v3 Chapter 8: Riku's Power

Soon after that, Riku was taken to the town church and made to undergo the Trial of Aptitude.

“This child has sufficient magic capacity and a high aptitude for healing. If possible, he should pursue the path of a healer,” he was told, leaving Riku dumbfounded.

“Hey Silas,” Riku asked later, “are healing power or magic capacity useful for farming at all?”

The answer that came back to that question was no.

“No use at all,” Silas replied. “But, since you have the power anyway, there's the option of going to the Lakes to become a magician, or attending church to become a healer.”

“In any case, you must come for healing studies regardless,” the person from the church had added. Apparently, those with high healing aptitude must study healing, even if they have another job, and must perform healing work if something happens.

“Perform healing freely whenever asked. In return, people donate to the church, and healers receive a proper allowance, huh?” Riku mused. “It's based on goodwill, yet somehow rational.”

“Rational?” Silas repeated. “I'd never thought of it that way.”

On the way back from the church, the two walked through town talking like this. Children living in the town apparently gathered at the church almost every afternoon to learn letters and arithmetic. In the mornings, everyone helped at home and learned the family trade.

“Today we used the wagon,” Silas said, “but once you get used to it, I'll lend you Lak, so you can travel back and forth to town by horse.”

“But what about helping out?”

“Same as everyone else. Just do it in the morning. Our work starts early.”

Commuting to 'school' on horseback. Somehow, it was exciting. He could read the town signs, and felt like he could probably write too, so it seemed he could already read and write from the start; he would likely focus mainly on studying healing.

“Of course,” Silas added, “after school finishes, as long as it's not too late, you can hang out with the town kids too.”

“Making friends now... no thanks.”

“Well, just remember that you can if you want.”

And so, Riku's life in this world began.

First, wake up early, let Hak and Lak out, clean the stable in the meantime, and prepare hay. There was a large watering place in the pasture fed by a spring from the hill, where both horses and cows apparently drank freely. He also went to check this once a day to make sure there were no issues.

A cowshed was available, but in this area where even winter wasn't that cold, the cows spent the whole day outside. Apparently, they gathered under the roof on their own when the weather was bad. In the morning, only the cows with full udders came voluntarily to be milked.

Around that time, a large wagon arrived bringing the milking girls and wives. The wives cheerfully milked the cows and then returned home. Silas transported the collected milk to the butter factory.

Silas's job, he said, was to turn the barren hill land into pasture, and then hand it over to people who wanted to get into dairy farming. “Land that nobody could use has gradually become usable,” he'd say proudly. Once the cow chores were done, Silas would go to work on the rough land he was currently developing, preparing it so the cows could walk easily. He was doing work completely different from the dairy farming or agriculture Riku knew.

When not going to town, Riku walked along with Silas like this. Though given a small hatchet and clearing bushes in the rough land, he didn't feel like he was being useful at all, but still, Silas seemed to be enjoying himself, so Riku thought maybe it was fine.

“Silas, you know, ever since he lost his child, he's been living all withdrawn,” the town's self-proclaimed kind people told Riku, even though he hadn't asked.

Lost his child—even asking the townspeople about it resulted in evasive answers, but Riku thought that attic room must surely have been that child's room. When Riku later looked in the drawers, he found clothes ranging from small sizes up to adult ones. Thinking he might be a substitute for that child made his chest ache a little, but Riku had come to entrust his heart to Silas enough to think that if being a substitute made Silas feel better, then that was fine.

Going around places with Silas was fun, but surprisingly, studying healing was also enjoyable. It took quite a while to understand the concept of the soul's radiance, but once he understood it, progress was quick from there. More than anything, it was thrilling that as long as he didn't run out of magic power, he could draw limitless energy from the goddess's source.

And then one day, he realized. That soul energy existed in plants, and even in the soil.

He realized this when he went with Silas to preview some new rough land that Silas was planning to develop starting next year.

“Something feels dark here,” Riku commented.

“True, the sun doesn't reach inside the bushes, but...”

“Not like that, it's like...” Unsure how to put it, Riku narrowed his eyes and observed his surroundings carefully. “It lacks vitality.” Like townspeople exhausted from overwork. Like people weakened by injury.

“Does that mean... maybe I can heal rough land too?” Muttering this to himself, Riku placed his hand on the ground. “Basically, I just need to bring energy from the goddess's source to the soil.”

He was able to connect with the goddess and bring that energy to the land. But the land was vast, and no matter how much energy¹ he brought, there was no end to it.

When Silas happened to glance back at Riku, Riku had collapsed.

“Riku? Riku!”

He hurriedly carried him to the town church, only to be told it was magic exhaustion.

“What on earth did Riku do to drain his magic completely?” Silas demanded.

“I don't know,” Riku likely replied weakly.

“Well, leave him like this until he wakes up, then feed him nutritious food, and don't let him do whatever caused the magic exhaustion,” was the advice.

When Riku woke up, Silas scolded him severely, and scolded him even more when he explained the situation, making him swear never to do anything reckless again.

So Riku never used his healing power on the soil again. Until the following year, when he noticed that rough land had transformed into a place overflowing with green.

“My power... can enrich the land. This must surely be the power the goddess bestowed upon me.”

“Riku.”

“Please, Silas. I won't be reckless like before. So, won't you entrust some rough land to me? Little by little, I think I can heal the land without collapsing.”

“You...”

However, Riku didn't know that too much energy creates imbalance, and that it relentlessly attracts monsters. Even Silas only understood this as a distant legend in the back of his mind and didn't realize Riku was starting down the wrong path.

And its influence was certainly starting to appear. Only slightly, but in the form of an increase in monsters.