Confidently leaving the village, Ariel and Lu searched for the Patricia in the deep cliffs of the forest.

Although those areas were inhabited by many monsters, it was not a problem. Ariel easily knocked down every monster they encountered.

Ariel was diligently putting into practice the lessons she learned from the troll incident.

A monster's head must not be damaged. A monster's head is valuable. If damaged, it's a loss.

When selling the troll, she couldn't get full price because its head was missing.

So Ariel would jump high and strike the monster's crown with the edge of her hand.

This way, she could inflict shock only to the brain while keeping the body intact to kill it. No blood would stain her either.

This time too, after easily killed three minotaurs, Ariel put their bodies into her Inventory.

Though minotaurs are huge monsters, Ariel's Inventory had no limits on volume or weight, so they went in smoothly.

Watching Ariel, Lu stuck his tongue out.

This could hardly be called combat. Not even hunting.

It was just one-sided massacre.

The monsters, usually terrifying enough to make one tremble just from encountering them, now seemed almost pitiable.

As soon as Ariel's afterimage blurred, another monster would unfailingly die.

The monsters didn't seem to understand what was happening to them. They just had a dazed look before collapsing.

"Sister...didn't you say you were a Mage...?"

Of course, Lu knew how Ariel took down the monsters.

Ariel would jump high and strike the monster's crown with the edge of her hand. That's not magic, just beating them to death.

"But why do you keep...beating them to death...?"

Ariel's answer was simple.

"Just because."

*

Humans often get lost in the forest.

It's a bit better when the sun is bright, but when the sun sets, they have no idea where they are.

To humans, all trees look the same, and grass is just grass.

But fairies were different. Fairies, the forest folk, never get lost in the woods.

They instinctively understood the layout of the forest and could find their way.

So sometimes when humans got lost in the forest at night, fairies would appear and help them.

As long as they followed the shimmering fairies, humans could safely get out of the forest. Well, nowadays humans are so busy trying to catch fairies when they see them that it rarely happens.

Anyway, fairies were that familiar with the forest. Even in a forest they had never been to before, they knew what was where and could find things well.

Thanks to this, not long after leaving the village, Lu spotted the Patricia.

"Sister! I found it!"

The Patricia was still in the weed stage but looked like it would bloom soon. That's when they should pick it.

The location was, as expected, a cliff.

A dizzying height that any other creature would fall to their death from.

Ariel waited below the cliff on the ground, while Lu fluttered about waiting for the Patricia to bloom.

"Hehe, this task was completed very easily."

Lu was in a good mood.

The Patricia that the villagers so desired but ultimately couldn't obtain.

That he and Ariel could easily retrieve it, what a great feat.

They could show the dignity of the forest folk, elves and fairies.

"Ooh."

A faint light emanated from the Patricia in its weed state. It was blooming.

"Sister! Now!" 

Soon after, the Patricia unfolded its petals in a beautiful form.

For a moment, Lu was about to approach in a daze, but he barely stopped himself. It's not good to approach.

The Patricia spews deadly poison the moment it's picked or snapped, but it also gives off a bit of poison even when the flower is in bloom.

It's not enough to cause death, but it can induce headaches and dizziness.

Whoosh.

Ariel kicked off the ground and leapt up.

It was a light motion, but Ariel's body instantly rose several hundred meters.

There was no need to even look for the Patricia, as it had unfolded its petals and made its presence known.

Ariel grabbed the Patricia's stem and pulled it out. Instantly, a thick green smoke spewed out and engulfed Ariel.

It was a poisonous mist.

Deadly enough to immediately kill any other life form.

But it didn't apply to Ariel.

Ariel landed back on the ground, completely unfazed, still holding the Patricia.

"Wow, success, sister!"

Lu flew over and clung to Ariel's face, rubbing his body all over.

Ariel looked down at the Patricia in her hand.

It was exactly like the picture. She just needed to take this back.

Then suddenly, a shadow fell over where Ariel was standing.

Looking up, something was rapidly descending from the sky.

A winged monster.

It was a wyvern.

In the blink of an eye, the wyvern closed in on Ariel and swiped its claws at her face.

Ariel was unharmed. Not even a scratch on her face.

"Aaack!"

But Lu wasn't so lucky.

Lu, who had been clinging to Ariel's face, was snatched away by the wyvern's claws.

"Sis, sister! Sisterrr!!"

Lu struggled and cried out.

Even as a fairy, he wasn't completely defenseless. If another monster tried to eat him, he could flap his wings and release powder.

The effective one was sleep powder.

Monsters hit by the sleep powder would immediately fall asleep, allowing the fairy to escape.

Normally, Lu would have done that, but it was impossible now.

Being carried away by the claws high into the sky, it wasn't easy to dust the wyvern's body with sleep powder. He couldn't even move his wings.

Watching Lu being taken away, Ariel pondered.

Rescuing Lu was simple.

She just had to leap higher than the flying wyvern smack it on the head, and that would be it.

But then she recalled what Lu had said earlier about magic and such.

Come to think of it, she hadn't used magic even once.

But she was a Mage, so maybe she should try using it.

With that thought, Ariel opened her palm.

It wasn't exactly magic, but rather a skill.

Ariel had two skills.

Magic Missile and Shield.

The one she needed to use now was the offensive skill Magic Missile.

It was a basic skill, but since her intelligence and attack power were infinite, she had to control its power. Just a little weak.

Fwish!

A blue light was fired from Ariel's hand. That light pierced through the wyvern's head like a bullet.

That was the end of it.

The wyvern fell while scattering its feathers, and the freed Lu quickly flew back to Ariel.

"Haha, sister! Thank you! You were so cool!"

Watching the wyvern crashing in the distance, Ariel suddenly realized that the way she had dealt with monsters so far was very inefficient.

There was no need to strike them with her bare hands. Just using Magic Missile was enough. It was simpler.

Having learned another lesson, Ariel turned her body and started heading back to the village.

She had successfully obtained the Patricia, so now all that was left was to go to the village and hand it over.

*

After Ariel and Lu went to find the Patricia, the village chief waited anxiously at the village entrance.

There was not much time left.

The chief's daughter, Daisy, had already frozen everywhere except her heart.

Soon, her heart would freeze over too.

With the chief feeling anxious, the atmosphere in the village was also gloomy. Even the usually noisy tavern was quiet today. 

"...Maybe they're not coming after all?"

"The Patricia is said to be an extremely hard flower to obtain."

"Maybe they just left the village..."

The villagers murmured like that.

They were also worried about Daisy, but they couldn't expect too much from the elf and fairy they had just met that day. It wouldn't be strange if Ariel and Lu just left.

"Oh!"

Then, the sentry guarding the village palisade shouted in surprise.

"They're coming! No, she's coming!"

At those words, the chief raised his head, and the villagers also looked ahead.

Something was quickly approaching from the forest.

An elf with silver hair, running with the sunset behind her back.

It was Ariel.

Ariel instantly arrived in front of the chief. Although she had run with fierce momentum, her breathing was just calm.

With an impassive expression, Ariel held something out to the chief, and the chief took it with trembling hands.

What the chief received was the Patricia he had so desired.

"Ah, ah... Th, thank you...!"

The village chief spoke with a choked voice and immediately turned around and rushed to his house.

There was no time to hesitate. He had to feed Daisy the petals of the Patricia flower as soon as possible. 

The villagers also followed the chief, and Ariel and Lu headed in that direction as well.

People gathered around the chief's house. Everyone waited in silence, hoping that Daisy would be safe.

As the sun set, the streets were dyed crimson, and no one made a sound.

After a while,

Creak.

The door of the chief's house opened, and someone walked out.

Although her complexion was a little pale, she was smiling brightly.

It was Daisy, the chief's daughter.

*

That night, a festival was held in Herrington Village.

It was a festival to celebrate Daisy's recovery. The villagers gathered in the square, eating, drinking, and enjoying themselves to the fullest.

The chief asked Ariel and Lu if they wanted any rewards. He could have given them his entire fortune since his dying daughter had been brought back to life.

But what Ariel wanted was nothing special.

It was a very trivial thing compared to saving Daisy's life.

"Cream...buns..."

Ariel wanted cream buns.

The chief blinked for a moment, looking at Ariel. He wondered if she was joking, but Ariel's expression was serious.

That was all Ariel really wanted.

She still had money left from selling the troll corpse, and her inventory was full of monster corpses.

"Hmm... Are you really sure that's enough...?"

The chief hesitated. It didn't seem right to give the benefactor who saved his daughter's life a mere cream bun as a reward.

"Hey, old human! What do you think of my sister!"

Then Lu shouted loudly. Lu had been drinking fruit wine and was quite drunk, his face flushed red.

"My sister is not greedy like you humans... Don't insult her pure heart!"

Lu staggered and fell flat on the table. He didn't move after that. He had passed out from the alcohol.

In fact, Lu had just blurted out whatever came to his drunken mind, but the chief gained a deep realization.

The pure heart of the forest folk, elves and fairies!

He hadn't understood that. He had just been thinking from a human perspective.

Elves and fairies are not greedy like humans. No matter how much money you offer them, they won't be happy. Money has no meaning for them.

They hadn't wanted a reward in the first place. They had simply helped with pure hearts.

To have misunderstood that heart. The chief felt remorseful. And he bowed his head respectfully to Ariel and Lu once more.

"I'm sorry. I won't mention any rewards again... Instead, I will keep your hearts in mine for the rest of my life... Thank you so much..."

With reddened eyes, the chief hurriedly turned away. It was a bit embarrassing to shed tears at his old age in front of others.

Watching the chief's retreating back, Ariel muttered softly.

"I just asked for cream buns..."