Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku (LN) - Volume 8 - Chapter 3

Studying on the Stone Stage 

Satou here. I’ve kind of got a thing for women who teach. Especially when they’re strict and serious in the classroom but turn into total good-for-nothings at home. Unfortunately, older women never seem to be interested in me. 

“Master, I brought you some peculiar tea cakes.” 

“Thank you, Arisa.” 

Arisa plopped down beside me, carrying a basket full of what looked like tiny cupcakes. 

Though they appeared plain, they were actually filled with fresh fruit. 

“There’s no alcohol in this, is there?” 

“I keep telling you: I won’t make that mistake again!” Arisa laughed. 

Arisa and the others got drunk on our first day here, although they weren’t supposed to drink alcohol. As it turned out, the culprit was the liquor that was used to flavor the pastries they were given, which wasn’t cooked long enough to lose its potency. 

We were now in the living room of the tree house where we’d partied that first day; we’d been staying there ever since. 

Mia’s family offered to let us stay in their home in the underground city, but I didn’t want to impose when they’d just been reunited with their child at long last. 

However, considering that Mia’s welcome-home party was still going on four days later, maybe that was a misplaced concern. 

Tons of elves were still gathered around Mia, chattering away. Mia, meanwhile, was clinging to her parents as any child of her appearance might, which was adorable to witness. 

Tama and Pochi were popular not just with the elves but also with the brownies who did the cleaning and serving, who were beginning to treat them like beloved pets. 

“Duck jerkyyy?” 

“This is red-deer jerky, sir!” 

“Correct.” 

“You girls are pretty good! Here, this one’ll stump you for sure…” 

They were being fed at the moment or, rather, playing a game where they tried to identify the type of jerky by taste. 

Liza stood behind the two of them, making sure they didn’t get too rowdy. Of course, she was also rerouting any jerky she was given directly into her stomach. 

“Nana, more.” 

“So soft.” 

“These pastries are delish!” 

While Nana had gotten off on the wrong foot with the fairies by being too forceful with them, now she seemed to have won them over with the help of some baked goods. 

The winged fairies sat on her shoulders and head, munching away contentedly. 

Except for the lucky bastard who’d said “So soft”—that one was nestled between her breasts again. Seriously, trade places with me. 

The fairies spoke only Elvish, so my girls were wearing translation rings to help with communication. 

The rings had been given to us by Mia’s parents. They were similar to the borrowed ones the Japanese summons were wearing when I met them along with Princess Menea in the Lumork Kingdom. 

They must be rare, since I didn’t even have any in my spoils from the Valley of Dragons, yet they were letting all the kids borrow them indefinitely for free. 

From what I heard, there was an elf who used to be obsessed with making translation rings, so they weren’t particularly uncommon in Bolenan. 

I would’ve liked to ask how they were made, but unfortunately, the elf in question was sleeping in the World Tree. 

I asked a drunken elf about it at the party, and he explained the whole situation. 

“Basically, sleep tanks are for people who’ve grown tired of living, are afraid of their memories fading, and so on. Our memories can last around five hundred years without a problem, but after that, they start to fade. I’m told the elders, who’ve lived for thousands or even tens of thousands of years, are even starting to lose their emotions.” 

That made sense. So some of the elves were sleeping to preserve their precious memories. 

It would be unthinkable for any living creature’s brain to retain new information indefinitely. 

“Are the high elves the same?” 

Unlike ordinary elves, the high elves like Miss Aialize had lived for hundreds of millions of years. 

“High elves have the memory archive, so they don’t have to worry about their memories fading. They only use the sleep tanks because they’re bored of living, or else they loathe themselves so much that—” 

A serious-looking elf abruptly elbowed the drunken one, cutting off his explanation. 

I must have touched on one of the elves’ taboo topics. 

Just as things were getting a bit awkward, Mia’s bright voice bailed me out. 

“Satou.” 

Mia, who’d been hanging off her father’s arm not long before, now came over with three youthful elves. 

The tearful reunions had died down since the second day or so, but there were still a few elves coming in for the first time, each of whom Mia politely introduced to me. 

“Soya. Puya. Aea.” 

…Actually, there wasn’t anything particularly polite about that intro. 

“So you’re the Satou who beat Laya at shogi.” 

“Strong.” 

“Well, Laya is the weakest of the Bolenan Game Association’s Four Kings of the Dawn! Do you really think your shogi can defeat the likes of us?!” 

That was definitely a startling level of bravado, but I’d learned over the past few days that Daisaku the Hero was behind a lot of the elves’ cultural oddities. 

Laya, Mia’s father, frowned and muttered, “Mrrr, rude,” but to his disappointment, everyone ignored him. 

As an aside, I should note that the Game Association had several series of kings besides Kings of the Dawn. There were Kings “of the Dusk,” “of the Gale,” and so on. 

Since I’d been crushing the elves at shogi for a while now, I’d gained titles like Shogi Master and King of Games. 

“You’d like to play me in shogi? Fine.” 

“All right, me first.” 

“Since you’re all here, why don’t I take on all three of you at once?” 

“Arrogant.” 

“Hmph, you’ll live to regret those words!” 

Most elves seemed to hate losing, which meant a lot of them demanded extra time like Mia’s father, so I decided to keep things quick by taking on all three “kings” at once. 

Since my youthful new body in this parallel world had a maxed-out INT skill, playing multiple games at the same time was no problem for me. 

As a result, I wound up getting a skill called “Parallel Thoughts.” 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t as impressive as the name made it sound. In CPU terms, it was comparable to multi-threaded parallel processing rather than multi-core, so my total processing power remained the same. 

If anything, I’d describe it as making me a master of multitasking. 

Just as all three games were stopped by simultaneous “Wait!” demands, Lulu came upstairs from the kitchen in an apron. 

The elf girls who loved cooking were with her, too. 

Nea, a girl who was studying the Japanese cuisine Daisaku the Hero described long ago, was first to arrive. 

“Mr. Satou, I made the hamburg steak we discussed yesterday. Could you evaluate it for me, please?” 

“Yes, I’d be happy to.” 

Nea placed a line of her steaks in front of me. Since they were just for tasting, they were all bite-size portions. 

One was essentially a meatball, one had been made into a paste and cooked, one had been cut into noodle-like shapes and then braided together before being grilled, one just looked like a lump of meat, and finally, the last one actually looked like hamburg steak. 

The reason so many of them looked nothing like hamburg steak was that the only description this Daisaku had given was the vague “a grilled dish made of kneaded meat.” 

This guy knew even less about cooking than I did. 

“Only one of them actually looks like hamburg steak, but they’re all pretty tasty.” 

“Yes, I agree.” 

Although I wasn’t sure why Arisa was helping me evaluate. 

“This paste one and the braided noodles here are especially tasty.” 

They weren’t hamburg steaks or any dish I’d ever seen on Earth. They’d fit in just fine at a restaurant specializing in creative cuisine, though. 

The other reason Nea’s hamburg steaks weren’t coming out like hamburg steaks was that she was using nothing but meat. 

She described them as “100 percent beef,” so this was probably another misguided description from Daisaku. 

With no ingredients but meat, a dish could easily get dried out, but evidently the elves had solved that problem through a few hundred years of trial and error. 

A few hundred years, huh…? Elves really did have a different grasp of time from ordinary humans. 

Still, I had no idea how she’d managed to make noodles out of meat. 

After Lulu did some sampling as well, she went back to the kitchen to make hamburg steak the way I’d taught her. 

“I have over a hundred other variations, but I think these five are the closest to the dish that Sir Daisaku described.” 

“That’s remarkable. I’d love to try every one of them during the course of my stay.” 

“Of course! You saved Mia’s life, after all. I’ll happily cook them all for you.” 

It was a brazen request on my part, but Nea was quick to agree. 

The other elf girls with her wanted to share their recipes with me, too. Lulu and I had a lot of cooking and learning to do while we were here. 

Grrrrwwwl. 

I heard two stomachs growl adorably in unison and turned to find Tama and Pochi gazing at us hungrily. 

You’d never guess from their expressions that they’d just had a jerky-eating contest. 

“Do you want to try?” 

“Aye-aye!” 

“Yes, sir!” 

“If I can be of help, it would be my pleasure.” 

Tama’s and Pochi’s hands shot into the air before I even finished my offer. 

Liza, too, appeared behind them, seemingly out of nowhere. Her expression was composed as usual, but her tail was whipping back and forth, so no doubt she was waiting for this chance. 

I let Tama and Pochi try first, but… 

“Huuuh? This isn’t hambuuurg.” 

“Hamburg steaks are softer and juicier, sir! They make you happy when you chomp into them, sir!” 

Pochi was waving her arms wildly as she addressed Nea, so I took the fork out of her hand, just to be safe. 

Liza nodded sagely after tasting each sample. Her tail had calmed a little, so I was guessing she judged them to be only satisfactory. 

Then Lulu brought up her freshly cooked hamburg steak. 

It was plated like a proper restaurant dish: a hot cast-iron skillet on top of a wooden plate. 

Nea inhaled the scent with what could only be described as a rapturous expression and then stared at the steak as if trying to memorize every last detail. You should probably eat it before it gets cold. 

“Go ahead and try it.” 

Cutting off a small portion with her fork and knife, she carried the first bite to her mouth. 

Pochi and Tama were drooling as they followed the fork with their eyes. 

I glanced at Liza, but while her mouth was open a little, at least there wasn’t any drool. There was no need to specify what she was looking at, of course. 

All that being said… 

I think crying while you eat is a little bit much, no? 

But for Nea, it was her first taste of a legendary dish, so I guess maybe it was understandable. 

Considering her skills, I figured she’d be able to reproduce it in no time now that she’d tasted the real thing. 

“Satou.” Mia, who’d been watching from next to her parents, was suddenly at my side. “Tofu steak.” 

Mia clung to my neck, rubbing her cheek against mine pleadingly. 

Arisa promptly began trying to peel her off, her smile twitching. 

Quit being so childish, you two. 

I kept this thought to myself, instead patting Mia’s cheek gently to pacify her. 

“As you wish, milady,” I said teasingly. 

She relinquished her grip on me at that, so I picked up Pochi and Tama and brought them with me to the kitchen so that Nea could eat in peace. 

Lulu came along to help, so aside from the tofu hamburg steak Mia requested, I also made Japanese-style steaks, hamburg stew, hamburgers with tomato, and so on. 

Including plates for certain hungry little girls, of course. 

When I returned with the finished tofu hamburg steak, we had more visiting elves than before. 

As far as I could tell, the rumor had spread via word of mouth that you could eat a real hamburg steak here. 

“I’ll be right back with more hamburg steaks, so please wait a little longer.” 

“Mm, okay.” 

“I’m so excited, I can hardly wait!” 

I greeted the elves lightly as I brought Mia her tofu dish. “Here you go, Mia. Your order is ready.” 

“Mm. Thanks.” 

When Mia’s parents and the other elves saw the dish I placed in front of Mia, a ripple of surprise ran through the crowd. 

All eyes were on the youngest elf as she brought a piece of the tofu hamburg steak to her mouth. 

After a moment of chewing, Mia closed her eyes and let out a little noise of contentment. 

“““Mia ate meat!””” the elves exclaimed in a chorus. 

You don’t need to react that dramatically, do you? 

“Good.” 

“We’re so proud, Mia. That’s wonderful. We’ll have to make red rice to celebrate, now, won’t we?” 

Her parents both embraced her joyously, but Mia looked a little perplexed about why her meal was being interrupted. 

No, if anything, she looked triumphant. 

Yep. My plan was a success. 

I cackled inwardly at pulling off my scheme. 

After checking with Mia’s parents in advance to make sure she didn’t have any meat allergies, I made this particular hamburg tofu with about 10 percent meat mixed in, no fat included. 

It didn’t taste meaty when I tried it, and sure enough, Mia hadn’t noticed that there was meat in it. 

I decided to wait until after I’d increased the amount of meat a little more before letting Mia know. 

Bwa-ha-ha. I’ll get you to eat a balanced diet yet! 

> Skill Acquired: “Trickster” 

“That’s a scary smile you’ve got there, master,” Arisa remarked. 

My villainous thoughts must have snuck into my expression somehow. 

I guess “Poker Face” didn’t work as well if you let your guard down too much. 

Just then, Lulu returned with a mountain of various hamburg steak dishes. 

Liza looked like she wanted to help, so I had her bring up some spare plates. 

“Thank you for waiting. Please enjoy.” 

With that, the elves set about trying each of the kinds of steaks. 

“Tasty.” 

“This is delicious! It’s so soft, it practically melts in your mouth!” 

The elves gave the hamburg steaks rave reviews all around. 

With Lulu’s and Liza’s help, I cooked up more hamburg steaks, but I couldn’t seem to churn them out fast enough. The allure of “the legendary hamburg steaks the hero spoke of” was too strong. 

I might have been stuck in the kitchen until the following day if Nea and her two friends didn’t step in to help. Once I taught them the recipe, they were able to start mass-producing hamburg steaks in other tree houses to lighten the load. 

I went through a lot of my regular meat stock, but I still had plenty of monster meat even if you didn’t include all that whale, so it wasn’t a big deal. 

In exchange, the overjoyed elves presented me with livestock like giant sheep and crimson chickens. 

These would be kept in the large stable carved into the roots of this tree, where living dolls were already taking care of our horses, the runosaur, and so on. 

“Good work today, Lulu.” 

“It was nothing.” 

When our work was finally finished, Lulu and I ate some of the local cuisine the elves had brought us, watching with satisfaction as the last of our guests devoured their hamburg steaks with visible delight. 

“““Hey, boy, you’ve got a visitor.””” 

After breakfast on our seventh day in the elf village, the mysterious carvings that hung in the living room suddenly started talking all at once. 

Thoroughly alarmed, Tama froze in the middle of our game of shogi-piece Jenga, her tail poofing up immediately. 

Pochi’s eyes widened, too, and she almost fell out of her chair but managed to catch herself before Liza had to pull her up. 

Obviously, these mystery carvings were some kind of intercom. 

They hadn’t moved once during the party, which had finally wound down, so some kind soul must have activated them for us on their way out. 

I wondered if the mirror hanging next to them would reflect an image of the visitor, but I guess it wasn’t quite that advanced. 

As soon as I stood up, the carvings stopped talking. 

“I’ll go and look.” 

Lulu hurried downstairs to welcome the guests. 

“Good morning, Mr. Satou.” 

“Good morning.” 

I was surprised to see who Lulu had returned with. 

“Welcome, Lady Aialize, Miss Lua.” 

I invited the shrine maiden Lua and the high elf Miss Aialize into the room. 

“Come on, Lady Aaze.” 

“Nnngh, I know, I know. Don’t push me, Lua.” 

Miss Aialize was stiff and quiet, so Lua prodded her shoulder a few times. 

“Master, we’ll go take the horses on a walk.” 

“Sure, thanks.” 

Noticing that Aialize seemed to be having a hard time speaking, Arisa tactfully ushered the rest of the party out of the room. 

“I’m terribly sorry if we’ve caused any trouble…” 

I reassured Lua that everything was fine and offered the two a seat. 

Miss Aialize, who was obviously shyer than I realized, just stared at the floor and fidgeted without saying a word. 

“Come on, Lady Aaze. I understand you’re upset that he saw you at your worst, but being shy about it won’t get you anywhere, all right?” 

With that, Lua grabbed Aialize’s head and jerked it upright, forcing her to look at me directly. 

Yikes, no violence, please! 

I understood her feelings, but I’d hate for Miss Aialize to get hurt in the process. 

Now that we were making eye contact, Aialize looked even more panicked, but she forced herself to speak. 

“I-I’m sorry about earlier!” 

She ducked her head without any further explanation. 

She was probably referring to the illusion of the little silver-haired girl. 

“No, no. If anything, I should apologize for taking your words literally and kissing you directly, Lady Aialize. I hope it was not too unpleasant an experience.” 

Her face flushed at that. “N-no, it wasn’t…” 

I would have turned a bit red myself if not for the help of my “Poker Face” skill. 

“Let us agree that neither of us was at fault, then, shall we?” 

“If that’s all right with you, Satou…” 

Aialize sighed with relief, and an awkward silence descended. 

“The rumors were true. Your spirit light is beautiful, Mr. Satou.” 

Miss Lua, her eyes now silver, kindly changed the subject for both of us. 

“Is that right?” I responded. “I’m not able to see this ‘spirit light,’ so I can’t really tell myself…” 

“All that light, yet you don’t have any ‘Spirit Vision’?” 

Lua looked surprised. 

“Heroes have the strangest gaps in their abilities, don’t they? Daisaku was the same way,” Aialize commented, casually dropping the bombshell. The first to respond was Lua. 

“Mr. Satou is a hero?” 

“You knew that, didn’t you, Lua? He’s the hero with the rainbow-colored spirit light who was fighting the black dragon.” 

That’s right. When Hei Long and I were doing battle, Miss Aialize used some kind of Clairvoyance spell from the World Tree to look at me. 

At the time, though, I was disguised as Nanashi, so I’d better play innocent for now. 

“Erm, what might you be referring to?” 

Aialize tilted her head. 

“When you were fighting in the mountains… Wait, hmm? You don’t have the Hero title today.” Analyze was among Aialize’s many gifts. “Now that I think about it, your name was blank back then, and your levels and skills are different now, too.” 

“Couldn’t it have been someone else, then?” 

“Ah-ha-ha, of course not! There can’t be anyone else with such a strong and distinctive spirit light.” 

I tried to feign ignorance, but Aialize simply laughed at me. 

“Neither the sky dragons nor even we high elves can emit such a splendid spirit light.” As she gazed at me in utter fascination, the only word for her expression was beautiful, but I couldn’t appreciate it at that moment. “Oh dear, were you trying to keep your identity a secret?” 

“Well…yes. If anyone powerful were to find out that I’m a hero, I’m afraid it would lead to all kinds of trouble…” 

It’d be one thing if I were alone, but I couldn’t have my friends getting caught up in anything dangerous. Besides, all I really wanted was to enjoy a laid-back sightseeing journey. 

“Hmm. I see.” 

Miss Aialize didn’t seem convinced. Then, Lua leaned over to whisper something in her ear. She must have used some kind of security magic tool or something, because even with “Keen Hearing,” I couldn’t make it out. 

Normally, I’d probably brace myself for an “I’ll keep your secret if you do this and that for me” kind of threat, but I doubted these elves would say anything of the sort. 

So far, they all seemed to be pretty frank, so if they wanted something from me, they would probably just ask without trying to bargain for it. 

“Then I! Shall be! Your teacher!” 

Aialize stood up and clenched her fists as she made this declaration. I wasn’t sure what she was going to teach me, though, so I waited patiently for her next statement. 

My staring seemed to embarrass her, however, as she turned red and quickly sat back down. 

Geez. What was she so worked up about, exactly? 

“Ahem! That is to say, as thanks for bringing Mia back home, I shall teach you how to control your spirit light!” 

“Really? I couldn’t possibly ask you to do that. Are you sure?” 

“But of course!” 

She ducked behind the short-statured Lua as she spoke. 

It was like watching a timid teacher hiding behind a middle school student. 

Thus, I became the pupil of the slightly less-than-dependable Professor Aialize. 

With the help of a dryad’s teleportation, we traveled to a rocky area some twenty miles away from the World Tree. 

Evidently, dryads could send you pretty much anywhere within the Bolenan Forest. 

“This way, Mr. Satou.” 

Lua the shrine maiden led the way along the rocks until we reached an area overlooking a waterfall. 

There, we had an unencumbered view of the World Tree in all its glory. 

“It certainly is large, isn’t it?” 

“Indeed. The Mountain-Trees are quite large as well, but the World Tree is in a class all its own.” 

Honestly, I was surprised it didn’t collapse in on itself due to its sheer weight. 

In fact, I decided to ask about that. 

“According to the elders, the World Tree itself maintains a Dimension Pile spell that supports its weight.” 

That was the same spell that had been holding up the ship hulls I saw before. 

Lua continued leading me forward as we chatted. Eventually, we reached a huge rock that was placed in front of the waterfall to form a stone stage. Miss Aialize, who’d gone on ahead, was there waiting for us. 

That was all well and good. 

But what was up with her outfit? 

She had donned a white shirt, a tight skirt, and even glasses with triangular lenses. On top of that, her hair was tied up in a bun behind her head, with a few strands hanging loose on either side of her face. The short wand she was holding was probably being used in place of a pointing stick. 

Basically, it was the most stereotypical “lady teacher” outfit I’d ever seen. 

That hero Daisaku sure did a number on the elves’ culture, didn’t he? 

But I didn’t mind the eye candy this time around, so I decided not to worry about it. 

“You’re late, Satou.” 

If you’re going to blush that much, why would you cosplay in the first place? 

I was tempted to stare derisively, but I didn’t think we’d get anywhere that way, so I just put my “Poker Face” skill to work. 

“My apologies.” 

“Lady Aaze, can’t you stop playing around and put on a proper outfit?” 

“But Daisaku said this outfit would give a plus-one effect to my ‘Education’ skill!” 

“I think that was a joke.” 

Aialize seemed less shocked by Lua’s anger than she was by the revelation that the “‘Education’ skill plus-one effect” was a lie. 

…Why would you believe that anyway? 

While I waited for Aialize to regain her composure, I looked down at the scenery of the waterfall from atop the stone stage. 

It wasn’t quite as impressive as the famous Niagara Falls, but it was still magnificent to see several waterfalls flowing down a single edge. 

There was water pouring off the rocks floating along the quay, too. Was it a similar contrivance to my Well Bag, perhaps? Regardless, it was a mystical sight. 

Someone cleared her throat loudly behind me, so I turned around. 

There was Miss Aialize, changed back into her shrine maiden clothes. It had taken everything in my power not to turn around when I heard them rustling as she changed. 

“Now then, before the lesson begins, please take this.” 

Lua, who was currently serving as Aialize’s assistant, handed me a packet of blue powder. 

“What is it?” 

It looked a bit like the sapphire powder I’d seen in a jewelry workshop in the old capital. Occasionally, it sparkled with light, so it must be some kind of magical drug. 

The AR display said it was called Holytree Stone powder. 

“It’s the powder of the Holytree Stone—known more popularly outside the forest as the Philosopher’s Stone, I believe.” 

The Philosopher’s Stone?! 

“It’s often given to pregnant women before they give birth, but its most common use is to augment the effect of magic,” Lua explained. 

For some reason, this seemed to spark a strange competitiveness in Aialize, who gave some information of her own. 

“The World Tree only produces one or two small stones a year, which means it’s very valuable, you know! So don’t spill it, all right?” 

So it was harvested from the World Tree…? 

Now it just sounded like it was the tree’s waste matter or something. 

Out of curiosity, I searched my Storage, but sadly I didn’t find either Holytree Stones or Philosopher’s Stones among my spoils. 

I sprinkled the blue powder into my mouth, then I swallowed it with the water Lua gave me. 

It didn’t taste like anything. I concentrated, trying to feel the powder moving down my throat, and got the “Magic Perception” skill. The powder was producing magic power, if only a little. 

“Now, first we should warm up. Watch and imitate my movements, all right?” 

I kept an eye on Aialize’s moves and copied her. It was a pretty intense series of exercises. 

This movement was intended to spread the powder through the body. I could feel it as the Holytree Stone particles dissolved in my stomach, entered my bloodstream, and spread throughout my body. 

It sort of reminded me of taking barium for a stomach X-ray. 

“Next, send magic power coursing through your body.” 

Obediently, I sent a stream of magic throughout my body. It felt a bit like using “Self-Healing.” As it traveled, I felt it being absorbed by the particles in my bloodstream. 

If I wasn’t careful, the magic would flow into the Yuriha fibers of my training clothes, so I had to make sure I didn’t use too much. 

“You’re quite good at this.” 

“Indeed. Most struggle with either circulating the magic properly or letting it seep into the magic clothing, but you seem to be a natural.” 

Thanks for the praise and all, but how long am I supposed to keep this up? 

Regulating this was actually fairly difficult, so I couldn’t talk at the same time. 

Once the particles in my bloodstream had absorbed a certain amount of magic, they began to release it instead. This felt a bit like the holy light that Holy Swords emitted. 

“Okay, now catch the magic as it tries to leave your body and sort of pin it down. Then just wrap it around you like you’re making a thin film over the surface of your body.” 

As was often the case with such prodigies, Aialize had a hard time explaining things clearly. Still, I more or less understood. 

First, I used the same method with which I’d grabbed the Undead King Zen’s shadow whips to hold the magic in place. Then, I spread that magic thinly around myself. Since Hayato the Hero had taught me how to use “Magic Power Armor” before, this was relatively easy. 

> Skill Acquired: “Spirit Light Control” 

> Skill Acquired: “Magic Control” 

“All right, it worked.” 

“What?! Wow, it really did. I can’t see your spirit light at all now.” 

Lua closed her eyes, then opened them again with “Spirit Vision” activated so that they turned silver, allowing her to confirm my statement. Unfortunately, I still wasn’t able to see spirit light myself, so I would just have to take her word for it. 

As a bonus, though, I could see that my magic power was no longer leaking out of me at all like it used to do. 

I was able to do that with “Invisibility,” too, though, so the “Magic Control” skill might not be necessary. Next time I had a chance to try it out, I’d have to compare it with “Magic Manipulation.” 

“Very impressive. That usually takes at least a few years.” 

“Why, it took me over a hundred… I guess ordinary standards really don’t apply to heroes,” Lua muttered, looking dissatisfied. It didn’t seem like my place to comfort her, so I pretended I hadn’t heard anything. 

I turned to face them so I could thank them for their help, but it seemed that was premature. 

“Next, let’s begin the second round of training.” 

“Good idea. Since we’ve already used valuable Holytree Stone powder, we might as well move on to the next course while it’s still in effect.” 

“Right. This time, with the magic still forming a membrane around you, try to focus on the section just before your eyes, and then you should be able to look through it.” 

Manipulating only a part of it? That sounded pretty difficult. 

I managed to do it by imagining the magic like contact lenses. 

“Now, look at the ends of my fingertips… ? Water Spirit Summoning Sui Seirei Shoukan!” 

Aialize held up her hands, and water began to flow from them. Before long, the water formed into spheres and floated above her palms. 

The breeze carried a few particles of the water on the air like mist, forming a small rainbow above Miss Aialize. 

She looked like a fairy or a goddess. 

“Watch carefully, Satou.” 

“R-right.” 

I was so busy admiring her that I got distracted. 

Aialize wore a serious, dignified expression that made her look like a different person entirely. 

I cleared my throat to cover up my distraction, then looked closer at the orbs of water. 

Closer. 

And even closer. 

It still just looked like water to me— No, wait, I could see a little bit of shifting blue light within it. It didn’t work when I focused too hard, but when I looked away, I could see it out of the corner of my eye. 

> Skill Acquired: “Spirit Vision” 

That was surprisingly easy to acquire. Maybe I had the Philosopher’s Stone to thank for that. 

“I see it.” 

““What?!”” both elves exclaimed. 

Is it really that surprising? 

“Really?” 

“I believe so. It’s a kind of amorphous light-blue glow, correct?” 

“Y-yes, that’s right.” 

“Incredible. Why, only one elf in a hundred can acquire that if not born with it.” 

One in a hundred didn’t sound that rare. 

“All right, round three, then! Let’s try Spirit Magic next!” 

Getting a little excited now, Miss Aialize pumped her fists in the air. 

A true gentleman would probably offer to dry her clothes with the Everyday Magic spell Dry, but I wanted to enjoy this sight for just a little bit longer. 

Shrine maiden clothing looked pretty nice when it was wet. 

“Here I go! … ? Wind Kaze!” 

First, Miss Aialize demonstrated for me. 

With my newly acquired and activated “Spirit Vision” skill, I was able to see exactly what she was doing. 

With only a one-word invocation, the colorless spirits around her gathered, turned into green wind spirits, and created the phenomenon of “wind.” In other words, they made magic. 

It was about as powerful as the Wind Magic spell Air Hammer but with an incredibly short casting time. 

“See?” Aialize said. “The magic it creates is no different from ordinary Wind Magic, but it has the advantages of short casting time and minimal required magic power.” 

“Though you must be careful, as it will not be effective in an area without spirits,” Lua added, since Aialize seemed to have forgotten this important warning. 

They explained that there weren’t many spirits in man-made buildings, monster dwellings, and so on. 

With my “Spirit Vision” skill activated, Miss Aialize appeared to be projecting a beautiful spectrum of metallic colors, mostly gold. 

Lua had a subtle flickering aura with lights that took on an array of cooler shades. 

As far as I could tell from looking at the two of them, spirit lights tended to include a whole spectrum of hues within a certain range, not just a single color. I saw some birds flying overhead, too, but their lights were too weak to tell what they looked like. 

The faint light from my body was pale white. 

Curious, I released the spirit light I’d been suppressing, and an intense range of colors dyed my vision so brightly it was almost blinding. The spirits floating around the waterfall gathered around me at an alarming speed. It was hard to tell, since they were blocking my view now, but my spirit light seemed to run the full range of primary colors, all highly saturated. 

Mia had said mine was “pretty,” but aesthetically speaking, I thought Miss Aialize’s light was far more elegant and beautiful. 

Uh-oh, I can’t really see anything around me like this. 

I hurriedly suppressed my spirit light again so that it wouldn’t show. Once their target was gone, the spirits scattered aimlessly. Most of them went back off into the environment, aside from those attracted by Lua’s and Aialize’s spirit lights. This all happened at a much more relaxed speed than their initial gathering. 

“Goodness, such free rein you have already. He’s quite adaptable, isn’t he, Lady Aaze?” 

“I-indeed,” Miss Aialize answered vaguely. She seemed dazed, still blinking the afterimage of my spirit light from her eyes. 

“My apologies, Lady Aialize. I wanted to try something, so I loosened my control a tad too much.” 

“I-it’s all right, since it’s your first time and all.” 

Huh? Aialize was getting shy again. She’d been looking at me directly and talking just fine not too long ago, but now she was fidgeting and getting shifty again. Maybe my spirit light was too dazzling. 

“A-at any rate, give it a try!” 

“All right… ? Wind Kaze!” 

Hmm? I messed up the chant, but it still produced a little breeze. Maybe the spirits were being nice to me? 

“Oh? Are chants perhaps not your strong suit?” 

“I’m afraid I can never seem to get them right.” 

“And yet, the wind still appeared to blow just now, did it not?” 

“Maybe the spirits were simply being generous,” I offered. 

“Impossible.” Lua shook her head, dismissing my suggestion. “Aside from a few exceptions, like dryads, spirits do not have egos or intelligence. They are simply mechanisms that take mana from sources and relay it to creatures that need it.” 

So spirits were just a kind of natural phenomenon, huh? 

That was fine and all, but it was a shame that I wouldn’t get to meet any sexy undines or anything. 

“You think so? Sometimes when a lot of them gather, they seem to be saying something.” 

Ooh, a dissenting opinion from Miss Aialize. 

“Lady Aaze, you are the only person who has ever made such a claim. The other high elves all refuse to back you up, don’t they?” 

“Well, yeah…but still! It really does seem like they’re talking.” 

Aialize puffed up her cheeks and turned away from Lua in a pout—a truly Mia-like reaction. 

It was very possible that she was imagining it, of course, but you couldn’t just make assumptions like that. Generally, when someone reported a bug that got dismissed as “just their imagination,” it ended up getting found once the game was released to the public. 

“Is it all right if I try it?” 

“Oh, not you, too, Mr. Satou…” 

“Please do! You’ll hear it for sure!” 

With permission granted, I decided to give it a shot. 

First, I reactivated my spirit light and waited for the dazzling effect to fade and the aggressive incoming tide of spirits to calm. Within about ten minutes, spirits surrounded me like a cocoon. Looking closely, I saw that they weren’t actually stopped in midair, just moving around slowly within a certain range. 

Hmm. I don’t really hear anything. 

Maybe Miss Aialize was mistaken after all? 

But then I felt a tiny amount of mana flowing out of them. 

Was this some kind of deliberate signal? 

As soon as the realization occurred to me, I felt something click into place, and I began to hear a teeny, tiny murmuring. 

They definitely seemed to be attempting to convey something, but unfortunately I had no idea what. It was like trying to pick out specific voices from a crowd three hundred feet away. I didn’t acquire any skills, either, so maybe there was some condition for being able to hear the spirits’ voices. 

“They did seem to be saying something, but I couldn’t tell what.” 

“Exactly! Oh, how I would love to speak with them, even just once.” 

“You’re sure you’re not joking, Mr. Satou?” 

Lua looked bewildered, but I assured her it was the truth. 

Unfortunately, no matter how many times I tried, I just couldn’t make Spirit Magic work. 

As I’d feared, the chants went just as poorly as they did when I tried to cast any other magic. 

At one point, Aialize got carried away trying to demonstrate and ended up soaking both Lua and me with water, but I got the “Spirit Magic” skill in the process, so I couldn’t complain. Besides, Aialize’s pouting when Lua got mad at her was very cute. 

“What a shame. If you could only chant properly, you could probably even summon and employ pseudo-spirits as well as using Spirit Magic.” 

As an example, Lua summoned the pigeon-shaped pseudo-spirit she used to contact people from a distance. 

It looked exactly like a real pigeon, except that it was covered in phosphorescent white light. 

Though she called it “summoning,” it was really just using small spirits as material to create the creature. 

Pseudo-spirits didn’t experience pain or fear, so they were convenient for battle training, hunting decoys, and so on. 

When their HP reached zero, they would disappear, turning back into the spirits they were made of and scattering. 

“It’s easy to summon them around you or Lady Aaze because your spirit light is so intense,” Lua added. 

“By the way, how exactly do the varying strengths of these ‘spirit lights’ work?” 

“Who knows?” 

“Oh, Lady Aaze.” 

Aialize put a finger to her chin and tilted her head innocently. Groaning, Lua explained instead. 

“In the case of underground veins and such, areas with stronger flow will have a brighter light. The vicinity of a mana source shines especially brightly.” 

Then she hesitated, as if the rest was harder to say. 

“But for people, it appears to be more complex than just the amount of magic power, so we don’t actually know what causes it.” 

So there were things that even the long-lived elves didn’t understand. 

From what I’d learned so far on my journey, a source was where magic power came from, and spirits were intermediaries that turned mana into magic. 

Spirit light probably appeared in places with a dense amount of magic power and mana. 

I figured it might work in a similar way to how electromagnetic waves appeared around an electric current. 

So that explained spirit lights for now, but… 

“What exactly is a source?” 

“An opening where mana spills from an underground vein, perhaps?” 

“Indeed. On this continent, the Valley of Dragons is by far the most extraordinary, but there are over a hundred other notable spots as well.” 

So the Valley of Dragons was special. That made sense, since it was the territory of the dragon god, the strongest god of all. 

Then it was probably safe to assume that my spirit light was so unusual because of that source. 

The fact that I was the controller of that source might also explain why I had abnormally fast magic power recovery, why my magic was so much stronger than anyone else’s, and so on. 

But since my level and stats were also way higher than the average person’s, I guess I couldn’t blame it all on the source. 

“That’s right. In fact…” 

Aialize suddenly clapped her hands together, as if Lua’s explanation had reminded her of something. 

“…I believe the bottom of this very waterfall is also a spirit pool—a kind of source!” 

At that, I automatically glanced down. When I activated my “Spirit Vision,” I did see light glowing from the bottom of the falls. 

But although the water was clear, the light didn’t seem very strong. 

“Is this one of those hundred notable spots?” 

“No, no. Those are the kinds that are big enough to build a city or town over.” Lua shook her head. 

“The size of a source can vary immensely. As far as small ones like this, it’s difficult to count just how many there might be.” 

So small sources were surprisingly common. 

Curious, I looked over at the World Tree with my “Spirit Vision.” 

The tree itself was dazzlingly bright. When I stared long enough, I could see concentric rings of light spreading from the trunk like ripples, too. 

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” 

Noticing my gaze, Miss Aialize commented with a gentle smile. 

“Yes, very. So is the World Tree a source, too?” 

“No, not exactly—” 

“Lady Aaze…” 

“Instead of an underground vein, it comes from the— Ah, am I not supposed to tell him this?” 

“Well, I suppose it’s all right if it’s Mr. Satou, but please don’t share this knowledge with anyone else.” 

I nodded. With Lua’s approval, Aialize finished her explanation. 

“Do you know about the aether that flows through the void?” 

“Please forgive my ignorance.” 

I didn’t even know what the “void” was. 

Considering how far up the World Tree seemed to go, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the void of space or something, but I was hoping it would be a more fantastical answer, like “the spirit world” or something. 

“I’m glad for the chance to teach you, then. The aether is…” 

Looking rather pleased with herself, Miss Aialize explained the aether in an uncharacteristically eloquent way. 

To summarize the explanation, which included the discussion of a “fifth element” aside from earth, water, fire, and wind: The basic idea was that the “aether” was a substance in outer space that mediated the large amount of mana that the sun produced. 

“…Now, the World Tree stretches out thin threadlike limbs called ‘emerald branches’ to the aether to absorb its mana. Then it sends that mana deep into the earth, where it flows through the underground veins and keeps them active.” 

Aialize spread her arms wide and looked up at the World Tree, smiling like a mother gazing at her beloved child. 

The expression reminded me distinctly that Aialize was a lot older than I was. 

“The light of the World Tree is the spirits picking up the mana that escapes as it flows from the sky to the earth.” 

I see. 

So the World Tree was essentially an enormous magic tool that kept the world going. 

“If greedier folk were to learn of this, other nations would start to target forests like Bolenan that contain World Trees, which is why we keep it a secret.” 

Right. They were sort of like giant power plants. 

If someone were to monopolize them, they could probably even rule the world. 

“I promise never to speak of this to anyone. If my word is not enough, I will gladly be bound by Geis or ‘Contract.’” 

“Oh, that’s hardly necessary.” 

It seemed like a pretty important secret to me, but Lua chuckled as if I were exaggerating. 

I was serious, though… Elves might be a little too trusting. 

When I ventured to voice this concern to Lua, she responded: 

“I do not think the worst is very likely. If someone truly did attempt to control the World Trees and destroy the world, the gods would punish them.” 

Oh right, I guess gods really do exist in this world. 

Still, I would be careful not to mention this to anyone else. 

I carved that resolution into my heart.