Pulling Up Roots

"Elza-sama, are we on the right path?"

"Hmm? Yeah, we're fine."

I was heading to our destination with Orleans.

Traveling west from the city led to wetlands, and near those wetlands was a colony of the plants we needed.

A slave and a serf, the two of us walking alone without a minder.

That alone made for an unusual situation.

You could run if you wanted to, yet being convinced that staying was the better life… that was surely deliberate on our Master's part.

The fact that he wouldn't respond to my attempts at seduction was a slight grievance, though.

My right hand toyed with the rosary at my neck.

No voice of God reached me. But God's miracles still worked without issue.

Naturally. Because—

"Monsters. Elza-sama."

"So I see."

Two small dog-like monsters were glaring and snarling at us.

They seemed intent on attacking.

I invoked a blessing and readied my mace.

Nothing particularly strong. One hit each, and they were done.

If a physical blow could put something down, that was all there was to it.

Orleans deftly extracted the magic stones from the monsters.

A quick study. She never forgot something once taught.

"Here, wash your hands."

"Thank you."

She rinsed the blood off the magic stones and her hands with water, then offered her thanks in that expressionless way of hers.

"Come on, smile, smile."

I used my fingertips to push the corners of her mouth upward.

Her eyes stayed perfectly still while only her lips curved into a grin, creating a wonderfully mismatched effect.

I nearly burst out laughing.

"Is something the matter?"

"Nothing at all."

I deflected and moved on.

The magic stones went into a pouch for safekeeping.

Our Master loved anything that could be turned into money.

The entire reason we were out here gathering materials was for money, after all.

"Monsters…"

"Hm?"

"Why are monsters born?"

"Hmm."

A childlike question.

Everyone wondered about it, but knowing the answer wouldn't change much.

I'll answer as a priestess, from the perspective of doctrine.

"One way is that they cross over from a hole in the world. The city-state of Spartia has been fighting those monsters for ages, holding them back."

"Cross over… so there is a land of monsters."

"That's right. That's what they say, anyway. No one's ever gone to the other side and come back alive, though."

There actually had been someone, but mentioning that would overcomplicate things. I kept that to myself.

"The other way is natural generation. The world's distortions become miasma, and monsters are born from it — or so the theory goes."

"Distortions…"

"Yep. And then we humans go and find uses for those monsters anyway. Pretty resilient species, aren't we?"

I was nodding along to my own words when Orleans seemed satisfied and turned her gaze forward again.

I'd matched her stride, so by the time we reached our destination, the sun was beginning to set.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. We still have time."

She must have thought the delay was her fault.

I patted Orleans on the head as she bowed.

I pulled the tent from the pack on my back, and the two of us set it up together.

After that, I sprinkled holy water around the perimeter to create a barrier. That would keep weaker monsters away.

Unfortunately, Alexia-chan wasn't here to light a fire for us, so we'd have to rely on gathering deadwood and a flint.

"Please wait."

Orleans said that, then retrieved the Fire Elemental Stone from the neck pouch her master had given her.

The pouch suited her quite well, by the way.

She held the Fire Elemental Stone near the deadwood, and a small flame leapt from the stone to the kindling, catching instantly.

I set a pot of water over the campfire.

"Oh, nice."

"The stone told me it could do this."

She tucked it back into the pouch.

"You can understand what the Elemental Stone is saying?"

"Yes. Vaguely, but yes."

"I see."

Humans who grew close to elementals weren't unheard of.

Alexia-chan was one of them.

But reading intent from an Elemental Stone was a different matter entirely.

That mural was also on my mind.

"Hey, have your parents ever told you anything about the tattoo on your back?"

"Only that it's a tradition. Nothing more… I don't think they know the details either."

Absorbed into an imperial manor estate as a whole tribe, the knowledge must have been lost over the years.

Culture was difficult to pass down and easy to lose.

I'd seen that happen more times than I could count.

There was no doubt her people had once been a tribe that communed with Fire Elementals. The connection to Fire Dragons, though, remained unclear.

We had a simple meal of jerky and dried vegetable soup with hard bread.

I offered thanks to God for the day's sustenance, and Orleans copied me. Good girl.

The tent was a single-person size, so Orleans and I huddled together to sleep.

The Fire Elemental Stone kept us warm, so the cold wasn't an issue.

This child was truly well-loved by it.

The next morning, after a bit of searching, we found the target plant easily enough.

Oil would be extracted from this plant, then flower buds would be steeped in it and mixed with a special compound to create the base for essential oils.

Alchemy varied wildly from practitioner to practitioner and was far from systematized.

That "special compound" was itself a handmade concoction, apparently.

I grabbed hold of a plant. The thought of ruining my silk gloves was unpleasant, but since I could just call it a business expense and have a new pair bought for me, I pulled the whole thing up, root and all, without reservation.

I handed each one to Orleans, who gathered them in a pile.

We repeated this over and over.

We'd been told one heap would be enough. It took less than half a day to gather that much.

"Elza-sama, water."

"Mm, thanks."

I drank the cold water from the canteen.

I'd worked up a bit of a sweat, so it tasted wonderful.

I'd rolled up my priest robe sleeves, but this outfit ran hot when you moved around in it.

"Do you think this is enough?"

"Should be plenty."

Staying too long in one spot risked attracting stronger monsters, so we decided to head back by midday.

Azu-chan and the others were surely doing just fine too.