105

We lost sight of the Sword Saint’s back as he left, and we headed back to the manor.

On the way, Number Six watched the scar on my arm with keen interest, but by the time we returned, not even a trace remained, and even I had to marvel at this body’s healing ability.

But letting her look so closely had been a mistake.

Number Six stared and stared so cutely that I forgot to cover it up.

I should have wrapped it with cloth or something to hide it, but once it healed, it was already too late.

The elves now knew about my healing ability, and they would realize that all that fighting spirit in the bout earlier had been meaningless.

“Well, maybe I don’t need to overthink it that much,” I told myself, trying not to dwell on the embarrassing blunder and instead hoping to see how they would make it up to me.

It would be best if they offered something on their own; if not, I would have to think about how far I could push my demands.

(Given who he is, it would be hard to keep the fight fee low. He was basically the strongest in the elven settlement; I couldn’t make reckless demands…)

If it was too cheap, it could be seen as belittling him; if it was too high, they obviously wouldn’t be pleased.

And if I set it high, it would imply I had felt my life was in danger, which would contradict how I had acted and could make it look like I had tried to deceive them.

Because this called for a perfect middle ground, I really wanted them to bring it up.

That was what I thought, but we returned to the manor without anyone saying anything, leaving me feeling very ill at ease.

As I was mulling over what to do, Number Six came over carrying a small bundle.

“We’re taking the children to the river. Would you like to come with us?”

The river event — at last, making its entrance.

My worries flew off somewhere for the moment.

All right, the Number Six Theater at arm’s length that I had dreamed of was about to begin.

So I thought — but there was also an adult elven woman with Number Six.

“My name is Meriare.”

She said with a graceful bow; she was the slender type, and after that she didn’t speak to me again.

It seemed this “Number Two” was a perfectly ordinary elf.

So I avoided getting involved carelessly and just plodded along while entertaining the kids all the way.

(Yeah, this was going to be a lecture.)

I had observed them by the river many times, so I knew this was their outdoor study pattern.

The women carried more baggage than usual, so I guessed their teaching materials were inside.

By the way, the errand at my base would only begin after the men finished preparing, so it might take a few days.

“In that case, there should still be chances,” I thought, restoring my lowered spirits to normal.

Anyway, we reached the river while I lightly fended off the brats clambering on me and hanging from my tail.

I set down the little girl sitting on my bent tail and plucked the idiot standing triumphantly on my shoulder and dropped him to the ground.

In the open-air classroom that made use of nature, the children used suitably sized stones as chairs, and once everyone was seated, the two women began the lesson.

The kids, who were at the age where they wanted to play, grumbled, but knowing it was useless, they kept quiet and listened.

So the class began — and this time they had me as a guest.

So they decided to do a light review.

Summarized simply, it went something like this:

• The vastness and preciousness of nature, and its cycles

• Elves must never forget that they themselves are part of the above

• Botany (mainly the properties of plants used for food or medicine)

Those three were the main points.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be no discussion of magic, which made it a bit dull, but I listened sincerely to the part about edible plants available here.

However, among the things that could be gathered around here, none were said to have particularly good flavor, which disappointed me a little.

In the middle of the talk, one brat asked, “What about this guy?” — whether to count me, a monster, as part of nature.

I didn’t like his attitude, so I tapped his head with my tail.

“Monsters are part of nature too. But we know far too little about their ecology. With so little we understand, it’s very hard to get along with them.”

She wrapped up with the conclusion that we mustn’t recklessly make contact.

Those were Number Six’s words — and I hadn’t expected to hear something so sensible from someone in the Natural Harmony Committee.

It seemed she held a fairly realistic position within the organization.

(Hmm… perhaps that’s why she valued ties with a monster like me, one she could actually talk to.)

At any rate, it was a stroke of luck to learn that no one assumed unconditionally that “things will improve just because there’s a monster like me.”

After the lesson, I watched Number Six calm and scold the children (mostly boys) who wanted to play in the river, but since they didn’t approach the water, nothing happened; the brats’ scheme was neatly crushed.

And of course my expectations were neatly dashed too.

But tomorrow existed, so I withdrew quietly for today.

On the way back, I drew closer to Number Six to avoid the kids trying to play with me.

As I expected, the brats didn’t step within arm’s reach of Number Six, and couldn’t pester me.

Facing a serious teacher, they wouldn’t dare act out — my plan worked.

I showed a memo reading “It would be troublesome if you let your guard down too much,” and Number Six laughed as if amused.

“How was the lesson?”

I answered simply,

“The edible plants were useful information.”

The books I had were divided by regions that were too old, and hard to use.

In that respect, the explanations with real samples today were very clear, and the parts to eat and how to harvest them were truly “useful.”

The taste didn’t seem promising, so whether my diet would improve was another matter; still, simply having more ingredients was welcome.

After that sort of walk back, we parted from the children and returned to the manor — and found something that hadn’t been there when we left.

(…A stable?)

No — size aside, it was far too shoddy to call a stall.

It was basically just a roof and side walls.

I supposed it meant “sleep here,” but it was slapdash to a fault.

Well, it had been built in a short time, so I wasn’t about to nitpick, though it was hard not to think they could have done better.

Since I’d only use it a few days, spending more on it would be silly.

In other words, the workmanship reflected my value in the eyes of the average elf.

I checked just in case, and indeed it had been made for me to sleep in.

(…So I was to sleep on straw.)

Compared to the bed at my base, it was laughably crude.

I sat on the straw provided, but it was, unfortunately, insufficient to support this weight and rock-hard body.

When I asked for more, they said that was all they had.

Apparently there was very little livestock here, so that was the only straw they could spare.

With nothing to do, I lay in my “bed” and spaced out.

But that was camouflage; in reality I sharpened my senses and eavesdropped on conversations inside the manor.

From that, I learned one thing.

It seemed they would head to my base the day after tomorrow.

Preparation itself would be finished sometime tomorrow, but for scheduling reasons they would likely postpone to the next day.

Which meant that tomorrow I could finally participate in the Number Six Theater.

Like an elementary schooler before a field trip, I felt I might be too excited to sleep tonight.

That said, with the sun still high overhead, it was too early to sleep.

While I idled away time eating the lunch they brought, Number Six came over.

When I asked her business, she replied, “I promised I would teach you magic.”

I reflected on how I had been so focused on tomorrow that the promise had slipped my mind.

I also had to think about that Sword Saint geezer incident; even as a monster, I still had no shortage of things to worry about, and I smiled wryly inside.

(But my longed-for magic was right in front of me. Time to focus on that.)

If it went well, I would gain even more power.

Even if I didn’t learn to fight with magic, it would surely improve my living conditions.