Published: July 30, 2025
August 10th — Today, three chapters are released simultaneously. This is the second of those chapters.
“Please wait.”
As soon as we reached the cliff, the boy said this. Looking around, there didn’t seem to be anything nearby, and it seemed it wasn’t because prey was being brought here. The boy stepped forward, placed his hand on the rock face, and used break rock — part of the rock melted away and crumbled, revealing a cave beyond.
“Please, come inside…”
So this cave is what he calls his “home.” Indeed, it looked like a sturdy cave unlikely to be destroyed by beasts or magical beasts. On top of that, after confirming we had entered, the boy began casting barrier magic at the entrance. This would be more than sufficient as a place to rest.
However, barrier magic is useful but difficult to master. Perhaps curious about this, Kamil, who was watching, spoke to the boy.
“Is that barrier magic? You use a rare spell. Is its effect concealment?”
“We can run away anytime… five people, safe.”
“I see. Thank you…”
The boy nodded once and answered briefly, then slipped past us with his small frame and headed deeper into the cave.
“It seems he’s being considerate.”
“Yes, Reinhardt-sama.”
“Both of you, that boy has gone off,”
“Ah, I’ll go now.”
When Zeff called me, I went inside the cave. There was a room with a neatly leveled floor and walls, furnished with furniture made of stone and wood. The walls had magic stones embedded to provide light, making the interior bright enough.
“Well…”
“This is a much sturdier home than I expected.”
“Over here, the injured person, let’s lay him down.”
“Sorry. Hughes, you can lie down now. Hang in there.”
“Ah… okay.”
“Potions… coming.”
After making sure Hughes was lying on the bed, I saw him head down a corridor opposite the entrance.
Phew, I thought, we can finally take a breath.
“Yes. It’s a much more solid place than expected. Hughes should be able to rest here.”
“We owe him our thanks.”
“……”
Hmm… Zeff, who had put Hughes down, was looking around the room with a stern expression. Zeff is the most knowledgeable about stealth and traps among our guards and serves as a scout. If he looked troubled…
“Zeff, is something wrong?”
“This room seems odd, doesn’t it? Not in terms of traps, but even though it shows signs of long-term human habitation, there’s only furniture for one person.”
If we see it as a camp, having few things is not strange, but looking closely, part of the wall had a map of the forest and drawings of animals, and in one corner, a musical instrument was propped up.
Looking again, this room was plain but somehow had the atmosphere and life of a child’s room. And as Zeff said, there was only furniture for one person. That’s truly strange.
“Does that boy live here alone?”
“No way. I was surprised he can use beast taming magic, barrier magic, and earth magic at that age, but even so, living alone in a forest like this is impossible. Maybe someone else lives deeper inside?”
“Or maybe he’s not really as young as he looks. Though he doesn’t look like an Elf…”
While talking with Kamil and Jill, he and his slime brought a large number of potion bottles.
“Potions.”
“Thank you. I will repay you someday.”
“No… I can make them. As many as you want.”
After hearing that, all of us, including me, looked back and forth between the potions and the boy. Then Kamil exclaimed in surprise.
“You made these potions!?”
The boy’s body flinched slightly at Kamil’s loud voice but immediately nodded in affirmation. Kamil’s reaction was a bit exaggerated, but those potions were just as good as those sold in town stores. This boy was even more mysterious.
“Water.”
While we were pondering, the boy offered us water in a stone bowl. There was ice, probably made by magic, floating and keeping it nicely chilled.
“Thank you.”
“Much appreciated.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“…Right.”