The next day.
“Ryoumsan, are you awake?” [Elialia]
The ojousama visited my room first thing in the morning. She was accompanied by Sebasu-san.
“What’s the matter?” [Ryouma]
“Dad’s teaching me monster taming arts, so I was wondering if you’d like to tag along.” [Elialia]
Monster taming, huh… Come to think of it, all I know about monster taming is the contract, the monster identify skill, and contract cancellation… Are there other spells? If it’s now, I do have time to spare.
But there’s also the matter with the ruffians yesterday…
While I was thinking that to myself, Sebasu-san approached me and whispered to my ear.
“I’m aware this is urgent, but I’ve heard that Ryoumsama has more free time recently. Why not consider this as a break and spend some time with the ojousama? It won’t be long before the ojousama parts with you in this town, so as much as possible, she wants to spend as much time with you as possible. We’ve already sent a guard to watch over the store today, so please rest assured.” [Sebasu]
Ah~… Now that he mentions it, after starting the laundromat because of my desire to be independent, I’ve been spending all my time on ensuring my living expenses and tending to the store. As a result, I’ve been spending less time with ojousama than when we were travelling together.
She was so happy to train magic together too… She must’ve been elated to make a friend.
…I might’ve done something bad, I guess…
“Alright. Can I learn too?” [Ryouma]
“Really!?” [Elialia]
When I said that, the ojousama’s blooming smile was blinding.
Why do I feel so guilty? …Well, considering I didn’t notice until now, I guess I really am at fault…
When I told my employees about this matter, they all smiled at me and said ‘please leave the store to us!’
Even though something like that happened yesterday, I can’t believe they’re not complaining at all… If it were my old job, they’d definitely never let me hear the end of it.
Looks like I hired some really good people.
When we arrived at our destination, the place was none other than the open area in the abandoned mine that I’ve long gotten used to.
Apparently, we’re doing the training here. The madam was standing before me and the ojousama with a bird cage in hand.
“Let us begin. To start off with, what is monster taming? Elia.” [Elize]
“Monster taming is magic that allows us to form contracts with monsters, so that we may borrow their strength. When a contract is formed, a mana connection is formed between the practitioner and the monster. It is through this connection that the monster and tamer are able to understand each other.” [Elialia]
“Exactly. What I’m going to be teaching you today is the Share Senses spell, which makes use of that connection. Just as the name implies, this spell will allow a practitioner to share his senses with his monster’s and vice-versa. It’s a spell that allows a practitioner to inform his tamed monster when he’s in danger.” [Elize]
“This spell is limited only to monster tamers. Conjurers can’t do this.” [Elize]
Really?
“Why can’t conjurers use this?” [Ryouma]
“It’s because the contract conjurers use is forced upon their summoned monster. Although there exists a bond between a conjurer and his monster, the bond is one-sided.” [Elize]
I see… I don’t know much about conjurers.
“I see. That makes sense.” [Ryouma]
“You need to be familiar with your monster to master Share Senses. Monsters that you know well and have been working with for a long time are much easier to use share senses with than otherwise. Today, however, the two of you will be using share senses with the monster we prepared for you.” [Reinbach]
“What about my slimes? Can’t I use Share Senses with them?” [Ryouma]
“You could certainly share your senses with a slime, but the effect will be hard to understand, and really, there’s no point.” [Reinhart]
“After all, slimes don’t have ears, eyes, or a nose. Even if you manage to successfully link with them, you can’t see, hear, or smell. You won’t even be able to taste. I mean, in the first place, we don’t really know how they’re able to tell their surroundings.” [Elize]
Now that she mentions it, that certainly would make the effect difficult to discern.
“I understand.” [Ryouma]
After that Elia and I formed a contract with the monster in the birdcage, a crew bird.
Speaking of which, this is my first time forming a contract with a monster other than a slime.
I became a little nervous when I realized that, but the contract completed successfully.
“Done? Then imagine a connection forming between you and your monster. After that I want you to imagine that you can see what your monster is seeing. If you can do that, then you’ll be able to use Share Sense without a chant.” [Elize]
After being told that, I imagined the camera connected to a TV. When I did, the image quickly flowed into my mind, but…
“…I feel sick…” [Ryouma]
There’s two pictures inside my head. One from my eyes and another from the monster’s eyes. It’s hard to describe it, but it’s like two screens are being forcefully shown to me and forcefully trying to make me understand.
It’s not a very pleasant feeling…
“Oh, my. You’ve already succeeded, Ryoumkun?” [Elize]
“As expected of you. There are actually quite a lot of people who have a hard time grasping the image for this. It’s a fairly difficult spell to understand.” [Reinbach]
“It’s precisely because it’s hard though that it should be taught early. That way you can practice it sooner… As for that sense of discomfort, that’s something that every monster tamer goes through after learning it for the first time. So long as you train and work hard at it, that odd feeling will eventually go away. Since you’re a beginner, you can just close your eyes for now and just focus on the image that your monster is seeing.” [Reinhart]
I need to get used to it, huh. I did just as I was told and closed my eyes, so I could focus on what my monster is seeing.
My crew bird is currently on the ground. The image perspective is really low, but without my own perspective overlapping with it, it’s somewhat manageable.
…Yep, this is a lot better.
We trained for 2 more hours after that. Right up till the end I had my eyes closed, but I at least succeeded at keeping the connection up while my crew bird flew in the sky. Being able to see the world literally from a bird’s eye view should be quite useful for security and surveillance.
While I was thinking that to myself, the ojousama succeeded on casting the spell.
“This feels… Weird…” [Elialia]
As expected, she feels weird too.
In my case, it’s still somewhat manageable since I used an image based off of my experience on Earth, but in the ojousama’s case, she’s doing this without any prior similar experience.
Tl Note: PDFs and ePUBs updated. Credits go to Byggvirr and a kind reader.
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