Bonus Short Stories

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◇Houghtow City—Flio’s House◇

The evening sun shone down on Flio’s house when a magic circle suddenly appeared in front of the main entrance. A teleportation portal emerged—a solitary door. Without missing a beat, it swung open.

Flio sighed as he stepped out. He had spent the day teleporting all over the Magical Kingdom of Klyrode, doing sales talks with people in various cities. Some of the distances he had traveled would take months by carriage. Flio was the only human in the world who could teleport that far so many times in one day. When he reached Level 2, he had obtained immense magical power. But Flio had no awareness of how strong he really was. Instead, he had deluded himself into thinking that the feats he could accomplish were normal for magic users in this world.

“I guess that does it for work,” he said. “Time to head home.” He stretched and then headed for the front door when he heard Wyne’s voice from overhead.

“Yaaay, dada! It’s dada!” She was descending fast, dragon wings on her back and a big grin on her face. Her wings closed up as she went into a dive, straight for Flio.

Wyne was still a child, but she was nevertheless the mightiest dragonewt soldier alive. Her charge was enough to level mountains. But Flio immediately began casting spell after spell—Absorb Impact, Wall of Iron, Immunity... Each was advanced magic requiring a long casting time, but Flio cast them without any incantation whatsoever. He caught her, holding her in his arms.

“Dada! Welcome home! Welcome home!”

“It’s good to see you, Wyne,” Flio said. “Have you been a good girl?”

Wyne beamed, rubbing her cheeks against Flio’s. “Yeah! I’ve been a good girl all day!”

Still holding Wyne in his arms, Flio went inside.

“Gwowr!” This time it was Sybe who went to pounce on him when it noticed him coming through the door. Sybe wasn’t nearly as powerful as Wyne, but as a psychobear, it boasted tremendous destructive might, even when it was only playing.

The scenario played exactly like it had with Wyne. Flio immediately began casting spell after spell...and you can imagine the rest.

“I’m home, Sybe! Ah ha ha! Sybe! That tickles!” Flio grinned and laughed as the psychobear licked his face.

“Hey!” said Wyne. “No fair, Sy-Sy! I wanna lick dada’s face too!” Determined not to lose to Sybe, Wyne began licking Flio’s face as well.

“W-Wyne!” said Flio, a perturbed expression crossing his face. “That’s enough!”

“Oh! Papa!”

“Dad! Welcome home!”

Drawn by the commotion in the entryway, Elinàsze and Garyl ran downstairs and came up to their father.

“Hello, Elinàsze! Hello, Garyl! I’m home!”

“Welcome home, papa,” said Elinàsze, a bright smile on her face. “I hope your work went well?”

“Good job at work, dad!” said Garyl. “Hey, guess what happened at school!”

“Not now, Garyl!” Elinàsze scolded her brother. “Papa is tired from work! We should let him rest first.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll let him rest a bit.”

Flio watched the twins argue with his usual easygoing smile. And then, Rys appeared.

“Welcome home, my lord husband,” she said. “Dinner will be ready soon. Why don’t you relax until then?”

“Thank you, Rys!” said Flio, smiling at his wife. “Now, to the living room...”

Rys went to give Flio a hug, but with Wyne and Sybe already clinging to him and Elinàsze and Garyl crowding around, she was unable to get close. Flio gave her a wry smile. He asked Sybe to step back a bit and beckoned Rys to him with his now-empty right hand. Grinning, Rys jumped into his arms.

It wasn’t as deadly a charge as Wyne’s, or even Sybe’s, but it was still a rather forceful tackle. So Flio began casting spell after spell...et cetera.

“Welcome home, my lord husband!”

“I’m home, Rys!”

The two embraced, smiling happily. Before long, the rest of the family had gathered as well. It looked like it was going to be a typical evening at Flio’s house.

There were many people living at Flio’s house other than Flio and his family, and the one who prepared dinner for all of them was Flio’s wife, Rys. Lately, Byleri, the former archer and current manager of the pastures, had been pitching in with cooking...

“Hah!” Rys swung the knife in her hand with tremendous fervor. It diced through vegetables up and down, left and right, faster than the eye could follow.

Byleri’s eyes opened wide in shock. “Whaaa!” she exclaimed. “I-I, like, totally couldn’t see the knife move!” Before her eyes, Rys was peeling, dicing, and chopping vegetables with lightning speed and dividing them into bowls. She moved in a fluid, unbroken flow. Byleri merely stared, her mouth agape, unable to keep up as Rys dashed around the kitchen.

“S-So, like, Lady Rys, how long did it take you to get this good at cooking?” Byleri asked.

“I began cooking shortly after my lord husband and I married,” Rys replied.

“Wha?! R-Really?!”

“Really! Up until then, I mostly ate with my subordinates. One of them was always on cooking duty. I had never cooked, myself.”

“W-Wow... That’s, like, something else!” Byleri was in awe. She watched Rys work, the knife in her hand not stopping for a single second.

“The first time I tried, all I could do was sear a hunk of unseasoned meat for my lord husband. I knew that would never do, so I enrolled in a cooking class in the city and studied as hard as I could. And now, I can use a chef’s knife to dothis—!” She kept on cutting, faster than the eye could see.

Byleri gulped.I-I dunno...she thought.I think Lady Rys might be, like, the only person in the world who can use a knife like that...

“Um... Umm...” Byleri started. “I-I guess I’ll, like, take this and mix up the salad, then?”

“Yes, thank you, Byleri.”