A Mage's Ordinary Days?

Looking back on that absurd night when he had debuted as an adventurer, Rorschach sensed something was off.

According to Mr. Arle, inns in small towns were often monopolies, places where nobles and town administrators squeezed money out of outsiders by indirect means. Now that the innkeeper was a preacher for the cult, could the innkeeper's boss be part of the "Return Mother" cult?

Ordinary people in this world generally revered and feared spellcasters, yet that thief had not been frightened in the slightest by something as blatantly magical as a glowing stone. Instead, he had immediately tried to assassinate Rorschach.

Had he been brainwashed? Or did the cult also possess supernatural means? Which god had secretly logged into the World Mother's account and made an alt?

In the Holy Kingdom and Istarani, every moderately sized town had churches and monasteries of the state religion, with priests maintaining local social order and preventing it from being disrupted by uncontrolled supernatural forces. In the Empire, where faiths were mixed, the council, provinces, and states jointly funded and hired town-based mages to handle supernatural matters. With Limburg's population, there had to be Imperial mages stationed there. The Underground Cult seemed to have been active for some time, so why had there been no response?

Thinking it over carefully, there was something wrong with this whole group:

Their destination was the human-supremacist Holy Kingdom, yet the Luowei Merchant Guild had hired a Half-elf and a dwarf;

Furs were not worth much in the Empire. Rorschach did not know their price in the Holy Kingdom, but with the food costs for men and horses, plus the fees for hiring three adventurers, it was doubtful they could turn a profit;

The merchant guild appeared quite powerful, so why did it not have guards of its own? The elegant steward's explanation at the time had been that the guild's guard forces were concentrated on trade routes through the Empire and the northern kingdoms.

He would have something to write about in his letter to the Agency Chief.

Drowsiness washed over him, and Rorschach fell asleep before the sun had fully risen.

Before setting out, Rorschach had never expected that the spell he would use most on the road would be Basic Decomposition.

Rorschach's Water Creation drained him rather heavily, and it was difficult for it to meet the drinking needs of so many grown men and packhorses. Only when they were far from water sources did he provide everyone with some fresh water. "Young Master Rorschach's water is so sweet!" That was Sing's praise. Too bad it was not proper Water Creation, or Rorschach could have told everyone, "I do not produce water. I am merely nature's porter!"

After reaching purple proficiency, Decomposition Technique could control the size and shape of what it divided, making it much more useful—for example, while cooking.

Salted meat: Rorschach flicked his index finger, and it split into small pieces.

Fatroot Grass stems—something like radishes, but sweeter: Rorschach flicked his index finger, and they split into small pieces.

Mushrooms: Rorschach flicked his index finger, and they split into thin slices.

Bread: Rorschach flicked his index finger, and it split into even slices.

The wild rabbit Hill had caught: Rorschach flicked his index finger, and it split into chunks convenient for stewing.

At first, the drivers, Hill, and Rorschach had cut vegetables together. Later, they discovered that chopping with knives could not compare to the speed of His Magehood waving a hand, so they divided the work: plucking feathers and washing vegetables before handing them over to Rorschach.

"Magic is so convenient! Young Master Rorschach, can Archmages make a whole tableful of food with a wave of their hands?"

"They can."

"How do they do it? Tell me."

"Archmages are all rich. They only need to walk into their own restaurant and wave a hand, and a line of servants will bring them food and drink."

"Then all Archmages are inferior to Young Master Rorschach!" Rorschach had no idea how Sing had reached that conclusion. He controlled Mage Hand and dropped the rabbit meat into the pot.

After developing Mana Drive, Rorschach could finally use Mage Hand, a Minor Spell he had never managed to master before. Opening his panel, he found that it was just as he had guessed. Mage Hand (Blue)'s first trait was "Mana Condensation (Purple)," and its second was "Repulsion (White)."

Apparently, the principle behind using Mage Hand to lift physical objects, as well as the way some Mage Guild spellcasters used it to defend themselves and block part of ranged damage, was to condense mana and give it repulsive force.

Using cooking as an opportunity, Rorschach kept practicing Mage Hand to get a feel for controlling mana. Perhaps once this spell improved, Mage Hand really could make an entire table of dishes. At the very least, it could chop vegetables, wash vegetables, and wash dishes, just like the domestic magic in those children's books from an island nation.

The food on the road could hardly be called delicious, especially in this world where spices were scarce and expensive. They ate two meals a day, muddling through bowls of stew-like mush with dry bread. It was fine if Hill caught a fresh rabbit. If she came back empty-handed, they would cook salted meat into the soup, bringing in a rancid oily smell.

When they occasionally passed farmhouses, Mr. Arle would buy some eggs. If there were enough, they would be divided among everyone. If not, they would be beaten into the thick soup so everyone got some.

Bathing was another problem in the wilderness.

It was summer now, and even just riding horses left them drenched in sweat by noon. Whenever they came across a small river, the drivers and Singlev would go down to bathe. Mr. Arle would fetch water a little farther upstream to wipe down his body. Rorschach's solution was to cast Water Creation over his own head. By that logic, it counted as a shower.

Hill would not bathe with them, but she always managed to stay clean, which Rorschach rather admired.

"Miss Hill, Young Master Rorschach, why did you become adventurers? Tell me, what was your original aspiration!"

One evening after dinner, Singlev started awkward small talk over drinks. Rorschach did not dislike awkward small talk either. Sitting around the campfire and chatting actually felt rather nice.

"This." Hill patted her crossbow. "And this." She took out a hand cannon and began wiping it down as she spoke. "Restricted items. Adventurers are exempt."

They were already halfway there, so Rorschach spoke frankly as well. "I was going to Valuana anyway. I just hitched a ride with a caravan."

Mr. Arle chimed in with a joke. "Our merchant guild paid for you to hitch that ride."

"That won't do!" Sing lamented their failure to live up to expectations, heartbroken for the new generation of adventurers. "When I first entered the trade, adventurers—no, explorers—relied on dreams! If the sea was that vast, we'd swim across it! If ruins were that deep, we'd explore them to the bottom! Not like today, taking jobs to find lost cats and dogs for rich families, nor like you lot, with no dreams at all!"

"When I was still Black Iron rank, I ran into—" If a dwarf drank too much, then tonight was time for another installment of Adventurer King Singlev's Memoirs. Though he always left things unfinished and repeated the same episodes over and over, the drivers listened with great interest. Hill listened while cleaning and maintaining her hand cannon, while Rorschach listened as he read the books he had brought along.

He had already finished Three Royal Mages. What Rorschach was reading now was the Compendium of Elementary Spells he had swiped from the academy library, a hefty hardcover tome weighing about as much as the Xinhua Dictionary.

Rorschach had previously been unable to afford the deposit for borrowing books: two Imperial Golden Eagles. He had either read in the library or asked Bart and Richard to borrow books for him. Calling it swiping was perhaps unfair; the librarian should have realized what a graduated student who paid a year's deposit before leaving and then "borrowed books" was up to.

He was essentially buying some books, Rorschach told himself. After all, two gold coins definitely could not buy the books lying in his storage ring at the market. No chance!