The realization landed a beat too late, and Megumin wanted to slap herself a few times. How had she failed to remember that this guy was also an Ancient Mage? Breaking through a layer of ice like that would have been nothing to him — all she'd had to do was pay one small price and he'd have gotten her out.
Instead of being left dangling in limbo like this. Worse still, she'd handed him a good long stretch of entertainment entirely of her own accord.
She snatched up the quilt she'd torn in half and thrashed around the room with it until the worst of it was out of her system, then straightened her clothes, walked to the door, and pulled it open without the slightest effort. Yuiyui, who by rights should still have been sitting outside it, had risen and slipped away the instant Jhin broke the ice and made his escape.
The outcome hadn't been the one she'd pictured, but her daughter and her son-in-law had at least started interacting, and that alone was enough to warm her. A few more rounds like this, she was sure, and her goal would be within sight.
Having made his getaway, Jhin went back to the living room first and carried the soundly sleeping Kyaru off with him. As the newly appointed captain of the emergency fire-fighting squad, she performed her duties admirably; even fresh out of sleep, fuzzy-headed and unable to work out what was going on, she could clock in on pure instinct.
It took a while to put the fire out. Afterward Kyaru rested her head against Jhin's arm and asked in a lazy voice with a thread of sultriness running through it, "Auntie Yuiyui locked the two of you in a room again?"
"Mm. I figure there'll be plenty more of that to come."
"What is Megumin even tying herself in knots over…"
"No idea. She's stubborn about that part and won't give me an answer — she just says she can get over it herself, and all I have to do is wash up and wait." Jhin reached out and stroked her under the chin, and Kyaru let out a blissful little whine, exactly like a kitten.
"Don't tell me the state I'm in right now is that plush ball you talked about once?"
"Don't be ridiculous. You're my girlfriend, same as Megumin."
"Hmph. Save the sweet talk for Megumin. I'm not buying it."
Jhin glanced down at the cat tail coiled around his waist. Kyaru could keep handling the tsundere routine; the tail would tell him the real answer.
"So what are you doing next?"
"I brought up Teleportation Magic with Father-in-law over dinner yesterday. In a bit I'm heading out with him to the place that handles Crimson Demon Village's shipping. I'll be able to watch and study Teleportation Magic from the sidelines there."
"Is that so." Kyaru peeled her head off his arm with visible reluctance. "Then you'd better get going early. Don't let me hold things up."
"Mm." Jhin kissed her on one soft, dewy cheek, then gave a fluffy cat ear a nibble, and left the guest room under her pouting glare.
Back in the living room, exactly as he'd guessed, everyone had been rousted out of bed by his mother-in-law. His father-in-law sat there waiting for him too — though judging by his face, he still had no idea what had happened.
"Jhin, that was one long afternoon nap. Good thing we left ourselves plenty of time."
"Sorry about that, Father-in-law. Let's head straight out."
"Father-in-law…" Hyoizaburoo still wasn't used to being called that, and the look on his face came out more than a little stiff. Under his wife's death glare he swallowed whatever else he'd been about to add, made a fist in front of his mouth, and coughed twice. "Let's get going!"
"Mm."
On the road to Crimson Demon Village's shipping point, Hyoizaburoo made not a scrap of small talk with his son-in-law, just kept his head down and marched. Compared with Hitori Gotoh's father, Naoki Gotoh, who could hold a perfectly normal conversation with Jhin, this was far closer to what usually happens when an ordinary father-in-law finds himself alone with the man his daughter has chosen.
Then again, Naoki Gotoh had been a rock band guy himself, so Jhin let it go.
Band people. Apart from my adorable Bocchi-chan, they're basically all extroverted social superhumans.
The shipping point was only about a ten-minute walk from the house, yet to Hyoizaburoo it felt like a full day and night. When the small warehouse with the red roof finally came into view, the relief nearly took his knees out. Under his cape, the back of his white shirt was already soaked through with sweat.
Thank goodness Jhin didn't try to strike up a conversation. I wouldn't have had the faintest idea what to say.
His wife had warned him over and over before they left not to go rambling on about his magic inventions and leave his son-in-law thinking his father-in-law was a lunatic. Hyoizaburoo had spent the whole walk dreading that Jhin might ask him something. One wrong move and he'd be eating Sleep Magic the moment he got home.
And all that lost time could have gone into researching so many new magic items!
"This is the shipping warehouse. I've already had a word with the people inside, so all you need to do is go in and watch how they cast. Don't worry about not being able to keep up with their casting speed — they all know you're the big boss, so they'll work with you."
"Thank you, Father-in-law. Um… I'll head in, then."
"Mm. Do you remember the way home? If you don't, I'll have Megumin come fetch you later."
"Of course I remember the way. But send Megumin to fetch me anyway, if you wouldn't mind."
"Will do."
Jhin stepped into the warehouse. Cardboard boxes of every size were stacked all through it, and a good many of them hung in midair, drifting along their assigned routes in orderly lines into different magic circles. As each circle flared with light, the boxes it held were dispatched to their designated destinations.
The Crimson Demon Clan members handling the Teleportation Magic inside were dressed with a truly outstanding amount of chuunibyou flair, most of them sticking to a palette of red, black, and gold. Spotting a stranger like Jhin walking in, they nodded politely in greeting.
The man footing the bill had come to inspect the operation, after all — they had to look sharp.
Jhin wandered over to a Crimson Demon Clan man whose getup made him look uncannily like a fishmonger and gave him a smile. "Sorry to intrude. I'm here to observe the Teleportation Magic."
"No problem at all." As he said it, his hands slowed, and he even began chanting the incantation aloud so that Jhin could sense the process more clearly.
There was no time to thank him. Jhin closed his eyes and carefully traced the flow of the elements, and the special substance created by blending the three elements of light, lightning, and wind: the "spatial positioning anchor."
When he opened his eyes, a nearly invisible anchor-shaped outline of matter hung at the position of the spatial positioning anchor. Perceived through element-sense, it stood out like a pillar of light blazing in absolute darkness.
A box due to be shipped floated up beneath the anchor and was wrapped inside it, and a second later the anchor tore open space and carried the cargo away.
After watching the process several more times, Jhin had a fairly solid grasp of how Teleportation Magic worked.
The spatial positioning anchor existed for protection and navigation. Within the turbulence of ruptured space it pointed the way with precision and kept the cargo from taking any damage — and the same principle held when the thing being sent was a person.
Teleportation Magic worked by folding a straight line at its two ends so that the endpoints faced each other front to back, then digging a temporary hole open at that junction. Carry the anchor through the hole and you arrived at the target location on the other side: instantaneous travel across any distance.
With the basic concept and a live reference to work from, Jhin set about creating a Teleportation Magic of his own without a moment's delay.
____
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