“Food’s done.”

Placing the plates filled with freshly cooked food on the room’s provided table, I call Shiromi and Kuroga who are in their own rooms doing who knows what.

“Coming!”

“I shall begin preparing the necessary utensils for dinner.”

While Shiromi sits in her chair, Kuroga grabs the spoons, forks and bowls from a nearby cupboard.

“This is a lot Kinji-nii!!! How did you finish all this in 30 minutes?”

“Well……….I’ll tell you someday.”

I wave off the question with those words.

Truthfully, all I did was use my skill to accelerate my movements and the foods’ cooking times.

There’s nothing wrong with using it like that. Just like what Shiromi said, uniques are necessary for a person’s daily living, probably.

Dinner for tonight is a stuffed chicken-like creature, salad filled with different fruits and vegetables Kuroga bought and juice made from this world’s version of apples.

“Ah……..so delicious!!!”

“Yes. Thank you for the meal.”

Finishing off their meals, they both say their thoughts on it.

“Thanks. Kuroga, can you go wash all of this?”

“As you wish.”

Without waiting even a second, he begins rinsing off all the things we used today.

“Kinji-nii, what should I do?”

Her eyes sparkling at me. I rack through my brain as to what task I should give her.

“Um…..for now, why don’t you rest? We’re leaving early tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay~~~!”

She happily returns to her own room.

“You too Kuroga. After cleaning all of those, you go sleep as well.”

“Understood. At what bell should I wake mistress?”

“Around the 2nd bell. I’ll tell you what the both of you will be doing then.”

He bows at my orders while I head to my own room.

The inside of the room was similar to mine from Earth. Disregarding the lack of modern technology, there was a bookshelf filled with various books, a desk and chair at the side, a small table in the center, a large closet and a regular sized bed.

Exchanging my clothes for more appropriate sleepwear, I plop my body on the bed.

Comparing this to the bed back in the inn, the softness was just right. The wooden frame could not be felt at any position. The pillows gave just the right angle for there to be no discomfort felt by the neck.

I probably won’t be experiencing something as grandiose as this for a while so I decide to cherish this moment.

Surrendering myself, my consciousness goes dark.

===

The next morning, I was already up just after the 1st bell.

Since I had nothing in particular I wanted to do, I wasted my time by practicing the conversion of my magic power into the different elements.

In this world, the most basic spells consisted of 8 types, or elements. Earth, water, fire, air, lightning, ice, light and dark.

Although these 8 elements comprised most spells, there are other spells that either contained a mix of these elements or none at all.

For now, I was focusing on manipulating these elements without using any kind of spell.

In theory, this was possible. However, the very few who have accomplished this have already passed onto the eternal light so there was no way of passing on their knowledge.

Also, this method consumed more magic power than spells so it was mostly discouraged by many mages.

But this proved no trouble for me who possesses peerless magic power.

With my eyes closed, I tried the most common way from the various light novels on Earth.

“I need to imagine the molecules coming together, I think.”

First was earth. Imagining the molecules in the air clumping together, I feel magic power coming out of me, manipulating the air around me. Next, I imagine the form of the earth I wanted. A simple rock, the size of a fist. One you could find anywhere.

It takes a while but I could now sense a lump of rock floating right in front of me.

Second was water. Following how I created earth, I imagined the form and image of water. Not too much though as it could soak up the room I was in.

Soon, there were 8 small orbs floating around me. The most difficult ones were fire, lightning and dark. As I had no idea what their molecular forms actually looked like, I could only imagine their images and how they behaved. This took longer than expected but here they were, in the shape of orbs, floating around me in a perfect circle.

Ding! Dong! Ding! Dong!

Oh, the 2nd bell. It’s time to prepare breakfast then.

Dispersing the orbs with my magic power, I leave my room and head for the mini kitchen.

Finishing the implementation of my skill, I begin cooking.

Around 10 minutes have passed when Kuroga and Shiromi enter my vision.

“Kinji-nii, morning!”

“Good morning master. I apologize for being late. It took time to wake mistress from her slumber.”

“Geez! I told you not to say anything Kuro!!!”

I smile at their words.

Removing my skill’s effects,

“Perfect timing. Kuroga, bring these to the table. Shiromi, take a seat.”

“Okay~!”

“As you command.”

The breakfast I prepared was set on the table.

Consisting of white bread with sweet jam spread on it, scrambled eggs and a beef from a cow-like creature.

When I had first arrived in Gramsfer, one of the first places we visited was the marketplace. There, I was surprised that this world had several animals that were almost exactly the same as the ones back on Earth.

This helped ease my mind on how I would know which animals were safe to eat or not. Even in this world, only the edible animals were sold in the marketplace so no problems arose whatsoever.

“Hey, Shiromi. Don’t eat so fast. The food’s not going anywhere.”

“Yesh……..”

“Kuroga. That’s too little. Learn how to eat normally now.”

“My apologies. I will do so.”

I sigh. Having to teach these two how to blend in with humans from now on, I think I know a bit on how parents feel. Or is it older siblings?

No, I was already an older sibling back then but……..

“Ugh!!!”

The headaches started again. I hold my head with a pained expression.

“Kinji-nii?!”

“Master?!”

Immediately, they raise from their seats and approach me with worried expressions.

“No, it’s okay. This is something normal, probably.”

Raising my hand to show them I’m okay, they reluctantly go back to their seats.

“By the way, what are your plans for today?”

Asking them to dissipate the tensed atmosphere,

“Well~~~, I wanted to look around town. It’s been so long since I’ve been in a place like this~!”

“Mhm! That’s good. How about you, Kuroga?”

“My apologies. I have no such arrangements planned for this day.”

“I see……”

Honestly, letting Shiromi outside alone worries me. Even though she’s strong, she still lacks the common sense of humans. Who knows what thugs might do to a cute girl like her? Maybe I should let Kuroga escort her, I think I have dresses appropriate for nobles in my Extra Dimension.

“Okay. Got it. Kuroga, go with Shiromi around town. Go along with the butler story if anyone persistently asks.”

“As you wish.”

“And Shiromi. I’ll hand you some clothes later. Wear those on your own, got it? Kuroga has some coins with him, so if you want anything, ask him.”

“Okay~~~!!!”

She seems happy with the prospect of being able to buy anything she wants.

Well, I guess girls will be girls, huh?

“Then, master, what will you be doing?”

“Hmn?”

Oh right, I haven’t told them yet.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll just be in the nearby library. So if you need me, just head there.”

Yes, after realizing that I might have skipped over important things during my stay in the royal palace, I decided to gather as much as possible no matter how arbitrary they are.

“Very well. Then I shall be escorting mistress while master spends his time in the library?”

“That’s right. So after you finish cleaning the plates and Shiromi dresses up, let’s all head out, okay?”

Saying that, I grab an expensive-looking dress and straw hat and hand them to Shiromi who’s looking curiously at the floating void that I created.

“Now, now Shiromi. Hurry up and get dressed. Don’t underestimate Kuroga’s cleaning skills.”

“Got it!”

She dashes off into her room with the dress fluttering from the speed.

“I guess I should put on other clothes as well.”

Looking at my shirt and pants that were full of creases, I head for my room.

===

“Excuse me, is anyone here?”

As I opened the door, a bell rings indicating my arrival.

“Oh my, such a young boy! What brings you here?”

Greeting me was a woman in her mid-40s. She had blonde hair and a youthful look.

“Ah yes, I would just like to browse through all the available books here. Is that okay?”

“I don’t mind. Not too many people come here anyway. But don’t stay too long, alright? We close by the 5th bell.”

“Thank you very much.”

Bowing my head to show my gratitude, she returns to the desk by the corner.

Seeing the amount of books in this town’s library, I contemplated on whether I should sneak some out with my skill. But I decided against it because if I were to take the woman’s words correct, then if she was to find a missing book, I would be considered as one of the prime suspects.

As I was trying to stay incognito for the time being, becoming involved in a crime destroys my very goal.

Besides,

“I think my brain will be enough for this.”

Referring to my brain which I had made the target of my skill several times, I had already forgotten which parts of it were affected or not.

“At least I’m able to live normally. That’s enough for me.”

If only I could find a way to counteract those headaches. But no matter how much I raise my brain’s endurance, it’s still unable to prevent them.

Oh well, let’s get to reading then.

Thinking that the books on magic spells here would be no different from those in the palace’s library, I head for a section that deals with miasmic creatures and adventurers’ tales.

Walking along a bookshelf, I skim through the various titles written on the books’ binders.

An old journal-like book catches my eye. Carefully taking it out, I read the title crudely written on the cover.

“Discrepancies”

On what?

No other words were written. The amount of pages were also few. Could this really be a journal?

Looking closer, there are what appears to be blood stains on its edges.

Giving in to my curiosity, I open the book.

‘3rd day, Month of Midert’

Midert? Which reminds me, I never learned how a year works in this world.

‘It has been 4 years since a new Demon Lord had risen and united the east. More and more Succubi have been asking for refuge, even accepting unreasonable requests in exchange. I feel sorry for them.’

Unreasonable requests huh.

Leaving my fantasies for later, I continue.

‘The desperation of the most recent refugees troubled the guildmaster. After calling for my party, he told us that we would be heading to the east to find out what exactly is going on.’

Could this be an undiscovered gem? Every single book I’ve read has never mentioned the new Demon Lord or the situation of the east after his reign. Who knew I would find a book like this here!!!

I skip several pages. Only looking at the first few sentences, I stop on the page that had what I was looking for. It was troubling that it was located near the end of the book, the rest seemed to be about this adventurer’s party’s journey to the Demons’ territory and the many miasmic creatures they encountered.

‘27th day, Month of Husun

We had finally arrived in the capital of the former Giant country of Higentus.

Doing our best not to gather too much attention, we rented an inn and looked around town.

With the help of a friend, we were able to get into the capital’s palace.

Looking at the amount of security, it looks like the rumor of the Demon Lord currently staying here was correct.

We sneak deeper into the palace. On the way, we pass by the barracks. There, we see something worrying.

It wasn’t the soldiers armed to the brim with equipment nor the amount of food they were eating.

It was the number at which they have gathered.

Thousands. No, maybe even hundreds of thousands of them.

Normally, this wouldn’t be strange as it could have been the entire army of the new Demon Lord as he was currently ruling over all 3 races.

But the number was exactly the problem.

In the previous hundred years or so, the entire army of the east never reached 300, 000. No, the entire population never even reached half a million.

This was because in exchange of their longevity and rare uniques, they had low birthrates. The success of one bearing a child was extremely low.

This kept the east and west in balance. Though the west lacked the rare uniques the east had, the east lacked the numbers the west had.

For a single army guard to have a hundred thousand or so soldiers……

Now that we thought about it, even the population of the capital was bewildering. They could have easily filled half of the city with their numbers.

Now knowing full well of the danger this brought, we decided to head back and come up with new ways to counteract this.’

That’s where the entry ends. Several pages were torn out, by something or someone. The only remaining entry left was the last one.

‘20th day, Month of Infervil

The rain hindered our journey back but the capital of Helgas is already within reach.

After passing through Gramsfer, everything will be alright.

The United Country of Kashif is more or less already lost. I barely escaped the advancing Demon army.

I couldn’t trust the guards in Naciodas’ palace. They had an evil glint in their eyes.

The others are dead. They did everything they could to get me here.

I’m not out of the woods yet. I feel like someone’s following me.

As I’m writing these words in an old stable, I hope someone takes this to the king and warn him.

The upcoming war won’t be easy. The east has something more dangerous than their numbers.

Their Demon Lord is not even a Demon. Neither a Giant nor an Ogre.

Please bring this to the king. The one ruling over them is a h’

The entry abruptly ends there. Below it is a large bloodstain covering the blank pages below it.

If we take all this into account, the owner has long since been dead. Then the next question is,

“Tell me, why didn’t you bring this to the king back then……”

Turning around, I face the most suspicious person that was involved with the journal I held.

The person was holding a metal dagger that curved towards the end and was glaring at me coldly.

“Ms. Librarian?”

I take out the black sword and point it threateningly at her.

“Oh my, to point such a weapon at a weak lady like me.”

Her words had none of the warm reception they had earlier. The hand grasping the dagger was now showing signs that it was eager to be used.

“Then, if I defeat you, will you tell me?”

“Ha! There’s no need. I’m sure you must have figured it out already.”

“Well, more or less. But I’m pretty sure you stand no chance of winning here, right? Miss General of the Demon Army.”

“Hmph!”

Her form starts changing. The previously pearl white skin was now a bluish purple. Her hair had changed from blonde to red and her eyes were now glinting with a murderous intent.

“Well, I’m not really a general but m ability’s pretty up there. So, how did you know what my fighting strength is?”

“It was easy actually.”

“Ho~, then how?”

“It’s because the magic power you’re hiding can’t even compare to those Ogre assassins from when I was sent here.”

Her eyes twitch when I mention the Ogres that I had encountered upon arriving here.

“Oh, my apologies. Those were most likely your subordinates. Don’t worry, they’re still alive, maybe. Then, let me rephrase my previous sentence. It’s Miss Head Spy of the Demon Army, right?”

Her calm demeanor was no more. All that remained was an assassin that would kill her target no matter the cost.

“Then come at me!”

I challenge her after raising my sword.

Then,

“You’ll pay for this you bastard!!!”

She charged at me with all her might.