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Slightly.

Ever so slightly, he emerged.

Tatsumi’s consciousness, which had been drifting in a warm, comforting darkness, began to rise slowly toward awakening.

The darkness that had enveloped him grew faint, and it gradually grew brighter. As it did, Tatsumi’s consciousness also became clearer.

Suddenly.

He felt as though someone had called his name.

Was it his father? His mother? Or perhaps his younger sister?

It must be someone from his family who had always been by his side. The voice of that person calling his name also grew louder little by little, in step with the rise of Tatsumi’s consciousness.

Eventually, just before his consciousness fully surfaced. The face of a beautiful woman with long platinum hair and red eyes floated into his mind.

.

The moment he lifted his eyelids, a bright light pierced his eyes like needles, and Tatsumi reflexively closed them again.

Yet from the glimpse he caught, Tatsumi realized he was in the guest room assigned to him within the Savaiv Temple.

He tentatively opened his eyes again. At first, the glare made his eyes flicker, but he quickly got used to it.

It seemed Tatsumi had been laid on the bed in the guest room. Since just lying there felt a bit pointless, he slowly sat up.

Instantly, a heavy, leaden fatigue settled deep within his core. It seemed he was still quite exhausted.

Still, he managed to sit up and slowly looked around the room. Suddenly, the door to the room swung open, and a woman with familiar platinum-blonde hair stepped inside.

Seeing Tatsumi sitting up on the bed, the woman’s eyes widened in surprise.

“M-Master…?”

A hoarse voice escaped from the woman’s cherry-blossom-pink lips.

Immediately afterward, clear tears began to stream from her ruby-red eyes.

And before Tatsumi could say a word, she—Calcedonia—threw herself into his arms.

Suddenly embraced by Calcedonia, Tatsumi couldn’t support his own weight and collapsed back onto the bed.

“…I’m so glad… I’m really, really glad… that you’ve woken up, Master… I’m really…”

Calcedonia murmured, sobbing softly.

Just as Tatsumi was thinking, *“huh, I feel like something like this happened before,”*

—a sudden, sharp pain shot through his chest.

*“Why does my chest hurt so much?”* Tatsumi wondered inwardly, tilting his head in confusion—and then, at last, he remembered what had happened.

The life-or-death battle against Baldio, Giuseppe’s aide, and the “Free Knight” Morganaik—who had been possessed by the dreaded monster known as the “specter.”

“Master…? Is something wrong?”

Perhaps it was because Tatsumi’s body had suddenly stiffened. Noticing that something was wrong with him, Calcedonia sat up, having been lying on top of him.

“I-Is your chest wound hurting…? I-I’m so sorry!! H-How could I have…?”

Calcedonia hurriedly climbed down from the bed and bowed her head deeply.

“It’s okay, Chiiko. It did hurt a little, but that pain actually cleared my head. Besides, I’m just glad you’re safe.”
“T-thank you. But just to be safe, let me check the wound again.”

Tatsumi nodded at Calcedonia’s suggestion and took off his shirt.

Looking at his body again, he saw a scar running straight across his chest. Calcedonia leaned in close to the scar, gently touching it as she examined the wound.

“The wound has completely closed. Still, since it was such a deep cut, the pain might linger for a while…”
“Well… that can’t be helped. Just surviving a wound like this is a blessing in itself.”
“But… you’ve been left with a scar…”

With a pained expression, Calcedonia gently ran her fingertips over the scar on Tatsumi’s chest.

“Don’t worry about it. Unlike women, a scar or two on a man’s body isn’t a big deal.”

As Tatsumi endured the ticklish sensation of her supple fingertips against his chest, he suddenly found himself reflecting on their current situation.

He was lying on the bed, shirtless, propped up on his elbows.

And even though she was only checking his scar, Calcedonia had brought her beautiful face extremely close to his.

Naturally, that meant the two of them were extremely close.

If he shifted his gaze just a little, he could see the distinct curves of Calcedonia’s ample breasts, even through her priestess robes.

Tatsumi was acutely aware of his heart racing.

“Is something wrong? It feels like your body temperature just spiked…”
“N-no, no, no, no, no!! It’s—it’s nothing, really!!”

He felt both pathetic for having his eyes glued to her chest and embarrassed by how close she was. His face flushed bright red as he desperately tried to insist it was nothing.

But no matter how hard he tried to hide it, sometimes things just come across.

Calcedonia, realizing where Tatsumi’s gaze was fixed and recalling her current state, blushed just as deeply.

“G-geez…!! Master…!!”

Covering her chest with both hands, she turned a slightly annoyed expression toward Tatsumi. Even so, Calcedonia wore a look of joy on her flushed face, despite her embarrassment.

“I-if that’s w-what you… w-wish for… t-then I… w-well, I don’t really mind…”
“C-Chiiko…”

Though both were bright red, the distance between their faces slowly closed.

And just as the distance between them narrowed to about the width of a fist…

“A-hem!!”

A sudden, exaggerated cough rang out. Tatsumi and Calcedonia jumped apart.

“It is a fine thing that you two get along so well, and I am pleased by it myself… but at the very least, close the door before doing such things. After all, you’re in the temple…the sacred House of God..”

Giuseppe stood at the entrance to the guest room, which had been left wide open, wearing an exasperated expression.

Apparently, when Calcedonia entered the room, she had been so surprised to find Tatsumi had regained consciousness that she had forgotten to close the door.

.

In the guest room assigned to Tatsumi, Calcedonia moved one of the chairs next to the bed where Tatsumi lay, and Giuseppe sat down there.

Calcedonia herself stood behind Giuseppe and waited.

“First of all, I’m incredibly relieved that you’ve regained consciousness, my son.”

Recalling the way Giuseppe spoke and how flustered Calcedonia had been earlier, Tatsumi asked the question that had suddenly crossed his mind.

“Have I…been asleep for long?”
“Quite so. It has been three days since that incident… since the commotion in the temple courtyard.You have been asleep the entire time.”
“T-three days…? That long…?”

Hearing that he had slept for three whole days, Tatsumi couldn’t hide his surprise. To him, the commotion with the specter felt as though it had happened just a moment ago.

“Since you were one of the parties involved, I suppose I must explain what has happened since then. But before that, how much of it do you actually remember?”

When Giuseppe asked him this again, Tatsumi tried to recall the events in order.

He remembered hearing that in the temple courtyard, Baldio, Giuseppe’s aide, had been possessed by a specter and attacked Calcedonia.

That he had gone to the courtyard with Morganaik, who had been with him at the time, to save Calcedonia.

That Morganaik and Calcedonia had succeeded in expelling the specter from Baldio’s body.

That, unbelievably, the specter then possessed Morganaik and attacked Calcedonia once more.

And then, driven by sheer instinct, he threw himself in front of the blade closing in on Calcedonia and was cut down in her place.

That is as far as Tatsumi clearly remembers. He has a vague recollection of challenging Morganaik afterward, driven solely by the desire to save Calcedonia, but he doesn’t remember the specifics very well.

“…So, you do not recall using magic yourself, do you?”
“M-me using magic…you mean? But you said I don’t possess mana…”
“That is correct. Not only while you were asleep, but even now, I sense no mana emanating from you whatsoever. However…”
“But I saw it clearly. You, using magic, Master… and not just any magic, but one of the Heaven branch, a thing of legend.”

Calsedonia and Giuseppe explained to Tatsumi what the Heaven branch was.

A mythical…no, a legendary aptitude branch that once had only a single practitioner. And Calcedonia said Tatsumi had used that Heaven magic, even if unconsciously.

Even if being told so, Tatsumi found it hard to believe it at first, but it’s even less likely for Giuseppe or Calcedonia to lie to him either.

If that’s the case, then he really must have used this so-called Legendary Magic. Honestly, he still couldn’t believe it.

And Tatsumi wasn’t the only one who was bewildered. Giuseppe and Calcedonia were also perplexed by this incomprehensible fact.

There was no doubt that Tatsumi had used a Heaven spell—Instant Teleportation. After all, Calcedonia herself had witnessed that very moment.

But even now, they still couldn’t sense a trace of mana from Tatsumi. There was no way someone without mana could use magic.

“……Hm?”
“……Ah?”

Giuseppe and Calcedonia, who had been staring intently at Tatsumi with puzzled expressions, let out a small gasp of surprise.

At that moment, completely oblivious to their reactions, Tatsumi was opening and closing his hands as if checking something. From his body, they could sense a tiny, almost imperceptible trace of mana.

It was truly minuscule—so faint that they couldn’t even discern the specific color of the mana’s glow. Yet Giuseppe and Calcedonia had undeniably seen a glimmer of mana emanating from Tatsumi, who was supposed to be devoid of it.

“G-Grandfather… what could this mean…?”
“Hmm… To be honest, I don’t know either. However, though it’s only a trace, I certainly did sense mana from Sonny.”

Stroking his long white beard, Giuseppe pondered Tatsumi’s mana.

There is a proverb in Japan, where Tatsumi lived, that says, “Experience is worth more than a tortoise’s shell” which translates to “The older, the wiser.” Giuseppe, too, had not spent his years in vain.

His mind held a vast store of knowledge accumulated over the years. Giuseppe was now searching through that accumulated knowledge for a phenomenon identical to what was happening to Tatsumi.

Eventually, a single possibility that seemed to fit the description surfaced in his mind.

“Could it be… mayhaps Sonny is using external elements rather than internal ones…?”
“Eh? EEEEHHHH!?”

Caledonia’s eyes widened in shock at the answer Giuseppe had arrived at.

Meanwhile, Tatsumi, who should have been the one directly involved, looked completely bewildered, unable to understand why Caledonia was so surprised.

“S-say, Chiiko? What are inner and outer that Giuseppe-san just mentioned?”
“Ah, yes. Well, inner elements and outer elements are—”

Mana abounds everywhere in this world. In the grasslands where herbivores run wild, on the high mountains unreachable by anything but birds, in the vast oceans that are a paradise for fish, and even within the cities where people live.

The mana overflowing in the world is called “external elements,” while the mana contained within the bodies of living beings, such as humans, is called “internal elements.”

And naturally, the amount of mana filling the world is far greater than the amount contained within a single person.

For example, while the mana Calcedonia possesses is among the highest levels any single person can hold, compared to the magic that fills the world, the difference is like that between a handful of water and the vast ocean.

Giuseppe speculated that this mana filling the world, the external element, might be the very mana Tatsumi wields.

“If that’s the case, then it stands to reason why Sonny doesn’t possess his own mana. It’s no wonder we don’t sense mana coming from him. He must be absorbing only the necessary amount of the mana that fills the surroundings into his body when he needs it. Of course, I have no proof, but that explanation makes sense…or rather, I can’t think of any explanation to make it make sense.”

Was he impressed, or was he dumbfounded? Giuseppe concluded in a tone that left it unclear.

“S-so, Chiiko… um, is wielding external elements… really that rare?”
“It’s not just rare. Normally, humans aren’t even capable of handling external elements, you know?”

It’s possible to gather external elements by drawing magic circles during ritual magic and the like, but there’s actually no precedent for an individual handling external elements on their own.

Perhaps there were a few mages in the past who could handle external elements, but at least none are recorded in history or folklore. In other words, if Giuseppe’s speculation is correct, Tatsumi would be the first External Element Wielder in history.

“If Grandfather’s theory is correct, then you will effectively never run out of mana, Master. After all, you can simply gather it from your surroundings as needed.”
“However, you must not place too much faith in that fact. For instance, just as there are places with a higher concentration of mana than the surroundings—such as the basement of the temple where you were summoned—there are also places with low mana or none at all. In such places, even you would find it difficult to gather mana.”

While Tatsumi effectively possesses an inexhaustible supply of mana, the flip side is that he cannot store a fixed amount of mana like an ordinary mage; he must rely entirely on the mana present in his surroundings.

That could be considered a disadvantage compared to ordinary mages.

Tatsumi, who had been listening silently to Calcedonia and Giuseppe, nodded solemnly at Giuseppe’s warning, though his face shone with anticipation.

The unknown power of magic, which he had once given up on. Realizing that he might be able to wield that power himself, his expectations inevitably soared.

“But… Come to think of it, you really are a rare being, aren’t you? Not only are you a Heaven mage, but you’re also an External Wielder. And according to Calcedonia, it seems you’re a Perceiver as well.”

Are all humans from Tatsumi’s world like this, or is Tatsumi the only exception? Even Giuseppe couldn’t say for sure.

If he were to verify that, he would likely need to summon many other people besides Tatsumi. But that was practically impossible.

Giuseppe stared intently at Tatsumi. His expression, which had been calm until then, suddenly turned stern. As if mirroring that, Tatsumi and Calcedonia also tightened their expressions.

Exuding a sharp, almost blade-like intensity, Giuseppe made a proposal to Tatsumi.

.

“What do you say, my son? Have any intention of becoming an exorcist like Calcedonia?”