The Weight of Gratitude
My mood was pretty good.
To think I could wipe out this much trash in one go.
“Undine.”
"Yes!"
This was definitely a mountain. There wasn’t a sea anywhere nearby. But the moment I curled the corners of my mouth, a wave surged up from beneath my feet, soaring high in an instant. It swallowed the charging enemies whole, slammed them down, and swept them far away.
After a few more massive waves crashed over them like magic, no one dared to rush in recklessly anymore.
They simply stood at a distance, whispering among themselves, gripping their weapons with terrified expressions.
Even if they called themselves slave traders, they were still only human. Faced with a power that rendered their iron weapons useless, all they could feel was utter helplessness.
I glanced back again. Ash was struggling to open the door.
“Looks like we need a key! It must be in one of those guys’ pockets from earlier…”
“Yah!”
Why bother looking for a key? Such a hassle.
I grabbed one of the thick iron bars—too thick to grip comfortably with one hand—and casually pried it apart.
Ash’s eyes widened to their limit.
He’d been treating me like a mage, so seeing me display monstrous strength must have confused him. But of course I didn’t actually have superhuman strength. Rai had simply softened the metal for a moment.
“Everyone, get out through this gap. Just follow this man. Rai, what about the slave collar?”
Nearly done. Five seconds… no, three… two… one.
Just in time, Daria was freed as well. The slave collar around her wrist crumbled like dry dirt and fell weakly to the floor.
“Ah, thank you!”
As she spoke, Daria reached out and pressed a quick kiss to my cheek.
“Thank you so much!”
“Whoever you are, I will never forget this kindness.”
Starting with Daria’s brief cheek kiss, the people began thanking me one after another as they slipped through the bars.
Just as almost everyone had escaped, I spotted Chad and Lox riding toward us from beyond the iron bars.
They’re pretty fast, huh?
If it were me, I wouldn’t have rushed into the slave traders’ stronghold just to save some kid I barely knew. That kind of loss-making behavior isn’t my style.
“How did you do this?”
Ash stared at the iron bars I had pried apart, as if he couldn’t believe his eyes.
What a cute guy.
“Trade secret.”
“This isn’t the time for jokes…”
“Save the questions for later! First, take these people back to the village. The security forces should be there—hand them over.”
“Aren’t you coming with us?”
I nodded and reshaped the iron bars back to their original position. It was ridiculously easy.
Rai, push this door sideways to open it, right?
Rai: Seems that way.
Make sure it doesn’t open unless a dragon shows up.
So no one could escape. The pleasant thought made me smile on its own.
What about absorbing it?
Rai: Sealing it off is better than destroying the door. The slave traders should get a taste of being trapped themselves.
After making sure the iron door would never open again, I looked at Ash with satisfaction.
His expression, visible beyond the bars, had frozen into a subtle mix of bewilderment and astonishment.
“……Did you really rescue all these people by yourself?”
“Huh? I guess so. Yeah, I didn’t plan on it, but that’s what happened.”
“You’re a righteous person.”
“No! No, that’s not it. I was going to kill the slave traders, but these people were in the way, so I just moved them aside.”
I wasn’t righteous. I was simply a neurotic person who couldn’t stand anything that irritated me.
“No! What are all these people?!”
“Oh my god… What on earth happened? Miss Jeanie! Ash!”
Chad and Lox jumped off their horses and screamed.
They seemed shocked by the sight of dozens of filthy slaves.
“You freed all the slaves? These are private property!”
Lox especially looked horrified. After all, the slave trade was technically legal. If one wanted to nitpick, what I had done was essentially theft.
“Hmm… but some of them were illegally kidnapped, right?”
“There must be others who weren’t! People born into slavery! People who became slaves because of debt or serious crimes!”
“I don’t care. When would I have time to sort all that out?”
My ears are itching.
“Miss Jeanie!”
They really are good people. Chad and Lox clung to the bars, shouting at the top of their lungs out of concern for me.
I was the only one acting carefree while everyone else was panicking, unsure what to do.
“Are you insane?! Why did you go in there alone?!”
“I can’t believe this! You really are an incredible troublemaker! What are you doing still in there? Get out right now! If you do something like this to slave traders, they’ll hunt you for the rest of your life!”
“Thanks for worrying, but I still haven’t found Einy. I still have work to do.”
I planned to cleanly annihilate the slave traders so that the people I had freed wouldn’t be captured again.
That way I wouldn’t be chased, and once their owners disappeared, the slaves would no longer be slaves.
Then it wouldn’t be illegal. See? My brain works pretty well when it counts, doesn’t it?
Of course, murder was still illegal before that.
As if he had guessed my plan, Ash asked in an uneasy voice.
“……What exactly are you planning to do?”
“What I can do.”
Everyone has at least one thing like that, right?
“Let me help.”
“Not necessary.”
“It’s dangerous to go alone!”
“I’ll handle it, so you guys just run away. You’re in the way.”
Since I had already sent the people outside, there was no reason to linger here any longer.
I needed to hurry and find Einy. I’d release all my spirits to locate Grack, then torture him a little…
“Aaaah! Ash!”
First I was startled by Lox’s scream, then I quickly looked up at the presence rushing upward. In the blink of an eye, I saw Ash climbing the iron door.
How is he so fast? How can he climb iron bars using only grip strength? And that quickly? Then making sure the door wouldn’t open was pointless.
Ash easily vaulted over the main gate and landed, startling me.
“You…!”
“Let’s go together.”
He had jumped down from at least five meters up, yet his face looked perfectly refreshed instead of rubbing his knees. The physical abilities of swordsmen really were something to admire.
It reminded me of Robenin’s astonishing physical prowess.
To jump over that so easily without using magic—what kind of body does he have? Maybe I should start exercising tomorrow…?
“I said I don’t need help, but you never listen.”
“Lox and Chad will help the people.”
“I’m not going to protect you, you know?”
“Of course.”
“Take care of yourself! Got it? I’m not going to worry about you!”
I was already worrying plenty.
This world had mana, and with it came countless styles of combat. If I had to categorize myself, I was the ‘overwhelming defense paired with offensive power’ type.
In other words, even by my own standards, I was a pretty overpowered character.
Compared to mages, my attack speed was absurdly fast. Compared to swordsmen, my attack range was dozens of times wider.
“Tsk, damn bastards.”
I clicked my tongue in dissatisfaction after grabbing the twentieth-or-so slave trader with a hand made of water, slamming him into the wall, and watching him cough up blood.
The slave traders who had charged at me so aggressively had started turning their backs and running away the moment they realized they couldn’t even get close.
What a bunch of cowards!
I realized too late that I should have acted a little weaker.
If I had caught them off guard and finished them quickly, it would have been over fast. But now that they were on guard, cleaning them up had become incredibly annoying.
It was so much easier when they charged at me!
“Someone sa— uwaaah!”
I caught another one trying to flee and hurled him far away with a watery hand. That was when Ash muttered, sounding genuinely horrified.
“You really show no mercy…”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
That was one of my strengths—having very little sympathy. I was too busy every day to pity myself, let alone others.
If I pitied and loved myself and put myself first, something might come of it. But if I did that for others, nothing came out at all.
I might end up a pushover.
“I’ve never seen spirit magic used so aggressively before.”
“Right? You actually recognized it as spirit magic?”
“It’s not exactly… well, I saw it once while traveling. But I’ve never seen anyone handle it the way you do. I’ve heard that spirit magic is supposed to be for support, not combat…”
“Like me? What do you mean by that?”
“I heard that controlling spirits is complicated. You have to give detailed commands, recite specific incantations, and since spirits have a different sense of common sense than humans, they’re difficult to handle.”
And?
I nodded, eyes sparkling.
“……Yet you just point your finger and everything gets done. I don’t know the details, but it seems incredibly impressive.”
Not bad, kid.
Who else but the prince would have such decent knowledge? After constantly meeting people who knew nothing about spirits yet looked down on and ignored them, his words sounded genuinely pleasant.
“Of course it’s impressive. I’m kind of a genius.”
“It certainly seems so.”
Huh. He didn’t get flustered or dismissive—he just accepted it so easily that it made me feel a little embarrassed.
What suddenly made me shy was the fact that Ash’s eyes, as he looked at me, were filled with such pure and innocent admiration.
“Ahem. I can’t use this method with every spirit. It only works with Undine because we communicate so well… The others need clearer instructions.”
For example, with Rai, a thought was enough to convey a command. Undine understood with just a thought and a small gesture.
Adore, on the other hand, needed very clear explanations, which was a bit disappointing. Still, it was a huge improvement compared to before.
“It’s not easy, but anyone can do it with practice.”
“Calling it something ‘anyone’ can do when I’ve never seen the technique before is a bit much.”
“That’s because I developed it myself. It’s no big deal. I just trained Undine to copy the shape of my hand.”
Like pointing with my finger like this.
I pointed with my fingertip, dragged out a hidden slave trader, and crushed him with a watery hand.
The downside of a water hand was that it was hard to control its strength, so it broke bones far too easily.
“That’s amazing. To be able to do something like that without any incantations… incredible.”
Sigh. He keeps praising me—it’s getting a little embarrassing.
In truth, this was the result of countless trials and errors I had gone through just to avoid having to recite incantations. I had trained without shedding a drop of blood.
Because… reciting incantations was just too embarrassing.
Saying things like “Water Ball” or “Water Pierce” out loud made my hands and feet curl up in cringe. I couldn’t stand it.
Chanting magic spells in front of people was incredibly awkward, so I had struggled to convey my will through thought alone. That effort had naturally led to this level of mastery.
Of course, more complex techniques still required verbal incantations.
“Looks like they’ve all run away. Let’s head over th—”
The moment I turned, Ash swung his sword right in front of my eyes.
I was so startled I couldn’t even speak. A split arrow fell at my feet.
A wooden arrow with feathers at the end was, of course, beyond Rai’s authority.
Ah! I was trying to block it!
Even so, Rai would have bounced it away before it touched me. Still, the fact that Ash had sliced it in mid-air made me see him in a new light.
“Your reflexes are no joke.”
Whoa.
“Be careful.”
“Where did it come from?”
“That way.”
As expected, his physical abilities were superior. Ash was far more skilled and accurate than I was at detecting presences.