The Trip’s Destination

Two days had passed since we arrived at the biggest city in this region, the city of Count Taurus. But it seemed that I had accumulated a lot of fatigue. I got a fever as soon as we arrived and slept for a whole day.

In a sense it might be just natural because I went to a trip and fought throughout the night with a childish body like this……. After I recovered my stamina and used appraisal crystal on myself when the fever receded, there was a small change to my status.

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▼ Aria (Alicia) Race : Human ♀ – Rank 1

【Magic Power : 47/77】△ 7 UP【Stamina : 52/55】△ 3 UP

【Strength : 4 (5)】【Endurance : 5 (6)】【Agility : 7 (8)】【Dexterity : 6】

《Short Sword Skill Level 1》《Martial Art Level 1》

《Light Sorcery Level 1》《Non-Elemental Magic Level 1》

《Daily Life Magic×６》《Magic Power Control Level １》

《Pressure Level 1》《Stealth Level 1》《Night Vision Level 1》《Search Level 1》

《Simple Appraisal》NEW

【Overall Combat Strength : 39 (With Body Strengthening : 41)】△ 3 UP

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I finally learned Appraisal. Perhaps that was why my magic power also increased and my combat strength also increased a bit.

The only miscalculation that I made was that unlike the appraisal using crystal until now, the Appraisal skill consumed around five MP. That was the reason my magic power decreased even though I had just woken up.

It wasn’t really anything concerning as long as I was careful in its usage, but what bothered me right now was that when I tried standing up, I noticed that my body had been cleaned and I was wearing a thin pajama that commoner girl usually wore.

「…………」

My reflection was reflected on the bronze mirror that was inside the room. There I saw me looking like a normal girl that could be found anywhere in the town. But, as expected the look of my eyes was bad. The bed had a softness that I experienced for the first time and a clean sheet. It seemed this inn was quite a high class inn where high ranked adventurer like Viro would stay.

It seemed that Viro paid money to a waitress to take care of me. The waitress appeared when I woke up and gave me proper clothes that were used by her little brother in the past. The simple clothes that I had been using until now had become very battered and it was torn when it was washed. The girl asked me 『Can you tell your father sorry for damaging your clothes?』, could it be the setting here was that Viro and I were parent and child?

I felt hungry because I hadn’t eaten for one whole day. When I tasted 『proper human food』 that consisted of vegetable soup and bread after so long at the first floor’s dining hall, Viro who seemed to have just returned from outside found me and asked the waitress to boil him tea while he headed to the table where I was sitting and sat down himself.

「Ou, you’re fine already?」

「morning, dad (monotone).」

「I’m telling you, I’m still 35 years old.」

That’s why, that age was older than even my father.

「We’re departing as soon as you’re fine. Can you go now?」

「No problem.」

I was still feeling somewhat lethargic, but I had no problem with moving. Guessing from Viro’s expression and tone, this also must be doubling as a test to see whether I could be introduced to the client and be entrusted with work.

「Even so……that really stands out.」

「Hm?」

After I stuffed the remaining bread into my stomach, Viro pointed at my pink blond hair.

Aa, I see……. Until now I had covered the luster of my hair by sprinkling ash on it, but perhaps because I had been bathed properly after so long instead of simply wiping my body with wet cloth, my pinkish blond hair felt like it was even more lustrous than before.

「Can I ask for some ashes from the hearth?」

「Aa, I’ll try asking later. But still……I think the luster of your hair is also affected by the increase of your magic power. Before long you might not be able to cover it up with just ash.」

「……I see.」

I sprinkled ash on my hair so that I wouldn’t stand out and get dragged into danger. Right now I had Viro with me so there would be no danger to myself, but if I was going solo later, I would have to search for something to replace the ash.

「In that case you should learn this. If you have the elemental attribute, you might be able to use “Illusion” to disguise that in the future.」

Viro handed a piece of paper as though to tease me who was falling into my thought.

「……Darkness sorcery’s spell?」

On that paper, other than the incantation of Noise that I asked him to teach me before, there was also the incantation of Weight that was the other level 1 spell of darkness sorcery written on it.

Darkness sorcery level 1 Weight seemed to be a sorcery to change the weight of an object.

The incantation was『Mobasaoo Iaa Niderekuresu』……as expected, it was subtly difficult to memorize. The general meaning of the incantation was『Change the weight of that thing』.

According to Viro, this spell was similar to Cure of light sorcery in that there wasn’t many user of this spell. When you used this spell, it seemed that you could change around ten percent of the weight of an object the size that you could hold with both arms for several minutes. ……That was certainly tricky. The other spell Noise was also just a spell to create sound, so I got why the user of darkness sorcery was so few.

However, by learning about this spell’s existence, it felt like the question about darkness magic that I had been holding all this time was slightly answered. I was just guessing but……the magic particle of darkness element was different from actual darkness.

「Thank you.」

「Don’t mind it. Also take this too. You were using skewer, but that thing isn’t suited for throwing, so it’s difficult to learn throwing skill with that.」

Viro pushed something that was wrapped in a cloth on the table. When I opened it, there were several knives inside. Their blades were ten cm long, seven cm wide, with pommels that were seven cm long.

From the three skewers that I used for throwing, only one remained now after I used them several times in battle. I myself had been considering to replace them with something else, but it seemed that Viro had been closely observing the weapons that I was using. This kind of throwing weapon was classified as 『hidden weapon』 that could also be used for assassination, so no normal shop was selling them. Viro went as far as the specialized shop to buy them for me, so I thanked him again, but he just waved his hand lightly saying that this was a necessary expense.

It seemed that several golden coins were hidden in that bandit stronghold, so I received the reward of three golden coins as my share. When leaving the inn, I entrusted a silver coin to the waitress who took care of me as thanks for the clothes. If this was a cheap inn then there was a risk I might get embezzled but, surely there would be no such thing in this inn that cost two silver coins per night. ……I also carefully put away one golden coin in order to pay back Galbas.

.

「Then let’s hurry ahead.」

「Roger……」

……Several gazes followed me around again when we left the inn. When I checked the sources using only my gaze, I also saw several young men looking at me. Was my hair color that unusual?

Or perhaps I looked like woman now that my hair’s luster returned?

No, it had been one month since I cut my hair, so my hair had also grown by several centimeters, so perhaps my boyishness had faded. It felt like the growth of several centimeter was a bit too long even though only one month had passed, but perhaps my hair’s growth was also getting faster similar like my body’s growth.

For now I entered an alley and sprinkled ash on my hair. After that the number of gazes decreased. The impression of prosperity in this count territory’s city was quite strong, even so I felt quite a lot of unpleasant gazes when entering an alley.

The darkness would also deepen in a place with strong light. Although this was a remote region, this was still the territory of Count Taurus, and yet even this place was in this state. If I wanted to go somewhere far away, I would have to become very strong in order to achieve that.

「……Hey, will you tell me where we are going already?」

We exited the city from the front gate and began walking toward the east when I asked that. Then Viro pondered for a bit before he unexpectedly told me easily.

「I guess it should be the right time to tell you. The place we are heading to is the territory of Margrave Dandall that is located east from here. There is a summer retreat there where a certain noble will visit incognito to recuperate. Our job is to be in charge of a part of the security of the surrounding area.」

「……Noble」

As I thought it was involving noble……. Furthermore if the noble had to travel incognito for recuperation, it was possible that the noble was quite high ranked. Certainly this was undoubtedly dangerous for me, but I had to tolerate getting involved with noble to some degree in order to gain strength.

Even so I was amazed that Viro told a street urchin with unknown background like me about something really important like this. I too didn’t think that Viro was a bad person, but did Viro also think that a street urchin like me could be trusted?

「But, why does a kid like me needed for that?」

「About that, it’s a request from the client. Well, I have some guesses about the reason of that……. Perhaps it’s because this noble who will come for recuperation is a “child”……maybe.」

「……Hmm~」

As expected he still wouldn’t go as far as telling me the name of the client, but if the noble here was a child, they shouldn’t be my relative who was searching for me, so I felt slightly relieved. If my blood relative found the current me, I would be turned into a noble forcefully. And then I might end up like the 『main character(heroine)』 in that woman’s “knowledge”, a human who led around various men by the nose and caused misfortune for various people.

I understood that it was dangerous to get involved with noble while I was still powerless like this. But I felt that the event this time was a wall that I had to overcome no matter what. If I ran away from that too, then I would surely become someone who continued to run away for my whole life.

I would obtain the strength to overcome fate.

After that Viro and I passed several noble territories as we headed east. There were also the likes of bandits and goblins that attacked us seeing an adult travelling with a kid, but all of them were turned by Viro into “nourishment” for my training.

My rank was still 1 and my combat strength also hadn’t changed at all but, I was definitely growing in the aspect of “experience”.

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And then a week later──

「This is, Dandall……」

A plain with gently sloping hills stretched until far away with cool wind blowing. This territory of Margrave Dandall was the place where my accepted the first work as “me”.

And then in this place……I would encounter with the girls who would be called 『villainess』 and get involved in my life.