I met a strange boy.
He was smaller than me, and although he was clad in armor, wielded a spear, and wore a forehead protector, he looked weak—nothing like the kind of adventurer I had imagined. When that rude adventurer with the shock of white hair claimed I was beneath this boy, I was livid. Yet, when I followed him, I realized I was nothing more than a burden.
I got blisters the moment we left town, which forced us to turn back. It was entirely my fault, so I was determined not to embarrass myself again the next day and studied medicinal herbs in advance. But still, I never once managed to find herbs before he did. Before long, I was so exhausted just from walking that I could hardly focus on searching at all.
When he gave me his canteen, I scoffed at the terrible taste of the water. That was partly out of petty frustration. It was unpleasant, but not undrinkable, and it did soothe my parched throat and fill me with renewed energy. I had to say something disagreeable, though, or else it would’ve felt like I had lost. Just like how I had to point out the nuanced differences between alchemy and medicine making, even though such knowledge was utterly irrelevant to him.
I was amazed as I watched him climb the mountain with ease. Even a child that small had such stamina. Was this what it meant to be an adventurer? But as we continued, I started to wonder. Did he deliberately choose this difficult path just to mock me? The thought irritated me so much that I demanded an explanation.
And when he gave me one, I felt ashamed. He had his own reasons, his own considerations, yet I—in my ignorance—had villainized him. Herb gathering was supposed to be the most basic of all adventurer tasks, but I had let my own arrogance cloud my judgment so much that I made a fool of myself.
After exchanging the gathered herbs for money at the adventurer’s guild and parting ways with that boy, Yune and I walked home under the now completely darkened sky.
“Yune.” I turned to my friend.
“Yes?”
“Do you think I was of any use?”
“Hmm, let’s see...” Yune adjusted the oversized hat she wore as an apprentice cleric and placed a finger to her lips like she was deep in thought. “You were the one who found that mana pool, right? So, at the very least, you were more helpful than I was.”
That was true. If I hadn’t done that, I probably would have been feeling like nothing more than a miserable, useless burden.
“Thank you, Liluetta.”
I thought back to when he’d said those words. That simple detection spell was beyond basic. I never expected anyone to thank me for something so elementary. Yet his gratitude was genuine. His smile, filled with pure delight, took me by surprise. I was so completely stunned that I needed time to process the fact that he wasn’t putting on an act or only thanking me out of politeness.
When he thanked me like that, I was truly glad I had studied magia. With just those few words, the long, grueling years of training suddenly felt worthwhile. He probably wasn’t even thinking that deeply about it. That was why his joy was so pure and unfiltered.
Something stirred deep in my chest. That smile of his is unfair, I thought.
“Hey, Yune,” I said, pulling myself back to the present. “That field of purple flowers was beautiful, wasn’t it?”
“Oh, absolutely.” My friend nodded with a warm, gentle smile.
My heart felt just as light and airy as her expression. “There must be so many more breathtaking sights like that all over the world.”
“I’m sure there are,” she replied.
I stopped walking and looked up at the night sky. There hadn’t been a single cloud all day, and now the sky was filled with a sea of stars glittering in the darkness. I reached out toward them. I knew I couldn’t grasp them, but I still wanted to try.
“I want to see them all.”
If I were an elf with a thousand-year lifespan, maybe that dream could come true. But I knew that, as a human, it was impossible. Still, wanting to see them wasn’t wrong. Wishing for something more... There’s no shame in that, is there?
“In that case, you’ll need to start walking a lot more,” said Yune.
“Urgh...” A small groan slipped out. My friend had a way of hitting where it hurt, but she was right. If I wanted to travel the world, I couldn’t be out of breath just from climbing a small mountain.
“Well, if you keep tagging along with Kiri-o for herb gathering for a while, you’ll build up stamina soon enough.”
For a while, huh?
It was true. I didn’t have much stamina. So maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to keep working with him for just a little while longer. That thought came to me so naturally and easily that I had to wonder if it was because my heart was still floating in the air, as light as a feather.