"This realm looks nothing like my homeworld," Midori-kun sighed. "Kasserlane resembled it closer, though their arcana still differed from mine."
Right. Because having magic was one thing.
Earth had none, but Konrad saw more types in Kasserlane than he could keep track of.
The Church's saint magic, spiritual for the tribes, and whatever Lily and the angels were doing.
Well, he'd stick with the one he learned from the notes this kid wrote while he was still ancient. And no, the irony was not lost on him as they organised his fresh scripts together.
"Lucifer approached me with an apology and a promise," Midori continued.
"Let me guess—sorry for messing up, here, have a reincarnation and a wish."
This guy must have had a harsh first life, too. And a second one.
"You'll be the most powerful mage alive," the kid mimicked the angel's voice, fingers raised in air quotes. "Asterisk, small print—like they do it in this weird ass place."
Konrad tried his best not to point out how he shifted between archaic wording and slang.
He must have picked it up in school when he'd leave this nasty garbage pile in the first place.
Cleaning it was slow, and they ran out of plastic bags a while back. Hence, they switched to note organising. And whether Kaede had the same talk with the Demon Lord or not—
Konrad was glad he sat down to listen to his point of view.
"That heavenspawn made sure I'd struggle at every twist and turn. Rewrite my arcana, puppet those around me, and show false prophecies. But I saw through it."
Yeah. These happened to him, too, but he had no idea who to blame.
Was he actually this blind? Prodigy my ass.
If he hadn't faced the Green Mage, he'd never figure it out.
"So you decided to destroy the entire world," he summarised, trying to sound casual.
"What? Who do you think I am?!" Midori-kun demanded, and Konrad fought the urge to say 'Demon Lord'. "What good would it have done to me? Or is this what he told you?!"
"No?"
Lucifer was the only one who never mentioned him. The other angels, though?
They seemed obsessed.
"But you gathered an army to burn Kasserlane down, kidnapped the king and—"
"Hold on," the kid protested, waving his notes around like a white flag. "I kidnapped him to prevent unnecessary bloodshed. But that didn't stop you and that dragon—"
Touche.
"Well, yes, but why invade in the first place?" he asked, still suspicious.
"Dungeon Cores," Midori-kun said with a shrug. "I found a theoretical way to shift between dimensions, but it needed an insane amount of mana. I was one core away, but—"
Oh. Konrad remembered something about Gabrielle's warning.
"Do dungeons only appear in that kingdom?" he asked.
"No, but only one in every dozen forms elsewhere. I've gathered nine cores in an entire century, but avoided Kasserlane because—well. I thought it'd lead to a temporal paradox."
Right. Time-traveler troubles again. He didn't want to risk it while the Green Mage was there.
Meanwhile, Konrad had the past and future selves of the same person in his harem.
But talking about the future—
"Those visions—were they not true then?" he asked, the evidence coming from Maou himself.
In every future where Konrad won their duel, the Demon Lord returned with vengeance.
His nomads enslaved everyone—not that the alternatives seemed any better.
"Not sure what to tell you," Midori-kun said, straight into his eyes. "I've seen them, too. I even met some of my future variants thanks to that angel—but somehow, they weren't me."
Konrad would have dismissed it as the worst half-assed excuse if not for his own experiences.
Like Lily's example.
She was thousands of years old, with Maple as her past self. But Kaede—today's version of Maple—did not exist in Lily's past. It made zero sense, but time travel was messy like that.
"Let me get this straight. I have no means to return—and even if I could, I'd refuse."
That came out of the blue, surprising Konrad.
"Think about it," the kid continued. "I spent centuries finding a way out. I've become a time traveler by accident, and angels have been hunting me ever since. No way I'd go back."
"B-but—Kaede told me if I gave you my mana," he mumbled, his voice trailing off.
"That dragon?" Midori-kun scoffed. "She's a pain in the ass. I've no idea how we even got here."
"Wait, what?"
Yeah, this afternoon brought him one surprise after another.
"My spell was not for interdimensional travel," the kid explained. "I tried to wear your defences down with time itself. Figured you'd have both mana and life-essence-based spells covered."
"I guess I did," Konrad pondered. "All thanks to Stella."
"That blonde necromancer?!" Midori-kun sounded upset. "Angels chase me for breaching a taboo by mistake, then use another one without batting an eye."
He worked himself up quite a bit, not that Konrad couldn't get behind the feeling.
But now that he mentioned necromancy and the angels—
"And where did you get that staff of yours? The one with the skull sucking all my life forces away?!" he turned the question around. "From the same Lucifer you hate so much?!"
That gave the kid a pause, but not for long.
"Well, yes and yes. Not sure if you realised, but angels are immortal. Can hate him all I want—there was no hiding from Lucifer in Kasserlane. So why not use his tools?"
Konrad almost felt bad for him earlier, but now he wasn't sure anymore.
This kid had some loose morals, but—he wasn't one to talk while running a harem.
"So how can an attack spell even turn into a teleport?" he asked to steer the conversation into calmer waters. "You said it was time-based, and yet here we are, back in my world."
"Yeah, I don't know," was all he got, and a shrug. "When I tried to teleport, I also time-traveled."
"And manipulating time got you teleported," Konrad finished it for him.
Could it be that this guy sucked at his own spells?!
"If I knew the reason, I wouldn't be here," the kid said, shrugging again. But under the surface, his lips were trembling. He was way more upset about this than he'd let on. "Interference?"
"Interference?" Konrad repeated the word, only to get a taste of it. But then— "shit."
No matter how much he tried to hide his Eureka moment, Midori-kun wasn't blind, either.
"What?" he asked, but Konrad refused to answer. "You know something?!"
He cleared his throat once, twice, looking everywhere but at him.
"Let's say—in theory—that a bunch of light hit your magic circle in the infrared wavelength. Would that count as interference? Or alter your spell in any way, shape, or form?"
"I, uh—no. Yes? How much light are we talking about?" the kid asked, looking for a pencil.
He scribbled down something on one of his notes while waiting for Konrad's response.
"About ten. No, let's say twenty times the normal amount on a clear summer day. In theory."
"Hah, of course. That much would interfere with any advanced spells. But we had clouds and smoke," Midori-kun claimed. He also put the numbers into a formula that Konrad never seen.
Still, a glance at the sum at the end, and—
He was starting to sweat even without his Isekai Microwave enabled.