The Village (1)
Once I'd finished tidying up, I unwrapped the bandage on my arm and checked the wound.
"Oh. The ointment actually worked?"
I'd already guessed it was effective from the way the pain had vanished, but seeing the result with my own eyes was still startling. The wound had fully closed, and the scar was barely visible.
"Wow. At this rate, I could actually sell the stuff."
It might not do much for a serious injury, but healing minor cuts overnight? That alone opened up plenty of uses. I took out the ointment I'd made and dabbed a little over what remained of the scar.
"The mark should fade too, right?"
It was a thought that only came to me now… but this body was rather pretty. Leaving scars on it would feel like a waste.
I rewrapped the bandage and sank into thought. Too many things had happened lately, and my head was spinning—the dangers of repeatedly using a magic tool, the presence of whoever had been following me, whether stalker or bandit…
"Hah. These are worries I never needed when I was a man."
Slavery was banned across the continent. The kingdom I lived in was especially hostile to it, thanks to the strong influence of the Metis Church. Even so, people still bought and sold slaves under the table, and rumors of kidnappings for the slave trade circulated freely. Rumors about female slaves in particular were so widespread even I'd heard them once or twice.
"Don't tell me they're planning to kidnap me?"
Or were they after money? Honestly, I'd been so busy that I'd almost forgotten I was a woman now.
"I never thought I'd be thinking about this…"
I glanced at the small iron mirror in the room. My reflection came back a little blurred, and looking at it left me with a strange feeling. My appearance as a man hadn't been bad, I thought—but the person looking back at me now was unmistakably beautiful.
"If you ignore how short I am, that is…"
As a man I'd been around a hundred sixty-five centimeters and still growing. Now I was just small—roughly a hundred forty-five, petite. No… maybe a little taller than that. Definitely taller. Without a measuring stick, I couldn't be sure.
"And this hair color…"
The pink hair that had looked so odd on a man now paired beautifully with my red eyes.
"Tch. I really am pretty…"
I'd avoided looking properly because I wanted to deny becoming a woman, but examining myself like this, I had to admit my appearance was strikingly beautiful. Fair was fair. The man I'd been would have looked like a squid next to the woman I was now—pretty, cute, and lovely.
Confirming that only made me more worried about what had happened earlier.
"So they really are after a kidnapping?"
A pretty girl could be snatched, used as a sex slave, or sold off… What kind of work would a slave end up doing? Only one thing, obviously…
Just imagining it made my skin crawl. Me—a man—pinned under some guy, whimpering?
I'd rather die.
I banished the unpleasant thought, lay down on the bed, and tried to sleep.
Even knowing someone was following me, I couldn't stop going out. Hiding in the inn wouldn't solve anything, and I figured confronting them once might be the better way to learn what they wanted.
Of course, I armed myself properly every time I left. Maybe it was the spear I carried—cumbersome as it was—but the presence of my tail had grown harder to sense.
Today, as usual, I arrived at the used bookstore and settled in to read. Lately I'd started branching out from mana texts into history books. Something about them felt like flipping through a setting guide, and I found them surprisingly fun.
"You're here again?"
"Yes. It seems so."
"Still can't let it go, can you?"
I hadn't been able to give up when I was learning the sword, either. Now I had a purpose—becoming a man again—and that made quitting even less of an option.
"Then try reading this."
The bookstore owner came over and tossed a volume into my hands. The title read Fundamentals of Mana. I'd already read books on the basics, though…
Was this a different one from what I'd seen? I opened it and started reading.
Going through it carefully, I realized something was off. Even the way it was written felt subtly different. When I looked up at the owner with wide eyes, he wore a meaningful smile.
"I wrote that one myself, twenty years ago. Not a particularly useful book, mind you. Kahahaha."
What a suspicious old man. Still, he'd given it to me, so I decided to keep reading.
The opening material wasn't much different from what I'd already learned from other books. Even so, I couldn't just close a gift without reading it, so I took my time. Inside the bookstore, the only sound was the soft rustle of turning pages.
"Th-this!"
It was different! The content suddenly shifted. It had started with an ordinary explanation of mana, then moved into a philosophical inquiry into what mana actually was.
Mana—a mysterious force dwelling in everything that exists in the world, living and nonliving alike. I already knew that concept. But this book proposed and examined something else entirely.
"Ode…?"
The author—the bookstore owner—called mana Ode, defining it as the fundamental element that constitutes the world. An omnipotent force capable of becoming anything; a truth unto itself.
Magic, he wrote, was the act of using Ode's omnipotent power to create laws and produce natural phenomena. Plausible enough. And Ode wasn't limited to natural phenomena—it could cause all sorts of effects, the prime example being Knights.
Certainly… in the world of my previous life, mana hadn't existed at all. So was he treating mana—Ode—as something like the elemental concept from my past life? And if so, could Alchemy use Ode to intervene in those elements?
"Ugh, now my head hurts even more…"
No—this was a fantasy world. There was no need to lean so hard on knowledge from my past life. Gods existed here, and magic too; the laws could be entirely different.
Reading the rest of the book, I found nothing more particularly special. It simply established this concept of Ode and a somewhat different framework of attributes around it.
"Almost done."
It felt like reading the lore bible for a novel or a game, and I was enjoying it in its own way. Another page turned with a soft rustle. Next came Ode and Holy Power? Ode was an omnipotent force. And that power was fully realized when it was transformed into Holy Power?
A blessing granted by a god converted Ode into Holy Power. Holy Power was a higher-quality force than ordinary mana, but because it was divine, it carried the drawback of the holy attribute.
"Hmm…"
The following section explained that Holy Power and mana were fundamentally no different. Magic could still be cast using Holy Power as fuel. Depending on the spell, the output might shift a little, but that was all.
This, the book claimed, was further proven by the fact that the person who created magic had been an apostle of a god.
"Come to think of it, they said magic was created by a saint of the Metis Church…"
So of course you could cast magic with Holy Power as well…
Next was a section on Holy Power itself. Holy Power arose from the combination of a god's blessing and Ode… meaning its particular nature differed depending on which god's blessing one received.
A cleric serving Ceres, goddess of fertility and the earth, would possess Holy Power carrying both the holy attribute and the earth attribute. A cleric of Themis, god of light and justice, would carry light alongside the holy attribute, and so on…
"So that's why priests and clerics don't need to worry about their personal attributes."
A person's body had affinities of its own, but those were simply buried under the greater attribute of the blessing.
As for how to awaken Holy Power… the book said nothing. Mana had special techniques for cultivation, but Holy Power, granted by divine grace, was determined solely by a god's will. The amount of Holy Power one possessed was fixed by faith in the god and the god's love.
"Heh…"
There was currently no way for me to obtain mana. Didn't that make Holy Power the most promising option?
When I finished the book, I returned it to the owner. He asked how it was, and I told him it had been helpful. He seemed rather pleased.
Quite a bit of time had passed. As I prepared to leave, the owner saw me out.
"Come again."
I answered with a bow of my head.
On the road back to the inn, I felt eyes on me—and a presence trailing from behind.
Good, I thought. It might be a little dangerous, but I was confident I could handle a few ordinary thugs.
Instead of taking my usual route, I deliberately walked into a secluded alley. The presence behind me grew denser. They must have thought this was their chance. Ready to draw my spear at a moment's notice, I stepped into the alley—then spun around hard. The three people following me stopped short.
"Why are you following me?"
"Following you? We just happen to be going the same way."
Playing dumb, were they?
"You've been tailing me for days."
"What? You knew?"
The oily smile that spread across his face made it clear he was about to drop the act. I swung the spear off my back and leveled it forward.
"Perfect. I'll settle this today."
I spat on the ground. They looked a little rattled. This body of mine had been properly trained! A few thugs were well within my ability to handle. I put some force into my voice and shouted.
"Come on, then!"
They flinched at my spirit, then drew daggers and waved them threateningly. Of course, that did nothing to close the gap in reach between a dagger and a spear.
I didn't want to kill anyone, so I avoided vital points—striking wrists with the shaft, scoring shallow cuts along their sides with the tip. As the fighting grew more intense, I felt something strange in my chest, but this was no time to think about that.
"What? Not coming anymore?"
Ordinary thugs had no hope of dealing with properly trained spear technique.
"You little bitch!"
One of them charged, trying to grab the spear. I yanked it back, shortened my grip, and spun the shaft into his jaw.
"Ghk!"
The one with the side wound seized the opening and rushed me, but I'd expected it. I angled the spear to block his approach, stepped back, and reset my stance.
All three were wounded now, and their faces were full of venom.
"Still want more? Guess I'll have to kill you after all…"
I laced a thin killing intent into my voice and advanced a step with the spear extended. A flicker of fear crossed their faces.
"Want to keep going?"
I spoke again with that same killing intent, and they hesitated—then bolted.
"E-eek!"
I stood with the spear raised until they were completely gone.
"Whew…"
If the fight had gone on, I might actually have had to kill them… Sixteen years since being reborn in this world, and I still couldn't get used to the idea of taking a life.
I recovered the spear, shook out my limbs, and left the alley. Having dealt with the nuisance, I returned to the inn in a lighter mood.
The moment I got back, I paid for the bathhouse and washed up thoroughly. Once I was clean and back in my room, my clothes started to bother me.
"Do I need to buy new clothes…?"
I'd gotten smaller, but I'd figured tightening the ties would be enough, so I'd kept wearing my old clothes. They were starting to feel uncomfortable, though.
"Especially when my chest rubs…"
During the fight earlier, I'd felt something strange there. I tugged the collar of my top down and looked.
Small as they were, a pair of gently rounded breasts sat there. And perched atop those little hills, two shy points made their presence known.
"Ahem…"
I'd thought I was getting used to a woman's body, but staring at them like this was embarrassing…
"Clothes I can keep wearing to save money, but… d-do I need to buy undergarments?"
Until now, all I'd done was read at the bookstore or eat cake at the dessert shop, so I hadn't noticed. But moving hard made my chest rub, and it seemed I was going to need something underneath.
I sighed and went to the small shrine on the table. Offering a prayer to the gods was part of my daily routine. Now that I knew which god it was… who could say whether she might grant me her grace?
"Goddess Metis, thank you for granting me a new life."
Though I would have preferred you stop me from becoming a woman.
Still—I look forward to your continued care.