“Yo. Did you finally decide to get me out of here?”(Me)

I greeted them with a smile. It wasn’t evil, but it was a little bit forced.

Both of them stood in front of me and had sparkles in their eyes. I tilted my head a little to the right, because I didn’t know what was going on. I somehow noticed that their line of sight wasn’t focused at me, but the cell I was in.

“Hello?”(Me)

They snapped out of it instantly.

“Ah, yes. Long time no see big brother. How have you been.”(Lucy)

She was flustered, but in the end they finally opened my cell and let me out.

Just in case, if it would get lost (or out of boredom, whatever you prefer), I made a substitute for the key and could have left the cell long time ago, but it was better that I was released this way.

“I see you were living quite the comfortable life here.”(Lucy)

Even after having a normal stone bed, I didn’t stop improving the quality of my daily life necessities. The hard rock bed became a huge one looking quite similar to that of a noble’s. There was also a small table and a wooden chair, so I could occasionally eat.

“Yes, I had a lot of free time.”(Me)

I definitely had a lot of free time. I noticed that her line of sight changed again.

“Are you wondering about my toilet?”(Me)

“So it was indeed one.”(Lucy)

I confirmed my assumption with that remark.

In fact, I invested most of the creating time in its design to look good. It was completely white and of extremely rare material. The system behind it was rather easy. It consisted off merely two kinds of magic.

There was a pushbutton and if pressed a magic stone would release water magic flushing everything down the toilet. At the bottom, there was a portal, which I connected with the void, or in other words, nothing that goes down there will ever come back.

“I was just wondering because it looks really complex.”(Lucy)

“I see you learned how to speak properly.”(Me)

“Indeed.”(Lucy)

Even if she answered humble, I saw at least one vein popping up on her forehead. I realised, what I just said.

“Haha. No I didn’t mean it like that.”(Me)

“Hmpf.”(Lucy)

She was angry with me, but who can blame me? During my time alone, I forgot that I actually had to care about others while talking. Not that I would bother learning something so trivial again though.

“It works with a magic stone.”(Me)

I forgot that’s something I came up with. There was the problem that they wouldn’t understand what I am saying.

“You mean those amazing stones which can store a certain kind of magic?”(Lucy)

“Ah. Yes.”(Me)

I was surprised. It seemed like they already were discovered in the outside world.

“A year ago, Arthur came up with the idea of storing magic into an object. However, it was only until recently that this idea could be made reality. Moreover…” (Lucy)

“Stones are the only object, which can store magic?”(Me)

The problem was that only a stone had the most basic mana structure there is, so they don’t have high requirements and can store almost every kind of magic there is. I came across the same problem in the early stages.

Eventually I broke through that hurdle, but it still took me some time to do figure out how to do it. The answer is easy though, I only had to check what kind of mana structure an object had and find a fitting magic to imbue into it.

“Ah… Yes. Something like that.”(Lucy)

I decided that it was better not to further talk about magic or the like, because they were way behind me.

“Let’s get back to the main issue. You are letting me out, so I assume that our target has appeared?”(Me)

I deliberately acted friendly and leisure at the beginning so that the two of them could stay calm when we’d talk about the real problem. Sepp, who seemed like the third wheel to our conversation joint in as well.

“He hasn’t appeared yet, but we assume that he soon he will.”(Sepp)

“What made you think so?”(Me)

Both of them gave me a thoughtful impression, which I wasn’t accustomed to. It only indicated that even more time that I anticipated passed and that they just changed that much.

“Do you remember what happened back at the tournament?”(Sepp)

“You mean the destroyed wall?”(Me)

“Yes. Apparently it happens all over the world.”(Sepp)

“Eh. Void magic is used all over the world? That’s interesting.”(Me)

I forgot, what I have been doing could be seen as blowing away common sense.

“Void magic?”(Sepp)

“Never mind. Continue.”(Me)

“Where was I? Ah. Yes. Shortly after you left…”(Sepp)

“The thing is after you were gone, it kept on increasing and now it’s almost on a weekly scale.”(Lucy)

Lucy interrupted him to shorten things up. It seemed they worked a lot with each other in the time I was gone and they got to know each other quite well.

“It was a good idea to get me out at such a time.”(Me)

“I mean it is. Takeshi wanted to keep you in there for another year or so until that guy really made his appearance.”(Lucy)

Yep she went back to the little sister that would leisurely say anything that she liked.

“Hooo. Takeshi said so? It seems like I have to kick his ass later.”(Me)

“Please don’t forget that we still have a battle in front of us, so if possible leave him alive.”(Sepp)

Sepp seemed to have become really considerate. How much time did pass for so many changes to occur?

“Can I ask you an important question?”(Me)

“Sure go ahead.”(Lucy)

Now was the moment of truth.

“How much time did pass since I came here?”(Me)

“Hm. Five and a half years if I’m not wrong.”(Lucy)

Five and a half years?

…

Only my forced smile crumbled a bit. I didn’t show any other special facial expressions, because that was what I have become. Emotions were something of the distant past. I only received a small mental shock that’s all.

“I thought he would make his appearance after three years or so. It seems my information and my prediction was way off.”(Me)

On the other hand, though my reaction left the other two speechless. They thought I’d go insane or something like that, but to even admit that I was in the wrong was something no normal person would have done.

“Sigh. I can’t do anything about it anyways. And it isn’t like my time here was wasted, nor would I say that it was hard on me.”(Me)

When I said that I felt like an old man.

“Big brother?”(Lucy)

“Yes?”(Me)

“Can I ask you an important question in return?”(Lucy)

“Sure go ahead.”(Me)

“How long did you think you were in here?”(Lucy)

“Hmm. Given the fact that my time acceleration magic reached a…”(Me)

I looked at their faces and their dumbfounded expression and stopped what I was about to say.

Damn you idiot stick to common sense. At least a little bit.

“I thought it were about 4 years and a few months.”(Me)

I somehow managed to end it with an awkward smile. It’s better that I didn’t tell them that my time acceleration magic reached a multiplication of ten times the normal time and that I mentally caged myself for about 50 years.

I mean I didn’t want to blow their minds away. I still had a need for them.