Chapter 1 Episode 7: Rocked by the Carriage
Two hours of walking through the forest later...
The spaces between the trees gradually widened until a grassland with an open dirt path came into view. As we proceeded, a squad of people dressed in the same armor as the four escorts also came into view. The people saluted us with their hands over their chests as soon as they noticed us, pausing in their work to call out to each other. They must be people related to the ducal house.
“Who are they?”
“They’re private soldiers of our family. By periodically patrolling our domain, they keep the roads safe and peaceful.”
“They’ve come along as our escorts and were tasked with investigating the forest yesterday.”
Investigating?
“Did you know that the number of monster sightings and damage reports have increased in these last few years, Ryoma?”
“...? No, that’s the first I’ve heard.”
“I see. It comes and goes in waves, but in recent years it’s been trending upwards. By increasing the frequency of patrols, we’re hoping to improve safety. This area has never had many sightings, but after learning about you the other day...”
Learning about me?
“The fact that you live here. Also, last time we came, you brought Hughes a blanket made of a black bear pelt, right? That’s the strongest creature in this forest. Which is why we started wondering if it was possible that you were culling the increased number of monsters without our awareness. Just to be sure, I had them investigate the forest around the roads yesterday.”
Huh, so something like that had been happening... Wait, was that why they had gifted me so many presents yesterday?
Just as I was about to ask Reinhart that, a man with slightly fancier armor than the others broke off from the squad and stepped forth. Reinhart then parted ways with us, accompanied by Sebas. He was going to listen to their report.
Those of us remaining waited a short distance away to avoid bothering the squad, which was when I spotted Sebas in the distance, taking a horse carriage out with his space magic. I had heard they had a carriage, but I didn’t realize it was also being stored with space magic. I didn’t even know that was possible.
When I saw Sebas himself walk into the hole made by the space magic, I realized that was probably the intermediate space magic Dimension Home. It was the upgraded version of the Item Box that came with a drastic increase in storage space. Apparently, you could even live inside it if you wanted. That was what the gods had told me, but this was my first time seeing it. As I was thinking such things, Sebas took carriage after carriage out. Just how much could that magic hold? Eliaria giggled triumphantly when she saw me gawking in surprise.
“Those are the carriages we’ll be riding in. Sebas’s Dimension Home can fit much more than that — all of our belongings are in there too, you know?”
It could still fit more?! ...Is what I retorted in my head, before Elise took my hand and led me into the same carriage as the four members of the family. The carriage could hold six people, and with me there it made five. After waiting a bit, Sebas came to join us. For the record, the slimes were on the luggage rack attached to the roof of the carriage. Normally, that space was used to place luxury items like alcohol and snacks to enjoy during the ride.
Once I had checked all the slimes were okay up there, we waited around for the overall preparations to wrap up and the signal for the carriages to move. Since we were riding in the same carriage, I mustered up my courage to ask Sebas about the magic he had used earlier. Apparently, he was one of the leading magicians in space magic in the kingdom, specializing in space and water magic. He said he could use advanced space magic, so I asked him another thing I was curious about.
“The advanced space magic, Another World... Can you use that?”
Sebas gave me an impressed look when I asked that.
“Oh, how do you know about that magic?”
“Familiars... easily scare townspeople. Instead of summoning magic, maybe space magic could be used... I asked grandma, and she told me.”
“Can you use space magic instead of summoning and banishing, Sebas?”
“It is possible. Familiars can live inside a Dimension Home, as well as Another World. If familiars were placed within them, one can probably avoid causing unnecessary distress to the public.”
Thank goodness. If it hadn’t been possible, my future would have been a bit more problematic.
In this world, there was a magic very similar to the taming magic contract I had with my slimes, called summoning magic. Like taming magic, it was a type of magic that contracted a monster to obey you, but as it only called the monster to you when needed, it was seen as far more convenient. Because of that, summoning magic was starting to replace taming magic as the mainstream choice... Well, I didn’t really care about that.
I figured that the benefits of summoning magic could be substituted with space magic, so I chose taming magic as a skill while being reincarnated. Though part of the reason was also because I was told to choose an extra type of magic on top of taming, due to capacity issues.
“Public response varies from place to place, but many tamers often end up feeling ashamed...”
“But there is another problem with that. First, substituting summoning and banishing requires intermediate space magic or above. And any monsters placed inside a Dimension Home can only be removed by the space magician that put them in there. Whether the tamer uses the space magic themselves or hires someone else, if for some reason that space magician is no longer able to use space magic — especially in the case of death — the familiar will never be able to be brought out again. This applies to everything stored across all space magics, regardless of the difficulty, so it all depends on what the individual thinks. Some may choose to use it, while others consider the risks too great to use.”
...Come to think of it, the three gods also discussed this among themselves when we came across this point.
“As for the answer to Master Ryoma’s question, I can use Another World. However, it is not a spell that I favor. It is the highest difficulty of space magic, and those who can use it are well respected as elite space magicians... but that is all.”
“What... do you mean?”
“It’s a very impractical magic to use. To explain it in order... There are three steps needed to use Another World, and the first step is to create an immense space with magic. This step decides the size within Another World, and the size depends on the amount of magical energy the individual has.”
“...So people with more magic... have bigger size... less magic... smaller size?”
“Precisely. On top of that, this first step uses all the magic of the individual and causes great exhaustion, sometimes leaving them bedridden for several days. And if they fail at the first step, the space is lost and requires starting over from the beginning.”
So it would all be for nothing, huh...
“After succeeding at the first step, the second step is to connect the created space with your current position using a portal. This also consumes a large amount of magic, and requires starting over if it fails. These two steps are the preparation, the third step is to just open the gate and go through it. In other words: on average, opening and closing this gate just once would consume anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 magic energy. This 10,000 is a value applied to magic energy, but if you consider the fact that the minimum requirement to become a royal sorcerer is 10,000 magic energy... Even the best magicians of the kingdom could be rendered immobile with just one use of this magic. It is not a magic to be abused. In addition, the question of what should be placed in such a space after all that effort also makes it impractical.”
At that point, Eliaria spoke up.
“What do you mean? The bigger it is, the more things you can put in it, no?”
“You can, but if you’re only storing furniture and belongings for a trip, the intermediate Dimension Home is more than enough. If you want to store something that can only fit in Another World, then you’d be trying to store something as big as a palace or fortress. At that point, the next problem would be how to move such a thing, ultimately making it a waste of magic with no use.”
“I didn’t think of that.”
So there were quite a few downsides to it. Well, I was aware of most of that already, so it seemed reasonable to just aim for the intermediate Dimension Home for now. My familiars were slimes, anyway.
As I was thinking such things, Sebas made a follow-up comment.
“However, some large monsters can reach the size of a castle, so it could be of use if you ever contract a monster of that type.”
“Is that so... Thank you very much.”
“Not at all. Please feel free to ask as many questions as you wish.”
“Speaking of which, what elements of magic can you use, Ryoma? You’ve mentioned earth and space, and since you boiled the water for the bathtub, I assume fire and water too?”
My magic elements were a safe topic to talk about, so I answered Eliaria honestly.
“My grandma... said... all of them.”
“All the elements, huh? That’s uncommon. Are there any that you’re focusing on expanding?”
“Mostly earth and space... some fire and water... pretty much all, but just enough for living.”
“Hmm... And you can use taming magic and barrier magic on top of that? Be careful you don’t end up a jack of all elements, master of none.”
“I understand.”
Come to think of it, the gods gave me that warning too.
“...Did I say something funny?”
“Huh?”
“You were smiling a bit, Ryoma.”
Oops, I guess it was showing on my face.
“My grandma... once said the same... because I also dabbled... in healing magic and alchemy.”
“I see, I was worried I said something strange.”
“But alchemy? Now that’s another curious thing to have an interest in...”
Come to think of it, I hadn’t received much information about alchemy for some reason. I should ask about it.
“Is it rare?”
“You’d be hard pressed to find an alchemist nowadays. Their numbers have fallen dramatically after the rampant scams about creating gold. A long time ago there was a man called the Alchemy King who made a large profit, but he was the only successful case I’ve ever heard of.”
“According to some, the foundations of alchemy were created by the Alchemy King, but modern day alchemy was created by those who sought the profits of the Alchemy King. The current methods are far inferior to the techniques of the Alchemy King, so nowadays it’s just treated as a method of fraud, leaving alchemists in a precarious situation.”
“Alchemists also have this secretive and creepy image about them. Other magic-related guilds have a degree of secrecy, but alchemists take it one step too far.”
Reinbach, Sebas, and Eliaria’s description seemed pretty negative. But there were similarities to how supposed alchemists used to be treated on Earth, too.
“Would it be better... not to say... I learned alchemy?”
“Yes, that would be for the best.”
“I understand.”
After I replied, Eliaria asked me a question.
“Ryoma, what do alchemists actually do?”
How was I to answer this...?
“I don’t know other alchemists... so I’m not sure. All I can do... is purify rock salt.”
“Rock salt? The rock salt harvestable in that area has poison, so it’s worthless. What can you do with that?”
“The rock salt... contains many minerals... poisonous when consumed. But if you separate... minerals from rock salt... you can eat it. All I did... was remove minerals... making it edible.”
“You can do such a thing?!”
“Yes. The meal when you stayed over... The salt in that was... all harvested from the cliff’s rock salt.”
Reinhart started to grow excited at that, but immediately calmed down.
“That’s amazing! If that’s possible, then you could sell that salt as a product... Ah, no, nevermind. The rock salt in that area has been infamous for several years as being inedible. No one would think of buying it.”
“Really?”
“There was this one adventurer who wandered deep into the forest and harvested the rock salt, then sold it under the name of a different production area. With the exception of certain regions, hunters and gatherers are permitted to harvest freely, so greedy nobles would try to monopolize the rock salt deposits in their domain. The adventurer probably wanted to avoid that, so they lied about the production area to keep all the profits for themselves. Thus, the rock salt was sold widely to a great number of people who then fell sick, and that adventurer was executed. It caused a huge uproar, so now the entire kingdom knows that you can’t eat the rock salt from the Jamil domain’s Forest of Gana. Luckily, we never dealt in rock salt to begin with, so it didn’t affect our trade...”
So people lied about production in other worlds, too...
“That cliff... only had a little rock salt to harvest... Not enough to meet demand. If you take to market... will lose to areas that can produce lots of safe salt. But should be enough... for the House of Jamil and nearby villages... to harvest and use.”
“I see, that’s a shame.”
Just by discussing trifling matters, I was gaining more and more information. The carriage rocked me comfortingly as I lent an ear to the relaxed chatter flowing around me.
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