"...!"
Dolores's surprised eyes met mine.
Since it seemed like it would hurt if I got stung, I had no choice but to avoid it.
Girik girik.
Look at this, even now the scorpion tail is twisting and getting angry.
So it was a time when I naturally expected her to be angry or scold me.
Smile.
She's smiling?
I got the feeling that the corner of her mouth... was strangely being pulled upward.
Why is she smiling? Could it be that she's so angry she's smirking?
Just as I was analyzing her expression and pondering for a moment.
"You rude little brat...!"
The Instructor, who had been bowing his head next to Dolores, was the first to lunge at me.
"How dare you, in front of the Duke!"
He raised his hand as he approached me.
A smash from top to bottom, diagonally downward, aimed exactly at my left cheek.
The trajectory is perfect. I'm definitely going to get hit.
I tightly shut my eyes.
However.
Thud
That hand did not touch my cheek.
"You must have been very surprised? I'm sorry...."
Dolores, holding the arm of the Instructor who had been about to strike, looked at me and smiled elegantly.
It seems she saved me once. I hurriedly bowed my head.
Because Eric's expression behind me was unusual. It was the face of someone who had seen a ghost.
"I'm sorry."
"No, it's an unfamiliar place, so it can happen. You can be surprised."
After reassuring me, Dolores looked at the Instructor.
The Instructor, whose hand was caught, turned pale and bowed his head.
"Hah... hah, Duke...."
"The child must have been surprised. It's his first time experiencing this, isn't it? Please don't scold him."
"Ah... but still...!"
"...Please don't?"
Dolores smiled with her eyes once more and asked gently.
"Yes...! As you command...."
Then the Instructor bowed his head deeply.
Dolores took a step closer to me, bent her knees, and met my eyes.
Is she going to pat me again? It wasn't bad, though.
"It's because I'm curious, child."
She gently placed her hand on my shoulder and whispered.
"...I've become more curious."
Grrr. Grr.
This time, the tail began to slowly, very slowly approach behind my right ear.
I already avoided it once, anyway.
I subtly pulled my head to the left.
Swish. Grrr....
Then the tail instantly returned to the opposite side.
I slowly pushed my head to the right again.
Swish.
The tail also came to the right again.
"......."
Is she playing with me?
Dolores was watching the entire process without a word.
The hand on my shoulder was still there.
Her expression was still meaningful.
No, it seemed a little deeper than before.
Okay.
...So it ends when I stay still.
Fine, let's think of it as getting one sting.
I eventually gave up and tightly shut my eyes. Then I slowly stretched my neck toward the direction where the creepy sound was coming from.
"Yeah, I understand."
Dolores murmured quietly as if satisfied.
Rustle.
The tickling sensation on my neck disappeared.
Dolores slowly removed her hand and stood up.
"Magic."
And turning her head so everyone could hear.
"Lionel, you have a talent for Magic."
She added clearly.
"And quite a lot of it."
It seemed I had a talent for Magic.
***
The other cadets all returned to the barn.
Except me.
Eric's expression just before he was dragged away lingers in my mind.
He seemed a bit sullen, or maybe he'd gotten attached already.
Or maybe it was just because he couldn't eat.
"Hahaha! This is the first time the Duke has personally picked you out like this!"
The Instructor, who had been glaring at me as if he would kill me when I was dodging the tail and turning my head around, now smiles brightly as if that never happened and says.
"I have something to discuss, so shall I have you washed?"
I already washed, though.
Apparently it didn't smell very good to Dolores's nose.
Thanks to that, I ended up entering the adults' shower room alone.
Splash....
"...Ah."
Pouring water scooped with a ladle over my head, I thought.
I have no idea at all.
I definitely was not stung by the tail.
Yet she said I had a talent for Magic.
The kids in front of me all received their evaluation after being stung.
If placing a hand on someone was the aptitude test, then it should have already ended on the first attempt.
And now, there is one very unsettling point.
"Did I stand out?"
If my ten years of experience as a web novel reader taught me anything.
Standing out early to a clearly powerful authority figure usually doesn't end well.
If I were the protagonist, maybe. But I don't even know if I'm the protagonist.
If I had outstanding abilities, maybe, but that's not certain.
[Hey, your heart is beating too fast? It's increased by 23% from usual]
[You're not excited because she's pretty, are you?]
"Shut up."
[Kyaaah!! You're not answering!? You must really be excited!!!]
"Be quiet and go find some information."
Whoosh....
I picked up the ladle again.
Let's wash first, think later.
When I came out of the bath, clothes completely different from what I had been wearing were neatly folded.
I wondered if they had even applied scented oil, but it wasn't that much.
"There, you can go into that cabin."
The Instructor pointed to a pretty-looking building.
"Absolutely yes, yes. Got it? You must never go against the Duke's mood."
"Yes."
He kept urging me.
Worry was evident on his face.
I don't know if it was for me or for himself.
"But I have a question. Do all the Magic Class kids go to a cabin like this?"
Wondering if I was overreacting.
The Instructor hesitated for a moment.
"...This is the first time I've seen a private meeting."
"Ah."
I nodded appropriately and headed toward the annex.
So it's the first time.
This is crazy.
Creak.
As I opened the pretty door and entered, the first thing that wrapped around my nose was a fragrant scent.
Since what I had been smelling until just now were rather inappropriate odors, it might feel even better by contrast.
Enough to make my head slightly hazy.
The inside was quite spacious.
It was just like a rich family's villa.
But in a medieval style.
On the table in the center were three teacups.
And on the opposite side.
"You're here."
Dolores was sitting.
And next to her stood the short-haired child who had been sticking close to her all along.
"Hello."
I bowed my head.
"Sit down?"
When I silently pulled out the chair opposite and sat, Dolores set down her teacup, looked at me, and smiled.
"What did the Instructor say?"
"...He said it was a good opportunity."
"Yeah. And?"
"He said it was the first time he'd seen a private meeting...."
"Yeah, and? What else?"
Ah, what is this. Now the only thing left is that.
Just say yes, yes, and don't go against her mood.
I tried to gloss over it.
Dolores, resting her chin on her hand, had an unusual expression as she looked at me.
You know that thing? When someone who knows the answer deliberately asks.
If I said there was nothing here, it seemed like it would become troublesome.
Let's just be honest.
"He just said to say yes, yes."
"Are you going to do that?"
"Of course not. I will only put truth in my answers."
"Pfft. Your answer isn't childlike."
She hit the mark.
Dolores covered her mouth with the back of her hand and laughed softly.
"From now on, no lying in front of me. Understood?"
"Yes."
"You told me honestly. Good job."
Dolores held out a candy wrapped in silver paper to me.
As expected, she had known everything and was testing me.
I received the candy with relief, but.
The little girl standing diagonally next to me opened her eyes wide and reached out her hand.
"......!"
My candy was confiscated.
She gulped it down.
"......Sorry. That was the last one."
Dolores slightly frowned and looked at the child.
"Hey, you have plenty at home."
The little brat turned her head away without answering and started crunching on it.
I don't think much of it. That's just how kids that age are.
Crazy for candy. And a blockhead.
Clap.
"Then, shall we get to the main point?"
Dolores clapped her hands together and looked at me.
"I said earlier that you have a talent for Magic. Why do you think I said that?"
"......."
If you ask me that.
"I don't really know."
"It didn't touch you, right?"
"...Yes."
I was never stung.
Hearing that, Dolores smiled brightly.
"That's it."
"What?"
"Ordinary people."
She continued slowly.
"They can't know. Because they don't know."
"......."
"Whether it touched or not, they can't know anything. Because they can't see it."
I retraced the meaning of those words.
In other words.
The kids who stood in front earlier and got stung without blinking weren't because they were fearless.
It means it was because they couldn't see anything from the start?
But she was surprised because I dodged quickly as if I could see it?
"...You can't see it?"
That fierce-looking tail.
"Yeah."
Dolores nodded and picked up her teacup.
Swish!
At the same time, a scorpion tail shot out from her left hand.
I reflexively pulled my chair back.
The tail twisted in the air and stopped right in front of my nose.
"......You're afraid of it. Why is that?"
"It looks scary."
"...Is that so? What does it look like?"
"Uh... a scorpion tail."
"...!"
Then, with my answer.
The short-haired child, who had been expressionless all along, contorted her face.
"Oh my."
Dolores covered her mouth and glanced at the child.
"Hey Ruby, he says it's a scorpion tail."
Dolores teased the child as if it was fun.
"Seems he can even see what it looks like properly."
She called the little child Ruby.
"Our Ruby isn't there yet~"
Grin grin.
Ruby, seemingly very angry about something, bit her lip.
Stomp stomp stomp.
Without a word, she stepped heavily and approached Dolores.
"Really, is what he said true? Is it a tail?"
Her voice was slightly raised.
"Yes."
Dolores smiled and answered blandly.
Ruby's face turned red in an instant.
Thump thump thump!
She stomped her feet hard and went outside.
The door slammed shut.
"......."
I watched that scene.
"...Ah, I'm sorry. It seems I did something wrong."
I apologized.
"No, not at all."
Dolores picked up her teacup and spoke calmly.
"What?"
"Ruby didn't know. What it looked like."
Dolores smiled and continued her explanation.
"She can see the shape, but she doesn't know exactly what it looks like. She was trying hard to see it... but you saw it first, so she must have gotten angry."
Ah.
So she was upset because I saw something she couldn't see and was working hard to see.
Apparently, the tail's form wasn't easy to see.
Then what am I?
Judging by the situation, that child must be exceptionally talented in Magic. Since Dolores personally brings her around.
But it made sense that she'd be upset that some dung-water boy could see what she couldn't.
Honestly, I don't know either.
"Anyway, that's amazing? How did you know what a scorpion looks like? This is a pastoral area... you'd only know scorpions if you went to a desert region...."
This is bad.
So the appearance of a scorpion isn't common knowledge.
"I think I saw it in a book."
"......."
Hearing my answer, Dolores slightly raised the corner of her mouth.
She didn't particularly look like she believed me.
"Well, whatever... that's not important."
After a brief silence.
"...What happens to me now?"
...Actually, this was what I was most curious about.
"You...."
Dolores set down her teacup and looked at me.
"...What do you want to do?"
***
"......That's a cranky hobby."
I was on my way back to the barracks from the cabin. I retraced the conversation that had just happened.
"I don't confine children with real talent. I let them do what they want."
"What about the Magic Class kids?"
"...Not everyone can climb the Tower."
She hesitated for a moment, then continued.
"But the territory needs workers. Children who will first learn the control system and receive basic training."
In other words, the Magic Class was not created from the start with the intention of raising mages.
It was a place to gather children who could work in the territory and give them a basic control system.
If talent happened to bloom in the process, great; if not, whatever.
It doesn't seem like a bad system. It's better than becoming a surplus human.
Just like me.
"So, what do you want to do?"
My answer was to return to the barracks.
Just.
"Um... is it okay if I don't have to clean up the dung?"
"......Are you serious?"
I was scared for a moment, but in the end, it meant I didn't have to do it.
It seemed she hadn't intended to make me do it in the first place.
There were two reasons I didn't go to the Magic Class.
First, as Dolores said, there was no value in it.
Second, the way they looked at me earlier was unusual.
I didn't want to join in and do that ridiculous thing.
In the end, even if only for a while, I was able to rest.
Tap tap tap!
"Good work!"
The Instructor patted my back and encouraged me.
He went into the building for a moment to see Dolores and came back in a very good mood.
"Did I say next week? Until then, rest well! No... don't rest too much, do what you need to do while resting!"
I was guided to a room completely different from the morning barn.
"If you need anything, tell me! The Duke said to look after your convenience."
The Instructor patted my back a couple more times and left.
Before opening the door to my room.
Dolores's words to me came back to mind.
"......."
-What I want from you is nothing else.
-Next week, show me something interesting. Do everything you want to do. That's what Magic is.
-We will stay in the annex for a week.
She didn't give any hints.
I wondered if this was how she raised talent, but whatever.
If I really have talent, it'll work out somehow....
Anyway, I became a week-long unemployed person.
Not having to work... is very welcome.
I opened the barracks door.
It's a single room.
I'm deeply moved. I never even got to use one in the army.
The other lodgings I saw while passing by seemed almost worse than a guerrilla training ground.
The bed is a wooden bed, but.
I'm just grateful.
"......."
I sat on the edge of the bed and looked out the window.
The night wind came in. Carrying the not-so-nostalgic smell of cow dung.
Ugh.
"Wow......."
It's sinking in.
I really came to the Otherworld.
The body I possessed is a little kid.
I don't even know what the talent given to me is.
The only thing in my hands is a crazy little sister AI... no, is that even the right way to put it?
Ah, right.
"Hey, are you there?"
I called out into the empty air.
Then.
[Crawling complete.]
"What?"
I jumped up.
There are only two cases when that thing corrects its speech to normal.
Either I ordered something.
Or it actually accomplished something.
"Uh, so... I mean."
I asked it.
"Show me everything right now."
As if it had been waiting, it began explaining something in a stream.
[First, I succeeded in analyzing the nearest network node.]
[Crawling target: Inner Tower Community board.]
[I forcibly created an account to connect, so don't ask about the process.]
"...Inner Tower Community?"
That thing that suddenly came to mind.
The voice I heard in the training ground earlier.
"The absolute ruler of the 5th floor! The Duke...!"
5th floor. Tower.
Tower?
Could it be a world where you climb the Tower?
Normally, an AI that has crawled a community holds an ocean of information.
Moreover, the site it analyzed is definitely of this world.
If so.
"...What is this place?"
[First, before explaining, there were a lot of parts that were common-sense incomprehensible, you know?]
[So I decided to neatly omit those parts!]
As expected of my 200-dollar little sister who can think!!
So it means she deleted things I couldn't understand, like Otherworld Transmigration.
It's much better than grabbing my head and screaming because I can't understand.
[Below is a summary of the current world's basic structure.]
[Focus on data analysis of the current situation.]
[This world is a fantasy world formed around Tower climbing.]
"......."
Tower, climbing.
[There exists the Inner Tower Community that qualified Tower climbers can join, and the Outer Tower Community for the general public.]
[I judged that the Inner Tower Community side, including the Wiki, has overwhelmingly higher data quality.]
[Based on that site, I completed all analysis including the Wiki.]
"Wiki?!"
I stood up from my seat.
Wiki. You just said Wiki.
If it's the Wiki I know... no way....
[At this point, I can bring you almost all the information you want....]
It paused for a moment.
[I'm in that state hehe]
[😏]
It returned to the annoying but competent appearance I knew.
[Tell me what you're curious about first]
[Dolores? Pretty sister?]
[No, I can't do this. I'll just recommend for you.]
[1. Tower basic structure and floor overview.]
[2. Mana operation principles.]
[3. Dolores's Wiki information.]
[Hurry and choose!]
This.
"...Dolores first."
It seemed more doable than I thought.
I smiled.
[Hmph, I knew it....]