There was nothing better for recovering depleted mana than eating well and getting plenty of rest.
After eating the hearty meal Aleph prepared for us, we headed back toward the territory.
“Welcome to the northern territory.”
I spoke gently to Arisa, whose face was full of tension.
“This is a really developed city.”
“Does it look that way?”
“Yeah. There are lots of merchants, and there are so many things that look delicious.”
Thinking that the exact opposite would have been said only a few weeks ago made me chuckle.
Arisa’s eyes sparkled as she stared at the dragon fruit being sold at a stall.
“Want some?”
“......Yeah!”
“I’ll buy you some later. First, endure this curse and get through the treatment.”
Arisa would experience considerable pain when we dealt with the curse.
I thought having a reward might help her endure it, but her reaction was strange.
“I heard from Yulian, and just so you know, I’m older than you.”
“Huh?”
“You’re seventeen, right? I’m nineteen! So stop talking to me like I’m a child.”
I might look seventeen on the outside, but what was inside was considerably older.
“So you don’t want any?”
“N-No. That’s not what I meant......”
Arisa trailed off and naturally changed the subject.
“Where are we going for the treatment? Is there some highly skilled priest?”
“Not a priest, but there is a mage.”
“......It won’t hurt, right?”
“Well, you won’t die.”
“......Why would you say it like that?”
“Mana is the same as life force. In other words, it’s similar to blood. If you drain all of it out......”
I narrowed my eyes and deliberately made it sound frightening.
Arisa swallowed hard, her energy dropping sharply as she replied,“It’s fine if that can fix me. B-But I really won’t die, right?”
I had expected her to tremble in fear, but her resolve was surprisingly firm.
“I’m kidding.”
“You......!”
By the time I finished suppressing my laughter at Arisa’s anger, we had arrived in front of the Magic Tower.
“Make sure no one comes inside.”
After giving Yulian the order, Arisa and I entered the Magic Tower.
The moment I stepped inside, pure mana filled my body.
‘Yeah. That’s the feeling.’
It felt as though all the fatigue had vanished from my body.
Arisa must have sensed the mana too, because her mouth fell open.
“......What is this place?”
A secret fortress built by an Archmage of the Rostelzier Kingdom.
But now—
“The place that’ll treat you. Sit down in front of me.”
There were no chairs, so Arisa knelt on the floor.
I sat behind her and placed a hand on her back.
“Close your eyes and concentrate. Slowly release the mana you’ve been keeping under control.”
Cold began surging from Arisa’s body once again.
I could feel her hesitation in the flow of mana.
“It’s fine here. Even if you go berserk, it won’t affect the village, so don’t worry.”
“......Okay.”
Before long, the flow of cold grew fiercer.
Until now, for convenience, I had called her cold a curse.
But in truth, it wasn’t one.
Arisa was a human born with the aptitude of a mage.
And occasionally, exceptional mages possessed traits that defied ordinary principles.
This cold was Arisa’s trait.
‘She just can’t control it.’
The reason was simple.
Although she had been born with magical aptitude and could sense mana, astonishingly, she still didn’t possess a Circle.
A Circle was both a container for storing mana and a kind of lock.
Without one, she had no way to stop the cold leaking from her body.
‘In other words, what I’m doing now is creating a Circle for her.’
Of course, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
I connected Arisa’s mana to mine, then began constructing a spell formula inside her body.
Fortunately, when it came to magical knowledge—in other words, handling spell formulas—I was confident that I surpassed anyone in the kingdom.
No......
Anyone in the world.
“I’ll help you, so try compressing the cold.”
Until now, Arisa had artificially suppressed the cold despite having no Circle.
That would have been impossible without extraordinary talent.
So if I could simply carve out the proper path for her—
“......Urgh.”
Arisa bit her lip and endured the pain.
Compressing the cold caused its temperature to drop even further.
It probably felt as though the chill itself were freezing her heart.
Part of that pain was transmitted to me through the mana linking us.
Even I, who had suffered from mana all my life, had never experienced pain quite like this.
“If this means I can live with everyone in the village......!”
The swirling mana gradually began to settle.
At the same time, Arisa’s mana started being drawn into my control.
It was rough and freezing cold, yet remarkably dense and deep.
I forcibly pulled that mana through the channel connecting us and used it to break through my Circle.
RUMBLE―!
Waves of mana surged around Arisa and me.
Just as before, I added another spell formula while breaking through the Circle.
‘Enhancement.’
It was a built-in buff spell that increased basic physical abilities and allowed mana to be converted into strength or speed.
Even for a mage, physical ability was important.
What happened this time had made me painfully aware of how poor my stamina was.
If I had been even a little later, Arisa might have been seriously injured.
There was no guarantee I wouldn’t be late next time either.
“Done.”
By the time my Circle was complete, Arisa had instinctively begun controlling her cold perfectly through her newly formed Circle.
She stared at her own hands and murmured,“The cold really has stabilized.”
Having finally resolved the problem that had plagued her for so long, Arisa looked at me with an utterly relaxed expression and smiled brightly.
The epithet Ice Witch had come from both her freezing cold and her icy expression and personality.
Now, it had become the least fitting name imaginable for her.
***
After creating Arisa’s Circle, we spent several days resting in the North and checking whether there was any risk of her going berserk again.
Once we confirmed there were no problems even when she created icicles or scattered cold around her—
We departed for Kardum together.
“Why am I so nervous about this?”
While Arisa stayed in the North, I had actually sent Yulian to Kardum because Aleph would surely be worried.
The monster horde had scattered, but I asked him to help eliminate the monsters around the mine in case of danger.
I also made sure he informed them about Arisa’s condition.
According to Yulian, Aleph had burst into tears when he heard the news.
Arisa, who knew nothing about that, looked deeply worried.
“What if they don’t believe I’m better?”
She steadied herself by imagining the worst.
“They might be afraid more monsters will come because of me. It’s fine. I won’t be hurt. If things go badly, can I live in your territory?”
Yulian and I were busy trying not to laugh as we watched her.
“What’s with that reaction? You said you’d stay beside me and help...... I haven’t forgotten that! I’ll earn my keep, so can’t you let me stay? I’m being serious, so why does that knight beside you keep laughing?”
“That’s Yulian. You’ve seen his face plenty of times. Try to get along.”
Neither of them seemed particularly interested in doing that.
“I don’t know...... I’m grateful that he helped me, but there’s something about the way he talks that annoys me.”
“I feel the same way.”
I leaned toward Yulian’s ear and whispered,“You’re not still sulking because she treated you like an errand boy that time, are you?”
“......”
Come to think of it, I had forgotten.
He was seventeen, just like me on the outside.
He was still a child.
‘......Well, they’ll make up somehow.’
Kardum’s main gate, which had been destroyed by the monsters, had been reborn in iron this time.
Perhaps because this was a village full of blacksmiths, they worked remarkably fast.
“Who...... Ah!”
The Dwarf inspecting us from atop the wall cried out in surprise and hurriedly called someone.
The gate opened almost immediately, and Aleph came out to greet us.
“I’m back.”
Arisa spoke timidly.
She kept glancing at Aleph and the other Dwarves.
Aleph stared at her, took a slow breath, then approached and took Arisa’s hand.
“......Are you all right?”
“I’m completely fine now, thanks to Lumio.”
“Thank goodness. Welcome home.”
There was no hesitation at all in the hand gripping hers tightly.
Aleph’s voice trembled slightly.
Arisa’s lips began trembling as well.
“I’m home.”
Hot tears ran down her cheeks.
As Aleph patted her back, Arisa began sobbing even harder, while the other Dwarves secretly wiped away their own tears.
“We were waiting for you!”
“I knew you’d make it!”
Before long, the tears turned to cheers, and Arisa raised a hand with a smile.
“I bought these because I wanted to eat them with everyone. It isn’t much, but let’s share them together.”
The basket was filled with fruit from the South.
I casually cut in.
“......I paid for all of it, though.”
“I’ll pay you back......!”
Aleph burst into laughter.
“How much was it? I’ll pay.”
“It’s fine. Just think of it as a small gift.”
“A gift? I think we’ve already received more than enough from you...... Ah, right. We prepared something too.”
We followed Aleph’s gesture and found a large wagon loaded with ore.
“The iron, gold, and magic ore you said you needed before.”
There was more than enough to upgrade the Magic Tower.
“And these are things the Dwarves and I prepared to show our gratitude.”
Aleph pulled down the cloth covering the top of the wagon, revealing piles of freshly made armor.
“I heard your territory suffers frequent monster attacks too, so we made these. They aren’t anything particularly impressive, but they should be useful enough.”
‘Not impressive, my ass...... Among anything made of iron, this is undoubtedly top quality.’
“These are exactly what we needed. Thank you.”
Equipment of this quality would sell like wildfire even in the royal capital.
I thanked him politely, then made a proposal.
“Would you be willing to trade with the northern territory regularly?”
If commerce became more active, the territory’s development would accelerate as well.
And considering the future ahead, maintaining a relationship with these people was important.
“That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day. If you can get fruit like this, there must be plenty of other merchant companies too...... Let’s eat what you brought and discuss it slowly.”
***
The next morning, the northern territory was noisy with the rattling of wagons from early in the day.
Aleph had arrived with several Dwarves and wagons.
I hadn’t told my parents in advance.
If they discovered I had left the territory, I would obviously get scolded.
So Aleph and I had agreed to pretend that the Dwarves had simply come here for trade.
“We’ve come from Kardum.”
“Kardum? Isn’t that the Dwarf village said to be somewhere in the North? What brings you all the way here?”
Father had personally come out to the East Gate and looked somewhat tense.
“We would like to trade with your territory. We plan to sell ore, armor, and weapons.”
The Dwarves showed him the contents of their wagons.
I casually added,“The knights’ equipment is in poor condition. I think this would help.”
We had no reason to refuse.
The market would grow, and we could earn money through trade rights.
Still, it was only natural to be suspicious when outsiders—especially another race—suddenly arrived.
“Why do you suddenly wish to trade with us?”
Aleph gave a meaningful smile.
“We owe a great debt to your son, Lumio. What we brought today is repayment for that debt, and we hope to maintain a good relationship with you in the future.”
“......What?”
“He helped us defeat the monsters that attacked our village.”
On the surface, it was quite an achievement.
I had helped another race through a crisis and even established commercial relations with them.
Apparently, Aleph thought I had asked him to keep it secret out of modesty.
My parents were a little different......
“Lumio, did you leave the territory and put yourself in danger again?”
“No wonder you were hardly ever in your room......!”
And so, I ended up getting scolded for quite a while.