“Hmm… then it can’t be helped. It seems the custom has changed recently to where they won’t play with you unless you find toys yourself. I’ll obediently go with the flow of society and bring my own boat.”
Saying that, Sherry found and picked up a small branch that had been lying nearby.
Was she going to play with that? As Phil wondered, Sherry suddenly struck the branch.
Then—
[OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!?]
For some reason, such a scream could be heard from a distant location.
“…What did you do? I feel like I heard a voice that shouldn’t be heard during a peaceful, cheerful afternoon.”
“Was that Ilya-chan just now…?”
“Did she step on a stone or something?”
“Now, now, don’t rush to check the answer. Waiting for the correct answer to be revealed is part of the appeal of quiz shows.”
Because she acted so calm and composed, Phil and the others just tilted their heads and decided to wait obediently.
After ten, twenty seconds passed, they spotted a small shadow flying vigorously toward them from the direction of the mansion they’d come from.
“Who is it?! Which idiot got jealous of this shiny cuticle-filled head and raised their hand?! Listen here, my body is expensive! Even if your eyes widen at the compensation claim, I won’t give you a discount!”
A girl in a maid outfit appeared in a state of fury, stopping abruptly in mid-air.
Why was she so angry? Phil thought that her underwear was about to be visible.
“What are you so angry about, Ilya?”
“It was either you or Phil-Salemabart who hit my head, wasn’t it?! When I turned around, no one was there, so you must have used magic!”
“No, we’ve been here the whole time.”
“Then who hit me?! You two are the only ones in this mansion who can pull off this kind of signature move!”
Having been told that much, Phil finally turned to look at Sherry again.
Then, Sherry raised her finger with a satisfied expression as if to say the prank was a great success.
“How about that, my skill in quickly securing a toy? A princess doesn’t fall behind on worldly trends, you know. Ahem.”
“For now, how about apologizing?”
Phil gave Sherry, who showed no sign of remorse, a deadpan stare.
(But what kind of trick was that…?)
He’d heard from her that Sherry was a mage.
Which meant the current phenomenon could be inferred to be Sherry’s magic.
But how was she able to hit Ilya’s head from such a distance? She wasn’t even in view, and there was no trace of anything being thrown.
All she’d done just before was hit the tree branch.
(The conceivable explanation is magic that can transfer phenomena inflicted on one object to a target? What kind of remote, innovative magic is that? With the catchphrase ‘Enjoy a comfortable war from your home,’ housewives would be overjoyed.)
In other words, if Phil’s guess was correct, it was something that could launch attacks on a target remotely.
It was simple, but even without explanation, one could understand how incredible this was.
After all, it meant “I’m in a safe zone but can properly attack my opponent.”
From the opponent’s perspective, they’d be continuously attacked until they found an enemy whose location they didn’t know—there was nothing more unreasonable and terrifying than that.
(Well, there are probably restrictions and drawbacks, but just the demonstration alone proves it’s troublesome as hell.)
Phil looked at Sherry with admiration.
Meanwhile, Sherry, who was receiving that admiration, was being confronted by the floating Ilya.
“Was it you who hit my head?! Just because you’re a busty older woman doesn’t mean you can get jealous of pure cuteness and raise your hand! You’re the worst!”
“Now, now, don’t get so angry. From an outsider’s perspective, this scene of confronting a princess could be considered disrespectful, you know?”
“Grr! What’s with this Holstein?! Don’t you know what color remorse is supposed to be?!”
“Alright, now that I’ve secured a toy, let’s play right away.”
“The toy is me?! This is the first time since that woman that someone’s been this rude on first meeting!”
“How rude. I only gave you a flying knee kick to the face.”
“You get that your current statement is more rude and cruel, right?!”
That said, in Kahlua’s case, they’d been enemies on the battlefield, so the situation was different.
It probably didn’t fall into the category of rudeness.
“W-Well, calm down, Ilya-chan. This person didn’t mean any harm—”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean any harm, but I did want a toy.”
“That’s all malice, you bastard!”
Ilya rolled up her sleeves, looking like she was about to start a fight at any moment.
Lily clung to her waist, desperately trying to stop her, but there was no sign of her anger subsiding.
That was probably because Sherry was looking at Ilya with interest, hand on her chin, showing no sign of remorse.
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“However, is this what Ilya-Iladen’s magic is like…”
“You know about Ilya?”
“Well, in our small country compared to the Kingdom, hiring mages is commonplace. Mages who sell their power for money are on a certain list.”
The Kingdom was a country with overwhelmingly greater national power than the surrounding nations. Naturally, that included military power, and the Kingdom kept mages within its own borders and sent them to war.
But other countries were different. Few countries could supplement mages domestically, and most hired unaffiliated mages like Ilya with money to gain an advantage in war.
Thinking about it that way, there was nothing strange about Sherry knowing of Ilya’s existence.
“Hmm, from what I can see, you’re floating rather than flying. Which means it’s not something roundabout like using water for buoyancy, but simply gravity seems to be your theme.”
“Wh-What…”
Ilya, being stared at intently, began to be a bit wary.
“Probably, you have a wide range of applications regarding gravity. You can adjust direction, weight, force, and so on. The fact that there’s currently no abnormality in my body means you can manipulate gravity in a very small area around yourself. If you can perform such delicate gravity manipulation, the range could be extended much further. Roughly a hundred-meter radius?”
“Stop it, would you? Stop seriously exposing my magic!”
Rather, one should be amazed at Sherry’s insight in grasping all that in an instant.
This time it was Ilya who was exposed, but they didn’t know when they themselves might be exposed.
Phil and Kahlua watched the two and decided in their hearts, “Let’s not use magic in front of this person.”
“Sorry, you see, [Inquiry] is my ideal. When I see someone else’s magic, I can’t help but want to expose it. Really, intellectual curiosity is troublesome.”
“Phil-Salemabart! I don’t like this person! Especially how she says it like it’s someone else’s fault without showing any remorse!”
“Easy, easy, calm down. Either way, the other party is the owner of carriage horses that bow their heads. Don’t let it splash onto me or I’ll be turned into a carriage horse too.”
“That’s right, calm down a bit, Ilya. If you act like that, combined with your appearance, you’ll look your actual age, you know?”
“Are you saying I’m a child? I’ll crush you!”
Yap yap yap yap. Ilya began to quarrel with both Phil and Kahlua, picking fights with them.
Even though she’d been confronting Sherry just moments ago, her unsubsiding anger had turned toward the two of them.
As a result, Lily and Sherry were left out of the loop.
“U-Um… Sherry-sama…”
With the three occupied elsewhere, Lily called out to Sherry beside her.
“What is it, Princess Lily?”
“Um, are you… also a mage, Sherry-sama?”
At her hesitant manner, Sherry tilted her head.
“I don’t know why you’re so nervous, but if it’s an answer to your question, then yes. I’m a mage whose ideal is Inquiry.”
“I-I see…”
Timidly, Lily gave an indescribable response after receiving the answer.
As if she still had something to ask, her mouth kept opening and closing busily.
Seeing Lily’s state, Sherry showed an interested expression once again.
“It seems you’re not so much shy as lacking confidence in yourself.”
“Eh?”
“I can tell from our interactions so far that you have communication skills. Seeing how you can naturally stand beside me even though we just met, you probably don’t have much resistance to talking with people. So then, why are you so nervous?”
Sherry crouched down and peered into Lily’s face.
“There are two main reasons people get nervous: either they’re not used to conversation, or they lack confidence in their words and actions. If we eliminate the former, the answer naturally presents itself.”
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