Author’s Note: This is the second chapter of a two-part episode. Please take note.

While Merlin was expressing his grat.i.tude towards the male members of the research society and cried because of s.h.i.+n, what kind of situation was happening in the female bath?

“Ah… Melinda-sama, how amazing…”

“Really… Excuse me for being impolite, but if I’m not mistaken, you’re already over sixty?”

“I’ll be reaching seventy soon.”

“And to have such body… It’s foul play!~”

While the females were taking off their clothes in the bath house, they were astonished when they saw Melinda’s body.

Although she’s already over sixty, reaching seventy, her body doesn’t seem like that at all.

How was she able to maintain her body? The girls were all very interested, and when they looked at their own body, they found it even more unreasonable.

The person in question, Melinda, didn’t care much about those things and got into the hot springs to enjoy herself.

“Ahh… It penetrates deep into my flesh and bones…”

“You’re right… I seem to be unexpectedly tired.”

“Fufu, I’m glad to see that you’re all enjoying yourself.”

“This is good. The best~”

The girls were also tired from the long journey, but because Melinda was acting as their guardian, they didn’t make much of a fuss.

And after calming and settling down in the hot springs, they went towards Melinda.

Because she really wanted to hear about it by all means, Maria asked the question.

“Melinda-sama do you do anything different?”

“Hmm? I don’t really do anything different… Ah, but now that you mentioned it, s.h.i.+n said it’s good to move my body and created some exercise equipment.”

“Equipment?”

“Ah, that child usually makes really unthinkable things, but he also sometimes make convenient things.”

“Eh? In other words, it’s a magic tool?”

“Yeah, when you supply the equipment with magic power, it’ll start to move. There’s an equipment for walking or running on top of a belt, and there’s also a tool which increases the weight you lift little by little. And the effectiveness of those tools is beyond what nature would allow, one can immediately see results.”

“The effects can be seen immediately!?”

“Is that really true!?”

“Yeah, however, I don’t really know why. Thanks to that, my physical strength and endurance have increased recently. At this rate, I’ll be able to live until a hundred and fifty.”

Although Melinda said that jokingly, the other female students looked serious.

Especially Alice and Rin.

“Melinda-sama! Umm, is it possible for me to also try out those machines!?”

“I would also like to use it.”

Melinda looked at the body physique of the two people who made the request. And then she said words of despair.

“Although I don’t mind, but even though I said it would train one’s body, the chest portion won’t grow?”

“Eh?”

“Is that so?”

“Or rather, if the body moves too much, the chest portion will become smaller?”

“Wha—!?”

“So-something like that…!?”

Melinda’s words brought despair for two people.

With those words, those who were still interested asked questions.

“What do you mean by when one moves the body too much, one’s chest would become smaller?”

“Ah, I only heard it from s.h.i.+n, he said that when you exercise too much, your body fat will decrease?”

“Yes.”

“That’s right.”

“Meaning the meat over here will…”

It suddenly changed to a different topic.

“And so, because the chest is made up of body fat, so when one exercises their whole body, it seems to burn body fat.”

“Heehh~ Is that so?”

“In other words… If one exercise their body like Melinda-sama, we’ll end up having a great body like her!”

Is seems like for women, removing body fat is an everlasting project.

“All things considered… I wonder why s.h.i.+n would know of such things?”

“That’s right. Although I noticed this when we were learning how to imagine casting magic, but he really does know a lot of things.”

Maria and Sicily found something strange and asked Melinda.

“That’s right… Merlin also said that he’s the type of child who is curious about everything. Why does fire burn? Why does the wind blow? How is water made? Why does water turn into ice? What is the body made out of? In what way does it move? Those are the examples of the things he wanted to find out.”

Melinda began to talk about the nostalgic past.

“That child, ever since he was about the age of five, he has been running and hunting around the forest.”

“Fi-five years old!?”

“That is really unbelievable.”

“Give it up, because it is the truth. I was also really surprised. One day when s.h.i.+n was nowhere to be found, I asked Merlin about it and he said… ‘Isn’t he out hunting inside the forest?’ I immediately strangled Merlin because of that event.”

“Wha, ha, ha…”

And those who could easily imagine the situation happening had a bitter smile on their faces.

“Although that child had abnormally good memory ever since he was young, I still got worried about him. While I was thinking of whether or not I should go look for him, he had already returned.”

Melinda looked at everyone and said.

“He brought back what he had hunted, a forest rabbit and a deer.”

“A deer!?”

“Hunting a deer at five years old!?”

“Whoa… s.h.i.+n-kun is amazing…”

“No way…”

“How awesome. As expected of Walford-kun.”

At that moment, Melinda felt a little proud to hear her grandson being praised.

“I was also very surprised. In addition, because he took those out from his Extra-Dimensional Storage s.p.a.ce, I was even more astonished.”

When everyone heard that a five-year-old child was able to use Extra-Dimensional Storage s.p.a.ce, their voice wouldn’t come out.

While the girls continued being like that, Melinda continued her story.

“It was still fine if he just hunted those creatures since they only appeared during day time. It was after that… when he started experimenting various things inside the forest… Before I was aware of it, he has already turned into this state…”

Melinda blew out a sigh, and she seemed to be regretting giving s.h.i.+n the freedom to do anything he wanted inside the forest. Even though giving s.h.i.+n the freedom was all for the purpose of giving him some experience.

Everyone understood that the birth of s.h.i.+n’s various unusual magic occurred because he was given the freedom to play around inside the forest alone.

Because he had no one to compare himself with, he didn’t notice that what he was doing was abnormal.

“Did Merlin-sama not notice anything at all?”

“The guy who was the originator of acting rashly? Not only was he far from noticing, because s.h.i.+n can immediately learn magic, he taught s.h.i.+n magic one after another. There is no mistake, the ringleader of all this is that grandfather.”

For everyone to learn something so unexpected of the Magi-sama who is respected all over the world, all they could do was smile bitterly.

“However, since that situation led to us being able to cope with the current circ.u.mstances, I think that it is a good thing.”

“You’re right. Even in my wildest dreams, I never thought that people would do something like this.”

“Therefore, Melinda-sama, please do not mind it too much. s.h.i.+n-kun will surely become a hero that will save the world.”

Hearing Sicily’s words, Melinda turned to stare at her.

“You, as I thought, you’re a good child. I ask you to take care of s.h.i.+n from now on. Make sure you prevent him from making a mistake and going the wrong way.”

“Yes! Please leave it to me!”

Sicily responded to Melinda’s request.

“Now that I think about it, s.h.i.+n-kun can use an amazing healing magic, was that also self-taught?”

“Ah, it’s because he dismantled all the animals he hunted by himself. And then he studied and examined the structure of the bodies of those creatures.”

In the first place, knowing the structure of the human body is something one cannot even dream about knowing, and because he was able to think about it himself, they were thoroughly convinced.

“At any rate, it seems like I finally understood the reason why s.h.i.+n-kun’s magic is so abnormal.”

“He was left to play by himself, although the reason is a little forlorn.”

“That’s why I was worried about him not making any friends. Because he never had any friends…”

Everyone understood that the reason s.h.i.+n’s magic was so peculiar was because he didn’t have any friends or companions.

“And because of that, I’m really grateful to you all.”

“Melinda-sama?”

“That child never had any friends his age. He has always been surrounded by adults. Even though that child has always said that he was never lonely because he had us, but when I look at how s.h.i.+n is when he’s together with all of you… As I thought, he needed to have friends.”

Everyone kept quiet and listened to Melinda’s confession about her regrets on leaving s.h.i.+n alone to play by himself inside the forest.

“Therefore, knowing that everyone here is willing to be friends with s.h.i.+n, I am really pleased… Really, thank you very much.”

When she said that, she bowed to everyone.

“Melinda-sama, please raise your head. On the other hand, I very am happy knowing that I was able to meet s.h.i.+n-kun.”

“That’s right, or rather, it is us who should be pleased that s.h.i.+n-kun was willing to be friends with us.”

“Unn. Super lucky.”

“Rin-san, lucky is a little…”

“However, it is indeed us who are lucky, since the people who benefited the most from getting acquainted with Walford-kun is us.”

“Really, that is the fact in this case!”

“You guys…”

Melinda felt even more appreciative having heard the words of the girls. And so, to show her grat.i.tude, a proposal was made.

“Alright! Although we were going to devote ourselves to being your guardians, we weren’t intending to intervene. But now, I’ve decided that we will teach you!”

“Eh!? Melinda-sama and Merlin-sama will!?”

“Is that the truth!?”

“Yeah, but in exchange, I will be really strict, so prepare yourselves?”

“Yes” [All the female.]

“It’s exactly what I wanted.”

“Fufu, it looks like things are going to get interesting.”

Melinda laughed while saying, and although the girls were anxious, there was also expectations.