Embracing Magic - E.M Chapter 99 (Part 2)

“There are a few other magic circles here.”

The necklace also contained the same enhancement and absorption magic circles that were inscribed on the sword, spear, shield, and armor. However, Rodin didn’t yet know what some of them did.

“I can’t figure this one out. Jenna.”

[Yes. What is your command?]

“It’s not a command, but a question. Do you know what this necklace is?”

[Yes. It’s the space where we reside. You can think of it as our home, Master.]

Luckily, Jenna seemed to know the nature of the necklace. It was clear that their previous master had used both the necklace and the battle dolls.

“Does it have any other effects?”

[When we enter the space, we can see and hear everything that you do, Master.]

“Anything else?”

[When it breaks, it repairs itself automatically.]

At the mention of “repair,” Rodin immediately understood the function of the unknown magic circle. It was a restoration or repair spell. The same magic circle was also engraved on the sword, spear, shield, and armor. When damaged, these artifacts would automatically repair themselves, just like the battle dolls.

“Have you ever used these weapons before?”

[Yes. They were originally ours.]

“What about the ones you’re holding now?”

[Before we entered this place, our previous master reclaimed our equipment and gave us these weapons.]

“Mind if I take a look?”

[Of course not. You don’t need to ask, Master. Just give the order.]

Jenna handed over her weapon, and Rodin inspected its interior. There was no special magic engraved on it, and even the material of the blade wasn’t particularly good.

“That’s bad. You can discard it and use your original weapons now.”

[Thank you, Master.]

Rodin handed the sword, spear, shield, and armor back to Karis and Jenna. Right away, they removed the equipment they had been wearing and donned the items he had just given them.

‘There’s still one unknown magic circle on the armor, but I’ll figure that out later.’

For now, Rodin decided to turn his attention away from the equipment.

What remained were the books.

He decided to postpone examining them further and instead began putting the books back into the subspace where they had originally been stored.

“This is going to take some time.”

Using the subspace bracelet was simple. After channeling a small amount of mana into it, he only needed to touch an object with his hand and imagine storing it, and the item would be sucked into the subspace.

But there were just too many books. Even though the process was easy, moving tens of thousands of books would take considerable effort.

“Still, it has to be done.”

If Rodin wanted to return home, he had to store the books. It was better to take care of it now while there was time, rather than rushing to gather them later.

“I should start with my own belongings.”

He first attempted to put his space-expansion backpack, which he had brought with him, into the subspace bracelet. However, the backpack, which was about to enter the subspace, was suddenly repelled.

“Ah! Of course, the space interference.”

The space expansion magic of the backpack clashed with the subspace magic of the bracelet, causing them to push against each other.

“Tch.”

Rodin had no choice but to empty the backpack’s contents and transfer them into the subspace bracelet.

He stored the jerky and preserved food Margaret had packed for him, the chest containing The Frouval’s treasure, a significant amount of money, clothes, and camping equipment inside the subspace.

However, the space-expansion backpack and the chef statue, which summoned cooking tools, had to be carried separately.

“Tch, I finally get a good backpack, only to obtain a subspace bracelet. My load’s increased instead.”

Rodin felt a bit sour about it.

It reminded him of the time when he restored the potion-making recipe (T/N: Not the ancient one).

After painstakingly restoring the recipe by poring over countless books, an even more advanced potion-making recipe from an ancient era had suddenly fallen into his lap.

“This is even worse than back then.”

Muttering to himself, he continued to grab books and store them in the subspace bracelet. Seeing this, Jenna hurried over to help.

Karis, on the other hand, maintained her distance, standing guard like a sentinel. She didn’t help with the books unless directly commanded to do so.

Karis only focused on protection, unless ordered otherwise. You could say she was rigid, but on the flip side, she was entirely dedicated to her duty.

‘It’s strange to think about puppets having personalities.’

Rodin didn’t know who had created Karis and Jenna, but they had been made with very different personalities, which he found rather amusing.

“Phew.”

After diligently storing book after book in the subspace bracelet, he began to notice a small dent in the pile.

“It’s starting to show.”

As he continued storing the books, he realized he was feeling a bit hollow inside. It dawned on him that he hadn’t eaten since entering this place.

“I’ve been fasting for almost 12 hours.”

Rodin pulled out the chef statue and summoned the cooking tools. He then recreated the same meal he had prepared earlier at the entrance.

“Karis, Jenna. Do you want to eat?”

[We’ll eat if you command it.]

[We can eat, but it’s unnecessary.]

Battle dolls didn’t gain energy from eating food.

They absorbed ambient mana from their surroundings to power themselves, so eating was pointless for them.

“If you can eat, does that mean you’ve eaten before?”

[Yes. By the command of a previous master, we tried it.]

“What did you do with the food afterward?”

[When no one was looking, we buried it in the ground.]

Rodin was curious about the previous master. Naturally, that person must have died long ago, but he wanted to meet them and have a conversation.

‘Would we get along?’

He doubted it. He had a feeling they wouldn’t. There seemed to be a bit of arrogance there—adding unnecessary features just to make the dolls more human-like.

Eating had no value in battle. It was purely a function to make the dolls seem more lifelike, which didn’t align with Rodin’s preference for efficiency.

“I’m going to eat now.”

[Shall we eat as well?]

“No need. No one’s around to see, so there’s no reason to force yourselves.”

Rodin ate the food he had prepared alone. After fasting for so long, it tasted even better than before.