episode_0140

“Hrrup-”

On a midsummer day, when the sunrise is significantly earlier than on other days of the year.

The sun is already high in the sky, as if it were midday, and it’s scorching hot.

Actually, it’s still morning.

By morning, I mean the boot-up time, when the body and mind are just waking up and preparing to operate.

Even ordinary shops have closing and opening times, unless they are open 24 hours a day.

Things like opening the doors, wiping down tables, sweeping the floor, peeling garlic or onions, and organizing the refrigerator.

Our bodies also awaken their resting muscles one by one, sending fresher blood, and sharpening dull nerves.

“Hrurup-”

In short, we are in a test-run state, not yet suitable for full operation. Still slightly groggy, with limbs not fully responsive.

If we don’t put in enough power here, the “five more minutes” crisis will occur.

Morning be damned, bugs be damned, we’ll become the very latest bird to rise.

Therefore, I personally believe that morning, the start of the day, is important enough to determine the entire day.

“Hrrup-”

Holding this philosophy, I carefully select the power I use for booting up, keeping various kinds on hand.

My favorites are, of course, my lovely wives’ morning kisses or fellatio. This can be considered a shock therapy that awakens the body with the powerful force of the libido sleeping within me.

Other options include having a servant light a revitalizing incense, or the fragrant smell of freshly baked bread from Yuri is quite helpful.

Besides these various methods, I recently developed a new awakening method, which is also a hobby.

“Haaah— I’m alive.”

That’s right, it’s tea.

Tea is truly wonderful. It’s a trinity of taste, aroma, and warmth.

The slightly sweet and bitter taste coats the tongue, stimulating the central nervous system and invigorating the body from the spine.

The aroma stimulates the nostrils, creating a refreshing feeling, and the warmth spreading through the body with each sip lubricates the joints and muscles.

Furthermore, by appropriately combining hundreds of types of tea leaves to create new recipes, the effects vary dramatically. It’s like a second magic for me.

Isn’t it the same? Just as magic produces different effects by appropriately changing the attributes of mana, the operation of the spell, and its sequence or process.

Tea also produces different effects depending on the combination of tea leaves, brewing method, water temperature, and additives.

I’ve become addicted to this fascinating aspect, and now I habitually choose the next day’s tea recipe before bed.

Will the base be black tea or green tea? What kind of tea will enhance the aroma or taste? Should I add orange peel or peach peel?

I ponder these questions, immersed in anticipation of the taste, before falling asleep.

Then a new morning brings a new tea.

New tea brings new flavors and aromas, new flavors and aromas bring new vitality, and new vitality brings a new day.

For me, the Way of Tea is murder…

Moreover, the clinking sound of the teacups is exquisite. The morning air felt on the veranda in the nude is incredibly soft, and the scenery stretching into the distance is breathtaking.

Preparing for a new day with the early morning sun, rising even earlier.

From inside the room, Yuri and Nyx rub their eyes and wake up.

Sitting around the veranda table together, drinking tea I’ve brewed, has become our daily routine.

And today, another new day begins without fail.

This isn’t just our story.

Even if attempts to assassinate a princess, attacks the Academy, the largest magic school, destroys buildings, and sets fire to streets.

The more trials they inflict on people, the more strongly they unite and the more they yearn for tomorrow.

The pain that doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. That’s perfectly true.

No matter how much the slanderous forces try to shake my destiny, I will only grow stronger. Even if you wring a chicken’s neck, dawn will come.

Therefore, the most effective revenge against them is not thorough punishment or annihilation.

It’s demonstrating a vitality like a weed that blossoms even after being trampled.

Creating the tomorrow they tried to cut off into an unbroken today.

We succeeded in doing just that, with great pride.

. . .

After the Academy Incident, various changes occurred in my life.

I acquired a new hobby, tea ceremony, when drinking tea recommended by Yuri for body recovery.

I crossed the border between life and death with the knight, a woman with whom I had an ambiguous relationship, developing into a genuine relationship.

Those things happened, but there’s a slightly different aspect that I can immediately feel.

Namely… my power has been greatly enhanced by absorbing magic.

Magic is fundamentally the opposite of ether. Naturally, it’s a completely foreign substance to me, who is made up of ether and uses it as a part of my body.

After absorbing it, accepting it into my body, undergoing analysis and application, and finally making it my nourishment.

I gained the ability to awaken what I absorbed and adapt it to myself. In short, I became Kirby.

As I mentioned before, the growth curve of mana users is often uneven, but this time, I’ve skyrocketed again.

The advantage of this power lies in its growth.

I had cultivated power comparable to my mother’s, to the point where I could no longer grow stronger by conventional methods. I’d hit the ceiling.

However, I obtained the power to smash through that ceiling and send myself into space on a rocket.

Of course, to fully utilize my Kirby ability, I have to kill those with strong abilities and absorb their ether, but I haven’t sunk that low.

However, the ability to hunt magic beasts and absorb additional experience was a groundbreaking effect.

It’s truly a top performer! I have acquired the best growth potential, guaranteed to skyrocket, incomparable to Samsung Electronics.

Moreover, there are special benefits.

After absorbing magic and blooming my abilities.

There’s no way around it; I absorbed a soul.

Persona, the madwoman whose name alone makes my fists clench. I never knew that killing her body and absorbing her soul would be so helpful.

Her [Shadow Dominion] magic. I learned the spell formula, boasting the best utility, without any study or teaching.

Even just thinking about it, the usage is limitless. Although I already have sufficient means of transportation and attack skills, the ability to use subspace as an item inventory is extremely appealing.

“Wow! A hole!”

Along with Nyx, I analyzed this magic, repeatedly putting my hand in and out of the subspace I created for the first time.

While slowly understanding, feeling, and mastering the nature of the power.

I sensed the remnants of the magic left behind by the previous user.

. . .

I immediately went with Nyx, following the trace.

Since I’d found a trace of shadow magic, it was a simple matter of activating it to go there.

However, what I found wasn’t so simple.

An underground prison with a far more ominous atmosphere than the ‘Abyss,’ which I’d visited once.

It felt gruesome; damp, cold, devoid of human warmth.

Toc- Todok-

The sound of water droplets falling from the ceiling, sometimes regularly, sometimes irregularly, was chilling.

“G- uh-”

Inside were mostly ‘living corpses’ who had lost their selves. They looked similar to Moriarty’s madmen I encountered during the incident, probably the result of an excessive injection of magic.

“Sorry I’m late.”

Their soulless voices sounded like screams of agony to me. I quickly decapitated them, sending them to a peaceful world.

Walking along that path, deep within the deepest cell.

There was a single human still alive.

A naked body covered in disgusting foreign substances and blood from wounds all over. I untied the hands and feet bound by iron chains, and examined their face.

I could only clench my teeth.

“G- maaan— kill— me—”

A pale face, very familiar, yet strangely unfamiliar. The face Persona had once worn on her head as if it were her own.

There was no doubt that this was Riff herself.

“Just wait a little longer-”

Persona’s malicious nature was a fortunate misfortune. To inflict extreme pain, she refrained from inflicting fatal injuries, only leaving her alive.

Therefore, it’s different from the time with Aspi. With magic absorption and healing magic, I could fully recover her.

“Nyx, please boost my magical power.” “Understood…!!”

Nyx seemed to feel the same unpleasantness. With a strange expression I hadn’t seen before, she poured all her mana into me.

It didn’t take long to heal Riff.

“With this… the Four Saints might truly become whole.”

Perhaps because she was once a comrade with whom I fought side by side on the battlefield, I felt a great deal of affection for her. I’d never actually spoken with Riff… but the others weren’t like that.

Once her strength returned, she would awaken completely. I entrusted her to a nearby adventurer’s guild. It’s a little far from Evermore, but I left some money and a note so she wouldn’t be in trouble upon waking.

「Persona is dead. You are free now.」

Based on her memories infused with Persona’s abilities, I roughly understood what had happened.

So, from the next morning on.

Instead of endless pain and despair, the love of her comrades will await her.

I left it at that. If she reunites with Terrance, she’ll realize what I did, but I don’t want any reward.

I took a small breath of the Empire’s oily air, something I hadn’t felt in a while, and returned to the kingdom.

“Hmm… Sorry— milord, I’ll get some rest…” “Yes, rest.”

After putting Nyx, who had done her job splendidly, to sleep in the black obsidian pendant.

I headed to the magic tower for the next task.