54: The Harem Life

The atmosphere that morning was rather strange. Ai's gaze kept shifting between the three of them as she tried to figure out what had happened the previous night while she was asleep.

However, none of the three seemed willing to explain what had happened.

'I was so close! One day... I'll get my revenge!' Kana viciously bit into her sandwich while glaring at Rory as if she were biting into her instead. Meanwhile, the demigoddess calmly hummed to herself while drinking her coffee, seemingly oblivious to the waves of hatred being directed at her.

"Clean up your plates when you finish." Natsuo used water magic to wash his plate before standing up. He then walked out of the campsite and out of the forest alone.

Every day, Natsuo trained his magic by repeatedly emptying his mana and then replenishing it, gradually increasing his mana capacity through the cycle. He had more than a hundred Magic Potions with him, and the magical energy in this world was abundant as well, giving him everything he needed to keep training without interruption.

Natsuo felt that if he continued working hard for a few more months, his mana capacity would reach a point where he could comfortably use Advanced Magic without constantly monitoring his reserves and worrying about running out of mana.

"Where are you going?" Kana asked when she saw him leaving.

"Going to train," Natsuo replied without turning around.

"Wait, I'll come with you! I'll show you my Explosion Magic!" Kana immediately stood up and chased after him.

"You're going to cast magic? I want to see!" Ai also jumped to her feet.

"Magic? Sounds fun. I want to take a look too!" Rory put down her coffee cup and stood up.

"Sure, you can." Natsuo stopped. He had wanted to refuse, but when he met Ai's bright, hopeful gaze, he changed his mind. "But not before you clean up the dishes you used!"

...

Standing in the barren land at the edge of the forest, the three of them watched Kana proudly chant her cringey spell incantation.

"Darkness blacker than black and darker than dark, I beseech thee, combine with my deep crimson."

"The time of awakening cometh."

"..."

"Explosion!"

A thick beam of red and orange light descended from the sky and landed on the ground far away from them. The moment it hit, it erupted into a large explosion that obliterated a huge section of the earth, leaving behind a deep crater.

The resulting shockwave raced toward them, making their clothes flutter from the force of the blast.

"Huff! Huff! How was it? Cool, right?" Kana dropped to the ground, completely exhausted and too tired to move. Even so, she stared at Natsuo with a smug grin. "I told you that Explosion Magic is the strongest magic!"

"Yeah, it is indeed strong." Natsuo looked at her with a strange expression. The magic was undeniably powerful, but why the fuck did she have to say that cringeworthy chuunibyou incantation?!

'Too bad I missed the chance to record her.'

"Kana-san, you really are strong!" Ai ran over to Kana's side and helped her lean against her. She looked at her with bright, excited eyes.

"Sorry, but I can't teach you the spell." Facing Ai's eager gaze, Kana became embarrassed and looked away, speaking in a low voice.

It wasn't that Kana didn't want to teach her Explosion Magic. The problem was that Ai didn't have any mana to begin with. Back then, Kana hadn't had any mana either. She had only gained it after receiving Explosion Magic as a reward and using her Shop Points to increase her mana capacity.

"Ehh?! Why?!" Ai dropped Kana onto the ground and exclaimed.

"Why did you drop me?!"

"S-sorry!"

Rory watched the three of them and felt that the people from beyond the Gate were really interesting. She couldn't help but become curious about what their world was like.

Natsuo placed the powerless Kana on a chair and had Ai stand beside her before walking about a hundred meters away. Once he had put enough distance between himself and the girls, he began training his magic.

When he had first started training, Natsuo could barely cast ten or so Elementary Spells before running out of mana. Now, however, his mana capacity had grown several times larger. If he simply spammed Elementary Spells, it would take far too long to deplete his mana and properly train his capacity.

That was why Natsuo had started using Intermediate and Advanced Magic instead. This way, he could learn and practice new spells while also pushing his mana capacity to its limits and expanding it at the same time.

Natsuo raised his arm high above his head. As he did, flames suddenly began swirling rapidly above his hand, gathering into a ball that quickly expanded in size. The heat radiating from it was so intense that even the girls, standing hundreds of meters away, could feel it against their skin.

"Exodus Flame!"

He launched the spell into the distance. The massive ball of fire traveled far away from them, leaving a long trail of flames in its wake before finally crashing into the ground.

BOOM!

The moment it landed, a massive explosion erupted, igniting into a towering pillar of fire before expanding outward and forming a gigantic mushroom cloud. The sheer force of the blast devastated everything within a radius of more than five hundred meters, leaving the surrounding landscape scorched and covered in smoke and debris.

"Fuck!! How could it be stronger than my Explosion Magic?!" Kana stared wide eyed at the destruction Natsuo had caused and cursed in disbelief.

"What did you expect?" Natsuo looked at her as if she were an idiot. He even had Saint Rank spells. It was just too bad that he hadn't mastered them yet, because he couldn't use them back in his own world.

"Hey, are you really human?! Since when did mages become this strong?!" Suddenly, Rory rushed over to him and grabbed him by the shirt, staring at him in astonishment. Even though she was a demigoddess, getting hit by that spell would have left her severely injured. She had never seen a mage this freaking powerful before, and she had seen a lot in her long life!

If it weren't for her immortality, she would have been killed by a magic spell of this level!

"Hmm, I'm not exactly a normal human... I guess you could say I'm an enhanced human?" Natsuo scratched his cheek as he answered uncertainly.

"Anyways, can you stand aside? And don't interrupt me." He yanked her hands off his shirt and pushed her aside. This was exactly why he didn't want to bring them with him. They would just keep interrupting him.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Natsuo began casting one spell after another, cycling through Blizzard Storm, Ice Lance, Flamethrower, Flame Pillar, Wind Blast, and Sonic Blast.

He continued casting until his mana was completely depleted. Once that happened, he took out a Mana Recovery Potion and drank it, replenishing his mana before repeating the same cycle all over again.

He repeated the process more than ten times before finally stopping.

Because it was time to hit the road.

"Why are you sitting there?! Get away from him!" As soon as they got into the car, Kana and Rory immediately started arguing. Rory was sitting comfortably on Natsuo's lap, and Kana, who was still resentful toward the woman who had ruined her chance last night, became furious the moment she saw her sitting there.

"I like it here. It's so comfortable~!" Rory tilted her head and gave Kana a provocative smile before leaning her back against Natsuo's chest. She then looked up at him and asked, "You don't mind, Natsuo, right?"

"..." Natsuo refused to comment. He simply started the car and began driving while thinking, 'This is why I don't want to date girls from the Chat Group. They'll just keep trying to cockblock me!'

He decided that later, when he was alone with Kana, he would have a serious talk with her and make her understand that he wasn't going to give up an entire forest just for a single tree. She should just give up.

'Natsuo-san is really popular, heh.' Ai munched on some peanuts while watching the three of them. She felt as if she had somehow been dropped into a romcom isekai anime, complete with a dense and indecisive harem protagonist, a goth seductive loli baba, and a rude tsundere girl.

Though Kana doesn't really seem like a tsundere.

"Are you sure this is the way?" Natsuo had been driving for about two hours. He glanced suspiciously at the woman sitting on his lap and asked.

"Hmm~!" Rory nodded her head while humming softly. "This is a shortcut to the capital. If we take this route, we'll arrive in just three days at this speed."

She had traveled across the entire continent for more than 900 years, so very few people knew it as well as she did. Rory tilted her head and said, "I want another chocolate."

"Sure." Natsuo pulled out another piece of alcoholic chocolate and handed it to her.

"Your space magic is really convenient." Rory watched as he took something out of nowhere and commented.

Earlier, when she wanted to get into the car, Natsuo had stopped her from bringing her halberd inside. That thing was freakishly heavy, heavier than his car! So he had taken it from her and placed it in his Inventory.

Though when Natsuo thought about it, he felt that Rory trusted them a little too easily. She had willingly allowed him to take her weapon from her without any hesitation.

"What fucking irks my soul is that y'all need to learn loyalty from dogs, yet instead, you learn the fucking positions!"

Kana held her phone in one hand and swiped through her reels while occasionally glancing at Natsuo from the corner of her eye.

Normally, even Chelsea and Hilda could access the internet, but it seemed that they lost access to it whenever they entered a mission world. To guarantee that she would always have internet access, Kana had spent 500 points on an option that allowed her to access the internet no matter which world she was in.

"There are people ahead."

Suddenly, as Kana looked ahead, she spotted a group of people ahead of them.

Unlike the bandits they had encountered earlier, these people were dressed in much more luxurious clothing. There were around 30 or 40 men riding horses, surrounding a large, luxurious carriage in a protective formation.

"They look like some big shot," Natsuo said when he saw their formation.

"That's the Imperial family's crest! It should be a prince or princess," Rory commented. She licked the chocolate from her fingers before licking her lips. "Hey, Natsuo, give me another one."

"An Imperial family member?" Natsuo didn't answer her. He narrowed his eyes and felt that his luck in this world was quite good. First, he had run into Rory, and now he had encountered someone from the Imperial family. If he could befriend them, wouldn't it be much easier for him to gain access to the Empire's inner circle and interfere with its decision-making?

Not long after, the cavalry protecting the royal carriage was alerted by the sound of the approaching car. The soldiers immediately became wary and formed a defensive formation.

"Who is it?!"

"Protect His Highness!" The leader of the cavalry gripped his lance and commanded solemnly.

"What is all this commotion? What's happening?" An annoyed man's voice came from inside the carriage.

"Your Highness, a strange-shaped carriage is approaching us. Please don't get out." The commander leaned closer to the carriage window and reported.

...

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