We leave the magic school, now with the fifth party member in tow. Seria managed to obtain the book she was looking for, trolling Douglas further in the process. Turns out it was a book of thunderous magic basics that he had forgotten about and sequestered in a chest. It's fortunate that his hoarding nature paid off, really, anyone else might well have lost it over fifty years.

He also offered for us to use his noble estate to stay in for the night before we leygated, as he was rarely there himself, and it would be easier for Rishya to pack her things.

Aria seemed happy about this, having a look of reminiscence. She implies she despises Rishya's company, but it just makes her tsundere stand out harder. I think they're surprisingly complementary.

Whereas I've just been given the lunatic mode capture target, if I ever deigned to stray from the common route... which is not a priority at the moment. I still have to go planting more flags before the surveyors hat can come off, if ya know what I mean? Haha...

I decided that it would be prudent to let Aria and Rishya do catching up, so I dragged Seria away (not by her chain, however tempting... I would die first, right?).

So we started on the way back to the guild to catch up with the other two and inform them where we would be staying.

"Fufufu... I am still enamoured by this mysterious force that is drawing young girls to your cause, boy. Could you not also have an idiotic hot-blooded axe-wielding fighter type with rippling muscles and bushy eyebrows to balance things out?" Seria says, bent forward whilst walking backwards, hands behind her back.

"That... that's awfully specific, Seria. Is that your taste?" I joke.

She gives me a wolfish smile and flicks my forehead.

"You've got me. I always wanted a Veranian Barbarian to violate me." She says, her tone reeking of sarcasm. "Even so, boy, your ability to evade questioning is as strong as ever."

"Comes with working for the civil service. Concrete answers tend to cost the government money." I say. Absolutely true, in fact.

She turns around to face the direction she is going as we approach a busy street, and has a ponderous expression, hand on cheek.

"And that is indeed another bizarre incident with your summoning. Whilst it granted the princess a success of sorts, why would her prayers to your world, with its dangerous weapons, not go to one of your soldiers?" She asks.

"I expect it is a matter of who would follow a young girl. Our soldiers have strict hierarchy and discipline. Our spies would not trust her. And most of my world would either not believe the situation, or choose to be apathetic to it." I say, showing a moment of lucidity.

Seria nods. "Yes... that makes sense. Perhaps you are uniquely qualified after all... fufufu..."

"Just because you are unique does not mean you are useful." I quote a popular de-motivational poster.

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"Ufufufu... quite... you ~are~ quite the wellspring of useless modesty and pointless anecdotes, boy." Seria counters.

"Ouch, burn..." I laugh.

"We can have you learning to do that by the end of the day if you try." She adds a bombshell.

"What?!? Really...? I thought it would take a few weeks at least."

Well, assuming I didn't cheat by watching it and using a neuromod, in any case...

"Doubtful. Though I won't guarantee fire until we figure out spirit affinity, you already have the requisite knowledge base and imagination. You have the what, and the why, you're just missing the how."

Huh... yes... it was mentioned before, wasn't it? Aria being a rare case of being able to heal without medical knowledge... Seria having memories of ancestors and years of learning as her cheat... and thinking about it, even Rishya had the 'Physician' skill.

What she's saying is, for example, because I know how fire works, consuming fuel and O2, and turning it into CO2 and energy and heat, that I already have the basis for igniting things via magic.

Wizards always having a high INT makes alot of sense in that regard, doesn't it?

We reach the plaza where the mercenaries guild is located.

In the plaza proper, I notice there is stand selling potions, glassware and alchemic looking mixtures. I stop to look.

My weird bomb ingredient identification skill starts having a field day here. If I want to be more useful, it’s important to pick up some of this as well as learning from Seria.

Translation function-san continues to show its crazy versatility, giving me hovering subtitles and pronunciation of all the price-tags on the stall. So handy!

I haggle for several ingredients with the portly merchant, get him to wrap them up, and also take a mortar and pestle, and a filtration set, so that I can get to processing nitrates for nitroglycerin production.

I get away with 1 myriad, 7 bounds as my total costs, which is quite a portion of my new wallet... but I feel it is justified here.

"Mmmm... not bad, boy. I thought you would be strung out by that shrewd man, but you got a barely average deal." Seria says as I move away with my new package of things.

I have a feeling she wouldn't have helped even I was being fleeced though... it would be more entertaining for her to have gloating material.

"That's good to know. It's hard to know the value of things here. I only worked out just now that there were twelve bounds to a myriad!" I respond.

"Well... all this is for you to make your weapons, is it not?" She checks.

"Indeed. Hopefully I can borrow a room this evening." I confirm.

We enter the guild. It is barely a moment before I hear a "Nii! I'm over here!" from a waving and smiling Kiku.

My blood runs cold and a shiver goes down my spine as my danger sense blasts off.

Oh gods... I forgot the guild was a ravenous Kiku fan club. Shiiiit...