When our leisurely bath time ended and we returned to the cottage, an elegant dinner prepared by room service was already waiting in the room.
It was probably arranged by the house-elves who were no doubt standing by somewhere.
On a tropical-style wooden platter sat a beautifully grained salad bowl, filled with an array of colorful vegetables magically cut into flower shapes, just like a wedding bouquet.
"This really looks exactly like real flowers at first glance…"
They were clearly altering the appearance with magic, but even so, it was immediately obvious that a very advanced technique was being used.
"It's still pretty new in the British and American magical worlds, but apparently it's been trending lately in the Arab magical world. A Japanese wizard chef started it when he tried to recreate, through magic, the delicate presentation demanded in his home country's cuisine."
As she elegantly lifted a rose-shaped, magically cut tomato to her mouth with her fork, Farley-senpai explained it to us. I see.
"Now that you mention it, magic and cooking really do seem like a good match. You can obviously ignore physical laws and make these beautiful cuts."
"Even in the Muggle culinary world, there's molecular gastronomy, you know."
After finishing the last blue vegetable cut into an iris-like shape, probably daikon dyed blue with butterfly pea, the next dish to appear was sushi shaped like a ship in a bottle.
The sail was formed from ultra-thin crab meat, while the hull, made of red-fleshed fish and rice, rested atop a smooth sea urchin mousse. Enclosing it all was an astonishing bottle made of transparent soy sauce foam.
On top of that, perhaps a levitation charm had been cast, because even when cut casually, it did not spill at all and floated gently in place. It felt like space food eaten by astronauts in zero gravity, and I found myself honestly impressed, thinking that magic could be used like this too.
"Still, serving sauce in a three-dimensional form using a levitation charm is quite an idea…"
"It almost feels like a waste to eat it."
"I'm going to show this to my family later and brag about it."
Clearwater-senpai chimed in, while Farley-senpai carefully took photos with her camera before eating.
After that, more dishes kept coming. There were crispy French bread wafers filled with caviar, served alongside a paulownia wood box, and a burdock soup topped with white potato espuma that looked exactly like Viennese coffee.
There was even what appeared to be a wooden spoon scooping up foie gras with finely chopped truffles forming letters on it, only for the spoon itself to turn out to be steak. Another dish looked exactly like a globe with a perfectly accurate map, but was actually a sherbet. One astonishing dish after another appeared and was eaten, and we could not help but marvel at the sheer power of human imagination.
When everything was finished, the plates vanished with a pop, and Farley-senpai murmured "Ahh…" with a blissfully satisfied expression.
"I hope this magical haute cuisine, Magical Gastronomy, catches on in Britain soon."
"Even if it does, wouldn't it be way too expensive for us?"
"Honestly, young people these days have no dreams at all…"
"Grandma Gemma, times have changed."
"Hmph. What a dull era it's become."
"Um, you two are giving off some serious 'old people' vibes, but you're still teenagers, right…?"
When I pointed that out, Farley-senpai hugged me and said, "That's exactly the kind of comment I was waiting for!"
"Normally the other prefects would stop us, but today neither of them is here, so even when I think, 'Ah, that joke didn't land,' I can't stop myself. And Penny knows exactly what's going on and still lets it blow up."
"If I reacted every time, it'd never end."
"Exactly."
"No, that's not something you should be agreeing with."
As for the topic Clearwater-senpai had brought up about the cost, to add a bit of context, the expenses for this training camp were largely covered by the Malfoy, Flint, and Celestelia families. It was a perfect example of elite pureblood noble families showing their clout.
By doing favors like this, it might come in handy later, and you get both connections and memories out of it, truly killing two birds with one stone.
Apparently, Lucius had been reluctant about inviting the Weasley family, but my mother shut that down by saying, "Do you have any idea how much trouble I went through covering up the fact that you threatened eleven Hogwarts governors to get Dumbledore suspended, not to mention the evidence tying you to the Chamber of Secrets incident that escalated to attempted murder? Huh?" After that, he could not say another word.
Even so, he still did not want to bow his head directly, so he maintained appearances with the other pureblood families by claiming it was "unavoidable because the Celestelia family asked," inserting a third party as an intermediary. There was a surprisingly troublesome adult world operating behind this camp as well.
After enjoying that unnecessarily stylish dinner, the three of us relaxed and chatted with our seniors about fashion and makeup, when suddenly Flint-senpai's voice came from Farley-senpai's pocket.
"Gemma, can you hear me? It's me."
"..."
The moment she heard his voice, Farley-senpai openly twisted her face in annoyance and tried to slide right back into the girls' talk as if nothing had happened.
"It's me. Marcus Flint!"
"Uh, the two-way mirror you are trying to reach is currently in a location where magic cannot reach…"
"Our rooms are literally right next to each other!"
With a light click of her tongue, Farley-senpai pulled out a square, card-like mirror. Reflected in it was Marcus Flint-senpai. This two-way mirror was basically like a Muggle video call, a convenient item that let you communicate even from far away.
Because the hotel had anti-Apparition wards for security reasons, it was especially useful for situations like "I want to talk for a bit, but it's a hassle to go all the way over there."
"So, Marcus, what's up?"
"I was watching today's play and thought of something."
Apparently, he had come up with a new tactic and wanted to try it as soon as tomorrow, so he contacted Farley-senpai to get her opinion, since she was good at devising strategies.
The reason he used the two-way mirror instead of coming to the cottage directly seemed to be his way of not disturbing Clearwater-senpai or me.
**
While Farley-senpai was talking with Flint-senpai, Clearwater-senpai and I moved a little away and sat down in the rocking chairs on the balcony facing the sea.
As we gazed at the gentle night waves and the moon softly illuminating the darkness, Clearwater-senpai spoke up.
"By the way, Elaina, do you have a two-way mirror?"
"I have ones for my parents and my roommate, plus a few spares."
"Since we have the chance, want to exchange contact mirrors?"
"Sure."
With a flick of my wand, I summoned my bag to my side and took out a two-way mirror. The latest models were about the size of a Muggle credit card. Each set consisted of two mirrors, and once you kept one and gave the other to the person you wanted to contact, you could communicate with each other. The price varied, but they usually cost around two or three Galleons.
"Here you go, Clearwater-senpai."
"You can just call me by my name."
"Then, Penelope."
Penelope smiled and said, "Thanks!" as she handed me the gold coins, wrote my name on the back of the mirror with a quill, and tucked it into her bulging wallet.
"…So everyone ends up like this, huh."
I also kept my mirrors tucked into a small pouch like cards, but the more acquaintances you had, the bulkier it became, which was definitely a downside.
"Right?"
Penelope gave a wry smile, pulled out several cards, and fanned them out like playing cards.
"When you have too many, even if someone calls you, you end up thinking, 'Wait, where's this person's mirror?'"
"Yeah, I get that. Finding it is surprisingly annoying."
"If only it worked like Muggle radios or mobile phones, where the called mirror would pop out exactly."
"Like it just whoosh, automatically out of your wallet."
"Exactly."
"..."
"..."
Oh?
At that moment, we were probably thinking the same thing. More often than not, inventions are born when you are having idle conversations or spacing out, and suddenly an idea falls from the sky like a comet.
Or maybe seeing those imaginative, magically crafted dishes earlier had simply put us in that kind of mood.
But we realized it.
We noticed it.
"If we could improve the two-way mirror to work like a Muggle mobile phone?"
Is it just my imagination, or does that sound like it could make a lot of money?
"Hehehe…"
"Elaina, your face is showing something it really shouldn't."
Anyway, there was no time to waste.
Penelope and I took our two-way mirrors out of our wallets, flipped our textbooks over, and tossed ideas back and forth with plenty of "what if this" and "how about that."
**
While we were doing that, Farley-senpai came over from the back, shouting, "I'm finally free!" The moment she saw us, her emerald-green eyes widened.
"…What are you two up to?"
Long story short.
After hearing our idea about making the two-way mirror more convenient, Farley-senpai stared at us blankly.
"Honestly, the idea of keeping a two-way mirror in your wallet is something I'm hearing for the first time."
With an expression that was half impressed and half exasperated, Farley-senpai shrugged and said, "You two really do think differently."
"Well, if there's anything I can help with, just let me know. I'm tired from talking with Marcus, so I'm going to take a break and listen to some music."
Saying that, Farley-senpai walked over to the corner of the room and stood in front of a retro jukebox that had been placed there, gazing at the list of songs it contained while murmuring, "Which one should I pick?"
Then, the very next moment, Penelope suddenly jumped to her feet and shouted.
"That's it!"
Startled by Penelope's unusually loud voice, Farley-senpai and I both turned around.
"Penny?"
"Senpai?"
As we tilted our heads in confusion, Penelope briskly walked up to the jukebox, flipped it open, and exposed its interior.
Inside the jukebox, about a hundred records were arranged vertically in a ring. When you pressed the button corresponding to the desired song title, an arm lifted that record and placed it on the turntable, playing the music.
"Oh."
I suddenly realized it too.
If we embedded multiple two-way mirrors inside a box-shaped casing, called up only the one we wanted, and reflected just that image onto a display like a projector…
"This might actually work…"
I was starting to feel like we could really create an incredibly useful magic item.
And, while I was at it, I also had a strong feeling it would make an absurd amount of money.
"So, what do you think, Farley-senpai?"
When we explained our idea, the beautiful older girl's eyes widened.
"Wait, if your idea is already that concrete, it's basically finished."
"Well, there's still the size issue…"
Yes, size was the problem. Even if you stuffed them into a wallet, about twenty would probably be the limit, and adding a reflection mechanism would make it even bulkier.
Penelope seemed to feel the same way and nodded repeatedly.
"Jemmy, you know, Muggle mobile phones used to be so big you had to carry them on your back…"
"Uh-oh, what's going on, witch…?"
Oh dear…?
What was this sense of déjà vu?
Somehow, I felt like I could already predict how this was going to turn out.
And sure enough…
"Reducio, shrink!"
With a flick of her wand, Farley-senpai caused the jukebox to rapidly shrink, until it was about the size of a wallet.
"See? Once you finish assembling it, you just cast a Shrinking Charm and then something like a Permanent Sticking Charm at the end. Miniaturization is easy enough."
Penelope froze in realization, while Farley-senpai snorted proudly.
"Or you could apply transfiguration like an Extension Charm to make it thinner, or use spatial movement magic like what's used for Floo Powder or Apparition. You could even synchronize it with resonance magic, like the Piertotum Locomotor line of spells."
The ingenuity born from the inconveniences unique to Muggle-borns, combined with the lack of assumptions like "limits" or "unrealistic" that comes from having convenient magic at your disposal.
In other words, when incremental improvements built on existing technology intersect with innovations that fundamentally change the rules of the game, that is when true innovation is born. I found myself explaining it like a history of technological development.
"Still, it would've been nicer to make this in a shabby garage instead of a luxurious cottage."
"Why?"
"Because it sounds more like a success story if you say that even today's world-famous corporations started with just three students in a tiny garage."
"...…""...…"
About two years later, an improved two-way mirror capable of video communication with multiple people, called the "Multifunctional Two-Way Mirror Omni-Mirror," began to spread gradually. An interview article by reporter Rita Skeeter appeared in the Daily Prophet, stating that it all began when just three students started tinkering in a small garage during summer vacation. It caused a huge stir in the British magical world and sparked an entrepreneurial boom.
Among those three witches who started it all, who was the youngest, a strikingly beautiful girl with gray hair?
Yes, it was me.
But setting aside that founding story, this magic item we created on a whim turned out to be far more practical than expected. When we later introduced the prototype we made with our seniors to Daphne and the others, they showed interest, saying, "That sounds kind of fun."
However, when you get carried away, even well-oiled gears can start to slip.
Feeling pleased with myself, I ended up giving prototypes as Christmas presents to Harry, who always complained that he had nothing to do at the Dursleys during summer vacation, and to Saya, who had been feeling depressed, saying things like, "I'll die if I can't talk to Elaina all summer."
"Thanks, Elaina! I'll contact you every day!"
"I can be connected to Elaina twenty-four seven, three hundred sixty-five days a year! Yes!"
Starting a couple of years later, during summer vacation, there was a witch who found herself clutching her head over the relentless flood of calls from those two.
Who was she?
Yes. It was me, of course…
(End of chapter)
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