CH 1

Deep inside a forest, a young man was walking.

Despite the fact that day was not over yet, the forest where not even a hand would enter was creepily dim. Nothing could be heard from the forest except for the occasional sounds coming from birds. It was a place where, a heavy gloom could be felt through the air.

He distorted his face into one of unpleasantness, a lowered sword in one hand.

“Ahh… damn it”

A terrible smelling mucus attached itself to the sword as he started striking the nearby grass, making him curse out loud.

“There’s a reason why no one wants to do this job… Geez, before I go home, I guess I’ll go take a shower.”

Seeing that his leather coat also had mucus on it, he made an even more painful face.

Due to the sudden increase of Frog-looking monsters inside the forest, he received a request to subdue them, getting there by feet was something that happened just now.

Getting rid of the monsters wasn’t too hard of a task. His weapon treatment as well as magic, to him who has a certain level of confidence, the time it takes for the return trip would be the tiring part.

“There should have been time until the request from the agency but… i failed huh…”

The biggest reason for him to take this job was that to get to where he was right now from the city, a round trip would still be within the day. He cursed himself for making such a simple-minded decision.

The job itself wasn’t anything special.

Spotting and exterminating the Coronee that are made inside the forest, it was a simple mindless job.

There was no choice but to get covered up with their body juices and the mucus they vomit out.

It wasn’t that terrible a smell, early on his sense of smell was paralysed, but it was probably his sole salvation.

However, if he was to return to town like that, even the gatekeeper who is an acquaintance would probably twist his face.

In the town that he is currently staying in, he became a reasonably famous adventurer.

Compared to this country where he who just turned 18 was acknowledged as an adult, back in his home-town they treated 15 as the coming of age. Since then he who had determined that this business was his way of living, along with a few years of achievements, he was marketed as a young fellow who shouldn’t be made lightly of.

Black hair mixed with some brown, a long coat made from monster leather, a magic gauntlet on his left hand. It was at the level that if you mention someone with an extraordinary outer appearance, the name Dale Reki comes to mind.

“‘Water, the origin of my name commands you, hear my voice <Search: Water>'”

I used my magic, chanting a spell. The signs from the suddenly strengthened water changed into a course, which Dale forced himself into.

In the field of vision that opened up in front of him, a small stream was flowing. Finding what he was looking for, all the tension left from Dale’s face.

Taking off his coat, he drenches it in the gushing water. It was the only good suit that the magic-bearing him had, but there was just that much mucus given to it. It repels water so it’ll dry up real soon. Dale hung his coat up on a nearby branch.

Thinking for a short while.

Looking over his body as if to confirm once again, he was somehow reminded of the discomfort from the stink and the mucus. Thinking that he might as well clean himself properly, he takes off the tunic meant for blocking blades.

Dale, who understood that the standards of the monster and beasts that reside in the forest would be no threat to him, casually acted as stated.

His coat was dry, but his pants and tunic were dripping wet. Reviving the campfire, Dale expanded the top of the coat as a form of underwear and placed it below his waist, grilling the fish that he caught while he was bathing in the cold water.

Around the time when a savoury smell was drifting around the area, his clothes were also mostly dry. Taking notice of the fish, Dale quickly got dressed in his clothes. As expected, he wasn’t shameless enough to be able to enjoy a meal in this kind of place in nothing but underwear.

A small sound was made.

Dale thought that it was some small animal that came, attracted by the smell, but as he moved his eyes over to there, he found himself lost for words.

A very young child, from the opposite side of the thicket was watching him.

A small head was slightly peeking out of the thicket.

Dale, at first, read the presence wrong and was surprised.

Next, it was a child but, it confused him seeing that such a small child was wondering around in this forest inhabited with monsters. There shouldn’t be a village in the surrounding vicinity is what he thought, then he noticed it.

The kid was endowed with a round coiled up black horn on the side of it’s head.

(‘Demon race’ huh… How troublesome…)

I clicked my tongue in my heart.

Even among the 7 ‘races’ that exist, they held the most power and, being unsociable they treated the other races as enemies. They say that the ‘Demon Race’ have a special body characteristic which are the have horns on the side of their heads.

(Should i kill it…?)

I even thought of a way to do it nice and quick.

It’s a sign of nothing but trouble.

He had just washed himself after much effort, he didn’t want to be bathed in a blood spray.

That went right by his corner of his head but, it was a straight-forward reason.

The kid was looking at me intently with it’s large grey pupils, at an angle where it felt like he would spill over and fall.

Once the sword left Dale’s hands, he calmed down so that he could observe the kid. Noticing the reason for the uncomfortable feeling he felt when he first saw it.

The kid’s horn was, snapped off from it’s root on one side.

(Oi oi… This kid, was she a criminal…?)

Dale who was taken aback, made a face that seemed to think even himself was stupid.

It was something he had heard from some adventurer friends, that it was one of the customs of the Demon race.

—The horn which acts like the symbol of the race, the demon race think of it as a holy object. That’s why, those who commit a crime, are exiled with one of their horns snapped off as punishment—