“Did you hear? That kid Aibo built himself a house over on the east riverbank.”
“Seriously? How could a little brat like him build a house?”
“I went to see it. It’s real. He made it with molding magic. Kids these days are incredible.”
“Hahaha, the Master says the kid learned it after looking at a magic book twice. What an exaggeration.”
“Let me count. Little Aibo can use telepathy magic, fire, earth, and wood—three elemental magics—along with molding magic and crushing magic… Goodness, what kind of little monster is he?”
“The kid’s only been in our guild for a little over half a month, right…? Want to start a betting pool on how many kinds of magic he’ll have learned a month from now?”
“Come on!
I bet ten types!” “Count me in!
Twelve!” “Me too!”
“…”
Gray watched the adults discuss the matter animatedly, utterly bewildered.
What’s going on?
What happened while I was absorbed in training my new magic?
When did Aibo get this strong?
Wasn’t Cana dragging him around everywhere every day?
“Oi! Where’s Aibo?”
“The kid’s on vacation. He’s probably holed up at home studying magic right now.”
“Where’s his house??”
“In the eastern forest, near the riverbank. There’s an out-of-place-looking house there. You’ll spot it at a glance… Hey, Gray, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to find Aibo and spar with him!”
“At least put some clothes on first—”
Gray jogged out of town and quickly spotted the target house.
The place was simply too conspicuous, built like a watchtower.
It was as if… someone had originally planned to build a single-story house, then realized there wasn’t enough floor space and simply raised two extra levels underneath, propping the original little house up on top.
When Gray got close, he walked all the way around the “watchtower.”
Wait, what?
Where’s the door??
The first floor didn’t even have a door.
There was only a nameplate hanging on the wall that read, “Little Garden—Aibo’s Home.”
Gray stepped back a few paces and looked up.
Only then did he notice that the second and third floors had doors.
But… where were the stairs???
This house was designed way too bizarrely.
“Hey! Aibo! Are you home!?”
Just then, a small blue-haired head poked out of a third-floor window.
“Oh, it’s Gray! Aibo, Gray’s here to see you~”
“Levi? Oi! Aibo, why doesn’t your house have any stairs?”
Aibo poked his head out of the window as well. Find the original chapter at g.com.
“Hi, Gray-bro~ Give me a second. I’ll be right there.”
Gray watched Aibo raise a hand and snap his fingers.
The stone-paved ground around the “watchtower” began to churn, rising in neat succession to form a staircase that wound once around the tower, ending precisely at the third-floor doorway.
“Cool~”
Gray followed the stairs all the way up to the third floor.
As soon as he stepped inside, he saw Cana lazily lying on her side atop a blanket spread across the floor, flipping through a magazine.
Levi sat on the sofa beside the tea table, pouring tea, while Aibo was nearby sorting through a set of… cards?
Directly opposite the entrance stood a massive bookshelf occupying an entire wall.
It wasn’t packed full of books, but there were still quite a few.
A long sofa sat beneath the window on the left, a desk stood beneath the window on the right, and a tea table occupied the center, with plush floor mats spread all around it.
The space wasn’t large, but it was arranged quite cozily—much better than his doghouse of a dorm room.
Wait, hold on.
Weren’t you supposed to be at home studying magic?
What are you all doing?!
How have you all fallen into such decadence?!
“Gray, perfect timing. Want to play Fight the Landlord?”
“Fight the Landlord? What’s that?”
“A card game. Little Aibo taught us.”
“Play… No! I came to battle Aibo! I heard you’ve learned a bunch of impressive magic, Aibo. Let’s have a match!”
“…”
The air suddenly fell silent.
All three of them stared at Gray with strange expressions.
Cana irritably tossed the magazine in her hand at Gray.
“Are you out of your mind? Aibo’s only six. Are you trying to bully my little brother!?”
“Uh, everyone in the guild says Aibo’s already really strong! This is a battle between us guys. Cana, don’t interfere!”
“Hah!? You little punk, come here. I’ll spar with you—Ack! Aibo, stop it!”
Aibo hurriedly stopped Cana, who was hissing at Gray, and beckoned Gray inside to sit down.
“It’s Gray-bro’s first time at my house. Sit down and have a cup of tea first.”
Looking at Aibo, who was a full head shorter than him and so tiny, Gray also felt that he might be bullying a child.
A little embarrassed, he could only glance around the room.
“Ummmmm, Aibo, your house is pretty nice. Quite… beautiful.”
“Don’t mention it. I only realized after I finished it that the floor space was too small. Especially when my sisters come over to play, there’s nowhere for them to sit, so I had to remodel it afterward and move the bedroom and bathroom down to the lower floors.”
Cana shook her head repeatedly.
“If you ask me, this house still needs a major overhaul. Without a fireplace, you’ll freeze to death in winter. There’s no kitchen, and there isn’t even a room for me. You should’ve asked your big sisters for their opinions before building it!”
Levi laughed as well.
“Haha, Aibo’s already done a great job! You can improve it step by step later. Actually, it’s pretty nice as it is. Once I move all the books from my house over, this will be our secret base from now on.”
Gray picked up a small cake and took a bite, then asked curiously,
“Why isn’t Aibo living in the dorms anymore? It must be really inconvenient out here, right? And it’s far from the guild. Besides, with no guards patrolling this area, it would be easy for thieves to break in.”
The corner of Aibo’s mouth twitched as he recalled those days in the dorms.
“Actually… it’s for the convenience of practicing magic. This is the edge of town, so no one will care no matter how much noise I make. As for the other problems… I’ll solve them one by one later.”
Aibo had no intention of sparring, and Gray wasn’t unreasonable or particularly fond of picking fights, so the group sat down and chatted.
“By the way, everyone in the guild says you’ve learned molding magic, Aibo. What about ice magic?”
“I haven’t learned it yet. And right now, I only know some really simple magic, so I don’t have much fighting ability. I can’t control the only one with any real destructive power, crushing magic, very well. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have needed to move out and live alone.”
That was the truth.
Although Aibo had learned a whole pile of flashy magic, it was basically all Level 1—he had only just gotten the hang of it.
His strongest ability was using telepathy magic to call the Master for help.
That hardly counted as combat power.
In short, he was still in the stage of biding his time and building up his strength, with no intention of going looking for a beating.
Cana came up behind Aibo and pinched his cheek, smiling as she comforted him.
“Little Aibo is already amazing! When I was your age, I hadn’t even started learning magic yet! Only a shameless Gray would come here to bully a little kid.”
“Hey! I wouldn’t!”
“Since you’re already here, just play cards with us. This game Aibo taught us is pretty interesting.”
Aibo quickly slipped free of Cana and sat down at the desk to one side.
“Then you guys play. I still have some things to sort out.”
He really did need to think carefully about his next priorities, mainly his plan for getting stronger.
Since he had started serializing a novel and built his own house, Aibo wasn’t particularly short of money for the time being.
He could put making money aside for now.
Next, he needed to figure out how to improve his strength as quickly as possible.
After all, if he hadn’t been utterly unable to stand the dormitory environment, Aibo wouldn’t have been in such a hurry to move out.
Honestly, he had very little sense of security.
And this world wasn’t exactly safe either.
There were powerful magical beasts and dark guilds, and he had heard that there were even demons and such.
If he weren’t confident in how quickly he could call for help, Aibo absolutely wouldn’t have dared to live out here alone.
In this world, the strong were ultimately revered.
Even secular nobles didn’t dare casually provoke mages.
Getting stronger as quickly as possible had every advantage and no drawbacks.
As for how to improve his strength… Master Makarov had taught him this as well.
First, he needed to learn a powerful magic suited to him.
Then, he needed to increase the magic power within his body as much as possible.
Beyond that, he needed to gain combat experience.
Right now, Aibo was actually stuck on the first step.
He still hadn’t found a magic suited to him.
Although he had learned quite a few kinds of magic, and crushing magic was very powerful, it actually wasn’t that well suited to him.
By Aibo’s own understanding, the magic best suited to him should be the one in which his experience increased the fastest while he was learning it.
The magic he had learned fastest so far was Requip magic, but that didn’t seem like something suited for combat…
So next, Aibo would try to learn as many kinds of magic as possible, find the one best suited to him, and then bury himself in grinding experience.
So… everyone in the guild, he would be counting on their guidance!