Chapter 25 : The Witch Without Common Sense

“Ma-Ma-Mage! Mage-sama, please have a seat! Forgive this old man—my home is in terrible disarray, please don’t find it too offensive.”

A few minutes later, the elderly village chief, trembling, finally invited Lanafit into his home.

Though it wasn’t clear whether he was trembling from old age or sheer fright.

Lanafit was genuinely confused.

Just moments ago, the village chief had been a bit wary of her—so why the sudden shift to such polite deference?

Had she accidentally done something shocking?

At that moment, Lanafit was completely unaware of how astounding her little magical display had seemed.

To her, it had been nothing—just a throwaway spell, something she could casually toss out seven or eight hundred times a day.

Not because her magic capacity allowed that many casts, but because there were only so many hours in a day to fling that many spells.

What rank was it again?

She remembered flipping straight to the last few pages of her magic book the first time she opened it.

The situation had been urgent at the time (read: Roseithe was up to no good), so she instinctively assumed the last pages must contain the strongest magic.

Strangely, those final pages didn’t have any rank indications, even though the tens of thousands of pages before them all did.

Probably spells that were too lazy to be categorized…

She had even complained at the time: “I guess even demon gods can be lazy.”

…

That’s right.

Lanafit lacked common sense about this world.

And because she retained memories from her previous world, she often interpreted things with values from there—a world where magic didn’t even exist.

So, her old-world logic was basically useless here.

Couldn’t be helped—after all, she had only been in this world for just over a month.

And she’d spent the entire time cooped up in the Sky Archipelago, practically isolated.

Her understanding of this world was still close to zero.

That whole month had been spent poring over that magic book, so she hadn’t taken the time to learn anything about the world at all.

She didn’t know what the village chief was thinking at the moment, but she did realize he probably saw her as some kind of weirdo.

Hmm… that thought made Lanafit want to go back and kick Roseithe.

This was entirely her fault.

If that woman hadn’t been constantly scheming to get her hands on Lanafit’s body, she wouldn’t have studied that massive magic book so diligently.

She had basically been cramming as a defense mechanism—and it left her no time to learn about the actual world.

…

After she returned, she’d definitely ask Sister Anthera to have Seharei teach her how to blow up a house properly—so that even Roseithe would be scared.

Lanafit made up her mind.

“Mage-sama, please have some tea. I’ve already asked my wife to prepare a meal. It’s just simple village fare, but you’ve come from afar—please let us show our hospitality.”

The old village chief brought over a tea set, wobbling dangerously due to his bad legs.

Seeing this, Lanafit quickly got up and supported him.

“Village Chief, you don’t need to trouble yourself. I can handle it. As for the meal, there’s really no need.”

She took the tea set from his hands and placed it on the table.

Without drinking, she helped him sit before seating herself across from him.

“I came just to witness the ‘miracle’ and… well, since my belongings were stolen, I was hoping I might find some part-time work to earn a bit of travel money.”

She stuck to the excuse she’d come up with earlier.

But now, it didn’t fly at all with the village chief.

From his perspective, Lanafit was undoubtedly some ancient monster—an old spirit who had used some kind of reverse aging technique.

She might even be a higher species, like a dragon, disguising herself in human form to sneak in and seize the “miracle.”

As for the whole “part-time job” talk?

He didn’t believe a word of it.

To him, that was blatant extortion.

She was threatening the village chief to pay a toll or protection fee to avoid disaster.

At this point, the village chief saw Lanafit as a powerful, unknown, possibly inhuman being—greedy and dangerous.

And the scariest part?

They couldn’t afford to anger her.

They couldn’t even report her.

If they made her mad, the entire village might be wiped out.

So in his mind, there was only one solution: pay her off and avoid catastrophe.

The village chief fumbled in his robe and pulled out a small, bulging cloth pouch.

With the utmost reverence, he placed it on the table and pushed it toward Lanafit.

“Mage-sama, you’re absolutely right. But I do ask for your understanding—this is a poor and remote village. We make a little here and there selling fur from occasional forest hunts. We’re truly not wealthy. But… would this do?”

Lanafit didn’t quite understand what he meant, but still took the pouch and opened it.

Inside were coins in three colors: gold, silver, and copper.

There were four gold coins, more than a dozen silver, and the rest copper.

The pouch was heavy.

Lanafit didn’t know the local currency system, but she could tell this was a lot of money—especially the four golden ones.

She’d never seen gold coins before, but they definitely looked like solid gold.

If this money was the reward for a request… what exactly did the old man want her to do?

Kill monsters in the forest?

She’d just spent three days hiding out in that forest and hadn’t seen a single monster—not even a hair.

Collect herbs?

That would be easy enough… but would that be worth four gold coins?

There didn’t seem to be any kind of request that was worth that much money.

…

Wait—no way?!

Still puzzled, Lanafit’s expression suddenly changed.

She put the pouch of coins back on the table, guardedly placed her hands in front of herself, and stared warily at the old village chief.

Could it be that this old pervert, even at his age… is after my body?!

The more she thought about it—and the more she recalled the old man’s “attentive” behavior—the more convinced she became that this was a real possibility.

Her suspicion quickly solidified into a firm belief that the village chief was just a dirty old man.

“You—what exactly do you want to commission me to do?”

As she asked this, her right hand had already grasped her staff.

If this geezer even hinted at anything lewd, Lanafit would, with the utmost respect for the elderly and love for the young, firmly bonk him on the head.

But to the old village chief, her behavior looked entirely different.

“Milady! Mage-sama! Our village really is poor—this is all we could muster. Please, we beg your understanding. We’re just humble farmers and hunters… how could we possibly come up with more tribute?”

He thought the money he offered wasn’t enough and had somehow angered this powerful being—why else would she suddenly look like she was about to attack?

But there really wasn’t anything else he could give.

This was everything he had.

It even included the villagers’ donations from a few days ago meant for digging a new well.

There was simply no way to scrape together more.

“…Huh?”

Lanafit was even more confused now.

What’s going on here?

“…No, I’m really just here looking for a part-time job. You’re acting like you’re about to hand over the village’s entire life savings or something.”

“Milady, please, don’t mock us anymore… we beg your forgiveness. We really have no more to give…”

The old village chief was nearly in tears.

To him, Lanafit’s words sounded like cold dissatisfaction with his “offering.”

It was true—what he’d given would be nothing more than pocket change to some noble lord.

Might not even count as pocket change.

But he had nothing more.

Even if he were to be killed right here, he couldn’t produce a single extra coin.