chapter 13

How to Live as a Hero in a Magical World

Fortunately, the hot-tempered fire spirits were too distracted by their brawl to pay any attention to him.

Kaian followed the earth spirits as they led him back across the Ash-Covered Land.

As he walked where they guided him, he was amazed to feel the heat of the ground rapidly decreasing.

Hope filled Kaian’s eyes.

‘It’s not that hot! I can make it through if it’s like this!’

He scooped up all the Cobalt Poultice he had left and smeared it across his forehead and the area between his nose and upper lip.

The cool scent of peppermint made the tip of his nose tingle.

His eyes even began to tear up, though perhaps that was because he was finally hopeful that he might make it back safely.

But his excitement lasted only a moment.

Kaian’s vision blurred, and his body staggered.

—Dizzy!

The exhaustion from forcing himself through the entire schedule without sleeping was finally hitting him all at once.

‘You idiot… You let your guard down way too early.’

Kaian barely managed to regain his balance.

But the accumulated pain was becoming increasingly vivid.

His stinging skin.

His legs that felt like blocks of stone.

His aching lower back and lungs that felt ready to burst.

His throat, so dry that even swallowing his saliva was difficult.

And his eyes, so dry that it was becoming difficult to keep them open.

“Huff… huff….”

Kaian kept going over his situation in his head so that he wouldn’t lose consciousness.

‘I can’t fall asleep. I won’t be able to get back up, and I don’t even know how much time I have left. No… If I fall on this kind of ground, I’ll probably pass out immediately from the pain of the burns. And then I’ll really be sleeping forever.’

Yet his vision continued to blur.

The earth spirits touched Kaian’s cheeks worriedly.

—Peep! Peeep!

They seemed to be trying to give him energy, but the strength of earth spirits living in a volcanic region was insufficient.

Kaian’s thoughts began spinning chaotically.

‘Whenever something like this happened, my second brother always said something… What was it again…? Ah… right. Damn it. Damn. Crap. Hell. Son of a… I just need to make it back now….’

He needed to hurry back and ask Eldarin to treat the Obsidian Boar.

The rice was also ripening, and he still needed to thank Ember for making such good astragalus tea.

‘Oh, sweet potatoes. I still have so many sweet potatoes I haven’t eaten….’

The earth spirits in the Golden Plains were surely waiting for him too.

There was truly so much left for him to do.

But—

‘I can’t go any farther.’

At last, Kaian’s body began to tilt.

He didn’t even have enough strength left to wave his arms.

His eyes slowly closed.

‘Ah… Is this as far as I go?’

And he waited for the scorching ashes to engulf his face.

But what covered him instead was—

A rough sensation.

—Fwoom, scrape!

‘Huh? Rough?’

With his eyes still closed, Kaian reached out and felt around.

Coarse, bristly fur.

The distinctive warmth radiating from its body.

In a hoarse voice, he asked,

“You… Piggy?”

“Frrrrink!”

Though his eyes were closed, Kaian could vividly picture the Obsidian Boar shaking its snout.

Relief washed over him that he was still alive, and he burst into laughter.

“Did you come to pick up your big brother?”

“Gwehk! Gwehk!”

The Obsidian Boar cried as though scolding him for collapsing in a place like this.

Kaian gently stroked its fur.

“Okay, okay. Big brother was wrong.”

He had thought that the fate of someone who had survived by killing his own family would be nothing but a harsh one.

He had thought he would never experience this kind of tenderness or warmth again.

‘Now that I think about it, that was the most useless thought of all.’

Summoning the last of his strength, Kaian climbed onto the Obsidian Boar’s back.

The earth spirits also let out sighs of relief as they settled onto the boar’s back alongside him.

Kaian spoke in his cracked voice.

“Let’s all go home. Once we get home, I’ll make you plenty of Cobalt Poultice. Please, Piggy.”

“Frrrr!”

With Kaian riding on its back, the Obsidian Boar vigorously shook its snout before racing across the gray desert.

Ember, the spirit of the tree house, found the quiet kitchen in the morning strangely unfamiliar.

‘…It’s only been a few days, but I’ve already gotten used to that noisy child.’

As always, she had prepared breakfast for two, just in case.

But Kaian had not returned.

‘He was hard to believe he was only eight years old.’

Through the trees with which she shared roots, Ember had heard quite a few stories about the outside world.

The human children she knew were selfish, noisy, prone to crying, and incapable of doing much of anything. Yet they were also proud, quick to learn cunning tricks rather than wisdom, and generally difficult to deal with.

‘But he was different.’

For one thing, Kaian loved books.

—Ahem. I think I’ve read every fairy tale book in the Empire.

He had said that so confidently, and after the library was built on the second floor, he spent every day there.

He was a child who was never lazy when it came to learning.

He was already familiar with etiquette as well.

He knew exactly how to put down a teacup without making a sound and how to use the various kinds of spoons and knives correctly.

‘He comes from a noble family. I suppose that’s to be expected. He must have been educated from a young age.’

What Ember couldn’t understand was his personality.

Kaian knew how to set aside his stubbornness.

He let go of unnecessary pride, and whenever he realized he had made a mistake, he apologized as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

He was also never stingy when it came to expressing gratitude.

During the week she spent teaching him how to cook, the phrase she heard most often was thank you.

That was the exact opposite of the character Ember had come to associate with nobles.

‘And… his affinity with spirits is absurdly high.’

Spirits were what happened when the mana of nature took form.

They were said to be among the purest beings in the world, beings not all that different from mana itself.

Because of this, spirits were drawn to beings who were similarly pure and noble, beings who loved mana.

‘Elves, for example. Or elves. Or maybe something elf-like….’

In other words, they rarely revealed themselves in front of humans.

But from the day after Kaian began working in the fields, he started noticing the earth spirits.

Before long, he had become so close to them that it was as though they were friends.

Even Ember herself, a tree spirit, sometimes felt an inexplicable fondness toward Kaian.

‘…Is that child really human?’

Of course, he was a noisy child.

He was also just as persistent as any other human.

But he was pure and straightforward.

Ember shook her head, clearing away her thoughts.

‘Sigh. It’s pointless to think about. I should get back to work.’

Even so, she glanced at the clock in the kitchen.

8:20.

The time when morning tea ended.

But Kaian was still nowhere to be seen.

Ember went into the living room and began clearing away the teacups and dishes she had prepared.

—Clatter, clatter.

‘…I wonder what Eldarin is thinking?’

Ember glanced at Eldarin.

As always, Eldarin was quietly sitting there reading a book, her expression impossible to decipher.

Ember pressed her lips tightly together.

‘Sigh. I wish she would at least say something. That he’ll be back soon, or that he seems to be late, so perhaps we should go meet him…!’

Just then—

An unfamiliar sound came from outside the house, accompanied by a faint vibration.

—Rumble, rumble, rumble…!

“SKREEEE! Skree!”

Ember and Eldarin exchanged puzzled looks.

They simultaneously turned toward the window.

Not far away, clouds of dust were rising from the ground.

The dust cloud gradually drew closer to the house.

And then—

—BANG!

The front door was violently blown apart.

From within the cloud of dust came a familiar voice.

“Cough, cough…! Give me… a sickle… and a hoe….”

The dust slowly settled, and Ember’s vision cleared.

The first thing she saw was the Obsidian Boar, steam pouring from its nose.

Ember tilted her head.

‘Huh…? Why is there a magical beast in my house…?’

She looked more closely at the Obsidian Boar.

Only then did she notice the small figure lying sprawled across its back.

‘Oh my goodness! It’s Kaian!’

If she could have screamed, Ember would have.

Eldarin was just as shocked.

‘Did he… ride here on an Obsidian Boar…?’

Even though she was seeing it with her own eyes, she found it difficult to believe.

In the Elder Grove, which was overflowing with high-quality mana, not once in seven hundred years had a magical beast left its habitat.

At least, that had been the case until today.

‘And of all things, it’s an Obsidian Boar?’

It was a magical beast infamous for being extraordinarily violent.

Yet this very Obsidian Boar had apparently allowed a human child to ride on its back.

Eldarin blinked repeatedly.

‘This is rather… impressive.’

But Kaian didn’t notice the shocked expressions on Ember and Eldarin’s faces.

He was too busy checking the clock hanging on the wall.

‘Am I late?’

As promised, he had to start working in the fields at 8:40.

And the current time was—

‘Haha. I’m safe….’

8:23.

Kaian let out a strange laugh as he climbed down from the Obsidian Boar’s back.

He didn’t forget to stroke the forehead of the creature that had worked so hard.

He staggered toward Eldarin.

At some point, his wooden clogs had fallen off.

The sensation of the wooden floor against his bare feet stung painfully.

Kaian took the herb container out of his backpack and placed it on the dining table.

—Tap.

“Here… I brought that damn weed.”

Eldarin detected the cool yet sharp scent lingering faintly beneath the smell of smoke.

“You used Cobalt Poultice.”

“…You’ve got a good nose.”

Kaian muttered in amazement.

Although his mouth was moving, his eyes struggled to focus properly.

He looked to be in very poor condition.

Eldarin carefully examined Kaian’s condition using magic.

‘…Mild burns both internally and externally, along with abrasions across various parts of his body. But considering that a child who can’t even use magic went into a volcanic region, his condition is surprisingly good.’

In particular, thanks to the Cobalt Poultice, the burns weren’t deep.

‘…I was wondering what he kept stealing from the glass greenhouse. So this is what he was making.’

Eldarin smiled faintly.

It was yet another moment confirming that her investment in him had not been wasted.

Only after checking Kaian’s condition did she open the herb container.

Inside were three healthy roots of Flame Veil.

Apparently, he had figured out somehow that the surrounding soil needed to be kept with the plant as well.

Eldarin found that particularly commendable.

Yet the praise she actually spoke aloud was as dry as ever.

“You brought it back properly. Good job.”

“Okay… then that’s done….”

Kaian barely seemed to hear Eldarin’s words before turning toward the entrance again.

“Where are you going?”

“Sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes are waiting for me….”

Eldarin let out a soft sigh.

“Haah. And here I was wondering why you seemed perfectly fine.”