Vol 1 Chapter 27 – Thirty Minutes Out

“We should arrive in about thirty minutes.”

“The town’s still okay for now, right?”

“Yes—the evacuation alert has gone out, and the Demon King’s army is still roughly twenty kilometers away.”

“Utaki-san… you’re actually kind of like a real Hero right now…”

“I am a proper Hero, for the record!”

Rito said it so casually, like it wasn’t rude at all. I don’t feel like one, and I’m not sure I believe it myself—but I am the Hero. You’re the one who told me that in the first place.

“Anyway—Pakira, you slept solidly for an hour and a half.”

“Alright, alright, this is about the crystal water, aye.”

She moved with that liquid, unhurried grace that was pure cat—but her face was all fox—and then she’d turn around and be this insufferably lazy creature who gave off the energy of a man on the first week of retirement. She only ever perked up when she smelled food. And speaking of which—where did the crystal water explanation go?

“First things first—our species, the Vanikixos, numbers only a few hundred individuals left.”

“You’re endangered?”

“To put it simply, aye. Our tails and fangs fetch a price. And our intelligence is considerably higher than that of other beast-kin, so plenty of people want us as slaves.”

Aria-san had mentioned that talking with the Vanikixos was never boring—but the reason Pakira’s name had come up as a specific individual in the first place was probably that there were just so few of them left.

Which meant Pakira wasn’t a pet at all—more like an equal to Rito, or maybe something closer to a mutual arrangement.

“Beast-kin noses are sharp. The crystal formed in certain types of soil doesn’t absorb mana—and detecting that scent is beyond what humanoid species can manage.”

“Even Aria-san?”

“She walks on two legs, doesn’t she?”

Don’t ask me why. That’s just how it works.

That’s what Pakira said. “That’s just how it works.” I’d heard that line more than once now.

It seemed like there were plenty of creatures in this world—not just humans—who didn’t fully understand their own biology. There were miracle survival stories, sure, but the explanations for things like magical aptitude and special abilities were all over the place. The worldbuilding had some serious gaps.

“What about Elena and Titania-san?”

“I have no magical aptitude, so anything to do with magic is completely beyond me.”

“My grandmother was of the long-eared folk, so that I can sense the presence or absence of mana to some degree.”

“And picking all of that apart by scent—that’s what a high-intelligence beast-kin does.”

“Question. I’ve heard that the biology of the Vanikixos is still largely a mystery.”

“That just means it’s beyond what humans can understand, I expect. There’s nothing unusual about us.”

Pakira said it without blinking, completely deadpan. Rito, for his part, had started nodding off—head bobbing in that tell-tale rhythm: zero situational awareness, this guy.

Come to think of it, I still didn’t have a clear sense of where the line was between the Demon King’s people and beast-kin like Pakira—something to ask about later.

“So—what exactly is the connection between the Vanikixos and crystal water?”

“Impatient men don’t do well in the bedchamber, I hear.”

“Nobody asked you! And not that it’s anything to brag about, but I’ll have you know I’m completely pure!”

Vol 1 Chapter 28 – Understanding and Acceptance Are Two Different Things

“Start from the beginning—we Vanikixos are endangered. But identifying crystal by scent is impossible for any beast-kin not on our level.”

“Right.”

“Of the beast-kin on our level who can speak the human tongue, only the dragon-kin remain.”

“Hold on—dragon-kin exist?”

“We’ll get to that later. Now—crystal water. It’s a pure mineral with no mana absorption, rendered into liquid through a special process. Naturally, the purpose is to take it into the body.”

That tracked. Crystals—minerals in general—normally existed as jewelry or currency, something valuable in and of themselves as objects. Using the actual substance as an ingredient in something else hadn’t really crossed my mind.

Though right—there were mages in this world. So naturally, there’d be applications along those lines, especially if mana-infused minerals were already in common circulation.

“Now, to absorb it into the body, a specific kind of enchantment is required. You’d need someone with magical aptitude—like Aria—to do it.”

“So that’s why Maronie-san told us to bring it to Aria-san.”

“Any mage or sorcerer would do, but without that enchantment, the crystal water doesn’t do much. That’s what makes it rare.”

Detection requiring beast-kin. Activation requires someone with magical aptitude. What an impossibly rare item. And we drank it.

For the record—I’m the type of person who hoards Potions until the final boss, never uses the Last Elixir, and agonizes over one-of-a-kind artifact-upgrade items until the credits roll. I will leave it to your imagination what this information was doing to me.

“So what does it actually do? I don’t know the details either, honestly.”

“Titania—what do Utaki and Elena smell like to you?”

“Huh? Well—smell isn’t quite the right word, but there’s something… off. Different from before. Up until recently, I sensed no mana from either of them.”

“Titania-san—does that mean you’re sensing mana from us now?”

“You haven’t noticed it yourselves? Those with magical aptitude have a certain… I’m not sure how to describe it. A scent, an aura, something like that—”

“Hey. Pakira. Don’t tell me the crystal water is—”

“Sharp, aren’t thee.”

Oh no. Oh no no no no no.

If my instinct was right, then Aria-san had given us something extraordinary—and she’d done it half for her own amusement.

This wasn’t a “well, whatever” situation. This was nowhere near a “well, whatever” situation. I felt sweat slide down my back as I waited for Pakira to continue.

The sound of those distinctive jagged teeth pressing together echoed in my ears, layered over Aria-san’s laughter.

“Crystal water is a mana-absorption agent—and a forced magical aptitude supplement. In other words, the two of you have become mages, semi-permanently and without any training whatsoever. Mind that thee don’t get swallowed up by the mana before thee learn to control it.”

“What kind of route leads to cheat-level nonsense like this?! Elena!! I am begging you—please, change the route!“

“I keep telling you, I can’t! You think I don’t want to?!”

And just like that, a new crisis had materialized before we’d even reached the Demon King’s army.

Getting swallowed up by mana. What does that even mean?! I hate this world!!