Chapter 3

When I declared that I would attend the tutoring sessions, I got a complicated look.

From Father.

He worried about the sea being cold, but said that as my body grows bigger, I’ll be able to endure it.

Or that with practice, I’ll start seeing the fish better.

Those kinds of concerns.

“I’ll keep doing the usual work.

I’ll stand in the sea.

I’ll help with the fields too, and continue taking care of the chickens.

But I want to go to the tutoring sessions as well.”

When I said that, he still had a complicated expression but gave his permission.

He said he’d ask the guild to let me attend during the playtime before dinner.

Then, this time, Mother started hesitating.

She worried that if I go to tutoring, my friends might tease me.

Or that the neighbors might say something.

Those kinds of concerns now.

“I want to be more helpful to Mother.

If I can use fire magic or water magic, I can make kitchen work easier for you.”

In a desperate attempt to persuade her, I said that.

Then suddenly, she hugged me tightly.

She held my head and pressed it against her chest.

The 10-year-old me was confused, but the 32-year-old me was excited.

Because, even though she has a child, this is the breasts of a 26-year-old woman being pressed against my face, you know?

In my 32 years plus 10 years of life, this is the best moment.

The time I crawled out from between legs doesn’t count since I have no memory of it.

*

The next day’s afternoon, I knocked on the guild’s door.

Lambda, the guild member sitting at the reception counter, made a surprised face.

“So it’s true that you want to learn letters…

Well, whatever.

Come here and sit.”

Lambda showed me a chart with written letters.

“The words of this country are written using these characters.”

“They come in sets of two, huh.”

“Yes.

Uppercase and lowercase.

It’s good to start by copying and memorizing the uppercase first.”

“OK.”

The shapes were different, but the system was the same as the alphabet, so it wasn’t difficult.

There are vowels and consonants, that’s all.

In the first lesson, I learned the uppercase.

In the second, the lowercase.

And soon I was reading books on my own.

In the third, I mastered reading and writing numbers.

In the fourth, I mastered the four arithmetic operations, surprising Lambda-san.

“Kids absorb things fast, but you… you’re a genius, huh.”

Seeing me memorize multiplication in an instant, Guild Master Baldom said that.

Sorry, Baldom.

It’s not that I learned it.

I already knew it.

Studying letters progressed by reading books in the guild, looking up unknown words or phrases in the dictionary, and asking guild members about actual usage.

It was almost self-study.

I thought I would monopolize the title of genius boy and acquire magic as well, but magic was completely different.

“‘O spirits! O spirits of water!'”

“Ah, no good.”

Normally, light should gather in the palm, in the air.

But midway through the chant, water collects in my palm and makes it wet.

If I continue the chant regardless, it starts dripping from my elbows.

“If you want to wash your hands, that’s fine, but it’s hard to use as drinking water, right?”

Seeing me fail the same way no matter how many times I tried, Lambda-san frowned.

“How should I do it?”

“Watch?

‘O spirits! O spirits of water! Grant moisture to us who are parched! Pure water! Water Ball!'”

A fist-sized ball of water appeared in the air and splashed neatly into the barrel placed by the entrance.

“Um, it’s like sending magic power flying, right?”

“No, as the chant says, you’re asking the water spirits to gather.”

“Using magic power?”

“Yes, you offer magic power to call the spirits.”

“???”

Somehow, the image of magic from anime and such in my previous life was different from actual magic here, and I couldn’t get it to work.

“Since water magic seems to be my weak point, how about trying fire magic first?”

“If you do the same thing with fire magic, you’ll get serious burns, you know?”

“Yeah, right.”

After that, I tried putting in more strength or twisting my body, but it didn’t work.

“Could it be… that I don’t have enough magic power or something…?”

“Hmm, I’ve never met anyone like that.”

It might be possible for a reincarnated body to have something impossible, but for now, I’ll keep quiet about the possibility of reincarnation.

“Master, is there no way to check?”

“I’ve never heard of one.”

Then, Tres-san, a guild member who rarely gets involved, handed me a gray card with nothing written on it.

“This is…?”

“It’s an adventurer card.

If you infuse it with magic power while saying your name, it registers.”

“Aha, I see.

If it doesn’t register, that means I don’t have enough magic power!”

An adventurer card, here of all places!

This really is another world!

Breathing heavily through my nose, I reached for the adventurer card.

But Baldom interrupted.

“Better stop.

If it registers, taxes will apply.”

“Hou, taxes?”

“Do you know what taxes are?

Taxes mean that since you’re tilling the country’s fields to eat and catching fish in the country’s sea to eat, you pay a usage fee to the country.”

“Ah, I know about taxes.”

“For a kid to know about taxes…

In houses like yours that have land, a home, work, and income, the guild pays taxes from the village’s total earnings, portioned out individually.”

“Yes.”

“Adventurers are a system to collect taxes from citizens who don’t settle in one place and keep wandering.”

“I see.

Even if not settled, they’re living in the country and earning using the country’s roads and land, right?”

“Yes.

That’s why wandering hunters, gatherers, merchants without shops, or wandering minstrels need to register as adventurers.

If you register, even though your house already pays taxes, you’ll have to pay additional adventurer taxes.”

“That sounds bad.”

“Right?

So better stop.”

Tres-san looked at Baldom.

“Don’t we have any magic absorption stones in stock?”

“We do, but Omi can’t pay for it, right?”

“I’ll pay.

In return, I’ll hire Omi as an assistant.

If he helps with calculations, work will go faster.”

“Hmm… well…

No, money’s fine.

We’ll lend the magic absorption stone.”

“?”

“If magic power accumulates, it’s a profit.”

“Ah, I see.”

I was left behind in the conversation.

What’s a magic absorption stone?

Then, a pendant with a black stone set at the top was placed in front of me.