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For me, however, because I had learned tempo breathing and organized thoughts in my previous life, I could converge the limited amount of mana I took in from the outside and store it in my body to some extent at all times, only using it in small portions as needed anytime. For better visualization, I basically solidified mana that was in the form of gas, made it compact in my body, and vaporized them back into gas again when I needed it. A common magician would first gather the mana they needed from the atmosphere before they could use it to perform magic. I personally thought that it was a pretty inefficient method since there was the necessity to charge their mana every time (well, I guess they did use magic stones as catalysts to help them do that).

—And then, when I brought it up to my mentor, for some reason she sighed deeply before lambasting me pretty intently.

“Make sure you don’t say a single thing about that to any other witch or magician! People that are involved in the magicky business are all bigoted mudsticks. If something that shook the very foundation of their magic for centuries were known, either they would have a stroke, be outraged, or abduct you to figure out every ins and outs of it… Well, nothing good will come out of it.”

Following Regina’s advice, whose brows wrinkled deep in displeasure, I decided to keep this matter a secret for me to explore on my own. After all, I had a good example of a bigoted mudstick right in front of me.

So, with my staff (child-use) for easier magic in one hand and a basket of medicinal and poisonous herbs in the other, I set off for the path leading into the forest.

“—What’s the matter, Maya?”

For some reason, Maya, who came along the way, stopped and looked up at the sky through the treetops. Her face, with her ears perked up, was clearly on alert for something.

Inadvertently, I too stopped on track and looked up at the sky, with my hand trying to shade my eyes. The morning air was crystal clear after the rain, and the sky was just an endless blue.

Nevertheless, Maya—a beast high on the food chain in the forest of monsters, with her species considered a disaster for mankind—didn’t let her vigilance down. Her air of tension brought me to place the basket in my hand on the ground and prepared my staff as I kneaded the mana in my body, just in case.

At first, I wondered about what to do with the egg on my back, but I felt sorry to leave it behind, so I decided to have it with me.

And then—

Maya, who had been staring at a point in the sky above, let out a sharp roar—right then, the treetops all shook at once, despite there being no wind. The sun faded and I was enveloped in pitch black shadow.

And, along with the sound of flapping wings breaking the wind, a giant bird? A bat? A pterosaur? No, something that was more appropriate for this world. A Dragon, with its forelimbs replaced by wings—a wyvern, a fantasy classic—was circling above my head.

“Wow! It’s a real dragon. So pretty…!”

I had expected a dragon to be a somber shade of green or dark brown, but this wyvern’s entire body was pure white like snow.

Upon a closer look, I noticed that there was a sturdy-looking saddle and several throwing spears securely fastened to its back, and there were two figures, one big and one small, on the saddle.

One sat in front, holding the reins with an air of familiarity. His outfit was a combination between a riding outfit and a military outfit, easy to move but equipped with the buckle to strap a sword at his waist—a man past the young adult age but not quite middle-aged—he was obviously a knight.

The other was a boy not much older than me, wearing a similar outfit but simpler and less ornate, without the buckle or the sword. This one had a shaky, insecure cling on the saddle.

They circled us—or rather, the hermitage—several times, gradually descending in altitude.

The knight-like man, holding the reins, seemed to notice me looking up at them with my eyes stunned and mouth agape. He gave me a charming smile and a light wave of his hand before he spoke something to the boy behind me—I assumed telling him of my presence. The boy then did as told and looked down as well, blinked lightly with a look of surprise when he saw me, and then…softly, gently, offered his smile.

Wha-wha-what’s with that princely and/or angelic smile?!

They both had pale blonde hair, blue eyes, and above all, similar good looks (by my standard, not this world’s), so they might be father and son, but that innocent smile from such a naive-looking boy had much more destructive power!!

Only when I held my reddened cheeks did I realize it; Unlike most of the time I was going out, I wasn’t wearing my robe or hood in exchange for ease of movement.

“——!?!?!?!!!” The blood that had risen to my cheeks, suddenly dropped below freezing, turning my pale skin even paler.

Hastily and in panic, I hid my face with my sleeves, but both of them were no longer looking at me by then. I peeked, and I saw them pointing around the hut and towards the meadow outside the forest.

“There’s no room to land around here.”
“Let’s land on that meadow there.”

Or so I assumed what they talked about, judging from their gestures.

The wyvern once again soared high into the sky, and shortly after, the sound of wind ruffling the trees completely ceased, with the last beat of its wings cracked loudly.

I tried to find the direction they vanished to by deliberately extending my mana zone in the water attribute in a long, thin line instead of in all directions. And then, as expected, I felt the mana wavelength of a demon beast in the A or B class building up in the area outside the forest near the hermitage. It was no doubt the wyvern I had seen earlier.

The humans then got out of the saddle and were coming towards us with measured steps.

It seemed that we had our second guests, following the peddler from the other day.

“—Haah. It can’t be helped. Let us tell Mentor about this.” Seeing that she would be roused from her sleep for the second time this morning, I couldn’t imagine what hell she would rise.

“I can’t believe I was seen without my hood…I’m such an idiot…”

With my stomach churning with worry, I headed back the way we had come, Maya next to me. Was it just my imagination or not, I had no idea, but the egg on my back felt strangely heavier.

…Well, this turned out to be my encounter with Luke, better known as His Highness Lucas the Imperial Prince of Groviall Empire, but I had no way of knowing that at the time.

Author’s Note:

In terms of the size of their mana, Wyverns are equal to B-class demon beasts, but seeing how difficult it is to defeat them once they’re in the air and spit fire from afar, they are classified as A-class demon beasts.

Jill’s ability is the systemization through ancient martial arts breathing techniques, meditation, and modern knowledge, but her high potential specs as a magician (common magicians only have one or two attributes available to them, but she has four attributes + healing ability) help a lot.

She inherited her talent from her mother who was the Shrine Maiden of the Saintess’ Faith.

Incidentally, her mother, Clara aka the Cattleya of Livitium Imperial Kingdom had healing ability + light + dark + air attributes.

Her beauty, purity, and lucidity made her regarded as the reincarnation of the saintess (lol) or the second coming of the saintess by the believers, and she was the object of admiration not only in the imperial kingdom but also throughout the continent.

By the way, a certain «Crimson» one commented, “She’s an artificial thing pretending to be natural.” Clara has been sanctified after her death, but she actually garnered quite a lot of prejudice and dislike by some members of her own sex due to her saintly personality when she was alive.

Translator’s Note:

I know who Crimson is and why they made that comment, but I don’t wanna spoil Vampire Princess.