As Tori’s mother, Xilika was technically older than her daughter. But if you counted actual mental age and life experience, Xilika was more like the little sister.

Her life had been very simple, too. She was born near the end of the Genesis Era, and while she was growing up, the Witch Era replaced it. Now it was early July in the tenth year of the Witch Era.

For a tiny village like theirs, though, the change didn’t feel like much. They’d simply gotten a new village chief. Then the crops they planted changed from Moon Grass to red peppers, while the few villages next door still grew Moon Grass.

In the end, all that had happened was a change of rulers and a few more or fewer festivals. Everything else—Xilika’s memories were all in Lusaka Village.

So she didn’t quite understand what her daughter was discussing with this adventurer named Ethan.

“You can get your hands on Potion recipes?” Tori asked outright. “If you can, what do you want in return?”

“I don’t think this is the right place to discuss that.” Ethan took a sip of soup. He could sense Tori’s impatience, which gave him an advantage in the negotiation. So he settled into a more relaxed pose.

Tori realized she’d let her eagerness show. She was very interested in Potion recipes. The knowledge was monopolized, which meant an endless supply of gold coins.

“You’re right. This isn’t the place to discuss it, so maybe we can talk about something that is.” Tori tried to look relaxed, too, though her small stature didn’t exactly make it convincing. “For instance, do you need me to prove something?”

“Oh? You have an interesting way of putting things, Miss Tori.” Ethan’s gaze shifted to Xilika.

Tori understood what Ethan meant, so she turned to her mother. “Mom, could you go tell Dad? I want to have dinner with him today! He should have time to eat, right?”

“But…” Xilika still wasn’t entirely reassured.

“Mom~” Tori began to wheedle. “Big Brother Ethan is right here, and there are so many people around. He won’t do anything to me. Right, Big Brother Ethan?”

Ethan nodded as if that went without saying. He gave Xilika a warm, sunny smile. “That’s right. I’ll take good care of Tori. Please don’t worry.”

Xilika looked at Tori. “Don’t cause Mr. Ethan any trouble, okay?”

“I won’t!”

Only then did Xilika finally leave, step by step.

The eight-year-old girl and the thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boy stared at each other. A good while passed before Tori decided to break the silence.

“By the way, where’s your butler? The one named Yabu.”

“He has something else to take care of today,” Ethan replied. Then he realized what she was getting at, and his gaze turned wary.

Tori thought, Just as I expected. It’d been hard to bring this up with Mother here, but now she could say it. In a quiet voice that Ethan could still hear, she said, “So you’re not denying he’s your butler, huh, Third Young Master?”

Ethan studied her for a while, then put on the sunny expression expected of a cheerful young man. “How did you figure it out?”

“My father happens to work at your residence.”

“He’s never met me.”

“Haha…” Tori laughed awkwardly, keeping her embarrassment to herself. “I just heard you’d arrived. You carry yourself so well, and you seem to have some kind of plan—so I guessed. Judging by your age and the way you act… Though I wasn’t sure just now, either.”

So she’d been bluffing just now… Was this kid too clever for her own good? Ethan wondered.

“You’ve figured out who I am. What do you want?”

“Like I said before, I want Potion recipes. I want to become a Potion Maker.” Tori didn’t hide what she was after. There was no point keeping her thoughts to herself when dealing with someone like him; it would only lead to them testing each other.

Ethan rested his left hand on the table, tapping his index finger against it over and over. Tori noticed his fingers were quite long. His hand was pale, but there were calluses on it.

“Getting a recipe doesn’t mean you can become a Potion Maker. There’s a lot to learn about magic, too. You can’t just get one recipe and expect to succeed—and being able to make only one Potion doesn’t make you a Potion Maker.”

Tori didn’t disagree. “Everything has to start somewhere, Third Young Master. You came to Blackwater Town for a reason, even if I don’t know what it is. You had to start somewhere, didn’t you? We all need a chance.”

“I’m getting more and more interested in you.”

Tori shuddered and looked at Ethan like he was a pervert.

Ethan immediately understood her expression, and his face reddened a little. “What are you thinking? You’re just a kid! I meant I’m interested in your intelligence, not your body. Besides, with a body like yours, no one would buy you, and you probably couldn’t do any work, either.”

Tori’s face darkened. She felt insulted, but Ethan was someone important, and she didn’t want to provoke him. “So, Young Master Ethan, we really do have room to work together. Of course, even though you say you’re becoming more interested in me, I can’t deny that I’m the one who needs something here. You can give a chance to plenty of people, but I hope I’m the one you choose.”

If she wanted money, she had to fight for opportunities like this. It was embarrassing to say things like that, but Tori had long since decided to throw her pride away. She’d suffered enough over the past thirty-plus years for the sake of keeping face. If you were too embarrassed to suck up to your boss, you couldn’t get promoted. If you cared too much about your pride, you’d end up falling out with coworkers. And if you were too proud, you’d feel too embarrassed to speak up even when someone took advantage of you—

She might as well throw this face away.

Unless she could trade it for money.

Ethan looked genuinely surprised. Those definitely weren’t the words of an eight-year-old girl. He stared at Tori. “You’re not some high-ranking Mage who’s taken up residence inside this girl, are you?”

“Wouldn’t you be even better off choosing me if I were? My potential would be beyond anyone else’s. If you really have something you want to do, wouldn’t I be a great partner?”

Ethan’s left index finger tapped faster and faster against the table. The moment it stopped, he spoke. “All right. Like you said, we should give each other a chance. But you’re so desperate for Potion recipes that even if you really were some high-ranking Mage, I doubt you were a Potion Maker. So you’ll have to prove that you have the potential to become one.”

“Then how do I prove it?”

Ethan thought for a while. “My father made the right choices, which is why he was able to become the lord of Dais City in the Witch Era. Because of that, I’ve learned a few things. Potion Makers really are rare, and they’re very stingy with their knowledge. But they wouldn’t dare deceive my father. So it’s true: not just anyone can become a Potion Maker. Even if you get a Potion recipe, you might not be able to make it.”

He picked up one of the batches of rat poison Tori had made. “You should know that this doesn’t really count as a Potion. It’s just a mixture of different substances. It has nothing to do with magic. So it doesn’t prove anything. What you need to prove is that you can make something related to magic—any kind of substance, whether it has a good or bad effect. You just have to show that you can do it. I certainly can’t. I heard this is how Potion Makers test their apprentices, too.”

Tori fell silent.

Something related to magic. She had no idea where to start.

“If you can make something like that, I’ll give you a recipe—the recipe for a Miniature Meditation Potion. It’s a fairly common recipe, even if only Potion Makers can make it. You can use it to brew Miniature Meditation Potions, giving both you and me a starting point to build from.”

A Miniature Meditation Potion!

There was no way Tori could turn down that offer.

“I’ll prove it to you, Young Master Ethan.” Tori held out her hand. “I hope we have a good partnership.”

Ethan shook his head, picked up the large package of rat poison Tori had made, and headed out of the inn.

“The rat poison!” Tori called after him. “What are you going to do with it?”

Ethan turned back to look at her. “I’m going to use it against the thing I told you about earlier. There are a lot of little rats around the Rat King, and they’ll make it harder for us to take it down. That’s no good. I heard your rat poison works really well, so this comes at just the right time.”

“?!”

Tori froze. Was he serious?

The mighty Third Young Master Ethan was working as an adventurer? And you still say you’re not the protagonist?

While Tori stood there in a daze, Xilika returned. “Tori, let’s go. We’ll have a look around town. Your father won’t be free until tonight, so we may have to stay in town for a day. Is there anything you want to buy?”

As she spoke, Xilika looked around, but she couldn’t see Ethan anywhere.

“Where’s Big Brother Ethan?”

“He took the rat poison to deal with the Rat King he mentioned earlier. I hope he comes back safe. If a whole bunch of rats bite him, it’ll be hard to save him.”

Xilika felt a little relieved. “What did you and Big Brother Ethan talk about?”

“Just some ingredients. The village chief’s notes say that some herbs can only be found deep in the forest. Since Big Brother Ethan and the others are going to take down the Rat King, I thought I’d ask him to bring some back for me. It’d be a trade, of course. I could’ve asked the hunter, but it seems he’s been in the forest for several days already.”

“That’s what you mean by a deal?”

“Yeah! If this goes well, we can work together again next time!”

“…All right.”

Xilika didn’t argue with her daughter’s capabilities. After all, her daughter had earned twenty silver coins in just the past few days. Xilika herself couldn’t have done that.

Suddenly, she felt as though she’d grown old, even though she was only in her twenties.