Chapter 13

The silence may have lasted only for a brief moment, but it felt as though it had gone on for quite a long time.

“Y-you serious?”

Kengo blurted that out reflexively, then theatrically took a step back.

“Wait, do you mean killing Nodon?”

A mage was worth a thousand soldiers.

But Kururu gave a tired smile, spread her hands, and tossed away the magic stone that had turned to ash.

“If I could do that, this would all be much easier. Even if I am called a mage, my power is below that of a mere apprentice lackey. In practical terms, I have no real ability at all. Even if a magic circle is carved into a magic stone, unless it is an exceptionally large one, it cannot effectively draw out powers such as flame or ice. However, I can at least make the magic stone’s power manifest itself, like just now.”

Kururu looked straight at us.

“That is why, when I was a child, I believed that when I grew up, I would become a magic stone processing artisan. It is the standard occupation for failed mages, after all. I was about this tall back then.”

Kururu was not especially tall, but even so, she placed her hand at about waist height, so she must have meant when she was truly little.

“But before long, I was assigned as Lady Iiria’s attendant, and that path too was closed to me. Still, even after that, I kept thinking about magic stone processing the whole time.”

“About processing?”

At my question, Kururu looked at me properly for the first time.

“There are clear laws that govern magic circles. That is why artisans perform the same processing no matter where they go in the Empire. Do you understand that?”

“Yes, I do. Even the Nodon Company had a base text compiling magic circles.”

Kururu nodded.

“However, while I was being passed from one territory to another following Lady Iiria, there was something I noticed.”

My face twisted as I found myself imagining little Iiria and Kururu being treated coldly as troublesome castoffs.

“In nearly every territory, there are magical legends related to the war from a thousand years ago. You know of that war?”

“The war between beastfolk… and humans, right?”

“Yes. And in every land, copies remain of the magic circles said to have been used in that ancient war. I went around looking at them, and I could no longer think of them as anything other than being written according to principles different from those of the current magic circles.”

I could not quite grasp the meaning of those words, but Kengo caught on immediately.

“So there is a new path in magic stone processing?”

He wore a serious expression I had never seen on him before.

Maybe this was what he had been like when he worked in our old world.

“Of course, it is possible that those copies of legendary magic are fabrications. But I felt that there was a strange regularity to them. I do not think it was coincidence.”

“Has no one ever actually tried those magic circles?”

Magic circles were like chemical formulas—if you knew the shape, all you had to do was carve it into a magic stone. It was a simple question, so I voiced it, but Kururu instantly gave me her usual look as though she were staring at garbage.

“They are enormous magic circles, too large to fit even if you spread both arms wide. If there exists a magic stone large enough to carve such a circle, it would only be on the topmost shelf of the Empire’s treasure vault.”

The price of magic stones rose exponentially with size. The size of a magic stone directly determined the power of the magic, and with greater surface area, more complex and more powerful magic circles could be carved into it.

The standard fifth-grade products Nodon handled were only a little larger than a five-hundred-yen coin. The third-grade products, which had supposedly become very rare these days, were about as large as would barely fit in your palm. And a single third-grade stone was enough to make the transaction value reach the level of a thousand gold coins.

A magic stone larger than a full arm span would have to be worth an astronomical amount, so it was probably treated as a treasure that never entered ordinary circulation.

“Ah, so they’re that big…”

“When I looked into it too, most legendary magic did seem to require huge magic stones. But I see… I never paid attention to the magic circles carved into them.”

Kengo had once said that, in order to return to our original world, he had looked into magic first of all.

“I have never confirmed it, so perhaps it is only my fantasy. But just as there are foreign languages, perhaps there is also a more wonderful set of rules for the magic circles carved into magic stones, different from the ones used now.”

Kururu’s mouth twisted as though she had just eaten food loaded with chili peppers. It was probably the embarrassment of speaking so seriously about something so foolish.

“And so I fantasized a great deal. About discovering entirely new magic circles and sweeping away the bastards who had hurt Lady Iiria.”

So that was where her mind had gone, Kengo and I signaled to each other.

Still, if there really was a new method of processing magic stones, then it truly felt as though the possibilities were limitless.

“Kururu-chan, how much did you investigate about that?”

“Do not call me with -chan! And besides… it would be dangerous for someone like me, with beastfolk blood, to openly take such a keen interest in legendary magic circles, would it not?”

Kururu said that with great dissatisfaction, but after she spat out those words, I noticed that she was staring at the ground with a strange expression. It was a face of hesitation, as though she were wavering over something.

Then Kururu closed her eyes and said painfully:

“And… I have kept it secret from Lady Iiria that I can use even a little magic.”

“Huh?”

I was surprised that she had hidden something so important from Iiria, but Kengo seemed to understand the reason immediately.

“Well, Iiria-chan seems smart and kind.”

At Kengo’s words, Kururu bit down on her lower lip.

When I looked at Kengo, not understanding what he meant, he shrugged.

“If you have aptitude as a mage, then you have an overwhelming advantage as a magic stone processing artisan. Only mages can check whether a magic circle has been carved properly. The artisans’ guild probably hires mages for a pretty hefty sum just to inspect magic stones. Even in the mines, they call in people who can use magic when they need to examine veins. So if Kururu-chan can use even a little magic, I think there are artisan guilds that would want to hire her while turning a blind eye to all sorts of things. And if that happened, Iiria-chan might force herself to send Kururu-chan away so that she could become an artisan.”

So that instead of remaining the attendant of a noble in name only, persecuted with no future in sight and nothing but suffering ahead, she could gain a proper trade and walk a decent path.

“…There is no way I could leave Lady Iiria alone.”

And Kururu, too, was a kind girl.

There was something she felt strongly interested in, and she even had the aptitude to pursue that work.

But if Kururu became an artisan, then Iiria really would end up alone.

That was why Kururu had kept her magic locked inside her heart all this time.

And then there appeared the two idiotic men.

What was more, these two were supposedly plotting a magic stone trade, something everyone else had long since given up on and would never touch. To top it all off, they had sought Iiria’s cooperation in exchange for fair trade. Her—the lord whom everyone in town did nothing but ridicule, ignore, and look down upon.

For Kururu, who had strong opinions about magic stones and wanted somehow to help her mistress Iiria, that was more than enough reason to put on a hood, leave the mansion, and chase after us.

However, unlike Kengo, who deeply sympathized with Kururu, I was thinking about something completely different.

It occurred to me that, with the three people here, we could by strange coincidence cover the entirety of magic stone trade.

That is to say: production, processing, and sales.

If that was the case, then even if none of us could manage alone, perhaps the three of us together could somehow pull it off.

In particular, I had an intuition that Kururu’s idea of an entirely new method of magic stone processing could become the powerful core of this plan.

“Then where should we start?”

Those words slipped from my mouth almost at the same moment Kengo tried to comfort the teary-eyed Kururu and she brusquely slapped his hand away.

“What?”

“…?”

Both Kengo and Kururu turned to look at me, but I could not restrain my eagerness.

“Where do you think we should start? In theory, it wouldn’t be that hard to outmaneuver the Nodon Company’s magic stone trade. But we have no capital, no nothing, and if we can’t get Lady Iiria’s backing, then if we simply try to enter the trade, we’ll be sabotaged instantly. But what if we came carrying a completely new method of magic stone processing?

If it were more efficient than current processing, then the Bax Company would definitely be interested. If it looked more profitable than the Nodon Company, they would absolutely bite!”

Cole and Nodon might seem close at first glance, but they were merely joining hands to line their own pockets.

If all we offered was a shrunken copy of Nodon’s trade, Cole might not even bother with us, but if it were a completely new innovation, then there had to be room for us to fight.

“I don’t think the odds are zero at all. It should work, it has to work! So…”

When I looked at the two of them after finishing, Kengo was grinning, and Kururu wore a deeply displeased expression as they both said:

““You look like you’re having fun.””

“Huh?”

I hunched my shoulders and faltered.

But they were right.

“…Because isn’t this fun?”

I muttered that in Japanese rather than in this world’s language.

“Like a business simulation game?”

Kengo, who knew about my dream, said that with a wry smile.

Kururu, who could not understand the words, looked displeased.

Kengo shook his shoulders and laughed as though choking on it, then explained to Kururu in this world’s language.

That I had once dreamed of making games.

And that in our old world, there were games where you ran a shop.

“Well, I don’t hate that sort of thing either, and more than anything, you’ve got to enjoy it.”

When Kengo switched back to this world’s language, Kururu snapped at him.

“This is not about having fun!”

This time their words did not overlap, but Kururu did not look as though she meant it seriously either.

After all, beneath her hood, it was painfully obvious that her beast ears had been twitching busily this whole time.

“All right.”

With that, Kengo grabbed Kururu’s right hand and gave it a pull, then grabbed my hand too and drew it in.

“Though the worlds we were born in may be different!”

It was some line I had heard in Romance of the Three Kingdoms or something like that.

“Different, and… what came next again?”

As I laughed in exasperation at Kengo, someone suddenly gripped my hand tightly.

When I looked, it was Kururu.

“I do not care if you call it a game or anything else. I do not even care about the money. Please. Defeat that Nodon and save Lady Iiria.”

Even for someone like me, who did not have Kengo’s level of communication skills, I knew what I had to say.

“Kururu-san should be saved too.”

Kururu’s eyes widened, and beneath her hood, her ears stood straight up.

Kengo grinned and slung an arm over my shoulder.

“Using -san sounds awfully distant.”

“No, but…”

When I looked at Kururu, she looked back at me irritably and said this:

“If you use -chan, I’ll bite your throat out.”

“…Then I’ll stick with -san after all.”

Kengo shrugged, but that was just about right.

Still, who would have imagined starting a business in another world?

We still had not even prepared anything to sell, but it was true that there was something gathering here: motivation.

I felt like I had read in a book once that the only things you needed to start a business were drive and companions.

“All right, let’s do this!”

Held by Kengo’s huge hand, Kururu’s hand and mine were raised high into the air as well.