I woke up in the guest room of the Redgarde family. I was relieved to see familiar wallpaper.
And when I woke up, my body moved rather normally. In other words, this time I wasn’t bedridden for ten days.
…To make matters even more pleasing, there was a blue stone… a lump of lapis lazuli by my bedside.
Apparently, it wasn’t a dream.
Now I have ultramarine blue. I am very happy. Robin’s egg blue is beautiful, but I wanted a deep blue too.
I walked out of the room, feeling a little excited.
As I was walking around the house, greeting the maids who had become familiar with me, I saw Laocles in the courtyard, swinging his sword.
“Laocles.” (Tougo)
When I called out to the window, he looked back in surprise, then strode toward the window where I was standing.
…and then he stared at me and said something outrageous.
“Are you really alive?” (Laocles)
“I’m alive.” (Tougo)
I’m alive I wonder if he thought I was dead.
“How many days have I slept?” (Tougo)
“Three days.” (Laocles)
I see. Three days.
Just three days. …Oh. In other words.
“Just in time. That’s quite good.” (Tougo)
“…what are you talking about?” (Laocles)
In other words, it was within the time frame that Fay said, “the magic depletion lasts three days”. Thank goodness.
“This is the first time I’ve seen a human run out of mana.” (Laocles)
Since it was a good opportunity, Laocles and I talked in the courtyard.
“…you’re almost like a corpse. You were.” (Laocles)
“Oh, I see.” (Tougo)
I don’t really know what’s going on with my body in my sleep, because I can’t see myself collapsing.
“No breathing. No pulse. Your body is cold…. Like a corpse.” (Laocles)
“Yeah. That sounds like a corpse if you ask me.” (Tougo)
A corpse. Was I almost a corpse? I would like to see myself like a corpse once, but the time when I see myself like a corpse is probably when I really die. I hope I can successfully use astral projection then.
“I heard that a person who has run out of magic power can stop time of their body. They suck magic power from their surroundings until they regain enough magic power to sustain life.” (Laocles)
Oh, I didn’t know that. So, does that mean I’m in a state of suspended animation? I wonder if I was in such a state. I don’t know anything about myself.
“I had knowledge of it, but when I actually see someone in that state, it’s still terrifying.” (Laocles)
“I see. I’m sorry.” (Tougo)
I scared you. I’m sorry.
…but at the same time, I’m a little happy.
“You’ve become more talkative.” (Tougo)
Laocles started to speak a lot. Before, he used to say “Yeah” and “Hmm”, but now he talks a lot. That makes me happy.
“…I see.” (Laocles)
The moment I said that, however, Laocles awkwardly closed his mouth.
I probably shouldn’t have said that… I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to tell him.
“For the time being, I cleaned up various things during the three days you were sleeping.” (Laocles)
Then I decided to look for Fay with Laocles and ask him about the situation. He always takes care of a lot of things while I’m sleeping.
“First, that pawn shop. They were selling a lot of illegal stuff, so I just took them to task.” (Fay)
“What a mess.” (Tougo)
“Yeah. I’m sure there will be more crimes they are guilty of. But for the time being, possession of an illegal summoned beast is more than enough.” (Fay)
An illegal summoned beast, huh? …That black ghost, maybe?
“Ah, the illegal summoned beast is that big, black, slimy thing called, Nube.” (Fay)
Nube… In other words, it’s a ghost. Okay.
“It was a summoned beast made by solidifying a curse. It would have been dangerous if we had left it alone.” (Fay)
“Solidify a curse…?” (Tougo)
I heard another word I didn’t know. The only thing that comes to my mind when I hear the word “curse” is a straw doll.
“The point is, strictly speaking, it was not a summoned beast, but a mass of curses… Or something like a mass of magic that only causes bad things to happen. If we had left it alone, it would have probably destroyed this town.” (Fay)
Fay shrugged his shoulders after saying that. However, I wonder how big of a deal it was. No, we were able to prevent it from happening, so it’s fine, but…
“Um, Fay. I’m concerned about the fact that we destroyed a store.” (Tougo)
“You care about that…? Well, it’s not a problem. They were criminals, and the store had to be shut down anyway.” (Fay)
I see. Well, that’s good. I was afraid I’d be liable.
“And Fay.” (Tougo)
“Yeah?” (Fay)
“I took the sword and a lapis lazuli, but…” (Tougo)
In the end, I decided to go along with Fay’s words, “Take it as an inconvenience fee.”
Well… when they get out of jail, I’ll pay them a little as a release present…
“Oh, by the way, Laocles told me about the time I was out of magic and sleeping.” (Tougo)
Suddenly, I bring it up. I’m not sure if Laocles is embarrassed that he was somewhat distraught earlier, but he turned away.
“Oh, I see. You didn’t even know what it meant to run out of magic.” (Fay)
“I don’t know what happens during magic power depletion.” (Tougo)
“That’s right. Alright.” (Fay)
Fay nodded and then said…
“Well, to put it bluntly, you’ll look like a corpse.” (Fay)
“Yes. I heard.” (Tougo)
…For the time being, I found out that when I’m out of mana, I seem to be in quite a dangerous state.
“…well, people don’t run out of mana that often. So, I’m pretty surprised.” (Fay)
“I see.” (Tougo)
I was just sleeping, so it didn’t feel like that at all, but seeing how distraught Laocles was made me feel a little sorry that I had to reflect.
“Then, be careful from now on.” (Fay)
“Yeah… But well, I can’t help it this time. Laocles’ life was at stake. If I don’t do anything, it will be inhumane. Right.” (Tougo)
“Yeah.” (Fay)
Fay and I nodded to each other. We were of the same opinion, and we shake our hands.
From now on, let’s be careful not to run out of magic.
And in the future, when I need to, I just deal with magic power depletion. Let’s do that.
“By the way, the doctor’s here.” (Fay)
“Eh?” (Tougo)
“Look, I was going to get a magic stone for your next sealing tool, right? I called him ahead of time so he could fix you up faster if you ran out of magic.” (Fay)
…Come to think of it, it was.
Originally, I was going to weaken the sealing tool one step and practice controlling it again because I was getting better at controlling my magic, so they called the doctor… but since I didn’t have time until the doctor arrived, I drew some jewelry, materialized it, sold it, and used the money to buy what I needed….
…and I ended up sleeping for three days.
I’m really sorry to the doctor. Yeah.
And on the way to the room where the doctor was coming.
“Because I told the doctor that you were out of magic, so he might ask you some questions.” (Fay)
…Fay said such a thing.
What do you mean by “he might ask you some questions.”…?
…So, I went to see the doctor.
In the room, there was me, Fay, Laocles, Fay’s brother and father, and the doctor. And the doctor…
I can see that the doctor is nervous… I’m sorry, it’s hard to do a one-on-five check up, isn’t it?
“I was so surprised. I heard you ran out of magic power and collapsed.” (Doctor)
“It seems so.” (Tougo)
That’s what the doctor said right out of the gate. Well, it must have been quite a surprise to be called in on a different matter and find that the person you were supposed to see had collapsed from lack of magic power.
“Has this happened before?” (Doctor)
“Yes.” (Tougo)
Magic power depletion happens all the time to me, so I nodded obediently.
“I see… After all, the sudden increase in magic power is probably not good for controlling magic power. So, I think you are pouring more magic power than necessary into your magic.” (Doctor)
“More than necessary…” (Tougo)
I can picture two different gems in my mind, one with the sealing device on and one without. They look the same, but the Red Dragon’s reaction is completely different.
The one I painted without the seal probably had more magic power in it than necessary. That’s probably why the Red Dragon wanted it.
On the other hand, the one drawn with the seal does not contain more magic power than necessary for materialization. That’s why the Red Dragon looked away.
… putting in more magic than necessary is not all bad, I guess. The thing to remember is that the more magic power you put into it, the more valuable the gem will be.
In addition, by pouring in more magic power than necessary, I may have been able to heal Fay and Laocles’ injuries. I don’t know, but I’m not willing to try this. There is no such thing as “more than necessary” when someone’s injury is at stake. I have to do everything in my power… And every time I do that, I run out of magic power.
So, although I have sorted things out in my mind, from the doctor’s point of view, it seems that it is incomprehensible.
“By the way, how many magic power depletion have you experienced in the last six months?” (Doctor)
Half a year? I think I was still in my original world half a year ago.
So, counting from the time I came to this world…
I don’t know how many times I’ve healed horses.
“Well, maybe more than ten and less than twenty instances…” (Tougo)
So, I’m going to give a rough estimate. But I can only answer this way. I didn’t know if I was out of magic or just falling asleep when I was healing the horses in the first place. I’m not sure if falling asleep is included in magic depletion?
“Well, that’s quite frequent…” (Doctor)
Oh, that’s right. Come to think of it, Fay also said something like “It’s hard to run out of magic power in the first place” before. Before I run out of magical power, it shouldn’t activate in the first place, right?
As I was thinking and answering, the doctor was taking some notes (probably some kind of medical record) and asked me another question.
“So, um, …… just before you ran out of magic, what kind of magic did you use most of the time?” (Doctor)
“Huh?” (Tougo)
“Well, I think that someone with a massive amount of magical power as you must have been using some kind of magic that was so powerful that you ran out of power.” (Doctor)
Right. Of course. “What kind of magic?”
…What should I say.
Should I answer honestly?
