Songstress of Schwarzwald: The Secret of Zoe, the Exiled Music Mage

I think Selina forgot we live in the middle of a great forest, didn’t she?

She uses magic to levitate the headless Big Boar and carry it to the front of our cottage.

I gather up the medicinal herbs that scattered when Selina shoved me aside, bringing them back inside the barrier.

Selina decides to teach me magic. The moment we stepped outside the barrier to gather herbs, a Big Boar attacked us.

“If you got taken down by a mere Big Boar like that, all my hard work raising you would go to waste.”

Wasn’t it because Selina got careless? But if I say that out loud, she’ll go on and on about all the trouble she went through raising me from a baby, so I keep quiet.

I’ve lived seven whole years now—I’ve gotten wise.

“I’d love to learn the magic you used to defeat that Big Boar, Selina.”

Selina’s weak against flattery. I figure it’s better to get her in a good mood if I want her to teach me properly. This is practical wisdom.

“That one’s quite difficult. But I suppose practicing wind magic might be a good place to start.”

True enough—fire magic would risk burning down the forest, and it’s too cold for water magic and bathing.

“Zoe, you were levitating objects even as a baby. So you should have good compatibility with wind magic.”

That’s news to me.

I’ve heard plenty of complaints about myself—how I peed on her when she picked me up from the basket, how I wouldn’t stop crying when hungry so she had to summon the goat Mary with a gold coin, how my loud crying disturbed her reading, and so on.

But me levitating objects?

“So I can use magic!”

When my past-life memories returned, I realized my old world had no magic.

This world seems to have magic, but not many people can use it, apparently. After all, Selina’s the only one living in this great forest. Her ability to use magic is why she’s safe around magical beasts.

“I guess you can. Now, watch carefully.” Selina extends one hand forward and chants, “Wind Cutter!”

The young tree in front of us gets cut clean through.

“Wow, if I could use that, gathering firewood would be so easy!”

Selina can start fires with magic too, but for cooking and warmth, she burns wood in the fireplace. We cook mainly over the fireplace, though we do have a proper stove.

Selina’s terrible at cooking, and before my memories came back, all I could make was the porridge and soup she taught me—so the fireplace alone was enough.

“For gathering firewood, this magic is better! Rasonpré (Gather)!”

Branches and twigs from around the area gathered together. But leaves came along too.

“Selina, what if you only want to gather branches?”

I think this was a failure, wasn’t it?

“You just picture only the branches in your mind. Though dried leaves make good kindling too.”

Selina absolutely never admits to her mistakes.

“Zoe, practice Rasonpré and Wind Cutter.”

And she gets bored easily. I think she’s already tired of teaching me magic.

I’m really worried I won’t be able to learn magic with teaching like this... but in this great big forest, Selina and I are the only people around. She’s more reliable than the goats Mary and Ben, at least.

I’m anxious about going outside the barrier, so I decide to gather firewood from inside it—if I can get that spell to work, anyway.

Since Selina gathered firewood in front of the house, I go around to the side. That puts me in front of the goat pen. It’s daytime now, so Mary and Ben are tethered to posts with rope, munching on weeds.

With them behind me, I try to gather fallen twigs and small branches that could be firewood from outside the barrier.

“Visualization is important, right?”

It would be so much easier to gather firewood with magic than walking around picking up each piece by hand.

“Rasonpré!”

I stretch my hand forward, clearly picturing gathering firewood as I chant.

“Baahhh!”

My loud voice startled Mary, who bleated in displeasure. Ben’s hiding behind Mary. Since Ben doesn’t even produce milk, he’s always scared of when he might get slaughtered.

“Sorry, sorry! I’ll practice somewhere else.”

We can get monster meat when Selina defeats them like today, but goat milk is a precious source of protein. Besides, Mary and Ben are family.

Selina warned me about this when I named the goats, but... being alone with just Selina in this great forest is tough.

When Selina gets absorbed in reading or magical research, she completely forgets I exist. Mary and Ben comforted me so much during those times.

I go from the side to the back of the house. There’s a well here, and in summer I draw water into a tub for baths. There’s also a back entrance we can use. Selina used to do laundry sometimes, but now that I’ve grown up, she tells me to do my own.

Selina can clean and dry laundry with magic, but I have to scrub in the tub. Someday I want to be able to do laundry with magic too.

Behind the house, outside the barrier, many fallen branches lie scattered.

“Branches, Rasonpré!”

Sigh. Nothing gathered at all. Is Selina’s teaching method bad, or do I have no magical ability? It’s worrying.

“Maybe you can’t learn magic in just one day?”

I know practice is necessary, but to change my mood, I walk from the back around to the side of the house.

From here I can see what looks like an animal path from the great forest toward nearby Lang Village.

“Normally, wouldn’t you face the front door toward the road?”

Well, Selina is a hermit—or rather, a hermit witch—so she doesn’t live with normal sensibilities. Maybe that applies to me too? After all, I’ve never met another human besides Selina...

I think I saw a man making noise outside the barrier once, but I was young so it’s hazy. I remember being scared.

With my past-life memories returned, I know this isn’t a normal upbringing.

But the forest doesn’t press as close to the front of the house. I don’t know how Selina built this house in the middle of the great forest, but was there a clearing? If so, maybe she built it taking more space in front for the entrance?

In other words, here on the side, trees grow even inside the barrier. When I couldn’t get past the barrier before, I tried climbing a tree and jumping down outside it... but I just bounced off miserably.

I fell from the tree, scraped up my whole body, had Selina heal me with magic, and got made fun of for about a month.

That was when I’d just turned six. Now I’m seven! Plus, I should be smarter thanks to my past-life memories.

What I’m getting at is, maybe I could use magic to gather branches if I can see them directly from up in a tree.

Some trees are easy to climb and others aren’t. With no other toys to play with, I’m used to climbing trees with branches that make good footholds.

I climb up a tree and look down at the fallen branches below, then shout with all my might: “Rasonpré!”

The result... learning magic in one day was impossible.

Well, I’ll try hard again tomorrow!