Chapter 35 – Sister!
It wasn’t that difficult to make bricks for the walls.
All you have to do is mix straw with the fine soil made with magic, shape it into a brick, and dry it well.
Like children making mud cookies, the mud mixed with straw was rolled with wind to form a rectangle, and then it was dried rapidly using the magic of blowing hot air, the flower, bird, and moon.
Due to the cold weather of the Vulkan Mountains, where it is always below freezing, it is impossible to easily make bricks without a wizard.
Originally, it would have been necessary to use bricks that were airlifted from other places at high cost, or to temporarily trim rocks and use them as bricks.
There was a reason why Eva came to me first in order to repair the wall.
“Whoa-“
After wiping the sweat from my forehead, I looked around.
The news of my bet with Dorothea had spread around me before I knew it, and I was watching the soldiers making bricks.
I seriously contemplated whether this would be worth watching by hundreds of people, but when I thought about it, there were extremely few entertainment options here.
There are no famous minstrels coming to consolation performances, no passing gypsies stopping by, and neither is there a red-light district where you can hug a woman.
Since there was no place to spend even if I received a full salary, I sent money to my family back home or used it as stakes when soldiers gambled.
In such a situation, two mages known as 5th tier or higher have a confrontation?
Even if it’s like me, I’m running out of the barracks.
‘Now that it’s like this, it must be hard to lose openly.’
If there are so many eyes looking at one or two, the burden increases.
In order to show a very natural and dramatically losing production, it was necessary to show the appearance of making bricks evenly until the middle.
I secretly peeked at Dorothea next to me to see what she was doing.
“Pandemonium Krise!”
While using the mana he had saved last night, he was actively using his long-term skill, flame-type magic.
‘It will turn.’
Do you usually use 5th tier magic or higher for chores like this?
Dorothea, whose desire to compete was properly ignited, was no different from a runaway locomotive.
From the very beginning, the bricks made of lumps were subjected to post-processing with ultra-high heat, and hard bricks were being stamped out like baking pottery.
‘… Why is the plasma cutter here?’
It was a production method that I could not easily follow as I majored in wind magic.
At first, I wanted to see if they were going to be equal to some extent, but after the middle, at some point, the gap naturally began to widen.
At this point, I felt I was losing the bet, so I didn’t try too hard, but I just gave up and started making bricks.
After the promised hour passed, the winner of the match was decided.
Eva, who pretended to be her judge, looked at the bricks that Dorothea and I had piled on the floor, then she smiled and put her hand on Dorothea’s side.
“312 versus 527, Dorothea-sama’s victory!”
“Yatsu!!”
As soon as her victory is confirmed, Dorothea likes to jump in place and celebrate.
And for Dorothea, the soldiers who were watching the brick-making showdown clapped their hands.
It seemed like he was flattering himself for fear of offending the division commander, but it was quite sincere, so it was clear that the soldiers here really liked Dorothea.
If Eva built her popularity for her benevolence and kindness, Dorothea is popular for her cute appearance, which reminds her of her sister or daughter she left behind in her hometown.
Is this the military high school girl or something?
I brushed off my dusty hands and approached Dorothea.
“Congratulations, Commander-in-Chief.”
Saying that, I held out his right hand, and Dorothea, who had been staring at my hand, smiled like a cat and smirked.
“Uh huh, should I say noona?”
My stomach hurt from that unlucky face, but I had a promise, so I smiled and replied calmly.
“Yes, sister.”
Then, the smile on Dorothea’s lips grew thicker.
“Yes! It can’t be helped that the younger brother is worse at magic than the older sister! My older sister will understand everything!”
As he said that, he stepped up and tapped my shoulder, which infuriated me.
‘If I had known it would be like this, I would have worked harder.’
I regretted it belatedly, but the bus had already passed.
While feeling humiliated for some reason, Dorothea smiled happily and spoke to the soldiers everywhere.
“Guys! It feels good! Eat and drink to your heart’s content tonight! I allow it!”
“Waaaaa!”
“Commander-in-chief! The best!”
“Dorotea! Dorothea!”
Everyone chanted her name surrounded by hundreds of soldiers, probably not even paying attention to me.
It looked completely out of place, so I looked at it as if it was absurd, then sighed deeply and asked Camilla, who was standing behind her like a shadow.
“Let’s go back.”
Then Camilla nodded her head slightly.
“You seem to have made the right choice.”
I decided to go back to the dorm and rest after Dorothea Cole, which seemed like the entire unit was a fan club.
***
When using magic, basically two types of mana are used.
External mana and internal mana.
The efficiency varies depending on the breathing method that the person has learned, but no matter how great a wizard is, since the mana in the body does not recover quickly, it cannot use magic indefinitely.
If I were to express it as a specific number of times,
The 6th level could use 3 times, the 5th level could use 10 times, and the 4th level could use 30 times.
Of course, these numbers are not absolute.
In the case of magic using ether, an element that highly compresses mana, it is powerful, but consumes three times more mana than normal elemental magic, so in my case, after using Fat Man once, my mana runs out and I have to rest for a few hours. Only did
Anyway, the reason why I suddenly explained this is because I was suffering from severe mana depletion after the bet with Dorothea ended.
No matter how great a wizard I was, there was a limit unless my mana was infinite, and unless I had to carry batteries like yesterday, it took several hours for my mana to recover.
A representative symptom of mana depletion is lethargy.
The drowsiness and the strange sense of exhaustion that drained her whole body were not good at any time.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, well. It was like this a lot in the past.”
Steel is said to become harder the more times it is beaten, and he was abused by Master.
I don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing now, but I don’t think the lanky old man would have died just because he’d been away for a little over a year.
If the one and only disciple enlisted in the Demon King’s Army, they would start smashing his back.
As she went into her quarters, supported by Camilla, her mind was relieved.
“Let’s rest here for a while until we have dinner.”
“Yes.”
At some point in her life, she naturally lets go of her and her words, but she is calling Camilla comfortable with her because she doesn’t point out anything about her.
But thinking about it, she might be uncomfortable, so I sneakily asked Camilla.
“How old is Camilla by any chance?”
Then, Camilla tilted her head as if she couldn’t understand the intention of her question, but she answered in a calm voice.
“I’m thirty-five.”
“…”
He is eight years older than me at twenty-seven.
Although demons originally had an average lifespan of 1.5 times longer than humans, that did not reduce the number of years they had lived.
I casually looked at her and asked.
“Are you uncomfortable with me talking casually?”
Then Camilla shook her head.
“I’m a maid. Rather, it’s more uncomfortable to hear respectful words from the attendant. So, you can call me comfortably from now on.”
“Then I’m glad…”
As I let out a sigh of relief and wiped my surprised chest, Camilla suddenly spoke her words.
“If you’ll excuse me, could you please call me sister?”
“…Suddenly?”
“You don’t have to do it if it’s inconvenient. It’s just a personal wish.”
“No, no. It’s not that difficult.”
As I said that, I tried to stop Camilla from bowing her head, then cleared her voice, but when she tried to speak, she felt something ashamed.
Compared to what she had done without hesitation to Dorothea earlier, the word sister did not come out so easily.
Is it the difference between joking around and being serious?
After all, there was no point in calling someone my sister at this age.
I licked my lips that didn’t come off easily, but I could barely speak in a voice like an ant crawling in.
“…Sister.”
Then Camilla strode up to me, and she asked from a closer distance than usual.
“Tell me one more time. I couldn’t hear you.”
“…Sister?”
Then Camilla muttered with a strangely satisfied expression.
“It’s quite a strange feeling. To be called an older sister by someone.”
“No, I don’t think it’s necessary to give it that much meaning.”
“I’m an only child.”
As Camilla said, she glanced at me sitting on the bed, and then she returned to her original position.
“Shouldn’t we go ahead with the next class sooner than that?”
I hardened my expression involuntarily at Camilla’s request, which came at a completely unexpected timing.
“Now?”
“Yes. Now.”
As Camilla said that, she lifted the hem of her skirt with both hands.
“I was excited because Kaldrash-nim called me older sister.”
A drop of clear liquid trickled down her slightly exposed thigh.
