What? Did you really think I would delve so deep into finding out what makes someone tick for no reason? Did you really think I would give a whole speech like that for something as trivial as emotions?
Of course not. Sure, I can't deny that annoyance played a part in my actions, but my biggest thought was profit.
She will not come today, nor tomorrow, nor the day after tomorrow.
But eventually, she'll come. And when she does, I'll earn money.
It was as simple as that.
'She has a sweet tooth after all.'
That said, I might've delved a bit too deep into her personality there...
***
""...""
"Really?"
"Shut the fuck up."
It had been a week, and business isn't booming.
And yet, she came here again.
...Late in the evening.
"You do understand that because you're trying to hide it, people will make fun of you once they find out, right? If you didn't make a big deal out of bying sweets and treats in the first place, no one would think it is something even worth knowing about."
"Just give the popsicle, you... you... Just give me the fucking popsicle."
Well, at least she's not insulting me anymore.
"Alright."
I shrug and give her the popsicle, she gives me six bronze in return.
I Think about it.
'Well, she's trying to act kind, so it should be better to reward this kind of behavior.'
The three extra bronze she was giving me was probably for the popsicle a week ago.
"Like I said, you're not a bad person."
"Of course. I fucking know that already."
She walked away.
I didn't know her name, and I didn't bother keeping her profile in my memories, since I needed that space for other things.
But she was nonetheless the person I understand best after myself.
***
"I can't help but feel like I'm being taken advantage of."
"Whatever do you mean?"
I acted innocent in front of Souma. Since I had a childish appearance, instead of looking cringe, I looked cute.
"I know you well enough to know you're taking advantage of my connections. Mitsuki may be smarter than me, but I'm better at social situations, you know?"
I smirked.
"And? What are you gonna do about it? In the first place, you can't refuse Leila when she asks you for a popsicle, can you?"
He grunted, but it didn't feel like he was actually displeased.
"Indeed, I can't."
He reluctantly gave me six bronze.
He took the two popsicles and looked at the two girls who were bickering nearby.
He stopped, and his expression turned sad.
He sighed and smiled.
"I got the popsicles!"
Leila happily accepted the popsicle, while Mitsuki did it nonchalantly.
'Ah, he knows. How pitiful.'
He's barely balancing on a tight rope that's getting smaller as time goes on.
While I looked at him and at the two girls, I decided that they deserved a place in my memories.
Souma was a teenage boy 16 years of age. He had orange hair and light blue eyes. He had muscles, but they weren't bulging, and they were perfectly hidden by his clothing.
Mitsuki was a teenage girl 16 years of age. She was taller than Souma, but not by much. She had long flowing purple hair and yellow eyes. Also, she was as flat as a board.
Leila was a teenage girl 16 years of age. She was half a head shorter than Souma. She had short black hair and white eyes, it was a combination that was weird to look at. And unlike her short height, she had a very big personality.
'And yet, I'm shorter than even her.'
It was a depressing thought. I was a 17 year old boy, and I was shorter than a shorty like her. Sure, it wasn't by much, but I was still shorter.
'It doesn't make sense because at least her height went somewhere, but I don't have anything like that!'
Where did all my height go?!
And no, it definitely didn't go there, that's also pretty small!
I'm not a dwarf goddammit! So why am I the shortest person in existence?!
***
Business was... getting busy.
Because of that, I was having trouble resting enough.
To have my stall set up at the most opportune time, I had to wake up early and finish a mission early too.
And because of that rude girl still not getting over her fear, she always comes late in the evening, so I have to stay until that time too.
In other words, I wasn't getting enough sleep.
For the previous month, I was fine with only sleeping that much. Business was nonexistent back then, so I could rest between customers.
But now, Souma has done his job, and the customers were constant.
It's not like there was a line, I wasn't that popular yet, but there was a customer every twenty minutes or so.
I could feel myself actually becoming tired.
There were a couple of things I could do to sleep enough. I was already working on one, but the other was a more simple and fast solution.
"About 40 days since arriving at Toride, and I'm only doing this now. Healing Mind Overload is costly as hell."
I was standing in front of a church, with a lot of money. The amount that you shouldn't be carrying out in the open.
It was one platinum coin.
From my calculations, that is how much healing Mind Overload will cost me.
'Why the hell are Miracles so inneffective specifically against Mind Overload?! Why do I have to spend so much money on this?!'
I wanted to complain, but there was nobody to complain to, and it's not like complaining will change anything.
So, on the verge of crying, I walked into the bulding beside the church.
"Ah, welcome. What will you be healing, and how much are you willing to pay?"
An old man who was reading a book looked at me.
This building was a building specifically for people who want to use the healing power of Miracles.
It was small, and it only had a bed and a chair, but that was enough for something like this.
It wasn't like a hospital where there could be multiple patients at the same time after all.
I showed the platinum coin to the old man.
"I would like to heal Mind Overload."
His eyes widened, which they should.
What was in my hands could buy me 50 days at an inn.
"Mind Overload? I'll have to ask you to wait then, I'm not up for that kind of task."
He left the building and I sat down on the bed.
After some waiting, a woman entered with the old man from before.
No, hold up, that was a man. He just had long hair and female features.
"I hear you want to heal a Mind Overload?"
He even had a high-pitched voice? Life gave him a weird hand.
I looked at his profile once again.
No, it is not life that gave him a weird hand, but...
'I won't probe.'
I don't want to get into trouble with no benefits.
"Yes, I do."
"This might take a couple of hours. Are you fine with that?"
"Yes."
"Alright then, please just lie down and relax."
I did as he said.
He put his soft hands over my forehead and closed his eyes.
***
I gave the platinum coin to the old man.
"Thank you for your patronage. Were you satisfied with the healing?"
'Not as good as Angelica, but―'
"Indeed, she is very skilled."
"We are happy to hear that. Madam Luna is our best healer, after all."
I nodded.
I wouldn't probe. I wouldn't ask.
There was no reason to know information that doesn't concern me and doesn't get me profit.
***
Now, there was no reason for me to go on missions, so I could sleep enough.
Remember, the reason I went to missions wasn't to get money, it was to become stronger.
Now that my Mind Overload has been cured, I could practice magic while sitting at the stall. I could become stronger that way, so I didn't have much of a reason to go on missions.
'I'll still check them out if there's a really good one, but I doubt there'd be one that would catch my eye.'
***
Every type of magic has a certain uniqeness to it.
There's no way to accurately explain it, but if I had to give it an analogy... it would be color.
When you make a Shape for Fire Magic, that Shape has a certain 'color' to it, that it shares with other spells of the Fire type.
In other words, even if you don't know what exact spell the magician will be casting, you can look at its 'color' and at least determine the type.
Though, there was a way to get around that.
You see, a Shape gains a color only once it is fully completed. In other words, if you can complete the Shape and rotate it fast enough, your opponent might not have enough time to see what type it is.
'I'm not that good though.'
I was fast at rotating Shapes, but not fast enough. That was something that only people at the peak could do.
Instead, I had to use another method. Or two, to be more precise.
The first one was easy.
You just don't cast the spell, and let the completed Shape float in the air.
At the moment you need it, you change that Shape into a different one and then cast it. That would catch a lot of people off guard.
The second method required a bit more finesse.
You see, Shapes and spells had a lot of limits and fixed values.
You could not make a spell stronger or weaker than it was meant to be (if we don't count Lightning Magic), you could not change attributes that are not already built in, and even the attributes that are built in cannot be pushed to their limits.
'That's not even talking about how some attributes are worth less than others, and how for some attributes the mana cost gets exponential, but those are problems for another day.'
But if there was one thing that you could change in Shapes, then that would be their size.
The amount of mana you have to spend won't be different, and the power will also stay the same. Because of that, it might seem useless, but it's not.
For example, you could hide a shape inside a different shape. Or, you could throw around your mana over a wide place, slowly creating a shape with the opponent just thinking you are an inexpirienced person who wastes mana.
As such, my practice for now was making Shapes as small as possible and as big as possible.
All to become even more nasty...
***
"You want some food?"
A boy who was sitting down in an abandoned alley looked at me with vigilant eyes.
He stood up and took a step back.
I extended a loaf of bread.
His gaze went back and forth between my face and the loaf.
"Come on, I won't hurt you. Ah, but I guess saying that makes me look suspicious, right?"
He took another step back.
"G-go away."
"What? You're not going to take it? Even though your sister needs it so desperately?"
He tensed and his pupils dilated.
"H-how do you know?"
"Because I've been watching."
I gave a small smile, and that made him even more on edge.
After some time in that standstill, I threw the bread at his face. He barely managed to catch it.
"I'll be watching."
***
Now that I didn't have to take on missions, I had a small amount of time in the morning for whatever I wanted.
I decided to go to the library.
Despite spending almost 8 months in this world, I didn't know anything about it.
That was mostly because I was busy reaching for fighting strength to make sure I could live fine.
Now that I could live fine, it was time to know more about the world.
'Let's see, let's see... What topic should I choose, I wonder...?'
There were a couple I was interested in, but the one I wanted to know most is―
'This one.'
It was a book titled 'The History of Demons and Humans'. It was relatively thin, so I hoped it would be a quick introduction and not much more.
――――――
Once, a long long time ago, the continent lived in peace.
There were no wars, no violence.
It was a world which fully followed the vision of Solevitasn.
But there were some who wanted to disrupt that peace.
Demons.
Despite there not being any need for fighting, they started using their fists. Despite everyone living in harmony, they started destroying relationships.
It was a massacare.
Humans had no choice but to fight back.
A paradise turned into bloody rivers and fields of steel.
There was no hope, no light.
Until a Hero apppeared.
A Hero who drove away the Demons to the southmost edge of the continent, to the most uninhabitable place, where those Demons deserved to be.
That same Hero rebuilt the kingdoms that were ruined, and made technological progress previously unheard of!
That Hero made the Adventurer Guild and raised the living standard of every person in the world!
But the Hero wouldn't do everything for us. He would not allow us to become dependant on him.
He might've drove away the Demons, but he didn't exterminate them. That was the job and duty he left us!
That is why for the last 400 years we have been doing our best to complete the trial he left us.
――――――
That was the start of the book. After that, it started talking about specific wars, important people that existed, and other stuff.
One thing I noted was that demons were just another type of demi-humans. The only difference was blue skin.
No, demons weren't another type of demi-humans, they were another type of humans.
You see, demi-humans are still considered humans, even though they are called that.
So when anything says 'Humans' it means humans + demi-humans.
Demons were the same.
There were demons who were the same as humans but just with blue skin. There were also 'demi-human demons', who had wolf-ears and the like. In other words, demi-demons.
Those demi-demons are also considered demons, just like demi-humans were considered humans.
'All in all, the only difference between demons and humans is the color of skin... and how long they live.'
Demons could live up to 300 years, while humans only to 100.
And yes, while most poor humans and demons lived way less due to poor hygiene and the like, the rich ones could live all those years due to Miracles.
Now that I knew this information, it made sense why demons weren't completely gone even after so long. One demon could roughly equal ten humans, and that number grew exponentially with the age of that demon.
After all, you get better at things with time in this world. And there didn't seem to be a limit.
'Hm? What's this?'
A weird line caught my attention.
――――――
The last war was 100 years ago. With the help of the Light Saint, the Demons were driven into an even deeper corner, but that was only due to his and numerous others' sacrifice.
After that, a time of recovery came for both sides.
Ever since the start of our battles against the Demons, this has been the longest time of peace ever recorded.
――――――
There was one thing that bugged me.
'The Light Saint? With the help of the Light Saint?!'
Light was the weakest element by a mile!
Any other Saint I wouldn't have been surprised to see, but a Light Saint?!
'I gotta investigate this.'
...Later. It was time to set up shop.
***
"Okay, 'History of Magic'. This should do the trick."
I opened the book.
――――――
There are 14 Gods that govern this world.
The Seven Lower Gods:
The God of Lightning, Raitblitz.
The God of Fire, Feuerinfa.
The Goddess of Earth, Erdia.
The Goddess of Ice, Eislehdi.
The Goddess of Wind, Fuvetwi.
The Goddess of Water, Mivozu.
The God of Light, Railiht.
The Three Middle Gods:
The God of Gravity, Veryoju.
The God of Temperature, Onperphido.
The Goddess of Charm, Razushima.
The Three High Gods:
The Goddess of Souls, Tamaseedush.
The God of Time, Zeitvrejik.
The God of Space, Pesuraumpros.
And the one above them all, the true God:
Solevitasn.
These fourteen Gods control this world and make sure it stays stable.
The magic that we use is but another part of their grace.
For us lowly humans to do magic, they created systems to make it understable and wieldable for us.
It is truly―
"Blah blah blah. When does this actually become a history book?"
I quickly skimmed through the pages until I found it.
'Previously existing magic, newly appeared magic and changes in existing magic.'
This one must be what I'm looking for.
――――――
As we've delved into the topic deeply, each magic has a God behind it.
But what if that God disappears? Then that magic will also cease to exist.
And what if a new God appears? Then there will be a new type of magic.
You might ask how a God could disappear or appear, but we don't have an answer to that. We are too lowly of beings for such information.
All we know are the following things:
The disappearance of the Goddess of wood, Derholki 300 years ago (March 17th of the 102 year)
The appearance of the God of Light, Railiht 290 years ago (December 3rd of the 117 year)
The apppearance of the Goddess of charm, Razushima 280 years ago (March 18th of the 122 year)
The appearance of the God of temperature, Onperphido 70 years ago (June 9th of the 337 year)
There's also a certain curiousity. Ever since 90 years ago (June 8th of the 317 year) Light Magic has drastically weakened. What used to be the strongest magic is now even weaker than Water Magic. The reason for this occurance is also unknown.
――――――
...I see.
Since the last war against Demons was more than 90 years ago, back then, Light Magic was still the strongest magic.
But now, for some unknown reason, it became stupidly weak.
'Thinking about the why is useless.'
If it was something even experts were unsure about, what use was me thinking about it?
I just had to know that Light used to be the strongest.
That is useful information...
***
"Hey, why don't we have a talk?"
Ignored. Well, that's what I expected.
"I won't be staying until this late anymore, you know?"
She stopped and turned to me with an angry face.
"What?"
"Think about it. This late, there's no traffic at all. For the past two hours, I have done nothing but wait for you. It is not profitable to waste two hours on only three bronze."
I was telling the truth... but it's not like I was telling the whole truth. The whole truth was that, while it may not be profitable, it isn't really bad, since I can practice magic while I wait.
Still, I would like to get some extra time in the day. That would help a lot. That's why I was pushing her so hard here.
"Do what you want. I'll just find another stall... or store."
"Ah, but no stall really stays up this late, and stores always have people in them... but I won't stop you."
I packed my things and left.
***
It's fine. It's fine.
I may not have found anything the past two days, but it's only because I didn't search enough.
There's no way that guy was the only way I could get treats without anybody noticing.
Just as I was thinking that, I saw a person walk by me with popsicle.
...A green popsicle.
'...What?'
I had to investigate this.
When I saw his stall from afar, I noticed that there was an addon to his bill board. 'Now a new apple flavor!'
...This fucker.
He definitely did this because of me.
There's no way he wouldn't!
Suddenly, our eyes met. He had a very sweet and kind smile, but it instead felt like he was making fun of me.
'Piece of shit. Useless garbage. Fucking dumbass.'
There's no way I would do what he says.
There's no way.
Even... even if I like apples a lot.
***
Her reaction was weird. I did expect her to stomp here angrily, but she was frozen in place with her head hanging down.
I wasn't expecting such an intense reaction. What could've possibly caused it...?
I Thought about all the factors.
'Ah, she must like apples, huh?'
I hit the bullseye while being completely blind.
I wanted to hold my head in exhasperation and depression.
'Why am I only lucky in things like this...?'
Couldn't my luck have been used on a better Isekai location? Like a country that doesn't have a magic circle beneath it, or not spawning into a place where I almost died...
Or maybe just giving me any kind of powers once being summoned?
Why does my luck only work on stupid shit like this?
'Ah, just thinking about it is making me sad.'
I shook my head. In the first place, while I might complain, I don't let it lower my morale.
I hate luck after all.
***
"Here you go."
I pass the apple flavored popsicle.
In the end, the sweet tooth won over her embarrassment and fear.
Previously, she could go just fine without treats, but once she ate mine, she kinda got reminded of why she had a sweet tooth in the first place.
After a week of not being able to eat any treats... I gained another three bronze. And a regular customer.
'That took a long while, but I finally got it for all my hard work.'
I finally got profit.