As evening approached, Roy finally returned to the mansion.
The moment he stepped into the courtyard, he heard a series of bang bang sounds coming from the backyard.
Roy headed to the back and found Touko gripping a gun-shaped Orga Lux, firing shot after shot at the targets on the backyard wall. Beams of light burst from the barrel one after another.
However, her accuracy was rather dismal. She fired five shots in quick succession, but only one hit the target—shattering it into pieces—while the other four struck the wall.
"Are you causing destruction again?"
"Relax, I put up a barrier."
Touko holstered the gun-shaped Orga Lux, her expression much calmer than it had been in the morning. It seemed the novelty of adapting to prana had worn off.
Roy glanced at the backyard wall and noticed that the beams that had struck it seemed to collide with an invisible, watery membrane, causing ripples to shimmer in midair before quickly settling. The wall itself remained completely untouched.
"Just channel mana, and it fires continuously with bullet-like power—completely skipping the refinement process. This thing called an Orga Lux is fascinating."
Touko couldn't stop praising it. Magi could refine mana into magical bullets, but the process required steps like gathering mana, injecting it into a foundation, forming the bullet, and then firing it. Moreover, magical bullets usually couldn't match the power of real bullets. Yet, the Orga Lux automatically generated powerful light bullets just by channeling mana, eliminating the refinement step entirely. It was more than twice as fast as normal magical bullets and packed even greater firepower.
"I've got other types here. Want to try them?"
"What kind? More guns?"
"Swords, spears, bows, cannons—you name it. Among the firearms, there's one that can fire hundreds of light bullets in one go, and even one that shoots homing laser beams..."
"Hahaha, that's incredible."
Touko clapped her hands and laughed heartily.
"If we equipped Fuyuki City's security force with these, I wouldn't have to keep getting called in by Rin for help."
"Not feasible at this stage."
Roy glanced to the side.
Standing nearby were the Nakano sisters, Ichika and Miku, who had been watching Touko's experiments with great interest.
Ichika even tried lifting a gun-shaped Orga Lux herself, attempting to channel mana into it.
But nothing happened.
"Lord Roy, it seems we can't use this."
Ichika raised her hand, her face filled with confusion.
"You like playing with this?"
"Well, not exactly..."
After a moment of thought, Ichika gave her answer.
"Right now, not only can we not help Lord Roy at all, but we're also just dead weight. At the very least, we should grow strong enough to escape danger on our own—so we don't become a burden to you."
Though they lived comfortably in the Aozaki residence and Roy was willing to provide for them, Ichika felt a sense of urgency. Even with her limited perspective, she could see that Roy would inevitably walk a path fraught with conflict. If, by then, they remained nothing more than pretty faces with no real skills, they wouldn't just be a liability to Roy—they'd also be trapped in a whirlpool of danger with no way out.
"Don't put too much pressure on yourself. For now, I'm here to hold up the sky for you."
Roy smiled and patted Ichika's head.
"Orga Lux are weapons that can only be used by those with Stregas and when the air contains Mana. Although you've acquired magic, you haven't adapted to Stregas yet, so of course you can't use them."
Touko had already adapted to Stregas and possessed their power, which was why she could wield Orga Lux.
It seemed Roy's ability to help others adapt wasn't about helping them adjust to this world's rules, but rather enabling them to adapt to the rules he himself had already acclimated to.
"I see... But does our world's atmosphere contain Mana too?"
Ichika looked thoughtful, then immediately spotted another issue.
"Of course not."
Roy shook his head, then smiled again.
"However, the world itself isn't unchanging—especially when this world is actively seeking evolution."
"Seeking evolution..."
Ichika wore an expression of awed confusion.
This concept was still too difficult for her to grasp.
Simply put, it wasn't that the usage conditions for Orga Lux had changed, but that the world's operational rules had shifted. The root cause lay in Roy bringing back the rules from Asterisk City, which this world then incorporated into its own systems—this was what made Orga Lux usable here now. Though Roy couldn't be entirely certain, this was his current hypothesis.
Judging purely by results, whether it was the simulated bodies or Orga Lux, all these otherworldly devices requiring Mana as activation energy had now become functional.
Moreover, only those Roy had helped could use this equipment—others lacking Stregas compatibility couldn't operate these devices.
Nothing could be more satisfying than this.
"Though we'll need to build a shooting range later."
Roy surveyed the empty backyard, which seemed somewhat narrow compared to the front garden. If the women in the mansion wanted to practice shooting later, this small backyard wouldn't suffice.
"Wouldn't an underground shooting range be better?"
"Do as you please, I've no objections."
Touko nodded indifferently.
"Just don't make my workshop disappear."
Roy shrugged.
She really had no sense of being the lady of the house.
"Lord Roy, may I have you tonight?"
At this moment, Ichika seemed to gather her courage, taking small steps to approach Roy before whispering in his ear.
"I have a gift for you."
Roy's eyebrows rose slightly.
He tilted his head to look at Ichika, seeing her smile like a cat that got the cream, her tone full of temptation—clearly extremely confident about the present she'd prepared.
"Alright."
Roy naturally had no reason to refuse.
Even if Utaha and Hayasaka found out, they wouldn't say anything. After all, though Roy treated them exceptionally well, he remained the master of this household. While not quite an absolute ruler, no one would contradict what Roy decided to do.
But what could Ichika's gift possibly be?
What made her so confident, as if she had Roy completely figured out?
Carrying this anticipation into the evening, the mystery was finally revealed.
"Miku?"
Roy returned to his room after bathing.
What met his eyes were Ichika with a mischievous grin and the blushing Miku being pushed forward by her—two identical-looking girls with equally stunning figures, yet their auras couldn't be more different. One was as bold as a dazzling rose, the other as shy as a lily under moonlight, both clad only in thin yukata that instantly set his pulse racing.
Roy immediately understood what the so-called "gift" referred to.