Orphan Joseph
"Heh heh."
The laugh that had just slipped out of him sounded pretty stupid, Joseph had to admit. But who could blame him? A way out of this dog-shit life had appeared—not somewhere far off, but inside his own body.
A week had passed since he'd first begun to sense mana. Every day, Joseph checked the power settled inside him and grinned like a fool.
Questions still lingered, of course. What exactly was Eidesa? Who was Virr? And what had those last words meant? But he'd already accepted the mana. Brooding over mysteries that wouldn't change a thing was a waste of time. From now on, the only thing that mattered was growing this mana somehow and escaping this hellish life as a slave. The riddles could wait.
"Hahh..."
After grinning to himself for a good long while, Joseph sat down on a tree stump, closed his eyes, and slowly let out a breath. He sank his consciousness to the very bottom, then reached for the current of mana flowing through the world around him.
"..."
A moment later a strange sensation washed over him, and his awareness slipped free of his body, scattering like heat haze. The wind brushing past his bangs, the insects crawling across the earth, the sunlight beating down, even the old stump he sat on—from all of them, a faint white energy shimmered. Mana.
Joseph raised his arm and laid his hand upon the current. A tiny amount of that white energy seeped in through his fingertips. He felt it slowly accumulating into the Eidesa mana already inside him, then spread that inner mana through his entire body once more.
Taking the world's mana, making it his own, and storing it within. It was the most basic practice of a mage. No one had taught him this. But whether it was thanks to the memories of his previous life, or from having faced Virr, he had grasped it without ever being told.
Joseph slowly opened his eyes. Without realizing it, he was smiling again.
"Rise."
He lifted his index finger, and white light began to gather at the tip. The presence of mana was not the only thing that had changed in him. Ever since it had settled inside his body, the light orb he'd been practicing every day had started to transform.
Before, he had formed the orb by gathering mana from his surroundings. Now he could make it from the mana within himself. Its size had grown from a small pebble to something about as big as his fist. Best of all, where it had once been nothing but a faint glow, the orb now had actual substance.
Joseph flicked his finger, and the fist-sized orb began to orbit around him in lazy circles.
"Fly."
He pointed at a tree directly ahead, and the orb shot forward at high speed.
Thwack!
It struck the trunk with a louder crack than he'd expected and vanished. A gouge a little larger than the orb itself had been punched into the bark.
It was hardly magic—just shooting a lump of mana. The range was short, the power weak.
And besides... it eats up more stamina than I expected.
All he'd done was absorb some of the world's mana, form an orb, and fire it at a tree. That was it. And in that brief span, his clothes were already soaked through with sweat.
Still, if I use it right, I could hunt with this.
Hunting, in this case, would mean nothing more than rats or small birds—but that was plenty for now. He'd eaten bugs before, back when he needed the protein. A hideous memory, and even with magic he had no intention of going after insects again. But if this orb could get him actual meat, that was a different story.
A steady diet of meat would build his stamina and fill out his frame. If he kept strengthening his body and gathering mana, he'd naturally be able to fire the orb more than once.
Then I'll be able to use it several times over.
And if he could hunt on top of gathering herbs, he might rise from laborer to skilled tradesman—to Villager A. No, to a position even more important than that. Not that Joseph particularly wanted any of it. Now that he had magic as a way out, building up a big standing in this village would only chain him down.
A few small animals should be enough.
Over the next few days, Joseph practiced shooting the orb and caught several rats. Calling them rats was generous—they were twice the size of any sewer rat you'd see in the modern world, so three of them was enough that he didn't have to worry about food that day.
"You caught these?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"...I threw rocks at them."
He made soup with one and brought the remaining two to the Village Chief, whose eyes changed all over again. The man seemed to be calculating how best to put this all-purpose asset to use—someone who gathered herbs and hunted.
"Can you bring more tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow's a housework day."
"Forget that. I'll handle it. You just keep going up the mountain. Herbs, meat, whatever you find—bring it back."
"I'll see what I can do."
From that day on, Joseph was freed from slavery in the chief's household. Instead, he was formally appointed the village herbalist and hunter.
Huh. That was easier than I expected.
He'd been promoted from simple laborer to skilled tradesman. The iron law that a genuine specialist gets poached even at a premium held true even in Bari Village.
The housework Joseph had been doing fell to the chief's family, and Hayra, the chief's son, looked thoroughly unhappy about it.
Not my problem. Work yourself to the bone.
Joseph still hadn't forgotten getting beaten by Hayra.
"Joseph, off hunting, are you?"
"Hello, Mr. Prion."
Joseph forced a polite expression onto a face that wanted to twist, and greeted Villager B.
"Well... winter's coming soon, isn't it? The woods fill up with beasts in autumn, don't they?"
"Plenty of them wandering around before they go into hibernation, yes."
Prion glanced at Joseph's face, then gave him a chummy clap on the shoulder.
"Right, right. So you'll be bringing in a bit more... meat yourself, won't you?"
"Sometimes. Sometimes not."
"Ahem... so here's the thing. If you've got any meat left over, could you sell it to me instead of the chief? The wife's been completely out of energy lately, you see. And I did look after you when you were little, you know? Hmm?"
This shameless son of a bitch.
Once Joseph became Bari Village's herbalist and hunter, the way people treated him began to shift, little by little. Most of it was exactly this—sidling up all friendly and trying to talk him out of the fruits of his labor on the cheap.
Oh, he did something for me, all right. He dug my grave.
Joseph still remembered Prion grumbling about how digging that grave had been a waste of effort. People in a closed-off place like Bari Village only grew more shameless with time. They knew it themselves. In a backwater like this, getting along with others mattered—orphans excepted, of course. So of course they assumed Joseph, now the village hunter, couldn't afford to show that he disliked them. And this wasn't just Prion's problem.
"Well..."
The shamelessness left Joseph speechless, but he wasn't about to let it slide.
"I'd love to have some left after selling to the chief, but... that's a bit difficult, you know?"
"Oh, of course, of course. I know how hard hunting is. Farmers like us, we barely get the odd rat we catch in the fields. Going out there to bring something back—that must be exhausting."
"Ahem. Well, since you put it that way, I suppose I should go check how many I've got first. But... I haven't seen much of you around lately... it's a bit..."
"Ah... ah! Right, of course. You've been out there straining your eyes chasing the things down. This isn't much, but..."
Prion tucked a few coins into Joseph's clothes.
"Well then. Sorry to hold up a busy man."
"Yes. I'll let you know if I have any meat to spare."
It was the same back-and-forth they'd already repeated three times today. Prion walked off with an awkward smile.
Money was good.
In Bari Village, with its utter lack of infrastructure, coins didn't hold much value. But that was only from a villager's point of view. For Joseph, who planned to leave, they were essential.
I'll need to save up if I want to get out of here someday.
Joseph had become the village herbalist and hunter, and several seasons had passed. He still climbed the mountain every day, gathering herbs, collecting mana, hunting with his orb. He no longer went hungry. If anything, days like today—villagers sidling up to quietly request meat—had become more common.
Still not enough.
His living conditions had changed a great deal, but he still had no intention of leaving the village. He considered himself a mage who wasn't even worth half a copper. It couldn't be helped. Joseph couldn't even tell whether the light orb was real magic or just a lump of mana. He'd learned to sense mana, yes—but he had no teacher, and no other mage to measure himself against.
"A spellbook? What would you want with one of those?"
"...They look cool."
"I could get you one if you need it, but you'd just be throwing money away."
Now and then he asked the merchants about mages, but even they didn't know much. They treated it as nothing more than a country youth's foolish dream. That said, he couldn't just walk out of the village on a whim either. If anything, asking the merchants about the outside world had only sharpened his wariness.
The demonic beasts and monsters teeming beyond the village. Starving animals. Bands of bandits lurking on mountain paths, preying on merchants and travelers. Two-bit nobles who might as well have been highwaymen, the sort who'd take your head if they were in a foul mood. No matter who he ran into, in his current state, it wouldn't end well.
I need to at least be able to protect myself.
Joseph had no choice but to train the orb as far as he could. Slowly accumulating mana inside himself, increasing the orb's power and range. It wasn't fast, but he was growing steadily.
"Joseph! Is Hunter Joseph here?"
He was sorting herbs at home when someone called for him from outside.
"What is it?"
"The chief wants you. Hurry!"
It was a face Joseph didn't know well. Flushed bright red—the man had clearly come running.
"..."
Joseph followed him. He didn't ask why. He could already guess. Something had come up that required a man who roamed the mountains outside the village. In other words, the free labor the chief had taken in was being put to use again.
When they arrived at the chief's house, most of the village men were already gathered.
"You're here."
Joseph bowed his head and went to sit in a corner.
"What's going on?"
The Village Chief looked around at the men, then opened his mouth.
"A beast's shown up near the village."
"A beast?"
"That's right. Jake's kid's gone missing."
"Jake's kid? He's nearly of age... Didn't he just go out for firewood?"
A few of the men raised the question, the implication being that making a fuss over one missing child was overdoing it. In the modern world it would have been an appalling thing to say, but no one here took offense. This was a backwater village halfway up a mountain. A village child going missing was something that happened from time to time.
The chief shook his head at them.
"Beast fur was found near Jake's house."
He pulled a clump of black fur from his pocket and held it up.
"Meaning the beast came all the way into the village."
At that, every mouth in the room closed.
"It's not even winter..."
Hungry boars or wolves prowling near the village in winter was an occasional occurrence. But one coming all the way inside? That had never happened—not in the time Joseph had lived here, at least.
The chief let out a long breath.
"Now that it's learned the taste of humans, the beast won't be leaving."
Humans were a beast's natural enemy—but only humans in groups, with weapons in their hands. To a starving mountain animal, an unarmed person was nothing but easy prey. Joseph had heard stories like this in his previous life too. Tigers, leopards—the kind that raided villages night after night.
"Then... what do we do?"
"We find it. And we kill it, or we drive it off."
At the chief's words, Joseph's nerves went taut. He understood perfectly now why he had been called. And just as he'd expected, the chief's gaze turned toward him.
"We'll have to send the one in this village who knows the mountain best."
...Fuck.