Magic Gems Gourmet Chapter 28.2 - Her Mischief.

“Ain’t a motherf.u.c.king, magic-stone eating, dark knight who’s a monster.”

The words that were said so abruptly made her feel indescribably irritated, but Ayn managed to suppress

it just in time.

”What are you saying all of a sudden, Katima-san?”

Katima’s laboratory. The two of them were conducting the usual research, a tumultuous development in

the name of research.

The main thing today was the mysterious magic stone that Ein had purchased for 300,000 G.

”When I heard about a magic stone that curses people, I thought there was a similar ghetto, Nya.

“Are you trying to pick a fight with me?”

Katima had been reading books that could be used as resources and past cases while Ain was away, but

she still hadn’t found just what the magic stone was.

This made him slightly stressed out.

“When I thought about it, I didn’t have any friends my age. I’ve turned into a motherf.u.c.king,

magic-stone-eating, bossy dark knight…….ouch! Ouch nyaaah!”

Ayn, who couldn’t stand it any longer, pulls Katima’s ears from side to side.

“It doesn’t hurt my heart to think of it as an education to a bad cat.”

“It’s okay that there’s one of them. I ain’t a bocce.”

“Who’s this? I’ll tell you.”

“I have one friend named Krone, so I’m safe.”

“Where are you?”

“I’ll be on a s.h.i.+p soon, coming to Isthmus.”

“Ahhhh, the visitor from Heim Nya. Well then it’s botch right now…….so that’s why it hurts Nya!

Niaaaaah!”

It was bad enough that Katima hadn’t learned her lesson, but even as Ayn, she was slightly enjoying this

exchange.

After all, it was a fun time for Ayn, who had no friends. Whether he meant it or not was another matter.

”It’s time to start continuing. Don’t be this stupid.

“That………ouch, that hurt….”

“We still don’t know what kind of magic stone it is after all, do we?”

“There’s one thing I do know.”

“What? What’s that, I’m not listening to that.”

He showed a bit of a smug look and said that he knew one thing.

”At the very least, this magic stone is a product of the same generation as Dullahan’s magic stone, or even

earlier, Nya.”

“Then why don’t you dig into the archives for that generation?”

“That’s not all. A demon that’s as strong as Dullahan. We don’t have any information about that kind of a

magic stone from Nya. To begin with, we don’t know much about the Demon King’s magic stone in the

audience room. Huh? And if we know about strength, there are two things we’ve learned, Nya.”

“I didn’t expect it to be such a product of the past. And Ayn, who was on par with Dullahan was a bit

woozy to hear that he was a magical stone with no doc.u.mentation. I still can’t help but wonder about the

curse.”

“What is the curse of the magic stone after all?”

“Would you like to smoke it already?”

Katima’s suggestion was a fact that even Ayn had considered.

“Not that poison doesn’t work, although that’s what he had thought. What about curses then? It would

be a good idea.”

“I don’t think the curse is poisonous in the least. But I hesitate to think about what would happen to my

body as a result of it.”

“I guess the curse is the bottleneck after all. I wouldn’t be afraid if it was just poison.”

“Meow. I’m not going to be cursed to death the moment I inhale.”

“Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

“If a Durahan-cla.s.s demon could use the curse from when he was alive, we’d have plenty of time.”

“So that’s a no-brainer after all!”

No matter how much toxin decomposition EX, Ayn didn’t have a strong resistance to anything other

than special poisons, nor did she have some sort of cheat.

That’s why it was thought that a curse would be easily beaten if he didn’t have any resistance to it.

”Ayn. The previous owners of this magic stone were holding it in an unsealed situation, right?”

“I think that’s what Miss Majolica said.”

“Hmm. I’ll just take it out of the box.”

Katima’s idea was to take it out just once and put it nearby.

“It was a tour de force, as the previously cursed were never supposed to be dead just because they had a

strange dream.”

“Here? Where Mr. Katima is?”

“I’m not going to let you sit back and enjoy yourself.”

Then he reached for the case of the seal.

”No, wait a minute. If the curse affects the people of the castle and so on, it would be dangerous, I was

about to open it, dangerous.”

“You can’t get out of this lab. This lab is specially made to be at least as tightly sealed as that sealed case,

so it’s safe. Meow.”

“Oh, yes.”

It seemed to be an unwanted concern, and I reached for the case again.

I understood that Katima was spending a lot of money on research, but I didn’t expect that she was even

giving the lab a curse countermeasure.

“For now, I’m going to open the case and take out the magic stone. Don’t touch it yet.”

With that said, I released the case I was reaching for.

”……..”

“I knew it. It’s like he’s breathing or something, and I can feel his presence from the magic stone.”

“I don’t feel it. What’s the sign?”

“Is that the kind of sign I want you to notice? Even though it was sealed up in Majolica’s shop, I felt a hint

of it. I didn’t feel it in the lab, though.”

“I’m guessing it’s because the curse prevention system here is so good.”

It made sense. And I could feel the strength of the anti-curse processing being applied to the lab that

Katima had mentioned.

“I hope you don’t say anything sinister.”

“But I can’t explain it, Nya. I don’t know why you’re possessing Ayn after all this time. Who the h.e.l.l are

you?”

“It’s just a boy.”

“To explain Ayn, if you want to explain Ayn, you can use the power of Toxin Decomposition EX to

absorb the magic stone in half with the Dryad You can. And that he was a reincarnated human being. He

was by no means an ordinary boy when it came to this.”

Even as Ein, he was comfortable enough with this world that he sometimes forgot that he was

reincarnated now.

“Mazako.”

“I’m going to pull your ears out again.”

“Well that’s all right. I’ll tell you one thing, Nyaain, do you have complete control over absorption?”

“I think it’s safe to say you can already do it. At least it’s not like I’m going to unconsciously suck out a

magic stone just because I picked it up.”

“If you don’t feel like it, you can smoke at Majolica’s all you want.”

I’ve rambled on about something slightly dangerous, but Ayn already had no problem controlling the

absorption.

“I won’t do that, though. If someone you don’t like has a lot of stuff, you might as well smoke it.”

“Ain’t that a b.i.t.c.h.”

“So what’s the deal with being in control?”

“Can I try it?”

“That’s impossible”.

Katima pointed her finger paw at the magical stone for the example.

She expected that by holding it in her hand she might be able to learn something.

”It’s dangerous, indeed,”

“If you don’t suck it up, then the link with the magic stone shouldn’t be built up, Nya. Anyway, in the past,

I used to unconsciously suck it up, even if it was a long distance away. So I think it’s fine now.”

It was true that Ayn had been unconsciously sucking up the magical stones close to her when she

couldn’t control her absorption.

Katima hypothesized that there wouldn’t be a problem since he now controlled it and basically sucked it

up from his arms.

“Suppose that there was a problem, what would you do?”

“I’m going to seal this whole room. Then we can control the influence from the outside world for the time

being, so we can destroy the magic stones little by little from there. It’s best to think about it.”

“…You’re really sure about this?”

There was a way to deal with it, and because he thought that it wouldn’t be particularly dangerous. Ayn

also decided to take that mysterious magic stone in his hand.

”That’s good. There’s always a little bit of danger when you’re studying a magical stone.”

“All right. Then just be on the lookout for anything that might happen.”

Then he holds his hands next to the magic stone.

“Let’s go?”

“I’m ready too. Let’s do it.”

Taking that voice as a cue, Ein took the example magic stone in his hand.

It was only a short time before I thought, “What a bunch of nothing.”

This time, the voice rang with a sound that was not audible only to Ein, but echoed throughout the

room.

”I found…I found…I found…I found it!”

“Meow! What the h.e.l.l is this?”

That voice that claims to have found it never stops ringing.

“Ayn! I’ll get it back! Meow in a box!”

“Okay, okay!”

Katima decides it’s dangerous and tells him to put the magic stone back in the box again.

Then something unexpected happened to Ein’s body.

”What……..why? Why is that a fantasy hand?”

Those arms extend towards the magic stone.

“What are you doing Nya! Ayn!”

“It wasn’t me! They came out of………. What the h.e.l.l is this?”

Ayn doesn’t know what’s going on all of a sudden. Even though I tried to put it back in the box, the

magic stone didn’t leave my hand either.

”Nyaah … I’m going back, nyaaah!”

Katima moved at the bizarre situation. She tackled Ayn’s back and forced Ayn’s hand back into the box.

She managed to pull Ayn’s hand out of the box with all her strength and closed the box shut.

Then the illusory hands that had been sticking out a number of hands gradually returned to Ayn’s body.

”Hah… hah… what the h.e.l.l was that thing, Nya?”

“Katima-san. I feel so weak…”

”With so many illusory hands, it’s only natural. What’s the matter with you, Nya, really…?”

“What is it? What is it again?”

“Body! We’ll see!”

Katima tells Ayn so impatiently. Ayn, who had never seen Katima so impatient, also hurriedly moves

in front of the mirror. While Ayn was moving, Katima went to the bookshelf.

”What the h.e.l.l is this……..”

Ayn entered the lab in her normal clothes. It was supposed to be.

But what he was wearing now was black armor. The armor was the right size for the small Ain’s body.

The aura that leaked out was black. The aura was a mixture of red and blue.

With this, it was as if the armor was Durahan itself.

”There it is, Nya! Ayn, I’m going to look at this!”

Katima took out an old book. On it was a single picture, the black armor that Ayn was now wearing.

And that page explained about a certain demon.

”Dullahan……..”

The book that was brought to her was a valuable source of information about old demons, and the page

that Katima opened was about Dullahan.

There was an ill.u.s.tration of the Hand of Illusion beside her, and next to her is Durahan, who is wearing

black armor. It’s the same design as the one Ayn is wearing. The design is a perfect match to the one that

Ayn wore.

“Ain’t you going to be honest with me? Ain’t gonna lie to you. …a little bit of meow?”

“I don’t smoke! Suddenly, I thought I had an illusionary hand and it was like that!”

Then Katima pondered.

Various hypotheses and calculations were stirring in her head regarding what had just happened.

“I’m going to smoke this first. The magic stone of the heal bird. The healbird is a special magic stone, it’s

not toxic to humans and its power is used to heal people.”

With that, Katima handed three Heal Bird magic stones to Ein.

Ayn, who was unusually tired, sucked them up in one go.

There was no time to taste them, but a sudsy mint-like scent pa.s.sed through Ayn’s body.

The scent and the coolness of it also seemed to soothe his fatigue, and by the time he finished sucking

it, Ayn had regained some composure.

“Thanks, Katima-san. I’ve calmed down a bit.”

“That’s good to hear. I guess my armor is gone too.”

Apparently, at the same time that Ein settled down, Durahan’s armor also disappeared from his sight.

“For your information, Nya. I’m going to ask you if you practice any other skills of the dark knight

besides the hands of illusion.”

“I didn’t. I mean, I had no idea what kind of skills I even had.”

“Honestly, I have no idea what’s magical and what’s real in equipment when it comes to Dullahan. I didn’t

have a nyah. So I would have been scared if Ayn had been practicing, Nya.”

“Then why did you ask…”

Although his strength was famous as Dullahan, the details about the skills of the Dark Knight were still

unknown.

In fact, even the thing about the armor that was just discovered could be called a historical discovery.

”There’s a lot of things that don’t make sense to me.”

“But if you can hear voices, Katima, you know that you can hear them, right?”

“Yes, Nya. That’s a discovery all by itself, but … ummm.”

“Why do you think the Dark Knight’s illusionary hand sought out that magic stone?”

“I have a theory.”

That the hand of illusion activated on its own and asked for the magic stone. There are a lot of things

we don’t know about the magic stone itself, but even Durahan’s armor appeared and asked for the magic

stone. I couldn’t understand why.

“But it’s a completely unrealistic story, the first is that the dark knight asked for this magic stone, and I

grew up. The second one – this is even crazier. The Dark Knight said… Maybe the Dark Knight was a

demon spirit stone with which Durahan has some sort of connection.”

”In other words, the Durahan magic stone I smoked. Are you saying that its original owner had something

to do with this Demon Stone or the demon that had this Demon Stone?”

“That’s what I’m talking about. Considering what happened, it’s not surprising that the magic stone curses

and all that. Nah.”

To be honest, even as Katima, she could only give examples of hypotheses that were unrealistic.

Even though she had spent her entire life in research, everything related to this magic stone was a

mystery to her.

As a pair, they tried to continue talking about the hypothesis, but it didn’t go very far at all.

In the end, after a little while, today’s research is closed and both Ein and Katima leave the lab.

*

It was a day a little after the demon stone debacle.

Ein was going away for the first time in a long time.

The destination is the largest port town in Isthmus, which he visited on the first day of Isthmus.

Since Ein was heading there, normally the royal family’s exclusive water train would depart, but since

it wasn’t something that should be too big, he was heading there by a water train that had cars for the

n.o.bility.

The members heading to the train were Ayn and Chris in the carriage that Ayn had booked.

In one of the cars ahead are a few civilian officials including Warren, and the escorting knights.

They were on their way to the s.h.i.+p arriving at the port city.

A port town that would take a little over three hours to arrive. The s.h.i.+p that due to arrive there has

many sea crystals brought back from Euro on board.

Warren is going out to inspect the condition of those sea crystals.

The reason Ayn is following him was because Silverado approached Olivia about it, thinking it would

be a good experience.

The reason Olivia is not with me is because she is helping Queen Lalarua with her business.

She wanted to follow Ayn, but she had decided to leave that role to Chris.

”We’re almost there, Ayn-sama,”

“It’s been a long time, so long since I’ve been this far away.”

“Yes. Come to think of it, isn’t this the first time Master Ayn has gone away from Lady Olivia?”

Chris told her that, and Ayn agreed that she was sure.

’If you think about it, the only time I’ve ever gone away was with my mother Olivia.’

Although she had traveled to the academy to take the entrance exam, it wouldn’t be considered a distant

trip since it was only within the same royal capital.

”When I think about it, I’m beginning to worry about your mother. What should I do……..”

“I’m sure Lady Olivia is thinking the opposite.”

“It’s undeniable.”

“Mr. Ain will be doing a lot of visits and official duties in the near future. This visit will be a good

experience for you.”

As Chris said so, he was thankful for it being Ayn.

Since Ayn in his current state was just being provided for, he wanted to do as much as he could when

he thought about the future and what he could do now.

“I’m grateful to you, Grandfather. It’s just that every time I see him, he’s been nitpicking at me lately.”

”It’s the one thing you did on the entrance exam.”

And Olivia, we can’t break a promise. Although he had said it, it was too sweetly said from Silverado’s

point of view.

It was obvious that Olivia couldn’t say anything strongly to Ein, so Silverado was usually sweet, but he

strongly scolded her for what she shouldn’t do just then.

One, he used a skill that he was told not to use.

Two, to only use the skill after learning what the consequences would be properly.

He’d been told about that by Silverado every so often since then.

“It’s not something I can do publicly yet, you know.”

But there was one thing that was good for Ayn.

That was the reason why he had started training with the hands of illusion.

Since it was impossible to have a normal knight as an opponent, it was exclusively Lloyd.

”I’m grateful that Lloyd-san is serving as my opponent, but I think he’s too hard, Chris-san.”

“Oh, haha…”

When dealing with the examiner of the example, though, Ein attacked the examiner and even broke his

bones. In contrast it didn’t do that much damage to Lloyd.

He tried to use as much magic as he did on the exam, but he was guarded by one arm clad in armor. It

didn’t blow up after that, nor did it lose its position. And then he didn’t blow up or even lose his stance.

“I’m sure the training for the hands of illusion was supposed to be in order to use them safely. He said it

was necessary to understand the danger. It’s different when I use it on Lloyd-san, but that doesn’t look

dangerous at all, so the purpose is slightly different. I mean…..”

It should have been a training exercise to make sure he learned the strength of the illusionary hand and

to understand how to use it and how much force to use with it.

But it didn’t look dangerous at all when used on Lloyd. Rather, even if he ate it, yes, next attack! And

then hurry up with the next train, it doesn’t look like it’s in danger at all anymore.

”Well I’ll let Lloyd-sama know about that next time.”

“Please.”

Chris has his head in his hands.

As far as how to use it, Ain has improved a lot. He has gotten used to moving it around in detail.

But he hasn’t been able to deepen his understanding of the danger, which should have been a problem.

”Lately, Lloyd-sama has been trying to get you to output even more power, so…”

“That’s a no-no.”

With Lloyd already in the process of starting enhanced training, Ayn was forced to consider other

training options. There weren’t any.

And I could understand the strength of Lloyd, the Marshal of the great Isthmus of Isthmus, very well.

While we were talking, we arrived at the port, and Chris suggested that we should go down to Ain, and

Ein nodded in agreement and they went down to the port city.

*.

“It’s such a big place.”

When Ein got off the water train, he saw the vast expanse of the port city.

The station where Ein got off was located on a small hill nearby where the large s.h.i.+ps stopped.

The last time Ayn had been here, he had been moving from door to door from Princess Olivia. We

didn’t get to see any of the town’s scenery as we were transferred to the royal train.

“We didn’t get to see it last time. This is Magna, the largest port city in Isthmus.”

“It’s also a military port.” Chris continued to explain.

The town is large and bustling, and many of the houses have red roofs and white walls.

There was a ca.n.a.l in places, and we could see small boats carrying something on board.

Numerous boats were parked by the sea and countless people were at work as well.

There were many stalls where people could have a light meal, and it looked like a fun town to look

around.

“It’s an amazingly bustling, beautiful town.”

“The seafood you can buy here is excellent. I’ll buy some on my way home, and I’ll bring some back for

Olivia, too. Olivia loves the fish sold at Magna.”

“We shouldn’t do that. We’ll have to buy them in bulk.”

Chris chuckled when he heard Ayn’s reply and began to point out where the s.h.i.+p would dock.

“I see you arrived a little while ago. Looks like they’re going through the formalities.”

Ahead, a man in uniform who appeared to be a port employee and a civilian and a knight were talking

with a man in uniform who had gotten off the s.h.i.+p.

Warren, who had also gotten off the train, comes in close.

“Master Ain, thank you for making the long journey. How are you doing here in Magna?”

“It’s a beautiful, bustling town. It’s so charming I’d like to spend some time there.”

“Hahaha, good to hear. Very good, sir. I’m going to show you some of the sea crystals and some of the

equipment.”

And so, Ain walks near the cargo that was unloaded with Warren.

It seems that they unloaded a box’s worth of cargo early because Warren was coming to inspect.

“There. Have you finished the prescribed work yet?”

Haha. We have finished disinfecting the items that Warren-sama will be confirming, with priority!

“Thank you. We’ll take over here, move on to the next job.”

“Ha!”

It seems that Warren had something to check on regarding the cargo, so he asked the knight who was

by his side about it. There didn’t seem to be any problems, so he moved the knight over. It was a measure

that was taken with Ayn in mind.

“Lord Chris, may I ask you to open the package?”

“Yes, sir.”

Chris then proceeded to open the lid that had been welded shut.

It looked like he had used some kind of magic and there was already a break in it when he felt a breeze.

“Thank you. Now, please take a look at this, Mr. Ain, this is the sea crystal that had been mined and has

not been tampered with in any way.”

What was taken out in front of Ayn’s eyes was a lump that looked like rock salt. It was a lump that was

white and translucent.

It felt like an ordinary stone to the touch, with a slightly rough surface.

‘This is a sea crystal. So it’s coa.r.s.e.”

“You’ll make a number of scratches in the sea, and it will become rough. This will store the magic in it

and control the magic stone.”

“That way, it won’t affect the human body, right?”

”That’s right. This sea crystal is carved out of this sea crystal and worked to increase its conduction power

and become part of a magic tool.”

The sea crystal Ayn held in his hand was about 20 cm in size.

Still, it didn’t feel heavy at all and felt like dry bones.

”Please take one. I hope you can touch it in your hand on the train to see what it looks like.”

After Warren told him that, Chris took the sea crystal from Ayn.

”Then let’s go next. I’ll show you some of the magic tools we’ll be using for mining.”

Ain’s inspection continues.

After this, the magic tools used for some mining, the sea crystal processing machine in the port city,

and the activities of the sea crystal research group. This was followed by an explanation of the following.

*

“I think that’s all for now. Thank you for your long hours.”

Ayn’s tour, which had begun with Warren’s guidance, had ended.

Many explanations were given to him, but Ayn listened to all of them diligently.

The one he was most interested in was the sea crystal processing machine.

He had heard that it cut the surface. He thought it was a series of cutters, but then they poured

chemicals on it to melt the surface. He was sc.r.a.ping away at it with what looked like a water cutter.

“It was all very interesting. Thank you, Mr. Warren.”

“That’s very good to hear. And now the tour is over.”

“I thought I’d take a souvenir for your mother.”

“That’s good. Chris, will you accompany me?”

He had heard that the tour was over, and like Ayn, he wanted to go see a little of the port city.

But it seemed that Chris still had some work to finish, so he decided to wait for him.

“Well, I’ll wait until Chris-san is done, then.”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to wait a certain amount of time. So we may have a couple of different knights for

you.”

Warren offered an alternative, but it wasn’t a very welcome idea for Ayn.

He wouldn’t say it, but he was going to be nervous to be out in the port city with a group of knights he

hadn’t talked much to.

“No, then I’ll wait for you at this pier. I want to look at the sea, if that’s alright with you?”

While waiting for Chris, Ein decided to look out at the sea from one of the several piers.

The sea in Magna was clear and clean, and he could even see the fish swimming in it.

“As you can imagine, it’s not safe for you to be alone.”

“Lord Chris. Mr. Ain, you may relax a bit. However, Mr. Ayn, please don’t go anywhere other than the

nearby pier, okay? Stay where we can see you. If it’s Lord Chris, I can hear any sounds, even if Master

Ain should fall into the sea.”

“It’s true that the only people in this area are from the Order and the Scouts but I’m not sure that it’s

absolutely safe.”

Chris balked. Even though the Dauphin was close by, she couldn’t allow herself to be left alone.

“Well then, Master Ayn. Here you are.”

Warren handed him a small red gemstone.

Ayn also receives a thin chain along with it.

”This is a valuable magic tool. It’s small, but it’ll protect the person who has it. It’ll keep malicious things

at bay and will s.h.i.+ne strongly if there is any danger. The queen gave it to me today to give to Master Ein

when he left for the port city.”

“Red ball of the earth indeed, if that’s what you have, I’ll allow you to just stay on the pier.”

“What is it? What’s this earthly red ball?”

”It’s an extremely valuable magic tool. It will be made by condensing a powerful dragon core and

embedding it into a sea crystal.”

Chris continues to explain.

If a malicious person was near it, its crimson ball would s.h.i.+ne, enveloping that malicious person and

making them unable to move.

And even if the magic was struck from a long distance, it was a valuable magic tool that could be

disarmed by a few shots.

”It looks incredibly expensive.”

”It’s only natural that he should be able to do this since he is the crown prince. It takes a long time to make

and cannot be ma.s.s-produced. We just finished it the other day and today we can finally give it to His

Highness Ayn.”

“Okay. I’ll take it.”

“Wear it on your arm. It must be worn on your arm for it to be effective.”

Chris told me so, and I used the chain to attach it to my arm.

It seemed that he had planned to wear it on his arm from the beginning, and since it had a clasp on it, it

was easy to wear.

“Then, Master Ain. Please do not go farther than the pier beside this one.”

“Okay. Then please pick me up when you’re done.”

With that, Ayn headed to the pier. Ayn was glad to be able to see the crystal clear waters up close.

*

“It’s so transparent. You can see to the bottom.”

Ayn went to the pier as soon as possible and watched the sea for a while.

Unlike the harbor town of Roundhart, the harbor of Magna was clear, and it was fun to see what was

going on in the sea, even the fish swimming around.

“I think I can grab a handful of fish,” he said. “It’s nice and warm, and I’m starting to get a little sleepy.”

The first thing that came to Ayn’s mind was a nap.

As a royalty, there was no way he would be allowed to take a nap in a place like this. However, Ayn’s

face was still unknown to the people.

Thinking about it, Ein thought that if he was going to do it, wouldn’t now be the last chance to do so?

He thought to himself, and laid down to say enough is enough.

The pier was warm in the sun, and the sea breeze was pleasant.

There were several wooden boxes on the pier, and I decided to take a nap, figuring that if I stayed in the

shade of them, I wouldn’t be able to see much from my surroundings.

“Huh … this place feels nice.”

Even though it was getting progressively colder, the weather was still reasonably sunny in the port city

of Magna, where the weather was good.

Therefore, the temperature was comfortable, without any wind chill at all.

When I looked at Chris, our eyes met and he seemed to be sighing with his hand on his forehead. But

he seemed to forgive me for not coming to blame him.

With that, I decided to meditate on it and enjoy this sunny weather.

*.

It had been a short time since Ayn had started to take a nap.

Chris hadn’t come to pick up Ayn yet, as he still had some paperwork to check and some work to do.

He, too, was comfortable with this sunny nap, and it wasn’t a problem because he still wasn’t awake.

While he slept “alone”, no one else walking nearby noticed.

Ayn was not large enough to be noticeable.

Also, those who worked on the large s.h.i.+ps in the port city of Magna rarely looked at anything other than

the s.h.i.+p that was their destination.

That was only when they were sleeping alone, though.

“Hmmm… hmmm…”

That’s how Ayn gradually awakened his consciousness after enjoying his nap to the fullest.

After a pleasant sunny nap, he felt quite satisfied, but he felt something different about his head.

Since he had been lying snuggled up against the crate, it should have felt hard against his head.

Yet what he felt was soft and smelled good, like flowers.

Ayn wondered about that and decided to get up to check the situation to see what it was.

Slowly, he opens his eyes to see what is happening. The sun’s rays were blinding, but he was still able

to understand something that was happening to him.

“Hey Ayn? What’s the first thing you’re going to say? Long time no see. Or thank you for lending me your

knee?”

She was lending her knee to him, she utters this. She’s asking Ayn to play a small prank on her.

She had grown up a bit, even more beautiful than before. A beautiful, nostalgic voice steals Ayn’s ear.

She looks at Ayn with a slightly mischievous smile and asks what Ayn will say first.

A flower-shaped jewel s.h.i.+nes in her hand as she brushes back her long, beautiful light blue hair.

”Well I’ve missed you. Is it wrong to say that?”

Ayn is still a small child, but it’s a lifetime of words for him.

She blushes just a little bit and strokes Ayn’s cheek.

Ayn’s words to her as she grows up beautifully. It was Ayn’s tiny little payback for a tiny little prank

she had done.