The time I spent in the city had passed.
In the end, I left without ever taking a single step outside the inn.
A baby can't exactly wander around town, and I myself had no desire to go out anyway.
That white spider would then activate magic.
This was an order from Shiroi—I was told to learn magic by watching while we stayed at the inn.
Specifically, I was supposed to watch the magic the spider cast and learn from it by imitation.
That's asking way too much.
The magic being activated was dark magic.
Apparently, I have the highest aptitude for ice and water, with dark magic coming in second.
So you'd think I should be learning ice or water magic instead, but Shiroi said she couldn't use either of those, so we went with dark magic, which had the next highest aptitude.
Despite her pure white appearance, Shiroi apparently has the highest aptitude for dark magic.
It feels a bit like false advertising, but then again, I supposedly have an elemental weakness with water yet somehow have high water aptitude, so these things are best left unquestioned.
We spent four days in the city, including the first day, but I still couldn't master dark magic.
Even if I had managed to learn it, the Skill I would've obtained was apparently a lesser version called Shadow Magic.
Well, "lesser version" might not be the right way to put it—according to Ariel, it's a garbage Skill that's completely useless.
But if you level it up, it eventually branches into dark magic, which you can then use properly.
I can't stop questioning why she'd have me learn such a worthless Skill.
For starters, there's no way I could activate magic through sheer imitation without a Skill. That's impossible from the get-go.
Yet she still makes me do it, which I can only see as a colossal waste of effort.
And yet, whenever I try to slack off, the spider mercilessly pressures me, so I have no choice but to work hard at it.
That thing fires off a weak magic blast at me the slightest moment I show any sign of slacking.
My Magic Power Perception and Magic Power Operation Skill levels did go up, so I suppose it's not entirely pointless.
I also gained the new Skills of Skill Master and Guardian.
But still, I feel like there'd be much more efficient ways to level up Skills.
During the day I get bullied by the spider like this, and at night I have to deal with my own suffering.
Every time I finish dinner, the drunk Shiroi latches onto me.
That girl has the most atrocious drinking behavior imaginable.
And her personality does a complete one-eighty when she's drunk, making her impossible to handle.
What annoys me the most is the perverted, borderline sexual harassment.
She licks my body.
At least the inn has a bath, but I'd really appreciate it if she didn't cover me in saliva and stick to me all over.
I have no idea why she licks me.
When Shiroi's drunk, you can't have a proper conversation with her, so when I ask, all she says is something flippant like "Because you look delicious."
Each time, I get this incredibly chilling sensation, but I'm sure it's just my imagination.
So my days were mostly miserable like that, but during our stay in the city, Melazophis seemed to have pulled himself together.
Maybe Ariel had given him some advice while I was asleep.
His complexion still hadn't returned to normal, but there was life in his eyes again.
Ideally, it should've been me—as his master—to do something about it, but since I had no idea how, I was genuinely glad he'd recovered on his own.
The only other nice thing was that every single meal was ridiculously delicious.
When I asked about it later, apparently Ariel had made them all.
You'd think "that's the person who was serving poison cuisine," but it was actually delicious, so there was nothing to complain about.
Once we left the city, what awaited us was—as expected—a journey through hell.
Yes.
I had a vague feeling this would happen.
There was no way Shiroi would pick a reasonable route.
She deliberately went off the main road and took us down paths that barely existed.
We had no choice but to follow, and starting from grasslands, then forests, then mountains, we were forced to traverse increasingly perilous terrain.
Even passing through all those places, no Monsters came near us, thanks to Ariel's power.
She was using an Intimidation-type Skill to drive them away.
I thought I wasn't affected by it, but it turns out my Fear Resistance was successfully countering it.
When I asked Melazophis, he said his Fear Resistance had also gone up during the journey.
Even so, he said he still failed to resist it sometimes, and spent much of the journey terrified of Ariel.
I hadn't noticed him acting that way at all, so I was a little surprised.
"I can't very well worry the young lady any further," he said with a bitter smile.
"I've caused you unnecessary concern up until now, but I'm perfectly fine now. I apologize for the trouble."
He spoke with a clear, composed air, having evidently gotten past whatever was troubling him.
I don't know how Melazophis managed to sort through his feelings, but I decided not to pry.
I figured it probably wasn't something I should be asking about.
The memento of someone he loved turned out to be a reincarnator—a vampire—some incomprehensible being, and on top of that, he himself had become a vampire.
You can't possibly understand what someone's going through unless you've experienced something similar yourself.
I imagine there must have been incredibly complex emotions swirling inside him.
I'm not exactly someone with the moral high ground to judge others.
If anything, I think I'm weaker in the heart than anyone.
So if he ever wants to talk about it someday, I'll listen, but I won't be the one to ask him directly.
More importantly, I want to know why we're deliberately pushing through this overgrown forest instead. That's what I really want to find out.