Welcome back, Kentaro, Kuroie, and Aage! My, you’ve had a busy day, returning from Ortancia on the other side of the mountains. Heh heh… Husband, Kirika is back too. I was looking forward to seeing you both. Please show them your faces soon!
Beyond the gate, we were in a forest.
Lansia, who was in charge of preparing the magic circle for our return, was the first to greet me and hugged me.
By the way, Lansia was also visiting her hometown, but since she entered her stable period, she just returned to Convenience Store Village.
Lately, I’ve been accompanying the expeditionary force all the time, so it’s been a while since I returned to Convenience Store Village. I had been in contact with Lansia through the far-talking crystal, but it felt like it had been a while since we last met in person.
Oh, has she gotten a little fuller overall?
Her chest has grown, and her waist is plump.
“I’m home! Well, I spoke with Kirika just last week. Thank you for looking after things while I was away! Lissia… she’s in charge of the gatekeeper and seems to be tied up, but I guess she’s a reasonable choice.”
Lansia’s squad was on alert in the surrounding area. The gatekeeper, responsible for maintaining the gate, was Lissia, one of the highest-level mages in the vicinity, and Reinchan.
Lissia is, by chance, an incredibly powerful magic user, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call her a great mage, second only to Aage. Oh, and as you already know, Lissia also became my wife with the consent of herself, Lansia, and her family.
By the way, Bishop Rein was originally supposed to stay behind and was training at Jariterum, but…
Basically, their compatibility seemed to be terrible, and Monjirou complained that they fought constantly when they traveled together. So, it’s become a rather crude arrangement where she occasionally joins me as identification when I go to the temple to put on a good face.
Furthermore, when treating the King of Ormechia, I even had to pick her up at Convenience Store Village and rush back on the same day. I’ve been reluctantly relying on her for various things.
Ideally, I didn’t want to rely on Reinchan, but she was famous as a healer in Ormechia, so her name value was indispensable.
Yes, name value.
She is, after all, a bishop of the Holy Light Church, so her public name value is tremendous.
Then, those people in Ormechia, even though I treated them properly, didn’t believe she was truly cured. They started saying things like, “What if there are aftereffects?” and refused to let us leave until we could guarantee there were no problems.
I thought it was unfair to be treated like that after curing her illness, but there were also faked treatments that made people feel better by numbing their physical sensations, and the peculiar nature of chronic illnesses that fluctuated between improvement and relapse also played a part. Both she and her close attendants seemed to have lost all faith in medicine.
I understood the situation, but I didn’t have enough time to deal with that kind of thing.
I had no choice but to ask Reinchan to come, and with her endorsement of a complete recovery, everyone was finally satisfied and released.
Well, if it had ended there, it would have been a happy ending.
However, as usual, that night, she sneaked into my bedroom, woke me up, and tried to take off her pants with a smug look on her face. Instead, I pulled her pants up as hard as I could, making them look like high-cut bikini bottoms and leaving her backside completely exposed!
On top of that, as a form of punishment, I slapped her plump backside sixteen times in rapid succession.
Apparently, according to Reinchan’s values, that was far more embarrassing than taking off her pants, and she ended up rolling on the floor, crying, “I can’t get married anymore…”
Ah, I’ve made her understand again!
Making them understand is just the best!
Satoru-kun is also employed as one of my staff. He used to be a salesman, and with his excessively refreshing sales smile and handsome face, he has a tremendous female following. When he’s on shift, the store is instantly packed with female customers.
…Handsome, capable men are truly the best.
I’m so jealous, damn it.
However, surprisingly, he’s actually divorced. When he heard about Lansia and Kirika’s pregnancies, he rejoiced as if it were his own matter and gave us lectures about being considerate to pregnant women and so on.
I didn’t ask for details, but it seems like things were complicated for him over there.
Life has its ups and downs… doesn’t it?
More importantly, he apparently used to drink a lot. At night, under the guise of a get-together, he’d chug beers, declaring, “Today, I’ll win the drinking match!” and would invariably be defeated by me.
He likes drinking and alcohol, but he’s surprisingly weak to alcohol… it’s quite a humanizing story.
When he drinks, he usually falls asleep anywhere, so we’ve shared many a nap on the floor together…
He’s also terrible at button games, so he’s usually taken advantage of by others and is the first to end up in just his underwear…
Even though he’s handsome… what is this lingering sense of being a disappointment?
If this is the end result of the Apostle of Blazing Flames, who was feared even by the Empire, then Okura would surely be surprised.
Along with Radcliff, I entrusted him with the security of Convenience Store Village, and it seems he’s doing a good job there as well, having become quite a familiar face.
Moreover, he’s adept at handling customer complaints, and now Satoru-kun handles them even when I’m not around. So, in a way… he’s become the de facto assistant manager.
By the way, his relationship with Reinchan is also… Reinchan constantly feeds him all sorts of false information.
He usually just shrugs it off, and Reinchan ends up getting angry and barking.
“Um… welcome back, perverted owner. How is it? This is a new type of magic circle recently developed by the Magic Research Division. The stability of the gate and magic power efficiency have improved by another level. With this, even mages of a lower rank or two or three could probably substitute for Lissia or Aage.”
…Bishop Rein.
Ever since I really made her understand, she’s become considerably more subdued.
When she doesn’t have that weird switch flipped, she’s actually a very serious and good child.
She also shamelessly called me a perverted owner, but I’ll pretend I didn’t hear it.
If I poke too much, she’ll get angry again and act strangely…
Well, if that happens, I’ll just make her understand again!
This time, she was supposed to be the backup for gate maintenance, but Lissia’s magic capacity allows her to maintain the gate for about an hour, so she was free and came here.
In principle, if there’s a person with considerable magic power at either the transfer source or destination, the gate can be maintained. However, only Aage and the Manager can do it alone. So, this time, Aage was in charge of providing magic support for Emperor Kuroie, who was on the sending side, while Lissia and Bishop Rein were in charge of maintenance on the receiving side, allowing us to generate a safe and large-scale gate.
The advantage of this method is that although the total magic cost is doubled, it allows for load distribution.
It’s still in the experimental stage, so the maintenance personnel are limited to those skilled at handling large amounts of magic, like Lissia. However, it’s possible to gather about a hundred novice mages and have them collectively take over.
Due to safety considerations, we haven’t gone that far yet, but the idea itself is excellent.
Instead of relying on one person’s strength, everyone works together.
By the way, Lissia is also a member of the Florencia Magic Research and Development Division, led by Aage, which consists of mages with high magical aptitude among the elves.
She herself is genuinely happy about leaving the elf village, being able to meet me and Lansia casually, and receiving a considerable salary.
More importantly, for the elves, becoming a direct subordinate of the legendary Old Elf, Aage, is considered a great honor. Lissia, despite her past transgressions, has become famous as a powerful elf mage.
Furthermore, hearing about the Florencia Magic Research Division, the best mages and hidden talents from elf villages across various regions have been gathering, and it’s rapidly becoming a major elite unit.
In terms of magic technology research and development, Romeo can undoubtedly be considered the most advanced country in the world.
The Empire was not very enthusiastic about magic research, and France was solely focused on research of healing magic, known as law magic. The e ffectiveness of elf mages in magic-related research and development is also significant.
Many individuals like Lissia, who have pushed boundaries through personal endeavors, have emerged. Even Aage is reportedly surprised by the continuous influx of skilled users, making things quite challenging.
However, with the cooperation of these reliable elf researchers, the development of this transfer gate magic has progressed at an astonishing speed.
After all, three months ago, the concept of this gate-based transfer magic didn’t even exist. Both Aage and Emperor Kuroie were ostensibly on a journey attending a four-nation negotiation.
They were not in a position to move too conspicuously, and normally, they would have proceeded slowly after their return. But…
With Emperor Kuroie present, it was a simple matter to slip away from the caravan and transfer to the Mage Corps Headquarters in Raxom, which is essentially a research institute. As they repeatedly returned via transfer magic during their travels, the demand for a more convenient method naturally arose.
Thus, through repeated practical experiments and behind-the-scenes research, Magic Transfer ver2.0 was completed.
Additionally, by leaving a transfer magic circle on the other side of the gate, it’s possible to transfer there at any time.
However, creating and leaving a backdoor in a foreign country without permission is clearly problematic, so countermeasures have been implemented.
In fact, once the connection is established and maintenance is under the control of the receiving mages, the sending magic circle and gatekeeper become obsolete.
Therefore, it’s not an issue to turn off and remove the magic circle midway. And the person in charge of disposing of the magic circle on the other side will not be left behind and face the sad fate of having to walk back.
This time as well, Ursula and her escort team, along with the ceremonial empty carriages, are diligently collecting magic catalysts and backfilling the excavated ground on the other side.
Ursula and her team were quite active on the journey, but they won’t be returning to Convenience Store Village until the next scheduled shift, which is a week later, so we must bid them farewell for now.
Soon, a procession of carriages from the Imperial Guard began to pass through the gate one after another.
Once the members of Lissia’s and Bishop Rein’s parties were confirmed to have withdrawn, they converged the gate, completing the entire transfer process.
Indeed, Emperor Kuroie’s role was limited to a single act of initiating the gate connection; after that, there was nothing for her to do.
This time, it was a large-scale transfer involving most of the Imperial Guard and escort teams. Fortunately, it went smoothly without any delays or troubles.
Although the Imperial Guard’s combat effectiveness is questionable, their discipline is excellent. Even though many of them were using the gate for the first time and had been on a continuous journey, they passed through in an orderly fashion without any panic.
Ursula and her team remain on the other side, but they will be periodically connected to the gate for personnel rotation and will leisurely return with the “guests.”
These “guests” are, in essence, intelligence agents of unknown nationality.
Naturally, they kept their distance but persistently shadowed us throughout the journey.
Being tailed by such intelligence agents is undeniably annoying.
So, I ordered Ursula and her team to capture or eliminate them swiftly. However, I was told to pretend not to see them, as there’s an unspoken gentleman’s agreement to not interfere with intelligence agents unless absolutely necessary, meaning we shouldn’t capture or execute them without question as if they were barbarians.
It seems that intelligence agents from various countries are connected at a fundamental level.
It’s become the norm for field operatives to communicate with each other, clearly define their boundaries, and try to resolve matters peacefully.
I find this whole “rigged game” to be quite something… It seems that in this industry, the Empire’s Slime Corps was such a major player that to counter them, various intelligence organizations began to communicate with each other, leading to the establishment of horizontal connections and gentleman’s agreements.
Basically, they don’t do anything that would disadvantage their employers, and even among colleagues, there are lines they won’t cross, so clashes between intelligence agents do occur.
Even in this instance, the “guests” naturally participated as reinforcements during bandit and monster attacks. When Emperor Kuroie or I were present, we even invited them to our campsites and shared meals together, so we’ve become quite familiar with each other.
They also seemed to vaguely realize that we sometimes disappeared with a decoy, but it’s apparently one of their rules not to judge what they see or hear.
It’s the employer’s job to interpret the information gathered by intelligence agents.
Well, in any case… the official story is that we’ve been on a two-month grand tour, so as long as it looks that way, that’s all we care about. We weren’t bothered by what strangers might think.
The Imperial Guard members, holding towels and drinks, swarmed around Emperor Kuroie, cheering “Welcome back from your expedition!” The members of the reserve unit who came to greet them also joined in, high-fiving and hugging each other, celebrating with “Congratulations on completing your mission!”
They themselves understand they are a ceremonial unit and that accompanying the imperial expedition was quite arduous, with a considerable number of dropouts.
More importantly, any injured or sick individuals were promptly returned to Emperor Kuroie. As their numbers dwindled, replacement personnel were extracted from the reserve unit in the home country and sent in, so they were quite sly about it.
Still, it was heartwarming and pleasant to see teenage girls frolicking in a way befitting their age.
I’ve updated all the existing character illustration images to the Copilot version.
I think they all turned out well.
I’ve also added images for Owner Takakura and Monjirou-sensei, who didn’t have any before.
Please take a look!
