This was the last day of Cain’s training sessions with Millie and Nina. Three years had passed in the blink of an eye. There really was nothing left for them to teach him, so they had accompanied Cain outside the city and were watching him hunt packs of wolves by himself.
“It’s hard to believe Cain is only eight. He’s stronger than us.”
“Today is the last day. It’s a little sad…”
The two of them chatted as Cain hunted. After he finished off the pack of roughly twenty wolves, he returned to the group.
“Today’s the last time we do this. You’ve done well for the last three years. Though, to be honest, you pretty much immediately surpassed us, and we didn’t teach you much at all,” Millie said with a wry smile.
“I wanted to thank the two of you, so I prepared a present,” Cain said, ignoring Millie’s self-effacing remarks. “I made this myself.” Cain took two pouches out of his Item Box. He handed the red pouch to Millie and the green pouch to Nina.
“Thanks, Cain… Wait, what is this pouch made of?!”
“Cain, what did you use to make this…?”
The two of them timidly asked the same question.
“Oh, well, to tell the truth, I’ve been sneaking into the Forest of Monsters. Those pouches are made out of materials I gathered there. The red one is made from a blood ogre, and the green one is made from an earth dragon.”
The two of them were completely stunned into silence. After all, blood ogres and earth dragons were A-rank monsters. That meant that full parties of A-rank adventurers were needed if you wished to hunt one. If an eight-year-old casually mentioned that they had hunted one, nobody would believe them.
They had seen with their own eyes just how unreasonable Cain’s abilities were, but they were unaware he had been hunting monsters by himself—and not just any monsters, A-rank monsters.
“Those pouches have spacetime magic cast on them. Please give them a try! I made them because I remembered Millie saying she wanted a magic bag.”
The two of them timidly accepted the pouches and opened them.
“Cain…a question. How much space does this bag have?”
“Oh, I made sure to be careful on that front. If I made them too large, people would say I was acting out of line again, so they only have a diameter of two hundred feet.”
The two of them froze, unable to say a word. Cain spoke of it as if it was nothing, but the two of them understood that a magic bag that large was a country-heirloom-level treasure.
“…Cain, the magic bag I wanted to buy only had a diameter of thirteen feet, and it still cost five gold coins.”
The currency of this world was divided into six levels: copper, large copper, silver, large silver, gold, and platinum. Ten of one coin was equivalent to one of the next level. Converting their value into Japanese yen would result in the following.
One copper coin = 100 yen.
One large copper coin = 1,000 yen.
One silver coin = 10,000 yen.
One large silver coin = 100,000 yen.
One gold coin = 1,000,000 yen.
One platinum coin = 10,000,000 yen.
Cain mentally calculated that five gold coins would be 5,000,000 yen. His forehead began to sweat as he realized he had screwed up again.
“Wait, so a magic bag this large is…?”
The two of them chimed at once, “Without a doubt, a national-level treasure.”
I screwed up again! Cain bemoaned to himself.
The two of them were hesitant to accept such a valuable gift.
“If we carry around a treasure like this, someone will definitely try to mug us and steal it…” Millie said.
“Yeah…a pouch like this is so valuable it puts a target on your back,” Nina agreed.
The two of them were naturally concerned about the risks of carrying a pouch like this.
“Maestra Nina, there’s no need for concern. Those two pouches can only be used by Maestra Millie, Maestra Nina, and me. In anyone else’s hands, the weight of everything inside will weigh them down. An anti-theft measure.”
The two overlapped once more, “It’s even better than a national-level treasure?!”
“We can’t tell anyone about this. Got that, Nina?”
“Yep. I know. Something like this…”
The two women looked at each other, then nodded.
“Thank you, Cain. We’ll treasure these gifts for the rest of our lives. But are you sure you want to give them to us? We barely did anything to deserve them.”
“I’m sure. It’s thanks to you two I was able to leave the mansion grounds. I also learned a lot.”
“Then here’s our gift to you.” They said, kneeling down to match Cain’s height. They hugged him, and kissed him on the cheeks. Cain’s face immediately flushed red.
“Wh-wh-what are you…?!” He stammered, losing his composure.
“Our present. When you grow up and become an adventurer, feel free to come to us whenever you need help. We’ll do whatever we can to assist you.”
With that, their contract ended.