Thank you

Thank you

This may not be the right way to express that it has been well resolved.

In any case, I’ve now been granted permission to summon Delia in the evening hours rather than just at dawn.

I’ve achieved what I was aiming for.

‘However, the problem is…’

In exchange for being able to summon her in the evening, there were a few conditions attached.

The first condition was that I could cross the line, but the moment I did, I would have to take responsibility through marriage.

The second was to participate in an upcoming banquet.

The third condition was to continue helping with Delia’s magic modification.

These were rather bewildering conditions.

But in fact, when considering each one, none of them were particularly difficult, so I accepted them.

And thus, I was able to officially obtain a legal slave.

‘I’ll make you regret it.’

As I was declaring that I would definitely wear Delia down through various means and contemplating what task to assign her first,

Delia, who may or may not know her future, approached me with a smile.

“Anyway, I’ll be in your care from now on. I’ll work harder starting tomorrow. If you think I’m doing a good job, please help me more with magic modification.”

To that, I replied as if I didn’t understand.

“Tomorrow?”

“… Huh?”

A brief silence followed.

Delia blinked silently for a moment, then asked me back with a feeling of ‘surely not’.

“Are we taking a break today?”

“……”

“Are we…?”

I turned my head and briefly answered to such a question.

“No way.”

I walked slowly forward, leaving behind the voice crying out in protest.

* * *

As soon as I returned home, I conducted a self-feedback based on the combat information I had previously obtained.

As I progressed, I realized there were many aspects that were quite disappointing, and I let out a light sigh.

‘There are still many areas for growth.’

Even if I did fairly well in one-on-one combat.

I couldn’t hide the feeling that I was quite lacking when it came to taking down two or more enemies simultaneously.

There was a need to quickly address this point.

‘And the method to address this doesn’t need to be complicated, I just need to learn area-of-effect magic spells.’

The only problem was that there were so many area-of-effect spells that I was unsure which ones would be best to learn.

I skimmed through the remaining spells after excluding all the weak ones from the pile of books in front of me.

‘… I only see spells with long casting times.’

Perhaps because compressing mana to increase power is the most intuitive and easiest method.

Most spells sacrificed casting speed to make the power stronger.

I concluded that the spells laid out could not be used unless in specific situations, and turned my gaze away.

‘Well, such good spells wouldn’t be available to the public, but rather shared among a select few or known only to oneself.’

… In other words, to achieve what I want, I need to either create a new spell or modify an existing one.

I pondered which one to choose, then sighed and decided to return to the thorny path.

‘It would be better to create a new one.’

Although modifying was twice as fast and easier than creating a new spell.

The problem was that even if modified, it couldn’t escape the original form of the base spell.

It could alleviate the issues of that spell, but it was impossible to completely solve them.

‘Of course, in the current situation, this level might be enough.’

But if I think about the enemies of the Heaven God Cult or the Demon King’s minions that I’ll face in the future…

Rather than learning a flawed spell, creating a flawless spell for the future would be the right decision.

Thinking that I wouldn’t be able to sleep for a while, I smiled bitterly and headed to the magic research lab.

* * * * *

“… I came looking for Lord Deren because I haven’t seen him recently. I wonder if there’s any problem with Lord Deren.”

I could hear Sien asking about my well-being, having come directly to my house, probably because we haven’t met recently.

I hesitated for a moment, looking at the unfinished large-scale area attack spell.

Then, pressing my tired eyes, I slowly got up from my seat.

‘It would be right to at least show my face.’

I sighed, remembering Sien’s tearful expression from before.

Normally I would have ignored it, but perhaps because I saw that expression, it kept lingering in my mind as I slowly walked towards the door.

‘Moreover, I promised to act as a fiancé.’

I should at least take minimal action.

Thinking that the weather had suddenly become chilly, I opened the door to see Sien, dressed more lightly than usual, fidgeting nervously.

‘Lightly dressed…?’

I thought Sien didn’t wear such flimsy clothes.

I was wondering what change of heart made her come dressed like that.

Sien calls out to me with a very happy expression.

“… Lord Deren!”

Then, as she hurriedly tries to approach me, she quickly changes her expression and lowers her voice, perhaps feeling the gazes around her.

“Have you been in good health all this time?”

“… Yes.”

“I’m glad.”

I wonder if I’m feeling embarrassed despite speaking so bluntly.

I sighed as I watched Sien constantly pulling down the hem of her skirt, trying to cover her thighs.

‘If she was going to be like this, it would have been better to wear a long skirt.’

But wondering why she came wearing such clothes, I opened the door wide.

“Let’s go inside for now.”

“… Yes!”

She seems somewhat pleased that I allowed her to enter the research lab, nodding her head as her expression softens again.

I looked at Sien like that and slowly entered the research lab.

*

A somewhat messy research lab.

I had been so focused on creating magic that I didn’t even realize it had gotten this dirty.

Just as I was briefly regretting that I should have tidied up a bit,

“Lord Deren’s research lab looks good, full of effort.”

I hear Sien praising my research lab.

“With such overflowing talent and this much effort, it’s no wonder the Magic Society has their eyes on Lord Deren.”

While I was picking up documents, feeling at a loss for words due to the seemingly excessive praise.

Suddenly, a strange point occurred to me, and I responded to Sien as if asking a question.

“How did you know that the Magic Society has been keeping an eye on me?”

Sien is a knight devotee who doesn’t care about magic at all.

It seemed a bit odd to hear such a person talking about the Magic Society, so I asked.

“Well, that…”

Sien, looking extremely flustered, hurriedly told me.

“I happened to see Lord Deren’s article… and as I looked into related articles, I came to know about it. No, that’s not it. I misspoke. It’s not like that, I just knew because it’s a famous story.”

How flustered must he be to ramble on with all sorts of stories.

I silently met his eyes, meaning for him to calm down, but.

“Ah, um…!”

Perhaps it had the opposite effect, as he shouted at me, unable to contain himself.

“I, I didn’t read everything! I just looked at about 100 of them!”

Having dropped a bombshell so blatantly, he looks at me with a relieved expression, thinking he had made a good excuse.

Looking at Sien like this, I wonder why such a usually clever person is acting this way.

For Sien’s sake, I briefly answered to wrap up the topic.

“Thank you.”

“… Pardon?”

Sien stared at me blankly, as if she didn’t expect me to say thank you.

Gradually, her earlobes turned red, and she gazed at me with trembling eyes.

Whether it was because of the candlelight or the chilly weather, I wasn’t sure.

Sien, her face redder than usual, slowly lowered her head and answered me in a shrinking voice.

“I’m glad. That Lord Deren likes it.”

As I was about to ask her why she came, looking at Sien like that.

Sien, her face bright red, grabbed some nearby documents and spoke to me in an urgent voice.

“By the way, Lord Deren. Your lab has gotten quite dirty. I’m quite confident in housework, would you mind entrusting me with the cleaning?”

At those words, I fell into a brief contemplation.

Certainly, cleaning needed to be done, but it felt a bit awkward to ask a guest to do such a thing.

As I was hesitating to answer, Sien picked up a few more documents nearby and said.

“You don’t have to worry much about professionalism. Although it was a long time ago, as someone who only received perfect scores in bride lessons, I can handle this level of housework without much difficulty.”

At those words, I paused for a moment and then nodded.

The reason the room had gotten dirty was not only due to my immersion but also as a precaution against possible magic leakage.

I could trust and leave it to Sien because she wouldn’t cause any magic leakage at all.

‘I had to clean it anyway.’

Thinking that I should ask her, I nodded.

Sien smiled again and said to me.

“Thank you for trusting me.”