The Self-Proclaimed Genius

If it was possible, life was even more chaotic with the arrival of Meredith. The insanity started with the ever-shifting nature of Kyle’s one-room cottage.

The cottage was now two stories tall , with the interior having walls dividing the space into rooms. The downstairs was split roughly in half between a dining room and the kitchen, with a small corner saved for a guest bathroom.

Up the new stairs had been moved the original bathroom, now resembling a ‘typical’ bathroom Kyle would recognize. Not only was there still a tub, a shower, and a modern toilet, but there was now a sink and a mirror as well.

The rest of the upstairs was taken by the bedroom, with most of its floorspace taken by sets of dressers containing clothes and what Kyle would’ve guessed in his previous life was two king-sized mattresses pushed together on an even larger reinforced bedframe.

Once again, Kyle suggested ensuring everyone got their own bedroom. He was swiftly ignored.

In front of Kyle’s home he found Meredith, seated and poking at one of his batteries. “Hi hi!” She waved him over. “Sorry I haven’t been more social, I was trying to understand how you did these.”

Kyle joined her on the ground. “What do you think?”

“It’s not bad, especially for a first attempt,” said Meredith. “I’ve seen some versions of this before. It’s usually some crystalized mana attuned to the lightning element, recharging passively over time when it’s not in use. I bet that’s how they do it for some of the things at Castle Zoroman.”

Kyle recalled the neon signs in some of the store displays.

“You’ve got some of them hooked up so that the water flow through the aqueduct charges ‘em up. That’s a step-up from what I normally see when mages dip their toes into this. I bet that’s how the bigger stuff gets charged for the Castle.”

The magic armors. The batteries must’ve been a lot larger than what he was used to building. They’d need that extra capacity to move however much steel or other magical metals were being used to make them.

“These, however?” Meredith pulled out Kyle’s sniper wand and the one cartridge he’d successfully been able to make. “These are interesting. I assume they’re based on concepts from your previous life.”

“Guilty as charged,” said Kyle.

“Genius idea.” She pulled the cartridge onto the wand and aimed at a tree at the edge of the forest. “But I bet the first time you tried using it, you tired yourself out fast. Am I right?”

“Also guilty.”

Meredith fired a magic bolt from the wand, the bolt slamming into a tree branch and disintegrating it. “Decent craftsmanship.” She pulled the cartridge off of the wand. “Ah, that’s how you’re trying to solve the problem with your casts being limited by your stamina.” Her hand glowed pink briefly, infusing the cartridge back with the energy she’d expended. “How many of these have you built?”

“Successfully?” Kyle gestured to the one she was holding.

Meredith considered the cartridge closer. “This is your only one?”

“It took me a lot of tries to find how amount of magic I could store without blowing it up,” said Kyle. “York’s offered to help make more containers. That lets me focus on charging them up.”

That got a cackle out of Meredith. “You’ve thought this through. But you’ve still got the problem where you can’t charge many cartridges at once without losing consciousness and time.”

“You are scarily good at this,” remarked Kyle.

“What can I say, I’m a magical gen-ius!” Meredith sang. “It’s an interesting problem though. You’re using non-elemental mana. In a pinch you can use natural phenomena to charge things that are elementally aligned. But plain arcane?”

Kyle shook his head. “I’m sure there’s an answer. But I don’t think I have time to find a solution.”

Meredith thought about it for a minute and had to agree. “A problem to solve for another day. But between you, Abagail, and moi, I think we can have a couple ready for whenever things kick off. If you’re willing to help me out in another matter, of course.”

-----

Abagail sat under a tree and continued to flip through Meredith’s lost spellbook. She knew she wasn’t likely to find anything as valuable as that information on the Isekai Ritual. But it always paid to spend some time brushing up on magic.

“Hey.”

She looked up to see Kyle walking towards her, waving. Abagail stared at him with a sense of serenity. She couldn’t believe she’d missed him that much. But given she helped spirit away the fiancé of royalty away in the same of saving his hide?

You don’t do that for just ‘some guy’.

“Kyle.” She nodded, raising her flask. “Coming to join me?”

He shook his head. “Sorry. Listen, you know Meredith better than I do.”

“…Regrettably.” She took a short swig from the flask. “Why?”

“She offered her help to speed up making the cartridges for my sniper wand. But she’s asking for a favor in return. Um, when she says –”

Abagail closed the spellbook and held up a finger. She took a much longer swig. “Let me guess. She’s asked for your permission to create a workshop under the house.”

Kyle blinked. “Did you cast a mind-reading spell while I wasn’t looking?”

“No, I know Meredith.” Abagail got onto her feet. “You need to be careful with her. She likes experimenting with all kinds of potions and new spells. Did she ask you to be her guinea pig, too?”

“…She used the term ‘research assistant’.”

Abagail flung the book at Kyle, smacking him in the shoulder. “Of course she does this.”

“I need the help,” Kyle pleaded. “If we work together, then we’ve got all the better a chance for it.”

“Fine.” She picked the spellbook back off the ground. “But she better make this up to us somehow.”

----

Prince Demerius was furious when he received the news.

That wretched little peasant! He thought he could get out from under his thumb!

He stared at the map of his soon-to-be-expanded forest. There were always people like him in his previous life. Jumped up little people who thought their opinions mattered. Who cared about them? If they were important they’d have the wealth or job title to prove it.

“Send the magical armors,” he told his advisor.

“How many, sir.”

“…All of them.”

The advisor paused. “Sir, it’s just one vill- ”

“ALL. OF. THEM! I WANT THAT TOWN BURNT TO THE GROUND! I WANT EVERYONE WHO LIVES THERE DEAD! I WANT EVERYONE WHO EVER KNEW THEM DEAD! I WANT EVERYONE TO KNOW EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY DEFY ME!”

----

In the hills above the village, Kari and Fiona stared at the strange device Meredith had given her.

To be frank, it looked like a y-shaped tree branch painted silver and a small crystal glued to its top. “Do you think this was intended to distract us,” asked Kari, “from paying attention to what Meredith is doing?”

“No, I think that wild goose chases are just fun,” grunted Fiona. The tree branch vibrates softly as she pointed it in a certain direction. “We don’t have a lot of time left before the Prince shows up, why would she have us waste it up here?”

The vibrations grew stronger as they wandered in that direction, until the crystal was softly flashing with a soft yellow light.

“I believe she told us to plunge the device into the ground when that happened.”

Fiona rolled her eyes and followed Kari’s command.

A Y-shaped stick now was stuck in the ground.

“This was a waste of time. That conniving little –”

The earth began to undulate and ripple around where the stick had been planted, steam erupting around it as the waves grew more intense and frequent. It was enough to send both women flying as steam and entire sections of the ground went flying everywhere, long objects sprouting out of the ground without warning.

Kari and Fiona slowly got back up as things calmed down, rocks raining down from above. Where the stick had been moments before, there was now a natural hot spring.