Chapter 8 -
The next morning, I woke up as usual and opened the window. Slightly overcast weather and the deep blue sea was right in front of me.
"Not today either, huh…?"
Feeling a mix of disappointment at not seeing the floating island today either, and also a tiny bit of joy that we could live with Kuro for a while longer, I moved to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
"Toast, bacon, scrambled eggs, and consomme soup, okay? And for sides, strawberry jam and yogurt, boiled vegetables, and olive marinated fish. Also, one orange each."
I decided on the menu and started preparing them.
I used four elements of magic from the fire magic «Pyro» to heat up the stove, to the water magic «Hydro» to fill the pot with water, to the wind magic «Aero» to chop up the vegetables in the air, and finally the dark magic «Psychokinesis» to control the fry pan or tableware when cooking. Though I knew how odd this was, that was why I don't use such a method when Teto and Baretta were beside me, but when I'm alone in the kitchen, I use such basic magic simultaneously to cook, controlling their intensity to a bare minimum.
As someone with a tremendous amount of mana, I wouldn't want my command over it to go haywire so I especially trained my control.
I then heard footsteps approaching the kitchen.
"Amazing...... I mean not that, why? No, How?"
"Good morning. Did you sleep well yesterday?"
"Oh, good morning. And thank you."
I poured black tea into a cup and passed it to Yuishsia who just woke up and went back to serve breakfast.
"Wow... it's really amazing. Like a magician from a fairy tale I heard when I was little."
Yuishia's eyes sparkled like those of a young child as she watched the food and tableware dancing under my control, bringing a smile to my face.
"Ah, I, I'm sorry......"
"Oh, don't worry about it. You just remind me of how happy children used to be when I showed them magic like this."
"Huh? You did say you are older than me, Chise-san...... Do you have children?"
"Well, she's my stepdaughter. She's already grown up and married."
There was still time before Teto woke up, so I continued with my work while chatting with Yuishia.
My stepdaughter, Serene, has already married into the Margrave family, but I still remember her fondly. Though I couldn't help but tilt my head and wonder if the fact that I occasionally reminisced about that time was a sign of aging.
"I don't want kids to be scared by showing them attack magic so I used to show them little tricks like this."
"Seriously, who in the world are you, Chise-san? Not even most Court Sorcerers can use several magic spells simultaneously like you... let alone using four elements."
Yuishia muttered. However, as someone who had stopped growing due to immortality, I still had the body of a 12-year-old so my strength and endurance were quite low. Therefore, I constantly used «Body Strengthening» to reinforce my physical strength to that of an adult male, and a «Barrier» concealed on my body to protect myself from sudden attacks.
Depending on the situation, I'm also ready to use «Body Hardening», an upgraded version of body strengthening, or a multilayer «Barrier» at any time. I was wondering if I should tell her we were also A-rank adventurers but I felt a bit mischievous and decided against it for the moment.
"I'm just a traveling witch. I learn and improve my magic through actual battles or increasing my knowledge reserve while working as an adventurer. It's just recently that we've arrived here at the capital of the Lovile Kingdom."
As Yuishia began to eat her breakfast while expressing her admiration, I heard the sound of footsteps approaching. It seemed like Teto was awake.
"Majou-sama! Teto is sad that you didn't come to wake her up! Teto, too, had wanted to help you out with breakfast!"
"Sorry, Teto. You looked so comfortable sleeping and I just wanted to make breakfast by myself just this once."
"Teto forgives you then! Breakfast looks delicious today as well!"
"Thank you for the food", Teto said her prayer and started eating delightfully. Yuishia looked surprised seeing Teto's action, however for me, this was just part of my everyday life.
"What're we going to do today, Majou-sama?"
"I'm thinking of stopping by the guild and accepting some requests. What will you do, Yuishia?"
"I'm...... going to move out of Suzurland Clan's dorm and move here."
Then it will be a temporary goodbye, huh? So I thought.
"Alright, take this. This is the spare key, You can have the room you used yesterday to yourself."
"T, Thank you very much......"
"And Kuro, what're you going to do today?"
"Nya~", Kuro purred as he was done with his breakfast, crunchy cat food, and jumped out of the house through the open window.
"W, Wahh, he went out, is it alright to leave him alone?"
"Don't worry. He is wearing a collar, and probably went for a walk to see the stray cats."
Just in case, I already put on him appraisal camouflage magic, illusion magic to hide away his status as Cat Sith, barrier magic, and a location-sharing function for emergencies on his collar so it should be fine to leave him alone.
I could rush to him wherever he was in the confines of this capital city.
"Phew, I see. See you later, I'll be going now, too."
We saw Yuishia off as she left for the Suzurland Clan's dorm after changing her clothes from yesterday. We also got our usual equipment and headed for the guild.
The receptionist lady of the harbor city guild stood up in attention upon seeing us arrive and greeted us.
"We've been waiting for you, Chise-sama, Teto-sama."
"Don't be so uptight. Just treat us like any other adventurer."
"Teto, too!"
"I understood. Guild Master Zerrich-sama is absent today, however, he has already sorted out the requests for you to take care of."
After saying that, she took out a file of requests specifically arranged for us in which several requests and their details were written. Among them, there were also copies of request forms with diagonal lines drawn on them.
"Hey, what do these requests with slash marks mean?"
"These are the requests clients withdrew and were about to be pulled out or the ones that adventurers already accepted and completed."
In short, they were marked with a slash to prevent the requests from being taken twice.
I glanced over the requests and pointed at a few of them.
"I have these requested materials, can I submit them now?"
"Yes, you can. May I ask how much do you have?"
"Let's do the appraisal for them in an empty room."
She must have noticed that I had a lot of them when I tapped my magic bag.
I had been creating a suitable environment to collect herbs that were necessary for making potions regularly from the herb fields in the «Empty Wilderness» so I should be able to achieve both the quality and quantity required for the requests.
Then, under the supervision of the guild’s purchasing staff, I had the herbs appraised and the completion of the requests was recognized.
"Thank you very much. This guild is on the port side, so we inevitably have a difference in herb collection from the guild on the inland side of the capital city.”
The receptionist lady explained to me a part of the guild’s internal situation.
However she seemed to know too much for a receptionist, which inadvertently caused me to stare at her, and she must have sensed that too as she introduced herself afterward.
"It seems that I have yet to introduce myself. I'm Sherryl, the Sub-Master of the Lovile Kingdom's east-side capital city Adventurer Guild. The Guild Master has the title of Duke, so on the days he is absent for his work, I act as his proxy and manage other affairs."
"I see, so you're the Sub-Master."
For better or for worse, Adventurers were a typical male-dominated occupation, so it was rare for a woman to be in the upper ranks of the organization.
I guess that just proves how talented of an individual she must be, she has my admiration for her achievement.
"Then I acknowledge the completion of the delivery request. If you still have time, I would like you to accept the other requests as well......"
"There is something I want to talk about------"
First of all, it was impossible to accept long-term requests because of Kuro, the Cat Sith.
Though we could shorten the traveling time by half if we used the «Flying Carpet». I also found Yuishia who was going to live with us so I explained that we could only accept requests that would take no more than a week.
Also, I'm in no need of connections with influential people, so I would like to decline any requests that were linked to nobles or magician clans.
"Certainly! So no requests linked to nobles and magician clans, is it?"
"Yes, please. Also, we're going to take the miscellaneous requests around here in order."
"Miscellaneous requests...... You're really…… To do this kind of thing despite being A-rank adventurers."
I guess not even a member of the upper echelon like her could resist frowning when a duo of high-ranking adventurers that were comparable to the elites of the nation's forces said they would sort out the miscellaneous requests that any run-of-the-mill adventurer could do.
"It's Majou-sama's hobby-nanodesu! and it's fun to walk around the town."
"Yeah. We don't need money either since we can procure it at any time by selling potions from self-harvested medicinal herbs through the guilds."
Then, without further ado, we went out to take the miscellaneous requests to solve the people’s problems, as we did in the Gard Beastkin Nation.
