I was accidentally injured by God and I just want to be an ordinary person

"If...if it's just low-level monsters and poisonous insects, no, no problem...Ms. Yajie has taught us about that."

"Hey, Nina is surprisingly reliable too."

"Is that so? If I can help Master..."

Perhaps because she was very happy, a strand of Nina's long green hair kept swaying.

Shouldn't I encourage him again at this point? Remember when we had kids over? I think I did that.

Thinking back to how she had treated the children from her relatives' home, Ella moved to Nina's side and gently touched her head.

"Then it'll be up to Nina later."

When Ella touched her head, the hair on Nina's head that was shaking stopped instantly. Just when Ella wondered if such an intimate gesture scared Nina, Nina slowly raised her eyes that had not dared to look into her eyes, and then the hair on her head began to shake more violently than before, followed by a more energetic answer than ever before.

"Okay, okay!"

The sound seemed to shake the entire carriage.

Is this reaction a bit too big?

While thinking this in her heart, Ella responded to Nina with a somewhat awkward smile.

After deciding on the destination, Luty quickly moved the carriage to the woods beside the river.

"Although it's rare to see rain in the desert, it's still better to choose a higher ground. Hmm... Is this place okay, Miss Ella?"

Getting off the carriage, Lotte pointed to a relatively flat area and said to herself.

It looked like a very nice place. The ground was not all yellow sand like the one we had seen before, but was made up of shrubs and weeds, like a place specially for people to rest.

"As long as Lotte thinks it's okay, well—as for those staying behind at night, there's the 'Blessing of Vitality' spell, so I can handle the night shift."

"Ahem."

Lotte coughed deliberately, then gestured to silence herself and pointed at the carriage.

"Miss Ella, this won't make the maid feel at ease, you know? Even if a master shows concern, doing this will only put pressure on her subordinates... And Miss Ella and Nina haven't spoken much, right? This will only make Nina feel useless, you know?"

Eh? So there's such a thing... She hadn't been aware of it at all. She just felt that keeping watch was a bit too much for Nina, who was only ten years old. Thinking this, Ella tactfully expressed her thoughts.

"But Nina's age now..."

"Um... Miss Ella, on the mainland, fifteen is considered an adult. And in ordinary families, even children who haven't reached adulthood have the obligation to work for the family. This is common sense, right?"

"Eh? Really? Fifteen years old...fifteen years old..."

Is it because the civilization of the other world is too rough? Fifteen is already the age for marriage, but then again, Lotte should be fifteen now too...

He shook his head, bringing Ella's thoughts back to the starting point.

"Nina doesn't have the ability to fight right now, right? Arranging a night watch would be too difficult."

"That would be a great opportunity to strengthen the relationship between Ella-san and Nina. Ella-san and Nina will watch the first half of the night, and I'll watch the second, okay?"

"Well..."

Although Ella felt a little embarrassed to entrust Lotte with such a difficult task in the second half of the night, if she asked to do it in the second half of the night, Nina would definitely give up.

Seeing that Ella had no objection, Lotte took out a dimensional backpack from a carriage not far away, then took out dried meat and cheese from it and handed them to Ella. Finally, as if she felt that something was missing, she took out some things that looked like fruits and had extremely strange shapes, wrapped them in paper, and placed them on the protruding stone next to her.

"Let's start dinner next, Nina. After dinner, we'll get ready for work."

After preparing dinner, Lotte put the dimensional backpack back into the carriage and called Nina out.

After finding a random place to sit down, Nina, who had been wearing a maid uniform, also sat next to Lotte, opposite Ella.

"What does Nina use to avoid monsters like poisonous insects?"

Hearing Ella's question, Nina stopped putting the jerky into her mouth and her eyes lit up instantly.

"Hmm—I saw Lotte-senpai packing her backpack earlier, and she mentioned 'yellow rose powder' and 'scarlet dew drops'. If you mix these two powders in natural water at a certain ratio, it can repel monsters and poisonous insects. However, due to the limitations of natural water and the fact that only a few people have dimensional backpacks, they can only be mixed on the spot and are rarely used. Just now, when I came here, Nina saw a river passing by through the window, so she said it could be done..."

"Eh...Is that so? What do you mean by water in its natural state?"

Maybe it was because I mentioned something that Nina was interested in, Nina was no longer as timid as before, but instead acted like someone who had finally found someone with the same hobby and kept talking to the other person.

"Well, natural water is water like river water, rain that's not caused by magic, water from wells that aren't in the center of a magic leyline, and water from melted snow. Water created directly with 'water element' magic or minerals like 'water stones' can't be used because it's not a natural product...but Mr. Yajie hasn't told Nina the reason yet, so she doesn't know...I'm sorry."

At the end of her speech, Nina's voice gradually weakened, until it was so low that the sound was almost as loud as a mosquito.

Water in its natural state... If you think about it this way, maybe it means that water cannot have magic. After all, both water elements and water stones are products created using magic. Moreover, we have emphasized before things like rain formed by non-magical forces and well water that is not in the center of the magic element vein. As for why Yajie didn't tell Nina, it was probably because Nina didn't have basic magical abilities yet. In order to avoid confusing Nina, she didn't explain it in detail.

"Alright, alright. Nina didn't know because Yajie didn't tell her, right? There's no need to apologize for that, right? And if it weren't for Nina, we wouldn't have such a convenient solution, right? Hmm... is this natural water? I'll go collect some from the river now, and Lotte will stay here with Nina."

"Okay, Miss Ella."

"Yes, Master."

After receiving the answer, Ella stuffed the dried meat into her mouth, stood up and began to walk towards the river where the terrain was lower.

Ahhhh, I didn't expect Nina to be into this kind of thing. Remember, this is supposed to be in the realm of alchemy? She looks like a cute little girl, but I didn't expect her to be interested in alchemy. This isekai vibe is really interesting... Well, anyway, I'll use alchemy to slowly bridge the gap between us. I need to learn about alchemy beforehand.

Chapter 3: The Unghir River

The Unkhsir River is a plentiful river, originating in the Western Bruzea Empire, located in the west-central part of the continent. It flows through the Kingdom of Barris in the southwest, the Dwarven Territory and the Goblin Territory in the north, and finally empties into the sea at the westernmost demon territory. Due to the importance of the Unkhsir River to the nations it traverses, nearly all of its passages have signed a treaty prohibiting upstream nations from blocking or poisoning the river at any time—except for the demons who were criminals during the Age of Demons, located at the very bottom of the river.

But despite the agreements between the countries, the Ankhshil River will gradually become filthy as it flows through more countries. The ultimate result is that the demon territory at the bottom of the river can only use water that is almost turbid to the point where it is difficult to see any living creatures in the water.

Ella came from the higher ground to a place near the Ankhshil River. Although the sun was about to set below the mountain, the sky did not become very dark because of this. It felt more like dusk than evening.

"This animal that looks like a zebra...is it considered a normal creature?"

When they found Ella coming to the river, the creatures that were originally drinking water there, which looked no different from zebras except that their stripes were blue and yellow, quickly ran away.

Ella smiled bitterly and took a few steps forward.

"Well, I don't think there's any need to be afraid."

As she spoke, Ella subconsciously glanced at the river water in front of her - it was so murky that she couldn't see anything in it.

"Wow, this water quality is totally unusable!"

She casually broke off a branch beside her, bent down, dipped the branch into the water and then picked it up. The floating objects on the water surface, like mucus, hung a transparent silk thread on the branch. Ella couldn't help but frown. She could no longer identify this thing as "water".

Thinking of the blue and yellow zebra drinking water here before, I couldn't help but start to suspect that those blue and yellow stripes were actually the product of mutation after drinking this unclean water.

"Could it be that this river is just for show, with no one actually using it? If that's the case, I'd be fine with that..."

Whenever Ella thought about the river flowing through the next town shown in the terrain search, she couldn't help but imagine that the people in the town used this water as drinking water. No matter from which perspective, this was something she could not accept at all.

He looked up and glanced at the center of the river which was flowing slowly not far away - countless food scraps and various household garbage were floating on it.

"Isn't it really being used?"

Ella murmured.

"It's commonly used, right? It's just usually collected from a cleaner place, and after processing it can be made drinkable."

Suddenly, a male voice appeared not far away from Ella and answered Ella's question. Ella turned her head and found that the man was bending down, using a ladle-shaped object to clean up the floating objects on the surface of the water, and then scooping the water into the bucket beside him.

Although she was frightened by the sudden appearance of the person at first, when Ella saw the other person bending down to scoop water, she was sure that the other person was not a thief or someone who wanted to harm her, so she responded in a friendly manner.

"Eh? Did you use life magic to deal with it?"

"Rich people use magic items for water purification purchased from traveling merchants. After all, except for the natural mutants, none of us demons can use magic other than offensive magic."

The man, who looked to be in his thirties or forties, turned his head and gave Ella a wry smile. Although the light was not particularly good, Ella could still vaguely see that the other person's pupils were purple, the color that symbolized the demons.

Mutant? I've never heard of that word before...

When Ella was confused by the mutants, the man spoke again.

"Hmm? Your eye color...are you a demon too? From the east?"

"Uh, no, I'm a student from the Holy Academy. Before I went there, I was living in the Kingdom of Barris."

She was not wrong. To a certain extent, Ella did grow up in the Kingdom of Baris, and the East that the demon man opposite her mentioned should be the demon territory in the east that was divided into two.

After hearing Ella's words, the man who was fetching water suddenly stopped, and his face showed an expression as if he wanted to say something but couldn't. In the end, he just sighed heavily.

"Ah, it must be hard to live in a human country, with all the things that go on purpose and make things difficult for them."

“Uh…it’s alright…”

"Well, from now on, once you arrive at our demon territory, it will be like home. Do you need me to lead the way for you?"

The man stood up, threw the ladle-shaped water-collecting tool into the bucket, then picked up the bucket and walked to Ella, pretending to be ready to lead the way at any time.

Quickly dropping the branch she had been holding, Ella waved her hand to express her gratitude.

"Thank you for your kindness. My companions and I plan to camp here tonight, so we don't plan to go to town right now."

"Really? We can easily deal with medium-sized monsters around here with our demon clan's offensive magic, but small poisonous insects are still troublesome, you know?"

In response to the man's kindness, Ella could only quickly change the subject and ask something very important to her. She shifted her gaze to the bucket the man was carrying - there was visible flocs in it caused by the accumulation of floating objects.

"Is it really okay to use the water here directly as drinking water?"

"It's no problem for us commoners. We just need to let it settle overnight before drinking. As for clean water, only the more important adults in the territory can use it. For example, they can build a well in their own yard or use magic items to purify it."

“Eh…”

Ella took another look at the bucket in the demon's hand. No matter how she looked at it, the water inside did not look like it could be used after just settling for one night.

"Can't we use a water stone, a mineral that produces water when injected with magic power?"

"Huh? Consumables like water stones are simply not affordable for common people. In the western demon territory, water is the most precious resource. Crystals like water stones are only available to the wealthy or nobles once in a while."

The man first looked at Ella with an expression of disbelief, then smacked his lips as if to vent his anger.

"Damn it! This stuff is so cheap elsewhere, it's like a silver coin a bag, but the surrounding countries are deliberately blocking us and then selling it at a high price."

Because the demons are at a geographical disadvantage and cannot use auxiliary magic, they deliberately block minerals such as water and stone to weaken the demons' strength... The rulers are indeed cunning people.

Sighing silently in her heart, Ella took a small step forward.

"Can you lend me the bucket for a while?"

"No problem, but what should I call you?"

"Hmm... just call me Ella."

"Well, Aira-chan is the most beautiful demon I've ever seen... She's almost as good-looking as the acting Demon Lord, Camisia-sama."

Feeling a little embarrassed by the man's compliment, Ella touched the side of her face, took the bucket, and asked a question she had always been curious about.

"Why do you call Camisia the Proxy Demon King instead of the Demon King? The demons we met before also called her the Proxy Demon King."

"Oh, well, Camisia-sama was originally a subordinate serving the Demon King. After the Demon King was taken away by the One God, Camisia-sama decided to become the Acting Demon King in order to stabilize the Demon Clan. For over six thousand years, he has been working hard to revive the Demon Clan. Although some have suggested making Camisia-sama the new Demon King, Camisia-sama himself did not want to do that, so he has always been called the Acting Demon King. Also, Camisia-sama has the longest lifespan in the Demon Clan, right? I think it's because of a special magic item."

Having said that, the man sighed.

"If only the Demon King were still alive... Camisia-sama is having a hard time right now."

Frightened by the words of the demon man in front of her, Ella shook the bucket in her hand.

"Is it okay? A bucket of this weight is still difficult for Ella-chan. But then again, why would Ella-chan want this completely worthless thing?"

"Ahem, this is a little gift for you talking to me for so long. 'Purification'."

Specks of white light seeped into the water from Ella's palm placed above the bucket, and then the water in the bucket became clear in an instant.

"Well, alright, I'll give this to you."

Ella handed the clean water to the demon man standing in front of her, but the man just stared at her in a daze.

"Eh? What's wrong?"

"Assistive magic... a new variant?"

The man's hands were shaking as he looked at Ella as if he had seen a rare treasure.

Chapter 4: Demonic Treasures

Since he wasn't sure whether the concept of "mutants" was known to all demons, he didn't dare to ask casually. He could only wait for the demon man in front of him to continue.

The man took the bucket filled with water from Ella with trembling hands, then held it in both hands as if it were something extremely sacred, raised it flat in front of him, and took a deep breath.

"It's... it's real purification magic. Are you... no, are you, are you a mutant?"