The Imperial Mage

I had crossed the border and come to the Empire.

I was here to search for someone who, like me, seemed to have been transported to this world.

I had been casting a wide net at the guild and the market without any real leads, but fortunately, I had managed to contact a beastfolk woman who seemed to know the person I was looking for.

Apparently, the person known as the Empire's "Dragon Slayer" was named Akira.

Just hearing the name made it obvious they were Japanese. I had forgotten to ask whether they were a man or a woman, though.

An Imperial mage who, like me, seemed to have been transported here from Japan. And apparently, they were a Unique magic user who could produce mayonnaise in huge quantities.

Mayonnaise? Could that really be true?

Well, I would know once I met them...

――In the morning, I woke up at the small inn. Since I had paid for a room without meals, I greeted the landlady and headed straight for the guild.

I brought out a stool in front of the guild entrance and ate breakfast while sitting on it.

Bread and milk I had bought from Shangri-La—and a calorie bar.

As I was eating a banana for dessert, the beastfolk woman I had met yesterday arrived.

"Good morning! Did you show him the letter?"

"Good morning, nya. I showed it to Akira. He was really surprised, nya. Akira said he wanted to meet you too, nya."

"Then let me meet him!"

According to her, he lived on the outskirts of the city—a detached house beside the southern wall, since the border wall ran north and south.

"So it's quite a distance away..."

"It is, nya."

As I wondered whether to bring out my motorcycle, she offered to carry me on her back.

Myaree had carried me before, and I figured a beastfolk could handle that much without trouble.

"Is that all right?"

"It's fine, nya. Akira wanted to meet you as soon as possible too, nya."

So I accepted her offer.

She carried me on her back and began running south at tremendous speed.

"Whoa! Couldn't you go a little slower?"

"This speed is fine, nya."

Well, maybe it was fine for her, but even a motorcycle didn't travel this fast through the city.

What's more, she was weaving through the crowds at a considerable speed. A motorcycle could never imitate this.

"I wanted to ask you something—Is Akira a man or a woman?"

"He's a man, nya."

So he was a man.

After about five minutes of running, the houses gradually became sparser, and more wasteland covered in wildly overgrown grass appeared.

The narrow road curved gently to the right, and a house came into view. It was a small wooden house built beside the border wall.

Just as the princess had told me before, the border wall seemed to continue from here into the distant forest.

"Akira! I brought a guest, nya!"

A man came out of the house in response to the beastfolk woman's voice. He wore black clothes from top to bottom, and his short black hair had a distinct widow's peak.

He was unmistakably a middle-aged Japanese man. He was probably around my age.

Were the black clothes the Empire's military uniform? Imperial officials wore similar clothes.

"Whoa! Are you really Japanese?!"

The man shouted when he saw me climb down from the beastfolk woman's back.

"Yeah, I'm Japanese."

"I never thought I'd meet another Japanese person in a world like this!"

"Same here. I'd heard rumors for a while, but on my way to Sobana, I heard that the Dragon Slayer was in this city."

"Haha, the Dragon Slayer, huh? That's true enough, but... Well, standing around talking is silly. Come inside! I don't have anything to offer, though."

I sensed no hostility from him. He genuinely seemed happy to have met another Japanese person.

Not that I was suspicious of him or anything.

The house had plank floors and plank walls. There were no ceiling boards, so I could see the attic beneath the roof.

Apart from two beds, a small chest, and some personal belongings on the floor, there was nothing inside. The kitchen had little more than a pot and some dishes.

It really felt like a temporary home. There was also another person in the house—a woman with blond hair tied in a ponytail.

She wore a black frilled blouse and an indigo long skirt, with a sword with a golden sheen hanging at her side.

Her body looked thoroughly trained, so she was probably a warrior or knight. She glared at me with sharp eyes.

Perhaps she thought I was some sort of assassin.

Following the man's directions, I sat at the square table in the middle of the room.

"Let me introduce myself properly. I'm Kenichi. I do have a surname, but just Kenichi is fine here, right?"

"Akira is fine for me too."

But then I realized that I had come to someone's home empty-handed.

"Come to think of it, I showed up without even a gift. I'm sorry. Is there anything from our original world you'd like?"

As a drink, I bought a 24-pack of cola from Shangri-La—it cost 2,000 yen.

A cardboard box landed on the table with a heavy thud.

"C-cola?"

"Yeah. It isn't cold, though."

"Don't you have beer?"

"I do, although I'm not much of a drinker."

A six-pack of E○isu beer dropped out—it cost 1,200 yen.

Akira stared at it in disbelief. Naturally, he would.

"Whoa! That's E○isu, isn't it?! What the hell? How did you..."

"It's my magic. I can produce things from our original world, within limits. And I have an Item Box to put them in."

I decided to keep Shangri-La a secret.

"What the hell is that?! It's an incredibly convenient cheat!"

"Well—I'd be lying if I said it wasn't pretty convenient."

"All I have is mayonnaise! Mayonnaise! What kind of cheat is mayonnaise?! It makes no sense at all!"

I wanted to ask about that too. What exactly did his mayonnaise cheat do?

"Is it really true that you can produce mayonnaise?"

"Yeah. Do you have a container?"

I took a cup out of my Item Box.

Akira then produced something yellow from his index finger and filled the cup.

I peered into the cup.

"The color certainly looks right."

Then I dipped my finger into it and licked it.

"It's mayonnaise..."

"I can do this too—separation!"

As Akira spoke, the mayonnaise changed into a brown liquid, and something settled at the bottom.

"Is this... oil?"

"That's right. I've made a lot of money with this. Oil is expensive in this world."

Mayonnaise was made from vinegar, eggs, and oil. He had probably separated them and turned the mayonnaise back into oil.

Sediment had collected beneath the oil, presumably the egg and vinegar components.

But mayonnaise was almost entirely oil, wasn't it? Eating something like this constantly would inevitably make you fat.

"How much can you produce?"

"Quite a lot. I could probably fill a huge swimming pool to the brim."

"Isn't that a pretty incredible cheat too? You're a walking oil field!"

"Exactly. Once the Emperor found out about this ability, she made me produce huge amounts of oil to raise funds."

"Did they take the dragons you'd defeated too?"

Akira's expression changed when he heard that.

"Exactly! That damn bastard! That cold-blooded woman worked me to the bone!"

From what he said, Akira apparently resented the Emperor.

He went on at length about how awful the Emperor was, but I was more interested in his magic.

"Do you need to pay anything to produce mayonnaise?"

"Nothing in particular. What about you, Kenichi?"

"Gold coins and valuables serve as the price for my magic."

"That sounds pretty difficult..."

"It was a little difficult at first."

Akira had apparently opened a flour-based-food shop using the mayonnaise he produced.

"You mean things like okonomiyaki?"

"Exactly! Okonomiyaki was popular with foreigners even in our original world, right? So I figured it was bound to be a hit."

"Did it sell?"

"It sold like crazy."

It sold so well that he could no longer run the shop alone. He had hired two apprentices and lived with them.

"Those were the most enjoyable days of my life."

――Akira narrowed his eyes as though remembering them.

Apparently, he had considered making takoyaki too, but had given up because he could not obtain anything resembling an octopus.

If you were looking for something that resembled an octopus, would that be a slime? Slime-yaki?

It sounded a little delicious to me. Was there something wrong with me?

"How long has it been since you came to this world?"

"Let's see—it's been about two years, I suppose..."

"I've been here for about seven or eight months."

This world had twenty-eight days in a month and thirteen months in a year.

"Oh, right, Kenichi! Do you have any aluminum?"

"Aluminum? You know aluminum can be used as a magical catalyst in this world...?"

"Of course I know. I used the one-yen coin that was in my pocket when I was transported here."

"What happened to that one-yen coin?"

"It must have been consumed. It gradually wore away, crumbled, and fell apart."

"Speaking of aluminum, aren't beer cans made of aluminum?"

Akira held up the beer can he had just taken out and examined the writing on it.

"It really is aluminum! I'll crush this after I finish drinking and use it!"

"I guess I can't casually give you beer cans anymore..."

I reflected a little on my careless act of handing aluminum to someone whose allegiance I did not know.

But so far, I had found nothing wrong with him.

"Don't worry! I'll keep it under proper control. If it fell into the hands of our enemies, we'd be in trouble."

As I talked with him, I looked around the room.

"Is this your entire party?"

"No, there's also Sensei, but... she's a mage."

"Your teacher?"

"She's my master. I bought Myaa's freedom from a brothel. And that one's the female knight who lost to my ch○○."

"I-I have not lost to your ch○○!"

The knight's face turned bright red as she raged and advanced on Akira.

"What are you talking about? You lost repeatedly just last night."

"Ghh! Kill me! Kill me right now!"

So this was the "Kill me!" female knight! She had not appeared in front of me, but had been hiding in a place like this.

"Calm down, Miss Female Knight Who Lost to My Ch○○."

"Stop saying it like that!"

The female knight shook her blond hair loose and grabbed at Akira, but he seized her instead and suddenly threw her down.

She began twitching and convulsing on the floor. Could this ability be...?

He was also wearing several rings on his fingers.

"She says things like that, but she's a pervert who enjoys being bullied."

Ah, I see. So that's how it was—No, that wasn't the issue here.

"Isn't that an overdose of Heal?"

"Exactly. Good catch."

I hesitated for a moment over whether to say anything.

"Actually—I received something like a blessing from royalty, and I can do something similar too."

I showed him the ring on my finger that suppressed my magic power.

"Whoa! Seriously? I received a blessing from the Emperor too."

Putting the two of our stories together, it seemed that powerful people in this world sometimes possessed abilities like these.

Apparently, the abilities of the Imperial royal family were not generally known either.

"It raises your power limit quite a bit too, you know?"

Akira seemed to have a great deal of practical experience.

"Seriously?"

"It lets you tap into the kind of strength you get in a life-or-death situation. It makes you incredibly hungry, though."

"I'll have to try that sometime..."

But Akira suddenly stood up.

"But you know! Once I received this blessing and stopped being so easy to kill, that cold-blooded woman started gleefully sending me into deadly situations..."

"What do you mean by cold-blooded?"

At my question, Akira dropped back into his chair.

"It felt like she didn't possess a shred of kindness. I thought, 'So that's what happens when someone grows up without receiving love from their parents.'"

Apparently, the current Emperor had killed even her own parents without hesitation.

"I heard you defeated a tremendous number of monsters... How did you do it?"

"That was easy. I covered the entire area in oil and set it on fire."

In other words, he had used oil produced from mayonnaise. Since he could produce virtually unlimited mayonnaise, it was a brutally effective method.

"Did you defeat the dragon that way too?"

"No. I set the Red Dragon on fire too, but it was resistant to flames. It didn't work."

"Then how did you defeat it?"

"I climbed onto a building and..."

Apparently, after restraining the dragon with magic, he had the beastfolk woman there throw him straight into the dragon's mouth.

"You jumped into the dragon's mouth yourself?!"

"No matter how powerful a monster is, if its trachea and lungs are filled with mayonnaise..."

"It suffocated?"

"Yeah—but it wouldn't work on undead. Hahaha."

He was right—even the most monstrous creature would die if it could no longer breathe, as long as it was alive.

"That's completely insane. I hate to say it, but you're out of your mind..."

"The Emperor said the same thing, but if I hadn't done it, I'd have been roasted alive by its breath. What else could I do?"

That was true. If protecting my family left me with no option but to sacrifice myself, I might choose that path too.

"But after risking your life like that, having your achievement stolen from you... I can't blame you for being angry."

"Right?! That's why I got sick of it and ran away."

Now I understood why Akira was here. I might be able to bring him over to our side.

"Come on, calm down and have some cola."

I took out a cola for myself from my Item Box. Anemone had chilled it with her magic.

When Akira saw it, he did something, and the cola and beer on the table disappeared.

"An Item Box?"

"I became able to use it after defeating a dragon."

I had seen something similar with Marrow-san, but was this what an Item Box looked like from the outside?

"You couldn't use it from the beginning?"

"No—Oh! It's cold! I'd rather drink the beer than the cola, but if I start drinking this early in the morning, Sensei will chew me out..."

"Is this teacher of yours really that frightening?"

"Yeah... Gulp, gulp! Phew! That's good!"

Akira drained the cola and beamed with satisfaction.

Judging from Akira's expression, this Sensei person was apparently frightening. But there were many kinds of frightening.

If she was anything like the queen in the castle, I would rather avoid her.

We continued talking while drinking chilled cola.

"There was also a female thief, but she got married and left the party while in this city. She was a freeloader, but after I taught her how locks and traps worked, it turned out she had a real talent for them."

"I picked up a child too, and that child had incredible talent for magic. They're an archmage now."

"This world doesn't have any proper educational institutions. I heard Sensei rose up from being an orphan too."

"Huh? I feel like I've heard that story somewhere before..."

"Hmm? Is Sensei famous in the Kingdom too?"

At the guild, someone had said they had seen an archmage named Reiran of the Night Crow...

"Could your teacher be Reiran-san of the Night Crow?"

"Whoa! So Sensei is famous in the Kingdom too!"

I knew it.

"So was your party a five-person party?"

"No, there was one more elf, but they couldn't get very far from their homeland's forest, so we parted ways in the Imperial capital."

"An elf, huh? I've met dwarves, but I haven't met any elves yet. Are they all handsome and beautiful?"

"Yeah—they're all old, but every one of them is undeniably stunning, male or female."

He showed me a ring. Apparently, it was an automatic translator that allowed him to understand the elves' language.

"Magic tools are amazing. Some things they can do can't even be achieved with the science of our original world, like direction finders."

"I have one of those too. The kind with a parent and child, where the child points toward the parent, right?"

Apparently, the Empire had a similar magic tool.

After that, we exchanged information, but neither of us knew anything about what had brought us to this world or how to return.

But he apparently had no intention of going back either.

"I mean, if I went back, I'd just be working for a black company..."

"What kind of work did you do?"

"Real estate."

"Buying and selling land?"

"That too, but... Do you know what auctions are?"

An auction was when the property of someone who had gone bankrupt was seized through a financial institution and put up for auction by a court.

It could involve land and houses, or an apartment building whose tenants had fled in the night, leaving the entire property to be auctioned off.

"So you bought and sold auctioned real estate?"

"Not quite. I bought cheap, run-down houses at auction, renovated them, and sold them for a profit."

"I see. So that kind of job exists too."

"Heh heh, it made pretty good money."

――Still, he said real estate could involve 8○3 gangs, so it could be quite dangerous.

"Even if you call it dangerous or a black company, it wasn't a life-or-death job... Oh, there was one time it got dangerous."

"Something like that happened?"

"Yeah. There was a squatter in a house I had bought at auction."

A squatter was one of the 8○3 guys who illegally occupied real estate and demanded, "Pay up if you want us to leave!"

"Did you get into a dispute with the 8○3?"

"They kidnapped me in a Hi○ce and were about to bury me alive in the mountains. Hahaha!"

The Hi○ce was once again making a spectacular appearance. Though it did not really sound like something to laugh about...

"How did you get out of that?"

"In cases like that, you can usually settle things with money. They weren't doing it out of personal hatred. But if they do hate you, they'll kill you without a word, so you have to be prepared."

That really was a brutally exploitative company. Still, he claimed it was better than the Imperial mage, who was calmly sent into deadly situations.

"What kind of work did you do, Kenichi?"

"I lived in the countryside and used the internet to draw pictures. I was an illustrator."

"Huh—So you can draw? Where in the countryside?"

"Hokkaido."

"Oh! I rode my motorcycle to Hokkaido! I even lived and worked at a ranch for a while."

According to him, the place where he had lived was apparently a thoroughbred breeding farm.

"They'd wake me up at three or four in the morning. Those were the days... The horses in this world are all built like tanks, but they're cute, aren't they?"

"So you can ride horses too?"

"Yeah, I can ride."

Akira spoke enthusiastically about horses. I did not think anyone who loved animals could be a bad person.

"Besides the horses, the beastfolk were what surprised me most in this world."

Akira reacted to what I said.

"Yeah, I first saw them in a brothel. There weren't many beastfolk in Midal, the city where I was based in the Empire."

"There were quite a few beastfolk in the first city I visited..."

"I heard you're keeping two of them. Not bad. Beastfolk fluff really is addictive."

Akira crossed his arms and nodded thoughtfully.

"One of them was an acquaintance of mine, but the other is my wife's bodyguard."

Akira was startled by that.

"You're married?!"

"We haven't had a ceremony, and there are no official records, but I greeted her parents... So I suppose that makes us married."

"So you're prepared to settle down in this world for good?"

"What about you, Akira? That teacher of yours is your principal wife, right?"

"Well, um—how should I put it... Yes, I suppose she is..."

At that moment, the beastfolk woman's ears, which had been listening from behind us, stood straight up.

"Akira, Reiran is back, nya."

"Oh, is she?!"

About five minutes later, the front door opened.

"I'm back."

The person who entered had glossy black hair tied back behind her head and wore a raven-black long dress, with shapely legs emerging from a slit at the side.

And bursting out of the dress, on the verge of spilling over, was an enormous chest... She looked to be in her late twenties.

When I saw her, I shouted without thinking.

"Fire!!"

"Just meat!!"

Akira and I said it in perfect unison.

"Hahaha, Kenichi, you watched it too?"

"Well, everyone our age watched it, didn't they?"

It was a catchphrase from a TV show, but Reiran-san blinked at us in confusion when she heard it.

"A-are you a guest?"

"Good afternoon—No, I suppose I should say good morning. My name is Kenichi, and I'm from the same homeland as Akira. I hope we can get along."

"Oh, yes..."

"It's all right, Sensei. He's not suspicious or anything."

"But with so many women here, perhaps I should have brought a different gift..."

I searched Shangri-La and bought a strawberry tart for 3,000 yen.

When I pressed the purchase button, a tart in a white box dropped out.

"This is a sweet. Please share it among yourselves."

"Nya! A sweet?! Is it sweet, nya?!"

"Yes, it's sweet. It has fruit in it."

"Akira! Let's eat it, nya!"

When we opened the lid, we found a tart with a round white pastry base topped with bright-red strawberry compote.

"Myaa!"

"Waaah!"

Reiran-san and Myaa's eyes sparkled. It was obvious at a glance that it looked delicious.

Urged on by Myaa, Akira began cutting the tart with a knife.

"Akira, do we have plates and spoons?"

"There are deep plates in the kitchen, but..."

"I'll get them!"

Reiran-san went to fetch them. She seemed just as interested in the tart and eager to try it.

Plates were arranged on the table, but Akira stopped everyone.

"Wait! I'll taste it first."

"Is that because your blessing made you resistant to poison?"

"That's right. So whenever we eat suspicious food, I taste it first."

With that, Akira scooped out a large portion of the tart with a spoon and put it in his mouth.

"How is it, nya?"

"How is it, Akira?!"

"Ugh! This is... poison, so none of you should eat it! I'll take responsibility and dispose of it all myself!"

Akira grabbed the entire box containing the tart and ran.

"That expression means absolutely the opposite, nya!"

"Akira, wait!"

"Sensei! If you eat this, you'll definitely gain weight! What will you do if your boobs get any bigger?"

"If I keep using magic, I can't possibly gain weight!"

"You don't need to do that. If you want more, there's another tart, so don't worry."

"Seriously?"

At my words, Akira set down the tart and began handing it around to everyone.

"Akira really is awful, nya."

"He really is."

"Hahaha, you flatter me."

"That wasn't a compliment!"

However, the women who ate the tart all wore blissful expressions.

"It's so sweet and delicious, nya! So sweet and delicious, nya!"

It was the same reaction Nyamena and Myaree had. Beastfolk had such a painfully limited vocabulary.

"Ohhh... It's like my mouth has become heaven, and I'm filled with bliss..."

"I haven't eaten anything like this in two years. The sweets here are basically nothing but cookies."

Akira seemed to like the tart too. He looked like a drinker, so perhaps he liked sweets as well.

"Those are pretty good in their own way."

"They are, but still!"

"Should I bring out some drinks too...?"

Akira poured unsweetened bottled tea into the cup he had prepared.

"Hey, Miss Female Knight Who Lost to My Ch○○! Here's some delicious dessert!"

Akira kicked the female knight, who was sprawled on the floor.

"I don't need your pity—!"

Akira shoved a piece of tart into the female knight's protesting mouth.

"Ah! Munch, munch! W-what incredible flavor! It's something that cannot exist in this world! Is this the devil's pastry?!"

"If you have complaints, don't eat it. I'll eat it for you."

"No way!"

Still sitting cross-legged on the floor, the female knight began devouring the tart.

"You can make things like this too? How many kinds of things can you produce with magic?"

"I don't know yet. And I need money to make them too."

"What about guns?"

"Impossible. I can make bows and crossbows as weapons, and I made the explosives myself."

"Seriously?!"

But while we were all eating tart and basking in its bliss, Myaa raised her ears.

"Akira! Someone's coming, nya!"

"One person?"

"One person, nya. But they aren't trained, nya... Probably a woman, nya."

"Could it be Karoline?"

"Not at all, nya."

Karoline was apparently the woman who had gotten married and left the party.

"An enemy? Are we in danger?"

"Haha, probably not."

Akira seemed like a seasoned veteran. He showed no sign of being flustered and simply continued eating his tart.

"Akira, they're here, nya."

Akira went to the entrance and opened the door.

"Akira-sama~!"

A shrill woman's voice rang out when Akira stepped outside.

The beautiful woman who came running up and threw her arms around Akira had fluffy blond hair and appeared to be in her mid-thirties.

She wore a white blouse and a navy long skirt, with something like a blue stole embroidered in gold draped over her shoulders.

"A-Annerose?! What are you doing here?"

"I followed you all the way here because I wanted to see you, Akira-sama."

Myaa came over to me.

"That's the wife of Kuroishi-ya, the merchant Akira stole away from her husband, nya."

"He stole her away?!"

"Wait! Her husband was interfering with my business. He was a notorious corrupt merchant, you know?"

"That is exactly right!"

The woman did not seem to disagree.

"But Akira also slept with her daughter, nya."

"What?! Really? The legendary parent-and-child rice bowl...?"

But Akira desperately began defending himself.

"No, wait, wait! I didn't sleep with her daughter! I only made it look that way to get back at Kuroishi-ya!"

"Is that true, nya?"

"Hey, now that you mention it—what happened to Angelina?"

Angelina was apparently the daughter's name.

"My daughter took over Kuroishi-ya."

"Well, she's a sensible girl, so she'll be fine."

"My husband shut himself away with his secretary, leaving me with nowhere to go. So I came to beg for Akira-sama's mercy..."

"I do feel sorry for you, but..."

Reiran-san, who had been silently eating tart until then, stood up.

"Akira—You said you had broken things off with that woman, didn't you...?"

"Wait, Sensei! Calm down! I broke it off! I really did!"

"Reiran-sama! If you're going to do it, kill me together with Akira-sama!"

"Annerose! Don't say things like that to Sensei! Seriously, this isn't funny!"

A chaotic confrontation continued for some time afterward.

I drank tea and ate tart while waiting for things to settle down.