The morning after meticulously recording Lily's magical runaway patterns——yes, the very morning after finishing those observation notes like "Water Sphere: Gravity Control Instability Resulting in Vertical Drop" and "Fire Sphere: Tendency to Veer Right-Downward from Direct Approach"——Kudo Shojin finished breakfast early at the Donkame Inn and headed toward the Watarube Alliance Crevasse headquarters. Morning Crevasse was noisy. From the direction of the central market, the spirited voices of street vendors carried through. Morning dew still clung to the stone pavement, glittering in the light. The sky was clear, and the White Phosphorus Palace's spire was visible in the distance. In Shojin's hands was a notebook he'd just finished writing in last night. The cover bore neat handwriting: "Request Efficiency Optimization Notebook (Third Edition)." For the record, he'd made the first edition on day one and revised the second edition based on the next day's observations. Today, the third edition was complete. When he opened the guild headquarters door, the quiet peculiar to mornings and the smell of parchment drifted out. There were eight reception windows, but only three were open at this hour. Several adventurers already stood before the request board. Shojin positioned himself directly in front of the board and opened his notebook. The board was covered with requests of various sizes written on parchment and posted up. Shojin read through them all in order from top to bottom. Then, with his pen in his right hand, he wrote in his notebook. Request name. Reward. Estimated travel time. Consumable costs. Danger adjustment. Net profit. Hourly wage conversion. Seventeen requests total. In about ten minutes, the list was complete. Shojin compared his notebook to the board, verifying the numbers. Yeah, it checks out. "...Um." A voice came from one of the reception windows. It was the receptionist Anna. A woman with neatly tied chestnut hair and slightly sleepy eyes, she was at the window every time Shojin visited the Watarube Alliance. She was probably a bit older than him——nineteen or twenty, perhaps. "What are you doing?" Anna asked. "Compiling the profitability of requests into a list," Shojin replied, keeping his gaze on the board. There was a pause. Anna seemed to lean over and whisper something to the receptionist at the next window. "Hey, that kid is calculating the profitability of every single request," Anna said quietly. "...By the minute?" the other receptionist asked. "By the minute," Anna confirmed. A silent eye contact passed between the two of them. Shojin paid no attention and continued searching his list for the most efficient request. His eyes moved down the list in order. Volg extermination, five of them——four hours including travel, reward is three silver coins, but he did it yesterday. Consecutive jobs rack up fatigue costs. Next. Magical herb gathering——west side of Valessa Forest, about two hours, reward one silver coin plus the herbs themselves. Next. Grass cutting request——from a farmer, forest perimeter outside, one and a half hours, reward one silver coin. Shojin's eyes stopped. (Grass cutting and herb gathering... aren't they in the same direction?) If he could handle both jobs in the same area, he'd cut travel costs in half. Total reward: three silver coins. Travel time: just over two hours. In terms of net profit and hourly wage, it beat the Volg extermination. He circled it in his notebook. A thick, confident circle. Then footsteps approached rapidly from the hallway. "Huh, you're already here!? That's cheating, Shojin-sama!!" Lily burst in. Her long silver hair swayed. The moon-marked magical staff hung askew on her shoulder. There was the usual thin scrape on her cheek. Her water-blue eyes widened the moment she saw Shojin's notebook. "...You're calculating again," Lily said. "I am," Shojin replied. "All of them?!" she asked. "All of them," he confirmed. "All seventeen?!" she pressed. "Were you counting?" Shojin asked. "I wasn't counting or anything!!" Lily protested. At that moment, slow footsteps approached from the back of the reception area. It was Dart Meilin, the branch director. Fifty-two years old. A solidly built man with salt-and-pepper short hair. An old scar ran across his right arm——he was a former Second-Class Hero, ranking sixth from the bottom among the seven-tier adventurer classification system recognized by the Watarube Alliance. Quite a skilled individual. Now he worked as branch director handling paperwork, but his gaze remained that of an active adventurer. Dart saw Shojin's notebook. He completely froze for five seconds. Not even blinking. His expression didn't move. He was as still as a statue. "...A Moss-rank," Dart said slowly. Moss-rank was the lowest classification in the Watarube Alliance's ranking system——the color of Shojin's current guild badge. The bottom of seven tiers. The mark of a "newcomer," essentially. "...is calculating the profitability of every single request," Dart continued. "I just organized it for myself," Shojin answered calmly. Anna buried her face in her hands. The other receptionist did the same. Both at the exact same moment, in perfect harmony. "I'll take this request," Shojin said. He held out his notebook. The grass cutting and herb gathering requests both had circles next to them. "...Grass cutting," Dart said. "And herb gathering, simultaneous acceptance. Since they're in the same area, I can reduce travel costs. Total of three silver coins, estimated completion in two hours and twelve minutes," Shojin explained. Dart looked at Shojin's face. Then at the notebook. Then back at Shojin's face. "...Even Dawn-rank adventurers don't pick that request," Anna said, her voice sounding tired. Dawn-rank was the highest classification among the seven tiers——the color held by those approaching Special-Class Hero status. In other words, the strongest people didn't even glance at this job. "What's the problem with something simple?" Shojin asked genuinely. Anna looked up at the ceiling. Dart looked up at the ceiling. The other receptionist looked at the wall. For a while, no one said anything. A strange silence settled over the Watarube Alliance reception area. "...I'll issue the request ticket," Anna said quietly. Her eyes were still somewhat distant. --- Valessa Forest——about twenty-five kilometers west of Crevasse, a gentle broadleaf woodland——its perimeter was beautiful in the morning light. The grass cutting was a job from a farmer, involving cutting overgrown grass along the forest boundary. The herb gathering required collecting three specific types of medicinal plants in set quantities for a pharmacist. Both were simple, both were reliable, and both were in safe areas where even Volgs didn't appear. "Grass cutting is fun!!" Lily said, swinging her magical staff around. "Please don't use magic," Shojin said. "Huh, why not?!" she asked. "The crops will get caught in it," he explained. "...You're right," Lily said, settling down. Shojin picked up the sickle again and cut grass. Lily stood beside him, gathering the cut grass. Before they realized it, their rhythm had synchronized. Herb gathering was Lily's specialty. Having come from Cornath, the academy city of Louveria——the magical research nation in the western continent——Lily had reliable knowledge of herb identification. She classified and gathered them one after another with precision, and watching her work, Shojin felt genuine admiration. (She really is good at this.) Lily, who caused spectacular magical runaway incidents, moved with practiced efficiency when faced with plants. That contrast was somehow amusing. Two hours and twelve minutes later, they completed both requests and returned to the guild. At the reception window, Anna stamped the completion mark while glancing at Shojin. She looked like she wanted to say something, but silently handed over three silver coins. Shojin wrote in his notebook: "2 hours 12 minutes, 3 silver coins, prediction error: zero." --- When evening came, lights lit up in the Donkame Inn's shared kitchen. Shojin asked the innkeeper Pola, "May I use the kitchen for a bit?" and she replied, "You've got no reason I'd say no, go ahead." Pola was meddlesome and talkative, but fundamentally a good person. As Shojin was preparing a cutting board and knife, there was a loud thud behind him. "Please give me special training!!" Lily burst into the kitchen. She was even wearing her apron inside-out. "Your apron is backwards," Shojin said. "Huh?! Oh?!" Lily flailed trying to fix it, and the waist ties got tangled. She managed to straighten it, but now the neck part was wrong. "...It's fine, leave it like that," Shojin said. "Don't be modest!!" Lily protested. "I'm not being modest, it's really fine," Shojin said. "You can teach cooking normally, right?! You can, Shojin-sama!!" Lily insisted. Shojin thought for a moment. Cooking was indeed something he could do normally. He hadn't lived alone, but he'd had a habit of cooking for himself back in Japan. "Well, I can teach you," he said. "As expected!!! Modest!!! A genius!!!" Lily cheered. Shojin silently retrieved root vegetables. Root vegetable soup——the Donkame Inn's specialty, what Pola made every morning. The ingredients were potato, carrot-like root vegetables, onion-like something. Simple and nutritious. It was what Shojin had eaten most since coming to Elistia. "First, how to grip the knife," Shojin began. "Understood!!" Lily said eagerly. Shojin froze when she picked up the knife. The grip was somewhat terrifying. The blade angle and thumb position were arranged in a way that exposed every finger to danger. "...Wait a moment," Shojin said. He moved behind Lily. Gently, he placed his own hand over hers. Slowly, he repositioned her fingers into the correct form. The air in the kitchen shifted slightly. Shojin didn't notice. He was concentrating on teaching proper root vegetable cutting technique. But Lily's ears were gradually turning red. Through the gaps in her silver hair, the edges of her ears were slowly flushing. Lily faced forward, barely breathing. "Holding it this way prevents you from cutting your fingers," Shojin explained. "Y-yes!" Lily's voice was slightly higher-pitched. Shojin was focused on teaching, completely missing the change in her tone. The knife instruction finished, and Lily began cutting vegetables. The first slice was jagged, but by the second it was better. "You're improving," Shojin said. "Really?!!" Lily's face brightened. The red in her ears had already faded back to normal. Next came heat control, and as Shojin was filling a pot with water—— "Leave the heat control to me!! I'll adjust it with magic!!" Lily said. "Wait, just a——" Shojin started. BOOOOOM!!!! The pot overflowed spectacularly. Actually, it went beyond overflowing——the entire kitchen was filled with soup mist. Fragments of potato-like root vegetables danced through the air. The flame from Lily's magical staff had apparently hit the pot bottom with five times the intended heat. With a sound like GAAHHH!!!!, both Shojin and Lily were soaked. Three seconds of silence. Soup splatters clung to the kitchen walls. Drops fell from the ceiling. A piece of root vegetable fell from above their heads with a soft plop. "...Why did you try to adjust it with magic?" Shojin asked quietly, his voice carrying a clear note of exhaustion. Lily's voice became smaller. "...At the academy in Cornath, cooking with magic was normal," she said. Her voice was lower than usual. It wasn't bright. Shojin paused for a moment. "...I'm not angry," he said. Lily's face brightened immediately. Her water-blue eyes held a relieved expression. "Really?!" she asked. "Really. I'd just appreciate it if you could wipe down the pot," Shojin said. "I'll wipe it!! With all my strength!!!" Lily grabbed a