Chapter 2

The Baronage Terison is basically a super barren place for people to live.

There are more treacherous mountains than arable land within the baronage, after all.

But if you ask if the baronage is so poor it’s beyond saving, that’s not quite true either.

Because the baronage is located at a key transit point in the middle of the Empire, sandwiched between several fiefs.

So the baronage was raking in profits through tolls and intermediary trade.

To put it simply, the baronage is like Switzerland in Europe – a country that sucks up to powerful nations on both sides and declares neutrality when things get dicey.

Because of this characteristic of the baronage, many nobles from across the empire often gathered there for discussions.

The reason was simple: it was convenient since it was a key transit hub.

It wasn’t bad for the baronage either.

Whenever nobles visited, they splurged their cash to keep up appearances.

But for me personally, these noble visits were nothing but stress.

Why?

“NOPE! NOPE! This boring countryside village is SO boring!”

“Hmm. Sorry, but there’s nothing I can do about it, Charlotte. Believe me, I didn’t come to this backwater willingly.”

Sure, what he said wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t something to say in front of the second son of this “backwater” family.

“So, Lord Terison, could I ask a favor? I’ve heard you’re an exceptional mage. Surely you can use your magic to entertain my daughter?”

“…”

Clearly, the noble in front of me thought I was some street performer in a circus.

I may have been a valuable talent who once studied hard at the Mage Tower with tags like #Regret #Obsession #Exhaustion, but being treated like this was truly humiliating.

Still, I couldn’t just lash out at this noble.

If I did, no nobles would visit our baronage ever again, and our income would plummet.

Then I’d lose my carefree life as a freeloader in the baronage.

Even my father and older brother were giving me those pleading looks right now, silently begging me to endure just once.

“…Understood, Baron.”

Thus, I decided to perform a service for the baron’s daughter… or rather, the little brat, using my magic.

After all, entertaining a kid like her was nothing for someone who had experienced 21st-century Earth culture.

“Fly.”

“AAAAAHHHHHHH!”

Using Fly and Reverse Gravity, I conjured up Gyro Drop and Viking rides.

“Water Bomb.”

“COLD COLD COLD!”

Even though there was no water nearby, I used Water Magic to create a makeshift water ride.

“Summon Necromancy.”

“DADAAAAAAA!”

From Gyro Drop to a haunted house created with necromancy, I pulled out all the stops.

The baron’s daughter, deeply moved by this “Fantasy World Everland,” ran off calling for her dad, looking like she’d lost her mind.

I watched her go and nodded to myself.

‘Ah, so to these primitive fantasy world folks, Everland really is a 500-year-advanced civilization.’

With this level of cultural shock, she probably wouldn’t ask me to entertain her again.

Now I could return to my carefree life as a freeloading bum.

However, it turned out I was mistaken.

“I want to ride the Gyro Drop too! Let me on!”

“I want the Viking ride! The 360-degree Hell Mode version!”

“I want to experience the haunted house! Is it true they have a headless knight bleeding from the neck?”

“…”

Turns out the girl who fled to her dad last time didn’t leave a bad review—she left a glowing five-star one instead.

Judging by how kids from all over the country were flooding into our territory…

Eventually, every time nobles gathered here for discussions, I was forced to babysit these brats with magic.

‘This life is unbearable.’

One day, after scraping together all my remaining mana to load kids onto the Gyro Drop, I racked my brain trying to figure out how to escape this fate of being a magical babysitter.

‘What could capture the attention of these kids without me having to step in?’

After thinking all night, I came to one conclusion:

‘Make an anime.’

That’s right.

As a kid, I preferred watching anime at home over going to amusement parks.

Likewise, if these kids got exposed to anime, they probably wouldn’t bother asking me to use magic anymore.

I immediately started working on it.

Normally, creating even a short anime alone would be nearly impossible, but thanks to my magic skills, it wasn’t too hard.

I used Copy Magic to duplicate countless original drawings, and made them move naturally by bringing the illustrations to life.

Two weeks later, my creation was complete: the first-ever anime of this world, “Nymph and Goblin.”

Before publicly releasing it, I decided to test it out on a critic first.

And that critic was none other than the Class-A war criminal who turned me into a living Everland: Lady Squirrel of the Baronage.

“Ragnar! I’m here! I wanna ride the water slide again! And the carousel too!”

“Hmm, that sounds fun, but actually, big bro has something even better than the water slide or carousel to show you today.”

“Better than the water slide or carousel? What is it?”

“Have you heard of ‘anime’?”

I dragged Squirrel straight to an unused storage room… err, movie theater, and showed her “Nymph and Goblin.”

“Fun! Fun! Super fun! I wanna watch it again!”

In the end, I successfully earned thunderous applause and countless handshakes from Squirrel.

“Perfectly according to plan.”

Watching Squirrel completely immersed in the anime while forgetting all about Everland-like attractions, I smirked evilly.

From now on, all I had to do was play this for any visiting brats, and all problems would be solved.

This way, I’d regain my perfect freedom.

Unfortunately, I was mistaken yet again.

Because everything was just getting started.

****

“Hey, Dad.”

“Yes? What is it, Isabelle?”

“Hey, when are we planning to visit the Terison Baronage again?”

“…The Terison Baronage?”

At his youngest daughter’s unexpected question, Duke Grinevalt, the head of the prestigious noble family ruling the eastern part of the Empire, tilted his head in confusion.

“Hmm. Since the last unofficial meeting among nobles ended not long ago, I don’t think we’ll have a reason to visit there this year.”

“…Not visiting this year? Hiiing.”

Isabelle visibly pouted upon hearing the duke’s answer.

Of course, as a doting father who loved his youngest daughter to pieces, the duke couldn’t let this pass.

“Why, Isabelle? Do you want to visit the Terison Baronage? But it’s such a rural area; there’s not much to see there.”

When the duke said this, Isabelle shook her head and spoke.

“Anime.”

“Huh?”

“My friends at the academy say the baronage shows something called ‘anime.’ It’s super fun, and all my friends talk about it. But I haven’t seen it, so I don’t fit in with their conversations.”

“…Anime?”

The duke looked utterly perplexed as he stared at his youngest daughter.

After all, the word “anime” was completely unfamiliar and bizarre to him.

“I want to see it too. They say fairies bully goblins mercilessly. I’m super curious about what it’s like.”

“Hmm…”

The duke scratched his chin, feeling troubled as he listened to his daughter’s whining.

He wanted to rush to the Terison Baronage immediately and demand to see this so-called “anime” with his daughter, but unfortunately, he had an unmovable schedule.

There was simply no way to find time to visit the baronage with Isabelle anytime soon.

Just as the duke was about to tell her they’d have to delay the anime viewing, someone else spoke up.

“Don’t worry, Father. I’ll take Isabelle to visit the Terison Baronage.”

Serica El Grinevalt, Isabelle’s older sister and the jewel of the Grinevalt Dukehouse, volunteered.

“If Isabelle wants to see this ‘anime’ so badly, there’s no reason not to let her. Besides—”

Serica smiled faintly and added,

“—I’ve also been wanting to catch up with my childhood friend for a while now.”

And so, Serica took Isabelle to visit the Terison Baronage and watched the anime together.

“…!”

That day, she witnessed her destiny.

It was the historical moment when the world’s first hardcore anime fan was born.