The Water Bowl Who Turned Down the Crown

Naoto woke up as a sacred water bowl and nearly laughed at the joke, until he realized the bowl could tell when a spring was lying. His old life as a water quality specialist had ended with one last perfect check, and that finished feeling sat in his chest like a stone. Now he was trapped in a magic academy, watching people praise clean wells while he tasted mud, ash, and fear in every cup. The sealed talisman in his niche kept reacting to him, and that made him deeply uneasy. Naoto wanted a place where his work mattered. He got one, and it still did not fill the empty space left after victory. The only thing worse was how naturally everyone leaned toward him, as if the bowl itself had decid...