[Romani Oyama]
"Contract accepted: Dark Magician Girl!"
Instantly, a black-golden light emanated from the page, forcing my eyes shut for a second. As the brightness slowly faded, I opened my eyes, only to find myself face to face with a figure floating before me.
She was a woman of medium build, her long golden hair cascading over her shoulders like a waterfall of liquid gold. Her eyes were a true kaleidoscope of colors: blue, green, and pink intertwined in a gentle dance, though blue dominated the rest, lending her expression an almost magnetic depth.
Her voluptuous body was adorned in a blue dress that left her shoulders completely bare, revealing her pale skin. The dress had a straight neckline that exposed a generous portion of her bust before gracefully extending to the upper part of her thighs, where it gave way to a pink skirt. Running down her long, shapely legs, she wore a pair of high blue boots that rose to just below her knees. A pointed wizard's hat rested gracefully on her head, tilted at a charming angle.
"Hehehehe!" Dark Magician Girl looked at me, let out a laugh, and brought a hand to her rosy lips.
Staring back at her, I tilted my head to the side. At that same instant, she crossed her arms over her chest, mirroring my movement. The smile on her lips widened even further, becoming almost mischievous.
"Pleasure to meet you, Romani Oyama." It felt natural to start with a greeting.
"Mnn~!" Dark Magician Girl let out a murmur and placed a hand over her chest.
It seemed my first familiar wasn't exactly the best at communication. I raised my hand and scratched my chin. Even without speaking, she seemed to understand everything I said perfectly. That led me to believe she would also be capable of following my commands.
"Can you show me what you can do?"
Dark Magician Girl smiled and nodded. Before I could figure out what she intended to do, she simply pointed her staff at the wall.
Don't tell me...
Cutting through my thoughts, I felt a small gust of magical energy circulating through her body. Instantly, black bolts formed before a black sphere took shape at the tip of her staff.
"Wait..."
Before I could finish the sentence, she simply hurled the dark magic sphere across the room, destroying the wall and some furniture, vaporizing them out of existence.
"..."
Dark Magician Girl turned toward me with a bright smile. She puffed out her chest proudly, both hands planted on her hips.
Staring at the scene with a stunned expression, I blinked several times at the enormous hole in the wall and the trail of destruction across the floor. The most ironic part was that she didn't even seem to have tried. That sphere of dark magic was probably far from her maximum. As that thought crossed my mind, along with mental calculations of how much I was going to spend fixing all of this, Dark Magician Girl, who kept watching me cheerfully, tilted her head to the side and placed a finger on her lips.
From her expression, she must have been thinking she had done something wrong. While that was true, the fault wasn't exactly hers. It had been I who gave the order for her to show me what she could do.
Well, there's no use crying over spilled milk, is there?
With a resigned smile, I raised my hand and brushed my fingers through her hair. "That was incredible."
"Hehehehe!" Feeling my touch, she let out a very happy laugh.
She's cute, so everything is fine!
When I pulled my arm back, she moved closer to me, rubbing her cheek against mine, letting the scent of her body fill my senses while her chest pressed against my arm. Feeling that contact, a thought that was anything but innocent crossed my mind.
"Dark Magician Girl..."
Calling her name, she blinked and leaned back slightly, staring at me with interest.
"Well... can I... touch your breasts!?" For the first time in my life, I felt like I was on the same level as the three perverts of Kuoh Academy. But could anyone blame me? I was practically at the peak of my hormones, and there was a woman dressed as a fiery sorceress right in front of me. It was something I had an obligation to at least try, wasn't it?
For a few seconds, amid the silence, I thought a refusal accompanied by a look of contempt would be my answer. But Dark Magician Girl let out a laugh, nodding her head while arching her chest toward me as if making an offering.
Her chest was right in front of me, and every last trace of my drowsiness had been swept away. Swallowing nervously, I raised one hand and moved it toward her bust over the blue dress. Even more hesitant than I would have liked to admit, I slowly extended my hand and grabbed her breast.
Oh my Satan... they were even better than I had imagined. They were warm, full, and possessed a delicious softness that yielded perfectly beneath my palm. I squeezed harder, feeling their heavy, swaying weight settle into my hand.
It was like sinking my hand into a warm, living pillow.
The sensation of my fingers pressing into them was incredibly pleasurable. Even through the sorceress's dress, I could feel the weight of her bust settling into my hand.
I was quickly able to confirm that my Dark Magician Girl wasn't wearing a bra. How do I know that? By the simple fact that the sensation of my thumb grazing what was probably her nipple ran through my entire body.
"Mnn~!" Hearing a moan, I raised my eyes and saw Dark Magician Girl with a slightly flushed face, while I continued squeezing and massaging her breasts, feeling her nipples hardening more and more against my hand.
I pressed them together, feeling that warm, soft flesh yielding between my fingers, the neckline of her dress threatening to tear at any moment.
Resisting the urge to take a photo and preserve that image as a treasure, I pulled my hand back, the warm sensation still lingering on my fingers. Even though I wanted to keep my hands on her forever, it felt a little wrong to take advantage of her innocence, even if my moral compass wasn't exactly pointing north at that moment.
"Thank you for the experience."
"Huh!?" Still flushed, Dark Magician Girl tilted her head to the side and placed a finger on her rosy lips before a smile formed on her mouth.
Setting aside my desire to keep touching my familiar, I now had a few more important things ahead of me.
"I've been putting this off a little, but it's time to take the first steps on the path of alchemy. Dark Magician Girl, you'll be my assistant."
"Huh!" Animatedly, she moved behind me and draped an arm around the back of my neck.
With my pretty assistant at my back, it was the moment to put my *Alchemy* skill to the test.
✧°✦°✧===✧°✦°✧===✧°✦°✧
Thanks to the *Alchemy* skill, I possessed a vast knowledge of how to create potions, perform transmutation, and craft magical items, not to mention that the skill granted me accelerated learning in anything alchemy's touch reached.
Alchemy is a science blended with magic, oriented toward the understanding, decomposition, and recomposition of matter. However, it isn't an omnipotent technique, since it's impossible to create something from nothing. For example, the foundation of potion creation was directly proportional to the alchemical value of each material.
Demonic blood had certain restorative properties, but its potency, compared to that of magical ingredients with regenerative properties, was considerably inferior, since its alchemical value was lower.
But setting the theoretical side aside, I needed an alchemical base. For that, I decided to use my garage as a base of operations. As they say, a man's garage is his palace.
With Dark Magician Girl's help, we managed to set up a temporary alchemical base.
Using the tip of her staff, Dark Magician Girl had carved several magic circles across the floor, while I created a large transmutation circle at the center of them all.
I quickly organized my "alchemical" materials: a cup with my blood, some fruit, several bottles of water, and a glass container.
The circles surrounding the transmutation circle served the function of refining the alchemical properties, acting as transmitters to feed the larger circle. For now, I didn't have proper alchemy equipment and materials, but I could improvise using the knowledge living inside my head.
With every material prepared and the alchemical circles properly positioned, it was time to begin my first attempt.
First, by comprehending the structure of each material, I lowered myself and pressed my hand against the edge of the circle, channeling my demonic power into it. That was the hardest part of the entire process. My control over my demonic energy wasn't exactly fine-tuned, but trusting in the knowledge crackling inside my head courtesy of *Alchemy*, I managed to make the surrounding circles glow with a black-golden light. Little by little, the alchemical materials were being refined, particularly the healing properties of the demonic blood.
Feeling my demonic energy being drained, the second stage arrived: the decomposition of materials.
By channeling even more demonic energy, the materials began to break down their physical structure, becoming malleable.
The third stage was restructuring...
Using my demonic energy, I blended the materials, altering their form and merging their properties into a new substance.
The process was a success.
Watching the black light dissipate and reveal a small vial of red liquid, a relieved smile escaped my lips, my body tilting slightly backward, only for Dark Magician Girl to catch me.
"Mmn~!" She raised her hand and ran it through my hair, as if saying I had done a good job.
With a faint wry smile, noticing that women, for some reason, liked to act like older sisters, I rose from the floor, my eyes still fixed on the red vial. Stepping inside the circle, I crouched down, picked it up, and held it between my hands.
My first attempt had been a success. Honestly, I had been expecting a failure, but it wasn't as if I was going to complain. However, now, with that small triumph between my fingers, it meant I needed to run a field test.
Serving as my own lab rat, I raised my free hand toward Dark Magician Girl. "Make a small cut on my hand."
She blinked a few times, but then spun her staff between her fingers and fired a thin thread of dark magic toward my hand, which sliced through the skin of my palm and opened a wound.
I winced in pain while she stared at me with concern. Without hesitating, I raised the red vial with my free hand and pulled off the cap with my teeth. A sweet, almost floral aroma filled my senses. Tipping the vial, I let the red liquid flow directly down my throat.
Suddenly, a gentle warmth began to emanate from the wound, and the next moment the tissues around the cut began to slowly draw together, as if being pulled by an invisible force. Not only the cut on my palm, but also the small slit on my wrist, opened earlier to obtain the blood, closed slowly, leaving not even a mark or scar, until nothing remained but intact skin.
Closing my hand and opening it again, I confirmed there was no sign of the cut.
"The Minor Healing Potion is a success." I raised my arm and showed my healed palm to Dark Magician Girl with a satisfied smile.
"Hehehehe!" With a smile curving on her lips, she clapped her hands and stared at me.
Her excitement was contagious...
But it was a shame, because the efficacy wasn't exactly the best. Setting aside the fact that I had made small mistakes during its creation, it was still Minor Grade. Even though I possessed the knowledge and the ability to learn many times faster at anything related to alchemy, I still lacked the skill and higher-quality materials.
My next step would be to improve my Minor Healing Potion.
"Dark Magician Girl... it looks like we'll have a bit more work ahead of us."
"Mnn~!" She responded with a small murmur, blinking in my direction before nodding her head enthusiastically and pressing her staff against her chest.
With my pretty and enthusiastic assistant by my side, I poured every ounce of my effort into ⟨Alchemy⟩ for the rest of the night.
Author's Note: Here's a little fun fact that doesn't really matter: in Japan, Dark Magician Girl's original name is actually Black Magician Girl. The name Dark Magician Girl was adopted for international releases to match the localized name of Dark Magician. Why am I telling you this? Because I honestly have no idea what to put in the author's note this time.