Stirring the Pot and Breathing Fire
I stirred the ladle slowly, with care and devotion. It was an utterly boring task, yet a necessary one. Living with a greatsword is a dream, after all. A romantic ideal. A knightly fantasy.
"Tough work, huh?"
"It's not really tiring. The problem is just how boring it gets."
My sturdy body treated this kind of labor like child's play. The only thing I couldn't handle was the mind-numbing tedium.
"Well, that's a relief. Here, try some of this."
Camilla popped a sweet fruit jelly into my mouth. After showing up at her alchemy workshop for a few days, we'd grown close enough to call each other by name.
"Thanks to you, Nix, I've been able to breathe easier. Potion production has sped up so much that I can finally meet demand."
"Then who told you to slack off in the first place?"
"But this work is seriously hard, you know."
It seemed Camilla had handled everything herself whenever she didn't have part-timers. No wonder she always complained about shoulder stiffness. If her chest had been any bigger, her back muscles might have been completely wrecked by now.
"...I'm starting to feel a little offended."
"Suddenly? Don't tell me your time of the month is coming?"
"It's not that. That ended last week. Here, have another one."
"Thanks. This is really good... huh?"
Wait a second. Why was a spicy flavor suddenly rising up my throat?
"Um, Camilla?"
"Yes? What is it?"
"What exactly did you just feed me...?"
"Obviously fruit jelly... wait, what?"
The jelly in her hand was supposed to be shaped like fruit, so why did it look exactly like a red chili pepper?
"Quick, some water...!"
The gradually intensifying spiciness made my pores feel like they were on fire.
"Hold on just a second!"
Camilla hurriedly poured water from a kettle, but flames were already bursting from my mouth.
"It's spicy! My tongue feels like it's burning off!"
Fwoosh—!
"Kyaaa?! Fire from your mouth?!"
Fwoosh—! Fwoosh—!
"This is spicier than Buldak!"
My weak-to-spice body couldn't handle the infernal chili.
"Here's the water!"
I finally managed to get some cool liquid into my burning mouth.
Gulp, gulp—!
"Phew, I thought I was gonna die."
The spiciness was so intense I thought my brain was going to melt.
"Nix, are you some kind of fire spirit? Why did fire come out of your mouth...?"
"Well, I don't really know the details myself."
I gave her a simple explanation. Since I didn't fully understand the phenomenon either, I was just as confused as she was.
"Really? Actually, I have one guess."
"For real? Then could you please tell me? I'm dying to know—I'm begging you!"
"Of course I'll tell you. Consider it payment for all the trouble I've caused you."
Her explanation continued.
"There are occasionally people like that. Individuals with such strong minds or egos that their willpower is overflowing."
"Uh... Sans? Papyrus?"
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"Never mind. Please keep going."
"Anyway, people with strong wills can influence their surroundings. Especially when it comes to mana."
Camilla scattered mana from her hand to demonstrate.
"I was too startled to see it clearly earlier, but I could feel it. The moment you breathed fire, the mana around you started to fluctuate wildly."
In other words, the mana reacting to my will had caused the flames to erupt from my mouth.
"You must have an incredibly strong will, Nix. For mana to react that violently, ordinary mental strength wouldn't be enough."
Ah, so that's why.
Mental Strength Stat: 15
My Mental Strength stat of 15 seemed to have far more varied effects than I'd realized.
"Looking at your expression, it seems like something clicked. Are you a half-blood? Or perhaps an ancient race?!"
"No. It's probably neither. I think it's for a different reason..."
When my voice trailed off, she politely dropped her curiosity.
"Well, pressing further would be rude. I'm a woman who knows her manners, after all."
A Camilla who knows manners? I applaud that.
"Then can anyone with strong willpower become a mage?"
"Not at all. It certainly helps, but it's not some incredible advantage. The efficiency is terrible to begin with."
Camilla gave me a quick lecture on magic.
"People tend to think of magic as something grand and mysterious, but it's not. Magic is simply a type of skill."
Processing mana into magical power and twisting the laws of reality—that is magic. What you need for that is a mana refinement technique, and with refined mana, you draw formulas to activate spells.
Apparently, using magic through sheer willpower alone requires an unimaginable amount of mana.
"It's true that mana-based magic has stronger firepower, but it's impossible unless you're a dragon."
"A dragon..."
"Ancient humans supposedly used primitive magic powered purely by will, but that's now considered lost magic—forgotten by the modern age."
"The history of magic sure is grand."
"Hehe, advanced techniques tend to be profound by nature."
"You're right about that."
Being a knight is also a profound profession. There are so many requirements—maintaining chivalry, upholding honor. Only when all those elements come together can someone truly call themselves a knight.
The corpses lay scattered, emitting a horrific stench. Goblins, orcs, and a very small number of human bodies were all mixed together in this place overflowing with malevolent energy.
"So many dead."
Green military uniform. A sharply angled military cap. Piercing eyes and a suspicious mustache.
"I thought I had avoided human hostility as much as possible, yet they somehow always manage to find us."
If a human had heard those words, they would have sighed in disbelief. This is what you call hiding? They probably would have cursed, calling them things that wouldn't even know the width of their own stomachs.
Anyway.
The Goblin Lord was furious. The damage caused by some unknown human's rampage had been significant. However, he never despaired.
"As long as you're alive, opportunities will always come."
He still had many comrades left. Talented warriors and excellent workers remained.
"Ziggler."
"You called?"
At the Lord's summons, a masked goblin rose from the shadows. His massive frame, larger than a human's, clearly marked him as a hobgoblin.
"We must accelerate the plan."
"Understood."
In the Goblin Lord's eyes, it seemed he could still see the pained groans of his fallen comrades. And then he saw it—the corpse of a dead comrade twitching.
"This could be useful."
His eyes did not see the corpse as a corpse. He saw it only as a tool.
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, was it? Human sayings are difficult, but I like that about them."
It had been two weeks since I returned to Dorua, and I was extremely pissed off.
"When the hell is this lockdown going to be lifted?"
The entire city had been sealed off. It was all because of terrible news that had arrived from another town.
The orc undead that had destroyed Belkan had now been spotted in other cities as well. That city was half-destroyed, and many people had lost their lives.
"What a bunch of cowards."
Having been scared out of their wits, the lord of Dorua had ordered the city sealed and minimized any outflow of fighting strength.
"How long do they think they can last like this?"
Sealing the city didn't make it safe. If anything, it could create even bigger problems. The issue of supplies, for one.
A competent general secures supplies first when going to war. And war both begins and ends with supplies. It's no coincidence that America, with its overwhelming logistical capabilities, became a superpower. War is dictated by logistics.
"Are there even any capable merchant groups that can reach this far?"
Dorua's location was at the southernmost tip of the continent. Above it lay the ruined Belkan and the half-destroyed city of Arki. In short, Dorua had become completely isolated.
"To the south, there's a poisonous swamp. To the west, the Goblin Lord. And now, orc undead to the north."
This was what people called being caught between a rock and a hard place.
"I feel like I could survive on my own somehow..."
As soon as I saw signs of the lockdown coming to Dorua, I ran around buying food. With my inventory for storage, everything was fine. Thanks to that, assuming I was eating alone, I'd managed to stockpile a full year's worth of food.
If I really need to, I can just use the shop window.
That shop window even bought items, so bartering and selling were both possible.
"Level up... I need to level up so badly...!"
I'm losing experience points here! I'm getting dizzy!
No matter how much I whined, nothing changed.
"Guess I'll go do some part-time work."
I left the inn and headed for Camilla's alchemy workshop. During this time, she had been selling potions like she was mass-producing them. Thanks to that, she'd made a lot of money and would occasionally give me desserts as thanks.
Just please stop putting dried chilies in the desserts.
I didn't know if it was a mistake or intentional, but sometimes there would be dried chilies mixed in with the desserts. She said that while drying them together, they sometimes got mixed in by accident.
"Next time that happens, I'm going to give her a serious warning."
Before I knew it, I'd arrived at Camilla's workshop.
"Camilla~ I'm here!"
I opened the familiar door and stepped inside, but the Camilla who usually greeted me... wasn't there.
"Where did that hikikomori alchemist go? She almost never leaves the house."
She couldn't have collapsed after eating something weird, right? I'd heard that curious alchemists sometimes experimented on their own potions and ended up passing out.
"Camilla~! Camilla~!"
No answer even when I called. I started to feel anxious.
"Where on earth... huh?"
While searching for her, I spotted familiar handwriting on the desk.
Out for a bit. If you have business, please come back later.
— Camilla
Ah, so she was out. Thank goodness she hadn't collapsed.