The Transmigrator's Brainstorm

The story returned to Ranoa Magic Academy.

That day in the grass, the truth was, my heart had stirred. After all, it wasn't as if I were some upright gentleman, nor did I possess the virtue of a gentleman who would not take advantage even in a dark room.

If there was a bargain to be had and you didn't take it, you were an internet café egg.

But in the end, I still gave up on directly making a move and taking advantage. It wasn't because my conscience had suddenly awakened.

It was because, once I was up in the sky, it seemed I could take even greater advantage.

After I took Pursena into the air, she basically buried her entire body in my arms. The physical sensation was nice that way, but it didn't let Pursena feel a deeper fear, and it also wasn't convenient for using magic to intrude into her body and study this innate bodily terror.

Later, I chose to hold her from behind, making her face outward as we flew into the air, and I also did my best to fly a little higher.

Pursena was a bit like someone who would faint on the downhill part of a roller coaster. She had been trembling and screaming, but once I reached a certain height, or dropped rapidly, she would faint as if her whole body had suddenly lost power.

Of course, that state was very brief. She would recover within a few seconds.

In order to better let my magic enter her body for study, I wrapped one arm around her slender waist, and slid my other hand into her half-moon to transmit mana. After all, that spot felt better.

The experimental results were excellent.

When Pursena felt fear, there would be a mana reaction in the area of her brain, and no matter how many times I took her flying, that mana reaction did not decrease.

In other words, she would not get used to the state of flying and overcome her fear of flight just because she flew many times.

This was probably caused by each race or individual having different ways of triggering the system of fear inside the body.

I had taken quite a few people flying before. In the past, even when I took an ordinary person like Doris, after a few flights, she would fully adapt and have no discomfort at all.

But Pursena just could not adapt.

Linia was afraid too, but the degree of her fear was much better than Pursena's. Maybe it had something to do with one of them being feline and the other canine.

After experimenting on them—or torturing them—for a while, I let the two of them go. We also agreed that if I needed to in the future, I would seek them out to continue the experiments.

Of course, I agreed to be their big brother, and if anyone bullied them in the future, I would protect the two of them.

I figured the only one capable of bullying them would be Ariel.

When the time came, I would punish Ariel for them in bed.

School life was dull.

During this period, I had been studying some knowledge of summoning magic and barrier magic.

In addition, I would now occasionally go fulfill my duties as Ariel's Guardian Knight. I went to keep watch over Ariel at night. I didn't know whether it was because she trusted me greatly, or because she wanted to give Sylphie or the other guards time to rest.

When I went to guard her, she was always alone. Guarding her naturally meant staying with her around the clock, including when she slept.

But I would not accompany her to public settings, such as when she gave speeches on-site.

So the other ordinary students did not know of my existence.

Ariel had already completely relaxed in front of me. In the past, she would still hold on to her princess façade before me.

Now she would discuss with me how she liked being played with, what positions she liked, and occasionally she would chat with me about the gossip of domestic nobles.

As expected of Ariel. She understood a great deal in this area. Sometimes I felt like all the island action films I watched in my previous life had been for nothing.

She also liked me helping her pee.

It was just like taking a little child to the bathroom while out and about, holding them while they went.

I asked her, "Do you go to the bathroom like this every time? Have you ever had anyone else help you?"

She glanced at me with her beautiful eyes and said, "If you abandon me, I'll give myself up to despair and find a dozen male attendants to serve me every day."

I felt like she really was capable of doing something like that.

Sigh, as expected of the princess of our Asura Kingdom. She hadn't disgraced our Asura Kingdom one bit.

Of course, Ariel had many more attributes. This was only one of them.

As for her other attributes, I would go into them slowly later, when we encountered them.

Elinalise had already officially started classes over in the regular class. But for some reason, she still came looking for me every few days.

Usually, it was out in the wild. I had already given up on saving myself.

I just treated it as being a Bodhisattva who rescued the suffering and saved the distressed, occasionally bestowing a little rain and dew upon her.

I was really afraid that after we finished one time, she would put on her clothes, toss me a gold coin, and say, "This is the fee for this time."

If that happened, I figured I would break down.

Doris basically occupied my nighttime life, so I would not discuss that too much here.

Time passed day by day. In the Ranoa Magic Kingdom, I also earnestly made up for a pile of magical knowledge I had never learned before.

In my free time, I would also study the "Disturb Magic" Orsted had used back then at the Red Dragon Lower Jaw.

I had known about this special magic before, but I never knew its principle.

Only after personally seeing Orsted use this magic this time did I finally understand the specific principle.

It was actually very simple. You used a surge of mana to interrupt the process of your opponent's magic taking shape while they were casting.

The normal process of casting a spell was:

Gather mana inside the body—release mana to move the corresponding magical elements—form the corresponding spell—apply kinetic force to that spell—cast the spell.

This casting process was not set in stone. For example, the Water Saint Tier spell: Cumulonimbus.

This spell created stormy, thunderous weather.

The released mana acted directly on the magical elements in the sky, and there was no need to apply kinetic force to the spell.

Disturb Magic was, in essence, using a surge of your own mana to interfere with the process by which the opponent released mana to move magical elements.

You interrupted that process. In the end, it caused the opponent's spell to be cut off.

Disturb Magic had no incantation. I did not know whether using Disturb Magic required mastery of chantless casting. But so far, I had yet to hear of anyone other than chantless magic users using Disturb Magic.

The method of casting this spell was more like Ancient Elf magic. So it probably was not Chant Magic created by modern elves.

This spell was extremely effective against magicians who used Chant Magic. After all, no matter how much they shortened their incantations, the moment the opponent was chanting was the best chance to use Disturb Magic to interrupt them.

By contrast, when chantless magic was cast, it did not matter whether the opponent interrupted it or not. If you interrupted me, I could immediately generate another one.

An interrupted spell would not take up the caster's mana value, but the person casting Disturb Magic would consume mana.

And because there was no chant, the opponent also had a very hard time finding the moment when I formed the spell.

My days passed one after another in studying magic and women.

Until one day, while I was serving as Ariel's Guardian Knight in the student council, I unexpectedly received a piece of news.

The student council had received an application. A student named Silent Sevenstar had applied to add a delicacy called rice balls to the cafeteria.

The application included the specific method for making rice balls and even drew a sketch.

Triangular rice balls, with dried seaweed stuck to the bottom. They were basically the same as the Japanese rice balls in my memory.

Of course I knew that Silent Sevenstar was the other transmigrator in this world, Shizuka Nanahoshi.

Ariel was very happy after seeing this application. She even told me:

"Dolin, did you know? In this Ranoa University of Magic, the person I think has the most talent is this Silent Sevenstar.

Her various strange and wondrous ideas often make me see her in a new light, though I've never heard that she has much magical strength.

But her inventions are all especially meaningful. Did you know? That Sukiyaki we ate together last time, and the uniforms we're currently wearing, were both invented by her.

Also, she seems to have many inventions and designs outside the school too, as well as many patents. Because of that, she's very rich now. Merchants who sell mana crystals often bring huge piles of mana crystals to find her.

I tried to win her over too, but unfortunately, she seems to lack nothing, so all my attempts failed."

Ariel seemed to like Sevenstar's inventions very much. Should I also make some inventions like that in the future to make her happy? After thinking about it, forget it. That would make it very easy for her to discover that there was something wrong with my identity.

Before I was strong enough, I did not plan to tell the people around me my secrets.

Seeing that Ariel quickly approved Silent Sevenstar's request and sent an attendant to coordinate with her about the specific method, as well as the matter of how profits would be split after this food was sold in the school cafeteria, an idea suddenly flashed through my mind. Wasn't this a good opportunity to get in contact with Sevenstar? So I enthusiastically took on the task of negotiation.

Ariel did not grow suspicious either. Perhaps she simply did not care how many women I had outside?

The next day, I took the document signed by Ariel and went to the research laboratory where Silent Sevenstar was.

Her laboratory was very remote. The surroundings were basically all plants. This should have been a corner area of the academy.

If I had not asked the gatekeeper for directions in advance, I would never have found this place on my own.

Her laboratory was a three-story building made of stone, cylindrical in shape and a bit like a World War II pillbox.

I knocked on the main door at the entrance and announced my purpose and name.

After about ten minutes, the main door was finally opened.

A woman wearing a dark-blue magic robe, a pure-white mask with no patterns on her face, and black hair opened the door.

She was not very tall, only just about 1.6 meters. When she stood with me, the top of her head only reached my shoulder. Her figure was thin and weak.

In this world, this kind of deep-black hair was something I was seeing for the first time. Most people in this world had brown hair, and many ordinary commoners in Asura had wheat-colored hair. Pure black was a first.

Because she wore a mask, only her brown eyes could be seen. Judging just from these outward features, she really did look like a Japanese person.

Although I had been sent over to transmigrate by a truck in Japan, I was not Japanese. I was a living, breathing Chinese person, so I did not know much Japanese.

I only knew a few simple spoken greetings I had learned from watching anime before, and as for the written characters, I understood even less.

After entering, I followed her up to the second floor.

The first floor seemed to be her warehouse, with many magical tools and magical materials.

The second floor was where she conducted magic research. The third floor was probably her living quarters. Of course, there was no way I would be taken up there for a tour.

Her research room gave me a familiar feeling. Let me think, where had I seen this before?

Oh, right. My magic teacher Bradycond's room. It was basically a classic example of dirty, messy, and awful.

Inside the room were draft papers piled up like small mountains, magic crystals placed in all kinds of boxes, and many strange and bizarre tools.

Apart from leftover cold scraps of food, nothing else was missing. She probably had a dedicated place to eat, otherwise this place would have become a breeding ground for all sorts of flies and cockroaches.

Come to think of it, I didn't think I'd seen a cockroach in this world yet. I had seen flies, though.

Amid a heap of trash, I followed in her footsteps, carefully stepping into her laboratory room one step at a time.

Thankfully, there was a cleared-out patch of space here, with a desk in the middle that was probably used for drawing diagrams.

She found me a chair and placed it to the side, then got ready to talk with me about her rice ball application.

"Are you one of Ariel's newest subordinates? This is my first time seeing you. The split will be the same as before, then—thirty/seventy. The school takes seventy percent, and the remaining thirty percent goes into my account.

"As for how your student council negotiates that seventy-percent share with the school, that's none of my business."

I didn't answer that question. After all, that wasn't why I had come this time. I cleared my throat and searched my memory for a sentence I hadn't heard in over twenty years.

"Nice to meet you. I look forward to working with you."

Silent clearly froze when she heard those words. Though my sentence was far beyond the scope of what she had been thinking about, she probably hadn't heard Japanese in many years either.

But after all, she had only been transported here in the past few years. Her perceived time was completely different from mine.

She quickly reacted and answered me in Japanese. "Likewise. I look forward to working with you too."

I understood that sentence. But I didn't intend to keep conversing with her in Japanese, since I only knew one or two spoken Japanese phrases.

"Sorry, I don't speak Japanese.

"If possible, I'd like to communicate with you in the Human Language here."

"Oh, so you're not Japanese. Sorry, I thought I'd met someone from home, and I lost control of my emotions a little. Then where are you from? Europe? America?"

I didn't lie to her. My English was only around a CET-4 level too, and if I communicated in English for too long, it would be easy to give myself away. So I told her honestly.

"I'm from the Panda Country. I'm not very fluent in either Japanese or English. I figured out you were Japanese from your recipes. After all, in China, no one really likes eating sukiyaki or rice balls.

"We prefer hot pot and all kinds of stir-fried dishes."

At that moment, she took off her mask, revealing a traditional East Asian face. Faces like that were basically impossible to see here. The faces of people over in the Shirone Kingdom leaned more toward the ethnic groups around Thailand and Myanmar, and were still different from East Asian faces.

"All right, I saw your red hair and thought you were European. Did you have this hairstyle back in China too? My original name is Shizuka Nanahoshi. Nice to meet you."

"Oh, my original name is Lin Chen. In private from now on, I'll call you Nanahoshi, and when outsiders are around, I'll call you Silent. By the way, did you originally look the way you do now?"

When Nanahoshi heard that, she tilted her head slightly, as if she didn't understand, but she still answered seriously:

"Yes, this is what I originally looked like. I mean, I looked like this back when I was in Japan."

"All right, then I've figured out the specific reason. Your crossing over is different from mine. I should count as reincarnated. When I was traveling in Japan, I was hit by a truck, and that caused my soul to be transported into this current body.

"You, on the other hand, were directly transported from Japan to this world as a whole person. In essence, your body is still that of an Earthling. So your appearance is still the appearance you had on Earth."

My words made Nanahoshi see the light. She kept thinking about something.

I looked around her room, then knowingly asked the obvious.

"Nanahoshi, since you're doing magical research here, you must already be a very high-level mage by now, right? What magic are you good at?"

That made Nanahoshi a little awkward. She said:

"I can't use magic. When I make magic circles and research magic here, I use the mana provided by mana crystals.

"Can you use magic?"

"Yes, I'm already a King-class mage. Also, in the eyes of ordinary people in this world, my total mana capacity is extremely vast."

Nanahoshi put a hand to her forehead.

"All right, then. It's probably because my whole person was transported over, so there's no mana in my body. I'm currently researching summoning magic. I want to try returning to our original world. Do you have that thought?"

I smiled awkwardly and replied:

"I don't think I can go back. The truck that hit me back then was going at almost eighty kilometers per hour. My original body was probably already smashed to pieces.

"If I could return to the time before my car accident, I'd be more than willing to go back.

"But I'm afraid something that violates logic with that kind of paradox would be very hard to accomplish.

"Still, back on Earth, I have a lot of family and friends. I never even said goodbye to them at the end. If you need it, I can help you go back.

"But I hope that when the time comes, you can help convey the final words I want to say to my relatives."

A sorrowful expression appeared on my face. It wasn't an act. As the only son in my family, my home had been very harmonious. Even though the me on Earth had hobbies like anime, manga, and computer games, my parents had never especially opposed them.

They had only told me to keep things in moderation, and to separate studying from gaming so they wouldn't interfere with each other.

The fact that I had been able to grow up with such a healthy mindset was inseparable from my family.

When I talked about this again, I truly did want to thank my parents, and tell them that their son had been unfilial, unable to fulfill his filial duty before them. I hoped the two elders could live healthily and not feel sad or grieve for me.

When Nanahoshi saw my lonely expression, she felt it deeply too. Before, she had felt that she wasn't someone from this world. After coming to this world, her hair wouldn't grow long, her age wouldn't increase, and even her appearance was not quite the same as the people of this world.

But after seeing my sadness, she also felt a little fortunate. If the one the truck had hit back then had been her, and her soul had crossed over too, then now she wouldn't even have the chance to go back and see her parents one last time. That would probably be a tragedy as well.

"Don't worry, Lin Chen. The time I crossed over was November 22, 2012. As long as there's enough time, I'll definitely go and tell your parents about this. How many years have you been here already? Your parents must not be young anymore, right?"

I suddenly fell into deep thought, my mind turning over and over. Nanahoshi saw that I didn't answer her and waited patiently. But after waiting ten minutes, she still couldn't help asking:

"Lin Chen, what's wrong? Did I ask something I shouldn't have? If I offended you, I apologize."

"No, what you just said suddenly made me think of something."

The day I was hit by the truck should have been November 22, 2014. And the day I was born in this world was the night of November 11, Year 402 of the Dragon God Calendar. I don't know the exact time I was born, because there weren't any clocks; it might already have been past midnight. In other words, the night of November 12, Year 402 of the Dragon God Calendar.

"I've been thinking about this. Why was I, who was transported two years later, sent to this world earlier than you? If the flow of time between the two worlds has absolutely no relation, then if you can be transported back to November 22, 2012, maybe you could stop me two years later from traveling to Japan, and I wouldn't be hit and killed by a truck.

"But if I'm not hit by the truck, then what am I, here in this world now? There are too many paradoxes to consider. That's why I've been thinking about it all this time."

After hearing what I said, Nanahoshi also sank into thought. After a long silence between us, Nanahoshi spoke up and gave her thoughts.

"I think three situations might happen.

"1. I can't return to the previous world at all. The time in the two worlds isn't synchronized. Although you crossed over later, you were sent here by a different crossing mechanism, so your crossing point was earlier than mine.

"That would explain the paradox problem and the time problem.

"2. Even if I do cross back, it'll be to another timeline. When the time comes, if I save you in that timeline, it won't affect you in this world at all. But that would result in there being two of me in that timeline.

"3. If I can cross back, the time might already have passed November 22, 2014, and I won't be able to save you. But then there'd be no way to explain the problem of the flow of time between the two worlds.

"This really is a huge problem."

There were many factors that needed to be verified regarding this issue, and for now, these three explanations from Nanahoshi were indeed the only ones we had.

Actually, I also knew this was the world of a novel, so I vaguely felt there had to be some other explanation.

After arranging with Nanahoshi that I would help her research a method to return in the future, when I was about to leave, I suddenly remembered something and said to her again, "I discovered someone in this school who might also be a person who crossed over. Would you be interested in meeting him together next time?"

Nanahoshi seemed very interested in meeting someone from back home, and gladly accepted my invitation.

Then I left her research room.