Making Magic: The Sweet Life of a Witch Who Knows an Infinite MP Loophole Volume 2 E-Book

Aloha Zachou

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Serie: Making Magic: The Sweet Life of a Witch Who Knows an Infinite MP Loophole
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 283

Beschreibung

A full year after leaving the pioneer village, Chise and Teto are still searching for a safe place to call home. But with winter coming, they decide to settle down for the season in Apanemis—also known as “Dungeon City.” There, the girls take up adventuring work in hopes of finding clues to the location of the Wasteland of Nothingness, but instead, a chance encounter with a young boy leads the duo to a struggling orphanage. Chise thus takes up a new goal for the short term: now, she’ll do everything in her (over)power to save the orphans!

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Chapter 0: The Witch’s Library

Chapter 1: One Year After That

Chapter 2: You Need to Cut Your Monsters up Completely After You Kill Them

Chapter 3: Scary Monsters Aren’t So Scary When They’re in a Hot Pot

Chapter 4: Knowledge Has a Value That You Can’t Buy with Money

Chapter 5: Treasure Left in the Ruins

Chapter 6: Repeating Meetings and Goodbyes

Chapter 7: How Adventurers Spend the Winter

Chapter 8: It’s Important to Give ’Em Some Hard Discipline Right at the Start

Chapter 9: The Witch’s Party Enters Dungeon City

Chapter 10: Researching in Dungeon City, and the Elf Adventurer Raphilia

Chapter 11: The A-Rank Party, Swords of Daybreak

Chapter 12: Our First Dungeon Run in Ages

Chapter 13: Our First Dungeon Treasure Chest in a While. Inside Was...

Chapter 14: One Act, Turning In Goods at the Guild

Chapter 15: The Church’s Purification Magic

Chapter 16: Danny-Boy

Chapter 17: How to Get Accommodations

Chapter 18: Saving the Orphanage

Chapter 19: Two Months of Progress

Chapter 20: Father Paulo’s Monologue

Chapter 21: The Wasteland of Nothingness and the Dream Oracle

Chapter 22: The Orphans Get Kidnapped

Chapter 23: Staying the Night at the Orphanage

Chapter 24: Anode Fever

Chapter 25: Henea Potion, the Mana Absorption Resistance Medicine

Chapter 26: The Dungeon Stampede

Chapter 27: Stampede Defensive Battle

Chapter 28: The Sacred Sword of Dawn

Chapter 29: The Stampede’s End

Chapter 30: Goodbye, Dungeon City

Extra Story: Dungeon City, Seventeen Years Later

Color Illustrations

About J-Novel Club

Copyright

Landmarks

Table of Contents

Color Images

Chapter 0: The Witch’s Library

Within the Witch of Creation’s Forest, formerly known as the “Wasteland of Nothingness,” I had a library built to house the books I’d collected for my hobby.

“Lady Wiiitch, where should I take this book?”

“Hm? Oh, that’s an adventure novel that was popular about a century ago. That brings me back. I was really into it at the time... Can you bring it over to the novel shelf?”

“Roger!”

The book Teto was holding was one in a twenty-four-volume-long series—a fictional account of the life of one adventurer four hundred years ago. Much regarding adventuring life and the limits of magical tools had changed between then and now; the author had gathered historical, cultural, and ethnographic data from primary sources among the long-lived races. You could call it a masterpiece with historical context like that.

“Now where should I take this one, Lady Witch?”

“That’s the paperback edition of that last book. I think I just bought it a while ago. They edited some of the presentations and descriptions in it since the first edition, so put it over in the novel corner. Then I can go through and check them against each other.”

Despite it being an adventure novel from a hundred years ago, even now it was getting new paperback editions and illustrations, changing in form to be read the world over.

I watched Teto as she energetically lugged around the books I’d bought for a little community early childhood literacy project of mine. Next up was my head maid, Beretta, approaching me with some older books to ask what to do with them.

“Mistress, what shall we do with these?”

“This one is...handwritten, huh. On parchment too. The contents are someone’s journaling about their life back then and their sales ledger.”

It was five hundred years old, at the very least. It was already moth eaten, stained, and creased from the bad conditions it was once kept in, but I’d cast some preservation magic on it when I bought it for myself.

“Should we destroy it, then?”

“Nope. It can be used as a cultural reference for the period it originates from, so let’s keep it in the reference room in the annex.”

There weren’t many people who could read and write five hundred years back, much less keep a journal. The autobiographical content alone was a cultural treasure; plus, the goods and commodity prices written in the ledger would be an indispensable tool for comparative study of past living conditions.

The books I’d collected in that vein were preserved in the Witch of Creation’s Forest’s library as historical records, widely available to the residents. The forbidden texts, like spell books too dangerous to let out into the world, research materials from banned arts, or cursed tomes, I kept securely sealed inside my manor.

As we sorted through the books, Beretta’s doll attendants had picked up several books and started poring through them where they stood.

“A-amazing... This is a work written by the elf novelist Vallora in their early days before I was born. And it’s the first edition!”

“Th-This one is an art book from that famous printmaker Olein?! Wow, and it’s not faded at all. The preservation magic’s kept it in mint condition!”

“And here’s an economics book that was banned in a country that fell 150 years ago because it criticized their government and finance system! Most of the books from that kingdom were lost along with it—this is insanely rare!”

“These are amazing too... Theses and academic journals from well-known magic researchers. Some of these tomes were so closely guarded by the factions that owned them that they’d never let them leave the premises! And some of these manuscripts are of some of the most famous grimoires put to paper!”

It was a veritable treasure trove, for those who knew their worth. The book-loving doll attendants all looked over to me, a reverent gleam in their eyes.

“Reading is fine, everyone, but do it after the job is done.”

“P-Please excuse us, head maid!”

I smiled as Beretta chided the other doll attendants back to work, and continued on my own trips down memory lane with the books nearby. Then I came across two particular books and couldn’t help but smile wryly.

“Mistress, why don’t you take a break soon? ...Hm? What are those?” Beretta asked, looking at the books in my hands.

I showed them to her. They were simply bound, made of (then only recently introduced) plant paper, with holes punched in it and tied together with string. The titles were “Mixing Recipes” and “Papermaking Technique.”

“These really take me back.”

“They really do! Those are the first books you ever wrote, Lady Witch!”

“Mistress’s first books?” Beretta asked, head tilted in wonder.

Nowadays, I was referred to by the excessive title of “The Witch of Creation,” and I’d written many things, like magical theory texts, magic instruction books, technical books, and blueprints for magic tools, all to pass the time. And here were the very first books I’d written—by hand, on slightly substandard paper.

“Yes, it is. One is a collection of practical potion recipes I’d learned on our journeys, and the other on how to use some of those potions to make paper.”

“Back then, there was no transcription magic or magic printing tools, so Lady Witch and Teto had to copy them all by hand. How nostalgic...”

Teto and I murmured softly, caressing the imperfectly bleached, rough-textured paper as we thought back to those days. Back then, we’d traveled wherever we willed as adventurers, having yet to find the Wasteland of Nothingness where we’d later settle.

The story of a church’s orphanage we’d found on our journey. The story of us giving that garden-variety orphanage’s children a little bit of help.

Chapter 1: One Year After That

A Certain Rural Girl’s Side

I was a girl who lived in a normal farming village; its one noteworthy feature was the ancient ruins nearby. Living with my parents, I helped out both with my father’s farmwork and my mother’s housework. I also acted as our village’s herbalist.

And on that day, I’d taken all the local children with me to the nearby forest to gather the fruits of the land.

“Hey! Sissy Sayah! A nut!”

“Wow, great job finding it! You’re so good!”

“Sissy, mushroom and fruit.”

“Ahh, that mushroom’ll make your tummy hurt if you eat it, so let’s throw it away. But this fruit is okay.”

My Harvesting skill should have been higher than theirs, but the children’s lower line of sight made them better at finding edible plants closer to the ground. I checked each and every thing the kids harvested—mushrooms in particular, to weed out the edible from the poisonous. The wild plant harvesting tricks my mother taught me and the Knowledge of Poison skill I’d learned from everything my predecessor had told me about poisonous plants had prepared me well for the task. While the kids harvested food, I also gathered medicinal herbs to prepare for the winter season.

“Whew, it’s getting a bit chilly, huh?”

With a smile, I watched the kids zealously gather mushrooms, unbothered by the cold. I, on the other hand, had to rub my hands together to warm them.

When I looked up at the treetops, the leaves were changing to red and yellow, and dropping down to the ground. The mushrooms you could gather this time of year were delicious and would probably be even better when made into a warm soup. Though the warm season was behind us, the hood my mother had made for me kept the worst of the chill off.

“Whew. We should get going soon, or it’ll get dark!”

“Okaaay!”

We’d gathered enough fruits of the forest in our baskets, so I figured it was time to wrap up and head back to the village for safety’s sake. As we set off, I realized I couldn’t hear the usual chirping of wild birds or see any signs of wildlife.

Unable to hear the breath of life in the forest, yet hearing the trees stir without any wind, I felt an indescribable fear take hold of me.

“...This feels bad. Okay, everyone. Let’s hurry home!”

Wanting to get back ASAP, I led the children back towards the village. But then—

“GUUUOOOOOAAAAARRRRRGHHHHH!”

“Eeep! Sissy, I’m scared!”

A low roar issued from within the forest. The children clung to me, terrified by the sound.

“It’s okay! Just keep walking, right back home!”

I wanted to bolt home, but there was no way I could leave the little kids behind, so I walked slowly but surely towards the village.

Then...

Thump, thump. Heavy footsteps echoed from within the forest, and I heard a short, low howl from behind us.

“Everyone! Throw away your baskets and run as fast as you can!”

“But Sissy, the food!”

“Forget the food! Hurry!”

Realizing we didn’t have a second to lose, I had the children abandon the day’s haul and run.

The forest should have been safe, but the horrifying growling slowly followed us. If we were lucky and the source focused on what we’d harvested instead of us, we could probably outrun it. But it held its pace, and when I turned to look—I saw it.

“Eeek?! A monster!”

The thing chasing us from within the forest was a black-furred bear monster. It had two columns of eyes, totaling six, and was running full tilt at us on all fours, mowing down trees as it went.

My face froze in dread. But if we could just push a bit farther and make it to the edge of town, the hunters would save us.

“Ah!”

“Rina!”

One of the children tripped and fell on a tree root. All the other kids stopped to look back at them, only to see the six-eyed bear chase us down at a terrific pace and freeze.

I tried to help her up, but when I realized I couldn’t do it in time, I just hugged her, putting myself between her and the bear.

“Goddess...”

I whispered a small prayer, and a black shadow flew between me and the bear as it raised its sharp front claws towards me.

“Multi-Barrier!”

A dome of blue-white light formed around the children and me. The bear swiped its paw down, drooling as it put its all into trying to break it, but the wall of light didn’t even budge, and the black shadow—a beautiful girl—lowered her black robe’s hood, gently speaking to us.

“Thank goodness I made it in time. Everything’s okay now. You did great, running like that.”

She was younger than me, but her voice comforted me the same way my mother’s used to, and I began to sob silently.

I was the oldest, so I had to protect my juniors. That was what I’d thought. But really, I was absolutely and utterly terrified. Those feelings overflowed, and my tears wouldn’t stop. Seeing me cry, the little girl in my arms started crying with me. I tried to stop my tears, but I couldn’t. The mage girl just gently rubbed my back as I choked in breaths.

“You’re okay now. Don’t worry... Teto, you take care of the rest!”

The girl’s tone changed from how she spoke to the children and I, resounding strongly through the forest. A second later, another girl appeared directly behind the bear monster as it tried to breach the wall of light.

“I’m on it! Haaaaah—KIIICK!”

A beautiful, tan-skinned girl appeared in a surge of action, landing a flying kick to the side of the bear monster’s face. The monster was sent flying off to the side, breaking down numerous trees as it went, before its landing flung the fallen leaves on the ground whirling into the air.

The scene seemed like such a joke that our tears stopped, and all we could do was stare in mute amazement.

Witch’s Side

After leaving the pioneer village, we had gone on a wandering journey, stopping to visit towns off of the highway. Quiet rural villages, remote yet wealthy villages, poor villages, villages of only humans, villages with no humans, rough villages—we went everywhere, acting like odd-jobbers. We’d defeat monsters as adventurers, sell the potions I made myself as mixologists, or act like merchants, peddling salt and ironware made with my Creation Magic.

Today we were on the road to a village with some structures from ancient times.

“Lady Witch! Ruins! I can’t wait!”

“They were discovered more than a hundred years ago; they’re more or less fully excavated by now, but it’d be wonderful if there was some treasure left for us.”

Though I nodded along as Teto chattered excitedly, internally, I wasn’t expecting to see treasure at all.

“Ruins” were the local catchall for structures completely covered in protective magic that kept them standing for many, many years. Places like that sometimes had treasures left from the age of their inception, or abandoned items turned into magical tools by all the ambient mana.

But as excited we may have been about the ruins, we had to ask around in this village and make our preparations first.

“Hello, girls. Do you have some business in our village?” asked a near-elderly man from the village’s vigilante corps as we approached.

“I’m Chise, an adventurer and a witch. We’ve come to see the ruins nearby.”

“I’m Teto, also an adventurer!”

He raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Ruins? Those take me back. I heard they were excavated long before I was even born. I used to play in them as a kid, but there’s not much left there now.”

The man, though a bit nostalgic and shocked by our aim, tried to warn us off of it so we wouldn’t end up as another set of young adventurers whose treasure hunting ended in vain, but I corrected him.

“We’ve only come to study the ruins for future reference.”

“Anywhere is fun if I’m with Lady Witch!”

“You sound more like a scholar than an adventurer,” the man said with an amused laugh, volunteering himself as a guide. “We don’t have an inn here, but we’ve got an empty house. If you ask the mayor, he’ll probably let you stay there. You shouldn’t need a map; the villagers use the same route.”

“Thank you very much. We’re thinking we’ll go there tomorrow.”

“Thank you!”

As we walked on, looking out over the fields as autumn eased them into harvesting season, a young man came running from the other side of the village in a panic.

“Gramps, we got trouble!”

“What’s got you in such a tizzy?”

Even Teto and I got nervous, hearing that something was up.

“There’s an Arktus out in the forest!”

“What?! We’ve gotta get the village’s defenses up, quick!”

Arktoi were a type of bear monster, and they were ranked C on the slaying difficulty scale. What’s worse, around this time of year they actively hunted big targets—humans included—to build fat reserves for the winter.

“Another hunter saw it deep in the forest. But Sayah and the little ones are still out there, searching for mountain vegetables and medicinal herbs!”

“Ring the bell right now, and tell ’em to come on back! Fast!” The older man, who’d been playing up the nice old guy act up until then, started shooting off orders promptly with a grave look on his face.

A second later— “GRRRRROOOOOOOAAAAAHHHHHH!”

We all spun around as a roar echoed from within the forest.

“It’s already this close?! Sorry, girls. If you’re adventurers, can you help defend the village? Arktoi are too much for D- and E-rankers.”

The way he spoke implied that the village would beef up its defenses until adventurers who could take out the bear came.

“Of course we’ll help. But the children in the forest are more important. Plus, we’re—”

“Look at this!”

Teto and I both pulled out our guild cards to show the vigilante grandfather and his grandkid the C-rank written there in bright, friendly letters.

“You’re C-rank...?!”

“We’ve got no time to waste, so we’ll work on our own. Let’s go, Teto—Fly!”

“Roger!”

My flight spell took me almost clear of the tree line. I shot straight for the howl’s point of origin. Teto used Body Strengthening to run after me. The two men rushed to follow us, but they fell hopelessly behind. I passed over the group of villagers who’d gathered to protect the entrance nearest to the forest, while Teto leaped right over them.

“Wh-What was that?!”

“A human?! And a girl?!”

“What the hell’s happening here?! We’ve already got a monster on our hands!”

Ignoring the villagers’ voices, I flew into the forest. With my Mana Perception on, I saw about what I expected: people running in the opposite direction and a monster bearing down on them.

“Teto, I’ll go on ahead to protect the kids!”

“Got it!”

I picked up speed and met up with the children, jumping in between them and the Arktus just as it raised its foreleg to strike.

“Multi-Barrier!”

I put up a multilayered barrier to soak the bear’s attacks and calmed the children. The oldest girl in the group clung to me, still sobbing from the terror, and I gently rubbed her back to soothe her. While all of this was happening, the Arktus hammered away at the barrier, annoying me.

“...Teto, you take care of the rest!”

“I’m on it! Haaaaah—KIIICK!”

My tone was lower than I thought it would be as I left the bear to Teto, who caught it in the side with a flying spear kick. The Body Strengthened kick sent it flying, knocking down a few trees before it came to a stop. Its neck was twisted in a way that it very much shouldn’t have been, its tongue flopping out as it died instantly.

The kids stared in blatant shock. I kinda thought I heard the dull crackle of its neck breaking as the kick landed.

A year ago, Teto had fought ogres (also C-rank monsters) with her bare hands and won. She was even stronger nowadays; there was no way she’d fall behind monsters of the same rank.

“Lady Wiiitch~! Can we make a yummy bear meat hot pot with this bear?”

“That’ll come after we bring it back to the village and cut it up.”

“Okaaay!”

And so, Teto took the dead Arktus she’d just killed by the arm and hauled it up on her shoulders, dragging it behind her. Smiling wryly at the sight of her carrying a two-meter-tall, four-hundred-plus-kilogram monster like it was nothing, I turned back to the kids.

“Okay, let’s head back to the village. The adults were all worried about you guys.”

As I tried my best to speak softly, a little girl who’d fallen and skinned her knee pulled at my robe.

“But the mushrooms we gathered...”

“Oh, Rina!”

The older girl scolded her, but it sounded like the child was concerned about the fruits of the land they’d thrown away while running. The little girl was shaking her head, tears in her eyes at the scary monster and the pain she felt from her skinned knee.

“I see. You’ve gotta bring them home, since you worked so hard gathering them. Water, Heal.”

Kneeling down, I brushed off the dirt she’d gotten on her clothes when she fell, then cleaned her skinned knee with water magic before healing it.

Eyes sparkling at the sight, the little girl gave me a big smile. “Thank you, big sissy!”

Getting a pure little girl’s thanks was reward enough.

Chapter 2: You Need to Cut Your Monsters up Completely After You Kill Them

“I’m so sorry. You saved us, and now you’re helping us pick up all the mountain veggies we dropped...”

“It’s fine. It would be terrible if you didn’t get to enjoy the tastes of autumn after all.”

The girl, who was older than I was, apologized as she picked up the basket she’d thrown while running and gathered up the mountain veggies that were scattered about. Some of it was ruined, no thanks to the bear crushing it underfoot. Most of it was still fine, since the smell of the powerful monster was keeping other animals from moving in.

“Grr, I’m a bear~!”

“Aha ha ha!”

The children laughed as Teto moved the broken neck of the bear they’d been so afraid of around like a ventriloquist’s dummy on her shoulders. Ignoring the melancholy I felt from the bear’s six empty eyes, I helped pick up the mountain goodies.

The older girl spoke. “U-um, my name is Sayah.”

“I’m Chise the Witch. I’m an adventurer.”

“And I’m Teto, the swordswoman who protects Lady Witch! I’m an adventurer too!”

“Miss Chise and Miss Teto—”

“Just Chise is fine. I’m not anyone special, anyway.”

“Teto also dislikes stuffy talk.”

Sayah hesitated a little to ease off on the modest speech like we’d asked—it made sense, given that she was talking to (by my estimation) the most powerful mage she’d ever met and someone who could disintegrate a monster’s spinal column with a single kick. “But... Okay. Chise and Teto, then?”

We nodded with big smiles as she repeated our names without using “Miss.” As we walked back to the village, she asked us some questions.

“Why did the two of you save us? And why did you come to a village like ours, anyway?”

“We came to see the ruins nearby.”

“We’ve wanted to check them out since we first heard of them!”

I smiled bitterly as the girl looked surprised at what we said. To a local, it was probably nothing more than a playground for children.

“And just as we arrived, we heard that this bear monster had appeared while all the children were out in the forest, so we ran to help.”

As I murmured about how glad I was that we made it in time, Sayah quietly looked downwards.

“I see... Thank you so much.”

“I’ll accept your thanks, but you also need to thank the young vigilante corps man who came running to warn everyone. If he hadn’t told us, we might not have gotten here in time.”

“Okay, I will.” Her face tensed up a bit, probably having remembered the fear she felt being chased by that monster, but it seemed she knew who she should be thanking.

And so the eldest girl, Sayah, and I wordlessly approached the village, listening to the giggles of the children as they watched Teto drag the Arktus’s corpse along. It took us a good while, since we were walking slow to keep pace with the children, but we were able to get back to the village safely.

“Hey! The kids are back!”

“And there’s a girl carrying the Arktus on her back?! And it’s dead!”

The men were all in front of the entrance to the forest, geared up for when the bear would appear, bonfires lit to ward off beast-type monsters. They looked relieved to see the children safe and sound, but also shocked to see the two adventurers who’d rushed in coming back out carrying the monster.

“Girls! You’re okay!”

“Yep, we were able to get the children and come back safely.”

“We killed the bear while we were at it! We’ll butcher it, then we can all eat it!”

“Thank you! And if you’re gonna butcher it, you’d best do it by the well.”

As Teto carried the bear towards the well, the villagers who had been cautiously watching us beat her over there, getting things ready.

And upon Sayah’s return—

“Mom! Dad!”

“Ah, Sayah! We were so worried! Thank goodness you’re safe!”

“I’m so glad you weren’t hurt.”

After getting hugs from her worried parents, she approached the young man who’d warned everyone about the Arktus.

“Sein, I heard you told Chise and Teto where we were. Thank you!”

“Nah, I just... All I could do was tell them...”

“But still, thank you... If you hadn’t, we...”

“Ah, don’t cry. I’ll get stronger. I’ll get stronger so I can protect you right next time, so don’t cry.”

The young man named Sein pulled Sayah, who was belatedly quivering and crying from the fear, close.

“They’re in the springtime of youth...”

“How nice it must be to be young...”

“Lady Witch, it’s autumn right now.”

Sein’s grandfather and I smiled as we watched the young couple, while Teto tilted her head and quipped at us about the wrong thing, still dragging along the bear corpse.

A man wearing comparatively higher-quality clothes than the other villagers came up to us.

“Nice to meet you, adventurers. I’m this village’s mayor, Sam. Thank you for protecting our children and defeating the monster as well.” The mayor spoke humbly, his stiff face showing that he was wary of us. “I would like to speak to you about how to reward you...”

“Reward, huh?”

His face stiffened further as I repeated the word. From his perspective as someone who needed to protect the village, he couldn’t be relieved at the fact that wandering adventurers slew a monster attacking his villagers. We could be an even bigger menace. He was probably going to decide on how to deal with us based on what we wanted in return.

So—

“We don’t need a reward.”

“You don’t need one?”

“Yeah. It wasn’t like we’d taken it as a quest. But we’ve got way too much bear meat on our hands here, so I’d like to give the village more than half, so everyone can eat it.”

“You aren’t taking a reward, and instead you’re giving us the valuable monster parts?” the mayor asked, stunned.

I corrected him. “We’re only giving you the meat. We’ll be taking the magic stone, its fur, its gallbladder... The stuff we can sell. Is that the right answer for you?”

Sein jabbed the mayor lightly in the side, bringing him back to reality and my question.

“Y-yeah. I apologize for testing you like that... Thank you again for protecting our children. If you don’t have anywhere to stay tonight, we can let you use an empty house as thanks. We used to have an inn, but it went under, since the only ones who stayed there were merchants and bureaucrats,” the mayor explained, slipping in some small talk.

“Our negotiations are successful, then.”

On my part, I didn’t want to give him a bad impression and, more than anything, I didn’t want to threaten him with our status as adventurers. From his perspective, it was much cheaper to let us stay in an empty building than to pay a reward for having slain a C-rank monster.

While the two of us were talking, Teto had already finished taking the Arktus apart.

“Lady Wiiitch~, I’ve finished butchering the bear, so please use magic for the rest!”

“All right.”

The butchered Arktus corpse was neatly separated by section. The yellow earth-elemental magic stone had been taken out, and the bear’s hide had been skinned off in a single piece. Teto had used her black magic sword to cut the bear meat into reasonably sized pieces, and the villagers were carrying it off. The things that there was no use for—like the eyes, stomach, and other guts—would be buried in a hole out by the fields, while the gallbladder, which could be used for medicine, was separated and put inside a leather bag for us.

“You’re really good at butchering things, Teto.”

“Eh heh heh, Lady Witch praised me!”

In the year since we’d left the pioneer village, Teto had taken apart all of the monsters we slew as we wandered around. In the beginning, she’d only taken out the magic stones and left the rest of the bits in a mess, severely lowering the amount we could get from selling the materials off. Eventually, she brought a monster corpse back to the guild and observed a pro butchering it before practicing herself, over and over again. Being an earthnoid, a new race evolved from a golem, Teto retained the meticulousness and high learning ability of a golem and became able to cleanly butcher monsters.

“Well then, I’ll do my part now. Wash!”

Making a whirlpool inside an orb of water, I threw the freshly skinned hide into it, washing the dirt and grime from the fur and removing the blood and fat left on the inner side.

“Oooh!”

The villagers all cried out in wonder at the spell’s sudden manifestation.

“Now, if I evaporate out the water, dry the skin, and sell it, a professional should be able to tan it quickly.” After switching out the water in the orb and rinsing the hide, I used wind magic to evaporate the water from it. Since the hide would be damaged if I used hot air, I used a gentle stream of cool air, taking my time. The villagers watched the hide dance through the air, the eyes of adults and children alike sparkling at the sight of something as foreign to them as magic.

Once I was finished, I carefully balled up the bear hide and nudged it into the pouch-shaped magic bag on my belt, only for the bag to seemingly suck it up. For the bear’s gallbladder, I used the Dry spell to dry it out without using any heat inside of the leather bag.

And so, after we’d finished dealing with that half of the bear bits, all that was left was a heap of bear meat. In order to entertain their guests, the men brought out the huge pot they used for festivals, and the women brought out the vegetables from their houses and started cooking up the meat.

Teto and I were told to sit things out, so we chatted with the children and elders as we waited.

Chapter 3: Scary Monsters Aren’t So Scary When They’re in a Hot Pot

Though the Arktus we’d killed had weighed more than four hundred kilograms in total, the meat dropped to half of that at two hundred kilos once it was butchered, with the innards taken out, hide skinned, and bones removed. Plus, the fifty kilos that tasted the best went to us, with two thirds of the one hundred fifty kilos left being the bear’s fat.

The wives of the village cut the fat from the meat with knives, slicing the rest of the bear meat thinly before frying it at the bottom of the pot. Then, they added in the veggies they’d sliced up, boiled it all, skimmed the foam, and added in herbs and salt for taste. When they finally added in some wheat dumplings, the bear soup started giving off a delicious smell.

“Here’s your bear soup! Take as many seconds as you want!” Sayah said, bringing the finished soup over to us just as the short autumn day was coming to an end.

“Thank you. We’ll enjoy it.”

“Thanks for the grub!”

Going ahead and taking a sip of the bear soup, I sighed at the warm flavor. They must have boiled the bear fat they’d cut off too, because the sweetness of the fat and the taste of the freshly cooked veggies calmed me. The thinly sliced bear meat, though a bit gamy, gave off more of an umami flavor with each bite. The starch from the potatoes and wheat dumplings had dissolved, giving the broth a thickness that wouldn’t go away, warming me to my core.

“Sissy, big sissy! Those mushrooms are the ones we gathered!”

“And those veggies are from my family’s field!”

The children had also gotten some soup and happily told us every time they found a mountain mushroom or veggie from their seats around me.

“I see, so it’s full of everything you worked hard on gathering. It’s delicious.”

“The ingredients you guys worked hard on have become a delicious bear soup!”

We praised the children as we ate our soup, and they in turn happily ate their own, going for seconds. I was full after my second bowl, but Teto could eat double that and still go back for more, so I just watched everyone eat.