Chapter 19:

Changing and Then Returning

After buying the coat, I went to a nearby restaurant and had a light meal, then went into the Magic shop “Luka”. Alma and the others weren’t there anymore.

I went into the shop and purchased a book related to non-attribute magic. In the case of the six attribute magic types one would purchase a magic book from a magic shop, learn the spell, practice it and make their own, however, non-attribute magic was individualized. So it wasn’t something like that.

However, it covered every unusual magic in the entire world, there were also things that looked like interesting magical incidents. This is, naturally, almost completely all non-attribute magic. This, to me, is invaluable.

Furthermore it wasn’t expensive. Well of course it wasn’t. It wasn’t a book to learn magic from but rather something to read solely for recreation.

Afterwards what remained was to buy souvenirs for Mika. I bought an a.s.sortment of cookies and decided to go back and meet up with everyone else. It was going to be dark soon.

「Ah, you’re finally here. You’re so slow!」

「Huh? Everyone else is early? It isn’t even time to meet up yet.”」

The wagon that was in front of the inn the three girls were sitting on, that had a considerable amount of luggage, was waiting. How much exactly did you buy?

「Oh-? What Touya, did you buy a coat?」

In a teasing tone, Elsie evaluates what I bought.

「Ah, this is a coat that’s enchanted with magic. It has all attribute attack magic reduction. It’s also blade-proof, heat-proof, cold-proof and abnormal effect-proof.」(TLN: The OP coat for Ops)

「All attribute reduction, that’s amazing….How much was it?」

「Eight gold coins」

「Expensive! …But when you think about the effect it’s not really that expensive, I guess.」

Apparently Elsie’s sense of the value of money is going mad.

Everyone gathered together, we climbed into the wagon and set off. Yae held the reigns while I was surrounded by girls; because the seating area was so small I had to sit behind Yae who was sitting in the driver’s box.

I could have used Gate from here and returned to Leaflet immediately. But I wanted to avoid standing out. So we took our time and left the Capital.

We didn’t show our medals so it was easy to leave the Capital. When we move to a distance that made the Capital look very small, I had Yae stop the wagon.

「What are you going to do in a place like this degozaru?」

Yae, who didn’t know about the gate, asked.

「We should come out on the highway just outside of town rather than in the middle of it.」

「Yeah that would probably be best」

While listening to what Elsie was saying, I concentrated on the magic growing in my hand while creating a mental image of the location.

「Gate」

A gate of light appears in front of us. It’s approximately the size of the wagon so it can go through.

「What–degozaru!? Is that!?」

「Yes, forward onward.」

Fl.u.s.tered, Yae moves the wagon forward in a hurry. On the other side of the gate, the sun was just setting behind the mountain on the west side of Leaflet.

「It’s convenient after. This magic」

「The wagon moved about 5 days distance in one moment」

「It can’t go to a place I’ve never been to at least once before, though」

「So, what, just happened degozaru!?」

Although we were relieved that we had returned, we looked at Yae who looked as though she still didn’t have a clue as to what had just happened.

Because it was almost dark, we decided to report back to Zanakku tomorrow.

We stopped the wagon in front of「The Silver Moon」and reported to Mika as soon as we entered the shop. It should be obvious but nothing changed at the “The Silver Moon” from when we left. However, when we opened the door there was one thing that was different from usual.

「Welcome. Are you staying the night?」

From the other side of the counter, opposite us, stood a solidly built, red mustached, man.

….Eh? Who?

「……Um….We’re staying here…… We returned from a job…」

「Ah, customers that are already staying? Sorry, I hadn’t seen you before.」

「Umm, where is Mika?」

「Huh? You guys are back? You were extremely quick」

Mika appeared from the kitchen still wearing an ap.r.o.n.

「Mika, who is this person?」

「Ah, you hadn’t met him yet. He’s my father. He switched places with me while you were away」

「I’m Doran. Nice to meet you」

I reflexively grabbed the hand that was stretched out before me. Their hair color certainly looked alike. There characters were similar as well, neither one bothered with the details. It was good that they didn’t have similar looking faces though.

Doran had gone south to buy spices. Around here you couldn’t get much more than salt and pepper. He’d bought enough of it for the other shops around town.

「Ah, then Doran, can I ask you for a room for this girl?」

「Sure thing」

I pushed Yae toward the counter. While she was handling the formalities, the rest of us carried our things up to our rooms. Elsie who had returned the wagon came back.

「Ah, Mika, here is a souvenir」

「Oh my, thank you. How was the Capital」

「It was huge. And there were a lot of people」

While accepting the cookie souvenir Mika asked laughingly.

Honestly we came back immediately. We weren’t even there a whole day. If we use the gate to go back, next time we’d spend more time looking around.

In celebration of a safe return, Mika treated us to dinner. Although, we ate quite a bit of what Mika had made, Yae ate several times what we did. She had bad fuel economy, good grief. Mika and Doran were amazed too.

After that only Yae had a food charge in addition to her room. For good reason.