Leave a comment

–––Ciel’s perspective.

Returning to the town was quick. Using the Flight Magic I had just learnt was many times faster than traveling by land, so we arrived in what could only be described as the blink of an eye. However, I still felt slightly hurt that Lapis arrived completely unfazed even though she was carrying Karin, while I had to put my all just to keep my speed up with her…

When we left, Lapis left her hut as it was, though she did not seem particularly bothered by it. She just made some offhand comments about being able to plow the fields again, and that she had no livestock so there would be no problems. She also did not seem to possess anything valuable, and all she took with her was a couple of really outdated coins.

She seemed really shocked when she learned they were too old and probably no one would accept them.

“H-hey…did…did you just come here flying..?”

At the gate of the town, a familiar soldier was surprised after seeing us arrive from the sky. Heheh, it feels really nice to be able to use a type of magic no one else can… Trying to hold those kinds of thoughts back, we guided Lapis into the town.

“It’s just some magic I was reserving away. But anyway, I’d really like to enter.”
“Ah… Right.”

The toll was one copper coin per person. I took the appropriate number of coins from my purse, paid the soldier and we entered the town.

“Wow…”

Walking behind me, Lapis seemed to be restraining her amazement. In exchange, I was surprised myself to see that kind of expression on her after only seeing her normally inexpressive face during training. Though at the same time, it reminded me once again of how cute she looked. Not even the young girls running around nearby got close to her cuteness. The ladies tending stores would look agape at her when we passed, and the people we crossed paths with would constantly look over their shoulders back at her. I was even tempted to start boasting about knowing a girl like that.

The first location we headed to was an inn. We were not thinking of staying there yet though, we just did it to get a meal. We wanted to present Lapis with a large treat since she had spent so long living in the mountains like a huntsman, living off wild animals and plants.

The inn was called ‘The Golden Wheat Pavilion’, the first floor was the dining area, while the rooms were on the second floor, pretty much the norm for any inn. Their prices were reasonably cheap, but the food they served was still really tasty, so it was well known amongst adventurers and the first floor was always filled with customers.

It was normally filled with the noise of silverware hitting plates, people conversing between each other, waiters communicating loudly with the kitchen, but this time it was different.

If it had been just me and Karin, some people might have shot a glance at us and returned to what they were doing, but when Lapis entered, the tumult throughout the whole inn ceased almost instantly. She started looking at herself as if wondering if she was doing anything strange, and that made many burly looking adventurers start to swoon… I somewhat understood why they would act that way, but it was still somewhat creepy.

Trying to act normal and ignore them, we walked inside and sat down at a free table. Soon after, a waitress holding a tray with three cups of water headed to our table from inside the inn.

“Welcome, Ciel and Karin. I see you have quite the cute companion with you today.”
“Well, yeah. What’s today’s menu?”
“We have fried fish today. Should I bring three plates?”
“Yes. Also include three servings of dessert for when we’re done eating.”

The waitress was called Rio. She was the only daughter of the inn’s owner, she was also one of the reasons so many people went to the inn. She was 22 just like me, her brown hair tied to a ponytail, always wore her signature white apron and was a very lively girl all around. She also was good at picking things up, so when I ordered dessert, which was something I almost never did, she quickly understood the current situation, and after a wink, she returned to the kitchen.

“…It’s been a while since I’ve been to a city, a lot has changed…”

Lapis kept looking around with a wondrous gaze. It was a rather cheap place so there was nothing that stood out to me, but since she had been living deep in the mountains for so long, I could not blame her.

“When was the last time you came to a town?”

She mulled over my random question in silence for a while, then she replied.

“…Quite a long time ago, to be honest I don’t remember how many months or years.”

I had thought it might be possible…and now my conjecture changed to certainty. She was faking her age. And not by a short amount like one or two years, but probably multiple decades.

But… why? While there weren’t that many races that retained their youthful look despite old age, they weren’t that rare either. Elves and dwarves were like that. Demi-humans and lizardmen also lived long lives, but not to the same extent as elves and dwarves.

However, Lapis’ appearance did not fit any of those. But maybe that was exactly why she was hiding it? I was really curious, but we were not close enough to ask her about secrets like that. I could only try to restrain myself.

We were served large portions of food, but Lapis’ eyes kept glistening as she ate. Many extra dishes were also ordered later, but she was the only one who ate all of them. I could not help but wonder where in her petite body she had room for all of it. When she tried the dessert we were served in the end, her face lit up in happiness like we had not seen until then, and it even made me happy. I really felt that I would never get tired of looking at her.

“I’m full now. Thanks so much you two, it was a feast.”
“I still think this isn’t enough to pay you back, But rather than that, I wanted to talk with you about what we’ll be doing from now on.”

It was good we were able to get her to town, but we would obviously never leave her on her own here. I was thinking of letting her stay at my place for the time being, but I doubt she would have enjoyed staying as a freeloader for long. She would probably want to live independently, so Karin and I would try to find a house for her, and then try to find her some form of income as well.

“What kind of job would you like?”
“Hmm…I don’t really have that many wishes. Or rather, I have no clue what kind of jobs are out there nowadays, so I have no idea what would be good for me.”
“I see. Then guess we have to change our line of thinking and search for a job that fits the things you can do.”

Her magic skills were already top notch, but Karin also told me her sword skills were the same.

I had not seen it myself, but Karin said she had slain a dragon with a single strike…

“Things I can do, huh… Let’s see, I can use pretty much any weapon to a decent extent unless it’s something really unique, I can use offensive magic of all attributes, also healing magic, and magic to recover from status ailments. I can read, write and do some calculations, but they’re nothing compared to a regular merchant’s skill. Apart from that… I’m confident in my physical strength, so I can probably handle manual labor.”
“……”