"SHUT UP AND FIREBALL THEM TO DEATH ALREADY, WITCH! YOU'RE WORSE THAN THESE GOBLINS!"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A WITCH?! BESIDES, IT TAKES TIME TO CHANT, Y'KNOW! HEY! DON'T COME MY WAY!"

"JUST STOP TALKING AND CHANT ALREADY THEN!"

From among trees and bushes came a desperate cat boy. Following him was half a dozen of goblins yearning for blood.

He was supposed to stealthly take on those more far apart from the group while Lianna casted Blind on the ones on watch.

If done carefully, they could take the whole camp on without damage, given there was less than a dozen goblins scattered around it. The plan seemed perfect.

But something went wrong.

The cat boy was spotted before reaching the first goblin and was soon surrounded. He managed to run away surprisingly quick, but that left Lianna no time to chant a better spell. And since he ran in a desperate bee-line among the trees, it was hard to fire a projectile on the pursing goblins.

What was left was to try an area of effect offensive spell, but the goblins were too many so the chance of causing friendly damage was high.

"At least run towards that clearing where I can-- H-Hey! Don't throw away your dagger!"

"SAVE MEEEE!!"

Then he started running straight at her.

They were going to get killed.

Or she could turn the situation around and go with a ranged spell with just a bit of area damage that is also quick to cast.

"Damn it! GET DOWN! FIREBALL!"

As soon as the warning was told, a ball of flames was sent flying from Lianna's staff.

Seeing it come his way, the cat boy immediately threw himself to the ground and hugged his ears. As the fireball flew over him and hit the goblins, a loud noise bellowed accompanied by flashes of light.

And then there was silence.

Was it over...?

Before the beast boy could look back, a shout was heard.

"Don't just stand there! Run!"

A little too slow to grasp the situation, the cat boy looked behind.

There goblins came running. Less than before, but bloodthirsty goblins nonetheless.

And they were close.

Didn't seeing their comrades burn to death scare them one bit?

"SAVE MEEEE!"

He jumped to his feet and resumed his escape towards his sole comrade, on whose arms he threw himself in despair.

"W-Wait! I cannot cast like that!"

Lianna tried shaking him off, but finishing her chant was priority.

"Flame wall!"

The timing was perfect. The wall of fire rose up exactly were the last goblins were, giving them no room to escape. In different circunstances, she would be proud of her skill. But now, it was sheer luck.

She didn't have time to cast it in a wider area, nor with greater power. But the goblins were packed close to each other, having learned nothing about the concept of Area Of Effect. Also, they were thankfully weak to fire.

Now that she thought about it, did goblins have the ability to learn? They carried weapons and wore clothes, and were even capable of some king of primitive speech.

Even if they did all those things worse than humans, using weapons and speaking were things one had to learn through life.

The monsters with burning bodies ran in circles, until they all lifelessly collapsed along with the little they had been able to learn in their short lives.

It was a close one. If they had survived, Lianna wouldn't have been so safe when lost in thought.

That was a habit she seriously needed to fix if she hoped to survive in such environment.

But it was their first quest, and it was completed with no injuries regardless.

Even though it was only to kill a bunch of goblins camping nearby for five silver pieces.

As one silver was worth twelve coppers, the reward would be split 2 silvers and 6 coppers for each.

"We... We did it!"

But no response came.

"Err... You can stop clinging to me chest now..."

As soon as she said that, a cat boy jumped back leaving a trail of snot on her new dress.

He rubbed his nose and sniffed with teary eyes. Then turned around and crossed his arms.

"Y-Yeah. Not like your chest had much to cling to anyway."

Among all the things he could have said, there was hardly any worse.

Just how cheap is it to try to offend a girl by talking about her chest size? So cheap she hadn't even imagined someone would just come and say it in real life.

Still she couldn't bring herself to feel any angrier.

Partly because of how tired she was.

And also due to what Lianna saw while looking at the cat boy's back.

His ears told he was likely trying to hide his shame with arrogance.

Apparently, that was something he did quite a lot. No doubt that also caused him problems before.

"The trees..."

But some bad habits are hard to lose.

"Hey, the trees!"

Lianna herself, for instance, frequently got lost in thought.

"Fire!"

Now that she thought about it, she hadn't asked for his name yet.

"DO YOU HEAR ME, WITCH?!"

"W-Who are you calling a witch?!"

"You! You set the forest on fire!"

"Wha...?!"

...

Lianna sat on the ground with her face buried on her knees, no longer minding dirtying her clothes. Rather, she was too tired to mind anything at all.

She had spent all the Mana she had left on extinguishing the fire that was spreading through the woods.

They had almost caused more environmental damage than they would be able to cover with their goblin-slaying quest's pay.

If those forests were protected, that is.

And, in the end, she didn't even use any of her signature Black Magic spells.

"I'm back."

"Oh, got all the ears?"

One cannot just leave for a quest and return claiming to have defeated enemies, nor haul back half a dozen of corpses into the city.

Instead, adventurers would take some part of the monsters they killed and present it at the guild. For goblins, the customary was the left ear.

What if one of the goblins didn't have the left ear from the start? Well, good luck explaining that to the receptionist.

While Lianna stood unable to walk due to Mana exhaustion, the cat boy recovered his dagger and collected the ears from the monsters' bodies.

"Nh."

"Eh... Is that a 'yes' or a 'no'?"

"A 'do you see this disgusting bloodstained bag I'm carrying?'"

"Sigh... I get it, smartass."

"Sigh..."

Maybe they were both too physically and mentally drained to argue any longer.

Still, maybe she should have been happy for her first successful quest. Even if her only companion was a shameless thief who almost got them killed by half a dozen goblins.

"So, we going now or what?"

"Guess so... urk!"

The moment Lianna tried to stand on her feet again, her legs gave in.

Back on her knees, vainly supporting her upper body with her staff, she could only wail. She still wasn't recovered from all the Mana she had spent.

"Guess there's no helping it..."

The cat boy turned his back.

"I'll carry you so climb up."

"Wha...?!"

"I-It's not like I'm doing it out of gratitude for back then or anything. I just want to get back already."

No. Way.

That was a trope she definitely didn't expect to see in person. That cat boy really looked like he came from a story, save for the fact he didn't finish his sentences with a cute 'meow'.

"You're really making me conflicted..."

"What the...? Anyway, just climb up already."

"Right..."

She couldn't help but smile at that.

Maybe that shameless thief had a gentle side to him.

She ought to try being less rude to him onwards.

"No, wait..."

"...Uh?"

She really did want to accept the ride back, but he would likely end up noticing... it.

"That'd be... awkward."

"I'm shorter than you, but I'm stronger than I look, y'know?"

"It's not that... Anyway, just the shoulder should be okay."