Chapter 76: Customizing Exclusive Equipment

When introducing magical script into Kyanos, I had hoped to rely on the expertise of Professor Ohinata, who had just returned from studying in America. However, she seemed busy for a while after coming back to Japan.

The journey around the world and the defeat of the Demon King were dramatic and dynamic, but Tokyo also had its share of serious incidents.

The heavy rains had caused a major flood, rendering the already crumbling subway system—which had been limping along since the previous era—completely unusable. The softened ground led to many cave-ins. The memory of the mermaid witch ascending the Tama River and undergoing emergency surgery is still fresh in our minds.

Repairing the riverbanks and dams around Tokyo’s waterways was expected to require massive manpower. That’s why Professor Ohinata’s research on detour incantations for self-enhancement magic—brought back from her trip—was highly anticipated as a substitute for heavy machinery.

Another major development was the successful recapture of Sumida Ward and Hachioji City.

These two areas had been abandoned after the witches there died from the pandemic, and the idea of reclaiming lost territory had long been discussed.

This time, trained mage units struck during a lull in Class A monsters’ presence and completely wiped out the creatures infesting those districts, finally achieving the long-awaited reclamation.

Currently, defensive efforts are moving swiftly with the deployment of dynamite, the establishment of artillery units with cannon-balsams, and stockpiles of scrolls containing high-level magic.

It’s been nine months since the last “migration” of Class A monsters, and reports of new Class A monster sightings have begun to increase. The next few months will be a true test of whether humanity can maintain its reclaimed territories.

There’s precedent in Minato Ward, which succeeded due to strong support from nearby witches, and thanks to its coastal position being protected by the mermaid witch. The area is also under the effect of a large-scale surveillance spell using death-curse magic. Compared to Sumida and Hachioji, the conditions there were significantly more favorable.

If we can manage to reclaim and hold less favorable areas like these two, it gives hope for stable expansion of our habitable zones.

Professor Ohinata was also invited to strategy meetings regarding the defense of the reclaimed lands.

Naturally, she was also busy with her primary duties as a university professor.

She had always been skilled in spoken magic languages, so she reportedly picked up the written forms very quickly as well. She studied the basics of magic script while still aboard the ship, and after arriving in Cuba, she sought guidance from American researchers in magic linguistics, immediately diving into advanced applications. She mastered magic script at breakneck speed.

On the American side, they were just as amazed by Professor Ohinata’s grasp of vocal magic theory—she absorbed it with extraordinary understanding.

Smart people really are built differently. She probably learned it ten times faster than I did.

Still, there was no way both sides could fully exchange and internalize all their knowledge in just a few months.

So, everything they couldn’t teach or learn was compiled into thick documents and traded.

The English-language magic script textbooks, specialized books, and papers that Professor Ohinata brought back will surely be thoroughly studied by the linguistics department, who had been eagerly awaiting her return.

Now that the Americans have returned to their homeland after defeating the Demon King, and once negotiations with Cuba (which hosted the exiled government) settle and their industries and infrastructure are rebuilt, there are talks of America establishing regular steamship routes with Japan. Future technological exchange and trade can be expected.

It wasn’t until the peak of summer in August that Professor Ohinata finally had some free time.

When the stoat showed up in Okutama, it was completely worn out from the heat, so I quickly opened my makeshift “Pet Salon Dairi.” I trimmed its thick winter coat, which had become stuck in place, and thinned it out to help it cool down.

Refreshed, the little stoat joyfully hopped around, and then licked cold barley tea from a small saucer while listening to my concerns.

“—So, here’s what I came up with: I layer as many rhetorical symbols of ‘overly reserved’ as I can onto the magic circle, making the activation of the spell super slow and continuous. That becomes the anti-theft security system for the staff.”

“For Kyanos, since Hiyori’s the user, I’ll go with ‘Freeze, Valar.’ I embed a freezing spell into the staff that keeps casting itself slowly. It constantly emanates a powerful cold aura. Hiyori, who’s resistant to cold, can use it no problem—but anyone else would freeze just by holding it. They’d probably get frostbite on their fingers right away.”

“I see. So while it can be stolen and used, anyone who isn’t the original owner will suffer extreme freezing effects… That’s the idea?”

“Exactly.”

In other words, it’s like turning Kyanos into a cursed item.

If anyone other than the rightful owner—Hiyori—tries to use it, they’ll take freeze damage.

I had been thinking about this ever since the Aratake gang tried to steal Kyanos. And if we’re going to continue upgrading its abilities, I figured it needed some kind of user restriction.

Ideally, I wanted to make it completely unusable by anyone but Hiyori—a full user-lock. But I couldn’t figure out a workable mechanism for that.

So I settled for this cursed equipment solution as a compromise.

This cursed-equipment concept could be applied to many magicians.

Hiyori has cold resistance, so I used a freezing curse for the staff.

For the flame witch, I could use a flame curse.

The Spider Witch could ignore the mist of confusion—so I’d add that as her curse.

And maybe a petrifying gaze curse for the Eyeball Witch.

Witches and wizards typically have resistance to their own magic types.

This anti-theft mechanism takes advantage of that fact.

Professor Ohinata carefully reviewed my draft of the cursed magic circle for Kyanos, then took a tiny, custom-sized pencil in her small hands and started editing the writing for me.

“The grammar is correct. As expected of you, Dairi-san! This is such a solid piece of writing, it could go straight into a textbook as an example. Wonderful. But if we’re aiming to make it even better, let me tweak a few things. First, I’ll extend this ruled line here. If the character right after the bold line at the beginning is a thin vertical line, you can add a space in between like this and fit up to three rhetorical markers. The rhetorical markers written in this space will apply to the entire sentence. To maximize the effect of slowing down the magic loop activation, I think it’s better to use a double emphasis structure — rather than using three different rhetorical markers, we sandwich one with two others. Think of it like writing BAB, with A being surrounded by B. Now, for the rhetorical markers to use…”

While the professor explained, she edited the magic circle at a brisk pace, and it became a much more elaborate sentence densely filled with rhetorical symbols.

“Whoa, I can’t believe the text changed this much. Even to an amateur like me, it’s clear that it’s gotten way more complex.”

“Done. I think this is the best version… Also, I wanted to ask — this part of your magic lettering, Dairi-san, is this your personal style? The text overall varies in thickness, like it’s in some kind of stylish font.”

“Ah, that’s just my custom decorative lettering. Cool, right? I tweaked the way I write, just enough to not compromise the functionality of the letters.”

“…Wait, so even written like this, the letters still function as magic glyphs?”

“Yep. I’m skirting the edge of what still works — if anything’s too thick, too long, or if the stroke angles are off, it stops functioning. So it’s best not to copy me. It’s just for style.”

“Wow! That’s amazing. So interesting — you’re a genius! Can I keep this draft? I’d love to take it back to the university!”

“Sure, go ahead. You know the shelf where I keep my workshop blueprints, right? There’s a list of decorative letter styles in there too, so if you’re interested, take that as well.”

The stoat thanked me and scurried happily across the floor into the workshop.

Honestly, those decorative letters were 100% just a for-fun project. But the professor’s probably the kind of person who gets excited seeing italic or cursive fonts in English, or calligraphy fonts in Japanese. I get that.

Using the example corrected by a magic lettering expert, I headed to the blast furnace, melted down some magic alloy, and inscribed the curse-based magic circle meant to be embedded into Kyanos. All that was left was to weld this cursed lettering component onto the junction between the core and the grip.

Since this curse mechanism is for theft prevention, it would be a problem if it could be removed easily. That’s why I made it mesh tightly into the core part of the staff, where all the functions are concentrated. If someone tries to forcibly remove it, they’d end up breaking other essential functions.

This curse can’t be lifted! Anyone who tries to steal Kyanos will cry in frustration.

Professor Ohinata spent a relaxing summer morning in Okutama and left with her souvenir — the decorative lettering documents.

And just as she left, Hiyori arrived.

That morning, Hiyori had gone to visit the Dragon Witch.

She’d finally come back to Japan, only to spout some nonsense like, “The packages I brought from America all fell into the ocean during a storm. It was a tragic accident.” So Hiyori had gone to beat her senseless.

That kind of elementary school-level excuse isn’t going to fly, you damn lizard. Don’t screw with us!

With a bit of bloodstain still left on her from the encounter, the terrifying collector said she’d make sweets while she waited for me to finish the Kyanos upgrade and disappeared into the kitchen.

Recently, Hiyori’s gotten into cooking, and she’s started making something every time she visits. That’s when I realized — the sweets she makes have a strange quality.

From what I see while she’s cooking, her measurements are off, and she doesn’t always cook things thoroughly. But somehow, when you eat it, you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Even if I follow her recipe to the letter, I can’t replicate the same effect.

I’ve heard things like “cooking with love” or “meals taste better when shared” — but I always thought that was just polite nonsense. I never believed emotions could actually change how food tastes.

But now I wonder — could this warm, fuzzy feeling be the legendary “taste of mom’s cooking” people talk about?

Thanks, Hiyori. I learned something new today.

While Hiyori was in the kitchen, I finished upgrading Kyanos.

At the junction between the core and the grip — near the anti-backflow mechanism — I tightly fitted in the curse mechanism. If someone tried to remove it clumsily, the anti-backflow mechanism would break, and the magic stone would get scratched.

I engraved six types of freezing magic that Hiyori uses into the surface of the grip, poured in magic alloy, refined the details, and finished with wax. With a bit of guidance functionality, control support, and a power boost added, the accuracy should be better, making it easier to handle — and stronger.

When I brought over the newly customized Curanos, Hiyori had just finished cooking and was plating up some freshly baked plum cookies.

“Is it done?”

“Yeah, just finished here too. Let’s eat together.”

“Seeing you in an apron in the kitchen reminds me of the Spider Witch.”

“Tch! …The Spider Witch meant no harm. The Spider Witch meant no harm. The Spider Witch meant no harm… Whew, calm down, calm down…”

Muttering a mantra under her breath, Hiyori took off her apron and sat down.

I can hear you, you know. Like the Spider Witch would ever have bad intentions. You don’t find good people—no, good spiders—like her every day. It’s a real shame she went back to her own district after Hiyori returned.

As I munched on the cookies and savored that classic “mom’s flavor,” I handed Kyanos over. The moment Hiyori infused it with magic, the staff was immediately wrapped in a pale, icy mist.

Yep. Looks good. Technically, that white mist is just chilled water vapor and dust in the air, but it gives off the appearance of a magic aura.

Security? Check. Cool factor? Check. Another job well done. I’m completely satisfied.

I’ve finally gotten the hang of using magic lettering, and we’ve handled the Dragon Witch’s punishment for trying to swipe the Demon King’s drop loot, just as expected.

Speaking of Demon Kings—if this were a game, they’d be the final boss. So what kind of gear can you craft from final boss materials?

I’ve been looking forward to this for ages. Time to savor every moment and really take my time with the crafting process.

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