Lanafit rolled her eyes in exasperation.
She simply reached into the money pouch, took out one gold coin, a few silver ones, and a handful of copper coins, then pushed the rest of the money back.
“Fine, fine, I’ll just take these, okay?”
Out of the four gold coins, she only took one.
As for the silver and copper, she barely took a tenth of what was there.
The pouch still looked stuffed when she pushed it back.
“Let’s make this clear — I only accept proper commissions. If you’re thinking of anything shady, you’re gonna regret it.”
She tossed out a verbal warning, suspicious that the village chief might be after her body or something.
But she didn’t realize that the old man was once again dumbfounded.
What the heck?
The village chief was stunned.
A robber… returning money?
He’d lived a long life, but this was a first!
…
Could it be… this girl really is here looking for a part-time job?
Finally, the old chief started to doubt if he’d been too suspicious.
But he quickly shook the thought off.
No, no, no! Impossible.
This one is definitely a powerful figure.
Even if she’s broke, she could easily walk into the forest and ask one of those pompous officials for a cushy job.
That would be way better than anything he could offer.
After all, even though he was a village chief, let’s be honest—he was basically just the head farmer.
What kind of tasks could he offer her?
Tilling the vegetable garden at the village gate?
Milking the widow’s cow next door?
Getting a mage to do that sort of menial labor would probably get him frozen into an ice popsicle in no time.
So, after a fierce mental debate, the village chief stood firm on his position.
He didn’t believe her.
“Please don’t joke with an old man like me, Great Mage. How could I possibly dare to ask anything of someone like you? Think of this little money as travel funds. If you’d like to stay in the village, my family will move out and give you our home.”
He pushed the pouch back again, thinking Lanafit was testing whether he’d resist or not.
Lanafit was absolutely fuming by now. She finally got it—
He didn’t believe for a second she was here to work.
He thought she was here to rob him.
Sure, she’d grown up poor, but she wasn’t someone who’d take money she didn’t earn.
Bribes and coercion were absolutely off-limits.
So she made up her mind — if this village didn’t believe her, she’d just leave and find another one, maybe even a town, to earn travel money.
She wouldn’t starve anyway.
Worst case, she’d camp out in the wild for a few days.
As long as she set up a magic barrier, she’d be fine.
With that thought, she was just about to slam the coins she took onto the table and walk away when a noise came from outside.
“Something bad happened! Something bad happened—!!”
The voice came rushing closer in a panic.
Soon enough, a little girl, about ten years old, burst into the village chief’s home, gasping for breath as she shouted:
“Grandpa Chief! Something terrible happened! Big Brother Nuohette and the others—they… they were captured by those soldiers in the forest!”
“What?!”
The old village chief was horrified.
Then, almost immediately, he grew furious.
“I told that little brat so many times—we can’t mess with the thing that fell into the forest! I told him over and over! And he still didn’t listen! Now look what happened! How am I supposed to deal with this?!”
After his outburst, the old man was so worked up he nearly passed out, slumping over the table, gasping for air.
At that moment, Lanafit stood up and walked over to the little girl.
She bent down and gave her a warm smile.
“Little one, can you tell me exactly what happened?”
But the girl just stared at Lanafit, completely stunned.
This was probably the first time she’d ever seen someone so beautiful.
Even though she was a girl herself, her cheeks turned pink from sheer admiration.
“B-big sister… hello…”
The girl grew shy from being spoken to and mumbled her words.
Lanafit saw this and chuckled, gently patting her head.
“Hello there. But this isn’t really the time for greetings, is it? Can you tell me what happened? Maybe I can help them.”
“Really?” The little girl looked up, her eyes full of hope.
“Of course. After all, your big sister is a mage.”
As she spoke, Lanafit opened her right palm, and an ice rose slowly bloomed into existence in her hand.
The child had no idea how powerful that spell truly was.
She just knew the beautiful lady in front of her was a real mage — and the icy rose was so pretty, she couldn’t look away.
Seeing the girl’s eyes locked onto the rose, Lanafit understood, and smiled.
She extended her left index finger and gently tapped the ice flower.
Immediately, the rose fell into her hand like a delicate gift.
Then, Lanafit handed the ice rose to the little girl.
“This is for you.”
Although the ice rose was originally a powerful spell, after Lanafit’s tap, it became a true ice rose—one that wouldn’t melt or break.
There was no risk of the magic surging out and hurting anyone.
Unless.
…
…
…
After giving the ice rose to the girl, Lanafit asked about what had happened.
The person who’d been captured, Nuohette, was the village chief’s only son.
Three days ago, he had seen the “miracle” that fell from the sky—Lanafit—and ignored the chief’s warnings.
He led most of the village’s young people into the forest, hoping to find the “miracle” and sell it.
After all, something that literally fell from the sky had to be worth a fortune.
Selling it might feed the whole village for years.
And if Lanafit was right, those people were likely the ones she’d heard rustling around the day she crash-landed.
After all, Stat Village was the closest place to where she’d fallen.
Which meant that if it hadn’t been for this Nuohette, she wouldn’t have gotten lost in the forest for three days.
She really wanted to smack that guy a couple of times, but in the end, Lanafit felt that this whole mess had started because of her, so…
…
So…
…
So screw that! If that idiot made it back to the village, she was absolutely kicking him a few times!
The first time they entered the forest, the group hadn’t found anything.
But they kept trying.
Just today, another group had gone in again.
Unfortunately, the neighboring village—which had long had a feud with Stat Village over irrigation canals—took the opportunity to falsely accuse them.
They claimed the people from Stat were the first to enter the forest, and that the “miracle” the officials had been searching for must have been stolen and hidden by them.
The commander of the soldiers had already been suspicious that someone had gotten to the miracle first.
Now that he had a lead, he ordered his men to arrest over a dozen of the village’s young people.
Word was, they were now being tortured and interrogated.
Luckily, an adventurer who knew Nuohette happened to witness it and rushed back to the village to report what had happened.
After hearing all this, Lanafit rested her chin on her hand and fell into deep thought.
But soon enough, she made up her mind.
“Village Chief.”
She called out to the now-weakened old man.
“How about we make a deal? If I can rescue your son and the others, then this”—she raised her hand, showing the coins she had earlier taken from the money pouch—“will count as my payment. Sound fair?”
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