Morning sunlight poured over the Kagenou Manor. One full day had passed for Gabriel in the reality of Kage no Jitsuryokusha.
The night before, Gabriel had tested several of his spells out at sea together with Cid. The results were startling—even to himself.
His destructive power and energy control had increased dramatically, especially after the Class Card had been fused into his Grimoire.
With that, Gabriel's total Mana control had now reached five hundred percent.
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Five-Leaf Grimoire
Rank: Silver
Type: Accessory (Bound Item)
Description:
A five-leaf grimoire bound to the user's soul. It can be filled with Dark Matter-attribute spells and will continue to grow alongside the user's power and personal development.
Because it is tainted by negative magical energy, this grimoire can amplify magical power, but it also corrupts the soul.
Control: +95%
Efficiency: +80%
Magic Energy: +100%
Note: Class Card installed.
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After those tests, only then did Gabriel truly begin to "play."
And for the first time, he felt complete satisfaction as Ash—not because of power, but because he was no longer playing alone. He was playing together with Cid.
Even so, Gabriel wasn't entirely sure whether Cid felt the same. No matter how powerful Gigan was, it still couldn't read minds.
But if he trusted the intuition of a fellow chuunibyou… Gabriel was fairly certain.
Cid had enjoyed that night too—perhaps even more than he showed.
He had clearly learned many new things from Gabriel: techniques, ways of speaking, and that theatrical nuance that he would almost certainly turn into new references for his Shadow persona.
But all of that was now part of a night that had already passed.
Now, Cid, Gabriel, and Claire were at the Kagenou manor's training grounds.
Cid was training alone, using his usual mob-style, occasionally receiving instructions from the Kagenou family's instructor.
Meanwhile, Claire was attentively guiding Gabriel in person. After all, in this world, Gabriel's identity was Claire's little brother—the child who had once gone missing.
Because of that, Claire giving him her full attention wasn't strange.
It was natural.
Very natural.
Standing behind him, Claire carefully corrected the position of Gabriel's shoulders and wrists with both hands.
"Don't hold it so stiffly. A sword is an extension of your body," Claire said firmly, yet patiently.
"Y-yes, Claire Nee-sama…" Gabriel replied obediently.
He swung a few times. The air was cleanly split by the path of the blade—sharp and precise.
Yet Gabriel's expression only grew more restless.
A few seconds passed before he finally gathered his courage and spoke.
"Claire Nee-sama," he said innocently, yet with a strangely firm resolve, "could… my sword be replaced with… a shovel?"
Claire froze.
"…a shovel?" she repeated slowly, one eyebrow lifting high. "Why…?"
"Why?" Gabriel repeated, his eyes sparkling as if he had just discovered the deepest truth of the universe. "Because a shovel is the strongest weapon ever created by mankind!"
"Huh…?" Claire stared at him blankly, her brain needing a moment to process that sentence.
On the side of the field, the Kagenou family's instructor nearly dropped his clipboard.
"…a shovel?" he muttered quietly, unsure whether he had misheard—or misunderstood life itself.
Cid, standing not far away with his sword held in his usual mob-style grip, slowly lowered it and looked toward Gabriel with genuine interest.
Oh?
That actually… doesn't sound bad.
A shovel is the signature weapon of a Right Hand of Shadow.
Gabriel took half a step forward, his expression turning serious—far too serious for a morning sword practice.
"Humanity didn't conquer the world with swords alone," he declared firmly.
"They dig trenches to survive. They build walls to protect. They raise houses so they can live… and graves so they can die."
He raised one hand, as if holding something sacred and invisible.
"And all of that…"
"began with a single tool."
Claire and the instructor exchanged looks, falling silent for a moment.
"…Where did that idea even come from?" the instructor finally asked, his tone somewhere between confused and wary.
"Yeah," Claire quickly added. "What book did you get that from?"
Gabriel shook his head quickly, full of conviction. "From long observation of human history."
Silence fell again.
Cid, who had been watching the whole time in his usual mob stance, nodded slowly—very slowly—as if a major piece had just fallen into place.
"Makes sense," Cid said calmly. "A true weapon isn't the one that kills the most… but the one that changes the world the most."
Claire shot him a sharp look. "Cid?! Don't encourage him!"
The instructor swallowed nervously. "…Cid young master, are you serious?"
Cid gave a faint smile. "For basic training? There's nothing wrong with it. Mastering a simple tool is the foundation of true strength."
Gabriel looked at Cid with shining eyes—almost glowing.
He understands…!
Claire let out a long breath, her shoulders dropping slightly.
"…Where on earth does this concept even come from…?" she muttered, for the third time that day.
For some reason, a quiet unease began to creep into Claire's heart.
Not because of any single thing—but because everything felt… out of sync.
One of her little brothers trained with a sword wearing a flat expression, as if whatever he did held no particular meaning—no passion, no clear sense of growth.
And the other…
The younger brother who had just returned after being gone for years—who hadn't even spent a full night back home yet—was already seriously explaining a shovel as if it were a crucial part of the history of human civilization.
Claire looked at Gabriel once more.
She didn't know what had truly happened during those seven years.
But her instincts told her that something far deeper had been left behind—something she couldn't yet see.
***
Tonight was clear—no rain—allowing the moon to show its full face in the night sky.
In the middle of the forest stood a cabin that now served as Shadow's base. Not far from it, a simple pale-white warehouse stood out among the trees.
The entire building was constructed from Dark Matter—a structure that had never existed before and had only just been created by Gabriel not long ago.
Inside the warehouse, the quiet was filled with sharp focus.
Gabriel and Morgan were examining a transparent container filled with slime—the base material of the Slime Suit and also Cid's personal weapon.
Lantern light reflected off the surface of the pulsating ooze, as if it were responding to the mana in the air.
The warehouse itself was still empty. Not many tools or artifacts had been stored yet, since the place had only just been built.
Besides, for now, all of Gabriel's attention was focused on a single thing: the slime.
Gabriel wanted to create a Slime Suit that would truly resonate with his own mana—not merely a copy of Cid's.
Meanwhile, Morgan showed an unusual level of interest in the creature, observing its structure and reactions with cold, analytical eyes.
Upon further thought, the Mystic Code that Cid had created from slime was indeed extraordinary for a world like this—simple, efficient, flexible, and boasting a 99 percent conductivity rate.
"I'm curious… if I feed this slime with my mana atribut… will it become compatible?" Gabriel asked in a serious tone.
Hearing that, Morgan tilted her head slightly, her gaze tracing the transparent ooze's pulses with almost mechanical precision.
"This slime is not a living being in the usual sense," she finally said. "It is more like an adaptive medium. It does not possess mana—it imitates, stores, and then adjusts itself to the most dominant pattern."
She extended her finger, stopping just short of touching the surface of the container.
"This world feeds this slime with a steady, repetitive flow of mana. Not because the slime needs it… but because that pattern forces its internal structure to learn."
Morgan glanced at Gabriel.
"If you supply it with your Mana—consistently, not impulsively—this Slime will begin to treat your mana frequency as its 'standard.'"
She withdrew her hand.
"But there is a consequence."
Morgan looked at the Slime again, more intently.
"A Slime that has fully adapted to your Mana will reject all other resonances. Not even Cid will be able to use it without structural conflict."
Silence fell for a moment.
"In short," she continued flatly, "yes. You can feed it your Mana. And if it succeeds… it will no longer be a Slime Weapon."
She paused.
"It will become an extension born from your very existence."
Gabriel fell silent, his right eyebrow lifting slightly.
"So..." he murmured. "you could call this a process of existential reconstruction. Heh... interesting."