Preparation

It was good that I brought all three out, thinking it wouldn’t be a good idea to stay in the president’s office any longer, and arrived at an empty classroom where no one was around. But once the atmosphere had calmed down a bit, I wasn’t sure what to say first.

“Umm… Does anyone have any questions for me?”

I decided to resolve others’ curiosities first rather than laying out my story from my side.

Soon, Rea was the one who started the barrage of questions.

“Um, Lua. Can I touch your ears?”

However, because the question that came from the beginning had little to do with the Tower.

I answered with a slightly embarrassed voice that she could touch them as much as she wanted.

The problem, if there was one, was that even Iris, whom I thought was the epitome of a model student, had somehow joined in and started touching my ears alternately with Rea.

They even casually poked my cheeks and tail.

Is it because it’s been a while since I’ve been touched like a living doll, but the feeling was a bit…

Poke

Rustle

“…Ngh.”

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing… at all.”

No, it was actually quite strange, but it seemed odd to tell them to stop at this point.

I decided to somehow endure the ticklish feeling that alternated between inside and outside my body for now.

Maybe it’s fortunate in a way that this could narrow the distance between us.

In the end, Adrian was the only one who asked a more proper question from the start.

“No matter how I look at it, you’re a child, but listening to you talk, you sound more veteran than even a veteran hunter.”

“The powers you’ve shown so far aren’t really suited for a child either, Lua. Of course, there are always exceptions…”

What followed was a question about my true identity.

However, I felt that even if I answered truthfully, they wouldn’t believe me right away.

Like I did with Rayner, telling everything from A to Z seemed like it would take too much time.

Therefore, for now, as concisely as possible.

“It might be hard to believe, but I came from the future.”

At the same time, to provide a foundation for these people to believe my words in the future.

“I know what Adrian’s hobby is, what sword Iris mainly uses, and what staff Rea covets. I know everything.”

“…Say something that makes sense.”

“All of these were things that you all directly told me in the future. If you can’t believe me, ask me anything. I’ll guess it all correctly.”

I started to lay out one by one the information I had naturally obtained from numerous trials and errors in my first playthrough.

The question that followed was Adrian’s skeptical question asking if I could guess what was in his personal safe.

To this, without a moment’s hesitation or reluctance.

“A blueprint.”

“What… blueprint?”

“A mana bullet gun blueprint. I even know how and where you got it, but if I tell you, it would probably be troublesome—”

I blew away Adrian’s suspicion by adding something akin to TMI, but before I could finish speaking, Adrian, who had somehow become urgent, covered my mouth with his hand.

Muffled

“Mmph!”

“Y-You really are from the future, you are.”

With my ears and tail already sealed, and now even my mouth, I just blinked endlessly for a while.

However, within a few seconds, at least my mouth returned to a state of freedom.

It was right after that when Rea’s question about why I had returned to the past was heard.

Iris’s careful assumption was also added, wondering if I had failed to prevent the world’s destruction and had no choice but to return to the past.

However, if I were to speak honestly about this, it was obvious that there would be problems in many ways, so.

“No, we succeeded in conquering the Tower. We took care of the monster we need to defeat without any problems.”

“Then why did you come back to the past? From your perspective, Lua, there would have been no problem continuing to live in the future.”

“I don’t… really know that myself. It’s not like I came to the past because I wanted to.”

I added that regardless of the reason I came to the past, I thought the Tower-related issue needed to be resolved first.

Also, a pledge, though not quite a pledge, that since I already had the experience of defeating the boss monster once, we could defeat it more easily.

Either way, neither the fact that I defeated the boss monster nor the fact that I didn’t come to the past because I wanted to were lies.

“There are still a few things we need to prepare… but we’ll be fine.”

I can be certain that among the many students of the Academy, the three before me form the most powerful and definite combination.

If we gradually prepare as we did in my first playthrough… there should be no problem.

After briefly sharing various discussions about the future for a while.

I firmly decided to finish Adrian’s preparations first, as he had the most to prepare among the three party members, and left the empty classroom.

It was almost time for Academy classes to start anyway.

“Ah, it doesn’t matter if I skip class!”

I deliberately pretended not to hear Rea’s voice, who skipped classes like eating meals.

And so, after reluctantly parting with Rea, Iris, and Adrian.

I turned my steps in the opposite direction of the fading footsteps to do as much as possible until the Academy’s daily routine ended.

In this world, there are more things one should not know than things one should know.

In most cases, what one shouldn’t know is more stimulating and addictive than what one should know.

In the first place, the wisest and most effective measure is to not take an interest at all.

But once you’ve already discovered something.

If your momentary curiosity has blinded you and you’ve ended up opening Pandora’s box…

“It’s the way of things that you can’t go back to the time when you didn’t know.”

“Adrian, do you call that an excuse?”

“I think it’s stranger that I have to write a reflection letter for such a trivial matter.”

“Huh, you call making a lethal weapon without permission a trivial matter?”

“A lethal weapon? It clearly has a name, the Kerlian Mana Bullet Gun—”

Almost simultaneously, thud.

Adrian’s mouth was shut by his supervising teacher, who slammed his fist on the desk as if he didn’t want to hear any more excuses — though strictly speaking, they weren’t even excuses.

As a result, he had no choice but to fill his reflection letter with insincere words.

Nevertheless, he still couldn’t get back his masterpiece that had been confiscated earlier.

The reason being that it was too dangerous a weapon for a mere student to carry around.

The claim that he had only intended to use it on dungeon monsters, not people, literally fell on deaf ears.

However, if he had the kind of heart that would be crushed by such a trivial ordeal, it would have been crushed long ago.

After accidentally acquiring a special ability related to ‘creation’ a very long time ago.

More precisely, after discovering that the firearm he had created as an experiment using mana stone was different in power from ordinary firearms, Adrian himself simply couldn’t cut off his interest.

He heard the threat from his supervising teacher that if the same thing kept happening, it wouldn’t end with just a reflection letter, but…

Not even a few days later, he once again laid his hands on a forbidden book in the Academy library.

More precisely, on a forbidden book about a mana bullet gun said to have the property of cold.

Sure enough, his heart started racing just from reading the design intent and operating principles written in the forbidden book.

He wanted to start creating this new mana bullet gun right away if possible.

The only problem was that, for whatever reason, the president’s secretary barged into the deep, dark archive looking for Adrian himself.

However, coincidentally, the real problem started after that.

“Rea, Iris, Adrian. You may not know this, but the three of you… are heroes chosen to save the world!”

Being called to the president’s office was already sufficiently bewildering, but somehow he ended up shouldering the weighty mission of saving the world.

He began to feel that he was moving further and further away from the life of creating and test-operating various firearms as a hobby, as he had always done — not knowing that in normal cases, people neither create firearms as a hobby nor have the ability to do so.

Precisely, until 6 hours after that.

“Ah, found you!”

It was just as the last class of the day had ended.

A child who had been looking around in the middle of the long corridor ran over and grabbed his wrist.

And so, after being led by the child without knowing what was going on, when they arrived at a deserted walking path.

A thin piece of paper was taken out from the child’s possession.

Unexpected words began to be heard right after that.

“This is the president’s permit allowing Adrian to make whatever he wants to make.”

“From now on, you can proudly stay in the Academy workshop. Even if you spend all day in the workshop, no one will say anything.”

What he felt was something appropriately mixed with bewilderment and confusion.

And a small amount of excitement.

“In exchange, just grant me one favor.”

“A favor?”

It was after this that the permit in the child’s hand was finally handed over to Adrian himself.

For some reason, the favor the child asked for was also slightly beyond expectations, as had been the case so far.

“Let me interfere a little while you make the mana bullet gun.”

Since it would be fine as long as he could create what he wanted to create without any worries.

He answered that he could certainly grant such a favor.

It was the next day that he realized the meaning of ‘interference’ the child had spoken of was quite different from what Adrian himself had thought.

Since he could now stay in the Academy workshop for the next few days without any problem, he headed straight to the workshop as soon as his eyes opened, but.

For some reason, the child who had already arrived at the workshop entrance asked with slightly tired eyes if he had brought the blueprint, so.

“What blueprint?”

“The blueprint in Adrian’s safe.”

Soon after, the child persuaded him to first create the secret mana bullet gun that could be made with that blueprint.

In the end, he had to turn back and return with the blueprint that he had obtained with great difficulty after much hard work.

But well. Since it was a necessary preparation for conquering the Tower.

He thought there would be no harm in doing as the child said.

Precisely, until one hour after that.

“You need to attach processed mana stones to the muzzle tip and inside the barrel as well. So it can be used just by injecting mana without having to load bullets separately.”

“You’ll also need heat preservation and cooling magic, as well as material creation magic, but we can ask Rea about that later. For now, let’s just prepare so that magic can be applied to the gun.”

“If you make it too heavy, it will be difficult to carry around. A stylish exterior is good, but for now, making it practical is the priority.”

…It was absurd.

What was more perplexing was that all of the child’s nagging, or rather comments, sounded like those of an expert.

Is this child from the future actually a meister rather than a hero who defeated the boss monster?

“I-I didn’t want to know this much either. I never expected that I would have to modify my party members’ weapons myself…”

“What are you talking about?”

“…It’s something like that…”