The next day, due to various reasons, we returned to the duke’s house before noon.
On contrary with a lot of thoughts on our minds, there wasn’t much we can do. In the end, a person’s home belongs to the person itself, and you can’t do anything about a monster that couldn’t find.
I don’t matter how many problems we could see; we could only do what we can.
Fortunately, the monster’s presence disappeared as soon as morning came, so at least we could put that matter to rest, for now.
I arrived at the guest room I was being allowed to use and put the lavender flowers James had given me into a teacup filled with water.
I hadn’t expected to receive lavender from the Grand Wife as well. Seeing the girlish decorated sachet she gave me, made it hard for me to give anything back.
I thought I should at least wrap it with a ribbon, but I don’t have any. I’ll have to go buy some later.
The scent of lavender made me feel sleepy all over again. Come to think of it, I hadn’t slept much last night.
–I’m going to get some sleep.
I rolled over in bed, closed my eyes, and immediately fell asleep.
I don’t know how long I slept, but I was awakened by a knock at the door. Still, in a daze, I opened the door and saw my brother-in-law (to be), Chris.
“I’m sorry, I was going to invite you for our usual thing… were you asleep?”
“No, I wasn’t.”
That’s a lie. I was sleeping like a baby.
But I hate it when people worry about me, so I’ll pretend I was not. It also because Chris is an interesting person to play with.
In the beginning, he’d get scared and hide like a cat in someone’s house, when he saw my face, but he got used to me as we saw each other every day, he even invites me to play with him when he can.
“So, is that so? But if you’re sleepy, you can continue to res …”
“I’m not sleepy. Really.”
The fact is I starting to wake up.
Felt refreshed, Chris and I went to the salon.
We could do our play in the guest room, though. But it’s better to use it in a big space.
Personally, I think it would be better outside, but Chris doesn’t want to be exposed to the sun too much. So, we use the salon.
After this is over, I’ll go buy some ribbons.
“What would you like to choose today, brother-in-law? I’ve already decided mine.”
When we entered the salon, my brother-in-law immediately made an excited face and pressed me for a choice. By the way, Chris has never called me by my name yet. He always calls me [Brother-in-law.]
He may speak like a stranger to me, but he acknowledges me as a member of his family, so I’m sure that’s just his nature.
Instead, I call him Chris in a friendly way. Someday I hope he’ll call me Hayato when the time comes, we will celebrate it by drinking together. I’m not much of a drinker, though.
“Then, let me choose Thunder.”
Chris nodded and placed a model of a dragon with the attribute of lightning in front of me.
Then he put a model of a dragon with the attribute of fire in front of himself.
“I’m fire.”
I knew it.
Chris tends to choose the attribute of Lav.
What we were going to do right now is what we called a [dragon showdown].
It’s a game in which we play with a toy dragon he made as a hobby, which can be moved freely using magic power.
I’ve heard before that it was Alice’s idea to make Lav’s prosthetic hand based on this toy. I really can’t thank you two enough. I already decided that I’m going to follow the people in this house for the rest of my life.
Looking back, this dragon can only walk and flapping its wings, at first. But it has been improved over time and now it can use magic breath, although it is not very powerful. It can even fly in the air.
It can even be moved and even fly. How could it not be fun?
The rules are simple. The first one to hit the target ten times wins, that’s it.
–But it’s shiny as always, isn’t it?
With all the expensive materials used, I can’t help but accept that this is the hobby fitting for Duke’s heir.
Look at this, for example, the lightning dragon I chose has its entire body covered in silver scales, its eyes are embedded with a yellow gemstone – canary tourmaline and its claws and fangs are carved from the claws of a real lightning dragon (which are dropped when you kill one).
The core of the body is said to be made of mithril silver, but I still don’t know the significance of using it in the invisible parts.
Nevertheless, I honestly envy the environment that allows people to pour so much passion and financial resources into toys.
“Then, let’s get started,” Chris said, and held up his hand to the model, passing his magic through it.
This is called [synchronization]. It’s said that by doing synchronizing, the magic power can reach the model even if it’s separated some distance away.
I once asked him why he didn’t use this technology for her housekeeping tools, he said, “The material to put this in is too expensive to be mass-produced”.
Anyway, I also held my hand over the lightning dragon to synchronize with it.
Then the canary tourmaline’s eyes glowed slightly, and it radiated life force as if it were alive. At the same time, a ward was automatically created, covering the furnishings in the room to prevent them from being damaged.
It’s always amazing to see the power of a magical tool that can deploy multiple spells at the same time just by passing magic power through it.
I wonder how they do it, but I have my theory.
“Huh? Chris, did you tweak the numbers again?”
When I said that, Chris just smiled bitterly, neither confirming nor denying it. It could be taken as either a hit or a miss, but I don’t think I was actually that far off.
If the magic can be used by anyone at any time with the same level of power, it is absolutely necessary to adjust the output.
From what I’ve seen Alice do and said when she’s made or modified magical tools so far, I knew that adjustments didn’t mean tweaking the structure or replacing parts.
If so, I wonder if there is a numerical designation. When magic power is converted into magic, it uses numbers. But I guess numbers aren’t the only way to control the magic, so there must be some other symbols used.
In other words, Stuart’s unique technology that gives magic to matter is “letters”. The letters themselves become magic.
That’s the hypothesis I came up with.
Even people who don’t have a lot of magic power can use magic tools for a long time.
This is because the amount of magic power needed to use magic is reduced by tweaking the numbers – no, if you relate the three elements of numbers, magic power, and materials, it makes more sense to increase the magic power than to reduce it.
The numbers amplify the magic power as it passes through the material.
By combining symbols and formulas, we can use a variety of magic with very little magic power.
If my hypothesis is right, it’s amazing.
I mean, anything is possible.
I think the dukes are right in hiding their manufacturing methods and insisting that they can’t use them to make weapons.
I’m sure many people have tried similar methods in the past, but Stuart was the only one who succeeded – is it because magic is a power that the goddess originally shared with this world? I’m sure this is also the result of her whim.
After all, the gods were selfish and capricious.
–What was that?
I don’t know any gods other than Minerva, and I’ve never evaluated her as selfish or capricious, and I was talking like I know her personally.
I feel a bit strange lately.
I don’t know, maybe I’m just tired from all the changes in my environment.
I’ve heard that if you don’t move your body and do nothing but think, your puberty will worsen, so maybe that’s the reason. {he thought he had chuunibyou}
I’ve been studying a lot lately.
I took my mind off it and concentrated on operating the model.
They’re some kind of feeling that was stuck in my mind, but I decided to ignore it for now.
My lightning dragon circled in the air to avoid the fireballs released by Chris’s flame dragon.
It passed through a number of fireballs and rushed at the flame dragon, turning sharply to strike its tail. I hit it with a lightning strike at the same time, and I’m ahead by two points.
“Brother-in-law, you need to go easy on me.”
“I don’t want to. Chris, if I’m not careful, you’ll try to set me up.”
Yes, Chris is strong. So far, the winning ratio is about 50-50.
Right now, my most tricky opponents are Alice and Chris. I’m somehow no match for these two in many ways.
I also cannot hope to handle the duke but on a different feeling. He’s almost like a father to me and I don’t want to win in the first place.
A buzz of lightning and a wall of flame rose up. Two dragons fly through the air and collide with each other.
In this confrontation between lightning and flame, I won by six-point out of ten.
“I lost! dammit!”
Chris, who had landed his dragon and released the synchronization, rolled on his back on the sofa and flapped his legs.
“That was fun. Thank you very much.”
I also landed my dragon, desynchronized it, and moistened my throat with the tea the maid brought me. Chris did the same, picked up a cup, drank it in one gulp, and stood up.
Then he sat down on the piano chair and started to play it. Whenever he loses, Chris is the kind of person who relieves his frustration by banging on the piano. I always think he has a good upbringing.
By the way, he’s really good at the piano. He plays it much more accurately than I do. I tend to do things that aren’t in the score for some songs, but Chris is the type who can reproduce the score accurately.
He never misses a beat, and he rarely did a mistouch. I think this is what composers consider an ideal player.
As I was thinking about the difference in education, Chris started talking.
“I only have my brother-in-law as an opponent. I want to practice the controls, but I don’t really feel like playing alone. …brother-in-law is the only one I can play against.”
“What about Luke?”
“Luke…, is someone I can’t hope to understand. He’s more interested in playing with girls than toys.”
“Ah…”
Yeah, that’s true. That’s true.
“That’s why my brother-in-law is the only one who will go along with this game …Why can’t people see the romance in this? I think it’s a dream come true to fight as a dragon.”
“I think so, too. How about we deepen the degree to which we can pretend to be something other than what we are? I think Alice and the others will find it interesting that way, for example, you could synchronize your eyes with the dragon’s eyes.”
“That would definitely be interesting, though. …I think it would probably put too much strain on the user’s brain to process his or her own vision and the dragon’s vision at the same time. It’s not like you can just close your eyes and disable your sight.”
“I see…”
“Besides, if you can see the same thing as a dragon that can move its arms and legs as it pleases, you might not be able to come back.”
Chris laughed at that. I couldn’t tell if he was serious or joking, and I couldn’t help but keep a straight face.
“Is that possible?”
“No way. As long as the main body has its own ego, that won’t happen. no matter what material you use, I don’t think you can make a magic tool that can hold the entire being of a person.
I’m struggling even to give sensation to a prosthetic hand. I’m sure that no matter how compatible the material is, it will reach its overcapacity and break soon.”
It sounded like he was joking, but he didn’t say it couldn’t be done in theory. He seemed to be saying that it could be done if the materials were available.
A whole human being, inside a magic tool. That’s sounds scary.
“Eh? Brother-in-law, are you getting scared? Don’t worry. The magic tool is properly designed so that it doesn’t take all the contents of the user.”
“Haha…”
You’re a joker.
Anyway, I understood that the ability to share the view with the dragon model will not be available.
–I’d better go to the city now.
As I stood up, there was a knock on the door of the salon.
Chris doesn’t often answer in this kind of situation, so I answered instead, and the door opened quietly with a click, and Alice and Lav were standing on the other side.
“What’s wrong?”
The two girls’ expressions were stiff.
When two girls with this kind of face come to see you, you know there’s some bomb about to go off.
I sat the girls down on the sofa in the salon while keeping a wary eye on them, and in my head, I began to desperately search my memory for what I had done.
Meanwhile, Chris was being repelled by Alice as he tried to sit next to Lav.
Chris… I acknowledge your bravery to do that in this atmosphere.
I was inwardly impressed, but from the way Alice was acting, I had a hunch that the bomb had been brought in by Chris.
When I tried to leave the room quietly, Alice asked me to sit down so that she could hear what I had to say in this.
I did as I was told and sat down on the sofa without saying a word.
Since when Alice learns to read the movements of people outside her field of vision? She’s good.
As expected, Chris sensed the strange atmosphere emanating from the girls in the salon, and send a help signal with his gaze.
‘I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.’
I shook my head and he turned to face Alice and Lav with a tearful look on his face.
After a few seconds of crushing tension, Alice grabbed Lav’s hand and gave Chris a stern look.
“Brother. Do you have any idea why we’ve come to talk to you like this?”
Chris’s eyes swam around while he thinks hard about it.
I wonder what… is it has something to do with women?
Did he play around with other women secretly?
No, that can’t be it.
I believe that Chris is not that kind of person. That’s why I let him to take Lav as his wife.
I saw him and held my breath, after a while, Chris lowered his head to show his surrender.
“…I’m sorry, I thought hard about it, but I didn’t understand. please tell me.”
Alice sighed and saw Lav’s face. Lav also looked at Alice with a serious gaze and gave a small nod.
Oh, I have a feeling that this is going to be a troubling story.
What if, by some chance, she wants to call off the engagement?
I’ll have to ask her what the circumstances are.
In front of my eyes, Alice called out to Lav.
“Lav, if it’s too difficult for you, I can speak on your behalf …”
“… no, I’ll talk to him myself. I’m sorry, Alisha. I’m sorry, to drag you through all this.”
“It’s okay. It’s important. Depending on my brother’s reaction, I may have to beat him up.”
“Don’t do that. I was bad too. It’s not just Chris’s responsibility.”
…seriously? Ah, I think I know what this is about. This must be…
“Chris, I—”
Lav turned to face Chris.
“I think I’m having a baby.”
At that moment, Chris turned to stone.
TL Note:
No, I didn’t mistranslate that. She literally said having a baby instead of pregnant, don’t shoot the messenger guys…
I have something to say, worry not, it’s not something scary https://coronatranslation.com/2021/04/09/ldm-again/
Thanks for the chapter! I’ve been really enjoying this series.
Spotted a couple of errors:
“Then she sat down on the piano chair and started to play it. Whenever he loses, Chris is …” The “she” should be “he” since Chris is a guy.
“It’s okay. It’s important. Depending on your brother’s reaction, I may have to beat him up.” I think “your” should be “my”. This one confused me, why would she be beating up Lav’s brother Hayato?
To be clear, I’m not complaining, just trying to help.
yesss, sorry, and thank you
Thank you for the chapters!!!
I was like: WHAT?! Hayato won’t beat him up too….right?
Hayato while beating Chris: How dare you impregnant my sister before marriage! You don’t know that I don’t even sleep with Alisha😠
Just kidding😆…..this won’t waver Hayato’s willpower, right?😅
Harknail had pointed out all the mistakes I could remember by the end of the chapter. Therefore, I will start at chapter 103😊.
He is dead meat xD
Thanks for the update!!! Lots of hugs and love and good energy for you c:
…i want tvose toys, where is truck-kun when you need him?
Thank you for the chapter and the treat! (^_^)/
..btw, if Hayato were to go too far into this toy, would that parasite inside of him take over his body? I feel line the author has brought up hints of this entity quite a lot lately so i think that it will not be long before something happens. ^^”
Oh, and congratulations Cris! I hope that you will become a dependant father when its time. 🙂