I stood near the window, watching the merchants prepare their stalls.
Just as the receptionist had said yesterday, there would be a festival today to celebrate the birthday of the ruling noble’s child.
Isn’t that a little excessive for a birthday celebration?
The door opened, and Sera appeared.
“Val, Arturia and I are going to get something to eat.
Are you coming?” “No.” “Alright.” Sera simply left after that.
She seemed surprisingly relaxed despite the little incident between us this morning.
Not to mention, I had been completely naked in front of both of them.
It was a little embarrassing, but I had seen them directly as well, so I decided to consider things even.
Anyway, last night, I wandered around the city for a while to see what this place was like.
While walking through the streets, however, I frequently encountered criminals lurking around secluded places in the middle of the night.
I came across someone being extorted and beat up the criminals involved.
And it hadn’t happened just once.
Several times throughout the night, I encountered people committing similar crimes.
Despite how peaceful the city looked, it wasn’t as peaceful as I had initially believed.
I had even discovered a dangerous group of armed people inside an abandoned building.
I hadn’t killed them, nor had I killed any of the criminals I encountered.
Even though I was capable of fighting them, killing someone reminded me too much of the bodies scattered across the battlefield.
“Destroying something is easy.
Creating it—or protecting it—is much harder.” The thought of killing people made me uncomfortable.
After all, in my previous modern world, I had never lived in such a cruel environment or been involved with criminals.
But if the day ever came when someone truly became a threat…
I wouldn’t hesitate to end their life.
I had never killed anyone before.
Although…
I had probably attempted it once.
Whether against someone else…
Or myself.
Watching the people below happily prepare for the festival reminded me of my old life, where I had always watched others from afar, hidden within the darkness of my own loneliness.
“Even after two months, I still can’t believe I’m actually enjoying a life like this.” I let out a quiet sigh and looked toward the sky.
“Starting a new chapter in a new place…
I’ll do my best.” Dwelling too deeply on the past wasn’t good.
Let’s focus on something else.
Maybe my powers?
There were still many things I wanted to understand—and many things I wanted to try.
I turned away from the window and faced the inside of the room.
“Alright.
Maybe I’ll do a few experiments in my room before trying something outside tonight.” I looked at my palms.
If I really possessed telekinesis, just how far could I take the things I had always imagined doing?
I pressed both of my hands together and concentrated, imagining that they possessed magnetic fields pulling each other together.
When I tried to pull my hands apart, they wouldn’t separate.
No matter how hard I tried, it was extremely difficult to break them apart.
“It worked.
That was surprisingly easy.” I focused on releasing my power.
The moment I did, my hands returned to normal.
Slightly amazed, I examined them carefully.
This could make my grip stronger when holding something so that it wouldn’t easily slip away.
Wait.
Couldn’t I attach myself to something if I tried hard enough?
Slowly, I looked toward the ceiling.
It was perfectly flat.
A perfect target for my next experiment.
I jumped and pressed my right hand against the ceiling.
The result?
I stuck to it.
“Huh…
it actually worked.” I looked at my left hand and slowly pressed it against the ceiling as well.
Both of my hands were attached.
Then I pulled my body upward and pressed both of my feet against the ceiling.
Slowly, I began crawling across it.
So this is what Spider-Man feels like.
Amazing.
I released my hands but kept my feet attached.
As a result, I ended up standing upside down.
The entire world looked inverted, and my head began to feel slightly dizzy from experiencing that sensation for the first time.
I needed to get used to this.
It would be incredibly cool if I could casually show someone a pose like this someday.
The dizziness gradually became worse.
Then, by accident, the power affecting my feet disappeared.
Thud.
I fell from the ceiling.
Fortunately, I protected my head when I landed, but it still hurt.
I slowly got back up and decided to try something else.
After conducting several more experiments, I began to understand a few things about my abilities.
I could manipulate things around me, and I could also use my power on myself.
That meant anything within my surroundings—including myself—could potentially be controlled.
I could also increase the force I produced.
Normally, a person couldn’t jump very high without assistance.
But that wasn’t the case for me.
I could make my body lighter or heavier at will, allowing me to increase my physical capabilities.
Of course, there were limits.
When I tried flying, I could only remain airborne for about a minute before eventually falling.
I could jump incredibly high, but I still wasn’t skilled enough to precisely control the height of my jumps.
Fortunately, I could control my landing.
When I tried making myself heavier by increasing the force pulling my body toward the center of gravity, however, the inside of my body began to feel strange.
It felt as if everything inside me was being stirred around.
And when I tried jumping using my power…
I accidentally hit the ceiling.
“An accident during testing.” Last night, I had spent some time beating up criminals, but only around the area near the inn.
The reason was simple.
I still didn’t understand the limits of my own abilities.
Anyway…
If I could manipulate things around me, could that include things people normally couldn’t consciously perceive?
Perhaps something like waves.
Or photons.
Light.
“Hm…
that sounds impossible.” Neither of those things could easily be seen or physically felt.
But my curiosity was strong enough to make me want to try.
“Alright.
What should I do?” Maybe I could start with light.
After all, light could be perceived through sight.
Light reflected off objects and then entered our eyes, allowing creatures with vision to see the world around them.
In other words, what we saw was actually reflected light representing everything around us—objects, living creatures, and anything else visible to our eyes.
Except for black holes.
The colors we saw were also the result of reflected light.
However, the number and types of colors a creature could distinguish depended on its eyes.
Someone with a visual abnormality might perceive colors differently from everyone else.
That was about as much as I understood.
I still remembered this knowledge from things I had learned on the internet.
“I’ll just try it.” I looked toward the wall.
The wooden grain ran clearly in straight vertical lines from top to bottom.
I focused on a single point and attempted to manipulate the light—just slightly.
It sounded impossible.
But I tried anyway.
I continued focusing on that single point.
The grain of the wood remained straight at first.
Then, slowly…
The lines began to bend.
They curved toward a single point.
The moment I saw it happen, I immediately released my power.
“This is…
pretty terrifying.” I decided to end the experiment there.
I was afraid of something I didn’t understand.
And even more afraid that, once I started manipulating it…
I might not be able to control it.