Establishing the Pecking Order
Establishing the Pecking Order
"Sorry, Sis. We really need the Tokamak. So I'm just going to borrow it until you come back home!"
With those words, Akasha leaped out the window. It happened in an instant, leaving no time to stop her.
Rote stared at the broken window and let out a soft sigh. A baffled expression was plain on her face. She ran her hands down her face and asked me,
"When did you get back to the estate?"
"Just a little while ago."
"I have a million questions for you."
I would have felt the same way if our positions were swapped. I stood there in silence, feeling apologetic.
"But first, we have to catch that one, right? She took something important to you."
I gave an embarrassed smile and nodded. Right now, I had to put out the most immediate fire.
We rushed over to the window. Looking down, I saw Akasha pulling the Tokamak out of a bush. She looked up at us and grinned.
"Ha, I hid this here beforehand just in case something like this happened."
Well, well. So it was a premeditated crime. If it had been a spur-of-the-moment act, there might have been some room for extenuating circumstances.
"You are so dead."
It was time to establish the pecking order.
"Wait, what do you think you're doing jumping out of nowhere!"
When I jumped from the window, Rote panicked and followed me down in a fluster.
"How else would we catch her from here?"
"Well, yes, but you could at least say something..."
There was no time to continue the conversation. Akasha had a Mana Cigarette between her lips and was pulling out a scroll. She was ready to run.
"Here, I'll show you something fun. This is a Weight Reduction Scroll, you see?"
Weight reduction—Air Magic that manipulates the air around an object, making even heavy things easy to lift.
"If I apply it to this here, what do you know? I can lift it with one hand?"
Akasha had the Tokamak tucked under her arm like a pool tube and was wobbling it around.
To think she had even prepared something like that. What a meticulous little punk she was.
It didn't look like this would be easy to resolve. I had to prepare for a long chase. I took a Mana Cigarette from my hip bag and lit it. Rote also finished getting ready to help me.
"Sis, are you trying to fight me? I don't think you should be doing this here, you know?"
People who had heard the glass shatter were gathering in small groups. Most of them were servants employed at the estate.
"I heard a window break... Good heavens! What in the world happened here!"
"Hold on, the young lady's friends, two of them...?"
"Everyone, what is the meaning of this...!!"
The window was broken, and there were two copies of Aether. To an outsider, it was a pretty absurd situation.
This was a ridiculous nuisance of the highest order. I'd have to bow my head to Count Saliere for this later.
There wasn't enough time to explain everything right then. I made a decision.
"Rote, I'll chase her down, so can you explain things to everyone here?"
"Uh, yeah."
Hearing this, Akasha nodded as if she had expected it.
"Well, I figured you'd say that, Sis. You'd always put your research before a friend."
"How about you stop the teasing and just hand that over?"
"What if I don't want to?"
Akasha bolted off like a water deer charging down a hill. She ran at a speed that should have been impossible for a human, folding the ground beneath her. It was Shukuchi, a Martial Art primarily used by the Beastkin and the Gold-Eye Tribe.
I'd also trained my body in Martial Arts. Our physical specs were identical anyway, hers and mine. Whatever she could use, I should be able to as well.
"This way seems better."
Tap-tap-tap!
Akasha changed direction and headed south. It was the escape route I'd anticipated.
South of the territory was a forest that people rarely entered. Her scheme was to follow this forest, pass through the southwestern and then western mountains in sequence, and head straight up to the Demon Continent.
"You're really persistent!"
After running frantically, we reached deep into the woods. Akasha stopped in her tracks and turned around.
Mana began to circulate evenly through my body after I'd been sprinting while smoking the Mana Cigarette. Once I confirmed there was no one else around, I immediately pulled out my Staff. Seeing this, Akasha let out a snort and asked,
"Are you seriously going to fight me here? Sisters shouldn't do this."
"Who's fighting? If you commit theft, you get punished."
"Aw, shit. I don't have time for this. Well, fine. Should we have a go at it, Sis? It's been a while."
Smoothly, Akasha also drew her Staff from her Subspace and flashed a crazed sneer.
The form of a mage's Staff is determined by their personality and past experiences, as the Staff is closer to a spirit entity than a physical object.
As a simple example, whenever I summoned my Staff, it always came out as Vernier Calipers. I suspected it reflected the experience I had right before my soul possessed this body—when I smashed my computer monitor with an iron caliper while reading that paper.
When I first summoned it, I cursed up a storm at the weird piece of junk that appeared. I was used to it by then, though.
So by that point, I thought any Staff that appeared wouldn't faze me.
"What kind of stupid-looking thing is that?"
Akasha's Staff was a Y-shaped lightning rod. That was supposed to be a mage's staff...?
"Is your surname Franklin, by any chance?"
"What the hell are you talking about? Your memories really must be messed up, Sis. Or did the Goddess mess with them?"
Akasha swung her lightning rod—her Staff—around and drove it into the ground.
"Oh, Sis. Even if we do fight, let's use our magic gently. If people catch us doing this here, it'll be awkward in all kinds of ways, right? Huh?"
That was a lie. Even the scroll she pulled from her pocket was loaded with spells that couldn't be used gently in a fight.
"Let's see. Since you lost your memories, you probably forgot all the Magic Arts you used to use, right? So I'll just use this and take you on. Let's play together for the first time in a while."
Akasha set the Tokamak down and began igniting her scrolls one by one. The situation was on the verge of exploding.
Making a racket here would be a nuisance to the people of the territory. Akasha would just run off, and I'd naturally end up taking the blame. That was her scheme: to make people reject me so I'd come back 'home.'
I wasn't about to let that happen.
I needed a means to finish this in one go and keep my little sister from any more nonsense. I had to find a spell that would be the target of a so-called 'madman strategy.'
That wasn't hard to produce.
I pulled a large scroll from the deepest part of my hip bag.
"Ah, hold on."
She was clearly flustered. Akasha mumbled and stepped back.
"Uh, Sis. You're not planning to kill me, are you? No matter how I look at it, that's way over the line, right?"
"So you know what this is, too."
The ultimate Magic Art capable of felling even Extinction-class Magic Beasts.
[Top-Grade Fire Magic — Flare]
I was ready to pour mana into the Output Section of the Flare Scroll.
I smiled and asked Akasha,
"Are you going to give me the Tokamak or not?"
It was an ultimatum.
**
If I actually used Flare, this entire forest would be wiped out. So I had no intention of using it from the start.
But to trick Akasha, I had to fully commit. I actually pushed mana into the Output Section, taking it nearly to the point of ignition. Thanks to that, I could fool her.
"Argh, okay! Let's talk it out, talk!"
I made her realize firsthand that sitting at the negotiating table was more to her advantage than a fight. Akasha waved her arms around and put her Staff away.
"There, happy? I put away the scrolls and de-summoned my Staff. So you put that away too, Sis!"
"I will. But first..."
The key to negotiation is seizing the initiative. I needed to make our positions clear.
"Get on your knees."
"Fine! Like this, okay?"
And so began my interview with a little sister I was meeting for the very first time.
"Is stealing someone else's property a good thing to do or a bad thing to do?"
"A bad thing."
It was a cheerful reply. When I glared at her, Akasha forced a teary face.
She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and pretended to sniffle. If she had actually cried, I might have felt a shred of pity, but she stomped on that possibility herself. It was a pitiful act with no humor or emotion, and it only sparked irritation.
"But I really had no choice with the Tokamak. After you ran away from home, the project's progress slowed way down."
"Project? What project?"
"That thing. You'll know when your memories come back."
It didn't matter if she wouldn't tell me. I had another source of information.
"Anyway, that project is our tribe's long-cherished wish. My abilities alone aren't enough to achieve the goal. I need to be with you, Sis."
"Oh, so?"
"Just think about it. The fact that you built this thing even after losing your memories is proof that you still care terribly about our tribe."
"So what exactly are you trying to say?"
I don't like it when people beat around the bush. When I asked directly, Akasha clasped her hands together and pleaded.
"I don't expect you to come home right away. So, just close your eyes and lend this to me."
Seeing a girl who looked exactly like me kneeling and begging earnestly with pitiful eyes gave me a strange feeling.
"Hm."
I fell into thought for a moment.
What was I to do with this?
[It looks like you have an idea.]
I did.
I had roughly deduced what kind of existence Akasha was. So I could come up with a good idea.
The information Vermel gave me, the standing of the real 'Aether'—not me—and this girl, her little sister. If I combined these three factors well, I could give nuclear-weapon development an enormous boost.
[How so?]
When I thought about it, it was simple. I looked down at Akasha, the corners of my mouth curving upward.
"I can't just give it to you."
"Then what?"
"Let's make an Equivalent Exchange."
At my answer, Akasha tilted her head slightly.
"Tch, we're sisters. Can you really be this stingy?"
"I told you, I don't know who you are?"
"Ah, fine! Just put that scroll away already!"
[Wow, Master. That was a little harsh just now.]
Well, that was plenty generous.
She nearly got the Tokamak stolen, and here I was offering to upgrade it to a trade item. On the surface, I was practically offering her a losing deal.
Yes, on the surface, that was.
"Fine. What do I have to give you?"
"Think about what I would want the most."
I subtly probed Akasha. If our ways of thinking were the same, she would know what I wanted without me saying it.
"Ah, that? The thing you wanted to have back in the old days, right?"
At that, Akasha pulled a sheet of Magic Paper the size of an A2 sheet from her chest.
It was a complex scroll. Intricately tangled curves covered its surface, and the coating was more than five layers thick, making it quite bulky. It was even a multidimensional scroll, just like Flare.
Even as a multidimensional scroll, it looked to be on a different tier from Flare. Observing the magic circle's patterns, unlike Flare, I saw no geometry defined within Euclidean inner-product space at all.
"I'll lend it to you until you come home, Sis. That makes us even, doesn't it? How about it?"
Akasha rolled up the scroll and held it out to me.
"Hm."
I wondered what it could be. The original Aether would have known, but I didn't.
While I was deliberating, I remembered I had the Hardcover Book. Right, if it's a guy who's organized all the magic in this world, wouldn't it know?
[Switching to Administrator Mode.]
I looked at the Hardcover Book floating in mid-air, translucent. I used remote manipulation to select the scroll I wanted to analyze, then left the rest to the book's system.
[Analyzing]
I was idly staring at those words when I soon furrowed my brow.
Because the appraisal result had come out.
[▷ Appraisal Result]
[□ Legendary Unique Magic — 'White Night' Output Section (Incomplete)]
It seemed I had landed a whopper.