Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 13 - Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

Phase Four

SEVERAL DAYS after the graduation ceremony, I was back at work.

There was a large magic circle spread out before my eyes. At a glance, it almost looked like it was printed on a slab of stone.

The “slab,” however, was actually composed of over a hundred sheets of oversized paper stacked on top of each other. Each individual page was covered with another portion of the overall design. A wooden frame kept everything fixed snugly in place. There were magic circles carved into its surface, as well.

It was no exaggeration to call this thing a full-fledged magic implement. Obviously, its creation had taken a significant amount of time. I’d helped out when I could, but for the most part it was entirely Nanahoshi’s work.

“All right, then. Please begin.”

Nanahoshi was crouching across from me, looking down at her creation. Cliff and Zanoba flanked her on either side.

They’d been helping us out with this research for some time now, so I’d asked them to come observe whenever we were on the verge of a major breakthrough.

Nanahoshi had disliked the idea, but ultimately gave in when I argued that they’d earned the right to be here.

Of course, their presence wasn’t really a reward. They were here in case the experiment failed and Nanahoshi started thrashing around again. I wanted someone here to restrain her…and help me console her afterward, for that matter.

It was pretty effective to have someone of a different gender comfort you. Might not be a universal rule, but it was true in my experience, at least. We could take her out to a nice tavern and give her lots of attention. Bring out the expensive champagne, that sort of thing. The three of us weren’t exactly host club material, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

All that said, I was feeling confident about this one.

Cliff had given the design sketches his stamp of approval. And thanks to the Zaliff Prosthesis, Zanoba was growing increasingly good at executing this sort of detail work. I didn’t see any reason why we’d fail.

Here goes nothing…

“I’m beginning the mana feed…now.”

I placed my hand on the edge of the multi-layered magic circle.

“…”

As soon as I pushed a little mana into it, I felt the thing begin to suck more and more out of me.

It was no real surprise, but this thing was seriously greedy for power. I wasn’t sure anyone other than me could have satisfied it.

That did make sense, though. Sylphie had once told me that activating a single magic circle used about as much mana as casting an Advanced spell. This thing was composed of over a hundred of those circles.

Thanks to Cliff’s assistance, we’d managed to make our design significantly more efficient, so it wasn’t quite as thirsty as that might suggest…but it was still eating at least twenty times more mana than a normal magic circle would.

“It certainly takes a while,” muttered Cliff. “Maybe we can find a way to speed the—”

“Shh!” hissed Nanahoshi.

My mana pulsed steadily into the “tablet,” like blood pumping from a heart. And as I fed it more, it began to emit a noticeable glow.

Nothing felt off. The mana was flowing smoothly through our creation. Slowly, the glowing, intricate circles began to change in color. Yellow, orange, blue, white…the pattern was distinctive. And familiar. 

I’d seen flashes of light exactly like these right before the Displacement Incident.

Crap. Should I stop? This thing might teleport all four of us to the middle of nowhere.

And what if it’s a bigger-scale effect? Sylphie and Norn are on campus today, aren’t they? Wait, it might even take the entire city…and Lucie along with it…

On the other hand, it didn’t feel like anything too dramatic was about to happen. And the magic circles we’d designed weren’t capable of producing any such effects, anyway.

We’d done our homework here. I was positive we hadn’t screwed it up that badly. It just wasn’t possible.

Everything was going to be fine. This was going to work!

“…!”

The light grew stronger and stronger…and then collapsed into a single point. 

In that moment, I heard a small thunk.

My mana abruptly stopped flowing into the magic circle, and the circle stopped glowing as well.

“…”

There was something green sitting at the circle’s very center. Something green and black and round—about the size of a globe, but much juicier-looking. 

It was a watermelon.

“Looks like it worked.”

“Yesssss!!!”

Nanahoshi leapt to her feet and clutched her fists in triumph.

“Congratulations, Master Rudeus!”

“Well done, Nanahoshi!”

Zanoba and Cliff applauded. They looked almost as jubilant as she did.

“I must say, however…” 

Zanoba approached the watermelon curiously and gave it a few pokes.

“This green-and-black pattern strikes me as rather ominous. Would it be safe for me to hold the thing? It won’t bite, will it?”

“You’ll be fine, Zanoba. Just don’t drop it, please. They break more easily than you’d think.”

“All right… Oh! It’s rather heavy, I see.”

Picking up the watermelon, he proceeded to study it from many different angles.

Personally, I didn’t see anything “ominous” about it. Maybe green and black just wasn’t an appetizing color combination for the natives of this world. It would be bright red on the inside, but that might seem creepy in its own way.

Now that I thought about it, though…this world had plenty of oddly colored, strangely shaped vegetables in its own right. You could find a variety of gourds in any market. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were watermelons somewhere out there.

“Hey, Nanahoshi, I just had a thought…”

“Yes?”

“I know it’s a little late now, but shouldn’t we have summoned something like a Yubari melon instead? They had to selectively breed those things, so they definitely don’t exist in this world.”

“…Tell me something, Rudeus. Could you actually tell the difference between a normal melon and a specially bred one?”

Okay, she had a point there. I knew a Prince melon from a muskmelon, but that was about the extent of my expertise.

“In any case, we can’t be quite that selective yet,” Nanahoshi continued with a slight frown. “I was actually trying to summon a cabbage this time.”

This world did have a leafy vegetable very similar to cabbage. I had to wonder if we could have told a summoned cabbage apart from that local variety. I wasn’t a farmer or anything, and neither was Nanahoshi. Maybe the concept of summoning a vegetable had been flawed from the start.

“…”

Nah, it’s fine. We did an experiment based on a theoretical design, and we got the result we were expecting. This thing’s an authentic watermelon. We can’t prove where it came from exactly, but it’s here because we summoned it. A watermelon’s a watermelon, right? I’m willing to call that a success.

“Hrm. Well, given that the experiment succeeded, I suppose we should celebrate tonight.”

Zanoba seemed to have already lost interest in the melon itself. No surprise there, since it wasn’t a figurine.

“Yeah, sounds good.”

Badigadi, Linia, and Pursena weren’t around anymore. Our parties had gotten a bit less lively in their absence. Couldn’t let that stop us from enjoying ourselves, though.

That evening, we held a nice little celebration. We’d lost Linia and Pursena since last time, but this time Roxy and Norn joined in. In a net numbers sense, we were only down one six-armed Demon King.

It wasn’t exactly the same, of course. There were fewer people squawking loudly, and more members of my family. Not that it was really a problem.

Nanahoshi was drinking like a fish. Before long, she started squeezing Julie in her arms like a doll, while chatting with Elinalise about something or other. For once, her expression was cheerful, and she was speaking loudly.

That was definitely unusual. The girl’s standard mode of communication was a sullen murmur, after all. The success of today’s experiment had her in a very good mood. 

Elinalise listened to her chattering with a benevolent smile on her face. Zanoba and Cliff had struck up a separate conversation with Roxy. Judging from their serious expressions, it was probably about their research. Those three were workaholics, after all.

“Here you go, Rudy.”

“Ah. Thanks.”

Sylphie had parked herself next to me, and was mostly just refilling my glass every time it got low.

“Are you not drinking tonight, Sylphie?”

“Well, I get a little silly when I’m tipsy, you know? I was thinking I’d abstain.”

“…Oh. Gotcha.”

“We’re not staying out tonight, after all. I want to make sure I can put Lucie to bed.”

“Yeah, I totally understand.”

That was kind of a shame, though. Sylphie was really cute when she got drunk. She got incredibly affectionate when her inhibitions came down. On the other hand, the whole “being responsible” thing was appealing in its own way. I had a good wife on my hands here. 

The two of us proceeded to engage in some mild public displays of affection. And after a while, Roxy came over to join us. 

“Would you mind letting me participate as well, Rudy?”

“In what?”

“Just pull back your chair a little, please.”

When I did so, she hopped right into my lap. All of a sudden, I had the back of Roxy’s neck right before my eyes, and her bottom pressing on my thighs. How splendid! What bliss! 

It did feel a little…over the line, though.

“Are you drunk, Roxy?” asked Sylphie with a small, amused smile. 

“Just a little.”

On closer examination, Roxy’s face was a bit flushed. This was strange. As a general rule, she didn’t drink much alcohol. Hmm. Was this my chance to see her lose her self-control?

“Phew…”

Roxy leaned back to rest on my chest. I could feel the weight of her body, and hear the beating of her heart. 

Oh wow. I could totally see down her robe if I pulled it out a little…

Okay, I really want to. Should I go for it? Wait, maybe I should wait until she’s even drunker.

“Oh, that looks kind of nice… Hmm. Rudy, let me try it later, okay?”

“Of course, Sylphie.”

In fact, I was more than willing to let them both on my lap at once. Let’s see… I could give my left knee to Roxy and my right to Sylphie. Those were the sides they’d taken in bed the other night, as I recalled.

Man, it was so nice when I got to put my arms around both of them at once. Made me feel like I was drowning in happiness.

“…Rudeus?”

Hmm. Norn appeared to be glaring at me from the other side of the table.

Right, right. I shouldn’t have been neglecting her like this. She didn’t know most of the people in this group very well. None of them were strangers to her, but holding a conversation would probably be hard. She’d just been sitting quietly across from me for some time now.

“Sorry, Norn. Is this too awkward for you?”

“No, I’m fine. There’s something I wanted to discuss with you, though. If you don’t mind.”

“Sure. What’s up?”

I deposited Roxy on the empty chair next to me, then turned my attention back to my little sister.

“Well…it’s about the Student Council.”

“Oh, right. I was wondering about that.”

On the day of the graduation ceremony, Norn had been sitting in the last seat of the Council’s section. And when our eyes met, she’d looked away uncomfortably.

“Miss Ariel invited me to join. She knows my grades aren’t particularly good, but she thinks I have ‘natural charisma,’ I guess.”

“No kidding… Did you know about this, Sylphie?”

“Yeah, I’d heard,” Sylphie said with a small nod.

I glanced over at Roxy as well, but she avoided my gaze. Apparently I was the only one who hadn’t heard about this yet.

“Sorry about that. Norn said she wanted to tell you herself, so we kept it to ourselves.”

“Ah, okay.”

It wasn’t that big a deal, but Sylphie looked genuinely apologetic. Maybe part of the reason she’d stayed sober was to help Norn out with this conversation.

Her expression a bit uncertain, Norn picked up where she’d left off. “Um, Rudeus? Would it be all right if I officially joined the Student Council?”

I reflexively wanted to say “Of course,” but stopped myself at the last moment. Right now, Norn had two major projects on her plate: our training with the sword, and her work on that book.

The latter wasn’t an urgent priority. It was the sort of thing she could chip away at once a week or so, and I wouldn’t have minded if she decided to just put it on hold for a couple years. But her training was something she needed to keep at every single day. 

At a bare minimum, she needed to do her schoolwork and practice with the sword on a daily basis. If we added Student Council activities to that list, would she be capable of keeping up?

Norn wasn’t a bad student by any means, but she wasn’t particularly gifted, either. I wasn’t sure how well she’d do with juggling three or four distinct responsibilities.

“Tell me something, Norn.”

“Yes?”

“Do you think you can handle doing all these different things at once?”

Norn bit her lip and fell silent. It was probably something she’d been worrying about herself.

“I’m not opposed to you joining the Student Council or anything. I’m just wondering if you’ll be able to give it enough of your attention.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Okay. But you’ve got your sword practice and your book to work on too, right? And those were both things you wanted to do. I mean, the book was originally my job, so it’s not that big a deal…but what about your training? Your classes will be getting tougher as a third-year, too.”

“I’ll keep up with my classes. And my training. I promise.”

Well, she talked a good game, at least. But I knew from experience that it was difficult to focus on too many things at once. When you tried to do two tasks simultaneously, one of them inevitably wound up being neglected.

At this point, Sylphie intervened, looking a bit concerned. “Um, Rudy…Norn’s been handling things very well so far.”

That was definitely good to hear. But what was going to happen if she kept this up for months? What if the pressure got to be too much for her?

“How long has she been helping out at the Council, anyway?”

“It’s been…over a year now, actually. I think it started while you were away on your journey.”

“Wait, really? Huh. That’s a pretty long time…” That would mean she’d started this before we began our sword training together, even.

“It’s going be okay, Rudy. I’ll vouch for that. Norn will be just fine as a member of the Student Council, and she won’t neglect any of her other responsibilities, either.”

I was surprised by the firmness of Sylphie’s tone. But then again, she had good justification for her confidence. Norn was already managing to do all of this at once. I didn’t see any reason to keep playing the devil’s advocate.

“Well, wow… Sure sounds like you’ve been working hard, Norn.”

It made me really happy to know that she was out there trying her best, even when I wasn’t around to keep an eye on her. There was this…feeling in my chest that I couldn’t find the words to describe. Warm and fuzzy, maybe?

“Okay then. I’m not sure you really needed my permission in the first place, but for what it’s worth, you’ve got it. Good luck with the Student Council, Norn.”

“Thank you, Rudeus!” said Norn cheerfully. “I really appreciate it!”

In the end, it was all up to her how this turned out. Still, the grown-ups in her life had the responsibility to support her and cheer her on. I was more than willing to break out the pom-poms for her.

Just as our conversation came to an end, Nanahoshi raised her voice from the other end of the table. “Let’s split the watermelon!”

We proceeded to divide up the watermelon we’d summoned, and served a big slice to everyone at the party. It was slightly less sweet and juicy than those I remembered from my last life. Probably one of those California ones.

Putting its taste aside, we did discover something interesting in the process of splitting it: It was a seedless variety.

Agricultural techniques in this world weren’t sophisticated enough to produce anything like that. In other words, the experiment had been a success beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The party had reached its climax…or maybe passed it, actually.

Nanahoshi was singing. Norn was dancing. Zanoba was blathering at Julie about figurines. Sylphie was looking after Roxy, who’d gotten very drunk. And Cliff was making out with Elinalise in a corner.

Everyone was feeling some fatigue, but it was the pleasant kind you get near the end of a fun night out. For my part, I was leaning back in my chair and smiling drunkenly at the others.

“…Hey, Rudeus.”

Nanahoshi had wandered over to me, having finished up her song. She started to say something to me, but then broke down coughing. 

The girl didn’t look too hot in general. Probably because she’d been drinking heavily while nursing a nasty cold.

“Want me to detox you?”

“…Yes, please.”

After I threw a few Detoxification and Healing spells on her, Nanahoshi got a little color back in her cheeks. Looking a bit relieved, she let out a little sigh.

“Anyway, I wanted to thank you again. Now we can finally move on to the next phase.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

I’d started Nanahoshi with this project for a good three years ago, come to think of it. Almost felt like it was yesterday.

Compared to phase one, we’d pushed through phrase two and three relatively easily. 

That was partially because Zanoba and Cliff were helping out now. But even so, things were going much better than I’d expected at the start.

“Phase four was…summoning a living thing that meets specific criteria, right?”

“That’s correct. I know someone who’s very knowledgeable about this part, so I’m planning to ask him for guidance.”

Ah, right. It had to be that “authority” on Summoning magic she mentioned every once in a while…

“It’s not Orsted, is it?”

“No, it isn’t. He can use Summoning magic as well, but this is someone else entirely.”

That was a relief.

It figured that Orsted could use Summoning magic, though. Was there anything that guy couldn’t do?

Oh, right. The Man-God did say he was capable of using every known technique in the world, didn’t he…?

Still, there was presumably a difference between being “capable” of using a spell and being an expert on an entire field of magic. To invent new things, you needed a different set of skills.

“On that note, I have a proposal for you.”

“Oh? What would that be?”

“Well…I haven’t given you a reward for helping out with the bottle-cap experiment yet, right?”

“Yeah, I guess not.”

It had slipped my mind to ask her for something, actually. I’d been very busy looking after Lucie back then.

I guess people get a little less greedy when they’re feeling content with life.

“I was thinking I could introduce you to the man I’m talking about, as a combined reward for both phases.”

“Oh. Hmm…”

“I know you want to learn a different kind of Summoning magic. To be honest, I think you’re better off learning from someone like him directly.”

Well, yeah. I didn’t really need to learn how to summon things from another world, which was the focus of Nanahoshi’s research. 

It might be convenient at times, of course. I wouldn’t mind summoning a baby bottle or a stroller for my kid. But stuff like that was more of a luxury than something I really needed. I was satisfied with my life the way it was.

I did have some interest in learning more conventional Summoning spells. I couldn’t imagine myself needing those very often either, so it was mostly a matter of personal curiosity.

I was also interested in figuring out why the Displacement Incident had taken place. But again, I didn’t feel a burning need to find those answers.

“This would count as two rewards, though? Is this guy that incredible at what he does?”

“Absolutely. He might even be capable of fixing your mother’s memory, for that matter.”

“Wait, what?” I reflexively leaned forward in my chair at that one.

Norn drew in closer as well. She must have overheard. 

“Is that true, Nanahoshi?” I asked.

“I can’t say for sure, but the man’s been alive for a very long time. There’s a good chance he knows something useful.”

I felt like Zenith’s condition had been steadily improving, but it was very hard to tell if her memories were ever going to fully return.

I didn’t want to get my hopes up for a quick fix. Still, there was a chance this man could give us a name for her condition, or describe some similar cases. In combination with my knowledge from my previous life, it might point us toward some new possibilities.

It wasn’t like I’d learned much about this sort of thing back in my old world, but there was still a chance I’d recall something useful.

“Ah, are we discussing Lady Nanahoshi’s master?”

“I’d love to meet the man myself, if you’re open to the idea…”

At some point, Cliff and Zanoba had also approached to listen in on our conversation. 

Elinalise was standing from just behind Cliff, as well. However, she was busy playing with his ears. I wasn’t sure what the appeal was, but she seemed to be enjoying herself.

“Well…you two did help out as well, so I suppose it’s fine.”

Nanahoshi looked a little conflicted about this development. I seemed to remember that she wasn’t too comfortable even saying the man’s name, so that made sense.

“Oh, I’m kind of interested too,” said Sylphie, leaning over to join in. 

Roxy didn’t follow, but only because she was lying across a couple chairs and snoring.

Norn was sitting next to her, a bit away from the rest of us, but she was looking this way. It was hard to tell if she was interested in this outing or not.

If everyone decided to join in, we’d be looking at a group of seven, including Nanahoshi.

“Is it okay for us to show up with a big group, Nanahoshi? Won’t we be a nuisance?”

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” she replied in a resigned tone of voice. “The old man said he can accommodate up to twelve guests at any time. It shouldn’t be a problem for everyone to come along.”

At the very least, it sounded like Cliff and Zanoba were in. Nanahoshi was obviously willing. But I wasn’t so sure about the idea just yet.

“Isn’t it going to take some time to go see this guy, though?”

How many months of travelling were we talking about here? Maybe we could shave some time off the journey with those ancient teleportation circles…but even getting out to the nearest one required five days on the road.

At bare minimum, that was a ten-day round trip, and there was probably more travel waiting on the other side, so I had to assume we were looking at a month or more. I didn’t want to leave Lucie on her own for that long.

“Not particularly. It won’t take more than a single day of travel, in fact.”

“Whoa, he’s right in the neighborhood, huh? Do you drop in on him sometimes or what?”

That was a two-day round trip, then. We could stay over for a few days and still make it back in a week. Given how short the trip was, maybe we could even bring Lucie along.

“He’s not in the neighborhood, and I haven’t seen him in some time. But there’s a way for us to get to him.”

Interesting. Did she communicate with him using a magic item or something? I’d never seen the magical equivalent of a telephone, but given that teleporters existed, there was probably some method of long-distance communication as well.

I got the sense that sending messages would take a fair amount of time, but maybe they’d worked out some sort of basic signaling system in advance—something like a magical flare gun.

“Okay, then. So what’s the man’s name, anyway?”

Nanahoshi furrowed her brow and looked around the tavern. There were plenty of other customers in the place, so she signaled to us to bring our heads in close. We all gathered in a tight little circle, and leaned in curiously to listen.

“I’d like you all to keep this to yourselves, please. Is that all right?”

Nanahoshi waited until all of us had nodded, and then continued quietly.

“It’s Perugius. The Armored Dragon King.”

She’d spoken the name of a legendary hero—one of the three Godslayers, and the man who’d guided humanity to victory in the Laplace War four hundred years ago.