The world of *Akame ga Kill!*
Byakuya had visited this world once before when testing whether his departure would affect Morgan, though he had left after only a second.
Upon his return, Byakuya predictably drew a crowd.
“Mr.
Byakuya, you’re…?” Chika Fujiwara asked curiously, confirming that he wasn’t about to vanish instantly like last time.
“I was just testing a few things,” Byakuya explained.
“The results were better than I expected.
If all goes well, I should be able to stay here for about half a month.”
“Is that business you mentioned in the group already finished?” Utaha Kasumigaoka asked.
“Not yet.” Byakuya shook his head.
“As I said, I’m still in the preparation phase.
The official start is in half a month…
or rather, twelve days from now.
My preparations are going smoothly, so I thought I’d drop by for a visit and hunt a few Danger Beasts to boost my ‘base attributes.'”
As he spoke, he glanced at the carcass lying to the side.
“It’s been three days, and you two have made quite some progress.”
It was a bear-type Danger Beast, roughly estimated to weigh over a thousand pounds, and it was very much dead.
With Byakuya’s keen eyes, it was easy to see that the bear had endured a prolonged beating before dying, rather than being killed in a single strike.
This style of combat was clearly not Esdeath’s.
Although she already possessed some of the traits of the sadistic battle-maniac she would become in the future—having wanted nothing more than a satisfying fight when she first met Yukari Yakumo and Byakuya—the “Loli-death” of the group didn’t seem to have discovered the joy of torture yet.
Over the past few days, Byakuya had watched several “first-person livestreams” that Esdeath had arranged so Chika Fujiwara and Utaha Kasumigaoka could better immerse themselves in the experience.
When facing prey, Esdeath always pursued a one-hit kill.
According to her, this was primarily to conserve stamina for any subsequent battles that might break out, and secondarily because a pristine carcass fetched a higher price from merchants.
Since Yukari Yakumo wasn’t here, and it wasn’t Esdeath, it was obvious who had done the work.
“They’ve done quite well,” Esdeath agreed upon hearing Byakuya’s words.
“Although they had no foundation previously, their bodies possess excellent potential.
To be able to take down a Kuman without getting injured in just a few days…
this bear was one of the more difficult types among Level 3 Danger Beasts.”
“Hehe~”
Proud of the praise, Chika Fujiwara rubbed the back of her head and invited him, “Since you have time, Mr.
Byakuya, why don’t you sit down and taste the prey Utaha and I caught?”
Over the past few days, whenever they entered this world, they had followed Esdeath’s lead: fighting as they walked and stopping to feast whenever they hunted suitable prey.
Besides, with the technique Byakuya had taught them, they didn’t have to worry about indigestion or it affecting their subsequent combat.
“Then I’ll shamelessly devour your meal,” Byakuya replied with a smile.
The group immediately dragged the prey toward a nearby stream.
Esdeath, coming from a hunting culture and possessing rich survival experience, always moved toward water sources in the wild.
By following rivers or searching for springs and lakes, they ensured a steady supply of fresh water and found more prey than by wandering aimlessly, as they weren’t the only ones in the wild who needed water.
Upon reaching the riverbank, Chika and the others began processing the bear.
Seeing that the three of them were working in perfect harmony and there was no room for him to intervene, Byakuya didn’t crowd them.
Instead, he raised his hand and traced a few lines in the air.
Runes manifested, and a fist-sized fireball ignited out of thin air.
The moment it appeared, the surrounding temperature rose slightly, causing all three girls to stop what they were doing and look back.
‘It actually works!’
A look of joy appeared on Byakuya’s face.
Magecraft within the Nasuverse had a setting that was extremely unfriendly to someone like him, who could leave that world and travel to others: the Magic Foundation.
A Magic Foundation was a set of magical theories etched into the world through scholarship, religion, culture, and history—essentially a linguistic environment.
Magicians developed their spells based on this existing environment; the magic followed the rules and systems of that foundation.
Once the environment changed, the effectiveness of the magic would drop, or it might become impossible to cast entirely.
Unless one was a Grand Magician capable of creating their own foundation from scratch, arriving in a completely foreign environment—as he had just done—could potentially strip a magician of their powers entirely.
Therefore, after joining the Super-Dimensional Mutual Aid Group and discovering that it connected to the worlds of *Akame ga Kill!* and *Touhou Project*—both of which possessed supernatural powers—Byakuya had considered abandoning magecraft in favor of the more universal powers found in other worlds, as they were clearly less dependent on the environment.
However, the Fourth Holy Grail War had started early.
Through the specific summoning incantation found in Zouken Matou’s legacy, he had successfully summoned Morgan le Fay, who required no bodily modifications and could grant him three Magic Circuits in exchange for three Command Spells.
Based on the logic that “even if I can’t use it in outer worlds for a while, I can still use it when I return to the Nasuverse,” and “think of it as fulfilling a wish I’ve had for the past few years,” he had unlocked [Magecraft] as his second profession alongside [Martial Arts].
A few minutes ago…
After graduating from Morgan’s little Rune Magecraft crash course, Byakuya glanced at the group chat interface.
It occurred to him that the foundation of his Rune Magecraft wasn’t actually the magical foundations of the Nasuverse, but rather his own Entry System.
This sparked a curious idea: what would happen if he went to a world where “Runes” absolutely shouldn’t exist?
He wanted to see if his Rune Magecraft could still function once removed from the foundations of the Nasuverse.
As it turned out—
System: [What foundation?]
“I always thought you were a martial artist, Mr.
Byakuya.
Was your primary profession actually a wizard all along?”
Chika Fujiwara spoke up in surprise after the scorching fireball finally flickered out.
“I’m still quite far from ‘wizardry.’ I’m more of a mage,” Byakuya corrected her.
“And as far as my profession goes…
I wouldn’t call this my primary job.
I haven’t even officially possessed this power for a hundred hours.”
“A mage?”
Chika let out a confused “Eh?” while Utaha Kasumigaoka also looked quite surprised.
“What exactly does a mage do?” Esdeath asked, nudging Utaha’s arm.
“Hmm…
to put it in terms you’d find easier to understand, they’re basically professionals who make a living performing magic tricks,” Utaha pondered.
“In our world, ‘magic’ is a performing art that uses props and sleight of hand—relying on physics, chemistry, and psychology—to create audiovisual spectacles.”
“A performance…?” Esdeath frowned.
“Are you saying that fireball just now was fake?”
She certainly didn’t feel like the lethal threat she sensed from that fireball was fake.
“I wouldn’t know,” Utaha said, shrugging.
“I’m only talking about mages in my world—and perhaps Chika’s.”
“It comes down to a matter of ‘definition,'” Byakuya said with a smile.
“Where I come from, mysterious phenomena that can be artificially reproduced are collectively called magecraft.
Only phenomena that achieve things impossible for both magecraft and science are called True Magic…
For example, what I just used is called Rune Magecraft.”
“Runes…”
Even with her limited knowledge of the occult, Chika had heard of the “Runic alphabet” from Norse mythology—the wisdom Odin, the All-Father, gained by hanging himself from a tree for nine days and nights.
Her lips twitched slightly.
*Right, sure.
That’s the kind of ‘mage’ he is, huh?*