The magic circle glowed brilliantly, draining almost all of my mana. The magical stone at its center began to swell, changing shape. What kind of form would my summoned beast take?

"Hoo!"

…My summoned beast turned out to be a brown-and-white mottled owl.

Maybe it’s because my idea of a wizard’s familiar or summoned beast was an owl? But if that were the case, wouldn’t it be a pure white owl, like the one owned by a certain famous bespectacled boy wizard? It must just be a coincidence.

Still, it’s strange. Summoned beasts are supposed to have combat abilities, but I can’t imagine this owl being much use in a fight.

"Hoo-hoo!"

…It’s adorable. The way it tilts its head slightly with those large, round eyes is especially cute. Its fluffy feathers felt soft under my hand, and it leaned into my touch affectionately.

Well, I didn’t summon it to fight, so I guess it’s fine if it doesn’t have combat abilities. Now, I should give it a name.

"Are you male?"

"Hoo!"

It seems we can communicate, as it nodded cutely in response to my question. An owl… "Hoo"… no, "Foo"…

"How about Fūsuke?"

"Hoo!!"

I thought the name might be too simple, but it seemed to like it, flapping its wings excitedly before perching on my right shoulder.

At this size, I could even take Fūsuke back to my world and pass it off as a regular pet. If it had been a lion-like beast like the Grand Mage’s, I’d have had to leave it at the Grand Mage’s house.

Alright, let’s investigate more about Fūsuke.

After looking into Fūsuke’s capabilities, I discovered it was far more versatile than I’d anticipated.

First, regarding the interdimensional gate—could anyone besides me pass through it? Fūsuke successfully crossed the boundary, which means it’s likely people from this world could enter Japan, and vice versa.

I also learned that Fūsuke and I could be in separate worlds without issue. I thought a summoned beast would always stay close to its summoner, but Fūsuke remained in Japan for an extended time without being automatically recalled to me.

What’s more, it seemed Fūsuke understood both my commands and written language—both in this world and in Japanese. This might be due to my being from Japan, activating some kind of language comprehension ability.

Great, this opens up a lot of possibilities. Time to conduct a little experiment with Fūsuke and Mamoru-san.

Da-da-da-da-da!

I’m currently in the other world, running down the road from Bradley toward my original destination—a coastal city. With the mutant incident resolved, I’m eager to try the seafood of this world.

I’m not using that wind magic trick where I blast myself forward. While it’s fast, it’s painful and hard to control, making it easy to lose my way. That method is only practical in Japan, where I can rely on GPS navigation.

Beeeeeeeeeeeep!

As I ran, a loud noise erupted from a 15-centimeter-square box in my pocket. Nice, it worked as expected.

Beep, beep!

After the initial loud noise, there was a brief pause followed by two shorter beeps—my prearranged signal for an accident, not an emergency. Perfect, everything’s going according to plan. I immediately used teleportation magic to return to the Grand Mage’s house.

"Hoo!"

"Good job, Fūsuke!"

Fūsuke was waiting for me with another identical box by its side.

Together, we passed through the interdimensional gate back to Japan. On my desk, I checked my smartphone and found a single email from Mamoru-san.

The sender was Mamoru-san, and the subject line read "Test." The email had been sent just two minutes earlier. With this kind of speed, staying connected while I’m in the other world won’t be a problem.

"This is all thanks to you, Fūsuke."

"Hoo."

When I petted its head, Fūsuke spread its wings and fixed me with those adorable eyes. How can anything be this cute? I finally understand the popularity of pet owls and owl cafés.

As for the experiment, I had previously asked Mamoru-san to send a test email at a random time within the next few hours.

I left my smartphone on my desk and went to the other world, taking Fūsuke with me. After teleporting to Bradley, I started running toward the coastal city.

When Mamoru-san’s test email arrived, Fūsuke returned to the Grand Mage’s house through the gate and pressed the button on a box identical to mine, which triggered the signal that called me back.

These two boxes were magical tools left behind by the Grand Mage. Each had a button, and pressing one caused the other to emit a loud noise.

According to the Grand Mage’s notes, the devices work over any distance. However, when I tested them, the signal didn’t transmit between Japan and the other world. That’s where Fūsuke came in, acting as a relay between the two worlds.

The Grand Mage had dismissed these tools as useless since they only produced noise, but by using a Morse code-like system, I realized they could transmit messages. This makes them a potentially national treasure-level artifact.

The boxes are powered by small shards of magical stone, which seem to hold a tremendous amount of energy. Now I understand why magical tools and stones are so expensive—they’re incredibly valuable.

Magical tools really are like the gadgets of a certain robotic cat. For instance, there’s even a tool that uses magical stones to produce water, which sounds incredibly useful.

In any case, having a means of communication between worlds is a huge step forward.