In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 2 - Chapter 1

Chapter I: Day-to-day Life I 

A few days had passed, and once Kohaku had finally been freed from cuddle-hell, the tiger suddenly said it wanted to explore the town a little. I decided to tag along, too. 
We left the inn and walked down the main street. Once we got out in the open, we decided to head for the marketplace, since there were always loads of different kinds of people around there. 
The marketplace always had a bunch of stalls and mats out selling all kinds of things, from food and sundries to clothes or antiques. We walked in among that crowd as I let my eyes wander from stall to stall, idly searching for any good bargains. 
«It really is quite crowded here.» 
«Well, we are in the town center. When you’re looking to get something for cheap, this is typically the place everyone comes to.» Kohaku and I were able to converse without other people hearing. A summoner was mentally connected to their contracted beast, and as such, we could communicate our thoughts through something akin to telepathy. I was really glad to learn this, since if people caught me talking to a tiger in the middle of the street they’d probably think I’d lost my mind. 
Although Kohaku had taken a cub’s form, a tiger was still a tiger, and tigers typically stood out when taken around in public. That said, the most that would ever really happen was people looking on from a distance as though they’d just passed some people filming a scene for a movie or something. Nobody ever overreacted to the sight at all, and every now and then some kids or girls would come up and pat Kohaku on the head. 
We had decided that Kohaku should take on the form of a cub when other people were around. Because of that, Kohaku would sometimes make purring noises when being petted, to the great delight of any girls present, leading to further cuddly torture. Just when I’d finally freed my tiger from our own party’s female captors, poor Kohaku had to put up with yet more attacks from all directions. Watching the sight made even me feel bad... 
That said, there really were a lot of people around. I had to make sure I wouldn’t get separated from Kohaku. Though we could’ve just used our telepathy to find each other in no time, it’d still be better if it didn’t have to come to that. 
While we probably wouldn’t have gotten separated anyway, I decided to pick Kohaku up and carry the little fuzzball around. Didn’t want the poor thing accidentally getting kicked while weaving in and out of the huge crowd. Kohaku tried to resist at first, but eventually calmed down and rested in my arms. 
As we were walking, Kohaku suddenly looked up and to the right, as if catching notice of someone. 
«My lord, is that not Yae over there?» 
«Hm?» I lined my sight up with Kohaku’s, and sure enough, I found Yae crouching down, trying to cheer up a 4-year-old girl who was sobbing away in front of her. They were at the end of the street, out of the way from the hustle and bustle of the crowd. 
“Hey Yae, what’s up?” 
“Touya-dono? And Kohaku, too?” Yae seemed relieved to see us. It was rare to see her make an expression like that. What’s wrong here, I wonder... 
“Who’s this girl?” 
“I’m not quite sure, but it seems as though she’s lost, it does.” A lost kid, huh... I wasn’t surprised considering the size of the crowd. I scanned the crowd from left to right, and suddenly felt that finding this girl’s parents could prove to be quite the challenge. 
“Excuse me, what’s your name?” 
“Waah... mommy... I want my mommy... aaah...” No good. She was so upset she couldn’t even tell me her name. I had to calm her down if I wanted to find out anything from her. 
“I have tried to ask her for her name and personal details, but my attempts have borne no fruit, none at all.” Yae frowned as she spoke. Hmm... gotta make her talk somehow. 
I lifted up Kohaku in my hands and held the tiger cub in front of the crying little girl. The girl was startled into silence for a moment, but her expression quickly twisted into one on the verge of tears once more. I transmitted a mental order to Kohaku. 
“What is your name, child?” Kohaku began talking to the young girl. The girl, who had until that point been doing nothing but crying, suddenly stopped at the sight of a talking tiger cub. She blinked and rubbed her eyes several times as if she was trying to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. 
“What might be your name?” 
“...L-Lim...” 
“I see. So your name is Lim.” The little girl gulped and nodded in response. Alright, the Kohaku distraction plan was a success. Pretty much anyone would be completely taken aback if a white tiger cub started talking right in front of them. Next up, the search begins. 
“[Search]: Lim’s Family.” I cast [Search], which was easily one of my most useful Null spells. It was capable of finding anything I specified, but only within a radius of fifty meters... and this was one of the times it failed me. That meant that the girl’s parents weren’t anywhere close. 
“Did you find anything, then?” 
“Nope. Not a trace. All I learned was that they’re not anywhere within fifty meters of here.” Hm, what to do... I could always walk around with [Search] activated and hope they come within 50 meters of me... Man, the short range on this thing is super inconvenient... 
Oh... there’s a thought. I wouldn’t be able to tell if someone was a member of Lim’s family at a glance. That may have been why my [Search] spell wasn’t reacting. The fact that I couldn’t tell whether something just wasn’t there or if the spell was simply failing to react to it was another one of the spell’s shortcomings. I simply couldn’t grasp what sort of standards it operated by. 
That time I found the poison using my [Search] spell, I don’t think I would’ve been able to identify it as poison at a glance, but had I ingested any of it, I would’ve been able to tell immediately that I had been poisoned. Why did that cause it to react? That time I went looking for vanilla, too, I could tell that it was what I was looking for because it smelled like vanilla... I simply couldn’t detect any pattern to it. 
Thinking about it in a very rough sense like that, I could ask the person in question if they were the one I was trying to locate with [Search], and they could lie to me, meaning I wouldn’t recognize them. Maybe that was why it wasn’t working... 
I decided I needed more information, so I motioned to Kohaku once more. 
“With whom did you come here?” 
“...My mommy.” 
“What color clothing was your mother... er, your mommy wearing?” 
“Umm... they were green.” Thanks to Kohaku, we got a lot of information from the girl. Lim’s mother had long, light brown hair, was wearing green clothes and a silver bracelet, had blue eyes, and was fairly thin. I had enough information to form a vague image of her in my mind. Now if I saw anyone matching the description, I would probably think “This person could be Lim’s mother,” or something along those lines. I tried casting the spell once more. 
“[Search]: Lim’s Mother.” ...But there were no hits. My efforts were in vain. 
“Did it work this time, perhaps?” I shook my head in response. It seemed like the problem really was the hopelessly short range of the spell. It would’ve been extremely useful if it was the size of, say, the map app as it appeared on my smartphone’s screen. Was there anyone who could create a [Search] app for me?

...Wait a minute. 

My map app, and my [Search] spell... Should I try? Well... it’s worth a shot at least. I pulled my smartphone out of my pocket. 
“[Enchant]: [Search].” I attempted to infuse the [Search] spell into my phone using [Enchant]. A tiny light left my fingertip and flowed into my smartphone’s screen. Only one way to find out if it worked... I fired up my map app and focused it on the area nearby with myself at the center. I zoomed out so that the map covered not only the marketplace, but all of Reflet, then entered the words “Lim’s mother” into the search bar. A single arrow appeared on the screen indicating that my target was located there. 
“Wow, it actually worked!” Lim, who had been cuddling Kohaku, jumped back a little at my sudden outburst, but it didn’t seem like I’d frightened her to tears, which was good. 
I stood up and lightly patted Lim on the head. 
“Let’s go get you back to your mommy, yeah?” Off we went to the place the map pointed to.

“Mommyyy!” 
“Lim!” I felt an indescribable sense of relief at seeing the little girl reunited with her mother after several hours of being lost. We found Lim’s mother at the town guard’s station. It was something like a police box, I figured. Which, honestly... meant the whole thing would’ve been over if we’d just made the sensible decision to take the girl to one of the town’s guards and explain that she was lost. It had taken longer than it should have to sort the ordeal out, but I managed to gain quite the useful little thing from it. 
Yae and I bowed our heads slightly as we saw off the mother and daughter, Lim happily waving her hand as they walked away. 
“Hey Yae, there’s something I wanna test out. Could you play along with me for a bit?” 
“Hm...? I do not mind, not at all, but what might it be...?” I took Yae to Aer’s cafe, Parent, and then asked her a number of questions while we placed our orders. 
The questions were about Yae’s home. I asked her to describe to me everything about its appearance from the outside, the layout of the rooms, how the family dojo was set up, all as detailed as possible. I also learned that they had a pet dog, that there were sakura trees in their garden, and even of the scratches on a wooden post where Yae would compare her height with her older brother. 
Having derived what I figured would be enough information, I fired up my map app and input the [Search] spell, trained fully on Yae’s house. In response, a small arrow showed up pointing to the far east of the continent, at a specific location in Eashen. 
I zoomed in on where the arrow was pointing. Oedo, in Eashen. Somewhere in the east of that area... A place called Hashiba. 
“Okay, Yae, tell me if I’m right or not. Is your house in a place called Hashiba, in the east of Oedo? Somewhere with a shrine nearby.” 
“That’s absolutely correct, it is, but... how could you possibly know this much, I must ask?” Yae gave me a startled look, and I learned that the experiment was a success. I had gained a search engine that functioned with a global range. Finally, a more useful application of that spell. 
I had never been able to locate people or animals or the like on my map before, but my map app had been upgraded with a brand new function. Still, I needed to know quite a lot about what I was searching for in order to narrow the results down with any degree of precision. 
When I explained all of those facts to Yae, she asked me if I could test it out by searching for her brother. I asked several questions about her brother and learned that he had a peculiar scar on his cheek, which made narrowing the results down pretty easy. 
“Looks like he’s in the dojo. He’s moving around a lot in there, so he might be in the middle of a match.” 
“That very much sounds like brother, indeed.” I handed over the smartphone to Yae so she could see the screen better, and she smiled as she gazed at the little arrow that was her brother. 
“My brother is a rather gentle person by nature, you see, but he becomes completely different when holding a sword, he does. He gets so entranced with his swordplay that he has, on occasion, completely forgotten to eat anything at all, he has.” Yae talked away quite happily about her brother. All the while, she continued to gaze at his little arrow on the screen with a look that said she wanted to see him again. 
“Sounds like you’re really close to your big brother, huh?” 
“...Indeed, that may be so. I do love my strong, kind, good-natured older brother, I do.” I could tell even from how she spoke that Yae must’ve been very close to him. 
“Come to think of it, you somewhat resemble my older brother, you do, Touya-dono. For instance, your gentle attitude and kind-hearted nature.” 
“Well, it’s quite the honor to be compared to the big brother you love so much.” I shrugged and drank my water. There was no way my swordsmanship was on the level of Yae’s big brother, so she must have just meant that I had a similar personality to him. 
“That’s correct. You are very much like the older brother I love so... much...?” Yae drifted off mid-sentence. She raised her face from the smartphone’s screen and met my eyes with her own. Her face turned beet-red in an instant and she suddenly grew all flustered. 
“I-It is not like that, yes?! I meant only to say that Touya-dono resembles my older brother, not that I love you as I do my older brother, b-but that does not mean I dislike you, it does not, only that, umm... yes, right! My older brother is family, and I love him like family! It’s a familial kind of love... Love?! N-Not in that sense, of course, not at all! You understand, of course, yes?!” Yae suddenly spewed forth something resembling human language, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of what she was saying. I simply thought that it was nice that she loved her big brother like that. 
“Thanks for waiting. I’ve brought your order!” Someone brought out a large tray covered in a great amount of light foodstuffs, most of which Yae had ordered, and set it down before us. Yae, her face still bright red, began wordlessly munching away at the snacks in front of us. She really did go through food at an astonishing pace... 
I figured she was probably just embarrassed to have found herself admitting to someone else that she loved her big brother dearly. I decided to keep my stirring suspicions of her brother complex to myself, though, in order to save her further embarrassment. 
 
I returned to the Silver Moon Inn and went straight back to my room. There was something I wanted to try out. 
I had learned that I could enchant specific spells into the apps on my phone, so it was likely that I could do more with that. 
For example, the spell [Long Sense], which allowed me to project all five of my senses across great distances. What if I were to enchant that into my phone’s camera app? 
“[Enchant]: [Long Sense].” I tried testing it out. When I fired it up, what filled the camera was not what was on the other end of its lens, but instead a perfect capture of what I was seeing with my own field of vision. I tried manipulating the field of vision it reflected by moving my own “sight” into the room next door. I sent my vision further yet until it reached Linze’s room. Linze herself wasn’t there. The room appeared to be vacant. Just then I remembered her saying that she was going shopping with Elze. 
Gazing down at the smartphone’s screen with my physical body, I could see Linze’s room on the camera. It was a weird feeling, having two sets of eyes trained on the same place. It was like looking at something in a game displayed on both an upper and lower screen. My real eyes and my projected eyesight. 
I pressed the button on my phone to take a picture... and it worked. Didn’t expect that. The photo that the camera had taken was of the inside of Linze’s room. 
I could now take clear photos of things from great distances away. I could even sneak my vision in and take photos of the inside of a perfectly locked room. In fact, it was highly likely that I could record videos using this method, too. 
Right on that note, I heard a door opening and focused my vision toward it. Linze had returned. That probably meant that Elze was back, too. 
While my thoughts idly drifted in that direction, Linze began taking her clothes off. She removed her top and started unbuttoning her blouse. Her beautiful, pale skin suddenly filled the whole of my vision. 
W-Whoa there, hold on a sec?! Not good, very not good! I should’ve noticed sooner, but all I’ve done with this spell is turn myself into a peeping tom! I shut off my [Long Sense] as quickly as I could react. 
That was a close one... Any longer and I would’ve been able to see... everything...? Darn, it really was so close, too... No! No no no, no! If anyone ever found out about that incident, I’d lose everyone’s trust right away. I had to avoid that at all costs. Trust was hard enough to gain the first time around, but losing it once would only make it even harder to gain back. I made the right decision...! At least, I liked to believe so. No, wait a minute... Even if I’d just kept watching like that, it’s not like anybody would have found out... Right...? Hmm... 
“...Touya, are you in?” 
“Y-Yes?! Wh-Whatever could be the matter?!” My internal conflict was interrupted by Linze’s voice and a couple of knocks from the other side of my room’s door. I hurriedly shoved my smartphone back into my pocket, then opened the door slowly and Linze’s face came peeking through. She was wearing different clothes now. 
“Ah...? Is something the matter?” 
“N-Not at all! Why, whatever might have given you that idea?! N-Now that’s cleared up, can I help you with shomeshing?” I bit my tongue. I really needed to calm myself down. 
“Today, at an antique store, I found this and bought it, and umm...” Linze presented a rolled up object to me. It was some kind of wrapped wooden tube containing a parchment. I looked it over, and it was written in a language I’d never seen before. 
“So, what is it?” 
“I believe it’s a magic scroll, but it’s written in Ancient Magic Script, so I can only read a small part of it...” Ah... that explained why she brought it to me. 
First, I took an empty glass from atop a table and some silver coins from my wallet. Next, I cast [Modeling] on the items and transformed them into a pair of glasses. I used my magic to enchant the glasses with the ability to read Ancient Magic Script. Thus, I completed the process of creating my Perfect Translation Glasses. 
The glasses that I had made for Charlotte before were made to read Ancient Spirit Script, meanwhile the pair I had made for Linze were to read Ancient Magic Script. I had no idea what the difference was, but I was just the guy casting the spells, so I didn’t have to know what they were for. 
Anyway, I handed the translation glasses over to Linze. She put them on, and they suited her so well that I pictured her as some kind of scholarly student. She looked really cute wearing glasses. Now fully equipped, the young scholar turned her sights to the magic scroll. 
“Ah...! This is... incredible! I’d heard about it before, but seeing it myself is completely different!” Linze spoke with great surprise as she devoured every last letter on the scroll in front of her. 
“What’s it say?” 
“It appears to be the record of a spell of ancient magic. A Water type spell... called [Bubble Bomb]... an offensive spell, it seems...?” Linze let out a few puzzled groans as she continued to read through the scroll. Seemed I’d come to her rescue. I still felt a little guilty about having peeked in on her while she was changing, but this was probably a good step toward making up for that. 
Having gone over the scroll, Linze insisted that she try out the spell as soon as possible, but it was already quite late, so I told her I’d tag along the next day and got her to give up on it for the night. The minute Linze left, I whipped out my smartphone and deleted the photo I’d taken of her room. Better to dispose of the evidence while I still could. I definitely didn’t need the title of Peeping Tom on my head. 
Now that I think about it... [Apport] for theft, [Long Sense] for peeping, [Gate] for housebreaking, and now an enchanted camera app for voyeuristic photography... I seem to be accumulating a lot of Crime-Elemental magic as of late... 

I decided that from then on, I would practice my dubious skills in moderation.

The next day, I went with Linze to the eastern forest. I was able to use [Gate] since it was somewhere we’d already been before. I recalled that there was a wide open area inside the woods, so we set that as our destination. That place was perfect for magic training, so long as it wasn’t Fire magic since we didn’t want to risk starting any forest fires. 
We made our way through the woods and came out into the clearing. Linze took out the scroll and read it over carefully a number of times with the translation glasses, before preparing her silver wand and concentrating her magic. 
“Come forth, Water! Ballistic Bubbles: [Bubble Bomb]!” Several small balls of water appeared around the end of Linze’s wand, but they all fell lifelessly to the ground. Seemed like her attempt had failed. 
She prepared her wand once more and tried chanting the spell again. 
“Come forth, Water! Ballistic Bubbles: [Bubble Bomb]!” Again, little balls of water gathered around the end of her wand, and again they simply fell to the ground. Another failure. Well, it was ancient magic we were talking about. I had a feeling it probably wasn’t so easy to get the hang of. 
Linze read through the scroll again before making another attempt at it, but it only led to yet more failure. 
She tried the same thing over and over, and each time little balls of water would form in the air, move ever so slightly, and then fall to the ground. A string of failed attempts. 
After ten attempts, Linze became unsteady on her feet, falling down on one knee shortly after. I rushed over to her to help support her upright. 
“Linze, you okay?!” 
“...I-I’m fine, I’m only... running low on magic... I’ll be... better after... a little... rest...” Linze was spacing out as she explained the situation to me. So this was what having zero MP was like. There was no way I could just leave her in that condition. 
“...Umm, T-Touya...?!” I picked up the dizzy Linze and carried her under my arm while I opened up a [Gate]. It looked like she was hurt somewhere, since her body stiffened up and her face burned bright red. I just had to have her bear with it for a little while. 
We returned to the back garden of the Silver Moon, and I carried Linze upstairs to her room. I set her down in her bed and noticed that her face was still bright red, so I put my hand to her head to make sure she hadn’t come down with a fever. I sure hope she’s okay. 
“...Ha, hahh...!” 
“Looks like you don’t have a fever, at least. Just stay right there, I’m gonna go get Elze.” I called Elze in from the room next door and had her remove Linze’s armor for her. There was no way I could’ve touched all over Linze’s body myself, even if it was with good intentions. 
I left Linze in Elze’s care after that. Having seen her practice until her magic ran completely dry, I couldn’t decide whether she was simply taking her magic very seriously or whether she was struggling for dear life just to get by. There was that time I first met Charlotte, too. Was that just how mages were in this world? At the very least, there appeared to be a fair few among their ranks with such straightforward dispositions. Saying they gave it their all was just another way of putting it.

The next day, Linze was back to normal. I learned then that once someone had run out of magic, they’d usually fully recover after a day’s rest. 
“...S-Sorry for causing you trouble yesterday!” Linze apologized to me, but I didn’t feel she’d done anything that warranted an apology. Just like the previous day, we headed out into the forest so that Linze could practice trying to learn her new spell. 
Linze tried and she failed, and she tried and she failed. I kept watch on her from a distance, and made her stop after her ninth failure. Any more and she’d end up in the same state as last time. 
“Let’s take a break for a bit.” 
“...Okay.” I handed a flask of cold tea over to Linze. 
“Feel like you’re getting the hang of it?” 
“...Not in the slightest. When casting a spell, the end result is greatly influenced by your knowledge of it, which makes it a challenge to learn spells I’ve never seen in action before...” In other words, she couldn’t form a clear picture of the spell in her mind because she didn’t know how it was supposed to look. 
We rested there for an hour, but her magic didn’t recover much and Linze was down again after two more failed attempts at the spell. Following that, we called it quits for the day.

Linze kept practicing and practicing in the same manner for the next few days. Every single day until her magic was on the brink of exhaustion. It took about an hour of non-stop casting for Linze’s magic to reach its limits, leaving us taking breaks for the rest of the time. Things weren’t proceeding very smoothly at all. 
“You’re really giving it your best, huh, Linze? Even after all those failed attempts, you haven’t even thought about throwing in the towel.” 
“I’m... clumsy when it comes to things... like this... Only by doing the same thing... over and over... can I finally acquire any new spells. It’s always been this way, so you don’t have to worry about me.” Linze spoke with a smile. She was a strong girl. Whatever didn’t kill her only made her stronger. She understood fully well that it was important not to give up if you ever wanted to make any real progress with anything. 
Even so, there had to be a more efficient way of going about things. Like, a way to let Linze make more attempts at the spell before she ran out of energy, or something along those lines... Hrmmm... I decided to consult Charlotte about it, since she was apparently the best mage in the country. 
I stopped Linze right before her magic ran out for the day and took her back to the inn. Once there, I asked Yumina to tag along while I opened up a new [Gate] and went off to the castle to meet Charlotte. Without Yumina by my side, it was hard to even walk around inside the castle... Apparently they took me for a suspicious individual... 
We found Charlotte in the castle’s research tower, but for some reason she had bags under her eyes. She told us she hadn’t been sleeping much recently. Even so, she heard me out and even came up with a solution to our problems. In exchange, however, she made me promise to help out with her research when I next had the time...

The next day, I went to the eastern forest with Linze yet again. And once more, Linze tried and failed to cast her new spell. Recognizing that her magic was about to reach its limit, Linze decided herself that it was time to call it a day. That was my cue. 
“Linze, come here for a second.” 
“Hm...? What is it?” Linze stood in front of me, and I grasped both of her hands in mine. 
“H-H-Huh?! Wh-What’s going on...?” 
“Calm down. Just chill out.” 
“Ch-Chill myself?!” 
“Umm... it’s a figure of speech. It means relax a little.” I calmed down the panicking Linze and focused my magic, casting the incantation for the non-elemental spell I had learned about from Charlotte the other day. My hands began glowing with a warm light. 
“[Transfer].” 
“H-Huh?!” The light left my hands and sunk into Linze’s, to which she reacted with a start. I took that as a sign that it had worked properly. 
“My magic... has completely recovered. But, in an instant...? How...?” All thanks to my new Null spell, [Transfer]. It allowed me to share my own magic reserves with other people. There were apparently a few people who could use this one, with one such person being Charlotte’s old mentor. 
From what Charlotte had told me, she would be made to practice her spells until her magic ran out completely, only to have it recovered, and then made to practice to the brink of collapse once more. That mentor of hers had to have been a monster in disguise. 
I wasn’t one to talk, though, since I was about to put Linze through the same. Though unlike Charlotte’s old mentor, I wouldn’t be forcing her into it. 
I only just then recalled the magical toll I’d been paying to keep Kohaku materialized in this world, but I was able to fully recover Linze’s magic for even less than that. Basically, what this meant was that even doing both things at once was well within the range of my magic’s natural recovery rate. Though that didn’t mean Linze had a particularly small capacity for magic, but was rather an indication that my own magic was so monstrous. 
All in all, it was a good thing that Linze was now able to practice her magic without fear of collapsing anytime soon. 
“Come forth, Water! Ballistic Bubbles: [Bubble Bomb]!” Linze spent the next several hours after that trying to master the spell. I was amazed at her perseverance. Still, while we had covered the problem of magical exhaustion, there was nothing I could do for physical fatigue. 
I made her take a break for her own well-being. 
“It really is, difficult... I just can’t seem to grasp the nature of this spell...” 
“That so...” Ancient magic was turning out to be as difficult as I’d expected. Since there were hardly any people who still used it, there were no real examples to follow. All Linze could do was try to solidify her own mental image of the spell until it worked. 
“...If only I at least knew what [Bubble Bomb] meant...” 
“...Come again?” I sounded like a total idiot, but Linze’s words threw me for a loop for a second. Huh? She doesn’t know what the spell’s name means? 
“You want to know what [Bubble Bomb] means?” 
“Eh? Well, yes. There is a meaning to the name of every spell. For example, the [Fire] part from Fire Storm means to create flames, and...” 
“Whoa whoa whoa, no, hold up a sec.” What did that mean? The spell’s name was being translated... too literally? The words themselves were being used without regard for whether the person reading it knew what they even meant? I borrowed the scroll from Linze for a moment and cast [Reading] on it... I saw the words for “Bubble Bomb”... but it was written in katakana... Well, that sure explained a lot. 
So they’d see a spell name like [Fireball], but... they had no idea what it actually meant. Similarly you would have to understand the meaning behind the different shapes among the spells. [Fire Arrow], [Fireball], and [Fire Storm] all shared the word [Fire], so it was safe to say they could group the spells and guess the effect based on that even without understanding the words. But even if you could tell from the names that they were all fire-related, that didn’t help with picturing the shapes of each individual spell. 
So what did that mean? That there were a bunch of people running around yelling the names of spells that they’d just sort of learned without really understanding how they worked? It all seemed just... a bit too strange for me. People would talk about these spells all the time, but to them they were just using words and phrases that were completely alien? When Elze used [Boost] she didn’t know the spell name was about increasing her own strength? They all seemed to have roughly figured it out, at least, but only through sheer brute force methods. Well, I guess it is English, after all... Dear God, please fix your translations to convey meaning as well, rather than just directly converting the words. 
...Was the image of a bubble bomb just that hard to grasp over here? I mean, sure, they weren’t exactly common daily words back home, but still, it shouldn’t be that hard to picture... 
“What’s the matter...?” 
“Ah, nothing... er, about that spell... [Bubble] means like a watery kind of foam, and [Bomb] means well uh... bomb, yeah? You know, kaboom and stuff.” 
“...What’s a bomb, exactly?” 
“Eesh, well, uh, it’s an object that blows up. You know, like that [Explosion] spell you can cast.” Linze sat and thought over my words in silence. After a while, she raised her head and readied her wand to take another shot at it. 
“Come forth, Water! Ballistic Bubbles: [Bubble Bomb]!” A single lump of water... or rather, a round ball like a soap bubble appeared floating just in front of Linze’s wand. 
The bubble had a diameter of about twenty centimeters. It looked like Linze could control the bubble by concentrating on it. She let it drift around in mid-air for a while before pointing it at a single tree which she bumped it into. 
The next instant, the tree burst into splinters with a deafening roar. I could only sit and watch in dumbfounded amazement. 
Linze just seemed pleased to have gotten it to work. 
“...I did it...” [Bubble Bomb], huh... one hell of an ancient spell. It packed a serious punch. 
Linze tried it out again. This time five bubbles appeared, then a sixth. She sent all of the bubbles flying toward different trees. The moment the bubbles made contact with the trees, it triggered a series of violent explosions mowing down a chunk of the forest before our very eyes. 
This spell was beginning to terrify me already... Meanwhile, Linze dashed over to me and bowed her head. 
“I was only able to master this spell thanks to your help, Touya. Thank you very much!” 
“Nah, I’d say it was your own efforts that led up to this. I only helped out a little right at the end.” I really wasn’t used to being thanked by people for every little thing. I was more impressed with how Linze refused to give up on learning the spell no matter how much the experience drained her in the process. She struck me as the hardworking type who took things one step at a time, starting with what she knew and building on that with her own efforts. 
I was happy to have learned something new about Linze. Feeling that our efforts had been duly rewarded, I opened up a [Gate] to take us back to the Silver Moon. 
 
“Hmm... what am I gonna do about this...?” Elze seemed troubled. She sat at a table in the dining room, looking at her favorite metallic gauntlets. Those gauntlets were heavily damaged from a fight the day prior. 
It was all thanks to a particular encounter we had gone through the day before. We’d ended up having to fight a bunch of Gargoyles: monsters with stone bodies. 
We had gone to apprehend a group of thieves for a guild quest, and among them was someone proficient in Dark-type magic. 
The Gargoyles were this person’s contracted familiars. It became a tough fight for us when those devil-shaped stone monsters surrounded us from all sides. They were extremely hard, so swords didn’t work against them at all. They also resisted magic, and arrows bounced right off them. Elze was the only one of us capable of dealing any significant damage against them. 
Once we had some breathing room, Linze was able to start shooting off her larger-scale destructive spells like [Explosion] and [Bubble Bomb], which I used as cover to charge in and cast [Paralyze] on the summoner. Once we’d made it out safely, we took the thieves and their mage friend and turned them in to the royal knights. 
We cleared the quest, but Elze’s gauntlets were badly damaged in the process. 
“Guess I’ll just have to buy a new pair...” 
“You probably should, yeah. I could restore the shape of those ones by casting [Modeling] on them, but I don’t think they’d hold out very long with a quick patch-up job like that.” 
“This sucks... These were the best gauntlets I’ve ever used...” Elze seemed really down about it. It’s always sad when something you like breaks, regardless of the reason. 
“Gonna go look for new ones at the Eight Bears Weapon Shop?” 
“I took a look earlier. Barral said they won’t have anything like that in stock for at least another five days.” That was a fairly long time to be without weapons for an adventurer. You might think that gauntlets shouldn’t be that hard to come across when there were whole suits of armor available for purchase, but gauntlets made as weapons required strengthening in different parts. There wasn’t really much demand for those types, so fewer places stocked them. 
People like Elze, whose primary weapons were their own two hands and martial arts knowledge applied by way of extreme close range weapons like battle gauntlets, were collectively referred to as brawlers. There weren’t many fistfighters in Belfast. The demi-human Kingdom of Mismede was a different story, however. Since their populace was primarily beastmen, whose physical prowess was generally well above those of humans from birth, it made a lot of sense. 
“Touya, take me to the capital. I can’t wait five days for new weapons!” She really didn’t need to rush herself, but I didn’t particularly mind. Elze was the type to move almost reflexively when she came up with an idea. On the other hand, Linze was the type to knock on a strong stone bridge before crossing it just to make sure. Given the same situation, Elze would sooner dash across it faster than it got the chance to collapse. That was just how those sisters were. 
“If we’re going to the capital anyway, there was this store called Berkut... I remember seeing an enchanted “Gauntlet of Demi-God Strength’ there.” Berkut was the name of the shop I’d bought my enchanted white coat from. This coat was enchanted to offer resistance to all elemental magic that the wearer was proficient in — which, in my case, meant all of them. The catch was that it reduced the wearer’s resistance to any elements that they weren’t proficient in — in my case, none of them. It was a real steal. 
“What’s this about a Demi-God gauntlet?” 
“I dunno, something about a muscle-enhancing enchantment on it, I think.” 
“Well, now you’ve got my attention!” Elze looked at me with new life in her eyes, grabbed me by the hand, and dragged me out to the inn’s back garden. 
“Okay, let’s go! C’mon, no time like the present!” 
“Hold your horses! Do you even have any money on you?!” 
“I withdrew some from the guild earlier. Now let’s go!” This girl really did take action the moment something sprang to mind! I remember thinking to myself that it wouldn’t hurt for her to slow down a little sometimes...

“Hello, and welcome to Berkut.” We were greeted by the same girl who had served me the last time I came to this shop. Unlike last time, though, she didn’t ask for any form of ID. If she really remembered me from that one time we met, then that was pretty incredible customer service. 
She must have judged at a glance that Elze was with me, because Elze wasn’t asked for any ID, either. Elze herself cast her gaze all around the store, evidently surprised by how high-class the place was. Come on, it’s not exactly amazing enough to drop your jaw at... 
“What can I help you with today?” 
“Right, er, the last time I was here I saw a gauntlet on display, something about Demi-God strength? You wouldn’t happen to still have that, would you?” 
“I’m very sorry, I’m afraid we sold that item some time ago...” That was a shame. Elze let out a dissatisfied groan when she heard the news. Just went to show that enchanted items could only warm shelves for so long unless there was some kind of odd quirk or two about them like with my coat. 
“Are you searching for arm guards?” 
“Sort of. We’re actually looking for attack-oriented gauntlets.” Since they were a type primarily designed for punching rather than guarding, they were technically weapons, but at the end of the day gauntlets were still primarily classified as defensive equipment. It wouldn’t be strange for an armor shop to stock them. If anything, it would make more sense than looking for them in a weapon shop. 
“Attack-oriented gauntlets, correct? We do have some other available pairs of enchanted gauntlets, if you would like to see them.” 
“Oh, you have other enchanted gauntlets? Yes, please let us see them.” 
“Understood. Right this way, please.” The lady said that and then led us toward the back of the store. Right around the place where I’d found my coat, actually. 
She took two pairs of gauntlets down and placed them on the countertop. 
One pair was a beautiful pair of streamlined, metallic green gauntlets. 
The other was a set of angular, red-and-gold colored gauntlets. 
“These gauntlets here are enchanted with a type of wind magic. They will blow away any incoming arrows or other ranged attacks. Unfortunately, they do not block magic attacks, but still offer fairly high magical resistance.” The employee explained the pair of metallic green gauntlets to us. Physical attack-blocking enchantments sounded pretty useful. It was a shame they wouldn’t block magic attacks, but high magic resistance was still pretty good. 
“This pair here, on the other hand, are capable of storing up the wielder’s magic before unleashing it in one extremely powerful attack. It takes time for the magic to accumulate within the gauntlets, but they’re also enchanted with a hardening spell, so they’re unlikely to break even with heavy use.” Next up she explained the red-and-gold gauntlets. Unlike the metallic green ones, these ones seemed to place much more emphasis on raw strength. From the sounds of things, they also let you use something like a “Focus Punch” move you might see in video games. 
Basically, the choice came down to one of attack or defense. It was a difficult decision. I preferred to tighten my defenses and keep myself safe long enough to come up with a strategy to defeat the enemy, so I’d have gone with the metallic green pair, but knowing Elze, she seemed more likely to go for the red-and-gold pair that emphasized pure offensive power. 
“I’ll take both sets.” 
“Huh?!” I couldn’t hold back my surprise when, in contrast to my trying to weigh the merits and demerits of each pair, Elze simply skipped having to make that choice altogether. 
“You’re really buying both pairs?” 
“Well, they both seem useful. If I mix and match, I can get the best of both worlds.” 
“Sure, I guess, but then what happens to the leftover mismatched pair?” 
“I’ll keep them as spare, duh. There’s always a chance I could break one of them like what happened with my old pair.” Elze made a good point. As long as they were being used as weapons and not just armor, there was no telling when they might get damaged or broken. I was concerned about the spare pair being on opposite hands, what with people generally being more comfortable throwing punches with their dominant hand, but Elze told me not to worry about that. 
To begin with, her fighting style didn’t place preference on one hand over the other. In boxing terms, she would’ve been what was known as a switch-hitter. 
“Very well, please equip each pair and let me know if anything feels out of place. I’ll make any necessary adjustments for you.” 
“Thanks, but they feel fine to me as-is.” Elze tried on each pair of gauntlets and confirmed that both sets were comfortable enough on her hands. 
“Well then, this green pair is fourteen gold coins, and this red-and-gold pair is seventeen gold coins.” Thirty one gold in total. Three million, one hundred thousand yen, huh. They were pretty expensive... Or, wait, was that cheap for two pairs of enchanted weapons...? This shop never failed to toss my sense of monetary value right out the window. 
“...Touya.” 
“What’s up?” 
“...Could you lend me one gold? I came up a little short.” 
“This is why I told you to make sure you had enough money before we came here...” I took one gold coin out of my wallet and gave it to Elze. 
She paid for the gauntlets with three platinum coins and one gold coin. She got the gauntlets placed in bags, but they were huge and bulky so I ended up carrying them for her. Seemed that the man was naturally expected to carry the lady’s bags in this world, too... 
“Thank you for your patronage, we hope to see you again.” The employee lady saw us off as we left Berkut behind us. 
“Guess I should’ve expected the capital to have a good selection of equipment, even though it did turn out a teeny tiny bit more expensive than I’d planned for.” Elze seemed pleased with her purchase as she walked alongside me. I sort of understood the feeling of having found exactly what you went looking for at the shops. 
Unsurprisingly, though, the four gauntlets really were heavy. I looked around for an alley so that I could open up a [Gate] to take us back to the inn. 
“Elze, let’s find an alley somewhere so I can—” I turned my head to talk to Elze, but she was gone. 
“Elze?” I turned around to look for Elze and saw her standing in front of a shop a fair ways back. She was looking at something in the window. What could’ve hooked her attention like that? I walked back up to Elze and peeked over her shoulder to see what it was. Hoho, so that was it. 
A black top adorned with white frills, and a large ribbon on the chest. Plus, a black mini-skirt with three frilled layers. 
It reminded me of a goth-loli style dress, with slight differences. 
Elze simply stood there, completely entranced by it. 
“...You want it?” 
“Huh? Whawah?! T-Touya?!” She drew away from me with a bright red face like I’d just given her the fright of her life. What was with that reaction? 
“Err, uhm, th-this is... yeah! For Linze! I thought that Linze would look really good in it! She seems like she’d like these types of clothes, doesn’t she?! Unlike me, of course! Hahaha!” The moment Elze opened her mouth, she started rambling. Seemed like she was always thinking of her little sister. 
“I think it’d suit you just as well as it would Linze, though.” 
“Wha...?!” Elze’s face turned even redder, and she started flapping her lips like a fish out of water. Seriously, calm down. Why was she acting so weird, anyway? 
“What are you talking about? It’d look way better on Linze than it would on me...” 
“Y’think so? You’re both cute enough to pull it off. You are twins.” 
“C-C-Cute...?! What are you saying all of a sudden?!” Elze’s fist crashed into my side with a painful thud. Augh! That really hurt, you know! 
“I was only saying... that you’d look good... in these clothes, too...” 
I explained myself to Elze while clutching my aching side. Looking closely, I noticed that she had broken out in a cold sweat. 
“There’s no way an outfit like this would suit me...” 
“I’m telling you, it’d look great on you.” 
“You don’t need to flatter me. I know fully well what kind of outfits I could or couldn’t pull off.” 
“Now see here, you...” Why was she trying so hard to deny it? I felt like she didn’t think I was being sincere with her, even though I honestly did think she’d look great in that outfit. The fact that she was putting up so much resistance to the idea started to annoy me, even. 
“For one thing, I’m not the type of person to wear clothes like that in the first place, and...” 
“If you won’t believe me, then fine! We’ll just have to go in and get them to let you try it on!” 
“Huh?! Wait...! Touya?!” I grabbed her by the hand and half-dragged her into the shop. I got the lady at the counter to bring the clothes over from their display in the window, and then forced them into Elze’s hands and led her to the changing rooms. 
“Hang on a second! What are you thinking?!” 
“Look, we’ve already come this far. Just get in there and try those clothes on. Trust me.” I drew the curtain closed from outside and went to take a look around the rest of the shop. I killed some time browsing through the belts and accessories they had. Before too long, Elze timidly drew the curtain open. 
“Very nice.” Elze looked fairly different from usual in those clothes. 
She actually looked pretty great in that goth-loli style outfit, especially with her long silver hair. See? I knew I was right. Not just anyone can pull that kind of look off. 
“See...? I told you! I-I told you it doesn’t suit me at all...” 
“Huuuh?! How can you even still say that?!” By that point, I was at my wits’ end trying to convince her, so my voice rose in pitch a bit. Her self-confidence was remarkably low. How hard was she squinting to think that she looked anything but amazing dressed like that? Now that I’ve come this far... I’m not gonna back down until you give up and see some sense! 
“Like I said, it looks great on you. Don’t you think so, ma’am?!” 
I turned to the lady at the counter. 
“I agree. I think it looks lovely on you, miss.” This time I even got the shop employee to chime in along with me. Hell, the changing room even had a mirror in it. Had Elze completely overlooked that fact before stepping out, or what? 
“Y-You really think so...?” Elze blushed, pinched the front of the skirt in her fingers, and did a little twirl. It really did look great on her. She was adorable. 
Right then... I went to talk with the employee. 
“Excuse me, we’ll take these clothes.” 
“What?!” I paid for the clothes without giving Elze a chance to resist. Three silver, pretty expensive for regular day-to-day clothes. 
“Touya, wait a minute! I wasn’t planning on actually buying these!” 
“You’re not buying them, I am. And I’m giving them to you as a present.” I wasn’t about to let Elze leave without buying those clothes when she looked so great in them. Plus I wanted everyone else to see how cute she looked, too. I got a paper bag from the counter, and gave it to Elze for her to put her old clothes in. 
We left the shop, and Elze bashfully raised her head to thank me. 
“Thanks...” 
“No problem. Now let’s get back so we can show off your new clothes to everyone else!” 
“Huh?! No, wait, that’s maybe a bit too embarrassing for me...!” I grabbed the now-dressed-up Elze by the hand and set off running.

The other girls all complimented Elze when they saw her wearing her new outfit. See? I knew I wasn’t wrong. Everyone else agrees, too. 
There was only one issue. When the girls learned that I had bought the clothes for Elze as a gift, they suddenly displayed slightly more mixed feelings on the matter. In the end, it was decided that I was to buy new clothes for each of the girls in the name of fairness. 
...Seriously, why do these things keep happening to me? 
 
A while later... 
“It’s a letter from my father. He says to read this and head over to the royal palace immediately.” A letter arrived at the Silver Moon, delivered by a horse-drawn carriage. Yumina explained what it was after looking it over. Something’s giving me a bad feeling here... but I guess I can’t just ignore it. 
“What does it say, then? 
“In gratitude and recognition of how Touya Mochizuki handled the incident some time ago, I would like to bestow a noble title upon him.” 
“A title?!” Elze and the others raised their voices in surprise. Oh, so it’s that, then... Well, I’m not entirely surprised it came to this. 
It makes sense that the one engaged to Princess Yumina should be one of noble lineage. Given that her engagement hadn’t yet been announced to the public, they were likely arranging things behind the scenes in order to project the proper image for me when I was finally revealed to the population. 
“Hey, uh, can I refuse the title?” 
“Yes, you can refuse if you truly wish. I merely ask that you formally refuse it in person.” 
“Refuse?!” The girls raised their voices in alarm once again. Sheesh, you girls sure make a racket. 
“Marriage aside, you shouldn’t refuse the title! It’s a total waste!” Elze spouted her opinion, honest as always. But honestly... taking that title would make me head of a noble house, right? That didn’t really suit me at all... 
“If you join the ranks of nobility, it means you’d be serving the country... You’d have duties and responsibilities to attend to, like governing a plot of land.” Linze quietly mumbled while running her hands through Kohaku’s fur. As I thought, it’s a total drag... Definitely gonna refuse it. 
“Touya-dono, what reason will you give when you refuse?” 
“Uh... I’ll probably say that the adventurer life suits me better.” 
Putting it like that even made me think I was lying about it. Still, I wanted to avoid the wrath of Yumina’s parents, so this was probably the best way to go about it. 
“That will be fine, don’t worry. My father won’t want to force your hand, either.” 
“Alright, let’s get going.” Seems he wanted Elze and the others to come to the palace as well. Not as formal attendants to the title ceremony or anything; it seemed more like he wanted to meet and thank the girls who were so diligently looking after his daughter. The three of them were too terrified by the prospect to accept at first, but after thinking it over they realized the benefits of meeting the king himself. 
“Oh, Kohaku. You wanna stay behind this time?” 
“If you command it, I will stay—” 
“Nope.” 
Oh. Unanimous rejection by the girls. 
“We can’t leave Kohaku behind, moron!” 
“Yes, it’d be too sad...” 
“Kohaku is our valued companion as well, Kohaku is!” 
“Don’t worry Touya, Kohaku can come with us. I’ll keep an eye out.” Geez, Kohaku sure is popular. I was a little bit jealous, but in truth, even I understood that Kohaku’s fluffiness had no equal in terms of appeal. 
I opened up a [Gate] right away, and we were at the royal palace in a flash. Yumina’s room to be exact. 
Well, I said Yumina’s room, but it wasn’t a bedroom or sitting room. It was a room made to welcome guests. The king had given me permission to use this room for my [Gate] spell whenever I brought Yumina to visit. 
As we left the room, the guardsman outside looked puzzled for a second, then his expression shifted to one of suspicion, but he quickly grew calm after he saw Yumina. 
We walked for a while, then Yumina opened a door at the end of a hallway. Through the door we saw the king, General Leon, and Olga the Mismede Ambassador all enjoying tea together. 
“Father!” 
“Oh, Yumina!” Upon seeing his daughter, the king rose up from his chair and rushed over to embrace her. 
“You seem happy and healthy, I’m pleased.” 
“I’m by Touya’s side, Father. There’s no way I could be unhappy.” Agh... you’re embarrassing me...! My cheeks flushed red as Yumina spoke, then the king turned to me. 
“It’s been some time, young Touya.” 
“It has.” 
“Are the people with you your companions? You needn’t worry about formalities here, friends. Raise your heads.” I turned around to see what the king was talking about, and saw that the girls behind me were all bowing profusely, heads on the floor. Geez... it’s worse than the time you guys met Sue. I noted that they hadn’t bowed for Yumina, however. But that was probably because they were so shocked she’d willingly come back to the inn with me. 
“Touya.” Olga walked over to me. Her foxy ears and tail combo were alluring as ever. Inappropriate thoughts danced around in my mind... I need to touch the fluffy tail... Which is softer, her fur or Kohaku? 
“I need you to know that you have my deepest gratitude. Not only did you save His Majesty, you also saved the Kingdom of Mismede. Should you ever visit our fair kingdom, I assure you that you will receive a warm welcome.” 
Olga bowed her head to me. No, darn it. I don’t want to impose any more! I don’t want to stand out, either... 
“How’s Arma? She holding up well?” 
“She’s doing very well, thank you. If I’d known you were coming here today, I’d have brought her with me, actually.” Olga laughed wryly, but she suddenly froze up and stared at something behind me. Puzzled at what was wrong, I turned and saw that she was staring right at Kohaku. 
“...Touya, what is that?” 
“Oh, this is Kohaku, a little tiger cub that I’m looking after. Wanna say hi to the lady, Kohaku?” 
“Rawr!” We had decided that for the sake of simplicity, Kohaku should just pretend to be a regular tiger cub. Having a talking tiger walking around with us would be way too much of a spectacle. Also, explaining it to everyone all the time would get old super fast. 
Olga continued to stare suspiciously at Kohaku, narrowing her eyes and tilting her head slightly. 
“Is there something wrong?” 
“Ah, it’s nothing. It’s just that in Mismede, the White Tiger is seen as a heavenly messenger from God. They say that the White Monarch itself is a member of the White Tiger species.” Forget the species, Kohaku’s the real deal... Come to think of it, Yumina did mention something about Kohaku being the King of Beasts... I wondered whether or not it’d be a good idea to take that tiger to Mismede. 
Suddenly, a shock ran through my body. Someone had smacked me hard on the back. It was General Leon. Can this guy only communicate through hitting people or something?! 
“It’s been a while, Touya my boy! Bwaha, I never expected you to get married to the little princess! You really are an interesting man, aren’t you?! I thought perhaps we could spar together sometime!” 
“I’m not her husband yet, so I’ll refuse, thanks.” I felt like if I trained with that guy my body would splinter into pieces before it got any stronger. After all, he was the kind of guy who smacked you around as a way of saying hello. That being said, he was definitely not a bad person... 
Wait a second... I noticed a pair of copper-brown gauntlets hanging from the general’s waist. They didn’t seem particularly flashy or ornamental, but for some reason they emanated the feeling of courage and bravery. 
“General, what’re those?” 
“Hm? Ah, I have these on me because there’s a military exercise going on today. I’m a fighter! Gauntlet fighter, to be precise. Haven’t you heard of me...? They call me Fire Fist Leon!” 
Sadly, I hadn’t heard of him at all. I hadn’t heard anyone talk about him, either. However, in stark contrast to my stunned silence, someone behind me suddenly spoke up in an excited voice. 
“Whoa!!! I’ve heard about you! You’re that flaming fist guy who wiped out a whole bandit camp all on his own in the Melicia Mountains, right?! I’ve heard all kinds of stuff... Is it true you had a duel to the death with a Stone Golem?!” 
“Ohoho, you sure know your stuff, don’t you? Are you a fighter too? It’s rare to see a girl take up the art of fisticuffs!” 
The general smiled broadly as he looked over at the excited Elze, noting the mismatched gauntlets hanging from her waist. 
“How about it, would you like to take part in today’s military training?” 
“Wh-What, can I?!” Elze nodded her head over and over, a beaming smile plastered on her face. It’d be good for her to learn more techniques from him, I supposed. As I looked at Elze and Leon, the king beckoned me over to him. 
“By the way, Touya... in regards to the noble title I wanted to grant...” 
“Ahh, listen... I appreciate the offer and all, but...” I felt bad for the king, but I still had to refuse him. I really didn’t feel like being a nobleman, at least not for the time being. 
“In truth, I fully expected you to decline. It’s just that it would’ve reflected poorly upon me if I, the king, had not offered a most generous reward to the man that saved my life. So in this case I just needed to create the known situation of ‘he tried to grant a title to his savior, but the boy graciously refused.’ That being said, if you had accepted the title it would have been yours to take.” Well, that’s royalty for you. You really had to keep an eye on everything you were doing, down to the smallest detail... Looked like for the king, appearance was king. Just as I was feeling sorry for the king, someone suddenly burst through the door to the room. 
“I HEARD TOUYA WAS HERE, WHERE IS HE?!” It was Charlotte, the court magician. I almost didn’t recognize her for a moment. Honestly, she looked totally different this time around. She had heavy bags under her eyes, and her hair was all frizzed out and disheveled. As she suddenly started marching toward me, I noticed that the eyes behind her glasses were bloodshot. Agh! What the heck is going on? She’s scaring me! As if to prevent my escape, she seized me by the coat with one hand, and held out several silver coins and drinking glasses with her other hand. 
“H-Hey! These glasses, I need more! Th-Three pairs more of them, yes! I taught you [Transfer] the other day, so help me out, okay?!” 
“H-Huh? I mean, you did help me the other day, but what’s this about glasses?!” Despite being terrified of Charlotte’s looks, I managed to sputter out what I wanted to ask. 
“What do you mean by that?! I can’t decipher fast enough...! I’m at my limit, right?! I can’t do it all alone! It’s impossible, impossible I tell you! I figure out what one thing says but there’s always more to decipher. It’s never-ending! Do you even know how much work I have to do?! Do you even know how much work I have to do?!” Why the repetition? Is she a broken record?! She didn’t have to scream at me like that while she was trying to ask for help... Still, I was way too freaked out to try and refuse, so I went ahead and cast both [Modeling] and [Enchant] in quick succession, turning those coins and drinking glasses into translation glasses in no time at all. 
“Thank you so very much!” Charlotte quickly snatched up the glasses I made and, her business concluded, looked about ready to shoot out of the room as quickly as she had entered. 
“Just be sure to keep things composed and well-handled, Charlotte. We don’t want word of this spreading to the Empire, do we?” 
“Understood, Your Highness!” Charlotte answered the king almost immediately and shot out of the room like a bullet. What just happened? 
“Charlotte has been acting somewhat troubling, lately. Ever since she got that peculiar instrument, she’s been holed up in her quarters doing nothing but work. She’s going to end up wearing herself out at this rate! We may end up needing you to use [Recovery] on her soon enough, Touya.” 
Oh dear lord, I’ve accidentally invented the shut-in character trait. The “gets obsessed with something and retreats from the world like a hermit” kind of person... Whoops. 
“Just now... was that really Lady Charlotte, the court magician...?” Linze murmured quietly, staring at the door. Well, I’m not surprised by her reaction to that display. Charlotte certainly didn’t look like the greatest mage in the kingdom. 
“Aww... I wanted to talk about magic with her...” 
“Ooh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you! If you speak to Charlotte while she’s in this state, she’ll have you spend half the day aiding her wild experiments, and the other half of the day listening to her lecture on Ancient Spirit Magic! Better to wait until she’s calmed down a bit.” The general shook his head side to side as he spoke. Yeah, I doubt she’d be receptive to anything said by anyone while she’s in this state... 
“Well then, it’s time to prepare for the ceremony! You’ll need to slip into a more appropriate set of clothes, Touya my boy!” The king clapped his hands and, as if on command, two maids appeared. Darn it... what a drag. 
“Linze, Yae. What’re you two gonna do? Wait here for me?” 
“I think I’ll go and watch Elze spar...” 
“I will do that too, I will!” Guess everyone except Yumina’s going to the training session, then... Looks like Yumina’s looking after Kohaku, too. Well, guess I’ll just get changed as fast as I can. 
A maid escorted me to a private room, where I changed into a fresh set of clothes. 
 
...Somehow, I got a house... 
Before I knew it, I’d accepted a property and that was that, I guess. You might be wondering who in their right mind gave me a house. Well, it was the king. 
On the day of my nobility ceremony, things were going exactly as planned. 
“Oh great adventurer who saved my very life, allow me to bestow upon you a noble title.” 
“I’m unworthy, Your Majesty. I was merely doing what an adventurer should.” 
“Very well, I won’t force this upon you if you truly wish to decline.” Up until that point, everything was going as planned. 
“That said, allowing the one who saved my life to return empty-handed would be a great discourtesy. Therefore, in place of entering you into the ranks of nobility, I have prepared a reward sum in addition to a mansion that I might hope should serve as your base of operations amidst your many adventures.” 
“What.” As the king spoke, an elderly man stepped forward. He was holding a silver platter with a bag of money and a set of keys upon it. Distracted by the king’s words, I absentmindedly accepted the items without even thinking. 
I snapped to my senses when I felt the weight of the bag in my hands, but the elderly fellow had already backed off! Drat... missed my chance to give them back. 
“This was but a display to keep up appearances. I wait with eager anticipation to see what you might accomplish in the days to come.” I couldn’t help but give up at this point...

“Western district... Palaran Avenue, 2A... Even the outer ring of the district is gaudy...” Yumina murmured as she checked over the documentation. 
The capital was divided into two rings, one outer and one inner, both of which circled the castle. Royalty, aristocrats, important merchants, and people of high status tended to live in the inner circle around the castle, and then the outer circle was across the river. 
Many people from different walks of live lived in the outer circle, and it was further divided into eastern, western, and southern wards. There was no northern ward, as Lake Palette took up the space in that area. It seemed that the western sector of the outer district was where many affluent people lived. It was in this western sector that my new property was waiting for me. 
“So, now what?” After washing off the sweat she had worked up from the day’s training with the general, Elze asked me that with apparent curiosity in her eyes. Honestly, it was all a bit too much for someone of my stature. 
“I guess giving it back isn’t even an option.” 
“Returning something you’ve already accepted is very, very rude. It hurts the honor of the one that gave you it.” True enough. No decent person would ever take a gift and then go “nah, I don’t like it, keep it.” Linze was completely right. I had no choice but to accept it. 
I laid myself out on the grass in the corner of the castle’s training grounds. White clouds were gently flowing through the clear blue sky. It was reminiscent of the sky I saw when I first came to this world. 
“It’s not just the property, either. I also got a lot of money... I actually have no idea what to do with it all.” 
“How much did you receive, Touya-dono?” Yae looked down at me as I continued to relax. 
“...Twenty royal coins.” 
“Twenty royal coins?!” Elze, Linze, and Yae’s voices spectacularly rang out and resonated. Their surprise was completely reasonable. 
Royal coins were a currency with more value than platinum. Ten times more, to be exact. I heard they were too big of a currency to see much use in standard marketplaces. 
By the standards of the world I once inhabited, a royal coin would be approximately ten million yen. So, the amount I got was about two hundred million. Basically, that money, plus the house, was the value of the king’s life. I couldn’t even tell if that was a lot. Apparently, this was merely the king’s pocket change. Should’ve asked why he was saving it... 
Wait, what if it was all just betrothal money? What if taking all this meant that I was locked into marrying Yumina? Though, shouldn’t betrothal money go from the groom to the bride, and not the other way around? Maybe this was a dowry and... Man, it was a pain to think about. 
Whatever the case, keeping the money on my person was scary, so I let the duke hold onto it. 
“Anyway, I got a house now, so maybe I should just retire?” 
“Doing that would turn you into a failure of a person in no time...” Elze sighed, and instead of a reply, I raised my upper body. Having money meant not having to work? There was something off about that. Not like having money would ever be a problem, though... 
“How about we go and take a look at it? It’s only about thirty minutes away.” We had no reason to refuse Yumina’s proposal, so we gathered ourselves and went to take a look at the place.

“Hm? It’s here...?” I couldn’t hold myself back from saying that. 
The residence stood on elevated ground in the western ward of the outer district, looking like it had a great view of the horizon. Walls painted white and a red roof... A refined, three story western-style building... That was all fine and dandy. I had nothing negative to say about the design, and I quite liked that it was in a quiet place, away from the residential areas. Still... 
“This is way too huge...” Well, it was smaller than Duke Ortlinde’s or Viscount Swordrick’s homes. However, it was still more than large enough to fit people of such high stature. 
I used my key to open the gates and entered the grounds. What came into view before my eyes was a large lawn, a flower bed with all kinds of vivid flora, and a pond with a small fountain inside it. Further off in the distance, I even saw a stable. 
We opened the double door and walked into the entrance hall. What greeted us was a crimson carpet and a stairway leading to the second floor. 
“This is quite a nice house. I like it.” With Kohaku in her arms, Yumina — the only one of us who was used to such environments — calmly walked into the hall. After catching up to her, I couldn’t help but let my honest thoughts turn to voice. 
“A house this large will be a pain to clean... even with the five of us living here.” 
“What?!” Elze, Linze and Yae looked at me, completely flabbergasted. I had no idea why. 
“Uhm... Touya-dono. Five? Are we to live here as well? Are we?” 
“Huh? Why would you even have to ask? It’s only natural, right?” Why did we even have to talk about it, anyway? With a house this large, taking in as many reliable people as possible was only natural. As that thought ran through my mind, Elze timidly spoke up. 
“B-But this house was given to you by the king. Isn’t it for you to share with Yumina?” Well, I suddenly understood everything. This house was the king’s way of helping Yumina out on her endeavor. Seems I accepted quite the troublesome gift... 
I didn’t hate Yumina or anything, but I couldn’t see her as someone I’d marry. So far, she felt more like a little sister to me than anything. 
Linze quietly spoke to me once again. 
“I-If it’s a house meant for two people who like each other, I don’t think we should be living here...” 
“Like each other? I like each of you as much as the other. You’re all family to me, so there’s absolutely nothing wrong with you living he—” Hm? Linze’s face was kind of red. Why? Actually, Elze and Yae were looking a bit pink, too. 
“I-I’ll look around the second floor!” 
“M-Me too! I-I’ll look at the attic!” 
“I-I-I’m interested in the kitchen, I am!” The three of them scattered in all directions. Why? 
“I see... So you like the four us about the same and see us as family. I’d say I got one step closer.” Seeing them off, Yumina smiled. 
“I want to become your wife and spend my life with you, Touya. However, I don’t intend to monopolize you, so I don’t mind this arrangement at all. I’m going to have a talk with them. You just wait in the living room.” Huh? What? Excuse me? Leaving me with Kohaku, Yumina began walking up the stairs. 
I didn’t really get the situation, but I decided to do as I was told and walked toward the living room. On the way, I looked at the bathroom, parlor, granary, and the wine cellar, and they were all completely empty. Not a single shelf... 
I opened the second to last door on the first floor and finally found the living room. As obvious as it might’ve been — it was huge. Though, it probably felt bigger than it was because it had nothing but the fireplace and the curtains. I’ll have to buy lots of furniture and other stuff. The king probably considered that when he gave me the money. 
The window on one of the walls had an entrance to a terrace that gave a great view of the estate’s territory and the rest of the western ward. 
I walked out into the garden, where I was greeted by a comfortable wind. 
“It’s a nice garden. Naptime here would feel great.” Kohaku spread out on the grass. 
“Do you like it?” 
“Yes. Very much so.” All the more reason to consider living here, I figured. Settling in would be quite troublesome, but... 
“Touya.” Hearing my name called out, I turned around to see Yumina standing there with all the others. However, the other three were avoiding my gaze. What’s with them? Their faces are still kinda red, too... 
“U-Uhm, Touya... can we really live here with you?” Linze muttered. 
“Hm? Sure you can.” 
“...You won’t tell us to get out later on, right?” Elze said, clearly full of doubt. 
“Don’t be stupid!” 
“You’ll, um... treat us exactly like you’d treat Yumina-dono, will you?” 
“Sure!” Why was she even asking me that? I had no family in this world, so they were the closest thing. That much was obvious. 
...Why did they all look so flustered? Sure, living in such a mansion might be overwhelming, but it was already mine, so they had no reason to hold themselves back. 
Ah, I got it. They were embarrassed about living without paying any expenses, essentially becoming freeloaders. I didn’t mind at all, really. 
“Well, there you have it. We’ll all be living here from now on. There’s no rush. Feel free to decide when you have your feelings in order,” Yumina proclaimed to the blushing trio.  

“Alrighty...” 
“Y-Yes...” 
“I understand, I do.” In response to Yumina’s words, the other three nodded, their faces still red. Feelings in order? I didn’t really get it. 
“What’re you guys talking about?” 
“It’s a secret.” There was that unison again... Alrighty, then. Wait, was I actually the one with the lowest position in the household?! 
“Well then, shall we go and choose our rooms?” Yumina suggested. 
“I want the one on the corner of the second floor.” 
“I-I’d be happy to take the one next to the library on the third floor,” Linze nervously stated. 
“I would like a first floor room that faces the garden, I would.” The girls got all cheery and started talking among themselves. Boy, did I feel like an outsider. Well, with all the rooms we had, I was perfectly fine with them picking the ones they wanted. After all, we’d still have a load of empty ones regardless... 
“Hmm, I’m not entirely sure if the five of us will be able to look after the place...” 
“It’s impossible.” 
“Well, you’re straightforward...” There was no hesitation in Yumina’s response. Even cleaning would be too much for us. We had our guild work, so there was no way we could ever do something like gardening. 
“We’re going to have to hire help. Fortunately, I already have some people in mind.” Seemed like I could leave it all to her, then... We really needed more help around, that was true. A royal like Yumina likely had some good methods of acquiring quality human resources. 
Anyway, it was time to prepare to move. Though, that only involved bringing our stuff here through a [Gate]. Then, all we had left was furniture and similar things. The house had absolutely nothing in it, after all. 
We should also greet our friends back in Reflet. 
With the search for servants and other business we had, we decided to move in three days later. I felt like things were going to take a turn for the hectic. 
 
Finally, the day of the big move came around. We said our goodbyes to the people who looked after us while we stayed in the town. Micah and Dolan of the “Silver Moon Inn,” Aer of the “Parent Cafe,” Mr. Barral from the “Eight Bears Weapon Shop”... Zanac of “Fashion King Zanac,” too. With that, we said goodbye to Reflet itself. 
The first place I called home in this new world. I had a lot of feelings about the matter. Even though I could come back any time I wanted through the [Gate] spell, it was still an emotional farewell. 
Dolan said something or other about putting Reflet on the map for being the original “Shogi town.” The king was surprisingly enthusiastic about Shogi, so the plan didn’t seem too far-fetched in the grand scheme of things. 
As a farewell gift to Zanac, I printed off some papers with various uniform designs on them. Who knows, maybe he’d officially develop a sexy nurse outfit or the sailor school uniform as a result. ...I wasn’t formally suggesting them, but I had a feeling Zanac might take the bait. 
To Aer, I gave a boon consisting of some new recipes, along with cooking tools I had formed with my [Modeling] spell. Just little things like an ice cream scoop, a round cake cutter, and assorted small template cutters in the shapes of a heart, a star, and a circle. I resolved to come back for a bite to eat once she figured them all out. 
Similarly, I gave Micah a kitchen knife, a peeler, a manual fruit juicer, a grater, and a few recipes on the side as well. With that, I was sure the Silver Moon would see its culinary power grow both exponentially and ferociously. 
After we said our goodbyes, we returned to the royal capital. Several carriages were stationed outside the house. It seemed they were already moving our furniture in. Yumina was outside, directing the workers as they carried odds and ends into the house. When she noticed we were back, she ran over to greet us. 
“Touya, you’re right on time. There’s a man here seeking employment as housekeeping staff, can you come and meet him?” 
“Huh? Right now?” An older man clad in a formal black suit walked in my direction. He had white hair, and a sturdy mustache. Hm... don’t I know him from somewhere? Oh, right, he’s the guy who presented me with the key on a platter back when I was being granted my house. 
“Pleasure to meet you, though we have met once already. My name is Laim. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” The man calling himself Laim bowed his head to me. This guy’s gotta be, what... in his sixties? Despite his looks, his mannerisms were surprisingly spry. 
“Old Laim has served my father personally for many years. He’d make a fine butler, don’t you think?” 
“What?!” This guy looked after the king himself?! We’ve reeled in an absurdly high-class person! 
“How’d we even get someone like him?” 
“Ah, I’ve since passed on that old role to my son. As it happens, the princess extended an invitation to me shortly afterward. I thought it would be something of an honor to serve the man that saved my younger brother’s life.” 
“Younger brother?” 
“Yes, he goes by Leim. He serves the venerable Duke Ortlinde and his family.” 
“Oh! Leim, the butler who was with Sue!” No wonder I thought he looked familiar, they looked almost the same. So the two brothers served the king and the duke, who also happened to be brothers. A butler brother duo, eh...? 
“Well, how about it? Shall we hire him?” 
“Well, it’s not that I dislike the idea or anything, but... is it really okay? Aren’t there better places for him to work? 
“Not at all. I’ll be working here from now on. Thank you very much for understanding.” Laim bowed his head slightly. Well, there was no reason to decline his kind offer. We decided to put him in charge of other employees and household management. Basically, we pushed all of the managerial responsibilities onto him. 
“Well then, I would like to make a request, sir.” 
“There’s no need to call me sir!” 
“On the contrary. I am now an employee here, so it’s very important that we establish who the master of the house is, and who the humble servant is. So, with that said and done, sir, there are a few capable workers I would like to see put to work here. Would you care to meet them?” I wanted that “sir” stuff to end already, but it seemed to be futile. He was steadfast, so there was no fighting it. That’s a professional butler for you. 
Laim left the mansion as quick as the breeze. Seemed like he was going to gather the prospective workers for me. He sure worked fast... 
“We’ve hired a wonderful butler.” Elze carried her bags into the mansion. Linze and Yae followed shortly afterward, and Yumina went back to dictating what furniture was placed where. 
I went up to my own room to drop off my luggage, and then returned downstairs to help the others. 
My room was the most spacious room on the second floor, for the moment at least. It was honestly largely on account of the fact that it only had a closet and a bed in it. I didn’t even have any bedding on that bed of mine. Still, furniture was due that day, so my room would soon have a chest of drawers, a desk, some chairs, and shelving for books on display. Naturally, I’d have some bedding included in all of that too. 
Come to think of it, couldn’t I just make my own chairs and stuff with my [Modeling] spell? It would probably save me a ton of expenses, too... Wait, no, if I did that, everyone would want me to make furniture for them. I definitely didn’t want the extra hassle. It’d be a real pain... I decided that things were fine as they were. 
Hm... which spell would be best for unloading furniture? I had a feeling I’d be carrying the heavy stuff. I was the only man in the house, after all. I definitely had to show off my reliable side at least once in a while. 
While I was deep in thought, Elze walked by, having already cast [Boost] on herself. The girl was shifting furniture at an amazing speed. H-Huh? Do you guys even need my help? Hmph, I won’t let myself be beaten! This had suddenly become a matter of male pride. I cast [Boost] upon myself and began to carry furniture just as fast as Elze. 
After all the furniture was carried inside, we gathered together on the terrace for a tea break. 
We’d successfully finished putting our furniture in our bedrooms, and we’d furnished all the other major rooms like the kitchen, living room, and guest suite. All that was left was organizing my clothing and various books. 
Elze and I competed a little bit to see who could carry the most using the [Boost] spell, but the victory went to Elze. [Boost] itself is a Null spell that amplifies one’s physical abilities, but it uses the caster’s physical strength as a base. 
...It was pretty embarrassing to lose in a contest of physical strength to a girl, so I thought I should probably train harder. That’s it, starting tomorrow, I’ll go running outside. 
I can’t match Elze in physical strength, I can’t match Linze in magical knowledge and patience, I can’t hold a candle to Yae’s swordplay, and Yumina’s archery abilities along with her general mannerisms completely outshine mine... It’s actually depressing. 
“Things are finally settling down...” 
“There are still various little household items left to buy, there are.” 
“We can just buy those as we come to need them and they’ll appear naturally enough.” 
“Right. Let’s finish here for today, then,” Yumina said. It was true that we were short on general household goods, though. Daily necessities like table utensils and cleaning supplies. A bathtub as well, come to think of it. Do we have any personal cleaning products at the moment? I don’t think so... Oh, we’d need a trash can too. We had more left to buy than I initially thought. 
Everyone brought up what they thought the house needed, and we compiled a list. We all decided that we’d go out and buy them later. After everyone finished giving their opinion, Laim came from the front gates with a group of men and women in tow. 
“Greetings, sir. These are the individuals that I mentioned earlier. They all have my personal approval, and have been investigated thoroughly. They’re the best hires you could possibly get.” ...I just couldn’t get used to that “sir” thing. I wish he’d call me something else already. When he uses a term like “sir,” it makes me feel old. I felt like it would maybe suit me after ten more years or so, but definitely not right now. 
“Greetings, I’m from the Maid’s Guild. My name is Lapis. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” 
“Heyyy there, I’ve aaalso come from the Maid’s Guild. My name is Cecile. It’ll be a pleaaaasure to work with you.” Two girls stood in front of me and bowed their heads. They were wearing stereotypical maid uniforms. Lapis had a dignified air about her and held her dark black hair in a bob curl cut. Cecile, on the other hand, had light brown hair and a sweet smile painted on her face. They both looked to be about twenty years old. The two girls were wearing stereotypical French maid outfits, complete with the frilly headpieces. 
Wait, there’s a Maid’s Guild? Then again, it’d be pretty easy to commit a crime as a maid. Stealing would probably be simple in that line of work. Having a formal system where all maids are subject to tough background checks and proper education made a lot of sense to me. Plus, registered maids would be a matter of public record, too. 
Laim informed me that the two girls would be charged with cleaning the house, and also help him with household administration when needed. 
“I’m Julio, your gardener! Ah, this is Crea, she’s my wife.” 
“I’m Crea. I’ll be taking care of the cooking.” Next up to introduce themselves was a married couple that I think were in their late twenties. 
The duo was made up of a relaxed young man with golden-blond hair, and an equally calm looking young woman with reddish hair. The two of them looked to be quite similar in personality. They both seemed fairly laid back. 
Julio was apparently the son of one of Leim’s friends. He was to be put in charge of flower arranging, vegetable growing, and general gardening duties. Crea, his wife, was to be our personal cook. 
Seems she’d been working for quite some time as an apprentice cook for the aristocratic elite of the kingdom. I decided I’d show her the recipes that I’d printed out for Micah when I had the time. 
“The name’s Thomas. Until recently, I was a Heavy Infantryman.” 
“You can call me Huck. Spent most of my life serving in the Light Cavalry.” A heavy guardsman and a light guardsman, huh... 
Their figures matched their titles, too. Both of them seemed to be in their fifties. Laim reached out to them because they recently retired from the kingdom’s military. Seemed that they’d be alternating between gatekeeping duty and general mansion security. The gate had to be manned at night as well. Were they going to rotate shifts or something? 
Would two guys be enough? I thought maybe I should hire a couple of others as well. I figured that was an area for Laim’s expertise. 
That aside, Thomas and Huck... they were seriously called Tom and Huck? I’d be willing to bet they got up to a ton of mischief in their childhood. 
They seemed fine to me, so I took Laim’s suggestion and hired them. 
“Thomas and Huck live in the capital, so they need no special arrangements... However, the others and I would prefer to live on the grounds. Is that fair to you, sir?” I accepted Laim’s terms, since they seemed fine to me. We had a lot of rooms anyway, so it wasn’t an issue. 
I felt that Julio and Crea deserved some space of their own, being a married couple and all, so I requested that their room be further away from everyone else so they could spend some time together. That said, us all being in the same building and all, I felt that they weren’t really being given much “alone time” to begin with. I’d prefer to let the happy couple enjoy their quality time together. 
I gave each of the new employees some money and told them to go out and buy some necessary goods. I gave a separate sum to Lapis and Crea, and instructed them specifically. Lapis was to purchase the general goods from the earlier list, and Crea was to purchase food and utensils for the kitchen. 
Everyone ended up going shopping, with the exception of Laim, who said he wanted to give the mansion a thorough inspection. He said that he wanted to know his new workplace down to the very last crevice. Honestly, I’d tip my hat to him if I was wearing one. 
“Things finally seem to be dying down...” I still wasn’t used to my new home, and we already had seven servants added to the roster. The money I got from the king should be enough for the time being... I was starting to worry about my financial situation, just a bit. But to be honest, there’d be no point in worrying about it either way. 
“It’ll be fine if we leave everything in good old Laim’s hands. There’s a good reason my father has kept him employed since he was young.” 
“I still can’t believe we ended up hiring the king’s old butler.” 
“I’m sure he expects great things from Touya.” Yumina sipped her tea as she spoke, matter-of-factly. Don’t make me feel any more pressure... 
“...I don’t believe we’d be able to handle it all on our own, so I’m very thankful we have such a capable butler in our service.” Linze mumbled as she plucked a cookie from the table and fed it to Kohaku, who was stretched out over her lap. She wasn’t wrong. He’d certainly be helping us a lot in the future. 
Hm? Did I just hear the sound of a carriage rolling up to the front gate? Have Lapis and the others returned already? Were there really so many bags that they needed a carriage? 
As I thought about it, Laim suddenly came out from the inside of the mansion. 
“Sir, we have visitors. It is the good Duke Ortlinde, and his daughter, young Lady Sue.” 
“Huh? Sue and the duke are here?!” Ah, my mansion has its first visitors already... I wondered what brought them here. 
 
Right after Laim announced the arrival of our visitors, Sue and her father appeared on the terrace. 
“Howdy neighbor. Nice to see your face around these parts.” Duke Ortlinde chuckled heartily as he spoke. Well, he says “neighbor,” but he lives in a district within the inner ring, and my place was way out on the outer ring. But, to be fair, it was definitely a lot closer than Reflet. 
“It’s been a while, Sue.” 
“Indeed it has, Yumi.” Yumina and Sue greeted each other quite politely. Oh yeah, I kind of forgot those two were cousins. But seeing them so close together, I noticed they looked pretty similar with their blonde hair. That being said, they were definitely far apart in terms of personality... 
“I must say, I was very surprised when I learned of your engagement to Touya, Yumi.” 
“Pretty sure the most surprised one was me...” In all honesty, I didn’t get it. I still had no idea how to process the situation. When they made it to the table on the terrace, Laim brought us all tea. Truly a butler of the highest caliber. 
“To be honest, I had intended to have Sue and Touya marry each other. Alas, it seems you beat me to it. You and my older brother, on the ball as usual!” 
“Oh, you planned such a thing for me, Father? Well, if it’s Touya, I don’t think I’d mind an arranged marriage at all. Spending my days with him would certainly be fun...” 
“Aha, I see. Well then, how about it, Touya? Would you like to marry my Sue along with Yumina?” 
“Hey now, let’s not get carried away. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t bully me so much.” Duke Ortlinde might just be joking, but I could see an unmistakably worrying sparkle in Sue’s eyes as she looked at me. I’d prefer not to let anything lead her to a misunderstanding... 
“Well, I’ll refrain from pressing the issue for today, at least. I actually have a favor to ask of you.” What do you mean by “for today”?! Ignoring my narrowed gaze, the duke continued talking. 
“We’ve actually decided to pursue a formal alliance with the Kingdom of Mismede. My intention is for the two kings to sit in conference together to hash out the details.” Ah, Mismede. The southern kingdom populated by beastmen. The country that the fox sisters, Olga and Arma, hail from. So they decided to form an alliance, after all... I was relieved. 
“Ideally, one of the kings would come to visit the other for the negotiations, but as you’d expect it’s a very dangerous task. There’s no guarantee either party would be safe from harm. Monsters could attack them on the road, or opportunists could stand in their way.” 
“...You need Touya’s [Gate], right?” 
“Correct you are. Cutting straight to the point as always, Linze.” The duke gave a little chuckle as he sipped at his tea. Well, it is true that you can move safely through use of the [Gate] spell, but still... 
“I can only travel to places I’ve been to before. Wait, don’t tell me...” I had a bad feeling all of a sudden. Quite a strong one, too. 
“That’s right. I need you to go to Mismede.” 
...Yep, that makes sense. I get it. I totally get it. It’s an extremely convenient spell. If not for the limitation of only being able to go to places I’ve personally been to before, I could have easily started up a massively successful express delivery service. 
“How long will it take to get to Mismede, anyway?” 
“Hm, about six days by carriage.” Huh, that’s actually shorter than I thought. 
“Well, six days to reach the Great Gau River, at least. From there it’d be another four days to reach the Kingdom of Mismede. Provided it all goes to plan, that is...” Ten days, then. That’s kind of a pain, actually... Give me a house and then send me off on a trip so I can’t even live in it?! I swear, these people... 
“I’m going to forward this quest to the guild, with the stipulation that your party be the ones to take the job. That way, you’ll be rewarded formally for your efforts and your guild rank will increase, too. I think you’ll find that agreeable, no?” 
Sly dog... you’ve already worked all this out. Well, to be fair, it’s a simple enough job. And hell, a little trip to another country might be nice. He has a point, too. It’s definitely convenient for us. To be honest, I’m interested in finding out what kind of place Mismede is, as well. 
“Well, it seems fair to me. I’ll take the job! What about you guys?” Everyone else nodded in approval. Seems like it was a no-brainer. 
“You have my thanks. The ambassador from Mismede will be returning home, so she’ll be escorting you around their capital.” 
“Oh, Olga’s returning home? What about her little sister, Arma?” 
“Ah, about that. The ambassador and her younger sister will be joining you on the trip, so you will also receive an armed cavalry escort.” Made sense to me. That was a little calming to hear, honestly. As I understood it, Mismede had more nature to it than Belfast. A dense jungle full of monsters, something like that... I wondered if it was going to be similar in climate to South America or Southeast Asia. 
I hope it’s an interesting place... Mismede, the little-explored kingdom of beastmen... Well, it was our destination, so we’d find out about it soon enough. 
“But... will going there be fine, will it?” 
“Hm? What’s wrong, Yae?” 
“If it’s known that you can use [Gate] over there, Touya-dono... Well, it’s a dangerous spell, is it not? You could go anywhere, any time, without having to tell anyone about it... What if they mark you for assassination as a dangerous person of interest...?” No need to say something so scary, Yae. 
That being said, I’ve been using it pretty much without reserve until now. You might tell me that, but nothing’s really about to change. 
But really, was such a thing possible? Well, even if it was, there was no way I could prevent people getting suspicious of me. 
“No, no. Don’t worry about such a thing. I confirmed it with Charlotte, you can’t use the [Gate] spell to go everywhere. Magical barriers can be erected to restrict travel via that kind of magic. They’ll surely know that as well, and thus all they have to do is take the necessary precautions.” The duke did his best to dispel Yae’s anxieties. 
“Is that right, Touya?” 
“...First I’ve heard of it.” Elze seemed exasperated at my reaction. I mean, when I first learned the [Gate] spell, all I knew about it was from what I’d read in that book! It’s not like I knew that it could transport me to a specific place with only the right details, you know?! 
“Even a small magical barrier should be enough to prevent it. For example, a weak barrier could be erected around the royal capital. With that in place, you’d be able to freely warp out of town, but warping back in would be an impossibility. Actually, Charlotte already erected a barrier around the castle. The only exception being the entry room Yumina selected.” Huh, she already took such a precaution? Well, despite her... unconventional appearance, she still was the court magician after all. Seemed she was less disorderly than I had initially thought. 
Well, if we really wanted we could still easily invade the castle through Yumina’s room. I wondered why they trusted me so much... Oh, it was probably because of Yumina’s Mystic Eyes. 
“...But if Touya entered the barrier, he could still open a [Gate] and allow troops to pour in through it, couldn’t he...? I think it would be better for all of us if they don’t know what Touya is capable of.” 
“Hmph... that’s a fair point. It’s better not to arouse suspicion if it can be avoided. Could you not infuse the [Gate] spell into an object like you did for Charlotte’s spectacles?” Oh, there was a thought. If I just used something like an enchanted mirror to act as a portal to facilitate the meeting, and then smashed it up afterward, they probably wouldn’t get suspicious of me. 
If I presented it as a case of “mirror A is connected to mirror B,” then it might be enough to avoid any worry. I’d have to create the second mirror by enchanting it once I reached Mismede, though. 
If I did something like that, they might not suspect that I could personally teleport myself. 
“Well then, now that that’s settled...” 
“Oh uh, let’s think... How about three days from now?” 
“Very well, then.” Hm, things are about to get even more hectic around here. We’ll have to prepare for the long road ahead. 
“Aww... I want to visit Mismede as well!” Sue enviously nibbled on her finger. Part of me hoped she wouldn’t ask to come with us. I felt bad for feeling that way, but I really didn’t want any more complications. 
“Since I’ll be able to warp back after my trip, I’ll bring you with me next time, Sue.” 
“Seriously?! Yay! You’re as amazing as always, Touya!” Sue leaned over the table, directing a big beaming smile right at me. That smile warmed my heart. I knew I had to be sure to keep my promise. 
We decided to discuss the finer details of the Mismede expedition. Our talk with the duke carried on long into the evening...