Chapter 129: The Invincible Gale

While we drank tea inside the dome and watched the rain start to fall, the clouds drifted past in the same direction as the upper-air winds.

Occasionally, flashes of light ran through the rain clouds—promising signs.

As we slowly enjoyed our tea, the surroundings grew darker and darker, and though distant, thunder could be heard rumbling.

Let the winds blow—summon the storm!
May my anger ride upon the thunder and strike down all before me!

…is what I’d love to shout in full chūni mode, but this part is up to the heavens.

I could see the wind, and from the cloud movements I already knew it would rain today. I also saw occasional flashes inside the clouds, so I thought it was a good chance to bring the four of them out.

Looks like heaven is on my side today.

A distant flash—
One, two, three…
Forty-five seconds later, the rumbling arrived.

If I remember right, sound travels about 340 m/s, so the lightning was still about 15 km away. Far, but judging by the clouds’ movement, we could expect more.

Actually, even without reading the wind, the black clouds were clearly drifting our way… well, slightly off course, but soon enough the skies opened into a downpour.

“Whoa—this rain’s incredible.”

“Leon-san, this is…”

BZZZ-CRAAACK–DOOOOM

“Oh! Gale, that’s it! Right, Leon-san?!”

“Eh…?”

“What are you talking about, Steve?”

“Gale-san, if you want to make your lightning magic stronger, you should really watch how real lightning works.”

“Oh, that’s what you meant.”

“Man, Gale, you always miss something obvious.”

Lightning kept flashing, and Steve figured it out first. The others also tried to predict where lightning would strike.

Unfortunately, it was moving away from the short spear I had set up as a makeshift lightning rod.
Well, lightning is unpredictable anyway. The rest was up to luck.

A flash—
One, two, three, four, five, six… BZZZ-CRACK-DOOM!

Only six seconds—about 1.5 km away. Pretty close.

Gale frantically searched for the lightning’s origin.
Alright, maybe I should test something else.

I formed a thin tornado over a puddle, narrowing and stretching it higher and higher.

I adjusted the wind to pull in the falling rain, pouring in more and more mana.

“Is… is that Leon’s tornado?”

“No way, it’s too thin for that.”

“Why is it wriggling so much…?”

Don’t comment on that—I’m literally fighting the wind and rain here.

Even with mana infused, the tornado looked on the verge of tearing apart.
But the moment it was swallowed by a flash of light—

BZZZ-CRACK—DOOOOOM!

—it exploded violently and vanished.

Whoa… seriously?

I thought it might attract lightning, but I didn’t actually expect it to.

When lightning hits distant spots, you only hear rumbling.
When it hits nearby, you hear the sound of air being ripped apart.

And that was exactly what we just heard.

Gale trembled, and the four of them collapsed onto the ground—sitting or holding their heads.

I did tell them the dome could block lightning, but I guess they forgot.

“Gale, did you see that?”

BZZZ-CRACK-DOOM!

“Eek!”

“S-someone help meee!”

BZZZ-CRACK-CRAAAACK—BOOOOM!
PASHIIIIN!

Uh… did I anger the heavens?
Lightning was now repeatedly striking just a few hundred meters from us.

Gale had curled up with his hands over his head.

I grabbed his hair and forcibly lifted his face.

“Gale! Open your eyes and look!
If you could use lightning magic like that, you’d be invincible!”

“…Invincible…”

Really? That’s what snaps him out of it?

The rain continued, but the lightning had moved on—now only distant rumbles remained.

“Gale-san, you saw that lightning earlier. If you could cast magic like that, you’d be invincible.”

“Y-yeah… invincible!”

No. He’s hopeless.

[Lady Félicienne, please grant me lightning like that! Hah!]
BZZZ-CRAAAACK-DOOOOM!

“Holy—!”

“That’s amazing!”

“You did it, Gale!”

[Lady Félicienne, let me fire lightning like that! Hah!]
BZZZ-CRAAAACK-DOOOOM!

[Lady Félicienne—]
BZZZ-CRAAAACK-DOOOOM!

He kept firing.
He had become a complete trigger-happy maniac.

I glanced at Steve—he had a deadpan, exasperated expression.

Our eyes met, and he shrugged with both palms up.

Yeah, same here, buddy.

Gale fired spells until he ran out of mana and collapsed.
We laid him on a simple bed and left him there.

Then we toasted to the completion of Gale’s lightning magic, settling into snack-time chatter with my food.

“Gale’s lightning magic got way stronger.”

“He might even be able to take down that rumored Armor Buffalo now.”

“Maybe even a dragon!”

“It’s fine to dream, but Armor Buffalo won’t get hit by that.
And even if you did kill one with lightning, the meat would be ruined.”

“Eh? Really?”

“There’s a lightning mage in a party I know. They only graze monsters—never hit them directly.
A direct hit ruins the meat.”

“Oh… then what about dragons?”

“Armor Buffalos run from dragons, and the size difference is massive. You can dream all you want, but with Gale’s mana, it’s better for defense.”

“You’re right… that lightning got us too hyped.”

“No kidding. If he gets cocky again, I’ll smack him.”

“You should. When lightning was falling nearby earlier, I tried to tell Gale to watch carefully—
but he was curled up on the ground. Guess what I told him then.”

“I was terrified…”

“I thought I’d wet myself…”

“I was praying to Lady Félicienne…”

“What did you tell him?”

“I told him— ‘If you could use lightning like this, you’d be invincible!’ And he went ‘…invincible…’ while staring at lightning.”

The three burst out laughing, holding their stomachs.

Two months passed, and I headed to the Commerce Guild.

The receptionist bowed deeply when she saw me.
“I will call the Guildmaster,” she said, sending a colleague running.

Their attitude had completely changed—honestly, it was a little creepy.

Raymond came out rubbing his hands together.

“Leon-sama, we have been expecting you,” he said, guiding me to a reception room.

“As requested, we had Linas’s top earth mage reinforce the walls, and used the highest-grade lumber for the beams and flooring. I believe you will be satisfied.”

Don’t tell me they’re trying to overcharge me for materials and labor.

A man from the real estate division arrived and started giving instructions to fetch the carpenters.

We rode in the Commerce Guild’s carriage to see the house—and I was shocked.

Originally it was a two-unit building, but the left side I bought now looked practically brand-new, standing out clearly from the right half.

The first floor was sealed off.
Between the two houses was a heavy iron gate with a dull metallic shine.

Past it was the staircase—leading to a four-and-a-half-tatami landing and a rugged, sturdy front door that would laugh off any ordinary attack.

A chill of relief passed through my wallet.

The walls and floors were reinforced, but the interior remained unchanged. I’d have to decide on that with my family.

I asked the carpenter to keep the attic layout as-is, but to convert the window of the room beside the attic stairs into a discreet door. That room would serve as my private entrance—making it easier to slip in and out of town.

Satisfied, I returned to the Commerce Guild and paid for the renovations.

The carpenters’ labor came to 14,500,000 Dara.
The wall reinforcement cost 5,400,000.
Together: 19,900,000 Dara.

House price: 266,000,000 Dara.
Total: 285,900,000 Dara.

Interior and first-floor renovations would cost extra, but overall it was within expectations.

At dinner, I announced that I had bought the house and reinforced the walls and floors, and told them the interior would be up to my mother and sister.

Mother spewed her soup.
Father patted her back but muttered:

“You should say things like that when we’re drinking!”

Meaning: he wanted me to treat him to alcohol.

“That bottle was a gift, you know. It’s expensive—worth a High Orc.”

This time Father choked.

To keep him from becoming an alcoholic, I resisted the urge to let him drink.

“Sis, I’m sure you’ve already planned your shop layout, right?”

“For the storefront, a storage room and workspace in the back are enough. The rest can be extra rooms.”

“Then once we move in, discuss details with the carpenter. First, we need to decide on the kitchen, dining room, and living room—”

“What about furniture?”

“We’ll buy things gradually, but for now we’ll bring what we have.”

I handed my sister an empty rank-3 magic pouch.

“Use this for carrying stuff.”

“This is… a rank-3 magic pouch, right?”

“It’s my old one. Consider it a gift for your independence… Though I still need to change the user registration.”

Three days later, my mother and sister finally managed to get a day off for the move, but we didn’t make it in time to update the registration.

So we just used my magic bag to move everything.

Inside the house:

Through the entrance was a small hall.
The left room had been used as a guest room.
Straight ahead through the door was the hallway.

On the right was one room, and two more across the stairs.
The room to the right of the stairs was the servants’ waiting room.
Across from that were the kitchen and servants’ dining area.
At the end of the hall were two spare rooms.

Our living quarters would be on the third and fourth floors, but Mother immediately claimed the two rooms at the end along with the servants’ room.

I figured she would, so I left it to her.

I, on the other hand, occupied the room facing the street on the right side of the third-floor stairs.