“You’re right... I do want to share it,” I mumbled.
“Right?”
I nodded. “Thank you, Asuna. You were a huge help.”
“You’re very welcome.” Asuna giggled. “Oh! But doesn’t that mean you’ll have to prepare another spell entirely? Is that okay...?”
“Oh.” I smiled. “Yeah, it’s all right.”
“You sure?”
“Of course. It’s easy. Actually, this is much simpler than making it audible to only the target.”
“Oh, that’s true!” Asuna nodded. It wasn’t hard to understand since hearing sounds and voices was a part of everyday life.
“Give me a second.”
Without waiting for Asuna’s response, I began to revise—rather, revert Phonograph to its initial form. After all, making the sound audible to only the user was a feature I added. Initially, the sounds simply replayed out loud.
“Done!”
“What? Already?!”
“Yeah. I told you it was easy.”
“Still, isn’t this too fast? Didn’t you make a different spell?”
I shrugged. “It’s no biggie.”
“Wow... You’re really incredible when it comes to magic,” Asuna marveled with sparkling eyes.
“Try saying something.”
“Okay! Um... Liam is amazing! A magic genius! A super magic genius!”
I winced. “Er...”
“What’s wrong? Is it a bust?”
“No, uh... It’s not...” I was just embarrassed by what she said, and since the spell wasn’t a bust... I steeled myself. Asuna’s cheery voice replayed out loud.
“Okay! Um... Liam is amazing! A magic genius! A super magic genius!”
“Oh! I can hear it!”
It looked like we both did. “I’m glad it works.”
“Uh-huh! Now we can share and recommend stuff... Uh...” Asuna trailed off, losing all her vigor.
“What’s wrong?”
“Uh, Liam... Could you play it again?”
“Hmm? Oh, sure.” With a nod, I obliged and her voice played in the air once more.
“Okay! Um... Liam is amazing! A magic genius! A super magic genius!”
“Like this?”
“Yeah... Say, could you make it usable in the old way too?”
I hummed. “Well, I could just make them two separate spells. The earlier version doesn’t serve my current purpose, but it’s not bad to have it prepared just in case.”
“Precisely,” Lardon agreed.
Actually, I should’ve thought of that from the start. Some spells were exceedingly similar to others, yet they had all been created and continued to see use to this day because there was a demand for them.
For example, my goal was to share Amelia’s voice with a lot more people, so it called for the initial version of Phonograph, but there were surely situations where you didn’t want anyone else to hear the recorded sound, like... Uh...
“Listening to secret messages.”
That was Lardon for you. She came up with the perfect example while I was still racking my head. The idea of storing and replaying sounds was inspired by the Liamnet’s letter-sending feature, so there was no better example than secret correspondence.
Hmm... Secret correspondence, huh? In that case, there was still much room for improvement. After all, what if someone stole the item and heard the message intended for someone else? I could make it so the sound could only be heard by the specified individual, or maybe—
“Save that for next time, magic geek,” Lardon interrupted.
Whoops. Nearly spiraled into my thoughts again, I realized with a chuckle. Lardon was right, though. I had to save that for next time and focus on the task at hand: spreading Amelia’s name. Those extra features weren’t needed right now—I could get back to it eventually.
After stashing those plans away for another day, I noticed that Asuna seemed to be pondering deeply about something. “What’s the matter?” I asked her.
Her gaze fell to the prototype on the table. “Say, uh... Is this the version that’s only audible to the target?”
“Yeah, it is.”
“Can I have it? And, um... Can I store your voice into it?”
“Well, sure... But why?” I cocked my head in confusion. Not only could I not understand the point of her request, but I was also puzzled to see the ever peppy Asuna being so fidgety. Her cheeks were also slightly flushed.
“O-Okay... Could you say, ‘You’re so kind, and so cute. I want to hug you’?”
“Huh? But why—”
“Just say it! Please!”
“Uh... All right.”
“Oh, and if you could whisper it, that’d be great...”
“Got it.” I held the magic item and did as Asuna asked. “‘You’re so kind, and so cute. I want to hug you.’ Will that do?”
“Y-Yeah... Thanks, Liam! I’ll take this with me!” Face flushed, Asuna held the magic item and left looking really happy.
“What was that all about?”
“Who knows?”
Lardon and I watched her leave in confusion.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Will this do?” I asked as I handed a Phonograph to an elven maid.
She cradled it preciously to her chest and squealed out, “Thank you very much!” Her gleeful gaze never once left the magic item as she exited my room with giddy steps.
I watched her, a little perplexed but no longer all that curious. After all, this was already the umpteenth time someone had come to me with this request.
After Asuna asked me for a Phonograph, she apparently told the elves all about it and they all began asking me for the same thing. It came as a bit of a surprise since the monsters of the city never begged me for stuff. It was far from a tall order, though, so I swiftly granted them their wish—and by the time I realized it, I’d already made nearly a hundred Phonographs. I had no clue why they all wanted one so badly, but part of me was already getting used to it.
“I wonder what’s up with them all?”
“I’ve no clue,” Lardon said. “Based on their reactions, it must be a feminine proclivity.”
“Oh, now that you mention it...” That sounded about right. They were all blushing nervously yet smiling in delight.
Lardon chuckled. “This might not be my place to say, but you truly are dull to the subtleties of the human heart.”
“How can you expect me to understand girls...?”
“She might know something.”
“Ah...” From her tone, Lardon must’ve been referring to Dyphon.
Perhaps the dragons’ relationships really were beyond repair. From how they talked about each other, it was clear that even living in the same town did nothing to improve their impressions of one another. They hardly even called each other by name, though fortunately, this posed no problem to me. Since Lardon and I had been together for so long, I could figure out who she was talking about just from the nuances in her speech.
In any case, Lardon was probably right. There were many I could ask when it came to understanding a girl’s heart, and among them, Dyphon was the most likely to give me a straight answer.
Before I could head out to look for her, however, the door to my room opened quietly with neither a knock nor a call from the other side. This instantly ruled out the possibility that it was an elven maid—and most others, for that matter—so it came as no surprise to me when Paithon slunk into the room the next moment.
“What’s up, Paithon? You need something?”
“Mm-hmm...” She looked as listless as ever as she slowly made her way to me. Finally, she stood before me with a languid gaze and said, “I want that thing too.”
“That thing...?”
“The thing everyone wants.”
“Oh... The Phonograph?”
Paithon nodded.
I furrowed my brows in confusion, and from Lardon’s perplexed grunt I could tell she felt the same. We’d just hypothesized that this whole thing had to do with a girl’s heart, but now here came Paithon—the last person I’d expect to care about that sort of thing—asking for the same thing.
After a short moment of consideration, I decided to ask for her reasons. “All right. I’ll make you one now. But Paithon, why do you want one?”
“A lullaby...”
“A...lullaby?”
“The girls listen to it at night... They say a handsome man’s whispers help them sleep well...”