It was Sunday, the day after Shar had taught me space magic.
I’d woken up early again that day, entertaining myself by putting things in and out of storage with my new magic.
Once the afternoon rolled around, I changed into my uniform and headed to the Astral dormitory. I found Frank and Cedric sitting on the sofas in the usual lounge.
"Yo. How was the visit home?" I asked as I joined them.
"Same as always. Nothing to write home about," Cedric replied.
"I'm just sleepy," Frank added.
The time difference, huh... It was a pretty serious issue, just like Shar had said.
"Hang in there," I said.
"Hmm? You're in high spirits."
"Did something good happen?"
I pulled my smartphone out of my pocket in response to their questions. "Step right up, everyone! What does this look like to you?"
"A smartphone."
"Who are you calling a 'customer'?"
You guys, obviously.
"Watch closely. In the blink of an eye... it’s gone!"
The smartphone vanished. I had used space magic to store it, of course.
"Whoa! Space magic? You actually learned it."
"I thought you'd never get it in a million years. That's impressive! What kind of trick did you use?"
That’s right! Praise me! ...Wait, was that even praise?
"A certain beautiful mage taught me."
"Huh. Good for you."
"Must be nice."
"Anyway, I've got space magic down. It finally feels like I've taken my first step toward becoming a mage."
"I know the feeling."
"That takes me back. I remember feeling the same way."
So everyone feels that way, huh?
"Alright, I'll buy you guys some juice. Let's head into town, boys."
"I won't say no to that."
"Let's go, then."
We stood up and left the dormitory. We looked out over the town from the top of the hill.
"The beauty I mentioned said the place to go is the commercial district, right?" I asked while surveying the cityscape.
"Yeah," Cedric said. "The other areas don't have much to see."
"It’d just be a nuisance if we went to the residential or industrial districts anyway," Frank added.
True... Even in uniform, we'd probably look like suspicious characters if we wandered around people's homes.
"Are we walking? Or taking a train?"
"Man, you really don't know anything, do you?"
"You seriously didn't do any prep work."
Why bother when I have people to teach me?
"I have a map, at least."
"Well, at least you won't get lost if we're separated. This way."
I followed Frank and Cedric down the hill. We passed the school building and entered a certain structure.
"What's this place?"
The interior was about the size of a classroom, but it was empty—of both people and objects.
"First of all, things in Astral developed differently than they did on Earth," Frank explained, turning back to me.
"Because of magic?"
"Exactly. That's why there are no cars in this world."
"None at all?" Wouldn't that be a pain?
"Nope. I mean, some people bring in bicycles, so those exist. But basically, there's nothing that runs on fuel, like cars or bikes."
"There are trains, though," Cedric added. "Magic trains."
He casually dropped a bombshell. "What's a magic train?"
"A train powered by magic. We use them to travel to other towns."
"Wait, there are other towns?"
"Of course there are. We can explain that later, though."
I was really curious, but...
"I really don't know anything about this place..."
"I'm honestly shocked by how little you know. Like Cedric said, we can talk about other towns later. You won't understand if we dump too much info on you at once."
True enough.
"Fair point. I get the car thing, but how do people get around locally? This town is pretty huge, isn't it? Isn't it inconvenient?"
Shar had mentioned it was roughly the size of Paris.
"Yeah, and that's why we have these buildings. Look over there. There's a magic circle on the floor, right?"
Frank pointed at the floor. Sure enough, there was something that looked like a magic circle drawn there.
"What is it?"
"It’s a teleportation magic circle. People use these when they need to go somewhere far away in town."
"Whoa... This really is a different world. Total fantasy stuff."
"It is an otherworld, so yeah, it’s fantasy."
"You should bring this tech back to Earth. You'd be loaded."
"...That’s strictly forbidden. Do you need a history lesson?"
History... The class I skipped to attend curse studies.
"No thanks. Not interested."
"Figured as much. Regardless, just remember that bringing technology from this side to the other side is prohibited."
"But I used space magic over there."
Shar used it too, and she even gave me a potion.
"Stuff on that level is fine. Even if someone sees you, you can play it off as a magic trick."
True. I'd assumed it was a trick myself and called it "hand power."
"Alright. So this magic circle can take us to the commercial district?"
"Yeah. It goes other places too. Go ahead, step on."
I walked up to the magic circle and inspected it.
"There's only one? How do you use it?"
"Just stand on it and think about wanting to go to the commercial district."
"What if I think about going to one of those other towns you mentioned?"
"The magic won't trigger. Simple as that."
Fair enough.
"Is this safe? It’s a little scary."
"It's fine. There's never been an accident."
"You go first, then."
"For a guy who’s all muscle, you sure are a wuss..."
Frank stepped onto the magic circle with a look of exasperation.
"See? It doesn't trigger automatically. Once you're on the circle, you just imagine where you want to go—"
Frank vanished right in the middle of his sentence.
"He must have imagined it while he was explaining. That's how it works. Give it a shot, Tsukasa."
Cedric encouraged me with a smile, so I stepped onto the circle.
"I don't actually know what the commercial district looks like, though. Will it trig—"
Just like Frank, I was cut off. My vision went pure white, and before I knew it, Cedric had been replaced by Frank.
"Huh?"
"Oh, you made it. This is the commercial district."
Apparently, it worked.
"I don't understand the logic behind this at all."
I walked toward Frank.
"I don't get the theory either. Some big shots built it, I'm sure."
Makes sense. I don't really know how a car or a train works, either.
"Ah, you made it here safely. I thought for sure you'd end up in the residential or industrial district."
Cedric arrived via teleportation a moment later.
"I considered it for a second, but I was too scared to try."
"Is that so? Well, let's head out. The commercial district is right outside."
"Time to buy something."
We headed out of the building.