Arika, First Time Casting Magic

“An internet— no, a Comanet cult?”

“Yes. It doesn’t sound that threatening and more like a scam, but it’s the least of the clues I could get regarding our situation…”

Elder nodded, as he showed me some prints he seemingly got from the library all while we’re still in Rui’s back on our way back to stop the twins. He only gave me one sheet of the print, but just a glance of them gave me a sense of surreal nostalgia– they really feel like the old, 2000ish vibe of the internet in my own world. It’s hard to take it seriously when I put it like that, but it seems like what it contains is the one that mattered the most.

After all, the title and subtitle of the magically printed Comanet site that I could read for some unknown reason felt threatening to some extent, with what I knew of the world so far.

[ The Temple of Mage Heroes, a place where we seek the truth and guidance of the Blessed Ones. ]

The format of the print made the columns’ placement felt a little confusing to read aside from the title, and I wondered if it’s just Elder being bad with these kinds of technology or that the magic printing is just not working well. One thing did catch my eyes, though. A very obvious site hit number with quite of thousands and the words of;

[ We are chosen people who gained the gospel of Mage Hero Angelica via a dream. There, she told us that one day, a very special Blessed One that looked like her would bless us with her presence and guide us through to gain the Goddess’ Blessing. ]

“What does that even mean?!”

I would’ve read through more to gain more clues, but Rui stopped in front of Elder’s house, arriving at last. It seems like there weren't any explosions anymore, and that the twins had resorted to much more childish choice of banter with them pinching each others’ ears.

“I touched your ears first! I won, little brother!”
“Shut up! It was your illusion clone who did it, and now I touched the real you– I’m the winner, Rana, you ____ of a little sister!”

As both me and Elder stepped down from Rui’s back, I could hear Elder sigh loudly.

“I’m glad they didn’t destroy the gate barrier device this time, at the very least. Though I still need to check.” said Elder, which explains why his house still stands strong despite the explosions. Though it also worriedly implies that these twins sometimes would destroy the house, which made me imagine what Elder had to go through every time and it wasn’t a pleasant thought.

I shrugged my shoulders, as the twins hadn’t stopped arguing yet Elder ran to the house’s gate to check out the magic barriers just in case. Maybe I should help Elder a little with this and give him a better impression of myself.

“You two are such kids…. Does it matter who’s the little sibling and who’s the older sibling here? You’re twins, so you two are born at the same time at the end—”

“Shut up if you don’t understand! This is our Elf culture!”

Rana and Rama stared at me fiercely. It seems like I managed to piss both off at the same time, that I just sighed.

“Okay, I don’t understand. I am a newcomer to this world, anyway, so I will have no comment on that.” I rolled my eyes, as I realized that Elder had finished his checks and returned back to the scene. “Good timing, Elder. Stop them, or they’d cause explosions again.”

“Even if you didn’t tell me, I would.” Elder waved his hands, spawning his magic wand. I wondered what kind of magic the Elder would have, judging from how every Elves had their own magic from what I knew.

The twins then comically fell and flattened to the ground as if they were American cartoon rabbits or some sort. I blinked in confusion as I turned to Elder.

“What happened?!”

“It’s my magic– the kind of Modification Magic. A very useful magic with various ranges of use if one knows how to master it, and since I do, I use it to manipulate the gravity around those twin fools.”

Elder explained calmly, as I could hear Rui yawning in meows as a background sound.

“I… I see, so it’s gravity modification. Sounds useful...” I nodded, as the twins’ yelling to each other got smoldered by the gravity around them. “Oh right! Since I’m a Blessed One, I could learn it too, right?”

“Of course, Arika. You could. In fact, you should learn them as soon as possible, so you shall be able to defend yourself had these twins done anything like this when I couldn’t help you.” Elder smiled as he patted my head. It pleases me somehow that I blushed, but I had to focus. It seems like the twins had stopped fighting, at any case, so I thought to just let them go for now. Maybe it’ll be a good time to see what I can do as an incarnation of a ‘Mage Hero’.

I waved my hands, and suddenly a large magic staff appeared on my hand. Holding it with my two hands, I waved it and thought of helping the twins.

Rana and Rama suddenly stopped being flattened on the ground and ended up floating on the sky instead. I blinked confusedly, as the Elder stared at me in awe.

“You ___?! Let us go!”

“O— Okay sure, Rama! Please wait!”

“W—Wait, Lady Arika, we’re already too high up! You should be careful—”

I waved my staff again and the two would have been really flattened to the ground on a much more familiar gravity to them had it not been for Rui who caught them on its fur. What a good boy– wait, to think of it, is Rui a girl kitty or a boy kitty? I should remember to ask the twins later.

“I guess it should’ve been expected since you inherit the name Angelica… but your magic is no joke that you could just do that without training.” said Elder, nodding proudly that I couldn’t help but sneak a happy little giggle. One that obviously disgusts Rama who gets himself out of Rui’s furs.

“Ugh. Here she goes again.”

“Well, well. It can’t be helped. Are you jealous of Elder, Rama? Lady Arika’s a beautiful girl, anyway~”

“What—?! There’s no way! Yuck!”

I can’t even feel anything close to offended at Rama pointing his tongue out. To me, he’s felt like a kid, no matter what age he is.

“Ahem. Rama, Rana. Hear this out. There are a few things to talk to you two about. First, we messed up, and someone saw Arika. It won’t take long before it’ll become the new talk of our town, if not causing chaos. Second is… Does anyone here know anything about The Temple of Mage Heroes? Because they seem to have a clue on our situation.”

“Ah, that popular scam-looking cult? I got letters from them, but I threw them out.” Rama sighed. “They were interested in Rui.”

“Right, is Rui a boy kitty or a girl kitty?” I spoke out loud about what's bothering me before I could even think about how silly it is.

“Rui’s a boy. I think— wait, it’s not the time for that!” Rama sighed as he scratched his head. “You sure you wanna deal with them, Elder? It took me years of ignoring letters from them to stop, anyway. They’re just that annoying…”

“Right… It was so annoying that they stalked us often too….” Rana said in agreement. “But why were they so interested in Rui, anyway? I forgot~”

“There’s a belief among them that the Mage Hero is the one who gave Cheshires to chosen people.” Rama huffed. “I don’t get it, even though it is a little mysterious that Cheshires just one day came to be a magical familiar to some people. We have no recorded data of such kind of animals before…”

Hearing those words, my eyes widened in surprise.

“You guys… didn't have any kind of feline before Cheshires happened?” I would’ve added that they’re missing out so much in life, but I don’t think that’s appropriate for the moment. They’re trying to solve some clues to my existence in this world, anyway, wouldn’t it be rude if I just spout anything dumb again— yeah, I realize I already did by that kitty gender question earlier. Not like it would make things better, I know.

“Yeah. They’re kind of mysterious and uncommon, even to us…” Rana chuckled. “One day, Rama had a strange dream and he ended up having a baby Cheshire now known to us as Rui next to him sleeping when he woke up…. I seriously thought he gave birth to him at one point…..”

“Uwa… I would have thought of the same too in that situation….” I noted, and Rama’s disgusted face spoke louder than words.

“Stop it, you gross girls with wild imaginations! More than that, what do you need from that cult, anyway, Elder? What kind of clues did they have?” Rama tried to switch our attention to things that are more important, as he turned to Elder.

“It’s nothing confirmed, but they do believe that the strange dreams they had are related to Mage Hero Angelica. They even predict that someone like Arika will come to this world on their Comanet site….”

Elder handed the prints he had to show the twins as well as for me to read even more carefully. As we tried to do so, we heard knocking on the door. Elder sighed.

“You three, stay hidden there.” Elder commanded as he pointed on the dinner table. “Rana, prepare some Distraction Magic to get Arika hidden. Rama, stay on guard to protect Arika, just in case things get rowdy.”

“Aye aye, Sir!”

“Yeah, I’d rather have that role than having to deal with that cult….”

I gulped as Rama grabbed me close to him as we hid behind a table. Even when he felt like a swearing teenage kid to me most of the time, at that close moment he felt like a protective older man to me.

Thus, Elder opened the door…