Garden Expansion And Holy Wave Practice

It was a bright morning under refreshing sunlight.

I returned to the shop, went down the corridor, and stepped out to the Forest Mansion.

I did it to gather medicinal herbs. I also had various other things I wanted to try.

Inside the walled garden, Mireine, the mother pegasus, had been taking a leisurely stroll.

She had been keeping watch to make sure there was nothing dangerous around the fields, the spring, or the rock cave hut.

Ciel the foal pegasus and the elf girl Teti had been playing together happily.

When Teti, who had been chasing after Ciel, noticed me, she waved both arms and shouted.

“Alec-sama! Mireine-san said no, but Ciel-kun said he’ll let me ride him once he gets bigger~!”

“That’s good. Take care of him, alright?”

“Okaaay!”

Teti answered in her usual energetic voice.

Liricia and I went to the fields.

Medicinal herbs had been growing next to the rows of vegetables.

Liricia’s eyes went wide.

“There were a hundred—no, about two hundred—medicinal herbs with splendid leaves… They were ready to harvest already.”

“That’s great. This’ll make those request jobs easy to finish.”

“Yes… Hm?”

Liricia took a leaf in her hand, then suddenly tilted her head.

She examined the leaf through the monocle.

“What is it, Liricia?”

At my words, Liricia looked up at me with the eyes of someone who had just seen something unbelievable.

For some reason, she looked completely put off.

“M-master… This herb can’t be used for the request…”

“Huh? So it really doesn’t work if you grow it in a field?”

I was pretty sure I’d heard something like that before.

That if you transplanted wild herbs from the forest into a field, their effects would somehow vanish.

“It’s the opposite, Master. Even at the herb stage, it already has the holy attribute.”

“What!? Then what happens?”

“Medicinal herbs are supposed to be used as potion ingredients, but instead of a Heal Potion, you should be able to make something with a stronger effect.”

“…Is this my fault?”

“It’s being maintained by your Holy Wave, Master… It’s amazing, but it’s too amazing, so it’s just…”

Liricia looked around through the monocle.

The vegetables and fruits, too, naturally had the holy attribute.

Even the apples Ciel said were delicious had the holy attribute, so maybe they tasted even better to a sacred beast.

In the end, Liricia let out an exasperated little laugh.

“What is it?”

“Even the stable has the holy attribute… and as bonus effects it has [All-Attribute Resistance Lv5] and [Darkness Immunity], and for some reason it even has [Defense Efficiency Lv4].”

“That sounds strong if it was armor… but does it mean anything?”

“You can’t equip it, so it probably means nothing at all.”

“My Holy Wave was too wasted…”

Liricia laughed and shook her head. Her silver hair glittered in the light.

“That’s not true. It’s proof that your magnificence fills everything, Master!”

“Alright, let’s go with that. Too bad, but I guess we’ll have to find a different method for cultivating herbs.”

“Yes. Next time, I might try giving mana to Kou-chan and growing them that way.”

“Yeah, please. Let’s try all kinds of things—also, let’s use these herbs as ingredients for the potions we sell at the shop.”

“Yes! I think that’s a great idea! If we have potions we can sell besides Puchi Elixir, we’ll definitely get more customers.”

“Right—then, Kou, make a few types of potions for me. From high-effect ones down to low-effect ones.”

When I contacted him on the sub-device, he replied, “Roger that.”

Then I asked Liricia to help with another thing I wanted to test.

“So, you can sense my Holy Wave, right?”

“Yes. If it’s your Holy Wave, Master, I can sense it anywhere.”

“Then I want to try compressing the Holy Wave that leaks out. We’ll start with half.”

Liricia drew her thin brows together and looked around.

“But it’s nothing but forest around us… Since your Holy Wave is leaking across a wide area, I think we’ll lose track of the distance.”

“I can’t exactly go cutting down trees, and we need an open area—no, wait.”

“What is it?”

Liricia cutely tilted her head. Her silver hair slipped smoothly over her shoulder.

I pointed at her white wings and spoke.

“Like when you used it for detection magic, can’t we measure with your white feathers? Place them at equal intervals.”

“Oh! That method really might work. As expected of you, Master!”

Liricia covered her mouth with her slender hand in surprise. Her white wings fluttered in little jerks.

I nodded.

“Then do it.”

“Yes! Leave it to me!”

Liricia pressed a finger to her forehead and closed her eyes as if focusing.

A moment later, she snapped her violet eyes open and spread her white wings wide.

Feathers flew out in a straight line.

After that, we practiced controlling my Holy Wave for a while.

But it didn’t go very well.

I thought I’d compressed it to half, but Liricia shook her head.

“About four hundred meters, Master.”

“Only a hundred meters shorter… This is hard.”

“No, but… the density of the Holy Wave really has increased.”

“If I push it further, then—ngh!”

I put strength into it, like I was trying to keep it close around me.

But Holy Wave was hard to perceive, and since it caused absolutely no harm, it was hard to tell.

Then Liricia spoke.

“That’s it. Maybe the initial state was different. Could you try relaxing your strength?”

“Like this?”

I let my arms hang limp, left my mouth half-open, and relaxed my whole body.

I didn’t think about anything. I just blankly watched white clouds drifting through a blue sky.

A calm stretch of time passed.

A breeze swayed Liricia’s white nun’s habit, and small birds flew over the forest canopy.

But suddenly, Liricia’s eyes widened.

“Master! That was it! It wasn’t five hundred meters—it was eight hundred meters!”

“What!? It was leaking over that wide an area?”

“I think because I assumed it was five hundred meters, it ended up being five hundred meters.”

“Then four hundred is half, and two hundred is half again.”

I steeled myself and tried again.

But this time it dropped to around three hundred and thirty meters, then slid back to four hundred.

Compression was difficult. Well, even at four hundred meters, it probably meant anything B-rank and below would vanish.

But when I compressed it further, the pegasus mother and child stared at us with round eyes. They murmured dreamily, “It feels so good…” and “It’s like my heart is being purified…”

Apparently my Holy Wave had been even more intense than usual.

Liricia looked excited too.

“Amazing… It was on a different level from the moment we met, but now you might be beyond the limits of a human.”

Even while looking totally put off, Liricia seemed moved. Her violet eyes were moist.

I tilted my head.

“Does it increase just by living?”

“Your ability values are capped, but your mana capacity should still increase when you defeat enemies… but the digit display is strange.”

“I haven’t even killed a hundred since I met you. And they were all low-exp trash mobs. The S-rank we beat earlier—well, I didn’t do anything, so I shouldn’t have gotten any experience either, right?”

“Well… you might have. But even if we add that, your maximum Holy Wave value has increased too much. I can’t even imagine how you accumulated this much experience. As expected of you, Master.”

Her voice trembled as she spoke, like she was deeply moved.

I scratched my head. It didn’t feel real at all.

“Well, we’ll keep practicing compression from here on… Oh, right, Liricia.”

“Yes?”

“Can you check if there are any sacred beasts in this forest? If there are, I want to get along with them.”

“Yes, I’ll check—”

White feathers spread out from Liricia like ripples.

Then she looked at me, her slightly droopy eyes now shining sharply.

“There is one—no, it seems there are two. One seems to be a boar, and the other a rabbit… but the boar is more like a half-sacred beast.”

“Alright, then guide me to the rabbit. Let’s talk.”

“Yes, this way.”

Liricia spread her wings and floated up lightly.

I followed behind her as she flew slowly.

After about fifteen minutes of walking through the refreshing forest dappled with sunlight, Liricia stopped. She landed, her silver hair swaying.

“What is it?”

“It’s around here… there!”

She shouted and pointed at a small bush.

With a rustle, a white rabbit sprang out in surprise and confusion.

A rabbit with a single horn growing from its forehead.

It was so small it looked like it could fit on my palm, still clearly a child.

“Eeeh… You found meee. I’m gonna ruuun—”

It moved fast, but Liricia appeared behind it as if teleporting.

The rabbit’s small body trembled with a start.

“Fwaa… You got around meee… Are you gonna bully me, bully me?”

“We won’t bully you. It’s okay—Master just wants to talk.”

Liricia crouched down and spoke gently.

I stepped a little closer.

“I won’t do anything. If you’re in trouble, I want to help.”

“M-me…? Someone like me… I’m no good and trash and garbage, I’m sorry I was born…”

“Why are you so down on yourself?”

“’Caaause… I’m an unwanted child…”

“‘An unwanted child’?”

“My mom said I’m not wanted. She said I’m not her baby… sniff”

The rabbit began to sob softly.

Liricia smiled sadly and gently stroked the rabbit’s tiny back with her fingertips.

“Your mother was an ordinary rabbit, wasn’t she. Most likely a Sleep Rabbit.”

“This one isn’t?”

“It’s the legendary sacred rabbit, an Almiraj.”

“That’s amazing. You’re something special, you know?”

I tried to encourage it, but the rabbit cried even harder.

“I don’t want ‘special’—I wanted to be a normal rabbit my mom would love…”

It broke down into loud sobs.

I scratched my head, at a loss.

“Sorry… I didn’t think about how you felt. What do we do, Liricia?”

“It doesn’t look like it’s been eating much. Let’s protect it for now. If it eats, it should feel better, right?”

“I don’t want anything… I wanna dieeee.”

“This is a problem… Well, let’s go back first.”

Liricia gently cupped the crying rabbit in both hands and stood up.

—What was I supposed to do with this?

I wanted to help any sacred beast that could lead to sanctuary recognition, and I wanted to befriend it.

But caring for a little kid’s heart didn’t seem like something I could do.

I exchanged looks with Liricia, but she just shook her head too, equally troubled.