Chapter 152: Magic’s True Worth
The fifth day of staying in Kagura. Today too, I was greeted by the fresh morning air.
Just as Tori said last night, we’re going to leave Kagura on the seventh day, the day after tomorrow.
I heard that Toriela’s Company’s business discussion will mostly be finished today, so the Company’s members are leaving the ryokan as if they’re giving it one more push to complete it.
And so the duo of me and Roomba is now heading toward the shrine to meet with Haru and Shuichi from early morning.
We’re leaving early today so that Haru will not be angry at us because we’re late.
We left the ryokan and as we walked toward the residential area, Roomba says.
「So we’re going to go shopping tomorrow, so today is the last time that we’re really free, isn’t it? 」
「Yeah. That’s why, we have to say our farewell to Haru and Shuichi today」
「I seeー, it was fun but, it can’t be helped」
Roomba walks while putting both of his arms to the back of his head while muttering with a light tone.
He might say so, but when I look at Roomba’s face he doesn’t look that sad.
「You don’t look sad………」
「Well, I’m originally an adventurer who went traveling to various places after all. I’m used to meeting people and parting with them! I said that I’m not sad but I’m actually sad, but even though we are sad we can’t spend more time with the people we met there. That’s why, you should enjoy the time you have with the people you met to the fullest just as usual!」
Hearing such remarks from Roomba, I stopped walking unintentionally.
「Oh? Al, what‘s wrong?」
「……Roomba is saying something nice」
「Oi, what’s the meaning of that!?」
I mean, it’s Roomba you know? Roomba’s not the kind of person to say something nice like that, wasn’t he. At least, that’s the image of Roomba inside my mind.
「So Roomba was an adventurer who went to travel around, huh」
「I said that from the start, didn’t I」
Roomba and I continue to walk down the street while saying such things.
And before long, we finally arrived in front of the shrine’s stairs that we used day after day.
Even today, the stair is still at the steep slope with a lot of steps that it looks innumerable.
Just imagining myself climbing that stair alone makes me become out of breath.
Looking at the steps in front of me, I softly exhale, and turn to Roomba while raising both of my arms saying,
「……now, Roomba carry me」
「Oi oi, you climb by yourself today」
Roomba flatly denies my request.
「What are you saying. If I climb by myself, then there is no meaning in heading out early in the morning. Roomba can carry me while climbing up the stair quickly before Haru and Shuichi comes, right」
Today I woke up earlier than yesterday and left soon after I finished my breakfast.
It was something unthinkable for the usual me to not take a rest after a meal, but this is also so that Haru and Shuichi won’t tell me to climb the stair by myself.
If Roomba doesn’t carry me right now, then for what reason did I cut my break time and wake up early?
「When I thought back on the reason why we left the ryokan early, so that’s the reason, huh. Al, don’t you think you’re confusing the direction in which you put your effort?」
「It’s not. So come on, carry me quickly」
Denying me from my break time and waking me up early is unacceptable. And that brought all of my effort to waste.
So that’s why, I want you to carry me and climb the stairs before Haru and Shuichi arrived.
As I raise both of my arms and keenly approaches him, Roomba pointed at the top while smiling wryly.
「……that being said, those two are already looking at us from the top, y’know?」
「What did you say!?」
When I hurriedly look at the place Roomba pointed to, I can see Haru and Shuichi’s figures standing at the shrine on the top.
Perhaps Haru and Shuichi notices that I looked at them and,
「Alー! You have to climb by yourself today!」
「You have to climb the stairs by yourself if you're a man!」
their yells resounded from the top.
Gunununu, even though I got up earlier than usual, they have already stood there at the top. Your early-to-bed-early-to-wake-up habit is just too early, don’t you think.
「Gahaha, if I carry you now then Haru and Shuichi will get angry at me, right. It’s going to be a good exercise for you Al, so you climb it by yourself」
Roomba said that and started to calmly climb the stairs ahead of me when I’m gnashing my teeth.
Apparently, he’s really not going to help me today.
「Alー! Come on up quickly!」
As I’m staring at Roomba’s back who went before of me, Haru’s well-projected voice resounded from the top.
Haru and Shuichi told me to climb up by myself. However, they didn’t say anything about climbing with my own feet.
In that case, I will use magic here since it’s an all-purpose power that makes things easier. It should also probably be counted as a sort of my own strength. That shouldn’t be a wrong interpretation.
It’s time to test the magic I had been considering during our travel.
I had always been thinking about it during our travel. I thought, is there no magic that could somehow make you fly.
If you have that, you can even proceed through a large mountain without taking a detour, and you can also easily do your day-to-day activities much easier.
Like the magic I developed to escape from Eleonora-neesan, the one where I continuously made Shields with non-attribute magic in the air and walked on it. If you can use that, then walking in the air is possible.
But, that technique was unexpectedly quite difficult since it uses all of your nerves. The Shield had to be strong that it won’t break even when you put your whole body’s weight on it. And you have to deploy more Shields without a pause to the place where you wanted to go while keeping up the magic. While you had passed the Shield then it will still remain just like that and you will be conscious of them somewhat, and since it also consumes your magic power by remaining in the air, you have to cancel the magic.
It’s just the perfect magic to use just like when I used it to stare at the landscape of the royal capital, though it’s a bit unsuitable to use that magic as a means of movement.
I want something that will make it even easier for me to move mid-air.
And when I thought about it, the non-attributed magic Psychic catches my eyes.
It’s the magic to spread your own magic power into an inanimate object and freely manipulate it. If I can just control it then I can make it float and also move it.
But, a person’s body can’t be the target for this magic since they have magic inside them from the start. So, how about I try to ride on something inanimate that I had taken control of then?
That’s the aerial movement magic that I will try this time. It sounds grandiose, but it’s just me riding on top of an object that I’ve made to float in the air using Psychic magic, actually.
I think I’m going to try that this time.
Looking around the place, there is a large exposed rock on an unpaved slope near the stairs. The soils were probably got washed off by heavy rain or something and the hard rock that was in the ground probably appeared to the surface because of that.
When I found that, I proceed to remove the soil around the exposed rock using Earth magic. When the hardened soil is separated from the rock, I use Psychic again to permeate my magic into the rock.
After the rock has come under the control of my magic power, I pulled the large rock toward me.
「Un, now it has some space for me to sit on」
The rock is so big that even the seven years old-me can sit on it with room to spare. But if someone with a large build like Roomba were to do it then it will just barely fit him, I guess.
In any case, there will no longer be any problem with my ride with this. Just that, it’s a bit covered in dirt maybe because it had been partially buried in the ground before.
It wouldn’t be a problem for me to stand on it, but still, I don’t want it to look dirty.
With that in mind, I started to use Water magic to spray it on the rock.
Naturally, the soil that clings to the rock can’t simply be removed with a little bit of water. They’ve been sticking to the rock for quite some time and hardened.
So I put in more magic power to the magic to increase the pressure of the water sprayed on the rock.
Increasing the water pressure being sprayed, it made a different hissing sound *shaa* as they cut through the air.
The soils that stubbornly stuck to the rock are dropping quickly because of the fiercely released water.
It’s a recreation of my previous life’s power-washer. A method to remove stubborn dirt on cars and wall’s surface by releasing water with high water pressure on them.
Just by firing water, dirt are removed in an interesting manner. This pleasant feeling is so irresistible.
All the dirt on the rock started to fall off while I release the water with such intensity.
「That kid, what is he doing by digging out something like a rock?」
「What’s he doing? Is Al sulking because he doesn’t want to climb the stairs?」
I can hear the voice of Roomba - who had already finished climbing the stairs - and Haru coming from the top.
No no, I’m not doing something like sulking, allright.
I thought about that kind of thing while still washing the rock, then I felt that the edge of the rock had been slightly chipped.
So I reflexively turned the water spray away from the rock and examine it.
「……ahh, darn it. Guess the water pressure was too strong」
Looks like the strength of the water pressure was a bit too strong. There are some places on the rock where it had been gouged.
This is not good. If this continues, then the rock will be cracked because of the water pressure.
So I weaken the flow of my magic power to lower the water pressure and started to spray the rock again.
It doesn’t look like the rock will get shaved anymore even as I watch and sprayed it.
Seems like there won’t be any problem with this.
I thought that it would be nice if I can use this to scrub the walls of the mansion and My Home, but I need to practice using this magic a little bit more before doing that. It’s probably going to destroy the mansion or some house before I can clean them.
After cleaning the whole surface of the rock, I use Fire magic and Wind magic to remove the moisture from it.
The people at the top look like they will be impatient if I were to dry it slowly, so I climb the rock while it's half-dried.
Then I make the rock under my feet float with Psychic once again.
And when I lift the rock with more care than usual, the rock started to easily move off of the ground.
Along with a slight feeling of floating, my visual field increases along with the rock’s elevation.
It’s a simple task of floating the rock with Psychic. Different from the Aerial Movement magic using Shield, you don’t need to move, and you also don’t need to keep casting magic continuously.
It’s really easy for me to float in mid-air.
Ooh! I knew it, there’s nothing wrong with my idea.
This is definitely easier if you want to move around in mid-air.
You don’t need to take the trouble to walk to a distant place with this, you also don’t have to walk on the difficult mountain road.
When you don’t want to leave your futon in the morning, you can use this magic to move around in mid-air while still being wrapped in your futon. You can also move around in winter like this using the kotatsu.
This is surely the work of gods! It makes your life easier by letting you live as you wish. This is precisely magic’s true worth.
I started to climb the slope while having joyful look on my face.
I proceed diagonally upward in mid-air, and unexpectedly, the slope was a short one and I arrive at the top in the blink of an eye.
It feels like when you’re riding the ropeway.
「Sorry to keep you waiting. I climb the stairs by myself, see」
Haru, Shuichi, Roomba, and two unfamiliar men were staring at me with their mouths agape as I arrived at the top while saying that to them.
「「「You really didn’t want to climb the stairs that much?」」」
「Of course」
Author note :
It was the appearance of the Aerial magic, different from the book. (LN)
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