The trip from Albat to the capital, Nastiara, took 2 days by carriage.
During the eventless journey, I had nothing else to do, so I spent it testing my gla.s.ses in various ways.
It"s an incomprehensible Talent, but I like it.
Furthermore, I also have the bow that Shishou gifted me for my coming of age.
Without time to gather my bearings, I was brought out of the village the very next day. On authority of the king. On orders of a guy that I"ve never even seen before. He"s probably just some old guy who"s never known a day of hardship in his life.
So this is my first time since to have this much free time to examine and test my gla.s.ses.
After a simple self-introduction and brief chat with the soldiers, I tell them "I want to sleep" and retreat to the roof of the carriage.
Having someone sit next to me does bother me, but what bothers me even more is having someone sit across from me and staring at me.
I am a guy too, so especially now that my eyesight has improved, I have absolutely no interest in seeing another guy clearly and vividly and distinctively.
And I personally don"t want to be looked at either.
The jolting of the carriage transmits quite directly to the roof, but it"s still much better than being stuck inside a small s.p.a.ce with ossa— actually, the soldiers are quite a bit younger than I"d expected — with dudes that I don"t know.
With my luggage pack as a pillow, I lay face up on the roof.
"——When I get home, I"m going to propose."
"——Good luck with that. As for me, I have to think of a name for my newborn child."
I hear the soldiers talking with each other below me. For some reason, I feel a sense of foreboding from the content of their conversation, but I"m sure I"m just imagining it.
While looking up at the clear blue sky, I fiddle with my gla.s.ses.
Hmm…… so the lens is curved. The curvature curves the sight in a way that makes everything focused.
If I adjust the curvature of the lens, would I be able to see even further? Or should I overlap them?
——After various tests, I learned three things.
Firstly, I am only able to make 3 gla.s.ses in one go.
The strength that gets drained out of my body — that"s probably what people call magic power — is expended, such that after the third one I get dizzy and cannot move properly anymore.
Secondly, I can return my gla.s.ses into magic power.
After returning, I can then create it again. Rather than saying that my magic power is expended, it"d be more accurate to say that my gla.s.ses are my magic power. When I return my gla.s.ses, my magic power returns.
And lastly, it becomes a physical existence separated from me.
Simply put, with time, I can increase the number of gla.s.ses.
The first pair that I made, I"ve been wearing the entire time. Aside from when I sleep, of course. But even when I sleep, I didn"t return it into magic power.
During that time, the "magic power worth 1 pair of gla.s.ses" recovered naturally.
In other words, the gla.s.ses that I am wearing right now are no longer a magical creation, but a physical object that exists on its own.
I can probably give it to other people too.
According to what I heard from the soldiers, gla.s.ses are considered a high-cla.s.s item in the royal capital. If I sell them, then I may be able to earn quite a tidy sum.
"Sell gla.s.ses and earn money," huh.
On paper alone, it looks really stupid.
In the first place, it may be a high-cla.s.s item, but there"s no point if there"s no demand.
Are there many people with bad eyes? Or are there only a few? In the first place, are there even people aware of it? I was aware because my eyes went from fine to bad, but if someone was born like that, then would they even realize that what they see is different from what others see? And even if they realize, would they even give it thought?
Moreover, if it is the curvature of the lens that corrects eyesight, then I think each person would require curvature specific to that person alone.
I think that each pair of gla.s.ses would need to be tailor-made to each person.
Just as everyone"s "gla.s.ses in their heart" is different, surely their physical gla.s.ses would be different too. Incidentally, what does "gla.s.ses in the heart" even mean.
Though well, gla.s.ses have indeed already secured a living s.p.a.ce inside my heart. They"ve become an existence that I can never ever live without again.
——Upon mulling so deeply upon gla.s.ses, I find myself slightly excited.
Regardless of how everyone around thinks "gla.s.ses summoning" is just meh, I like it.
Even aside from the pair that I"m using myself, I"m beginning to take a liking to this Talent. It is turning out to be much deeper than I had originally thought.
Now I want to know even more about my gla.s.ses.
In addition, I also learned that "the shape cannot be changed" and "the color of the lens can be changed."
Well, in regards to the shape, it might simply be because I lack the imagination or visualization to make it happen. If I have a clear image that I think "I want it to look like this!", then perhaps I can make it.
"The color of the lens can be changed" I discovered because I realized how bright the sun is.
Because I"m lying face up on the roof, the sun comes into my view whether I want it to or not.
When I am wearing gla.s.ses, it concentrates light, so everything becomes even brighter.
The sun isn"t bright when it"s covered by thin, dark clouds.
If my gla.s.ses provide me vision through the lens, then could I make the lens more clouded, so that the sun won"t be so bright according to the previous reasoning?
So thinking, I mentally willed it to become as dark as night, and it worked.
The world that I am looking at right now is "night."
Despite it being high noon, everywhere is dark like it"s night time, thanks to me looking at the world through black lenses.
I can look right at the sun and it"s not bright at all.
It even looks kind of like a yellow spot.
…… Ok, I thought that it"s not bright, but when I stare at it for a long time, it turns out to be bright after all. The sun is strong. My thought that gla.s.ses may perhaps be the strongest thing in this world is dispelled immediately. How I arrived at that thought is completely beyond me.
On the first day, as well as the second, I stayed on the roof of the carriage. I pondered upon my gla.s.ses, napped every now and then, and fiddled with the new composite bow that I"d received from Shishou.
"——I"m almost home."
"——When I think of how my child is waiting for me, I just can"t sit still."
In the evening of the second day on this journey that even the soldiers have gotten tired of, we finally see castle walls far off in the distance.
So that"s the royal capital. It"s huge.
I only know my own village, so I can"t even imagine what kind of place the royal capital is.
…… Sooo, first I"ll be going to the castle to meet somebody important, then I"m going to look for Sis.
Because my parents told me "go take a look at your sister"s face."
I too — well, I"m not that worried about her — am kind of curious about how she"s been these past two years.
To be honest, I only wanted to go back as soon as possible at the start of the trip. But now I"ve changed my mind just a little.
When I reach the royal capital, I want to look more into gla.s.ses.
According to the soldiers, there is a place called a "library" where there are a whole ton of books. Apparently that"s the place to go to look something up.
I can only do simple reading and writing, so I won"t be able to read difficult books. But I think there"s value in at least going to check it out.
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