Our lives continued with us spending two to three days frequenting the town on weekdays.
On these days, I would leave Selene in the care of the nursing home to make her more aware of society, and in the meanwhile, I would deliver potions made from medicine grass growing outside of the «Empty Wilderness»'s barrier.
One day一
「Mama~, do carpets fly in the sky?」
Selene asked me while looking at the wet towel spreading on her feet after the bath. Before this, I had told Selene the tale of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp as a bedtime story.
「That was a special carpet. Normal carpets don't fly.」
「Too bad......」
Selene muttered dejectedly.
A flying carpet after the flying broom huh... I thought while looking up at the sky.
However, as it happened, it was impossible to take Teto with us given the flying broom's capacity and I was trying to figure out a new transportation method. I now ended up deciding on a magic carpet.
I had already researched factors like gravity and etc during the development of the flying broom, so I just applied the same principles here.
The only additional step I took was to create threads that have better mana flow ability, sewed them into the carpet, and drew magic circles.
My word, it took me two months even as I burn the midnight oil every night to finish this.
"Yay! It's the Magic Carpet! Now Teto onee-chan can also go with us to the town!"
'So that's why she had looked so dejected', I couldn't help but crack a bitter smile seeing Selene hopping up and down in joy.
"Selene is a good kid. Teto is happy."
"It tickles ~ Teto onee-chan."
Seeing Selene so happy for her, Teto praised her to her heart's content and pulled her into a tight but gentle hug.
I watched Selene laughing and chirping, she was so cute but unfortunately, our schedule for today was packed.
"Are you happy? Now your Teto onee-chan can also come with us to the town together."
We had gotten on the Magic Carpet and were just headed to the town by flying over the forest as usual when一,
"Mama, look!"
"Yeah, I saw. Teto, take care of Selene!"
"Leave it to me-nanodesu!"
When we were near the town, Selene noticed something black squirming in the plains nearby.
I stopped the Magic Carpet high up in the air and jumped off. I used flying magic to go to the place Selene had pointed out while taking out the familiar wand from the magic bag.
"Do you guys need any help?"
"I don't know who you are, but please! This is a small-scale stampede!"
"You got it! Take this 一一«Ice Lance»!"
The black squirming thing was, in fact, a group of Grand Ants numbering several hundred.
I rained down ice spears from high in the sky which pierced their heads, taking them down.
As there were world trees to fill up the mana in the «Empty Wilderness», I was now finding myself with a surplus of mana in my hand.
The large quantity of ice spear produced from that overwhelming mana reserve rains down, turning the area akin to the back of a porcupine.
Grand Ants, classified as D-rank monsters, looked up in the sky probably recognizing me as a bigger threat and tried to shoot me down with formic acid but my barrier kept all of it away.
Afterwards, I created another wave of ice spears and continued my one-sided massacre.
It took around 30 minutes to annihilate several hundred ants monsters and after confirming there weren't any other monsters in the surrounding area, I landed down.
"Are you guys alright?"
"You're...... with the child if I'm not wrong."
"I'm B-rank Adventurer, the Witch Chise."
It seemed my ability to single-handedly annihilate the monster stampede with the threat level of B-rank has made them not take me lightly despite my childlike appearance.
"Thank you for your aid. We would have suffered a lot of damage if we had to face them by ourselves."
"It's not a big deal. Since there's no more danger, I'm heading to the town."
"Hey there, wait a minute!"
I had just about to leave while passing on the aftermath to the Adventurers to deal with when I was stopped.
"What?"
"I mean, aren't you going to dissect the monster? You see, the mana stones and the carapace, etc."
"Distribute it between yourselves. I have to take my daughter to the town."
The Magic Carpet that was hovering over another place came to me when I gave a faint signal after saying that.
"You're amazing, Mama! You beat them all!"
"Yeah, now let's go to the town since there are no more scary ants."
"Yes!"
"Alright, goodbye...... "
After saying that, I rode the magic carpet and made our way toward the town before anyone could say anything again.
Selene and I had already become acquainted with the gatekeeper stationed at the city gate but as it was Teto's first time visiting the town, I simply introduced her and then made our way to the nursing home managed by the adventure's guild.
"See you later then, Selene. Teto and I are going to work, so be a good child and wait for us, okay?"
"I will! I play with Carl-chan and Dolly-chan!"
High-rank Adventurers' kids are taken care of in this nursing home and children from the orphanages also come to help.
It seems she has become especially good friends with girls of the same age, Carl-chan and Dolly-chan among them.
Carl-chan was a human girl and Dolly-chan was a dog Beastkin. Both of them are very cute, so it feels soothing to see her becoming friends with them and playing together.
Well, there are also boys who like to do pranks or some mean kids so I avoid such days when they're in the nursing home and I also have told Selene to run away if she doesn't like them.
「Shouldn't everyone get along?」
「Because it's difficult to get along with everyone. It's better to run away if there's someone you don't like or hate rather than force yourself to get along with them.」
This was our conversation when I was teaching Selene how to get along with other children when we began frequenting nursing homes.
She didn't look convinced but I still hope she learns that not everyone is easy to get along with and it's best to keep your distance from such people.
As of now, Selene was steadily learning how to socialize with others and seemed to be enjoying everyday life.
"I guess we should also head for the guild."
"Let's go-nanodesu!"
We were just about to drop by the item counter when we arrived at the guild after entrusting Selene but were stopped by the receptionist.
"Chise-san! Right timing! There's an emergency quest in the guild!"
"Emergency quest?"
"A small stampede has occurred and several hundreds of Grand Ants were spotted! At this rate, they will soon attack the town so it's a quest to subjugate them!"
It was a compulsory quest for D-rank and above Adventurers and as a B-rank, I was also included in them.
The receptionist said something like "Race to the rescue if you have already put Selene in the nursing home" but I ignored that.
"You don't need to worry about that stampede."
"What do you mean I don't need to worry!?"
"Calm down, we spotted some Adventurers fighting them on our way to the town so I helped them deal with the stampede. Who knows they might be dissecting their bodies or hunting down any remnants at present. And here are the potions and medicine herbs for today. Please calculate them."
Saying so, I began to take out items from the magic bag one by one.
"A messenger should be on the way to inform you here soon I think."
I said that and decided to rest in a corner of the guild until the calculation was done.
I had just sat down when something like a familiar of an adventurer came flying from the window of the guild and handed a letter to the guild employee.
Then一
"Please excuse my rudeness earlier. Thank you very much for your timely aid."
"It's fine either way. After all, I happened to spot them when we were on our way to send my daughter to the nursing home. I just wanted to keep my daughter away from seeing the bloody scene."
"It doesn't matter, you were a lifesaver in the end."
However, considering the strength of the group of Adventurers that had rushed to confront the horde of Grand Ants, I felt that their strength was quite lacking to be sent for the likes of an emergency quest.
"Is there anything going on within the guild recently?"
"Actually, the lord of this region said that a horde of wyverns had appeared in the northeast direction, so the other high-ranking Adventurers have been taken there......"
"So that's how it is...... well, wyverns are also a serious enough case."
Maybe it was quite a profitable quest so they unanimously decided to take on that quest and this explains the gap in the guild's current battle strength.
As we both thanked each for our hard work, the Cat Beastkin receptionist noticed Teto who was with me.
"Speaking of, who might this lady be?"
"Ah, I guess I didn't mention this before, but I am in a party with someone. Due to some circumstances, she's assuming the house-sitting duty until just now."
"Hellooo! I'm Teto! I'm in the party with Majou-sama!"
After saying that, Teto showed her the guild card. The receptionist seemed equally as surprised as when she saw me after seeing my guild card.
"Teto-san is also a B-rank Adventurer!? What more 21 years old......!"
Teto, a loli big boobs beauty, mentioned that her age was 16 years old at the time of creating the guild card, so now she was 21 years old.
It would be bothersome to explain how she's actually a female golem, so I skipped explaining why her real age and her outward appearance didn't line up.
"Chise-san...... Are you using any type of rejuvenation or youth-preserving spell?"
"We just have a large reserve of mana, that's all."
'Except that I gain Eternal Youth from having too much mana while Teto's life-span is indefinite too since she's not a human', I quoted mentally.
"*Sigh*...... I'm so envious of both of you since the Beast tribe in general have low magical power."
This was quoted by Cat Beastkin Receptionist.
I think there are very few people who have exceptional mana reserves even among humans, and apparently, the magical power of the beast tribes hovers on the same average as the human race which is around 50~100.
But on a brighter note, I heard that beastkins with exceptional body strength, flexibility, and high mana can use body-strengthening magic as well as self-strengthening skill characteristics of their tribe, «Beastification», apparently.
"Well, everyone has their own fair point. Anyway, are calculations done?"
"Yes, we will be buying everything as usual. Here is the money."
I looked at the money given to me and nodded.
The buying price was slightly higher than the Iscar Kingdom but this should be this region's normal price.
Beastkins have excellent self-healing abilities so they don't usually use potions for every small injury, which makes it a harder environment for an alchemist to live in.
On the other side, those injuries that can't be healed with their self-healing would then need a good-quality potion.
However, there are very few chances to secure high-quality potions in a land where it is difficult to develop concoction skills.
That's why the high-quality potions made by me are in high demand and they are being bought with price increments.
By the way, the demand for mana potions to them, on the other hand, isn't so important since there are very few among beast tribes who can use emission-type magic.
I listened to the circumstances from the receptionist while lightly chatting about trivial stuff, confirmed the harvesting request on the quest board, and, feeling it was the right time, met with Selene and returned to the «Empty Wilderness».
