Dream Life Vol II Chapter 84.1: “Graduation: Part 1”

　29th June, 317, in the Tria calendar.

　Today is the 281st graduation ceremony for the Tyria Magic Academy. In other words, it is the graduation ceremony for us the 281st class.

　Unlike the entrance ceremony, my father Mathias, mother Tanya, younger brother and sisters were there. This was more like an extra to attending my brother Rodrik’s wedding than attending my graduation ceremony.

　My brother’s wedding will be held in Welburn, the capital city of the Frontier Count of Roswell, the Governor of the northern part of the Caelum Empire. This is because my brother’s partner is the daughter of the Frontier Count.

　As for my recent situation, I had a hard time after the investigation of the ancient ruins that I was commissioned to do in the middle of October.

　It was good up to the point where I submitted an additional report to Professor Kitley Elvine.

　However, Ms. Kitley had told Professor Ruspede about the ruins.

　That kept me in Professor Ruspede’s clutches until the end of the year. In particular, Professor Ruspede took an unusual interest in the newly learned storage magic, the magic theory I named [Inventory].

　As for the theory, I tried to muddy the waters by talking about the space-time theory in an appropriate manner. However, the professor was not convinced, saying that the theory of storage magic and the magic circle at the transition gate were close and that there must be a clue to reproduce it.

　In the end, I managed to convince him that I didn’t understand it either, but even so, my visits to the forest had decreased considerably.

　There were other reasons for the decrease in my visits to the forest.

　It was because I had developed a new magical tool while I was stuck in Professor Ruspede’s laboratory.

　That magical tool was a soundproof magical tool.

　Why did I have to develop a soundproof magical tool?

　It’s because Liddy and I were finally connected. [T/N: I know both of them are technically old in side, still…]

　On the night of the day we returned to Doctus from the ancient ruins, Liddy came to my room.

　She had a serious expression on her face, which was unusual for her.

“On the way back, I kept thinking. I wondered what I would do when you were gone.” (Liddy)

“I’ll always be with Liddy, so you don’t have to worry about that.” (ZAck)

　She shook her head and said, “I am an elf, and you are a human!”

“You’ll be gone from my life someday. I thought about that when I heard the story about the ancient person. Maybe when you’re gone, I’ll be just as desperate as he was. Maybe I’ll follow you—” (Liddy)

　I interrupted her.

“Stop! We talked about that before!” (Zack)

　And then, calming my mind,

“My body is only 14 years old. I still have more than fifty years to go before I die. I heard that people with high magic power live longer, so I should have close to 70 years to live. Now is not the time to think about that.” [T/N: I am reading “Growing
Tired of the Lazy High Elf Life After 120 Years” I think this is really something you should talk about. BTW great series. Highly recommend. I’m still sad that author forbade translations.]

　Lidi shook her head again,

“No. When you entered those ruins, I began to think to myself. I thought you would never come out. Especially when I stopped feeling your presence. It was really scary…” (Liddy)

　Apparently, the Dupré family ring that was given to me when I was five years old—is a pair of rings, a magical device that allows both parties to sense each other’s safety—made her uneasy, because she couldn’t feel my presence anymore. She said then,

“I want a solid connection…” (Liddy)

　Then she turned red in the face and mumbled, “You can now… can’t you?”

　I was about to say, “What can I…” when I realized what Liddy was trying to say and couldn’t continue to speak.

　She asked me if I could now hold a woman.

“Sure… I can, but I don’t think I can do it here. …Mel and Sharon are right there with me. And there’s Beatrice too.” (Zack)

　“If you keep saying that, we won’t be able to do it!” Liddy shakes her head and strongly denies it. And then she jumped straight into my chest.

“I’m worried… that you might disappear… so…” (Liddy)

　I couldn’t push Liddy away in this situation, because I wanted it even more than she did.

　I held her.

　It was my first time with her. It was also my first time with this body.

　At that moment, we were probably closer to realizing each other than making love. I guess somewhere inside of me, I wanted certainty.

　I couldn’t put the brakes on the pleasure I once remembered.

　Liddy was puzzled at first, but after the second time, she couldn’t stop herself.

　She wanted her partner so greedily.

　The time I spent with Liddy was really just the two of us. I probably wouldn’t have noticed anything happening around us. I wanted Liddy from the bottom of my heart.

　But there was a problem.

　To be precise, there was no problem between us. We just love each other, so there should have been no problem, but there was a serious and pressing problem.

　Yes, Liddy was too loud.

　The walls of this house are just wooden planks. Naturally, there is no soundproofing.

　So, not only Beatrice and my childhood friends upstairs, but also Dan on the first floor, and possibly even the next-door neighbor, could hear us.

　I am glad that she was calling my name, but she was so loud that I was not sure if we could hear around us once we got into it.

　This situation is very bad. We have three adolescent children.

　In fact, the morning after we made love, Mel and Sharon looked embarrassed and downcast, and Beatrice looked unhappy.

　I told Liddy about it,

“I can’t do it. Because I didn’t think anything of it at the time. …And that’s okay. They just know we love each other.” (Liddy)

“No, that’s not the issue…” (Zack)

　“What’s the problem?” she asks curiously.

　I was at a loss for words.

　I’ve never had an adolescent child, and I have no idea what to do about it.

　I tried to solve the problem by blocking the sound. The right thing to do would have been to explain the situation to everyone or to persuade Liddy. It was not a fundamental solution, but I had to resort to it. I myself am aware that my thinking is akin to escaping from reality.

(The point is, it would be better if the voices don’t leak out, and if there is a thick carpet or something under the bed, there should be no problem.) (Zack)

　I decided to make a muffling or soundproofing magic tool, but even Professor Ruspede, the expert on magic tools, knew nothing about soundproofing magic tools.

“I’ve never heard of it. Soundproof… But why should something be soundproofed?” (Ruspede)

　I couldn’t answer truthfully, so I just said what came to mind.

“I thought it might be useful for top-secret meetings, and I also thought it might be useful to have it for doing research in a quiet environment…” (Zack)

“I see. You can certainly use it in secret conversations. And if you plan to immerse yourself in research, noise won’t bother you.” (Ruspede)

　While saying that, he handed me a box containing magic stones.

“There are different attribute magic stones in this box. Use them however you like.” (Ruspede)

　He was so generous that he even included a second-grade magic stone in the box, which he said I could use as I wished. The Adventurers’ Guild buys the magic stones and distributes them to the Magicians’ Guild and other guilds. For the second grade, the purchase price is not less than 1,000 Crona. Especially for the third grade and above, the selling price is usually several times higher than the purchase price, since the ease of acquisition differs greatly depending on the attribute. In other words, Professor Ruspede told me that I could freely use materials worth several million yen or more.

　Normally, I would have refrained, not wanting to create a debt, but this time I was grateful and decided to use it. I was in such a desperate situation.

　To begin the development, I organized my concepts.

　Sound is a vibration of gas, and if you want to suppress it, you can do so by lowering the atmospheric pressure. If I could eventually create a vacuum, the sound would disappear. If that is not possible, we can create an imaginary layer of highly sound-absorbent material.

　The next question is how to achieve this, and by what means.

　By manipulating air, or gas, it is certain to be wind magic. It would be good to make a magical tool that would have a wind spirit create a vacuum state, but it is difficult to convey the concept of a vacuum.

　Wind spirits can move air. If so, it could be a vacuum pump if we imagine it as sucking the air out of a certain space. But the gas will flow to the lower atmospheric pressure. How do I prevent that?

　As a different topic, there is a very strange phenomenon in wind magic.

　It is possible to “solidify” gases. Strictly speaking, it is not even clear whether it is a substance or not, but the [Blade of Wind – Wind Blade] and my original magic [Swallow-winged Blade – Swallow Cutter], can solidify and slice through objects. In other words, the air can be made into a thin plate like a blade.

　This phenomenon is done by superimposing two thin membranes. The structure is similar to that of a pair of glass panes. If the air between the two membranes is removed, it should be possible to create a vacuum plate using wind magic.

　If the object is covered with the vacuum, the air vibration will not be transmitted to the walls. The floor may still vibrate and propagate the sound, but since the floor is thicker than the walls, it can be physically sound proffed by a thicker carpet.

　The logic was relatively easy to conceive. But then came the hard part.

　First, I needed to have the wind spirits create a double layer of boards. This is an application of the [Blade of Wind – Wind Blade], but nowadays, magic tools are not used to create attack magic. However, the security device in the ruins – the thieves call it a “trap” – has a magic circle that launches something similar to a Wind Blade, By applying this, I managed to create a board.

　The problem was the magic circle to get the air to vacate the middle. No such magic circle has been found in the ruins, and there is no theory behind it. In other words, I had no choice but to create my own magic circle from scratch.