Witch Almaria

"Naoto-san, regarding the request I sent to Almaria-sama the other day, a reply just came from her."

"Oh? What does it say?"

"'I'll be heading over now,' she said."

"Eh."

Shururu… ta.

In the next moment, the Witch Almaria appeared in our room.

A face that closely resembled Yuria's, and a figure that did too. A magnificent, peerless beauty.

Since she was around Pamela-san's generation, she had to be over 100 years old, but she didn't look it at all. If someone told me she was Yuria's older sister by a year, I'd have accepted it without question.

"It's been a while since that day, Naoto-san. I wasn't able to greet you properly back then… Congratulations on your splendid victory."

Almaria greeted me with a gentle smile.

"N-no, the pleasure is mine.

"I've heard you're busy day to day… Are you able to stay a while today?"

"Fufufu… Well now, I wonder what to do."

Almaria laughed mischievously.

Ah… she'd probably tossed her work aside to come here despite all sorts of things piling up.

What a playful person. Truly Yuria's mother.

"… Mother."

Yuria poked her face out, looking resigned.

"Yuria. Have you been well?"

"Yes, I've been well."

Haa, Yuria sighed with a bad attitude. Almaria, however, didn't seem put off in the slightest; if anything, she looked downright happy.

"Yuria has been a tremendous help to us all. Truly, thank you."

I couldn't very well drop polite language with someone so eminent.

"No, no, my unworthy daughter. Please continue to dote on her for many years to come."

"Yes, of course."

Almaria-san and I bowed our heads back and forth at each other.

"Geez… cut it out, both of you, Mother and Naoto…"

Yuria looked troubled, but since she understood her position as the one making a request of her mother, she couldn't complain too forcefully.

"Um… since I have the rare chance of meeting you, Almaria-san, there's a lot I'd like to ask, but…

"Is that all right? As an NPC, you can't take sides with a particular PC, or anything like that…?"

"My apologies, but yes, there are indeed such restrictions.

"However, Naoto-san cleared the game I constructed.

"As a magician, that is an achievement worthy of reward.

"Furthermore, even though it was at Eclair-sama's suggestion, I committed one act of cheating, so as an apology I had been thinking I needed to grant you a reward at some point."

"Cheating?"

"Sending you, Naoto-san, to the center of the field.

"Basically, the placement was distributed across the map in the order people passed through the gate… but you alone, Naoto-san, were set up to be placed at the center of the field no matter in what order you went through.

"… At Eclair-sama's strong request, since Naoto-san's location would become the main battlefield.

"I thought that as long as I distributed allies and enemies equally around you it wouldn't qualify as cheating, but…

"In the end, I felt it went against the principle of fairness."

"No, I don't really think it was anything like that…"

Ah, so being placed at the center wasn't a coincidence after all.

"And so, I'm truly sorry.

"If you have anything you'd like to ask, I'll answer as much as I can.

"Also, regarding class change and skill change, I'll cooperate to whatever extent your funds allow.

"… However, please understand that no discounts on the costs are possible whatsoever."

"Cheapskate."

Yuria immediately shot back at Almaria's statement.

"Geez… unlike item prices, you should know perfectly well that class change and skill change costs aren't subject to discounts."

"Hmph, cheap-skate."

Yuria was sulking about something. She was the very picture of a daughter in her rebellious phase, and rather charming for it.

"Then a few questions. Is it correct that Almaria-san's class is 'Witch'?"

"Yes, that's right."

"In games I know, Witch isn't a particularly high-ranking class…

"Witch is more like the female version of Sorcerer, or so."

"That comes down to this world's naming rules."

The one who answered was Lyuka.

"I previously explained that 'Princess' is the highest-ranking title.

"There are also titles that apply to a rank as a whole.

"For example, 'God.' Basically, this title indicates an Ultimate Job.

"Fire User < Fire Spirit < Fire God

"is the rank progression, as I'm sure you know.

"And then… the title of 'Female,' actually, is a top-tier title that even surpasses God."

"Hoh."

"It's natural for a Garumon to be female. And yet, daring to emphasize 'Female' makes for an exceptionally special title.

"There are exceptions like 'Shrine Maiden,' but jobs with 'Female' attached can even be Legendary Jobs.

"In an easy-to-understand example, just as 'Goddess' outranks 'God.'

"'Holy Maiden' and 'Witch' are famous Legendary Jobs.

"S-Class number 1 Satoru's Holy Maiden Karen is one of only two Holy Maidens in the world. And Witch Almaria is currently the only Witch in the world."

Lyuka finished explaining.

"As expected of Lyuka-chan. That was a beautifully flowing explanation."

"You honor me."

"Only two Holy Maidens? She wasn't listed in the Garumon Yearbook, though…"

"That's because she's retired from active duty. Almaria-sama's name shouldn't have been listed either."

"Oh my, she shows up on TV and the like, doesn't she? I don't think there's any need to hide it…"

"No, the two of you might meet dramatically at some opportunity. I don't think it's necessary to put unnecessary prior information in his head."

"I see, well, if you think so, Lyuka-chan, I'll keep it secret too."

So apparently the other Holy Maiden was being kept under wraps because we might meet her somewhere. Though in Satoru's Karen's case, I only knew about her one-sidedly from the Garumon Yearbook; I'd never actually met her either.

… Wait, by that rule…

"Female Warrior, Female Knight, and so on… names of perfectly ordinary, common jobs in our world… are Legendary Jobs in this world?"

"It's possible. I don't currently know of anyone with the class of Female Knight, though."

"Ugh… that's kind of not cool though…"

"Oh my, then is Witch not cool either?"

"No, Witch works. In our world they can be perfectly ordinary common jobs, or beings that lead the world to ruin; the range is huge. So that's fine.

"But Female Knight isn't generally a being that saves the world…"

I decided to keep quiet about how, back home, the term had basically become synonymous with eroticism.

"Well, Female Knight too, ultimately, comes down to the system's auto-translation, so if that's how you think of it, Naoto-san, it ought to auto-translate in a fitting way. I think you can wait for that with anticipation."

"I see…"

In that case, I'd look forward to the day.

"On that note, you can't become a Witch through a class change skill, right? Just how does one become a Witch?"

I went ahead and asked.

"Fufufu, that, I can't tell you. To begin with, no method exists. It depends on the person. The way I became a Witch and the way Yuria will become a Witch will surely be different. As for Yuria… I wonder what method she'll use to become a Witch."

Almaria-san smiled as she said it.

… All right, so even fairly self-serving questions wouldn't make her angry.

I made a mental note of that.

It wasn't like I'd expected an answer along the lines of, "Just do this and you can become one."

If the world's only Legendary Job were that easy to obtain, no one would suffer for it.

Even if there were a method, it'd probably be some absurd demand like, "Go into a dragon's nest alone and hunt 100 dragons."

"Sorry, that's fine then.

"Likewise, what about methods for promoting skills…?"

"That, too, isn't well understood.

"There's the theory that frequent use is important, but skills you don't normally use will sometimes suddenly promote, and naturally there are also cases of suddenly learning a powerful skill that has no similar precedent.

"In the end, it's not well understood."

Almaria-san gave a wry smile.

"Useless."

Yuria threw out her usual snark.

"Geez… isn't training fun precisely because of the randomness, because you can't see what's coming?"

"I sympathize with that. When you suddenly learn a powerful skill you've never seen, your spirits soar."

"Fufufu. That's right. I'd be glad if you enjoy this world's system."

Almaria-san smiled at my reply.

"Well then, shall we finally try out class change and skill change?"

"Lyuka, Yuria. Could you call Griera and Ursula too?"

"Oh my, you're calling Ursula too?"

"Yeah, since this is such a rare opportunity, if Ursula can make use of it, I'd like her to."

And so we brought Ursula and Griera in as well, and the discussion began.

However…

"Even if you say that, class change is fine for me."

"Indeed."

"Same here…"

Unless it was a case of, "I made this class and it turned out to be a failure," class change wasn't necessary.

It'd have been a different story if you could class up to a higher tier.

"Oh my, when it's such a rare chance…"

"If thou sayest I might become a Demon God, I'd not begrudge the gold, but…"

"Unfortunately, that's impossible. You can only change to another job of equal or lower rank that you have aptitude for."

"My Porter is…"

"Outrageous, changing such a one-of-a-kind, possibility-rich class."

"That's right, Irana. You don't need to worry, since me and Naoto are gonna make you the strongest of the strong."

And so we ended up not even trying class change.

When it was 10 million G just to try and 100 million G to actually change, well…

Next up was skill change.

"Yes, the time for skill gacha has arrived. Pafu pafu!"

Almaria pulled something like a trumpet out from somewhere and gave it a toot.

"Let me explain about skill change.

"- 30 million G per use.

"- Randomly switches to a skill of equal or lower rank that you have aptitude for.

"- No trial run; using it makes one skill disappear and one skill appear.

"And so, I really can't recommend changing usable skills.

"If you use it on a Divine Art, there's a possibility of switching to a usable Divine Art, but consider that possibility extremely low.

"It's recommended for marginally improving useless skills you'd absolutely delete the next time you learn a new one.

"That said, even if a skill becomes somewhat more useful, low-rank skills sometimes still won't see use, so…

"It's recommended for high-rank skills that aren't useful at all."

"How can I tell a skill's rank?"

"For attack skills, it's relatively easy to figure out.

"Tiny < Small < Medium < Large < Super-Large < Tremendous < Ultimate

"is the progression. Adding +piercing, +guaranteed-hit, +consecutive, etc. bumps it up one more rank.

"Once support-type or status-ailment effects are mixed in, it gets harder to tell…"

I see. That part might actually be a bit fun.

My current funds were 370 million… If I poured the whole amount in, I could do 12 tries.

"The whole amount's too much, but how about around 4 tries?"

"As you please."

All right, 4 attempts. If those didn't pan out, I'd cool off and just delete each one the next time I learned a skill.

I looked over everyone's skills.

Kanan had:

In the mid-class she'd been a great help, but at this point it was a complete lower-tier alternative to Dragon Art Blast Storm, so surprisingly unusable.

She didn't really use it… A 6-hit attack was passably useful for stripping shields, but in those situations she'd just use piercing, and it was useless against turn-defense skills.

Wind Whip was usable for sealing weak enemies' movements.

Adelia was roughly like this.

Top candidate to delete next:

Used depending on the situation:

That was the breakdown.

Leone was roughly like this.

Top candidate to delete next:

Reasonably usable:

Maika was…

Top candidate to delete next:

Already a lower-tier alternative, so might as well delete it.

Lyuka had… lots of useful skills, so not many candidates.

Candidate to delete next:

Haru was…

Dryad Ameri was extremely strong, so her other skills tended to get a bit overshadowed. Aside from Earth Barrier and Green Wall, swapping any of them was fine.

Setsuna was…

None. Each was useful in its own way.

Yuria was…

Same, none. All useful.

Patty had…

Any of these attack skills could be swapped out.

But she hadn't reached LV50, so they'd change at class change time…

Luna had…

These were sort of borderline.

Same as Patty: not LV50.

For Suzanne, if I had to pick, it'd be Aura, but combined with Divine Art Michaela it was tremendous, so I didn't want to delete it.

So none.

Colette had:

These would probably get deleted eventually. Well, she wasn't LV50, so maybe none.

Sawako had all useful skills, none to delete. It was vexing that she still hadn't moved on from the skills Yamagata had her learn.

Yumi was the same; no skills to delete. From the skills Shiraki had her learn, ditto.

So, from the LV50+ members:

Haru, Adelia, Leone, Kanan, Maika, Lyuka.

… Those were the candidates.

"All right, Adelia's Will-o'-Wisp, Leone's Lightning, and from Haru's… which one to pick."

"… My skills are all kind of unimpressive, aren't they…"

"N-no, that's not true. Yeah… but now that you mention it, Haru, your skills really haven't changed much from when we first met, except for Ameri…"

"Hau…"

Shun, Haru deflated.

"All right, Haru! Let's go for 2! Let's swap Healing Grass and Drain Body!"

The small recovery effect was too weak to be of much use.

And so, Adelia, Leone, and 2 of Haru's would be the challengers.

"Well then, here we go. One-shot deal. If the result is bad, please don't cry～."

"Nya…"

Now then, Adelia's Will-o'-Wisp was the first magic I'd ever taken a hit from, and being something of a memento, I'd just sort of kept it around without deleting it.

Since it was a skill with that kind of attachment, I couldn't help but hope it'd switch into something good.

Now then… how would it turn out!

"Skill change!"

Shubaaan!

Adelia's body glowed for an instant.

… Ah, no system message or anything came up.

I pulled up the system screen. 30 million G was gone, and then I checked Adelia's status.

… Underwhelming.

Eh, I burned 30 million G for this…?

"Nyau…"

Adelia was disappointed too.

"… Considering the original, in terms of rank it's roughly equivalent…"

"Well, that's true. Element-attached → paralysis-attached, so equivalent, I guess…"

The mood dropped quite a bit.

"I can't really expect much on my end either…"

"Well, it was on the chopping block for the next time a skill was learned anyway…"

The mood was getting pretty low, but it was time for another attempt.

"Well then, here we go. Skill change!"

Shubaaan!

Leone's body glowed for an instant.

… Not expecting much, I pulled up Leone's skill.

"… Huh."

"How nostalgic. That's my starting skill. This and Lightning were both 15 uses, and Lightning had its count go up by 5."

Leone was giving a wry smile.

It had completely ranked down!

"There are cases of ranking down."

"… Sorry."

"Cheer up. It was a skill we were going to delete anyway! It was a long shot, a long shot."

Leone wound up consoling me. But Leone, you must've been disappointed too.

She'd surely been hoping some convenient skill might come her way…

Our spirits couldn't have sunk much lower. There was the hope that since we'd missed twice, the next one would surely hit… but honestly, not really…

Well, for Haru, having only Summon Dryad, Green Wall, and Earth Barrier was enough…

No wait, Numbing Poison and Seed of Domination couldn't be used against Garumon, but they worked against Magical Beasts.

Those guys had low status-ailment resistance.

Using Seed of Domination to play mini-Monster Tamer and take them down through infighting meant Haru was tremendously useful in battles against Magical Beasts.

Plus, if Healing Grass's effect was weak, I'd probably use another go on it…

"… Haa… no matter how many times I do this, this… oppressive feeling of betraying everyone's expectations is painful…"

Almaria let out an adorable groan.

Well, the responsibility wasn't… probably wasn't Almaria's fault.

There were probably even times she got chewed out and screamed at over it…

"No, no. It can't be helped. This is just luck of the draw.

"Two more, please."

"Yes, then here we go."

Haru stepped forward with a tense expression.

"Skill change!"

Shubaaan!

Haru glowed.

"… Couldn't they at least make it so an 'XX changed into YY' message comes up?"

"Ah, well, you know…"

Pi, pi…

So, the result of changing Healing Grass was…

Ah, yeah, this felt exactly like a skill change.

"This is fairly decent. Yeah."

Damage + poison-affliction was reasonably usable, I thought.

Against monsters, anyway.

Even against Garumon, poison couldn't be blocked by incapacitation resistance, so it tended to land relatively easily.

Well, the fact that the actual poison effect dealt only about 1/10 damage per turn was a bit underwhelming…

If it had been 1/10 of max HP that'd have been fine, but it was 1/10 of current HP, see.

"All right, last one."

I should've just left it to fate and stayed casual… but even saying that, since it was the last one, I couldn't suppress the desire for something good to come up. Victory through unselfishness was too much to expect.

Mm, gacha really was a frightening civilization.

I'd absolutely never lay a hand on the gacha that even S-Class Masters were said to go bankrupt over.

Well, having a fun time getting excited and disappointed all together was fun in its own way.

That alone made it worth it…

"Skill change!"

Shubaaan!

Haru glowed.

Now then, the last one… I really hoped something good would come of it!

Come on, give me something really great!

Since I was going to be disappointed anyway, I'd be disappointed to my heart's content, so I checked the status panel with full expectations.

"Nn, this is… oh, ohhh? Isn't this pretty strong? This might be amazing!"

My spirits gradually rose.

For example, on offense Grass was strong against Water and Earth, weak against Dragon, Demon, and God.

On defense, weak against Fire and Ice, strong against Thunder and Metal.

If this got reversed… whether strong or weak, it'd swing all at once from 1/2 to 2x, a 4x buff.

And on top of that, on a single ally! No need to limit it to Grass-element!

"This is pretty incredible. What's going on…?"

"Body-modification-type skills may have been unexpectedly high in rarity.

"I'm sure this is a rare skill she pulled."

Well, it wasn't outright overpowered, but it was tremendously useful.

Ohhh… this had completely paid back the cost!

"I'm relieved you're happy."

Almaria let out a sigh of relief as well.

Griera ultimately didn't try.

Ursula gave it a few tries, and seemed to share in the highs and lows.

"Thank you very much."

"No, no. I'm glad I could be of help.

"I'm busy in my own way too, so I don't know when next I can come.

"But I'd love to meet again.

"Still, skill growth is originally something that occurs through the deepening bond between Master and Garumon.

"Don't rely on skill change; diligently devoting yourself to training is what's most important."

"Yes, understood. Thank you very much."

"Naoto-san, may blessings be upon you…"

… Chu.

With those words, Almaria-san kissed me on the cheek.

Whoa… that seemed like it'd come with serious divine benefit!

"… Yuria. You've found a truly fine Master."

"… Yes, indeed. He's a wonderful Master, not inferior even to your Master, Mother."

"Fufufu. I'm cheering you both on. Well then, until next time…

"Ah, Yuria, Lyuka-chan, do you have any intention of going back to magician work…?"

"My apologies, but"

"None."

"The Potion Create and Item Create work has piled up and it's terrible～! Pleaaase～!"

Almaria-san clung to Lyuka and Yuria, hugging them tight.

"Even so, serving Naoto matters more to us.

"Right, while we're working, if you, Mother, will serve Naoto in our place, I'll consider it."

Yuria laid down outrageous terms.

"Th-that's… I-I'm a married woman too, so that's a bit much…

"Without my husband's permission…"

So if her husband gave permission, it was fine then…

"Well, no good then."

"That's so meaaan… Yuria…"

Almaria-san stared at me with teary, glistening eyes.

"… Yuria, Lyuka, why don't we cooperate within the limits of what's possible.

"It feels wrong for me to monopolize you two and your wonderful talents forever; it goes against the public welfare, and it weighs on me."

"Naoto-san… if you say so, Naoto-san. As long as it doesn't interfere with you, Naoto-san."

"Can't be helped. If Naoto says so. That said, Naoto comes first above all, you know."

"Thank you! Lyuka-chan! Yuria! Naoto-san!

"… If the two of you help with magician work, I'll do my best to make time as well."

"Oh, in other words, for the time the two of them spend working, we get to meet you, Almaria-san?"

"… That's right. Even so, I'm the most senior Witch, so I can't manage the same amount of time…

"But I promise to make half of the time the two of them spend working."

… Ohh, getting the two of them to work was tough, but the fact that we'd get to meet Almaria-san in exchange was a delight.

"Thank you. Then, I'll be looking forward to the day we can meet again."

I shook hands with Almaria-san… and then she vanished.

"Haa, I guess it can't be helped. Well, within the bounds of not being a burden, let's do some work too.

"Magicians really are short on personnel…"

So Yuria and Lyuka would be doing magician work as well.

"Yuria, your rebellious phase is going to be okay?"

"…'Going to be okay,' I don't think it's something to worry about."

Yuria gave a wry smile.

"But well… somehow… maybe I've calmed down a bit.

"I'm Naoto's Garumon now… independent of that person, a fully grown being in my own right.

"Almaria, currently, is a more amazing Witch than I am. But… if I'm with Naoto, eventually I'll get there too.

"Since it's a near-at-hand goal.

"With Almaria too… I think it might be okay to talk a bit more properly, deepen our exchanges, anew."

"Oh, somehow… Yuria's suddenly become an adult."

"I am an adult, you know. Geez… fufufu. In front of Naoto, I can't very well bicker with another Garumon, now can I."

Yuria laughed as she said it. If I'd been able to play a part in improving the mother-daughter relationship, that was a blessing.

… That day, Yuria wrote Almaria-san a polite thank-you message.

The delighted Almaria-san suddenly showed up that night, exasperating Yuria, but the close mother-daughter exchange of affection was very heartwarming.