Chapter 14 - The Great Storage ── Come to think of it, it's a little noisy around here.

–Bang!

After he was done stuffing himself with food, Alfie started speaking again.

“The word would have gotten around if you had brought a wild bear to the Hunters Association, but I haven’t heard of anything like that so far. Just how did you cash it in anyway?”

“They said that the branch in our hometown wouldn’t be able to make the full payment. So I brought it along to the main branch in the capital.”

“But a mature wild bear must be over 4 meters tall, right? You couldn’t have just carried that thing all the way to the capital, did you?”

“I didn’t just catch one big animal, there was more. It’s practically impossible to carry them all on my back.”

“…Are you trying to imply that you can carry it if it’s just one?”

I pulled out the necklace that was tucked under my uniform. Normally, that wasn’t something I would carelessly choose to show off but since this is Alfie, there wouldn’t be any problems. Alfie wasn’t the type of person who would thoughtlessly gossip around about things.

–Bang, Bang!

“Alfie, do you know what this is?”

“… Is that some kind of magic tool¹?”

“An acquaintance of mine gave me this, it’s a rare magic tool.”

It had a simple design with a green gemstone surrounded by a blue metallic base. Suddenly, a small light flashed on the table before disappearing soon after, and a wooden box appeared in its place.

I opened the lid of the box and found some cookies inside.

Alfie nodded upon realization.

“I see, so it’s a spatial storage?”

“…Well it’s not that surprising anymore, but this is a fairly rare item in its own right.”

“Even though it is kind of rare, it’s not that rare. Oh I’ll take one of these.”

Alfie picked one of the cookies from the box and popped it into his mouth. Feeling rather disappointed by his reaction, I also threw a cookie into my mouth. Well, at least this tastes pretty good.

–Dong, Dong, Bang!

This necklace was something I had received from granny Great Sage as a parting gift. By its outer appearance, it seemed as if it was made by a skilled craftsman from long ago. It may seem like an ordinary item that could be held on top of your palm, but it actually held more storage space than a large warehouse.

The stored items could be retrieved at any time. And the time inside the storage is frozen from the moment an item is stored inside. Therefore, it could even preserve the freshness of the food items that are stored in.

But of course, not everything could be stored. There were some restrictions on its functionality.

First– Living items or existences that contain life cannot be stored inside.

Second– Items worn by others cannot be stored inside.

Third– Objects that are fixed to the ground cannot be stored inside.

Fourth– The storage box cannot be used by anyone other than its owner.

-Bang, Bang, Dudududun!

“This an item coveted by both merchants and hunters.”

“And thanks to this, I could easily take all the stuff I wanted to sell to the Hunters Association in the capital. Hoi! [Storage]”

I put the lid back on top of the box and placed it in my hand while muttering an incantation. Soon afterwards, a light flashed again and the box disappeared from our line of sight, as if it was absorbed back onto the necklace that lay on top of my chest.

-Dududududun! Dududududun!

“… Hey Resse.”

“It’s starting to get a little annoying. All this noise…”

We both turned towards a certain direction. A blue haired student stood outside the barrier that I had casted earlier. He seemed to be rather flushed as he was breathing heavily with his shoulders heaving up and down.

“Could this be the person you swore to bite the head off of?”

“…Ah yes, it really is that handsome weirdo, who was trying to interrupt me before.”

I turned and clapped my hands at him.

“————!!”

The blue haired boy seemed to be enraged by my gesture as he was shouting something unintelligible. Unfortunately for him, I couldn’t hear anything because the barrier was soundproofed. Soon after, he started casting magic, disregarding the fact that we were still inside the cafeteria.

A [Water Bullet] was released. It was an elementary level offensive-type magic. Whatever type of an attribute it may be, compressing mana into the shape of a bullet and deploying it falls into the category of beginner level magic.

Usually, one magic circle could only fire one bullet. However, the blue haired boy managed to deploy multiple projectiles from his magic circle.

— Gagagagagagagaga!

The constant noises from before originated from those water bullets continuously colliding against my barrier. The first water bullet suddenly came flying at us around the time when Alfie spat out his soup earlier. It was at that time when I had expanded the barrier. And from then till now, the barrier still remained intact.

“Why can’t he just give up.”

“I guess it has something to do with the noble’s pride that makes it harder for them to back down. Take a look around, Reese.”

I did as I was told. Upon surveying our surroundings, I couldn’t help but notice that we were the only people who remained seated in this area.

All the other students that sat nearby had already taken refuge in separate places to avoid getting caught up in the blue haired boy’s magic.

“Well isn’t this very conspicuous. Hey Alfie, you know you didn’t have to sit here with me.”

“I already gave up on trying not to do that long ago.”

He’s still such a good fella, isn’t he?

“Never mind that, just take care of your own business. That dude is about to cry, you know.”

The blue haired student still stood outside the barrier as he kept shooting magic from the other side with a bright red, flushed expression on his face. And as Alfie said, he did seem as if he was about to burst into tears at any moment now.

Since it couldn’t be helped, the barrier was dismantled right at the moment when a water bullet was interrupted.

“So, what do you want?”

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”

Thus, I was met with a loud shout accompanied by another magic projectile. The blood seemed to be rushing all the way up to the top of his head, leaving none behind for his ears to function.

“Alfie.”

“Good grief, seriously… [Wind Bullet]”

Alfie sighed as he interpreted my intentions and cast a [Wind Bullet] immediately afterwards. Although he started projecting his magic much later than the blue haired boy, Alfie still managed to cast it faster than him. As expected of a genius.

“[Water Barra–] geh! Huh!?”

The wind projectile with reduced power hit the blue haired boy on the forehead just as he was about to release his magic. The projection of the magic circle was interrupted with a strange sound. The blue haired boy held his hands on his forehead and crouched down in pain.

“…Did it hit a weak spot?”

“I just wanted to get it over with.”

Besides the place where Alfie and I sat, the whole area around us was completely submerged in water thanks to the water bullets that splashed off of the barrier that was surrounding us before.

“… Should we just run away?”

“Forget it. It’s too late.”

My best friend said while pointing in a certain direction. There were several teachers rushing towards us from that point.

That was certainly a nostalgic scene. I used to get chased around by teachers even back at the old school in my hometown.