“It’s been a while…”
I muttered under my breath, gazing at the small town visible from the highway. After wandering from place to place, I had returned to the Horace Barony, where the orphanage was located, for the first time in two and a half years.
It’s not like I think of this place as my hometown. I actually think it’s this barony, but when I was little, I don’t even remember where the town I lived in with my family was.
It’s not a land with good memories.
Even so, the reason I came back here was because I wanted to fulfill one of my promises.
Even after passing through the small town where that orphanage was, no one remembered me. I hardly ever went outside the orphanage either, so it’s not like I have any acquaintances, but even so, the reason I stopped by this town can only be described as “just because.”
According to what I heard at a stall selling baked flour (it fills you up, but it’s not delicious), after that old woman was gone, a Cruzian priest took care of the orphanage, and since then, the orphanage has become much better.
However, that priest also retired about half a month ago, and until the next manager is sent from the lord, the townspeople will take turns taking care of the orphans.
…Can the residents who have been turning a blind eye to the abuse of orphans take care of them?
“………”
It’s not like I was worried about the orphans.
I was just a little interested in the orphanage after I left.
My memories are vague, so I got a little lost, but I arrived at the orphanage, which I don’t miss at all, without any problems.
Even though the Kingdom of Claydale is a warm land, I remember the winter season like this being very cold, sleeping on the dirt floor with only a thin blanket and no decent meals.
Peeking inside from the street, I saw the orphans, who were a little cleaner and looked a little healthier, doing laundry and cleaning in the yard with listless faces.
–Hey, give me food–
–…P, please stop–
“…………”
I faintly heard such voices from the alley leading to the back gate of the orphanage.
I somehow peeked over there, and a young man, probably just an adult, wearing dirty clothes and a knife on his waist, was harassing an orphanage girl.
“If I give this away, the little kids won’t have any food…”
“Huh? Even when I was here, the kids didn’t eat, right?”
…Oh, I remember.
The girl is three or four years older than me, and she was the one who cooked meals in place of the old woman.
And the young man was an older orphan who took food from the little kids and forced them to do work.
No… considering his age, he’s no longer an “orphan.”
Originally, children nearing adulthood in the orphanage would be apprenticed to craftsmen in the form of vocational training, but that old woman was only thinking about exploiting or “selling” the orphans, so she didn’t do such things.
Even so, if you do chores, you’ll become somewhat capable, but that man, who forced others to do work, was kicked out of the orphanage as an adult and seems to have become nothing more than a town thug.
“…What are you looking at, you?”
I got harassed for looking.
I remembered the emotions from back then, so it seems I leaked a little bit of my presence. He noticed I was a young woman when he looked at me, and he approached me, swaying his shoulders from side to side.
“Hey, are you an adventurer? If you’re an adventurer, you have money, right? Leave some for the unfortunate orphans.”
“You don’t look like an orphan to me.”
“I’m a former orphan too. If so, I can get money from the orphanage, right?”
As this guy said to leave the money with some incomprehensible theory, the girl from earlier raised her voice from behind him.
“Don’t involve strangers! I’ll give you my share!”
“Is that enough–“
Gogyugo!!
“Gigyo!?”
I instantly stepped in and punched his jaw with a palm strike, including Body Enhancement.
Inside the glove on my right hand, I have a thin Magic Steel plate installed to stop the blade in the worst case. Because of that, I felt the bones in his jaw crush in my hand, and the man made a strange noise and fell on his back.
If he gets [Cure] at the clinic, he’ll probably be healed with this much. If he doesn’t have the money for that, he just won’t be able to eat solid food for the rest of his life.
I also have enough sense not to kill a former orphan in front of orphans.
“Sorry for the trouble.”
“W, wait!”
I grabbed the collar of the man who had fainted from the pain and dragged him out to throw him in the garbage dump, and the girl called out to me.
“I’m sorry for getting you involved… and,”
She looked at my face intently and said in a hesitant voice.
“Maybe… weren’t you in the orphanage (here) before?”
“…You’re mistaken.”
When I said that briefly and started walking, dragging the man, she didn’t call out to me anymore.
…But, she noticed well after seeing my current appearance.
More than a year has passed since I crushed the northern frontier branch of the Assassin Guild, and I’m already 10 years old.
[Aria (Alicia)] [Race: Human Female] [Rank 3]
[Mana Capacity: 221/240] [HP: 178/190]
[Strength: 9 (12)] [Durability: 9 (12)] [Agility: 13 (17)] [Dexterity: 8]
[Dagger Arts Lv.3] [Martial Arts Lv.3] [Throwing Lv.3] [Archery Lv.1]
[Defense Lv.3] [Thread Manipulation Lv.4]
[Light Magic Lv.3] [Dark Magic Lv.3] [Non-Attribute Magic Lv.3]
[Utility Magic x6] [Mana Control Lv.4] [Intimidation Lv.3]
[Stealth Lv.4] [Night Vision Lv.2] [Detection Lv.4] [Poison Resistance Lv.3]
[Simple Appraisal]
[Overall Combat Strength: 576 (During Body Enhancement: 691)]
As expected, the wall of Rank 4 is thick. I can now use illusion magic without chanting, and some skills other than combat have risen to level 4, but body skills still don’t rise.
I visited my master once to report and show my face. I couldn’t stay long because I was being targeted, but I learned Light Magic spells, and thanks to the level of Light Magic rising, Mana Control reached level 4, but that’s all.
In the first place, it is rare for humans to be able to rise to Rank 4.
If I were to use that woman’s “knowledge” as an analogy, if being able to participate in the “Olympics” is Rank 4, then you can think of getting a “gold medal” as Rank 5.
If you try to achieve that in your mid-teens, you will need training and unique skills that you can spend your life on.
Even so, my body has developed a lot in the past year, and I feel a response.
The number of assassins and thieves who have attacked me probably exceeds fifty, and I have defeated them all.
Actual combat is training. And it is definitely beginning to bear fruit.
But what has changed the most about me is probably my “appearance”…
Because my Mana has increased again, my apparent age has grown to about 13-14 years old.
Thanks to what is called secondary sexual characteristics in that woman’s “knowledge,” I am almost never mistaken for a man even when wearing a cloak.
The clothes I’m wearing now were also made by Gelf to match my current figure.
It’s a sleeveless, knee-length jet-black dress made of Hellhound leather, and I also had her make a special knife holder that attaches to the inside of my thigh.
I had a slit made on the left side of the skirt, so I can now draw and shoot a knife on the spur of the moment.
It’s a pretty good one with excellent blade resistance and fire resistance, but Gelf wouldn’t accept more than ten gold coins.
My body shape changed, and I had a hard time adjusting the balance because meat and fat were added to parts that didn’t exist before, but it’s not all bad because my stats have increased because of my growth.
…However, because of that, I got a strange “nickname.”
But what’s strange is that even though my Strength has increased to the level of an adult, the thickness of my arms and legs hasn’t changed that much.
Probably, but if I consider it with various knowledge, I speculate that my body has become one that assumes that body functions use not only muscle strength but also Mana, and has changed to a muscle tissue like a monster.
…Thinking about it that way, Feld’s status with that much muscle must be outrageous.
I threw the former orphan man, whose jaw I had crushed, into the garbage dump, and headed straight for the large town where the lord of this land lives.
The journey that used to take me nearly two days can now be completed in less than a day.
I left the town in the evening, ate and took a nap in the forest near the campsite that I used to use as my first base. I wiped off the sweat with a wet cloth, purified my body with [Purify (Clean)], moved further, and arrived in the neighboring town near the evening of the next day.
I used to enter the slums through a hole in the wall, but this time I came during the time when the gate was open, so I entered from the front.
“You’re an adventurer registered in this town. I don’t see your face often.”
“I’ve been to the Royal Capital and Dandole too.”
If you are an adventurer registered in that town, you are free to enter and leave the town. Even so, it had been two and a half years, so I was questioned by a soldier, but I was allowed to pass without any problems after checking my tag.
“If you’re here for the first time in a while, be careful of the northern ruins. There have been reports that many adventurers have been injured recently, so ask the guild for details.”
“…Okay. Thank you.”
I’d expect the adventurers in this area, with its ruins and abundance of Monsters, to be quite skilled. What could be the matter? Well, I’m planning to visit the Adventurer’s Guild anyway, so I can check then.
As the sky began to darken, I entered the low-income area near the Slums, simultaneously blending my presence into the surroundings, effectively disappearing. My 【Stealth】 Skill has risen to level 4. Just as I could only discern Viro by the “color of Mana Particles” when we first met, anyone with 【Detection】 at level 1 wouldn’t even sense a “discomfort” when I’m concealed in the darkness.
I readjusted the luggage I bought in Marquis Kendras Territory and headed towards my destination. It’s already quite dark, but that shouldn’t be a problem at this point.
“Galbas, are you there?”
When I called out, Galbas, who had been drinking with another person on a long chair away from the forge’s fire, looked up.
“…You are…”
“Could it be, ‘Ash-covered’?”
“It’s been a while, you two.”
It wasn’t Galbas, but the person next to him who spoke. It was Galbas, who gave me the Black Knife, and the old man from the general store who introduced me to this blacksmith.
“It’s been quite a while, and you’re a girl…”
“Are you blind? I was a girl from the start, you blind geezer!”
“How am I supposed to know the gender of a human child, you idiot!”
“What was that? Wanna go, you stubborn old man!”
“I won’t hold back even if you’re a stubborn old man!”
Thump!
“I want to commission some work.”
“…………”
I placed a bottle of special fire liquor, bought from the rock dwarf settlement where the miners of the Marquis Territory gather, on the table with a thud. The two drunken, stubborn old men who had suddenly started fighting stopped moving.
“Oh… bringing booze, you brat, you know your stuff.”
“And special fire liquor at that, it’s been a while since I’ve seen that.”
“I might take your job, but if it’s some pointless work, I’m not doing it.”
“First, I’ll pay off my debt.”
Snap…
I took a gold coin from my 【Shadow Storage】 and placed it on the table.
“Oh, that was surprisingly fast. But a kid shouldn’t be reckless…”
Clatter.
Next, I dumped all the money I had onto the table, and not only Galbas but also the old man from the general store looked dumbfounded. All the money I had saved up. Ten large gold coins, fourteen gold coins, twenty-two silver coins, and a few copper coins.
“This is all my wealth. I want you to use this to make a special ‘Blade’ for the Pendulum.”
Finally, the debt is repaid.
And will I be able to get a new weapon made?
Next time: A crisis approaches the Barony.
I myself will be entering summer vacation soon, so I will update earlier until after the summer vacation.
The next one will probably be tomorrow or the day after.