Humming a tune on the way home.
My steps were much lighter than usual, but my hands felt heavy.
It was because of the gift I had to give to Luke.
‘He’ll definitely love it.’
Yerna felt happy, imagining the expression Luke would have when he received the present.
She cheerfully opened the front door and shouted.
“Lu, I’m home!”
Then, from inside, a child’s voice welcoming her could be heard, just like any other ordinary day.
“Yerna, you’re much later than usual today. You’ve been coming home later lately, haven’t you?”
Luke, who looked a bit sleepy, rubbed his eyes.
Yerna’s gaze immediately caught onto Luke’s outfit.
It was a sleepwear in the form of a dress, slightly different from the usual pajamas he wore.
“I thought he wouldn’t wear it since he seemed to dislike it, but I guess he would wear it after all since it was bought.”
‘So cute.’
Of course, she didn’t say this out loud.
He didn’t like being called cute, so saying it might make him stop wearing it at home.
“That pajama looks like it’s new. How is it? Comfortable?”
“Oh, is that what this is?”
Luke suddenly pinched the hem of his outfit and replied.
“Indeed, ever since I got my tail, this kind of design is quite comfortable.”
“Right?”
Hyun with a tail often preferred skirts.
It’s a fact that skirts, which naturally allow for the tail, are much more comfortable than pants that have to hold the base of the tail.
“By the way, what’s that in your hand?”
Luke pointed to something that Yerna held in one hand.
Curious, she activated her magic sight, and the way the mana gathered was quite impressive.
Although she couldn’t see inside the box clearly, Luke speculated that it was likely a “magic device” based on the flow of mana.
“Oh, this? It’s a gift from me.”
Yerna grinned as she carefully placed the box on the living room table.
Luke looked up at her with a puzzled expression, needing an explanation.
“It’s something you wanted.”
“Something I wanted?”
He couldn’t guess what it was. After all, he had hardly ever told Yerna that he wanted anything.
Especially not something as expensive as a magic device.
“Yeah. Open it.”
“Um…”
Luke unwrapped the packaging at Yerna’s urging.
What appeared was a rectangular object about the size of a thick book.
The design was so complex that he couldn’t determine what it was at a glance, and Luke turned on his magic sight as he inspected it.
Suddenly, he realized that he had seen this structure before.
“Could it be…?”
With a voice mixed with excitement, Yerna answered him clearly.
“It’s a computer. To be precise, it’s a laptop.”
“A laptop?”
Luke muttered it as if trying to process it.
Was it an item structured to make modern computers portable?
It was small enough to be placed on his lap without any issue.
Still, it had to function like a computer, and the mana supply system, which seemed like a combination of mana crystals and mana dust, plus the extremely optimized mana circuit, indicated an astonishing level of circuit compression.
“…Indeed, this is what I wanted.”
Luke could no longer trust his knowledge and understanding of magic devices.
Just when he thought there couldn’t be further advancements, something newly developed always popped up, making it hard to hold onto such common sense.
Words failed him as silence began to stretch.
Seeing this, Yerna grew anxious.
“Um… Do you not like it? Since Lu often moves between the forest and the house, I thought a laptop would be better than a desktop, but… if it’s not good, I can change it!”
“Oh, no! I just… I never imagined I would receive something like this…”
Luke muttered to himself, rubbing his forehead with trembling hands.
“Am I dreaming? Is this just something that exists in a fantasy?”
“It’s not a dream. It’s reality.”
“…….”
Yerna found his wide eyes to be incredibly cute and absentmindedly patted his head.
As Yerna tidied up Luke’s messy hair from just waking up, he lowered his head and mumbled.
“Yerna, how on earth do I repay this…”
“Just be your usual self. Stay bright and energetic as always. That’s enough.”
———-
“Grahhh!”
A scream of agony.
It was a chilling cry that felt like it was tearing through the heart, yet it was met with indifference by the surrounding people.
They continued to administer something to a boy without a second thought.
No, to be precise, some level of interest did exist. It just didn’t help the boy at all.
“Quit struggling needlessly, D-3.”
“Ugh, that…!”
As the pain wracked his body, the helplessness of being completely restrained wormed into the boy.
Along with that helplessness, an unknown drug was being injected into him.
And a pair of indifferent eyes watched the boy.
He glanced without concern for how much pain the boy was in, checking the monitor graphs and murmuring in mild admiration.
“Indeed, the bodily degradation is being postponed. At this rate, we might be able to mitigate the transplant side effects somewhat soon.”
Originally, the expected lifespan for this subject was a month.
But now, wasn’t he holding on quite well?
Surely the drug’s effects are remarkable.
It was astonishing.
“The effects are more outstanding than anticipated.”
“You’re lucky. You were supposed to die in a month.”
He murmured to the boy still writhing in pain.
“How long will it take until you die, I wonder?”
His tone was laced with mockery.
———
He had memorized the laptop’s user manual almost perfectly.
So, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine how excited Luke was while reading about how to exchange mana dust, connect other peripherals, and manage the computer.
To give an example, when he woke up and found the computer still on the table, he could surely say he was ecstatic, realizing it was not a dream.
Thus, Luke began to adapt to life with a computer.
He opened the laptop, turned it on, and fitted the cat-type earphones snugly into his ears.
“Hmm, just right. Great.”
Fortunately, the earphones fit perfectly. They felt good to wear, and unlike when he used Marco’s earphones before, there was no worry about them going too deep into his ear because of the outer loop that held them in place.
Py made a sound as if asking Luke.
– Is it okay?
“A bit ticklish, but I’ll get used to it.”
The ticklishness was probably because he wasn’t used to it yet.
Well, it was similar to how it felt when he first wore feline underwear.
He’d adapt soon enough.
Once he finished connecting the home crystal ball as well, Luke operated the computer as instructed by Shirud.
Py seemed dissatisfied with how Luke handled the crystal ball, letting out a few grumbles, but Luke brushed it off as the spirit’s cute complaints.
After all, if he played a bit of music or hummed, Py would quickly calm down.
Luke suddenly became curious about how Py would react to the music playing from the computer.
He connected the computer to the telepathy network, opened a search window, and played a random song video.
And…
-……!!
“Eep!”
The earphones, which hadn’t been adjusted in volume, blasted maximum output sound into Luke’s ears, and he yanked them off in shock.
“That was almost deafening…”
Luke mumbled, rubbing his ringing ears.
As he did, Py fluttered down and perched on his head, speaking.
It was a familiar tune.
– Are you okay?
“Py, was that why you asked…?”
Somehow, it seemed Py had been trying to warn him.
Come to think of it, foresight was one of the specialties of spirits, and it was a characteristic of spirits to exist within the material plane yet not be constrained by the flow of time and space.
“Just let me know in more detail next time…”
-……?
Py merely tilted its head, seemingly not understanding what he meant.
In any case, as his ears recovered, Luke adjusted the volume.
Hearing it at a suitable volume, he realized it was quite a sweet voice, but it appeared not to resonate much with Py.
The spirit lying on his head displayed a nonchalant boredom.
Did Py perhaps judge that the sound or melody produced by the computer lacked any emotional input from the performer?
“Hm, how bothersome.”
Honestly, he had thought that if he played music from the computer, he wouldn’t have to perform anymore…
But it seemed that wasn’t the case.
Instead, Py appeared even more irritated as if provoked by the ‘fake performance’ and was demanding he play the cello soon.
It appeared nothing was ever as easy as one might think.
“Fine, fine. Just wait a bit. I’ll lightly perform around lunchtime…”
Luke sighed as he operated the computer.
The performance of the computer was satisfactory.
While the miniaturized circuits couldn’t show as much computational power as those in an internet cafe, they weren’t significantly inferior compared to the ones in a research facility.
“However, I’m not sure if this can handle ‘Super Magic League.’”
Luke maneuvered the computer again, searching for and installing Super Magic League.
“No matter when I see it, the network is truly an amazing thing.”
From his seat, being able to uncover all kinds of information and so many details is incredibly enticing. Despite the fact that he still couldn’t find the ‘important’ information for himself, he could still acquire nearly all the usual information from this network.
Well, using such an immense technology to check out just cat pictures was all he seemed to do at the moment, but still, that was something.
Both in the past and present, cats still looked adorable.
“Hmm, it seems the installation is finally complete. Now…”
Luke skillfully entered the account that Shirud had provided.
As he logged into the game, the fantasy that unfolded startled Luke.
“What? Is this really the game I used to play?”
The quality of the graphics was… shockingly poor.
The grass and trees barely looked like them, and people were wandering around in forms that looked more like a blob than an actual person, almost like an impressionist painting. The update of the fantasy seemed delayed, giving an impression that it was often stuttering.
“…”
Was it indeed a bit underperforming?
