Chapter 94

"Fredo, today! Today I will finally show you the perfect transformation technique!"

"Eh, again? I think it's enough already... It's fine. I have long bangs, so unless you look closely, you can't even tell what color my eyes are."

"No, that won't do!"

"Alright, alright. Do you have Reina's permission?"

"She said it's okay as long as it's before lunchtime."

"Then I'm fine with it."

Since the day she gained an extra tail, Kohaku started practicing her transformation technique. She was very frustrated that she couldn't transform her ears and eyes. Up until now, she had always been able to do such things instinctively, so she couldn't accept her current inability.

I wish she would show the same determination in her studies... For now, my goal is for her to be able to read a request letter without making mistakes and to calculate the reward correctly.

Considering the power of the transformation technique, which could attract the attention of authorities or criminals, it's important to know what she can and cannot do. We need to understand this, and I allow her to practice for that purpose. "I'm also very interested in this unknown technique," but of course, I set conditions, and she can only practice when all of them are met.

In a room where no one can see from the outside, with her permission, I don't touch the parts of her body hidden by clothes, and I only allow it when I'm present.

To ensure no one else sees her during her transformation practice, I keep an eye out for employees or others approaching the room.

"Grrr...! It's no good, no matter what I do, I can't make my eyes the same color as Fredo's! No matter how many times I try, they always turn green!"

Kohaku seemed frustrated, still unable to master the "Fredo transformation." She could change her appearance and hide her fox ears, but she couldn't get the eyes right.

Kohaku, in a gesture of giving up, placed the mirror on the table and flopped down on the sofa. Since she was in Fredo's body, her legs were hanging off the edge. As usual, I reminded her, "The armrest isn't for resting your feet," and made her sit up properly.

I've seen her so many times that I can now interact with "Kohaku in Fredo's form" with a calm mind.

"It's strange. Why can't just the eyes match? And you can perfectly transform into other people besides me."

"That's what I find strange too."

Indeed, that day, she even reproduced the cut on my finger, which I had accidentally made with paper. Of course, on days when I wasn't injured, her transformation didn't include the cut.

I've heard that there are forms she can't transform into, like existing deities or beings blessed by gods.

But Fredo is just a regular human. It's strange that only the eye color doesn't match.

"Fredo, maybe your real eye color is actually green? No, I'm sure of it. Fredo's eyes are green. You must have eaten something strange that changed their color."

Unable to accept it, Kohaku came up with an outrageous idea.

"Wh-what? That's ridiculous..."

"No, no, Kohaku. Even though I don't remember from birth, I've never heard of my eye color changing. And I've had these eyes since I was old enough to remember."

But because Kohaku said it so confidently, we both ended up laughing.

"But, Kohaku, your transformation should be perfect! If that's the case, then it must be Fredo's eye color that's wrong... There's no other explanation!"

"Okay, okay, Kohaku. It's time to change back. It's lunchtime."

At Anna's urging, Kohaku released her transformation.

I, who had been doing paperwork next to her, put down my pen at her words.

But the idea that "Fredo's real eye color is green" is interesting. I don't think anyone else would come up with that.

But maybe his eye color did change due to illness or something... No, but Kohaku's transformation, which even reproduced my finger injury, should make him look like the current Fredo with deep crimson eyes. It's still a mystery.

"Reina, after lunch, we're going to the Adventurer's Guild! We're taking on a request with Kohaku for the first time in a while!"

"Don't worry, I remember."

Recently, we've been moving towards selling the artificial magic stone workshop along with the manufacturing process. Even without me, the production volume remains almost the same.

With the current method of making artificial magic stones, the quality can be improved by how finely the raw magic stones are crushed and how uniformly the magic power is channeled during solidification, but there are limits.

If we could make artificial magic stones with a material that has no magic resistance, like the alchemy textbook problem that says, "Calculate the magic power required to activate this magic circuit, assuming no magic resistance in the circuit," it would be a different story... But such a material doesn't exist.

So realistically, we can only make up to a 15th-grade stone, but the demand is still high. Not many adventurers can defeat the monsters that drop stones of this size, and those monsters aren't abundant.

I didn't expect them to sell so well. Honestly, I never thought the market would be this big.

Living here as an alchemist who developed artificial magic stones would be more secure. I already have more than enough income. But I thought, "I want to try other things."

However, I haven't lost interest in artificial magic stones. I want to try various things to make larger-grade artificial magic stones, but I lack the equipment, so I've put it off. If I could scale up the small-scale success, I think the current ceiling on artificial magic stones would disappear.

Of course, I have the funds to get the equipment if I wanted to, but I don't feel like settling down and working here anymore... So it's just on my list of things I want to do someday.

I want to try other things, but when I think about what specifically, nothing concrete comes to mind. But that's okay, as Anna and Fredo have said. I can look for it as I go.