Chapter 103: You Had Fun Last Night, Didn’t You?

As the sun rose, I slipped out of bed carefully so as not to wake Hiyori, who was sleeping like she’d passed out. After taking a quick bath and changing into something casual, I headed to the kitchen and began preparing a simple breakfast. Just then, Mokutan came in through the back door that led to the garden, letting out a massive yawn.

“Mornin’, Dairi!”

“Oh, good morning. Were you out somewhere?”

“I was at Fuyou’s place. She told me not to come home last night, so I stayed over.”

“Oh… I-I see.”

I tried to keep calm, but my voice came out weird.

No, the one who had been making weird noises all night was Hiyori… but still, I was grateful that Fuyou had the foresight to take Mokutan in. I’d completely forgotten about her existence. We nearly ended up giving her front-row seats to a very adult version of wrestling.

When I handed her three fish I had cleaned, Mokutan promptly roasted them with a burst of flame. She returned two to me and happily crunched away at the last one, now charred black.

Breakfast was grilled fish, rice, pickles, miso soup with wheat gluten and chopped green onions, and a sweet rolled omelet—Hiyori’s favorite.

But even after waiting a while, she didn’t show up. When I peeked into the bedroom, she was still sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, I ate alone.

Eventually, Hiyori emerged sometime past noon.

Looking groggy, she headed straight for the bath. After a long soak, she came out, drying her hair skillfully with a no-chant hot air spell. When our eyes met as I read the newspaper in the living room, she blushed deep red, looked down at the floor, and muttered shyly:

“G-Good morning…”

“It’s already noon. I packed your breakfast in a lunch box. It’s right there—eat if you’re hungry.”

“’Kay.”

---

Hiyori sat down, rubbing her lower back. She looked a bit dazed as she opened the bento box and looked around for soy sauce. I handed her the bottle, and our hands briefly touched. She flinched.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Well, I mean, after everything you did last night… No, never mind. Don’t talk. Say nothing. I forgot that your dexterity can also translate to pure destructive force.”

“…?”

I don’t remember doing anything that could be called “attacking.” I just did what I’d learned from health class and picked up online, adjusting based on Hiyori’s reactions. I let my instincts take over, but I’m pretty sure I was gentle.

Still, if she says it felt like an attack, maybe I got carried away without realizing it. I’ll be more careful next time.

“Mmh, even cold this is good. You’d make a great wife, Dairi.”

“I’m the wife now? Hey, speaking of which—about the child we might have together someday…”

As I folded the newspaper and started speaking, Hiyori choked and almost spit out her food. She coughed, pressing a hand to her mouth. I poured her some tea and handed it over, which she accepted with a glare. Once she caught her breath, she snapped:

“What the hell are you bringing that up for out of nowhere?!”

“What do you mean, out of nowhere? If anything, it’s way overdue. Ideally, this is a conversation you have before doing anything that could make a kid.”

“W-Well… I guess that’s true…”

Blushing again, Hiyori poked at her grilled fish with her chopsticks instead of answering.

Why are you getting all shy now? This is serious.

“First of all: discounting the time I spent dead, I’ve lived for about 30 years. Based on those years of experience, I can say without a doubt that I’ll keep loving you most, no matter what, for the next 30 years. Even if the whole world turns against us, even if I have to quit being a magic staff craftsman. That’s how certain I am. Please take that as truth.”

“O-Okay.”

“Now, I can’t speak for anything beyond 30 years, since I haven’t lived that long yet—sorry about that. But here’s the thing: if we do have a child together during our time, I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to love that kid properly. I don’t even have a clear image of what having a child would be like. Just loving you is already a full-time job for my heart. I hope you can understand that.”

“I do.”

“If you really want a child, then your best bet is to find someone from your own kind. There was one, so there might be one or two more out there. But—and this is selfish of me—I’m begging you not to. If you fell in love with another guy, even if I still loved you the most, I’d lose my mind.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t cheat.”

Hiyori stated it firmly.

Good. That’s a relief.

Still, we know of at least two cases where people at our level of closeness suddenly ended up with broken engagements thanks to some supernatural nonsense. You can never be too careful. Disaster always strikes when you least expect it.

Back when the mage who could see the future was active, some disasters stopped being “unexpected,” but still.

“So I was thinking—the ideal solution would be for me to become one of your kind. That would solve a lot of problems. Is that possible? I mean, like, could a human who didn’t show signs right after the Gremlin Disaster later become a transcendent being?”

When I was alive, it had only been seven years since the Gremlin Disaster, and the world had just started connecting via steamships. We lacked the data to know about a lot of things back then—but modern times surely know more.

And sure enough, Hiyori answered my question smoothly.

In conclusion, I can’t become a transcendent being.

There are two reasons.

First: the static-electricity trait that defines transcendent beings has never been known to develop later in life.

Second: there’s a limit to how many transcendent beings can exist.

There’s a cap on transcendent beings. The number is thought to correspond with the characters in the Nameless Epic, and based on population distributions, the accepted limit is around 400–500 individuals.

Some hide their identity, some live in remote areas in seclusion, and some are kept secret as national assets, so the exact count isn’t known.

At the peak of the previous era, Earth had a population of 8 billion. With a ratio of 1 transcendent per 50,000 people—including those who died from transformation failures—simple math says there should’ve been about 16,000 of them.

But that’s not what happened.

First, right after the Gremlin Disaster, about 450 transcendents were born.

Transcendents who couldn’t control their suddenly awakened powers often lost control of their magic or were killed by monsters, dying relatively easily. It’s no surprise—even Hiyori herself had a rough time right after her awakening.

After the disaster, the number of monsters rapidly increased, and in densely populated areas, food shortages, fires, epidemics, and riots caused the population to plummet. In no time, the global population dropped below 200 million (estimated), and the number of new transcendents that could be born was limited as a result.

When a transcendent dies, their slot opens up. Once their corpse’s magic energy dissipates past a certain point or the body is too damaged to be revived with resurrection magic, the vacant slot gets filled by a newly born transcendent.

So in reality, there was a time lag of several to a dozen or so days before transcendents started appearing after the Gremlin Disaster. This only became clear after enough time had passed and data from around the world was collected.

The process of a transcendent dying → a slot opening → someone mutating into a transcendent to fill that slot happens intermittently. For example, a mage from Arakawa who once belonged to the Tokyo Witch Assembly died about 20 years ago, and not long after, a mage with the exact same race and magic appeared in America.

These days, transcendents who slip into vacant slots are almost always babies born with an electrostatic constitution. Any children or adults with that trait have already undergone the mutation into transcendents.

Therefore, it’s safe to say that Kenshi Dairi (the protagonist) will never become a transcendent. The slots are already filled, and even if one opens up, it’ll go to an electrostatic baby. There’s no place for me in that process.

“Corpses that died due to mutation become deformed and cannot be revived. So please, stay the way you are,”

Hiyori said, finishing her explanation with quiet finality.

“Uh, that’s terrifying…”

A chill ran down my spine as I listened to Hiyori’s calm explanation.

So, it’s impossible for me to become the same race as Hiyori. That’s disappointing—but fair enough.

We ended up spending the whole day talking things through and decided to keep observing our relationship for now. I had gotten carried away after what happened last night, but we’ve only been dating for two months. It’s way too soon to be making big decisions about the future.

If you ask me, it’s just a trial period.

If you ask Hiyori, it’s about spending some time slowly, together.

Our lives are still long. There’s no need to rush. Honestly, we already moved way too fast in just one day.

One immediate concern is the matter of Quodenents in the Kingdom of Luce, but even that isn’t something we need to resolve right this moment.

Let’s take it slow.

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