Chapter 15: Bath Time

“By the way, Karin, do you know if magic has… you know, cooldowns or usage limits or anything like that?”

I felt a little embarrassed asking—it was probably a pretty rookie question.

I was just guessing, but a lot of games had skill cooldowns, and some systems even had daily spell limits like in D&D…

Why hadn’t I thought to ask this before?

I was so stupid…

“…After all this time, you’re asking me that now… sigh.”

Karin let out a long sigh.

“You really don’t know anything anymore.

I shouldn’t have let you leave—”

“Okay, okay, just tell me already!”

No more rambling!

“Fine.

As you thought, magic does have cooldowns.

But each spell’s cooldown is different.

There are so many influencing factors that it varies from person to person… Of course, the stronger your mana, the shorter your cooldowns.

If you understand the underlying principles of magic, you can easily gauge roughly how much cooldown time is left for each spell.

As for you… you’ll just have to test them out yourself.”

So it was back to not understanding magic principles, huh?

When I’d self-studied before, I’d only learned how to cast spells… I never realized knowing the principles was so important.

“I see… okay, I get it.

Goodbye for now—I need to go test things out!”

Ignoring Karin’s usual pitiful plea of “Let’s talk a little longer!”, I cut off the mana flow to the transmission stone.

There was still a long time before morning, so I planned to test my magic right away.

I couldn’t afford to be lazy anymore.

I had to learn from my mistakes!

I already knew from the fight that Withering—a simple single-target spell—had practically negligible cooldown for me.

Other similar spells should be the same, but I still needed to confirm.

More importantly, I needed to test short-range teleportation.

After all, that was what had cost me—I should have used it more carefully.

With that in mind, I teleported to another spot in the room, then repeated the process until I could cast it again.

About seven seconds.

But every time I used Teleport, if I cast it again right after the seven seconds were up, the subsequent cooldown would double each time… I wondered if my earlier usage had affected today’s test results.

It was so complicated!

My head was starting to hurt.

No wonder it was an advanced survival spell—it consumed a ton of mana, and the cooldown mechanics were way more complex than simple spells.

I’d have to test this more later.

Next, I tried the other spells I knew.

Most of them had no cooldown at all.

My mana as a lich was still pretty strong, after all.

All that was left now was to deal with things here and then head to the academy to study.

For now, I’d just wait until morning.

I waited until the next day and sat alone on a chair at Uncle Hans’s doorstep again.

“Frey’s really late today,” I muttered, complaining about his sleeping in.

Every other morning, Frey would wake up at five without fail.

But today it was almost seven.

Even Warren should’ve been used to early rising—we’d left at five yesterday morning, and he hadn’t looked tired at all.

Still, I knew deep down that after last night’s ordeal and a full day of trekking through the forest without roads, anyone would be exhausted.

Frankly, with this loli body of mine, I shouldn’t have been able to walk that far either.

I’d been so tired on the road that I’d even thrown my pride aside a few times to ask for breaks… but Warren had said if we didn’t hurry, we wouldn’t make it to the village in time.

If I really couldn’t walk, he offered to carry me on his back.

Hmph!

I’d rather drop dead, die out here, and rot in the wilderness than let someone carry me like a child!

But I just couldn’t swallow my pride, so I kept walking—until Frey quietly reminded me that I could float and just swing my legs to fake walking…

Ugh, needing a junior to remind me of that… was I really that dumb?

Damn it, just thinking about it made me feel so humiliated!

“Yo, morning!

Up early, little miss?”

Uncle Hans came outside and spotted me.

“Your face is all red… thinking about a boy you like?

Which one of those two are you into?”

“I’m not—I didn’t—I’m not thinking about anyone I like…”

I couldn’t stay here any longer.

I stood up and hurried away.

“Hahahaha!”

Uncle Hans’s hearty laughter echoed behind me.

Aaaargh, so embarrassing!

Warren called me out for breakfast at eight.

After another dull meal, I sat there staring blankly at Frey and Warren.

Even though I’d decided to stay, I had no idea what I was supposed to do.

Eventually, Frey—who’d been deep in thought—broke the silence.

“Uncle Hans, is there a river near the village?

I’d like to take a bath after yesterday’s long journey.”

…After all that thinking, he was just figuring out how to bathe?

I was starting to seriously doubt Karin’s judgment.

“Ah, there’s none nearby.

The nearest river’s at least an hour’s walk… I’ll take you there!”

Hans turned to me.

“Miss Rosa, I’m low on water here too.

If you also want to wash up, I can fetch a few buckets for you and borrow a tub from someone in the village later.

How about that?”

“Me?

Well…”

As a loli lich, my metabolism was different from normal humans—I didn’t sweat.

But I couldn’t exactly show that I didn’t like bathing in front of others, could I?

Wouldn’t it be weird if I refused?

“Fine, I’ll come too.

I can use Levitation to carry water buckets!”

“Alright.

In that case, let’s get going.”

Frey said.

Just how badly did he want to bathe?!

Though… why hadn’t Frey mentioned this yesterday?

Was it because it got too dark?

Or was he shy?

I couldn’t figure it out.

On the way, I noticed many villagers greeting Warren.

He was clearly well-known in this village.

“Morning.

But… Warren, I know you’re upset about looking like such a pretty girl that you can’t find a girlfriend prettier than yourself… but that doesn’t mean you should go after a little kid.”

“Wh-what?!

Uncle, don’t say things like that!”

Warren’s face flushed bright red, and he instinctively glanced at me.

I blushed too.

Little kid?

That was even worse than loli!

Sorry for being a petite loli, I guess!

“Warren, you’re not a sick lolicon, are you?!”

“Eh, I—I’m definitely not a pervert!

Yes, I’m not a perverted lolicon!”

“Good…”

Better not be some lolicon trying to chase after me.

But given my charm… maybe I should start thinking about how to handle things later?

Rejecting him with a “nice guy” card would probably work.

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