"...From then on, I swore an oath to follow behind the two of them."
Ten minutes later, the Edolas Mavis finished telling a romantic story about war and love.
Mavis listened with rapt fascination.
"So in this world, it was 'Zera' and 'Weston' who saved 'me'..."
"It's a completely different experience from mine!"
"Um... would you like to hear my story?"
Not at all!
But seeing the young girl's face full of expectation, the Edolas Mavis truly didn't have the heart to refuse: "...Say what you want to say."
"Great! Then I'll start from the beginning!"
Mavis let out a joyful cry and began to talk incessantly about her own story: "I was born in a place called Tenrou Island..."
Perhaps seeing the 'self' of an alternate world made a feeling of meeting 'family' sprout in the depths of Mavis's heart.
This 'family' was not a 'lover' like Weston, nor a 'best friend' like Zera, and certainly not 'comrades' in the guild, but rather the kind of relative who shares a true blood relation.
In Mavis's eyes, the mature and intellectual woman before her had become an existence akin to a 'mother,' 'aunt,' or 'older sister.'
In front of her, Mavis acted more like a child than usual.
Ding, ding, ding—!!
"The match is over!"
"Congratulations to contestant Weston for winning the 'Big Eater' competition!!"
The two Yuris raised their glasses and cheered, celebrating that the 'duel' between the two Westons had reached a verdict.
He won, but there wasn't a trace of joy on Weston's face, only because his stomach was currently roaring frantically.
"I feel like... my stomach is going to... burst..."
Beside him, Weston Leibniz also had a ghastly pale face, lying prostrate on the table and not daring to move an inch, fearing that if he so much as shifted his body, he would vomit on the spot.
"I... I admit defeat... In my life... I've never seen a person who can eat more than you..."
"Strange, clearly my physique is sturdier, why is it that you're the one who can eat more instead?!"
"I don't understand!"
Hearing this, the corner of Weston's mouth immediately curled into a pale smile: "Heh... hehe... you wouldn't understand this, but a Wizard's energy consumption is terrifying!"
"So that's how it is... because of magic power?"
"I really envy you guys, being able to use magic..."
"If I could use magic too, I would definitely become even stronger!"
People without magic power mostly long for it; this is true regardless of which world it is.
"Speaking of which, is there really no way for people of our world to use magic?"
"Yeah, because the bodies of people in your world cannot store magic power, meaning you have no Second Origin!"
"Is that so..."
Leibniz thought for a moment and asked again: "Then if a person from Ishgar and a person from Edolas unite, would the child born be able to use magic?"
Weston was stunned: "This question of yours... is a bit tricky."
"Hmm... whether they can use magic depends on luck. As for the probability..."
Weston thought about it and decided to seek help from the 'calculator.'
Thus, he opened the Archivist and input a super simple high school biology problem—
"Let event X be a recessive inheritance gene (aa). The genotype of population M has three types: AA, Aa, and aa. The genotype of population N has two types: AA and Aa. If one person is selected from each, the probability of the offspring's genotype being aa is..."
Swish, swish, swish—
The Archivist operated at high speed, quickly listing all possibilities and arriving at the final calculation result.
"It's approximately one-eighth!"
One-eighth was the accurate answer given by the Archivist.
The reason he used the word 'approximately' in his answer was because Weston was merely making assumptions based on the conditions of the two worlds; he could not be certain that 'possessing magic power in the body' was definitely a recessive inheritance gene.
Hearing this result of 'one-eighth,' the brawny oaf Weston felt a wave of disappointment: "The probability is so low..."
"You don't need to be too discouraged!"
"Can't you all use magic items to fight? That isn't much different from the Holder-type Wizards of Ishgar."
Holder-type Wizards also use magic items to fight; once they lose their magic items, they are merely stronger in physical fitness than ordinary people.
Just as the banquet reached its midpoint and the drinking was in full swing, an anomaly suddenly occurred above the palace garden!
Clatter, clatter—
The sky turned from clear to overcast, becoming like a piece of torn grey silk.
In the center of the silk, a small black dot abruptly appeared.
Immediately, the black dot began to rotate and expand, forming a vortex, gradually swelling enough to cover the entire garden and still continuing to grow larger.
"Hmm... what is this?!"
"Look at the sky, everyone!!"
The abnormality in the sky immediately attracted the attention of everyone present.
They saw the dark clouds overhead swirling and pouring down; the center of the vortex was as deep as an abyss, and a powerful magic power could faintly be felt emanating from within.
"This magic power... it's spatial-type magic!"
Just as Weston identified the nature of this magic power, the Archivist, which had not yet been put away, suddenly emitted a 'beep, beep, beep' alarm sound.
Following that, a window popped up.
"Everyone be careful!"
"This is magic that transfers people to an alternate world; it's the same situation as the transfer incident!!"
Before coming to Edolas, Weston had already scouted a large amount of spatial magic and recorded all the magic power fluctuations they caused when in use, including the 'Alternate World Transfer Magic' given by Elefseria.
Therefore, as long as he detected a magic power fluctuation, he could know immediately what magic it was and what effect it had.
With Weston shouting this out, everyone present immediately understood the situation and focused their minds on high alert.
With an area of effect at this level, it was already too late to run; everyone could only brace themselves to resist.
"No way..."
"I just got back, and I have to go through it again?!"
Edolas-Yuri couldn't help but complain while simultaneously grabbing the Yuri beside him.
"What are you doing?!!"
"To avoid getting separated, of course! In case we get sucked in later, who knows where the other side is or who is there. It's better to act together than to act separately."
"Eh? That makes sense!"
Yuri's eyes lit up. He then lunged forward with his arms, locking Edolas-Yuri from behind.
Edolas-Yuri was instantly embarrassed: "Wait... you don't need to grab me that tightly..."
Seeing this, the others also went into action, grabbing the people beside them.
At the same time, the magic power instantly turned into suction, forming a violent updraft rising straight up. Everyone felt as if an invisible giant hand had reached out from the vortex, grabbing them and dragging them inside.
"It's coming!"
"The suction is even stronger than imagined!"
"I can't resist it at all..."
In just a few breaths, everyone on the field was swallowed into the vortex.
Immediately after, the vortex rapidly contracted, and the wild winds ceased accordingly.
The garden returned to tranquility, as if nothing had ever happened.