Roughly thirty minutes later, Mr. Chotos went to meet the trader. He left Teru, Gol, and I to tend the shop.
It seemed to be the first time in a while that tiny, fragile Teru had been allowed to stay in the shop. Her father hated leaving her home alone all day, but the constant threat of those punks had meant he couldn’t bring her with him anymore.
Though the shopfront now was warm and bright, it was empty as usual. Customers passed it by, but since traders might drop in, someone needed to be present to receive goods. Mr. Chotos had been troubled because he needed to leave to meet his contact, but I was free and nonchalantly suggested that I mind the shop for him.
I had actually planned on going to the bookstore, but I could go another time. I couldn’t leave Teru and Gol alone while I went shopping by myself.
For the time being, I had decided to stay in Tibar until Mr. Chotos paid back his debt. I was in no rush to set off on another journey. If that man crawled his way out of debt only for the Company to send another pack of embezzling punks, my heart would break with pity. I at least needed to stick around long enough to make sure any such miscreants wrote a proper receipt.
……
N-no, that wasn’t right. This was a matter of frugality; I was only doing this for the free room and board. There was absolutely, definitely no way in hell I was doing anything out of pity for that wretched old man. I really don’t want you to misunderstand!
For a while now, Teru had been sitting on my lap and drawing a picture. She giggled as she colored in a yellow lemon. Ah, so this world has lemons as well.
“This is, um…it’s Mr. Nemaki’s Thunder Grizzly!”
“Heh, it looks just like it. You’re a great artist.”
So this ovoid yellow shape was a Thunder Grizzly, the strange animal on my pajamas. Of course, I had known this from the beginning.
“And this one here. It’s a Flame Bicorn. And here’s a flower.”
“They’re really cute. You really are good at drawing.”
Of course, as I was such an uneducated rube, I had no idea what these red and black squiggles were meant to resemble. However, you must praise a child to promote their growth. That’s very important.
Delighted by my compliments, Teru hugged me, rocking back and forth. I was about to hug her back when Gol’s white hands abruptly encircled the innocent girl. Gol snatched Teru from my lap and hoisted her up.
“Eh?” I blinked in surprise as Gol made Teru sit on her own lap and roughly mussed Teru’s hair. “Ah, what…? You wanted to hold Teru, huh? Okay. Just don’t surprise me like that.”
My partner really did like children. Teru squealed happily at Gol’s gentle roughhousing. It was a truly charming scene.
“You’ll definitely make a good mother, Gol—whoa, close much?!”
Gol leaned in so near she could surely smell every note of my breath as she continued to skillfully pat Teru. What exactly was she trying to tell me…?
Teru obediently continued drawing from her new position on Gol’s lap. Meanwhile, I rested my elbow on the table and let out a yawn. Because of Gol’s maternal instincts, I no longer had to watch the child, but at the same time, I now had no work to do.
“I’m afraid I’m diagnosing myself with a severe case of boredom…”
Even the traders who were supposed to show up hadn’t popped in. We hadn’t seen a single customer, either. However, I think the lack of the latter couldn’t be helped. Mr. Chotos’s shop had a perfectly decent reputation, but currently, there were hardly any goods. You could see the empty shelves from the street. The only customers who would enter such a dismal shop would have to be…
“A clueless person from another world, huh?”
Well, to be fair, if anyone actually did show up, there’d be no end to the customer service issues, given that the staff consisted of a golem, a young girl, and a Sorcerer King who lacked the common sense of a kindergartener.
Let’s pray we don’t see a single customer until the proprietor comes back.
“Oof.” I leisurely stood from the chair and made my way to the shelves, where I picked up one of the many brown dice that remained unsold. This dull cube was most likely a mana tool. Of all the slim pickings left of the merchandise, there were actually a fair amount of these.
“Hey, Teru?” I turned and called out.
“Yes?”
“Do you happen to know how to use these mana tools?” I asked. When in doubt, ask Little Girl-senpai.
Teru leapt out of Gol’s lap and waved her hand as she ran over to me. “Pick me! Pick me! I know! Um, um, this goes like this!”
She grabbed a round, white mana tool from the shelf and clutched it in her small hand. “Like this and go ‘Ah!’”
When she did that, the mana tool in her hand dimly lit up.
Ah, amazing as ever, senpai! But your explanation was a bit unclear!
However, I did notice small flashing particles converging inside the mana tool. Those shining motes were most likely Lightning particles. This unique phenomenon—where particles containing the power of attributes danced through the air—occurred whenever spells were cast in this world.
“Could it be…you imbue mana into the tool just like when you cast a spell?”
I knew how to do that! I could even be called adept. I had needed to keep my mana flowing for quite a while to create golems. Even my simple Earth Spear’s surface-to-air missile attack required a constant flow of mana to maintain its shape and prevent dissolution. I had to concentrate, but as long as I could imagine the flow, it wasn’t difficult.
As such, I focused my mind and imbued the brown die with my mana. As I did, a puff of Earth particles gathered within the brown mana tool.
Then, for some reason, I had an extremely bad feeling.
Images of my previous failures popped up in the back of my mind, one after another: the Grand Stone Gate in the basin that burst into a repulsive black lily; the Mentos Geyser explosion that shattered the binding on the stone book; and the environmental disaster of a pebble that destroyed the garden by Zairein’s hideout.
Ah, this was bad. I was doing something bad.
Seconds after my premonition, the die in my palm began to swell like a puffed mochi.
“Th-this is—”
Suddenly, the swelling die burst with an explosive bang! Brown shards shot through the air and Earth particles flew everywhere like brown fireworks.
Aauuugh! I did it agaaaiinnn!