In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 1 - Chapter 4

Chapter IV: The Royal Family 

A few days later, I finished transcribing the mural onto paper. 
What came in handy during that was a little Null magic spell called [Drawing] that I learned. It allowed me to take anything I saw and replicate that perfectly on paper. In short, I became a photocopier. 
In fact, I didn’t even touch pen to paper. The spell worked by conjuring up the symbols straight onto the paper, so I really was like an actual photocopier. I simply had to look at the image on my smartphone’s screen in order to finish copying it down. The spell was less [Drawing] and more [Printing], not that I really cared too much about the name either way. 
The important part was that with the spell, I had effectively acquired a printer. As a test, I took down several new recipes for sweets and gave those to Aer, and she almost exploded with joy. I was thankful that I was able to translate the words as part of the printing process, if I focused hard enough. The only downside was that I had to use [Search] to find the actual ingredient names one by one. 
I’d learned to use one of the one hundred yen coins that I had been carrying to deal with anything concerning weight. Notice these things sooner, idiot, I told myself. 
My next job was to deliver the mural transcript to the capital. I did ask the others if any of them wanted to tag along, but it seemed like the thought of meeting the duke again made them all too nervous, so they declined. 
It was at those times that I really felt the difference in my perception of what a noble was, compared to how everyone else thought of them. I mean, there weren’t exactly any nobles back in Japan. Though, strictly speaking, there may have been some in the past. 
I took the bundle of transcribed papers in hand and cast my trusty [Gate] spell. Stepping through the light, I arrived directly in front of the gate to the duke’s estate. 
“What the—?!” 
“Whoops, sorry about that...” The guard was startled by my sudden appearance. To tell the truth, I had been startling this poor guard like that every time I came to the duke’s estate. I kind of wished he’d just get used to it already, but that was still going to take a while from the looks of things. 
Wait a sec... The gate opened and a carriage came out. Were they going out somewhere? I figured I had timed my visit poorly. 
“Touya, is that you?! Thank the heavens! Please, get in!” 
“Huh? Wait... Wha?! What’s going on?!” The carriage door swung open and the duke swept down like a bird of prey, grabbed me by the arm, and whisked me up into the carriage in one movement. Seriously, what the heck?! 
“To think you would appear with such impeccable timing...! You’re truly a godsend. I give Him my thanks.” The duke started fervently praying. 
I mean, technically God did send me here, so... At any rate, the duke’s behavior was definitely not normal. I’d never seen him so frantic before. I wondered what in the world had happened. 
“What happened, exactly?” At my sudden question, sweat appeared on the duke’s forehead as he answered in a rather panicked tone. 
“My brother has been poisoned.” 
...Come again, sire? Wasn’t the duke’s brother... the king? Was this a case of royal assassination? 
“Fortunately, treatment was delivered swiftly, so he’s still hanging on... For now.” The duke’s voice came out trembling as he sat face-down, gripping his hands together tightly. I mean, his brother was on the verge of death. Anyone would be worried in that situation. 
“Do you have any idea who the culprit could have been?” 
“...There’s one prime suspect, but we have no proof. Surely you remember the incident where Sue was attacked, yes? I believe both of these crimes were orchestrated... by the same individual.” 
“But why would they want to kill the king? Oh, hang on, could it have been an assassin sent from outside of the country or...” 
“If only it were that simple...” The duke let out a sigh and raised his head. He wore a terrible expression on his face. 
“Our Kingdom of Belfast is surrounded by three other countries. To the west is the Refreese Imperium, to the east sandwiched in the Melicia mountain range is the Regulus Empire, and to the south by the Great Gau River is the Kingdom of Mismede. Of these, we have been on good terms with the Refreese Imperium for a great many years.” I see, I see. 
“As for the Regulus Empire, we signed a nonaggression pact after the war twenty years ago, but I cannot exactly say that we’re on good terms. It wouldn’t be strange if they launched another attack on us at any moment. Now, as for the Mismede Kingdom, this is where things get complicated.” 
“Complicated how, exactly?” 
“Mismede is a new kingdom that was established during the war with Regulus twenty years ago. My brother has been trying to form an official alliance with this new kingdom, partly to stave off the threat of Regulus, and partly to open up more trade routes between our two kingdoms. However, there are some nobles who are very displeased with his decision.” 
“What’s their problem?” If the Regulus Empire could attack again any day, then it would make more sense to gain as many allies as possible before that happened. Maybe it wasn’t so simple, though. 
“Mismede is a kingdom of demi-humans ruled by a beastman king. Some of the older nobles despise the idea of, well... forming an alliance with a kingdom like that.” 
“...Okay, but why?” These nobles would even go out of their way to obstruct things that would benefit the country just because they didn’t like the idea of an alliance with demi-humans? I couldn’t understand that reasoning at all. If they were simple beasts who couldn’t be reasoned with, then that was one thing, but the beastmen were perfectly capable of holding a conversation. And that little beastgirl Arma was such a nice kid, too. 
“In the past, demi-humans were seen as an inferior race and were the target of much discrimination. They were treated like a race of crude savages. However, this all changed during our father’s generation. A law was created such that demi-humans no longer be treated as inferior or discriminated against. With that, the old ways died out, and demi-humans were able to walk around with their heads held high without worry. Even as we speak, there are plenty of them in the castle town itself. On the surface, discrimination against them is all but gone, but in reality there are still some nobles stuck in the past who refuse to treat them fairly.” 
“Discrimination, huh...” 
“That’s correct. Their opinions are that we should not have to join hands with a country of savages. Some even insist that we should simply destroy their kingdom and claim the land for our own. To the nobles of that disposition, my brother is a very big nuisance.” That made sense. So the culprits behind the assassination plot were probably those old nobles, but was it really necessary for them to go so far? I felt that it was all wrong. Could it really be so bad that they’d want to kill the king over it? Hell, if the king died, wouldn’t those nobles be the ones to suffer the most? 
“Were my brother to die, the throne would go to his lone daughter, Princess Yumina. The older nobles are probably seeking to have the princess marry one of their sons or relatives in order to claw their way into the royal bloodline. After that, they would be free to abuse their power to purge all of the demi-humans from the country... I’m beginning to think that the ones who tried to kidnap Sue were not trying to twist my arm, but my brother’s instead.” 
A case of “Do as we say if you value your niece’s life,” then. They wanted to cut off relations with Mismede bad enough to take hostages. The princess probably had strong guards protecting her, so they would’ve aimed for a relative like the king’s niece instead... And then they might’ve gotten carried away and demanded that the king marry his daughter off to one of their sons. Something about the whole thing just felt like the plot of a goofy evil mastermind from a cartoon or something. The culprit was probably a complete idiot. 
If they were caught, they’d probably get the death sentence right away. I could almost picture them as the villain in some period drama. Like a greedy merchant or a corrupt magistrate, something like that. 
“So, uh, what do you need me to do?” 
“I need you to expel the poison from my brother’s body, by way of the same spell you cured Ellen with.” The spell that heals any status ailments, [Recovery]. That made sense. With that spell, not only the poison itself, but all of the effects it had on the body would be reverted to normal. That explained why the duke whisked me up into the carriage. And in such a rush, too. 
While we were discussing all of this, the duke’s carriage pulled through the castle gates, across the drawbridge, and into the castle grounds. The duke then rushed me into the castle in a flurry, and we were greeted by a massive hall covered in bright red carpets. It was my first time in a castle. Everything there was massive. 
From where we were in the center of the hall, I could see a pair of staircases to the left and right, curved around and leading up to the next floor. On the ceiling there was a brilliant chandelier, sparkling like stars in the night sky. It didn’t appear to have any candles, though. Was it infused with Light magic? The duke and I made a dash up the red-carpeted stairs and got up to a small landing where we crossed paths with a certain man. 
“Well well, if it isn’t Your Highness the Duke. It is good to see you again.” 
“Tsk...! Count Balsa...” The duke met the man in front of him with an intense gaze. He was a plump, thin-haired little man in a showy outfit. His appearance called to mind the image of a toad. The toad gazed at us with a large, slimy grin. 
“You can rest easy. We’ve captured the one who tried to assassinate His Majesty.” 
“What did you say?!” 
“That’s right, it was the ambassador from Mismede. His Highness collapsed after drinking a glass of wine, and we later discovered that it was the very wine the ambassador had offered as a gift.” 
“That’s absurd...” The duke’s expression changed. He clearly doubted what he just heard. If that story were true, then it wouldn’t just open a rift between the two kingdoms, it could easily lead to all-out war. 
I really doubt that’s what happened. Doesn’t make sense for the other kingdom to do something like that. 
“The ambassador is currently being confined in another room. We should have that filthy animal executed immediately. Chop off her head and send it back to Mismede, I say...” 
“We shall do no such thing! These decisions are for my brother to make! You will keep the ambassador alive in that room until my brother comes to a decision!” 
“Very well... You really do show far too much sympathy to the likes of a beastman... At any rate, I will see that she is kept restrained for the time being. However, if the worst should come to pass, I will not be able to keep the other nobles in check. They will likely all respond exactly as I wished to.” Count Balsa stood there with a repulsive smile on his face. I see... So he’s one of the old nobles who’re opposed to the king’s decree on the treatment of demi-human species. No, he could even be the very mastermind behind the poisoning... 
From the way the duke was glaring at the toad, it seemed my guess was dead on the mark. Yup. This guy? Guilty. Case closed. 
“Well then, allow me to be on my way. It seems things are about to get quite exciting around here.” With those words, the toad began to descend the stairs with a lumbering gait. Things were going to get exciting? Why, because the king was going to die? The duke’s hands were trembling with rage as he saw off Count Baldy. Alright, let’s give this toad a little taste of justice. 
“[Slip].” 
“Urrbuoah?!” The toad slipped magnificently and rocketed down the stairs with unparalleled grace. Nothing could stop him as he went tumbling down, rolling down the stairs until eventually his momentum catapulted him out onto the carpet of the bottom floor. 
“Oof!” Upon reaching the bottom floor, the toad tried to put on a mask of composure as he tottered to his feet. The surrounding maids and the knights on guard duty were all trembling trying to suppress their laughter. Damn... He made it out mostly fine... 
The blank-faced duke turned to me when he heard me clicking my tongue, and inquired of me. 
“Was that your doing?” No words were necessary. I threw him a thumbs up with a smile as clear as the day blue sky. The duke was absolutely astonished with me at first, but eventually his face softened into a smile as well. 
 
“Now, we can’t keep dawdling around here all day. We must make haste!” We resumed our journey up the stairs and proceeded down a long corridor. At the end of the corridor was a door guarded by the king’s strongest personal guards. The guards noticed the duke approaching and respectfully bowed their heads as they opened the large door behind them. 
“Brother!” What I saw as I walked into the room with the duke was a gorgeous bed with a large canopy, bathing in the sun’s rays and surrounded by a number of people. All of the people in the room were gazing at the figure on the bed, most likely the king himself, with sorrowful expressions. 
Gripping the king’s hand as she sat by his side was a young girl. Next to her was a woman sitting in a chair, crying. The others present were an old man in gray robes with a grave expression, a jade-haired woman with downcast eyes holding a golden khakkhara, and a splendidly mustachioed man in a military uniform whose shoulders seemed to be shaking with rage. 
The duke strode up briskly to the side of the bed and began talking to the old man in gray robes. 
“What’s my brother’s condition?!” 
“We’ve done all we can, but we’ve never seen these symptoms from any kind of known poison... At this rate, I fear the worst...” The old man closed his eyes and lightly shook his head. Just then, the king began talking in a very hoarse voice. 
“Al...” 
“I’m here, brother.” 
“...I leave my wife and daughter... in your hands... The alliance with Mismede... you must...” 
“Touya, please help!” I snapped out of observation mode and rushed to the king’s side. The military man made moves to stop me, but the duke held him back. 
The king rested there, gazing at me with clouded-over eyes like a dying fish, and mouthed “Who is that?” in a wordless voice. Between his pale complexion, his dried out lips, and his incredibly faint breathing, he was the very picture of death itself. I had no time to waste. Focusing my magic, I extended the palm of my hand out to him. 
“[Recovery].” A gentle light flowed out from my hand and into the king. Eventually the light petered out, and the king began breathing easily again. His complexion grew more and more healthy before our very eyes. After blinking a few times, the light returned to his eyes. Suddenly, he shot bolt upright in bed as if he’d been sleeping on a springboard. 
“Father!” 
“Sweetheart!” The king opened and closed his hand while looking at the woman and young girl clinging to him. 
“...I feel quite grand. All that suffering, now gone without a trace...” 
“Your Majesty!” The old man in gray robes rushed over to the king. He took the king’s hand, measured his pulse, and examined his eyes, among various other tests. So that person was the royal physician. That made sense. 
“...You are the very picture of health. How could this be...?” Ignoring the dumbfounded doctor, the king turned to face me. 
“Al... Alfred... Who is this boy?” 
“This is the same young Mochizuki Touya who cured my wife’s eyesight. By sheer coincidence, he had come to visit my estate. I brought him along with me, knowing that he would be able to cure you.” 
“...Aha... yyyyeah. My name’s Mochizuki Touya.” With absolutely no idea how to introduce myself to a king, I responded suitably. Like a simpleton. Only after the fact did I worry that I’d gotten something horribly wrong. 
“I see. So this is the boy who cured Lady Ellen...! You have saved my life, and for that you have my sincerest gratitude!” I had no idea how to act after being thanked by a king, and before I knew it the mustachioed man came up and started patting me on the back with vigor uncalled for. Hey, whoa, that hurts, you know! 
“You’ve done a great service in saving the king’s life, boy! Sir Touya then, is it?! I like the look about you!” So said the mustachioed geezer as he relentlessly continued in his efforts to break every bone in my back. Seriously, that really hurts! 
“General, that’s enough of that now. Still, to think I’d be able to see the non-elemental spell [Recovery] nowadays... How curious...” The lady with the golden khakkhara smiled as she put an end to the general’s ruthless onslaught. You’ve saved my spine, ma’am. 
“Now brother, we must talk at once about the ambassador from Mismede...!” 
“What of the ambassador?” 
“She is currently being held captive by Count Balsa as the suspected ringleader of this assassination attempt. What do you think about that, brother?” 
“How utterly absurd! What could Mismede possibly hope to gain from my death?! This is without a doubt the work of those who see me as an obstacle!” In that case, that old toad was the most suspicious after all. 
“Unfortunately... the fact of the matter is that Your Majesty collapsed upon drinking the wine brought forth by the ambassador. There were several witnesses present at the time. Unless we can clear up those suspicions...” 
“Hrmph...” The king fell deep into thought at General Whiskers’ words. Well, it was only natural that they couldn’t release a suspect without first proving their innocence. 
“We don’t even know what type of poison was employed. It could even have been a special type of beastman poison. We’d need to investigate that in order to find out...” The elderly physician mumbled in a troubled voice. 
Apparently they’d already used every known method of detecting and identifying poison, but the wine had shown no reaction whatsoever. Without knowing the type of poison, there was no way to know what kind of antidote was necessary. As a result, the king had been teetering on the brink of death for close to an hour. 
Ordinary Healing magic couldn’t cure physical status ailments like paralysis or poison. If I hadn’t arrived, the king would have been in heaven at that very moment. Just as the culprit had planned. 
“For the time being, I would like to meet with the ambassador. General Leon, escort her to me.” 
“Yes, Your Majesty!” The mustachioed geezer left the room as fast as his feet could carry him. 
It was almost certain that the ambassador had been framed. Erase the bothersome king and conveniently pin the crime on the ambassador. This would create a fissure between the two kingdoms, and Belfast would be free to wage war under the pretense of a just cause... Yeah, was probably the plan. By that point it was almost clear as day, really. 
“Uhm...” While I was deep in thought, a girl called out to me. I raised my face to see that it was the princess — Princess Yumina as I seemed to recall — who had been standing and staring at me. 
She looked to be about two or three years older than Sue. Maybe around twelve or thirteen? She wore a fluffy white dress, and in her hair sparkled a silver hairband. She had the same gorgeous blonde hair as Sue, and her large eyes were very captivating. Looking closely, I noticed that her left and right eyes were actually different colors. Her right eye was a vibrant blue, while her left eye was a light green. I’d heard about situations like that before; it was called heterochromia. 
“Thank you very much for saving my father’s life.” The princess thanked me and quickly bowed in my direction. She sure was well-mannered. I was worried she might be some high-handed spoilt brat of a princess. 
“Please, don’t worry about it. I’m just glad he’s feeling better.” The way everyone kept thanking me made me feel embarrassed, so I tried to just smile my way out of it. But the princess merely kept staring at me veeery closely. What, was there something on my face? 
 

Staaare... 
Staaaare... 
Staaaaare... 
Staaaaaare... 
“Err... can I help you?” I couldn’t withstand being engulfed in her burning gaze any longer, so I shifted my gaze as I asked that question. The princess blushed slightly and spoke almost in a whisper. 
“...Do you dislike younger women?” 
“...Come again?” Unable to comprehend the meaning behind her question, I tilted my head in confusion. Just then the door opened, and in came General Whiskers with a beastgirl who looked to be around twenty. Hmm? Haven’t I seen you before? 
“I, Olga Strand, have arrived as per your summons.” The beastgirl genuflected before the king, who was still sitting in bed. Atop her head were a pair of animal ears standing upright, and from her lower back protruded a tail. The tail of a fox. 
“Let us get right to the heart of the matter. Did you come to this country with the intention of killing me?” 
“I swear on my life, I would consider no such thing. I would never think to poison Your Majesty!” 
“I had thought as much. You do not strike me as the type of foolish person to do such a thing. As such, I trust you.” The king spoke with a smile, and the Mismede ambassador’s expression turned to one of relief. 
“Still, the fact remains that it was your wine from which the poison came. How would you explain this turn of events?” 
“Th-That is...” Unable to respond to the words of the woman with the golden khakkhara, the foxgirl simply let her head hang listlessly. Of course she had no way to prove her innocence. It didn’t seem like the khakkhara lady was accusing her because of that, though. It felt more like she was asking “What can we do to help figure this out?” or something. Hmm... 
“Er, excuse me a moment?” 
“Wait, is that Touya?” the foxgirl questioned. 
“So it was you...!” The foxgirl turned to face me when I called out, and was surprised when she saw my face. Oh, looked like it really was the same lady from back then. She was the older sister of that young foxgirl, Arma, who I’d found wandering lost in the capital on my first visit. So the older sister’s name was Olga, huh? 
“Are you acquainted with the ambassador?” 
“I made friends with her younger sister, but we only met in passing, really. Anyway, putting that aside for a moment...” I made a gesture of picking up a box and moving it to the side as I brushed off the duke’s question. Nobody seemed to get it. Ouch. Moving on, I asked General Whiskers about something that had been bothering me. 
“Where in the castle did the king collapse?” 
“That would be the main dining hall... What of it?” 
“Has the crime scene been left untouched?” 
“Huh? Well, yes, it’s exactly as it was at the time of the incident... No, wait, we removed the wine in order to test it for poison. The tests are still ongoing...” Which meant that they still hadn’t found any trace of the poison whatsoever. 
I was pretty sure I had figured it all out, then. It was a common trick. Heck, it didn’t even really count as a trick. The moment anyone realized that there was no poison in the wine whatsoever, the truth would be blatantly obvious. This plan had so many holes that it would’ve made a good fishing net. I wanted to check one last thing though, just to be sure and all. 
“Could you guide me to that room? I might be able to prove the ambassador’s innocence.” Everyone in the room exchanged glances, but the king gave his permission, so General Leon led me to the room. 
The room itself was a large hall. It had a big white-brick fireplace and a single massive window, which was adorned with blue curtains and looking out over the gardens. The walls were lined with several expensive-looking paintings, and on the ceiling was a magnificent sparkling chandelier. The long table was covered in a white tablecloth, atop which rested silver candlesticks plus plates and cutlery with the food still on them. 
Upon my request, the general brought me the wine in question. 
“Is this wine rare at all?” 
“I’m not too sure myself, but apparently so. According to the ambassador’s story, it’s only produced in a certain village in Mismede. It’s supposedly very valuable due to that fact.” 
“Alrighty then.” Okay, it’s about time to test out my theory. 
“[Search]: Poison.” I activated my search-fu. I looked over the wine, continued on through the rest of the room, and passed my gaze across the whole of the tabletop. Yup, just as I’d thought. I was pretty sure it would’ve been found out eventually, but I was the only one who could use search magic to quickly confirm it for sure. 
The fact that I could find it with the [Search] spell must have meant that if I ever consumed any, I would know immediately that I had been poisoned. The thought made me never, ever want to try that. 
Now, what was to be done? At the rate things were going, the chance that the truth would remain unknown was relatively high. The crime was probably plotted out with that thought in mind. Even if it failed, the worst the real culprit would get off with was being suspected, and little more. I could prove the ambassador’s innocence with what I had, but we wouldn’t be able to catch the real culprit that way... Okay, think I got it. 
“I think I get the gist of it. General, could you get the king to summon everyone to the dining hall? Oh, that’s including Count Balsa, by the way. Also, I have a small favor to ask...” 
“A favor?” The general tilted his head quizzically, but he heard out my request. If there was no solid evidence, then all we had to do was get the culprit to fess up themselves. 
Alrighty then, time to put on a little act... 
 
“Y-Your Majesty! You’re already back up on your feet?!” 
“That is correct, Count Balsa. As you can see, I am the very picture of good health. Though I seem to have caused a lot of worry for everyone.” The toad burst into the great dining hall, and His Majesty the King answered his inquiry most casually. He even beat his fist against his chest as if to prove it. 
“I... see... Hahaha, well now, this is quite something. I’m very glad to see that...” The count was already covered in cold sweat as his smile twitched and he nervously rubbed his hands together. The king looked him over with completely sober eyes. Oh, seemed like the king had noticed it, too. This guy was undoubtedly the true culprit. 
“I thought I had met my end for a moment there, but then young Touya arrived and cleared up the poison in my body in the blink of an eye! I must say, I was tremendously lucky today. That truly was a close call.” At the king’s words, Count Baldy looked at me as though he loathed my very existence. Oh, come on, he’s practically giving it away! Now I can’t even picture anyone besides him as the culprit. 
“Alright, Touya. Everyone is gathered. What next?” Holding her golden khakkhara, the jade-haired court magician, Miss Charlotte, asked me. 
The people gathered in the dining hall were: His Majesty the King, Princess Yumina, Queen Yuel, Duke Ortlinde, General Leon, Charlotte, Doctor Raul, Olga, and Count Balsa. I had them all stand before me, then began talking. 
“As we all know, the king was poisoned just a few hours ago. The crime took place in this very room, the dining hall. The room has been left exactly as it was at the time of the crime. Well, maybe exactly isn’t the right word, since the food’s gone cold and all, but that’s not the issue at hand. The real issue is the identity of the criminal behind the Case of the Failed Royal Assassination. And...” I let my words hang in the air as I savored the moment, and then spoke the words.

“The culprit is right here among us.”

I’ve always wanted a chance to say that line! The room’s atmosphere changed in an instant, and Olga went pale. Her ears jolted upright, and she looked around with pleading eyes as if trying to say “You’re wrong, it wasn’t me!” Don’t worry, we already know that. 
When he saw Olga’s pale face, Count Balsa’s lips curled up into a smile. 
Come on, dude, it’s almost like you want to be caught. He hadn’t seemed to notice it himself since he was staring at Olga, but everyone else in the room had already turned their eyes on Count Baldy as if they unanimously agreed he was the culprit. Having everyone besides Olga already know the culprit’s identity kind of sucked some of the fun out of it, honestly... 
“To start off with, we have the poisoned wine.” The general handed me a wine bottle, and I held it up for all to see. 
“Now, Olga. This is, without a doubt, the wine that you brought with you, yes?” 
“Th-That’s right, that is the wine I brought with me, but I didn’t do anything like poisoning it...!” 
“Silence, you wretched beast! Do you still intend to act innocent? Have you no shame?! Everyone agrees, right...?!” Watching the toad verbally abuse Olga with a sidelong glance, I took a large swig straight from the wine bottle and gulped it right down. 
I’m a minor, but that’s no big deal! After all, I’m in another world! 
“Ah, it’s delicious!” I slammed the bottle down onto the table. To be totally honest, I didn’t actually know how delicious the wine was, because I had no others to compare it with. I just told you I’m a minor! Looking around, I saw that everyone’s mouths were agape as they locked their eyes onto me. 
“S-Sir Touya, a-are you alright?!” 
“I’m fine, General. I mean, after all, there was never any poison in the wine to begin with!” 
“What?!” Everyone looked around amongst themselves, trying to figure out what in the world I was talking about. Everyone except the count, that is, who was now visibly sweating bullets. Good, I have him all scared. 
“Now, I have with me here a bottle of wine from the Far East. It’s a very rare type of wine born from a secret formula, and it’s the finest wine that I can think of.” I took in my hand a bottle with a label that read “Bowjolly Noovoe.” The label had in fact been made by me and simply pasted onto the side of a bottle of some cheap wine. As if to show that my wine was more precious, I took a glass from the vacant table and poured some wine into it. 
“This wine will expose the culprit.” I held the wine glass aloft toward the chandelier, which caused a dazzling array of lights to reflect off the glass and bounce around the room. I made my way over to the others and offered the glass to the general. 
“Could I ask you to drink this?” The general gave me a doubtful look, but he downed the glass anyway. 
“How’s the taste?” 
“Ohoh! This is wonderful! It is better than any wine I’ve ever tasted! Delicious! Count, would you like some?” Oh god, his voice was completely monotonous. It was completely monotonous, but the general did exactly as I had asked earlier and offered some wine to the count. 
“Eh? Err, well then, alright...” After the Count nodded, I made my way over to the table and picked up the glass that had been at the king’s seat and poured some wine into it. The moment I did so, the count’s face changed immediately. 
“I’m extremely interested to hear your impressions of my finest wine.” 
“Ah, no, actually I think I’m fine!” 
“Come now, just one drink!” I grabbed the count as he started to back away and forced the wine glass into his hand. 
“Drink it with spirit, my friend!” I beamed a smile as bright as the sun straight into the Count’s eyes as I spoke. But he simply stood there flooded in cold sweat, making no move to drink from the glass. 
“What is the matter, Count? Won’t you have a drink?” 
“Er, well, you see... it’s just...” The count began lightly rocking the glass with shifty eyes as the king spoke. Whoops, wouldn’t want that falling to the ground now. 
“...Can you not drink it? In that case, this may be rather forward of me, but I’ll simply have to help you along.” 
“Wha?! Mgh! Argh?!” I forced the glass to the count’s lips and poured the wine down his throat. Choking all the while, the count reflexively swallowed some of the wine that was trying to make its way down his gullet. Realizing what had just happened, he stood terrified. 
“Ugh! Uwah! Uwaaah! H-Help me! The poison! It’s coursing through my veeeiiins! I’m dying! I’m dyiiing!” The toad writhed around, gripping at his throat all the while. Anguish coated his face as he continued to squirm. How embarrassing. I wonder what it is about us humans and our powers of imagination that can drive us to act in such overblown ways. 
“Urrrgggh! I-It hurts to breathe! The poison! The poooiiisooon! S-Somebody, help me...!” 
“Alright, you can calm down now. That glass you just drank from? It was a fresh new one.” 
“I’m dyiiinggg, I’m... pardon?” The puzzled count stopped writhing and rose to his feet, lightly patting at his throat. 
“...I feel just fine.” 
“Of course you do. It was just a glass of cheap wine. I’m sorry for forcing it down your throat, but...” I left a deliberate gap before asking the deciding question.

“What made you think it was poisoned?”

“Uh...” The count’s face froze over. Checkmate. This man had outed himself with that little display. Fearful of a nonexistent poison that he believed he had been forced to drink, he writhed around on the floor for no apparent reason. Anyone who didn’t know the trick behind it would never have reacted like that. I had forced him to show his own hand. 
“...What does this mean, then?” The duke spoke up all of a sudden. 
“The poison wasn’t in the wine that Olga brought, it was coated on the inside of the glass itself.” 
“On the glass...? I see. No wonder we couldn’t find any traces of poison in the wine.” 
“I have a spell that lets me detect poison, so I found out the trick to it straight away. The perpetrator was most likely one of the chefs or waiters, I would imagine. They probably intended to dispose of the glass after the incident itself, but our good general here was quicker in securing the crime scene, meaning they couldn’t get to the glass without raising suspicion. All that was left for me to do was find a way to corner the mastermind... which ended up being way easier than I thought.” Then again, looking at the guy again, I really couldn’t picture anyone else as the mastermind. I’d thought to myself that all I had to do was create a situation that he couldn’t bluff his way out of, but having it resolved so easily was a bit of a letdown, really. After all, the trick, if you could even call it that, was so unbelievably simple. 
Heck, even if I hadn’t done a thing, someone would have eventually discovered the truth once they realized that the wine itself contained no poison. At the end of the day, I just really wanted to play the role of the detective at least once in my life, even if the culprit did happen to be a bumbling buffoon, you know? 
“...Gah!” The toad set his sights on the door and dashed for it. He really didn’t know when to give up. Really, all that meant was that he was an incompetent third-rate scoundrel of a man who never considered the consequences because he had deluded himself into believing he was better than everyone else. Nevertheless, that idiotic plan almost claimed the king’s life. The price for that crime would be a heavy one. 
“[Slip].” 
“Uohwhah?!” The count slipped with incredible vigor and bashed the back of his head against the floor. 
“You little...!” Almost as if she were channeling all of her resent for the man into her own strength, Olga slammed into the count with a fearsomely powerful kick straight to the gut. He lost consciousness instantly. Oof, that’s gotta hurt. 
Olga’s actions were rather unbecoming of an ambassador, but not a soul in the room felt like voicing any complaints. 
 
“According to the general, there were two accomplices: the waiter and the poison tester. They also found poison of the same type that had been coated on the glass in Count Balsa’s residence. And finally, Count Balsa himself confessed to attempting to kidnap Sue. Looks like this case is closed.” The duke spoke happily as he sat on a chair in one of the rooms of the royal castle. 
We were accompanied in the room by His Majesty the King, Princess Yumina, Queen Yuel, and Charlotte, who all sat around the same table leisurely drinking tea. 
“What’ll happen to the count?” 
“A plotted assassination of the king is no less than high treason. The man himself will be executed, his residence and assets confiscated, and the grounds sealed off.” Well, that was only natural, really. Feelings of guilt... didn’t even cross my mind, for some reason. Probably because the guy got what was coming to him. It was hard to show sympathy for a man like him. 
“What about his family?” 
“Treating them as accomplices and executing them all... would be rather excessive. At the very least, they will lose their status as nobles and be banished from the country. That said, the man had no wife or children, and his other relatives were all actively opposed to letting demi-humans integrate into our society. With them gone now, things should be somewhat easier on my brother.” The duke kept up his cheerful tone as he spoke. 
I see. This incident can be used to set an example for any other nobles who are against the alliance with the beastmen, and keep them in check. 
“Honestly, my boy, I am truly in your debt. I should very much like to bestow a gift upon the man to whom I owe my life. Is there anything you desire?” The king almost seemed to be pleading, but honestly, I wasn’t exactly wanting for anything at the moment. 
“Please, don’t worry about it. I just happened to be passing by on my way to see the duke while all of this was going on. It was just a stroke of luck for Your Majesty. Simply chalk it up as a coincidence.” I really didn’t do much with my own power, that much at least was true. The only reason I could even use the [Recovery] spell was thanks to God. If I tried to take advantage of an unfair skill like that, karma surely would’ve found its way back to me... 
Hmm? Hang on, I thought, weren’t things like that God’s area of expertise? Just spare me another lightning bolt incident. Seriously. Please never do that again. 
“A man lacking in avarice as always, eh, young Touya?” The duke said, while returning his teacup to the saucer on the table. 
“Isn’t it only natural to help a friend in need? It’s not like I did any of this because I wanted a reward. I wanted to do it. No more and no less.” That was genuinely how I felt about it all. If, on the other hand, Count Balsa had come to me asking for help, I wasn’t sure I would’ve done anything for him. In the duke’s case, I knew the type of person he was, and seeing him in trouble made me want to help him to the best of my ability. That was all there was to it. 
“You truly are one curious person. The ability to use two Null spells, both [Recovery] and [Slip]... That’s quite the rare gift indeed.” Charlotte spoke to me with a bright smile. Being praised for my magic by the court magician herself made me turn a beet red. 
“Two? Heavens no, young Touya can use far more than just two unique spells. Even as he came to visit me, he did so by way of the [Gate] spell. Then he used yet another to detect the poison, and I seem to recall him telling me that the shogi sets he brought as gifts were crafted through non-elemental spells as well.” 
“Wh-What?” Charlotte grew visibly tenser the more the duke spoke. Hmm... Guess the best course of action here would be to just be honest about it, I concluded. 
“Er, well, about that... See, it seems like I can use every non-elemental spell there is. Though there’s always the chance that some won’t work, I’m not sure on the details.” At the very least, I had never failed to learn any of the spells that I’d tried to acquire so far. Well, excluding that one time where I failed to cast [Apport] properly. Even then, I did eventually manage to add the spell to my repertoire, though. 
“All of them...?! If that’s really true, then this could be a momentous occasion...! P-Please, excuse me for just a bit!” Charlotte burst her way out of the room, clearly in a frenzy... I hope I didn’t just say something I shouldn’t have just now... 
“So, you were the one who crafted that shogi set, Touya my boy? Al brought it over and praised it greatly, and upon taking to the board, I was absolutely enthralled with it! It truly is an interesting game. So then, what’s this about it being constructed by way of magic?” 
Yup, just what I’d been worrying about. The king got hooked on it too. These brothers really are cut from the same cloth. 
To demonstrate, I took a glass from the table and cast [Modeling] on it. The glass gradually changed shape, and within thirty seconds I had completed my glass figure rendition of the king himself. It was a ten centimeter tall glass sculpture, which, if I said so myself, really captured his majestic aura. 
“And, well, that’s pretty much how it works.” I handed the figure over to the king. Since the model for the piece had been sitting right in front of me, I was able to capture even the tiniest of detail. The only real problem was that, being made of glass, it would still shatter if dropped. 
“Th-This is incredible... I seem to recall there being someone from Refreese who could use similar magic, but to see such affection poured into one’s creation to the smallest level of detail...” Refreese... The Refreese Imperium, was it? If memory served, they were one of the neighboring countries. Non-elemental, Null magic was primarily comprised of unique, personalized spells. It was entirely possible for several people to share similar, yet subtly different forms of their personal non-elemental spells. 
The king held his little figure up in the sunlight and marveled at how it sparkled. Seeing that, I felt that I should really complete the set since just the king alone would be somewhat lonely, so I took two more glasses in hand and set to work. 
Before long, I had completed two more glass figures: One of the queen, and one of the princess. I gave them to their respective owners. They accepted the figures with beaming smiles, then chatted joyously as they compared each other’s figures before lining up all three on the table. Yup, I knew it was a good idea to trust my instincts. The completed set really paints a lovely picture with the whole family together in one place. 
“This is truly a wonderful gift.” 
“Nah, the glasses I used to make them were yours to begin with. If anything, I’m sorry for using them as crafting materials without asking first.” I lowered my head to the king to show my small apology. When I raised my head back up, the duke’s pleading little face caught my attention immediately. He really was the type who made no effort to hide his emotions. 
“...I’ll make some figures of the duke’s family too, the next time I’m around for a visit. Promise.” 
“You truly would not mind?! You have my gratitude!” If I was going to make more figures anyway, it’d be much easier with the models themselves in front of me as I crafted them. 
I gave a wry smile at the duke’s calculated assault on my generosity, when all of a sudden a loud crashing sound resounded through the room and the door flew open as Charlotte charged in, carrying a large number of things in her arms. She approached me with the appearance of some terrifying apparition and held out a parchment with something written on it. 
“Child... c-can you read this?!” Charlotte loomed closer and closer. What? What is this, what’s going on? Why do I always end up in these scary situations?! Giving in to Charlotte’s sudden compulsive behavior, I ran my eyes over the parchment. Whatever was written on it was in a language I’d never seen before. I couldn’t make out a single word. 
“...Can’t make heads or tails of it. What is this, exactly?” 
“So you can’t read it, right? Alright, how about this non-elemental spell? Do you think you can use it?” This time she took out a bulky tome and turned to a specific page. I could read this one. Let’s see... Null magic spell... [Reading]? According to the book, it was a spell that allowed one to read a number of different languages. The one stipulation was that the caster had to at the very least know the name of the language he was trying to use the spell on. Oh, that made sense. It was possible I’d be able to decipher the parchment with that spell. 
...Wait a minute. If I’d had this spell earlier, then I wouldn’t have had to rely on Linze to teach me how to read and write... 
“I think I can probably use it now, but... do you know what language that parchment is written in?” 
“It’s written in Ancient Spirit Script. There’s almost nobody in the world who can read it.” Hmm... Well, it was worth a shot. 
“[Reading]: Ancient Spirit Script.” I activated the spell... My eyes darted back toward the parchment. Uh... Mm... 
“This is...” 
“Y-You can read it?!” Charlotte locked her gaze on me as I noticed stars in her eyes. In comparison, I probably had something more like a cloudy night sky in mine. 
“Sorry... I can make out the characters now, but I have no idea what’s actually written here.” 
“You can read it... but you don’t know what it says?! Wh-What do you mean?!” 
“Well, let’s see... By taking a Degment, which lacks any meaningful arts to access the Origin Magic, and introducing that to the nature of the Soma-arts’ method of blasting magic in order to cause a change in the Edos... And well, it’s all stuff like that. I can’t really make heads or tails of it.” I really didn’t understand a single word. In the first place, reading something and understanding it were two different things. Whatever that parchment had written on it, it was far too difficult a subject for me to ever hope to grasp. 
“So you really can read it! Touya, that’s amazing! With this, our research will begin making progress by leaps and bounds...! Sorry, could I get you to read this one, too?” 
“Wait, wait, just hang on a second!” I broke Charlotte’s barrage of demands off even as she made her way toward me once more with yet more documents. Evidently, she was so excited that I could almost see steam coming out of her nose! Geez, lady! Calm down a little! “Charlotte, would you calm down for a moment?” 
“Y-Yes, of course! I-I-I’m very sorry about all of this! I appear to have gotten caught up in the moment...!” Having regained her senses, Charlotte hung her head as a huge blush spread across her face. 
“I’m well aware that you’ve been passionately studying the field of Ancient Spirit Magic for the longest time, so it’s not as though I don’t understand your feeling on the matter.” 
“That’s exactly right! Until now, we’ve been struggling to piece it all together one word at a time, sometimes taking many months or even years, our research riddled with problems such as the occasional mistranslation or whatnot... But Touya, he read it in an instant! Touya, I beg of you, please assist us in translating these scripts for the sake of our research!” Huh? She wants me to keep on reading this stuff...? Without end, for all of the foreseeable future? 
“About that... Roughly how much is there that needs translating?” 
“Let’s see... Well, there are countless documents which still need to be translated... If we were to start with the documents pertaining to the ancient civilization of Partheno, then...” 
“That’s enough! Thanks, but no thanks!” From the moment she uttered the word countless, I had already mentally thrown in the towel. I didn’t mind helping out every now and then, but I had zero intention of making a career out of it! I had no plans to work as a translator anytime soon. 
At my rejection, Charlotte made a face that could easily have convinced anyone that the end of the world was nigh. I couldn’t live with myself if I left her like that... 
Oh, there was an idea... 
“Excuse me, Your Majesty. Could I borrow one more glass?” 
“I do not mind, but what are you planning to craft with it this time?” That took care of the glass part, which only left the metal... I supposed some silver coins would suffice. 
Taking my silver coins and placing them next to the glass, I cast my [Modeling] spell and began reshaping the materials. I crafted the frame out of silver coins, then inserted two glass discs into the openings on the front. With that, my creation was complete. 
Humbly designed though they were, I had, indeed, just invented glasses. Well, the lenses were made from regular glass, so they were just mock-glasses. For now... 
Charlotte was the only one who was truly amazed by what I’d just done, but I was still just getting started. 
For the next step, I cast [Enchant] on the glasses in order to imbue them with a special effect. 
“[Enchant]. Imbue with [Reading]: Ancient Spirit Script.” The glasses glowed faintly for a moment before the light gradually dissipated. I took the completed glasses and wore them on my face before taking another look at the parchment from before. Yup, a resounding success. I could read it again. Having confirmed that fact, I took the glasses of and gave them to Charlotte. 
“Please try wearing them just like I did.” 
“Hm? Well, alright...” Charlotte put on my special mock-glasses as I’d instructed her. Oooh, this is beyond my expectations! They suit her perfectly! On this day, this world bears witness to the birth of the bespectacled beauty! 
Finally, I handed the parchment back to Charlotte. 
“Now, please read exactly what you see written here.” 
“Eh...? Umm... By taking a Degment, which lacks any meaningful arts to access the Origin Magic, and introducing that to the nature of the Soma-arts’ method of... I-I can read it! I can really read it!” A job well done, then. And so, on that day translation-vision glasses were brought unto the world. 
Seeing Charlotte grow happier and happier as she quickly glanced over several more of the documents made her look so adorable that it was hard to believe she was an adult woman. 
“The effect should at the very least be semi-permanent, I think, but if it does wear off, then please don’t hesitate to bring them back and I’ll enchant them for you again.” 
“I will! I-I mean, wait, does that mean you’re giving these to me?!” 
“Of course. They’re all yours now.” 
“Thank you so much! Really, thank you!” Good grief. Well, at least I’d managed to escape the wicked fate of having to go through a class change to Translator of all things. 
Charlotte was in such high spirits that she blurted out something like “I’d like to put these to work on my research immediately!” and left the room like a brisk summer gale. 
“My apologies for that. Once something catches that girl’s interest, she tends to tune out everything else around her... She is the most talented magical researcher we have, as well as the pride of our research team, but even so...” 
“Oh my, I would rather say that that is precisely what makes her so appealing, do you not think so?” 
“...Well, I’m just glad she was pleased with my little gift.” The king and queen made an amusing image at that moment, him shaking his head as if to say “What am I to do with that girl?” and her giggling at his side due to the whole exchange. The sight made me relax in my chair once more, which in turn made me bring the chilled tea to my lips for a drink. Even lukewarm, it tasted quite delicious. I supposed that was probably part of what made it first-class. 
Staaare... 
Staaaare... 
Staaaaare... 
Staaaaaare... 
...Now, who does that burning, intense gaze that’s been honing in on me this entire time belong to? Why, the princess, of course. 
She had completely wrapped me in her sights with those mismatched blue and green eyes of hers, and showed no signs of relenting. It was like she had locked onto me as some sort of target. Had I done anything to rub her the wrong way...? Actually, it seemed like her face was a bit red... 
Her visual assault came to an end all of a sudden. I cast a glance in her direction, and she had risen from her seat. She was now standing facing her parents, the king and queen. 
“What’s the matter, Yumina?” 
“Father. Mother. I have made my decision,” Princess Yumina declared. 
I wonder what this decision she’s talking about is, I thought to myself as I took another mouthful of my cold tea, watching the conversation with a sidelong glance. 
The princess’ face turned bright red as she spoke once more. 
“I-I would like to... I would like to take Mochizuki Touya as my husband!” 
Pffffffft!!! The princess dropped a bomb that detonated in the form of cold tea soaring through the air. Ah, what a graceful display. 
What’d she just say? Husband? Hundred? Huntsman? Oh, it must’ve been hostage. “I would like to take Mochizuki Touya as my hostage.” Yup. That makes absolutely zero sense. 
“...Sorry. Yumina, could you say that one more time?” 
“As I said, Father. I would like to take Mochizuki Touya as my husband.” 
“Oh my, oh my,” the queen muttered, clearly amused. Yumina repeated herself for the benefit of her father, His Majesty the King. Queen Yuel, still sitting next to the king, opened her eyes wide and took a good look at her own daughter. 
Watching all this from the side, the duke was utterly gobsmacked as his gaze drifted between his brother and niece repeatedly. 
“Your reasons?” 
“Well, him saving your life, Father, does indeed factor into it... But more than that, my Touya has a strange charisma that brings smiles to all those around him. Even just from his interactions with Uncle Alfred or Charlotte, he has done nothing but bring them joy. I find his kindness appealing beyond words, and for the first time in my life, I thought that... I would be happy to live out the rest of my days by a person’s side.” 
“...I see... If that is your decision, then far be it from me to stop you. I wish the two of you nothing but happiness!” 
“Thank you, Father!” 

“Hooold it right there!” I raised my hand to interject for a moment. If I didn’t cut them off, things would’ve sure spiraled completely out of control. Actually, it was already well beyond any kind of control already. 
“Excuse me, but I would really love to have a say in all of this!” 
“Ahh, my apologies, son. I’ll trust you to take good care of my daughter.” 
“No, no, no, no, hell no. This is all messed up! Your Majesty, you’ve gone mad!” I understood fully well that I’d just said some outrageous things to the king, but I didn’t exactly have the time to care about manners. My entire future was on the line! 
“You barely even know anything about me! Are you really fine with just marrying your daughter, a princess at that, off to some complete stranger?! I could be the baddest brigand in all the lands, for all you know!” 
“No, there is no chance of that. Yumina has approved of you, so at the very least it is certain that you are not a bad person. My daughter has an ability which lets her see the true nature of a person in that way.” Huh? She could grasp a person’s nature? What did that even mean? 
“You see, Yumina was born with Mystic Eyes. They allow her to see the true nature or personality of anyone she lays her eyes on. I would say it’s somewhat similar to intuition, but in Yumina’s case, she’s never been wrong.” The duke explained the situation to me along those lines. So put simply, she could instinctively tell whether someone was a good person or a bad person? I had no idea her odd eyes held such a power. Well, in Count Balsa’s case, even I could tell that he was a rascal at a glance, but if that power of hers was genuine, then Yumina would never be taken in by any shady fellows. 
Being recognized as a good person by a girl like that didn’t feel half bad at all, but that was completely irrelevant to the situation at hand. 
“...Plus, I mean, just how old is Princess Yumina?” 
“She turned twelve years of age not long ago.” 
“Don’t you think it’s a little bit early for her to be thinking about marriage...?!” 
“Not at all, it is quite a common thing for the royal family to find their life partners by age fifteen. I recall that I was fourteen when I got married to my wife.” Gah... This was the problem with other worlds... As I made a face like I’d just swallowed a bug, I felt a hand tugging at the sleeve of my coat. 
“Touya, do you dislike me...?” Princess Yumina clung to my sleeve and gave me the sad puppy eyes routine. Hold up, stop right there! Foul! Red card! Offside! Anyway, that’s just unfair! 
“Well... I don’t really... dislike you or anything, it’s just...” This isn’t even a question of like or dislike! I just don’t even know you very well. 
“In that case, it shouldn’t be a problem!” Yumina’s face immediately returned to a blissful smile... Man, she sure is cute... No! Pull it together, dumbass! 
What should I do? True enough, I didn’t have any real reason to dislike her as of yet, and it wasn’t like I had anyone I was in love with, either. Her parents had approved of it, and I’d never struggle for living expenses ever again. Wait, what? Hang on. Thinking about it, I had absolutely no reason to decline at all! 
No! Marriage is where your future goes to die! My older cousin said so! He accidentally got a lady pregnant, so he got married to her, only to be slapped with divorce papers just three years later! He had no idea why! And then, after having taken out a huge loan under her impossible demands for a house, he was driven out of it without a say in the matter. As a final nail in the coffin, he ended up having to pay child support for a kid he wasn’t even allowed to visit. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it turned out that his ex-wife had mainly been using the child support payments for her own sake instead of the child’s. It was so bad that whenever the relatives got together at New Years, everyone would try to cheer him up as he comforted himself with alcohol. 
I couldn’t ever shake the image of my cousin’s withered face from my mind... 
Okay, I’ve decided! I’m going to live like royalty as a bachelor for the rest of my life! I’ll never become a member of royalty, mind you! “...Where I come from, men can’t get married until they turn eighteen, and women can’t get married until they’re sixteen. Besides, I don’t really know the first thing about the princess, and certainly not enough to make any decisions about marriage!” 
“How old are you right now, Touya?” 
“I’m fifteen. Soon to be sixteen, I guess.” I answered Queen Yuel’s question. If I remembered right, my birthday should have been in around two months’ time. Of course, that was all assuming that the dates in this world matched those of my old world. I didn’t know enough about the world yet to say for sure. 
“Which means the wedding ceremony will take place in two years’ time. Until then, you can just remain betrothed to give you time to think. Those two years should give you ample time to get to know my daughter Yumina better.” Hey, I see you trying to trick me, you know?! Even after two years, Yumina’ll still only be fourteen! Man, this queen is off her rocker too! 
“Touya, boy.” 
“Whahyyes?!” I almost jumped out of my skin and ended up letting out a weird voice when the king called out to me. I can’t help it, alright?! Just look at this situation! Even I can tell that I’m working myself up into a panic over it! 
“Why not take the two years to get to know my Yumina a little better? If, after those two years, you still cannot consider marriage, then we will give up on the idea. How does that sound for the time being?” 
“Er, well... I guess that sounds like a more reasonable idea...” It was many times better than considering something like marriage right off the bat. I was sure that, after enough time passed, Yumina might calm down or possibly even find someone she really did love... And besides, maybe if she looked at reality a little bit she’d realize how ridiculous the idea of marriage at her age was. It didn’t seem like I could bargain with them any further... And so, I decided to resign myself to these plans for the time being. 
“Good for you, Yumina. Now, you’ve got two years. Give it your best shot and steal that boy’s heart, you hear? If you fail to snatch his heart even after two years, then prepare to live out the rest of your days as a nun!” 
“Of course, Mother!” 
“Wait, what?!” I knew that accepting that proposal was a bad idea! I was too hasty! Heavy! The burden of it all was way too heavy for my poor soul! Now I see! They’re trying to cut off all my escape routes one at a time! Why would me turning her down equal her becoming a nun? Surely she could just search for someone better! 
“I’ll be in your care from now on, my Touya...” The Princess flashed a smile worth more than a bag of priceless jewels. The best I could conjure up in response was a hollow smile of my own. 
Aaahh, I can hear my cousin calling out to me. He’s saying “Don’t you ever end up like me.” 

“Geez... what in the world have you gotten yourself into this time?” 
“You know, I’ve been asking myself that same question all day...” Upon returning to the Silver Moon Inn, I relayed the tale of my exploits to the rest of my party. Elze sounded exasperated right away. 
“So Touya-dono is going to be getting married, is he...” 
“It’s a real shock, isn’t it...?” Both Yae and Linze aimed their dumbfounded gazes at the girl who seemed to be affixed to my left arm. 
Yes. This is exactly what it looks like. I brought her along with me. I brought the gosh-darned princess of this country back with me. 
Yup. Princess Yumina Urnea Belfast, the one and only. Great. 
“A pleasure to meet you all. My name is Yumina Urnea Belfast.” Minding her manners, Princess Yumina bowed before everyone as she introduced herself. Her beaming smile was a deadly weapon that made my chest feel heavy. 
“So, Princess, whatever are you doing here right now, pray tell?” 
“Yes, well. My father has decreed that I live together with my Touya as a part of bridal preparation. I’m sure that my ignorance of the outside world may cause problems every now and then, but I would really like to get to know all of you better.” And that was the situation. The princess had basically been handed right over to me. What in the world was that loopy king thinking? 
I seemed to recall that he went on about how being close to someone was the quickest way to get to know them better or some nonsense. He could have at least assigned a guard or two! Wasn’t he worried about his daughter’s safety in the slightest? No, wait. What if she did have a guard assigned to her, and it was some ninja hiding up above the ceiling this whole time? Right as that thought crossed my mind, I heard something clatter above me. It was probably just a rat... right? 
“Live together? You mean, like, here? I mean, you’re a princess and all. Are you gonna be... Will you be okay in a place such as this?” Elze was the only one speaking any sense here. I agreed with her wholeheartedly. I simply couldn’t picture a princess, who’d been surrounded by servants that met her every need, suddenly adapting to a life where she had to do everything on her own. 
To be completely honest, a little part of me had been hoping that the difficulties of single life would hit her hard enough to convince her to scurry along home... 
“Please, you needn’t be so stiff when you’re talking to me, Elze. For the time being, I’ll try to do my best at what I can do, and if I ever require assistance, I’m sure I can rely on my Touya to help me out. I’ll do my best to ensure that I do not weigh everyone down!” The princess made two small fists and held them up to her chest, striking a pose that showed she was brimming with motivation... Gosh, she’s such a darling little thing... QUIT THAT! Snap out of it! 
“...Uhm, did you have something in mind?” Linze raised her hand and asked a simple question. 
“Why yes. I was thinking I could get registered with the guild for a start, and try to reach the point where I can be of assistance during any requests we take on.” 
“WHAT!” “Uhm...” “Huh?!” “Pardon...?!” Our surprised reactions were growing more harmonious by the day. For the princess to say that she wanted to get registered with the guild... Was she planning on living the life of an adventurer?! 
“Excuse me, Princess? You do realize what it means to get registered with the guild, right?! There are any number of dangerous situations we could wind up in, and...” 
“I’m well aware of that. And please, don’t call me Princess all the time. I’d like it very much if you would call me Yumina, my darling.” 
“Well, I’d like it very much if you’d cut out the my Touya and my darling stuff!” 
“Then please call me Yumina from now on.” The princess... No, Yumina, declared so with a sugary sweet smile. Hrmmm... The girl could be unexpectedly stubborn about things. I realized that I couldn’t afford to underestimate her just because she was younger than me. 
Anyway, I got her to stop calling me “my Touya,” and of course “my darling” was right out of the question. We settled on just Touya and Yumina for each other, respectively. 
“I’ve learned the basics of magic from Madame Charlotte, and I’m also well trained with a bow. I’ll have you know that I’m actually rather strong, despite my appearance.” 
“Bows and magic... Indeed, more long-range offensive power would be a wondrous asset to our current party, it would! What might be your magical alignments, then?” 
“Wind, Earth, and Dark. I can only summon three types of contract beasts, however.” Wind, Earth, and Dark. That certainly would fill in the gaps perfectly, since those were all elements that Linze had no affinity with. Although we still didn’t know just how capable with magic Yumina really was... 
“Hmmm... So, what’s the call?” Elze crossed her arms as she spoke to Linze and Yae. What she was really asking was “Do we let this girl into the party or not?” and checking with the others about that. 
“...For now, why don’t we accept a request... and see how things go...?” Linze slowly muttered. 
“I see. A trial by fire then, is it to be?” 
“Guess so, yeah... Well, if it gets dangerous, then I’m sure Touya will just leap to her rescue. So that settles it, then.” There were so many things wrong with the situation, but I felt like trying to argue back would be like poking at a hornet’s nest, so I obediently decided to abide by the party’s decision. Though, hell, something in the atmosphere told me that I had no right to voice my opinion to begin with. 
The girls decided on their plan of action, and so we would be heading to the guild office the next day to get Yumina registered. 
With that out of the way, we went to talk to Micah to see about getting Yumina her own room. She insisted that she would be happy to share a room with me, but I very much had to draw the line there for a whole variety of reasons, so she was booked into her own separate room. After that, we all had dinner and went to bed in order to prepare ourselves for the next quest. 
I returned to my room, alone at last, and collapsed right into bed. The day’s events had left me utterly exhausted... So very, very exhausted... 
Just as I felt that I was being dragged into the murky depths of sleep, I heard my smartphone’s ringtone for the first time in a while. It was set as Suppe’s Leichte Kavallerie. An upbeat little tune, which, at present, served only to irritate me somewhat. 
I removed my smartphone from my pocket and saw the words on the phone’s screen: Caller ID: God. 
“...Hello?” 
“Aaah, it certainly has been a while. Congratulations on your engagement, Touya my boy.” 
“...Why do you even know about that...? Oh, but I guess it wouldn’t be all that strange for God to know about these things, huh...?” 
“Ha ha ha. It was a mere coincidence, I promise you. I had thought to check in on you, only to find you in quite the amusing state of affairs.” I could picture the jolly old man’s face even as he spoke. 
“There’s nothing amusing about it... I just can’t bring myself to think about marriage at this age.” 
“She seems like a good girl. What more could you possibly want for?” 
“It’s not like that. Yeah, Yumina’s really cute, and I’m sure she’ll grow up to be a really beautiful woman. Her honest, straightforward personality also makes her my type, too. But that’s got nothing to do with all of this marriage stuff.” 
“How stubborn you are. You know, in that world polygamy is perfectly normal and widely accepted. That being the case, you should take any girl who strikes your fancy and make wives out them!” Huh, I didn’t know that... The duke and the king each only had one wife, so I thought for sure... No, no, that wasn’t the real problem. I had absolutely no intentions of turning my life into a harem story. 
“At any rate, everyone is looking forward to how things go for you from here. Do your best out there, yes?” 
“That’s easy for you to say... Wait a sec... What do you mean, everyone?” 
“Why, all the gods of the Divine Realm, of course. When I showed you to them, they all took an interest in you, you know? Although I am sure most of them are only checking in on you every now and then for a bit of amusement.” Wait, huh? What did that mean? There was more than one God? 
“You said gods, right? Does that mean there are others besides you?” 
“But of course. Though I would like to say that I am the world god, the highest of all. Besides me, there are the lower gods such as the god of hunting, the god of love, the god of swords, the god of agriculture, and many, many more. Oh, and the god of love, in particular, has taken quite the interest in you.” Don’t go sticking your neck into people’s love lives, God of Love. 
“We were talking about how we would all turn up for your wedding ceremony as your relatives. It was quite the fun discussion, I must say. Oh, and I would be turning up as your grandfather, of course.” 
“Now you listen here...” Those gods must have had a lot of free time on their hands. What in the world would that even be like? A wedding hall filled with nothing but gods of all kinds. I mean, yeah, it wasn’t like I had any relatives in this world or anything, but still. 
“I seem to recall you saying something about being unable to interfere once I was down here, or am I misremembering things?” 
“I believe I said that I would be unable to do much for you directly. There are no problems with me descending to that world myself in human form if I so choose to.” I was sure there was a mountain of problems with a plan like that... But it felt like commenting on the matter any further was only going to make me seem the fool. When I thought about it, the gods of mythology back in my old world supposedly visited the human world on occasion too. 
“Anyhow, I am right here watching over you, my lad. Do take your time to think things over such that you will live a life that you may look back on fondly in your later years. I am wishing you all the best and hope that you find your own path to happiness. With that, I suppose I really must be going. I will check back in on you again. Goodbye.” 
“Yeah...” I cut off the call after giving a vague response. Live a life that I can look back on fondly one day, huh...? 
What did it even mean to be engaged to a twelve year old...? Thinking of it in terms of a high school freshman and a girl in her sixth year of elementary school, the age difference seemed overwhelming. On the other hand, looking at it as a mere four year difference in our ages, it wasn’t really that big of a deal, was it...? Even my parents had a six year difference in their ages. I also seemed to remember hearing something about some entertainers whose wives were as much as thirty years younger than them. 
Back to the situation at hand, I hadn’t even gone out with a girl even once in my life. There was no way I could be expected to understand the concept of marriage. 
Hell, I just don’t get what’s even going on anymore. I should just sleep on it all for now. Yeah, I think I’ll do just that. 
 
The next day, we all headed off toward the guild together. 
Yumina’s clothes were too showy for her to be wearing around in public, so she had borrowed some clothes from Elze and Linze. 
She wore a white blouse with a blue ribbon, and a black top over that. She also wore a dark blue culotte skirt and black knee socks. They suited her quite well considering they were borrowed clothes, though they still seemed a little big for her. 
She had also bunched her long blond hair into one large braid so that her movements were less restricted. 
Personally, I had been worried that her heterochromia would be the thing to give her away, but apparently heterochromia wasn’t a sign of having Mystic Eyes. 
And so, we’d succeeded in making her look like a normal girl. Well, her looks were still champion-class, which made it hard to classify her as a normal girl, so it was difficult to judge her based on such standards. 
“I’ve been wondering for a while now, but if Touya and Yumina got married, wouldn’t that make Touya next in line for the throne?” Elze pondered. 
“Yes, that’s right. I’d be happy if that ever came to pass. But in order to make that a reality, we’d need to have the nobles and the citizens approve of him first. On the other hand, if my parents were to give me a little brother, he would be the next to inherit the throne instead.” On the way to the guild, I happened to overhear Elze and Yumina’s conversation. I prayed from the bottom of my heart for Yumina to get a kid brother. 
I’m beggin’ ya, King, you’ve gotta get this girl a younger brother, stat! I’ll even look up the recipe for stamina drinks on my smartphone for you... No, damn it, not this pattern again! Making plans like that is the same as admitting defeat in this marriage tug-of-war! 
“Just so you know, I really have no intention of becoming the king of anywhere.” 
“I’m aware of that. The same would hold true if my uncle had a son, or even if, um, i-if our child was a boy, th-then he would be the one to succeed the throne!” 
Really, you’re pulling out “if our child was a boy”?! Also, don’t go blushing when you’re the one that said it! Now you’re making me feel embarrassed! 
Before dropping by the guild, we took a detour to the weapon shop, Eight Bears, so we could get Yumina set up with the appropriate equipment. When I asked if she had any money on her, Yumina took out a jangling bag of coins and said that her father had given it to her as a parting gift. I had a really bad feeling about that, and sure enough, when I opened the bag to check, it was filled with fifty platinum coins. Back in my world that would’ve been about fifty million yen... Bit much for a parting gift, wouldn’t you say...? 
Once in the store, I asked Barral to show us his selection of bows. His selection wasn’t as varied as those stores in the capital, but they still stocked some high-quality weapons. Yumina picked up a few bows and tested the bowstrings intently. In the end, she went with a light, M-shaped composite bow. 
Rather than prioritize firing distance, she went with a bow that was easy to handle and quick to shoot with. Made sense, really. She probably couldn’t handle a huge longbow properly at her height and build. 
She also bought a quiver, which came with a set of one hundred arrows. Finally, she bought a white leather breastplate and matching white boots. 
Alrighty then, looks like we’re just about ready to roll out. 

We took Yumina into the guild office, which was bustling with life like always. 
Another thing that was just like always was the number of intimidating gazes locking onto me. In fact, some of the male adventurers shot me some particularly nasty glances. 
At first I’d had no idea why that kept happening to me every time I went there, but by that point I understood all too well. 
You didn’t have to look very hard to tell that Elze, Linze — and Yae, too — were all beautiful girls. And I was the “lucky fella” who was in the same party as all those cute girls. This was why I, in particular, was the object of their resentment. Their gazes stung like daggers from all directions. 
To tell the truth, there had already been a few incidents where other adventurers had come up to me and said and done things like “People like you really piss me off” or “Come lend me your face for a second.” Guess they were trying to knock me down a peg or whatever it was those types of people do in this world. Naturally, I politely declined by making them pass out, but the real solution to it all was to just not even give people like that the time of day. 
I guided Yumina over to the receptionist’s desk and helped her through the registration process. Meanwhile, Elze and the others went to go look over the details of some of the currently available requests. 
When Yumina’s registration was complete, she and I made our way back to the rest of the group to find Elze holding a Green-level request paper. 
“Did you manage to find a reasonable one?” 
“Hmm... I guess I just thought this one might make for a decent starting point.” She handed me the paper. It was a monster hunting mission. Let’s see here... 
“Defeat five King Apes... What kind of monster were they again?” 
“They’re basically just large apes. They tend to move in groups and attack using pack tactics. They’re fairly unintelligent monsters, so traps are highly effective against them. The only thing to watch out for is their sheer brute force attacks. Based on our experiences so far, I believe we can defeat them without a problem.” So they were a type of monster that relied on brute force. Still, for monsters with “King” in their name to form groups struck me as really weird. Such thoughts drifted through my mind as I listened to Linze’s explanation, and I passed the request paper over to Yumina. 
“Well? Thoughts?” 
“Not a problem. Let’s accept this one.” Our Guild Card was the Adventurer’s Green, whereas Yumina’s was the Beginner’s Black. There was no real need to bring her along on one of our higher level requests, but Yumina insisted, so we simply gave in to her demands. 
I recalled that the ranks went in ascending order of Black, Purple, Green, Blue, Red, Silver, and Gold. Basically: 
Black - Beginner. 
Purple - Adventurer-in-training. 
Green - Adventurer. 
Blue - Veteran Adventurer. 
Red - First-rate Adventurer. 
Silver - Elite Adventurer. 
Gold - Hero. 
And that was what the ranks were like. Naturally, every time you went up a rank, the time it took to ascend to the next one got longer and longer. Incidentally, there were no Gold Rank adventurers in the whole country, apparently. Seemed that Heroes weren’t exactly all that easy to come across. 
For the time being, we took the King Ape extermination request to the receptionist and officially accepted it. The location was somewhere to the south, across the Alain River. 
Unfortunately, we had never been that far south before, so we couldn’t just use my [Gate] spell to drop us off right where we needed to be like we usually did. Instead, we settled for renting a wagon. 
Elze and Linze sat up front in the driver’s seat, while Yae, Yumina, and I sat in the back. By the way, it turned out Yumina was good with horses, too. Even though she was a princess. No, maybe because she was a princess? Was she used to traveling long-distance? It might’ve just been that those who couldn’t handle horses were the minority in this world... 
“Hrmm... We’re renting wagons a lot these days. Maybe it’s about time we just went and bought one?” 
“There are all kinds of wagons, but even the cheapest would cost a fair bit, they would. Not to mention the need to look after the horses, yes. And we certainly could not leave a wagon parked up at the Silver Moon all the time, not at all.” Yae had a point. There were both merits and demerits to owning a wagon. Hell, I didn’t know how to look after a horse. Someone like that definitely shouldn’t be allowed to keep a horse of his own. 
Three hours passed as we chatted idly in the back of the wagon, before we finally crossed the Alain River and arrived at the southern woods. 
Now, where were those King Apes? It would’ve been nice if my [Search] magic located them, but if they were within range of that spell, then we’d have noticed them already even without having to cast it. I also had [Long Sense] at my disposal, but that spell worked sort of like creating a double of one’s self which took the shape of heightened senses, meaning I’d be the only one searching through the forest. There was certainly less danger that way, though. 
Looking at my smartphone’s map, it was a surprisingly large forest, too. It’d be fairly difficult to find one type of monster in particular in a place that large. Wasn’t exactly like I could use the search function on my phone’s map to find animals or monsters, either... 
We had no choice but to search the forest on foot. But just as we were about to do so, Yumina stopped us. 
“Sorry, do you think I could use my Summoning magic before we head into the forest?” 
“Summoning magic? You’re gonna call on a contracted beast?” 
“Yes, that’s right. I think I have just the thing to help track down those King Apes.” Yumina made some space between us and began her incantation. 
“Come forth, Dark! I seek the proud beasts wrapped in silver: [Silver Wolf]!” When she finished the incantation, a number of Silver Wolves rose out from the shadows at Yumina’s feet. Five in total. Each was about one meter from head to tail. They wagged their tails happily as they raced in circles around their summoner. Out of them all, one of the wolves in particular was slightly larger than the rest, and it had a cross-shaped mark on its forehead. 
“I’ll have these boys look for the monsters. We’re mentally linked so that even if we’re apart I’ll be able to tell immediately once they’ve found the enemy.” 
I see... Dogs... no, uh, wolves had a good sense of smell. They’d probably be able to find the monsters we were looking for quite quickly. 
“Alright boys, I’m counting on you!” They barked in affirmation at Yumina’s order and dashed off into the forest. So this was Summoning magic. I had wondered back during the Lizardman incident, but could I summon creatures like that, too? I decided to ask Yumina while we made our way through the forest. 
“It all comes down to whether or not you can form a contract with the creature you’ve summoned. If you can form a contract, then you’ll be able to summon and control that monster at will. The condition for contracting with those wolves was fairly simple, so I had no problems with them at all. Some of the conditions for contracting a monster include fighting it to show off your own strength or even just answering a question correctly. They can vary quite wildly. But as a rule of thumb, the stronger the monster, the harder it is to keep them under your control.” Right then. So the stronger the summoned beast you wanted, the harsher the conditions for contracting with them were. Though I guess that was just stating the obvious. 
I was searching the surroundings as such thoughts rolled through my head when Yumina came to a sudden halt. 
“...Looks like one of them found the enemy. Hmm, there are more of them than the request stipulated... Seven in total.” 
“Seven, huh...? How do you wanna do it, then? We only really need to beat up five for the request.” Elze beat her gauntlets together with a loud clang. 
“We should probably take care of all of them, just to be safe. If even a single one gets away, there’s a chance it could return with backup.” I agreed with Linze’s opinion. There was always the chance that there were more than just seven in the area. We should charge in and take care of them as swiftly as possible. 
“Yumina, any chance you’d be able to lure those King Apes over this way somehow?” 
“I can, but... do you have a plan?” 
“Let’s set up some traps. We can make some pitfalls using Earth magic.” After Yumina and I used our Earth magic to set up a few pitfalls, I hid in the shadow of a tree. Before long we all heard a loud roar, and Yumina’s wolves came rushing past with several large apes charging after them. 
They were slightly larger than gorillas and had larger teeth, with pointed ears and red eyes. They chased after the wolves looking utterly ferocious. 
The wolves leaped over the hidden pitfalls and perfectly avoided the traps. Not questioning their behavior in the least, the King Apes charged forward with reckless abandon and fell straight into the traps. 
“Goh-gruagh?!” 
“Now!” Spotting our chance, Yae, Elze and I leaped out from behind the trees. There were three apes caught in the traps. They were buried in up to their chests and struggling to climb their way out. 
One of those apes was immediately hit with an arrow to the eye. Must’ve been Yumina. Approaching from the monster’s now-blind spot, Yae sliced open an artery in its neck. 
“Come forth, Fire! Whirling Spiral: [Fire Storm]!” The remaining two in the traps were devoured by the firestorm that Linze had called forth. Burned completely black but still alive, Elze and I finished them off. 
The other four King Apes came charging at us before we even had time to catch our breath. They came at us while wildly swinging their huge, bulky arms, roaring all the while and causing small tremors in the earth. 
“[Slip].” 
“Grruaaah?!” The King Ape that I’d aimed for tumbled to the ground with all of its momentum as soon as my spell hit it. Before it could get back up, a storm of arrows pierced its large frame. As a final blow, Yae put all of her body weight behind one thrust aimed at the beast’s chest, piercing straight through its heart. 
“[Boost]!” Elze activated her magic nearby and charged straight at one of the other King Apes, before delivering a series of tremendously heavy blows to its abdomen. Unable to withstand her brutal onslaught, the ape collapsed to the ground and Yumina’s wolves came rushing out to finish the job. Two left. 
“Come forth, Lightning! Pure Sparking Javelin: [Thunder Spear]!” 
“Come forth, Fire! Crimson Javelin of Flames: [Fire Spear]!” Yumina and Linze’s magic shot forth. Two magical spears glided through the air — one Wind-type, and one Fire-type — and hit the bullseye smack bang in the center of the apes’ chests. Both of the apes dropped to the ground, writhing and spitting out their death rattles as they collapsed. 
Whoa, that’s incredible. Looked like Yumina’s magic was at least as powerful as Linze’s. With the two of them together, they were even better than me with the main six magic elements. Apparently my problem was that I didn’t have very good control of my magical output, and as a direct result I had yet to acquire even a single high-tier spell. Offensive magic was particularly difficult for me. Well, at least I was fairly proficient with Light-type magic. 
We had wiped out all seven of the King Apes. Our battle was over for the time being. We’d taken care of that more easily than I’d expected. 
The five summoned wolves leaped back into Yumina’s shadow and disappeared. 
“Umm, how did I do?” What Yumina was trying to ask was, had she held us back in any way during that skirmish. Honestly, it was the complete opposite. She had proven herself a great asset to the party. I had no idea that covering fire could be so effective. 
“No problems skill-wise, that’s for sure,” Elze barked out enthusiastically. 
“Your magic was also, erm, quite impressive...” 
“As I suspected, long-ranged support is incredibly helpful, it is.” All of them approved of her abilities in succession. They all made valid points, but... I still didn’t feel good about exposing a twelve year old girl to such a dangerous environment... Hrmmm. 
The girl in question intruded on my deep thoughts by staring at me at length with an anxious expression. Now see here, those puppy-dog eyes are against the rules! ...She couldn’t be doing this on purpose, could she? 
“...I’ll be counting on your support from now on, Yumina.” 
“Of course! Leave it to me, Touya!” Yumina wrapped herself around me with the biggest smile on her face. Whoa, hey, time out! Could you at least not do that while everyone’s watching?! Once I finally managed to pry Yumina off of me, we set about collecting the King Apes’ ears as proof that we’d fulfilled the request. 
“But now that Yumina has joined the party, that makes four girls with me as the only boy here...” I let out a little sigh. 
“Umm, is that a problem at all?” Linze tilted her head. The fact that she didn’t get what I meant was a problem in itself. 
“It doesn’t look like you three have noticed at all, but we really stand out at the guild... and the harsh looks I get from the other adventurers really sting.” 
“Hm? Why would that be happening, Touya-dono?” 
“Well, I mean, if a guy’s surrounded by cute girls all the time, then there’s any number of people who’d get jealous. And come on, Elze and Linze, and Yae too, you’re all exceptionally good looking, you know?” 
“What?!” “E-Excuse me?” “Whatever do you...?” Everyone froze up. What? Was it something I said? It’s true, though. If I were one of those guys at the guild and I saw some guy coming and going, always with some cute girls in tow, even I’d get pretty jealous. 
“Wh-What are you even saying, Touya? I still don’t get your sense of humor. It’s mean to tease and call me cute like that...” Elze muttered, clearly flustered by my words. 
“Huh? I was serious.” 
“...” “...” “...” Why’s everyone turning bright red? Are they coming down with fevers or something? “A-Anyway, we should r-really be getting back now, d-d-don’t you think?!” 
“W-We s-sure should, Sis!” 
“L-Let us be on our way, i-indeed!” The three of them marched off, backtracking through the forest. ...What just happened? 
I felt a gentle tugging on the sleeve of my coat. 
“Touya, what about me? Am I cute?” 
“Huh? Well, I mean, yeah. Of course you are.” 
“Ehehe...” Yumina blushed, grinned, and wrapped her arms around me. Please stop doing that, this is bad for my heart! Eventually we made it back to the wagon. I cast [Gate], and we were back in Reflet in the blink of an eye. 
So, how about that Summoning magic, eh...? My first exposure to it had been that man summoning swarms of Lizardmen, which gave me a fairly bad impression of Dark-type spells. For that reason, I hadn’t tried dabbling in it at all. But since I learned that there were animals like Yumina’s wolves among the creatures that could be contracted, I decided that it might not be a bad idea to try contracting myself with a single monster just to test the waters a little. I should have Yumina teach me more about it later. 
 
“The first thing to do when handling the Summoning spells unique to Dark-type magic is to draw a magic circle and then summon a creature. The creature you summon is completely random, though some say that it’s influenced by the caster’s magic or that it reflects the caster themselves. That’s all just speculation though, so we don’t really know for sure why people end up with the contracted beasts that they do.” Out in the back garden of the Silver Moon, Yumina drew a large magic circle while explaining how Dark-type magic worked. She held a book in one hand and a piece of chalk in the other as she carved out a magic circle that was filled with complex patterns. The chalk supposedly had fragments of spellstone put into it during the manufacturing process. 
“The hard part is forming the contract itself. In order to successfully contract with the creature you’ve summoned, you need to pass a sort of test first. These tests come in all forms, from the incredibly simple to the nigh-impossible depending on the strength of the creature itself. The test I had to pass to contract with my Silver Wolves was to feed them until their stomachs were full.” Yumina finished drawing the magic circle, then went over and patted the head of the Silver Wolf she had summoned a little while ago. It was the wolf with the cross mark on its head that I’d seen before out in the forest. Apparently this was the first of the wolves she had formed a contract with. The other wolves she had summoned were its subordinates. Incidentally, his name was Silva. Please, someone in this world, put more thought into naming things, I pleaded internally. 
If you contracted with a powerful creature, apparently you could summon a number of others to work as the primary beast’s subordinates. That Lizardman summoner who attacked Sue had probably similarly contracted with a strong Lizardman that acted as the head of that group of them he kept bringing forth. 
“If you fail to meet the conditions of the contract, then the creature you summoned will vanish. After that, it’ll never appear before you again. You only get one chance to meet the conditions of their contract.” Right then. So I had to make the most of our encounter and try my best to fulfill the conditions... Hang on a second. 
“This isn’t dangerous or anything, right? Like, the thing I summon won’t suddenly attack me or anything, will it?” 
“Without a contract to bind them to this world, the summoned beasts cannot exist outside of the bounds of the magic circle. Long range attacks will also be absorbed by the magic circle’s barrier, so it’s perfectly safe. The one exception is if the summoner themselves steps foot within the magic circle. The conditions for some creatures can sometimes be along the lines of fight and prove your strength, after all.” 
Yeeeah, that sounded a bit violent for my tastes. Well, if I ended up summoning a creature like that and judged that I had no chance of winning against it, I supposed I could always just politely decline and let it return back to whence it came. It may have seemed like a waste, but that was my decision. 
“The summoned beast I end up with won’t be decided solely on my magical prowess or anything, yeah?” 
“That’s right. There are many stories of complete beginners summoning incredibly powerful creatures on their first attempt.” Which meant there was a chance for me, too. Although in the end it was still essentially a raffle... 
“Alright, guess I’ll give it my best shot, then.” I stood in front of the magic circle and clapped my hands together to get myself fired up a bit. Then, I focused all of my Darkness together and directed the flow of my magic into the center of the magic circle. A black fog slowly built up within the bounds of the magic circle until it completely filled the space, when suddenly an absolutely explosive burst of magical energy emerged from within. 
“...Art thou the one who summoned me?” The dark fog dispersed before my eyes to reveal a single large, white tiger. Was that tiger the source of that voice? Its eyes were sharp and discerning, giving off an incredibly intimidating aura. It also seemed to have exceptionally sharp fangs and claws. Great. I’d gone and done it again. I’d summoned something utterly ridiculous with my God-cursed magic... I could feel the tiger’s magical energy emanating like waves coursing through the very air itself. This wasn’t your zoo-variety tiger, that much was for sure. 
“This aura, that white visage... It can’t be... the White Monarch...?!” 
“Hoh. You know of me?” Behind me, Yumina was cowering on the ground, hugging her wolf for comfort as the tiger stared her down. The wolf, Silva, had also assumed a completely submissive position, lowering his ears and curling up his tail out of fear. Well, being glared at so intently by a tiger would’ve made anyone cower in fear. Hey, hold up a second. There was a Japanese saying that went like this! “A tiger in front and a wolf at the rear.” This was the very picture of that situation! Well, not really, since the meaning behind that saying was closer to “Stuck between a rock and a hard place.” The more you know. 
“Please try not to look at them so intensely. You’re frightening them.” 
“...You are awfully calm given the circumstances. To think you’re still standing after taking the brunt of my magic-laden gaze... How very intriguing.” 
“Well, I mean, I was a little surprised at first. I’m used to that kind of thing by this point, I guess, so it doesn’t really affect me much anymore. Anyhow, Yumina. What’s this White Monarch thing you mentioned?” Yumina looked in my direction and tried to answer, but her voice kept shaking... She couldn’t even speak properly! It probably had to do with the immense aura of fear that the white tiger was continuously exuding. 
“Look, could you stop with that for a second? I can’t even get a proper conversation out of the poor girl. I can’t say that intimidating people weaker than you is a particularly praiseworthy thing, you know?” 
“...Very well.” I voiced protest to the white tiger, and the oppressive air melted away in an instant. Well, would you look at that. Looks like it’s a pretty reasonable tiger after all. 
“Alright, then. Yumina, what exactly is this White Monarch thing all about?” 
“Of all the monsters... that can be summoned through Dark magic... it’s one of the four strongest, most sacred of beasts... It’s the Guardian of the West and the Main Streets of the cities, the Ruler of all beasts... Really, it’s not even a monster at all; it’s a Heavenly Beast...” Still shaking in her boots, Yumina awkwardly tried to answer my question. A Heavenly Beast, huh? It’d be pretty interesting if it were one of God’s pets or something. 
“Alright, so how might I go about getting contracted with you?” 
“...You wish to form a contract with me? Are you even aware of how nonsensical your words must seem to your comrades at this moment?” 
“Well, I figure it’s at least worth a shot. If I can’t fulfill your request, then I’ll obediently give up on the idea.” 
“Hmm...” The tiger stared at me intently, twitched its nose a little, and inclined its head. 
“How curious... I feel a rather strange power about you. The protection of the spirits...? No, something far greater than that... What is this curious power?” The protection of the spirits? Sorry, bud, but I don’t really have any ghosts that I’m on particularly good terms with. 
“...Very well. I’d like to see a display of the quality and quantity of your magical energy. You claim to want to contract yourself with a Heavenly Beast, after all. If your magic is half-hearted, then this whole negotiation will fall through without a moment’s consideration.” 
“You want to gauge my magic?” 
“That is correct. Place your hand upon me and pour as much of your magic into me as you possibly can. Keep going until you can barely force another ounce of it out of you. If you have even the minimum amount required to satisfy me, then I will consider forming a contract with you.” I could almost see the tiger laughing to itself. It’d consider it? Meaning this wasn’t even the main test itself, just a warm-up? 
Still, the tiger had come up with a dangerous warm-up exercise. It wanted me to channel all of my magic? So in video game terms, it wanted me to reduce myself to 0 MP? I wouldn’t be able to use any magic at all for a while after that. No, wait, it said until I could barely force another ounce, meaning I could keep 1 MP in reserve just in case. 
No, hang on a second. Was magic even a thing that decreased as you made use of it...? I’d never felt anything like that in all my time casting spells. I recalled Linze saying that I had an abnormally large amount of magical energy. Was that why I had never felt it before? 
Putting that aside, I walked into the bounds of the magic circle and placed my hand on the tiger’s head. Oooh, who’s a fuzzy-wuzzy widdle kitty-cat? 
“So you just want me to flow as much of my magic as possible straight into you, yeah?” 
“Correct. Just channel all of your magic directly into me. I’ll be the judge of it. And I will say this in advance: If you run out of magic and collapse during the examination, the contract will be off the table.” Hmm... I wasn’t exactly desperate to form a contract with it or anything. If I started to feel ill during the whole exam, I decided I’d just give up on it. I didn’t exactly feel like pushing myself to the brink of collapse over something like this. 
“Alright, I’m going for it. Brace yourself.” I directed all of my magical reserves toward the palm of my hand and began gradually channeling it into the tiger. Good, I’m not feeling any negative effects from it so far. 
“Hrm... This is... What?! What is with the ridiculous clarity of this magical energy...?!” The tiger seemed to be commenting on my magic. Come to think of it, Linze had said something similar once before. Well, whatever. Things seemed to be going well, so I decided it was fine to go a bit further. I opened the floodgates of my mind and sent a massive burst of magic straight into the tiger. 
“Hrnnn!!! Wh-What is this?!” Hmm... didn’t feel like my magic had decreased much at all. Did I need to pile on some more before I started to feel any negative effects? I fired up my mental garden hose and set it to full blast. 
“Hrg... th-this is... W-Wait a moment—!” Yeah, still nothing. I resorted to the Broken Faucet method. 
“P-Please... wai... A-Any more and... aahhh...!” Time for my last resort. I removed my limiter and blasted as much magical energy as I could muster straight into the tiger... Oh, I think I’m starting to feel it a bit. I’m getting a little bit worn out now. So this is a taste of what it feels like to be running low on magic. 
“... P-Please, I beg of... stop...!” 
“Touya!” I snapped to my senses when I heard Yumina’s voice and took a look at the tiger in front of me. Its body was convulsing and foam was coming from its mouth. Its eyes were rolled back and it seemed that the only reason it was still standing was because it was being forcefully held up due to being unable to remove its head from my palm. 
I panicked and immediately cut off the flow of magic I had been pouring out. The moment I removed my hand, the tiger’s body shook violently as it collapsed down onto the ground. 
“...Huh?” Had I done something wrong? Should I try using Healing magic on it? The big cat was twitching on the ground... its tongue was hanging out and everything. 
“Come forth, Light! Soothing Comfort: [Cure Heal]!” I instinctively cast a Healing spell on it. When I did that, the tiger’s eyes reverted to normal and it rose unsteadily back to its feet before approaching me. 
“...I would just like to ask one thing. That magical energy you were channeling into me... you still had a little room to spare at the end, didn’t you?” 
“Huh? No, I was doing fine. Honestly, it hardly feels like my magical reserves have depleted at all... No, wait. Kind of feels like it’s already filled itself back up.” 
“Wha...?!” The tiger was speechless. I see. So that’s it! The reason I’ve never felt my magic being consumed by my spells until now is because it was passively recovering itself at absurd speeds! That’s one mystery solved. 
“So yeah, about the conditions for the contract...” 
“...Might you grace me with your name?” 
“Hmm? Mochizuki Touya. Oh right, Touya’s my given name.” I threw a curious glance at the tiger, who’d suddenly become so humble, and it bowed down before me. 
“Master Mochizuki Touya. By my judgment, there are none I have ever crossed paths with more suitable for the role of my master than you. I would be honored if you were to form a Master-Servant pact with me.” Aww yeah, White Tiger joined the party! 
“So, uh, what are the conditions for the contract?” 
“Please, bestow a name upon me. That shall be the proof that seals the contract. It will also serve as a bond that allows me to exist freely in this realm.” 
“A name, huh...? Hmmm...” A tiger. A white tiger... Let’s see here... 
“Kohaku. What do you think of Kohaku as a name?” 
“Kohaku?” 
“It’s a name from my homeland. It means Amber, and it’s written like this...” I drew the characters for Kohaku on the ground in Japanese, as ??. 
“The character on the left is taken from the word for tiger, and the one on the right is taken from white. The little characters stuck to the left side of each of them both mean king. Put it all together and, in my language, it reads as Kohaku. What do you think?” 
“The White Tiger who stands by the king’s side. Truly, there could be no other name more suitable for me. My gratitude to you. Henceforth, please do call me by the name Kohaku.” The contract was sealed. Kohaku stepped slowly out of the bounds of the magic circle and into our realm. 
“...Touya, that was incredible...! You actually managed to form a contract with the White Monarch...!” 
“Young lady, I am the White Monarch no longer. Please, call me Kohaku.” 
“Umm, of course... Kohaku.” The White Monarch — now named Kohaku — corrected the stunned Yumina. Behind Yumina, Silva the Silver Wolf still cowered in fear at Kohaku’s gaze. Panicking, it retreated into Yumina’s shadow and disappeared. 
“Master, I do have but one humble request.” 
“What’s up?” 
“I would like to request that I remain in this realm permanently.” 
“Hmm? How would that work?” 
“Under normal circumstances, a summoned being can only remain in this realm for as long as the summoner’s magic will permit. We consume our master’s magic simply by materializing in this realm. Once our master’s magical energy runs out, we fade back into the other side. This is the normal way of things. However, ever since our contract was formed and I set foot in this world, I’ve felt that your magical energy has hardly depleted in the slightest. That being the case, I should like to humbly request your permission to remain in this realm indefinitely.” 
Yeah, I think I know why that is. In short, my magical energy is recharging so fast that it’s even counteracting the normally massive amount of magic required to keep a Heavenly Beast in this realm. Well, I see no problem keeping Kohaku materialized as long as it doesn’t cause any problems, but... 
“I don’t mind letting you stay materialized if that’s what you want, but, uh, I don’t really know how I’d feel about walking through the streets with a huge white tiger in tow... you know?” 
“I see... In that case, I shall change my form.” 
“Change your what now?” Before I had even finished my sentence, Kohaku had morphed into the form of a white tiger cub. I had no idea it could do tricks like that. 
What was once a large tiger had turned into roughly the size of a small dog. With those stubby little legs and that stubby little tail, its aura of intimidation had decreased by 100%, and its aura of adorability had leaped up by 100%. 
Kohaku was so adorable, in fact, that I couldn’t resist picking the little cub up and cradling it in my arms. Oh gosh, oh gosh, so fluffy-wuffy! I’m so glad I summoned Kohaku, I thought, feelings welling up from the bottom of my heart. 
“I believe I should not attract any undue attention in this form.” Oh my gosh, it talked! So cuuute! 
“I think you’ll be attracting attention in a totally different way in this form, but that’s A-OK in my book!” 
“Very well then. Thank you very much for allowing me to— Gufhu?!” 
“Kyaaaa! So cuuuuute!!!” The one who snatched Kohaku from my arms for the purpose of much hugging was none other than the Phantom Thief Yumina. She rubbed her face against Kohaku’s fur and hugged it tightly even as Kohaku struggled to break free from the Fort Knox-level hugging techniques that Yumina had been practicing on me. 
“Wait, stop! Cease this insolence immediately! Who are you that you would dare commit such acts?!” 
“Oh right, I hadn’t introduced myself yet. My name is Yumina. I’m Touya’s wife.” 
“Master’s wife?!” Even Kohaku’s stunned face looked like a national treasure to my eyes. Hang on just one minute, Yumina! You can’t just go around introducing yourself as my wife like that! 
Kohaku dejectedly endured being petted by Yumina for a while. 
It seemed that Kohaku had qualms about putting up any real resistance to her master’s self-proclaimed wife, so it soon stopped struggling and let Yumina play to her heart’s content. 
Her dose of fluffy-wuffy satisfied, Yumina released the captive Kohaku... only for Elze and the others to appear and, as if a switch had been flipped in each of their brains, they all became exactly what Yumina had been just moments before. Only this time the onslaught of cuddles was triple what it was moments ago. 
“M-Master! Please, assist meee!” 
“Grin and bear it. They’ll calm down once they’ve had their fill.” 
“Maaaasteeer!” And so, our party gained a new member that day. Well, maybe “gained a mascot” was a more fitting way to put it. 
Once everyone had gotten their fill of fluffy-wuffy time, I decided to partake of it myself. 
I looked up to the sky as Kohaku’s pleasant screams filled my ears. Such lovely weather we’re having. 
God’s in His Heaven, all’s right with the world!