CH 3

Chapter 3 – I Saved the Kijin Girl!

The slave hunters had breathed their final breath.

They hadn’t put up much of a fight at all.

Well, they were slave hunters. I doubted they had that much experience with actual combat.

And so I crouched low and extended my hand towards the girl.

“Are you all right?”

“Thank you… You saved me.”

She said with a bow, but it was evident that she was terribly weakened.

The blood was still running down her head.

“Wait there. I’ll cast some healing magic on you. Heal.”

I could use low-level healing magic. Though, it would only be enough to close the open wound.

As I held my hand over her head, the cut on her forehead closely up cleanly, and the bleeding stopped.

“…Thank you. Thank you so much.”

She bowed again and again. And then her eyes turned to look at something else. A tear ran down her face.

She was looking at one of the slave hunters…at the long and black as iron horn that lay in his hand.

“Are you a Kijin?”

“Yes… I was gathering fruits from the trees, and then my horn was cut off.”

She said with a nod, though she was still crying.

Kijins were half human and half ogre.

While they looked similar to humans in appearance, they had a single black horn that grew out of their foreheads.

It was said that their magic, strength and stamina were superior to humans, and they could live for two hundred years.

However, they were not the most skilled with their hands, and had short memory. Those were traits they kept from the ogre side.

The most notable thing about the Kijin tribe was their horn. It was the source of their magic energy, and humans saw them as a rare material for weapons.

So the slave hunters would have targeted her for that reason as well.

You had to take the horn from a living Kijin, or the magic energy would be lost.

Furthermore, much like a human’s arms and legs, there was no way to repair a horn once it was cut off from the body.

I had heard that it was a symbol of life for them… She must be very upset.

The girl wiped away the tears and got to her feet. Then she bowed once again.

“I must introduce myself. I am Iria. The chief…of the Fendel Tribe…”

Fendel Tribe, huh? Was that how the Fendel Province got its name?

“Iria, is it? I’m Joshua.”

“Joshua…sir. Sir Joshua. Thank you so much for helping me…”

Iria was swaying and looked like she could barely stand.

“Iria, you should take it easy… If you don’t mind, I can take you back to your home?”

“I-I’m fine. But I must repay you… Ah-”

Iria began to fall.

But I stretched out my hand and caught her.

“…I’ll take you home. Besides, you might be attacked on the way back.”

Wiz the slime was following from behind, and so I handed over my rucksack.

And then I picked up Iria.

Her face then turned quite red.

“S-sorry. Perhaps you would rather ride on my back?”

“N-no. There is no problem at all! …Now, if you just go straight into the forest…”

“I-I see.”

Even I felt a little embarrassed as I started to walk towards the trees.

I had never carried a girl like this before. Especially not one this pretty…

But this was no time to bask in such thoughts. There were things to collect.

Just before entering the forest, I directed my hand towards the men’s armor and weapons, and absorbed them.

Four axes, two short swords, and two breastplates.

Her eyes widened when she saw this.

“Wh-what was that?”

“Production magic. I stored them away in the Magic Workshop. I’ll return the horn to you later. You should take the weapons and armor as well.”

“Ma-magic? So that explains what you did earlier…”

“Though, this magic isn’t actually supposed to be used for combat…”

So saying, I used fire magic to burn the corpses of the men.

This wasn’t the first time I saw the dead in battle.

And I had killed my share of human bandits.

These men were no different… No, perhaps they were much worse.

Still, regardless of who someone was, they deserved the minimum level of respect, which was to be incinerated before the flies came.

Besides, it could mean trouble if they have friends who would find the bodies.

After that, under Iria’s guidance, we headed towards the village of the Fendel Tribe.