of prosperity where many people lived in harmony to the dawn of destruction. This magic circle dated back to the early days of mankind, where said technology was still in its infancy.

At that time, still, only the mana inside the body was being used for the practice of magic, and due to that, the technique of using nature’s mana, which was born during the warring period, was not employed. Besides, naturally, this magic circle was made under the basis of requiring several magicians to administer mana into it in order to be activated, and yet, it was exactly because of this reason that this wide-range annihilation magic possessed a big flaw.

Mana has the property of being able to transform into different attributes, but at the same time, it has the disposition of being influenced by the mind. If several magicians were to use magic at the same time, their minds would have to be synchronized on the same plane, which in theory could be achieved by lining shoulder-to-shoulder and rouse each other’s spirits at the time of casting the spell. Nevertheless, it was impossible for the minds of multiple magicians to be in perfect synchronization with one another at the same time.

Each person’s mind has its own unique wavelength, and it’s inconceivable for them to be the same. Unlike uniting their hearts to accomplish a common goal, this would mean that multiple people had to become the exact same individual in order to be synchronized with each other. Obviously, such an event was extremely unlikely to happen.

(*T.N: keep in mind that the word used for mind is 精神[seishin] which can also mean spirit and soul, so it’s a bit of a more mystical term)

In short, the individualities of each magician became the shackles that made it impossible to activate this magic circle.

Hence, the wide-range extermination spells developed during the warring period were mainly based on the usage of nature’s mana, yet the resultant magic circles became so monstrously huge that they were only used as artillery batteries attached to forts.

If they were to be compared to modern armament, they would be like short-range ballistic missiles.

(*T.N: this thing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short-range_ballistic_missile) 

With the start of the Evil God War, magic tools were invented to produce magic circles, but their power was next to nothing in front of the Evil God, and so, they were defeated.

After such large-scale devastation, wide-range annihilation spells forever vanished from the annals of history, leaving behind only the unfinished artifacts that could be unearthed from ancient historical ruins once in a blue moon. But, what the Weissler faction was unaware of was the fact that most of these things dating back from the period of the dawn of civilization were objects of merely historical value.

Of course, the magic circle could be improved, making it possible to more or less activate it, however, it wouldn’t reach a level in which it could be used in a real battle.

It left one to wonder how could they possibly use a magic circle, that was only capable of emitting a faint light, to attack. But, even so, they harbored no doubts about its usability.

To put it simply, they grew arrogant after getting a useless, defective toy on their hands.

It was still tolerable if only one person became impertinent because of it, but it was bound to transform into a problem if a lot of people also become that way. As such, it didn’t take long for them to turn into a group of mere miscreants.

Brainwashing magic was being used behind the scenes, but even so, their movements had become strange recently. 

“Don’t screw with me, Samtroll! You’re just throwing away your soldiers!! Take it seriously, you bastard!!”

“What’s wrong with my plan!? The knights and the levied peasants are merely disposable pieces!”

“What you’re describing is nothing but a suicide charge!! And why is that goddamned wide-range annihilation magic we have no clue how to use added into the strategy as well!?”

The so-called ‘absurd tactics meeting’ by the rest of the factions. It’s a strategy discussion meeting that is held by the Weissler faction. 

“Yeah, we also think the same!! And now that I think about it, how is it that all of your strategy targets are so incredibly convenient? Are they even possible to implement in practice? Besides, you didn’t even think about the possibility of troops lying in ambush. How can you be sure that the enemy will be incompetent!?”

“Wouldn’t your shitty strategy only work against bandits!? A war between nations wouldn’t be so simple!”

At the previous tactics meeting, the people who were brainwashed were profoundly shaken by Zweit’s opportune debunking of their hitherto established theories, and the more earnest magicians have started to re-examine history from the beginning.

(*T.N: not really sure; I’m more inclined to say that “history” refers to the history of military tactics or maybe even their faction’s history; 真面目な魔導士達は一から歴史を見直す事を始めた。)

Then, they looked at their strategies from different points of view and finally started to realize how shallow and thoughtless, the tactics they had been formulating so far, were.

In turn, the weakening of the brainwashing magic produced a tremendous tear within the faction, and eventually, more people started to break free from said spell one after the other. Thus, the faction was currently split in two: the realists and the idealists, who were engaging in a fierce debate at the moment.

The former group is composed of the ones that are focused on facts and logical arguments just like Zweit, while the latter is the group siding with Samtroll. However, now that the effects of the brainwashing magic had begun to disappear, Samtroll has been gradually losing his minions. On the other hand, Zweit suddenly rising to the position of the representative of the realist camp, has caused Samtroll to be completely exasperated. 

“Since our military strength is limited, we should also keep in mind our hypothetic enemy’s war potential. Your strategy is no different from just putting an incompetent commander in charge of the troops, I’m completely against it!”

“You bastard, who do you think you’re talking to—”

“You’re just an academy student, right!? Here, things like being a noble or a commoner, having power or not, don’t mean a thing! In the first place, wasn’t your own House’s intention to contribute to the defense of the country by helping formulate realistic strategies!? Are you repudiating your own family!?”

“Ugh…”

When the brainwashing magic was still in effect, they were close to being perfectly submissive, but once it was dispelled, the backlash against Samtroll, as they bared their fangs against him, was even greater. 

To make matters worse, the fact that Buhlmite was a user of brainwashing magic had started spreading. 

The ability of magicians to perceive the flow of mana is relatively high, even at that instant, there were people observing his movements. In order to brainwash them again, he would have to use his magic while interacting with them, but in such a situation where he was being actively monitored, even a small amount of mana was likely to be detected. In that state, it was exceedingly difficult for Buhlmite to use his magic again.

“Since we don’t know if we can use the wide-range annihilation spell, it’s pointless to include that power into our strategy.”

“I concur! This doesn’t make any sense. Any plan that’s based on wasting away our war potential is not worth even discussing.”

“Agreed. The assumption of the enemy’s military strength is too naive. We should take into account that the opponent is human.”

“I also agree. To begin with, how can 100,000 soldiers be defeated by a small contingent? It’s strange, right?”

Once a distortion is created, the ripples start to spread rapidly. Some of those on Samtroll’s side also began to agree, utterly smashing his plans and driving him into a corner. The foundation he had built collapsed like a house of cards.

“This strategy isn’t worth even arguing about, Zweit could do it far better than this.”

“This is despicable. The strategy pretty much assumes total annihilation, right?”

“But, it makes sense. It puts emphasis on how we can reduce the damage to our allies, and how long they can survive in a desperate situation.”

“You can fight another day as long as you’re alive. It’s quite realistic as it also makes us keep in mind the restoration of the country.”

“Compared to him… you’re too immature, Samtroll.”

This was the outcome of trying to obtain a position of power without putting in any actual work.

Incidentally, Zweit was currently not inside this research building. He was banned from coming to avoid him saying anything unnecessary that could jeopardize Samtroll’s plans, but be that as it may, Zweit and the rest of the students could still converse freely as they see each other regularly in the dormitory.

From there, they formed a group dedicated to the study of tactics, and currently, they are being consistently harassed. 

This ripple was sure to spread even further, nonetheless…

After a while, the tactics meeting was finally adjourned, but Samtroll continued to glare at his detractors in bitterness until they left. 

“Damn it!! That fucking Zweit, he had to blab about unnecessary shit!”

“They’ve also completely figured out what my magic is. They kept watching me the whole time.”

“Fuck… Still, there’s nothing I can do about it. He’s the Duke’s son, he knew I wouldn’t be able to touch him… Damn it!”

The resentment against Zweit ran deep. And yet, the more self-centered and arrogant one is, the stronger this tendency presented itself, and the more one would forget about the things that are less convenient to one’s views. 

He was the one to first scheme aginst Zweit. It was his own fault, so to speak, yet he was too foolish to realize that fact. 

“Then, what do we do? If we move, they’ll immediately suspect us.”

“There’s an annual event coming up soon, right? We’ll make our move then.”

“I see… We can make it look like an accidental death.”

“It’s dangerous to touch him now, so leave him be for the time being.”

They decided to use their last resort. It was an unforgivable and inhumane act, but that never crossed their minds, they, who were blinded by their lust for power.

In a room with no one else but them, a devious scheme was brewing in secret.

　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇

“Hey, Kreuz, what will you do about the combat training drill?”

“I’m not interested in participating… I want to continue with my research, it’s just a waste of time to partake in that kind of event.”

Kreuz, the research hikikomori, replies in a gloomy tone as he turns his head back to reading dictionaries of each race’s ancient languages. 

He wasn’t very good at any physical exercise-related activities, though he took pride in his nature being fit for doing research. And yet, he still sighs with a cloudy expression as he remembers that those with excellent grades in the Academy are forced to participate.

The combat training drill was an event he was not grateful for.

“It’s not an event everyone has to participate in, and yet you’re forced to go, huh?”

“And that’s exactly the issue. What is the point of having researchers pile up combat experience? And the rest of the students don’t have to participate? It’s absurd.”

“But, you know, Kreuz-kun. Shouldn’t you build up stamina a little bit? Even now you still have muscle pain, don’t you?”

“If it is for the sake of research, I’ll show you that I can endure at least this much. The likes of a combat training drill… what a joke… Are you coming too, by the way, Selina?”

“I’ll pass. Sounds like a pain.”

While trying to send people to the combat training drill, the person herself refuses to join.

Kreuz couldn’t help but be envious of the people with average grades, seeing that they were not compelled to participate. He regretted that if he had known that things were going to end up that way, he would have adjusted the number of credits he earned. 

“In my case, I have to go. I skipped classes way too much and now I’m screwed with my credits.”

“Makarov… I think that’s just you reaping what you sow. You’re always slacking off.”

“I take alchemy, though?”

“Or put in another way∼, that’s the only lecture you take, isn’t it, Makarov-kun?”

“Leave me alone!”

Makarov gets worked up after receiving Yi Ling’s teasing. Although he has only been attending to one subject’s lectures, in actuality, he’s one of the top students in terms of grades. 

He’s an excellent student, however, given that he wanted to land in a good job, he didn’t have any interest in other lectures. And perhaps for that reason, he often had to ask for Kreuz’s help the day before the exams.

“Oh, this magic character is… isn’t it similar to the ones from this ancient language right here?”

“Could you tell me which race’s language it is, please?”

“The elves, it seems∼. This character means… ‘Wind,’ maybe∼?”

“Ah, here too. It’s the language of the dwarves, ‘Convergence.’”

“I found one too. The beastmen’s… ‘Power,’ I wonder?”

The four of them divided up the work of deciphering the magic characters: searching the texts that are the most similar to the magic characters and setting them aside to use them as a reference for the deciphering process.

“As expected, they were ‘words’ after all. Magic characters are the precursors of ancient languages, what do you guys think?”

“Wait a minute, then, what about the general knowledge of the magic formulas we’ve learned? Was it pointless?”

“I wouldn’t say that, though it means that what we’ve been learning so far was fairly misguided.”

“Then, what are these incomprehensible characters? I can’t read them at all.”

“Those must have probably been tampered with afterward. That’s why these words don’t appear to hold any meaning now.”

(*T.N: tampering as in altering with malicious intention.)

Selina and Makarov, who had been studying magic at this Academy, were shocked by that revelation. They were both top of their respective classes when it came to grades, but this was tantamount to telling them that all of what they have been trying so hard to learn was meaningless. 

And although Makarov wasn’t as shocked as Selina, he was definitely surprised nonetheless.

“Hmm? But Kreuz’s siblings had already deciphered them, right? Didn’t you know already how to do it, Kreuz-kun∼?”

“I could have learned how if I had gone to my family’s state during the Summer vacation. Sadly, I missed that chance.”

“In other words, does that mean that the two of them had another magician to teach them the deciphering method of magic formulas? No way, right?”

“Yeah, I know right? If such an excellent magician existed, there’s bound to be rumors about him…”

“He’s sort of like a wandering magician, I suppose. I heard that he was a magician who would put to test his dangerous spells on an actual battlefield.”

All of them were at a loss of words. Supposing that this was true, it would mean that there was an unknown magician with great wisdom and profound knowledge regarding magic out there.

If that fact were to come to light, the existence itself of the Academy might be put into question. 

Put differently, if an unknown magician was able to decipher magic formulas, it would mean that the things taught at the Academy fall behind this anonymous magician’s knowledge, prompting the trust put in the Academy to hit rock bottom. And, although that is not to say that absolutely everything was false, around 60% of what was taught in the lectures would become meaningless information. If that were to happen, even the factions, let alone the Academy, would be subjected to criticism.

“Hmm, though Grandfather is also a magician. It seems like the deciphering method is already in his hands, or at least I have the feeling that it is now.”

“The Solisthea faction, huh?… Seems like it’s gonna grow much bigger.”

“From what I heard, apparently the sources of funding for each of the factions have been thoroughly crushed.”

“That was my father’s work, I believe. Well, I’m sure we’ll be fine. If we’re talking about the fundamentals of magic research, it’s already drilled in our heads, isn’t it?”

“In that case, The Weissler faction will become the target… right?”

The Weissler faction had been stirring up quite the clamor recently. In the streets, the hoodlum-wannabes were running rampant, causing the military police* to also be mobilized.

(*T.N: 憲兵; In this context I’d say it refers to the feudal lord’s soldiers tasked with the protection of peace and order, the original meaning refers to a police force from the imperial Japan that was inspired by the Frenchs’ gendarmeries.)

Moreover, it appears that a division is starting to form within the faction, with none other than Kreuz’s brother, Zweit, at its center.

“I’ve talked with my brother a couple of times, and apparently some kind of brainwashing magic, a psychic-type of bloodline magic, was being used. And, I guess that he started pressing them hard now that he broke free from the spell.”

“Oi, isn’t that a crime!?”

“Yeah! Is completely forbidden to use magic on other people, right!?”

“Psychic-type magic doesn’t leave any evidence behind. Though, the effects can be canceled by a strong mental shock. Besides, it’s possible that he might be intentionally trying to create a commotion.”

The effects of psychic magic didn’t last particularly long. Since the agent that affected the mind was mana itself, even a temporary agitation would make it exceedingly difficult to maintain the brainwashing magic for a long time.

That is because people have emotions, hence their mana also possesses the tendency of fluctuating disorderly according to them, which in some cases, also affected their magic. If it is an intense emotion, like anger, its offensive ability will temporarily increase, and conversely, when sadness is experienced, its effects will be reduced.

In that way, if the brainwashing magic is not continuously used on a regular basis, its effects will be gradually dissolved by the target’s internal mana.

Ripples started spreading with Zweit as the center, eventually becoming waves as the minds of the ones put under the spell were released from its grasp, and their anger directed at the main culprit.

The problem was that said main culprit was now playing the victim card, in turn aggravating the true victims even further, and escalating the situation into a state of internal division. 

However, no matter how much Samtroll and his lackeys struggle to reverse the situation, the tide might no longer be stoppable at this point. 

“But, you know∼ about Samtroll, I haven’t been hearing good rumors about him lately∼ Did you hear too∼?”

“Yeah, I heard he has ties to the underworld.”

“Something like he was seen having dinner with someone shady like that, right? And that he was having a discussion about making a deal or something.”

“Well, let’s pray we don’t end up being dragged into that. More importantly, your hands have stopped, you know? This is also part of the research, so please make sure to do it properly.”

(*T.N: ‘we’ as in their faction)

Urged by Kreuz, they once again continue with their task of deciphering magic characters.

“By the way∼, it’s almost noon. Are you going to eat here?”

“Is it that time already? Let’s see… Let’s eat in the Academy’s cafeteria, you two are inviting.”

“Ugh. You know, this month I’m kinda struggling to make ends meet, so… ”

“Me too… I bought too many things this month, so, you see…”

“This is your punishment for spreading strange rumors. Be grateful that you weren’t sued.”

Selina and Markov ended up agreeing to split the bill in two.

It was due to their loose mouths that strange rumors about Kreuz were spread, so in a way, they were getting their just deserts.

The two of them, the root of all evil, continued to buy Kreuz and the others lunch for a while.

Truly, out of the mouth comes evil.

(*T.N: 口は禍の元であった。can also be translated as ‘root of all evil,’ and it’s a reference to Matthew 15:18 as well I guess; https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/matthew-15-18.html , which basically means, please shut the fuck up or you’ll regret it. That’s probably the pun here.)

　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇

“Did you hear? Apparently, those guys from the Weissler faction are having an internal conflict.”

“I heard that Duke Solisthea’s son and Marquess Weissler’s useless son are opposing each other.”

“Hm? Didn’t the Duke’s son also have a rotten personality?”

“The rumors say that apparently he was put under a brainwashing spell along with the other members of the faction.”

“Seriously? Isn’t that violating the rules of the Academy!?”

(*T.N: wouldn’t it be an actual crime before that?)

As the actual size of the Academy was smaller than what it might seem, such rumors spread quickly. The many small-sized factions, that could be called ‘weak factions,’ in particular had been keeping a close eye on the movements of these two major factions.

“If I’m not mistaken, it was a conflict of opposing opinions within the faction, right?”

“I heard that Samtroll was exposed for being in cahoots with an underworld organization, and also that the members have begun pushing for an internal reform.”

“What I heard is that this fucking piece of shit Samtroll extorted Zweit-sama into having sexual relations with him against his will.”

(*T.N: the speaker is a woman.)

“Eh? I heard that Zweit-sama converted to the ‘muscle faction,’ you know, gachimuchi…*slurp* ♡”

(*T.N: a woman too, and gachimuchi are super macho men, mostly gay, though. Also, both words, muscle/body and sexual relations, have the kanjis 肉体 in them, that’s the joke.)

It would seem that some of the rumors were merely baseless gossips, though, within a few days, they were already spreading throughout the Academy. And the reason was:

“Hey, Dio… By any chance, did you tell anyone about the brainwashing magic thing? And that it doesn’t leave any evidence behind?”

“Uh… I might have gotten carried away a little. When you went to the bathroom, I unintentionally…”

“Nah, I don’t really care that much about that, but what the actual hell are these latest rumors? When the fuck did I became obsessed with physical beauty*!?”

(*T.N: again, the word physical beauty has the kanjis 肉体 in it. You can probably guess what the joke is, but it makes zero sense in English. TL;DR: og rumor is he gay, but it now is that he ‘awakened to physical beauty and muscles’ instead of awakening to pps)

“Maybe people saw you doing your daily sword practice. Even if it’s early morning, there are probably other students that wake up that early, right?”

“And how the fuck that lead to having a hard-on for gachimuchi!? And also, now people even think I’m gay!”

“That rumor about you being… uhh, ‘light in the loafers,’ is nothing but Samtroll’s cheap ploy, right? Don’t pay attention to it. Though… that asshole might involve me in it too before long…”

In Dio’s case, he wanted to avoid looking like he was in a strange relationship with his close friend. If such a thing reaches Celestina’s ears, he would have no choice but to hang himself.

(*T.N: yeah, it actually says that もはや首を吊るしかなくなる)

It was the same for Zweit, he wanted those kinds of rumors to disappear as soon as possible. 

“More importantly, what are you going to do about the combat training drill? Do you even know how to hold a sword?”

“Yeah, I don’t think fighting is my thing. But the thing is, I don’t wanna die, so I’m still joining either way.”

“…Never seen you going to the combat practice, when do you go?”

“I go three times a week, but it’s probably by the time you’re taking your other lectures. It also really helped that we have people who know how to handle a weapon in our faction.”

“I think it’s good for you to be training, but if you underestimate real combat you’re gonna die for real, you know?”

Zweit recalls the combat training with the Golems. The hellish days of endlessly fighting hordes of Golems that kept regenerating until they managed to destroy their cores.

Nevertheless, he was satisfied that thanks to that, he learned the 【Swordsmanship】 and 【Hand-to-Hand Combat】 skills, and was able to become able to use them proficiently. 

(T.N: 剣術[kenjutsu] and 格闘[kakutou] respectively)

He was thrilled that he was definitely getting stronger, and he had a really good smile on his face whenever he was able to feel the solid feedback of his sword being transmitted through his hands whenever he wielded it. 

By coming up with methods of how to fight while using magic at the same time, putting them to the test, and tackling the issues that arise, he was steadily gaining strength. He also has been taking the initiative to attend other lectures, such as alchemy and medicine compounding*, which he felt were essential.

(*T.N: 薬術[yakujutsu] literally ‘way or art of creating medicine,’ it doesn’t refer to medical science but to fantasy ‘herb doctors’ that make healing potions and shit.)

“What kinda training did you go through, Zweit? You said Golems were used in it, but usually, only a few can be used at a time, isn’t it?”

“There was a difference of heaven and earth between this magician and ordinary ones. I had to endlessly fight against 30 Golems at the same time.”

“Normally that would be impossible, you know? Just what is that magician?”

“It’s better if you don’t know. He’s seriously a monster. The Academy’s lecturers, like, don’t even hold a candle to him.”

“If he can do something like that, he should be super famous by now, why is his name so unknown, though?”

“Because if he were someone in power, he wouldn’t be able to do his research or move freely. He could make money by selling monsters’ materials and there wouldn’t be any uproar if he were to become a mercenary either. He could go fighting all across the country if he wanted to.”

Dio couldn’t picture in his mind how the magician who trained Zweit looked like. He has heard nothing but outlandish tales, and given that they were so preposterous, he never believed them. 

However, since Celestina, who couldn’t use magic before, was made into the Academy’s ‘genius girl’ in just two months, it was not at all far-fetched to say that he was leagues above the Academy’s lecturers in terms of ability. 

“Even with this blessed environment, it seems like the research of magical technology hasn’t progressed much, so after all, I wonder if the problem is with the quality of the lecturers.”

“I guess. A researcher would think of any possible way of obtaining research funds despite the situation they’re in if the need appears, and if they’re mercenaries, there’s loads of good prey to hunt.”

“From monsters, you can get stuff like materials and magic stones, and depending on the prey, yeah, you can actually make bank. But, it’s just that your shishou is way too insane.”

“And it seems like for him it’s a hobby he has out of self-satisfaction, you know? He’s in a realm that green hands like us could never understand.”

“Honestly, I don’t really wanna meet that shishou of yours.”

“Nah, before that there’s a better chance of running into my grandfather.”

After that, neither of them said anything for a while until it was time to head to the Academy’s training grounds, where about fifty people from the Weissler faction had gathered.

“There you are. You’re late, Zweit.”

“My bad. Took me a while to find Dio. He was off training somewhere.”

“I see… But, why does he look like he’s about to die?”

“He’s fine, don’t worry. He merely stepped on the tiger’s tail and now he’s escaping reality…”

“I have no clue about what you’re talking about.”

Dio’s fate was in the hands of a single crazed old man.

“More importantly, let’s start with the close-quarters combat lecture. You must be in high-spirits since hand-to-hand combat isn’t such a popular subject at the Academy, right, lecturer Bourbon*?”

(*T.N: バーバン)

“Until now, only the chirping of birds could be heard around here, so yeah, you being so eager to start with the lecture makes me quite happy, to be honest.”

The students members of the Weissler faction that were already gathered were amazingly muscular…

Er, anyway… A magician who could be perfectly described by the words ‘gachimuchi skinhead,’ approached Zweit will smiling delightfully.

Incidentally, his robe looked like it was about to be ripped apart by his bulging muscles.

Although he was supposed to be a magician, no matter how one looked at it, his appearance was one of a seasoned warrior who has roamed across countless battlefields. 

“Let’s start! In response to your fervent enthusiasm, I will earnestly drill the basics of hand-to-hand combat into your heads!”

“Please. If it becomes a retreating battle, we would have to protect ourselves from the pursuing enemy soldiers. It’s also possible that the enemy might use magic tools to conceal their appearance, so if push comes to shove, we have to be prepared for an open battle.”

“Umu! Good job noticing that, I’m glad you did. These days, all the students think that they can just shoot magic from the rear, but you can’t afford to be that naive on a real battlefield.

Depending on the situation, we could be forced to consider either withdrawing or acting as the rearguard. Magicians with paper-thin defense will definitely be in danger if brought to a melee! That’s why knowing hand-to-hand combat is crucial if you want to live.”

“If we imagine a situation in which we have to go to the frontlines in order to minimize the damage to our allies, a more flexible style of combat that emphasizes mobility is more desirable, right?”

“Certainly, that’s true. But you lot are magicians, you don’t have to fight like knights, right? No matter what you do, don’t forget that the most important thing you have to do is supporting your allies.”

“““Yes!”””

“Good answer. I will train you thoroughly before the outdoors training drill. Are you ready!?”

“““Yes, sir!”’’’

(*T.N: said in engrish)

It went in a strange direction somehow, which gave Zweit a bad feeling about the situation. Nevertheless, in this way, the training begins. 

It was later said that on this day, in a certain part of the Academy, a certain person’s verbal abuse echoed loudly.

The shouts of abuse, that could not be said to be commendable at all, continued for two days until the start of the outdoors training drill… along with the screams of the students…… 

Everyday life without Ossan, part 4

*Ossan [uncle] written in katakana this time.

*DISCLAIMER: I DON’T REALLY KNOW MUCH JAPANESE, THESE ARE MACHINE TRANSLATIONS THAT I TRY TO PUT INTO PROPER ENGLISH. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.

*I HAVE A DISCORD SERVER IN CASE YOU WANT TO BE NOTIFIED WHEN I’M ABOUT TO POST A NEW UPDATE. HTTPS://DISCORD.GG/VQZKXQJ

Istor Magic Academy; student dormitory. 

Inside the beautifully ornamented gothic style building, where many youths from all across the country gathered with hopes of becoming a magician, the students were making a commotion.

The reason was the yearly tradition of the combat training drill, in which, those who show a certain level of talent are forced to participate.

For those who have set their aims towards alchemy and magic tools making, it’s a particularly bothersome event, likewise for those students of merchant and other households that are more wealthy rather than aristocratic, the majority of whom are not pursuing combat-related professions. 

On the other hand, it’s also a great opportunity for those with low levels to increase their strength, given that, most of the students with poor academic performance will be participating. As they will get credits for entering it, they had no choice but to. 

Practically all of the students were job-hunting, and most of those who have done moderately well in their studies will not find it hard to get one. But, when thinking about it more carefully, only a small number of the students will end up having great success, and almost everyone else will just end up searching for an ordinary job. 

When it comes to finding employment, magicians are typically considered to be exclusively a combat profession, so there are only a few places where they can play an active role.

In the royal capital and other large cities, there are magicians who perform sanitary treatment of the sewages, but such job opportunities are few and far between. On the other hand, the employment rate for civil servants is high everywhere while the number of people that can be hired is limited, so the criterion for selecting people will inevitably be academic performance. 

Furthermore, it’s also important to have good grades at the Academy to enter the Magician Division*, while ordinary people will need to have connections inside of it, in other words, the factions. But, since the Magician Division is a national organization, it can only acquire personnel within their budget.

 (*T.N: Magician Division as opposed to the Chivalric Order. The author has not really explained in detail what exactly they are imo, besides saying that they’re national organizations, but they use the same kanji 団, so we can assume they’re both pretty much at the same level of authority.)

Those who aim for those scarce employment opportunities naturally wanted to earn credits in this event, but at the same time, they didn’t want to fight. 

That is because the place they were heading to was called ‘Rahmuff* Forest,’ and although it wasn’t as big as Far-flung forest, it was still a place where monsters frequently appeared. Incidentally, it was also the place where the Chivalric Order often conducted its training drills. 

(*T.N: ラーマフ)

For a certain middle-aged uncle, it might be a walk in the park, but for them who had low levels, it was a place with a considerably high degree of difficulty. Additionally, it was the perfect hunting ground for the happy-go-lucky magicians who were overconfident in their own magic, to learn the true horrors of a real fight. 

For that reason, actual combat was part of the Academy’s curriculum, but it has not shown much in terms of results so far.

And, amongst these students, there was a girl who was full of motivation. 

A blonde-haired young girl, wearing the Academy-designated robe and making a small fist with her hand. Her sapphire eyes exuded the impression as if she was going to have the time of her life very soon.

Celestina von Solisthea. The girl once considered to be an incompetent student was now being called a genius girl.

In addition to learning how to use magic proficiently in a short time when she couldn’t use it at all before, the power of her magic was much higher than the rest of the students at the Academy. 

She is currently in the position of receiving special treatment, seeing that she had become stronger than the lecturers themselves. 

In short, she doesn’t have to attend the lectures, however, it was practically a way of saying that the Academy had nothing else to teach to such an outstanding talent like her.

The people who studied under the previous lectures that were constructed off misconceptions and then became lecturers themselves don’t know how they could possibly offer her any guidance. They have nothing they could teach to her. 

It wasn’t their fault, but since Celestina has become more than just an honor student, the lecturers were at a loss, not knowing how to treat her. 

Whether she was an excellent student or an incompetent one, her treatment wasn’t much different from before. 

However, to Celestina’s delight, she took the excursion as an opportunity to improve her family’s heirloom magic. Moreover, she also attends the magic potion brewing and magic tools manufacturing lectures; she’s looking at her future ahead, moving forward one step at a time. 

And thus, today, the annual event she was waiting for was announced in the dormitory. 

“It has finally come. I’ve been looking forward to this day♪”

“Young lady…… you have thoroughly turned into a bloodthirsty—”

“Misuka… Don’t say it as if I were a dangerous person. I just covet a little exercise.”

In order to successfully improve her family’s heirloom magic, she had started working on optimizing other spells. 

The spells that Zeros optimized are in her head, which made the task easier than starting from scratch, however, some of the magic formulas still remained unidentified, so she was working devotedly on deciphering them.

But, working while sitting for long periods of time wasn’t healthy, and there were times where one would want to move around outside for a bit. 

“No, it’s just that you swung a blunt weapon, smashing Golems continuously all the time during the summer vacation, so surely…”

“Surely what?”

“I thought you might have awakened to the hobby of beating people to death… that’s right, you only want to beat monsters to death, right?”

“I don’t have that kind of hobby! What do you see me as, Misuka!?”

“Bludgeoning Angel, Mace Girl, Annihilation Girl, Absolute Destruction Lady, Certain Death Young Lady, or maybe Bloodstained Duke’s Daughter?”

For some reason, Misuka talks about her impression in question form.

(*T.N: probably makes a bit more sense in Japanese given that there are more ways of politely asking a question, which is what she did.)

Moreover, all of them were embarrassing nicknames. However, she couldn’t really deny any of them.

“Uu… it’s true that I swung a mace every day, but all of those nicknames are shameful…”

“One day you’ll beat your husband to death in a marital quarrel. Young Lady… please learn how to hold back at that time.”

“I don’t have to learn that technique yet! No, before that, I’m not that extreme!”

“It was just an innocent joke, as you can see, Young Lady. Me having to clean up the bloodstained living room after the Young Lady rams her mace into her husband’s face in the mounting position sounds like an extremely bothersome thing to do. Cleaning up the aftermath, that is…”

“Is this a vision of my own future!? Why didn’t you stop the quarrel before it got to that point then!?”

Towards Celestina’s tsukkomi, Misuka heaves a small sigh without even the slightest change in her expression, as if to say ‘Good grief, what are you even saying? What a troublesome child.’

“Young Lady, only the maids would be present at the situation, you know? They would never step into the crime scene.”

“W-What crime are you talking about!? You totally want me to look like a criminal, right!?”

Celestina’s voice did not reach her. She continues to talk indifferently with a dangerous gleam flashing on her glasses. 

“And then, I’ll corner the culprit, by deduction, the Young Lady. ‘You are the culprit, right, my Lady?’”

(*T.N: I feel like this is a Conan reference)

“Before you corner me with your deduction, Misuka, you are an eye-witness, you know? It would be too late to know who’s the real culprit, right? Wouldn’t you also be an accomplice for deleting the evidence at the scene?”

“No, that’s wrong. I will be a servant to the bitter end, and then I will give two hours of uninterrupted useless reasoning, you know? Otherwise, no one will enjoy the drama.”

“What are you talking about!? And, more importantly, you should stop the crime first!”

“No, thank you. Why should I have to do such an uninteresting thing? I want to track down the culprit. It’s a maid’s instinct or something like that, right?”

“What kind of instinct is that!? I haven’t been caught yet, and I’m supposed to be the culprit, right? Then, Misuka is the accomplice!”

For some reason, Misuka smiles in satisfaction and makes a gesture of wiping her non-existent sweat off her forehead.

“Young Lady, when there’s a scandal, maids have the habit of investigating, or at least, finding out the important details, you know?”

“First time I’ve heard of it! What kind of maid are you!?”

“It’s common sense in the maid industry. The Young Lady wouldn’t understand.”

There was no such thing as that kind of common sense. Misuka seems to have a rather compatible personality with her, to be able to tease Celestina.  

She messed with her like this on rare moments to see Celestina’s completely serious tsukkomis. Well, though it misfired on more than one occasion in the past. 

“By the way, Young Lady, what would you like to do about your equipment?” 

“Eh? Isn’t this good enough to go to that forest?”

“That’s the ‘White Snake Dragon Equipment,’ you know? Not only it makes you stand out, but it also makes you seem really out of place compared to the people around you, Young Lady.”

“That’s true… Everyone will be using the equipment given by the Academy, right? This equipment will stand out because it’s pure white, isn’t it?”

“In the worst case, you could be accused of ‘using the Duke’s connections.’ It would be better not to use that equipment then, don’t you think, Young Lady?”

Her equipment made using White Snake Dragon’s materials boasts far better performance than the one supplied to the Chivalric Order. However, the circumstances behind it were the crystallization of her beloved grandfather’s rampage as well as the suffering of those he inconvenienced. 

In order to make that equipment, her grandfather went berserk, plundered several items from the treasury, and sold them, which not only caused a great deal of trouble to many people but also drove someone to attempt suicide. 

Well, in the end, it was true that his wife had only fallen in love with his younger self, and so he attempted to commit suicide to keep her there in pain, so she wouldn’t forget about him, though that is a fact that was not released to the public.

In light of those incidents, it would look especially bad if she were to use the equipment for this combat training drill. 

“What should I wear then? The only thing left is the training equipment, but it might be a bit too lacking in terms of defense…”

“It’s cheap equipment, after all. But, thanks to the previous training, the Young Lady is as sturdy as a Dwarf now. Like that, you wouldn’t die easily, would you?”

“Misuka… Aren’t you thinking that I’m such an absurd existence for no real reason? Even I wouldn’t be as sturdy as a Dwarf, you know?”

“It’s your imagination. The Young Lady has such a bad persecution complex, doesn’t she? I’m just saying that the higher the level, the stronger one is, that’s all.”

“……”

There truly wasn’t anything ill-intentioned in what Misuka said, but the recipient of those words, Celestina, still puffs up her cheeks and sulks. 

Those child-like gestures are exactly the reason why she teases her, though Celestina doesn’t seem to notice. 

“…Aside from that, should you borrow a set of equipment from the Academy, then?”

“No, that would be pointless. It’s not custom-made, so there will be various inconveniences in terms of size, and most importantly, since it’s for magicians, its defensive capabilities can’t be trusted.”

“…In that case, there’s no choice but to purchase a set of equipment specified by the Academy.”

“The design is too old, I honesty would like to pass on that. It wouldn’t look good on a young lady.”

All of the equipment designated by the Academy is made of leather with metal reinforcements on vital points. 

Incidentally, the one that the Academy lends is made of good materials, but its design is dated and plainly unattractive. The cheap equipment that mercenaries used looked better.

The Academy had quite a lot of expenses, most of which were from the capture and transportation of Goblins in the name of their combat training drill, as well as medicinal herbs and magic stones used in alchemy, and so on.

Expenses piled up constantly for the cheap equipment that broke, so the out-of-date equipment was saved for the sake of avoiding shifting those expenses to the rental one. There was no problem given that the old equipment was strong to a certain degree, but perhaps because the younger generation tends to be more concerned with appearance, no one borrowed it and they were sitting there covered in dust.

Nevertheless, it shouldn’t matter as long as it can protect their lives, but the students, who had no combat experience didn’t realize it, and similarly, the Academy’s lecturers too failed to notice that fact.

“I know, what about reinforcing the equipment used for training? Luckily, I have materials, and there are also shops inside the Academy that sell defensive gear.”

“Young Lady……  You have become as burly as a mercenary… when you start saying ‘Aye, found monsters ‘ere.  Ora, I’m gettin’ all excited!’ Your husband and I will start crying, okay?”

“I won’t say that!”

“Is that so? I’d really like to see that, though?”

“Which one is it then!!”

Since Misuka made jokes with a completely straight face, to Celestina, it only sounded like she actually meant them. However, there was a good reason for her to act like that. The previous Celestina always had a pensive expression and spent her days rummaging through books with great vigor and accumulating knowledge. But, after she became capable of using magic, that dark shadow over her face started to crumble. Therefore, she so was glad that Celestina could once again smile from the bottom of her heart like a little child, that she subconsciously started to tease her. 

Misuka smiles charmingly as Celestina gets worked up. Though, the fact that her jokes were slightly ill-natured was something better left unsaid…

　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇

With heavy steps, Kreuz was pushing a dolly cart carrying a huge number of books to return to the Great Library. 

This has been his routine for about a week now, and his legs and back were screaming in pain. Said affliction, commonly known as muscle pain, has become the usual state for him, trembling with such pain that he wasn’t able to hold his pen. 

The cause of this predicament was that he had been so passionate about his research that he did not return any of the books he had collected as reference materials. 

As a consequence of his scholarly, or hikikomori, personality, he lacks stamina as he doesn’t do much physical exercise. Though it was his own fault, to say the least, he had to endure the back pain in order to get back into his research as soon as possible. 

“That looks pretty tough, right, Kreuz-kun?”

“If you think so, then help me out, Yi Ling…”

“Nope, I can’t. If you don’t make your body learn these things to be careful the next time, it’ll become a habit.”

“I feel like it’s a bit too late for that… Ugh!”

Enduring the pain in his legs, he used all of his mental strength to advance forward even one step at a time. 

Despite that his passion for his research was immense, the current situation was nothing but the results of his own actions. Though, it might be better to say that it was only him wallowing in self-pity.

“If you think it’s too late, then why didn’t you do anything to fix the issue before it got to this point?”

”Even though it’s a reasonable argument…it hurts my ears. I’m the type of person who is absorbed in only doing one thing, I—”

“But∼  It’s no good now that you have to return the things you borrowed, huuhh∼??”

Desperately moving his feet, he looked like a sinner carrying a cross to the execution ground. 

In this case, it was due to his own laziness, and being one of the seven deadly sins, he was in the midst of repenting for it. 

Enduring the pain, Kreuz finally managed to push the dolly cart arriving at the Great Library. But, there was a problem. 

In this Academy, the students had to check in the books they have borrowed at the reception desk, and then put them back into their respective shelves by themselves. In other words, he had to receive the books he had finished checking in, and move up and down the stairs to place them in their correct places; rinse and repeat. 

It would be simpler if all of the shelves were on the first floor, but unfortunately, he had to go back and forth between the three floors of the library, as well as the basement – in the archives – where the valuable books were stored. 

This was where the true hell would begin for Kreuz, who had no stamina. 

“This is the final stage, so do your best.”

“I know that, but… I don’t have any strength left to—”

“I’ll help you too, so∼ do your best until the end, ‘kay?”

“I’m grateful for that, but my legs feel heavy as if I were wearing lead clothes…”

In short, Kreuz was useless in everything related to his personal life. On the other hand, Yi Ling looked just like a mother, taking care of him. She had the ideal personality for taking care of useless men, though, from the outside they looked like a couple with really good chemistry. 

There were also the figures of pitiful men, who stared at the idiot couple* from behind with eyes full of envy and crying tears of blood. They were the ones who had feelings for Yi Ling, and they continued to curse Kreuz while burning in the flame of jealousy. 

(*T.N: baka couple; aka バカップル)

She was the Academy’s idol and one of its five most beautiful girls, though Kreuz wasn’t aware of that.

“…Should we kill him?”

“No, I wouldn’t be able to stand to make her cry.”

“But! He’s monopolizing our goddess, I can’t accept this!”

“As expected, it’s dangerous here.”

“I could kill tens of thousands of people with this bloodthirst!”

“Same…”

At his place, there were people who were going mad in jealousy. Kreuz, who was indifferent to his surroundings, however, just pushes the dolly cart into the library. 

　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇

“Ahh! I don’t get it, how can we even optimize this? Isn’t it impossible!?”

“Perhaps we’re missing something, don’t you think? The magic formula that gathers nature’s mana should be fine, but the problem now should be adjusting it, right? There’s also the balance between the retained mana, nature’s mana, and the rest of the magic formula, and… The ratio of required mana and the threshold value of its activation rate… ”

(*T.N: it took me a while to get this and I still don’t think it makes any sense, but either way, it’s just fancy fantasy mumbo jumbo. Also, I’ve previously translated nature’s mana as external mana because I thought that fitted better, but now I’m having second thoughts about that, so I’ll go with nature’s mana from now on.)

“The adjustable range of the power of a single shot and the effective range when it’s cast…… the amount of mana to allocate towards that… Once we decide on it, we won’t be able to cut it off.”

“In order to make that magic more compact, we switch to a layered magic circle, fine-tuning the configuration of the spell’s circuit to make the spell line… The degree of difficulty is way too high.”

Celestina and Zweit were in the Great Library, working together in the optimization of their family’s heirloom magic, however, that quickly came to a deadlock. 

The magic formulas in this world commonly take the appearance of magic circles, and the power and range of a spell can vary according to the size and density of its constructed magic formula. In the case of a simple spell to light a fire, like the magic 〖Torch〗, a single sheet of paper the size of a small notebook is enough to contain its magic formula, but when it comes to heirloom magics, their formulas would be the size of world maps big enough to cover the entire surface of a long table. 

There, a magic circle with an intricate pattern would be drawn, and then a phenomenon conversion magic formula would be used to fill in the gaps to complete the scroll, but a multi-layered magic circle has a slightly different appearance.

(*T.N: again, no clue what any of this means.)

A multi-layered magic circle consists of several other magic circles of the same size and with different command structures, individually stacked one on top of each other. 

In between them, another magic circle, that reads the programming of each of the rest, is placed, ultimately binding them all in a single magic spell.

Two different predicates are superimposed onto one another, which are read by connecting together each of the spell lines, and by integrating them into a single process, the magician was able to cast the magic, activating the functions predetermined beforehand. 

The former kind of magic circle had the issue of limiting the number of spells one could learn due to the sheer amount of space they took when they were etched into one’s brain, but the multi-layered magic circle was a revolutionary solution to that problem.

To use an analogy for the maximum amount of space allowed: the old type of magic circles would be like a cassette tape, whereas the new type would be like a CD-R. On the other hand, the binary compression magic formula that the middle-aged Zeros used might as well be called a BlueRay disc.

(*T.N: nvm, it’s blueray lol)

But in actuality, this wasn’t an uncomplicated method either. With multi-layered magic circles, the magic formulas with multiple different command structures that were separated and overlapped on top of each other had to be processed at the same time, and for that reason, the data processing in each section had to be precisely coordinated.

The casting time was instantaneous, however, in order to get to that point, it was absolutely indispensable for the gears, in other words, the magic formulas, to move in perfect synchrony. But, if one of the commanding magic formulas was defective, the spell circuit won’t be able to read it, and in the end, the spell as a whole won’t be activated.

If the coordination of the various sections doesn’t go smoothly, the formulas will clash and cancel each other out. The resultant effect will be the inevitable collapse of the magic formulas.

This phenomenon is bound to manifest itself when the magic formulas inside the magic circle negate each other reciprocally, which not only will bring about the consumption of mana, but it could also prove to be fatal to the magician.

In regards to a family’s heirloom magic, the rate at which this phenomenon occurs is much higher than it would normally be. It was akin to trying to assemble a digital clock from its components but using a grandfather clock as a reference.

“The conversion to a phenomenon, the power adjustment, the control mechanism, and mana consumption. We have to balance all of that, plus the timing at which the magic formulas are read…… Isn’t this like one of those impossible questions on tests?”

“Sensei did a pretty good job at adjusting all of that, right? This magic formula is just terribly malicious.”

“Yeah, I can only say that this is quite mean-spirited…”

To make matters worse, this heirloom spell had an exquisitely proportioned, complex, and mysterious magic formula. 

Maybe because the defective magic formula that seemed to only be harassing them seemed to be working in a splendid manner the way it was, they had no choice but to disassemble it and start rewriting it from scratch. Due to that, the two were holding their heads.   

“Perhaps having to optimize the heirloom magic might’ve been too early for us.”

“Shishou, why did he give us an assignment like this? No matter how I look at it, it’s still impossible for us.”

“There has to be a deeper reason… I’m sure of it.”

“Don’t know about that… though I have no clue what the hell he was planning.”

“Oh my, were you having a serious conversation right now? You seem to be stuck, what might be the matter?”

After being suddenly called out to, the two turn back to see the unexpected appearance of their brother, Kreuz. Only mentioning his looks, he had his usual snobbish expression, but for some reason, his legs seemed to be shaking pitifully. 

“Hey, aren’t your legs shaking too much?”

“You look like a newborn foal. What happened to you, Kreuz-niisama!?”

“I’ve been going back and forth from my lab to here for the past few days, and my body is at its limits now… please leave me alone.”

“At least tidy up the room. This is what you get for being always so careless, you know?”

“I don’t even know what to say… You don’t do much physical exercise, don’t you?”

Zweit might be a bit rough around the edges when it comes to his personal life, but at least he keeps himself and his room neat and tidy. On the other hand, Celestina doesn’t even have stuffed animals in her room as she didn’t want any unnecessary things in it. 

Kreuz, however, was extremely disorganized with everything concerning his personal belongings.

It seems like the personalities of these three siblings were completely different from each other.

“Leaving that aside, you seemed to have something on your minds, isn’t that right?”  

“Yeah well, it’s just that it looks like optimizing our family’s heirloom magic is impossible for us right now.”

“I think it is an unreasonable assignment. In the first place, it’s impossible to even decipher an ordinary magic formula, right? Just to decipher a single magic, you’d have to pile up countless research results over a long period of time. There’s no way you guys could easily remake something like that.”

“I know, right? If that’s really the case, then I don’t understand Sensei’s intentions. I have no idea why did he give us this assignment…”

The two couldn’t understand what the middle-aged uncle was thinking. 

But, naturally, he wasn’t thinking too deeply when he gave them the assignment, though it was given with the premise of failing it in mind. Nevertheless, they seemed to be under the impression that because he had the Great Sage job, he must have had some sort of hidden intentions behind it.

“First of all, to rebuild this heirloom magic, wouldn’t it be pointless if you don’t learn the techniques and re-examine the foundations of magic formulas? It’s not a task that magicians that have only analyzed a few magic formulas could do.”

““!?””

The words ‘then if we’re able to decipher other formulas…’ crossed their minds. In other words, conducting other sorts of magic research could be the stepping stone they needed to finally optimize the heirloom magic.

Certainly, it would be impossible for an amateur magician to improve such an insanely complicated magic. Adding in the experience from other sorts of magic research will allow them to build a more complex magic formula.

The two had been blinded by the words ‘best magic medium created by a Great Sage,’ and failed to notice the important things.

“Shishou… you kinda have an awful personality…”

“He knew from the beginning that it was impossible, right? And for that reason, he thought we had to study other types of magic first.”

Both the middle-aged Zeros and Kreuz were hikikomoris. They are the same in the sense that they both think that money and fame are pointless things, and the only difference between the two would be that one secluded himself to continue his research, while the other wanted to be self-sufficient by doing a few part-time jobs and earning small change.

Certainly, from the point of view of others, it would be hard to empathize with them, but there were many people out there with such a biased way of thinking.

One person feels that their research is worth doing and will throw away everything to immerse themselves in it. 

The other despaired and lost their sense of worth, and now wants a peaceful life. 

Although it was extreme, both had the same nature.

“Just what kind of person is your guys’ mentor?”

“He’s excellent but pretty twisted, you know? As a person, he probably has some screws loose in his head.” 

“He’s a strict person, you see. Especially when it comes to myself… he’s a bit biased.”

Long story short, he’s a failure as a person. 

On the other hand, Kreuz was confused, unable to distinguish the true character of the mentor of the two.

“Ahh∼! Kreuz-kun, you’re slacking off again∼!”

As the three looked back, they saw a girl carrying a couple of books, while puffing her cheeks and pointing her finger at Kreuz.

It was Yi Ling, who was helping him out to return the books.

“Ah, right… I completely forgot about that.”

“That’s so∼ meea∼an!! I’m here helping you out to carry books and you’re just having a chat with… huh? Ah! It’s Kreuz-kun’s siblings I’ve been hearing so many rumors about∼”

““…Rumors?””

“I’ve heard all sort of things… like∼∼, that you two have an unusual relationship for a brother and sister∼”

““The hell!?””

“… How come I don’t remember hearing such a rumor, though?”

Yi Ling’s shocking remarks upset the two. It was the first time they have heard those rumors.

“Ah, right. She must be the source of that rumor, huh? After we saw you two here by chance, she must’ve started spilling the tea to everyone around.”

“Why the fuck did you do that!?”

“Kreuz-niisama… you should choose your next girlfriend more carefully, okay? Ideally someone with a less loose mouth… fufufu…”

“It’s a misunderstanding. She probably has nothing to do with it… wait, Celestina, where did you get that mace from!?”

As expected, they seemed to have gotten angry at the fact of false rumors being spread.

Nevertheless, Celestina has certainly also inherited the old man’s blood. It seems that when she gets emotional, the House of Solisthea’s blood starts to come up. No, it might be better to say that she has reached a spiritual awakening. 

They say that blood is undeniable, but the resemblance, in this case, is quite scary. 

“Huh∼? What a weird magic formula you guys have here∼”

“Yi Ling! This is—”

“Nah, you probably wouldn’t understand it even if you see it. Especially if it’s someone who doesn’t know the deciphering method for magic formulas.”

“Nevertheless, this magic is our family’s—”

“Should be fine. This is just one of the countless parts of the magic formula. Besides, she probably wouldn’t be able to comprehend the meaning of any of this, right?”

If the heirloom magic were to be disassembled and reconstructed, the number of magic formulas would be enormous.

The magic formula scroll that Zeros handed to Creston was also big a bundle of papers, so thick that there was no way of guessing how many sheets there were in it. If someone could understand it after only seeing one part of it, rather than a genius, they would be like a god.

“Now that you mention it, the number of magic formulas is too small. This doesn’t look much different from an elementary spell’s magic formula, right?”

“We’re trying to improve the formulas’ operating efficiency by inserting a specific magic formula in between each layer so that it reads all of the magic formulas, but the obstacle there is that we have no clue how to make those two things work in perfect synchrony.”

“This is a fantastic idea. Stacking them on top of each other, and giving form to the magic circle… If this is completed, it will expand the number of spells a magician can learn.”

“A large-scale magic that can be compacted, is it∼? I’ve never seen a magic formula like that.”

The segmented formulas are superimposed on each other, forming a three-dimensional magic circle. Furthermore, by doing that, there would be even more space inside the magician’s brain to memorize more of this same type of magic circles. It was a ground-breaking idea, but at the same time, they were difficult to make.

To illustrate it, it would be as if the traditional type of magic circle were a disorganized and messy room, while the multi-layered type was a neat tidy room.

“The spells the old man is selling had been optimized already, and they only use ordinary magic formulas, but even so, they’re pretty compact, you know? I’ve already learned a fair amount of attack spells.”

“…I’ll send a letter to Father later. I would like to see those spells in detail.”

“It’s probably impossible right now, isn’t it? The number of magicians under Father is limited, the production can’t even keep up with the demand.”

“I bet you’re regretting not coming back home now, huh?”

It was at this point that Kreuz seriously regretted his decision. As a researcher, it was regrettable that he couldn’t put his hand on valuable research material.

“Anyways, Kreuz-kun. Let’s go tidy this up properly, alright?”

“Tch. Hey, Yi Ling? You don’t have to pull my arm, I’m not going to run away, you know!?” 

“That’s no good. The moment I take my eyes off you, you’ll be absorbed into your research again, so let’s make sure you finish with this first, alright?”

““……””

Kreuz was dragged away by Yi Ling. 

After a while, the sight of him carrying a large number of books up and down the stairs with shaky legs, could be seen. And, Yi Ling was going behind him, wagging her tail furiously.

“Kreuz-niisama… he’s changed, hasn’t he?”

“Yeah… so, it was a woman, huh? Do women really change useless men!?”

With the exception of his mouth, he had a gentle and reliable nature, but for some reason, Zweit was unpopular with women. He is yet to be aware that the reason behind it is that the first impression he gave to people was that he looked scary.

God only knows if Spring will come for him.

　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇

“Dio! What are you doing at this hour?”

On the way back to the dormitory, Zweit happens to see his friend who was running about, and so he called out to him. Although he didn’t know how long he was running for, the sweat on his forehead was a sign of how hard he was training.  

“Zweit, were you going back just now? Isn’t it super late?”

“I was at the library for a bit to do some research, and you?”

“Obviously working out. To be the man she deserves.”

He had fallen in love with Celestina at first sight and was desperately trying to train himself and build up his strength. 

His classmate was like that, though he still didn’t know how to feel about it.

“I couldn’t find you anywhere, so I went to the library for a bit. Celestina was there, too, you know?”

“Why the hell didn’t you look for me for longer!!? If I had known, I would’ve stopped training for today…”

“Hey… are you really gonna confess to her? Are you prepared to die?”

“The bigger the obstacle, the more love burns! I’ve never thought it would be easy. A few obstacles are to be expected.”

“It’s more than just a few, though…”

Dio wasn’t aware of it… The fact that some old man was planning to burn him into ashes somewhere else, and that he has even started to prepare for the right time to come.

“I don’t wanna see a friend being reduced to ashes, you know?”

“Hahaha! No way, even the magician of the purgatory would go that far!”

“He might kill you… No, he’s gonna kill you for real.”

“…You’re kidding, right?”

“…I’m completely serious.”

With that single phrase, an early Autumn breeze flows quietly between the two. Even though it’s still supposed to be warm in Autumn, for some reason, the air felt really cold.

“T-T-The bigger the obstacle, the more I worship* her!”

“Your voice is kinda shaky, you know? Also, wasn’t there something weird with what you said just now?”

(*T.N: I didn’t know how to translate this without sounding too cringe, but he used the verb 萌える[moeru] which is when you have a crush[like an extreme one] on an anime waifu or an idol. You’ve also probably heard in anime or other weebs calling things ‘moe’, well it comes from that. So the joke is that he sounds like a creepy otaku when he says that.)

“I-It’s just your imagination… Let’s go back to the dormitory. It’s getting kinda chilly for some reason.”

“Your legs are also shaking, though…”

Zweit felt sorry for his friend. If Celestina were a merchant’s daughter, he would have cheered on him, but the opponent on this occasion was a bad match.

The old man, who dotes on his granddaughter, has tinges of madness somewhere in his mind, and he will come to kill Dio without hesitation.

A great fire was approaching, and Zweit could only pray for his friend’s soul to find eternal rest.

*DISCLAIMER: I DON’T REALLY KNOW MUCH JAPANESE, THESE ARE MACHINE TRANSLATIONS THAT I TRY TO PUT INTO PROPER ENGLISH. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.

*I HAVE A DISCORD SERVER IN CASE YOU WANT TO BE NOTIFIED WHEN I’M ABOUT TO POST A NEW UPDATE. HTTPS://DISCORD.GG/VQZKXQJ


*My bad about the probably many grammar errors, but I swear I can’t bring myself to edit this much text, like jesus christ bruh. probably the second longest chapter with 6.4k words

*Alright, it’s edited now; pretty much only a few stylistic changes, and I changed the term Chamber of commerce to Solisthea Trading company.

Ossan, donates

Three men were heading back to the dilapidated building that served as their hideout, in preparation for returning to their home country. They had to report about the risks of using the ‘Evil God Stone’ to increase their military strength.

They used mercenaries to put to test the power of the Evil God Stone, but all four of them became hideous freaks of nature that devoured every living being they came across with. It was more likely that it would destroy their country instead of helping increase its might.

In such hideout, a hooded magician revealed himself. The men were all about to draw their weapons until they recognized his familiar appearance. 

“Oya, did something happen? For you to be in such a hurry… might they have, by any chance, discovered you fellows?”

“No. They shouldn’t have been able to detect us. Still, we have to report what happened to the country by any means.”

“What is the matter? Is it something I, as a researcher, wouldn’t be able to understand?”

“It’s that stone. It turns humans into monsters. It’s too dangerous.”

Hearing that, a joyous smile could be seen surfacing on the only part of the magician’s face not covered by his hood. 

“It was as expected, huh? But… No, I see… So they turned into monsters…”

“Isn’t it bad!?”

“No. If the stone was that effective on its own, then I wonder if a small amount could be made into a powder and be administered, and expect to be as effective.”

“You’re still planning to use that thing!?”

“Isn’t that obvious? Let me be blunt, would a small country like yours, my dear friends, be able to lord over other realms without it?”

Their country was a poor one. It didn’t have blooming trade or industry, and neither any local specialties to boast about. Their only way to survive was to invade other countries as they have done in the past. But despite all of that, the risk of using the Evil God Stone was too high. 

“There is no risk at all. You fellows don’t have to use it, you know? You just have to spread it to other countries.”

“What?”

“We’ll be damned if that thing is spread around the world!”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“It will be enough with unleashing chaos inside the enemy nations… until they self-destruct, that is.”

Spreading such dangerous things around the world would be an utterly foolish thing to do, however, there are still people who live in poverty in their country. If they don’t somehow do something to improve the situation, their country will disappear. 

“Shall we use the organization in the shadows then? Yes… So that they can sip on that sweet nectar, isn’t it?”

“What are you enriching these criminals for!? Have you thought what would happen when we can’t keep them in check anymore?”

“I assure you that it will be alright. I will do my best on that front, but after that, I would like for you fellows to lend me your strength, in which case, everything will proceed smoothly from that moment onwards.”

“I doubt things will just work out well…”

“People obsessed with money truly don’t care about such trifling things as the lives of others, isn’t it? They will certainly move above my expectations… fufufu…”

They were left with no choice. If they don’t manage to make a decisive blow soon, their country will pass into oblivion.

“Can’t be helped then. I will have to go inform His Majesty I guess… I trust that you won’t go acting on your own.”

“Leave that part to me. I will leave the preparations to you, so I’m expecting good news, alright?”

After saying that, the magician left the hideout.  

“What a suspicious man.”

“But it’s true that our country has gotten better because of that guy, I don’t wanna admit it though…”

“He’s sharp but can’t be trusted. I can’t help but think he’s dangerous.”

Despite being secret agents themselves, they didn’t trust the black-robed magician. They didn’t know what he was planning as he didn’t seem to have any ambitions.

But for the time being, they didn’t have other choice but to wait and see. The magician’s knowledge was useful to that extent. 

The men soon split up, with one of them taking the task of reporting back to the country. 

With the fate of their country in their hands, they had no choice. 

　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇

“Even if I pull and pull, the number doesn’t decrease at all. Just look at my hands.”

Zeros, who was mowing the grass on his field while donned in a farmer’s outfit, was fed up with his current situation. He went to his part-time job to work on a bridge for around two weeks, and when he came back, he found his field being covered in overgrown grass. 

He could barely even make out where the crops were, so he started mowing the grass around, and now he was cleanly pulling out the weeds closer to them.

He used the civil engineering magic 【Gaia Control】 to do most of the heavy labor, but the small details had to be done by hand and there was no way to completely get rid of the grass that would grow back again in a single day’s time. 

He was short on manpower. 

Using a multi-purpose, triangle-shaped sickle, he was carefully thinning out the weeds, however, after a single day small buds sprout again, and after three more days, they grow to a considerable height. 

Despite trying to cut the weeds into very small pieces to make humus, they grew faster than the rate at which he could make the fertilizer.

He had no idea where the roots and seeds were, but they were completely ready to turn his fields into grasslands as soon as Zeros gave them time to grow, and within a month they would surely turn them into a virgin forest. 

“How are these plants so goddamned strong…”

He loved to do farm work, but it was annoying to have new patches of weeds sprout like that every day. It was too much for him to do alone. 

While he was smoking a cigarette he looks towards the direction of his house and sees a couple of knights and an elderly man standing there. 

It was old man Creston with a few knights in tow as his escorts. 

“Creston-san, it’s been a while. What’s going on?”

“It’s been a while, indeed. I just came to drop off something for you and also see how you were doing.”

“A delivery? I wonder what it is.”

“My grandson Kreuz sent a report about the magic medium ring you gave him earlier.”

“Ah! Right, I did request him to do such a thing…”

He had completely forgotten about it until now. The magic mediums – two rings and a bracelet – that he originally made as prototypes. In any case, he wasn’t going to use them, so he handed the bracelet to Celestina and the two rings to Zweit and his brother respectively, and then requested them to try the magic mediums out and write a report about their comfortableness. 

The thing was, he didn’t expect that they would actually write and send him a report. 

“May I read it now?”

“Umu. It’s so like him to not write a letter about how he’s been doing. He only sent the report, you know?”

“Is his mind only filled with research? …Let’s take a look then…”

The report was written in an extremely detailed manner. From the magic casting efficiency to the approximate mana consumption. From there, a conclusion was drawn from the low operational burden on the user, to the increased power of the spells –– it was filled to the brim with the most minute details. 

Though, in the end, it could be translated as ‘I liked it, I’ll be using it again in the future.‘

It seems like his prototype was well received.

“Fumu. Apparently he liked it. It’s all about the creator’s grace.”

“Maybe I’d need some of these mediums made for me too. I’m sure I’ll need them soon enough…”

“Hm? Why, are you going to fight somewhere?”

“No, no. It’s just to get rid of some insects… Yes, those disgusting insects that gather around the flowers, kukuku…”

Creston was deploying his protegé spies here and there. For example, at the Istor Magic Academy, though he has people with special abilities that could get information even from a remote land. 

Naturally, he also has collected information concerning his beloved granddaughter. That’s right, the students at the academy that have feelings for Celestina…

At the same time, inside the Magic Academy’s auditorium, a student suddenly felt chills…

Zeros felt that he was thinking about disturbing things but dare not say a word about it. He must have judged that nothing good was going to come out of it.  

Though the knights waiting behind him were taken aback by their Lord’s behavior. They also seemed to be going through their fair share of hardships. 

“If it’s something to that extent it will be an easy task. Even if you hadn’t bothered to come personally, you could have sent me a message and I would have come to visit you, though.”

“No, this is nothing much, I also had another small business with you.”

“A small business? What do you—?”

“I would like you to let me use the magic characters’ deciphering method you taught to Celestina.”

He had only taught Zweit and Celestina how to decipher magic characters. And now, Creston was basically asking for new people to be taught.

“You want me to teach you the method?”

“No, no. I’ve been able to read them to some extent recently. It seemed like Tina was quite excellent at teaching things, too.”

The old man was staring at Zeros with a grand and innocent smile. 

Nevertheless, if that were the case, then it wasn’t clear why he asked Zeros for the method. 

“Umm… Then, you wanted to earn my approval, isn’t it?”

“Naturally! You’re the only Sage in this world. I also need your opinion if I want to spread it across the world, don’t you think?”

“Such a thing? Setting aside my own original formulas, I wouldn’t mind if it’s just teaching how to decipher ordinary magic formulas, you know?”

“Hou, is it really fine?”

“As long as they’re not abused, that is. This kind of information is something that will eventually spread to others, not that it can be hidden in the first place.

For example, even if a husband keeps the fact that he drove his wife to commit suicide a secret, it will still get out from her family, friends, coworkers – and eventually – the people around her will find out. After all, who can hold other people’s tongues?* Likewise, eventually, the method of deciphering magic characters will spread and become known to the whole world.”

(*T.N: 人の口に戸は立てられぬ[hito no kuchi ni to wa taterarenu], literally ‘you can’t put up a door on a person’s mouth,’ meaning that you can’t stop rumors from spreading. the more you know.)

“That’s a pretty specific example, isn’t it?”

“It’s just an analogy, alright? Well, it’s a fairly well-known story, you see.”

Confidential information is something that will eventually become known with the passage of time. 

Certainly, if the contents are convenient, they will spread in the blink of an eye, however, that’s only a fleeting thing, and it will depend on the person’s sense of ethics whether what they say continues to be transmitted throughout their lifetime.

(*T.N: didn’t quite get it, 確かにどうでも良い内容は一瞬で広がるが一過性のもので、人の倫理観に基づく物はどう云う訳か一生涯世間に伝わり続けたりもする。)

In addition, the deciphering method of the magic characters is a matter of great importance in the present day in this world, to the extent that people will go at each others’ throats to obtain it. 

It’s only to be expected that there will be some people engaged in espionage activities in order to steal such information, and even if they thwart them, it’s not difficult to imagine that information will inevitably leak from the inside. 

“Certainly, State secrets might leak to other countries before we realize. But, does this mean that you’re okay with people knowing the deciphering method?”

“My formulas made from 0s and 1s are dangerous, but if it’s an old-fashioned one that can’t be compressed, then I don’t think there will be any problems, seeing that they’ve been around for a long time and all, isn’t it?”

“I swear I can’t understand your original magic formulas. Tina wrote down as many as she could remember and showed them to me, but I had no clue what was going on in them.”

“It’s better if you don’t know, alright? It’s still too early to tell but I’m sure someone will eventually figure out how they work. More importantly, though, Celestina-san was able to remember, albeit partly, those formulas?”

“She’s a brilliant girl, after all. Aside from that, do you plan on leaving the mystery of those magic formulas or…”

“It’s just going to be too troublesome to teach. And, probably no one will understand them, and it will be several hundreds of years before they start to.”

(*T.N: ok big brain momento)

In a specific magic formula, no matter how a person does it, the 56 magic characters that compose them are difficult to compress. It’s not impossible, but the combined management of things like the power and mana of the formula itself would require a colossal amount of magic characters to be written down. 

This was a prevalent issue in the magic of the past. It was difficult to put into words a phenomenon or a particular reaction, and sometimes, they had to struggle to write down things that could not be expressed into words.

The binary magic formulas were composed of a long string of 0s and 1s, however, the problem was that there was no one in this world that could understand them. Though, in a way, that might be a blessing. 

Even if they were capable of deciphering them, they would need to make some sort of technique similar to a computer terminal in order to interpret and compose them, which would require a great deal of time and effort. 

The middle-aged Zeros would be able to decrease that process by half, but he didn’t want to spread that technology, as he was aware of the danger that would bring about the creation of another wide-range annihilation magic. 

Well, he will still probably make it if he feels the need to…

“There’s also another matter I would like to discuss with you, but not in this place, if possible.”

“I apologize for that. Let’s go inside, then. I will serve you a cold drink.”

“Hou? A cold drink, is it?”

“I can’t offer much in terms of hospitality, but it would be better to discuss that topic inside, though I may not be helpful if it’s a complicated matter.”

“Is that so. Well, it’s just going to be a small talk about money.”

Zeros invites Creston and his knights escorts inside his home. 

His house was bigger than what one would expect with seven rooms remaining empty. He mainly used two of the rooms on the east side of the house, the kitchen, and the living room.

Even if he leaves one spare room unused, and two rooms for a wife and children in the future, he will still end up with four vacant rooms left over. 

Aside from the rooms previously mentioned, he only used the basement, which was converted into a storage room where he now stored the desiccator and various farming equipment.

The desiccator wasn’t being used as there wasn’t any rice yet, so it was, unfortunately, serving as only a decoration.

“Please wait for a moment. I will serve you a drink immediately.”

Zeros went to the kitchen, brought out a few cups, and then poured in the chilled ale from his homemade beer server. It had a slightly dark color and a fruity aroma accompanied by sparkling white bubbles.

This ale was made to be as close to a lager as possible after listening to the dwarves’ opinions. 

It was great to have as a drink in between work.

He also made honey-flavored mead, but seeing as it was expensive, he had it stored in the fridge. 

In this world, besides these two types of drinks, wine was the most popular, while cereals were rarely made into other types of alcohol such as sake or shochu. Although dwarves were mainly the ones to use them to brew alcohol given that they had a hanker for drinking, it was actually not very popular to do so.

Incidentally, there were crops similar to potatoes in this world as well. 

The method to make alcohol from it was to chew the boiled potato for a while, mixing it with saliva, and spit it out to then let it ferment for a while. And, although some indigenous tribes were making alcohol like that, seeing it in person would make anyone lose their will to drink it. 

In this world, mountain dwarves practiced this kind of method. 

Elves mainly made grape, honey, or fruit wine. They loved to drink a little at a time between farm work and other activities and were, surprisingly, a race of heavy drinkers.

Both were races that loved work, drinking, and festivals. 

“Alcohol at noon? Well, I suppose it’s fine, but …Nuh? It’s cold.”

“I don’t particularly like lukewarm ale, so I chill it like this to keep it fresh. If you drink it when it’s hot outside, it’s surprisingly delicious, you know!”

“Fumu… It’s the first time I’ve experienced this. Interesting, indeed.”

“There’s enough for the knights over there, so go ahead and try it.”

It was the first time drinking cold ale for Creston as well. In the first place, despite the existence of magic, this world had a relatively low technological level.

Magic was simply a means for offense and defense, no one really thought about using magic to increase the general standard of living. 

The knights looked at each other in puzzlement. 

“…Is it really fine?”

“We’re still on duty, wouldn’t it be bad?”

“But we’re being treated, if we don’t drink, wouldn’t it be rude?”

They were faithful to their duties. They did occasionally drink on their breaks, but not during working hours. Therefore, they were somewhat reluctant.

“I don’t mind, you know? It would be rude to decline here, and besides, it’s a valuable experience.”

“…Then, I’ll take your word for it, my Lord.”

“Ohh… It truly looks well chilled.”

“Cold ale, huh? This is a first.”

Creston and the knights take a sip of the chilled ale. 

““““!?””””

A feeling of coldness that they have never felt until now wraps them up. 

The sweet, fruity taste, combined with the carbonation after it was chilled, created a refreshing sensation that was completely novel to them, soaking into their bodies.

A refreshing sensation went down their throats. 

“Delicious! It’s just chilled, but it tastes so good…!”

“There’s no way we’ll be able to go back to the same ale we’ve been drinking after this!”

“Yeah, lukewarm ale seems like just a sickly-sweet drink now.”

“Incredible. I thought ale was just a cheap drink, but when it’s chilled like this… How refreshing!”

As magic and magic tools were just used as a means of protecting and attacking, no one ever thought of using magic in this way. Their common sense was utterly shattered, and they also got a glimpse of a new world.

“Was this chilled with a magic tool? I would really want one…”

“The technology itself is fairly straightforward, you know? It simply reduces the temperature to lower the rate at which foodstuffs go bad. Anyone can make it.”

“Sure, it might be simple, but then why did no one think of doing it before?”

“Isn’t it because of the perception that magic is only a means for fighting? It can be convenient for our daily life depending on how we use it, but since the perception of magic is that it can only be used to wage wars, probably no one ever researched such technology, don’t you think?”

“The study of magic that enriches our lives… No, magic tools! Yes, that’s a fine idea!”

Creston’s faction was a combat-oriented one, created under the premise of a possible war, as well as the reconciliation with the Chivalric Order.

However, if he adds the research of lifestyle-improving technology, the profits would be so enormous that it would be possible to overtake all the other factions at once. Even if the design itself is simple, the financial gains will increase accordingly if it’s widely spread. 

At the same time, magicians dissatisfied with the rest of the factions will come to his, which in turn will accelerate the research on said magical technology even further. 

“But how do you keep it cool? The ice will start melting immediately, though.”

“I put a tank of water inside a metallic container and then I froze it; the resulting cold air is what will cool down things. It only requires enough mana to be able to freeze water, so even a small magic stone might be enough for it to work.”

“But you need to be a magician to accumulate mana in a magic stone, right? Wouldn’t that be a little harsh for regular people?”

“If it’s just a formula that lowers the temperature, then it can be engraved on a small magic stone without any issues, and anyone would be able to replenish the mana even if they aren’t magicians. It’s not something so complicated, really.”

Not only magicians had the capability of pouring mana. This could be said about all life in this world, as every living being is born with the ability to instinctively manipulate mana.

Even wild animals were capable of using magic to enhance their physical capabilities, so it wasn’t impossible for humans to do so as well…

“Certainly. But the question is how much mana does it need…”

“If you have enough mana to use the spell 〖Ice〗 then you should be able to have it work for a couple of days at least. Though, it depends on how big the refrigerator is.”

“How big is the one you use? I’d like to see it for reference’s sake.”

“Ah, it’s in the kitchen. I will show you around if you wish.”

Taking Creston along with him to his kitchen, Zeros points to a randomly placed refrigerator in the corner of one of the pillars. 

It had a simple structure; only a metal door with bricks placed around it. Likewise, the interior was simple, with a water tank at the top, and shelves to separate the items to be stored by type. 

The meat was placed on the top shelf, where the coldest air circulated through, in the middle, there were ale barrels, and in the bottom, there were vegetables and other miscellaneous goods.

“This is it. It’s surprisingly small, isn’t it?”

“Certainly… If it’s around this size, then I think it will probably be okay. I’ll tell my subordinates about it later.”

“I think I will be able to make large-scale ones eventually, but for now, this size is appropriate.”

“Large-scale? I see, you’re talking about a warehouse! Goods transported through the river from long distances will rot over time, this could prevent it from happening, right?”

“It could be, indeed, installed on board of a ship, but it would have to possess some sort of cold resistance, or else the ship will freeze over.”

“How interesting! However, I would still have to make arrangements to have a number of magicians available.”

Creston’s faction – Solisthea – is currently wholly preoccupied with other ventures, namely, the magic scroll manufacturing. 

Ordinary magicians don’t have a vast amount of knowledge, so even if they were to be hired, they wouldn’t be able to replicate or improve the magic formula.

Skilled magicians who are also skilled mercenaries can be important war assets, and because they’re in such a great demand even amongst mercenaries, they cannot be recruited into the army, leaving no choice but to train other less skilled magicians.

In that case, it would be better to gather the graduates from the Istor Magic Academy and create a new organization, however, there weren’t many magicians that wanted to work with the knights.

With a shortage of both manufacturing and combat-related positions, Creston was having difficulties securing personnel. 

“Do magicians tend to be unemployed if they have mediocre skills?”

“There are a lot of people who are mediocre in both combat and production skills even after graduating from the Academy. Most become alchemists, but because medicinal herbs are hard to come by, they often end up working ordinary jobs.”

“What about magic tools manufacturing? There seems to be a high demand, after all.”

“Because their price is so high, low-ranked mercenaries can’t afford them, and even if there are magicians capable of making them, they still won’t sell. Middle-ranked mercenaries would be able to afford them, but seeing as they are expensive and pretty much disposable, they don’t buy them. Truthfully, it’s not a profitable business.”

The world was a harsh place for magicians.

“Why not make magic tools for the general public then? I don’t get it.”

“Even at the Istor Magic Academy, the perception that magicians are only a combat profession still persists. The Saint-Germain faction, which focuses entirely on magic research, has only been researching new ways to fight in battles. They have no desire to create such useful tools.”

“Well, the factions themselves are run by nobles, aren’t they…? I guess it’s no wonder why they have never thought of making magic tools for the common people.”

The factions’ officials seem to also have brawns for brains. 

Because the factions are managed by the aristocracy, they inevitably turn towards research and means of increasing their power for the sake of national defense. 

But in a way, that was also an opportunity for Creston. If he were to create a faction supported by the people, he would easily obtain the power to kick the other factions around.

Due to the fact that he originally belongs to a ducal House, just having more power didn’t mean much to him, but gaining tremendous authority amongst the magicians would make it easier for reforms to pass through.

However, the problem still remained – the shortage of personnel –  which at this point, Creston was considering even hiring ruined magicians to work for him. 

“Well then, about the sale of refrigerators. We can even cut costs by using the cheapest magic stones available. Add to that the dwarves who will do the metalworking, and a contractor for the installation work personnel, a large-scale operation at the level of an organization will be required, am I correct?”

“Thereupon, we’ll need to create a magicians’ association[or guild], and be able to dispatch them to the person that placed a commission. We’ve been looking for human resources for that purpose, but to no avail.”

“I see, so it all boils down to the salaries, isn’t it? Everyone wants to live comfortably, after all.”

“For that reason, I’d like to have this refrigerator manufactured…but, how much do you reckon it will cost?”

“Let’s see… I think it’s quite cheap to make, but I wouldn’t be able to give you an exact number since I made it myself.”

To begin with, he wasn’t interested in the retail price for magic tools as he could make them himself and had no intention to sell them to others. 

Perhaps because of this, Zeros paid no attention to money. 

“It can’t be helped. I’ll talk to Dale who knows the price of this sort of thing better than I do.”

“By the way, you mentioned before that you wanted to talk about money… I’m curious regarding what it is about.”

“I had to deliver your share of the proceeds from the sale of the magic scrolls, but the amount turned out to be a bit outrageous, so that’s why I came personally.”

“Proceeds? Ah, yes… The royalties, right? But, just how much outrageous are we talking about?”

“It’s written on this paper. Please take a look here.”

He unfolds the piece of paper that Creston handed to him, his eyes turning to dots as he did so. There were more zeros than he has ever seen before. 

The Solisthea Trading Company* mobilizes all of its magicians to produce the magic scrolls and then sells them to various places. Though, the magician in charge of their production must be experiencing hell. 

(*T.N: after this is more clear that the author meant trading company, as in the personal company of DelSasis, and not Chamber of Commerce, as in an association of businesses across the country, so I’ll go with the former from now on.)

“…Umm… Well, there are a lot of zeros on here. I only optimized the magic for the Academy, right?”

“That’s the amount. You’ve done that much, you know?”

“I could live the rest of my life with this amount of money… honestly, it’s a bit scary.”

“Nevertheless, I need you to accept it. This money is your legitimate compensation.”

Zeros was feeling dizzy at the amount of money in front of him. He was thinking of working steadily to make a living, but for some reason, an amount of money large enough to play around with for the remainder of his days came rolling at his feet. He had the feeling that, as a person, he might turn in the wrong direction.

“Also, I’m sure the amount will keep increasing. What you make is just that good.”

“With so much money I’ll most likely end up as a morally depraved person. I have no way of using it.”

“However, please take it. It’s your legitimate compensation. If you refuse it, that DelSasis will probably end up being charged with a crime, you know?”

“Oh… Jesus.”

(*T.N: said in english)

In all honesty, Zeros could make as much money as he wanted to. However, large amounts of money weren’t needed to have a leisure life, and even if he had such an amount, he didn’t have many uses for it.

As he was thinking of some way of using that money, he suddenly saw the roof of the church through his window and a brilliant idea came to mind. 

“Can I donate this money?”

“Donate it? Where to?”

“To the orphanage, you see. With this, we can hire the orphans to do charity work and pay them money so they understand the meaning of work.”

“Nu!?”

Even Creston was surprised by that. It was a welfare measure, so to speak. By putting orphans who were on the verge of becoming criminals to work, they will be on a path to live a decent life. 

Originally, it would have been the Lord’s duty to do so, however, the tax money was finite, and he couldn’t divert the assets he made as a merchant without a long and tedious process to be able to donate it. 

Yet, Zeros’ payment was a different matter. Since it was his own private money, he could use it to help the orphans without any sort of restraints.

“Also, I would appreciate if you could give some pocket money for the old people who can no longer work. I would like to ask you that.”

“Fumu… And what will you have the children do?”

“That’s right… How about having them split up to collect and clean up the city’s trash? Glass bottles can be recycled, and organic trash can be burned to ashes and then be used as fertilizer.”

“I see… So they’re not put in the orphanage just to receive an education.”

“Some children dislike the orphanage, and if the elderly are also sent in carriages to mow the grass on the nearby rural areas, wouldn’t that be a nice way for them to make some earnings?”

The orphanage is certainly an institution for orphans, but the city is still full of other children who have no family.

Abandoned by their parents or stowed away on ships, they grew in numbers and stayed in the old city district. On rare occasions, children are found starving to death in alleyways and are sometimes buried in unmarked graves.

Such tragedies could be prevented.

“I’m not saying that I will save everyone… I know I am a hypocrite… but, I want to put the money I won’t spend to good use.”

“That’s plenty. Man is not God, so you should do what you can.”

“Oh, and please give priority to weeding out my fields. I was in a bit of a problem because I had no manpower.”

“So that was your purpose… Well, that’s fine too. I’m grateful for this as well.”

Thus, the way to use his money was quickly decided. 

After this moment, the welfare fund, which would later be called ‘Merlin Fund,‘ was established. 

This welfare measure, which started with an idea, would later spread throughout the country by the hands of many nobles and merchants.

No one knew that behind all was the figure of an old man whose thoughts were bent in a strange direction. 

　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇　　◇

“I want to talk to you about something.”

“Hou… A donation for the children, is it? It’s also an interesting business model to pay them regularly depending on the work done.”

After he talked to his son – DelSasis – about the conversation with Zeros earlier in the day, the current lord exhaled in admiration. 

The amount of money paid to Zeros was more than what a single person could spend in their lifetime. 

The magic scrolls were selling well to that extent, but what was more surprising, was the fact that he was going to donate part of the proceeds from the sale of said scrolls, which goes to show how selfless and undesiring the Great Sage was. Though, in fact, he did possess greed, but it was so insignificant that no one would think of him as a greedy person.

“But, it really is a good way of using the money. And the idea of not wanting more money than what one needs is great as well.”

“He genuinely just wants to live in peace, doesn’t he? Self-sufficiency is his priority.”

“And, the refrigerator, was it? This is interesting. It’s fantastic that it’s also easy to make. It only needs a magic stone capable of producing ice magic. It will become very useful to taverns and restaurants.”

“How should we price them?”

“Depending on the container’s size, the size of the magic stone will also have to change accordingly. We’ll start selling the smaller ones first and we’ll see what happens.”

Their plan to crush the magician factions had already begun. While everyone’s eyes were on power, they were cunningly and quickly moving behind the scenes.

The first step of the plan was the sale of magic scrolls. The refrigerators will become the second step.

Moreover, the patent application was filed on the same day, and even if someone wanted to make it, they would have to ask for permission from the Duke of Solisthea. Anyone who tries to copy it and sell it will end up in a trial.

In addition, the Duke’s House had such an impressive defense that they couldn’t even be challenged.

“Is he also donating part of his proceeds from the refrigerator?”

“That’s right. That’s what he said.”

“I want to gather more manpower, but we can’t interfere with them yet. The enemy is capable of anything.”

“Umu… And, how is it going with that other matter?”

“It’s going well. Count Jacbuckham will be replaced in the near future, and with that, we will crush one of the main sources of income of the Weissler faction.”

The Count, who forged the king’s order and built the bridge without his permission, had also funneled most of the taxes he squeezed from the people to the Weissler faction. In other words, even the taxes paid to the government were falsified, so he was not spared the death penalty.

In this country, nobles held hereditary positions, but in reality, they were as fragile as the civil servant’s. 

Any act that went against the country’s laws could bring upon the offender a severe punishment on top of their disqualification from their official post.

However, the Count’s younger brother had a high approval from the people, so DelSasis was plotting to make him the next Count.

“Merciner, was it? Is he a talented individual?”

“He can’t use magic, but he’s a member of the Chivalric Order, so he’ll help us with our plan.”

“The same as Tina, huh? …Still, it would be reassuring to have him as an ally.”

“Yes. He’s a well-known face in the Order, as well as being someone who can endanger the position of the Weissler faction.”

The Weissler faction had a bad reputation amongst the populace, and recently they have become very active.

Not only they are responsible for criminal acts, but also for petty misdemeanors, such as theft and dining without paying. 

“What does the Saint-Germain faction say?”

“That they’re not interested. Well, we’ll just have to wait and see… which one will end up being the most profitable…”

“Seriously, it’s better to not be hostile with them right now… but, when will the second stage start?”

“We can move as early as next week. Let’s get her to help us with that.”

The two [Dukes]* worried about their country were plotting behind the scenes.

(*T.N: typo, the author most likely meant 公爵[koushaku], meaning Duke. It’s just that 侯爵 is also read as koushaku, but means Marquis, so he used the wrong kanji; 　国を憂う侯爵二人は、静かに暗躍している。)

They were advancing quietly and smoothly so that by the time they realize, it would be already too late for them. 

“I wonder if Candy will be able to help us…”

“It’s better if you don’t say that name out loud, Father. She’ll sulk for a while and won’t come out of her room.”

“Why did she choose a poisonous plant’s name, though? I think it’s quite tasteless.”

“Well, it’s a mystery for me too, Father. But let’s leave it at that for today, I have to hurry…”

“Another woman? I wonder how many times I’ve warned you that you will get stabbed to death one day…”

“That’s how I live my life. I’d rather be killed by a woman.”

Creston sighs while lamenting his son’s education.

This man amongst men was making his parents cry.

He could only pray that his son would not be stabbed to death before their plan is fulfilled.