Chapter 179 - Chapter 178: Sleepwalking?
Month of Wind, Week 4, Day of Fire.
Only a little bit left of this year.
This country does not celebrate the New Year or set aside holidays for it.
At first, I thought, "Is there no room for that?" but it seems that is not the case.
Rather, one could say the economy is in a sustained boom.
The national economy is bolstered to the point where even middle-class households have servants.
It seems the current King, since his ascension, has strengthened the nation's foundation in various aspects.
(Someone influential should be persuaded to create a holiday.)
Well, in this case.
If we are talking about someone I know who is influential, there is only one person.
The Marquis (old man).
And if I were to suggest such a thing to the Marquis (old man), he would surely think I am slacking off.
There is no doubt it would work negatively, never positively.
Mika sighed and immediately discarded his own plan.
By the way, the reason Mika knows this country's economic situation is because it is touched upon in lessons on loyalty to the Royal Family and in governance lessons that began upon entering the middle school division.
"Under the current King's rule, the Kingdom of Ektrem has become quite wealthy. Be grateful," they teach you patiently and thoroughly.
So thoroughly, it is enough to make one sick of it.
Mika walked through the residential district where the cold wind blew, recalling those recent lessons in the corner of his mind.
It was already pitch dark outside.
Today, after school, I went to "remove curses" and found the cause in less than an hour.
Recently, once the cause of a curse is identified, I dispel it on the spot without waiting for daylight.
This is because "Auto-Dispel" has become quite stable in operation.
Although the amount of mana consumed is large, it is already far faster than when Mika dispels it himself.
Or rather, it has become so fast that it is no longer comparable.
That is, when using "Absorb Wing".
If you increase the amount of mana poured in, it breaks through one after another at an amazing speed.
It finds the points of interference in the blink of an eye and unlocks them in the twinkling of an eye.
There are patterns where multiple points must be interfered with simultaneously, and incorporating the movements for such cases was troublesome, but that has already been incorporated.
It has now acquired a speed that no human hand can match, no matter how much one struggles.
(This is the merit of automation.)
Automating the dispelling of curses that are not visualized was quite a laborious task, but the benefits gained were very great.
Rather, recently I have even been worrying unnecessarily, saying things like, "If I dispel curses too easily, will the gratitude decrease?"
Well, there is a restriction that to perform such intense dispelling, one must use "Absorb Wing", so it cannot be used in public.
(Then, next is power saving, I suppose...)
There was a time when people pursued processing speed regardless of how much electricity was eaten up.
But from then on, options emerged.
Proceed down that path as is, or reduce power consumption without lowering processing speed.
............Well, that's a CPU talk.
After that, it became further subdivided, increasing core counts, increasing thread counts, utilizing idle time, and various approaches were taken to improve performance.
(I didn't hate the feeling of just spinning it around with brute force back when the law of Moore was being shouted.)
The magnitude and units of processing speed increased day by day.
The excitement I felt when hearing such information was incredible.
While reminiscing about the old days, I arrived home.
Mika took the key from the Magic Bag and opened the front door.
"I'm home."
When Mika entered the house, he received the baptism of Fee's charge.
Mika dodged it lightly, left Fee who had jumped outside, and closed the door.
Because it's cold.
Recently, this pattern is always the same, but Fee does not learn at all.
Fee probably does not lack learning ability, though...
"Welcome back, Mika-sama. You are late today."
"Welcome back, Mika-kun. Dinner will be ready soon."
Kistil and Nerisfeene always cook together.
However, previously Kistil was the main cook, and Nerisfeene was the sub.
That was the role division, but recently it seems Nerisfeene sometimes takes the main role.
It seems her cooking skills have improved remarkably as she has helped Kistil every day.
"Can I go to the bath first?"
"Yes. It's fine."
When Mika asked, Kistil replied while tasting the food.
Nerisfeene looked at Kistil with an anxious expression, but smiled when Kistil gave an okay with the taste test.
It seems Nerisfeene made today's stew.
Just as Mika went to his room to change clothes and headed for the bath, Fee finally entered from the front door.
But that light was weak, and it felt a bit dejected.
"Yeah, delicious!"
When Mika took a bite of the stew and gave his impression, Nerisfeene's face relaxed.
"Why are you looking so worried? I've made it many times."
"That is true, but..."
Mika said with a bitter smile, but Nerisfeene seemed unable to gain confidence easily.
Seeing such Nerisfeene, Kistil smiled at her.
"If it's just for me to eat, I wouldn't worry that much. It takes quite a bit of courage to have someone else eat it."
"Even for Kistil?"
When Mika asked, Kistil nodded.
Even Kistil, who is so good at cooking, is not without anxiety.
"I still make many mistakes... I even cut my finger a bit today."
"Eh, were you okay?"
Nerisfeene looked at her own left thumb.
"I have [Blessing]. The wound heals quickly, but... the fact that I failed does not disappear."
It seems she is a bit frustrated that her cooking skills never seem to lose their failures.
However, if you cut yourself a little, it heals quickly, which is convenient, after all.
Mika also has [Heal] and can heal it quickly, but having recovery activate constantly is a bit enviable.
"I make mistakes sometimes too. Don't worry so much about failures; I think you should pay more attention to the fact that Nerisfeene is improving."
Kistil said while tearing off a piece of bread.
"I think what Kistil says is right. But, does Kistil even make mistakes?"
Mika agreed, but was a bit curious about the content of Kistil's mistakes.
What kind of mistakes does Kistil, who always prepares delicious meals, make?
"I make mistakes too. The other day, I touched a hot pot, and Nerisfeene used [Heal] to fix it for me."
"Eh, [Heal]?"
If Kistil's wound was healed, was it the [Heal] from [Blessing], or the [Heal] from [God's Miracle]?
"Can Nerisfeene use [God's Miracle] too?"
"Yes. Although, just [Heal]."
"Oh, I didn't know that."
If I have [Heal] from [Blessing], I might not need [Heal] from [God's Miracle].
Well, if I want to heal someone's injury, not just my own, then [God's Miracle] is necessary.
"I originally learned it at the convent. I received [Blessing] after that."
"Oh, I see. [God's Miracle] came first."
If one had [Blessing] innately, it wouldn't be strange to think one didn't need [God's Miracle], but she was originally neither a Saintess nor anything like that.
If someone said she had aptitude, it wouldn't be strange to try to acquire it.
"Mika-kun and Nerisfeene are lucky to be able to use [Heal]. I wish I had mana too..."
Kistil said in a somewhat sulky tone.
This time, both Mika and Nerisfeene could only give a bitter smile.
Presumably, Kistil must have undergone the church rituals as well.
The fact that she was left out means she likely has almost no ability to sense mana.
No matter how much Mika trains, if one does not possess some ability to sense mana, it is strictly difficult.
Unless one has extreme amounts of mana like Rimliche, but with no mana and no sensing ability, it is hopeless.
Nerisfeene seems to have also learned [Exorcism] besides [Heal], but she could not acquire it.
When Mika tried reciting some of the spells he learned from Trys, she said this was definitely the spell for [Exorcism].
Mika had expected this, and it turned out as expected.
When asked why Mika, who is not a church person, knows [Exorcism], he evaded the question casually.
But then she said, "You are an 'Apostle' sent by the gods. It is natural, isn't it?" with a strange sense of understanding.
Sorry.
I actually heard people using it and acquired it on my own.
[Heal] from [God's Miracle] varies in effect depending on the amount of mana offered.
For a wound like cutting a fingertip, a small amount of mana.
The greater the injury, the more mana must be offered.
One [God's Miracle] can switch from Pea to Potato depending on the amount of mana.
How much injury can be healed with how much mana relies on sensation, making it difficult to teach or convey to others.
Therefore, unless one has opportunities to use [Heal] daily at a church, etc., they tend to offer more mana than necessary to heal.
In class, the "Bracelet of Judgment" indicates a guideline: "For an injury of this size, use this much mana."
But since it is not actually healing an injury, it is ultimately just a guideline.
Mika uses [Heal] quite regularly, but in Mika's case, it is always a full-bet [Potato].
Since it has nothing to do with the allocation of mana capacity, I ultimately did not understand that part of the sensation well.
"By the way, Mika-kun. Have you seen Fee-chan?"
"Fee? No, I haven't."
She is not in the bath, nor after coming out of the bath.
The last time I saw her... was when I came back?
"She went somewhere while we were preparing dinner..."
Usually, when the three are together for a meal, Fee often floats around the dining room.
"She must be wandering around somewhere. Really..."
"Fee-chan is usually properly at home."
"Mika-sama treats Fee-sama too harshly. Fee-sama is a very good child."
Kistil nodded at Nerisfeene's opinion.
No, wait.
Isn't it a bit suspicious?
She absorbs mana, after all.
"Thank you for the meal. It was delicious. Well, call me when it's tea time."
The mood became somewhat bad, so Mika quickly retreated to his room.
"Really, Mika-kun."
"Mika-sama..."
Before anything else could be said, Mika ran into his room.
And so, he got to work on the circuit diagram.
Midnight.
Kistil and Nerisfeene were likely asleep in their rooms.
As usual, Mika was concentrating on creating the circuit diagram.
I would like to say the two were asleep and not a sound was made, but in reality, there was quite a bit of noise.
The house settling.
Sounds like a crack happened quite frequently, and sometimes a loud bang would startle you.
It doesn't bother you much when concentrating, but as soon as you lie down thinking, "Well, time to sleep," you suddenly notice it.
Creak.
Mika traced the connection of the circuit he just drew with his finger and confirmed it.
After confirming there were no mistakes, he began drawing the next part.
Creak.
He roughly calculated the amount of mana passing through that part and added it to the blueprint.
Creak.
Haa... he took a breath and stretched his stiff body.
When he turned his neck, it cracked.
Click...
"Hm?"
The sound of the room door knob moving made Mika turn his gaze toward the door.
A shadow stood in the slightly open gap of the door.
His heart skipped a beat for a moment, but the light from the "Lighting Ball" immediately revealed who the shadow was.
"Kistil...? What's wrong?"
Kistil kept her head down and slowly opened the room door.
And so, she entered the room.
"......? What's wrong?"
Something was strangely off.
Kistil walked toward Mika with a slow gait.
Was she a little unsteady?
"Are you okay, Kistil?"
Mika stood up and stood in front of Kistil.
He looked at her expression, but there was no particular emotion.
She closed her eyes and slowly reached out her hand to Mika.
While reaching out her hand, she approached Mika further.
"Kistil?"
He called out a bit more strongly, but there was no response.
Kistil hugged Mika as she was.
"Kistil, what is really wrong?"
Mika held onto Kistil while calling out to her.
But Kistil just hugged Mika tightly and did not reply at all.
(......Sleepwalking?)
There are sleep disorders where symptoms include walking around while sleeping.
But, I certainly do not have enough knowledge to make such a diagnosis.
(Troublesome. Or rather, isn't this caused by stress or something?)
Is she carrying some great stress?
Could it be caused by living in this house?
(Actually, if the cause of the stress is me, that would be quite a shock, you know!?)
He earnestly prayed for it to be a different cause.
Kistil held Mika's head and rubbed her cheek against it.
Does this action itself have any meaning?
(I really don't understand. There are no psychiatrists yet anyway. What should I do?)
In a culture where taking actions significantly different from ordinary people leads to people saying "you are possessed" and performing exorcisms, it is not something one can easily consult others about.
(......She probably doesn't want others to know either.)
Anyway, what should be done?
Guide her to the room and let her sleep there?
(Let's try guiding her to the room for now. If she sleeps normally there, that would be fine.)
If it continues, I will think about whether to tell her then.
If it was only today, then if I forget about it, nothing happened.
Mika decided on a temporary policy and decided to guide Kistil to the room.
The ink bottle on the desk and the lid were left open, but well, it's fine.
Right now, Kistil takes priority.
Mika turned off the "Lighting Ball" placed on the ceiling and moved the "Lighting Ball" he was using as a stand lamp closer to himself.
Then he lowered the light intensity, making it a little dim.
(Wha—!?)
I intended to ensure enough brightness so as not to be troubled guiding her to the room, but becoming dimmer made me notice something I hadn't noticed before.
Kistil's body was faintly glowing.
(What is this! What is happening!?)
This is not just simple sleepwalking.
The possibility of her truly being possessed has emerged.
(Damn! What should I do!?)
Panic made my thoughts unorganized.
In the first place, I was confused and couldn't even think properly.
"Kistil! Kistil! Wake up! Kistil!"
Mika held onto Kistil and shook her body.
And so, he called out desperately.
"Kistil!"
On the next call, Kistil's eyelids moved slightly.
Slowly, Kistil's eyes opened.
Then, the light that had enveloped Kistil's body slowly disappeared.
Mika firmly supported Kistil as her body lost strength and she was about to collapse.
And so, from such Kistil, Fee appeared with a pop.