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I thanked Reisen and headed over to Azel. \n
Azel was sitting on the couch and tapping the spot next to him without saying anything. He was calling me out, “Sit here” in a rather roundabout way.\n
I got used to it since it was like that every day.\n
He probably had a reason why he couldn’t call me normally.\n\n
“Is it okay to spend your break with me again today?”\n
“! I don’t mind. You don’t have to ask me every single time. You can just sit next to me and rest as much as you want. Hm-hmm, hm-hm-hmm. Hm-hmm.”\n
I sat down to the spot which Azel had been tapping on next to him, then he grinned with satisfaction and started humming.\n
Mm, he seems to be in a good mood today.\n
The Azel I see most of the time was in a good mood, but I was also glad to see him that way.\n
I might get rebuked, but he was so adorable like a puppy. It made my animal-loving heart tingle.\n
“Mm. Then, let’s have tea together.”\n
Feeling cheerful, I took three cookies out of the basket and handed them to Azel. The other one was for Reisen.\n
“You know, I sold a lot more than usual today. So, there’s only one left.”\n
“Urk… I see… It’s a good thing that your sweets are so popular.”\n
I had intended to give him a good report, but for some reason, Azel looked visibly dispirited, despite his words.\n
Azel would usually reserve one, then purchase everything else if there was a leftover.\n
Since we were livestock and owner, he seemed to take responsibility for these areas as well.\n
I didn’t make too much heedlessly, but if I didn’t meet with anyone, I’d have more to sell.\n
So, I was grateful that they had accepted it.\n
Otherwise, Azel would end up eating most of my sweets, so I wanted to make the ones he likes.\n
There’s no other reason for that, of course.\n
Somehow, it was just as if I was making them with the idea to make Azel say they were delicious.\n
“Grrr… If I paid ten times the price for it… No, but he has a strange nature of saying he enjoys working… Then, if I buy up, then he can legitimately spend money…? No, no, if I let him accumulate money, then it will give extra suspicions to the other demons… I can’t agree with the idea of him being on his own, either…”\n
“? Azel?”\n
“I mean, it’s not like I want to lock him or anything, y’know? It’s because they’re going to say he’s livestock and that I couldn’t let something of m-mine stand on its own…!”\n
“Azel, who are you making excuses for? And who are you going to lock up?”\n
“Ah!”\n
I called out to Azel, who was intently staring at the cookie he received, piercing it with a look that seemed to be looking at it but actually not, and muttering mysterious words.\n
Oh, he finally came back to his senses. He mentioned something about buying up or legitimacy, so maybe it was about work. \n
“I-I-I-It’s nothing!” he said flustered, and without saying more, Azel stored one of the cookies with his summoning magic. \n
Seeing it reminded me of that again. Just as I thought… summoning magic is nice.\n
You can’t put a living thing in it, but it could keep me from carrying around a basket. It’d be convenient.\n
It doesn’t stop time, but it doesn’t have any living things—I mean, molds or bacteria, so it’d be slow to deteriorate. The temperature is also constant at room temperature. The size would depend on the amount of magic power though.\n
By the way, I just learned this information a little while back at the Air Force Base.\n
When Gard and the other two learned that Olga was going to teach magic, they said, ‘Hey, listen. Listen!’ and gave me an overview.\n
They were like children who were desperate to teach me what they knew.\n
Demons were bad at reading the atmosphere or lacked delicacy, but they were fundamentally honest and were quick to say good and bad things. \n
I tended to take things as they were, so they were wonderful wiki○○dias who were quite helpful.\n
Back to the main subject.\n
As such, I poked Azel’s arm to learn summoning magic.\n
“Azel, Azel.”\n
“W-Whua?!”\n
“It’d be nice if you can, but… would you mind releasing my magic sealing choker for a bit? I want to learn summoning magic, too.”\n
“Wha! No way! …Uh, no… Aghh… There’s no helping it… Just this time, okay? You’d better learn fast.”\n
I wasn’t sure if he’d give me permission and even felt somewhat troubled about it, but I was able to get his permission surprisingly easily.\n
Azel pressed against the jewel on my choker and it made a ringing, bell-like sound.\n
‘You can now use a little bit of magic with this.’ He told me with an unamused face.\n
Then, Azel raised his index finger and waved it around as if to instruct me.\n
“Listen, okay? If you want to take something out, just think, ‘I wanna take it out’ and snap your fingers. If you want to store it away, just touch it and think, ‘I’m going to put this away’. Go ahead, try it.”\n
“I see. …Alright, it’s hopeless.”\n
There was another temperament of a prodigy in here.\n
I thoughtlessly touched the basket, thinking that I should do as I was told for the time being.\n
But the basket was still there, as it should be. Mm. I’m not proficient enough.\n
Azel was so perplexed and had a confused look on his face, that he looked like he was about to scream, “Why couldn’t you do that?!” \n
Then, he started to inspect my hands restlessly. It’s not a difference in hands, it’s a difference in potential.\n
I’m a hero, but I wasn’t a cheat human from another world who could do everything quickly with corrections.\n
I was just someone totally normal. If anything, I’d say I was just someone who had a little bit of room for growth and grew fast.\n
I learned diligence and training in this world through my arduous efforts. I was a simple, talentless, hard-working type of hero.\n
If I were to pick something that was unusual, it’d be… Hmm… Right. \n
It seemed that it wasn’t just my blood, but also my nature that was easily liked by the monsters and demons who drink blood. \n
…Mm. That’s about it. I don’t really have a lot of good things to say.\n
“Shal… The Demon Lord’s martial arts and swordsmanship are the result of his diligent efforts. However, when it comes to magic, he’s always been the type who managed to do things with his senses, so please just ignore him. He’ll master any kind of new magic for a second, as long as it’s magic. Really.”\n
“I knew it.”\n
“Hey, don’t listen to him!”\n
Reisen told me with a resigned look as he sat down across me.\n
He each placed a cup of tea with good fragrance in front of us, and I nodded, ‘Mm-hm.’\n
While holding my hand that Azel was inspecting, he yelled out his disagreement with the declaration to ignore him.\n
Reisen gave a doubtful glance to Azel, who looked upset.\n
“An enormous amount of magical power with a dark attribute that goes well with the dark magical power of the demon realm. You’ll understand once you saw it, but he possesses magic eyes that can do anything without tricks. Thanks to that, I didn’t have anything to teach him about magic.”\n
The exasperated Reisen must’ve been the exact opposite of the prodigy type.\n
Azel turned away and sulked. He seemed to have found out that he couldn’t teach me how to use magic that he had never been taught how to.\n
Seeing them, I thought they were like father and son, and softened a little.\n