All of the work that the woman called Shiori did was so magnificent that with one night’s rest, all of the fatigue of the previous day disappeared. No matter how unpleasant the journey had been, as long as you made it to the end of the day, you were guaranteed a hot meal, a bath, and a bed. The party’s morale was soaring, and they had plenty of energy and spirit.
The deep woods where the manticore made its lair should have taken at least five days’ travel to reach, but on the third they found they were already very close to their destination. If they continued in the way they had been going, they would arrive in the deep woods just before noon the next day.
A housekeeping mage...
With so little magical power, she was useless as a combat mage—that is, a mage specializing in offensive skills. To make up for that, however, she used magic to take on all of the chores, like cooking and cleaning, single-handedly. That, apparently, was where she’d gotten the name for her unique profession.
When people are completely exhausted from traveling and fighting, the honest truth is that they’d really rather have nothing to do with cooking, or anything of the sort. There were plenty of adventurers who made do with meals of dried meat, hardtack, and other preserved foods. The way she took on all of those kinds of tasks made you grateful for her presence. To have Shiori with you was to have access to a shocking level of pleasurable rest and relief.
On the very day they set out, the first surprise Alec encountered while camping was the provision of a bath.
“The bath is ready,” said Shiori. “Please, take your time and enjoy it while I prepare dinner.”
“A bath?!” Alec was completely flabbergasted. He’d never even imagined being offered such a thing while camping. He’d thought she was busy doing something while they were setting up the campsite, but he certainly couldn’t have predicted this.
“If you have any laundry, please set it out here,” Shiori added. “I’ll have it washed and dried by morning.”
Before he had the chance to voice his doubts about such a thing being possible in a place with no watering hole, Alec was dragged into the tent that sheltered the bathing area by Clemens, who seemed to be familiar with the whole setup. Never mind the fact that the women on the venture had insisted that the men go first, and the fact that the men had gratefully accepted...it was a bath. A real bath. Alec’s expectations had been low—a tub or basin for washing in, at most—but instead, it was a rather impressive bathhouse. Steam rose from the water-filled hollow that had been dug out of the ground in the middle of the tent. Nearby, small washbasins and towels as well as soap had been laid out, clearly for their use.
While Alec and Linus stood there dumbstruck, Clemens had already gotten in the bath. Eventually, Alec took off his equipment, stripped off his clothes, and stood at the edge of the water. He could sense the remnants of magic in the firmly packed, cylindrical depression in the ground, and in the pleasantly hot water that filled it.
“Magic, huh?” Alec asked.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” Clemens said this as proudly as if he’d done it himself. “Apparently, she uses earth magic to shape the ground, water magic to fill it up, and fire magic to bring it to the right temperature.”
Alec was silent for a moment. “It does seem that she doesn’t have much magical power, but her precision is of the same caliber as a high-level mage. This is magnificent work.”
Her lack of magical power meant that the bath was a little small, but if those waiting used the time to cleanse themselves and everyone went in by turns, then it was more than large enough for three grown men to use. Alec stepped into the water—slowly, to get used to the temperature. Little by little he lowered his whole body in, and a long, deep sigh escaped him. The warmth of the water eased the stiffness in his muscles, and it felt like all his weariness was fading away.
“This is paradise,” said Linus, shutting his eyes in ecstasy. He seemed to be in a blissful daze.
After enjoying the water for a while, Alec grabbed the soap and washed the dirt from his body. He’d assumed that he would be sleeping covered in dust and sweat, so being clean and changing into fresh clothes was thoroughly satisfying.
“Huh?”
Even as a delicious aroma wafted through the area, making his mouth water, Alec realized something that made him tilt his head in puzzlement. The air in the depths of the wildwood should have been heavy, damp, and clinging, but for some reason it was pleasantly light. His post-bath sweat was receding quickly as well.
“What’s going on?” asked Alec.
Shiori looked up from where she was readying their meal near the tent. “Is something wrong?”
“No, I was just thinking that the air didn’t feel so unpleasant anymore.”
“Ah, if that’s the case...” Shiori smiled brightly, but her hands didn’t pause in preparing the food. “I used fire and wind magic to adjust the humidity within the barrier around the campsite. I thought it would be difficult to sleep well otherwise, and I reused the water I pulled from the air to prepare the bath.”
“I-I see.”
It was quite an extravagant way to use magic. While Alec was admiring her unexpected and inconceivable application of magic, Shiori completed the preparations for their meal, and Ellen, the physicker, finished her bath.
After a moment’s indecision, Ellen spoke, hesitantly. “I’m so sorry to ask this of you right before we eat. I wonder if you might dry my hair for me. I’ve heard the rumors, and couldn’t help but be curious.”
“Of course,” said Shiori. “If you’d just sit here facing away from me, please.”
Was something about to happen?
Alec watched Ellen with great interest as she quietly did as she’d been told and sat on the ground. Shiori held her hands slightly apart from each other and called up her magical formulae—fire magic in her right hand, wind magic in her left. The two weak magics melted together to form a pleasantly warm breeze.
“Wait, wait, wait!” Alec interjected. His eyes had flown wide at the sight of multiple magics not only being executed simultaneously, but being combined—something which was said to be of the highest difficulty. And here it was, being executed as though it were nothing. “Hold on. Even the greatest of mages have little success with combining two different forms of magic. You’re a low-level mage, right? What’s going on here?”
“Yes, you’re quite correct,” said Shiori, as she applied the warm wind to Ellen’s hair. Little by little, Ellen’s damp hair dried, and the beautiful golden strands fluttered in the breeze. “I’m good at detailed work, and it seems that making minute adjustments is much easier with small amounts of magical power. That’s all.”
She said it so casually. Did she have any idea how significant it was? It wasn’t as if none of the greatest mages—the ones whose names would be left in the annals of history—had ever succeeded in the feat. Even so, the combining of multiple forms of magic was a long-held dream of mages and the subject of never-ending study.
Once Ellen’s hair had been thoroughly dried by the warm wind, Shiori applied a cold wind to settle the strands.
“Amazing,” Ellen murmured, as she lightly stroked her lustrous golden hair with her fingertips. “I’d heard the rumors, but you really can combine magics, can’t you?”
“A mage I teamed up with before has tried it a couple of times,” said Clemens, “but the magic always seems to end up biased to one side. Instead of combining, one extinguishes the other. That same mage hopes to collaborate with you in researching it one day.”
As if embarrassed at Clemens’s words, Shiori’s face reddened. Smiling, she said, “The food is going to get cold. We should eat while it’s still warm.”
Though Alec wasn’t fully satisfied with her explanation, he took the dish that was offered to him. Piled high on the divided plate were pork, glistening an amber color and redolent of spices, and pilaf. He was also handed a cup, filled to the brim with a golden soup that had vegetable scraps and odd bits of pork floating in it. Someone gulped loudly.
“All right,” said Shiori, “please enjoy.”
“Thank you for the food!”