"Tourism."
Since the food had put Rowan in a good mood, he simply answered Erica's question.
"I came to this world to travel. To eat foods I've never tasted before and see scenery I've never seen before. That's my purpose."
"Hah?"
Erica didn't believe him.
A God of Death from another world had come to their world purely for vacation?
Seriously?
Why did that sound so suspicious?
"You don't believe me?"
Rowan noticed the doubt in Erica's eyes and gave her a faintly amused look.
Erica smiled politely, calmly picked up her knife and fork, cut off a piece of pizza, and said tactfully,
"I simply feel that scenery and food alone shouldn't be enough to attract a god from another world. Wouldn't you agree?"
"You feel?"
At that moment, Rowan suddenly slipped into full domineering-CEO mode and waved his hand.
"I don't care what you feel. I don't want what you think—I want what I think."
"I think beautiful scenery and delicious food are things that should never be wasted."
"Wonderful sights and good food are more than enough to attract anyone."
"Including gods."
While speaking, Rowan quickly finished the pizza in front of him, then picked up a napkin and wiped his mouth.
Erica: "…"
Seeing how completely natural Rowan looked, Erica gradually began to believe him.
"So you truly came here for the food and scenery?"
Rowan nodded.
"More or less."
"Of course, if possible, I'd also like to take some of this world's specialties with me."
"Specialties?"
Erica looked confused.
What exactly counted as a specialty of this world?
Why didn't she know?
"Magic."
"Oh, right. In your world, you call it magecraft, don't you?"
Rowan said.
Erica immediately understood.
So he meant magecraft.
She knew it.
There was no way the scenery and food of this world alone could attract a god from another world.
If it was magecraft, then that made sense—
No, wait.
That was still incredibly strange!
Magecraft was a power used by humans.
To gods, such power should be completely insignificant.
Even if a human somehow learned every form of magecraft in the world, before a god they would still be nothing more than a slightly stronger ant.
Would a god really care about human magecraft?
That was like a human becoming interested in the knowledge of ants.
It sounded utterly ridiculous.
"Don't underestimate human knowledge."
Rowan spoke calmly.
"All of it is the crystallization of human wisdom."
"Perhaps you don't think much of it, but in another world, this knowledge could be something extraordinary."
"As far as I know, there is one world where magic has flourished to an absurd degree."
"If someone completely masters all magic there, they can become a Magic God."
"A Magic God?"
Erica asked curiously.
"What kind of god is that? A god who governs magic?"
"Something like that."
Rowan explained,
"A Magic God is what a magician becomes after fully stepping into the realm of the divine."
"Once someone becomes a Magic God, they gain the power to overturn every law."
"Life must eventually end."
"An apple must fall downward."
"One plus one equals two…"
"Even absolute laws of the world that should never change can be arbitrarily altered by a Magic God."
"A complete Magic God can dominate every law."
"They possess the power to destroy an entire world and recreate it from nothing."
"Creating and destroying all things with a single thought."
"If something exists that they don't want, they can simply destroy the entire world and recreate it so that the unwanted thing never existed in the first place."
"For a Magic God, something like that is practically routine."
Erica stared at him in stunned silence.
After a long while, she suddenly slammed both hands onto the table, shot to her feet, and roared,
"DON'T THINK I'VE NEVER READ A CERTAIN MAGICAL INDEX!!!"
The moment she shouted that, Erica realized she had lost her composure.
She hurriedly sat back down, coughed lightly, and pretended to be a refined lady once again.
Then she noticed something strange.
She had shouted loudly enough for the entire restaurant to hear.
Yet everyone around them behaved as if they had heard absolutely nothing.
They simply continued eating and talking.
Not a single person even glanced in their direction.
Erica's heart tightened.
She immediately realized that Rowan had done something.
Rowan raised an eyebrow.
"So this world has that series too?"
"Of course."
Erica smiled without warmth.
"Besides A Certain Magical Index, there are plenty of other famous light novels."
"Then you have Naruto and One Piece too?"
"Naturally."
Erica nodded.
"Then tell me what this is."
Rowan casually took out a Devil Fruit and placed it on the table.
It was the Azure Dragon Fruit.
Erica: "???"
Uh…
Wait.
Hold on.
Erica's brain instantly crashed.
What was she looking at?
What the hell was she looking at?!
A Devil Fruit.
She was actually staring at a Devil Fruit.
And judging by its appearance—
it was Kaido's Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Azure Dragon.
"That's fake, right?"
Erica refused to believe it.
Sure, the thing looked frighteningly authentic.
But how could a Devil Fruit exist in this world?
Those things only existed in manga.
"If you don't believe me, you can taste it."
Rowan pushed the Devil Fruit toward Erica with a smile.
"Of course, if you don't like this one, I have others."
As he spoke, Rowan began taking out more Devil Fruits.
The Warp-Warp Fruit.
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
The Magnet-Magnet Fruit.
The Paw-Paw Fruit.
The String-String Fruit.
Seeing Rowan casually produce so many Devil Fruits only made Erica believe him even less.
All of these fruits already had owners in the manga.
How could Rowan possibly have gotten his hands on them?
"If you don't believe me, my answer is still the same."
"Pick one and try it."
Rowan remained completely confident.
Real or fake?
Just eat one and you'd know.
Seeing how certain he was, Erica gradually began to waver.
Could the world of One Piece actually exist?
Had Rowan traveled there, killed the original owners of these Devil Fruits, and taken their powers?
He was a god, after all.
Killing a bunch of pirates should hardly be difficult for him.
But then again—
judging by Rowan's personality so far, he didn't seem like a particularly murderous God of Death.
Then, in the next instant, another possibility flashed through Erica's mind.
Perhaps these Devil Fruits were all real—
but they weren't actually from the world of One Piece.
Maybe Rowan had created them himself using his own abilities.
As a God of Death from another world, perhaps he really could use some supernatural ability to reproduce Devil Fruits so perfectly that they were indistinguishable from the originals.
There was no rule saying a God of Death couldn't use magic.
Maybe every single one of these Devil Fruits had been created through Rowan's magic.
That would explain why he was so confident.
Rowan wasn't using mind-reading, so he had no idea what Erica was thinking.
However, he watched her expression shift from confusion—
to sudden realization—
to a look of so that's how it is.
He could roughly guess that Erica had constructed some elaborate theory in her head.
And that theory was almost certainly completely wrong.
"Lord Rowan."
Erica suddenly spoke seriously.
"I believe these Devil Fruits are all genuine."
"With your abilities, creating Devil Fruits indistinguishable from the real thing is probably nothing difficult."
"What I'm more curious about is…"
"Do you truly intend to give me one for free?"
Rowan shook his head.
"Of course not."
Erica sighed in relief.
She knew it.
There was no such thing as a free lunch.
"You can exchange the magical knowledge belonging to your association for them."
Rowan said,
"The more magecraft knowledge you give me, the more Devil Fruits you can exchange for."
Erica's heart skipped a beat.
That…
actually sounded possible.
Knowledge could be copied.
Devil Fruits could not.
Once a Devil Fruit was eaten, it was gone.
And every Devil Fruit possessed an extraordinary power capable of dramatically increasing a person's combat ability.
Still, Erica had one concern.
"Lord Rowan, do these Devil Fruits also suffer from the sea's curse?"
"They do."
"But only the seawater of the One Piece world affects them, because that world's seawater contains traces of Seastone."
Rowan explained,
"The seawater in this world contains no Seastone, so you don't need to worry."
This was a conclusion Rowan had reached after personally investigating the matter.
As long as the sea did not contain Seastone components, Devil Fruit users would not lose their ability to resist.
Hearing this, Erica raised an eyebrow.
This God of Death was surprisingly good at patching loopholes.
The way he explained it almost made it sound like he had actually visited the world of One Piece.
But that was impossible.
One Piece was only a manga.
Still, Erica had no intention of exposing him.
Doing so would accomplish nothing except potentially angering Rowan out of embarrassment.
Compared with proving him wrong—
she wanted a Devil Fruit far more.
After carefully considering her options, Erica chose the Bird-Bird Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Phoenix.
Not only would it allow her to transform into a phoenix, but it also granted extraordinary regenerative abilities.
Its life-saving potential was practically maxed out.
Even if she encountered a Heretic God in the future, she might be able to rely on that power to escape alive.
With this fruit—
she could afford to be a little more reckless.
Unfortunately, when Erica actually bit into the Devil Fruit, she nearly threw up.
It was disgusting.
Absolutely revolting.
"Lord Rowan…"
Erica's face twisted.
"Even if you wanted to reproduce the original, surely there was no need to reproduce the taste this accurately?"
Rowan stared at her speechlessly.
"Devil Fruits naturally taste like this."
"What does that have to do with me?"
"…Fine."
Seeing how stubbornly Rowan adhered to the original setting, Erica could only sigh helplessly and stop complaining.
Once she confirmed that she really could transform into a phoenix and had gained the Flames of Regeneration, Erica decisively handed over all the magecraft knowledge she had learned to Rowan.
That had been their agreement.
Naturally, she would not go back on her word.
More importantly—
she wouldn't dare.
The person she had made a deal with was a genuine God of Death.
Who in their right mind would break a deal with a God of Death?
Did they have a death wish?
After obtaining Erica's magecraft knowledge, Rowan left the pizza restaurant.
Erica followed beside him and asked,
"Lord Rowan, where are you going now?"
Rowan replied,
"To find a witch."
~~~
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