"Hah... This really is a hell of a mess isn't it?" I watched Stella peacefully sleep in her crib and frowned.

The rain had stopped. But in exchange, the light had vanished. It seemed like day had turned into night while I was calming Stella down.

"What do I do now...?"

My right eye still wasn't working. My left eye's vision came back after a while, letting me see things more clearly. But my right eye...

At first, I thought it was just a mana blockage problem like before. But it was different. Not only was there a lack of mana there, but it felt wrong. Numb.

When I rubbed it through my eyelid, I could feel that my eye was there. But that was only with my fingers. My eye itself... I didn't feel anything.

So that was a problem.

Fortunately, it was an old problem. I hadn't tried it yet, but after my previous stint being blind, I devised a lot of alternative methods to either recovering or compensating for a lack of vision.

...Just didn't think I'd have to use them so soon.

I checked on Stella one more time.

My baby sister was fast asleep, quietly breathing.

I was a bit worried because of how dense the mana was here and if it might affect her in a bad way. Fortunately, it seemed like Mom and Dad getting stronger resulted in another ridiculous kid.

It was only a little, but Stella seemed to be passively drawing in the ambient mana and converting it to her own gold and silver mix.

Of course, since she was a baby, there wasn't much. But it didn't seem to be harming her in any way.

Still...

I looked away from Stella and glanced at my surroundings. "What am I going to feed her?"

Stella was a newborn. Barely a day old, if that.

While I wasn't too worried about injuries, I *was* worried about developmental issues. Especially if she didn't have proper nutrition.

In this world, the only way babies ate was through breastfeeding.

Obviously, that wasn't an option here.

Maybe it was possible to do some puree mix of food, but I didn't know anything about nutrition in this world. An organization that regulated health and food safety wasn't a thing, after all.

Not to mention that this was a foreign land where I didn't know what was safe for *me* to eat. And while I could get by through brute forcing healing spells and drinking water, Stella...

Dammit. If I just had some baby formula-

Wait.

I slowly stood up and looked around again.

This tower. Stella's crib. The sports areas back at home...

I managed to make them from raw mana. And while I'd only started dabbling in it, I had figured out how to make candies from mana too. The only thing I needed was a clear image.

"Alright. Okay. Then... This should work. No, this *will* work."

My mana... it was still empty. But the air here was at least a hundred times denser in mana than back at home. Not only that, but I could feel a few clumps of hyper dense mana floating around. Probably the aftermath of Being W's warp spell.

Then, first...

I closed my eyes and focused. A deep breath, drawing in the mana from around me. A long exhale, removing impurities. Carefully cycling them throughout my body to both kickstart my mana and begin refueling.

...It would take a while. Probably a few weeks to get back up to full capacity with this method.

I had a few others to try, but this was good enough for now.

When I had about a normal person's amount of mana restored, I opened my eyes and focused.

Will. Mana. Image.

Those were the components to 'magic.' Lacking in one meant you had to compensate for the others.

Image was formed both from logic and faith.

Will was your determination, as well as your emotions.

And mana was mana.

Being W could pull ridiculous feats off because he seemed to be have mana in the amounts of multiple stars, so he didn't need much 'image.' But that guy definitely had plenty of 'will' from his arrogance and self-confidence.

As for me...

My mana was just a drop in the bucket from my usual amount. But my will and image...

I was desperate and determined. I absolutely wouldn't let Stella get hurt or have issues growing up. Even if it cost my life or if I had to sacrifice parts of myself to make it work.

Image... I knew what I wanted. Remembered what it looked like. Recalled its taste. The list of ingredients and nutrient value on the back.

Mana was omnipotent. Rudeus said so, and I experienced it recently firsthand facing that cheating Being W. Faith wasn't an issue.

Logic... Well, if you shifted around Einstein's famous formula, mass was essentially just energy split apart into discrete portions by slowing it down. And mass was matter. Matter itself was comprised of individual particles, and those particles interacted with each other on a micro scale to build up to a macro environment.

But more than that... who said magic had to abide by physics?

Didn't I just see Being W throw that out the window by breaking through a black hole?

So...

A swell of power. Wind- No, a pressure difference causing a sudden airflow due to the shift in mana.

Stella was startled and started crying again. Not only that, I heard a small rumbling sound. Her stomach, no doubt super empty after all this time.

But...

"It worked."

A plastic baby bottle filled with a murky off-white liquid.

I unscrewed the cap to taste it just to make sure, and... yep. The same watered down vanillaish taste I remembered.

Stella kept crying. Not only that, she started flailing her hands around, as if reaching for someone to pick her up.

I sighed, but then placed a smile on my face. "Don't worry, Stella. Onii-chan's here."

"...gah?"

Stella sniffed and stopped crying, looking up at me.

I smiled and carefully picked her up. After that, I handed her the bottle. "Here. You're hungry, aren't you? Drink up. You need to eat a lot to grow big and strong, you know?"

Idle chatter. The words echoing in my head from my previous life that I remembered saying to my younger siblings.

Did it calm Stella down? Or was she just hungry?

Either way, she greedily sucked on the bottle. After she was finished, I burped her and then held her for a while to make sure she was fine. But it seemed like she was content from being full since she quickly fell back asleep.

I gently placed Stella back in her crib and tucked her in.

The moment I did that...

"You're a wonderful older brother."

The same person from before.

I turned around to look at him, raising my guard. And since my vision was cleared up, I got a better look at him.

Like I thought, the man was wearing tribal clothes. His torso was mostly bare, revealing honed muscles. But he had on a cloth vest with colorful patterns, reminiscent of Native Americans. Paired with his gray pants, leather boots, and leather arm wraps, he seemed like a wandering nomad.

Not only that, but there was a scar across his face, cutting diagonally between his eyes... and below a crimson gem?

I frowned and shifted my vision to mana.

...I wasn't mistaken.

The man... No. Probably a demon, right? The demon had naturally green mana while that crimson gem was emitting red pulses of mana. But there was also Being W's mana floating around him. Specifically, around his hair. Almost like it was dyed with it.

"...Who are you?"

The man didn't seem hostile. In fact, he reminded me a bit of Orsted. And if his situation was similar, that meant that Being W's mana was actually a curse on the man.

...And come to think of it, that would explain Stella crying.

I wasn't affected by that mana and whatever effect it was trying to cause, but now that I could see properly, I noticed that it was sending out the same intimidating vibes that Being W's mana around Orsted did. A sort of subliminal message saying 'this is the mortal enemy of the world...'

Or something.

The man stared at me and then gently set his spear aside, raising his hands, as if trying to calm me down. "I am Ruijerd Supardia."

Ruijerd?

I tilted my head, wracking my mind. It sounded familiar for some reason...

Ah. Right. Rudeus mentioned that a Ruijerd helped him out when he got transported to the Magic Continent from the Metastasis incident-

Magic Continent.

Magic Continent?

I blinked and then groaned. "That would explain the dense mana atmosphere..."

I thought that I was still somewhere in the Asura Kingdom, or at the worst in Millis because of those grassy fields. But of course it wasn't that.

Instead of a metastasis mana calamity, that bastard went and did a space collapse. Maybe spacetime collapse.

...It had better be just space. If that guy-

No. Think positive. You already know what happens when you go full edgelord. And that bastard definitely wants you to go full edgelord, so don't.

Right.

So...

Ruijerd was still staring at me, quietly waiting.

I stared back at him, thinking. And after a while, I said, "Ruijerd, right?"

He nodded his head. "That's right."

"A member of the Supard race?"

"...That is correct."

I tilted my head, trying to remember what Rudeus mentioned about him.

There wasn't much. He had mostly been talking about all the tragedies near the later part of his life, but as to Ruijerd and the Supard race...

I nodded and said, "Alright. Then... I heard from a friend that the Supards are a proud warrior tribe that live honorably and just."

Ruijerd's eyes widened, showing shock and relief. No, there was a bit of gratitude in there too. But he quickly nodded and said, "That's true."

"...Can I trust you?"

For good measure, I played up the vulnerable kid look and desperation.

Well, I didn't really need to play up that much. They were both kind of true right now.

Ruijerd stared at me with a firm look and said, "A Supard warrior will not go back on his word. Nor will he allow children to fend for themselves." After that, he let out a reassuring smile and said, "I do not know your circumstances... but be calm. I will help you and your sister return home."

A sincere response. Unlike Dad, Ruijerd was giving off the vibe of a confident and trustworthy adult. Similar to Mister Laws, actually.

So then...

"Okay. But... before I trust you, I want to get rid of the curse stuck on your hair. Is that okay?"

It would be trouble if Being W managed to use that to spy or something, so-

Ruijerd's eyes widened and he touched his hair. "Curse? On my hair?"

I nodded. "That's right. Um, it's a bit hard to explain, but-"

A blur.

I panicked and tried to swing my arm. But before I could, Ruijerd was in front of me, gripping my shoulders. "M-Mister Ruijerd?"

The look of a man dying from thirst that just found water.

He stared at me and said, "Is it true? Is there a curse on my hair causing misfortune? Is that the reason for the excessive fear and hostility? Is that why the Supard are-"

"M-Mister Ruijerd. P-Please calm down."

Ruijerd flinched, and quickly stepped back, lowering his hands. "...Sorry. But..." He ran his hand through his hair. "...Yes. There had been talk of a curse. And when we threw our spears away, it was our hair that was talked about. The dreadful, fearful green hair of the Supard..."

...Okay? Maybe Master Roxy's theory about me emitting a 'Rudy Factor' of some sort affecting the people around me was correct.

Ruijerd shook his head and then looked at me. After that, he bowed and said, "Please. If you can remove this curse... If you can do such a thing, I, Ruijerd Supardia will forever be in your debt."

"Um... there's no need to go that far. The caster is the person responsible for us being here too, so..." I trailed off and focused on Being W's mana.

Did he sense my intentions? Or was it an automatic reaction?

The white mana started to swirl, as if winding up to pounce on me. But...

'Not this time.'

I reached out my hand and imagined it.

The way that Being W's body was split by my sword and turned into colorless mana. How Orsted ripped the ambient elemental mana into raw mana from his attack.

...It definitely wouldn't work against him directly. And I still needed testing. But-

"Disperse."

A phenomenon formed from mana, enforced by my word, and fueled my image.

An invisible shockwave lashed out at Being W's mana, instantly shredding it apart. At the same time-

"Drain."

Another phenomenon. Before the mana could scatter, I pulled it towards me and assimilated it.

An instant top-up. Just like if I downed an energy drink.

While not up to full capacity, that definitely helped wash away a bit of the fatigue.

Now, to check on Mister Ruijerd.

"...Is it done?" Ruijerd stared at me with a faint hope in his eyes.

"It should be...? I think you'd need to test it out first though-"

Before I could finish, Ruijerd was gone. Vanishing in a flash, even leaving his spear behind.

...Well. I guess that's fine?

Now to try meditating and see if that increased my mana regeneration. If not, then time to work on that dispersal and drain spell I just came up with to see if I can use them on magic stones or monsters directly... Maybe experiment with mass to mana conversion too...

Taking up a spot next to Stella, I knelt down and sat on my heels, resting my hands over my thighs. Deep breaths, clearing my mind. Cycling mana, making sure the mana I drained was free from annoying external forces...

...

*thud*

I flinched and opened my eyes.

Ruijerd was back. Not only that, he was kneeling in front of me. That was the thud I heard. But it wasn't just ordinary kneeling. It was the exaggerated pose that someone would use to swear loyalty.

One knee on the ground, one raised. Head lowered and arm resting on the raised knee...

"Great magician. For breaking this curse, I, Ruijerd Supardia-"

"H-Hold on! Wait! Let's get proper introductions first!"

Geez. What's with everyone acting so excessive around me...?