It had been a few dozen days since we left Ishtar. During our journey, we’d stop in the towns Abel had designated as waypoints to rest before making our way to the next village. Of course, the towns didn’t know we were traveling with Princess Claira, so we had to be careful to ensure no one found out.
At least, we were supposed to be...
“Hey, Claira! Doesn’t this look tasty?” Yui grabbed Claira’s hand and dragged her toward a food stall with a tasty scent. Claira, meanwhile, didn’t look like she minded at all and was happily running alongside Yui with a smile on her face.
Cross sighed. “There she goes again. I get we need to take breathers, but shouldn’t she be at least a little more nervous?”
“Maybe...” Cross had a point. While we were traversing a relatively safe route to the royal capital, the Demon King was still after us. We couldn’t afford to let our guards down. Still... “I think Yui’s trying to watch out for her.” In reality, we would have spent a few days pretty awkwardly and nervously if not for Yui.
“I mean, yeah. But...”
“Isn’t it fine? Claira was imprisoned for a long while, and Abel told us she never had much opportunity to leave the palace in the first place,” said Silica, smiling as she watched Claira.
“Guess giving the princess a hand is how it’s gotta be.”
“Indeed.”
The two giggled. While Cross was grumbling, he didn’t seem to have any intention of holding Claira under house arrest. He would allow her some freedom and had resolved to face the dangers that came with it.
Silica continued. “Not to mention, we have Lloyd with us.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s right. With him around, things’ll work out.”
The two smiled once again—this time at me. “Wait a second. What does me being around have to do with anything?”
“It just does.”
“Yup.”
For a second time, the two giggled. I couldn’t follow the conversation, but just as I was about to ask a follow-up question, Daggers cut me off. “Sorry, finding an inn was a bit tough. Wait, where are Yui and Claira?”
“They ran off that way, yapping about a tasty smell,” said Cross, pointing in the direction they disappeared.
“Jeez, that girl...”
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now. Can you detect them, Lloyd?”
“I’ve been using my detection magic constantly, but I haven’t picked up on anything strange. I can sense Yui’s signal clearly.” Due to Claira’s special clothes, I couldn’t pick up on her at all. But as long as Yui was doing all right, it was safe to assume Claira was too.
“You’re really something, Lloyd. You had the spell activated before we could even ask.”
“But doesn’t using magic for such a long time greatly consume your MP?” asked Silica with worried eyes.
“Actually, I’ve reviewed my detection magic over these last few days.”
“Reviewed?”
“Yeah. At its core, detection magic picks up the signals of mana-containing entities, like a radar spread over a certain area,” I explained.
“Oh, so that’s how it works.”
“Yup. That’s why it requires MP to keep detection magic running, but...I improved the spell.”
“Improved it?” Silica gave me a blank stare.
I decided to inquire about her question later and continued with my explanation. “Yup. I might have to adjust which spell I use according to the situation, but rather than a radar covering a certain area, I instead changed it to waves that pulse at regular intervals. I think that’s the easiest way to explain it.”
Originally, detection magic sensed the presence of humans, demons, and monsters—along with their subtle movements—by operating like a radar. But for our current purposes, I only needed to check whether there were any suspicious signals nearby, rather than their movements.
“Since these waves operate on fixed intervals, I can’t track their movements in detail, so the spell’s detection abilities diminish.” Put simply, this new detection magic wasn’t suited for battle, but outside of battle. Instead of the MP it costs to cast a spell, it only expends the MP needed to maintain one, thus allowing me to save mana. If I adjusted the pulses’ intervals, I could adjust how much MP I was expending as well. “Anyway, that’s the gist, but... Did you understand all that?”
“Well, the basics, I believe...” said Silica, looking somewhat glum.
I didn’t understand her expression, so I asked if there was something wrong with my explanation.
“No, it’s just... You talk about improving and reworking spells as if it’s easy, Lloyd. But I don’t think it’s typically such a simple task.”
“Huh? Really?” Master Merlin and her friends acted like improving your spells was obvious, so that thought had never occurred to me before. “It’s not all that hard. I’m sure anybody could learn how to do it if they practiced.”
“I’m not so sure it’s really so—”
“If that’s what Lloyd says, it’s gotta be true, right?” Unlike Silica, who seemed to doubt my explanation, Cross seemed to trust it completely. “I mean, we learned how to use storage magic, didn’t we? Lloyd’s still got us beat, but we got the basics down pretty fast.”
While we were camping in the forest a few days ago, I taught them all how to use storage magic in our spare time. That must have been what Cross was talking about. While their storage capabilities were still rather minimal, they could all use the spell well enough to store away their personal belongings.
Everyone but Yui, that is. She alone couldn’t figure it out, and she was still training day in and day out to try to acquire the skill. As for her belongings, I was storing them away since I still had some extra space.
“I mean, Lloyd’s always like this. You’ve gotta get used to it eventually.”
“Yes, you’re right. That is his norm, isn’t it?”
I didn’t completely follow, but it seemed like Silica understood what I was trying to explain, which was enough for me. But I wonder why I felt so antsy. “H-Hey, I’m really not...”
Daggers cut me off once again. “Anyway, enough about that. We better go after them. Even with detection magic, we can’t be letting our guards down. Just to be safe, we better stick together as much as possible.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” I was still in the middle of my chat with Cross and Silica, but our quest came first. We could finish this discussion later.
Thus, we cautiously and enjoyably walked through town in search of Claira.