Isekai de “Kuro no Iyashi Te” tte Yobarete Imasu (LN) Vol 1 Chapter 3.3

Chapter 3.3
Chapter 3 Coltea

Part 3   The next day, c.u.mont and I met by the city gate at the Morning Bell and we decided to go to gather the materials together. Our destination was the eastern gra.s.slands. Since the gathering site of the Macacari Leaf was by the riverside, the foothold would be very bad for two people who have never fought together before. That's why we decided to head towards the eastern gra.s.slands once more and try to practice combat combinations before braving the riverside. c.u.mont, of course, was bringing his horse with him.
c.u.mont and I exited the city together. I also place a 『Protection Membrane』 onto the horse. We would be fighting together all day, after all. In addition, since he let me ride his horse, this was the least I could do in return. However, I didn’t set a really powerful barrier like what I did back in Camiazure. For today’s purposes, a relatively light barrier will do. It doesn’t mean that I don’t trust c.u.mont, I just don’t want to stand out.   「Wow, magician is really convenient to have.」(c.u.mont) 「Indeed.」(Reene)   Then, I activated 『Search』.   「Ah!」(Reene) 「What’s with the sudden yell?」(c.u.mont) 「Ah, sorry, it’s not important.」(Reene) 「Did you forget something?」(c.u.mont) 「No, it's not. It’s not a big deal.」   I was surprised. 『Search』was…… it displayed c.u.mont as a blue marker. I guess that allies would be marked in blue. Since I was travelling together with Van-san and the others, I never activated 『Search』, so I didn’t notice this until now. I see. How easy to understand. “Well, shall we go?” c.u.mont mounted his horse with a leap and then presented his hand to me.   「Sit behind me.」(c.u.mont)   He pulled me up and then I mounted the horse behind him. c.u.mont was shorter than Van-san and the Knights, so if I was sitting in front of him, then it would have been hard for him to see. I carried my bag on my back and circled my hands around c.u.mont’s belly. It was a bit scary because I had a narrow field of vision when riding a horse like this, but if I clung at his back, then I would be safer. Because c.u.mont wasn’t wearing a hard armor like a knight, but a leather armor instead, it didn’t hurt even when I collided against it. Since both of us were wearing thick clothes, I also didn’t worry about my chest hitting his back. We didn’t want to do any “kyakya” “ufufu”, after all.   「Here we go. Make sure you hold on tight.」(c.u.mont) 「Un.」(Reene)   It was much better travelling this way than by using 「Acceleration」. Perhaps it would be better to go with 「Tan-kun」, but I won’t demand for any luxuries here. We came to the gra.s.slands in about half an hour and we didn’t even encounter any monsters on the way. Since we exited the gate as soon as it was open, it was still early in the morning. The light mist that covered the gra.s.slands kept it moist as it was still a bit wet from the morning dew. When c.u.mont parked the horse, he attached a monster repellent magic tool to the horse and then released it. It didn’t work for strong monsters, but it could repel low level monsters. I was worried that it would run away, but since it was a tamed horse, it seemed that it would be fine. If we wanted to go home then, then we could call it by whistling and it would return to us immediately. What a clever horse.   「Then, shall we start to gather 『Cat’s Flower Stalk Gra.s.s』 separately? Let’s not be too far from each other. Also, I’ll leave all the Killer Bees to you. For the Poison Cats, we will fight together, okay?」(c.u.mont) 「Okay, let's do our best.」(Reene) 「Yeah.」(c.u.mont)   And so, we started to gather 「Cat’s Flower Stalk Gra.s.s」 while making sure we weren’t

too far from each other.   ―― Noel ―― Help? ――   Noel asked from the shadows. It’s fine, thank you……sorry. I can’t take you out because c.u.mont was with me. Last night, I had spent a lot of time with Noel at the inn. I tried to give it a bath, but Noel didn’t stink like an animal at all. It looks like that any dirt on it would disappear through simply entering my shadow, so his coat stayed glossy. I had been told that for his meals, he only needed the mana that filled my shadow, but that doesn’t mean that he couldn’t eat anything else. The food that he ate using his mouth would be converted into mana inside his body and be absorbed. It seemed that it was usually more efficient to obtain mana directly, so he deliberately didn’t eat anything. He had been eating the mana from the defeated monsters until now. By the way, he also didn’t need to go to the toilet. The structure of his body is different from a Human’s. Even so, this doesn’t mean that all of the Magic Race was also like this. There were some members of the Magic Race who ate normally, and there were others who used mana as their nourishment. Then, was there a digestive organ inside their body? Do they still have organs even when they don’t use them? As expected, as a Healer, I was a bit interested in this matter. If, for some reason, Noel got sick, I wouldn’t be able to cure it if I didn’t know how his body works. I continued to ponder while gathering gra.s.s for about 30 minutes, when red markers appeared. They were Poison Cats.   「c.u.mont!」(Reene)   When I called him, c.u.mont also noticed them immediately. There were three Poison Cats. If it was only three, then I could one-shot them all with my magic, but I mustn’t defeat them all. c.u.mont's share would disappear. I decided to attack them one by one unless the situation became dangerous. Noel was going to jump out from the shadow, so I say, “It’s fine, so please remain in the shadow”, to calm him. c.u.mont said 「I leave the right one to you」as he leapt upon the leftmost Poison Cat.   「Un, 『Fireball』」(Reene)   I quickly defeated one Poison Cat. c.u.mont also had defeated the left Poison Cat with two attacks, and then he turned his blade and cut at the one in the middle with his sword. However, the smallish sword only made a shallow wound and it gave the Poison Cat a chance to counterattack. I panicked when I saw the Poison Cat swoop down on c.u.mont. If he was bitten by it, then the poison will……   『Fireball』(Reene) 「Uwaa!」(c.u.mont)   c.u.mont, who was trying to parry the Poison Cat’s attack with his sword, was surprised at the flame that was burning in front of his eyes and fell backward as a result. I was also surprised. Did I mess up? I shouldn’t have hit my ally with magic when we were fighting together. “There might have been a possibility that it would hit my ally! I am such a fool!” or so I had thought. But, even though he was really close to the burning Poison Cat, c.u.mont was unharmed.   「……Does my attack magic not affect allies?」(Reene) 「Don’t ask me that!!」(c.u.mont) 「I'm sorry…… This was my first time fighting together with other people. I'm glad that you weren’t hurt. I'm really sorry.」(Reene)   I see. Just like I had made it so that there wouldn’t be any burn marks on the gra.s.sland even when my magic flames were burning, the attack wouldn’t affect my ally.   「Geez…… Well, I guess you panicked since I was about to be attacked. You saved me from trouble.」(c.u.mont)   c.u.mont said these words as he took the core of the Poison Cat that had collapsed down in front of him, and with a “Here”, he threw it to me. I didn’t have the skill to catch it stylishly with one hand, so I hastily cupped my two hands to catch it. Seeing my actions, c.u.mont was needlessly exhausted.   「Out of the three, I had defeated two of them. I'm sorry. I will leave the rest to c.u.mont.」(Reene) 「Okay, then how about if we take turns?」(c.u.mont)   While saying this, he was cutting up a Poison Cat in front of his eyes.   「I-I’ll pick 『Cat’s Flower Stalk Gra.s.s』 over there!」(Reene)   I decided to search for 「Cat’s Flower Stalk Gra.s.s」 a bit away while trying not to look at what c.u.mont was doing. Even if I was slightly away from him, I felt safe since there was a blue marker within the Search range even when I couldn’t see him. Yes, having an ally is nice. Midway, we took a lunch break and brought out our respective lunches. Since c.u.mont was with me today, so I took out my bento from my bag. Naturally it had become cold, but it would be strange to show a still puffing hot bento in front of other people. Still it was sufficiently delicious. 「Red Long Boots Inn」’s dishes were also very delicious. While we were eating, c.u.mont taught me about many things, such as the river with the Macacari Leaf. I was told that, “Because it was a riverside with slippery footing, you are surely going to fall”, but I couldn’t refute it. Darn. I’ll be careful. If I really fall, then c.u.mont will absolutely laugh at me.   ✦✧✦✧✦   So far, it had been a smooth sailing ever since our lunch at noon. Killer Bees also appeared. 「Because I won’t join, just finish them off in one attack」, was what c.u.mont told me, so I defeated them all at once with『Freeze』. I then asked c.u.mont to collect the stingers just like we had arranged before. An individual Killer Bee bounty was one piece of Copper coin. A Killer Bee wasn’t that strong individually, but since they came in a swarm, it was troublesome. Of course, I didn’t want to see c.u.mont do the ‘collection work’, so I will search for 「Cat’s Flower Stalk Gra.s.s」 away from him. Because c.u.mont had been working on them in my stead, the time for him to search for 「Cat’s Flower Stalk Gra.s.s」 had decreased. That's why I thought that I ought to gather more of it. In order to remove the feeling of unfairness about that, I suggested that I will incinerate the Poison Cat corpses that c.u.mont had defeated. Even if the carca.s.ses were incinerated, their cores would remain. It was easier to retrieve the core from an incinerated carca.s.s than from cutting the corpse open. Also, if you scratched the core just a little bit while dissecting the corpse, it will be worth less and the Guild won’t even buy them. Of course, my cores had no scratches at all. The gathered stingers were stored in my collection box. I don’t want to touch them, so I’ll let c.u.mont take them out when we went back to the Guild. Afterward, every time Poison Cats appeared, c.u.mont would yell 「One and Two」, 「Two and One」, 「One and One」. If they appeared when we were away from each other,  the ones closer to them would defeat them alone.   「We had gathered a lot.」(c.u.mont)   c.u.mont spoke this as the sun was sinking in the west sky and then he whistled. With a galloping sound, the horse came from the other direction. We had been in this place all day today, but the horse had been staying around this place without leaving the gra.s.slands. The monster repellent magic tool is really useful. Poison Cats and the like couldn’t approach and if a stronger monster appeared, the horse would realize and properly escape. Just like how we traveled this morning, c.u.mont pulled me up to mount the horse. We had quite a harvest today. Furthermore, this was fun. Un. I still feel bad about defeating the monsters, yet it was fun to work together with someone like this.   We returned to the city and went to the Adventurer Guild while still on horseback. Before we went to Quest Completion Counter, I would receive quests for 「Killer Bee's Stinger」 and 「c.o.c.katrice Beak」 that I have not received before. Then, both of us went to the Quest Completion Counter. My results for today were 7 「Poison Cat's Cores」, 20 「Cat’s Flower Stalk Gra.s.ses」, and 23「Killer Bee’s Stingers」. There were the leftover 「Poison Cat’s Cores」 from the other day, so it became exactly 5 x 2.[1] The amount of rewards were 10 Silvers for the 「Poison Cat’s Cores」 and 2 Silvers for the 「Cat’s Flower Stalk Gra.s.ses」and 1 Silver for the 「Killer Bee’s Stingers」. Just in one day, I had obtained 13 Silvers. But for the Poison Cat’s reward, it was also thanks to the leftover three cores from the hunting the day before yesterday. c.u.mont was also given about the same amount of reward money. After that, we left the guild, and had a drink from the Kecha stall, as a work-well-done party for today.   「Even in the guild, the tea is one Copper. And here, the Kecha is also one Copper. It’s strange, right?」(Reene) 「What do you mean?」(c.u.mont) 「A story of how I like Kecha more than tea, perhaps.」(Reene)   In this place, tea was basically more expensive than Kecha. The tea leaves that could be drunk in the Middle Cla.s.s District like what we did was still nothing much, but there were good tea leaves that would cost several Silvers. By the way, the lowest denomination of money, the Copper coin, was worth about 100 yen, right? It felt that it was really strange for a stratified society like this to not have money that was worth less than 100 yen. There should have been a lot more cheaper things in the Lower Cla.s.s District. When I asked about this, it seems that goods worth less than one Copper would mostly be traded through bartering.   「Ah, this is the gathering fee for the stingers, 23 Coppers.」(Reene) 「Thanks.」(c.u.mont)   Since the reward was 1 Silver, my total reward money for the Killer Bees would be reduced to 77 Coppers, but rather than money, I was happier with the points. After all, I wanted to become a D-rank adventurer quickly.   「Hey, Reene.」(c.u.mont) 「Hmm?」(Reene) 「Why is a high-ranked magician like you only an F-rank adventurer?」(c.u.mont) 「What do you mean by ‘high-ranked’?」(Reene) 「No matter how many Poison Cats appeared, you defeated most of them with just a single attack one by one. Your magic is too strong.」(c.u.mont)   Yeah, I thought so. He found out that I had held back earlier to defeat them individually.   「I lived in a small rural village that is very secluded and I only arrived at Coltea about a week ago. That’s why everything is a first to me. Since I wanted to try many things by myself, I then became an adventurer.」(Reene) 「There is such a high-ranked magician in a rural village like that?」(c.u.mont) 「Well, sort of. Since it’s a rather strange village…… c.u.mont too, is pretty strong, right?」(Reene)   Yes, I was a bit curious about this. c.u.mont is strong. For me, who was familiar with the Blue Knights, while I don’t think that he is as strong as them, I believe that an F-rank adventurer should be weaker. Although, this was not something that I should say. For the whole day today, there wasn’t any danger at all. Even though, I had applied Protection Membrane on him just to be safe, c.u.mont didn’t get a single scratch. He might not feel that this job was dangerous, thinking that it wasn’t a higher rank job after all. Even his difficulty in dealing with the Killer Bees was because he didn’t want to damage the corpses for gathering the materials and he should have been able to defeat them with Sword Magic if he was being serious.   「Because I have always been in the vigilante group of my village. My father was the Captain. He was really strong.」(c.u.mont)   It seems that c.u.mont’s father was originally a Knight of the Coltean Militia. The Militia are temporary hired knights who aren’t regularly employed like regular knights, but are instead selected from strong commoners and are tasked to maintain the city’s public order or to be deployed in cases of emergency. c.u.mont's father returned to his birth village with his family when he retired from an injury. Then, he formed a vigilante group to protect the village from the threat of monsters. Since there were only few people in the village with magic power, they really appreciated his efforts. Since c.u.mont’s mana was on the fourth rank, he intended to go to the city and enter the Militia after his sword training was over.   「My village was called Maino. It was a small village, but it was a nice place. However, not long ago, a monster appeared, and before long the village was completely destroyed.」(c.u.mont)   Maino. It was the village near Camiazure. The village that was destroyed by that pseudo-Stegosaurus. c.u.mont was a survivor from that village.   「To defeat a monster like that, a Militia is useless…… I will become stronger and become an S-rank adventurer.」(c.u.mont)   It seemed that his father and the men in the village had died. At that time, c.u.mont was driving the carriage that carried the village’s women and children to evacuate, so he was able to survive. He escaped to Coltea and lived in the city for a while with the low mana ranked villagers, but after listening to the news that the Blue Knight Order had subjugated the monsters and it had become safe, the villagers returned back to their homes. It seemed that they would live in the nearby village, Camiazure. c.u.mont remained in Coltea to become an adventurer.   「I see. That must be hard on you, c.u.mont.」(Reene) 「Well, yeah.」(c.u.mont) 「Do your best! c.u.mont is strong, so I’m sure you will become an S rank adventurer!」(Reene) 「Yeah!」(c.u.mont)   I couldn’t talk about the things related to the pseudo-Stegosaurus or about Camiazure. I also didn’t want to tell c.u.mont that I am a Healer, if possible. Even though we seemed to get along well, I didn’t want him to treat me differently if I told him about those things. I just want to be friends with c.u.mont. Therefore, I absolutely couldn’t tell him about everything.   「I also want to quickly become a D rank adventurer, so let's do our best together.」(Reene)   When he asked me about what my next week's schedule was, I told him and we ended up scheduling another meeting at the gate on Earthday (Thursday in Earth terms) and then we bid farewell to each other. Even though I spent the whole day as an adventurer, since the monsters that appeared on F ranked quest are weak, I only used no more than 200 MP. In comparison, while working as a Healer, I depleted more MP and mental power. Furthermore, it was refres.h.i.+ng to work outdoors.   ✦✧✦✧✦   On the next day, Lightday, I took a slow relaxing rest in the Inn. On the day after that, Darkday, was another day of work as a Healer. The escort for me that day was a Knight named Wedge. He partic.i.p.ated in the subjugation at Camiazure, we often talked while I was in the carriage on the journey to Coltea, and he was a Knight that I got along with well. This was my first time meeting him in Coltea. When I told him, 「Whoaa, Wedge-san, long time no see」, and he replied with a joke, 「I haven’t seen Reene-dono for quite some while, and you have become taller」. He was like a distant-relative ojii-san type of guy. I was enjoying this easygoing exchange. The other knights were too tense, after all. While we were travelling to the Clinic, I told Wedge-san that today, I want to practice riding horses in the afternoon. The two days last week seemed to have made my name became a bit well known, and now I was receiving appointments specifically requesting my services. As usual, I would treat them while addressing them according to the servants,「Please refer to the following gentleman as Viscount」 or 「Please refer to this lady as Countess.」 The fact that I was able to converse with many kinds of people, I earnestly thought that my translation function was magnificent. j.a.panese words that didn’t have exact equivalent words in this world would be translated into words that had meanings close to them. If there were no words that had meanings close to them, then it would be just be p.r.o.nounced without changes. Even idioms would be automatically translated into similar idiom. For example, if I said 「Can't judge a book by its cover」[2], this idiom would be translated as 「The young lady is a witch」. You couldn’t guess the age of people with high mana, so someone who you thought as childishly cute would be revealed as an elder high ranked magician when you became more acquainted with them. Since there were people with fast magic power growth in rare cases, there were some old people with very young appearances. About 16 or 17 years old in appearance. People like this would usually have very high mana. Hence, the idiom 「The young lady is a witch」. That the written words were also translated was wonderful, too. When I wanted to write a word for my clinic work, I was thinking about what I should do if I couldn’t write it, but when I tried to write it, I was surprised that the letters of this world emerged inside my mind and I could smoothly write them out without a problem. When the Noon Bell rang, I ate lunch with the Green Princess and the others. After that, Wedge-san brought me to the castle. The Blue Knight Order's station was called the 「Blue Order Administrative Hall」 and it felt like a combination of a station, an office, and a mess-room. I could enter the castle grounds, although I couldn’t enter the castle itself, and easily pa.s.s through. Naturally, it wasn’t a place where I was allowed to wander alone. I went accompanied by Wedge-san and pa.s.sed through the castle’s gate after presenting my identification card. In Coltea, I was regarded as someone authorized with the Blue Knights Order, so no one prevented me from being inside the Administration Hall. My aim for today was horse riding, but Wedge-san informed me that Van-san and Cyan-san were present in the Hall, so I decided to greet them in the Administration Hall first. The Blue Order had six divisions and their main duty was as His Highness’ personal guards, but other than that, they would also go out for subjugations. It seemed that they also had people who were doing secret intelligence-like task in the city, like checking whether or not a spy had infiltrated in Coltea or for collecting top-secret information. Naturally it was prohibited to enter all the areas of the Administration Hall unless you were authorized, so even though I could enter it, it was only a small part of the station that belonged to the Second Division.   「Why haven’t the contents of this unprocessed box decreased in any way?」(Cyan)   Just as I entered the station, Van-san was being harshly scolded by Cyan-san. Etto. The division commander is Van-san and the vice division commander is Cyan-san, right? When I threw a glance at Wedge-san, he replied in a joking manner.   「My commander’s hobby is to acc.u.mulate doc.u.ments and then be bullied by the demon vice-commander.」(Wedge) 「Who has a hobby like that?」(Van) 「Who is a demon?」(Cyan)   Van-san and Cyan-san both made a retort at the same time. Cyan-san, you didn’t deny the bullying part.   「Sorry for disturbingOjamas.h.i.+masu.」[3](Reene) 「Oh, welcome Reene. Thank you for the hard work, Wedge. After you finish reporting, please take a break.」(Cyan)   Wedge-san made a firm Knight’s salute and after saying, 「Until next time」,  to me, he entered another room. I wonder if he would write a report over there too. Perhaps there was plenty information from the talks of the n.o.bles in the examination room.   「Welcome Reene. Have you gotten used to your job as a Healer?」(Cyan) 「Yes, I have gotten the hang of it. I intend to have a horse riding lesson today.」(Reene) 「Horse riding, if only my hands were free.」(Van) 「Can you really be saying that your hands are free, Van?」(Cyan) 「Not at all. I am terribly sorry for this as a division commander.」(Van)   Van-san hurriedly excused himself, so that he wouldn’t be scolded by Cyan-okaa-san more than this.[4]   「Because I am free now, I will do it.」(Hugh)   Hugh-san, who was nearby, nominated himself. Un. It was easier to ask Hugh-san for this. I will do our best in learning. I have to be able to ride alone by myself soon. “Ah, of course if Noel gets bigger, then I will ride on Noel”, was what I appended in my mind. Actually today, when I said that I wanted to practice horse riding, Noel was jealous. It was unavoidable when I was traveling horseback with c.u.mont or the Knights, but he seemed annoyed since practicing horse riding looked like I was playing with the horse instead of him.   ―― Noel ―― Ride ―― Noel ―― Fly ―― Noel ―― Fast ――   That the small Noel was jealous of the horse was really adorably cute. Noel is still a child, but it looks like if he had grown into adult, then I could ride him and fly.   ―― More ―― big ――   Uh-huh, I will absolutely ride you when you have grown up. Until then, I will diligently continue the horse riding practice. I will be waiting until Noel becomes an adult.   And so, it was a long and grueling hour of practice. Hugh-san had been working really hard. Although one might say it was difficult for an unathletic person like me to coordinate my body movements when riding a horse, even after an entire stound2 hours, all I could do was practicing mounting and dismounting the horse by myself and to have the horse walk at a slow pace. Still, it was major progress since I was finally able to mount and dismount a horse by myself.   ✦✧✦✧✦   The next day, Fireday, after the clinic’s work had finished, I asked the Blue Knights to teach me horse riding again, and then on Waterday, I spent the whole day in the library. Even if I had scrounged over all the magic books one by one, there was no clue about transfer or summoning magic. But I became quite informed about magic power as a whole in the process. For the people of this world, other than 「Magic Power」 or mana, which is MP, there is also something called 「magic quality」. Each magic quality had individual peculiarities like a voiceprint or a fingerprint and Gaia’s Note was able to perceive these individual differences. There was not differences in just the quality, there were also distinctions between in high and low magic qualities. Someone with higher magic quality would have greater results even if they used the same spells as another person. Perhaps it could be considered similar to the「INT」 or the 「Wisdom」 in the games. This also applied to Gaia's Children, as they not only had high MP, but also high magic quality, which is why they could use powerful magic. In the past, a Son of Gaia had destroyed some countries with his fire attack magic. The term「high magic power」 means 「the numerical value of MP, which means their Rank is high」, and 「high magic quality」 means 「the power of their magic is strong」. The quality would also influence the lifespan, too, and it seems that people with high quality can live longer than their peers of the same Rank. Since from time immemorial, people with high magic power had conquered the lands, resulting in many royalties and high ranked aristocrats having high magic powers, and many of them had high magic quality, too. Because His Highness Leon had a really high magic quality, although Jin-san had said that he was just a Sixth Rank, he would probably remain be youthful until about 250 years old.   Humans with 「high magic power and high magic quality」 could cast many magics with high offensive power, so they are more useful by a wide margin than numerous ordinary magicians. People with high magic quality seemed to be able to distinguish those with high magic quality similar to them. It seemed that this is also a species preservation instinct, that they would feel s.e.xual attraction to members of the opposite s.e.x that had high quality. That’s why high quality people would marry other high quality people, and produce high quality children. As the result, the Houses thrived and prospered. Of course, they could be attracted to people with low magic power, too, so there were other couples similar to Van and his wife.   On the next day, Earthday, I met with c.u.mont and we headed towards the riverside on the south. It was the place that had the Macacari Leaf. We left the city walls and headed south, and after travelling on horseback for a while, there seemed to be a large forest. Because c.u.mont had gone there several times before, I didn’t need to worry about getting lost. Just like the last week, I applied a 「Protection Membrane」 and mounted the horse. After about thirty minutes had pa.s.sed, I could see the forest. There was a road for a horse to travel on in the middle of the forest, but as we approached the river, there were big rocks scattered around and the terrain became worse, so the horse had to travel slowly. Because it was called a river, I expected that it would be small and have a gently flowing stream, but it was a great torrent with whitewater rapids instead. Of course, we would walk around the river on foot.  「It’s a bit slippery, so be careful, don’t slip and fall.」 c.u.mont warned me again. It was a mountain stream that had originated from the mountain deep inside the forest, and it had numerous small and large waterfalls. Since many people had come to pick up the gra.s.s growing on the riverside, there were something like an esplanade alongside the river. It was a beautiful scenery that could become a tourist attraction. Clear air and the murmuring waters created an absolutely nice atmosphere. There were places where trees were densely grown and large moss-covered rocks gathered, where the suns.h.i.+ne couldn’t reach and the water splashed into the air from the fast flowing rapids, so the entire place was quite humid.   「There are many water monsters around this place, so don’t take your eyes off of the rivers as they could suddenly jump out from the rapids.」(c.u.mont) 「Un, I’ll be careful.」(Reene)   I will be completely fine since I had 『Search』 on. I hadn’t told c.u.mont about my skill yet, so I didn’t say anything.   「Macacari Leaves are growing up around the area beyond this waterfall.」(c.u.mont)   Even though it was called a waterfall, the size was small. The height was no more than one meter, but since the river was very wide, it felt like a Pet.i.te-Niagara Falls. I could hear loud pounding sounds and splashes coming from it. When we were about to ascend the road beside it, I could see red markers appearing one by one in 『Search』. They were inside the waterfall.   「c.u.mont! They are in the waterfall.」(Reene)   c.u.mont stood up holding his sword and chanted. It was a Sword Magic. Flickering flames appeared and clad the blade. Aquatic monsters weren’t the subject of material gathering quests, after all. c.u.mont also decided to finish them off with one attack.   「Reene, could you lure them out?」(c.u.mont)   What should I do? It would be better if I could made them leave the water without killing them. Shall I let loose a weak lightning? Ah, but I can’t. I had decided that my attribute were fire and water.   『Ice Needle』   I tried to launch some ice needles near the red markers. Immediately, fish, that looked like large-fanged flying fish, jumped out and flew towards us.   『Fireball』   The ones that came towards me were incinerated. Because they were wet, there were sizzling sounds. c.u.mont also slashed them down with a single sword slash.   「Three more are coming!」(Reene) 「Ok!」(c.u.mont) 『Fireball』       c.u.mont also moved in a way that wouldn’t make him lost his footing and brought them down without a problem. It was finally over. Because they were small monsters, there were no cores. After we ascended the waterfall, we would take a rest and then begin to search for Macacari Leaves. I had studied about them in the 『Low Rank Monsters and Herbs Ill.u.s.trated Reference』. Macacari Leaves had a maple leaf-like shape and a deep blue color. A blue maple leaf. If you rubbed it, it would produce a sap that had a scent similar to that of mint and could be used as a poultice. It seemed that it was effective for bruises and the like. Five pieces of leaves were worth one Silver. So at the very least, I needed to find five of these. When we found the herb, it usually had five or six leaves. It was written in the『Low Rank Monsters and Herbs Ill.u.s.trated Reference』 book to take only one or two leaves at a time, lest it would wither. They wouldn’t purchase the small ones. So I would choose only the full-grown leaves.   We took our lunch a bit distance away from the riverside.   「So Reene could notice when monsters approached.」(c.u.mont)   As expected, he noticed it again. Should I say that it was a magic or that it was a skill? Oh, the term 「Skill」 was unknown in this world. it would be translated as “Arts”.[5] I was a bit worried, but I honestly answered by altering the truth just a bit.   「It was the Arts 『Search』 I’ll know if enemies are approaching.」(Reene) 「How convenient. How can you obtain it?」(c.u.mont) 「I obtained it quite easily. I deliberately searched for the enemy’s presence and whether or not they would come, and then I obtained it.」(Reene) 「Even I have always been doing that, too.」(c.u.mont) 「That’s also true.」(Reene)   Skill acquisition was something that some people could obtain while others couldn’t even when they did the exact same thing. I didn’t think was from a talent. If it was just simply perceiving presences, then surely c.u.mont was better. Even among the Knights, none of them had it. Even for 『Compounding』, I believe that the number of people who had this was low. Even if they had acc.u.mulated lots of work experience, it didn’t mean that they would obtain the skill. Not everyone could obtain the same skills. This was just a conjecture, but I believed that whether or not a skill could be acquired by someone had already been decided from the start. No one with low mana had skills. For people with 200 MP, there was few people with skills, but this doesn’t not mean that they don’t exist. There should still some chances for c.u.mont. Furthermore, he was still 17 years old. It was still a growth period for him.   「Surely there would be an Arts that could only be performed by c.u.mont. So I think it will be good for you to study various types.」(Reene) 「I wish I had a fire Arts or something.」(c.u.mont) 「Yeah. It sounds strong. Cool and Strong, perhaps it will be better if it had a stylish name, too.」(Reene) 「What do you mean?」(c.u.mont) 「Like Dancing Flame, or Crimson Blade, or Inferno Bird.」(Reene)   I tried to remember the Chuuni names and mentioned them to him one by one.   By the way, Cyan-san’s skill was called 『Dance of Ice Flowers』. I haven’t seen him use it yet, though. Perhaps it was a very beautiful and strong skill. I wanted to see it for a bit. As expected from the 『Icy Prince』.   「Also, c.u.mont is light-weight, so speed-oriented Arts would also be good.」(Reene) 「Ah, the ones who battle with speed.」(c.u.mont) 「Un. How about an Arts that combines both fire and speed?」(Reene) 「Oh. That sounds nice.」(c.u.mont) 「It’s like c.u.mont’s own winning formula.」(Reene)   It was like aiming to pa.s.s the exam.   「An Arts, right? …… Yeah, that's true. I also need to try many things, too.」(c.u.mont) 「Un. This is just a conjecture, but if it an Arts that you could obtain, then you could easily perform it.」(Reene)   When the sun was leaning towards the west, we went down the mountain river and returned the way we came. The horse we released in the morning was also safely waiting for us. It was thanks to the magic tool. Today's results were only the Macacari’s leaves. Twenty two leaves meant two silver coins. As I thought, the income from gathering the Poison Cat’s cores on the gra.s.slands was larger. This was what we had discussed while travelling on horseback, when suddenly a group of Wardogs came out. The Wardogs had figures like large-sized shepherd dogs. They were agile monsters with sharp fangs. Five of its cores was worth 6 Silvers. The guild point for them was also high.   「Be careful, because these guys are fast on their feet.」(c.u.mont) 「Un.」(Reene) 「Since it’s just the four of them, let’s go with 2 for each.」(c.u.mont) 「Gotcha. Be careful, c.u.mont.」(Reene) 「No need to ask!」(c.u.mont)   At the same time as his reply, he unsheathed his sword and jumped high. Meanwhile, I was the same as usual. The two Wardogs were burnt into oblivion with 『Fireball』. I watched over c.u.mont, who easily killed the fast Wardogs. His body wasn’t big like the Blue Knights, but because of that, he was very nimble. Just like with the Poison Cats, I incinerated the Wardogs that c.u.mont had killed. If we were loitering around here too long, then we might encounter even more Wardogs. Wardogs were monster with the highest points amongst the F rank quests. We had discussed whether or not we should wait around a little bit longer, but we were running out of time today. We decided to do this at another time, and so, we mounted the horse and left the forest. As soon as we left the forest, we encountered c.o.c.katrices. It was also a target monster for F rank material gathering. We were on horseback this time, so were able to evade them if we like.   「What a coincidence. Should we get them?」(c.u.mont) 「Un.」(Reene) 「Two for each.」(c.u.mont) 「Okay, 『Protection Membrane』.」(Reene)   Just to be on the safe side, I put another protection membrane on c.u.mont. After all, if the c.o.c.katrice successfully attack, then that means petrifaction. c.u.mont helped me to dismount the horse. A c.o.c.katrice was a monster in the shape of a giant chicken, but it was also fast on its feet. They rushed at us and jabbed their hard beaks at us . Their beaks were the materials that we needed to gather. I used 『Freeze』 on the two c.o.c.katrices in my share at the same time and then it was all over. I looked at c.u.mont and he had also defeated them without any trouble. It was with a single hit. c.u.mont's sword swung at the c.o.c.katrice’s neck quickly without losing its mark. Blood was splas.h.i.+ng. The body which had lost its neck fell after running for several steps. Whoa, I shouldn’t have seen it.   「Sorry, did it gross you out a bit?」(c.u.mont) 「Yeah. Sorry, for being an adventurer like this.」(Reene)   Since as expected, I couldn’t look directly at the work of removing the beak, I was waiting a distance away. It took more time and labor to remove the beaks than it did for the bee stingers, so the fee for c.u.mont would be 5 Coppers this time. Five c.o.c.katrice's beak will be worth 1 Silver. To gather five beaks, then I will need to hand over 25 Coppers to c.u.mont, so my share of rewards would be smaller than it was from the Killer Bees. But I should pay 5 Coppers for this task, right? Since it was b.l.o.o.d.y gorey stuff..   ✦✧✦✧✦   The next day, we headed out to the gra.s.slands. Poison Cats often appeared, so we were happy since it was easy to collect points. Since none of us got injured today, too, I was able to keep my Healer profession as a secret. Perhaps if it wasn’t a serious injury, then I’ll bring out a potion instead. c.u.mont was easy to talk with and it was really easy to get along with him. The money for the fees for retrieving the materials from the monsters – it wasn’t so cheap that it made me feel bad and it also wasn’t too expensive. Since our monetary senses of value were similar, this was another reason for our very good relations.h.i.+p. He had treated me to tea in the guild when we had first met, but it was because he thought that he had s.n.a.t.c.hed the points from me. Since then we had been splitting the costs evenly, we paid for our own shares. After all, we were on an equal terms relations.h.i.+p. Talking about trivial things and laughing, teaching me an adventurer’s know-how as my senior, even though the difference was ever so slight, and fervently discussing which food stalls had the most delicious Kukru, c.u.mont gave out a feeling similar to that of a school friend. Until now, it was only c.u.mont who gave out this impression, so I really treasured this moment. After all, Agnes was more like an onee-san. After we went adventuring for two consecutive days, we headed towards the quest completion counter in the adventurer's guild while chatting about our good vibes towards each other. This time, c.u.mont ranking up to E-Rank. This wasn’t strange, considering that he started as an adventurer earlier than me and he was doing adventurer tasks every day.   「That’s wonderful, c.u.mont. Congratulations.」(Reene) 「Yeah!」(c.u.mont) 「Reene-sama is also close to a Rank Up.」(Staff)   The receptionist onii-san told me so.   「Reene would also have one soon. Good job.」(c.u.mont) 「Yay!」(Reene)   We received our rewards and then we exited the guild. We bought a Kecha at the food stall and had a Rank Up celebration.   「Cheers!」(Reene) 「Cheers!」(c.u.mont) 「Congratulations. Have you seen what the E-rank quests will be?.」(Reene) 「Oh, they aren’t that different from F-rank. E-rank quests will also call for collecting materials or medicinal herbs near Coltea. It’s still the same basic thing. The difficulty will start to increase when upon reaching the D-rank.」(c.u.mont) 「I see. And there will be escort and delivery quests for D-rank, and there may be tasks that would take a few days.」(Reene) 「Yes, E-rank quests are is still only single day trips.」(c.u.mont) 「Even though we were finally able to work together, this is just a temporary farewell.」(Reene) 「Yeah, the gathering locations are different between E–rank and F–rank quests. But you will Rank Up soon, right? Let's go together again when Reene becomes an E-Rank adventurer.」(c.u.mont) 「Un, you’re right.」(Reene)   I couldn’t say, “please wait until I Rank Up, so I could travel with you again”. Unlike c.u.mont, who was working as an adventurer every day, I had my Healer work and the research at the library. Three days a week was my limit. In addition, c.u.mont's goal was to become an S-rank. Beyond that point, there were gigantic monsters like the pseudo-Stegosaurus that had destroyed his village. “I will surely be E-rank soon. Let’s meet again that time”, We exchanged this promise and parted away that day.   ☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽     [1] A request is for 5 Poison Cat’s Cores. So Reene could finish 2 quests at the same time. [2] The original is 人は見かけによらない [3] CULTURAL NOTES: Ojamas.h.i.+masuおじゃましますliterally means "I'm going to get in your way" or " I will disturb you", it is used as a greeting that you said when you enter someone else’s home. Like itadakimasu, gochisousama, ittekimasu, itterashai, tadaima, okaeri, and yoros.h.i.+ku onegais.h.i.+masu, it was phrase that was rather hard to translate literally into English. When you leave, you will say “Ojamas.h.i.+mas.h.i.+ta”. [4] Cyan was just elevated into the mother’s position. Okaa-san is mother if you don’t understand j.a.panese. [5] Actually, スキル(sukiru) and技 (waza), both basically mean Skill. So I changed it into Arts.