The day of Nanahoshi’s return has finally come.
Only Perugius, his servants, and I were present at the teleportation magic circle.
Nanahoshi didn’t want anyone else to see her off.
She’s already gone around and said her farewells to everyone.
Our formation is the same as before.
I’m the mana supply, Perugius is the controller.
Nanahoshi is standing in the center of the magic circle.
She’s standing there facing me, wearing a traveling outfit and carrying a large backpack.
The backpack was packed to deal with any conceivable situation.
Even though I say that, neither Nanahoshi or I have any experience traveling overseas in our previous world.
She should need identification and something to exchange for cash, also we don’t know if things like magic crystals or scrolls will be usable over there.
So we packed roughly what we thought was needed for a journey.
After that, it’s up to her wisdom and courage to get her through.
“….”
Nanahoshi looked at me, I looked at her.
There’s no need to say anything more.
We spoke enough yesterday.
Anything else is unnecessary.
“Rudeus! Preparations are complete!”
At Perugius’ signal, I placed my hands on the teleportation apparatus.
Everything’s proceeding as usual.
We’ve practiced this experiment many times already.
Although not all of the attempts were successful, any points of failure were identified and fixed.
At this point Perugius and I are veterans.
Well, even if I call myself a veteran, all I really do is supply the mana.
“Everything’s set.”
“Nanahoshi, that’s good!”
Nanahoshi faced Perugius and nodded.
“Yes, Perugius-sama, thank you for everything!”
“Formalities are unnecessary. Thanks to you I have also learned many interesting things.”
That’s all there was to Perugius and Nanahoshi’s farewell.
After that, they immediately went back to focusing on what they were doing.
Nanahoshi faced me, and Perugius signaled to one of his servants.
“Then, let’s begin.”
At Perugius’ signal, the teleportation device started.
Everything is proceeding as usual.
Perugius and his servants placed their hands on the magic circle.
As I begin supplying magic power, the edges of the magic circle begin to faintly give off light.
My mana is being drained at a tremendous rate, but I’m already accustomed to that.
Then, reacting to my mana, the magic circle began to shine brightly.
First blue, then green, then white.
While the magic circle was giving off tremendous amounts of light, I was focused on properly supplying the mana.
Thanks to repeating the experiment so many times, I’m accustomed to the timing I need to allocate my mana.
Evenly, without waste, not too much, but not too little.
The magic circle, as usual, started emitting a black light…
Huh?
I don’t think there’s been a black coloring before.
Somehow I have a bad feeling about this.
“Rudeus!”
Perugius shouted.
The black light’s growing stronger.
I don’t know whether I should continue or stop.
I’m not the one controlling the process, I don’t know what to do.
“Perugius-sama! Instructions!”
“We need more power–!”
As instructed, I increased the amount of power pouring into the magic circle.
My legs are getting weak, even my vision is going hazy from using this much power.
Yet the black magic circle shows no sign of change.
But, I have a feeling like something’s overflowing in my arm.
This is the first time I’ve felt this.
This might be dangerous.
Very dangerous, should I cut the power?
But, Perugius said we needed more magic power, I need to have faith–
–*crack*…!
Something burst.
Then, as if a breaker tripped, the magic circle lost its light.
All in a split second.
The light normally disappears slowly, but this time it happened in an instant.
Almost as if all the magic was suddenly absorbed by something.
“….”
We’re still here.
The candlesticks in the corner of the room are still giving off light.
But the room is shrouded in silence, like a PC shutting down.
And, of course.
Needless to say.
Nanahoshi was still here.
Still standing in the center of the magic circle.
Everyone is dumbstruck.
I am too, the servants look as if they don’t understand, a feeling of confusion has filled the room.
“… What happened!”
Perugius shouted.
“What did you do Rudeus Greyrat!”
“Huh?”
Me?
“Why was the supply of magic cut halfway!”
Cut?
I didn’t though.
“I was properly supplying mana.”
“Then, why did that…”
The supply of magic was cut?
But I didn’t reduce the amount of mana. Rather, I increased it.
Somehow it felt different.
No mana was being released from my hands?
But, I still feel the fatigue from using up an enormous amount of mana.
“If the mana supply was cut, the magic circle should have lost its light.”
“That’s right… there was definitely mana… but, the flow was interrupted… as if someone compromised the magic circle…”
Looking at the magic circle, it seems like part of it cracked.
Was there a bug somewhere and the device short-circuited?
No, give me a break.
It’s not something that would suddenly break.
“Ugh…”