Deep autumn, changing the colors of the garments some trees wore.
The wind was neither humid and stifling nor chilly; it was just right.
While continuing our journey, we decided to spend a day in a small village at the foot of a hill in the middle of the forest.
But there was clearly no chance of finding a proper inn in such a small village of barely a hundred residents.
Yet if there was no inn, there was bound to be a church.
Even small churches mostly had a small room for receiving guests according to doctrine.
Though they usually asked for a small donation in exchange.
But since this small church building didn't have more than two guest rooms, I had to share a room with Kasian at times like this, which was a bit embarrassing.
Moreover, there wasn't even a bed with straw in it, so we had to sleep on the dust-covered floor.
Since, of course, lighting a fire in here was out of the question, we made do with preserved rations for dinner.
At least we could produce warm water with magic, so we didn't have to chew the rock-hard bread as it was.
As the sun set, a slightly cold wind seeped in through the door.
I was writing in my diary by the light of the faint light magic I had cast when today's date suddenly caught my eye.
December 17th.
"Come to think of it, your birthday is soon."
"Huh, is it already that time?"
"Right? Time flies faster than I thought."
A year ago was before I had even met Illiana, after all.
"...Birthday?"
"Well, it's not the day you were born. Since I don't know your real birthday, I set the day we met as your birthday."
When I had first picked you up, you couldn't talk, of course, and couldn't even crawl, so you were practically a newborn infant.
Still, you seemed to be a few months old, so your real birthday is probably around midsummer. That was just my guess, though.
"Anyway, what should I do for you this time?"
"I liked last year's just fine."
For the record, last year's birthday gift was a dish I made myself.
Naturally, since it was a birthday, it wasn't an ordinary meal. I had prepared a splendid feast, even using dragon meat.
So if you ask where the dragon meat suddenly came from, I took it out of a subspace where time had stopped, which is where I keep my important belongings.
Because of that, I had a slightly longer nightmare than usual that night...
"I'll think about it."
Well, there was still some time left, so I could think about the details when the time came.
◇
———Knock, knock, knock!
Dawn was just beginning to break, while the sound of insects still clamored loudly.
I had quickly gotten up and was preparing to leave while half-asleep when someone knocked on the door from outside.
I was forcing dried bread into my mouth while dozing off, so I opened the door slowly, feeling slightly annoyed.
Then, beyond the door stood the priest who had welcomed us yesterday and a man with the appearance of a roadside farmer.
It was difficult to see clearly since I was relying on the faint magical lamp, but he appeared to be around thirty.
"A mage... Didn't they say there was a mage? This is just a child."
"Not that child. A slightly taller man with gray hair..."
I had bothered to open the door and come out, yet they were talking among themselves, which was rather grating.
They come at this early hour, and what in the world is this?
And that man, making an openly disappointed expression the moment he saw me—where does he keep his manners?
"...Is there something you need?"
"Y-yes. Isn't there a mage among your companions?"
If we're talking about mages, all three people in this room are mages.
But connecting it to what he had said earlier, he seemed to be referring to Kasian, so I opened the door slightly to show them inside.
It was a borrowed room anyway, and the owner had come along, so what could I do?
Inside, Illiana was similarly dozing off while nibbling on jerky, and Kasian was relatively alert, soaking bread in warm water and eating it.
And upon seeing Kasian, that man fell to his knees before him.
Kasian looked at me with a gaze asking who on earth this person was, but I had no answer to give him either.
"M-Mage! Please help us!"
He then began to plead with Kasian, kneeling and bowing his head.
"Uh...?"
Kasian was utterly flustered, unable to comprehend the situation, but the man continued speaking as if he couldn't see that at all.
"M-my daughter has been strange since last night! Please help us!"
Hmm. Well, a sick child is certainly a grave matter.
Kasian looked at me past the dim light, as if asking what to do, and I slowly nodded.
"Yes, let us go."
"Really! Th-thank you! Thank you!"
The man repeatedly expressed his gratitude to Kasian, bowing his head, then rose and began to lead the way.
Illiana was staggering about, likely because she hadn't fully woken up, so I left her behind in the room.
As we walked into the village following the guide, Kasian whispered to me.
"But you know, there's a priest here. Why is he asking us?"
In other words, he was saying that illnesses could be treated with holy magic, so why had they bothered to call us?
But you need to be a proper priest to use holy magic or anything of the sort.
"The priest here isn't a proper priest."
I felt the priest walking ahead of us flinch slightly, but what could be done about it?
"Priests in places like this are priests in name only. In reality, they're something like frontier church administrators."
There were countless small villages scattered across even just the northern half of this continent; they couldn't dispatch formal priests to every single one.
By formal priest, I mean those capable of manifesting miracles of God on earth through holy magic.
The Holy Council wasn't such an irrational organization that it would casually send priests of that caliber off to the countryside.
Therefore, priests in these backwater villages were for the most part priests in name only—essentially no different from the villagers, having received no systematic education.
As such, there was no way they could use proper holy magic.
Even if they could use it, it would only amount to barely healing minor scratches.
"But I'm a mage..."
"Common folk who don't often encounter mages simply think of them as people who perform mysterious feats. That's why."
They assume that since you can perform mysterious feats, you can probably cure illnesses with magic as well.
Technically, it wasn't impossible if pushed to the extreme, but that was normally the domain of holy magic.
"It's over there."
When we entered the house as guided, a spacious home revealed itself.
One wall had a small coop with a few chickens, and wooden barrels were scattered about on the other side.
And in the innermost corner were two beds. One held two children who looked to be about four or five years old, sleeping; on the other, a girl with long hair was lying.
As I approached, I could see the child more clearly.
She had ordinary black hair, and her height seemed to fall roughly between mine and Kasian's.
As he had said, the child's condition looked quite serious at a glance. She was scrunching up her eyes, groaning and suffering.
"P-Please look. She collapsed yesterday at sunset and slowly began to ail, and since the sun went down, she has been like this. If it were a cold, she would at least be coughing, but she isn't, and she has no fever..."
He explained to Kasian as if giving a briefing on the patient, but of course, there was no way Kasian could understand anything from that.
While Kasian was caught up in the situation, I stepped forward in his stead, placed my hand lightly on the girl's chest, and sent a small amount of mana flowing into her.
"Hmm..."
The mana I had sent throughout her body returned to me, informing me of the condition deep within the girl's body.
"Master, do you know?"
"Yes."
What the girl was currently suffering from was clear: acute mana poisoning caused by excessive mana.
Having rapidly absorbed far more mana than her body could handle in a short period.
Her body was under strain all over, and she had suffered multiple injuries.
It was rather curious. Mana powerful enough to cause this degree of poisoning was hard to come by in a remote place like this.
"If left like this, this child will die."
"Wh-what?! N-no, huh?!"
Just as I was about to explain to Kasian, the man cut in and shouted upon hearing the word "die."
Until just now, he had spoken as if looking down on us, but perhaps because Kasian called me "Master," his attitude suddenly turned respectful.
But I paid no mind to such trivialities and explained in a manner he could understand.
"Th-Then this child..."
I had said she would die if left untreated, but perhaps his mind had raced ahead; he made a despairing expression upon hearing only the word "die."
"No, there is a cure."
Fundamentally, the first step was to eliminate the cause of the mana poisoning.
Once the cause was removed, we could stop any further excessive absorption of mana into her body.
But we couldn't just leave things be. Waiting for the mana already absorbed into the body to dissipate on its own could lead to death.
Therefore, the most effective treatment was to feed her large quantities of herbs with the property of absorbing mana.
They weren't common, but not rare enough that they couldn't be found. Searching the vicinity for about a day should turn some up.
"Th-Then...!!"
"Yes. She can survive. We'll search as soon as the sun rises."
"Thank you! Truly, thank you!"
The girl's father repeatedly expressed his gratitude, gripping my hand tightly with both of his own and bowing his head continuously.