Rebirth From Ordinary Person To The Strongest

While we waited for the ambulance to arrive to take the collapsed café owner and for the police to handle the aftermath, Irena-san checked me over with her fairies.

She was checking for any poison in the drinks and food the café owner had served us. Given that a monster had provided them, it was only natural to be cautious.

"From what I gathered, the monster seemed to be focused on draining magical energy, so I doubt there's any lethal poison involved... But just in case, let's run a proper check," she explained.

Of course, I had no objections to that. In fact, I was more than happy for the extra precaution.

Irena-san summoned a small fairy and handed it to me.

"The fairy will enter your body, check for any poison, and neutralize it if needed," she explained.

She demonstrated by swallowing a fairy herself. Following her lead, both Nina-chan and I swallowed the fairies as well.

A warm sensation passed through my throat as the fairy entered my body. Stay updated through m-v l|e'm,p y r

"…Still, we really got caught off guard this time," Irena-san muttered, turning on the lights in the now brightened café.

"'Thought manipulation' is a basic level of 'mind-control magic,' typically used by Third Order knights or higher... But it seems this one started using it at the Second Order pawn level."

"When did it cast the spell?" I asked.

"It was probably hidden in the case file's PDF. I suspect it was embedded in the text," Irena-san said, showing me her phone.

Displayed on the screen was the lock screen, with the current time clearly visible.

But the screen wasn't dimming like it had before.

…Could it be that what I thought was a short screen timeout earlier was actually the result of the monster's magic?

But, wait—there hadn't been any mention of Silveit in the PDF's text...

As I puzzled over the magic, Irena-san continued.

"There are old methods that use paper as a medium for magic, but I've never heard of magic being embedded in an electronic device… It seems like this is a new kind of magic created by the monster. It's going to be troublesome."

"Paper? There's magic that uses paper?" I asked.

"Yes, like contract circles. It's an old form of magic used to bind monsters to your will. In Japan, I believe it's most commonly associated with spirit talismans," she explained.

I nodded, though it wasn't something I fully understood.

Oh, wait—could she be talking about that purification talisman I received from Akane of the Kamiaridzuki family?

I reached for the talisman that I kept in my pocket.

That talisman had been strong enough to blow off the arm of the Sixth Order monster Raikou Douji. I hadn't understood how it worked at the time, but now it made sense.

Things were starting to connect in unexpected ways.

"The formal term for it is Symbolic Magic. In Japanese, it's called Kokuju, though it fell out of use in the 16th or 17th century," Irena-san explained.

"It died out?" I asked, surprised.

"Yes, it's inefficient. It's faster and uses less magical energy to simply rely on fairies than to inscribe magic onto paper and use it as a medium."

That makes sense. I bet that's the case with Silveit as well.

Reflecting on the magic history lesson my father had given me not too long ago, I watched as Irena-san put her phone back into her pocket.

"And magic as basic as Symbolic Magic can easily be blocked with today's Suppression Magic. So, to be honest, I got a bit complacent. I never expected someone to embed magic in an electronic file."

Irena-san's expression was serious.

It was probably like having antivirus software installed but getting hit by a brand-new virus. Not that I've experienced that, since I'm more of a smartphone person than a computer person, but that seemed to be the gist of it from the way she was talking.

"We'll need to report this new type of magic as soon as possible," Irena-san sighed deeply, just as the police car arrived.

After handing over the situation to the police, we left the café.

As we walked away, a thought occurred to me.

"Hey, Irena-san."

"Yes? What is it?"

"That 'thought manipulation' magic the monster used… Could I learn how to use it if I studied it?" I asked, curious.

"Hm, I doubt it," she replied, summoning a number of fairies at her fingertips.

She released the fairies, sending them throughout the town to make sure there weren't any other monsters lurking around.

Watching this, I asked, "Why not?"

"Magic that distorts a person's thoughts is considered forbidden. So there's no one who could teach you how to learn it. I'm sure there are some exorcists who know about forbidden magic, but… thankfully, I'm not one of them," she explained, her gaze following the fairies as they scattered into the night sky.

I followed her gaze and looked up, seeing an incredible number of stars.

It must have been because we were in a dark area. You'd never see this many stars in Tokyo.

"I just thought it would be useful against monsters if I could use thought manipulation," I said.

"I figured you'd say something like that, Itsuki-san. But unfortunately, thought manipulation doesn't work on monsters."

"Huh? It doesn't?" I asked, surprised.

"There have been several experiments conducted on the subject, but none have yielded good results. It's believed that monsters' minds are already so warped that they resist external influence," she explained.

"Oh..."

I had to admit that made sense.

None of the monsters I'd fought so far had the same thought processes as humans. The only one I could talk to somewhat normally had been the Fifth Order monster I fought in the forest, but that one had just been born and was like a child, so it wasn't much of a reference.

Raikou Douji, the cube sisters, and the monster from today—while I could understand their thoughts, I could never agree with them. They were all... incomprehensible in their own way.

As I was thinking about this, Nina-chan suddenly tugged at my hand. I turned to see her looking a bit upset.

"Itsuki, isn't there something you should say?" she asked.

"Something I should say…?"

I paused, thinking for a moment.

What should I say... Oh!

Realizing what she meant, I mentally smacked myself and turned to Nina-chan with a proper "thank you."

"Thanks to you, we were able to defeat the monster. I really appreciate it, Nina-chan."

"You're welcome," she replied, clearly pleased with herself.

I smiled and thanked her again.

Honestly, if Nina-chan hadn't been there, things could've gone south. Sure, I had the purification talisman as a last resort, but that was my final fallback. The fact that we dealt with the situation without relying on it was what mattered.

As I gazed up at the sky, I noticed the fairies were returning swiftly. They looked like shooting stars as they flew back, adding a serene touch to the scene.

"It seems there are no other monsters around. This one was likely a rural stray that had gone unnoticed. The real concern is whether it developed this new magic on its own, or if this magic is spreading among other monsters... This could become a serious problem," Irena-san said, as she began to dismiss the fairies one by one.

Once the last fairy returned to her, confirming that the area was clear, we got a ride to the nearest town from the police. We'd spend the night at a hotel and head back to Tokyo the next day.

"Feels like we've had a long day, doesn't it, Itsuki?" Nina-chan said, leaning against me.

"Yeah, it really does, Nina-chan," I agreed, feeling the weight of her head on my shoulder as I gazed out the window.

Still, new magic, huh?

…Maybe I should develop some kind of defensive magic of my own.

With that thought lingering in my mind, I absentmindedly played with Raikou Douji's artifact.

Before I knew it, Nina-chan had fallen asleep beside me.