Chapter 21: Mirialia (Part I)
TL: Scaramochi
***
[Mirialia's POV]
My name is Mirialia, and I was born in a small elven village.
First of all, let me tell you what kind of race elves were.
Elves were not so different from humans in appearance, but they were a bit longer-eared and more beautiful looking.
I had never seen them as ugly as fat pigs like humans.
Even by the world's standards, elves were generally considered beautiful looking.
One big difference between them and other races was that elves were loved by spirits and could use spirit magic with the help of spirits. Some other races could be loved by spirits, but it was rare.
Unlike general magic, spirit magic consumes very little magic power because it borrows the power of spirits.
Therefore, in magical warfare, elves were unrivaled by other races.
Such knowledge was long ago, and today's elves were inferior to humans in magic as well.
At least, the elves in my village don't even use magic, let alone spirit magic.
They didn't have any contact with magic in their lives.
They washed their laundry in the river, lit their fires with flint, and killed their quarry with weapons made of wood and stone.
And they didn't do anything else but live a minimum life.
As soon as they finished the work they could live on today and tomorrow, they would go to bed in the sun. Children played in the forests and rivers, but the adults just coasted along if they had time.
At best, the days were peaceful. At worst, they were uninspiring.
No need for entertainment or anything else. All they wanted was just to live.
That was normal. That was the norm. That peaceful, boring life would continue until death.
"Boring."
I quickly became bored with the habits of the elves.
I love coasting, but I was tired of sleeping all the time. But I couldn't bring myself to play in the forest like other children.
There had to be something fun to do.
Something fun?
When I was beginning to worry about such things, I met a guy who said to me, "You are that type, aren't you?
He said, "You're curious, unlike other child elves. I love kids like you."
"Sha, he spoke......."
The beetle suddenly appeared in front of me and spoke fluently.
I was so surprised, who would believe that a beetle could talk to me?
But for the first time in my life, I felt my heart skip a beat.
Soon after, they began to introduce themselves.
The beetle wasn't a beetle at all, but a spirit with the appearance of a beetle.
It seemed to have no name, so I decided to call it "Tom".
I was told that he just abbreviated it (......) but surprisingly, he liked it and said it was fine to call him Tom.
Tom taught me many things.
He said, "I think that Mirialia has a lot of magic in her, and she seems to be very talented. What do you think, would you like to try to learn magic?"
"I don't know, but you can teach me."
Tom taught me a lot of magic.
I was talented and could handle any kind of magic, but the one I had the most affinity with was the freezing magic derived from water magic.
I also learned spirit magic, which doesn't use mana, but instead borrows power from spirits.
The way of spirit magic was a magic that could manipulate natural phenomena by itself by borrowing the power of spirits.
I was favored by many spirits and became able to use various kinds of spirit magic.
The lower spirits were invisible, but they could communicate with each other.
Tom looked like a little beetle, but he was still a higher spirit.
I was a little surprised, but I was also convinced.
"Are you interested in the outside world?"
"The outside...... world?"
Tom told me a lot about other things besides magic that were useful in life, and about other worlds that were not here in the village.
He told us about the existence of races other than elves, and about fierce monsters that were not animals.
He told me that the world was full of labyrinths, and that those who entered them and lived by defeating monsters were called adventurers.
"Adventurers ......."
It sounded heartbreaking.
Adventurers were those who freely did what they wanted to do.
The word "free" made my heart beat wildly.
"Hey, the kid hasn't come back."
"What the hell......."
"Let's look for them anyway."
One day, in the evening, the children had not returned from the forest.
The adults in the village stopped coasting and went all out to search for the children.
I was about to help when Tom told me where the children were.
"Listen calmly, Mirialia. The children were playing out of the forest and were taken by human thieves."
"Humans? Why?"
I asked why, apparently there were some bad people among humans who kidnapped and sold elves who were beautiful and rare in appearance.
They found them by accident and kidnapped them.
The adults usually strictly told the children not to leave the forest, but their curiosity got the better of them and they went out.
"If that's the case, we should tell the adults and hurry to go save them."
I thought so, but Tom suggested to me, "The adults won't make it in time. If we don't do something, the children will be kidnapped. But, Mirialia, who knows magic, can help them."
"Then, I'll go."
"I knew you would say that. But I can't leave the forest. You will have to go alone. Do you still want to go?"
"Yes."
"Thank you, but be careful. I don't think you'll lose, but you never know what kind of underhanded tricks humans can pull."
"Okay."
I used wind magic to get out of the forest. I also used wind scouting magic to hear the children's voices and hurried toward them.
The bad guys found them quickly.
"Stop. Give me back my children."
"What the hell is this kid, isn't she an elf too! What can a kid like you do on your own?"
"Hey, hurt her and kidnap her too!"
"Heh heh, you've got a pretty face, don't you?"
"Icicle shot, ice magic!"
Gaaaaaaaah!
"Hey, what the hell is this kid! She's using magic!"
I kicked away the humans who attacked me with their ugly faces with magic.
Humans couldn't use magic, not so much as a mouthful.
Now, we could save the kids.
As I breathed a sigh of relief, one of the humans pointed a blade at the children and yelled at me.
"Hey kid! If you don't want these people to die, don't resist!"
"Hey, sis!"
"......!"
When children were used as shields, you wouldn't know what to do and you would get impatient.
I had never had Tom teach me how to deal with hostage-taking before.
"Heh, how dare you, you little sh*t! You're the only one I'm going to kill!"
"Aww!"
I, unable to resist the hostages, was beaten, kicked, and hurt by the humans.
Ouch...... violence was such a pain.
The first time I had ever felt the pain of violence inflicted not by natural injuries but by others, I could only moan and groan.
"I'm going to...... kill you."
"No........"
The human with a crazy expression on his face raised his blade - and then.
"I'll show no mercy to you who raised your hand against the kid."
"Aaaaahhhh!"
A human man suddenly appeared and slashed the chest of the human who tried to kill me with his sword.
(.......Human? Did you save me?)
Confused, not knowing what was going on, the human who helped me quickly defeated the other bad humans as well.
The children who had been held captive as hostages ran up to me, crying.
"Oh, sister!"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
"Yes, I'm sorry! I'll apologize to the adults later."
As I held the crying children in my arms to reassure them, the person who helped me came up to me.
When I warned him, "he" put his hand on my head with a soft smile on his face.
"You did well on your own, didn't you?"
"U......yeah."
"Can you take the kids home with you? I can take you home."
I shook my head at his kindness.
"Well, I've got to put these bad guys in the piggy bank, so I'm going now."
After saying that, he turned on his heel, and I asked him unexpectedly.
"Who are you......?"
"Me? I'm just a passing adventurer."
With that, he left with the bad guy.
"You're an adventurer......?"
With those words and his face never far from my mind, I took the children back to the village.
***
"Tom, I'm going to be an adventurer."
I turned 14.
I wasn't very tall, but I was an adult now.
So I asked Tom about becoming an adventurer.
I had always been interested in the outside world, and I wanted to be like the adventurer who helped me.
"An adventurer?...... Yes, I knew Mirialia would say that someday. But be careful. As you know, the outside world can be fun, but it can also be very dangerous."
"Yeah. I know."
"Well, go on then. I'll be waiting for you to come back as a great adventurer."
And so, I said goodbye to Tom, my best friend and the village where I had grown up for 14 years, and set off for the outside world to become an adventurer.
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