It was the fourth day since his arrival in 『Izumo』. Another night had passed, but the secret of the Hyōsō still eluded him. In truth, a far more urgent matter presented itself that morning. Looking back, he realized his diet since being reincarnated had consisted solely of dried meat. Furthermore, he had generally only eaten once a day, around noon. Kenji was by no means a glutton, but he was still a healthy nineteen-year-old. His stomach would protest if he ate so little. If he were to die of starvation after Amagi Hikaru (pseudonym) had prepared two months’ worth of food for him… he couldn’t imagine having to face the man in the next life. He made his way to the storage shed first. Stepping through the door, he was met with a deep chill, like walking into a cold room. The effect was likely due to the inner walls, which were made of sheer ice. They were probably created with water-attribute magic, but… any ice Kenji made began to melt the moment he stopped channeling his magical power into it. The ice walls of the storage shed, however, showed no signs of melting at all. Was Amagi Hikaru’s (pseudonym) magical power somehow still reaching this place? Or was this the work of a master of water magic, on a level he had yet to comprehend? Either possibility was fascinating. He would unravel that mystery one day… but first, he had to satisfy his hunger. He could just eat more dried meat, but after four days, he desperately craved something different. That’s it. Roast meat. Inside the storage, frozen carcasses of beasts and monsters were lined up neatly. Rabbit, boar, and some kind of chicken-like creature… all of them had been expertly dismantled and butchered. “They’ve already been broken down… Amagi Hikaru (pseudonym) must have prepared all this. Which means he’s showing me how to obtain edible meat if I dismantle them this way. That man truly thought of everything.” Muttering his thanks for the man’s consideration, he pulled down two pieces of what looked like rabbit thigh meat. “Completely frozen solid. I wonder how I’m supposed to thaw them. It would be nice if… they just started melting naturally once I took them out of here.” Kenji left the shed with a piece of frozen meat in each hand. He placed them in the pail. The all-purpose pail, indeed. Sunlight from the slowly rising sun streamed down, illuminating the two lumps of meat. They showed no signs of thawing whatsoever. “Is he telling me to defrost them myself? Since I’m a water-attribute magician…” Holding his right hand over one of the frozen thighs, he focused his mind. He pictured the molecular bonds of the water in the ice breaking apart. “Huh? It feels like something is pushing back.” He couldn’t seem to sever the bonds between the water molecules. It wasn’t just a simple failure, either. A distinct feedback registered in his mind, a clear sense of repulsion. “Is it because this isn’t ice I made myself? Is Amagi Hikaru’s magic rejecting mine?” But giving up wasn’t an option. A man had to eat to live. Besides, since Amagi Hikaru (pseudonym) had prepared it, there had to be a way to thaw and cook it. After all, Amagi Hikaru was a capable man. This had to be possible. “Okay, let’s not Shinpūjin it.” Instead of trying to thaw the entire piece at once, he focused his will on a single point. He felt his magical power concentrate on that tiny spot, and he forced the molecular bonds to break. Then he moved to the bonds right next to it. And the next. And the next… The ice where the bonds were broken slowly turned to water. Finally, after about fifteen minutes of painstaking effort, one piece of rabbit thigh meat was completely defrosted. Even after all that time, the other piece of frozen meat in the pail remained as solid as a rock, not a single drop of condensation on its surface. “Amagi Hikaru’s magic is incredible. Alright, let’s experiment with the other frozen piece. I wonder what’ll happen if I put Amagi Hikaru’s ice directly over a fire.” He gathered some firewood and black palm bark in the yard. Then, he fetched the salt Amagi Hikaru (pseudonym) had prepared from the kitchen. Incidentally, of all the seasonings provided, there was only one: a large quantity of salt. He skewered the thawed thigh meat on a sturdy branch and sprinkled it liberally with salt. Next, he created his usual ice lens. Perhaps due to repetition, what had initially taken him fifteen minutes of concentrating on freezing water now took only two minutes to create directly from the moisture in the air. “I’m getting pretty used to this.” It was gratifying to see his progress in a measurable way. Using the lens, he focused a beam of sunlight onto the black palm bark, coaxing it to smoke and then ignite. He gently blew on the embers, encouraging them into a small flame, and transferred it to the firewood. He stuck the branch with the skewered thigh meat into the ground next to the growing fire. Then, he picked up the remaining frozen thigh and held it over the flames. The frozen meat showed no signs of melting, even when held directly above the fire. “What a surreal sight.” Conclusion: Meat frozen by Amagi Hikaru (pseudonym) did not melt, even when roasted over an open flame. By the time he reached that conclusion, the skewered thigh meat was sizzling, its skin roasted to a perfect golden-brown. “Thank you for the meal.” For the first time in four days, he was about to eat a proper meal. It was so delicious he thought he might cry. In fact, Kenji ate while tears streamed down his face. Kenji used the same painstaking method to thaw the second frozen thigh, roasting it as well before eating his fill. He considered what he should work on for the rest of the day. First, there was the Hyōsō… he still had no idea why it wouldn’t fly. Inspiration wouldn’t strike without more information. Thinking about it endlessly wouldn’t produce an answer. In that case, he should focus on something else and wait for the missing piece of the puzzle to present itself. Time was limited, after all. He was already quite comfortable with forming ice. But if he had to use it in the heat of battle against a monster, for example, it would still be too difficult. It took a full minute from formation to attempted launch for the Hyōsō. And it still couldn’t even fly. The ice lens took two minutes. Both were significant improvements over his initial attempts, but it wasn’t enough. He had to get faster. Much faster. Fighting monsters meant putting his life on the line. There was no room for compromise. He needed to be so proficient that he could complete the formation in a single second. With that decision made, Kenji began to practice. He tried creating all sorts of ice shapes. An icicle, like the one for the lance. An ice spear nearly two meters in length. An ice sheet, an ice pillar, an ice wall… It was during this practice that he noticed something. He stumbled upon a method for creating what he dubbed ‘hard ice.’ Even on Seiran, some ice was harder and melted slower than others. By removing the air from water, one could create ice that was much more difficult to melt. This was typically achieved by boiling the water first to expel the dissolved air before freezing it. Now, how could he apply that principle to his ice magic? When freezing, excluding the air would make the ice more solid. To do that, he tried freezing it from the inside out. Normally, water freezes from the outside in. This traps the air contained within the water, which solidifies into tiny bubbles inside the ice. But he was forming ice with magic. He could just as easily freeze it from the core. Ice formed that way would surely be harder than the ice he had been making without a second thought. Kenji was certain of it. For lunch, he chewed on the usual dried meat while earnestly continuing his practice. Forming ice with his right hand, then his left, even trying to form it with his feet… he practiced while imagining as many different scenarios as possible. Absorbed in his training, he suddenly noticed the sun was setting and evening was approaching. “Time for a bath.” He ate, bathed, and once again dove into magic training. Such a cultured life. It was the fifth day since he had come to 『Izumo』. He spent the morning reviewing what he had learned so far. Just like yesterday, he took rabbit thigh meat from the storage, roasted it, and ate. Thawing the meat, lighting the fire, roasting it, eating… the entire process went smoothly. Then, he picked up where he had left off the day before, creating ice. After a full day of training, he could now produce an Hyōsō in twenty seconds, and the creation of an ice lens had also been reduced to twenty seconds. But it still wasn’t at a level he would consider practical for combat. Of course, as long as he couldn't actually launch the Hyōsō, it was useless for fighting anyway, but he never knew what skill might end up protecting him in a dire situation. Moreover, the creation of ice was likely a fundamental skill he would use for the rest of his life. His goal, therefore, was to raise his proficiency to the point where he could form ice as naturally as breathing. Ice spear, ice sheet, icicle, ice wall… He would create and melt, melt and form, in a perpetual cycle of repetition. At lunchtime, Kenji chewed on his dried meat as usual. In the afternoon, he once again devoted himself to the formation of ice. Suddenly, as he glanced at the sky, something cool splashed against his cheek. He was experiencing his first rainfall since being reincarnated in this land. “Hah, good time to take a break and have a bath.” The home Amagi Hikaru (pseudonym) had prepared for him had no glass in its windows. There were windows, but they were simply openings in the walls that could be covered with wooden boards during a storm. And there were no lamps in the room. Which meant it was now pitch-dark. It hadn't been an issue until yesterday. Usually, after his bath, he would practice magic outside until he exhausted his supply of magical power. Then, he would stumble back to bed and lose consciousness. He left the windows open, and the room would be illuminated by moonlight, but he was rarely in a state to notice. Tonight, because of the rain, the windows were shut and no moonlight could enter. “This won’t affect my magic training, though.” He got out of the bath, lay down on his bed, and continued the same ice formation practice he had been doing outside. Instead of just letting the ice melt after he formed it, he willed it to turn directly into water vapor in the air. By doing so, he could avoid soaking his bed. After repeatedly forming ice yesterday and today, he had managed to reduce his casting time to five seconds. Just as he registered that milestone, his magical power ran out for the night. Kenji let his consciousness fade as the last Hyōsō vanished into mist. For a week after that, he spent every waking moment creating ice. It was the twelfth day since he had come to 『Izumo』. Finally, he could create an Hyōsō almost instantly, in less than a second. However, he still couldn't make the damn thing fly. That said, he now had a new objective. The goal of leaving the barrier. His goal was set, but his preparations were incomplete. First, he had to secure a means of recovery. The quintessential item of any otherworld reincarnation: potions. The `Shokubutsu Zukan: (removed) Shokyū-ban` listed the ingredients for potions. But even with the list, Kenji wasn't confident he could gather anything beyond the plant-based components. Still, leaving the barrier without any way to heal himself would be reckless to the point of idiocy. Even if it wasn't as effective as a potion, some plants could help heal an injury if they were ground into a poultice and applied to a wound. So, his first step was to secure a supply of those plants from within the barrier. If he could manage that, he would plan to leave the next day. According to the `Shokubutsu Zukan: (removed) Shokyū-ban`, the most common plant used for treating injuries was the aptly named Kizugusa. It seemed that common townspeople used it regularly, as potions were difficult to come by. He found Kizugusa growing just behind the house. It was growing so densely it was practically a field. “Wonderful. Sometimes it’s nice when things are on easy mode. Now if only the Hyōsō problem could be solved this simply…” Kenji sighed, voicing a complaint that would have angered the eighty percent of 『Izumo』’s residents who couldn't use magic at all. Unfortunately, another plant, a Gedokusō that could be brewed into an antidote, was nowhere to be found inside the barrier. He would have to search for that after he left. Securing flint and Gedokusō would be his first objectives. After that, he would have to determine if it was possible to hunt for his own food. His only physical weapon was the knife Amagi Hikaru (pseudonym) had prepared. The knife was large, with a twenty-centimeter blade, but to use it as a weapon, he’d have to get dangerously close to his opponent. To be honest, Kenji didn’t feel capable of that just yet. It would be better to have more reach. “The length of the spear gives the soldier his courage.” As the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven once said… or something to that effect. He would turn the knife into a spear. This time, however, he wouldn't use his water-attribute magic. He would make a physical spear. He found a plant that looked like bamboo—or rather, it was definitely bamboo—and cut a stalk to a suitable length. He could have just used it as a sharpened bamboo spear, but since he had a perfectly good knife, he split the end of the stalk and carefully fitted the blade inside. He gathered some tough ivy and wrapped it tightly around the split bamboo, securing the knife so it wouldn't come loose. As a final touch, he planned to reinforce the binding with his hard ice right before leaving the barrier. He didn’t make a six-meter-long monstrosity like the spears of the Owari soldiers, but a more manageable two-meter spear. The three great spears of Kokudō—the Nihongo at 3.2 meters, the Otegine at 3.8 meters, and the Tonbokiri at a staggering 6 meters—were lengths impossible for an amateur to wield. An ice spear could serve as a physical weapon, but he couldn’t predict what would happen in a real battle. He couldn't be certain he could calmly create ice when his life was on the line. “For now, I’ll take it easy today and prepare to leave the barrier tomorrow.” Kenji had been depleting his magical power almost every day before sleeping. One reason was that Amagi Hikaru (pseudonym) had told him he could train through practice. The other, of course, was to gain enough experience to use magic as easily as breathing. However, he had no way of knowing if his magical power was fully recovering by the time he woke up, since he couldn’t see his reserves in any quantified way. With that in mind, he decided to rest for the day, allowing his body’s magical power to recover to its absolute limit before he left the barrier tomorrow. He spent the day reading the `Mamono’s Zukan: (removed) Shokyū-ban` until dusk fell, ate his roasted meat, took a bath, and went to sleep. And so, the morning of the decisive battle dawned.

Chapter 4: The First Urgent Matter