Everything is Resolved
Looking down at the floor, a drowsy Sugar comes into view.
Her pale pink-tinted white hair is spread gracefully across the ground.
Whenever the wind sways it, it fills the air with a sweet fragrance. Everyone uses the same cheap soap, yet this girl has a scent that stands out.
When held in her arms, the deep breaths are filled with fragrance, which makes me feel very good.
“What, what, what—!”
Ryly shakes his head to calm his embarrassment.
He had planned the gift for Sugar, so her hair kept bothering him.
It was because Sugar had said she wanted to cut her hair recently.
Even if it's short length, it's usable, but in theory, the longer one is better.
The way it sways when moving, or the faint scent that brushes the tip of the nose when walking beside her.
When she smiles brightly, the hair sparkles all around, which is nice to see.
“...”
Thinking about it, there's something that doesn't fit somewhere. Why am I thinking this? A complaint arises.
He just pokes his arm with the back of the pencil.
“Hey. Give me your hand and sleep. Blow some mana into the pencil too.”
“I said I'm sleeping...”
“Even while sleeping, you can do it.”
In the old days, the first disciple of the Saint, Lirana, blocked hundreds of enemies in an unconscious state, they say. Ryly likes this story quite a bit.
“Practicing not cutting mana while sleeping is good too.”
“You should sleep too... you look tired lately... let's sleep together...”
Sugar lifts the blanket she was covering with.
Ryly grabs the blanket and covers Sugar's face with it.
“Hwaek...”
She makes a moaning sound, but it seems she doesn't mind staying still. With the blanket covering her face, it becomes cozy.
The blanket flutters, and soon only the hand peeks out.
“Fighting...”
Oh no. Burn.
By holding that hand and concentrating, the pencil floats up. He said he's sleeping, but he seems to be blowing mana into it.
The pencil spins in the air, touches the floor, then the ceiling, and back and forth.
It was all possible with only Ryly's will.
“With this, I think I can do something...”
The training is paused for a while. So, they gathered to verify the ability to manipulate substitutes in the remaining time.
The phenomenon itself is just a simple 'can manipulate substitutes', but there's something that keeps bothering him.
There are constantly unknown possibilities showing up.
Ryly likes the act of awakening new knowledge. Studying, forming hypotheses, verifying. There's also the part of wanting to be recognized by the world, but there's also the part that is purely for enjoyment.
“Can manipulate movements as substitutes...”
It's almost like manipulating the opponent's mana instead.
Then, isn't 'manipulation' allowing something more than that?
Sugar's mana is pure mana. It's an unusual mana that changes nature variously.
“Being able to control that like my mana, can I completely turn it into my own mana?”
There is a basic attack magic that creates mana spheres and fires them.
It's a magic with varying power depending on the quality, density, size of the user's mana, but if Sugar uses this, her attack power would be quite low compared to others.
It disperses in the air the moment it's created, and even if it hits the opponent directly, it neutralizes with the opponent's inherent mana.
“But what if I change the nature...”
After Sugar creates the sphere, if he holds her hand and changes it to Ryly's mana nature.
“If it leads to 'change' beyond 'manipulation'.”
The attack power would increase a lot.
“... But why bother?”
Theoretically, such a process is possible, but there's no need to use it in practice.
The process of Sugar gathering mana, holding hands, changing natures is too troublesome. Just creating and shooting mana spheres himself is much faster and easier.
This is discarded.
Later, just verify a bit, and probably won't use it again.
But thinking about this, many subsequent hypotheses arise.
“Hey... when exactly do you use magic...”
There are too many experiments he wants to do with infinite possibilities. When he teases her with that feeling, there's no answer.
Soon the pencil drops. Seeing the mana cut off, he must have fallen asleep.
Ryly rubs his sweaty hands on his pants with an unpleasant face.
While doing so, something comes to mind.
The discarded idea from earlier. A way to supplement its necessity.
- Feeling like going left instead of right? Then hitting the wall. But now I found the correct way to go.
Previously, Sugar had muttered that to herself.
When the influence of mana in surrounding natural objects prevents the second stage from working properly. Then, after going to the factory and experiencing a series of events, she awakened the second stage and said that.
Ryly pretended to ignore it but listened to the content. It's a hypothesis that comes to mind now.
What if Sugar had gone out as is?
Beyond the categories of correct or incorrect path, if she could just go as she wanted and break through the blocking wall?
By breaking the boundaries between self and others, and between all things and self.
Like merging into one water flow—
“Hmm...”
This is too far.
He picks up the dropped pencil and spins it, but the action stops.
No matter how ridiculous, it's still a hypothesis, but it has to be appropriately ridiculous.
Ryly clicks his tongue and lies down in a place far from Sugar. Since Sugar is sleeping, there's nothing more to do. He thought to sleep in the empty time.
He has to go out at night again. Because of the gift for the one who is sprawled, he needs to save money, and interpret the grimoire.
The boy is busy in many ways.
He sighs but laughs, as it's not bad.
When imagining the future, it's quite fun. Always with Sugar causing trouble beside him, doing weird things every time.
“Hoo...”
What will it be like when they grow up. Will all of us safely enter Stille?
Study together, prepare for exams, laugh and chat together.
Or, he passes but Sugar fails. Then, they would cry.
Imagining that sight, he laughs heartily.
The future is unpredictable. But there's something to look forward to.
Hmph, laughing and imagining, but
Until when will they keep playing childish games?
“...”
He knows.
As an inner voice, Ryly knows the fact well.
But he knows that they can't keep doing this forever, and they have to make a decision.
But he doesn't want to think about it yet, so he closes his eyes pretending not to know.
***
After sleeping and waking up, it felt good.
A sense of vitality in the body. Sugar had good recovery power.
Looking around, he sees that his friend is sleeping far away. He gave the blanket he was covering with to his friend.
Ryly tosses and turns and burrows into the blanket with Sugar's scent.
Hoo. Sugar, looking at it with a satisfied smile, comes out of the attic.
Looking at the sky, the sun is still shining brightly.
It seems like a good timing. He hasn't received the quest today. With free time until dinner, he can go out quickly.
Like usual, at the cafe district rest area, the quest broker is sitting.
“How about a cup of coffee? (Is there a quest?)”
“Good. (There is.)”
“Sugar... how about one spoon? (Easy difficulty?)”
“Two spoons would be good. (Only medium difficulty.)”
“Yes, okay. (I'll do that.)”
After roughly estimating with the password, he moves to the location for detailed talk. It was the basic way of quest brokers.
“Sugar” is the name for mission difficulty, the easiest is 1 spoon, the hardest is 3 spoons.
Considering the children's quest success rate and the content of the quest, the broker sets the level arbitrarily.
Sugar wanted to do the easiest quest considering her current condition, but medium difficulty wasn't a big problem either.
Money is almost all saved. Probably, if they complete just a couple more, it won't be over? It was because they just need to hold on a little more.
Upon arriving at the back alley, the man takes out the previous compensation and the quest from his pocket.
“I said 2 spoons, but the content itself is easy. It's exploring the place and writing a report. You know how to write, right?”
“Yes.”
“Anyway, I'll write the report in my own handwriting. You just memorize the unusual details in detail and pass them to me. Refer to the quest for exact content.”
“Understood.”
Soon, opening the heavy money pouch, the amount is quite a lot. It's so much that Sugar's eyes widen in surprise.
“This, didn't you give too much compensation?”
He wanted to wipe his mouth, but he didn't want to get caught on a later thread. For matters involving money, honesty is better.
“Ah, the additional compensation for the big mole rat tail I collected last time came in. I saved that for you.”
“Oh...”
There is merit to working hard.
Quickly counting the number with a suspicious amount.
One, two, three, four, five...–
“With this much... it's roughly saved?”
If this is the case, once this mission is over, the target amount will be all saved.
Yahoo!
“Uncle, I'll stop after this one.”
“Huh? Why? You were doing well.”
“Actually, there was something I wanted to buy, so I started the job... I was planning to stop when I saved enough money for that.”
“I see...”
While speaking with a happy expression, the other side looks quite regretful.
The quest broker initially thought this little girl was not reliable. Small, and knows how to use mana, but doesn't seem to have any special aura.
But after working together, she performs tasks quickly in time. Clean and efficient handling. So, she was in a good state, but it's a pity that such an excellent worker is leaving.
However, he is a professional quest broker.
He screens incoming kids appropriately, and doesn't stop those going.
“Yeah, it was good that you worked well... but there's no helping it. If you make money again later, come. I'm always welcome.”
“Haha... okay.”
Sugar scratches her head awkwardly.
Before that, the uncle should get a proper job, too— swallowing the words that came up to his neck.
Thanks to this person, he earned money and trained. Just wish him well.
“Ah, later I should visit the area around the quest office too.”
He wanted to thank the rough uncle who introduced this job. If he hadn't told her, Sugar would be crying in the gutter party by now.
Grateful for that, with light footsteps, heading to the orphanage, while casually looking at the quest without forgetting.
.
.
.
[Underground Sewer Investigation]
Recent abnormal phenomena where the number of monsters in the city's underground sewers has rapidly decreased. To identify the cause, we are recruiting investigators to enter the sewers directly.
(omitted)
After thoroughly investigating and writing a report. If you attach evidence that could be clues, it would be even better.
The period is——
Tomorrow, after receiving the compensation, go to the general store, and everything will be resolved.