Chapter 9 -
After stating our conditions, we quickly took up the delivery requests and several other miscellaneous requests.
Delivery requests were particularly tough to accomplish in the capital city of the Lovile Kingdom due to many slopes in the harbor town, or on the west side where the majority of the nobles and commoners reside in their respective districts.
However, such requests were a piece of cake for us since we just had to store the items in our magic bags which allowed us to deliver them while casually strolling.
"The package delivery to the merchant is complete. We just need to report back and we're done."
"Let's buy the dinner ingredients on the way!"
In the same fashion, we finished our delivery request to a merchant near the port of the royal capital.
‹Nya~›
“Ah, Kuro. Are you done with your walk?”
“Welcome back, Kuro-nanodesu~”
Kuro, who had gone out for a walk, lightly jumped down from the roof and landed on my shoulder. Perhaps he sensed that our presence was nearby.
After we reported our delivery request to the guild and received our reward, we went shopping for dinner and walked back home to find that Yuishia had already returned.
"Ah, welcome back, Chise-san, Teto-san."
Yuishia welcomed us with a smiling face while making dinner in the kitchen, but then it soon changed to an anxious one.
"I'm sorry for using the ingredients without permission."
"Relax. Didn't we already say we will bear your food expenses, too? And the food that Yuishia made looks delicious, doesn’t it?”
“Teto wants to eat it quickly! It looks delicious-nanodesu!”
Yuishia's face eased when Kuro, too, purred afterward as if to show his agreement with Teto's word.
"Dinner will be ready soon. Please wait just for a while!"
"I'll help with tableware!"
"Teto will help, too!"
We helped Yuishia with setting up dinner and ate the meal together.
Then, while drinking the after-meal tea and petting Kuro's back who had jumped onto my lap, I poured my mana into Kuro. And when he felt it was enough, he jumped off of my lap with a satisfied look only to be caught in Teto's arms.
"Majou-sama~, I’m going to take a bath with Kuro~”
‹Nya-Nyaaaa!?›
"Sure, have fun. Well then---"
After seeing off Teto and Kuro, who was reluctant to get wet in the bath and was struggling, I asked Yuishia.
"You said you wanted to become a magician, but what kind of magician do you want to become specifically?”
"What kind of magician?...... I want to become a court magician who can earn money to reassure my deceased parents, but I guess that's not what you want to hear, huh? Well… wanting to be like the magicians I've read in picture books isn't enough either. Actually, I never thought deeply about it."
Yuishia replied with a downward gaze.
She was counted as one of the talentless in the magician clan so she never got enough time to think about her future due to being busy with other work all the time to get rid of her dorm life.
"Well, you can slowly take your time to think about who you want to be in the future. For now, I will teach you a set of abilities."
"A set of abilities......"
*Gulp*
I conveyed my current plan to Yuishia who gulped down her saliva in apparent nervousness.
"T-That means you're going to teach me the magic that's been passed down in the school you've studied in......?"
"No. What I'm going to teach you is how to earn 3 silver coins a day."
"............Excuse me?"
Yuishia tilted her head in confusion, however, I just stared back at her with dead serious eyes.
"E-Errr...is it just about earning 3 silver coins? Not the intermediate magic or something like secret magic arts of Chie-san......"
"No, just earning 3 silver coins a day. To be precise, being able to earn 30 silver coins a month.”
A silver coin's value is almost equivalent to 10,000 yen. 3 silver coins a day for ten days means her monthly income will be 30 silver coins, while she can spend the remaining 20 days studying and training her magic, earning more money, or taking a break.
3 silver coins a day is the daily wage for a skilled job as a magician, and normally most people live modestly by working without rest for an average of around 1 silver coin a day.
It might not be on the level of a court sorcerer's pay but I believe that that much was enough for a commoner.
"You'll have more leeway in your life once you have money. So my goal is to make sure you can survive on your own."
"That's kind of different from what I imagined. I mean, a magician's teacher or priest never talks about money."
"Obviously they won't. Court Sorcerers who belong to the country receive salaries and research funds from the country. But for rough adventurers like me, securing a stable life took precedence above all."
"I, I see..."
Yuishia nodded and looked around the house we rented. She was probably thinking she could also live in a house like this if she had enough money, unlike in her dorm where she barely had enough to survive.
"If you understand, then show me the life magic that you excel in."
"Y-Yes! Heed to my call, the gentle breeze ---- ‹Aero›!"
Yuishia invoked the ‹Aero› magic which created winds.
Well, I guess she chose wind magic because she was from the Suzurland Clan, however......
"How much mana did you use just now?"
"Y, Yes. About 60 units."
"......that's subpar."
"I-I'm sorry."
Offensive spells like ‹Fireball› usually drain 10 to 30 units of mana per invocation so Yuishia's mana to magic efficiency is slightly worse. Yuishia reflexively apologized in response to my muttering.
I wasn't particularly angry. My brows were slightly furrowed because I was thinking about how to teach her magic.
"Invoke ‹Aero› again but continue to maintain it this time."
"Y-Yes Ma'am!"
Yuishia once again held her hand out and invoked the wind magic. I moved behind her and put my hand on her hand.
"C-Chise-san!?"
"Don't mind me, just continue to maintain the spell."
The spell went haywire due to her surprise. I told her to focus and then I checked out her state with my hand over hers.
(----Let's see, she has around 1000 units of mana. That's a little more than an ordinary person but it's a bit lackluster for a magician. And her poor conversion efficiency is due to the low level of her ‹Mana Control› skill, I see. And----)
"You can stop now, Yuishia."
"Y-Yews......" (TN - Not a typo)
It must not have been easy for her to maintain the wind magic for so long when she wasn't used to it, as her face was flushed red while she looked down.
However, I did find something by examining Yuishia with my touch and using the ‹Search› magic.
"Yuishia, have you ever suffered a major injury in your right hand in the past?"
"Huhhh? How did you know!?"
"Sure enough. This is the main reason behind your poor mana efficiency."
People circulate magic power from the center of their bodies to various places. In the case of magicians, they gather the circulated magic power to their palms or wands and activate the magic. However, the mana circulation would often clog up due to any major injury they might receive.
"Adventures usually increase their physical abilities by circulating mana throughout their body using ‹Body Strengthening›, however, there are also cases where they can't exhibit their full power due to their mana circulation route being damaged by injuries."
"T-Then, I......"
"Well, that's just one of the reasons. I will say the more basic reason is your low ability to manipulate mana and your insufficient imagination."
"Whaa!?"
She received a shock when I told her there was more than one reason behind her lack of ability.
"Let's first heal your hand injury. ----‹Manipulation›."
"Y-Yes..... ahh, so warm."
I placed my hand on Yuishia’s old wound and activated the magic. Rather than healing, it was more of a recovery magic that brought any part of the body that healed incorrectly back into its place. I guess that must have felt good as Yuishia squinted her eyes in comfort. It took only a few seconds of recovery magic to adjust the poor mana circulation in her right hand.
"Now your hand is back to normal. I'll teach you how to improve your mana manipulation and imagination at the same time to make sure you improve in both aspects as well as get yourself the ability to earn money."
Just as we were talking, Teto and Kuro came out of the bath.
"We are back from the bath~"
"Come here both of you, you're both still slightly wet."
I beckoned Teto and Kuro over and dried their hair and bodies one at a time with hot air magic, a combination of the thermal magic ‹Heat› and the wind magic ‹Aero›.
Just like this morning, Yuishai was stunned to see the combination and continuous handling of several attributes.
"...... Amazing. You are using them so naturally."
"Well, this is our bread and butter, after all."
Teto continued to receive hair care from me as both of us flash a smile at Yuishia.
After that, we changed the bath water, and Yuishia and I took turns getting in. Then we prepared the bed in the bedroom and laid on it.
"Did you learn something about Yuishia, Majou-sama?"
"Yeah. Yuishia is just like me."
I replied to Teto's query as she hugged me while laying behind me.
"Same as Majou-sama?"
"Yes, she has the quality to become immortal."
I finally understood the empathic feeling I got from touching Yuishia during our first encounter after I used ‹Search› on her. She has the potential to become an immortal.
"So Yuishia can live a long life like Majou-sama?”
"Not with her current level. She must meet several conditions for that."
I have heard from Liliel and Lariel that the humans of this world were from four different generations.
The first generation was the genesis people who were directly created by the gods.
They were the people who held the potential to become immortal since a long lifespan was necessary to develop the world. This included me, who was reincarnated by Goddess Liliel, and the other immortal people like the Immortal sages or Witches that had left their footprints in legends.
The second generation was the kids. They possessed enormous mana, and they were conceived and birthed by the genesis people from the first generation.
Although many of them couldn't inherit the potential of immortality, they were able to have a long lifespan with the enormous mana they possess. The second generation was also where the diversity of races came from with the genesis people having children with mythical beasts, spirits, and dragons resulting in the beastkin, elves, dwarves, and dragonewts.
However, most of the second generation people died out due to their high dependence on a high magic environment when the ancient magic civilization caused the mana runaway disaster.
The third generation people were mainly the people who survived the catastrophe due to their low dependency on mana. Although they could survive in low mana environments, such an ability didn’t come without a price as their lifespan was now affected by the mana reserve they had.
The majority of the present world consisted of humans from this generation.
The fourth generation was the so-called demons born from the influence of the status system introduced to support the people after the disappearance of most of the magic power. Teto and Baretta were examples of this. The thing they had in common was the mana stone core they had within them.
"I guess she is one of those third generation humans who managed to inherit the quality of immortality from her ancestors."
Selene managed to increase her mana reserve during her stay with me. But, although her lifespan had been extended, there was no sign that she would reach immortality.
In contrast, Yuihisa had that potential. That was what I sensed in the form of empathy.
"Then are you going to make Yuishia into an Immortal, Majou-sama? That means Teto will have more friends like Majou-sama!"
"Hmm, I haven't decided yet."
To acquire immortality, one needed to have both the potential for it and an enormous mana reserve.
In my case, I gained the ‹Immortal› skill once my mana reserve crossed the threshold of 30,000 units of mana.
I didn't know the threshold Yuishia would need to cross but there was a high chance that she would be able to acquire the skill as long as she continued to eat the ‹Mysterious Nut›.
“Just because she can reach immortality doesn’t mean it will lead to Yuishia’s happiness.”
“Hmm? Teto is happy to be with Majou-sama forever, but is Yuishia different?”
“Happiness comes in as many forms as there are people.”
I was thinking of training Yuishia as a magician. Albeit, not to the extent of dragging her into the path of eternity, just like how I reached immortality.
While ascertaining where the boundary should lie and thinking about how to guide Yuishia from tomorrow onwards, I drifted to sleep.
