‘The guide book the Wandering Merchant gave me yesterday was definitely a normal-grade one… So why did it transform into Mikaela’s guide book?’
‘Hmm… Given that this world functions as a game, perhaps it’s merely an accidental bug that has surfaced…’
‘It will likely revert to a normal-grade guide book soon enough. I should simply leave it untouched, for what if examining it now leads to unforeseen complications later?’
‘I ought to consult the Wandering Merchant, as she’s the only one I know who understands the intricacies of this game’s system.’
‘This certainly makes the Wandering Merchant seem like some kind of auxiliary figure, doesn’t it?’
‘In a sense, she is indeed a helper, isn’t she? After all, she was the one who saved my life.’
“Sigh, I don’t know. What time is it now…?”
“Four PM…? I slept for an incredibly long time, didn’t I?”
“Given how long I’ve been asleep, the children are bound to come crashing in, wondering if I’ve perished, aren’t they?”
-Bang!
“…At the very least, open the door instead of breaking it down. You know I don’t lock it.”
“Ah… Yes…”
“We’re sorry…”
‘Why do my ominous premonitions invariably prove true? Just as I expected, Tokkaengi and Liqueur had burst through the door, shattering it in the process.’
‘Granted, I had locked the door yesterday out of concern the children might enter, so their breaking it down then was somewhat understandable.’
“But today, I didn’t even lock the door, so why did they break it down?”
‘Perhaps I truly ought to scold them thoroughly at some point.’
‘…But it’s only been a day, and the door is perfectly fine?’
‘What on earth is the principle behind this? I’ll have to experiment with it later.’
‘…But what if the house itself disappears while I’m experimenting?’
‘No, let’s not experiment after all.’
‘If I mess up, the house itself could disappear, couldn’t it? I don’t want to be homeless.’
“Summoner, what are you thinking so deeply about…?”
“Oh, I was just wondering why the door was fixed in a single day…”
“The door? Oh, you’re right! I distinctly remember it being broken yesterday, but it’s fixed in just one day?”
‘From their reactions, it doesn’t seem like the kids fixed it… Did the Wandering Merchant fix it before leaving?’
‘I suppose it doesn’t really matter who fixed it…’
“So, what brings you here today?”
“Summoner, we hadn’t heard from you at all, so we were worried something might have happened…”
“Ah, I was just sleeping until now. Sorry for making you worry.”
‘It’s understandable, of course, that if a sick person remains silent, others would naturally fear the worst.’
‘However, this was simply beyond my control.’
‘I was just sleeping, so I had no way to contact anyone, did I?’
“The Summoner falls into a long sleep when she’s sick… I should remember that…”
“Huh? Why on earth would you want to know something so useless?”
“What if the Summoner gets sick again later? We need to know in advance to prevent it.”
“No… You should assume I won’t get sick in the first place…”
‘Why on earth does Tokkaengi want to remember such strange things? Even I have never slept this long when sick before.’
“Anyway, I’m perfectly fine now, so don’t worry. I’ll tell the others too. You can go back now.”
‘For now, I should send Tokkaengi and Liqueur back. I have a lot to sort out in my thoughts by myself.’
“You’re really okay, right?”
“Shouldn’t we keep an eye on you a little longer?”
“I’m fine, perfectly energetic. So stop worrying and go play. Understood?”
“Yes, if anything happens, you must contact us immediately, okay?”
“We’ll come right away if we get your call, so promise to let us know.”
“Alright, alright. If anything happens, I’ll contact you right away.”
‘Having sent the children away, I sat down in a chair and began to gather my thoughts.’
‘First, I was laid up with a cold yesterday… and the Wandering Merchant gave me a normal guide book for free…’
‘Now that I think about it, I recall seeing a post on the community forum titled [It seems a Demon King/Archangel Guide Book event probabilistically occurs the day after the Wandering Merchant provides a normal-grade guide book].’
‘To summarize the content of that post roughly…’
‘According to the analysis presented in the post, a common thread among those who acquired either a Demon King or Archangel Guide Book was that they had purchased a normal-grade or rare-grade guide book from the Wandering Merchant. Specifically, those who bought a normal-grade guide book received an Archangel Guide Book, while those who purchased a rare-grade guide book obtained a Demon King Guide Book.’
‘That was the gist of it.’
‘…At the time, there wasn’t much supporting data, and the precise probability remained unknown, not to mention contradictory instances led many to dismiss it as false. Yet, reflecting on it now, I wonder if that theory might actually hold true.’
‘I’ll ask the Wandering Merchant about this when she arrives.’
“Next… Oh, I should go check on Cat-Dog and Aengmu.”
‘It’s already the third day since I built a home for Cat-Dog and Aengmu.’
‘They haven’t forgotten my face, have they…?’
‘Driven by a faint, unsettling worry, I quickly stepped over the remnants of the shattered door and emerged outside, intent on finding Cat-Dog and Aengmu, only to be met by…’
“Summoner!! You said you were sick!! I missed you!!!”
‘A girl, half-cat and half-dog, hugged me the moment she saw me.’
“Huh? Uh… Are you, by any chance, Cat-Dog…?”
“That’s right!!”
‘I asked if she was Cat-Dog just in case, and she confirmed it, hugging me even tighter.’
‘Seeing Cat-Dog’s reaction, it seems she hasn’t forgotten my face. That’s a relief.’
“Summoner! Summoner! I finally found you!”
“You’re… Aengmu…?”
“Aengmu! I’m Aengmu!”
‘While I was being hugged by Cat-Dog, Aengmu flew all the way to my house.’
‘No, Aengmu, how long has it been since you became human, and you’re already flying so well…?’
‘If she’s this good, it might even be okay to ask her to carry me instead of Phoenix…?’
‘No, Aengmu might not be able to handle it if I ask her.’
‘The very concept of a parrot as a mount gives me pause.’
‘Would a game where you ride parrots even exist in this world?’
‘…Of course, there is a summoner here who rides a phoenix.’
‘And that summoner is me.’
‘But is it really right to say I ride Phoenix? It feels more like I’m being dragged along by Phoenix, doesn’t it…?’
‘Phoenix’s flight speed is so fast it’s terrifying.’
‘Still, being taken to my desired destination at high speed is good… as long as I don’t faint, that is.’
“Summoner! Let’s go play!!”
“Uh, huh? Cat-Dog, let’s calm down for a moment, shall we…?”
“Cat-Dog, don’t you know I was a patient until yesterday? Didn’t you worry about me being sick the moment you saw me?”
“But to immediately say ‘let’s go play’ is a bit much, isn’t it…?”
“Chirp! Summoner was sick! Let’s play next time!”
“Waaah… I want to play together…”
“Chirp! Health comes first! Let’s play by ourselves today!”
“Okay! Let’s play!”
‘It’s a relief that Aengmu seems to be taking good care of our Cat-Dog.’
‘I’ll buy you some delicious birdseed later.’
“Then… what should I do now…?”
‘For now, I probably don’t have much to do today.’
‘Given that the children would surely fuss and prevent me from working if they saw me, what could I possibly accomplish?’
‘Even so, I don’t feel sleepy enough to just lie back down in bed.’
“Games? The games I used to play can’t be played in this world, can they?”
“Haa, there’s truly nothing to do today…”
“…What exactly happened today?”
“Hmm? Oh, it’s the Wandering Merchant. You came at just the right time. Are you free today?”
“Me? Ah… Well, I suppose you could say I’m free, if I had to put it that way?”
“What kind of answer is that…? Anyway, you have time, right? Can you talk with me for a bit?”
“Alright. Might I trouble you for a cup of tea?”
“Tea? Wait a moment. I think there was a teabag on the shelf, didn’t there? I don’t know if it’ll suit your taste, but I’ll bring it out right away.”
‘I took out a teabag from the shelf, put it in the kettle, and began to boil water.’
“The teacups… Here they are.”
‘I took out two teacups, went to the table, gave one to the Wandering Merchant, and placed the other at my seat.’
‘Then, I brought the vigorously boiling kettle and poured tea into the cups.’
“Hmm… The aroma is quite pleasant. I’ll enjoy it.”
“Good, I hope it suits your taste.”
‘The room was filled with the soft ‘slurp’ of tea being sipped and swallowed.’
“It’s quite good. So, what is it you wished to discuss?”
“Ah, it’s about this. The normal-grade guide book you left yesterday changed into Mikaela’s guide book.”
“Oh my, really? But why haven’t you read it yet?”
“I was worried it might be a bug. You know what happened, don’t you?”
“Me? A bug?”
“…It’s not a bug?”
“No, that couldn’t possibly be a bug. It’s quite common for normal-grade or rare-grade guide books to transform into that.”
‘…It’s normal for it to change? Really?’
“Well, in any case, it’s certainly not a bug or an error, so don’t worry. If anything, it’s a good thing!”
“Then… I can read it without worry?”
“Yes, there’s no problem at all, so feel free to read it.”
“Ah, before I read it, while I was sleeping yesterday, a guy named Yeomra, who called himself the Demon King, and Gabriel, who called himself the Archangel, appeared. What on earth were they?”
“…Yeomra and Gabriel appeared? In a dream?”
“Huh? A dream… should I call it that…? It was a very realistic dream, though.”
“Hmm… It’s probably nothing, right…?”
“You definitely know something, don’t you?”
‘It seems clear that there’s something to that dream.’
“I don’t know for sure either, but I suspect those two might be dummy data.”
“…Dummy data?”
“Actually, this game was initially conceived as a primary RPG. However, plans went awry, leading to its transformation into a casual game. I suspect those two might be remnants from its RPG development phase. Even its original title was different from ‘Everyone’s Summoner’.”
‘So ‘Everyone’s Summoner’ was originally a game being developed as an RPG… But how did the genre change so completely?’
“There were rumors that the system development of the company developing this game at the time was significantly behind. I don’t know the details, so I can’t say much…”
“No, it’s fine even if you just tell me that much.”
‘Because even if I knew the full story, it probably wouldn’t be of much help to me anyway.’
