I want to find a way of life for you that is different from being just a weapon. Thinking that, I smiled wryly but it didn’t reach my partner so no reply came.
Even though you have a proper consciousness and will, you still live like a weapon. Is it weird of me to think like that?
………..If I say that to Ermenhilde, I’ll get scolded though.
But really, I want to treat Ermenhilde not as a weapon but as a partner.
“It’s the best if you can earn money safely, you know?”
Near the city there’s an old forest which is called as the forest of magical energy. It’s the place where I went together with that handsome Elf just a while back.
The trees were thick and as the name suggested, it was a place filled with magical energy. You can get a lot of magical ingredients there but at the same time the danger from monsters is also high.
The vegetation that has lived long enough attain life and become Treants and Mandragoras.
Mandragora—-it’s of the same type as the plant that is called mandrake in our world.
In this world, suitable for a fantasy world, it’s a carrot-like monster with 2 legs and leaves on its head. On being pulled from the ground, it runs away at full speed.
They say that you’ll die if you hear its scream but there’s nothing like that. It’s irritatingly noisy and will summon its friends though.
I remember that it took a lot of courage to pull it from the ground for the first time. My elf guide began to laugh at me for that. But I didn’t feel embarrassed. It’s the same for everyone for the first time.
“Mandragora, Alraune…….they’re all troublesome ingredients.”
[—it’s the Magic City after all. Aren’t these ingredients used for alchemy normally?]
Its voice was still sullen but it finally started talking back to me again so I once again patted the medal. There was no response. It seems it is still in a bad mood.
“Is there nothing which could be a bit safer?”
There are requests for gathering herbs to heal illnesses etc but all of them are cheap. I’ll collect them during my journey and it’ll be fine as long as there isn’t some war suddenly or something.
But, Mandragora’s leaves, seeds and roots. The places where these can be gathered are limited. Experiments can take place when war isn’t going on as well. In fact, there are experiments that can only be done in safer times.
………as expected, the bigger the city the more dangerous the jobs will also be.
What should I do? I flicked Ermenhilde with my thumb. It was tails. I ended up sighing.
“Let’s stop here for today.”
[You aren’t taking any new jobs?]
“It’s dangerous alone after all.”
[There’s barely any job for an adventurer that doesn’t have any danger though?]
That’s true, I shrugged.
But it’s a fact that it’ll be dangerous alone. I have trouble against lot of enemies and not to mention that I’m not familiar with the forest. I’ll have to hire an Elf or a Ranger or I’ll have no confidence in returning back without getting lost.
I do have mapped the geography of the forest in my head but I really want to avoid any risk of getting stranded inside the forest and dying.
Thinking that, I turned the memos again.