Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 11 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Life with the Greyrat Sisters 

A NOTHER MONTH had passed, and the weather was finally warming up. This would be the second summer I’d spent in Ranoa. 

Even at this time of year, it wasn’t exactly hot in this region. But people were starting to dress a little more lightly. The students at school switched to short-sleeved uniforms, which I didn’t mind one bit, and Aisha changed up her maid uniform as well. Sylphie even started wearing sleeveless shirts around the house. I didn’t remember her owning anything like that before, but I guess she’d purchased a few more outfits after moving in with me. 

I certainly wasn’t going to complain about her choosing to show some skin. The sight of those slender white shoulders made it a little harder to keep my hands to myself, though. Summer was a nice season, all right. And up here, you didn’t have any nasty multi-legged visitors scuttling into your house to nibble at your food either. 

The changing seasons reminded me that I hadn’t seen Badigadi around for some time now. Maybe he’d wandered off somewhere and forgotten to tell anyone. 

A few other things had changed over the course of this month. 

First of all, it seemed Norn had made a few friends. I’d noticed her moving around in a group of three girls and two boys, including some students from different classes. These were probably Norn’s first real friends. I wanted to introduce myself to them, so I’d asked her to bring them over to our house sometime, but she’d flatly rejected the idea. I guess she found the idea of introducing them to her family too embarrassing. 

On the bright side, it seemed the way I’d barged into her classroom apparently hadn’t caused her too much trouble after the fact. That was a bit of a relief. 

Norn and I were also getting along a little better, just in general. As a prime example, she’d recently asked me to tutor her in some of her subjects. I happily accepted, of course. I was ready to teach her all my secret techniques and everything I knew. But then I realized that if I spent too much time focusing on helping her, Aisha might get a little sulky over being left out. 

After thinking it over a little, I decided to meet Norn in the library after school for regular tutoring sessions and limit them to an hour per day. We could go over the things she’d learned that day and review what her classes would be covering tomorrow. That could make a big difference by itself. 

Norn was obviously trying hard to keep up, but she seemed to struggle with putting the theory from her textbooks into actual practice. That said, she wasn’t nearly as bad as Eris or Ghislaine had been. With consistent effort, I felt confident she’d get up to an average level in no time. 

“By the way, Ruijerd said he was from the Babynos area, right?” she asked me once. “I know you were in the Demon Continent for a while, Rudeus. Do you know where that is?” 

“Hmm. Not off the top of my head. I think he said it’s close to the Biegoya region, maybe? I’ve never been myself, though.” 

The two of us were on good enough terms now that we actually had some casual conversations during our study sessions. But for some reason, Norn mostly just wanted to discuss Ruijerd. I guess he was our main common interest. Not that I really minded, you know? I was actually happy to have someone else I could talk to about him. 

“I see… Sorry to keep pestering you, but what’s the Demon Continent like in general?” 

“Well, all the monsters that live there are really big. The culture’s pretty different, also…but it has some similarities with this region, actually. Most of the people there are just ordinary folks living ordinary lives.” 

I did notice that Norn still spoke to me a little stiffly. Her tone tended to be kind of overly polite, especially for a little sister talking to her own brother. Aisha and I had grown more informal with each other, but I guess Norn felt more comfortable this way for now. 

“Oh, that reminds me, Rudeus. Did Ruijerd ever tell you the story of his spear?” 

“Yeah, I’m never going to forget that one. Talk about a tear-jerker.” 

“Absolutely… I do hope he manages to realize his goal eventually.” 

“…Same here.” 

It was about time that I moved that particular project forward, wasn’t it? 

The general plan was to manufacture figurines of a Superd warrior and sell them bundled with a book. I hadn’t given up on it by any means, but Julie was still inexperienced and didn’t have much mana, so mass-producing figures wasn’t an option at present. 

Still, that didn’t mean I couldn’t get to work on a prototype, at least. 

The book was another matter. The main issue there had been finding the time to write. I’d spent many hours over the last few months learning Advanced Healing and Intermediate Detoxification magic. I was good at the brute memorization those subjects required, but they’d still kept me very busy. 

At this point, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to learn next. 

Moving on to Advanced Detoxification seemed logical, but there wasn’t anything else that really caught my interest. It wouldn’t hurt to get my Fire and Wind magic up to the Saintly level, but that tier of spells tended to involve dramatic manipulations of the climate, rather than more practical spells you might use on a regular basis. Learning new things was always nice, but I wanted to focus on something more useful. Maybe even a skill like horseback riding. 

As I was running the possibilities through my head, it occurred to me that I could take some of my newfound spare time and use it to work on my book about the Superd. I could probably get a little writing done during my sessions with Norn too. 

I was looking to write a frank, straightforward summary of the tribe’s tragic history. Prose wasn’t my strong point, but I could probably pull something together if I really put my mind to it. 

Or so I told myself at first. But when I found myself staring at that first blank piece of paper, I couldn’t even decide where to begin. 

Was it best to just write down the facts, like the script of a documentary? Would it be more readable in the form of a diary? I’d often heard it said that you were better off starting with a small project for your first piece of creative writing, rather than trying to draft an epic masterpiece right off the bat. Maybe I should make this a booklet, no longer than ten or so pages. It would be easier to hand that out with the figurines, anyway. 

If I went that route, it was probably best to keep it simple and light. I could make it into a basic good-versus-evil story, with Laplace revealed as the true villain. 

Wait…wasn’t Laplace considered a legendary hero on the Demon Continent, though? If I made him sound totally evil, I might piss a lot of people off. 

One afternoon, as I was struggling with these questions for the hundredth time, Norn peered over at my work. “What are you writing there, Rudeus?” 

“I’m trying to put together a book about Ruijerd’s past, actually. The problem is: I’m not sure how to approach the project.” 

“Hmm…” 

Her interest evidently piqued, Norn pulled my paper over and took a closer look. At the top was my working title: “The Tale of the Great Warrior Ruijerd and the Persecution of His People.” 

There was only about a page of actual text so far, mainly a quick outline of who Ruijerd was and what he was like. Of course, I was pretty biased, so he came out sounding kind of like a saintly hero. 

“Is this all you’ve got so far?” 

“Yeah, I haven’t made much progress yet.” 

The main issue was that I didn’t know where to start the actual story, or how to tell it. I still remembered Ruijerd’s tales of his people’s actions in the Laplace War, and I knew the basic story of their persecution afterward. Still, it had been several years since I heard these stories, so I was a little fuzzy on some of the fine details. In hindsight, I really should have taken some notes at the time. 

“W-would you mind letting me help out?” asked Norn tentatively. 

It was a very unexpected offer. But apparently, Ruijerd had made a habit of sitting my sister on his lap every night, patting her on the head, and telling her stories from his past. 

Not fair. I never got to sit on Ruijerd’s lap! Okay, wait. Let’s try to be an adult about this. 

“That would be a huge help, Norn. Just make sure you don’t neglect your studies, okay?” 

“All right!” 

From that day on, Norn and I started working on the project together. When she had a little extra time in between her lessons and her study sessions, she would use it to write down Ruijerd’s stories. Her writing was a little childish at times, and always had some rough spots. But for some reason, reading it made me remember Ruijerd so vividly that I often caught myself tearing up. It had a punch to it. 

The more I read of her writing, the more I started to feel like she might have some talent in this area. Again, I wasn’t exactly an unbiased observer—but you do tend to improve faster when you’re doing something you enjoy. If she kept at it long enough, maybe she’d blossom into a brilliant author someday. 

For the moment, though, I focused on fixing her minor mistakes and clumsy sentences. I was basically the team editor now. 

I had a feeling the book was going to turn out a lot better this way than if I tried to write it myself. 

While my relationship with Norn was beginning to improve, there had been a small development with Aisha too. For once, it had nothing to do with Norn. The two of them still weren’t especially friendly with each other, though Aisha was being careful not to insult her sister ever since I scolded her for it. She was always at least superficially polite when her sister came to visit. 

That actually concerned me a little bit. I didn’t want her to feel like she couldn’t express her real thoughts at all. I was happy that Norn was starting to warm up to me, but that didn’t mean I could neglect my relationship with Aisha either. And so I decided to give her permission to speak her mind. 

“You know, Aisha…if there’s something you want to say, you don’t have to bottle it up inside.” 

“Could you be more specific, Rudeus?” 

“Well, I don’t know. I’ve been spending a lot of time with Norn lately, right? Maybe you’re feeling a little attention-starved or something? Maybe you’ve been working too hard and need a vacation? Maybe you want to spend the whole day in bed?” 

Putting a finger to her chin, Aisha tilted her head to the side in puzzlement. Too cute. “You’re giving me permission to be selfish, then?” 

“That’s right. You can be a little selfish around me. There’s no need to hold back.” 

“Hmm…well! One thing does come to mind.” 

That mischievous smile on her face was setting off some alarm bells. What was she planning to demand? Hopefully not my body, even as a joke. I’d have to make up some excuse to refuse, and then she’d probably be sulky for a week. 

“I’d like a salary, please!” 

Well, that wasn’t what I’d been expecting. 

“A salary…?” 

Now that I thought about it, though, Aisha had been working diligently as our maid for some time now. If anything, it was strange that we weren’t paying her. But then again, we were family, right? She wasn’t an employee. 

Maybe we could think of it like an allowance, then. She was helping out around the house all day, so she wanted some extra pocket money. Fair enough. 

“Okay, we can do that.” 

I agreed to the general idea immediately, but we waited until Sylphie got back home to discuss the specifics. When I offered her a relatively large amount of money, though, she actually declined and tried to talk me down to a smaller figure. 

Talk about mature. Was this kid really only ten years old? 

In the end, we settled on a number we could all agree on. 

“Can I ask why you brought this up, though? Is there something you want to buy?” I had to admit I was curious about what had prompted this request. Aisha could buy whatever she wanted, of course, but it couldn’t hurt to know what that was. 

“Well, a girl has her needs.” 

Wow, that really clears things up. I was sort of hoping to hear what those needs are, kid… 

“Are you that curious, brother dear? All right, then. Why don’t you come along on my next shopping trip?” 

Ooh. That sounded like a date. A date with my little sister! What a lovely concept. 

I did let Sylphie know about our plans in advance. Unfortunately, she was going to be working that day. I felt slightly guilty about running around town with another girl while my wife was at the office, but it’s not cheating when it’s your little sister. 

What was Aisha planning to buy, though? Hopefully it wouldn’t be a muscular slave or something. I didn’t want some sweaty macho guy hanging around in my living room all the time, to be honest. It was bad enough having a giant six-armed monster randomly drop in for dinner… Not that he’d stopped by in months. 

On the day of our date, Aisha led me to the market and headed straight for a general goods store that sold all sorts of miscellaneous everyday products. The shelves were stuffed with knick-knacks, but there were no other customers to be seen. From the looks of things, they mainly sold secondhand goods. 

After browsing a little, Aisha bought three small flowerpots there. 

“What are you going to do with those?” I asked. “Drop them on the heads of any Demon Kings who happen to be passing by?” 

“Uh, no. I was just going to plant some flowers in them,” said Aisha, looking up at me bashfully. “As long as you don’t mind, of course.” 

There was only one possible way for me to reply to that. “Of course I don’t mind.” 

Still, I hadn’t really pictured Aisha as the flower girl type. I mainly thought of her as an energetic baby genius. In my mind, her hobbies were cleaning up, counting money, and balancing budgets. 

Growing plants was more of a slow, contemplative hobby. You had to let nature take its course, watching the results unfold over the course of weeks or months. And even a genius wasn’t going to be 100 percent successful at growing things. 

But maybe that was exactly why it appealed to her? She was used to being able to manipulate things to her liking. This would be partially out of her control. 

“Shouldn’t you buy some potting soil too, then?” I said. “The earth around here isn’t the most fertile, so it won’t be easy to grow flowers in it.” 

“I was going to ask you to make some for me with your magic, Rudeus. If you don’t mind?” She hit me with the pleading eyes again. There was only one possible reply. 

“Of course I don’t mind.” 

I was a man, after all. The idea of digging around in the dirt and sowing some seeds held a certain appeal for me. I’d have to whip her up some amazing soil later. The kind that lets you grow baobab trees from tulip seeds. 

“What kind of flowers were you thinking of planting?” 

“I collected a bunch of different seeds on the way up here, actually. I’ll use those.” 

“Those might not actually grow, just so you’re aware.” 

“Hmm. I think it’ll probably be okay.” 

The two of us puttered around in the store for a little longer, chatting about Aisha’s plans. I picked out a pair of earrings for Sylphie before we left—shaped like teardrops, with little blue stones in the center. These would definitely look good on her. 

“Is that a present for Sylphie?” 

“Yep. I’m the kind of man who doesn’t take his wife for granted.” 

“Sylphie is a lucky woman, all right. But when she’s busy, brother dear, maybe you could spare me a little love as well.” 

Oh, the upturned eyes again. As always, there was only one possible reply. 

“Not happening. The old man would beat me senseless.” 

“Darn…” 

We paid for our purchases and left the little store behind. 

Our next stop was a place that specialized in the sale of fabrics and furnishings. There were big rolls of handwoven cloth hanging all over the place. Princess Ariel had actually recommended this store to me a while ago, back when I was buying rugs for the house. They sold good-quality stuff at a wide range of prices and seemed to attract a broad clientele. I didn’t know how my sister had learned about it, though. 

Inside the store, Aisha quickly picked out some curtains. They were pink and frilly and were definitely the expensive side. 

When she took them up to the counter, though, she proceeded to haggle ruthlessly with the clerk. She dropped my name and Princess Ariel’s and used every single card she had to play. By the end, she’d managed to talk them down to an only moderately pricey figure. 

“Do you have enough to pay for those, Aisha? I can chip in a little if you want.” 

“That’s okay! I’ve got exactly enough.” 

Handing over the remainder of her allowance, Aisha completed her purchase. She’d used every coin of the money I’d given her. The girl had a real way with money. It was a little frightening, to be honest. 

“It’s a good idea to save a little bit of your pocket money for later, you know,” I warned as we left the store. “Unexpected expenses can pop out of nowhere.” 

Hell, you might get teleported to the Demon Continent for no apparent reason. 

Ever since that incident, I’d made a habit of hiding cash inside my clothes at all times. I even had a few bills in the soles of my shoes. 

“Okay! I’ll save a little next time!” 

Still, flowerpots and frilly pink curtains, huh? I really had taken Aisha for a little brainiac so far, but she clearly had a girly side. 

“I’ve always wanted a few cute things like these, you know,” she said. 

“What, Lilia wouldn’t buy them for you?” 

“Mom always said no. She thinks it’s wrong for a maid to decorate based on her personal tastes. I hope you don’t mind, Rudeus…” 

The girl wasn’t just clever; she was good at playing with your emotions. Not only had she wrapped her arms around my waist, she was looking up at me with Bambi eyes. I knew it was all an act, of course, but it was so cute, I couldn’t bring myself to care. 

There was only one possible reply, anyway. 

“It’s totally fine, Aisha.” 

Good thing I wasn’t a creepy old man or anything. I might have kidnapped her on the spot. 

In the weeks following this little date, Aisha’s room grew steadily more girly. She seemed to like cute, tiny things and kept finding small pots to plant small flowers in and lining up fist-sized dolls on her shelves. At some point, she even embroidered charming little designs on the hem of her apron. I was starting to get a little worried she might evolve into a gyaru if this kept going. 

Still, both of my sisters were doing well. I was content. 

Although she wasn’t my sister, Nanahoshi was finally getting her groove back too. In our last experiment, she’d managed to summon a plastic bottle. That bottle was currently sitting on the windowsill in her laboratory, serving as a vase for a single flower. With that success under our belts, we’d moved onto the second phase of her plan. 

“From this point on, we’ll be trying to summon organic matter from our old world,” she declared to me one afternoon. 

“Organic matter?” 

“That’s right. I was thinking we could start with food.” 

After my contribution to her recent success, Nanahoshi seemed a bit more inclined to trust me than before. She actually took the time to review the phases of her plan with me: 

Summon an inorganic object. 

Summon something composed of organic matter. 

Summon a living thing—a plant or small animal. 

Summon a living thing that fits certain specific criteria. 

Return a summoned living thing to its previous location. 

The plastic bottle we’d summoned previously might not technically be a fully inorganic object, depending on how you defined the term, but she didn’t seem to regard this as a major issue. 

“Hmm. Is that step with the specific criteria really that important?” 

“Well, I’d say so. When I’m teleporting myself back home, I don’t want to pop back out in a foreign country or something.” 

Basically, she wanted to get closer and closer to summoning something as complex as a human being and, at the very end, teleport herself back to Japan with pinpoint accuracy. Every step of the experiment was building up to that specific goal. 

At our current stage, she was already capable of setting some conditions on what she summoned, but these were fairly broad. The individual results would vary widely. For example, if she tried to summon a cat, she might get a tortoiseshell female house cat, a spotted tomcat, a tiger, or a panther. 

Her research right now was focused on finding ways to make her spells more precise. She wanted to be able to summon a house cat, not just a feline—and even specify the exact kind of house cat that she wanted. 

“Defining the conditions is quite tricky, though,” she muttered, more to herself than me. “I suppose I’ll have to go see the old man again at some point.” 

This old man was presumably the authority on summoning magic who she’d mentioned once or twice before. 

“Does this guy know a lot about this, uh, conditional summoning?” 

“Well…” 

Nanahoshi put her hand to her chin and thought for a moment, then nodded to herself and began to explain. “Let me elaborate a little. In this world, summoning magic is generally divided between fiend summoning and spirit summoning.” 

“Really?” 

Fiend summoning apparently referred to calling forth specific monsters. You’d summon an intelligent creature using a complex set of magic circles, pay it some form of compensation, and set it to work for you. This was the kind of summoning that people generally thought of when they used the word. 

Usually, this meant summoning garden-variety monsters of the kind you might encounter in the wild. It was also possible, however, to summon legendary beasts believed to reside in other worlds. Nor was fiend summoning limited to living things—it was possible to target inanimate objects, too. Nanahoshi producing that plastic bottle would technically be categorized as a fiend summoning spell. 

If I mastered this, I might be able to summon the panties Master Roxy was wearing! 

Spirit summoning, on the other hand, was a very different kind of technique. This actually involved creating artificial entities out of mana. Designing these spells was apparently similar to programming, in a way. 

“Just so you know, it’s best we don’t discuss that part openly,” she said. 

“Why?” 

“Most people think that spirits are living things that reside in the Barren World, and we’re just calling them to ours.” 

In other words, it was thought of as just another variation on fiend summoning. 

Fiends were harder to control, but they could think and act on their own, and they could adapt to unfamiliar circumstances. By contrast, spirits were quite easy to control but usually only acted in a few set patterns. That said, if you had the “programming” chops to build some very complex code, you might be able to craft a spirit that could pass for human. She’d seen some at the aforementioned old man’s place. 

“And on a slightly different note…here’s that magic circle I promised you earlier.” 

Nanahoshi handed me a scroll. There was a dense, complicated magic circle inscribed at its center, covering about half a page. 

“What is this?” 

“A summoning scroll for a lamplight spirit.” 

A lamplight spirit was a simple thing that would float along behind the summoner while emitting a bright light. It was capable of understanding simple commands like “light up that area,” but as time passed, its mana would dwindle until it disappeared. It was a very basic spirit, but if you used enough mana, it could stick around for a relatively long amount of time. 

It wasn’t the most exciting spell I’d ever learned. To be honest, I’d been expecting something a little flashier for my reward. 

“This magic circle is an original creation of that old man I keep talking about, by the way,” Nanahoshi said. “Not even the Magicians’ Guild knows about it.” 

“Huh? Really?” 

When I heard it was a limited-edition product, though, it suddenly seemed a lot more exciting. I guess I was still Japanese at heart. 

“Yeah. And I’ll get you something more impressive next time, okay? I promise.” 

Nanahoshi pressed her hands together in a pleading gesture. I hadn’t seen anyone do that in a long time. It made me a little nostalgic. 

“I think you should be able to use your earth magic to make a template of that design,” she said. “That way, you can print a whole bunch of copies. I’m sure the Magicians’ Guild would pay handsomely for them.” 

“You’re okay with me selling copies? Won’t the guy who made it get upset?” 

“Trust me, he’s got bigger things on his mind. I doubt he’d even care.” 

Hmm. Well, it was good to know you didn’t need to write out magic scrolls by hand every single time, at least. 

“If you do decide to sell them to the guild, make sure you mention my name,” she added. “That should ensure they don’t try to rip you off.” 

“Got it. Thanks.” 

I decided to file that idea away for now. It never hurt to have a potential source of income in your back pocket. 

In any case, the fact that these spirits were purely artificial was interesting. I felt like it might be relevant to Zanoba’s project. By combining different disciplines of magic, maybe we could make ourselves a robot capable of saying “hawawa” every time it got flustered. 

“Oh. By the way, Nanahoshi…if you can randomly summon objects from our old world now, isn’t there a chance we could bring over some really useful stuff?” 

It seemed like a decent idea on the face of it, but Nanahoshi shook her head. “At this stage, I’m only capable of summoning simple objects composed of a single consistent substance. Although I suppose that does give us a fairly wide range of possibilities.” 

A single consistent substance, huh? That explained why the plastic bottle hadn’t come with a cap or label. But if she got better at setting her conditions, maybe we could summon complex objects piece by piece and then put them back together. 

“Also, it’s not a great idea to pull too many things that belong in our old world into this one. I think I mentioned this before, didn’t I?” 

Oh, was she still worried about that whole “messing with the timeline” thing? 

“I feel like you’re being a little too paranoid about that, honestly…” I said. 

“You’re welcome to test that theory after I’m safely back home. I’d rather not take any chances.” 

Wow. Cold! 

Zanoba, meanwhile, had finally managed to finish up his red wyrm figurine the other day. It didn’t look exactly like the one I’d seen, what with the horns on its forehead and all…but it looked cool, and that was the most important thing. 

Julie was very happy with her belated present. She wasn’t the sort of kid who smiled a lot, but she spent quite some time holding the figurine up, oohing and aahing as she examined it from different angles. 

“Thank you very much, Master! Thank you, Grandmaster!” 

Turning around to face the two of us, she executed a slightly stiff but respectable bow. 

“You’re welcome,” Zanoba said with a lordly nod. “Keep up the hard work.” 

“Yes, sir!” she replied happily. 

Julie was speaking the Human Tongue much more fluently these days. It wasn’t because of anything I’d done, though. Ginger made a habit of correcting her whenever she slipped up, and you always learn faster when you have someone to point out your mistakes. 

“Aren’t you a lucky girl, Julie? Make sure you take good care of it,” Ginger said. 

“Yes! Thank you too, Miss Ginger.” 

Ginger was now a constant presence in Zanoba’s room. She usually kept herself positioned by the wall, stepping out to fetch drinks for Zanoba or see to the needs of his visitors. At the moment, she was renting an apartment in a building close to the University. I’d once asked her why she didn’t just move into the empty room for bodyguards next to Zanoba’s chambers, but she said it would be “presumptuous” of her to reside next door to the prince. 

Their arrangement felt less like a master/servant relationship and more like a very weird commuter marriage. Or maybe the bond between a cult leader and his most faithful disciple. The woman would probably cut her stomach open instantly if Zanoba ordered her to. 

“Did you need something, Rudeus?” 

“I was just wondering why you swore loyalty to Zanoba in the first place.” 

Ginger nodded at my abrupt question, looking rather pleased. “The prince’s mother asked me personally to take care of him. And I swore, in that moment, to devote myself to his service.” 

“Hmm. Well, that’s nice. Go on.” 

“What do you mean? That’s the story.” 

Wait, that’s it? That was enough to make you put up with all of this?! 

Then again, swearing an oath of fealty was probably serious business. If you were going to break that promise when you were treated poorly, you probably wouldn’t make it in the first place. I’d once read in some manga that feudal society was composed of a few natural-born sadists and a great number of masochists. Maybe Ginger just fell in that second category. 

When I thought of it that way, it made a little bit more sense…although the reality was probably something not quite as crude. 

Cliff was making progress with his research too. He’d recently completed his first prototype of a magical tool to suppress the symptoms of Elinalise’s curse. He announced this to me personally one day, looking even prouder of himself than usual. 

“Essentially, it forces in external mana to counteract the flow of internal mana. It’s not enough to eliminate the curse, but it slows it down.” 

He went on to explain the details in complex, technical language. A lot of it dealt with how he “aligned” the external mana with the “frequency” of the curse’s mana in a very specific way. He also spent a lot of time emphasizing his own brilliance, though, so I think I’ll omit that part. 

The bottom line was that he’d found a way to make Elinalise’s curse less severe. 

“However, there are two remaining problems,” he said. 

At this point in the conversation, Cliff finally let me see the device itself. It was a bulky loincloth of sorts—the kind of thing a sumo wrestler might wear. To be honest, I would have taken it for an adult diaper. 

“I see. Well, the most obvious issue would be that it’s not exactly fashionable.” 

“Indeed. I couldn’t ask Lise to walk around wearing this thing, of course.” 

The two of them had actually gotten into a fight about it—and they almost never fought. Elinalise had actually said she didn’t care how it looked, but Cliff stubbornly refused to give in. I guess he was too proud to bear the idea of making his girlfriend look ridiculous. 

They’d made up over the course of a single passionate night, incidentally. Their love was as nauseating as ever. 

“Zanoba and Silent volunteered to help me out, and we’ve developed a plan to miniaturize the device. I’d like to make it significantly more effective too. But I am a genius, so I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.” 

His ultimate goal was to make a device no larger than an ordinary pair of panties. It was hard to say if that was feasible, but if he did pull it off, maybe we could make a pair of gloves for Zanoba, too. It might give him a chance to make figurines with his own hands. 

Then again, I had a feeling he might just be naturally clumsy even without the super strength. 

“So, what’s the other problem you mentioned?” 

Cliff frowned. “That’s actually the reason why I called you here today, Rudeus.” 

“Oh?” 

“The thing is…the implement currently consumes far too much mana to be practical.” 

As I recalled, magical implements required someone to pump them full of mana before they could work. Less efficient ones weren’t considered especially useful for real-world applications. Ideally, Cliff wanted something that Elinalise could wear constantly, while consuming only as much mana as she could stand to spare. But right now, the device was so thirsty for power that Cliff couldn’t even keep it running for an hour. 

“We’re going to try to keep honing the design, but I could really use your help. Without you, we’d only be able to charge the thing up a few times a day.” 

“Ah, right. Okay, then. I’ll help out when I can.” 

Cliff considered himself a genius magician, and his mana capacity was certainly on the greater side. But even so, it wasn’t close to enough. This was exactly where I could come in handy. 

From that day on, I started to help out with Cliff’s experiments, too. 

Incidentally, the device did nothing to make Elinalise any less horny. 

*** 

Lately, I felt like my life had settled into a smooth and pleasant rhythm. 

I woke up in the morning, did my training, ate breakfast, and went to the University. I stopped by to see Zanoba and then Cliff, checking in on the progress of their research and occasionally offering some advice. After lunch, I headed over to help out Nanahoshi with her summoning experiments. And once classes ended, I took an hour to tutor Norn. 

On my way back home, I went grocery shopping with Sylphie, and Aisha greeted us at the front door. Sylphie and I took a bath together, and the three of us ate dinner. Then we practiced magic in the living room and talked about our days. 

After Aisha went to bed, I worked on the baby-making project with Sylphie, then fell into a sound sleep with my wife as my body pillow. Each day went much like the one before it, but I still felt like I was making steady progress toward my goals. 

Maybe this was what happiness felt like? 

It wasn’t something I’d gotten much of in my first try at life. But assuming Paul made it back safe and sound in a year or so, things should only get better from here.