Master and Slaves

"...Hmm, shall I explain a little about summoning magic here?"

Mateus took another sip of tea and set the teacup back on the saucer.

"First, the target of the summoning—living beings—can be broadly divided into two parts. One is the physical body, the other is the spiritual body. Summoning magic is the magic that calls forth this spiritual body."

"Eh? But I have a physical body."

I touched my own cheeks and chest with both hands.

Yes, my body was definitely there.

Tiria’s head was resting on my lap, and when I looked at my hands they weren’t transparent at all.

"Yes, Hiroyuki-dono has a physical body. That is because the physical body was also called. However, that is not done with summoning magic, but with transfer magic. First the physical body is called with transfer magic, then the spiritual body is called with summoning magic and made to possess the physical body. That is the method by which Hiroyuki-dono was brought into this world."

"So you had to go through that kind of process?"

"Yes. There is apparently a type of magic called ’evocation’ that summons a physical body while it still contains the spiritual body, but I did not know it, and no one in this country knew it either. Therefore we had no choice but to use this method. However, it has one major drawback. That is... the called physical body and spiritual body do not necessarily match. In fact, the probability of them matching is quite low."

Mateus’s face twisted.

He looked at me with an apologetic expression.

...Does that mean this body is not mine?

No, but...

"But this body is mine. When I wash my face, the face reflected in the water is properly my own face."

"...Have you felt any sense of discomfort until now? As if you were not yourself?"

"That is..."

...There have been many moments of discomfort.

For example...

"I felt as if my own strength had increased. Things that looked heavy could be lifted easily..."

"That is... unrelated. When the world changes, the laws change as well."

"Is that so. Um, other than that... things I had never been able to do, or rather had never done, became easy. Acrobatic-like movements, or defeating enemies with a sword or katana..."

"Indeed.... That is probably knowledge the body itself remembered. The body Hiroyuki-dono is currently using must have performed such actions normally in its original world."

"But this body is unmistakably mine."

"It may be... the body of someone who is the exact double of Hiroyuki-dono."

But the same face, the same build... even the location of the moles is the same.

Does such a person exist?

Hm? Did I have a scar in a place like this?

It looks like a rather old scar...

Huh? There’s no surgical scar!

I fell off my bicycle and had ten stitches, I’m sure of it.

...I don’t know this scar.

...Or this one either.

...What does this mean?

So this body really isn’t mine?

But the body itself doesn’t feel unnatural...

Perhaps...

"Is the world that the summoned or transferred side comes from always the same?"

"That is... in other words, do they always come from the same world?"

"Yes."

"I do not know. The things I summoned were all beasts with whom communication was impossible. My magic teacher once summoned a human, but... he never spoke of such things."

"I see..."

But if the world of the transferred body and the world of the summoned me are different...

"Parallel world... is it."

"What is that ’para...’ something?"

"Parallel worlds... It is the idea that the world splits according to choices."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Let’s see. Um... Mateus-san, please raise your hand."

"Hm? Ah, like this?"

Despite my sudden request, Mateus raised his right hand.

"Just now Mateus-san raised his right hand. But he might have raised his left, or both hands. He might not have raised any hand at all. In other words, in this world Mateus-san raised his right hand, but there are other worlds where Mateus-san’s actions were different. That is where the world splits. When it splits, that many worlds are created. Those worlds run parallel in time, so they are called parallel worlds."

"...I see. This is... an interesting idea."

"So this body is the body of a parallel-world me."

I muttered to myself.

Somehow... it feels like a cheat.

"You seem shaken after all..."

Seeing me staring at the table and muttering, Mateus showed concern.

No, I’m not particularly shocked.

Well, even if it’s another world, it’s still my body.

"No, I’m fine. More importantly, I don’t know what happened to the body in my original world... do I?"

"Yes. I apologize for my lack of power."

"No, no, um... please continue."

I stopped Mateus, who was bowing his head, with both hands and urged him to continue the story.

Having a man about the age of my grandfather apologize to me is embarrassing.

"Then... the physical body called by transfer magic is possessed by the spiritual body called by summoning magic. If at that time the physical body is not that of the spiritual body, it cannot be moved immediately. How was it for Hiroyuki-dono?"

"Yes. It really felt as if I had been paralyzed. ...If the physical body had belonged to the spiritual body, if this body had been mine, what would have happened?"

"When you wake, there is temporary listlessness, but it returns to normal immediately."

"Then this body really is not mine."

"That is correct."

Mateus nodded solemnly but firmly.

So I’m not as shocked as Mateus thinks.

"I’m fine."

I gave a wry smile.

"But after that I was able to move immediately. ...Ah, I see. After receiving Tiria’s soul and making the Dule contract, I became free to move."

Looking down, Tiria was still sleeping comfortably.

"Hm? Ah, yes. Before that, did you not have intercourse with Tiria?"

"Eh? Ah, ah, yes. Um, I definitely... did it."

Being asked so directly is quite embarrassing.

I stammered for a moment and then blushed.

But Mateus continued with a serious expression.

"Indeed. First, intercourse with Tiria binds that physical body to Tiria, and then the Dule contract binds Hiroyuki-dono to Tiria. By doing so, Hiroyuki-dono and that physical body become linked, allowing you to move it freely as your own body. However, because the link is indirect through Tiria, it should feel exactly like moving someone else’s body. How was it?"

"There was no such feeling. I was able to move freely right away, just like in my original world. Well, I did feel the kind of discomfort I mentioned earlier..."

"I see. The compatibility between that physical body and Hiroyuki-dono must have been exceptionally good. However, the intercourse with Tiria and the Dule contract were not done solely for that purpose. As I said earlier, transfer and summoning have a time limit. Therefore it was necessary to bind you to this world."

"That is what I heard earlier—creating a deep bond with a human of this world, namely Tiria."

"Yes. But Tiria made a To-Dule contract. From what Mateus-san said, an A-Dule would have been sufficient..."