While I was munching popcorn and watching the catfight between the red devil, the bun-haired hyena, and Sakura, the doorbell rang.
Ding-dong~
“Haa... haa....”
“Tch! Let’s stop here for now. Looks like someone else came.”
Ding-dong~ ding-dong~
“Hmm, they’re here.”
“What is?”
“Ah, I asked our Aoao to do something for me.”
“Aoao?”
“Yeah, there’s someone with that nickname.”
She hates being called that, though. I got up and headed for the door. At the same time, I activated my magic circuits and used cleansing magecraft to wash my hands. As I opened the door, I greeted the red-haired woman standing there.
“Yo, long time no see, Aoao.”
“I told you not to call me that!”
Thwack! Ow, ow.
“Ow, ow. That hurts~”
“Hah. What do you mean it hurts when you can tank a magic bullet with your bare body? I only hit you with my fist.”
“Tch. Didn’t work, huh.”
We met each other’s eyes and grinned at the same time.
“Got the goods?”
“Right here. Money?”
“Here you go. I transferred it to your account.”
I took the box and used my phone to send the money over. Well, I’d invested a pile of cash in coins with the memories I still had from my first life, so right now I’m basically drowning in money.
“Twenty-five million yen, right?”
“Yeah.... It transferred properly. But what’s that smell? Smells delicious.”
“Ah, I just finished breakfast. There’s some left. Want to eat before you go?”
“Sounds good! I haven’t eaten yet.”
“...Didn’t expect you to actually accept.”
“Come on, no need to be formal between us.”
“Between us, my ass. What kind of relationship do we even have?”
“...Uh... heh?”
“What do you mean, ‘heh’?”
At that age, too? Have some shame!
“...I’m telling Touko?”
“Ghk. Don’t. That’s a pain.”
“Hmm. Come to think of it, how many times have you knocked me down so far?”
“No idea. I didn’t count.”
Heh heh. We traded banter as we headed into the living room.
“Hey, Shirou. Bring out some of the breakfast leftovers.”
“Shirou...? Hm? Who’s that woman?”
“A friend of mine, sort of? You can call her Aoao.”
“Enough already!”
Hmm, hitting me in the back of the head. How cruel. Hahaha.
“Who... are you?”
“Hm? Ren, who’s this woman?”
“The hyena’s queen.”
“Ah, Edelfelt?”
“Yep.”
“I see.”
She nodded as if she understood.
“No, but who is that red-haired woman...”
“Ah, I’m Aoko.”
“Aoko...?”
“For the record, my family name is Aozaki. Short for Aoao...”
“I said enough!”
“Aozaki...? Aozaki Aoko?!! Don’t tell me, a Magician?!”
“Correct!”
As if she couldn’t hear the banter at all, Luviagelita Edelfelt muttered to herself, then her eyes went wide as saucers.
“The Magician of the Fifth Magic... No, but what brings you here...”
“Oh, I asked her for something. I had her make me a Mystic Code.”
I lifted the box and said it lightly.
“It cost a lot, though... almost a hundred million yen just in research expenses.”
“You’ve got money anyway, Ren.”
“...Still feels wasteful.”
“When you’re making a Mystic Code that even partially contains True Magic, a hundred million yen is cheap.”
“...Even if it’s basically a disposable item that costs nearly twenty million yen to make one of.”
“Ghk. It can’t be helped. I’m terrible at making things like this, okay? I can break stuff all day long, but making it is a different story.”
“And yet you drag a patron into your research.”
“Ghk.”
Tch. That Kaleido Stick bastard doesn’t even have a usage limit. Ah, of course, it does have a fatal drawback in exchange.
“Here you go.”
“Oh! Smells great!”
Aoko exclaimed, “Itadakimasu!” and started shoveling stew into her mouth with a spoon.
“...Have you been starving for a week?”
“Gulp. Well, my wallet has been, gulp, in bad shape lately.”
...I thought I gave you plenty for living expenses?
“Ah, the urge to splurge got me... ahem.”
“...Are you Touko? Be honest! What did you do to Aoko!”
“Ghk! I’ve been found out!”
We jabbed each other in the side and traded jokes.
“Ahem, ahem. Nice to meet you.”
“Gulp. Hm? Ahahaha!”
Recovering from the shock, Luviagelita greeted her properly, and Aoko burst out laughing.
“H-Hearing ‘nice to meet you’ from a Magician. That old man would laugh his head off if he heard that.”
“Ah, that lolicon jewel geezer?”
“Lolicon?”
Why? I’m not wrong, am I? How much of an age gap is there between him and Arcueid, anyway? Saying it like that somehow makes it sound plausible too... Aoko pondered it for a moment.
“Well, it’s not exactly wrong, so whatever.”
“Fair enough. Anyway, thanks for the meal. This is good.”
“Yeah, Shirou’s pretty good at cooking.”
Sakura started glaring at Luviagelita again. At this rate, she might end up becoming Shirou Edelfelt instead of Sakatsuki Shirou, but that’s none of my business.
“Well then, I’ll be off.”
“Yeah. Take care.”
“Next time, I should invite you to dinner.”
“Hmm, wouldn’t that just be with the money I gave you?”
“...Ghk!”
...For the record, Aoko is currently living off the allowance I give her. Well, it’s not like I’m really losing out, since it lets me show I have some degree of acquaintance with a Magician, but human feelings aren’t that simple. To put it bluntly, it probably feels like she’s living off money for doing nothing. So every now and then, I get the luxury of making a Magician run errands for me.
“Sh-Shut up!”
“Ah, yes~ Take care.”
“Hah, fine.”
She opened the door and left. Hmm, it feels like a huge wave just swept through here.
“U-Um...”
“Hm? What is it?”
Luviagelita’s attitude had become noticeably more cautious than before. Well, I guess that makes sense. She’s a Magician, after all.
“Never mind.”
“How dull.”
I checked the clock. Hmm, was it about time to leave?
“Well, I’ve got something to do, so I should probably head out.”
“Huh? Ah, yes.”
When I politely implied that she should probably get lost soon, Luviagelita seemed to understand and stood up.
“Ahem, ahem. Thank you for the meal. Then, I’ll be going.”
“Sure.”
I saw her off casually, then went upstairs and checked the luggage I’d packed yesterday.
Hmm. Three swords, one of them a spare, and a protective coat. It was a fake DC Coat, recreated with science as faithfully as possible and patched up with magecraft where the original couldn’t be matched. Well, it doesn’t have defense on the same level as the original, but it’s still pretty decent. On top of that, if I have mana, it can use the air to self-charge a pseudo DC device. The advantages of magecraft, I guess.
Other materials... various Mystic Codes, and everyday necessities. Hmm, all here. And finally, a laptop and hard drive to kill time with. Tch. I miss the MD from my previous life, my personal device. Its storage capacity was great.
Heave-ho. After putting on the protective coat, I grabbed the trunk containing the items listed above plus a few extras. Even this thing has an expansion-space spell on it. Strictly speaking, it’s a science-plus-magecraft collaboration. Hmm, a device that applies some of the tech from my previous life in downgraded form really is convenient.
“Ah, big brother. You’re leaving?”
“Yeah. Well, I can contact you from time to time.”
Long live magecraft. Science is convenient and cheap, but the downside is that it’s bound by physical laws. Magecraft communication is expensive, but it has the advantage of not being affected by bad weather and the like. On top of that, I’d made it so the catalyst could be reused, which brought the cost down a lot. It still costs about three times as much as ordinary radio communication, though.
“So that freeloader is leaving.”
“Freeloader, my ass. I live off money I earn myself. Hmm, am I a tsundere?”
“Shut up!”
Rin fired [Gand] again and again. The moment the black magic bullets touched the coat, hexagonal green light flared up and blocked them. Hahaha! Doesn’t work on me!
“What now!”
“Hmm, something like the fusion of science and magecraft.”
It looks terribly magical, but surprisingly, it can be reproduced with science too! Of course, it’s insanely expensive and the efficiency is terrible. Modern science can reproduce it, but the cost-performance ratio is atrocious. Usually, using magecraft drives the cost way up, but in this case, using magecraft is actually cheaper.
“Well, take care. See you next year, maybe?”
Let’s go, to Chaldea!
...Well, to the garage, actually.
++++
After taking a plane from the airport, getting off the plane, boarding another plane, getting off again, boarding a transport aircraft, and then getting off the transport aircraft, my body went crack with stiffness.
“Ugh, my body...”
After putting a hand in my pocket to confirm that the Mystic Code Aoko gave me was still there, I rolled my stiff body around to loosen it up.
“Urrgh...”
“Long time no see, Ren.”
“Oh, Chicken.”
“Don’t call me Chicken! Call me Romani!”
“I refuse! What Tohsaka Ren loves most is calling Romani Chicken!”
“Hmm, Chicken is best when you tease him!”
“Long time no see, Tohsaka Ren.”
“Oh, look who it is. Our leek-haired Reinol.”
“...Please don’t call me that.”
“Then change that fashion-terrorist outfit of yours. No, seriously, change out of that green suit and green fedora already. Are you a one-outfit gentleman?”
“Ahem.”
Hey, don’t look away. If I opened your closet, would it be packed full of nothing but green suits?
“Ahem, ahem!”
“Hey, deny it. At least deny it...”
Seriously?
“Long time no see, Ren.”
“Oh, Kirsch? But why does everyone’s line sound the same?”
“Hm?”
“Never mind. Don’t worry about it. Just a joke. Anyway, where are the rest of the Crypters?”
“Uh... Ophelia’s in her room. The others are mostly resting too.”
“And Mash...”
“In the infirmary.”
...Romani? I sent him a reproachful look, and he awkwardly averted his eyes. This guy, he probably just ran over because he was happy I’d come.
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