Great Sage 2 – There Seems to be No Problems with My Magic

Perhaps because of the distortion in space-time, after being sucked into the gate…..
Old memories came back to me.

I was called a prodigy as a child.

There was a kid’s chess tournament in my early years of primary school….. well, it was only a small neighborhood event but I won three years in a row. I was the champion of sport’s days and marathons and my grades weren’t bad either.

I was the pride of even my strict father and at that time my mother was kind to me. I cherished my only younger brother who would follow me everywhere.

Things began to change when middle school started.
Somewhere somehow, as if possessed by an evil spirit…..

My grades slowly fell and my father’s attitude became stricter towards me. My mother gradually began to focus on my brother, whose grades were rising and was a regular member of the soccer team, in his first year of middle school.

―― I’ll improve just my grades at least.
With that in mind, I quit as a substitute of the track and field club to focus on my studies but no results were showing.

As things begin to crumble, the impetus will increase.
It is something that one cannot stop alone.

When my grades showed no signs of improving my parents began to lose patience with me, only ever talking about my brother. When I quit the track and field club I began to be alienated in class and a target of bullying…..

The high school I somehow managed to slide into could not be called high level, and I was treated as a plaything by my boorish classmates.

When I tried to bring their escalating bullying to the teachers attention.
“You also have bad points don’t you?”
I was unable to gain assistance.

Since I couldn’t even study there, I shut myself in my room to battle with textbooks and reference books. The distance between me and my family grew to the point that my father began to act as if I didn’t exist.

“I don’t want to deal with that child anymore”
Said my mother.
“You’re disgusting, brother”
I felt like I could hear my brothers words but…..

I continued to study like a madman.
―― No, In reality I was already mad.

There are a few vague memories. Enough that If it wasn’t for a certain occasion, I wouldn’t be able to properly remember things around that time.

The boy, who had grown thin and was on the verge of insanity, was grinning in the mirror, when an unknown woman appeared before his eyes and spoke to him.

“You have lost your physical body in this world but certain requirements have been fulfilled. Would you like to be born into another world and redo your life”

She said while smiling kindly.

“Are there any conditions”
“Please save that world, for that cause I will provide you with the necessary power”

I tried to return a smile but the woman, who looked like a goddess from games or manga, gave a bitter smile and took some distance so I don’t think it went very well.

“Would something other than power be impossible”

That’s right, at that time there something that I longed for, even if it was only in my dreams.

“What is it”
“People that would not abandon even someone like me, and accompany me to the very end”

With that murmur my consciousness faded…..

When I awoke I found myself in a dense forest where even the sun did not shine fully.
In the distance I could hear what sounded like the war cries of a beast.

As I felt at a lost.

“Are you okay? Collapsing in a place like this”

With monkey ears and tail, a beautiful girl who looked around 12 to 13 years old spoke out to me.

“You don’t feel uneasy looking at me?”
“Hmm, you may have the famished expression of a withered child but those are good eyes. Quite to my liking”

She sniffed with her well featured nose.

“I thought I smelt the goddess of jealousy Lilianess in my forest so I came here in a panic but I see how it is. I don’t know what those mischievous gods are thinking but….. I suppose this is some kind of fate”

She hid her monkey ears were inside her curly reddish brown hair and her tail also disappeared.

“If you wish to master the wisdom of the world then follow after me ――In the depths of your eyes lurks the radiance of the chosen ones”

While saying so, she extended her hand towards me.

Having lived for over three thousand years, she was the one and only person in that world with the title of [Great Sage].

Great Sage Kate Monblanchet.

―― It was the first meeting with my master.

As my memories continued to replay to that point, I was surrounded with a great light.
I must be nearing the designated location. My heart begins to beat faster.

In the back alley of a nostalgic shopping district for some reason I…..
Fell into an oversized garbage collection point.

　　　×　×　×　×　×

To be honest, I’m not really sure how long I was in the other world. After being accepted as my master’s disciple, my sense of time grew vague as I spent all my time training.

I was trapped inside a subspace known as the Infinite Book Corridor and only let out after I had studied thousands of books…..
Once I was tasked to suppress the Ancient Dragon King. I was put to the verge of death many times and would bathe in its blood to restore myself. Eventually I was able to make that Dragon King my subordinate but I cannot recall how long it took.

My master didn’t give much advice but she would always help and guide me at the right times.
Were it not for that, I would have given up or reached the end of my life first but I can’t say that there weren’t also fun days.

“Getting too absorbed is a bad habit of yours”
However now that I’m here I regret losing my sense of time

My appearance is around my twenties, you would think that about five years have passed but I’m not sure anymore.

The members of the hero party looked to be all around the same age but,
“Saitou thinks like an adult, as expected of a great sage”
I heard those words often.

I make my way to the exit while pushing past discarded mattresses, desks, and chairs.
“For now lets think forward”
I brush the dust off my body and walk out with confidence.

Looking around my surroundings, there aren’t any cars flying in the sky like in the sci-fi movies I watched as a kid nor are there skateboards hovering midair.
The design may be fairly different but the cars were moving on four wheels and the kids were running around playing normally.

However even though it was evening, the peak time for this station front shopping district, many stores had their shutters down and hardly any people were passing through.

The nostalgic croquette vendor I wanted to eat at if possible no longer existed. Not only that but in its place was a store with strange graffiti on it’s shutter.

Could it be that mankind is approaching the end or that the Japanese economy has collapsed…..

With those unpleasant thoughts running through my head, I spot the western clothes’ store I was looking for. A sign indicating that they were open for business was out so for now I’ll go inside.

“I’ll need to gather some information first”

The store dealt with school uniforms but they also did formal clothes.
The uncle that owned the store was a friendly man who was the one that taught me chess and his daughter was my classmate for primary and middle school.

This is the store of my childhood friend Kanako-chan, who continued to speak to me without discrimination when I was beginning to drop out of school. Although I chose this place in part because I thought she would be willing to help me if I explained the situation to her, I mostly didn’t have the courage to suddenly return home.

“Welcome”

The sales clerk was an unfamiliar girl around highschool age.
If five years have passed then Kanako-chan should also be around 20 and her uniform was a blazer I didn’t recognise.

She was staring at something that looked like a buttonless calculator…… Not even attempting to look up.

“Ummm, for now I’d like to get something to wear”

At my suspicious greeting, the girl looked at me and tilted her head.

“Did you come from a cosplay event or something?”

An active looking pretty girl with straight bangs and semi-long hair that reached her shoulders, giving a clean impression. Fairly tall for a woman and an energetic figure that makes it seem like she plays some kind of sport.

I give an uncertain nod.
“If you want normal clothes you’re better off going to the shopping mall further ahead. There’s lots of variety and it’s cheap”
“Shopping mall?”
Perhaps this is a way to deny service to suspicious people.

Looking at the girl somehow reminds me of Kanako-chan.
Eyes with a strong will and well ordered features, a unique beauty that would draw your gaze.

Maybe she’s a relative?

“I bought my clothes from this store a lot in the past so it’s familiar. Um, is Kanako-chan well”
I spoke after I gathered my resolve.

Beneath the robes given to me by my master was the clothes of the knights of the empire that I received from the Empress.

Using the mirror in the store to double check my appearance, I look like a suspicious man around twenty. I need to do something about these clothes first.

When I was transported to that world my master used [storage magic] to preserve the things that were on me, the clothes I was wearing at the time and the things in my pocket like my wallet, but the size was completely off now.

“Kanako….. you mean mom? Wait a moment”

While glaring at me, she ran to the back of the store as if to escape.

Mom? I must have misheard.

Or maybe I was so suspicious she made a lie in order to go call the police.
If that’s the case then before things get out of hand I should prepare to disappear and confirm how much of my magic works.

As I channel mana into the chess piece magic stone in my pocket it gives a normal response and while channeling mana into my eyes I can search my surroundings.

With this reaction, simple teleportation magic and flight magic should be usable.
Just in case, I use search magic to keep vigilant of my surroundings as I wait.

“I can’t believe it”

At the back of the store a beautiful lady in her late twenties, who looks like what Kanako-chan might look like as an adult, calls out while covering her mouth with her hands.

Long chestnut hair with a black knit sweater and a grey tight skirt. Slightly slant eyes and large pupils with a charm that hasn’t changed since I last saw her, further emphasising her facial features.

If I had to give a problem it would be that it gives a slightly erotic feeling.
The sweater had a daring gap in the chest area making it difficult to know where to look.

I unconsciously gaze at her from head to toe.
“Height 167 centimeters. Hip 88, waist 59, bust 95, G cup”
The analysis result is displayed in my mind.

I wasn’t aiming for it but it’s not bad to know either. Yeah, well let’s think forward here…..
There seems to be no problems with my magic.

―― Or so I mutter in my heart