The Catalyst

We handed the purse snatcher over to the guards and returned the stolen belongings to the woman.

She was someone I knew, and she thanked me profusely, saying, “Thank you so much.”

She had been robbed, but she did not appear to be injured, which was at least a small relief.

Of course, I returned the sword to the old man as well.

I apologized for using it without permission, but he simply laughed heartily and said that if anything, it gave the sword a good story and made it more valuable.

I had known him for years, and I was truly grateful that his personality was exactly as easygoing as he looked.

Afterward, we left them behind and moved to a spot slightly away from the main street.

The moment we stopped, Shia spoke.

“Nova-san, are you really all right? You aren’t secretly enduring the pain or anything…?”

“Huh? No, no, I’m really fine.”

“The spell I used earlier isn’t lethal, but it has enough power to knock an adult unconscious. Since you’re well trained, Nova-san, I didn’t think you would faint, but I thought it must have hurt a great deal…”

Shia’s eyes drooped as though she were about to cry, and I shook my head.

“No, seriously, I’m really, really fine. Nothing hurts at all. If anything, I actually feel better than usual.”

“You feel… better?”

Shia tilted her head, so to show her that I was truly fine, I clenched my fist.

Just as I had said, my body did not hurt anywhere. In fact, I felt unusually good.

I had thought I felt a little off this morning, but now I was in perfect condition and felt like I could swing a sword with ease.

Even the shoulder that had felt a little strange after Brother Zeroad hit me somehow felt better now.

Shia stared at me in thought for a while, then eventually looked down at her own palm once before speaking.

“Would you mind coming with me to the outskirts of town for a little while?”

“Sure.”

I had no reason to refuse, so I agreed.

At her request, we made our way to the edge of town.

There was no one else around in the scrubby woodland.

Shia raised her palm toward a tree some distance away.

She seemed somewhat tense, her lips pressed firmly together.

Lightning burst from her palm.

The bolt shot forward in a straight line toward the tree she had targeted and struck it directly.

After the thunderous impact, the dust cleared to reveal a gouged and scorched mark on the trunk.

I was stunned by its power.

I had served in the military before, guarding areas near the border.

There had been people capable of using magic among the soldiers, and I had seen magic with my own eyes.

But I had never witnessed anything as powerful as the spell Shia had just used.

Most magic also took time to cast, yet Shia had released that spell simply by pointing her palm.

That alone made it obvious that her magical abilities were far beyond the norm.

Shia lowered her shoulders in relief and turned back toward me.

“Shia?”

When I called out to her because she seemed hesitant about something, Shia suddenly took my hand.

Her small hands gently enclosed mine, making my heart race, and at the same time, power began flooding through my body.

It was the same sensation I had felt when I was struck by her lightning earlier—a feeling as though my body had become lighter.

After a while, Shia released my hand, and I opened and closed my right hand as I tested how it felt.

“Is… is this Shia’s body-enhancement magic? That’s incredible.”

I had received body-enhancement magic during my military service before, but the power Shia had just given me was on an entirely different level.

It did not merely feel as though strength was overflowing throughout my body—it felt as though my own natural strength had multiplied several times over.

“No. The magic I just used was the same spell I fired at that tree earlier.”

At those words, I looked toward the distant tree.

The scorched, gouged tree.

I lowered my gaze to my right hand, but there was no hole in it, nor was it burned.

What was going on?

When I looked at Shia, she placed a bent finger against her chin and explained.

“This is only a theory, but… when we were children, the mana inside my body stopped running wild after you scolded me, Nova-san. Because of that, it may be that my magic is incapable of harming you.”

“R-Really?”

Could something like that even happen?

I genuinely had no idea, but magic was a field I knew almost nothing about, and Shia looked far too serious to be joking.

“Considering that your right hand is unharmed, I think that is probably the case… Ah, but of course I didn’t use the same amount of power as before! I held back enough that it should only have made you tingle a little. Really!”

“Yeah, of course. I know.”

From everything I knew about her, there was no way she would ever deliberately do something like that to me.

Even so, the fact that she immediately worried about my safety once again showed how kind she was.

“But you really are amazing, Nova-san. At this rate, whenever I’m in front of you, I’ll become nothing more than an ordinary powerless woman.”

Seeing Shia smile happily, I suddenly froze.

Her mana did not work on me.

That meant what Shia had said was true.

Of course, I had no intention whatsoever of becoming her enemy or harming her, but what if someone else like me appeared?

If an enemy emerged who could seal magic or was immune to it, then Shia…

A terrible image flashed through my mind.

A black-haired woman lying on the ground, covered in blood.

My chest tightened so painfully it almost hurt.

Before I could even think, I don’t want that, I felt as though I were falling into the terror of possibly losing her.

“Nova-san?”

Her voice snapped me back to reality, and I saw Shia looking at me with concern.

Not wanting to worry her, I forced a smile.

“Huh? Ah, sorry. Right, we still have some time, so how about we walk around town a little more?”

“Yes, let’s.”

With Shia beside me, I began walking through Saria again.

We spent more enjoyable time together afterward, but because I had imagined that terrible scene earlier, I felt as though I could no longer enjoy myself wholeheartedly.