Finding it adorable how satisfied Nelly was with her praise, Sara smiled sunnily. “I wonder if I’ll ever be able to buy one.”
“Hmm. Doesn’t seem like you’ll be able to make it as a Hunter. We’ll have to figure out how you’ll make your money.”
Nelly supported Sara’s desire to be independent, which she appreciated. But maybe because she was a Hunter, she didn’t seem to know much about other professions in this world.
“The easiest thing would be gathering medicinal plants. That’s how a lot of Hunters start out.”
In the end, it all came back to Hunters, though Sara was pretty sure there must be clerical work and sales and customer service as well.
Just considering their environment, all there was around the cottage where they lived was a big field of grass. Sara enjoyed the idea of walking around with a basket or something and picking medicinal plants as the flowers swayed on the breeze around her. If she could make a living doing that, she wouldn’t have any complaints.
“Well, I’d love to try it, but...”
Sara opened the door of the cottage.
“Growl.”
And she shut it.
“Whew...” Sara sighed. She still couldn’t even leave the cottage.
To be precise, she could go down to the bottom of the stairs, where the protection field extended to, and she could make a tight loop around the outside of the building. But just outside of the protection field, there were wolves loping about, and here and there in the grass were slimes, which could dissolve even animals.
But then, it was thanks to those slimes that she’d been able to clean up the trash in the cottage. Her disposal system was this: when Nelly went out hunting, Sara tossed all the garbage outside of the protection field. By the next day, it had disappeared completely. Nelly had marveled at how handy the slimes were, but Sara wished she’d figured that out previously.
“For now, I’ll go pick up a beginner’s guide to gathering plants from the Apothecary’s Guild in preparation for when you can leave the cottage. I know a guy there, anyway. They’re always short on plants, so once you can start gathering them, you’ll be able to sell them right away.”
“Okay, that sounds good... At this rate, I’ll never be able to go into town.”
Without any money or ability to survive on her own, she’d have to rely on Nelly for everything.
“Yeah, but you can just stay here as long as you want. That’s what the goddess told you, right?”
“She did, but...since I’m finally healthy now, I want to go to all sorts of places.”
Nelly looked dissatisfied at this for some reason. She grew even less talkative for a time after that, which worried Sara, but by the next time she’d gone into town and come back, she seemed refreshed, like she’d sorted something out for herself.
She carefully took out two thin books from her pack on her return. “I’m a swordsman who specializes in physical strengthening, so I don’t fight with magic, and I have no reason to gather medicinal plants either. But you can’t become a swordsman, right? So here, I got you a magic textbook and a guide to medicinal plants.”
“Wow! Thanks!”
Sara hugged Nelly. Every time she did that, Nelly always hesitated for a moment before hugging her back. Then she let out a big breath like she was relieved, as if she was expelling all her fatigue and discontent. Sara wanted to do whatever she could to comfort Nelly, so she spent as much time as she could with her when she was at the cottage.
Though they were both women, Nelly’s first impression as a brusque slob had made Sara nervous about living alone with her in the beginning, but life with her was surprisingly comfortable and fun. Maybe that was because Nelly didn’t pry much, or because Sara wasn’t too chatty. It was remarkably quiet in the cottage as Nelly tended to her sword and Sara read her two books beside her or prepared their meals. That was how they spent their time together.
Of course, with the magic textbook and the medicinal plant guide, Nelly was practically ordering Sara to become a Hunter, but it was subconscious on Nelly’s part and Sara didn’t notice it herself. Still, she couldn’t go and gather plants just from reading the guide, and she couldn’t use magic either. Sara decided her next goal was to train until she could use magic.
A few days after receiving the book, the time finally came.
“Okay, let’s put it into practice!” Sara declared.
It would be dangerous to do it inside the cottage, so she went out to the deck just outside the front door and faced Nelly, who was helping her out with her training before she went hunting.
First, however, there was something Sara wanted to ask Nelly.
“Hey, Nelly. Can everyone in this world use magic?”
“Of course they can. Right, you’re one of the Invited, so you’re from a world with no mana.”
This conversation took place a month after the two of them met. If there were another person there, they would probably be incredulous that it had taken them this long to discuss this. But Sara was more concerned with getting used to her smaller body and new lifestyle than something like magic. And while magic tools took the place of electric appliances in their daily life, Sara had never actually seen Nelly use any magic.
“But it’s less like everyone can use magic and more like everyone has mana. There aren’t many situations where you’d use magic in your daily life. People who have a lot of mana tend to end up in physical jobs or jobs where you use magic. The easiest example is Hunters.”
So that was why Sara never saw Nelly using magic around the cottage.
“Okay, please start by explaining magic to me.”
She’d read the book, but asking someone who knew what they were talking about was the best way to learn.
Nelly folded her arms smugly. “Now, when you think of magic, you normally think of attack magic, but mana is something that exists inside the body and becomes magic. So.”
“So?” Sara asked, excited.
“It’s like another body, or...”
“Or?”
“Like another you...”
“...”
There was no further elaboration. This explanation was abstract and difficult for Sara to understand. The biggest lesson Sara had learned was that Nelly was a heck of a lousy teacher. No wonder she’d bought a textbook before trying to explain things herself.