It was evening.
The interior of the Sea of Trees was dim even during the day, and darkness fell early. While I wanted to continue the experiments further, working in the dark was far too dangerous, so I decided to call it a day and retreat into the mansion.
Even though the experiment had been a success, returning to Gimul immediately would have meant leaving Kormi all alone again after I’d already kept him waiting for so long. Since I planned to stay for a week regardless of the results, I figured I could just save the rest of the testing for tomorrow.
...That said, what was I supposed to do if I wasn't experimenting?
If we’d failed, I probably would have been busy identifying points for improvement, but everything had gone quite smoothly. It was a luxury to have such a worry, I suppose, but once the work was finished, I found myself at a loose end. There were so many things I wanted to do that I couldn't decide on just one.
"Kormi, is there anything you want to do?"
"Hmm, we talked a lot yesterday, so... I think I’d like to watch you work, Ryoma?"
In that case, perhaps I should try the modified version of the Hand of Kesho that Master Rosenberg had suggested—a ritual that would be acceptable to use in public. I had already decided on the materials and the nature of the spell, so it shouldn't take much time.
When I consulted Kormi, he readily agreed, so we moved to another location to begin preparations. In the butchering area I’d used to dismantle prey the other day, I laid out one Fragment of the Demon King and a block of stone about the size of two adults. I intended to use these to create a vessel for gathering miasma. My specific vision for it was, quite simply, a Jizo Statue.
"A Jizo Statue?"
"Properly speaking, it’s a Jizo Bodhisattva. It’s a statue of a deity that was worshipped in the country I used to live in, Japan. Strictly speaking, Buddhas and Gods might be distinct, but in Japan, there's a tradition called Shinto-Buddhist Syncretism where ancient Shinto and imported Buddhism merged... basically, it's a focus for faith. It's said that worshipping them brings many blessings, but I frequently saw them enshrined as Dosojin—guardian deities who protect the land and roads by warding off evil."
"I see. So you’re placing a Jizo Statue to protect the land from the miasma."
"Exactly. However, I’m not using a traditional design. I'm going to modify it to suit my curse magic."
First, since the Hand of Kesho is a technique that draws harmful energy into a physical form, I modeled the statue after my past self, albeit with an unnecessarily muscular body. The expression wasn't peaceful; I gave it the look of someone utterly haggard from consecutive nights of overwork. As for the posture, rather than the traditional Full Lotus Position, I had it prop up one knee to give it a more despondent, world-weary impression.
As I used Earth Magic to carve the rock according to that image, a statue of a simply exhausted man began to emerge. It wasn't bad, but it needed something else... I adjusted the design so the surplice was hanging open, covering only the lower half of the body. Then, I decided to carve a picture of a crane on the exposed back.
"Why a picture of a bird?"
"In Japan, there's a saying: 'A crane in a rubbish heap.' It’s usually a metaphor for something excellent or beautiful appearing in a dull place where it doesn't belong. This time, I’m taking the words literally. There is a crane in a rubbish heap—or rather, a crane marks the spot where the rubbish, the bad things, will accumulate."
It was a random idea, but it felt right. Master Rosenberg had mentioned that specific mental anchors or symbols are often used to solidify the image of a curse, so this was perfect. As I carved away, following my intuition, I ended up with a sculpture I was actually quite proud of.
I took a step back to view the whole thing. There stood a magnificent piece of work—though rather than a Jizo Statue, it looked more like a muscular yakuza dying while leaning against a wall.
"Because of where I put it, that crane looks like nothing but a tattoo! And since I modeled it on myself, I really don't like how much it looks like I became a gangster and died in the gutter."
"A failure?"
"It's a bit different from what I intended, but the fact that it feels 'right' as a target for the spell is the problem... oh well, it should work, so this is fine..."
It would be a waste to destroy it after all that effort. I’d just make the next one look more like a proper Jizo. If I integrated the limbs more with the torso so the body seemed to be emerging from the stone, it would look much more traditional.
For now, as a finishing touch, I embedded the Fragment of the Demon King where the heart would be. Finally, I smoothed over the exterior so the seam was invisible. Finished!
"Now, what should we do next?"
"Aren't you going to cast the spell?"
"I'll wait until I can take it to the experiment ground and have Master Rosenberg check it. It’s a miasma-gathering spell, after all, and the last time I tried something like this, it got pretty dangerous."
"I see... that's too bad."
"If you want to see the spell being cast, I’ll build a hut at the experiment ground so you can watch from there, Kormi."
"I can!?"
"Building a single hut is no trouble at all. Besides, it would actually help me if you could occasionally check on the experiment ground while I'm away."
"I see! I'll be the lookout!"
It was heartwarming to see Kormi hopping around with such enthusiasm, boasting about how good he’d be at keeping watch.
"I get it, I get it. So you're that confident in your lookout skills, Kormi?"
"It’s not really about being 'good' at it. I just 'know' things without having to do anything. I know if a monster enters, or who is where and what they're doing... anything that happens inside myself. Ryoma, if a bug were crawling on your skin, you'd notice even if it was in a place you couldn't see, right?"
"Since this mansion is your main body, I suppose it's natural you'd always know what's inside. You did respond immediately when I first entered, too... I see. Wait, isn't that incredible?"
He could immediately sense any abnormality in the house, and any intruder could be suppressed with illusions. On top of that, Kormi possessed extraordinary defensive power and regeneration. After all, even Master Glen, an S-Rank Adventurer whose entire thing was physical strength, couldn't break the gate even with a full-power attack.
Thinking about it, he was the perfect security system and a brilliant monitor for dangerous areas.
"Hehehe, that's not all. If you lose something, I can find it immediately if you ask me. As long as it's within the grounds, anyway."
"So if I misplace something, I can just ask you? Can you also keep track of the food supplies?"
"Of course!"
From there, Kormi explained in meticulous detail the amount of ingredients I had brought from outside and stored in the kitchen, right down to how much salt had been used this morning. Even if his explanations were a bit laconic, he had a perfect grasp of the situation and could answer any detailed questions I had.
"This is a massive help."
"Really?"
"Really. At this rate, it's not just food; you could probably manage the inventory in the warehouse too, right?"
"If you put things in the warehouse, I can tell what state they're in at any time! I’m bored when you're not here, so should I do that too?"
"Please. By the way, is it possible to make a list of what's inside? It would be so much easier if I could see the types and quantities in a table."
"Hmm, like this?"
After thinking for a moment, Kormi raised his hand. What appeared before him was a computer screen running the spreadsheet software I had used religiously in both my work and private life on Earth.
"What!? Ah, is this an illusion?"
"Since we don't have paper and ink, and writing it out takes too long."
"So you read my memories and projected this screen. It's exactly the same, down to the smallest detail. How nostalgic..."
"When I write the food inventory in here, it looks like this!"
To the sound of his cheerful voice, the blank cells were filled in an instant. It was a simple table with names and quantities. If we were going to manage inventory seriously, I’d eventually need things like dates, stock-in/out records, and storage locations, but this was more than enough for now.
"The tools from your past life are amazing, Ryoma."
"They were convenient. In fact, they were so important that society couldn't function without them. But I think you're the amazing one for being able to reproduce them in this world, Kormi."
In my past life, there was a concept of smart homes operated via voice or apps, and Kormi was essentially a magical version of that. I didn't know how far Earth's technology had progressed since I'd left, but at the time of my death, an AI this practical hadn't been invented yet. And a monitor floating in mid-air? That was pure sci-fi.
"I never thought I'd see something sci-fi-like in another world."
"Sci-fi... there's stuff like this, too!"
Kormi, clearly enjoying the exploration of my memories, increased the number of projected monitors, transforming the room into something like the bridge of a spaceship from a certain anime. The interior hadn't actually changed; it was just a hallucination, but it was so elaborate that you wouldn't know it wasn't real without trying to touch it.
"I can't tell what’s real anymore."
"What's next?"
"Let's see... ah, could you help me organize the books and documents the same way?"
"Sure! There's a perfect place for that over here!"
Guided by Kormi, we arrived at the library located next to the Successive Village Chiefs' Room.
Apparently, most of the original collection had either been sold to pay for the village's losses or discarded due to mold from the Sea of Trees' humidity. Because of that, the bookshelves were full of empty gaps.
"It’s easy to organize books here, and you can leave whatever you don't need! Mold used to be an issue, but the villagers cleaned it up, so it's fine now. If anything happens, I'll tell you."
"I'll take you up on that and leave the organized books here for a while."
I began taking out the books and documents from my Item Box. These were the mementos I’d recovered from my grandparents' house. Among them were several spatial magic tools packed tight with my grandmother Mealia's research materials.
My grandfather, Tigal, had been the one to pack them. According to his diary, after Mealia passed away, he’d stuffed everything she cherished into those tools as quickly as possible to protect them from damage. It was thanks to his haste that these precious materials had survived in such good condition.
However, Tigal hadn't understood the details of her research. He really had just stuffed things in haphazardly. There was no classification or organization at all, which made sorting through them an enormous task. Worse, I found the contents so fascinating that every time I picked one up to classify it, I’d end up reading it. I’d realize what I was doing, get back to work, pick up the next book, and fall right back into the reading loop!
"It was a struggle just to find the Curse Removal Lost Magic that Master Fernobelia hinted at."
"Isn't that your fault for getting distracted, and not your grandfather's?"
"Guilty as charged."
It was a fair point. I had no defense.
"Well, let's get moving. I'll keep taking things out, and Kormi, you handle the listing and classification. If you can group similar items together, we can just move them to the shelves at the end."
"Roger! How should I divide them?"
"Let's use six categories: Title, Author, Primary Classification, Secondary Classification, Tertiary Classification, and Condition."
For example, for the book I had in my hand—Nurumarumu Grass's Beauty Components and Considerations on Their Extraction Methods—the title was the same, the author was Mealia, the primary classification was Research, the secondary was Pharmacology, the tertiary was Beauty, and the condition was Normal.
I also asked him to evaluate the condition on a five-point scale:
Pristine: Good as new. Good: Minimal wear, perfectly legible. Normal: Stained or scratched, but legible. Poor: Significant damage, difficult to read. Damaged: Illegible or falling apart.
Even for the "Damaged" items, I wouldn't throw them away. Many were precious ancient texts that were simply fragile.
"Let's start with those standards. I'll try my best not to read them, so I'm leaving the classification entirely to you. Any organization at all is a help, so just take it easy."
"Understood!"
With that, we steadily sorted through the books and documents. By the time we finished a general cataloging, the night was already well underway.