Chapter 152 - Chapter 151: Challenge of Automation
The 3rd Month of Earth, the 5th Week, Day of Water.
It was the day to return to the Royal Capital.
Even though it was early morning, many people had gathered at the North Gate of the village to see us off.
It was a scene that reminded one of the day Mika left for the Magic Academy.
But, unfortunately, the purpose of most of the people seeing us off this time was not Mika.
Mika glanced at the crowd.
There, Kistil and Nerisfeene were being seen off by a large number of people, reluctant to part.
In the blink of an eye, these two had become popular figures in Rish Village.
As Mika gave a bitter smile, Horatio, who was standing beside him, spoke up.
"It will be lonely when you kids return to the Royal Capital."
"Only you would say that, Horatio-san...."
Mika let a tear fall, wiping his eyes.
Well, it was a lie.
Horatio had offered to see them off to Kotontesse just like that day, but Mika had politely declined.
Since he intended to fly back once out of sight, he couldn't explain that, so he just pushed through with "It's fine."
Horatio seemed to sense something about Mika, thinking "Something seems to be up," but he didn't press the matter deeply.
Mika saw Nerisfeene exchanging greetings with Loretta.
These two seemed to get along very well; they had become incredibly close.
Of course, the topic of the two of them, the Light God's Frenzy, was settled.
But the topic that excited them the most wasn't that.
It was Mika.
Loretta told Nerisfeene how brave the young Mika had been during the factory fire.
The story of how he acquired the [God's Miracle] without being taught by anyone and saved the lives of five villagers.
Nerisfeene listened with sparkling eyes to Loretta's story, filtered through her own "Loretta Filter" where everything was piled high with excitement.
And then, as if returning the favor, Nerisfeene began to speak.
She spoke of the miraculous power of "Dispel" that Mika possessed.
"I think Master Mika might be an Apostle."
Hearing Nerisfeene speak with those sparkling, twinkling eyes, Loretta pounced on the statement.
One couldn't help but ask, "Who on earth are you talking about?" as the two excitedly discussed this fairy tale.
Even Kistil gave a bitter smile at the two of them.
Well, she wouldn't dare confirm it out of fear, though.
By the way, Kifrod had taught them that an Apostle was something grand like a "Messenger of the Gods."
And even Kifrod was looking at the two of them with a face of disbelief.
"...It's as if there are two Loretta's here."
Kifrod's muttering still lingered in Mika's ears.
He seemed genuinely baffled.
In Mika's head, the phrase "Dangerous: Do Not Mix" floated up.
Mika had also been taught the difference between a Son of God and a Lost Child by Kifrod.
But he couldn't learn anything more than what Nerisfeene had already told him.
He also asked about Artorum and Filius Dei, but he was told again that he had never heard of them.
This confirmed that there were zero leads regarding the brown-haired youth.
Now, he could only hope for Shesbarno's efforts.
Mika went around greeting Amalia, Loretta, Ninetiana, and Diego in order.
And from everyone, he received the words, "Take good care of your wife."
He no longer had the energy to argue back.
"Thank you for your kindness."
Mika addressed the Village Head.
When he first arrived at the village, there was some tension, but as they cooperated during events like the communal meals, that tension faded to the point where it didn't bother him.
It seemed the Village Head had even helped quell the commotion about Mika's wife arriving, so currently, the Village Head's evaluation of Mika was skyrocketing.
"If there is anything regarding the house, I will inform you, so please study at the Academy with peace of mind."
"Thank you very much."
Thus, leaving Rish Village while being seen off by the villagers.
"If we don't fly quite a bit now, we won't reach the Royal Capital by evening, so I'll be flying on the way back."
"Y-yes. I'll cling to you, Mika-kun, so it'll be fine...."
"It's not that extreme. Just as much as I usually fly."
"Then, it seems it will be fine...."
Kistil and Nerisfeene looked slightly uneasy.
However, the gates of the Second Outer Wall of the Royal Capital closed at night.
If that happened, they would either be unable to enter the Royal Capital and stay overnight in District 3, or they would have to sneak directly into the Royal Capital.
When they brought Nerisfeene, they entered the Royal Capital directly, but they wanted to avoid that while taking both of them.
There are inns in District 3, so in the worst case, that might be fine, but they wanted to return in time if possible.
■■■■■■
They returned home.
But Kistil and Nerisfeene looked terribly exhausted.
It seemed that even with breaks, clinging on for several hours was difficult.
Naturally.
Unlike the trip there, they had shortened the number and duration of breaks on the way back.
Thanks to that, they managed to return before the gates closed, but the two were completely worn out.
(...Maybe it would be more comfortable for the two of them if I carried them on my back instead of letting them hang?)
He wanted to keep his back open due to the "Absorb Wing," but perhaps carrying them on his back wouldn't be a problem.
Next time, he should ask them to modify the harness.
"I'll prepare the bath, so go ahead first. You two should rest early today."
"Yes, sorry. We'll take you up on that."
"Excuse me, Master Mika."
Mika quickly prepared the hot water, and the two went into the bath together.
While they were in the bath, Mika checked the mail that had arrived during his return to his hometown.
Although, it was only a notification from the Adventurer's Guild with a "Designated" tag.
Since the "Curse Removal" service was currently suspended, the only changes were in the cursed items he was holding.
"Six items...."
That was a decent number.
Most of the money spent on the return to his hometown could be earned back.
As Mika looked at the notification from the Guild, Fee came from the hallway and landed on Mika's shoulder.
Speaking of which, it had been inside a bottle during travel.
It must have come out while Mika was preparing the hot water.
"Speaking of which, isn't Fee (you) some 'something' that has possessed this house?"
How did it manage to come all the way to Rish Village?
It didn't seem to be an "Unclean One," but what exactly it was, he had no idea at all.
At first, it seemed Kistil liked it, so if it caused no harm and helped distract Kistel when she was down, he decided to leave it be.
He had considered asking Yaroibarov, but gradually, he himself began to feel a slight affection for it.
It understands words and is surprisingly obedient.
Sometimes, even when told to return inside while in the garden, it might cry to Kistil or Nerisfeene and refuse to obey, but such actions were somehow not hateful.
Probably because its movements were comical.
It made him feel as if he were actually keeping a pet.
"...It doesn't cost for food, it doesn't bark, and it doesn't shed fur. There's no need for troublesome injections either."
It was a cheap pet.
Even keeping a single goldfish costs for food.
Cleaning the aquarium and other things were also necessary.
When Mika reached out his hand to his shoulder, Fee deftly dodged.
Then, he stared at Fee floating before his eyes with a "gii..." gaze.
Mika quickly reached out as if to grab it, but Fee easily dodged that too.
Well, you can't grab it even if you try.
It was just light.
Mika swung his hand quickly and repeatedly as if trying to catch a mosquito, but Fee dodged quickly.
Clang.
Mika stood up, making the chair creak, and swung his hands with a bit of seriousness.
Perhaps Fee was getting into the mood, or perhaps it was angry to stop messing around, it charged straight at Mika's face.
However, Mika used sways, waveings, and ducking to dodge it.
To an outside observer, it might look like he was shadow boxing, but of course, a sport called boxing did not exist in this world.
So, anyone witnessing such a Mika would wonder, "What on earth is this person doing?"
"Master Mika...."
"Mika-kun?"
Just like those two.
Kistil and Nerisfeene, out of breath, watched Mika playing with Fee with troubled eyes.
"Um... the bath is empty now."
"Ah, ah, yes. I think I'll go wash off some sweat too. Ah, ahahaha...."
He was a little embarrassed.
Mika laughed it off, but Fee kept bumping into his face over and over again.
Was it telling him to play more?
Mika lightly brushed off such Fee and headed toward the bath.
■■■■■■
The 3rd Month of Earth, the 5th Week, Day of Earth.
The long vacation ends tomorrow.
So, Mika decided to dispel the accumulated cursed items he was holding at the Adventurer's Guild.
"Phew... Only one left."
It was past noon.
Five cursed items had been dispelled in the morning, leaving the last one.
Mika went out to eat lunch.
"I couldn't meet Chirensta-san after all...."
His official transfer to the headquarters should be from tomorrow, but it seemed he was already almost entirely at the headquarters.
Since he would be taking on a heavy responsibility, he truly hoped he wouldn't overdo it.
Mika gazed at the exterior of a slightly upscale restaurant near the Guild and entered.
As a former bachelor noble, he didn't mind eating alone.
Whether it was a restaurant or a yakiniku shop.
"Stew and four pieces of bread."
As soon as he was seated at the assigned table, he placed his order.
Gaeras, whom he met at the Guild that morning, had told him this was delicious.
This restaurant had just opened this month.
It hadn't been open before Mika returned to his hometown.
As soon as he ordered, they brought it immediately.
The stew was like beef stew.
But today's main attraction wasn't this.
"Ohhh... It really is white bread."
He had seen it for the first time since coming to this world.
Fluffy, pure white bread.
Mika ignored the stew and took a bite of the bread.
No impurities, with a distinct wheat flavor.
But it was very light and soft.
Because it was properly fermented.
(There was white bread in this world too, huh.)
He couldn't help but be moved.
(If there's yeast, can I make it at home?)
Vaguely, he knew how to make yeast.
The reason why Mika, who didn't cook properly, knew such a method was because it made the news.
"Dry yeast is out of stock worldwide."
He was sure that was the headline.
It was a somewhat exaggerated headline, but there was a time when a shortage of dry yeast was a buzz in some places.
Due to a global pandemic, calls for self-restraint from going out were made.
At that time, various ways to kill time at home became popular.
Games and flat-rate movie viewing services were representative, but there was one thing that secretly became popular at that time.
That was bread making.
With time on their hands, some people chose bread making as a way to use their idle time, thinking, "Let's make handmade bread."
However, manufacturers could not respond to the sudden increase in demand for dry yeast, which usually didn't sell that well, and it went out of stock in no time.
When dry yeast refugees overflowed, some foreign scholar or someone else gave advice on SNS.
"You can easily make yeast yourself," they said.
Mika, Kuhashi Ritsu, had seen a net news article introducing the details of that advice.
(...But, I usually buy bread, though. If I teach them the method, it's like saying 'Make it'?)
He thought while munching on the bread.
Basically, he bought several days' worth of bread at once from the bakery.
(Speaking of which, we don't have an oven at home. So, either way, I can't make it.)
If he made "Stone Bullet" into brick shapes, building an oven would be easy, but making an oven anyway would still be like saying "Make it."
(Next time, I'll bring the two of them to show them that there are delicious things like this.)
If they got interested, it would be like "I can prepare it, but what do you want to do?" kind of feeling.
Well, he was sure they would say they really wanted to try it.
(If there was an oven, I could make pizza or gratin at home too.)
Mika scooped the stew with a spoon and tried eating it.
(Yeah, it's delicious. Gaeras really recommended it for a reason.)
It seemed information brokers had their own areas of expertise, and Gaeras specialized in information about delicious shops.
However, this seemed to be almost his personal hobby.
Yaroibarov chose to make things himself because he wanted to eat delicious food, but Gaeras went on a tour of delicious shops.
This completely matched Mika's thinking.
Mika was the type who thought, "If I want to eat delicious food, I should just go to a delicious shop."
Thinking such things, he finished his lunch and returned to the Guild.
He ate a little less than usual so as not to get sleepy, but he couldn't muster much enthusiasm.
He looked at the strange ornament in his left hand, a two-legged cat dancing.
It was a strange ornament, but it was filled with gold and gems, and among the items to be dispelled today, it held the strongest curse.
(Just playing with one puzzle costs a million rats, yet I'm saying I can't get motivated? Am I serious?)
He had become spoiled.
However, he had been doing the same kind of work since morning.
He wanted a bit more variety in the puzzles.
(...That is the definition of being spoiled. Since it's work, it shouldn't matter if it's interesting or not.)
At first, it was fun, but the basic approach was the same for all of them.
Eventually, he would get bored of the monotonous work.
(Can't I automate this...?)
The tasks were decided.
Search Task: Find the place where interference is possible.
Unlock Task: Interfere and try all unlock patterns.
The basics were just alternating between these two.
When Mika did it himself, he simply repeated this over and over.
Repeating fixed processing endlessly was exactly what programs were best at.
However, the problem was that this was not programming, but mana manipulation.
(If this works, it will really become the "Dispel" magic.)
The corner of Mika's mouth rose.
He was getting a little excited.
(Create mana for each dedicated task, create a task to check the status and switch that task...)
Roughly, create a main task to control the whole thing, and sub-tasks called from there: Search Task and Unlock Task.
As for the fine parts, a function to check the curse's status and determine if it is the search phase or the unlock phase would be necessary.
Just in case, should he also create a "infinite loop" avoidance that returns an error if the Search Task or Unlock Task never finishes?
He should also include processing to avoid a situation where he thinks the dispelling is progressing, but in reality, it hasn't progressed at all.
He couldn't say there weren't unlock patterns he didn't know or had never encountered.
For now, he would try a magic to realize these.
Mika held the strange cat ornament, closed his eyes, and concentrated steadily.
This was his highest concentration of the day.
A Guild staff member came to change the tea halfway through, but Mika was focused on constructing the "Dispel" magic.
It was the first time the staff member, who usually thanked Mika cheerfully, saw him so concentrated, so they quietly changed the tea while holding their breath.
(...Search Task error? Why?... Isn't the place where interference is possible right here?)
When he checked the curse himself, he easily found a place where he could interfere.
He couldn't figure out the cause of the malfunction.
He observed the movement of the Search Task steadily.
It seemed the sensitivity was not quite high enough.
When he poured mana in to increase the sensitivity, it seemed to work properly this time.
(..........Hm? Unlock Task error?)
Why?
When he tried interfering himself, it was solved easily.
He observed the movement of the Unlock Task at the next place where interference was possible.
Probably the movement was too large.
He corrected it to make finer movements.
He repeated such things endlessly.
How many times had he almost shouted, "I want to install a breakpoint!"?
By the way, a breakpoint is a function that stops processing at an arbitrary point in the program.
It is an essential function in programming to check if normal values are being handled in the program at that time, or if the flow of subsequent processing is proceeding correctly.
Naturally, for Mika's dispelling, which was not visualized, it was a function he wanted to install but could not.
He had concentrated for about four hours, but in the end, it didn't work, so he gave up for now and dispelled it himself.
It took about thirty minutes.
(...Damn. This kind of thing should have been a daily occurrence.)
It was quite common that making a program do something that could be finished quickly by hand was terribly difficult to create.
However, the strength of automation was that once it was done, the rest could be completely entrusted to it.
More importantly, there were no human errors.
Even if he struggled now, once completed, the future would be easier.
Believing that, he would continue developing the "Dispel" magic.
"That ornament was really difficult, wasn't it? Good work, Mika-kun."
After all the dispelling was finished, he met Yunressa by chance as he left the reception room.
It seemed she was worried that Mika's dispelling was taking so long and came to check on him.
"Sorry, I took my time."
He couldn't say he was developing "Dispel," so he made up an excuse.
"That's fine. So, is it all done? Is it over for today?"
"Yes, it's finished. I was planning to deliver the dispelled items to the counter."
He couldn't just leave them in the reception room, so they were in the Magic Bag.
"Well then, I'm sorry, but could you wait a moment in the reception room (here)? I'll bring the tools for the procedure."
"Sorry. Thank you."
Saying that, Mika returned to the reception room again.
While waiting in the reception room, Yunressa returned quickly.
Two other staff members had come with her.
One of the staff members checked each of Mika's dispelled items one by one.
She probably had the [Appraisal] Skill.
After checking everything and nodding to Yunressa that there were no problems, Yunressa began the procedure.
"Well then, Mika-kun. Can you lend me your Guild Card?"
Saying that, Yunressa handed over the card, and Mika handed it over.
During that time, the two staff members collected the six requested items and left the reception room.
They would probably arrange to return them to the clients.
"...Guk?! Cough, cough...!"
At that moment, Yunressa suddenly choked.
Did saliva go into her windpipe?
If that happens frequently, it seems to be a sign of declining swallowing function.
"Cough...! M-Mika-kun!?"
Yunressa seemed flustered.
You should talk after calming down a bit, right?
"T-the, the slay records, are nearly three thousand!?"
"Hm?"
............................
Ah.
(It's the part I thinned out in the forest of Rish Village. I completely forgot.)
He hadn't thought of any excuses.
Most of them were small grunts, but I just happened to encounter them and hunted them! That's not a number that can be settled with that.
As Mika averted his gaze awkwardly, Yunressa looked at him with a sharp glance.
"...Really! Did you do something reckless again? Where on earth was a 'Cyclops'?"
"Ah, ahahaha...."
He laughed it off.
Just collecting the mana alone yielded more than four gold coins.