Children's Toothpaste and Cordless Earphones
From the crack of dawn the next day, Hervena dragged her feet down toward the practice room in the basement.
The night before, as she was heading back to her room after talking with Blow, she had run into Jane, who was speaking to her master.
"You were taking so long to come in, Young Master. Senior Yulia is looking for you."
The meeting had been sudden. Afraid her tears might be noticed, Hervena stopped by the washroom before going up to the suite. By then Jane had already returned to her own room, saying she was tired.
Remembering the way Jane had kept her eyes lowered, as if determined not to meet her gaze, Hervena felt something faintly off. Hunger had come with the loosening of her nerves, though, and she was too busy pushing food into her mouth to dwell on it.
Nothing of note happened at the drinking table after that. The mood had already sunk, and even when laughter rose it broke off almost at once.
...Would it have been better to tell him after they returned to Caipol?
What was past could not be undone. She decided to count it a blessing that she had slept well, having unburdened herself to Blow.
"You'll be all right. Don't worry."
When she had forced her eyes open in bed a little while ago, she remembered last night's Blow Deblique shining in the moonlight, and she steadied her heart.
Even if I'm not all right, I can make myself all right.
Great work always began with getting an ordinary day right. You swept the room clean. You beat the dust out properly. The things that had to be done every day had to be done properly first. That had been the teaching of her first master, White Flame.
And so Hervena was making her way down to the practice room, enduring the drowsiness that kept crashing over her.
She was not the only one who had thought so.
Thoom—
The moment she reached the door, a boom, a tremor, and mana spilling over in waves snapped her fully awake.
Inside, Yulia stood with her eyes closed and her hands clasped, dressed in the comfortable clothes they wore for physical training at school, her hair tied up.
⟨ Möbius ⟩
With the word, a vast indigo magic circle of ornate patterns drew itself before her, and a few paces ahead in the empty air the ribbon-like form appeared—the same shape Hervena had seen the last time they faced the White Sphere.
A moment later, with a crack, pure darkness showed itself through a rift opening in space. Nothing was there.
The power itself was tremendous, worthy of her epithet, the Indigo Witch. Even so, Yulia's brow was drawn tight.
"Hah... hah."
Eyes open, she watched the rifts vanish, breathing hard, her face twisted. Hervena, who had been watching, had already folded her arms and was quietly judging the spell Yulia had just cast.
Yulia's present level was a height most academy students longed to reach. Factoring in the variables of a real duel, even Hervena could not guarantee victory. And yet Yulia had remained at exactly that level for two years.
The first time Hervena saw her magic was not long after enrollment. Coldly speaking, she did not feel that the Yulia of now had advanced since then. Magic that had seemed overwhelmingly forceful at first glance now struck her as almost crude. Even in this moment, Yulia was drawing out far less power than the circle she had cast deserved. And Yulia herself surely knew that better than anyone.
When the casting ended, Yulia went to the nearest wall and leaned against it, breath ragged. The sleeves barely reached her elbows, so the indigo mana surging over her skin from the rampage was laid bare.
"Ugh..."
A sound of swallowed pain leaked from Yulia's mouth. Braced against the wall, the strength left her legs. She slid down into a crouch and covered her face with her hands.
"Hah. I really can't do it. Why won't this work?"
Her shoulders shook. Hervena could only stand quietly in the doorway until she calmed.
After a while the mana rampage settled. Yulia drew several deep breaths, and a light returned to her eyes. Hervena approached carefully and greeted her.
"Senior."
"Hervena? How long have you been here?"
"I just arrived."
Yulia rubbed at her eyes with gathered fingers, then looked up at her in a bright voice.
"Sorry. I must have missed you while I was concentrating. Up and at it early, aren't you, Hervena?"
"You're impressive too, Senior, after going to bed so late yesterday."
"Not really. I'm just doing what has to be done."
A brief silence passed between them. Yulia was the first to smile.
"Hervena, did you see my space magic just now?"
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to watch."
"It's fine. I'm the one who cleared you to use the practice room."
"..."
"It's not going well. It feels like I've come up against a wall—solid, and impossible to get over."
Yulia spoke as if it were nothing. Frustration and helplessness seemed to travel together in her voice, though, and Hervena read the feeling easily. With no answer to give, she kept her mouth shut.
"I don't think doing it more, or putting in more time, is going to solve it. It's just stifling."
"..."
Silence stretched again. Yulia took a sip of the sparkling water beside her and murmured, as if to herself.
"The truth is, I heard. About Young Master Blow's Spirit of Space."
"What? Then you offered to invest in the Young Master even knowing that?"
Whatever else from yesterday, Hervena had understood that Yulia's terms were extraordinary, and her eyes went twice as wide.
"I judged it rationally. I'm trusting Instructor Mnevoir, and 'that person' written in the meeting minutes."
"Then the reason you're practicing space magic now..."
"Yes. There's my own training, but if I'm going to be of help someday, I have to start early. It's still weak, but..."
"To that extent..."
"I have to do my best. At the things I can do."
Yulia set down the sparkling water she had been holding, rose slowly, walked a few steps forward, and spoke to her in a low, clear voice.
"Hervena, I want to eat corn cheese. For a very long time."
"..."
"So I intend to try everything I can."
Hearing Yulia say something that might as well have been her own words, will gathered in Hervena's eyes as well.
"That's the same for me."
Sensing her come closer, Yulia turned and quietly offered her hand.
"Let's work hard. The two of us."
Hervena hesitated, then took it. Warmth came through Yulia's palm. After a moment's thought, Hervena spoke.
"Senior."
"Yes, Hervena."
"This may be overstepping, but may I tell you something?"
"What is it, Hervena?"
"It's about your magic."
"By all means! I'd be more than grateful."
At those words Yulia quickly caught her other hand as well. For two years, she and Hervena had always been wrapped in the language of rivals, or of friendly competition. But there was not a trace of pride in Yulia's eyes—only pure, undiluted fervor.
...Because this was about the Young Master.
Thinking that, Hervena opened her mouth in a calm voice.
"When you cast, what if you cut straight across?"
"What?"
"When you form the circle, too—rather than making it so large, match it to the scale..."
"Oh...! Could you explain in more detail?"
Hervena summoned a magic circle before her, and in that way a single sun rose into both their skies.
"You have to use mana in an exact fit. Not the feeling of pouring until it overflows."
"But if it runs short then, doesn't the whole thing fail?"
"There comes a moment when it fits exactly. You have to learn that sense before you can get precise..."
Their heated discussion had gone on from breakfast right up until they were about to board the carriages. Skadi, watching with her mouth hanging open, looked at Blow and broke into a snort of laughter.
"Those two are going to need their own carriage."
"That'd be better. My head hurts just listening."
"Right?"
"Shouldn't you go over there and learn a thing or two, Skadi?"
"Forget it. I could never keep up with those two."
So Yulia and Hervena decided to take Yulia's carriage. Into Blow's they loaded the sparkling water that had been chilled since morning and sealed as tightly as possible. Hans would take his carriage, as he had yesterday, and the rest would ride in Skadi's.
Leaving behind the crowd of hotel staff seeing Yulia off, the carriages finally set out for their city, Caipol.
While Blow was taking in the sight of Roten, Jane, seated beside him, asked in a deliberately bright voice.
"Young Master, is there anything besides carbonation you'd like me to research first?"
"Oh? More proactive than I expected."
"As you said, the potion shop is my responsibility now."
Blow gave her a quick smile.
"For now, I've got two goals in mind."
"One is carbonation, right?"
"Yeah. We can make it really sharp if we want. Let's think through the other ideas together."
"Yes."
"And the next one is a bit of a secret..."
At his lowered voice, Linne, Rowbedi, and Skadi, seated in front, seemed to take an interest. Their eyes shifted toward him.
"Linne? Rowbedi? Skadi?"
"Yes."
"Yes, boss?"
"Cover your ears. I'm about to discuss classified information."
"I don't want to!"
Unlike Rowbedi, who silently covered his ears, Skadi looked thoroughly put out. Then Linne cried out in an aggrieved voice.
"B-Boss."
"Hm?"
"I... w-we agreed on the cat, too. A-and we crossed death's line together! Weren't we... employees?"
"Death's line, sure, we crossed that together. But you said you were busy running the library."
"Th-that's..."
Seeing Linne's lips tremble with the look of someone wronged, Blow flicked a glance at Rowbedi. Rowbedi lowered his hands.
"Then before the potions, let's settle this first. All right, Linne..."
"Yes, boss."
"What have you been up to lately?"
"Which..."
"At school."
"Oh, for now I'm working at the library."
"Not the job. What are you mainly focusing on? Magic? Research?"
"Oh, m-me! I'm working hard at b-both. Of course... n-nowhere near Senior Hervena!"
Linne even clenched a fist to show him. A faint smile spread at Blow's mouth as he watched.
"Yeah? Then how about becoming a full employee?"
"A full employee?"
"Yeah. When the potion shop opens, transfer over there."
"Uh... uhh?!"
At the words full employee, Linne's eyes began to sparkle.
"It'll be better than the restaurant, won't it? What do you say? In exchange, you'll need to put in some time."
"No. Oh..."
"I'll take proper care of you. Nice and warm."
"Nyang-nyang?"
Was there a cat filter stuck over her ears? Blow stared at her in disbelief. Linne only blinked, waiting for whatever he would say next.
"I said I'll take proper care of you. You'll be a third-year next year, and the higher the year, the more money you'll need."
"E-even so, the library..."
"The potion shop will have plenty of books later. That's the plan. And of course we'll stock a lot of equipment for research."
At that, her eyes sparkled again.
"B-books...! Research equipment...!"
"It won't be on the library's level, of course... Well? Tempted at all?"
Linne nodded before she quite meant to.
One employee cleared. Blow looked at Rowbedi and nodded, and Rowbedi nodded back.
Watching him clear the two of them, Jane laughed softly.
"You really do make everything look easy."
"Easy is good. We'll write the contracts when we get to Caipol. Founding members, so I'll take care of you nyang-nyang— no. Warm and generous."
"Yes, boss."
The two of them, full employees before they quite knew it, nodded hard at Blow.
Then his gaze went to Skadi, arms folded, watching him from the corner of her eye.
"All right... now that everyone's an employee, only Skadi needs to cover her ears."
"This is seriously too much! Do you have any idea how much I've sold for you!"
Blow shrugged at her complaint.
"I'm joking."
"Hmph."
"If we open something like a wine bar later, you can be the owner."
"I won't."
"Even if I set you up properly?"
"Try actually setting me up first."
At his promise to set her up properly, a faint smile touched Skadi's mouth, her mood eased if only a little.
"All right. The other one, then—making potions taste good."
"M-making potions taste good? What does that even mean?"
Brows drew in all around at words that fell outside their common sense.
"Exactly what I said. Let's make potions taste good."
"Th-that! They're supposed to taste bad. Th-that's what gives them meaning. We learned it at school."
"Did we?"
"Because they taste bad, you h-have to endure it... and th-that endurance is a mage's spirit."
"I've heard that too."
Seeing Jane agree with Linne, Blow snorted and shook his head.
"Isn't that just a marketing strategy Podirangsa spread, so people would choke down something with no flavor to speak of?"
"...You think so?"
Podirangsa was a leading dealer in magical goods, handling rodium—one of the main ingredients of potions—and basic mana potions. Its mark was a green frog, and every liquid that damned frog was stuck to tasted horrific. So the potion shops near the school made and sold their wares by adding something extra to rodium, or to Podirangsa's basic potion. Some places were even more horrific, and more effective. Some were a little less horrific, and a little less effective.
Blow's goal was a potion that escaped that margin of horrific taste—on the good side.
"Just focus on the taste and make it. No conditions."
"What if the effect drops?"
"Up to a point, I don't care. Even cut in half, it should be fine. Better to drink a decent one twice."
The so-called children's toothpaste strategy.
Caipol had not only the municipal university, but two other magic schools besides Capall Municipal Magic School, where he had studied—smaller in scale, but there all the same. Potions were one of a mage's necessities. Even now, Linne and Rowbedi carried them. If the thing came out the way he imagined, there would be no cash cow to match it.
Linne, who had been thinking a little, carefully opened her mouth.
"I-I think fixed ideas are the p-problem! Still, everyone's already gotten used to this weird taste..."
"That's exactly what a fixed idea is. Nobody likes discomfort and unpleasantness."
Blow nearly launched into the story of cordless earphones, then shut his mouth. When they first came out, everyone had probably asked why anyone would bother with something like that.
Jane, who had been turning his words over, smiled and spoke.
"If it actually works, it really would be incredible."
"Sparkling water or that, let's do one of them right."
"Will you add more people?"
"If we need them. Rowbedi, want to move over to the potion shop?"
"If you order it, I'll go to the potion shop too, but the restaurant seems to fit my hands better."
"Yeah? Why?"
"On the restaurant side, my thoughts get simpler. I like that."
...He'd picked one person with an uncanny eye.
Blow held a satisfied smile. Jane, beside him, took out her notebook and talked while jotting this and that.
"First thing when we get there, I'll dump sugar into a basic potion."
"Good attitude, Jane. I'll back the research budget as far as I can. That's why I kept the money aside."
"Oh, and Young Master—I've thought of a name for the potion shop."
"What is it?"
"Red Forest."
Skadi, who had been looking out the window, startled and looked at Jane.
...Yesterday in the bath, hadn't they definitely settled on White Forest?
Blow, finding Red Forest a little odd as well, asked her back.
"Forest isn't bad. But why red?"
Jane, who had been staring straight at him, smiled and answered.
"Because it's a potion shop. I thought it was better than something obvious."
"Fair. Better than something like green. Go that way and it'll look like a cosmetics shop."
The moment his gaze moved elsewhere, Jane's face hardened. Seeing it, Skadi quietly turned her eyes back toward the window.
Their carriages arrived in Caipol and stopped near Dusk Block.
Yulia got down first, looking better than she had in a long while.
"Senior Yulia, are you heading in?"
"Yes! I won't be able to stand it if I don't cast magic right away!"
Yulia clenched her fist. Beside her, Hervena was wearing a faint smile.
"Then I'll contact you soon, Senior."
"Please do. Contact me anytime! I really enjoyed this!"
With that farewell, Yulia headed back to school.
Watching her back recede, Blow was thinking how strange it was that so much of the wall between them had come down—when a growl rose from Hans's stomach beside him.
"Ah, I'm sorry, Young Master."
"It's fine. We probably ate lunch too early. How about everyone having dinner a bit early today?"
"Sounds good!"
They answered in one voice and set off together toward the Nyx Inn.
What met them in front of the inn was Megan, who had recognized Blow from a distance and was coming outside, and two of the Ain.
Leaving them behind, Megan came on at a near run. She looked as if she had more to say than usual. Blow's eyes moved between her and the Ain boy behind her, watching him with bright, sparkling eyes, and he knew at once that something else had happened while they were gone.