Volume 1 - CH 4

I was found out!? The big man whose back was turned toward me grabbed the large sword beside him and stood up without making any sound. I couldn’t really see the man’s face because of the backlight, but his sharp eye glint made me thought that he wasn’t an ordinary person.

「Are you a monster? If you don’t come out, I’ll smoke you out from there.」

He unsheathed his large sword and declared that with a low voice. The moment I felt the “something” that he radiated, my body turned cold and my limbs started to tremble. Could it be this was what they called “killing intent”? What a blunder. Even though I should run away immediately the moment I was found out, the strong aura that I felt for the first time paralyzed my heart for a moment despite the knowledge I had about it.

「……tsu」

I hit my legs that were still shaking and quickly turned around and started running. There was still a chance for me to escape. Unlike me who had been lurking in the darkness this whole time, the man was sitting in front of the bonfire so his eyes shouldn’t have gotten used to the darkness yet.

I crossed my arms in front of my face so the shrubs wouldn’t hurt my eyes and run through the forest at night while keeping my body low to the ground.

「Tsu!」

I heard the sound of the thickets being scattered apart and branches snapping from behind me. That man was coming after me. In contrast with his strong presence, I couldn’t hear his footsteps at all.

My heart was becoming frightened again, but I pushed down my emotion deep inside just like when I killed that old hag and breathed out.

I spurred on my legs that were screaming in pain to turn direction perpendicularly. The sound of thicket rustling that got slightly louder told me of the man’s bewilderment. I changed direction once more while the man’s bewilderment still hadn’t settled down. I hid my body behind the trees while running through the forest with stifled footsteps this time.

If that man was still coming to chase me again after this, that meant he held a clear killing intent toward me. That man’s electrifying presence was getting distant. I reduced my running speed as I erased the sound I was making and held my breath. At that moment, there was the sound of air being sliced and a hand axe loudly stabbed the trunk of the tree where I was hiding.

「Tsu!?」

That man’s presence wasn’t getting distant. He was suppressing his presence as he was searching for my position.

The man realized that he failed to kill me and fiercely dashed through the forest. Fast-! More than that my immature body didn’t have any stamina. I judged that I couldn’t escape and aimed for the single moment where the man raised up his large sword to make a large swing. I leaped forward with my knife reading to thrust forward.

「Kuhah!?」

But before my blade reached his leg that was thick like a log, the man immediately hit me with the large sword’s pommel.

There was a sound of something hard breaking and the man’s shocked voice. The air in my lung was forced out from the impact. My body was sent flying like that and rolled through the forest. I listened to the man’s footsteps running toward me with my hazy head while my consciousness was sinking into the darkness.

.

「My bad boy-. You were too agile so I thought that you were a kobold and chased you!」

「…………」

Right now I was sitting in front of the bonfire at the campsite together with that man. A kobold was a type of low ranked monster with the form of a dog that was standing straight. I didn’t expect that I would be mistaken as such thing.

This man was apparently an adventurer. He thought that it would be dangerous for the travelers if there was a monster wandering at the road of this territory, so he chased after me, but because I was running around too much, he got obstinate and attacked.

「Here, I guess this isn’t enough as apology but for now eat, eat.」

The man urged me to eat the skinned and chopped snake that he had been roasting on the fire until just now to me. I never ate a snake before, but I once heard from someone that some older boys who couldn’t endure the plain food of the orphanage went to the forest and caught snake to eat.

There were many green snakes in this area. They only had weak paralyzing poison that wasn’t fatal. It wouldn’t attack large animal unless to protect itself. The me right now didn’t feel disgusted with snake like a normal girl. The smell of roasted meat tempted me to take a bite, and then a light taste that contained a lot of juice spread inside my mouth.

Honestly speaking, the taste was thin and it wasn’t really delicious. But because of my empty stomach and the long time I spent only eating bad food, I devoured the meat hungrily and drank the water that the man gave me before I finally felt alive again. The man who was watching me eating waited until I finished before opening his mouth.

「So, boy. What is a kid doing in this kind of place? Where is your parents?」

「…………」

The man nicely misunderstood me as 『boy』 due to my short hair and the ash covering it. It seemed that he was a good person at heart despite his stern face……no, perhaps I should call him a simple soul instead? Seeing me keeping quiet toward his worried and sensible words, he might be thinking of me as an orphan without any parents and changed the topic with a light sigh.

「……Does it still hurt?」

I shook my head slightly at his question to me. The man healed me with the sorcery of 【heal】 which was a level 1 light sorcery. Even so there was a faint bruise remaining between my chest and left shoulder. It would feel painful if I touched it, but it wasn’t to the degree that I couldn’t endure.

When I lightly reviewed my knowledge about light sorcery, the level 1 of light sorcery consisted of 【Heal】 and 【Cure】. Heal restored stamina but it could only closed a wound while the pain wouldn’t vanish completely. The other one Cure could heal wound and restored it like before, but its effective range was small and it would also take time until the treatment was finished. It would also conversely reduce the stamina.

Even Heal could treat a wound completely without leaving behind a scar if it was just to the degree of a cut and it was used as soon as the wound was created. Its effective range and healing speed was also high so Heal became the common medical treatment sorcery. The usage of Cure was limited only to certain case, like when an unmarried girl got a large injury that would leave behind scar. Because of how troublesome the sorcery’s construction was, even people with aptitude for light sorcery had the tendency not to force themselves to learn it.

Even my bruise would get quickly healed if Cure was used, but this man said that even he couldn’t use it. While I was silently sorting out my thought, I sensed that the man was getting impatient. I too had a lot of things that I wanted to ask, but I still couldn’t open up myself to this man and looked down. There I saw my knife that was snapped from the large sword’s pommel lying on the ground.

「Aa~, sorry. Your knife got broken. But that thing isn’t suited for combat you know? It might be a short sword that a noble daughter usually keeps for suicide when in a pinch. It only has sharpness going for it with thin blade that might chip just from hitting a rabbit’s bone.」

The man became talkative as though to make an excuse for the broken knife. But it wasn’t like I was blaming him. It would be troublesome to not have a knife, but this was also the result of me pointlessly running away, and without this knife there was a possibility that my bone might broke and my wound wouldn’t be healable with the man’s Heal, so I thought that it couldn’t be helped.

When I shook my head slightly to indicate that I wasn’t blaming him, the man behaved in a way that seemed to be lacking in composure before he held out the knife on his waist toward me along with its sheath.

「Use this as replacement. It’s too big for a kid, but I used this for dismantling monster so it’s really tough-」

「…………」

The knife was pushed on me. When I took it out of its sheath, the knife looked was somewhat old but its steel blade had been carefully polished. It wasn’t as thin as my previous knife so it would be difficult to stab deeply with it, but it also wouldn’t chip if it hit the bone. It wasn’t a knife that was simply made from pouring iron into a mould, but a knife that was made from steel that tempered and forged properly. It should be quite an expensive product. For him to easily hand such thing to an orphan like me even if his guilt was playing a part in it, this person was too good natured that it made me felt stupid to put up my guard against him.

「……Thank you, uncle.」

「I’m still 21 years old.」

I thought that he might be around thirty years old, but he was unexpectedly young. When I observed him more carefully once more, it was only his face that was stern but his skin was youthful. I couldn’t see it because of his unshaven beard, but it wasn’t like he had an ugly face. I could feel even feel amiability from his face that was sulking in a way that was befitting his age that I too unconsciously smiled.

「Ou, you finally smile. Kid look the best when they smile.」

His hand boisterously rubbed my head. I pushed away his hand and stared fixedly at him with my face returning to serious once more.

「Hey, teach me the way to use magic power.」

「W-what’s with that, so suddenly……」

「It’s inconvenient not being able to use daily life magic.」

「I don’t really get it but……in the first place it wasn’t like I learned it after someone taught me.」

The uncle said that when using daily life magic, he felt a “flow” inside him that was different than usual, and from there he understood that it was magic power. In other words, in my case I was trying to learn magic in a reversed order.

「…………」

At this rate it would be difficult for me to learn magic while time passed in vain. As expected, I got the feeling that the fastest way to learn would be for me to feel strong magic power of other person.

「Hey, can you use strong magic power?」

「Well, yeah. My sorcery isn’t really good, but if it’s body strengthening than it’s using quite a lot of magic power you know?」

「Can you, do it now?」

「I can but……well, it’s fine I guess. It’s dangerous so step back.」

「Hm?」

Dangerous? 【Body Strengthening】, if I got it right it should be a skill where warrior type fighter poured magic power throughout their whole body to strengthen their physical ability. Why would such thing dangerous? I got really puzzled and took several steps back from him, then I felt like a surge of strength was filling his whole body. The bonfire’s flame was greatly flickering.

「……Amazing.」

So this is 【Body Strengthening】. I was feeling power that was overwhelming me just from watching him. I was taken in by the sensation and carelessly approached him to touch his arm. Uncle opened his eyes in surprise when he felt my touch. In that moment, there was a snapping sensation and my hand that was touching him bounced away. My body tumbled backward together with that.

「Boy!」

Uncle hurriedly ran toward me. I wasn’t injured, but there was a small pain like paralysis remaining in my hand. He scolded me while I was in a daze from what just happened.

「I told you to step back! Nothing will happen if you can use magic power, but a kid who isn’t familiar with magic power will get impacted hard like just now!」

「Yes……that was shocking.」

I was shocked and felt a bit of pain, but it wasn’t to a degree where I couldn’t move. I grimaced just a bit while standing up. When I moved my hand to unravel my numbed fingers, uncle watched me with an exasperated face.

But that was……no, this was magic power huh. Inside my blood, it was only slight but I felt the same kind of power like when I touched uncle. As I thought, my assumption that magic power was also contained inside the blood wasn’t mistaken.

Using that woman’s “knowledge”, when I focused to the blood vessels that were flowing through my whole body and the capillary vessels stretching through my whole body, I became able to clearly feel the faint magic power that was focused in my blood flowing all over in me.

When the magic power gathered in my heart together with the blood from all over the body, it became just slightly stronger together with the heart’s beating. When I circulated it to my whole body again, I got the feeling that my body was becoming just slightly hotter.

「Boy-! Is that Body Strengthening!? No, it’s still not taking shape though……」

It seemed that by circulating magic power along the flow of blood, I entered a state that mimicked what Body Strengthening did. With this I’d also be able to learn daily life magic, and I might also be able to learn elemental sorcery. My morale rose and I circulated my magic power even further, but then I suddenly got dizzy. Uncle’s arms caught me and kept me steady.

「Oi, stop that already. Body Strengthening is also consuming magic power even if only bit by bit. You’ll faint.」

「Yes……」

Although that woman had short sword skill, she wasn’t using Body Strengthening. That was why my knowledge for that was spotty. When I obediently nodded to uncle’s words, for some reason he let out an exasperated sigh while watching me.

「Uncle?」

「I’m not uncle. Just call me Feld. ……Well, I guess it will be alright even if my return get delayed by a day.」

Uncle, or rather Feld stood up and looked down on me. He made a fierce smile that might make a normal child started crying.

「For the whole day tomorrow, this Feld-sama is going to strictly teach you the basic, so prepare yourself boy-」

……What did he say?