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Vol 01 Chapter 08: Lavender Color

「Who are you?」

「I’m Julia. What’s your name?」

「I am… Almus. Is that butterfly your friend?」

「Friend? Hmm, something like that.」

「It seems quite intelligent. It appeared to understand my words.」

As I said this, Julia’s eyes widened in surprise, and then she bursted into laughter.

What’s with her…

「Hehe, it’s impossible for a butterfly to have such wisdom. I was just borrowing its body.」

「Borrowing?」

「Isn’t it a well-known tale that high-level magicians can take over the bodies of animals?」

I had no idea. I didn’t even know magic existed.

「So, why did you call me here?」

「I was just curious and wanted to talk. How did you manage to ingratiate yourself with the Griffon? What kind of contract did you make?」

「I didn’t make any contract. Actually, it was he who approached me first.」

I explained my relationship with Griffon to Julia, keeping my reincarnation a secret. Julia looked surprised.

「Really? I learned that entering Romalia Forest would get me eaten by the Griffon. In fact, the people who tried to build a village in this forest got afflicted by a curse, and it seems a plague spread among them. Why is he so kind to you?」

「I don’t know. Maybe it’s like when someone would whimsically save a butterfly caught in a spider’s web?」

I deliberately avoided mentioning our territory. If they swarm in and take over our village, it will be a disaster.

And if a large group comes, Griffon might change his mind.

「So, why are you the leader?」

「I really don’t know. He must have thought I was suitable.」

「Hmm.」

Julia seemed a little dissatisfied, she must still have some questions.  But soon, the look of dissatisfaction vanished from her face, replaced by a mischievous expression.

Julia’s right eye began to emit a faint light.

「I see. That makes sense, I guess.」

What exactly did she do?

「You can ask me a question next.」

「Then what are you?」

「I told you, I’m Julia.」

I know that! She doesn’t seem inclined to tell me more. Well, then…

「Can you teach me about magic? From the basics, in detail.」

「Sure, it’s simple. It’s about doing miraculous things with the power of the soul and spirit. Healing wounds or hearts, or the opposite, causing harm, predicting disasters…」

「Can you start fires or something?」

「Yes, you can. But magic that directly harms the human body is difficult. Even for me, it’s challenging.」

Even for her… She really has confidence in herself.

But still, magic seems rather plain. Can’t it reproduce spells like Mete○ or Giga De○n? Its name is ‘magic,’ after all… It seems magic in this world is heavily related to curses and mind manipulation, which is sort of creepy and underhanded.

And this girl is a magician, huh? She has such a cute face, though; she doesn’t seem the type to curse people to death.

Come to think of it, that guy mentioned something about the current famine possibly being caused by a curse. Since I have an expert here, I might as well ask.

「What do you think caused this famine?」

「It’s a curse. Targeting only crops like that is typical of a curse. It’s difficult to kill people or animals, but it’s relatively easy to kill beings without will, like plants.」

Saying that, Julia picked a weed at her feet and showed it to me. She blew on the weed, and it turned black and withered.

「Like this.」

「Who would do such a thing? What did the people of this place do to deserve that?」

If it weren’t for this curse, the children wouldn’t have been abandoned. I can understand if it were a natural disaster, but thinking it’s the action of a malicious human makes me irritated.

「Who? Rather, it’s more appropriate to ask which country. It’s impossible for an individual to cast such a massive curse. It would require over a hundred magicians and numerous sacrifices. The victims were the small countries south of Romalia Forest and the northern countries of King Domorgal and King Gilbed. Considering that King Faldam’s country suffered no damage, they are the prime suspects, but King Faldam denies involvement. I think the true mastermind is an even larger country further north than King Faldam’s Country.」

The country of this guy, the country of that guy… it’s getting complicated. It would be simpler just to refer to the countries by their names instead of the king’s.

Don’t they find it a pain? Or maybe there’s some deference to another major country. Or perhaps the country’s name changes with the king? Is it like when the capital moved with each new emperor? I heard that in ancient Japan, they used to move the capital with each new emperor. Maybe it’s similar here.

But wait. Maybe they are using the king’s family name. Yeah, that makes sense.

「Is that all you wanted to ask?」

「Yeah, that’s all. Can I go now? I have a lot of farm work and other things to do tomorrow.」

I can’t afford to waste time chatting here.

「Yeah, that’s fine. By the way, it’s a full moon tonight, right? Would you come here again on the next full moon night?」

「Why? Haven’t you seen enough of me already?」

「I want to know more about you.」

What’s that all about? Could it be that I’m being flirted with? A surge in popularity after death!? I wish this had happened before I died…

「What’s in it for me?」

「You get to be friends with a cute girl like me.」

「Ha, that’s funny. What are you talking about, you’re just a kid about ten years old.」

I’m not a lolicon.

I’m ten years old now, so it wouldn’t matter much, but even with my body like this, I don’t feel any sexual desire for such a child.

「So what would you like?」

「How about you teach me magic?」

When I proposed this, Julia frowned.

「Magic is not something men do.」

「Is that so?」

「Men and women have different qualities of souls and spirits. For a man to learn magic is as unusual as a woman learning swordsmanship.」

I see… That makes sense. That’s why the ratio of boys to girls among the children was about half and half. Girls can use some magic, so disposing of them too much because they are girls would be a loss to the nation.

「But it’s not impossible for men to do it, right?」

「It’s not, but…」

「Then teach me a little. For self-defense.」

In truth, I’m not completely uninterested in magic, but I don’t have a strong desire to master it. My concern is that we have no defense against curses.

Griffon said it would be fine, but he can be quite irresponsible sometimes, which makes me take everything he says with a grain of salt. I’m teaching the boys kendo and judo, but no matter how physically strong they are, they would be defenseless against a curse.

I really want the girls to learn magic. For now, I’ll interact with this girl and assess whether she’s trustworthy or not.

If I can confirm that she’s reliable, then I’ll ask her to train the girls in magic.

…But I can’t rule out the possibility that she’s trying to gain my trust to steal our food, so I have to be careful. However, considering that she hasn’t attacked us even though she likely knows our village’s location, the likelihood of that seems very low.

「Then let’s meet on the next full moon night.」

「Sounds good. See you then.」

I parted ways with Julia.

◇

「Fufu, he was an interesting person,」

Julia mused, thinking back on Almus.

Despite being a child like herself, he carried an air of maturity about him.

Perhaps this was what one would expect from someone with a blessing.

「Well, I have overwhelmingly more blessings than he does,」

Julia reflected, recalling the blessings she had found in Almus using her [Blessing of Insight]. She gazed up at the full moon.

「I guess I should head back home soon. Dad must be worried.」

Julia turned towards the south and disappeared into the forest.