[Elmer]

“Hey, Sora.”

“What is it?”

“Can you tell me something about your magic?”

The two suns have set and the moon showed up after a while pa.s.sed.

I was sitting on the sofa while leaning my entire weight on my left elbow when I asked Sora, who took his place on my bed, while looking at him.

I could have asked Matthias, but he always return dramatically long and polite explanations so I chose Sora because he’s the easiest to talk to.

“Magic, huh… Did you know that we can only use plant[gra.s.s/kusa], fire, wind and earth magic?”

“I didn’t.”

He didn’t listen to me. Sora didn’t stop and continued on talking as if ignoring me was the natural thing to do.

“Even if just a little amount of magical power manifests, anybody can use magic. The type of magic we can use always belong to the four I mentioned without exceptions.”

“I see. Isn’t there ice in it?”

“There isn’t. But there’s water, which isn’t counted among them.”

I cannot manipulate water. I attempted to do it several times but it’s impossible without turning it into ice first.

“I can only use ice from the beginning but…”

I began to think whether it’s strange after all.

In the silence, a drifting cloud concealed the moon and slowly dimmed the room.

I couldn’t stand the awkwardness so I began to talk first.

“Is it common?”

“It’s absolutely not common. Rather, if that’s really true… Ah, you’re really incredible. It’s still strange though.”

Sora said so while roughly scratching his head.

Is it weird after all? Is it because I already died once? There are a lot of reasons that crossed my mind but I can’t identify which caused it particularly.

I changed the topic so he won’t realize that my heart is punding loudly.

“Sora, what’s your affinity?”

Attributes seemed like their hereditary. I’m certain that the West Vern family have fire, but how about Sora? Even though we already talked several times, the thought that I didn’t really know much about Sora struck me.

“Mine is gra.s.s.”

“You can make them bloom?”

The image of Sora enjoying gardening crossed my mind. Several colorful flowers surround Sora. Surprisingly, could it be that he has a hobby that’s out of a fairy tale?

“Flowers!? Well, I can do them…”

“I want to see!”

Why was Sora so surprised? Was the idea of gra.s.s = flower that strange? Or maybe it’s that thing… could it be a bonsai?!

“Uhmm. I don’t want to show it too much, so maybe someday…”

“I see… as expected…”

As expected, his hobby is gardening. I looked at him while thinking that, so Sora looked at me curiously.

I feel like I was able to see a new side of him.

Then Sora stood up after chatting a little more. It looks like it’s time to return soon.

“You should sleep soon. Well then.”

“Good night. Ah…!”

The moment I said good night, Sora disappeared. He said before that entering and leaving via the door is no-good, and just disappears on the spot for some reason. I’ve thought of asking before how he disappears but I always forgot about it.

Usually, I go to bed this time and sleep quietly. But today it’s different.

It doesn’t seem like I’ll be able to sleep even if I tried to do so a while ago.

Sometime later, I placed a foot on the window like Sora does.

Freezing ability… my magic is different from other people. What will it bring about? I may attract attention and get experimented on. And the fact that I’m different, not just with magic, might be leaked out.

I stretch out a hand reached the tree growing beside the window.

Still, Matthias was happy when he saw my magic. I’m sure Sora, Lucsher-san and Edna-san, too… I have a feeling that they’ll accept who I am. Ah, there’s Leont, too. I don’t know about Cashbar-san, but I get a weird feeling from him…

I held onto the trunk and begun to go down slowly while placing a foot on a branch.

Anyway, I came to the West Vern’s and found a place where I can stay. But this and that are different. I do not want to be a burden to the West Vern family.

But just think about it. I’ll go to school soon, I believe. What will happen at that time? I’m going to be a transfer student whom those around will keep distance with and because my magic is strange, I won’t get a chance to make even one friend.

Isn’t it the worst?

“Ah…”

When ground became near, the foot I tried to place completely slipped midair. I unconsciously released my hold and fell on ground with *gushari*. Since it rained yesterday, mud stickily stained my clothes.

Let’s change clothes when I get back to the room. I’ll get scolded by Mathias if he found out about it. It’s not like he really memorized each of my clothes. I only have to wash these clothes so I won’t be exposed.

I crouched down on the ground while thinking such things.

Now then, let’s do the preparations.

“Kioran.”

I summoned Kioran using magic when I returned to my room.

“What?”

A sleepy-looking Kioran appeared before my eyes.

This guy, just what kind of mechanism does he use to appear? He’ll come out without permission, and he’s still the same Kioran I made from back then even if the water I use is different. I absolutely need to investigate this sometime later.

But, right now…

“It’s just for a while okay? Here you go~!”

I grabbed Kioran by the scruff of his neck with my right hand when he lowered his guard, while I thrust my left hand to the bag at same time.

“What are you doing!??”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. This will end quickly.”

My mud-covered hand emerged from the bag. When he saw that hand approaching him, Kioran started twisting his body and attempted to run away.

“That’s dirtyyy!!”

“I just collected them so they’re fresh, you know?”

Moreover, it can’t be dirty because I took it from the spot where no one steps on.

I took my time in covering Kioran with mud until I’m satisfied.

He seemed tired due to struggling violently, but was dumbfounded when he saw his appearance.

“So awful…”

“It’s impossible after all. Or maybe it’s because I applied the mud while he’s moving around too much? It seems like it’ll work if I covered his whole body with mud. Should I try it one more time?”

I can’t use water but I can use ice, so I want to try doing earth magic, too. There are a lot of restrictions but I can surprisingly do it, and I asked Kioran with a beaming smile.

“Absolutely not!! I’m already angry! I’ll leave!!”

“Sorry~ But I rea~lly want to do it!”

It looks like his pride was utterly damaged. He refused with all his might, and disappeared through the door.

You don’t need to get angry so much. Even I was covered in mud just before.

“Playing with mud is something a kid should experience, you know~?”

I tried to yell just in case, but an answer didn’t come back.

I’ll invite him to go somewhere as an apology this time.

Kioran’s a kid so isn’t it fine to play? It’s like he’s always changing his mind.

“Should I sleep?”

When I got on the bed with clean clothes, I heard a strange sound from the hallway. That’s from the direction where Kioran left.

I thought about whether I should go to see the situation for a while. If I think about Kioran’s personality, the possibility that’s he’s venting his anger is very high. That means, I’ll get caught up in it if I go. Rather, wouldn’t I receive all the backlash because I was the one at fault?

Anyway, I’m scared so I won’t come out from here.

I decided so and fell asleep this time.

“Oi! Where’re there valuables!?”

“Ahead here!”

a.s.sailants composed of ten-odd men entered inside the West Vern House’s estate. They moved around the whole mansion after dividing into groups.

This is different from the main residence, West Fortress, this one is in the Imperial Capital. The Head of the household is not present today, the only people left were two sons and a daughter. Even so, there’s no change in the level of difficulty, but there was a rumor that the physical condition of second son isn’t really good.

The eldest son has very little information, but there’s no one who wouldn’t let their guard down in this midnight hour. They also have advantage in numbers. They are professional, and the daughter is a child.

The thieves who have confidence in their skills were running with light steps.

“What’s that?”

One of them pointed forward as he raised his voice. Ahead the direction he was pointing at, white eyes floated.

“Uwaaaa!!”

Those two eyes turned and glared to their direction. They instinctively stepped back but the unknown thing merely approached with certainty in big, slow steps.

“I’m in an extremely bad mood right now~ That’s why, let’s play together, okay~~?”

An innocent child-like voice resounded in the vicinity.

“Ugh…”

One man was bewildered as he heard his comrades’ pained voices one by one.

What’s happening!!

However, it only happened in an instant. He became the only one left. Before he was taken down, he caught sight of the mystery a.s.sailant momentarily with his eyes that had accustomed to the darkness. It has size of a child’s body, except it was transparent. There’s no such thing!! As expected, it’s imagination… huh…?

“That’s right! I’ll pile these guys in front of El’s room in exchange for his hara.s.sment!” The clear voice disappeared into the darkness. Afterwards, the sound of a child’s footsteps and the sound of something being dragged resounded in the hallway.

“Even so, I’ll forgive you if you give me cookies!” The figure seemed to reconsider after a while. It gradually became cheerful as it thought about the sweet-smelling cookies.

Behind the figure, what was left was a mountain of piled up men.