Something Flickers at the Edge of Her Vision

"Understood."

When McLane indicated Natalie with a flick of his eyes, Orlando nodded to show he'd gotten the message. He approached Natalie, who was still standing there in a daze, and spoke in a gentle voice.

"Miss Pereira, that was truly remarkable back there! Your mana expenditure must have been considerable — why don't you rest inside the carriage for a while?"

Natalie saw no point in putting up a stubborn front, so she meekly accepted his suggestion. She hadn't checked how much mana she had left, but he was right that the drain had been significant — and trailing the squad into the village struck her as carrying far too much risk.

"Yes, yes. I'll wait quietly in the carriage, so don't you worry — go join the ranks, quickly now."

When she shooed him away with a flapping hand, Orlando winked and promised to be back soon before hurrying off into the village.

The moment Natalie stepped into the carriage, a child curled up in the corner asked in a trembling voice. His face was smeared head to toe in tears — he'd clearly been crying the entire time.

"My mama, and my sister Maria — where are they?"

"We just have to wait a little longer, Billy. The knights will bring them back any moment now."

She hadn't yet heard any news of the villagers being rescued. Even so, she could give that answer without a second's hesitation. That was how much she trusted them — those brave fighters would bring the surviving residents back, without fail.

"Everyone's going to be okay, right? I'm so scared. *Hic*... *sob*."

"It's all right. Just be patient a little longer, and you'll see them safe and sound."

Natalie patted the boy's back as he began to sob again, his shoulders shaking.

Before long, the goblins' shrieks and the clanging clash of blades had faded deep into the village. Natalie stroked the back of the boy, who had cried himself into exhaustion and slumped against the carriage wall, and sank into thought.

It was about the magic she had cast reflexively just moments ago. No matter how she turned it over, she couldn't for the life of her figure out how any of it had happened.

Before the expedition, she had practiced a handful of combat-useful spells, true — but this wasn't even one of the spells she'd drilled. She hadn't so much as aimed, yet the bolts had flown and struck the creatures dead-on as though she'd used some kind of auto-targeting skill. And then there was the sheer power of the flames that had burned the variant goblins to a crisp in a single sweep.

Since possessing 'Natalie,' she had poured a considerable amount of time into magic training — a diligent effort to adapt to this world as quickly as possible, in keeping with her character setting as a gifted mage.

Yet in all that practice, magic had never once manifested like this. Unless she'd memorized it in advance, an intermediate spell of the fifth circle or higher demanded meticulous calculation of its formulas and at least a dozen-odd seconds of focused chanting before it finally completed, accompanied by an enormous mana cost. Judging by her mana reserves and proficiency alone, she would need to reach at least the seventh circle before she could memorize spells of that caliber or cast them without chanting.

And yet here she was, not even having broken into the seventh circle, casting such magic without a single word of incantation. All she'd done was raise her hand — and her mana had moved on its own, weaving the spell by itself.

'That was basically like using a skill, wasn't it?'

Natalie was scowling ferociously at that thought when she suddenly noticed something flickering at the edge of her vision.

It looked like a wisp of smoke shimmering — or perhaps scraps of half-written text scattering and coalescing, over and over.

Did I suddenly develop some kind of astigmatism?

Worried something was wrong with her eyes, she rubbed them furiously, but the afterimage didn't fade — if anything, it grew sharper, claiming its corner of her vision all the more firmly.

Natalie was glaring at it, pressing hard at the bridge of her nose, when her eyes went wide in an instant. The smoke had scattered and re-formed, and for one fleeting moment it assembled into writing she knew very, very well.

Just as Natalie was glaring at the letters before her eyes in open disbelief, she realized the surrounding commotion had somehow gone quiet — and then someone rapped gently on the carriage door.

"Miss Pereira? You may come out now."

Orlando's voice came mixed with ragged breathing — he had apparently sprinted over the instant the sweep ended. But Natalie, her gaze captured by the sight in front of her, had no presence of mind to respond right away.

"Th-that thing, over there...."

"Miss Pereira? What's the matter? Is something wrong in there?"

Only when the carriage door burst open along with his urgent tone did Natalie come back to herself.

"Ah! Uh — is it over?"

"Yes. Completely finished. Ah, and look — the boy's mother and sister are coming this way."

"Did you hear that, Billy? Shall we go out and meet them?"

Gathering up the child from his corner, she was just about to step down from the carriage when she stole one more glance at the corner of her vision where those strange letters had appeared. But her sight had already returned to normal, and nothing unusual met her eye.

Natalie stepped down from the carriage with a small, hollow laugh — a self-mocking chuckle at herself for having briefly dared to hope that she, too, had somehow gained a Status Window of her own.

"M-Mama!"

The moment he was out of the carriage, the boy shot like an arrow toward the village.

When Natalie turned to follow the direction he'd run, she saw McLane and Jorel walking toward them, supporting a blood-soaked middle-aged woman and a girl who looked to be in her mid-teens.

They had to be Billy's mother and sister.

"Goodness — Billy! It was you who brought these knights to us!"

"Mama, are you hurt badly? I should have gotten here faster."

"No, no, Mama's fine. Wounds like these will heal right up after a few days of white herb salve."

However carelessly the woman brushed it off, the wounds looked quite deep even at a glance.

Natalie watched the other villagers file in behind mother and children, helped along by the squad members, and turned to McLane.

"Captain, are we simply leaving these people as they are? I think we ought to at least treat their wounds before we go."

At her words, McLane let out a small sigh and nodded, as if he'd seen it coming. The surprisingly quick agreement, together with his expression, suggested he had braced himself for exactly this when he accepted the goblin subjugation quest.

The man roughly counted the wounded, then asked Natalie:

"There are more injured than I expected... Will you have enough mana left for healing magic? It seemed like your expenditure earlier was enormous...."

"Ah! One moment, please."

Natalie remembered that, lost as she'd been in impossible speculation, she had never actually checked how much mana remained — and hurriedly circulated the mana within her body. It was an internal audit of her mana reserves.

But the sheer surge she felt the instant she raised her mana made her flinch all over again.

"What's the matter? Has your mana run dry?"

A flicker of worry crossed the man's face. Natalie, who had been staring wide-eyed in shock for a moment, quickly shook her head and forced an awkward smile.

"No, I have plenty. More than enough to treat everyone here with room to spare."

She tried to answer as though nothing were amiss, but the tremor at the end of her voice was beyond her control. Her mana wasn't lacking in the slightest — it had actually grown beyond its usual level.

Struggling not to betray her flustered state, Natalie deliberately raised her voice.

"All right — everyone who's injured, please gather here in the open clearing. We'll begin treatment with the most seriously wounded first."

As Natalie set about treating the wounded, McLane took the remaining squad members and lent a hand with putting the village back in order.

Perhaps because the expedition members rolled up their sleeves and threw themselves into it, the village — turned upside down by the goblin raid — had more or less regained its original shape by the time the sun began to slope westward.

The patients who had filled the clearing with wounds large and small all finished their treatment and returned home as well.

The village chief earnestly pleaded with McLane — who proposed pitching a makeshift barracks in the village square — and instead ushered the party to his own house.

"With such a lovely mage in our midst, how could I ever let you sleep out in the open? We can make do in the village common lodging — you knights, please rest comfortably in my home before you go."

The house the chief led them to was, relatively speaking, the largest in the village and had the most rooms. Which is to say, it had four. Natalie claimed the smallest room for herself, and the rest of the squad agreed to pair up two to a room.

While everyone was inside unpacking their few belongings, a lively bustle sprang up in the chief's yard. The villagers had each brought food of their own, calling it thanks for the rescue of their village.

One family brought ten-year-old snake liquor hidden deep in their storeroom; another, bread still warm from the oven; another, well-aged roe deer meat; another, potatoes and sweet potatoes so freshly dug the dirt hadn't even been properly shaken off yet.

Humble but generous fare — in no time at all, the makeshift table had grown rich and full.

The crackle and pop of the bonfire, the sizzle of fat dripping from the roasting venison — and somewhere in among it all, the sounds of a merry song and children's laughter had already begun to weave themselves in.