“Did you hear?
That kid Aito built himself a house by the eastern riverbank and moved in.” “Seriously?
How does a little brat build a house?” “I went to see it.
It’s real.
He made it with Molding Magic.
Kids these days are something else.” “Hahaha!
Master said the brat learned it after glancing through a magic book.
That’s ridiculous.” “Let’s count.
Little Aito knows Telepathy Magic, three types of Elemental Magic—Fire, Earth, and Wood—plus Molding Magic and Crush Magic…” “Good grief.
What kind of little monster is he?” “He’s only been in our guild for a little over half a month, right?
Wanna start a betting pool on how many types of magic he’ll know a month from now?” “Come on!
I’m betting ten!” “Count me in!
Twelve!” “I’m joining too!” “…” Gray stood nearby listening to the adults argue excitedly, completely dumbfounded.
‘What the hell happened while I was busy training my new magic?’ ‘When did Aito get this strong?
Doesn’t Cana just drag him around to play every day?’ “Oi!
Where’s Aito?” “The brat has the day off.
He’s probably hiding at home studying magic.” “Where’s his house?!” “Near the river by the eastern forest.
There’s a really obvious house there—you’ll spot it immediately.” “Hey, Gray, where are you going?” “I’m going to spar with Aito!” “At least put some clothes on first—!” Gray sprinted out of town and quickly found the house.
Mostly because it was impossible to miss.
The building looked like a watchtower.
It was almost as though Aito had originally built a single-story house, realized it was too small, then forcibly raised it two floors into the air and shoved two more levels underneath.
Gray approached and walked around the entire “watchtower.” ‘Wait…
where’s the door?’ The first floor didn’t have one.
The only thing on the wall was a sign.
“Little Garden—Aito’s Home.” Gray backed up several steps and looked higher.
Only the second and third floors had doors.
‘Then where the hell are the stairs?!’ The entire building made absolutely no sense.
“Oi!
Aito!
Are you home?!” A small blue-haired head suddenly appeared through a third-floor window.
“Oh, it’s Gray!
Aito, Gray came to see you~” “Levy?” Gray stared upward.
“Oi, Aito!
Why doesn’t your house have stairs?!” Aito’s head appeared beside Levy’s.
“Hey~ Big Brother Gray.
Give me a second.
It’ll be ready right away.” Gray watched Aito raise one hand and snap his fingers.
The stone-brick ground surrounding the tower began to ripple.
Rows of stone rose one after another, forming a staircase that spiraled around the building and ended perfectly at the third-floor entrance.
“Cool~” Gray followed the stairs upstairs.
The moment he entered, he found Cana lazily lying sideways on a thick carpet while reading a magazine.
Levy sat on a sofa beside the coffee table pouring tea, while Aito was sorting through a deck of…
cards?
A massive bookshelf covered the entire wall opposite the entrance.
It wasn’t full yet, but there were already quite a few books.
A long sofa sat beneath the left window, while a desk stood beneath the right.
In the center were a coffee table and a fluffy rug covering most of the floor.
The room wasn’t particularly large, but it felt warm and comfortable.
It was far better than Gray’s miserable dorm room.
‘Wait, hold on.’ ‘Weren’t you supposed to be hiding at home researching magic?’ ‘What the hell are you three doing?!
Why do you look so comfortable?!’ “Gray, perfect timing.
Want to play Fight the Landlord?” “Fight the Landlord?
What’s that?” “A card game little Aito taught us.” “Play…” Gray suddenly remembered why he’d come.
“No!
I’m here to fight Aito!” “I heard you’ve learned a bunch of powerful magic.
Let’s spar!” “…” The room suddenly went silent.
All three stared strangely at Gray.
Cana irritably threw her magazine at him.
“Are you serious?
Aito is six years old!
You came all the way here to bully my little brother?!” “Uh…
everyone at the guild says Aito is already really strong!” Gray immediately defended himself.
“This is a battle between boys!
Stay out of it, Cana!” “Hah?!
Come here, you little brat!
I’ll spar with you—hey!
Aito, stop pulling me!” Aito hurriedly restrained the hissing Cana and gestured for Gray to come inside.
“It’s your first time visiting my house, Big Brother Gray.
Sit down and have some tea first.” Looking at Aito, who was an entire head shorter than him, Gray suddenly felt like he really was bullying a little kid.
He awkwardly looked around instead.
“Uh…
Aito, your house is pretty nice.” “It’s…
really pretty.” “Don’t remind me.” Aito sighed.
“Only after I finished it did I realize it was way too small.
Especially when the girls came over and there wasn’t even enough room to sit.” “So I remodeled it afterward and moved the bedroom, bathroom, and other rooms downstairs.” Cana repeatedly shook her head.
“If you ask me, this place still needs major renovations.” “There’s no fireplace, so you’ll freeze in winter.
There’s no kitchen either, and you didn’t even build my room!” “You should’ve asked your big sister before building a house!” Levy laughed.
“Haha, Aito already did an amazing job.” “We can improve it little by little.
I think it’s pretty nice even now.” “When I bring some of my books over, this can officially become our secret base.” Gray grabbed a small cake and took a bite.
“Why did you leave the dormitory anyway, Aito?” “Living out here must be inconvenient.
You’re far from the guild, and there aren’t any guards patrolling around here, so thieves could show up too.” Aito’s mouth twitched as memories of dormitory life resurfaced.
Compared to that suffering, any amount of inconvenience was acceptable.
“It’s mostly so I can practice magic.” “This is the edge of town, so nobody cares how much noise I make.” “As for everything else…
I’ll solve those problems little by little.” Aito clearly had no intention of sparring, and Gray wasn’t unreasonable enough to force him.
So the group simply sat together and chatted.
“Right.
Everyone at the guild said you learned Molding Magic.” Gray looked at Aito.
“What about Ice Magic?” “I haven’t learned it yet.” “And honestly, I only know a bunch of simple spells.
I don’t have much combat ability.” “The only really destructive spell I know is Crush Magic, and I can’t control that properly.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t need to live all the way out here.” That was actually true.
Aito had accumulated all kinds of flashy magic, but almost everything was only LV1.
He had merely reached the beginner stage.
His strongest ability in an actual emergency was still using Telepathy Magic to scream for Makarov to save him.
Calling that real combat strength would be generous.
For now, Aito was still in the stage of quietly accumulating strength.
He had no desire to actively look for someone who could beat him up.
Cana walked behind him and pinched his cheeks with both hands.
“Little Aito is already amazing!” “I hadn’t even started learning magic when I was your age.” “Only a shameless idiot like Gray would come here specifically to bully a little kid.” “Hey!
I wasn’t bullying him!” “Since you’re already here, just play cards with us.” Cana pointed toward the deck.
“The game Aito taught us is actually pretty fun.” Aito quickly escaped from Cana’s hands and moved over to his desk.
“You guys play.
I have some things I need to sort out.” He really did need to carefully decide what he should focus on next.
More specifically, he needed a plan for increasing his strength.
Now that his novel was being serialized and he’d built his own house, Aito wasn’t particularly short on money anymore.
Making money could temporarily move lower on his priority list.
The next objective was getting stronger as quickly as possible.
After all, if the dormitory hadn’t become completely unbearable, Aito would never have rushed to move out alone.
He actually lacked a strong sense of security.
And this world wasn’t particularly safe.
There were powerful magical beasts, Dark Guilds, and apparently even demons.
If Aito hadn’t been confident in how quickly he could call someone for help, there was no chance he would’ve dared to live alone outside town.
Ultimately, strength ruled this world.
Even ordinary nobles didn’t casually provoke Mages.
There was practically no downside to becoming stronger as quickly as possible.
As for how to improve…
Makarov had already explained the basics to him.
First, find a powerful form of magic that suited him.
Second, increase the amount of Magic Power inside his body as much as possible.
And third, accumulate combat experience.
Aito was actually stuck on the very first step.
He still hadn’t found magic that truly suited him.
He had learned quite a few types already, and Crush Magic was undeniably powerful.
But it didn’t really fit him.
According to Aito’s own theory, the magic best suited to him should be the one whose experience increased fastest while he studied it.
So far, the fastest magic he’d ever learned was Requip Magic.
Unfortunately…
It didn’t exactly look like a combat-oriented ability.
So next, Aito planned to expose himself to as many different forms of magic as possible.
He would find the one that suited him best.
Then he would bury himself in training and grind its experience endlessly.
And so…
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