ASDP Chapter 1

The leaves are green and have a beautiful fluorescent color.
There is a slightly ominous animal sound.
A subtle, not refreshing odor hits my nose.
“Today is also a perfect day to collect materials.”
I nodded in agreement, wearing goggles and a mask on my face, work gloves on my hands, pants that can get dirty, and a robe that protects my legs from heat, acid, and poison. I prioritize protecting my skin and have no sense of fashion, but I don’t need anything like that right now.
Normally it would be hot wearing all these clothes, even though it’s to protect my skin, but I’m a magician.
I wear earrings that I made to keep my body temperature constant. Well, I made them in a hurry because I collapsed from heat stroke once, but failure is the mother of success.

I got dumped a week before the graduation party, and I didn’t want to be held back or questioned about my situation, so since all the lectures and exams were over, I quickly packed up my things and went back to my parents’ house.
When I went back to my parents’ house and explained it to my father, he burst into laughter. He is a terrible father even though his daughter is heartbroken.
But in return, he accepted my return as if it was no big deal.
“I’m glad you didn’t have to marry someone you couldn’t trust.”
Although he was smiling, there was a hint of worry in his blue eyes. So I spoke honestly.
“Yes, but… I’m angry. Even though it doesn’t make sense to me, I’ve been told that women can’t work because they’re emotional.”
“Don’t worry. It’s not because you’re a woman that you get emotional about work or anything else. Dad also got upset, turned in his resignation, and hurried back to the countryside.”
My father laughed and said he had done the same thing. Moreover, in my father’s case, he seemed to have returned to the countryside in a hurry, and when my father’s subordinates came in a hurry and begged him to come back, I once saw him say, “I don’t like it ♡” an chase them away. So it’s an indisputable fact.
After he had calmed down to a certain extent, my father only accepts requests from former subordinates and acquaintances for tasks that are really difficult for them to handle, so I think he has a lot of compassion.

“However, it’s no good to stay here forever without a job. You can take a period of time where you don’t do anything, but decide how long it will last and think about what you’ll do in the future.”
“I know. So, until I decide what I want to do, I want to help father with his work of collecting materials and grandfather’s work as a doctor… I guess that’s no good? I want to take my time and think about the future.”
“Yeah. Dad doesn’t have a problem because I want help collecting materials. I don’t mind if you continue to take over my work. Grandpa also said he was thinking about finding a successor, so I think your help would be more than welcome. However, being a doctor is a job that can’t be quit part way, so be careful that the old man will take your word for it if you’re not prepared.”
“I understand.”
There are very few doctors who have studied magic, and my grandfather is the only one in this rural area. That’s why it’s so useful. But since there aren’t many doctors, it’s difficult because they always get called even in the middle of the night if something happens.
My father’s job is to collect materials. Basically, there are many medicinal herbs for magicians and alchemists. There is a high demand for medicinal herbs that cannot be grown in the fields. With this in mind, my father collects materials in the mountains where there is maga and ships them to the royal capital using magic circles, which he learned from working as a royal magician, and earns money.
Maga is considered dangerous and is purified by a saint, but it is also a place where unusual medicinal herbs are grown. Moreover, with the number of saints currently present, it is not possible to purify all the maga, so the countryside far from the royal capital was put on the backburner and coexists with the maga.
The amount of maga is increasing year by year, and in recent years it seems that the area around the capital will not be able to be purified in time, but well, it’s something for the people in the capital to think about it.

Anyway, there is a demand for material collection, and today I was collecting materials to help my father with his work.
I don’t know what I want to do, but I do know what I can do. What I need to do now is gather the requested materials.
I believe that all the fluorescent colored leaves are related to maga.
This is because you don’t see it in the royal capital, where maga is eradicated at random. There is no doubt that this is a phenomenon that I have seen not only on this mountain, but also when I went on subjugation missions in places with maga. It’s far away from the place where the maga actually occurs, and the animals around here don’t turn into monsters, but the plants are affected.
And even if the seeds of this tree are grown in a different location, they either do not grow or revert to the original plant, so it is closely related to maga.
I carefully tore up the blue leaves, red leaves, yellow leaves, and black leaves of the tree and placed them in a cloth bag that prevents deterioration. Each leaf is part of the ingredients for medicines such as magic recovery potions and antidotes.

Once I have collected the required amount of leaves, the next thing to collect is mushrooms.
The leaves mentioned earlier are actually quite troublesome as they can cause rashes if the juice gets on the skin directly, but mushrooms are also troublesome.
For many mushrooms, there is a fine line between whether they are plants or monsters. It moves, it cries… or rather, it cries, and it emits poison spores, which is much more troublesome to collect than leaves. Of course, you can catch it without any problem, it’s just a hassle.
When I say it moves, it only dances, walks, and runs a little, but it doesn’t move around at breakneck speeds. Crying doesn’t cause any harm like mandrakes does, it just makes you feel a little guilty. The type that laughs even after crying is quite irritating.
Spores can also be blocked with a mask and goggles.
However, if handled incorrectly, it becomes a mushroom nursery. Every year, someone visits my grandfather and tells him that a mushroom has grown out of their head. People can accidently inhale spores that are on their clothing of materials.
By the way, if you leave it growing for a long time, it will cause cognitive impairment and hallucinations, and it will cause more mushrooms to grow, so be careful. They try to spread poisonous mushrooms all over the village, so if you see someone with mushrooms growing on them, you are told to pour exterminator over their head.

When I checked the list of what I was asked for this time, it said that it was a movable shiitake mushroom, which is poisonous to begin with. Apparently it can dance or walk. I also need a pale glowing mushroom and a laughing mushroom.
Even though mushrooms change like this, they prefer living near damp trees.
Honestly, it’s not a very happy place because there are insect monsters in damp places. Well, insects are sometimes used as materials, so I got used to it because I touched them a lot during the exam, but if I have to say whether I like them or not, I don’t like them. I hate them.
However, since my ex-boyfriend used me in the exam, I thought that insects were okay. He ordered me to drive them away for the sake of the saint, and if you use fire, insects will come to you and the saint will be scared, so I made an insect repellent and set it up.

“No, no. Let’s forget it.”
I shook my head.
No. Even though it’s been a month since we broke up, unpleasant memories still come to mind when I think about it.
That’s it. It’s the moment when love turns to hate. When we were dating, I thought of him as someone who cared deeply for the saint and was passionate about his work, but now all I can think of is that he shouldn’t be adding to the work of other people. If you hate bugs that much, I’d tell you to get rid of them yourself.
Reminiscing about my past, I wonder if I was filtering through a fairly thick love filter.
I don’t want to think about it because it makes me feel bad, but no matter what, I think I want to think that that man is shit. It wasn’t that I wasn’t good enough.

“I wonder if one punch would have made me feel better?”
No, punching those muscles would only hurt my hand. If you’re going to do it, throw a fireball at him, throw him into a water whirlpool, or hit him with an earth golem.
It’s not just that man who I’m angry at, but also the saint.
She should have known I was dating that guy. She knew that after the engagement was called off, she became intimate with that man and finally decided to go out with him. She didn’t say anything to me.
Even if you have no choice of who you fall in love with, if you have common sense, you will stay away. If you can’t stay away, I wanted you to tell me. Even though she was in the same party, I wasn’t on the same level as her.
A magician who can be replaced and a saint who cannot be replaced.
Which one is more important…

Desperate to somehow change my depressed mood, I catch a running mushroom while sighing deeply. When I poked it, the mushroom moved its legs. …Since it’s a shiitake mushroom, its color is dark and not very cute. The red mushroom with white polka dots growing everywhere may be a little cuter. I don’t think I’d want to eat it though because it’s poisonous.
While I was busy harvesting the mushrooms that had been requested, I was trying my best to keep the palm-sized purple caterpillars out of my sight as much as possible.
There was a bang and a sound like a gun being fired.
I hurriedly checked my surroundings and saw a red rescue signal rising deep in the mountain. The rules of rescue are the first thing taught in school. If you are unable to handle something related to monsters, you are told to raise a red signal, and if you see it, be sure to go and help if you have the power to do so.
This is because if a ferocious monster were to appear, it would be necessary to defeat it before it invaded the town. Not for others, but for yourself.

I put the blue glowing mushroom in my hand into the bag and ran towards the signal.

Honestly, I kind of want to see those plants that are affected by the maga. They may be dangerous, but they sound beautiful.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading!