Side: Amahashi Kakeru

That Sunday, we'd come out to an athletic park in town.

There were people out for a morning walk, and I could see kids playing soccer.

"Well now, so there are places like this."

Pricia's expression brightened in an instant. She couldn't use magic, but ordinary exercise and some sparring under restrictions—that much she could manage.

The rental house where we were living had a yard and a garage on the property. I'd told her she was welcome to train within the grounds. But she'd held back, since nobody in the neighborhood did any training around their homes.

"Lovely weather. I'll watch from over there."

So Noctia was just spectating. I'd figured as much the moment she brought along the laptop. She'd probably just come to see what an athletic park was like. Filia seemed to be there to move her body a little rather than for any serious workout, too.

"Kakeru, let's go!"

Pricia had loosened up with some stretching and started to run. It had been a while since I'd seen her looking this cheerful.

Once my level had climbed past a certain point, the one who'd put me through combat training was Pricia. That had been our daily routine, the two of us.

But she was fast. Her Skills and physical ability were restricted by the magic item, and the mana density here meant her body shouldn't reach other-world levels—yet she was running at the speed of an athlete from this world.

This was bad. I might even lose to Sanctina in physical ability, let alone Pricia.

"Hehe, this takes me back to the early days."

After about thirty minutes of running mixed in with the people jogging around the park, Sanctina and I were worn out, but Pricia, if anything, had more energy than before.

"I'm not that much of an indoor type… It's just that I was pathetically useless at everything back then."

My family home was out in the countryside, after all. Grandpa and Grandma were the outdoorsy type, so I should have spent a fair amount of time outside.

Right after I'd been summoned over there, I was made to realize just how powerless I was.

Even then I couldn't beat Pricia—who'd been an actual soldier—even with the restrictions on. Set aside levels and Skills, and my raw ability was still nowhere near enough.

"A little sparring would be fine too, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, we've got martial arts over here as well."

"Then I'll have you for my partner."

This was the one thing Sanctina and Filia couldn't do. Noctia probably could, but—well, the thing was, we still didn't fully know what she was capable of.

I was the only one who could do it!

But maybe because she hadn't trained since coming over here, Pricia's intensity was something else. Maybe it was because the magic item's restrictions meant she didn't have to worry about being seen.

"Whoa! Ngh! Hold on a sec!"

"There's no 'hold on' here!"

We started sparring, like she was checking my current condition, but Pricia had never been the type to hold back. Looking like she was having fun, she got more and more serious, and I was driven back the whole time.

"Too slow!"

She was lively, all right. A great expression on her face. Not that I had the spare attention to enjoy looking at it.

"Hah… hah…"

My body wouldn't move the way I'd expected. The sensation from when I'd been fighting Noctia was too different from how my body moved at the time, and it left me caught somewhere in between.

"Moving really does feel good."

Not as much as me, but Pricia had apparently gotten serious enough to leave her breathing ragged too. Still, she had such a refreshed look on her face.

She really did love moving her body.

Side: Filia

I felt relieved to see Pricia's expression change. What she'd needed was to move in earnest.

I'd sensed that days spent quietly, doing nothing but thinking, didn't suit her, but I hadn't imagined it would make this much of a difference.

Sanctina and I called it a day after a moderate amount, but Pricia still didn't seem to have moved her body enough; after a short rest she set off running again alongside Kakeru.

She looked to be having enough fun that it made me a little envious.

"The human race here does all sorts of interesting things. It seems perfectly normal for them to enjoy leisure and recreation in their daily lives, and they even compete in the form of something called sports."

While I was sitting on a bench watching Kakeru and Pricia, Noctia showed me something interesting.

"What are they doing here?"

"It seems to be recreation. There's quite a variety."

So this world had something called sports. There were no monsters, so there was no fighting, but I'd thought they'd be moving their bodies somehow or other.

Apparently there was a sport called tennis, where you hit a round ball, and women played it often. Pricia might enjoy that one.

"There's this kind, too."

"…Is this underwear in this world?"

What Noctia showed me next was footage of women out by the water, wearing what looked like underwear. Sanctina watched a little bashfully, but the women in the recorded image showed no embarrassment at all.

"It seems not. They're called swimsuits—clothes for going into the water. People apparently swim and play in them. I suppose it's recreation that doubles as swimming practice?"

Swimming practice in clothing that seemed designed to entice the opposite sex? Was the recreational aspect the stronger one? With no monsters around, surely they wouldn't be assuming combat underwater.

In a peaceful world, there would be those who played in the sea—that much was clear. Even in that other world, there were the occasional royals and nobles of the human race who went boating.

"It's a little embarrassing."

"You'll get used to it soon enough. We'll have Kakeru take us one of these days."

Sanctina was bashful, perhaps unable to picture it, but Noctia was as full of curiosity as ever. Wanting to see everything with one's own eyes—that might be a quality worth imitating.

"By the way, does it seem like there are any dungeons?"

"Nothing on that front at all. I get the feeling I'd find one if I searched in earnest, but even if I did, I couldn't go in unless it were somewhere out of the way. This country seems to be quite particular about who owns the land."

As I'd thought, with us avoiding the use of magic too, there was only so much we could do. As long as dungeons existed, it wouldn't be strange for there to be members of the human race here who could use magic.

Among high-ranking mages, some could detect other mages. It wouldn't be a wise move to draw danger toward ourselves.

"There's no rush—we can wait until we've gotten a proper read on the dungeons and the people in power here."

True enough. There was no reason to act in a hurry right then.

While all that was going on, Pricia and Kakeru finally seemed to be catching their breath.

"This state of things isn't so bad either."

Hehe. Pricia had finally settled down. That was one weight off my mind.