Of course it was not normal.
Flynn thought it over, unconsciously lifting a hand to pinch his chin as a vague guess began to take shape in his mind.
A pity. I can't confirm it, so it can only stay a guess for now.
I'll deal with it later. If that really is the case, then I may have ended up owing someone a favor without even realizing it...
The thought hardly took any time at all. By the time Flynn came back to himself, Escoffier was still nodding, only half understanding.
"So... the bad luck is completely gone now?"
She was thinking of the drastic changes that had suddenly happened to him.
She still did not know exactly what had occurred, but if Flynn did not take the initiative to tell her, she had no intention of pressing him for answers. What mattered to her was only whether that strange misfortune that had plagued him was finally gone for good.
"Of course. Otherwise why would I be in such a good mood?"
Flynn answered with a smiling certainty that settled her heart at once.
Just then, a troubling tremor rose from beneath their feet.
"Oh no, the ship's starting to sink!"
Escoffier's expression changed slightly.
Under the influence of that earlier bad luck, the ship had already been on its last legs after enduring the giant sea beast's attacks. Then it had taken a few more hits on top of that, and afterward Flynn's fire and explosions had swept over part of it as well. The fact that it had only now begun to sink was already a sign of remarkable stubbornness.
This time, though, Escoffier did not immediately suggest fleeing.
Instead, she looked at Flynn expectantly.
She still remembered what he had said earlier, watch me perform. Surely he had not meant to wait until now just so they could leap off the ship and run for their lives in a panic.
And Flynn, as expected, did not disappoint her.
"Don't worry. Let me show you a magic trick."
As he spoke, he raised a hand and narrowed his eyes slightly, as if sensing something.
"If I were willing to perform this trick out in public, every so-called great magician out there would have to bow their heads in defeat..."
At that, the anticipation on Escoffier's face deepened.
She knew that although Flynn called it a magic trick, what he was about to do was definitely not something that simple. Magic, perhaps. That was closer.
But whatever it was, one thing was certain.
It was either going to be stunning, or beautiful to watch.
She just did not know which kind it would be.
"It's starting. Don't blink. Three... two..."
"One."
Snap.
Flynn flicked his fingers.
In that instant, Escoffier felt as though her vision blurred for a moment. The world around her suddenly became completely different from before. The countless colors that usually filled heaven and earth were reduced to only a handful, but every one of them felt deeply friendly to her.
One radiated warmth.
One nourished life.
One was light and drifting, as though it might lift her into the sky.
Wrapped in their presence, she even had the absurd feeling that anything she wished for could come true.
But only for an instant.
Then everything returned to normal.
The night sky was still that deep blue, the stars and moon still hung above them, and the ship beneath their feet was still...
Wait.
Why did the ship beneath their feet look brand new?
No, not merely new. A newly built cargo ship would not be this pristine. It would still have dust somewhere, a few footprints, some faint trace of use.
But here, every plank of the deck looked utterly untouched.
"Ah!"
Escoffier let out a startled cry and stared down at the ship in amazement, examining it carefully.
The area where the two of them stood had not been struck directly by the sea beast, but when Flynn had tested the Pyro Authority earlier, some of the nearby deck had been accidentally set alight. Though the flames had died out quickly, plenty of blackened scorch marks had been left behind.
But now, not just the section beneath their feet, but even the places near the bow that had taken the brunt of the sea beast's attacks, and even the parts that had been blasted apart and destroyed by Flynn's compressed fireballs, had all been restored completely.
Not just restored.
They looked better than new.
"Well?"
Flynn lightly patted Escoffier on the back, signaling that she could inspect as much as she liked.
Sink?
Let anything else sink if it wanted to. This ship certainly would not.
Escoffier happily took him up on it. She ran all over the deck checking every corner, and found that it truly had been renewed from top to bottom. Every sign of damage, even the wear and tear from ordinary use, had vanished without a trace.
"Can I go down into the cabins and look around?"
After a while, she ran back and asked him.
The ship itself was not really the point. What fascinated her was the "magic trick" just now.
Just as she had said before, she knew very well that it was not really magic, but she still wanted to look for some clue, some trace, anything that might tell her how Flynn had done it.
"Of course."
Flynn had no objection. Then, after a moment's thought, he added,
"If you're going inside anyway, stop by the cargo hold and bring back the Phlogiston bomb. We don't need it anymore, so don't waste it."
"As for the Sinthe, we can deal with that another way."
After saying that, he watched Escoffier disappear into the interior of the ship, then remained where he was and slipped back into thought.
Escoffier was never going to find any clue.
Because the "magic trick" just now was, in essence, a power that did not belong to this world at all.
From beyond the world, we seize the power to deny the world. Who said that again, Dain or the other twin?
It's surprisingly fitting... though mine isn't denial.
It's...
Revision.
Or maybe modulation.
World modulation?
That sounds a little indecent.
Doesn't matter. As long as it works.