A Photo Album of Magical Beasts
"Anything interesting happen at school today?"
The gentle voice of a female elf. It was Serena.
"Nah. Nothing much."
Shirud answered her question with the barest shrug of attention. A mother might ordinarily take offense at so offhand a reply from her child — but not this time. Not in the slightest.
Because Shirud was reading a book.
And not a comic, either. A magic textbook.
The Standard of Practical Coordinate Equations — Beginner's Edition.
A thick tome whose dense lettering he would normally never so much as glance at. The sort of book Shirud never opened of his own free will at home.
His face was as blank as ever — nothing about it suggested joy or fascination — but still. It was a hundred times, a thousand times better than watching him scowl over a worksheet, scribbling nonsense in the margins because he had been forced to sit there.
"But why the sudden studying?"
On the other hand, a little worry crept in. People said that when someone started doing things they never did, it meant they were about to die — and Shirud studying at home certainly counted as one of those things.
Shirud scratched his head for a moment, then let out a long sigh.
"Just… Luke said studying like this would be good for me."
I want to cast that cool fire magic Luke showed me already. Spitting fire from your bare hands was the stuff of every kid's dreams. Pure, primal cool.
Shirud pictured himself for a second, flames roaring from his palms. Wasn't that just… ridiculously awesome? All you needed was a Circle.
Of course, Luke had refused to teach him on the excuse that it was dangerous — but if he kept studying, he had a feeling he'd figure it out on his own. So for now: study.
Serena's face lit up at his words.
"Is that so?"
His heart had been doing much better lately, too — they said his cardiac Circle had become a dual Circle, and when she'd asked, that had also been thanks to Luke. Was Luke looking after his studies as well?
Heh. I knew it…
Enrolling Luke had been the right call. These days they said Shirud wasn't even causing trouble at the Academy anymore. A thoroughly welcome change.
"But didn't you say Luke has free attendance?"
"Yeah, but Luke still shows up a lot. During class Luke's usually in the library reading… though if you ask me, Luke's just coming for the cafeteria food."
Shirud heaved a deep sigh, remembering the time he had only been able to watch someone else eat. Sitting there while the other person made such a blissful show of a meal you couldn't even touch — honestly, it was a little aggravating.
Why did I have to be born an elf?
"Hmm… is that so?"
Serena stroked her chin as she listened to her son grumble.
He's probably just flustered because the girl he likes isn't paying him any attention, and he has no idea how to get it.
A thought struck her, and the corner of her mouth curved up.
She ought to get in touch with Yerna.
From the library's endless stacks, Luke had managed to dig up only a single volume of any real use — and even that only after going straight to the librarian and requesting books on the ecology and creatures of the Demon Realm.
Encyclopedia of Fantastical Beasts.
The title alone made no secret of its perspective: that the animals within might well be pure fiction. It read like a dossier compiled from the fossils of extinct species.
Come to think of it, every book in the school had that same flavor. Light, pleasant volumes written for children to enjoy… Professional treatises were clearly too much to hope for.
Well. I rather expected as much.
Luke shrugged.
With the Demon King slain, the dimensional bond that had once tethered the Demon Realm to the Intermediate Realm had loosened. Within a few decades of the Demon King's fall, the connection between the two realms had all but severed.
Even so, to find virtually no records at all was a mild surprise. If it could not be helped, then it would simply have to be accepted.
Besides, Luke had not come looking because of ignorance of the Demon Realm. It was more a matter of curiosity — how, exactly, had it been written down?
The Demon Realm was another dimension the Demon King had forcibly yoked to this world. The Demon King and the demonkin were humanity of another plane. Being a different species from the people of the Intermediate Realm, they could not interbreed with present-day humanity; and under the crushing weight of a collapsing birth rate, those demonkin who had failed to return home before the link broke could manage no nation of their own — at best, scattered village-sized enclaves in the countryside.
A rather wretched existence, when one thought about it. Had the Demon King won the war, this side would have suffered the same fate — so there was little room for pity. Still, leafing through a dictionary illustrated with the animals of the Demon Realm made one thing certain: the Demon Realm had existed.
Reading the pictures and descriptions, memories began to surface one by one.
Bark — a predator built like a lion stripped of fur and mane, then armored in scales. Its hide was thick, tough, and so heat-resistant that fire magic glanced off it entirely. The meat underneath, though, had been quite good. The ribs especially. If one set aside the minor inconvenience of needing Hellfire-level heat to cook it, it might have made a rather fine ingredient.
Zepi — a magical beast that resembled a hawk, save that its plumage was as garish as a parrot's. Once the hunt began, however, it would tilt those iridescent feathers at precise angles and shift its own coloration — a curious creature. Fast and lethal. Small, with high magic resistance, which made it troublesome; but as a solitary hunter, it had never been much of a nuisance on the road. Ah — and the meat had been bitter and fishy. Not worth eating.
Juper — something like a bipedal tortoise. Unlike ordinary turtles, it was clad head to toe in an exoskeleton reminiscent of a human's full plate armor. Being bipedal, it could wield weapons, and it possessed the intelligence to match — thoroughly difficult opponents. Regrettably, Luke had never managed to taste one. Every time cooking preparations began, something always intervened. Cale Propson had once theorized that they might communicate with other magical beasts by something like telepathy — a surprisingly persuasive hypothesis, coming from Cale, and Luke still remembered being impressed.
And of all of them, the hardest to face was…
Trex, of course. A towering bulk two or three times the size of an elephant; jaws like a crocodile's, with the crushing bite to match; speed that had drawn even Cale Propson's admiration; and a hide so hard that a blade without sword-aura simply bounced off. It had no wings, yet its absurd leg strength let it vault tens of meters in a single bound, and it could belch breath-weapon fire from its maw. In form and force it was like a dragon that had forsaken wings and intellect. Factor in the Demon Realm's environment, and the claim that it was harder to fight than a true dragon was no exaggeration.
So difficult, in fact, that sparring with the creature had handed Luke the first thread of the Ninth Circle. Without that, Luke would almost certainly have died before ever laying eyes on the Demon King within the time allotted.
Yes. I could well call this one my teacher.
Looking through the illustrations of Demon Realm fauna left Luke in a strangely pleasant mood. Each magical beast called up a memory of its own. To Luke, the book was nothing less than a photo album.
Though a few of the illustrations are wrong. I shall have to write the publisher later.
Send along a sketch or two with the letter, and they would make the corrections.
Luke drew revised sketches of the beasts in a notebook.
That should be recognizable enough.
Luke nodded in satisfaction.
As for information on that cat… it seems there is none to be found. Though I hardly expected any.
If Luke had needed to search the forests of the Demon Realm in person to find it, the creature had been rare enough that ordinary sources would never turn it up. Finding it sitting proudly in a dictionary like this might even have been a little disappointing.
Had the cat something to do with immortality? Why could the memory not be recovered?
Yerna found Luke absorbed in the encyclopedia, a smile on those lips that Luke did not even seem to notice — and she smiled too, watching.
Really getting into that, huh.
Lately, every time she looked, Luke was reading that same book. She had lost count of how many times it had been reread. Fantastical animals — magical beasts — were popular enough to be made into children's toys, after all. Luke seemed to like it so much that sketches were even being drawn.
The drawings, though… they were far too good to look like a child's work. The illustrations had a raw, almost fierce energy to them. Couldn't the pictures be a little brighter and cuter, the way a kid's ought to be…?
"Luke, is that fun?"
"Indeed it is. Recalling the old days is quite a pleasure."
"I see."
Old days? Come to think of it, the fairy tales did mention that Luke Irushi had advanced by slaying countless magical beasts.
…If that's what this is, it's a pretty detailed bit of roleplay.
Yerna thought it with a faint, helpless fondness. Even the speech had slipped right back into "Luke Irushi" mode… When she asked why the old way of talking had returned, it seemed that without the roleplay, Luke found the whole thing embarrassing.
Hearing "eonni" had been nice, too.
Can't force a kid who doesn't want it, though.
Luke playing at being a grown-up was cute in its own way. Someday that manner of speech would soften on its own. And since she had promised not to sit alone nursing gloomy feelings, any sour mood had to be shaken off quickly.
Fortunately, that was easy enough. There was something worth looking forward to.
Even at work, Yerna found herself humming as she thought ahead to the plans a few days out.
I never imagined Serena would think so highly of Ru…
It had come up a few days ago, when they met in person to talk.
"Luke's been completely absorbed in a book lately — seems really interested in magical beasts."
"Is that so? Then how about the Magical Beast Museum? It should be quite fun, and if we pair Luke with our Shirud, they ought to have a wonderful time together."
"The Magical Beast Museum? That's a wonderful idea!"
Just thinking about it was delightful. A Magical Beast Museum — if a book alone made Luke look that happy, how much more fun would it be to see the real thing?
Imagining Luke's reaction set the humming free again.
Watching from a distance, Daiton nudged Kirke as she walked past.
"Hey. What's with Yerna today? She's running pretty high energy."
"Oh — she said she's going to the Magical Beast Museum this weekend."
"What? With who?"
"How should I know? From what I overheard, she's meeting an elf."
Daiton's eyes went round.
"An elf? Is that a guy or a girl?"
Kirke thought it over for a moment.
"Dunno. I only caught bits of it. But if they're going together, it's probably a guy, right?"
With that, Kirke spun on her heel and left. Daiton stood frozen, chewing on her parting words.
Elf. Guy. Museum…
That was a date. No question. Had there been some kind of matchmaking meeting?
Come to think of it, lately — along with the extension of the temporary guardianship — she had let slip a few worries about romance more than once. He had hoped the seat beside her might be his…
Was the difference in race something that simply could not be overcome? Daiton clutched his head and slowly crumpled until he was face-down on the floor.
Since when…
An elf, huh… They might suit each other, for all he knew.
An image rose unbidden: some faceless elven man standing at Yerna's side. She was looking up at him with a happy smile, chatting away.
Yes — if Yerna was happy, that ought to be enough… or so he told himself.
Daiton shot to his feet.
…At least get a look at the guy's face.
Right. Then he could give up cleanly. And if the man turned out to be no good… well. He would raise some hell.
Sorbi caught sight of Daiton's sinister little smile, shuddered, and muttered, "Ugh, has he finally lost it completely?" before fleeing into the distance.