Chapter 7: First Visitors

Two years passed by in the blink of an eye.

I am now 15 years old.

Once again, I woke up to the chirping of small birds.

After I was attacked by the wolf in the forest, I hadn’t taken a single step outside of my home…outside of <God’s Miniature Garden>.

Also, I had not heard god’s voice since that day.

To hear gods’ voice, it seems that the skill <Oracle> is required. However, this is a very rare skill…It seems that there are only 3 people in this world that have this skill. Moreover, it is difficult to use, so basically, hearing god’s voice and conversing wit him is rare.

It would be nice if I got the skill some day and could talk with him…

It might be impossible now, but I’ll definitely get it someday!

I got out of bed and checked the exchange diary. It was now a daily ritual.

——

[Exchange diary] = 3 points added.

[Current points: 31,190]

[Vase: small] 1
[Vase: medium] 10
[Vase: large] 20
[Vegetable seeds set] 10
[Fruit seeds set] 10
[Herb seeds set] 10
[Wheat seeds] 50
[Rice seeds] 100
[Brick: x1] 5
[Fountain] 1,500
[Bottles: x100] 3
[Room] 50
[Bathroom – Extension] 5,000
[Room – Extension] 2,000
[Rooftop – Extension] 10,000
[Basement – Extension] 30,000
[Compounding room – Extension] 15,000

——

In particular, the number of new items that can be exchanged had not increased. When I try new things or write what I want in the exchange diary, god adds new things.

By the way, god’s reply in the exchange diary today was about… the salad dressings I’ve been into recently…Peaceful and nice.

***

“Hmm…Today, I’ll bake some bread and have salad and fried eggs on top of it.”

As usual, I went out to the garden and gathered eggs from the three chickens.

Yes, the chickens that came to my house that day had laid eggs and increased to 3.

“Kue~”

That squawk sounded like it was saying “Okay!” I said “Thank you,” to the chickens, harvested a few vegetables, and headed back to the kitchen.

After I came to this world I made potions every day and gathered points for a living. Thanks to that, the house has been enhanced quite a bit now.

By the way, I found out something amazing about these potions. Because the high potion I drank in the forest to heal my wounds had tasted like tea, I tried other things too. The result was that mana potions tasted like black tea and garnet potions tasted like cola. I couldn’t hide my surprise at that. But is it really okay for something like potions, which are to be swallowed in a hurry, to be so fizzy…?

To begin with the kitchen, an oven was added.

It was brick oven like those used for making pizzas. Because the winters are cold, it was very useful. I thought it would make the summers hotter in contrast, but the house was cool as it seemed to release heat easily. I also exchanged points for some more utensils and tableware, so now I have quite a variety. There’s even a cute tea pot for guests, but unfortunately, there haven’t been any yet.

In the basement used as storage space, I am storing harvested food and vegetables there.

Moreover, I extended it using points. After the first extension, the ‘non-widening expansion’ had the effect of, believe it or not, not letting goods spoil over time. It took 20,000 points, but I was using it rather well. So the vegetables or eggs I harvested were always in a fresh state.

***

When I finished making breakfast, I heard a loud scream from outside. The scream that seemed to pierce the morning air was  of a young girl’s…mixed with fear. I quickly ran out of the house and headed towards the source of the scream.

But…someone in this forest? That had never happened in these past 2 years.

“Uwaaaaah!”

“Kiruto…!!”

When I came out to the garden, I saw a girl and a boy just beyond the garden surrounded by the fence. The girl had pretty red curly hair that glistened, and a robe on with a cane in her hand. The boy had short refreshing hair, and looked like swordsman…I think. He had a sword, armor and a cloak.

The things that were attacking the two were the same ‘wolf’ monsters I saw before. I looked it up later and found out that the wolf is called ‘hard wolf.’ It is a C rank monster. Just one of them isn’t too dangerous, but because it has a habit of calling its comrades, it can be a dangerous monster. Thus, when receiving quests to defeat them, many novice adventurers sometimes tend to party up.

There currently are 3 hard wolves in total. The boy was in front of the girl was blocking and countering the attacks. On the girl, there were were stains on her white robe and around her thigh…it was dyed red. Looks like she’s hurt…

“Ojou-sama…! Now!!”

“Kiruto…! Shining fire, take my power as nourishment and manifest as light… <Firestorm>!”

After the girl chanted something and held her staff out, fire appeared from it and flew towards the hard wolves.

The shining red fire engulfed the hard wolves and destroyed them. Then in the place where they had disappeared, there were three fangs.

According to the book, ‘monsters’ of this world disappear without a trace when defeated. 

Afterwards, like drop items, the materials of the monsters are left as loot.

“Haa~…haa~…”

“Kiruto, you held up well.”

“No, it was all thanks to ojou-sama’s magic.”

A party of a mage and a swordsman…I wonder?

Perhaps it was from the relief of defeating 3 hard wolves, but the two collapsed on the spot. I couldn’t get to them unless I came out of my house a little, but it should be alright now. Moreover, they’re very close, so if a monster does come out, I can dash at full speed. For now, I am more worried about the girl’s injury.

“That injury…are you okay?”

““Eh……!?””

“Ah! I’m sorry, I’m not anyone suspicious…?”

They got so surprised when I talked to them so I was a little impatient.

Their age…seemed to be about a year younger than me…By the way, I wasn’t talking about my mental age, but rather my physical age of 15.

“When did…?”

“No, because, my house…is right here.”

““House?””

“Yes, over there…”

The two who had question marks over their heads, so I pointed towards my house. Then, their expression turned even more surprised. Rather, the garden isn’t small so I though they would at least have noticed…Did they not realize it because they were desperately defending against the hard wolves…? Yeah, that surely could be possible!

“No way…there’s a house in this forest…Ow!!”

“Ojou-sama…!! Dammit, I don’t have any more potions…”

“I’m… okay.”

“Ah, if it’s recovery potions you need, I have plenty of them in my house! Please come in.”

I had forgotten about it because the girl had been enduring silently. Her robes were dyed red.

I invited the two who said they ran out of potions to my home for healing. When I handed them the high potions I had stored in the basement, they immediately sprayed them on themselves. 

The girl thanked me, and the boy followed.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever had people come to this house…I feel a bit nervous.”

Because there were people in my home, I felt a little shy.

The expanded living room had a round table where around 5 or 6 people could sit. It was a calming space. I served both of them mana potions as tea along with donut-like snacks made by deep frying in olive oil, and adding sugar. In addition, there is a reason why I served mana potions as tea. It’s because it tastes like black tea…!! I poured the contents into a tea pot and warmed it and added some sugar. Of course, I served them in the tea cups for guests which I wanted to use for quite some time now.

“Thank you for helping us. I am Cynthia Melditi. This is my escort, Kiruto.”

“Thank you sharing your potions.”

“Don’t worry about it… Oh, I’m Hinami.”

While feeling surprised at how a girl younger than me could speak so eloquently, I assumed that she was a noble child. Rather, from the perspective that she had an escort, it definitely must be true.

“…This is a mana potion!? But the taste—!”

“Ah, yes. Mana potions are delicious, aren’t they?”

With her lips on the cup, Cynthia—Hmm, she’s so mature so I should probably add -san, right?—Cynthia-san raised her voice in surprise. I wonder if it’s possible to know the drink as soon as  you drink it? Perhaps because she used magic and her mana level had gone down, but it got restored so she noticed…something like that? By the way, even if I drink it, I can only taste black tea. Strange…!

“What are you talking about, ojou-sama…th-this is!!!”

“It’s delicious, right!?”

I wonder what’s wrong…I wonder if there’s a problem with the taste…I’m getting a little worried.

Noticing my troubled expression, Cynthia-san said, “I’m sorry for surprising you,” and told me the reason why she was surprised.

“Normally, mana potions taste disgusting…”

“Eh, really?”

“…It seems you need to try some. Try drinking this. It’s a normal mana potion sold in the stores in the city.”

“Ah, yes…”

“…Hmm……Urk!!!”

I was going to take a sip and roll it around my tongue to taste…or so I thought. I choked from the very first sip. What is this… something like barley tea and vegetable juice and milk mixed together? Well, I’ve never drank that, but still…

“Indeed. Mana potions are bitter and disgusting. It’s a necessity for mages, but the taste is the worst…”

“Kueh…Blech!……I-I see.”

“That’s right. Normally, something rare like this isn’t served as tea…”

“And not only does this mana potion taste good, but also is very effective…this restores a lot more than the one I had…! Where did you get something so amazing?”

I ended up coughing because it was so disgusting. I wonder if that was rude…

And, according to Cynthia-san, it seems that the mana potions I make are quite amazing. But I made them in a flash with my skill…I feel kind of guilty…Because they’re enjoying it a lot…!

“Um…I can’t tell you how, but I actually made those potions myself.”

““Eh…!?!?””

“But…aren’t you around my age?”

The two let out sounds of surprise. Then, possibly not believing that I, someone around the same age as her, made them, Cynthia-san had her eyes wide open.

“So you are a…chemister.” (***I think chemister is basically something like a pharmacist/herbalist in this world, but because the title of the novel has ‘chemister’ in  it, I’m not changing the wording)

“Ah, yes…for the time being…”

A ‘Chemister’ is a kind of job.

It refers to people who make potions using herbs. In addition, their knowledge of herbs has to be vast. My knowledge isn’t that much, so I’m not sure if I can call even myself a chemister. Moreover, it feels unfair because I can make the potions so easily with my skill.

“That’s how it is. Ahaha…” was all I could say.

“…Erm, Hinami-sama.”

“Yes?”

“If possible, can we take a few potions? We ran out of them, so I’m not sure if we can safely return to the city like this…”

“Ah…! Of course you can.”

“Oh, thank you…!”

Thanks to Kiruto-kun’s words, the slightly awkward atmosphere softened.

I headed down to the basement saying, “I’ll go get them right away.” I placed high potions, garnet potions, and mana potions in a bag. I didn’t know how many would be enough so I put ten of each. It was bulging.

“Please take this with you.”

“Hinami-sama…! This much!?”

“I have a lot so it’s alright.”

Seeing the bag full of potions, Kiruto-san raised his voice in surprise. When Kiruto-san took the bag, Cynthia-san promptly thanked me. She’s smaller than me, but she’s very polite. But then the two of them looked troubled. When I had a question mark on my head because I didn’t know why, Cynthia-san explained,

“Thank you…! But we don’t have much on us right now… Can we just take 5 high potions and 1 mana potion?”

“Eh…?”

“Well…we were only planning to go out hunting for just a bit…The Lost Forest is quite scary, isn’t it?”

Um.

The Lost Forest…? No, instead, the potions! Rather, such a little girl is worrying about money…! I wish  I could just let spoil her. No, could it possibly be that I can’t be spoil anyone very much in this world unlike Japan…?

“No, I don’t need money.”

“We can’t have that!”

“Ehhh…how troubling. You really don’t have to worry about it. Moreover, it would be worse if something happened to you two because you didn’t take them all, right?”

“Ah…uh…”

When I smiled and said, “Right?” again, Cynthia-san repaid with an, “I understand,” and received them. Mmhm, that’s the way.

“But, I’ll definitely visit again to pay you back…!”

“Well…okay, then you can that.”

I giggled. Honestly, I was quite happy. Because I can meet people again with this…!

Cynthia-san and Kiruto-san also chuckled, perhaps influenced by me. Hmm, around 10 years old, maybe? Smiling’s the best.

“Now, please have some donuts and relax.”

“Oh, thank you.”

“I’m sorry. This is our first time meeting, and yet you’re being this kind…”

“It’s okay, it’s okay!”

I did not know yet that they would eventually eat the donuts and cry out of deliciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

T/N: Sorry it’s been a while! But it looks like we are finally learning more about the world around Hinami. And we finally have more characters!! I was surprised that she spent 2 years in isolation, but it looks like things will finally start going off!

Here is a picture of Cynthia!

And here is a picture of Kiruto (taken from the manga):