The shout of a woman reached my ears. The monster chasing the woman was a large adult owlbear. It was an A rank monster that was classified as one of the most aggressive creatures in this world.

They were one of the hardest A rank monsters to take on. To be able to beat them, you had to at least have a party of four A rankers. The party had to be balanced as well so it must have: a tanker, mage, attacker, priest.

‘Huh? Where is she going?’

I thought she could see me but I noticed there was a bandage over her eyes. She was running in the direction of the lake.

“Over here!!” I shouted and chanted a spell.

The monster sensed my hostility and ran even faster.

A purple flame manifested in front of my wand.

“Duck!!” She did as I said. I threw the spell with not a moment’s delay.

!!!!

The spell exploded when it made contact with the monster. It roared even louder as it was cooked alive.

“Run! Hurry!”

She ran past me and covered her head after crouching down. I chanted another spell. This time, I chanted Supernova. A blue orb of energy formed above the magic circle I summoned.

“Haaaah!!!”

◇◇◇

Just to be certain the owlbear died, I threw a few more spells in rapid succession. The monster was only a large pile of ashes when I was done. Only then did I turn my attention towards the young woman.

“Are you okay?”

“Y-Yes.” She gasped for breath while holding her hand on her chest.

She was a beautiful young woman wearing priest clothes. Although the design of the clothes were very different from the Kingdom. Her hair was the same color as Arielle’s hair. Although far longer. There was a cross necklace around her neck.

Her bandage fell off when she was about to stand up.

“Ah!!” She tried to catch it but it fell to the ground.

‘Her eyes….’

She managed to cover it but I caught a glimpse of her eyes. The skin around the eyes were covered in burn marks. Her pupils were complete white. The white of her eyes were completely red.

‘She’s blind, huh…’

Now I knew why she couldn’t see where she was going.

She quickly tied the bandage around her head and stood up.

“T-Thank you for saving me. I didn’t know what I would’ve done if not for your intervention.” She bowed respectfully. “I-If you will excuse me…” She was about to turn around.

“Huh? You plan on walking through the forest alone?” I grabbed her shoulder. “Don’t you have companions?”

She shook her head. “I have been alone ever since entering the forest.”

I looked at her with narrowed eyes. Why didn’t she have travelling supplies?

“How do you plan on protecting yourself if another monster chases you?”

“That’s…” She fidgeted with a blush on her face.

“Don’t you have scrolls? Priests always have backup spells to protect themselves, after all.”

I noticed that Cliff also had spells on him when we adventured together. As priests weren’t offense mages, they didn’t have a means to protect themselves with their power, unless they learn magic. However, magic and divinity spells weren’t the same.

The latter was used for strictly healing. Erica was a different case since she could alter the nature of her mana far better than I could. She could cast normal spells despite having divinity. There was a limit to it but that in itself was amazing.

“Where are you off to?” I asked.

“Well…I need to go meet with my comrades in the city I’m headed to. But I ended up using all my mana. I have no idea where I am. I’ve been in this forest for a week now.” She blushed. “I’m so useless. I shouldn’t have been so reckless with my expedition.”

“Expedition?”

“Ah, I always travel around to heal the sick people I come across. Not many have access to medicine or have the money to hire a priest. That is why I go around villages once a month.”

“That’s kind of you. You do all that for free?”

She nodded slowly.

“Maybe that’s why you don’t have anything on you? It’s weird how you’re in a forest with nothing to eat or supplies to camp with.”

“….” She lowered her head. I could see her ears going red.

‘This is dangerous. She’s so cute.’

This was why it wasn’t a good idea to help people for free. She didn’t even charge them any money.

I cleared my throat and grabbed her hand.

“Eh…?”

“Follow me.”

“B-But…”

“I won’t do anything weird. I promise. Let’s figure out a way to get you to your comrades.” I took her to my camp and made her sit down on a log. I made sure to put a blanket down first since there was snow everywhere on the ground.

She did as I instructed without saying anything. After I was finished making a fire, I spoke to her.

“So, where is this meeting place?"

“Um…I think the city’s name is…Salvesteer?”

My eyes widened. “No way. That’s where I’m headed to!”

“R-Really?” She asked in surprise.

“Yup. Hey, why don’t we travel together?” I asked directly without beating around the bush.

“Eh? Won’t I be a burden? I mean, I don’t have anything to give you as payment.” Her mouth curled downwards as if she realized something. She hugged her body and moved away from me. “Y-You want to request sexual favors as payment, don’t you!?”

I almost fell from the log I was sitting on.

“N-No! Of course not! I’m just worried that something will happen!” I raised my hands in defense. “I would never force myself on a woman!”

“But you’re a boy and I’m a girl. We’re all alone in this forest.” The woman stood up and retreated backwards. “I can’t do something like that! I’m still pure…”

I face-palmed myself.

“I just told you…sigh…Forget it. I can assure you I won’t do anything. Okay?”

“…Really?” She sat back down. “I apologize for assuming such a thing.”

“It’s alright. I’m the one insisting on helping you so there’s no need to be worried of payment.” I took out a pot from the backpack. “By the way, what’s your name? My name is Clyde Astley.”

“I am Lisette. I am an orphan so I do not have a surname.” She lowered her nun uniform’s buttons slightly and fanned herself. “By the way, you sound so young. How old are you?”

“I’m fifteen.”

“Huh? How were you able to defeat that monster so easily? It was so big and strong. Are you from a royal family bloodline? They tend to have strong offspring.”

“Hahaha. I am actually a third year mage in training at Graponia Academy.

“Graponia…? You’re from Colchis?” Lisette’s tone of voice changed for a brief moment. It was monotonous compared to the cheerful voice she had been using all this time.

“Um…Yeah?”

“How is the kingdom doing?” She asked carefully.

“Fine, I guess. Why do you ask?”

“Ah, it’s just…I heard that the kingdom was devastated after the Divide.”

“I see. Well, we lost a vast majority of the royal army knights so we had no choice but to accept foreigners into the Knight Order. The economic losses were huge as well. The Magic Tower in the Grundur district lost most of its means of income so there was that as well.”

Lisette lowered her head. “And the White Order? Are they okay?”

“Three almost died from a falling meteor. They were knocked down by a guy named Sync. Luckily, no one was killed.”

“H-Huh? Sync?” Lisette reacted strongly to the mention of his name.

“What’s going on? Why are you so surprised?” My eyes narrowed.

“Ah….err…” She fumbled over her words. “The n-name sounded familiar.”

“I see… It’s a unique name, huh?” I shrugged it off. “Anyway, since we’re travelling together, we need to move early in the morning so we can cover a long distance per day. I also need time to set up camp.”

“Understood.” She nodded seriously.

“Are you hungry? You’ll have to eat these for the time being.” I handed her a bag of skewers I bought before boarding the train. “I still have to get started on dinner.” I said and looked at the corpse floating on the surface of the lake.

“Is there any way I can help?”

“Can you peel potatoes so long?” I handed her four potatoes with a knife. “I figured you…”

“It’s fine.” She smiled. “I might not have eyesight, but I know my way around the kitchen.”

“That’s great. Just be careful. That knife has a special effect on its blade so its sharper than average knives.” I stood up and took out the map. “It seems there’s a village on our way to Salvesteer. It’s about ten kilometers northeast from here.”

We had to go north to reach Salvesteer so the village was a little deviated from our path.

“We’ll need to go buy supplies by tomorrow. I can rent us an inn as well.” I looked at the money I currently had.

‘Gold is the third highest currency but will this be enough for our journey?’

I still had to book a carriage to the Holy Kingdom once I reached Salvesteer. Coachmen usually asked four silver up to a gold coin depending on the distance of your desired location.

“Ah! I have some money here. Although it’s only one coin…” Miss Lisette took out a coin from her breast pocket. My eyes widened when I saw the type of coin it was.

White gold.

I took it out of her hands when she offered it. It was at least twenty-five gold coins with this. Minus the one gold since I needed to book a carriage.

As with all the currency of this world: ten of the cheaper currency usually made up the total sum of the greater currency. For example: ten bronze made one silver and ten silver made a gold. It was different in other countries since our economies weren’t the same.

Some nations had higher currency prices than others.

White gold was rare so it was extremely valuable. The coins were worth twenty times the value of one gold.

“A-A white coin? Where did you get this?”

“My friend gave it to me should I need it. Since this is a good a time as any, I figured it should be used now.” She smiled. “Please take it.”

“I’ll make sure to buy everything we need. And if you need anything, let me know.”

“Yes.” Lisette took the knife and carefully peeled the potato in her hand. I left her to her own devices and went towards the lake. After pulling up my sleeves, I used a water spell to bring the monster fish towards me.

Thankfully, some stray monster didn’t steal it. Although it would begin to rot immediately if I didn’t do something to maintain the freshness.

I pointed my hand at the corpse chanted an advanced class spell.

A large amount of water froze the monster’s entire body. After it was frozen solid, I moved it to the campsite using spatial magic.

After getting it near the camp, I took out my knife and began cutting.

‘Shit, this meat is hard to cut through.’

As expected from a monster that was born in this world. Nothing eventful happened after I finished the food. We only sat down in silence and ate. The night passed just like that before we went to bed.