One Week of Adventures
A week had passed since their adventure began. The cave life that Alicia and Ryude shared had finally settled into a stable routine.
Flash! Seven in the morning. His eyes snapped open automatically. This had been happening every morning since the day after he first sensed mana. Maybe the mana was regulating his bloodstream, but his body felt surprisingly refreshed.
His joints didn’t ache, and his mind wasn’t foggy the instant he woke. Was this the so-called magic known as the mystery of the human body?
“Hmm. Or is it because of her?”
Ryude turned his head. Alicia was still fast asleep, breathing softly, lost in dreamland.
“She’s cute.”
As long as she kept her mouth shut, she really was adorable. Lately she stayed cute even when she opened it. Then again, with a face that pretty to begin with, it was only natural.
“Mmm…”
Alicia tossed in her sleep, then wrapped both arms tightly around his. He had grown used to this particular sleeping habit. Yet every single time she woke up, she insisted it had never happened.
“Alicia. Hey, wake up. We agreed to head out early today, remember?”
He poked her soft cheek repeatedly. She let out a silly noise and shivered all over. Then her eyes flew open. The moment she realized whose arm she was hugging, she scrambled away in a frantic scurry.
It was fine, though. He suspected this very habit was why she slept so well.
“…What’s with that satisfied smirk?”
She started to blush, then quickly narrowed her eyes into a glare.
“More importantly, how old are you?”
“You’re really skilled at dodging questions, aren’t you?”
Alicia whipped her head away, clearly displeased.
“Why are you even asking? I told you when we first met. I’m entering the academy next year. Besides, you’re not supposed to ask a lady her age.”
“What lady? You’re tiny.”
“You… do you have a death wish? I’ll be an adult next year!”
“Oh, right. That’s true.”
The academy accepted students at sixteen. In this world, that counted as adulthood. By the other age system, she was seventeen. Kids developed quickly these days, so it was entirely possible.
However.
“Adult? Hmm…”
Ryude himself was fifteen. In this world, that made her one year his senior.
“Hey, what are you staring at?”
He had always thought of her as a little sister. This is my noona?
“It’s a bit different from what I pictured.”
“Different how, you pervert!”
Her palm came flying again, but he dodged it cleanly.
—And so began their morning routine.
Ryude stepped outside first. Alicia followed a moment later. Even though they had already seen each other in their underwear, she still refused to let him watch her change.
“Can’t you just use magic to throw your clothes on in a whirl?”
She was the self-proclaimed first five-attribute magician in the world. Yet she rarely used magic for daily life. She saved it mostly for hunting magic beasts and only pulled it out for truly annoying tasks—like lighting a fire or retrieving something after she had already lain down.
“No. Using magic for trivial things like that makes the mind lazy.”
“But it saves so much time. Isn’t that more efficient?”
“Still no. Humans can endure their instincts, but they can’t defy them. Get too used to convenient living and eventually you’ll become a slave to your own desires.”
“Hmm. What kind of desires are we talking about?”
“Um… lots of them, but the basic ones. Appetite, sleep, s…ex…”
Alicia’s voice trailed off. Her face flushed crimson.
“Okay, confirmed. Let’s get started.”
Ryude turned away without hesitation.
“You seriously—!”
…After a full round of frantic tag, it finally ended.
“Huff… huff…”
“Running out of breath before we even begin? Really?”
“It’s your fault!”
She was wearing workout clothes. Why? Because every day started with exercise.
A magician’s potential was limitless. Since she could cast spells others couldn’t even dream of, her starting line was already different. But if she wasted that talent and relied solely on stationary casting, what a loss it would be.
Magic and physical ability both at a high level? The heights she could reach would more than double.
That was why Ryude, feeling a pang of pity, had decided to build up her stamina.
“Anyway, that’s that. Exercise is exercise. Come on, let’s begin.”
“We can at least take one day off!”
“It doesn’t even take that long. Like you said, skip a day and your mind gets lazy.”
“Ugh……”
Hearing her own words thrown back at her, Alicia was left speechless.
Ryude started jogging first. He ran along the stream to the marker point, then turned back to the cave. Roughly four kilometers round trip. Two laps and the morning run was done.
“Huff… huff… At least run with me…!”
“You have your own suitable pace. Running together wouldn’t help you.”
“You insufferable jerk…!”
Alicia chased after him with everything she had. Her stamina couldn’t keep up, but her spirit was impressive. He had never forced her, so she could have quit anytime, yet here she was on the seventh day, still showing up without fail.
“I… can’t… anymore…”
Spirit alone could only take her so far. Ryude, who had already reached the marker and was on his way back, scooped up the collapsed Alicia from the halfway point.
Gulp, gulp. “Ah~ Nothing beats water after a workout.”
“You didn’t even finish a quarter.”
“Hey. You gonna keep shooting me down? This is huge progress for me!”
“I’ll give you that.”
It was true. At the start, he had been genuinely shocked that she couldn’t even manage three hundred meters. And it wasn’t even a sprint—just a light jog. Now she could run a full kilometer. That was remarkable improvement.
“Phew…”
After finishing his run, Ryude peeled off his top. It was time for bodyweight training.
“Hmm~ Does that really change anything?”
“It does. Look.”
Ryude struck a bodybuilder pose. His arm muscles bulged, and his abs stood out in sharp ridges.
“Whoa…”
Alicia poked at his abs with open curiosity. In the beginning she had screamed every time he took his shirt off. Now she was touching them without hesitation.
“See? I’m not the pervert. You are.”
“W-what! I was just curious!”
“That’s exactly what perverts say.”
“Hmph. Stop talking nonsense and exercise already.”
She had grown somewhat used to his sarcastic jabs. Ryude chuckled, strapped a forty-kilogram sandbag across his back, and began doing push-ups.
“Huff… Huff…”
Alicia watched him intently. Then a brilliant idea occurred to Ryude.
“Alicia.”
“Yeah?”
“Get on my back.”
“O-on your back?”
He set the sandbag down and patted his shoulder. It was pure curiosity. He had seen it in videos—people doing push-ups with someone riding on their back. He wanted to try it.
“Ugh… I’ll be heavy, though…”
Even as she complained, she obediently climbed on. She must have been curious too.
“Urk…!!”
“W-why are you reacting like that?!”
“Did you secretly eat something last night?”
“I did not!”
A thoroughly miffed Alicia slid off.
“Fine. Keep acting like that and I won’t do it either.”
“Sorry, sorry. You’re not heavy at all. Come on, get back up. It’s actually pretty fun.”
She climbed on again. As he started doing push-ups, her face brightened.
“O-oh! Faster!”
“It’s not that simple, you know?”
As expected, the training effect was minimal. Her position shifted with every movement, the weight was distributed unevenly, and he had to focus on not dropping her. It was more distracting than helpful.
“Hmm?”
Still, it wasn’t completely useless. Even if the discovery wasn’t particularly necessary.
What is this feeling?
It felt lighter than the forty-kilogram sandbag. Having grown familiar with various weights, Ryude recognized it instantly.
“About thirty-seven kilos?”
“……What?”
Alicia’s body, which had been happily enjoying her ride, froze solid. It seemed he had hit the mark.
“H-how did you know that?!”
“Intuition.”
She slapped him hard on the back.
—They had woken up earlier than usual today. The reason stood right in front of them.
“It’s completely empty.”
The forest had been swept clean of orcs. After two people rampaging through it for an entire week, that was only natural. Still, they couldn’t afford to rest. They needed to earn their academy admission fees, and no one knew when the orc population would recover.
“Want to hunt some rabbits instead?”
“That sounds like a pain.”
“Same here.”
No matter how few orcs there were, they had no desire to hunt Bophal Bunnies. Ten of them barely equaled the value of one orc, and the effort left them drained.
So the pair decided to venture deeper into the forest. That was why they had risen so early.
“Hey.”
“What?”
“Temporary alliance today. Got it?”
“I don’t like it, but… fine.”
“Hmm. Never mind. I’ll go alone.”
“Argh! Why do you keep doing that?!”
The forest was dangerous. No matter how much mana they had awakened, losing a limb would render everything they had endured meaningless. A Black Orc could appear again at any time. For now, they needed to combine their strength to overcome whatever lay ahead.
“If we catch anything, we split it fifty-fifty. Deal?”
“Deal!”
Together, they walked deeper into the woods. Everything within a ninety-minute radius of the cave was orc territory, so they had to travel over an hour.
“Do you know anything about higher-ranking magic beasts?”
“I’ve only hunted orcs, so I don’t know much… but…”
After a moment of thought, Alicia added, “In forests like this, you usually find trolls or minotaurs, right?”
“Oh. Anything else?”
“Other than that… I’ve heard that even among basic magic beasts, mutant variants can appear.”
“Uh… you mean something like that?”
“Huh?”
Alicia looked where Ryude was pointing. A Bophal Bunny stood there—one wearing a red scarf.
“Come on, that’s just a normal Bophal Bun—”
“Hey, move!”
Ryude shoved her aside. A metallic ring cut through the air.
Clang—
It was twice as fast as a regular Bophal Bunny, and its power was terrifyingly strong.
“No way. It gets this strong just from wearing one red scarf?!”
It was absurd, but there was no time to dwell on it. Ryude glanced at Alicia, confirmed she was unharmed, and shouted.
“Alicia! Cover me!”
She snapped back to her senses and sprang up, staff raised. Normally she would have been trembling. But with the two of them together, there was nothing to fear.
“If we catch that thing, let’s eat something delicious tonight.”
“Yeah!”
And so their new adventure began.