Chapter 127: Point Benefit 3

“So cold!”

Right after waking up, I was surprised by the extreme cold.

Although it’s better than the slums, the long-forgotten cold makes me want to burrow back into my futon.

Being careful not to wake Kohaku-san, who was curled up in my futon, I headed towards the window and opened the curtains to see a vast snowy landscape.

“Wow, it really piled up…”

I had heard that it snows quite a bit more in the Royal Capital than in the town where I used to live.

According to Stram-sensei’s lessons, the climate in this world doesn’t follow the common sense of Earth, where it gets colder the further you move from the equator. Instead, it changes depending on the land where spirits reside.

In other words, places where ice or snow spirits live are cold, and places where fire or heat spirits settle are hot.

Since spirits rarely change their dwellings, lands that are otherwise balanced have proper spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The Imperial Kingdom is one of those places.

In Tifania’s Queendom, for example, there are many fire spirits, so it’s hot all year round. Winter is just slightly cooler, supposedly.

Conversely, in Risha’s Empire, there are slightly more snow and ice spirits, so the winters are colder than in the Imperial Kingdom.

Therefore, if a year is hotter or colder than usual, it’s apparently seen as a sign that more spirits than usual have visited that land. Perhaps many snow and ice spirits came this year.

Eventually, Arisa-san and Ritsu arrived, brought my clothes, and lit a fire in the fireplace.

I like the fireplace. Listening to the crackling sounds and watching the flickering flames somehow makes me relax and zone out.

“It’s cold today, so shall we put on an extra layer?”

“Mm.”

As Arisa-san suggested, I put on one more layer of outerwear than usual. Just because it’s a Ducal House doesn’t mean it’s fully equipped with air conditioning. The rooms are relatively warm thanks to the fireplaces, but the hallways are still chilly.

Furthermore, because the rooms are large, they don’t warm up easily…

Summer was quite harsh, but winter is fairly harsh too. Unlike the slums, it’s far better just by virtue of not freezing to death, though.

While I was having breakfast with Father and Mother, a messenger arrived from Estelle’s Euphonium Baron House, saying that today’s sword practice with Yulia-san and Estelle’s lessons would be canceled.

“With this snow, it can’t be helped.”

“I suppose even Sakuraile’s kitchen car can’t plow through the snow.”

Mother and Father made such remarks with wry smiles.

Well, it’s not a snowplow, after all. Since the kitchen car left at the Euphonium Baron House will also disappear by noon, Estelle and the others will have to come by carriage tomorrow.

Since everyone from the Euphonium Baron House isn’t coming, Bianca is naturally absent too. Hmm, I wanted to have a snowball fight with everyone.

Afterwards, at Father’s request, we decided to summon the ramen shop ‘Horakuen’.

The stores I summon come with air conditioning, after all. He probably wants to work in an air-conditioned place if he has to work anyway. Since we can use the store’s facilities, the air conditioner that was highly active for cooling in the summer is now highly active for heating in the winter.

Ramen on a cold day is the best, too. Yeah, let’s go with miso ramen for lunch.

“Ah, points accumulated.”

By summoning ‘Horakuen’ this time, the points on the ‘Point Card’, the blessing I received from Yuminaria-sama, accumulated. It’s the third one. I can get another benefit.

The first was the ‘Cat Ear Headband’ that allows eavesdropping from afar.

The second was the ‘Confession Candy’ that makes you spit out your feelings of love.

No matter how I look at it, these benefits just seem like items God made for fun… Well, the effects are amazing, though.

Returning to my room, when I voiced those thoughts, Kohaku-san, who was at my feet, opened his mouth as if it were hard to say.

『Well, um, many of the Gods tend to get bored easily. There are many things they made but just left as is. Yuminaria-sama is probably giving you, the little master, things from among those that don’t have much impact on the surface world, at the level of magic tools.』

You mean recycling? I’m being handed down the Gods’ junk… Well, it’s still amazing, though?

“Whatever. Um, benefit please.”

With a pon, a sphere of light popped out of the point card, and something fell onto the table in front of me. Is this… a seal?

No, that’s not it. Ah, it’s that. The thing you press when sealing a letter with wax. A sealing stamp, was it?

Furthermore, a card fluttered down on top of it. Something is written on it, huh?

“Um, ‘Transfer Sealing Stamp’…?

Is this card an instruction manual? Let’s see… Letters sealed with this stamp are instantly transferred to the recipient… wait, eh? This is…

Can be used up to ten times a day. Cannot be delivered to someone the user has never met. Just the name is enough? It doesn’t need an address?

『The stamp probably reads the sender’s thoughts to determine the transfer location. Generally, teleportation magic and the like cannot take you to places you’ve never been, after all.』

“I see. So I can’t send it to people I’ve never met.”

So it’s an email that can only be sent to acquaintances. Well, it’s not electronic, though.

I guess it’s convenient. Even if it’s just a one-way transfer.

Alright, let’s try writing and sending one as a test. I took a letter set out of my desk drawer.

『I got another benefit. Apparently, it’s a sealing stamp that can send letters in an instant. Did it arrive? Sakuraile.』

I wrote that letter, put it in an envelope, and addressed it to ‘Lord Cloud ri Philharmonie’.

Then, I pressed the stamp onto the melted sealing wax…

The stamp had a cherry blossom pattern. Nice. Perfect for me.

“…It’s not transferring, though? Ah.”

Just as I was tilting my head at the letter that wasn’t transferring, it suddenly vanished with a fwip. Does it wait to transfer until the wax hardens to some extent?

Now then, did it reach Father? After waiting for a while, I heard the sound of running footsteps echoing down the hallway, and Father and Mother burst into the room.

“Sakuraile! This is…!”

“Ah, it arrived.”

In Father’s hand was the letter I had just sent.

Apparently, it suddenly appeared right in front of Father while he was working at ‘Horakuen’.

“Since there was only an addressee and no sender’s name, I was cautious, but since the stamp was a cherry blossom, I thought maybe.”

“Ah, I see. If I don’t write my name on the envelope too, it will cause suspicion, won’t it.”

I did write it in the letter inside, though.

When I told Father and Mother about the effect of the sealing stamp I received as a benefit, they were extremely surprised.

“Can I use that stamp too?”

“I wonder? Do you want to try?”

Father wrote a letter addressed to His Majesty the Emperor and pressed the stamp, but it had no effect. It seems only I can use it. The Cat Ear Headband worked for Father too, though. Pfft, remembering how he looked back then almost makes me laugh out loud.

I peeled off the wax seal, and when I stamped it anew, the letter vanished just like before. It was probably transferred to His Majesty’s location.

“This is amazing… Ten letters a day, even if it’s only to people Sakuraile has met, being able to send a letter to that person in an instant… The impact of this is immeasurable… I need to discuss this with my brother…”

“Eh? Is it really that big of a deal?”

Somehow the situation has escalated… But thinking about it, it makes sense. Being able to send information in an instant means you can take the initiative in anything. Its applications are wide-ranging.

It seems this benefit is a winner. The previous ‘Confession Candy’ seemed like a dud, after all.

A few hours later, braving the snow, His Majesty the Emperor and the Prime Minister arrived at our house. Eh, wait, it’s that big of a deal?

We explained to His Majesty and the others that the point benefits are part of the Store Summoning.

In other words, because I summon so often, it’s a summoning item received from the Goddess of Summoning, Samonia-sama.

If I talked about the Nine Goddesses, they really might make me a Saint…

From there, it was a negotiation battle between Father VS His Majesty & the Prime Minister.

The number of transfers is ten a day. How many can they use, what is the compensation, and so on.

As for me, I’m leaving all this to Father. I just stamp it, after all.

At Elliott’s birthday party and such, I am ‘technically’ acquainted with the main nobles in the country. So I think I can send to them to some extent. If it’s someone I haven’t met, it won’t transfer.

As a result of the negotiations, it was agreed that the letters I send personally will be prioritized, and they want me to transfer their remaining letters using the leftover quota at the end of the day.

In short, ‘Let us use the leftover letter transfer stock for the day’.

For me, I just have to go stamp, stamp, stamp before going to bed, so there’s no problem at all.

Regarding the transfers, they apparently decided to attribute it to a fictional ‘Gift’ user named ‘Letter Post’. Well, it’s my alias. Just in case, to prevent any troublesome probing.

I sent a few letters, and I was able to transfer them even to people whose names I knew but whose faces I didn’t remember at all. It seems that even if I don’t remember meeting them, as long as the fact remains that we met, I can send it.

Does that mean I can send it even to someone I just glanced at in town, as long as I know their name? Does that count as ‘meeting’?

Visually confirming them and knowing their name. Maybe those two are the conditions. The fact that it’s a one-way transfer is a bit inconvenient, though.

However, there is a flaw in this transfer system too, which is that it transfers right in front of the addressed person.

For example, if you send it to someone galloping on a horse, naturally, they won’t be able to receive it. Well, they’d know ‘something appeared in front of me’, so they might go back and pick it up.

If they’re traveling in a carriage, there’s no problem, though.

Also, since I don’t know the situation on the other side, it might be sent while they’re in a crowd, or during an important audience or meeting.

Well, I’ll be sending them before I go to bed… which will be around 9 PM or later, so it might not be much of a problem, but still.