“Phew.”

On the second floor of the carriage.

A languid sigh escaped from Dorothea’s mouth.

She was soaking her body in the bathtub, with warm steam rising from the water.

The size of the bathtub was very small compared to the luxurious ones used by nobles, but it was sufficient for one person to use, and despite the unstable position on the second floor of the carriage, there was almost no shaking. It was a comfort achieved by the trinity of structure, materials, and magic for shock absorption.

— Customer. If you’re living a life of constant travel without a specific base, I’d like to recommend this carriage. Not only does it have all the basic functions of a carriage at the highest level, but it also has functions for simple eating and cooking, sleeping, and bathing. It’s the best product that only those with connections to our Alchemists’ Association can obtain, even among the high-ranking officials of various countries. Although the size of the carriage is a bit small, I think it’s sufficient for four people.

— You say it’s a waste of space? Please rest assured. The facilities such as the bathtub and cooking pot are all made of all-purpose metal produced by the Alchemists’ Association. While it’s impossible to set new shapes one by one like alchemists use, it’s possible to switch between two shapes memorized at the time of production. By expanding it only when in use and compressing it to the wall when not in use, you can use space efficiently. Mana charging originally requires mana containers that can be purchased from our association branches or magic doll workshops, but in your case, as you’re a mage, you can use this without additional expenses.

— You seem to think it’s an excessive luxury. But customer, please consider the time you usually spend on travel. The time you spend just moving for days, sometimes over a week. What if you could use that time more comfortably? If what would normally require stopping at another village during the journey to relieve travel fatigue could become rest time and preparation time without such troublesome processes? This is absolutely not luxury or waste. Rather, it can be called an investment for those with a long-term perspective!

The sales pitch she heard when buying the carriage came back vividly in her mind, as if it had been engraved.

It was an experience where she could feel with her heart, not her head, why alchemists were called a school that raked in the money.

“…Well, at least I wasn’t scammed. As long as it’s worth the high price, that’s fine.”

After muttering an excuse to no one in particular, Dorothea sank her body deeper into the bathtub.

While washing her body could be done in an instant using magic, since there wasn’t much to do even if she finished quickly, she leisurely enjoyed the relaxation.

The employee of the Alchemists’ Association had emptied Dorothea’s wallet, but hadn’t lied.

Thanks to being able to do all sorts of miscellaneous tasks while moving, work efficiency had greatly increased, and not only daily life but also catalyst production had become much easier.

Being able to store materials through the Gloves of Haider was also significant, as she could now mass-produce as materials gathered without worrying about what to carry around like before.

This was the same for food ingredients and consumables. While previously they had to stop by villages they saw during travel to replenish supplies, now there was hardly any need for that.

After finishing her luxurious rest, she operated a switch on one side of the second floor, and the water inside turned into steam and escaped outside the carriage, while the single-person bathtub folded neatly and disappeared into a corner of the wall. She finished grooming herself and went down the stairs.

In the lower compartment, Adelaide was sitting facing the Tin Knight instead of running alongside the carriage, as usual.

Initially, the Tin Knight had only drilled Adelaide in physical training and practical experience without teaching her mana manipulation, but recently he often passed on mana manipulation techniques like this.

As the Tin Knight moved mana with his right palm facing up, blue and gray mana mixed, changing into various shapes.

First a triangle, then a triangular pyramid. After that, a collection of countless spines reminiscent of a sea urchin or hedgehog.

Golden mana on Adelaide’s palm was also creating various shapes, imitating the Tin Knight, but even at a glance, the precision of the shapes and the speed of change were noticeably slower.

But Adelaide herself didn’t seem discouraged by this, just silently following the given training.

And she did this continuously throughout the journey.

It was a level of stamina, and concentration that made even Dorothea, watching, feel tired.

Sophia was sitting in the coachman’s seat, which was possible because handling the golem horse didn’t require any special knowledge or skill.

However, touching the reins or horse whip was prohibited.

Dorothea didn’t want the carriage to disassemble in mid-air again.

She was busy writing something with just a pen and a stack of paper without even a desk, rewriting some of the books she knew into text that the Tin Knight could read.

Despite writing solely based on the content in her head rather than transcribing with a copy of the original book beside her, it didn’t take more than a minute to fill a page.

To Dorothea, who had experienced headaches deciphering ancient documents thrown at her by her teacher, this was monstrous in its own way.

“Hmm.”

Feeling like she had somehow become the only idle person, Dorothea twisted her lips.

It was close to the feeling of someone who usually lived very busily suddenly having nothing to do and being thrown aside.

As she was considering whether to learn that writing Sophia had learned about or practice mana manipulation like Adelaide, suddenly something strange brushed Dorothea’s senses.

She moved to the coachman’s seat and looked at the sky.

Sure enough, a bird could be seen flying towards the carriage from far away.

Flap.

The bird with strangely lifeless eyes landed neatly on the arm Dorothea held out.

Her companions, who had been absorbed in their own tasks, also reacted to this.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ expresses admiration for Dorothea’s ability to notice faster than himself or Adel!]

Dorothea frowned.

The reason she noticed this bird wasn’t because she was better at mana detection or more sensitive than the two martial artists.

If anything, it was a matter of specialization.

This bird exuded a strong aura of necromancy.

And it was none other than Dorothea’s own mana.

Dorothea looked at the heavy pouch firmly attached to the bird’s ankle and said, “…Is this what that necromancer sent to his sister?”

As it was a magic she often used herself for messenger purposes, she knew well about the functions of this corpse messenger.

And there was usually only one reason why a corpse messenger would return to its owner.

Failure of its assigned purpose.

In this case, it was failing to deliver the package the necromancer had sent to his sister.

Originally, it should have returned to the necromancer who used the magic, but since he no longer existed in this world, it seemed to have returned to Dorothea, who had shared her mana when the necromancer used the magic.

Adelaide, who had heard the explanation, asked in surprise, “Then, has something happened to his sister?”

“Who knows? He didn’t send just one to begin with. Since there’s a limit to how much weight a bird can carry, he sent them divided over several trips. Judging by its corpse state, this one is the last of them.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks what Dorothea is going to do about it!]

“What do you mean what am I going to do? I’ll just ignore it and that’s that.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ points out that’s a breach of contract!]

“What nonsense are you talking about? My contract was only to pay money in exchange for magic, and it was that necromancer who decided how to use that money.”

Unless the contract conditions were set from the beginning as “to bring money to his sister,” the actual content of the contract wasn’t like that.

Therefore, whether his sister actually received the money or not, Dorothea had no need to care about it at all.

From Dorothea’s perspective, she was just stating the rational reasoning, but the Tin Knight seemed dissatisfied with this.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ evaluates it as sounding like an insurance company employee who says different things when making a contract and when paying out!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says to stop being stingy and provide proper after-sales service!]

“What’s insurance and what’s after-sales service, you tin can? Speak in words I can understand.”

Dorothea grumbled while saying this, but as was often the case with the Tin Knight’s words transmitted through the brooch, she had grasped the general nuance.

Moreover, even Adelaide took the Tin Knight’s side.

“Um, Miss Witch. Still, it was his last wish in life, and if it’s not properly fulfilled, he probably won’t be able to rest in peace.”

With all that commotion, that person’s soul has already gone up to heaven or sunk into the ground. The chances of it still being on earth is zero.

Dorothea forcibly suppressed the words that had come up to the tip of her tongue.

After all, it was true that thanks to the necromancer dealing with the lord instead, the party’s travel had remained as comfortable as always.

If Adelaide or the Tin Knight had directly cut down the lord, or if the lord had survived longer and Sophia’s peculiarity had been discovered, such a leisurely journey as now would have been impossible.

Instead, she looked at Sophia with her arms crossed.

“So, what’s your opinion? Do you think we should meddle in the affairs of this sister we don’t even know?”

“Well. Deliberately stopping by somewhere else would be too wasteful no matter how you look at it. But, if by chance the direction that bird was heading and the direction we need to go are similar… wouldn’t a little luxury of stopping by be okay?” Sophia spoke naturally, just as usual, without particularly emphasizing any specific words.

But for some reason, Dorothea felt that the word “luxury” had particularly stuck in her ear.

“Haa, fine. As if things would conveniently line up like that.”

While denying this, Dorothea took out the animal compass.

When she put mana into one of the eight characters on the compass, the character swelled up into the air and transformed into an animal.

It was a beautiful horse with a silver shining body.

At the same time, Dorothea filled the corpse messenger, which was on the verge of disappearing, with mana again and ordered it to re-execute the previous command it had received.

The lifeless bird flew high into the sky.

A silver trajectory raced.

The bird carrying death energy cut through the air.

The direction coincidentally matched exactly.

“…Tch, no choice then.”

Dorothea clicked her tongue.

She deliberately didn’t say that somehow she felt this would happen.

***

Once upon a time, not in a distant past, but in a relatively recent past.

There was a greedy woman.

The woman who loved the handsome son of a lord was lost in thought day and night about how she could receive his love.

Then one day, a mysterious mage made a proposal to the woman.

— I will grant your wish. However, if you later become the lord’s wife, you must hand over your daughter to me.

The woman gladly agreed.

She thought that if she could just achieve her love, she could give away a daughter she hadn’t even seen yet.

With the effect of the potion given by the mage, the lord’s son fell in love with the woman.

The lord’s son eventually became the lord, and the woman became his wife.

Then one day, a child was born between the two.

Seeing the surprisingly lovely appearance of her daughter, the woman belatedly regretted the promise she had made.

The mage came to the woman and said.

— I will come to take her on the day this child celebrates her seventeenth birthday.

The woman offered all sorts of treasures to the mage, urging him to take something else instead of her daughter, but the mage didn’t even pretend to listen.

The despairing woman finally came up with a bad trick.

The woman adopted a young girl from the domain as her daughter.

And on the day that child celebrated her seventeenth birthday, she presented her to the mage.

— You only said to give you my daughter, you didn’t specify which daughter.

The mage laughed loudly.

— Your words are correct. And I also didn’t say that one would be enough.

Facing the woman who had turned pale, the mage said.

— Clever yet foolish woman. I’ll give you three choices.

— One is to offer your daughters as sacrifices every year. If there’s someone among them that pleases me, I’ll end the contract.

— Another is to not offer your daughter and watch calamity befall this domain. The lord will learn of the effect of the potion you used, and the domain’s people will condemn your wickedness.

— The last one is—

The contract was established.

The curse was completed.

The praised woman still searched for sacrifices to replace her daughter with her eyes lit up.

“My lady, please reconsider. That woman, Rapunzel, is an evil necromancer! Someone has witnessed birds made of corpses bringing money to her!”

“It’s alright, step back. My decision won’t change.”

Fortunately, this sacrifice seemed to be one she could offer without hesitation.

***

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