Around the Campfire #1

Yoo-hoo!

Good evening from under a sparkling, star-filled sky; it's Emi-chan, the beautiful girl who outshines even the twinkling stars.

Right now I'm in Zamago Forest, at the foot of Mount Nanga, on the western edge of the demon realm, the Ranrananga Mountains, sitting around a campfire with Giovanno, an old man with a seriously nasty face!

“......Hey, Emi...... you, just now, weren't you thinking something rude......?”

“Your imagination.”

Oops, close one, close one.

Did what I was thinking show on my face?

<As far as I know, your expression has never once moved, Emi. This man, too, is a ‘special-ability user’, after a fashion. Compared with ordinary people, he is probably quicker to pick up on all sorts of things.>

Eh, what's that.

Special-ability users have a trait like that?

<It's only that relatively many such people exist. They handle magic power by feel, after all. Your emotions ride on your magic power instead of your face, so perhaps that's how he picks them up?>

Mumumu, the villain-faced old man, not to be underestimated.

Come to think of it, was this guy originally a noble?

I kind of picture noble society as a place where skills like reading the other side's real intentions and feelings matter a lot, so maybe he just picked them up naturally, living as a noble.

<And amid such a life, his heart wore thin, and his face grew more and more villainous......>

How terrible!

To think this old man's emotion-reading ability and his villain face were a trade-off......!

“Hey...... hey! Emi! I knew it, you're making fun of me in your head, aren't you!”

“Your imagination.”

Tch.

He's seriously sharp, this old man.

And I feel like lately he's been getting sharper and sharper, too.

<His senses have probably begun to sharpen over this long life in the demon realm.>

......Right.

About a month has already passed since I cleared a corner of Zamago Forest and started living with this old man.

This month...... a lot has happened.

We found a watering hole near the base, and the old man almost got eaten by a crocodile-like creature that was there (that crocodile-like creature has already been wiped out. The watering hole is ours).

It turned out that the purple fruit I liked and ate a lot of was actually the fruit of a plant called donei, a deadly poison.

I made a bed for the old man.

I built a stage for when we use the old man as bait (the old man calls it the “sacrificial altar”).

The old man found some tasty greens (they look like purslane, but the leaves are as big as your palm. Thick and fleshy), and started growing them at the base.

Well, this and that happened.

By the way, the tasty greens the old man found are delicious grilled, so we call them “grill greens.” I don't know their proper name.

Honestly, I thought the old man was a genius for discovering that these are tasty when grilled.

Even now, the old man grilling grill greens over the campfire in front of me looks, at first glance, like just a shabby, down-and-out, nasty-faced old man, but he's a seriously genius old man.

“Hey...... Emi, which is that vibe......? Are you praising me, or putting me down......?”

“That one, was also praise.”

“Which means, until now you were putting me down......!?”

“Dunno.”

“They're your own thoughts! How can you not know!”

“A beautiful girl's heart, always a mystery.”

“Don't call yourself a beautiful girl!”

So, yeah, like that.

I always thought I was on the quiet side, but I've gotten close enough to the old man to trade this much banter.

<Now, that's enough chitchat; let's resume observing. Please focus, Emi.>

......I guess so.

I focus once more and stare at the old man.

It's not that I like staring at a grubby old man.

What I want to see is the third arm made of magic power extending from around the old man's right shoulder...... 【Invisible Hand】.

Right now, 【Invisible Hand】 is gripping some “vinegar ivy” and making it float in the air.

This vinegar ivy is just sour if eaten on its own, but eaten with grilled grill greens, it's seriously tasty.

And this old man found that out pretty early on, so he really is a genuine genius......

<You're thinking needless things again, Emi.>

Oops, can't have that, can't have that.

Now then, it has been a month.

A month, you see.

For a whole month, I have been living with this old man.

In other words, I still haven't managed to learn 【Invisible Hand】.

“............”

While observing the old man's 【Invisible Hand】, I extend a thread of magic power from the tip of my right index finger.

The thread slides out, straight and smooth.

“............”

Once the thread is up, up in front of my face, I wiggle the tip right and left.

Like a caterpillar that's lost its way.

My magic power thread moves and extends freely, just as I intend.

But, unlike 【Invisible Hand】, this thread is one of my 【Magic Sensing Threads】, which can barely interact with anything physically.

If anything happens, it snaps right off—putsun.

Get sturdy, get sturdy, get sturdy......

While thinking that, I wrap the thread around a small twig lying around and try to lift it, but...... as expected, it's no good.

The 【Magic Sensing Threads】 couldn't withstand the weight of the twig; they snapped and melted away.

“............”

So hard......

What should I do?

I don't get it at all.

“............”

I slowly get up and trot over to the old man.

“......What is it?”

“............”

And then, I pat the 【Invisible Hand】 extending from the old man's right shoulder.

Yes...... 【Invisible Hand】 can be touched.

It's neither cold nor warm, and normally it's invisible.

But, without a doubt, as the old man's third arm...... 【Invisible Hand】 exists right here......

“............No good, I still don't get it......”

I let out a sigh and sat down on the spot.

“......I see. Learning 【Invisible Hand】, isn't going well, is that it?”

I give a little nod to the old man, who's talking to me as he munches on grill greens.

“But, even without 【Invisible Hand】, you've picked up all sorts of strange techniques, haven't you? Is that not enough?”

“No.”

“I see...... well, once you learn 【Invisible Hand】, I'll be of no further use to you. You needn't try so hard, you know.”

“Annoying.”

“......Don't go aiming killing intent at me at the drop of a hat...... forcing down everything you don't like with violence...... is that how you mean to live from here on, too?”

“............A villain, lecturing me?”

“Before I am a villain, I am an adult, after all.”

“............”

“............”

“......I'm sorry.”

“I was in the wrong, too...... I meant it as a joke.”

With a pachi pachi, twigs pop in the campfire.

I stop observing 【Invisible Hand】 for now, poke a stick into the thickest, most delicious-looking of the grill greens the old man had set beside him, and start grilling it over the fire......

“......Hey, hey, Emi! That's the one I was saving as my last treat of the day!?”

“............”

“Go to the field yourself! You could just pick your own, couldn't you!? Ah...... ahh, honestly......”

“............”

My mind blank, I stuff my cheeks with grill greens.

A crisp bite.

Soft and gooey inside, and sweet.

Delicious.

<Even so, I never thought learning 【Invisible Hand】 would go this badly.>

Right, Omake-sama......

What's going wrong, I wonder......

<Perhaps the feel of the techniques you've learned so far is getting in the way. For example, you originally learned 【Magic Slash Thread】 as an application of 【Mantis】, didn't you? 【Invisible Hand】 seems to belong to a different system from every magic power manipulation technique you have used so far. Right now, Emi, you see something in common between handling 【Magic Sensing Threads】 and handling 【Invisible Hand】, and you treat 【Invisible Hand】 as an application of 【Magic Sensing Threads】, don't you? Perhaps that is the mistake?>

Hmm, mumumu......

That's easy to say, but then it's like, so what do I do, right?

<That's the thing...... how did this old man learn such a special ability in the first place......?>

........................

............I hadn't thought of that, Omake-sama.

<Eh?>

That's right.

The moment he first learned this 【Invisible Hand】...... 【Invisible Hand】 manifested? Is that the word? Anyway, he might remember that moment, right?

<He may also have been using it unconsciously since birth, though.>

If that's the case, I'll give up.

Anyway, I'll get him to tell me how his special ability first manifested, and put myself in a similar situation!

Doing that might give me a clue to learning 【Invisible Hand】, right!?

<Will it really go that well?>

“Hey, old man.”

“......What is it?”

“The first time you used your special ability, old man, when was it? What happened?”

“Hmm......”

The old man stopped eating grill greens for a moment and rubbed his chin.

“......Don't laugh, all right?”

Then, after thinking it over a little, he looked me in the eye and said that.

Apparently, he remembers that moment quite clearly.

“It's fine, I won't laugh. I, have never laughed.”

“......Sorry.”

“I don't get why you're apologizing. Anyway, I won't laugh. So tell me.”

“......Let's see......”

The old man lets out a breath, fuu.

He looks up at the sky.

A cloudless starry sky.

A jewel box out of reach.

“That was...... let me see, something that happened when I was, I believe, about 5.”

With that, the old man began to reminisce, bit by bit.

“Back then, I had...... a favorite doll that I never let out of my sight.”

“......A villain-faced old man, with a doll......?”

“You fool, don't poke fun! Back then I was an adorable, timid little boy! Anyway, that day too, I was playing in the garden with that doll in my arms.”

“............”

“That day was...... the day after a heavy rain. Puddles had formed all around.”

“............”

“And then, I...... got my foot stuck in the mud, I believe, and threw the doll without meaning to.”

“............”

“At this rate, the doll would hit the ground, and get muddy...... I didn't want that. Somehow, I wanted to catch the doll. That one thought was all I had. And then...... for the first time, 【Invisible Hand】 manifested.”

“............”

“As a result, for some reason, the doll floated in the air and came back to my hands without a speck of mud on it. Well...... that's about the size of it.”

When he had finished his story, the old man started munching on grill greens again.

“......Somehow, the episode, has no drama...... don't you have something? An episode like, someone was about to die, and you awakened in a rage.”

“You fool! Just whose point of view is that critique from! Anyway, that is the story of the first time I used 【Invisible Hand】! I have nothing more to say!”

The old man got angry and looked away.

“Hmm......”

<In other words, his wish not to lose something precious made this old man's special ability manifest. He probably had the talent to begin with.>

I see...... something precious...... huh.

Then if I, too, try on reflex to save something precious that's about to fall, will 【Invisible Hand】 manifest?

But what would something precious to me even be?

Staring at the campfire, I put my hand to my chin and think too.

First of all, my life, and Omake-sama.

These are the most precious things in all this world.

<Emi...... you'll make me blush.>

Yes, yes.

But these aren't exactly things I can throw.

Something precious I can throw...... did I have anything like that?

Money, I don't have.

Things, I don't have.

I have nothing at all.

“............Ah.”

But then, it suddenly hits me.

And I turn to the side.

“............What.”

There sits the villain-faced old man, munching on grill greens in a foul mood.

I don't have any precious things that I can throw, but...... having spent a month together, I've grown a little attached to this old man.

In other words, within my reach right now, wouldn't you say this old man is something fairly precious to me?

Yeah.

Right, I can say that.

“Hey...... what is it, Emi. What are you thinking?”

“............Old man, you're, someone precious to me. That's what I thought.”

“......What's this, all of a sudden...... I, I see......”

The old man scratched his cheek and mumbled something in a low voice.

“So...... I'm going to......”

“You're going to?”

“Take you, old man......”

“Take me?”

“And throw you...... off a cliff......!!”

“WHY!!?”

Rejected, on the spot.

Grill greens are a fantasy plant that grows in the demon realm; set up the conditions a little, and they multiply explosively, at tremendous speed.

Easy to cultivate.