Nights in Tati City were always lively.
Especially on the main street near the city gate, where taverns and inns stood shoulder to shoulder, their lantern-light washing the flagstone road in a warm amber glow.
Right now, the Hero's Party sat in a corner of a tavern called "The Oak Barrel and Nightingale."
The group was gathered around a long wooden table, tucking heartily into a dazzling spread of dishes:
Roasted meat cutlets seared golden and fragrant, steaming vegetable soup, bread heaped into little mountains, and several big mugs of frothing ale.
"To celebrate today's bountiful haul, cheers—!"
The Hero stood up first, hoisting his mug high, his voice booming loud enough to nearly blow the roof off.
The three others, Biluo aside, raised their variously filled cups in ragged unison.
Ningning took a sip of the cool, sweet juice of a frost-down berry.
She didn't dare touch anything alcoholic.
With her current constitution, merely catching a whiff of liquor fumes would probably have her performing an on-the-spot spiral ascension into a full-blown drunken fit.
The kind no one could hold down, at that.
Baiye held her cup, her expression still a little stiff, her gaze drifting now and then to Ningning seated across from her, only to flit hastily away.
Leilei was curled into the corner, her black mage's hat pressed down low enough to hide nearly her whole face, leaving only a small sliver of pale chin and gently swaying cat ears exposed.
She cradled a small cup of milk in both hands, lapping at it in tiny sips.
And lastly, Biluo... Biluo wasn't at the table at all.
This maverick elf archer had insisted on eating while perched on a roof beam, going on about how "the vantage is good up high, easier to keep watch."
As for what exactly Biluo was keeping watch against, given they were merely having a meal at a tavern inside the city, no one knew, and even fewer cared.
Everyone figured it was just an excuse from this antisocial elf, and pronounced themselves thoroughly baffled but respectful.
And no one noticed her covertly spying, thrilled expression, or the corners of her mouth grinning up to her ears as she stared at Baiye and Ningning.
"Come to think of it," the Hero said, swallowing a big mouthful of roast and wiping his mouth, "everyone gathered so much material today, we must've earned a fair bit, right? Enough to swap for some new gear?"
At that, Baiye's hand tightened involuntarily around her cup.
Seeing Baiye's slight awkwardness, Ningning immediately picked up the thread:
"Enough, sure, but there's no rush on gear."
"With our current combat power, dealing with the monsters around here is more than sufficient. We don't need extra equipment to boost our strength."
"So for now it's best to save up travel funds first. Once we're out of the starter village... ahem, once we leave the area around Tati City, the higher-grade materials we gather will sell for a lot more. It won't be too late to swap gear then."
"That's true too." The Hero scratched his head, persuaded easily enough. "As expected of little Ningning, you know so much!"
"You flatter me."
Ningning brushed him off offhandedly, her gaze quietly drifting toward Leilei.
Ever since they'd entered the tavern earlier, this Black Mage hadn't said a single word.
Though, granted, Ningning had never once seen Leilei speak.
Ordinarily, this cat-beastkin mage communicated with the others almost entirely through the little blackboard she carried.
But for some reason, Leilei was especially silent tonight; she hadn't even taken out her blackboard once.
And Ningning had noticed, too, that whenever a server or another patron passed by their table, Leilei's whole body would suddenly go rigid, her cat ears flattening tight against her scalp, her tail curling in, as though she wished she could shrink herself into an invisible little ball of fur.
That reaction of hers... felt somehow off.
Ningning was still mulling it over when the tavern door was suddenly shoved open, and a whole crowd of adventurer types, men and women alike, came pouring in with a rowdy clamor.
The already noisy atmosphere in the tavern instantly climbed a whole level higher.
"Boss! Ten mugs of ale!"
"Got any whole roast lamb? Bring it out quick, I'm starving to death here!"
"That rock giant today was a real pain; the shield I just bought cracked again..."
The din of voices surged in like a tide.
Even Ningning felt a touch of discomfort —
After all, her Perception was far too keen. In an environment like this, the jumble of sounds, smells, and lights blending together was like a symphony orchestra striking up right inside her skull.
But what concerned her more was Leilei's reaction.
The very instant that crowd came through the door, the Black Mage's whole body suddenly gave a violent shudder.
The cup of milk in her hands hit the table with a clatter, milky-white liquid splashing everywhere.
"Leilei?"
Baiye was the first to notice something wrong, and looked over with concern.
Leilei gave no response.
She only kept her head bowed low, both hands gripping the hem of her robe so hard her knuckles had gone white.
Her cat tail bristled up like a scared cat's, its tip trembling ceaselessly.
"Leilei, are you all right?" The Hero leaned in too.
The moment the Hero drew close, Leilei's reaction grew even more extreme.
Like a startled cat, she suddenly sprang up out of her seat, the chair she'd been crouched on toppling backward with a creak.
The girl spun a circle in midair, landed staggering, her black mage's hat sliding off from the sheer force of the motion, baring a small face drained white, without a trace of color.
It was a rather delicate little face: long silver-grey hair, mismatched vertical-slit pupils of water-blue and orange-yellow, and a few faint, whisker-like markings on either side of the bridge of her nose.
All classic cat-beastkin features.
But at this moment, that adorable little face was written all over with terror.
"..."
Leilei opened and closed her mouth, seeming to want to apologize to everyone, but managed only a few short puffs of breathless air.
She snatched up the hat that had fallen to the floor, pressed it down deep over her head to hide her face completely, and bolted out of the tavern in a streak.
Seeing this, Baiye, as captain, was on her feet in an instant:
"Could something have happened to Leilei's health?"
She made to give chase at once, but Ningning reached out and caught her by the arm:
"It's fine, don't worry. She just went back to the inn to sleep first."
"Eh? Ningning, how do you know?"
"Look."
Seeing Baiye's puzzled look, Ningning pointed at the blackboard Leilei had left beside her chair.
Baiye fixed her eyes on it and found that, at some unnoticed moment, a line had already been written on it in magic:
『I'm going back to the inn to sleep first, don't worry about me.』
"...Are we really not to worry?"
Gazing at that hasty magical script, Baiye, far from being reassured, only grew more and more worried.
So Ningning set down her cup and delivered another jab:
"Everyone's got their own little secrets. Come on now, keep eating, don't let your mouth go idle."
Ningning's words reminded Baiye of the debt she'd just incurred, and her throat caught. She could only force herself not to dwell on the cat-beastkin who'd fled in a panic, and went on eating.
Seeing Baiye persuaded, Ningning let out a breath of relief, though her gaze stayed fixed the whole time on the little blackboard Leilei had left behind —
This kid... could she be someone with social anxiety who couldn't get a word out in front of people?
Judging by everything today, Ningning was eighty percent sure of it.
But if she remembered right, in this world, only beginner-tier magic could be cast without an incantation; intermediate-tier magic and above had to have its spell spoken aloud before it could be released.
So if it came to a life-or-death moment, could this kid actually get the incantation out and cast her magic?
...Hold on a second.
Ningning's expression abruptly darkened —
That meant this mage, who so far seemed to be performing decently, was in fact a landmine every bit as big as the Hero?!
Just what kind of ragtag mess of a Hero's Party was this?!
A Hero who could resurrect infinitely but died every single day, a max-level healer who dropped at a touch, and now a Black Mage who very possibly couldn't even get her incantation out...
Was the person who picked this team's members really not drunk, or with a fuse blown somewhere in their brain?
Ningning grumbled inwardly.
Still, thinking it over calmly, it made a certain sense that the Hero's Party would be stocked with nothing but surrealist eccentrics.
After all, the one who'd decided on the lineup was Her Highness the Princess.
And she had no intention whatsoever of letting them fight their way to the Demon Lord's Castle.
But defeating the Demon Lord was tied to Ningning's constitution, and to the happiness of the second half of her life.
There was no way she'd give up the conquest just because of the Princess's orders.
Ningning downed the juice in her cup in one gulp and set the empty vessel down hard, her expression grave, unable to hide the heavy churn of thoughts within —
She had to figure out a way, and soon, to confirm exactly how off-the-charts this socially anxious mage really was.
The Hero died the moment a fight broke out, Baiye was an ordinary person who couldn't use magic, the archer Biluo was a scout, and she, the White Mage, had her Sensitivity maxed and toppled at a touch.
Even setting aside the "hnnngh ohhh" factor, White magic, which could only affect living things, had genuinely limited combat power compared to Black magic, which could affect the non-living, and was therefore better suited to a support role.
If Leilei, their Black Mage, turned out to be too much of a basket case, the team would have absolutely no magical damage output left at all.