Okami Wa Nemuranai

"AAAAAAH! Found ya! Finally found ya. Hey you, stop right there! I told you to stop!"

Lecan kept walking on without paying attention to a voice echoing in the busy street as he didn't think the caller was referring to him. He'd be late to work if he dawdled on.

"I told, you, to, STOP."

When he noticed through <Life Detection> and <3D Perception> that the suspicious person was going straight at him while pushing away other passerby, Lecan turned around.

"Who are you."

"Didcha forgot?! I'm Eda. We worked together as Chaney's escort, remember?"

"You were nothing but a drag."

"So you do remember! Oy, Lecan. Why'd you leave me behind."

"Once the job is over, you're nothing but a stranger. And it was you who slept in when I left the inn."

"Dontcha taught manner geez. I mean, we're comrades and all."

"Comrades?"

"What are you up to now?"

"I have nothing to say to you."

"As for me, I been taking on quests at the Adventurer's Association just so ya know."

"Really. See you."

"Ah, hey don't go off on your own you."

Eda kept talking on and on while persistently following Lecan, while Lecan himself paid her no heed. But then he recalled something and stopped in his tracks. Eda knocked against him hard from behind.

"Ow ow ow. Dangit you! The heck didcha stop suddenly. That's dangerous!"

"You."

"What now."

"Possess mana."

"...Eh?"

"Go study magic. You should have an aptitude."

Then Lecan walked away just like that. Eda froze for a while before she ran after him in a great haste. After all, Eda has a much smaller stature than Lecan, and Lecan is quick on his feet.

"Y-y-y-you. W-w-what are ya sayin'? W-what about me and mana?"

"I'm telling you that you possess mana."

"No way. I have mana, me?"

"You probably never tried to check it."

"How'd you even check out stuff like that."

Lecan leaped over a wall without saying anything back. And then he hopped up the walls and went along roofs toward Shira's house.

Eda was howling about something, but he completely ignored her.

The medicine making resumed.

A day after Lecan met Eda again, they finished making pills intended for different symptoms.

Pharmacies sell these by mixing them with less effective powdered medicine. Of course, guests of honor get to buy the whole pills.

Lecan learned <Appraisal> magic that same day.

He was able to learn it right away, but it was completely unusable for him.

"Don't rush it. The real battle for <Appraisal> begins after you've learned it."

"The result of appraisal comes up in my mind, but I can't make out what it means at all."

"Of course you wouldn't. The one doing appraising has got to make a saucer of meaning on their side."

"What should I do."

"For example, see this desk here. What kind of result you think will come out if you appraise this without any condition?"

"Desk of course."

"Wrong. The right answer is <Wood>."

"The name of its raw material?"

"More precisely, it's about standpoints. This looks like a <desk> at the convenience of men, no? To people who have no concept of desk nor understand how a desk works, getting <Desk> as the result of appraisal would be meaningless. Don't you think so?"

"Umu."

"As such. Try to read the appraisal result while strongly wishing to understand its value to human. Eventually, you'll get the result you seek. As you get better at it, eventually even words you don't know will come up as appraisal's results."

"Unknown words?"

"For instance, someone getting <Crossbow> word as a result of appraising a crossbow even though they have no idea what a crossbow is."

"Isn't that just obvious."

"Being able to appraise something you have knowledge about is actually quite amazing you know. Well either way. Just keep at it. If you have dungeon items, try to appraise those. Dungeon items have fixed meaning, so they're really easy to appraise, you see."

"That's a nice piece of info."

Lecan took potions out of <Storage> and appraised every one of them.

"I see it."

"Yep, keep it up."

That night in Lecan's room at the inn, he took the jewel Lady Rubianafale exchanged with him and put it under <Appraisal>.

<Name: Guardian Jewel of Zana>

<Item Name: Jewel>

<Grace: Boost Physical Attack, Supplement User's Mana, Null Curse>

--I got it read!

Lady Rubianafale's jewel really does boost physical attack. It even has the wonderful <Null Curse> effect. But just what is <Supplement User's Mana> supposed to be.

Looking back at his fight against the earth dragon Toron, the mana lost from using <Gust> was still gone until he recharged it using magic gems. To begin with, this jewel gives a boost to physical attacks, not magical attack. Yet why would it have <Supplement User's Mana> Grace.

Lecan hesitates to consult to Shira about this jewel.

It should become clear sooner or later anyway. He decided to look forward to that day.

Next, he took out his trusty sword.

<Name: None>

<Item Name: Sword>

<Grace: Self-Restoration>

Lecan was relieved that he could read the enchanted effect, but he felt that the information he got was slightly lacking.

Next he took out the silver ring and appraised it.

<Name: None>

<Item Name: Ring>

<Graces: Resist Abnormal Status, Resist Poison, Resist Curse>

The abilities he got put on the ring by paying a hefty amount of money to an enchanter seem to be treated as Graces here in this world.

He took more items from <Storage> and appraised them all.

<TLN: If you're reading this novel at any other site than Sousetsuka.com you might be reading an unedited, uncorrected version of the novel.>

Two days later, they finished making antidote. This took an entire day.

The antidote is made of 10 kinds of herbs, two kinds of moss, and one kind of leaf bud as raw materials, then two kinds of minerals are added to combat deterioration, the antidote is in the form of pills and works on seven types of poisons. These pills aren't sold over the counter at pharmacies, but only to special customers. Lecan got some himself.

The next day, they finished making a medicine that suppresses all kinds of cold symptoms. It's pills again.

This one took two days, next they would complete cure-all.

Cure-all is a pill-shaped medicine that works on a wide range of internal organ illnesses. It has a pain relief effect and even a weak detoxifying effect. As this one is always on demand at every store, they made a lot of it. After kneading, kneading, and kneading on pills all day long, Lecan even started to hallucinate himself becoming a pill.

Two days after that, while they were busy working in the basement, Shira suddenly had a dubious look on her face.

"Oh ho? Someone's here. Doesn't seem to be the lord's messenger though. I wonder who."

Lecan has detected the visitor as well.

"Weird. Think I know this person. But there's no way she'd get to this place."

The two paused working and went above ground.

"Open up! Open uuuup. I beg you, please open this door."

"Might be better to leave her be."

"You know her right? Don't you think that's too cold."

"Guess she'd knock the door down if we leave her alone."

"Go open it up."

Eda was standing outside when Lecan opened the door.

"Finally meet you!"

"What do you want."

"Let me inside please."

"This isn't my house."

"It's the apothecary Shira-san's right?"

"...What are you here for."

"No well, I wanted to see you, see. So I went to Aira at the Adventurer Association and then she said I'd find out if I went to apothecary Shira-san's house. She even drew me a map."

"I'm amazed you managed to make your way here."

"Took me two days."

"I see. Must have been hard. Well then."

"Stop! Don't close the door."

"Oh let her inside. I'll go get tea ready."

"T-thank you very much ssu."

"You."

"W-what now."

"So you can talk like that."

"So you were looking for me to teach you magic."

"I want you to teach me how to learn magic. This tea is really good ssu. Shira-san, you're really good at making tea ssune."

"Oh is that true. I'm glad to hear that."

"I have no clue how to teach someone magic, nor can I point you to someone who can. Go home."

"How about you try teaching her."

"Shira-san, I'm really happy ssu."

"Lecan. You can learn many things by teaching others. You will obtain many new magic from here on. But that's only on the surface. By teaching others, you will notice things you cannot notice on your own. It may look like a waste of time in a roundabout way, but doing so will ultimately pave a shortcut toward bigger meaningful things."

Shira ordered Lecan to teach Eda magic.

Lecan had no choice but to reluctantly agree to it.

"So, Eda-chan. You must be mainly taking service quests, aren't you."

"How'd you know?"

"Which means, you must be busy in daytime. Come here in the evening every day."

"Here? Again? Wonder if I could manage..."

"You must not practice magic in any other place than here. And you must not tell anyone that you're learning magic. This is something far bigger than you could ever imagine. Things would turn messy if people found out about it."

It was Lecan who told Eda to learn magic.

However, this girl looks like she's got an extremely low learning capacity.

There's no way she could learn magic, such was his hunch.

They finished with the medicine-making for that day and thus, Lecan began teaching Eda magic.

He had to verbalize the sensation he felt into words when it came down to the actual teaching. And it was more difficult than he had ever expected.

While recalling how and what Shira did and said when she was teaching him, Lecan made an attempt to convey how it felt to cast magic.

Eda was desperately trying as well, but there was absolutely no hint of magic getting activated to the end of the day.

However, there was one thing that Eda managed to instantly pull off.

When Lecan climbed up the stakes on his way back, Eda imitated him in no time at all. Climbing up stakes hammered in a wall using only your feet may look simple, but it's actually not. Even Lecan had to borrow the power of <Gust> at the last spurt when he first did it. The fact that she pulled it off without any problem on her first try means that she's got an extremely agile body.

The next day, Eda came slightly earlier than the agreed time, before evening.

When Lecan and Shira were done with their work and went to Jericho's room, the two were playing together in harmony.

"I brought Jericho's favorite fruits. And Jericho shared his special snacks for me in return."

Eda was full of motivation, but she couldn't cast magic either that day.

They finally finished preparing cure-all that day.

From tomorrow on, they would begin making preparation works for later time instead of making medicines.

In other words, in preparation for when they got other ingredients, they would be turning herbs into powder or liquid and put it into pots. The work of dividing and putting the exact amount into small pots needed quite the patience.

On the fifth day after Eda started learning magic.

Poof, <Lamplight> was cast.

Eda stared at the light at her fingertip like she couldn't believe what she saw.

That light fizzled out, she chanted the spell again.

A light lit up once again.

Eda burst into tears. Jericho held her shoulder while patting her back. Eda hugged Jericho and bawled out.

"I-I. The first time. This is the first time I succeeded at something someone taught me. And, and it's magic. Magic! I-I'm not a good-for-nothing. I-I'm a mage!"

She was pushing her tears and snot filled face against Jericho, but Jericho gently hugged Eda back without looking disgusted in the slightest.