ch61-ch80 · 073-inter13

Interlude: Hexaria's Daily Life

The other world's sage. The Great Mage who came to Japan.

The highest intellect from the other world — Hexaria — woke early.

She woke at a time that some might call "28 o'clock in the dead of night."

After getting up, washing her face, and brewing coffee, the first thing she did was start up the magical communicator.

She checked each message that had arrived the previous day and responded.

Recently, the contents were mostly about troubles that occurred because Hexaria or Sai weren't there, and messages from the staff at the research institute Hexaria had established.

Both Hexaria and Sai took the development of their successors seriously.

Thanks to that, there were basically no problems that couldn't be handled without the two of them present.

However, for example, she'd receive consultations about things being developed at the institute, or — even though she'd told them to proceed without her — requests for sharing and consultation on approval matters.

As for Sai's troubles, they were less about troubles and more about confirming things like "When are you two planning to come back?"

Since Sai couldn't teleport alone, the messages came to Hexaria.

One particularly unusual message mentioned that several of Sai's disciples had been kicking up a fuss at the Trade City Adventurer's Guild, demanding to "let us use the magical communicator. Let us contact Sai." Part of her wanted to leave it alone since it was amusing, but she replied, "Let them use it. And while you're at it, get their impressions afterward."

This magical communicator was one of Hexaria's inventions.

Originally, it was created back when she lived alone in the mountains of the Elven Kingdom, as a way to contact acquaintances.

Over time, incorporating Sai's opinions and improving it, the result was a masterpiece that could communicate not just across continents but even from Earth to the other world, with almost no lag.

It wasn't yet something like Japan's smartphones — where everyone had one, or each household had one. Widespread adoption would still take time, but that couldn't be helped.

Anything takes time to spread.

By the time it does, she wanted to make further improvements — to enable real-time conversation like PCs and smartphones in Japan, and even send images.

The military implications were a concern, but that was a separate issue to consider.

Incidentally, there were no messages from the children today.

Hexaria was just a tiny bit disappointed about that.

Next, she checked today's tasks.

No smithing work today.

More precisely, she couldn't do it. The spirits in charge of smithing among her little maids had gone off to secretly observe Japan's steel mills and blacksmiths at work.

She was glad they were showing initiative, but she couldn't help thinking they didn't all need to go at once.

Still, they'd probably be back in a few days. When they returned, she wanted to make knives to give to Sai's disciples and students after their graduation certifications.

Unlike the ones for Hiyori and Mio, who'd recently graduated, these wouldn't have such advanced enchantments — she planned to whip them up quickly. (Those had also served as combat compensation and thanks for the Shadow-Eater, the calamity of the world.)

What she absolutely had to do today was probably just prepare teaching materials for her lectures.

The rest was her daily fieldwork and research and development.

Things to learn. Things to research. Things to develop.

She'd assign priorities to each and deal with them in order.

Around the time she'd finished organizing her tasks, Sai woke up.

He got up at six in the morning, so she couldn't exactly call him a late riser.

Compared to his wake-up time in the other world, though, it was about an hour later.

"Morning." "Mm." — greetings, then breakfast.

By the way, Sai was the one who made breakfast.

They chatted idly over breakfast.

"I'm going to Shinjuku Tower with the disciples' party today."

"Mmm. Business as usual here."

"Right-o."

Their morning conversations were about this much.

They ate quickly, talked about what needed to be said, then quickly got to their respective work.

Incidentally, Sai himself wasn't aware of it, but he subconsciously distinguished between students he paid special attention to — calling them "disciples" — and the rest, whom he called "students."

This was a habit of Sai's (in Japanese) that only Hexaria had noticed.

After Sai left for Shinjuku Tower.

Hexaria continued her work.

First up was preparing materials for her weekly lectures on magical power and magical engineering at the university.

Basically, what she taught was the fundamentals of magic — things that even children knew in the other world. Stuff taught at the elementary education level in schools... in other words, truly the basics.

It might be surprising to hear it put that way, but that's only because "the other world has thousands of years of history regarding magical power."

As for magical engineering, there were many things that required a fundamental understanding of magic itself.

If you tried to teach foundational science in one leap, people would get burned — so it had to be taught carefully.

One issue was that there were far more things that existed in the other world and didn't exist on Earth than expected. An easy example: the plants used as materials for recovery potions didn't exist on Earth.

It was possible that these plants simply couldn't grow unless the mana in Earth's atmosphere exceeded a certain threshold.

For their own use, and to test cultivation on Earth, they were growing some at home — but it was a real struggle.

Practically speaking, nobody but Hexaria could cultivate them.

That was the situation.

The increase in mana had both good and bad aspects.

Atmospheric mana inevitably contained magical essence.

Just like how air was composed of various gases like nitrogen and oxygen.

But if it contained magical essence, then inevitably — even if it wasn't on the level of Kakuriyo — there was a possibility that monsters would start appearing.

This depended on the amount of magical essence in the area, but if mana kept increasing, monsters would definitely start appearing outside dungeons.

How much of this specific information should she include in her lectures?

And how would humanity on Earth change after the mana increase?

How much to teach — that needed careful consideration.

She also needed to create devices for measuring magical power.

Not her own handmade ones — she had to get the people of Earth to make them.

Give the people of Earth knowledge so they could move forward, and beyond that, ensure research progressed "without relying on Hexaria."

That was the goal.

If she taught them everything, they'd forget how to learn for themselves.

She had to teach them, make them learn, and then make them conduct their own research.

With that in mind, she adjusted the lecture content and created slides.

While doing that work, the doorbell rang.

Wondering who it could be, it turned out to be Sai's mother.

Actually, Sai's mother and Hexaria met quite often.

At first, it was awkward, but lately they chatted happily.

"Milord Mother-in-Law."

"Oh, Hexaria-chan, I keep telling you to just call me 'Mom.'"

"It's in my nature. I'm afraid you'll have to give up on that."

"Hehe. Hexaria-chan, you've got it rough too."

At first, Sai's mother came to ask how her son had lived in the other world. What had her missing son of thirty years done in the place he'd been?

She couldn't help but be curious.

Of course, Sai himself had explained, but a third party's perspective was important.

Especially if it came from Hexaria — who, even if it was a fake marriage, had been with Sai all along. As a mother, she wanted to hear it.

In other words, these conversations between the two of them could also be described as a calibration of the assessment of Sai as a person, from the perspectives of a mother and a partner.

The foundation of his personality had been formed in Japan.

Going to another world wouldn't suddenly change his personality.

But his personality had been shaped by the environment he was placed in.

His mother wanted to know what circumstances had created the son she saw today.

...As a result, at first it was like that — a kind of discussion. But recently, that relationship had changed.

Right now, the two of them were standing in the kitchen.

"The little maids would be better at this sort of thing..."

"Hehe, but you want to learn it, don't you?"

Hexaria sighed, and Sai's mother smiled warmly.

"...However, this thing called miso. What will I do when I go back?"

"That's the thing, isn't it. We'll have to look up how to make it."

Yes. Recently, Hexaria had been learning cooking from Sai's mother.

Who it was for — she wouldn't say.

Hexaria didn't hesitate to call herself a misanthrope, but she had built a remarkably good relationship with Sai's mother. It was probably because Sai's mother was the first person who had ever interacted with Hexaria not based on her appearance or knowledge, but simply recognizing her as Sai's wife (even if only in name).

Of course, she recognized Serin and Shilia — the orphans she and Sai had picked up — the same way, but that was only natural since they'd taken them in when they were small and raised them that way.

In the other world, Hexaria's name carried immense weight.

For better or worse, it was far too immense.

Things had settled down after Hexaria made her "don't interfere with me" declaration, but until then, it had been truly rough.

For about a hundred years after her birth, people had feared her innate charm ability. Once that ability was suppressed, this time various power-seekers and villains came knocking. There was a period when she couldn't trust anyone other than Sai and her own children, Serin and Shilia.

Having lived that kind of life, Sai's mother — who simply saw her as Sai's wife, or perhaps her own daughter-in-law — was a precious presence to Hexaria. Someone who neither worshipped her nor clung to her for profit.

And there was another good thing about her.

"Well, I had fun today. I'll visit again."

"Mmm. I was helped as well. I'll rely on you again."

With that, she quickly took her leave.

Incidentally, what Hexaria learned from Sai's mother today was miso soup and simmered bamboo shoots.

If she simply wanted to learn recipes, she could look them up online. But Sai's mother knew "the taste of the Yamana household."

This was something no one other than Sai's mother knew — something that couldn't be found no matter where you searched.

And she didn't linger awkwardly, didn't unnecessarily steal Hexaria's time. She did what she came to do and promptly left.

Hexaria had a very good impression of this as well.

"Honestly, like mother, like son."

Hexaria found herself impressed.

Some time later.

Sai finished his instruction and returned from Shinjuku Tower.

Now then.

How would he react when he ate the food Hexaria had made?

That probably went without saying.

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Thank you for reading.

Part 3 is taking some time to adjust, and I'm planning to start posting around March 20th.

I apologize for making you wait over a week, but I hope you'll continue to enjoy the story.