The Abandoned White Magician’s Tea Life

Translator: Sunnyshies

Editor: Ryuubii

Chapter 2 : The Promise of White Flower

Amalia was born and raised in an orphanage in the countryside of the Kingdom of Leandra.　

Usually, children who grow up in orphanages were abandoned by their parents or have lost their parents. But Amalia’s mother, unusually, was a nun who served at the monastery attached to the orphanage.

She doesn’t know who her father is, but it doesn’t matter much. The nuns, her mother’s fellow sisters, were kind and taught Amalia the ins and outs of white magic. The Director of the orphanage was a strict man, but he was intelligent and warm, and he taught Amalia how to read, write, calculate, make tea, and sew.

That’s why she was able to grow up with the support of everyone, even though her kind mother became ill when she was ten and never recovered.

After her mother’s death, she spent ten years living in the orphanage with the other children.

In the early summer of the year she turned 20, a group of traveling adventurers visited the monastery.

They were led by a young swordsman named Alphonse, who seemed to have been defeated in a battle with a demon, and were all badly injured. However, Amalia, who had become the best white magic user in the monastery, took care of them for three days and three nights, and as a result, Alphonse and the others were all able to revive.

“Hey, Amalia-san. You may be surprised to hear me say this out of the blue, but…if you don’t mind, would you like to follow us on our journey?”

Amalia raised her eyes at Alphonse’s offer.

Alphonse and his friends had lost their white magician companion about a month ago, and since then they had been having difficulty defeating demons. That’s when they noticed Amalia’s talent for white magic and asked her to come with them.

It only took a few moments for Amalia to hesitate.

If you register your name under a guild and defeat demons as an adventurer, the guild will give you a certain amount of money. This money can be used to fund the operations of the orphanage. The orphanage is always short of money, so if Amalia earns enough money, she can feed the children well and give them a good education.

Amalia agreed in two words. There are people who need a woman like her, even if she is past the marriageable age. And she would be able to repay the people who had taken care of her since she was born. There was no reason for her to refuse this offer.

The nuns and the Director tried to stop Amalia until the end. The children of the orphanage cried out to her, and she almost wavered in her decision, but she did not change her mind.

“Amalia-sama.”

The night before Amalia’s departure, a boy visited her room.

With his carelessly cut blond hair and hollow gray eyes, he was the one who tried to prevent Amalia from leaving until the end. Even so, Amalia didn’t change her mind, so in the end she had become upset and locked herself in her room. Therefore, she felt sad, thinking that she might not be able to speak to him before they left the next morning.

Inviting him into the room, he fidgeted at first, but eventually pulled something out of his pocket and held it out to Amalia.

It was a homemade charm made of small pieces of cardboard with pressed white flowers on it.

“Are you giving this to me?”

Amalia asked as she squatted down to match the boy’s height, and he nodded, squeezing Amalia’s hand.

“Amalia-sama. I’m going to get stronger. When I become strong, I’ll join the guild like Amalia-sama and become a mercenary. That way, I’ll be able to keep up with Amalia-sama and the others on their journey.”

“Huh?…Leonardo, didn’t you say you wanted to be a scholar?”

It had been four years since he had been taken in at the age of eight. Amalia has watched him grow up, but she can’t imagine Leonardo, a thin and small, yet kind-hearted boy, becoming a mercenary.

Both adventurers and mercenaries are members of the guild, but unlike adventurers, who are almost always free to work, mercenaries, who are hired by someone, have many things to worry about.

But Leonardo, who had his lips tightly pursed, shook his head.

“I’ve made up my mind. I don’t know how many years it will take, but I will become a strong and mature man who can protect Amalia-sama. So until then, please be safe.”

“Leonardo…”

“So, until then, if you can… I want you to keep that charm with you.”

At first Leonardo was very determined, but gradually his voice grew quieter, as if he was embarrassed, and finally he looked at the floor and started to fidget.

Amelia chuckled, and put the charm he gave her in her breast pocket and habitually stroked his blond hair gently.

“I understand. I may be a grandmother by then, but I’ll always keep the charm with me.”

“Whether you become an auntie or a grandmother, Amalia-sama will still be beautiful! So… it’s a promise.”

“Yeah, it’s a promise.”

Then, she kissed Leonardo’s forehead. Leonardo also returned the kiss on Amalia’s forehead, a little bit tense.

A promise made between parents and children or siblings in the Kingdom of Leandra. Amalia and Leonardo are not related by blood, but Amalia has always loved Leonardo, who is eight years younger than her, like a younger brother, and Leonardo loves Amalia like an older sister.

Since she had made a promise, she couldn’t just die on the road.

With the charm Leonardo gave her, she must earn her keep as an adventurer and repay everyone for their kindness.

…

The journey started out well.

Alphonse and the rest of the group were all men. They were nervous at first, but they all protected Amalia, and respected her because she was older than they were.

Amalia is also happy and motivated when she is relied on or praised. That’s why she not only helps people with her white magic on the road, but also makes them special tea when they are tired.

Although the Director taught her many skills, it was tea brewing that Amalia developed the most talent for. The Director taught her how to prepare tea not only with the authentic tea leaves, but also how to brew tea using the medicinal herbs and flowers that grew in the area.

Amalia’s tea was very popular with her friends, and Alphonse even said with a smile, “If I drink this, I can kill a couple of dragons with ease.”

In the beginning, Alphonse and his team did not take on unreasonable subjugation requests, and mainly undertook the extermination of monsters and small dragons that devastated the farm.

But gradually, they raised the level of their requests, and Amalia began to worry.

It’s true that Amalia is good at white magic, but her ability in the guild is only in the middle of the range. If she used too much white magic in a row, she would get tired and the effect would fade.

As an expert in white magic and as an elder, Amalia tried to discourage Alphonse and the others. However, even though they were reluctant to follow her at first, they gradually became irritated with Amalia and began to talk about her behind her back, saying that she had mediocre abilities and that she was too old to be so arrogant.

It’s hard to be treated so coldly by her friends, but she can’t just leave the party. Amalia still hadn’t earned her target amount.

Even so, Alphonse and the others were receiving unreasonable subjugation requests day after day, and Amalia was beginning to lose her composure. Unlike Alphonse and the others, who were young and proud of their physical strength, Amalia, who was a non-combatant woman and not very young to begin with, was beginning to feel the pain of the daily forced march.

One day, Amalia and her friends found a luxurious carriage being attacked by demons, and defeated them. The person riding in the carriage was the princess of the neighboring country of Kiros, who was also an advanced white magician.

Esmeralda, a princess without the right to inherit the throne, had come to Leandra to train in white magic, but she felt indebted to Amalia and the others for saving her, and came to accompany them on their journey.

―The benefits that Esmeralda brought to Amalia made her suffer.

Even though it was a small country, Esmeralda was a member of the royal family, and her hometown provided her with a large amount of military funds. In addition, Esmeralda was a beautiful girl with platinum blonde hair and light blue eyes, and her skill in white magic was far superior to Amalia.

She was ladylike and gentle as a princess. She doesn’t interfere with the party’s policies like Amalia does, and her cuteness has completely won over the party members.

Compared to Esmeralda, Amalia is too old.

Esmeralda is so pretty, but Amalia only has big breasts with a plain face.

Esmeralda affirms everything about them, but Amalia complains about them like an old woman.

Esmeralda brings plenty of money, but Amalia, who grew up in a monastery, just takes the money and they don’t benefit from it at all.

When people keep saying that, even Amalia, who was originally bold and persistent, gets exhausted.

If she could, she would leave this party, but then she might not have enough money to send to the monastery. Also, she might not be able to fulfill her promise to Leonardo.

The reason why Amalia didn’t become desperate even though she was almost sick at heart was because she always had the white flower charm in her breast pocket.

It’s going to be okay.

Someday, everyone will look at Amalia the way they used to.

―but it was about a year after she began her journey.

After receiving an overly high level request to defeat a rampaging golden dragon, Alphonse and his friends headed to the dragon mountain in high spirits.

They had slaughtered many powerful enemies in the past year, and they had Esmeralda, a senior white magician. That’s probably why they didn’t realize their true level.

The party was destroyed.

None of them were able to strike a blow against the golden dragon that was waiting for them in the scorching mountains, and they were only left defeated in tatters. Amalia, under Alphonse’s orders, first healed Esmeralda. And then Esmeralda healed the rest of the group, and she thought they would all be able to escape and return home.

―Amalia never expected everyone to leave her alone and escape.

☼☼☼