Disillusionment can sometimes bring everything to a standstill.

Passion, progress, even time.

But it never means eternity.

 

"Aaaand… done!"

"Yay!"

In response to me wiping the sweat off my brow and announcing that, Lufelle raised both her hands in the air and cheered.

"Is it really finished this time?"

Tia, who was sitting on Lufelle's shoulder, asked skeptically.

"Yup. It should be fine this time for sure. Right, Lufelle?"

"Yeah, I made sure to design it so that it won't leak any water!"

Lufelle and I had worked together to make a wooden boat.

We stuck together several boards to make it lightweight, made sure that it wouldn't leak any water, and used wood that wouldn't absorb water and was resistant to water for the body, and painted it to increase its strength.

Since I was worried that I alone wouldn't be able to make it, I asked Lufelle, who was good at woodwork and construction, to help me. I was confident that it was a self-made masterpiece once it was given the green light by Lufelle.

"Mmm… well, let's try it out?"

"Of course. Lufelle, can you help me out?"

"Yeeeah!"

When I nodded to Tia's hesitant question and asked Lufelle for help, she lifted the two-person boat. It was something that would require several humans to lift, but it was like a toy in the hands of the giant Lufelle.

"Here we gooo!"

The boat floated gently on the waterway.

… and promptly sank.

"Figured it wouldn't work."

"Maaaaan!"

I looked at the boat that was sinking to the bottom of the waterway as I cried out on my knees.

The first try was a boat that sank after a water leaked in through tiny gaps in the bottom.

The second time, the boat floated for a moment before waves formed in the river and it sank.

We had improved the boat each time it sank and it had floated for a moment before sinking again, but I never thought that I would reach the point where I couldn't even do that.

If they couldn't even float, then it would be impossible for the concept of a boat to exist.

If it wasn't for me throwing it in, even just a bunch of wooden boards would float.

"Doesn't water hate me just a bit too much?"

"Seriously. Maybe it's because you're a fire dragon…"

Boats themselves had been used for fishing in ponds and crossing rivers since the time Ai was around. Since I could just dive into the pond or fly through the air, I'd never used one, so I never thought that I would be hated by water to this extent.

"So what are you trying to do, anyway?"

As I gazed at the sunken boat, the waterway was flowing gently, covered with leaves from the surrounding trees.

It was strange no matter how I looked at it.

"It's like those leaves."

I gestured to the leaves floating down the river.

"I want to get a boat to float on the water like them."

Boats in this world wouldn't move forward on their own. Although they would move while actively rowing, they wouldn't move even if they were floating on a river or if they had sails and were catching the wind. I figure that it's the same phenomenon as how water wheels don't turn on their own.

Thanks to the waterway that Lufelle and the others made, we could now easily interact with the merfolk, but it's a shame that it couldn't be used as a canal for boats.

Merfolk would pull small boats carrying fish, but that was effectively just relying on manpower. Its efficiency was no different from lykos pulling wagons on land.

Since there were no beasts of burden that would obediently pull wagons like horses, this world's level of transportation technology seemed to remain inferior to that of ancient civilizations on Earth.

On the other hand, any decent magus could fly through the air, and even on foot, the distance and load that an individual could move in a day was far superior to that of humans on Earth, so in that regard, we were well ahead…

"I wonder why boats can't just float like leaves."

"Isn't that just how it is?"

Tia looked to Lufelle with a look that seemed to imply I was saying something strange.

Well, I may have actually said something strange. Their common sense was probably more correct than mine when it came to this world.

There were many things that we didn't know even back on Earth.

If anything it was more accurate to say that we'd only scratched the surface of understanding the world.

Like why does time only move forward from the past to the future?

What causes gravity, and why do things fall towards the ground?

Why must every living thing eventually die…?

No matter how far science progressed, there would always be another question that couldn't be answered. In the end, we would have to accept that it was just the way things were.

… But that didn't mean that we couldn't try to find the answer.

Even if we couldn't reach an absolute truth, we could still continue to walk towards it. The simple act of doing so could never be done in vain.

And then it happened. I turned my head to look up at the sky at the sound of a sudden flap of wings.

What flapped its large white wings was no bird.

The figure swimming through the sky with its two sets of four wings and its long tail was not unlike a dragon. Not a dragon like me, a Western dragon, but like one of those snake-dragons.

Still, it had a few decisive differences from a dragon.

Whatever it was had the face of a cute little girl.

Given that she was suddenly coming at me like a speeding bullet, I reflexively caught her.

"Guh…! Welcome back, Rin."

"I'm back! Sorry Mentor, I messed up my landing a bit."

As I struggled to stay upright against the unexpected impact, I unconsciously let out a grunt. Rin tucked her feathered wings back into her arms and waist fin, and apologized cutely.

Her transformation magic had sure improved a lot.

She still wasn't able to turn into a dragon, but her transformation magic had improved to the point where she could grow wings. However, she said that she preferred to use bird wings over bat wings when flying through the air. She could fly through the air even without wings, but the difference in speed between the two was huge.

"You're definitely doing that on purpose now…"

Tia muttered as she watched the scene.

"What what? Did you want me to do it for you too? I'm coming then—I'm back!"

"When did I say that!? Stop it, you're going to crush me!"

Tia was running around in a panic as Rin approached her, but she was soon caught and hugged like a stuffed animal. It wouldn't be difficult for Tia to escape if she put her mind to it, but she didn't seem to be too bothered by it.

"Lufelle too, I'm baaaack—geh!"

"Welcome back, Rin."

Next, Rin hugged Lufelle. Though this time, Rin's body was the one to look like a doll.

"Did you find anything?"

"Yep. I found some… what do you call it? Wall paintings? I don't know when they were drawn or what they were, but I found them."

Rin had been going from village to village in my stead to look for Ai's traces for some time now. I was supposed to be the one to lead the search, but…

What was I supposed to do if I did find her?

"Hey, Lufelle. I'm a little tired. Can you take me hooome?"

As I was thinking about what I'd do, Rin asked Lufelle to take her home.

Flying over the sea took a lot of effort. There was no place to rest in the middle of the journey.

There's no way someone would want to rest in the middle of the sea, after all.

At least that's where my mind was heading, but then I remembered that Rin was a merfolk. She could rest in the middle of the sea if she wanted to.

"Sure, that's fine."

"What do you mean that's fine? That's not even the same direction as where you live!"

Previously, Lufelle and Rin lived in the student dormitory that they had built together.

But since that time, Lufelle's house became too small for her, and since the village was expanding with the continual construction of infrastructure, it was more convenient for her to have a house in the suburbs, so Lufelle now lived in her own house.

"Then Mentooor, pleeease."

"I don't particularly mind…"

Rin clapped her hands together. Was she trying to be cute? Lately, it seemed like she was asking for things more often.

When I turned my back to her to let her up, she came at me without hesitation. Merfolk were much heavier than humans due to their fish-like tails. I didn't say anything, but I quietly cast a self-enhancement spell to double my strength.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

"Good work, Nina."

Nina came into view as we approached the school building, and I raised my hand in greeting. Lately, she'd been working as a doctor at the clinic more often than not.

As I let go of one hand to regain my balance, Rin hugged me tightly.

"Did something happen?"

As expected, Nina let out a surprised voice at seeing me carrying Rin.

"Nothing, she's just tired from her long journey."

Nina's expression suddenly became sharp… was it from me spoiling her too much?

"… Let her down."

"No, I do think that it's a bit strange for her to be carried around like this at her age, but she—"

"Enough."

Interrupting me, Nina spoke in a voice that brooked no argument. I was about to put Rin down, but she moved away from me before I could.

"… Since when?"

"When what?"

Rin tilted her head to the side as if she were confused by Nina's sudden advance.

"Don't you dare say you don't know! When did it start!?"

Nina suddenly shouted, and grabbed Rin's long hair.

"Wait, Nina! What are you talking about!?"

Not understanding the reason Nina was suddenly shouting like that, I panicked… and then realized something.

"… Rin. You…"

"Eh… ah…"

Rin panicked, and tried to hide her face with her hand.

However, what had been seen could no longer be hidden.

What Nina had grabbed and pulled up was Rin's long, beautiful hair.

What etched away at her under the hair… were deep, deep wrinkles.