Chapter 9: Magic and Cheat Skills

After dinner, I relaxed on the living room sofa and chatted casually with Yuna.

Mom was doing the dishes. I had offered to wash them myself, but she told me to just take it easy and refused.

“So, I heard you defeated the Demon King in another world, Onii-chan. What kind of fighting did you do?”

“It was what you'd call a cheat ability. That world has magic, and everyone there has magical power.”

“Magic, huh? Sounds awesome... So, did you, like, break the limit with your mana or something?”

“No, actually, people from this world—like me—apparently don’t have any magical power at all.”

“What the heck, then you were totally useless!”

“Well, not exactly. No matter how talented someone is, human magic power isn’t enough to fight magical beasts or demons.”

“Then how did you fight them?”

“In that world, there are Spirit Gods. If someone receives their blessing, they gain magical power that far exceeds human limits. And people from another world are born with a set magical attribute, so they can only receive blessings from a Spirit God of that same attribute.”

“I get it! Since you didn’t have any magical attribute, that means you could form a contract with any Spirit God, right?”

“Exactly. I was summoned by Alicia, a shrine maiden who serves the Water Spirit God Minstia. After going on many adventures, I received blessings from other Spirit Gods too, and eventually defeated the Demon King.”

“Ahh, I see... It’s a classic setup, but getting stronger little by little with more blessings—yeah, that kind of story gets me fired up.”

“From my perspective, I would've preferred to be strong from the start, though…”

Seriously, all the Spirit Gods live in ridiculous places.

A cave overflowing with lava from an active volcano, right in the middle of a desert, a canyon constantly blasted by blizzards with year-round snow that never melts... and to top it all off, there’s a floating castle above the World Tree, or a temple at the end of a labyrinth directly beneath the Demon King’s castle. Couldn’t they at least think a little about the people visiting?

I never want to do any of that again.

“So, can you still use that cheat now?”

Yuna looked thrilled. Unfortunately, I had to disappoint her.

“When we crossed back into this world, both Alicia and I lost the Spirit Gods’ blessings... So, sadly, I’m just an ordinary person now.”

Whether you're blessed by a Spirit is something you can immediately sense if it happens to you. It’s hard to explain, but you just know you're connected to the Spirit.

So I could tell right away that the blessings had disappeared when we came back.

“I see... But, your current body is Alicia’s, right? Doesn’t that mean you might be able to use normal magic?”

“Hmm, good question. What do you think, Alicia?”

『It’s said that magical power originates not from the soul, but from the vessel. There’s even an old tale of a great mage who transferred their soul into the body of a gifted magician... though that ambition was crushed before it ever bore fruit, so the truth of it is uncertain.』

“So, basically... we don’t know. Well, might as well give it a try. Is there a simple spell I could use that would be helpful right now?”

『In that case, would you mind casting Repair on my hair? I had to conserve magic before the final battle with the Demon King, so I couldn’t use Repair, and now my hair’s gotten a little damaged...』

Repair was the first spell I learned after receiving the Water Spirit God’s blessing. It literally repairs things—small cuts, minor damage, that kind of stuff.

I always wondered how she kept her hair so flawless during those rough journeys where we could barely even bathe. So that’s how she did it.

I gathered her hair in both hands and brought it forward.

“Your hair really is beautiful, Alicia-san… Like strands of silver thread. But yeah, I can see a few damaged spots. Onii-chan, you really need to take better care of it, okay?”

Looking closely, I could tell it was a bit frayed.

...Ah, found a split end.

If I can’t use magic, I’d have to manage this long hair on my own... Please let me use magic.

Still holding the hair in both hands, I let mana flow through them and began constructing the magic formula.

I could feel the magic being drawn from within me—this sensation was new. Up until now, I had always drawn mana from an external source: the Spirit God’s magical reservoir. This was the first time I’d used my own.

“...Repair.”

A faint light shone from my fingertips and spread into the hair.

“Whoa… this is amazing…”

The light flowed through the strands, and the split ends and damage disappeared one by one.

Looks like it worked.

I let out a small hoo... of a sigh.

Then, when I looked up, I saw two women staring at me with utterly stunned expressions.

“Onii-chan, what was that just now!?”

Yuna practically lunged at me.

“...What do you mean? That was just the Repair spell.”

“Your hair was glowing... and it feels so silky smooth... What the heck, that’s totally unfair! Do you have any idea how much effort I put into taking care of my hair every single day!?”

She ranted while running her fingers through my hair.

...Hey, quit using this as an excuse to sniff it!

“You know, I could cast the spell on you too.”

Yuna froze in place.

“...Onii-chan, magic is wonderful, isn’t it?”

“If you think it’s unfair, then you don’t really want it, do you?”

“Please, Onii-chan... I’m sorry, I take it back, just use that spell on me toooo...”

...Guess I’ll go easy on her. She did lend me that DVD box set.

“...Say. Could that spell also work on things like skin damage?”

“I think so, yeah.”

Mother, when did you even get behind me? Also, that smile of yours is kind of terrifying.

“In that case... could I ask you to use it on me as well?”

You really don’t need to wordlessly pressure me like that. If this counts as filial piety, I’ll do it as many times as you want.

I felt like I’d just glimpsed a small part of the intense passion women have for beauty.

Women are seriously scary...

Incidentally, when I cast Repair on Yuna’s hair, the dyed color reverted to her natural black, which bummed her out a bit.

But when I used it on Mom’s dyed hair afterward and nothing changed, Yuna immediately perked up again, shouting, “Then I’ll dye mine too!”