Hearing Dale say that with a sigh, Latina tilted her head.

“Dale, do you know her?”

“Ah, no, I’ve never met her. I’ve just heard rumors. But that’s definitely her... Nobody else has a hair color like that...”

It wasn’t just the girl’s beautiful appearance that drew the gazes of those around her. The light reflected off of her sleek, long, shiny hair. What the light hit was a pale pink, while the portion in the shadows was rose. It was a vivid color of the sort that people didn’t naturally have.

“A mana trait...?” Latina asked.

“You sure are well informed. Did Master Cornelio teach you that?”

“Yeah, he did. Back where Latina was born, someone had a mana trait. Those show up a lot in devils.”

“The same is true of merfolk. Everyone in that race has strong Water mana, after all.”

“People who are born with strong mana have pretty-colored hair and eyes and stuff, right?”

“Is that the case with your hair, Latina...?”

Her hair was a beautiful, unusual color, so Dale had considered that possibility, but this was the first time he’d actually asked her. However, Latina shook her head back and forth in response.

“Latina’s mana isn’t strong. And her hair is the same as Rag’s. It’s hereditary,” she answered readily.

Like how animals with strong mana became far more threatening magical beasts, mana could have an effect on a great many things. Mana traits came in the form of brilliant colors that appeared in people born with strong mana, making them easy to perceive. Those colors generally appeared in hair and eyes, but occasionally affected skin as well.

The colors were entirely different from those that children inherited from their parents. In fact, the brilliant hues were of a sort that people didn’t naturally have in general. That was the phenomenon known as “mana traits.”

The merfolk that Dale offered as an example were a race that specialized in Water mana. They primarily lived in the water, and thanks to their racial traits, they were able to breathe under it as well. As a race in which mana traits often appeared, many of them had brilliant green or blue hair.

Devils were also a race in which mana traits frequently manifested.

All that said, it wasn’t as if everyone with strong mana had a mana trait. The ratio also varied greatly by race. For devils, they were not particularly uncommon, whereas humans were rarely born with them.

“She’s called the Rose Princess, but she’s just the daughter of a regional lord. Her family isn’t actually all that high up there in terms of social class.”

“It’s a pretty color, isn’t it?”

“Her eye color should be a mana trait, too. An indigo blue, the symbol of the god her divine protection comes from... She’s a high-ranking Niili priestess.”

“You know a lot about her, Dale...”

“She’s an acquaintance of a friend of mine, so I’ve heard a lot about her.”

The image of his overly serious friend came to mind. In the depths of his heart, Dale decided that when they next met, he’d tease him thoroughly on the matter.

“At any rate... you know your own amount of mana, Latina?”

“Latina doesn’t know the exact amount. But you see, Rag was really good at magic. He didn’t have a lot of mana, though. Rag taught Latina that she was the same way.”

Rag was the name of her father. Had she inherited her excellent mana control from him?

That may be the case... I mean, no matter how clever she may have been, even before she met me, she’d already been taught healing magic and the basics of mana control...

Latina had never explicitly said it, but Dale figured her magic teacher had been her father. She’d said that when she was young, she didn’t have much contact with anyone outside of her family, and from what she occasionally told Dale, he sensed that she had been quite close to Rag.

He’d likely been a great man.

“So there was someone with a mana trait even in your home village, Latina? What were they like?” Dale asked casually, remembering what Latina had said earlier.

“Purple hair...” Latina responded with a sigh, a mature, peaceful expression on her face. “She had beautiful, lovely purple hair.”

She seemed like she was looking at something far away.

†

“I’ve heard of the Rose Princess. She’s got strong divine protection from Niili and is supposed to even be able to heal the sort of serious injuries that normal healing magic can’t handle,” said Sylvia enthusiastically after Latina mentioned she’d seen the Rose Princess.

Latina and Chloe nodded along.

“Must be nice... I wish I could go on a journey, too...”

Chloe and Latina exchanged strained smiles at Sylvia’s absentminded muttering. This was how things always were. Feeling like she’d truly returned to where she belonged, Latina let out a little tee-hee.

That was when a loud, hysteric voice rang out through the classroom. “L-Latina?! You’re back?!” The owner of the voice stood stock-still, unable to hide the surprise and delight on his face.

“Long time no see, Rudy.”

“Yeah. Latina, when did you get back...?”

“The teacher’s here, so we’ll talk later.”

Latina smiled when she said that, but there was thick tension and a large distance between them.

Furthermore, when Rudy stiffened up at her response, the other children couldn’t hold back their laughter any further.

He really wasn’t good at dealing with things, in more ways than one.