Mira and Janine have been helping villagers, healing and providing any form of aid that was possible. After gathering every injured person and ensuring their safety, Mira inspected the severity of their wounds. Seeing that some had deeper cuts than others, she decided not to take any risks.

Elegantly waving her wand around, Mira used her spells: [Major Treatment], [Major Regeneration], and [Minor Vitality]. After casting her skills, the injured party recovered. The wounds closed at a rapid pace, and after two minutes they were fully revitalized.

Talking to the chief of the village, they discovered that the wolves had attacked as a result of human’s recent invasion of the forest ecosystem. Due to slacking off in the previous season, the food was somewhat lacking. Unfortunately, the villagers had overdone their hunt, resulting in a lower population of the deer. Thus wolves were forced to look for another type of food. Nothing being available nearby they decided to attack the village and steal the cattle. It also served them as the vengeance of sorts against the puny humanoids that did not know how to hunt properly.

Seeing Alviona’s figure and her actions, the villagers shrieked.

“Demon?! What? How? Why?!” These were the questions that rained down on Mira’s head. The villagers seemed to be agitated and angry. Not understanding what was going on, she got irritated.

“Silence!” echoed Mira’s loud and piercing voice throughout the vicinity of the village. Seeing that the villagers shrunk in size and were no longer talking, she was satisfied. “Good. That girl is under my care. Mind explaining to me the reason behind your hostility?”

“Demons are not welcome! If she is under your care, we understand and will not go against you; but only because you saved us from the wolves. However, I warn you that inside the Kingdom of Xanais we do not tolerate demons!” proclaimed one of the villagers.

“How could this be? We just came from the city of Alpall! No one was hostile to us over there. The child even received a reward from the noble that managed that place,” said Mira, confused about the words that she just heard. How did it come to this?

“Is that so?” asked the village chief, stroking his beard. “In that case, it should be all right.”

“Yet you did not answer her question. Why do you hate the demons in this country?” asked Janine, who was equally baffled by the sudden statement. It was a fact that throughout the world demons were an odd race. They had magical horns growing out of their heads which reduced any mental attack by 25% and were naturally adept in utilizing Elemental schools of magic. However, they could only use one element, and it appeared as a tattoo after birth. Countries feared to fight them because of the inability to utilize their spies properly, making sabotaging harder work than it had to be. But, humans were still numerous and had an edge when it came to warfare. So why did this Kingdom hate the demons?

“Because they seed chaos! A demon that can cast even the simplest fireball can destroy our crops within seconds. This season we have lower food rations. Who else but demons would mentally attack wolves and cause them to hunt us? They are probably preparing for a war of some sorts and decided to weaken us by eliminating us and cutting off the food rations to the Kingdom. Well, you know what?! Bring it on, we will survive!” shouted the villager, followed by others chiming in. It became clear that he was not talking on behalf of the Kingdom, but rather for the village. Perhaps this was their conspiracy theory? Regardless, it was too foolish, groundless, and laughable. And indeed, Mira burst into laughter.

“What of the king then. Why won’t he support your campaign?” asked Mira, intending to mock them but deciding to mask it as a serious question.

“Ha! The King? He is a buffoon! Wait until his heir takes the throne, or perhaps a noble like Malavius will usurp the throne and beat some sense into this country! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!”

Yep, definitely symptoms of clouded judgment. If they act like this about everything that occurs in their lives, then perhaps we should have left them to be eaten by wolves. I would not blame the animals for wanting to get rid of such noisy neighbors, thought Mira as a joke, chuckling and winking at Janine.

“Listening to you, I concluded two things. The first one is of the shock that you received from what happened to you. The second is that you do not hate demons. Instead, you witnessed the child healing your enemies and letting them go. Her actions caused you to think that she is the one who psychically attacked them and commanded them to slaughter you. Well, I have never heard of anything more stupid than this in my entire life. Congratulations,” cheered Mira, clapping her hands at a slow pace.

“But, I…”

“Perhaps you should admit that you made a mistake in your hunt and did not respect the ecosystem? Wolves do not hunt willy-nilly. No. They work together to panic a herd of deer, isolating the weak one and then swiftly killing it. You slew too many and did not leave any strong to flourish. So, what did you expect? They came here to take your vegetables and your cattle. Simple as that. Stop shifting blame to the child!” ordered Mira, her voice filled with anger. Her eyes fixed at the source of the commotion. Her current facial expression was so fierce that the man gulped, further shrinking in size.

“But the demons were responsible for it! How else would they attack in such big numbers?!”

“You truly understand nothing. Shut up, keep the silence, and be thankful that you are alive! You keep making up odd stories. How many demons have you seen in the vicinity over the past five years?!”

“That… Uhm, none.”

“Exactly!” snorted Mira, irritated by the man’s stubbornness.

Thankfully, the village chief was aware of the situation and knocked his stick onto the man’s head. He then proceeded to apologize to Mira and thanked her and the party for saving them. Bidding farewell, Mira, and Janine walked back to their carriage where Alviona waited. Seeing her, Mira got relieved. However, she was still upset with the child.

*Tock, Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock*

“Child, you have to be less reckless,” berated Mira upon her return. “Those wolves could have sliced you like butter if not for that armor.”

“I… I am sorry,” said Alviona, getting scared and hiding behind Solomon’s back. She did not understand why the scolding was received. I just wanted to pet them. Ah, it was fun! I got to play with them and even helped them out. Soft fur, gentle breathing pattern, the cold air coming out from their breathing, captivatingly fierce eyes, and a wet nose. Aaw, now I want to play with Piu. Since he is significantly taller than those wolves, his fur will be even better! I too am taller now, so I can reach his wiggling tail and then I can bite it! Ah, just imagining the fluff makes me happy, she thought while slightly peeking out to check the situation, gently caressing her cheeks as she contemplated.

The elf was in thought, moving in circles with her right hand touching her chin. She was explaining the importance of thinking for oneself, prioritizing safety, and not attempting to play with vicious beasts.

“Still, you managed yourself well. Not even once did I see you lose your composure or fail to protect yourself. I have to admit that I am impressed. However, what was it you were telling me about not using [Fireball]?!” demanded Mira, walking up to the child and stretching her cheeks. “You were not even listening to me. Were you?”

Mira’s eyes shot up with flames after seeing that Alviona was in her world. It felt as if she was about to unleash a massive cataclysm onto the world, forcing Solomon and Janine to back off as to not get caught in the explosion radius. Despite this, she soon calmed down as she witnessed Alviona’s current state.

“Don’t drool. You just had breakfast!”

“I am not hungry though.”

“Then why are you drooling?”

“Because I thought of Piu.”

“Huh?!”

“Yes. I want to bite Piu’s tail. Thank you very much.”

“Tail?”

“Yes, the fluffy tail,” said Alviona cheerfully, her mind melting like sugar. What was there not to drool over?

Observing and listening to the child Mira was unable to hold her laughter back. She had only but yesterday learned how to create a flame. How did she cast a healing spell when just the theory was explained? Furthermore, why did it take three seconds? Why did Alviona’s aura emit that color? After thinking over it, Mira decided to ask her.

“Child, I have a question that you need to answer,” said Mira, patting Alviona’s head. Seeing that she had her attention, she continued. “Look. The wolves that you healed, what was the orange aura? How did you pull off such quick healing, and then how did you make them bow to you?”

Alviona fell into thought, trying to understand what Mira’s question meant. I did not do anything special. I don’t know any abilities or skills yet that are mana-related aside the basics that Mira taught me. So does my say.

“Grandma, I did not use any spells except for the [Fireball]. I said that the ability was useless and would not use it if it meant endangering my friends. But, since you were not in its path, I was curious so ended up utilizing it. For the speed of the healing, I did every possible calculation and measurement to heal them. The aura color you speak of was pure white. I do not know how else to say it,” replied Alviona after thoroughly analyzing her thoughts and structuring a proper response. She then looked at Mira and saw a confused face. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No. But your speed was unusual.”

“I used the basics that you taught me yesterday and just formed it into a command. That is about all,” replied Alviona cheerfully.

Mira fell into thought. The given information was enough to make any scholar’s head explode. It would probably be dismissed by most, that is how absurd it was. However, time and time again Alviona proved to be anything but ordinary. It did not come as a surprise at this point. And yet, Mira was surprised. It was too unusual. Don’t tell me that this child can control mana so well that she can look at the situation and withdraw an X amount of mana necessary for minimum applications without any restraints. Then how many spells can she cast?! Hold on Mira. I need to test this.

“Alviona, tell me. If you were to use a [Fireball], how much mana would you consume? For example, if I were to create one and toss it at an object like that boulder, I would consume 244 mana. How about you?”

“Hm. 50 mana to form the shape of fire and ten mana to launch it. The answer is 60 mana,” came an immediate reply.

“I-I see,” said Mira in resignation. “Then, how big is your mana pool?”

“Mana pool?”

“Yes. Let me explain. The spell I talked about would use 344 mana out of 3000 that I currently have.”

“Oh. It would be 30% or 60/200.”

Hm, so she uses that much huh? I use approximately 5%. She said in the city that her body would not grow any further, so does that mean her mana is permanently 200? No, I don’t think so.

“Alviona, you used [Fireball], healing ability of sorts and also the boulder from earth. How much did your other two actions cost?”

“The earth element cost me 80 mana and forming a command for healing was 600 mana.”

“What?! Then you used a total of 740 mana!”

“That would be correct.”

“Where did you get an additional 540 mana?”

“From my essence core. My body connects to it. The current mana passage is rather small though.”

“I do not understand…”

“Hm, allow me to explain it differently then. Mana is fuel for magic yes?”

Mira nodded.

“But in reality, mana is only a form of energy. I have a core that makes up my essence, which is made of an infinite supply of power. My mana well that you refer to is a converter. Energy is processed into mana. Currently, I can convert 200 mana per second because that is the amount that can fit through mana vessels. It is precisely why the wolves took 3 seconds to heal. I had six different set of instructions that each cost 100 mana. In other words, I did two instructions per second. Once my essence grows larger and connects to proper mana arteries, I will be able to process more mana per second. Does this help?” asked Alviona, excited that she was given an opportunity to discuss her body.

Mira was confused but decided to accept everything as was given. She understood that Alviona worked differently, evident from their bath session a few days ago. Not prying about anything else, she told her that all the current questions were answered.

Shortly after the discussion, the party took a quick break, had lunch, and continued their journey towards the city of Allaqar.