I use the Waymark to travel into the Great Forest, then run the rest of the way home to the cottage.
“I’m home! Selina, look—I bought this flute!”
I thrust the dust-covered flute right in front of Selina’s face. As usual, she’d been lounging on the sofa reading a book, but today she actually sits up when I return home.
She stares intently at the grimy flute I’m holding out to her.
“Huh. A magic flute all the way out in backwater Carlton? How much did it cost?”
“I bought it for eight pennies… Does that make me a swindler?”
She sits up properly and takes the flute in her hands.
“I figured there’d be adventurers in Carlton, but not mages. Maybe no one realized what it was? Well, if the shopkeeper said eight pennies, then that’s the price.”
Well, prices are set by whoever names them first. If they didn’t understand this flute’s true value, there’s nothing to be done about it.
“Besides, to anyone other than you, this would just be an old, worn-out flute. Only a Troubadour could truly master it.”
“Huh? You mean I can’t just play it for fun? Ehhh, that’s not good!”
I grumble and pout, but Selina just glares at me.
“Don’t mix training with playtime. And besides, it should still work as a normal flute if you don’t use magic.”
She says that, but it’s not like she teaches me magic all that enthusiastically.
“In any case, it’s too dirty to play right now. You need to purify it properly.”
Oof. Honestly, I was hoping Selina would do the Purification spell for me. Mine’s kind of… halfway there, at best.
But I wanna play it so badly!
Okay, let’s give it a shot!
“Purification.”
Mmm… not great. It got the dust off, sure, but it’s more like I gave it a lazy wipe-down with a rag.
“Purification!”
I put more energy into it, but I still don’t feel like putting my mouth on it. Also, now that the dust is gone, I can see the wood’s chipped away in spots—and is that metal under there? All rusty and gross.
“Zoe, how many times do I have to tell you? If a spell doesn’t work, sing it.”
Oh, right! Until I get better at using magic, I gotta sing the spell to make it work.
“Purification♪.”
Ooooh, sparkles! Now this is what I was hoping for.
The dusty flute sparkles and shines, like it’s brand new. No way I want the shopkeeper to find out she sold this for just eight pennies!
“Hmm. Try blowing into it.”
Okay, it doesn’t feel gross anymore. Actually, I can’t wait to try it.
Ffff—
Nothing. It doesn’t make a sound.
Oh no! What if it’s broken?
“You need to channel magic into your breath,” Selina says, laughing at my disappointment.
“You do know it’s not a regular flute, right? Just let a little magic flow into your breath. But be careful—not too much at once, or it might break. Let it absorb your magic little by little.”
Ughh. Easy for her to say. Fine control over magic isn’t exactly my strength.
When I use Waymarks, I just dump a bunch of magic into them and it works. This is a totally different story.
First, I need to practice flowing magical power into my breath. After all, it would be terrible if I broke the flute I finally managed to get.
Fooo— “Like this?”
Selina flicks her fingers in a vague little wave. “Seems fine,” she says, like she doesn’t care at all.
Which probably means it’s still too weak.
“Should I try more magic? Wait, no—better not. I’ll keep it slow and steady.”
She said to let the flute “absorb” my magic little by little. I kind of get what she means, but how much exactly is “little”?
Fooo, fooo, fooo, fooo…
I try again and again. Still, all I get is the soft empty sound of air escaping.
“Zoe, can you start dinner already?”
Ugh, do it yourself!
Still… While I leave the stew to warm up, I go out to tuck Merry and Ben into the goat shed.
While eating, I start comparing this stew to the one at the Prancing Pony.
“Hers was thicker… and I think she used some herbs? Maybe some kind of broth too?”
Selina, by the way, can’t cook. Like, it’s actually tragic.
I’m a little better—not great—but sometimes memories from my previous life give me hints here and there.
“I wanna learn how to cook…”
I still have three years to go before I turn ten. That’s way too long to keep eating bland food.
Once I’m an adventurer, I can just eat at inns. But until then…
Selina suddenly exclaims, “That’s a good idea! I think the general store lady was a good cook.”
Which probably means I’ll have to pay to learn. Nothing’s free in this world.
“Wait… if I teach drumming or dancing, can I get paid too?”
Selina gives me a weird look, so I tell her what Maggie and I talked about.
“Something like that? Just teach them for free. It’ll help you get along with the villagers.”
Hmm, fair enough. Matthew taught me how to make crop rows, after all. And I do like music and dancing.
After dinner, I keep practicing with the flute.
Puuu! Puuu! Puuu!
Each breath carries a little more magic than the last.
But then I get a sudden feeling.
Huh? That felt… different.
Puuuuu!
When I channeled all my magical power into it, I felt magic push back from the flute!
“This might be it!”
I try blowing again—and peep! a beautiful clear note rings out.
“Good grief, finally. But it’s already late at night, so I won’t tolerate any noisy peeping and tooting.”
“Ehh? But I just got it to work!”
Selina ignores my protest completely.
Still, the moment I’m pushed into bed and lie down, I fall asleep like a rock.
When I wake up in the morning, I realize I must’ve used quite a bit of magical power.