In the magic training that day and the next day, I managed to clear the mission of cutting the logs into firewood-sized pieces with Wind Arrow somehow.

I was tired to the point I couldn’t think of anything, but…there was this feeling of accomplishment! It felt as if I had various breakthroughs so far.

In addition, the preparation for winter provision was done properly. …For some reason, something feels wrong here~~~.

But for some reason, Amanda-san muttered, “Next, use Fire Ball to light up a fire at the firewood, and after that use Water Ball to cease the fire, and it’s perfect.”

Eh? This is a training to hone the control over my magic power, right?

This isn’t a simple practice of making campfire, right?!

I really didn’t know where Amanda-san was heading to with this kind of practice…

Could she do this out of her parental love so I could survive in the unlikely event I get lost in the middle of exploring the Demon Forest?

“Hmmm…We can use the earth magic to create a cooking stove, but there is nothing applicable with thunder magic. Aah, but is a cooking stove too difficult? I wonder if making bricks would be better?”

…Let’s pretend I never heard any more of her muttering!

“Serena-san, thank you very much for accompanying me on my magic training!”

I turned towards Serena-san as I bowed to her.

I felt like my magic power was more concentrated, or that a bit more power was drawn out. I was really helped by Serena-san’s accurate advices.

It seemed that Serena-san could use all magic except for earth magic, moreover she could use intermediate magic for all attributes that she could use. Perhaps there didn’t exist any advanced level magic in this world or that they were simply unknown, but she seemed famous for being a high-ranked magician in Elysia.

Ah, that’s right. By the way, I already understood the reason I couldn’t use the high-level magic. When I leveled up, I tried tapping the spell name at my status screen and it was written there that I would be able to use them after I reached the level of 50…

Even with my magic and recovery skill being 100, there was a level restriction so I couldn’t use them, how cruel~. Even after I had an advanced job, they weren’t the skills I could use from level 1 with my 100 magic skill-!

But, speaking of which, I felt like I had seen someone screaming in the guild chat, saying “There is a level 50 wall even after you have an advanced joooob!” Even if you changed your job into an advanced one, it seemed that you still couldn’t use the high-level skill unless you reach level 50. Therefore…Ohoho.

Well, with that, thanks to Serena-san, I managed to mass produce fine firewoods…that’s not it, I managed to apply my magic only to the target.

With this, it would be good if I could be of any use during the Demon Forest exploration that would start from tomorrow…

“Don’t mention it. Anyway, the so-called ‘sage’ uses quite a special magic. It has also become a learning opportunity for me.”

U~n, a sage isn’t that special, though. But since right now, there is only one sage that is me in this world, it can’t be helped that she would think like that.

“We will be exploring the Demon Forest starting from tomorrow, will you be coming with us?”

“P…Perhaps?”

I tilted my head when Serena-san asked me. Nobody had requested me properly to come, but perhaps, I’m going to tag along, right…?

Eh? But since nobody has told me about it, could it be that I would be house-sitting?

“That’s right. I think you should tag along.”

Amanda-san answered the question for me.

“Right…”

Serena-san hung her head down for a while before she raised her head to look down at me.

“Yuuri Kujou. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you came from. But you’d better remember this. Should you harm Leonhart-sama…even if you’re a child, I won’t forgive you.”

T…that’s right. It’s natural to think that a stranger child like me whose origin is unclear to be hanging around the side of a hero just like Leon-san. Everyone has always been so kind to me that I never noticed that…

“Don’t mind it too much, Yuuri-chan.”

Amanda-san gently patted my head as I was standing still on the spot.

“That child is a devout admirer of Leonhart the Hero. After Leader defeated the Undead King and brought peace back to Elysia, he was appointed as this fort’s leader at the young age of 16 years. Hearing that, Serena thought of wanting to fight and be any help to Leader, so she began to desperately learn magic.”

“Besides,” Amanda-san continued her words.

“It’s quite apparent, but that child is a noble daughter, you know? Even if she didn’t become a magician, she should be able to lead a life without any inconveniences as a noble daughter. Despite that, she wanted to become any of help to Leader and even came to this Izel fort unreasonably.”

“Is that so…”

“Well, the Monster Flood 8 years ago lasted for around one year. During the time everyone was resigned to the fate, Leader came and defeated the Undead King. It can’t be helped for a young child around Yuuri-chan’s age to really admire him.”

One year…During such a long time, did the monsters attack the towns continuously just like the herd of werewolves?

“How long does one last normally?”

“It depends on the Demon King’s strength, but the longest should be around half a year.”

“Then, one year is awfully long, huh?”

“Yeah. That’s why the people and the towns suffered quite some damage. Moreover, since it was an Undead King, there was an outbreak of a large number of Undead, the townspeople who were attacked also turned into Undead…”

It means that the people who were close to you until just now turned into Undead after they were killed, then they came to attack you, right?

If the knowledge from the game applies here, if the corpses were left as they were, they could become Undead or if they were killed by the Undead, they could turn into one themselves. Also, the people killed by Undead had almost 100% probability of being resurrected as Undead.

That…Even if one survived, they would receive quite some mental damage.

“I heard that the town where Serena lived was one of the towns that were attacked. But once the King was defeated, the monsters would lose their control and moved in scatters. Thanks to it, the people were rescued from destruction, or so I heard.”

“I see…”

Such a tough past existed…

“Well, even if it was said to be unreasonable, she had the power to become a magician. But perhaps the reason it was said to be unreasonable was because there were only two years before the Monster Flood when she came here. This is the first line to stop the Monster Flood, after all.”1

“Is there no other fort?”

“There are, but this fort is the easiest place to move. We can go to either the State of Beastmen and the State of Elves.”

In other word, our position is right in the middle.

Which means, the Demon Forest becomes more of a threat to this Elysia in comparison to the other countries. Then, I wonder if we are on good terms with the other countries?

I tried to remember the game.

If I’m not mistaken, there was no story about wars with other countries. There were some confrontations between the elves and dwarves in the quests, but things could somehow be mended with the cooperation of the player.

There was no ‘player’ in this world, but no matter how bad the relationship was, there were still the beastmen’s Urg Beast Kingdom and Ares kingdom between the two countries. I don’t think their relationship would be so bad that they would risk waging a war even if it meant crossing the shortest path which would be the Demon Forest.

Aah, the demons and the humans might not have quite an amicable relationship.

But the beastmen were mingling quite well with us that their figures should often be seen in the royal capital.

The beastmen, huh…I wonder how their ears moved…

Uwaa. I’d like to see them~~~~.

“Before I came to the Izel fort, my heart also fluttered from the thought of seeing the hero.”

‘I’d like to see the beastmen~,’ while thinking about that, I was surprised by Amanda-san’s abrupt words.

“Eh, Amanda-san did?”

I thought that she wasn’t interested in anything other than muscles, but could that not be the case in the past?

“Don’t you think it’s natural?! When it came to the hero, I thought that he would surely have dreamy muscles, so I came with such expectations. But Leader’s muscles didn’t show at all, you know? It would have been nice if they were a bit more apparent, though…”

Correction. As expected, her standard would be the muscles.

“But it’s fine since I managed to meet with the ideal muscles, fufu.”

“Georg-san’s, was it?”

“That’s right. Even his name is dreamy, don’t you think?”

She said with a wide grin.

I was left with no other choice than to nod…