The day after Sharl taught me spatial magic, it was Sunday.
I woke up early again that day and was playing around with using spatial magic to take things out and put them away.
Then, as it had become afternoon, I changed into my uniform and went to Astral’s dormitory.
When I got there, Frank and Cedric were sitting on the usual lounge chairs in the break area.
“Yo, how was your hometown?”
I asked them while sitting down on the lounge chair.
“It was the same as always. Nothing really to talk about.”
“I’m tired.”
Time differences—…
They hit pretty hard, just like Sharl said.
“Keep at it.”
“Hm? You’re in a good mood?”
“Did something good happen?”
When they asked me, I took my phone out of my pocket.
“What do you think this is?”
“A phone.”
“Who’s the customer here, huh?”
You guys…
“Look closely at this phone. In the blink of an eye… it’s gone!”
I said that, and the phone disappeared.
Of course, I used spatial magic to store it.
“Whoa! So that’s spatial magic, huh? You’ve learned it, I see!”
“I thought it’d be impossible for life. That’s amazing! What kind of trick did you use?”
Exactly! Give me some praise!
…Well, are they praising me?
“Got it from a certain beautiful mage.”
“Ah, good for you.”
“Top-notch, ain’t it?”
Yeah, yeah.
“So, I’ve learned spatial magic. It feels like I’ve taken my first steps as a wizard.”
“I get it, I get it.”
“Feels nostalgic. I remember thinking the same thing myself.”
So it seems everyone feels this way.
“Alright, I’ll treat you guys to some juice. Let’s head to town, men!”
“That’s great.”
“Let’s go.”
We stood up and left the dorm.
Then we looked out at the town from the top of the hill.
“By the way, the beautiful person I mentioned earlier said that if we were going out, shouldn’t we go to the commercial district?”
We asked each other, looking out at the view of the town.
“Yeah, probably. There’s not much else to see.”
“We’d probably just be nuisances if we went to the residential or industrial district.”
That’s true…
Even though we’re wearing our uniforms, we’d look like suspicious characters.
“Shall we walk? Or take the train?”
“Ah, you don’t even know that?”
“You really didn’t prepare ahead, did you.”
Tell me about it. How could I when someone’s right here to tell me?
“I did get a map, though.”
“Then you won’t get lost, even if we split up. For now, follow this way.”
Frank and Cedric started walking down the hill, so I followed them.
We went down the hill, passed the school building, and entered a certain building.
“What is this place?”
The building seemed to be about the size of a classroom at the academy, but it was empty of both people and objects.
“First off, Astral developed differently from Earth.”
Frank turned around and started explaining.
“Magic?”
“Right. There are no cars in this world, because of that.”
“No cars?”
Isn’t that inconvenient?
“Yeah. Though, a few people have brought in bikes, but basically, there’s nothing here that runs on fuel like cars or motorcycles.”
“There are trains, though. Magic-powered trains.”
Cedric casually dropped a huge piece of info.
“Magic-powered trains? What’re those?”
“Trains powered by magic that we use to go to other towns.”
“Eh? There are other towns?”
Of course there would be?
“Yeah. I suppose we can talk about that later though.”
Man, I really want to know more right this second!
“I never knew any of this…”
“I’m surprised you knew so little too. Still, just like Cedric said, we can leave the other towns for later. Trying to explain it all at once would probably just end up confusing you.”
Yeah.
“Alright. I got it that there are no cars. But then, how do we get around? This town’s pretty big, right? Doesn’t seem convenient.”
Sharl said this town is about the size of Paris.
“Yeah, that’s where this building comes in. Look over there. See the magic circle drawn on the floor?”
Following Frank’s finger, sure enough, there was something that looked like a magic circle engraved on the floor.
“What’s that?”
“That’s a teleportation magic circle. Basically, to go far in the town, we use that teleportation magic circle.”
“Hoee… this really is a different world. Fantasy-stuff for real.”
“Yeah, because this is a different world, it’s a fantasy world.”
“Take this technology to Earth. You’d be rich in no time.”
“……That is strictly prohibited. Want me to give you a history lesson?”
History…
The class I skipped because I was going to learn curses.
“Don’t need it. Not interested.”
“Thought so. Well, just remember this: bringing this world’s technology to your world is prohibited.”
“What about using spatial magic back there?”
Didn’t Sharl use it? And she even gave me potions.
“That’s fine. Even if someone sees, you can just pass it off as a magic trick”.
Ah, yeah…
I even called it a magic trick myself by saying “Hand magic”.
“Alright, got it. So in short, this magic circle can take us to the commercial district, right?”
“Yeah, you can go to other places too. Just give it a try.”
With that, I went closer and examined the magic circle closely.
“Huh? Only one circle? How do you use it?”
“You just stand on it and imagine you want to go to the commercial district.”
“What about if I imagine one of those other towns you mentioned?”
“It wouldn’t activate.”
Right, that’s logical.
“Is this safe? Kind of scares me.”
“It’s safe. There’s never been an accident.”
“You go first, then.”
“Big tough guy yet you’re such a coward…”
Despite his exasperated tone, Frank stepped onto the magic circle.
“See? It doesn’t activate until— wait, hold on, what are you imagining as you step on? It’s—”
His explanation was cut short as Frank disappeared mid-sentence.
“He imagined while talking. That’s how you do it. Go on, give it a try, Tsukasa.”
Cedric smiled and encouraged me, so I stepped onto the circle.
“I don’t even know where the commercial district is, but if I imagine…—”
I was conversing with Cedric while on the circle but in the middle of it, my vision turned completely white, and suddenly Cedric had been replaced by Frank.
“Huh?”
“Ooooh, looks like you made it! This is the commercial district.”
Seems like it worked.
“I have no idea what just happened.”
Approaching Frank, I said that.
“I don’t know the mechanics either. It was made by some big shots.”
Yeah, I wouldn’t get it.
I don’t understand how cars or trains work either.
“Huh, you actually made it alright. I thought you’d end up in the residential or industrial district.”
Cedric followed us through the teleportation circle.
“I did consider that, but it was too scary to try.”
“Alright then. Let’s head out. Outside this building is the commercial district.”
“Let’s buy something.”
We decided to leave the building.
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