After formally joining Loki-sama's Familia, Sawada Tsunayoshi was assigned a room on the second floor near the corner. By eye it was a bit over ten square meters—more than enough for one person.
The furnishings were solid: a bed, a desk, a bookcase, and a big window that let in loads of light. It reminded Tsunayoshi of his room back home, with one unfortunate difference—no modern home appliances.
"How is it? Not a bad room, right?"
"Mm, it's great. Plenty of space, bright, and airy. Aside from the lack of modern appliances, it's almost the same as mine."
He pushed the window open. Dusk was settling over the eaves outside, and from this annex he could see neighboring houses—quintessential Western swords-and-sorcery architecture. Properly old-world.
After getting a sense of the surrounding residences, Tsunayoshi appreciated just how luxurious the Loki household was.
Being able to arrange a room like this on short notice—what was there to complain about? He liked camping anyway, and his accommodations were often rougher than this. All told, Loki's place was pretty great.
"'Appliances'… you mean tools driven by electrical power?" Loki asked.
"Right. Simply put, you feed electricity into a box called a 'television,' its electronic components work, and it displays distant signals as images on the screen."
"Like a 'Far-Sight Art' of some kind?"
"I don't know what your 'Far-Sight Art' is, but I'm guessing it's similar. Our world doesn't have forces as complex as yours, but ordinary people still used their wits to make all kinds of neat things. Oh—"
A spark lit in Tsunayoshi's mind. He decided to show Loki what a "television" actually was.
He made the idea more concrete.
A thin, floating 60-inch TV took shape in the center of the room.
"Ohh—so that's a 'television,' huh?"
Loki had always been curious about "technology."
"Mm. With electricity as its power source it drives its internal parts and throws images up on the screen. This TV, though, I created with imagination—it counts as a type of monster, so it doesn't need actual electricity to run. But it still needs an image-capture unit, or there's nothing to display."
Before conjuring the TV, Tsunayoshi had already imagined the appropriate capture unit.
A white bird appeared in the room—and the television flickered on. The screen showed Tsunayoshi and Loki inside the room, but from a different angle.
"Whoa!"
Loki's eyes lit up seeing herself on screen.
"This really is like 'Far-Sight'—except without magic. You're telling me craftsmen in another world can make this?"
"In our world we brute-forced our way up the tech tree—studying bit by bit until we figured things like this out. Combine various components and you get tools modeled after animals, and so on."
Tsunayoshi didn't think this world was incapable—its research focus simply wasn't on technology. If it were, "magitech" would probably become popular here, too.
A pitch-black handheld controller popped into existence in front of Loki.
"What's this?"
"It's used to control the bird."
Tsunayoshi opened the window, took the controller, and got to work.
The white bird rose smoothly and shot outside, quick as a dart.
The television feed shifted rapidly, now showing the world from the bird's perspective.
When the view stabilized into a high-altitude top-down shot, Tsunayoshi stopped the inputs, and the picture held.
"With the controller you can set the bird's position, keep it flying, make it hover, switch camera angles, zoom the image, and even pick up sound."
"There are range limits, though, and plenty of room for improvement."
"Whoaaa!!!"
Loki stared, delighted, at the overhead image on the screen. From that height you could see a swath of Orario.
"This is already impressive. It's not as convenient as Far-Sight, and it's limited by distance, but the fact that craftsmen can make something like this at all is amazing."
"And with your ability, you can graft that tech onto a monster. If Finn hears about this, he'll be over the moon."
"He will?"
Tsunayoshi hadn't expected the captain of Loki-sama's guards to get that excited over a drone.
"Ma~ Finn's always wanted to make the Pallum proud again—help them out of their current… awkward position."
"A grand goal for a captain," Tsunayoshi said with genuine respect. "With a vision like that, he's a 'hero.'"
Reviving a people wasn't easy. And those who knew it wasn't easy but still chose to try—those were heroes.
"'Hero,' huh…"
Loki murmured, then smiled downwards and slung her arm over Tsunayoshi's shoulder with extra gusto.
"If Finn heard you say that, he'd be thrilled. But reviving a race isn't simple, and the Pallum's situation is… tricky. He's made it his mission to restore their pride, yet no Pallum expects anything from him."
"Because no one believes he'll succeed."
"Of course," Tsunayoshi said softly. He knew how steep that climb was. Reviving a race meant rebuilding a people's inner confidence—something one person couldn't do alone.
But his respect for the captain didn't waver.
"If he keeps going without anyone's expectations behind him, it's because he believes it's the right thing to do. I don't think someone that steadfast needs outside approval. No matter what others think, he won't waver from his goal."
"Maybe he won't be the one to finish the job, but I'm sure his actions will inspire others to join the work."
This kid… he really thinks that way, Loki thought, surprised. She hadn't expected such a take—or a comment like that.
The education in his old world wasn't bad at all, Loki mused, oddly moved.
(End of Chapter)
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