Maseki Gurume - 028a (Patreon)

Sorry, I've felt a bit... not well, and since I think it's because of the computer, I've been trying to spend less time in front of it for the time being.

Here's the next part!

Her Mischief.

"A magic stone-eating mother-con Dark Knight, that's Ain for you nya! "

It was a sudden comment, and Ain was frustrated he couldn’t say anything to his defense, so he remained quiet about that.

"Where did that come from so suddenly, Katima-san?"

The place was Katima's laboratory. In there, the two of them were busy doing their usual research.

The main attraction for today was the mysterious magic stone Ain had purchased for 300,000G.

"When I heard about a magic stone that curses people, I nyaoticed you two might be like birds of a feather, both quite unique(weird) nya."

"Are you trying to pick a fight?"

Katima had been reading books about what kind of material this magic stone was likely to be when Ain hadn’t been around, and although she searched among many old tomes, she hadn’t found anything about such magic stone.

This caused her some stress.

"If I think about it, you don’t have any friends your age, nya. You're just a magic stone-eating mother-con Dark Knight weirdo……Ouch, nya! It hurts, nyaaaaaaa!! "

Not enduring it anymore, Ain pulled Katima's ears from side to side.

He didn’t feel he was doing something bad since he was just teaching some manners to a 'daneko'.

"I have one, so it's okay. I'm not a loner."

"Who, nya? You're just bluffing, nya."

"……I have one friend, she's called Krone, so it's okay."

"And where is she, nya?"

"She's on a ship to Ishtalika, she'll arrive soon."

"Ahh, the guests from Heim, nya. Then, right now you're a loner……I told you that hurts, nya! NYAAAAAAA! "

Apparently, Katima didn’t learn her lesson, however, Ain somewhat enjoyed this sort of exchange.

Because, at the end of the day, this made for a good time for Ain, who had no friends. Whether or not this was her intention was another matter.

"We should get started. Stop being silly."

"Ugh……Ugh, that hurt, nya……"

"In the end, you still don’t know what kind of magic stone that is, right?"

"There's one thing I've learned, nya."

"Eh? You never told me anything."

Showing a self-satisfied grin, she told him there was one thing she found out.

"At the very least, this magic stone is the same age as the Dullahan's, or maybe even older, nya."

"Then, if you search for information on that age-"

"That's not all, nya. It's from a monster as strong as the Dullahan, nya. There's no information on this kind of magic stone, nya. To begin with, even the magic stone of the Demon King in the audience room isn’t understood in detail, nya. Huh? If I know how strong it was then I guess I know two things, nya."

They didn’t expect it to be a product of the distant past. And hearing it was about the same strength as the Dullahan, Ain felt a bit excited by the undocumented magic stone. But in the end, he couldn’t help but worry about the curse.

"So, what is the curse in the magic stone?"

"……Better yet, why don’t you try to absorb it, nya? "

Katima's proposal was, in fact, something that Ain had already considered.

He thought that poison would work after all. But how about the curse?

The curse at least didn’t seem to be poisonous. As a result, he was hesitant, thinking something might happen to his body.

"I guess the curse is the problem. I'm not afraid if it's just the poison."

"Nya. That the curse will kill you the moment you absorb it?"

"I don’t think it would come to that."

No matter how powerful Toxin DecompositionEX was, Ain wasn’t resistant to things other than poisons and didn’t have any other sort of cheat.

Therefore, it would seem a curse would easily get him since he had no resistance to it.

"Ain. The previous owners of this magic stone kept it unsealed, right, nya? "

"That's what Majorca-san said."

"Fumu. Then, shall we take it out of the box, nya?"

Katima's plan was to take it out and place it nearby.

After all, those who have been cursed up until now were only shown strange dreams but they never died, so it wasn’t strong.

"Here? At your lab? "

"I don’t want to be left out of such a fun thing, nya."

Ain drew a little closer to Katima to pull her ears, but that was it……He then made up his mind.

And so, he reached for the sealing case.

"No, wait a minute. It would be dangerous if the curse affects the people in the castle, are you sure it's a good idea to open it?"

"Nothing can get out of this lab, nya. This lab was specially made, at the very least is more tightly sealed than that sealing case, so it's okay nya."

"Oh, okay."

It seemed his was a needless concern, so he reached out for the case again.

He knew Katima spent a lot of money on research, but he never expected she even built the lab with measures against curses.

"For the time being, open the case and let out the magic stone, nya. Just don’t touch it yet, nya."

After being told so, he reached the case and opened it.

『……』

"I knew it. At some intervals, I can feel some sort of sign from the magic stone."

"I don’t feel anything, nya. What kind of sign, nya? "

"Like wanting you to notice it, that sort of sign. Even though it was sealed at Majorca-san's shop, I also felt something. But I never felt that here in the lab."

"I believe it's because the curse countermeasures here are excellent, nya."

It made sense. And, he was able to realize the strength of Katima's curse countermeasures given to her lab.

"Wanting you to notice it, nyaー……I wonder if that's why you became obsessed with it……?"

"I'd love if you stop saying something ominous like that."

"Still, I can’t explain it, nya. Why now? Does it want to possess you, nya? Just what are you, nya?"

"I'm a normal boy."

If you explained Ain like someone who could absorb a magic stone, who had Toxin DecompositionEX, who was half dryad. Furthermore, who was a reincarnated person. Thinking about it, you couldn’t call him a normal boy.

But Ain felt so familiar with this world that he sometimes forgot he had been reincarnated here.

"Mother-con."

"I'll pull your ears again."

"……Anyway. Tell me something Ain, can you ABSOLUTELY control your Absorb, nya? "

"I think I can do it now. At least I'm sure I won’t be subconsciously absorbing the magic stone just by picking it up."

"If you still couldn’t control it, Majorca's shop would've been an all you can eat buffet, nya."

Although those words sounded a tad bit dangerous, Ain had no problem with controlling his Absorb.

"I wouldn’t do that. But I might have done that if he was a person I hated."

"What a terrible guy you are, nya."

"Anyway, what was that about controlling absorb? "

"……Can you try and grab it, nya? "

"Grab it? do you mean-?"

Katima's fingers pointed at the said magic stone.

She was expecting she might be able to find something by him grabbing it in his hands.

"Wouldn’t that be dangerous?"

"If you don’t absorb it, the link with the magic stone shouldn’t be created, nya. It might've been another story when you subconsciously absorbed them from a distance, nya. But I think it should be fine now, nya."

Indeed, previously Ain would subconsciously absorb the nearby magic stones since he couldn’t control this power.

But Katima hypothesized that there would be no problem now that he could control it.

"What if something goes wrong? "

"I will seal this whole room, nya. That's the only way to limit the impact it would have on the outside, and from there we can think on a way to destroy the magic stone, nya."

"……Will it really be alright? "

There was a solution to it, and there appeared to be no special danger. So, in the end, Ain made up his mind and tried picking up the mysterious magic stone.

"It'll be okay, nya. You can help some degree of danger when studying magic stones, nya."

"Very well. Since I don’t know what will happen, stay alert."

And so, he placed both his hands next to the magic stone.

"Ready? "

"I'm ready, nya. Come one, do it, nya! "

With her voice as the signal, Ain picked up said magic stone.

It happened a short while after thinking nothing happened.

This time, it was not a voice only heard by Ain, but a voice that echoed all over the room.

『I found you……I found you……I found you……I FOUND YOU! 』