♣Me, Age Four

 

 

 

♣Me, Age Four

 

THIS world, Wisty Air, consists of 50% humans, 40% demi-humans (beastmen, elves, dwarves, and other races), and 10% Mythical creatures, like dragons and fairies. It’s divided into three continents. The biggest and central one is populated by mankind. To the east is the Mythicals’ homeland, while to the west is the demi-humans’.

As such, each continent is colloquially named after the race that populates it. Of course, the continents have their native names, but unfortunately, I’ve never heard anyone actually use those.

Among the humans and demi-humans, only heroic adventurers dare brave the Mythical continent. There was once a peace treaty between the human and demi-human continents, which enabled prosperous trade between the two lands.

But that all ended a few years ago when a country within the human continent adopted radical, human supremacist ideas. They professed to everyone—the demi-human continent included—that mankind was the superior, chosen species, and began an armed conflict to uphold their skewed ideals.

It goes without saying that this pretty much screwed everything up for everyone involved. Of course, being a child, I didn’t quite understand things fully… But I did wish everyone could just get along.

“Tina, can you go get me some poteitos from the field?” Dad called out to me from the kitchen.

“Okay!” I replied.

I threw the dust cloth I used to wipe the window into a nearby bucket, which I then carried and placed next to the counter. I worked in a bar during my past life. I’d also worked part-time in a barbecue restaurant, so I was used to scrubbing windows whenever customer traffic was slim. So long as I had a chair to stand on, this kind of work was easy-peasy for my “current” self.

Putting the bucket in its place, I stood on my tiptoes and turned the front door’s knob with my fingertips. Then I leaned against the siderail, climbing down each step carefully, and hopped down the last one!

Our field was diagonally right of our “house.” It was surrounded by a fence to keep out animals. I opened the gate, which I could do even with my meager strength, and went to the back left of the fields to pull up some poteitos—a vegetable similar to potatoes.

Looking around the field, I spotted some ciarorots, oniuns, and cabbages (all the same as I remembered them), and also letapods (lettuce-like vegetables), totomos (which were like corn), and timates (basically tomatoes), among other vegetables.

I was used to vegetables growing according to the seasons in my world, but things were different here. Here, there were seeds you could plant, and they’d grow fully in a matter of days. I thought it was pretty strange, honestly.

“Ah, I forgot to ask how many he needed…” I muttered to myself.

Thinking back, I recalled our guests for today were a group of four adventurers. Two men and two women… And if both men eat about five poteitoes, I should probably take ten to make sure there’s enough and head back home.

Deciding to do that, I jumped and caught a small basket hanging on the fence and placed some newly harvested poteitos. It was a bit heavy, but pulling it along was half the fun!

“A-one, two… One, two…”

I carried the basket into the house and placed it in the kitchen. This was a lot of physical labor for a four-year-old girl, but I was surprisingly strong. So this much was fine.

“Dad!”

“Aah, thank you, Tina. Ooh, you sure picked a lot.” Dad said, lifting the basket up with his left hand.

This was my adoptive father, Marcus. Apparently, he was a pretty amazing person who once climbed up to the rank of vice-captain in the knights of De Marl. The era I lived in during my past life didn’t have knights, so I couldn’t quite compare it to anything I knew, but I could understand he was a really impressive man.

Dad picked up a poteito and gazed at it with satisfaction in his eyes, before gripping it with the fingers of his other…prosthetic hand.

“Yeah! There are a lot of guests today, so I figured I’d get a bunch of them so they have enough to eat!” I exclaimed.

“Good on you, Tina. Thanks for helping me out.”

Oh, no, don’t mention it! This is nothing! I mean, you’re giving me food and shelter here!

But that said, there was a party of four adventurers staying today, but our inn—the Rofola Lodge—had six guest rooms. They were all built as little cottages, with four rooms for four, one room for five, and another for six. And today’s guests split up into two groups of one man and one woman, taking up two of our rooms for four.

In other words…we had vacancies.

And I had to wonder why. The road from De Marl to the port country of Fei Lu was a straight path forward, and we were one of the few inns located along that highway. Even if one traveled by carriage, the Rofola Lodge has a stable, and it’s an excellent locale to stop for a night’s rest in… The view’s nice, and the food’s great…!

Probably… I think…

Behind our inn was Mount Rofola, and the cottages looked out on Lake Rhiode. Our area’s natural features blessed us with a bountiful supply of fresh food from both the lake and the mountain. And we cultivated vegetables in our field. So, food wasn’t the problem here…right? In which case, why weren’t we getting customers?

“Dad, can I go to the study?”

“Again…? I don’t mind, but…”

“Then I’ll be reading in the study! Tell me when it’s time for dinner, okay?!”

“Ah, just don’t touch the magic books, got it?!”

“I know!”

Had I been a typical four-year-old, I probably would’ve spent more time playing without a care in the world.  I’d talk back to my parents and throw tantrums until I had my way. I’d get so absorbed in my playtime that I’d neglect my chores until my parents explicitly told me to do them. I’d probably be more…well, more of a kid.

But I still recalled my past life… And I clearly remembered this life since I’d been a newborn. And so, I couldn’t and wouldn’t act like a four-year-old.

I hopped up the steps to the second floor and opened the second door to the left. There I found a room full of piled-up books—my father’s study. I reached for a book I could reach at my height and pulled it out of the bookshelf.

I had to find out—I had to know what the “Mother” and “Father” who likely gave birth to me four years ago were trying to tell me.

Just what was the Stone of Daybreak?

The book I opened was full of names. Apparently, this wasn’t so much a book as it was a record of this inn’s history—of the many people who were patrons of this establishment.

Technically, this inn belonged to Dad’s parents. Last year, Grandma died… So while we were a family of four until then, we’re now a family of three.

Dad and Grandpa put their heads together to run this place, so I thought it’d be natural to repay that debt by doing my part around here! I couldn’t repay my mother from my past life for everything she had done for me, so now was my chance to fix that! The fact he wasn’t my biological father did bother me ever so slightly… But he still saved my life.

And that’s what I had to know. My real parents…and the Stone of Daybreak they mentioned. What did it all mean? What will become of me when it awakens?

I have to know…

If that power ended up being something bad, it could hurt Dad and Grandpa. And I hated the thought of that so much! I’d left my past life without repaying my mother for all she gave me, and that wasn’t the kind of person I wanted to be!

But even so, after another day spent in the study, I once again walked away with zero findings. Maybe I should ask Dad?

But it’s not normal for someone to remember things from when they were a baby, is it…?

In fact, the somewhat dubious statistic was that ten out of ten guests would raise their voice in surprise upon seeing me: “What, your four-year-old daughter is helping out with the inn? That’s amazing!” If I started acting even more suspiciously, it would end up hurting the inn’s reputation! I mean, if I saw a four-year-old help run an inn in my past life, my only reaction would be “Wow!” too.

But I was a grown woman on the inside, so I didn’t remember what being four was like. In fact, I couldn’t remember my name or how I looked before being reincarnated. Oddly enough, I could remember facts about my jobs and about Mom… I probably couldn’t forget due to those lingering regrets.

Out of my desire to repay Mom for everything, I decided to forgo college and instead looked for work. But I ended up overexerting myself and falling sick from exhaustion, only troubling her even more…

I then decided to change my attitude and moved out on my own, to not burden Mom anymore… But it ended the same way. I couldn’t handle multiple jobs, and the doctor ordered me to stop. So, I went back to Mom’s place, cut down my jobs to just two, and then…that bike crash happened.

It’s not fair! Who gave you permission to ride around with your lights off, you jerk?! I had a white coat on so I’d stand out at night, so how did you not notice that and crash into me?! What, were you on the phone or something?!

I was livid. Not only did that person ride around with their lights off, but they also weren’t watching where they were going! To hell with them! They got someone—namely me—killed!

I demand that bicycle licenses become mandatory from this day forward!

And, well, I got reincarnated with my memories intact, but… Why’d I have to end up in another world?!

“Ahh…” I sighed.

If I’m in another world… I…I can’t repay Mom for anything…

Mom…

“Tinaris,” a voice suddenly talked to me from behind.

“Ah!” I jolted and turned around.

Standing there was Grandpa. His hairline was clearly receding, but what was left of it was gray, as was his beard. He was, well, what you’d expect a grandpa to look like. Dad’s father…and the ex-proprietor of this inn. As of late, he’d always stayed on the second floor and hadn’t gone down to the inn. I think losing Grandma made him age that much faster and left him sad and spent.

Sadly, not being blood-related made it hard for me to innocently love him as my grandpa and happily play with him. I kept thinking to myself that had I been a normal four-year-old, maybe that wouldn’t be the case… Maybe I’d pay his sadness no mind and play with him blindly, pulling him out of his rut a little with my cheerfulness.

But I couldn’t act that way…or rather, I’d try doing it, but it just felt off! And Dad noticed I wasn’t being my usual self. “Don’t push yourself too hard,” he said, with concern in his eyes.

But it frustrated me. I wanted to repay Grandpa for everything, too, but I just couldn’t. What could I do to make him happy?

And as I grappled with that question and remained silent despite him calling for me, Grandpa simply squatted down to look at me at eye-level. My eyes locked with his kind gaze, leaving me confused.

He looked at me with affectionate eyes and patted me on the head. It felt awkward for me, and I didn’t know what to do, when…

“Tina! Dinner’s ready!” Dad called out to me from downstairs.

Grandpa turned his gaze downstairs and rose to his feet.

“Ah, G-Grandpa… Erm, do you want me to…bring you dinner?”

“Please do.”

He beamed at me, but I could only answer with an awkward, stiff smile. I headed in the direction of the stairs, but when I turned around to look at him again…

“G-Grandpa!”

I found him kneeling near the door, clutching his chest in pain!

“Grandpa! Hang on!”

“T-Tina… Kuh…”

“I’ll call Dad up! Daaaad! Come quick, Grandpa’s…!”

I could hear something falling downstairs, and Dad hurried up in a panic.

“Pops!”

Oh no… What do I do…?!

He’d been depressed ever since Grandma died, but… He was sick, too?! Why didn’t I notice when I’m living in the same house as him! How stupid could I be?!

“M-My chest…”

“Why didn’t you say something sooner, you stubborn oaf…?!” Dad complained, helping Grandpa to his room and leading me downstairs so Grandpa could rest. “I’ll call a doctor over. Tina, keep an eye on Pops, will you? And tell the customers we’re sorry, but we need them to check out as early as tomorrow.”

“All right!”

But even the closest country was days away by horse. De Marl was to the northeast, but the countries of Uru Ki and De Rurua were closer. Fei Lu was another big country to the west and was about the same distance from us as De Rurua. But on the other hand, Fei Lu was that much larger… Or so I’d heard…

“Dad, which country are you going to head for?”

“Fei Lu. A doctor there took care of me once. I’ll be back…in five days at the soonest. Can you manage on your own until then?”

I fell silent. After swiftly gearing up for the journey, Dad kneeled down to look at me. I’d probably look very cool and dependable if I could just say, “Sure, I’ll handle it just fine!” But…could a four-year-old like me really nurse an ailing old man? Cook for him, help him with the toilet…? I didn’t even know what his illness was.

It occurred to me that rather than waiting for the doctor to get here, maybe taking Grandpa to the doctor instead would be wiser… But we didn’t have a means of transporting Grandpa, did we…?

“…Right. Wait a minute,” Dad said.

“Hm?”

I wasn’t sure how Dad interpreted my pensive silence, but he got to his feet and went outside the house. After I stood there for a few moments in perplexed silence, I heard a few sets of footsteps climbing up the steps outside.

What? Guests at a time like this?!

“Tina,” Dad said.

“Um…”

“It’s fine. The guests said they’ll help.”

“H-Huh?!” I exclaimed in surprise.

“Hello,” a voice greeted behind Dad.

The adventurer party that was staying at the inn today walked inside. Two men, two women. Their leader was a young man. The other male was a wise-looking, middle-aged man. One of the women was a girl carrying a staff who looked adept at magic, while the other was a muscular, bulky lady who carried a large ax. Incidentally, the two of them had the same hair and eye color. Their facial features were different, but the air they gave off was similar. Maybe they were sisters?

They entered the inn’s reception room, which doubled as its dining room—and kindly smiled at us.

“Hi, I’m Gina,” the muscular woman said. “I hear you’re in trouble? We’ll stay with you for the time being, so don’t worry!”

“I’m Mina,” the other girl said. “A magician’s…apprentice, b-but I can handle magic. Erm, you know, stuff like starting fires. I can…manage that. I think…I hope…”

They did look like sisters, but…the younger one was apparently a magician? I honestly felt pretty anxious about her…

“A-Ahem!” The older sister, Gina, cleared her throat. “It’s fine. Mina’s just a bit awkward with her magic… Actually, her physical attacks are probably stronger, but she’ll learn how to do it properly soon…”

You’re not helping her case here!

“But all you need is someone to help you take care of the place, right?” the young leader ventured. “Don’t worry, we’ll do it! I’m Aaron, by the way!”

R-Right, but that’s a bit too easygoing, mister! Grandpa’s sick…

“We’ll handle the food, okay?” Gina offered.

“O-Oh, sure, you can use the kitchen. Take care of Pops and my little girl, all right? Y-You can cook, right?” Dad sounded as apprehensive as I felt.

“Yes!” Gina nodded resolutely.

“Y-Yeah… Gina can cook,” Mina said meekly.

“Bfwah!” As optimistic as he looked earlier, Aaron blanched at the sound of the (apprentice) magician’s words.

I guess that says it all, doesn’t it…!

The older sister, Gina, scratched her cheek with a bitter smirk.

“Well, my daughter’s got a good head on her shoulders, so I think you’ll be fine… But, uh, look after her. And if any customers show up, just explain the situation and refuse. I ought to be back in five days.”

“Got it! Leave it to us!” Aaron said on behalf of his party.

“By the way! Are you gonna pay us for this?” Mina asked.

“Pay you…? Oh, well, let’s make it so your lodging and meal fees are on me, all right? And you can borrow our fishing rods for free, so fish as much as you want at the lake out back.”

“Oooh!” Aaron and Mina’s eyes shined with excitement.

I guess this arrangement works? They shouldn’t have to take care of a child and an old man for free, so not making them pay for anything is the best solution for everyone.

I’ll have to be careful to not trouble them… After all, with Dad gone, I’m the only member of the household who can work!

Cleaning. Laundry. Taking care of Grandpa. Cooking…I decided I’d do anything I could. And also, washing dishes and collecting vegetables from the field… I couldn’t go hunt in the mountains for meat though.

Also, I’d need to clean the cottages and take care of the Ukokes (this world’s version of chickens) and Gigiyas (basically goats)!

“Everything will be all right, little lady,” the middle-aged man suddenly spoke up.

I jumped.

“Aaron and Mina are… Well, they’re as utterly useless as they look, but Gina and I can cook at least,” he finished.

“What the hell, Sirius?!” Mina and Aaron snapped at the middle-aged man.

Gina, meanwhile, cradled her head. Still, it was a festive party, if nothing else. After thinking things through for a moment, I looked up at them.

“All right, thank you,” I told the four and regarded Dad next. “I’ll be fine. Get a doctor to see Grandpa as quickly as you can… Please, be safe!”

“…Tina…” Dad frowned. “I’m sorry. I’ll be back before you know it!”

“Right!”

♣♣♣

AND so began my uneasy time watching over the house. Me, Tinaris, watching over the house by herself for the first time at four years old…! Granted, I wasn’t all alone.

It’s at this point that it’d probably be best to officially introduce the party members. Like I’ve said before, there were four of them—two men and two women.

Aaron was a swordsman. He had unkempt black hair and wasn’t incredibly handsome. My first impression of him was that he was something of a frivolous optimist. His housework skills were weaker than level 1. I couldn’t rely on him for anything.

Then there was the middle-aged man with grizzled, graying hair who carried a spear. His gestures were elegant and dignified, but in contrast, his gear was old and worn out from overuse. Honestly, he came across as a bit different from the other three…

His name was Sirius. He was very fit, and apparently, he was a former knight, just like Dad? But something struck me as oddly off about him…

Then there was the muscular woman, Gina. She carried a large ax on her back, had clearly defined abs and tanned skin. She gave off the distinct impression and feel of an older sister and puffed up her chest proudly when she said to leave the chores to her. I was relieved to know I could at least rely on her.

Last was the girl dressed in a cute robe—Mina. She held a staff, but I concluded she wasn’t actually any good with magic based on their conversation. Gina mentioned something about her physical attacks actually being stronger than her magic. Maybe she just took after her older sister, Gina, in that regard. Like Aaron, she was no good with chores…

Either way, I decided I’d be a good girl and make sure I didn’t trouble anyone while Dad was out. I wasn’t old enough to live independently quite yet, and if I was kicked out of this house, I’d have nowhere left to go. To that end, I figured I’d be better off learning some magic, if only for my future’s sake.

That was why I’d dug through Dad’s study for a book that taught magic, but…Dad had hidden them away, saying, “Ahaha, magic? No, that’s too dangerous, you can’t do that…!”

“Alrighty! So, where do we start?” Aaron asked.

“W-Well…Grandpa hasn’t had dinner yet…” I answered anxiously.

“Hmm. So those dishes over there are for us?”

“Yes, Dad said he made you food since you paid for the meal plan. Mine and Grandpa’s dishes are in the kitchen…”

“Then we just gotta carry those, right?! Leave it to me!” Mina exclaimed and briskly walked off.

“Ah! Wait, Mina, don’t just open it…!” Gina tried to stop her.

Mina crossed behind the counter without permission and went into the door on the left.

Ah, wait, over there is…!

“…Um, that’s not the kitchen… It’s the toilet and bathroom…” I pointed out wearily.

“O-Oh, whoops!” Mina apologized with a smile. “Then, it’s over here!”

It so happened that each of our cottages had its own private bathrooms. In other words, the bathroom behind the counter was for me, Dad, and Grandpa. There was a half bath on the second floor too, but the bathroom down here was the only full bath.

“So, where’s your Grandpa’s room?” Mina asked.

“Up the stairs, first door on the right,” I replied. “Ah, I’ll show you.”

“…You’re one dependable little girl.” She smiled at me. “How old are you again?”

“I’m four years old this year,” I answered.

“Four years old?!” Mina’s eyes widened. “Wow, you’ve really got a good head on your shoulders!”

“Aaron could take a page out of your book,” Sirius remarked, crossing his arms.

“Definitely!” Gina nodded.

“Wow, mean!” Aaron raised his voice in protest.

Apparently, that was this party’s power balance.

“Then let’s start by getting your grandpa some dinner. We’ll ask him if he can eat on his own. Is he still in pain?”

“I’ll go check!”

“Healing magic can’t cure diseases…” Mina said pensively. “Healing items do no good for it, either.”

“…It’s not like you can cast any healing magic anyway, Mina,” Aaron pointed out.

“Zip it or I’ll wring your neck like a ukoke’s.”

“ULP…!”

M-Mina!? That creepy, evil voice just now was her?!

“Mm, little lady, can you bring Mina and me to your grandfather?” Sirius asked.

“Y-Yes.” I nodded.

“Anything we can do for the time being, Sirius?” Aaron asked.

“I don’t think so, but for now, we’ll check on him.” Sirius shook his head. “Hopefully, it was only a momentary seizure.”

“Then, Gina and I will have dinner before you’re back! Wouldn’t want it to go cold, right?”

“…I guess eating sooner means you’ll be ready to work sooner…” Gina said, eyeing Aaron like he was some kind of pathetic creature.

…Having another pair of hands on deck is important. I can’t be picky right now! Anyway, let’s get Grandpa his dinner!

“Sirius, can you diagnose his disease?”

“Not at all. I’m an archaeologist, you know? How would I know anything about diseases! Ahaha!”

“Cut that out, you geezer… A-Ahem.”

After we entered Grandpa’s room, Sirius kneeled down and checked his pulse. He took off his gloves and did it so naturally, even I started expecting he might know what he was doing… He just looked the part of a doctor.

Sirius is an archaeologist, huh?

He did seem more intellectually inclined than the other three, so I was actually impressed. I didn’t know how this party came together, but some part of me wanted to ask. Anyway, Grandpa had his eyes open despite being in pain, so Mina cleared her throat.

“Are you okay, sir?”

“Ngh… Y-Yes… I just ran out of my medicine…”

“Medicine?”

I’ve never seen him take any medicine… I cocked my head.

Grandpa coughed dryly and started rubbing his chest. I doubted it was actually helping him in any way, though…

“Is it Severed Breath Syndrome?” Sirius asked him grimly.

“…I’m surprised you can tell…” Grandpa muttered. “Yes, I used to live in a country that was occupied by Edesa Kura… The research they conducted there made me develop this illness. And so my wife and I moved here to Rofola. I hoped the clean air would help.”

“Sirius, what’s Severed Breath Syndrome?” Mina asked.

“About fifty years ago, Edesa Kura exploited and forced the lands they occupied to develop a supposed medicine of some kind,” Sirius explained. “They used that drug without knowing what it might do, and it cost many lives. Those who didn’t die developed the same kind of illness as this gentleman. Severed Breath Syndrome is a rare disease that stops at a certain stage. Once one is afflicted with it, there’s no cure. There’s only one antidote available that can alleviate its symptoms. A core of Solemayu fruit boiled in dried Solan flower leaves.”

“Ah! So if we have that antidote, we can cure Grandpa?!” I asked expectantly.

“I’m afraid it’ll only relieve the symptoms temporarily, little lady.” Sirius shook his head. “A definite cure for Severed Breath Syndrome hasn’t been discovered. Solan flowers have been used in antidotes since ancient times and are mildly effective against respiratory diseases.”

So it won’t completely heal him…

Grandpa sunk back into bed, clutching his chest. He looked like he was in so much pain…

“…There should be Solan flowers and Solemayu fruits on the mountain! I’ll go look for them!” I said.

“Do it tomorrow, little lady.” Sirius stopped me. “It’s too late to go out today.”

“But…!”

“And besides, the Solan leaves need to be dried properly. That’s not something you can do within a day or two unless you’re good with alchemy.”

“Aah…”

A-Alchemy…

Alchemy was an art similar to magic. It used mana to transmute materials, fusing them together to create and refine matter. It was said that advanced users of the art could mix together materials to create something completely unlike the original ingredients.

Alchemy was created by humans, but only a select few people could use it in the larger nations. Ordinary people could use it to a very basic extent, but only experts in the craft had the advanced skills to actually create medicine. Demi-humans and beastmen were skilled with magic, so they hardly ever tried using alchemy.

…Wait, but it’s fine if I can just use alchemy, right?

“I think there were alchemy manuals in Dad’s study!” I exclaimed, hopping to my feet.

“Hm? N-No…Little lady, I don’t think you can learn alchemy just by looking at books and imitating what they say to do…”

“I want to do anything I can!”

Dad found and raised me, and this man is his father. Not only did he not object to Dad raising me, he even helped him! And now, after Grandma fell ill and died, Grandpa might die too!

I haven’t repaid him for everything he did for me! I can’t let him just die!

I knew alchemy was a difficult art to learn, but humans were better at alchemy than magic. And there should be a few elementary alchemy books in Dad’s study. I actively avoided those books until now. Some part of me always thought that if this world had magic, I was better off learning that than trying to pick up something as complicated as alchemy…

If I don’t open these books now, then when will I?!

♣♣♣

“THERE, I found them!”

I rushed into Dad’s study and then looked at the far right side of the third shelf from the top, where I found the alchemy manuals. Above them were books for beginner and intermediate magic.

So that’s where he hid them… Yeah, with my height, I wouldn’t normally be able to reach that high… Nngh…

But I was lucky. Dad being a former knight meant he had access to these kinds of books. He’d said that ever since he lost his arm, he was learning various arts in order to lead an ordinary life.

As improper as it was, I used the lower shelves as footholds to climb up and pulled out an alchemy manual for beginners. I hopped back down and squatted on the floor to open the book called Elementary Alchemy. It started with the very basics, such as the way the world was made up.

“O-Ooh…”

Wait, how the world is made up?! That’s where you start?! That’s going into some pretty deep territory, isn’t it?!

I chose to skim over that part.

Firstly, all living things are born with mana in their bodies. However, compared to demi-humans or Mythical Beasts, humans have a smaller capacity for mana. As such, humans have created the art of alchemy. Alchemy is capable of producing feats that rival magic while requiring significantly less mana to perform. By mixing ingredients together, one can produce entirely unique substances. This is most commonly used during cooking.

“Wait, cooking? Really…?”

Describing cooking as “mixing ingredients together” wasn’t wrong… The book claimed that alchemy was similar to cooking on a basic level. And that made me feel a bit stupid for being so taken aback by the prospect of doing it. I mean, if it’s like cooking, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it. Right?

The book recommended a simple healing potion as an elementary alchemy exercise. It required mixing water with one of three flowers—the Lilith, Duana, and Solan.

Oh, I think we have some Duana growing in the backyard!

“Ah! Where did the girl go?!” A voice snapped the thread of my concentration.

It was Gina’s voice. I picked up the book and hurried down the staircase, pretending to have not heard her shout. I headed outside and picked a couple of Duana flowers. I then went out to prepare the ingredients…

The book said to use 300cc of water and a Duana flower to create a simple tonic. I also needed a pot, a wooden spoon to stir the concoction with, and small bottles so I could preserve and carry the tonic with me. I got those by washing some empty potion bottles adventurers often threw away at the inn.

We had a habit of rinsing and drying those bottles, then selling them off to passing caravans for a bit of extra coin. Those empty bottles would later be sold to alchemy associations across the different nations, who’d refill them with new potions.

“A pot? What, are you going to start doing alchemy?” Aaron looked down at me with eyes that were clearly joking.

Still, I had to try. And it wasn’t like I was trying to make the cure for Grandpa right now; this was just practice! For tonight, at least. Tomorrow I’d head for the mountain and pick the Solan flowers and Solemayu fruit. Apparently, drying ingredients was considered basic prep work for alchemy. If I could successfully make the healing potion, then drying ingredients shouldn’t be too difficult either.

Of course, the book did mention that “…drying should be done while having a good grasp of the ingredients you’re working with. One must work while adjusting to match the ingredient, or the alchemy process may result in something different than what was intended.”

This’ll take some experimenting before I really get the hang of it. I better collect a lot of Solan flowers then!

“Oh, is that an alchemy book?” Aaron asked, glancing at the book in my hand. “You’ve got some strange things lying around. Wait… You’re really trying to perform alchemy?”

“Yes!” I nodded. “I…I might not be able to cure Grandpa, but if I can at least make it so he doesn’t suffer as much, I want to do it! I have to repay him for all the kindness he showed me!”

“Repay him…?” Aaron cocked his head quizzically.

“Ah, shorry, I need to concentrate. Can you keeps it down?” I asked him.

“O-Oh. Sorry?”

Perhaps because of being so small, I ended up lisping words every so often. Anyway, the book said to put the ingredients into the pot and transmit my mana into it little by little.

What does that mean? Mana?

That didn’t exist in my past life, of course. But I had to try anyway. I had nothing to lose, after all! This was just practice, anyway. I held my hand over the pot. I concentrated on pouring a bit of mana inside it…

I started churning the contents of the pot, as the book instructed. Slowly, gently. It said the pot should light up after a while, after which I was supposed to stop pouring in mana. The rest was just stirring the concoction until it had thoroughly mixed.

“Wait, for real?” Aaron gaped.

“You can actually do it?” Gina asked.

“Be quiet, please.”

“Y-Yes, ma’am!”

I poured in more mana and swirled the stick, stirring the concoction. I sent mana in, little by little, and indeed, a light began to shine.

“No way!”

“R-Really?!”

Aaron and Gina exclaimed in shock. All that was left was to stir the mix until it was ready.

Please, work…!

“Ah!”

Poof!

The contents of the pot lit up like a camera flash.

Ah, I can’t see… Did it work?!

“I-I can’t believe it…” Gina whispered, her face stern.

A light-pink liquid had formed inside the pot.

W-Wait, I did it? It worked? A success?

“…This is the same color as our low-grade tonics… She seriously made a tonic…”

“Th-That’s amazing! You can use alchemy?!”

“I-Is it actually ready…?” I wondered aloud.

“…Is this really your first time doing this?”

“Y-Yes, it’s the first I’ve made something with alchemy,” I admitted. “So I’m not sure if this tonic actually works…”

“Let me see.”

To my surprise, Gina took a small knife and nicked her own finger.

Aaaah! What are you doing?!

As I panicked, she took a spoon and dipped it into the pot, scooping up a bit of the tonic I made and applying it to the wound. The cut zipped shut immediately. It had healed her. In other words…

“It’s a success! You’re amazing, girlie! A genius!”

“W-Wow! But I thought alchemy tends to fail if you don’t know how to handle mana properly!”

“You’re definitely a genius! You just whacked that magic in there!”

“Yeah, like boom! Poof!”

“Yep!”

“…R-Really…?” I asked, bothered by their odd choice of words.

For whatever reason, despite being praised, the feeling that “Wow, I’m amazing” didn’t really register for me.

Whacked mana in there…? Boom, poof…? What does that mean…?

But either way, I did create the tonic. So with that in mind, I tried to dry the other Duana flower. The end result would probably be like a dried flower, but I needed practice for drying the Solan flowers tomorrow.

Before I did that, I put the contents of the pot into a few little bottles. As I did, I was surprised by the amount I produced. It looked like there was enough for three or four bottles in there, and indeed, there was just enough for three.

I guess it makes sense; these were bottles for the same kind of potion.

“Hey, little miss, just an idea,” Aaron spoke up. “Could you sell us these tonics?”

“What?”

“We just saw how effective they are. If you could sell them to us, it’d be a huge help. We’d understand if you wanna keep them for the inn, but… What do you say? Two hundred colts a bottle!”

“H-Huh?! That much?!”

Two hundred colts… Colts were this world’s primary currency. One colt was worth about one yen. Dad taught me how to calculate money, and apparently, there were four kinds of colt coins. Gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Each kind was respectively less valuable.

Iron doubled the value by one. In other words, one iron colt was worth one yen. Bronze coins doubled the value by ten, silver coins doubled it by a hundred, and gold coins by a thousand. There were apparently even higher value colt coins than that, but Dad hadn’t taught me about them yet. What metal would be more valuable than gold, though? Platinum? I doubted I’d find out the answer to that question anytime soon.

But all that was inconsequential compared to the reality before me. What was a little kid like me supposed to do with two hundred colts?!

“A tonic’s market value is two hundred colts. I don’t think it’s particularly cheap or expensive. What do you say?”

“E-Erm… B-But I just made it for the first time…” I stammered awkwardly. “I-I’ll, hm… You can have it for a hundred colts…”

“Ahahaha! That’s a bargain for us!” Gina smirked. “But really, no jokes… If that’s the case, give us some kind of work to do in return. It won’t feel right otherwise.”

“Oh no, I…” I was about to politely refuse when something occurred to me. “Actually, um, there is something…”

If they insisted on it that much, some part of me felt that maybe I should just take them up on that offer of two hundred colts, but Dad always told me to never go back on something I said. That was part of his credo as a former knight, apparently. But then he said, “Not like it’s convincing, coming from me! Ahaha!” which only just made it feel all the more convincing. With that man as my father, I couldn’t go back and change the price now.

Gina’s expression was so serious, so I decided to make my request.

“Then, could you go to the mountain tomorrow and collect some Solan flowers with me? There are wild animals living out there, so I can’t really go on my own.”

“Sure thing! That’s simple enough for us. Right, Aaron?”

“Yeah! Three hundred colts for three tonics is a great deal, and we even get to stay here for free! Wouldn’t make sense for us to not work for it!”

“Thank you very much!” I bowed my head.

All right! I’ve got bodyguards now! Now I can collect ingredients from the mountain safely!

“Then I’ll go practice drying,” I said.

“Drying?”

“Yes, there’s a medicine that can help with Grandpa’s disease. It needs a mixture of dried Solan flower leaves and Solemayu fruit cores. That’s what I want to make.”

“So that’s why you’re doing this, huh?” Gina wiped a tear. “Good on you… You’re a good girl…!”

Y-You’re exaggerating…

“Isn’t drying complicated, though?”

“Apparently not. The degree of dryness influences the mixture in the end, but the book said the process of drying itself is simple.”

“Really?”

Aaron peeked over my shoulder at the book as I flipped through it. The pages that dealt with drying said the process required a pot, a wooden spoon, and a cloth for absorbing the moisture. The method involved wrapping the ingredient with the cloth and placing it inside the pot, sending in mana like before, and then tapping it gently with the spoon over and over. Once the ingredient lit up, the process should be complete.

It felt simple enough for me after I’d managed to create a tonic. My only question was: how would I know how dry the ingredient ended up becoming? It was covered in a cloth, so I couldn’t see it.

Does the amount of mana I send in change the degree of dryness…? Mm… I guess it is elementary alchemy and still not quite for beginners…

“Uuu… Such a…g-good girl…” As I was pondering the process, Gina had been reduced to sobs.

“I’ll, er, go get a cloth…” I murmured, desperate to get out of her line of sight.

Is she drunk or something? Or just emotional and quick to cry?

The book said I’d need a thin cloth…and I quickly found something that fit the bill. A shirt that had blood stains on it, thrown away by some adventurers. I doubted anyone would mind me taking some old shirt that was going to be burned anyway.

I tried to cut out the dirty parts of the cloth, but my hands were too small to handle the scissors, so I asked Aaron and Gina for help.

“Aaron, Gina, can you help me with something? I want to use this part of the cloth. Can you cut it out for me?”

“Wait, what is this?!” they exclaimed at once upon seeing the bloodied shirt.

“Some adventurers who stayed here before threw it away. It’d just be burned with the rest of the trash either way, so don’t worry and cut it up!”

“Then, uhh, let me do it,” Aaron said.

He cut off the clean parts of the shirt. I took the cloth scraps and wrapped them around the last Duana flower left. I cleaned up the pot and placed the bundle on the bottom. I then poured in some mana and started tapping it with my wooden spoon.

Is it working…? If I open it, will the drying process fail? Wait, I didn’t read what happens if it fails! What if it explodes?! But is it okay for me to just stop halfway through?! No, enough! No more negative thoughts! Focus, focus! This is practice, so if I have to fail at some point, it should be now!

I kept tapping the bundle and spilling more mana into it, time and again. As I did, Gina and Aaron watched me work with quiet seriousness. And then, the cloth bundle lit up.

Prod, prod. Mana. Prod, prod. Mana.

“Ah!”

A light flashed from the pot. It was done… Hoping it would be nice and dried out, I opened the bundle of cloth. However…

“Oh, it’s…”

“Ugh. It looks rotten.”

“…It looks like I failed…” I hung my head.

Oh, well…I guess I can’t make everything work on the first go.

“It says, ‘Use a clean cloth’ here,” Aaron suggested, flipping through the book. “Maybe that’s why it failed?”

“Ah…You’re right…” I said, checking the page.

“Yeah, scraps from a bloodied shirt probably didn’t fit the bill,” Gina pointed out.

“R-Right…”

The book gave a hint: “Make sure to use a clean cloth. Using a cotton handkerchief or a gauze is advised.”

A gauze…like the one they use for first aid? Ugh, but I’m out of ingredients…

I’d already picked everything that grew around the inn.

“Oh, you guys are still awake?” Mina walked down the stairs, carrying a plate.

“How’s Grandpa doing, Mina?” I asked.

I looked at the plate, only to find the food was mostly untouched. Apparently, he didn’t eat anything…

“He said he can’t eat. Swallowing makes it hard for him to breathe, apparently.” She frowned. “Anyway, what are you guys doing? Why’s there a pot sitting on the counter?”

“Oh, yeah! Listen, Mina, this kid’s amazing!”

Aaron and Gina excitedly told Mina about how I’d performed alchemy and crafted a tonic like they were bragging about a younger sister or something.

I-It was a fluke, and it only worked because I had the right ingredients. Don’t hype me up so muuuuch!

“Wow, really?!” Mina gazed at me with round eyes. “Can you teach me how to do it, too?!”

“H-Huuuh?!”

“I mean, if I could just make us tonics, we won’t need to haggle with merchants anymore! If anything, it could even make us money! It sounds awesome!”

Wow. Grown-up greed.

“I-I’m sorry. I used up all my ingredients already…” I said apologetically.

“O-Oh… Oh, I see.” Mina dropped her shoulders in disappointment.

“We’re going to collect Solan flowers tomorrow,” Gina said. “Why not look for some Duana while we’re there, Mina? That’s what you need to make a tonic, right?”

“Um…yes,” I answered. “To make a low-grade healing tonic, you need Duana flowers. Solan flowers are for antidotes, and antipyretics need Lilith flowers… That’s what the book says.”

“Wait, you…you can make antidotes and fever medicine too?!” Mina asked.

“You can probably sell tonics and antidotes to adventurers, and most people need fever medicine. Why not start selling them?” Gina suggested.

“…U-Um…”

I don’t think they’ll sell…

We lived far away from any towns. Behind our house was the mountain, and ahead of it was the lake and our field. We were miles away from the highway. It was an odd place for an inn.

But of course, having the mountain and the lake a stone’s throw away was convenient because it offered a gorgeous view. And it meant we had plenty of nature’s bounty to live off, and we had fresh vegetables in our fields. So long as one ignored the fact it was a long trek to get here, it was a pretty idyllic place. Well, Dad’s cooking skills were probably average at best… I think. It was tasty to me, but “average” likely summed it up.

Anyway, if I could sell anything, it’d only be when a caravan stopped by. Maybe I could produce medicine, build up a stock, and sell it all at once… But I decided to think about it some other time. There were more pressing issues.

“…I’ll go check on Grandpa!” I said.

“Oh, all right!” Mina nodded.

For now, the most important thing was to make sure Grandpa got better. There were still five more days until Dad returned home.

Dad, do your best!

♣♣♣

THE next morning, I left Grandpa in Sirius’ care (who simply grumbled a “Hmph. Bothersome” in response) and went hiking up the mountain with Gina, Mina, and Aaron. I never went too deep into the mountain when I came with Dad.

The flower field where the Solan flowers bloomed was near the foot of it. It was a spot I’d been to often. If I recalled, Solan, Lilith, and Duana flowers all bloomed year-round, which was also true for vegetables… I had to wonder if this world even had seasons or if mana simply explained away all oddities.

“Whoa, this place is so pretty!” Mina exclaimed upon seeing the field.

I couldn’t blame her. All these flowers were beautiful. There were actually beehives scattered about in the trees, and bees collected nectar from all the flowers. The trees around here were cut for kindling and construction purposes, after which the stumps were removed. The ground was then plowed so these flowers could be planted.

If someone were to climb halfway up the mountain, they could find natural flower fields, unlike this one, but those were full of herbs. I’d like to see it someday, I thought.

“Hey, there are swings and a slide here too!” Aaron exclaimed.

“Oh…Dad and Grandpa put them up, I think,” I replied.

I always helped out at the inn, so I rarely had the time to assist with outdoor projects. It made me a little sad, but there was no one else left to handle the laundry and cleaning after Grandma passed away. Dad was bad at it to the point where I decided I’d be better off doing it myself.

I guess that’s not his fault. Doing it with a prosthetic arm must be hard…

We didn’t have too many customers, so it didn’t take too long for me to clean, but if we ever get a lot of customers, I couldn’t see myself keeping up… Though apparently, laundry was a cinch with magic. I wanted to learn magic because of that, but Dad said it’s really hard and dangerous.

“Wow. Hey, wanna swing for a bit?” Mina asked.

“Yeah, let’s!” Aaron was all for it.

“What are you, kids?” Gina asked. “Don’t forget what we came here for.”

“I-I don’t mind,” I said. “But, um, Mina, how do you use magic?”

“M-Magic?!” Mina looked taken aback.

She said she wasn’t very good at it, but she technically knew how to use it, didn’t she? So I asked her, but she only twitched nervously.

“Wh-Wh-Whyareyouasking?” she blurted out, each word running into the next and not making much sense.

“Erm, Dad said magic is a very hard tecthnique to learn,” I said, lisping on one of the words. “But you can use magic, right? So I wanted to ask.”

Mina fell into petrified silence.

…Wh-Why are you clamming up like that?!

“Uh, little miss, you need to understand that magic is difficult for humans to learn because we don’t have a lot of mana.”

“We don’t?”

“Well, uh, basically there are these things called Spherits… How do I explain it…? Well, basically, they’re like souls, and they’re the ones who actually create magic. Magic is done by offering them mana, I think? That’s how you do it. Demi-humans and beastmen can see them, but humans like us don’t have enough mana to see them.”

“Spherits…”

This really is a fantasy world… Like, sphere spirits? So magic is done by giving them your mana? That’s pretty cool!

But what they told me matched what the book said. People didn’t have a capacity for mana, so that’s why they invented alchemy. Thinking of it that way, alchemy was a crystallization of human wisdom… So while part of me admired magic, I felt like learning alchemy might be worthwhile, too.

But wait, that means…

“…So you’re bad with magic, Mina?” I asked.

“Ugh!” My question seemed to have physically wounded her.

“Ahaha… That sounds about right.” Gina gave a sardonic smile. “But humans can use magic too. There are techniques people can learn to rapidly recover mana, and you can carry stones called Spherit Stones to help with casting spells. Mina’s just a slacker, so she doesn’t practice enough. And Spherit Stones are really expensive…so she’s saving up for one right now.”

“Oh, so that’s why…”

No wonder she was so greedy earlier. But if that’s the case, why not just practice more?

“Hey, aren’t these Solan flowers?” Aaron asked, presenting me with a few flowers he picked.

“Ah, yes!” I nodded.

While we were speaking, Aaron went and picked the right flowers. I thought he was a useless bum, but it turns out he’s pretty useful!

I picked up the basket we brought with us and put the flowers in there, covering them with a cloth. We had collected about twenty flowers…which would hopefully be enough, even if I failed.

“Anything else we need to gather while we’re here?” Aaron asked.

“Yes, Solemayu fruit.”

“Oh, by the way, what’s your name?” Mina asked.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce myself…” I bowed my head apologetically. “It’s Tinaris.”

“Little Tinaris!” Mina exclaimed. “Okay, Tinaris, let’s take some Duana flowers too. You can make some more tonics, and we’ll sell them! Since the ingredients are pretty much free, we’ll just take a handling charge, but you’ll get most of the sum! They’ll sell for sure, so c’mon, let’s do it!”

“Cut it out, Mina,” Gina griped at Mina, grabbing her by the scruff of her robe.

“Awww! Come on, it’ll go well!”

“Sorry about her,” Aaron said with a sympathetic smile.

“I-It’s all right…” I muttered.

They were an easygoing group, that was for sure. But I really didn’t mind, since this wasn’t anything too serious. But with that money-oriented attitude of hers, maybe she was better off being a merchant than a mage…

Maybe I should actually learn from her… I mean, I am an inn proprietor’s daughter.

“Let’s go look for a Solemayu tree, then. You know where to look?”

“Yes, we use Solemayu leaves for cooking, so I’ve helped pick them every now and then.”

Solemayu trees were pretty short. Their leaves were said to have healing properties and were often used to apply fragrances too. Their aroma wasn’t very strong compared to other herbs, but they had a faint, vanilla-like scent. Its fruits were dark-red and small, about the size and shape of a walnut.

If I’m going to use their cores, I guess I have to split the fruit.

They were also as tough as walnuts, so splitting them was pretty hard.

“I think it was around here… There, that’s the tree.”

We left the flower field behind and climbed a bit higher up the mountain to where Solemayu trees grew. But on closer inspection, it seemed there were mostly only flowers blooming on the tree. Small, dark-red flowers similar to lilies in shape. This was a problem. I needed the tree’s fruit, not its flowers.

“There’s some fruit under the tree!” Aaron exclaimed, swiftly picking up a small fruit.

“Oh!”

Amazing! He actually had some talent for foraging! What a surprise!

“So, how many are we gonna need?”

“Um, as many as we can find…”

I didn’t know how long it’d take me to properly dry the Solan leaves, and Grandpa and Sirius didn’t tell me how much of the medicine we’d need. Having a lot of ingredients on hand couldn’t hurt.

“I hope you can make that medicine for your grandfather,” Gina said encouragingly.

“Me too…”

Can I really do it though…? I’m a kid who only started learning about alchemy yesterday… And I couldn’t dry the leaves properly…

I was anxious. The book didn’t have the recipe for the medicine Grandpa needed. Did I need to set it in water, cover it in a cloth, or maybe use another method? Maybe it didn’t require a pot and a spoon? What if Grandpa doesn’t know how to make it…?

“Ugh…”

No, I have to repay him for everything! He accepted me like I was his own grandchild! Maybe I can’t heal his disease, but I can at least make him feel well enough to eat again! I have to do everything I can!

I’d just have to ask about its traits, look for something similar to it in the book, and try my best to imitate the right way to make it. It might not be exactly the same, but it should be close enough! I hope!

“Let’s take this much and head back home,” Gina said. “Oh, there’s some Bimash here. Can we take some of that too? Maybe I can make some Bimash pasta for lunch.”

“Oh, sure. That’s fine.” I nodded.

That morning, Sirius had made us some soup and bread. Gina was going to make us lunch…which I was honestly looking forward to. But my first order of business upon arriving back home was to ask Grandpa about his medicine.

Wait for me, Grandpa! I’ll do it!

♣♣♣

BASED on what Grandpa told me, his medicine was a type of powder. He also scolded me.

“You performed alchemy…?! Don’t be reckless…!”

Ugh… Don’t look down on me just because I’m a kid! I’ll do it perfectly. Just you wait! I’ll pay you back for all the kindness you showed me; you’ll see!

“Whoa!” Mina took a surprised step back upon seeing what was coming.

We thrust a pile of books onto the desk with a thud. I’d asked Aaron and Sirius to bring them over. All the alchemy manuals in Dad’s study were for beginners, so I assumed looking for one that focused on powder medicine would be simple enough. Or so I thought, but once I actually started looking, I couldn’t find anything.

The table of contents didn’t list anything regarding powders. Maybe only the intermediate or advanced books dealt with those? Maybe one of the other manuals did? To that end, I decided to hit the books! Figuratively speaking, of course.

“Whoa… Tinaris, are you going to read all this?” Mina asked with a frown.

“Yes.”

“You should take a page out of her book,” Aaron told her half-jokingly.

“Put a sock in it, Aaron.” She glared at him coldly.

“Quite a surprise, though,” Sirius said, closely examining a tonic I made yesterday. “This little lady made something like this on her first try?”

“Yep, she sure did! Amazing, isn’t she?” Aaron boasted as if I was his own daughter.

Gina was in the kitchen, making lunch. I was at the coffee corner’s counter, leafing through the pages of a book with Aaron and Sirius standing around me. Mina was sitting here before I showed up.

Grandpa was currently resting. Sirius used some basic healing magic to relieve some of his pain, but…magic can only temporarily alleviate a disease’s symptoms. His breathing still came out in audible, pained wheezes.

Sirius held up a bottle of the tonic I made at eye level and rubbed his beard as if impressed. Was it really that unusual? Making it was easier than I thought.

“…Hmm, marvelous. You’ve got talent in alchemy, little lady.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Controlling mana is quite difficult for humans, since they have limited mana reserves. If you learn and practice techniques to recover mana, you could become a high-ranking magician. If you’re interested, why not consider going to Saikeorea? It’s a country of scholars. I have some acquaintances there and could write you a recommendation.”

“Wait, Sirius, what?!” Mina looked at him with her mouth wide open. “You never said anything like that to me!”

“That’s because you’re no good at magic, Mina,” Sirius replied coldly.

“You wanna say that again to my face, mustachio?!” she fumed at him.

“U-Um!” I said, talking over Mina’s protests. “I appreciate the offer, but I think that was just a coincidence…”

That was the only kind of medicine I managed to create, so being complimented that much felt wrong.

“Hehehe… A coincidence, eh?” Sirius repeated my words, regarding me with one eye closed. “I see, a coincidence… This was your first time, yes?”

“What’re you implying, Sirius?” Mina asked, still somewhat touchy.

“My appraisal spell says that this low-grade healing tonic is of extremely high quality. The freshness of the ingredients was no doubt a factor, but the mana used in its creation must have been quite pure as well. Little lady, I believe you’re ‘magician material,’ as they say.”

“The mana was pure…?”

What does that mean?

At my question, Sirius placed a hand over his chest and proudly explained it to me. In this world, Wisty Air, mankind worshipped multiple gods. But aside from them, the demi-humans worshipped someone called Saint Akari-Berz. It was said that in ancient times, she purified monsters and turned them back into normal animals. She had holy mana capable of counteracting the evil mana that polluted the monsters.

That…really sounds like something out of a fantasy novel.

The holy, primal mana was said to be lost today. Mankind needlessly created new religions, which created “unnecessary factors” that mixed into the world and changed the mana’s quality.

“B-But that makes the gods mankind worships seem like ‘unnecessary factors’…” I muttered bashfully, as if dreading to say the words.

“Yes, that’s exactly what it means,” Sirius confirmed.

Talk about being nonchalant!

“B-But…Dad always talks about the ‘Gods of De Marl.’ Are they unnecessary too?”

“All the gods made by humans since the time of Saint Akari-Berz, including the Gods of De Marl, caused the building blocks of the world, the primal mana…the Air, as it is called, to change. That made the Saint’s holy mana stop functioning, and because of that, any who are polluted by evil mana—humans included—cannot be purified anymore.”

I fell into pensive silence. Something that was there to begin with had changed and stopped functioning… New information made something old useless.

It’s like a software update ruining an old feature. So maybe there’s an update that can fix the holy mana function again?

“So if the holy mana were to adapt to the current age’s Air, we’d be able to purify monsters?”

“Wonderful! That’s exactly right, little lady,” Sirius praised me.

“I see…!” I beamed.

“Calm down, geezer.” Aaron pulled Sirius back by his shirt collar.

R-Right, Sirius is an archaeologist. Is this what he’s looking into? He explained it like a teacher and said he knows people in that scholar country… Maybe that’s his real job.

“Aah, my apologies.” Sirius broke into something of a sheepish smile. “But a girl of your talents is hard to come by…! At least, that’s what I think. That said, the purity of one’s mana is indeed quite important. You understand, yes? The quality of this world’s Air itself is degrading.”

“The quality of this world’s Air…? Huh? It’s degrading?”

“It is! It’s said that when a living being dies, the Spherits break its soul down to its core components. The body returns to the earth and the soul to the Air. Are you aware of the food chain in the animal world?”

“…Y-Yes, I’ve heard of it.”

Microbes decompose corpses to make the land flourish and grow vegetation, which is then eaten by herbivores, which are eaten by carnivores…which then die and are decomposed by microbes… I learned that in primary school.

“Hmm, just wonderful. I wish Aaron and Mina had at least an inkling of your intellect. Perhaps I should have them drink your bathwater.”

“Ick!” Mina moaned in disgust.

“Ahahaha.” Aaron gave a carefree laugh.

I didn’t like that idea, either. Adamantly rejected!

“But by the same logic, the Air makes use of those who live through the ages to sustain itself. Souls are reconstructed by the Spherits and are then placed into vessels of flesh once more… Ever so rarely, souls fail to enter a vessel, resulting in soulless flesh—what we call a zombie. Such zombies become seedbeds for the Primal Evil, Camilla, and form monsters.”

His jargon was becoming harder to keep up with…and we’d completely gotten off track. Weren’t we talking about mana purity? Still, I decided to hear him out until the end. Gina mentioned the Spherits earlier too. Lending them mana could produce magic.

Maybe they’re like a filter…? No, it sounds kind of different…

Sirius looked quite knowledgeable. I considered having him teach me for a while.

“Now then, here is a question for you, little lady. Souls are disassembled and restructured by the Spherits. What are the Spherits then?”

“Huh? Uh?! They’re like…nature spirits?”

It is a fantasy world after all… But them disassembling and rebuilding living things is pretty dark…for a fantasy world, at least.

“Ahahaha!” Sirius laughed at my answer. “Yes, it would be lovely if that was the case, but unfortunately, it’s isn’t.”

“R-Right…”

“Spherits are this world’s rules and providence. They cannot normally be seen, but they manifest as spheres of light when one uses magic. Hence, we dub them sphere spirits—Spherits. They break down the souls of the dead into the Air, and when living beings use magic, they take in the mana they offer. Once a Spherit is fully charged with mana, it converts that mana into a new soul.”

“…It’s like a shredder…”

“Hmm?”

“Ah, n-never mind. So Spherits have two roles?”

“Precisely! Your comprehensive faculties are exquisite. I would have Aaron and Mina drink of your bathwater.”

“…Please don’t.”

I did sympathize with Sirius somewhat. Aaron and Mina had grown bored of his explanation and, halfway through his lecture, had walked off to another corner of the room to play cards.

W-Why?! This is some big stuff he’s teaching me! It feels like you’d normally have to pay to get someone to teach you things like this!

“U-Um, Sirius, if people or demi-humans eexhaushtt…” I asked, slurring the word exhaust. “…their mana by using magic or alchemy, do they never get that mana back?”

“No, like I’ve told you before, there are techniques for recovering mana by taking it in from the Air. It takes practice, but it can be learned.”

“I see…”

“Now, let us return to the topic at hand. I believe you understand everything about Spherits now, so we can begin discussing mana purity.”

“Ah, o-okay.”

“This relates to the degradation of the Air itself. Like we’ve said, the Air uses the Spherits to decompose the souls of the dead and restore itself, yes? But what if the souls of the living were to be polluted…? Or, well, perhaps polluted isn’t quite apt. They are, in a manner of speaking, transmuted.”

“But, um, if the Air is only being changed or transmuted, isn’t ‘purity’ a strange way of putting it?”

“You truly are a genius, are you not? To realize this much at such a young age…! Once the owner returns, I ought to recommend he send you to Saikeorea as soon as possible…”

“N-No… It’s an interesting idea, but I’m only four years old. So…!”

He’d stopped treating me like a four-year-old! And trying to act like one now wouldn’t work… This was becoming more troublesome than I thought! I was interested in learning more, but it meant going to a land to the east. The far east, even. And this inn was close to the westernmost side of the continent… It’d take months to get there!

“But yes, describing the Air in terms of purity does come across as an odd choice. But the demi-humans, especially the elves and dwarves, use the way things were during the time of the Saint as their standard. Humans can’t sense the Air’s quality, but the demi-humans claim its purity is certainly in decline.”

“Humans can’t sense the Air’s purity?”

“Yes, they cannot.”

“But Sirius, you…”

Didn’t he comment on my mana’s purity…? Wait, so that means he’s…

“Hehehe. Your eyes are quite discerning. I am a half-elf. While I can’t see purity as well as a full-blooded elf can, I can sense it to some extent.”

“Ah! Really?! Wow! A half-elf! A child between a human and an elf!”

…The more I hear about this person, the less I understand what he’s doing in this party of ditzes!

“Humans care little for the Air’s purity, since they can barely use magic as it is… But to those who use magic, the Air’s purity is essential. Among mankind, some become capable of using magic through rigorous training. As such, these people sense that the Air is filled with ‘unnecessary factors.’ Even after using techniques for regaining mana, the rate with which it returns grows slower. There is, of course, research being done in Saikeorea into the cause of this… But many among the elves and dwarves are convinced this is due to the faith humans offer up to the vague, meaningless gods they’ve created.”

“Do you think so too, Sirius?”

“As sad as I am to admit it, I’ve traveled through the human countries, and the change in the Air’s quality is quite noticeable there. By contrast, in the demi-human lands, the degradation is much less noticeable. It’s believed this discrepancy is caused by the different gods being worshipped. Demi-humans, who harbor hatred toward mankind, vehemently claim that it happens because ‘Mankind has lost its faith in the Saint Akari-Berz’… But I personally think the question of what gods are being worshipped is inconsequential.”

“So you’re saying that people’s faith doesn’t have anything to do with it?”

“Because I believe gods don’t exist!”

Sirius punctuated this with a hearty laugh.

“But I do think the reason does lie with the so-called gods mankind created. By worshipping gods that don’t exist, they introduced unnecessary factors into the Air, changing its properties. That change resonates with the Spherits scattered across the land, making it spread into the Air all over the world… Now, I’ve gone on something of a tangent, but this brings us back to the matter of your mana’s purity, little lady. Do you understand what your mana being pure means?”

“Umm…”

The Air had changed in quality, but my mana hasn’t gone through that change.

Huh? So that means, uhh…?

“Maybe it’s because I’m still little?”

“That could be one reason, yes. But I believe the biggest factor here is your physiology. Even though your body takes in degraded Air, there is some kind of filter that keeps the purity of your mana from being tainted. You then used that pure mana of yours to create this low-grade tonic, which resulted in a high-quality product. That’s what I can surmise. But this brings up another problem. If all this is true, it means you, little lady, are a beacon of hope for the fields of magic and alchemy! Do you understand why?”

“…If I have some kind of filter that keeps mana pure, it could be rhesearched. And if that filter can be discoverbed, it can be used to remove impyurities in the Air!” I said, stumbling over a few of the words.

“Splendid! You truly are a little genius.”

“C-Cut it out already, you mustached geezer!”

Gina had appeared behind us with a pot in hand. She slammed the pot down and pulled out her ax.

Wh-Why?!

“How dare you trick an innocent child?! You want me to slice you into ribbons?!”

“Now wait here, Gina! I am merely telling this little lady what she can do for the sake of this world’s futu—”

“Slicing you into ribbons, then!”

“I’m sorry!”

Aaaah! If you have to do this, do it outside!

♣♣♣

“OKAY, now that our bellies are full… We can help you look into that powder medicine!” Gina offered.

“O-Oh, thank you!”

Wait, we?

As I wondered over that word, Gina grabbed Aaron and Mina—who were trying to escape the room—by their collars and pulled them back. Sirius volunteered to wash the dishes and wasn’t in the coffee corner.

I guess we’ll have to look without him!

“Aaah, nothing in these annoying books makes sense to me!” Mina complained after just a few minutes of browsing.

“Stop whining. You just have to look for a page that talks about powder medicine,” Gina snapped at her. “Besides, aren’t you supposed to be a prospective magician?”

“Powder medicine… Powder medicine…” Aaron chanted as he looked at another book.

“See? Aaron gets it.”

But he’s been stuck on the same page for so long…

“Maybe powder medicine isn’t listed in the beginner manuals…?” I wondered aloud.

The second book I checked didn’t mention anything about how to make them in its index. We were checking all the pages to be sure, but it was similar in content to the first book I read.

Sirius returned from washing the dishes and picked up a third book. This one was larger than the rest and was so heavy that turning the pages was a bit hard for me…

Where did he even find this huge book anyway…?

“Incidentally, you can read and write, little lady?” Sirius asked me.

“Um, Dad taught me how to read. I’m still practicing writing.”

“Hm, outstanding. Education is important. Very important. Extremely important!”

Sirius turned his gaze to Mina, who’d already grown bored of her book and planted her face on its cover, then to Aaron, who was still stuck on the same page as before. Finally, it settled on Gina, who was repeatedly flipping through the same book.

You too, Gina…?

“Don’t you know about alchemy, Sirius?” I asked him.

“I’m a half-elf, so I wield magic instead.” Sirius shook his head. “Alchemy is very much a human specialty.”

“…Why don’t the demi-humans use it too?”

“Well, magic can achieve most of the things alchemy can. Cooking and medicine are unique to alchemy, I suppose… But demi-humans mostly see alchemy as a degraded, inferior form of magic.”

“You can cook with alchemy?”

“Apparently. Well, I don’t use alchemy, so this is only based on hearsay… That said, most everyone seems to be in agreement that meals cooked by hand taste better. Even alchemists acknowledge that. It’s hard to ensure the taste when cooking with alchemy. I also hear that if the process fails, the results can be quite terrifying.”

“O-Oh…”

Dad only had one functioning hand, so I thought that I could lighten his load by cooking with alchemy… But the fact that there was no way of ensuring the taste was pretty scary. The thought of guests complaining after eating a screwed-up dish sent shivers down my spine. Suddenly, it felt like I got something different from what I signed up for when I decided to get into alchemy.

“…But alchemy’s better when it comes to creating medicine, right?”

“That’s true, yes. But demi-humans have very durable bodies, and they’re long-lived. By comparison, humans are weak and fragile. That’s another factor that contributed to alchemy’s creation, I believe.”

“I-I see…”

Elves were said to live over a thousand years, and dwarves had a lifespan of several centuries… And Dad told me beastmen were also more durable than humans and less susceptible to diseases. They had less need for medicine in general.

“Incidentally, little lady, did you finish drying the ingredients you gathered? They say making sure the ingredients are fresh is an important part of brewing medicine.”

“Ah… You’re right! I was so caught up in researching the recipe I forgot…”

Grandpa couldn’t tell me about how to make the medicine, so I became fixated on researching it. But after being told that the freshness of the ingredients was important, I decided I’d be better off drying them first.

I decided to ask our three bored partners for a favor.

“Hey, Gina, Aaron, Mina, I’ve got something to ask you.”

“A request? Ask us for anything,” Gina said.

“Could you crush the Solemayu and put their cores in this plate? The medicine requires the fruit’s cores.”

“Oh! Yeah, that sounds like our area of expertise!” Aaron grinned.

“Yeah, got it! Leave it to us, Tinaris!” Mina nodded.

“My word… Perhaps you’d be better off giving up on being a magician, Mina,” Sirius uttered in exasperation.

“Zip it, gramps!” Mina snapped back at him.

…I have to agree with him.

Of course, I didn’t say it out loud.

“Thanks,” I said.

Leaving the research to Sirius, I focused on the drying process. I looked into how to do it yesterday. The alchemist wraps the ingredient they wish to dry in a clean fabric like gauze. This time, I tried drying Solan flower leaves. Then, they need to be placed in the bottom of a pot, where the alchemist is to flow mana into it while prodding it with a spoon. Doing this extracts the fluids from within.

Yesterday, I’d failed because I used a dirty cloth, but I used a clean one this time. I concentrated, so as not to send in too much mana, and gently tapped the bundle.

Tap, tap… Mana… Tap, tap… Mana…

The cloth lit up, and when the light died down, I checked the result.

“Ah…I did it!”

I opened the bundle, revealing a bunch of dried, rustling leaves. I did it! It worked!

“Fantastic!” a voice boomed near my ears.

“Aagh!” I staggered back in shock.

It was Sirius! When did he get this close to me?!

“You really are a genius, little lady!” he exclaimed. “To think you’d successfully perform a drying recipe despite being a beginner!”

“N-No, it’s probably a fluke…” I murmured bashfully.

“And I have good news to celebrate your success.” Sirius smiled with a triumphant glint in his eye. “I’ve found the recipe for the powder medicine.”

“You did?!” I jumped off my chair.

I approached Sirius in a hurry, and he handed over a sheet of paper. It…wasn’t from the book.

“I found this stuck between the pages. Your grandfather or grandmother likely kept it as a memo. Apparently, they both had the same illness.”

“Ah… Thank you so much!”

“Oh, I can’t take any credit for this.” He shook his head. “It was stuck between the pages of the book you gave me. You very well could have found it yourself. But forget that. Hurry, you have medicine to produce, do you not?”

“Hey, we got the Solemayu fruit cores!” Gina showed up with the fruit cores in hand.

“Thank you! I’ll try making it!”

I didn’t have that many leaves to dry, but the required amount was two grams of dried leaves and two fruit cores. It required surprisingly little of both. The process required placing a sheet of paper in the bottom of the pot, upon which the ingredients were to be placed. However, the paper had to be Miha paper, made from the Miha root.

Aah! So there’s another ingredient!

“Sirius, do you know what Miha paper is…?” I asked him anxiously.

“Hm? I believe this right here is Miha paper…” he said, handing me a sheet of paper.

“But this is a paper towel…”

“Mm? No, this is Miha paper.”

“Ah! R-Right, sorry!”

So Miha paper is just paper towels…? I had it the whole time!

That said, paper—even just a paper towel—wasn’t exactly cheap, so Dad didn’t get it very often. But Grandpa’s life was hanging in the balance, so I decided I’d use it without any hesitation!

“So, I have to spread out the Miha paper…and put the ingredients on it. And then I send in mana…and squash the ingredients, mashing them together…”

I crushed the ingredients, grinding them together. In between grindings, I sent in some mana and then repeated the process. I assumed it would light up once it was ready.

Grind, grind.

“It’s not lighting up…” I commented after a few minutes.

“You sent in a lot of mana, right? The tonic yesterday lit up really quickly.”

“It probably takes some time for the ingredients to become a fine powder, and the more time it takes, the more mana it consumes,” Sirius speculated. “Alchemists who aren’t proficient with mana recovery techniques likely can’t hope to make this… I see that this is a more challenging recipe than we first suspected. This might actually be an advanced recipe only skilled alchemists can make.”

“Oh no!” Mina exclaimed. “Is Tinaris gonna be okay?”

“Go, Tinaris!” Gina pumped her fists. “You can do it!”

“Go, go, Tinaris!” Mina joined in.

I’d do my best even without you cheering for me… I have to do this for Grandpa.

I may have been a daughter who never repaid the debt she owed her mother, but I didn’t want to repeat that mistake in this world too. Grandpa always kept me at a distance, but…I couldn’t just let him die!

This inn became my home when Dad brought me here, and Grandpa and Grandma accepted me. I couldn’t repay my debt to Grandma, but…I could save Grandpa!

“…Such an astounding amount of mana…” Sirius muttered, looking into the pot. “Your mana capacity is extraordinary, little lady.”

“Go, go, Tinaris!”

“I’m sure it’s almost ready! Keep going!”

“You can do it!”

The other three cheered for me too.

Grandpa…yesterday, when you patted my head before you fell sick… Was that your way of saying goodbye? If so, then I’m sorry…I’m not gonna give up on you yet!

♣♣♣

“I can’t believe it.”

Grandpa drank the gross green powder I presented him with a cup of water while he pressed his fingers against the corners of his eyes. He then swallowed and took a deep breath. He placed the cup back on its tray and used his free hand to pat me on the head before saying, “I can’t believe you actually…made the medicine…”

“Yes, it is shocking. Your granddaughter is quite the genius, mister,” Sirius remarked.

“Yes, there’s no doubting that…” Grandpa said, overcome with emotion. “You’re a genius, Tinaris…! I don’t worship any gods, but I still want to pray and offer my gratitude for this miracle. Oh gods, thank you for sending this angel to my side… Aaah, I still cannot believe it…I can breathe well again…”

“Grandpa… Thank goodness…” I murmured in relief.

“Tinaris? Are you all right?” Gina asked me.

I didn’t want to admit it, but I felt very sleepy. Maybe it was because I used too much mana. At least, that’s what Sirius said… I started to understand why professional alchemists used mana recovery techniques for long periods of time while making potions.

I guess that’s why they’re… professional…alchemi…sts…mmph…

“Ah, she fell asleep.”

“I can’t blame her. She was pouring out mana for over thirty minutes. Sir, where’s her room?”

“In the attic. Turn right in the corridor, and the stairs should be right ahead of you. That’s her room… Please, carry her there.”

“You got it!”

…It feels warm… Is someone carrying me?

Rocking and swaying… It felt nostalgic. Like when I was floating in a river, rocking in the cradle of my very own little chamber. That was the day I remembered everything…

Right… Maybe Sirius knows about it…

The Stone of Daybreak.

What does it mean? I should ask him when I wake up… Mm…

“There we go… Really, you’re one impressive girl. My heart goes out to you! But for now…get some sleep. You’ve earned it!”

♣♣♣

It was the morning of the fourth day since Dad left to bring a doctor. Apparently, I’d slept through the whole day.

U-Ugh… I can’t believe a whole day went by…!

“Good morning!” I greeted everyone as I headed downstairs.

“Good morning, Tinaris.”

“Morning!”

“Oh, you’re awake.”

“Good morning to you, little lady.”

The adventurer party greeted me, all of them gathered around the coffee corner. But then I heard something sizzling in the kitchen. And something smelled yummy, too…

“Good morning, Tinaris. Did you sleep well?” a voice I didn’t expect called out to me.

“Grandpa?! Are you sure you should be out of bed?” I peeked into the kitchen.

There Grandpa stood, a frying pan in his hands! And there were six plates ready on the table, loaded with food. Breakfast for six.

G-Grandpa’s cooking…?!

He’d hardly gone down to the first floor over the last few months, and now he was cooking? And his bacon and eggs smelled and looked better than Dad’s!

“Going down the stairs is still a bit hard on my legs, I’ll admit… But, as the owner of this inn, I can’t let my guests handle the cooking, can I? Now carry these plates over. Just be careful; they’re heavy.”

“Ah, o-okay!”

I put the plates on a tray and carried them out to the dining area, where Gina welcomed me with a grin… Was she that hungry? When I put the tray on the table, she patted me on the head.

Ugh, stop treating me like a kid…

“Thank you,” she said.

“Whoa, it looks great!” Mina exclaimed with a smile.

“Your Grandpa’s a better cook than the innkeeper!” Aaron said, his mouth already full.

You’re eating already?! Wait, is it really that good?

I had a feeling that was the case, but Dad really was average at best when it came to cooking… Honestly, he always cooked the same dishes too. It wasn’t his fault, given his arm, but it made me think that I ought to help him out with it once I got older. But then again, I also had my hands full with the laundry and cleaning.

Then again, considering the size of our inn, having just Dad and me as the only workers here felt wrong… Though we made do just fine because we didn’t get that many customers. Some days, we didn’t get any customers at all. We could live off the land, making money a non-issue, but what’s the point of running an inn then?

No, this isn’t good… We have to do something about it!

♣♣♣

“LITTLE lady, if I may make an offer?” Sirius approached me.

“Y-Yes?”

We didn’t usually eat breakfast with the guests, but Gina said, “Join us!” So Grandpa and I decided to eat together with the adventurers in the dining area that day. We took some bread and dipped it in the soup. It was then that Sirius lifted up his index finger and proposed that I learn the “mana restoration technique.”

“I’ll do it!”

“An immediate answer. Splendid! I should have a certain magician apprentice drink your bathwater.”

“I-I’ll throttle you, you old coot!” Mina glared daggers at him.

“But Sirius, don’t they teach this in the national colleges?” Grandpa asked with a frown. “We don’t have that kind of money…”

“Ahaha, you’ve nothing to worry about, Owner. Your granddaughter is a genius!” Sirius said merrily. “You should come to my homeland, the Elven Empire of Forestria! I would love to accept her as my son’s wife! And that much would be an investment!”

Everyone present glared at him with cold silence.

“…Mm?”

Gina drew her ax and aimed at his neck.

Ah, wh-what…? Did Sirius just drop a bizarre comment…?

“Sirius, you have a son?!” Aaron exclaimed.

“That’s the first I’ve heard of it!” Mina joined in, shocked.

“Forget that, you two!” Gina said furiously. “This creep just said that he wants to have Tinaris marry his son! We should beat the stuffing out of him!”

“Ah! Y-You’re right!” Mina said stiffly. “Trying to take such a money-mak…I mean, cute little girl for yourself is awful!”

“Hey Gina, I think Mina just called her a money-maker.”

“Miiiiiiiiina?”

“Eeek!”

Ooh… Chaos is brewing…

“Hmm…” I said awkwardly. “I’m sure your son has his own feelings too… I’m sorry, but…”

“Don’t worry, my son is still in his fifties. My wife is a high elf, so while he’s fifty, he’s still a thirty-year-old boy at heart. He should come into his own by the time you become an adult.”

“Okay, go out back, Sirius. I’m punching you,” Gina threatened, sticking her tongue out at him. And as adorable as that gesture was, her words oozed with danger.

In my past life, I never had a boyfriend… I was a plain, hard-working girl. It wasn’t like I was into weird niche hobbies or dressed differently, but my classmates did tell me my nickname was “emo girl” back in middle school.

I looked into the term and found it meant a gloomy girl who was doomed to be perpetually single. I didn’t think of myself as “gloomy.” At worst, I just liked reading and studied a lot, but that didn’t mean my personality was particularly anti-social. But my class was full of gaudy girls, so my personality just didn’t fit as a matter of course.

Given how shallow those girls were, they probably just heard the term “emo” somewhere and tossed it around without really knowing what it meant, and I didn’t let what they said get to me too much. It wasn’t like I would have to put up with their presence my whole life or anything.

But what I was trying to convey through that entire story was that… Jumping from never having had a boyfriend to being suddenly offered an arranged marriage felt like too much of a leap. Sorry, Sirius.

“Hmm, but it’s not often that one runs into such a bright girl. Do consider my offer seriously.” Sirius nodded sagely.

“Why did your stupid offer become the topic here? Weren’t we talking about mana recovery techniques?” Aaron cut in.

Nice, Aaron! Right! That’s the topic! But if he’s going to insist that I marry his son for him to teach me… I’ll just have to give up on it!

“Erm… But if I don’t marry into your family, you won’t teach me?”

“Indeed. So do consider it carefully.”

Really? Seriously?

He did say “Consider it carefully,” but I didn’t even know what kind of person his son was…

“I-I can’t! I don’t even know what kind of person he is!”

“Right you are! Then I’ll send my son a letter, telling him to visit you… Though it’s hard to say when he’ll get here.”

“H-Huuuuuuh?”

I get the feeling an elf’s sense of time was a bit different from a human’s… And Sirius did say elves have longer lifespans, so if I marry an elf, I’ll probably die before he does…

Wait, I’m actually considering it seriously! No, it’s not like some part of me was actually thinking I might get my first boyfriend here! Really! I’m four; he’s fifty! That’s a no-go! A deal-breaker! He might look young because he’s an elf, but that’s morally wrong!

“Then, what will you do? Will you meet my son?”

“I, er, if it’s just meeting him…”

“Very well! Then I’ll teach you the mana restoration technique. Now, a fair warning, almost only one person in every country can actually work and do other things while performing this technique. Do be prepared for that, Little Lady Tinaris.”

“…Ah, yes! I’ll do my best!”

If learning that means I can make Grandpa’s medicine without passing out, then I’ll do it! Just you watch!

♣♣♣

THE next day, Dad returned home. Rob, the family doctor, came with him and gave me a lot of vaccine shots while he was here. I understood they were important too. But Doctor Rob only gave Grandpa several months’ supply of medicine and firmly warned him to come for a checkup in his clinic in Fei Lu before the prescription ran out.

Seeing Grandpa shrink at the doctor’s admonishments was a bit sad to watch, but…it was kind of cute too.

And the next day…

“I’ll be going back to Fei Lu today. Adventurers, I appreciate you escorting me home,” Doctor Rob said.

“No problem, doc!”

“It was a long stay, but it was fun! Take care, Tinaris! We’ll come to visit again sometime!”

“Yeah, stay safe! We’ll definitely drop by again.”

“Yes, you all take care too. Thank you for everything,” I thanked the adventurers.

They were all a great help to me, but especially Sirius, who taught me the mana recovery technique. It involved focusing on the Air in the area and taking it in. I tried doing it, and indeed, the Air seemed to be constantly all around us. Taking it in was simple, but doing it while performing alchemy really was difficult. I could understand why it took so much practice.

“Owner, Master, I have something to ask you two,” Sirius spoke to Dad and Grandpa.

“What is it?”

“I hear the Rofola region is home to some ancient ruins. Do you happen to know where they might be?”

“Ruins…?” Dad rubbed his chin. “I haven’t heard anything about any ruins around here… Do you know something, Pops?”

“I hear there’s an old well at the peak of Mount Rofola… Maybe that’s what you mean?” Grandpa suggested. “Some people did come to investigate it before, but all they said is that it’s just ‘an old, dry well.’”

“All they discovered was one dry well?” Sirius asked.

“That’s what they said. Apparently, long ago, a Mythical Creature grew enraged, lifting up a slab of earth and forming it into this mountain,” Dad said. “I’ve tried using this as a rumor to attract more customers to the inn, but I don’t really know if it worked.”

“But you’re in the business of investigating things like that, yes?” Grandpa asked. “If you don’t believe other people’s assessments, maybe you ought to check it for yourself. I should warn you that Mount Rofola is quite precipitous, and the climb is quite difficult. If you intend to make it, you should prepare.”

“Thank you for your advice, Owner.”

“C’mon, Sirius.” Aaron waved at Sirius from the door.

I walked out to the terrace as well to see them off. I didn’t quite hear what Sirius was talking about with Dad and Grandpa, but I could hear it was something about Mount Rofola…

“Now then, little lady, don’t neglect your training. And I hope you will greet my son auspiciously when the time comes!”

“…R-Right…”

That’s what you have to say before you leave?! Sirius, why do you have to be like…that, all the time?!

♣♣♣

AND so my long period of watching over the inn ended, and I started practicing the mana restoration technique while mixing tonics in the pot. Doing both at once really was a little too hard on me, though…

“Well, whack me over the head and call me an ukoke, you really did make a tonic…” Dad muttered.

The pot flashed, signaling the process was complete, and I started pouring the faint pink tonic into bottles. Dad picked one up and said that while rubbing his chin. He examined it from a few different angles and then shook the liquid inside it.

“Appraisal…” he said, activating his magic. “Hm. It’s definitely a tonic, and its quality is good… On the market, something like this would cost 230 colts…”

“You can tell that much, Dad?!”

Sirius used appraisal magic, but apparently, Dad could use it too, despite claiming he was terrible with magic.

“Well, I was a knight once. I couldn’t afford to waste money on counterfeits, you know? Hm, but wait… This purity… I can see why that old guy recommended I send you to Saikeorea.”

“R-Really?”

Even Dad seemed to think I had talent. And I was interested too… Studying in the land of scholars. But it was so far away. I couldn’t go there when we needed to run the inn.

“Maybe we should close up the inn and move to Saikeorea?” Grandpa suggested.

“Pops?! H-Hey, isn’t that a bit…” Dad’s eyes widened in shock.

“W-We can’t do that!” I stammered.

Grandpa and Grandma tamed the woods around here to make the Rofola Lodge! We couldn’t just close this place on a whim. True, we didn’t get a lot of customers, but Grandma’s grave was here!

“Ahaha, well, we’re hardly getting any customers, given the location… I’d much rather see my smart little granddaughter grow up to become a distinguished alchemist in Saikeorea.”

“I can’t…”

It wasn’t that I wanted to become an alchemist in particular…! Though, admittedly, being told I had talent made me happy. And capitalizing on that talent sounded terrific.

But I…

This blue lake. The field with its green leaves. The winding forest. The lush hills and mountains. Travelers who waved goodbye, promising they’d come again. And the graves on the other side of the lake. One for Grandma, and one I didn’t know.

We were gonna cast all of this away and move to a different country? Just for me?

“W-We can’t!” I exclaimed.

“Oh my…” Grandpa said.

“Grandpa, I can study anywhere! I love living here, so I can just practice here!”

“Tina…” Dad said.

Could Dad find a job in a country of scholars with just one arm? And Grandpa had his respiratory disease. Living in a pretty, pastoral land like this one would be much better for his health.

I decided to return the favor for everything they did for me. To them, and to that Mythical Beast who saved me… I’d decided I’d go looking for him when I got older. But that’s only when I got bigger—until then, I’d repay all the debts of gratitude I could. That was my motto!

“If we’re not getting any customers, let’s call them here!”

“Are you serious? Tina, we can’t just call people…” Dad explained.

“The low-cal ish a bit off the bitten path,” I said, slurring my words in my attempt to appear serious and smart. “But maybe we can come up with something…like a sign!”

“A sign… Now that you mention it, we don’t really have any signs to show the way here from the highway. Newcomers can get lost on the way here… But if we get more customers, we won’t have enough hands to run this place.”

“Ugh…”

He was right. That was definitely an issue. Dad had a prosthetic arm, Grandpa’s body wasn’t well enough to work, and I was a kid.

“Mm…Marcus, maybe you should teach Tina how to use magic,” Grandpa suggested. “You can use some magic, so I think she might be able to do it too.”

“Teach her magic?!” Dad furrowed his brows. “Magic, eh…? But it’s dangerous if it fails. Even a simple spell can cause an explosion and hurt other people.”

“There’s no telling how it’ll go until she tries. Tinaris made an advanced alchemy recipe…and I think we can have faith in her talents.”

“Pops…”

Magic… Magic! I wanna learn magic!

“Dad! I want to learn magic!”

Dad fell into silence, after which he said, “…Fine. I’ll teach you some simple magic. But I’m more trained in combat magic. There’s a lot of spells I can’t teach you. And if you don’t understand something or feel like you’re in danger, I want you to quit at once.”

“Yes!”

At age four, I, Tinaris, learned basic alchemy and the mana recovery technique! And now I was about to learn magic!