When I got home, I changed into my house clothes and went downstairs.
Entering the living room, I saw Father sitting alone in front of a computer.
“Hmm? Where’s Mother?”
“She went shopping.”
She must be doing some grocery shopping for dinner.
“Father, can I talk to you for a moment?”
As I approached Father, I asked.
“What is it?”
Father looked up.
“Do you know the Shirakawas?”
“Shirakawa… oh, did you meet Shirakawa Yuki?”
It seems he does know her.
“Yeah, she was in the A class of our year. I ran into her outside of town today.”
“I see… Yuki-san inherited the headship of the Shirakawa family last year.”
So she became the head of the family as a middle school third-year. That’s impressive.
“There have been rumors about her family’s many failures?”
“It’s quite a tough situation for Yuki-san moving forward…”
Seems pretty serious…
“I saw her catching lizards for work.”
“Is that so… You should look out for her, though. While we don’t have much of a connection with the Shirakawa family, we’re all Japanese wizard families after all.”
“I think she’s going to be fine since she’s with her cousin Ronald too.”
She’s probably strong, too.
“Ronald… I hadn’t heard of that. So even the Shirakawa family is collaborating with international connections?”
“Was there something specific? We’ve been connected with people from France too.”
Of course, the La Folle family.
“Ah, no, there’s no hidden meaning behind that. Originally, because Japan had limited connections with other countries, the number of wizards was on the decline. Not every child of a wizard becomes a wizard, after all.”
That makes sense.
Even the La Folle family and the Nagase family have members who can’t use magic.
“Is connecting with foreign families relevant?”
“It’s a matter of numbers. If both parents are wizards, their child is highly likely to be one too. If only one is, it’s about a 50-50 chance. But trying to keep it within Japan, the absolute number isn’t sufficient. Moreover, many wizard families in Japan remain hidden, so there’s almost no interconnectedness. As such, wizardry bloodlines gradually dilute and slowly decline.”
That’s kind of a sad story.
“Did our family go through the same?”
“Yeah, it did. Things changed after the war, when Japanese people started going to Astral.”
Now that I think about it, I did hear that Japan wasn’t involved in the so-called Magic Proxy Wars, meaning they weren’t engaging with Astral until then.
“So that’s when connections with other families began?”
“That’s right. There were more opportunities to meet through jobs or school. Our family was like that too; Father met Mother at the academy, and they got married. As for the Shirakawa family, I don’t know the specifics, but it’s probably similar.”
I see…
“Do you know what kind of magic the Shirakawa family specializes in?”
“Hmm, I think they’re good at materializing things with magic.”
“Materializing things?”
“It’s a magic where they use magic power to temporarily create swords or shields.”
Interesting… Though, I’m not quite sure how that works.
“Weird magic.”
“It’s an old magic. Nowadays, they might use something else, given that families are always researching new magics.”
Our family too?
“I assume so. Both Nagase and La Folle are doing it. Neither your mother nor I am still wizards, so we wouldn’t know.”
They both quit using magic after getting married, right?
“I see… So I have an idea of how little I understand.”
“Are you interested in Shirakawa-san?”
“Not exactly, but Frank is. There’s a Magic Tournament at the end of the month.”
“A Magic Tournament? That takes me back.”
It seems there were tournaments even in Father’s generation.
“Did you and Mother participate?”
“I did, but there’s no way Mother would. She’s a purebred young lady.”
Yeah, Mother doesn’t like combat anyway.
“Did you win?”
“I won the first time. After that, I lost pretty normally. Once you win, everyone starts coming up with countermeasures. I specialized in combat magic, which is pretty easily countered.”
That makes sense.
Still, Chloe is amazing for taking home all the titles despite that.
“I see…”
“Will you participate?”
“It’s complicated…”
Even if I do…
“Ah, that was a nice bath. Huh? Big Brother’s already home?”
Toko entered the living room with a towel around her shoulders, looking fresh from her bath.
“I just got back.”
“Wow… the bath is free now.”
“I’ll take it later. How about you? Are you joining the Magic Tournament?”
“I won’t. There’s no point if the president isn’t competing. Plus, even if I did, it’d just be a rematch.”
That’s enough.
“Poor Sharl.”
“On the contrary, I lost fair and square, and the real reason was my own brother’s betrayal.”
…
“Did you manage to catch any birds?”
“What a terrible way to change the topic! But yeah, I did. We had grilled bird for lunch!”
That sounds good.
“Did you have fun?”
“Yeah, it was fun. Noel turned a little pale when she saw Ilmera plucking the bird, though.”
Poor thing…
“Did they sell well?”
“Pretty well. I sold some to a muscular grandpa.”
That must’ve been Claus.
“That’s good. It’s better than fruitless bear hunting, right?”
“Guess so. What about you, Big Brother? Did you see any lizards?”
“No lizards, but I did see an alligator.”
“Huh? An alligator?”
I was wondering why you didn’t say anything about it, but you didn’t know either, huh.
“There was an alligator in the river.”
“Hmm… Scary! They’re the ones who bite and squish, right?”
Her vocabulary is always so limited…
“I instantly took care of it.”
“Hmm, wonder if alligator meat is tasty?”
“Don’t know. Birds are probably better.”
Birds are definitely delicious.
“You two, don’t do anything too dangerous. Mother will worry.”
Father gave his warning.
“We’ll be fine, don’t worry.”
“Exactly. You should see me fly like a butterfly.”
“More like a moth.”
“Will you try flying?”
“Yeah, watch this… ready?”
Toko started to levitate.
And then she floated higher.
“Isn’t this amazing? I’m like a cabbage… OW!”
The butterfly bumped her head on the ceiling and crashed down.
She’s an idiot.
We’ve released a new story.
I would appreciate it if you could read it. (Check the link below.)
Thank you.
