episode_0021

Luke, who escaped as if running away, adjusted the portal.

“Ugh… .”

A sigh came out on its own.

Since you can open a dimension as if you were eating, you might think that teleportation is an easy magic.

The spatial magic Luke uses requires a great deal of delicate work.

Because instead of specifying coordinates, you have to create a passage by crumpling up the dimensions one by one.

If you want to visit someone who has decided to live in seclusion, it can be a very arduous task.

Shu-

Of course, it was difficult, but it was not like I couldn’t use teleportation.

If you can’t even use this much magic, you’ll have to give up your title as the head of the Academy.

“Haa… Why in a place like this.”

I raised my head.

There are many trees so tall that you can’t see their tops.

They must have settled in a place like this because the sunlight doesn’t shine through much.

“Let’s see… .”

I unfolded the map I brought.

It wasn’t a map showing general locations.

Geography can be figured out simply by using space magic.

What you are looking at now is a map used to release barriers.

“Hoo… .”

I went on an unexpected hike, drained mana to the areas marked on the map, and reversed the spell.

Repeat this about five times.

Crunch.

The barrier has been broken.

Woof-

A cabin appears before your eyes, accompanied by the sound of space rippling.

The first thing that caught my eye was the shabby sign.

[Dien’s Alchemy Shop]

What kind of store is it that keeps it so well hidden?

I knocked on the door, grumbling to myself.

Knock knock.

“Senior. I’m here.”

No answer came from inside.

Since I had a guess as to why, I just turned the doorknob.

Squeak-

As expected, the door was not locked.

Actually, that makes sense.

The barrier placed nearby is a masterpiece that was designed and built by Ranian himself.

If Lanian hadn’t given me the map, I wouldn’t have been able to solve it on my own.

Dark interior.

Exactly.

I snapped my fingers and the cabin brightened up.

The exposed furniture was simple.

A table with flasks arranged neatly.

A large, colorless sofa.

A kitchen with nothing in it.

It was a desolate, if not tidy, landscape.

“Hmm… .”

Among them.

A pink ball of fur was sleeping on the sofa.

I knew this would happen.

“Wake up, senior.”

I shook the furball awake as usual.

“Uhhh… Ah… … You’re here?”

A pink ball of fur slowly waking up and rubbing its eyes.

“This is not the time to be sleeping, Senior Dien. I have to go back quickly.”

Dien Pirandello.

Lanian’s friend and the best alchemist Luke knows.

And there was a woman who knew the clue to solving the curse.

“Oh my… You came sooner than I thought.”

As he stretches, short limbs emerge from within the fur ball.

A face that looks like everything in the world is bothersome.

A sleeping cap worn on the head.

Curly hair that drags on the floor.

Yes, that’s right.

The pink ball of fur turned out to be Dien’s hair.

“What kind of hair is covered with a blanket?”

“It’s so comfortable. You should try it too.”

“ Okay. Raising them like that is also a job, and I think they’ll get covered in dust.”

“Haam… . If you clean it thoroughly on a regular basis, this won’t happen. Look. ”

Then he grabs a handful of hair and shows it to me.

There wasn’t a speck of dust in her really fluffy hair.

“It’s not that I cleaned it, it’s just that I was too lazy to do it.”

“Hmm, you could see it that way.”

“Have you been eating well lately?”

“Then. What do you see me as?”

“A reclusive loner who was kicked out of his family.”

Towering.

Dien’s body, which had been trembling, stopped.

I asked Dien, who was trembling with fear after being hit with the facts.

“When was the last time you ate?”

“… Well?”

“You spread it out again and slept.”

“What can I do about this annoying thing?”

“So the height is still like this, right?”

Dien’s height was so high that he had to lift his legs to barely reach Luke’s chest.

“He’s already grown up, so height doesn’t matter… … No, but. Why are you nagging me as soon as I get here?”

“That’s because you made an appointment and are still sleeping. It’s broad daylight and it’s so dark… Live while getting some sunlight.”

I walked up to the window and pulled back the thick blackout curtains.

“Kyaaah-!”

Dien cowered like a burning vampire.

“Get up and don’t overdo it. I have to go back quickly.”

“So why did you come so early? If you made an appointment, it would be polite to come an hour late… Aya.”

F*ck.

I couldn’t stand it anymore and hit the chestnut.

If it weren’t for Elin, I wouldn’t have come looking for such a savage.

“Is it okay to hit the head of a senior who is as tall as the sky?”

“Actually, you’re not a senior anymore. You graduated from the academy, right?”

I call him senior because I don’t have a proper title.

In fact, he was just a stranger.

“What are you talking about? Once an Academy senior, always an Academy senior.”

“Do you know that the Academy is still looking for you? If we capture you here and bring you to graduate school, the professor in the alchemy department will be very happy.”

“Wow. Are you here to get the thing you promised?”

Dien, who had been mumbling, suddenly got up.

It was because he knew that Luke was a guy who had the ability and will to kidnap her right now.

Ah, ah, ah.

She sat down at the table with a gait that was not befitting of a grown woman.

“Haaam… So, the student you’re in charge of right now is cursed?”

“Senior Lanian said so.”

“I guess that’s what he said… But that’s unexpected. I didn’t know he could be a tutor.”

“What’s important right now isn’t my job.”

“Okay, don’t rush me too much.”

After declaring the kidnapping of graduate students.

Dien, who had become more reserved, took a flask out of the cupboard.

“A curse that devours mana…you said?”

“It is certain since Senior Ranian diagnosed it.”

“Hmm. I guess so… … I thought that a curse like this would be discovered someday.”

“Is it definitely treatable?”

“If the curse I thought of is true.”

Bubble bubble.

Pour the boiling medicine into a round flask and shake vigorously.

“You said that if you use magic, you’ll fall down and vomit blood, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then the fever starts to boil. The reaction is the same as when you overworked your mana heart? Even though you have an abundance of mana.”

“That’s right.”

Dien poured the finished potion into a sip and repeated the same process several times.

“Okay. Then we can suppress it with this. Even if it’s temporary.”

He let out a small sigh.

“But do you know how much of a hassle this is?”

“Senior, everything is annoying.”

“That’s true. This is a particularly labor-intensive task. The materials, the time, the process… … .”

Dien, who was moving her small hands busily while mumbling.

It really seems like a lot of work.

“But that’s something only you can do on the continent.”

He may look like a worthless, lazy, unemployed hikikomori with a pink furball (which is true), but he is actually a genius senior to the point that the professor of the pension department is obsessed with him.

“That’s why you came to see me. Sigh… .”

“I will pay for all the material costs.”

“Money doesn’t really matter. Haaa… … .”

As if telling people to listen, Dien let out a sigh that made the ground collapse.

“Ah… Why did I see the letter then? I should have just slept like usual.”

It’s not like Luke wouldn’t notice even though he’s giving me hints like this.

“What on earth do you want?”

Dien said she would help Luke unconditionally.

Because the situation was urgent, I accepted it for now and thought about it, but it was strange.

He is a lazy person who would have been expelled a long time ago if he didn’t have talent.

Didn’t you say that you skipped a meal because you were sleeping right now?

But a human who finds everything in the world annoying readily offered to help Luke.

That means there is something you want.

“Ahem. Right. If there’s a going, there has to be a coming.”

Dien cleared his throat as if he had been waiting for those words.

“There’s that space magic you use.”

“No.”

“… I didn’t say anything.”

“You want to take a nap in the third dimension that I opened?”

“!!”

If it was Ellen, her hair would stand on end.

“How did you know?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Besides, it wasn’t exactly the first time I’d heard this story.

When I first met Dien… … .

-You? The one who can give me a fantastic sleeping space?

He suddenly came to Luke, who was studying for his exam, and started harassing him.

Please create a nap space where no one can disturb you.

At that time, I really thought he was crazy.

“Why not? It would be nice to sleep floating in the quiet air.”

I still think he’s crazy.

“Do you know how dangerous that is? If you do it wrong, you could end up lost in a dimension while you sleep.”

“If you die in your sleep, it’s called a funeral.”

“Huh.”

widely.

He put his hand on his forehead.

“And it doesn’t really matter if I die, right?”

“What are you talking about?”

“If I suddenly disappear, no one will come looking for me.”

“There’s me and there’s also Senior Lanian.”

“… You.”

Dien looked at him with slightly moved eyes.

“There is also a professor in the Department of Pensions who is always looking for his seniors with a fire in his eyes.”

“… I guess I’ll die in my sleep.”

His face darkened again.

“And becoming a lost child of a dimension doesn’t mean dying. It means wandering in space forever, never aging or dying.”

“… That’s a little scary.”

“That’s why I’m saying it can’t be done. If you have any other requests, I’ll do anything for you, so think about it.”

“Huhh …

He just keeps mouthing the words as if he doesn’t really care about anything else.

In the end, it was this side that made the first suggestion since time was running out.

“I can’t open the third dimension, but I can open your inventory.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t you want to sleep in a quiet space where no one will disturb you?”

“Yeah. I hear chirping every morning here, so it’s kind of annoying.”

That’s all I want to do to sleep in another dimension.

“Then I’ll expand your inventory a little bit. You can sleep there.”

Unlike teleportation, inventory does not open up an infinite third dimension for use.

A beggar who magically maintains a certain subspace.

“Then you can put furniture in it too?”

“If I just struggle a little bit… Right?”

“No one is coming?”

“Yes, unless I go.”

“Okay! Then let’s do that!”

Dien’s expression, which had been filled with lethargy, brightened.

Is it because of my small stature?

Her sparkling pink eyes made her look like an innocent child.

“Just wait a minute! It’s almost done. I’ll go and tell you how to take it myself… .”

Dien suddenly felt a surge of determination and quickly completed a month’s worth of potions.

“Let’s go quickly. You said we should go back quickly?”

Men Dien stamped his feet, carrying a backpack the size of his body.

How serious is it about a good night’s sleep?

“Please keep it in my inventory.”

“Yeah!”

Mana was injected to expand the subspace.

Fortunately, the dien was small, so there was no need to expand it too much.

Swish.

“Oh… There’s already a blanket?”

Dien, who entered the inventory, had already rolled over and entered sleep mode.

“Wake me up when you arrive.”

“… … Yes. Okay.”

It was a strange situation where I had to put my senior into a subspace in return for receiving help.

“Haa… Please wait a moment, Your Majesty.”

First, I obtained a potion to cure Elin’s curse.