I had failed.
The room was silent. I collapsed face-first onto my bed and let my body sink into the mattress. I didn’t want to see anything. Not my training wand. Not the thick tomes lining my shelves. Not even my favorite doll. I just wanted to shut everything out like a clam sealing itself away.
I had set out eagerly, believing this would be my first real adventure. However, all I had done was buy a shoulder basket and a pair of shoes before returning home to the Magnan estate. A complete and utter disaster.
I had registered as an adventurer. I had stepped outside the town walls. And yet, I hadn’t even managed to complete the simplest of jobs: herb gathering, the one request even the lowest-ranked adventurers could take.
No payment.
No accomplishment.
Nothing but shopping.
And worst of all, it was entirely my own fault.
“Ugh!”
I had snuck back into the estate and quietly slipped into my room while holding my breath as much as I could, just to make sure no family members or servants saw me. The fact that I had even needed to do this—to hide like a failure—filled me with so much frustration that I nearly cried.
What had all my training been for?
What had all my studying been for?
Why had I argued with my parents and grandfather so fiercely to get their permission?
It wasn’t for this. I hadn’t done all that just to end up face down in my bed, miserable.
“I could have done more. I should have done more.”
Herb gathering should have been effortless. I should have completed the task easily. I should have proven that smug-faced idiot wrong for daring to lecture me. And then, tomorrow, I would have taken on a harder request—one where I could finally showcase my magical prowess.
Instead, I hadn’t even made it to the starting line. I had been stopped by something as stupid as a blister. It didn’t even have anything to do with adventuring. How pathetic.
“Shoes... Huh.” I sat up on my bed, holding my new shoes. They smelled strongly of leather, a scent I wasn’t very familiar with.
Shoes meant for walking long distances. Shoes focused on function, not appearance. Shoes made for working people.
I had never owned a pair of shoes like this until today. Like the sheltered noble daughters in fairy tales, I had simply never needed them. For ordinary people, these kinds of shoes were a given. Yune wore them without a second thought. That boy Kiri had them too. And, naturally, they were the kind of people who could walk far on their own two feet. People who could travel.
“No.” I shook my head, hard. My hair fell into disarray, but I didn’t care. I had shoes now. And with them, I could finally walk far. I would go to many places—no, not just that. I would travel to uncharted lands. There, I would find breathtaking sights beyond imagination.
So then, what was there to hesitate about?
“Tomorrow, I won’t fail again.” I sat up and felt determination igniting inside me. It was fine to stumble in front of Yune. But that tiny, smug boy Kiri? I would never let him see me weak again. If I wanted to be an adventurer, then I had to act like one. Lying in bed sulking wouldn’t accomplish anything.
“I need to break in my new shoes. And I need to gather herbs. That’s where I’ll start.”
I sat on the edge of my bed, slipping on my new shoes and tightening the laces. I had spent time trying every suitable pair in the shop, and these were the ones I had chosen. They fit perfectly on my feet.
As I took my first few steps, I felt a remarkable difference. I had never worn shoes that were so easy to walk in before. I walked to my bookshelf, reached for a tome on herbalism, and absorbed the information as I flipped through the pages.
“I’ll walk all the way to Yune’s house and study to prepare for tomorrow. Of course. A Magnan merchant would never underestimate something as simple as herb gathering,” I declared, before feeling my heart sink at how lowly and mundane that had just sounded. I had prepared for so long, because I was determined to become an adventurer. I had even become proficient in the noble art of magia, a discipline known for its extreme difficulty. And yet, this was the beginning of my journey?
Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. But, at the very least, today was not over yet. There was still time.
One step at a time, no matter how small, I told myself. I have to keep moving forward, because my journey as an adventurer has only just begun.