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[AI CENSORSHIP BLOCKED THIS CHUNK - RAW ENGLISH RETAINED]

My main goal in going outside was to go exploring on my own two feet and get the lay of the land. If I knew my way around, then I wouldn’t get lost if I ever got kicked out of my house.

At the same time, I also wanted to carry out some botanical investigations. I had my encyclopedia, after all, so I wanted to make sure I could tell which plants were edible and which weren’t, which could be used as medicine and which were poisonous. That way, if I ever got kicked out of my house, I wouldn’t need to worry about where I’d get food from.

Roxy had only taught me the basics, but by my understanding, our village grew wheat, vegetables, and the fragrant ingredients of perfumes. The Vatirus flower, used in those perfumes, was very similar to lavender: pale purple and edible.

With a visually striking specimen like that as my test case, I started using the botanical encyclopedia to cross-reference whichever plants caught my eye.

As it turned out, however, the village wasn’t very large, and we didn’t have particularly notable flora. After a few days of basically nothing, I expanded my search radius and made my way closer to the forest. There were a lot more plants there, after all.

“If I remember right, magic builds up more readily in forests, which makes them more dangerous.” More dangerous because higher concentrations of magic meant a higher likelihood of monsters coming into being, the energies causing sudden mutations in otherwise benign creatures. What I didn’t know was why magic accumulated more easily there.

In addition to monsters being fairly rare in these parts, we also had regular monster hunts, making things even safer. A monster hunt was exactly what it sounded like: Once a month, a group of young men, made up of knights, hunters, and the local militia, would head into the woods and clear some monsters out.

Apparently, though, monsters that were quite dreadful could suddenly turn up in the depths of the forest. Maybe part of why I’d learned magic was to do battle against such things. But I was a former shut-in who couldn’t even handle schoolyard scuffles. I couldn’t afford to be arrogant. I had no actual combat experience, and if I screwed up in the heat of the moment, it’d be a total disaster. I’d seen far too many people get killed doing that sort of thing—well, in manga, anyway.

But I wasn’t the hot-blooded type. As far as I was concerned, combat was something to be avoided as best as possible. If I ran into a monster, I’d run back home and let Paul know.

Yeah, that was a good plan.

With that in mind, I made my way up a small hill. At the top stood a lone tree, the largest one around. A high vantage point like this would be perfect for confirming the layout of my village. Also, this being the biggest tree in the area, I wanted to see what type it was.

And that’s when I heard them. Voices.

“We don’t need no demons in our village!”

At the sound of that voice, painful memories came flooding back. I remembered my time in high school, and what had led to my becoming a shut-in. I remembered the nightmares about being called “Pencil Dick.”

These voices reminded me so very much of the voices that had called me by that terrible nickname. These were the voices of someone who used the numbers on their side to torment somebody beneath them.

“Get the hell out of here!”

“Take this!”

“Ha, nice! Direct hit, man!”

I saw a field, muddy from the other day’s rain. Three boys with their bodies all caked in mud were hurling mud at another boy who was walking along.

“Ten points if you can nail him in the head!”

“Hngh!”

“I got him! Didja see that?! Right in the head!”

Yikes. This wasnotgood. This was classic bullying right here. These kids thought this other boy wasn’t good enough for them, so they could do whatever the hell they wanted. If they’d gotten their hands on an air gun, they would have turned it on this kid and opened fire. The directions always said not to point those things at people and shoot, but boys like these didn’t see their targets as people. They were abhorrent.

Their target could have quickly shuffled on his way, but for some reason, he was dawdling. I looked more closely and saw that he had something like a basket clutched to his chest, which he hunched over to keep its contents safe from the balls of mud being hurled his way. It was keeping him from getting away from the bullies’ onslaught.

“Hey, he’s got something!”

“Is that his demon treasure?!”

“I bet it’s something he stole!”

“If you can bullseye that, it’s worth a hundred points!”

“Let’s get that treasure!”

I broke into a run, heading for the boy. Along the way, I used my magic to form a ball of mud, and the instant I was in firing range, I hurled it with all my might.

Whap!

“What the hell?!” I hit the kid who looked like their leader, a conspicuously large fellow, right in the face. “Gah, it got in my eyes!”

His buddies all turned their attention to me at once.

“Who the heck’re you?”

“This ain’t got nothing to do with you! Stay out of it!”

“What are you, an ally of the demons or something?” Guess people like this were the same in every world.

“I’m no ally to the demons,” I said. “I’m an ally to the weak.” I gave them a haughty sneer.

The other boys steeled themselves, drawing themselves up as if they were in the right. “Don’t you try to act tough!” one of them snapped.

“Hey, he’s that one knight’s kid!”

“Hah! He’s just a baby!”

Uh-oh. They’d figured out who I was.

“You sure the son of a knight should be doing this sort of thing, huh?”

“See, I told ya that knight was on the demons’ side!”

“C’mon, let’s get the others!”

“Hey, guys! We’ve got some weirdo here!” Crap. These kids were calling for their friends!

But no one showed up.

Even still, my legs were locked in place. Sure, there were three of them, but it felt so pathetic, freezing up at having kids shout at me. Was mine just destined to be the saga of a bullied shut-in?

“Y-you shut up!” I bit back. “Ganging up on a kid three-to-one—you guys are the worst!”

Their faces screwed up in confusion. Ugh. Dammit.

“Hey, you’re the one who’s shouting now, you dumbass!” one of them blurted.

I was pissed off, so I hurled another mudball their way.

I missed.

“You little brat!”

“Where the heck is he getting the mud from?!”

“It doesn’t matter! Just throw it back!”

What I’d dished out was being returned threefold, but thanks to the footwork Paul had taught me, as well as a bit of magic, I was able to dodge the volley rather gracefully.

“Hey! Knock it off!”

“Yeah, you’re not supposed to dodge!”

Heheheh. Hey, if you can’t hit me, that’s your problem, fellas!

The three boys continued to throw balls of mud my way for a while longer, but when it became apparent they weren’t going to hit me, they threw up their hands as if they’d suddenly found something better to do.

“Aw, this is boring!”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

“And we’re gonna let everyone know the knight’s kid is a demon-lover!”

They tried to make it sound like they hadn’t lost—that they’d just decided to stop. With that, the little punks headed off for the other end of the field.

I’d done it! For the very first time in my life, I’d beaten the bullies!

Er, not to brag or anything.

Whew. Arguments like that really weren’t my strong suit after all. I’m glad things hadn’t come to blows. For now, I needed to check on the kid they’d been throwing mud at. I turned to him and asked, “Hey, are you all right? Are your things okay?”

Whoa…

The boy was so pretty it was hard to think we were around the same age. He had rather long eyelashes for someone so young, with a dainty little nose, thin lips, and a somewhat pointed jawline. His skin was porcelain white, and his features combined to give him the look of a startled rabbit, in addition to a sense of unspeakable beauty.

Man, if only Paul had been the prettier sort. Maybe I’d have a face like that.

No, Paul wasn’t bad-looking. And Zenith looked really good. Which meant my face was fine. Certainly compared to my face in my past life, all flabby and marked with pimples. So, yeah, I was pretty good-looking. Yeah.

The boy turned his timid gaze back to me. “Y-yeah, I’m…I’m okay.”

He made me want to protect and care for him, as if he were some small animal. If you were a lady who was into shota stuff, he’d have your panties soaked on the spot—er, well, if you could get past the way he was all caked in mud.

His clothes were filthy, and mud clung to half of his face. The top of his head was basically a uniform brown. It bordered on miraculous that he’d managed to keep his basket safe.

There was only one thing for me to do. “Here, why don’t you set that down over there and kneel by the irrigation ditch,” I said.

“Huh? Whuh?” The boy blinked in confusion even as he began to do as I said. Guess he was the sort of kid who did what he was told. If he were the defiant sort, he would have fought back against those bullies earlier.

He crawled over to the irrigation ditch, hunched on all fours as he peered into the water. If you were a guy who was into shota stuff, you’d currently have a definite throbbing in your pants, too.

“Here,” I said. “Close your eyes.” I used some fire magic to heat the water to an appropriate temperature: neither too hot nor too cold, but a nice, warm forty degrees Celsius. I then took some of it and doused the boy’s head.

“Gwah!”

I grabbed his collar as he squirmed and tried to get away, and proceeded to wash away the mud. He struggled at first, but as he got used to the water’s temperature, he started to calm down. As for his clothes, those would have to be laundered at home.

“All right, that should about do it,” I said. With the mud out of the way, I used fire magic to create hot wind, like an air dryer, then took a handkerchief to carefully wipe the rest of the boy’s face.

In doing so, I could finally see his pointed, elf-like ears, as well as the emerald green hair he sported. I immediately remembered something Roxy had told me.

BAŞLIK: Zümrüt Saçlı Çocuğun Sırrı

“Zümrüt yeşili saçlı birini görürsen, sakın yanına yaklaşma.”

Hmm? Dur bir dakika. Tam olarak böyle değildi. Sanırım şöyleydi…

“Zümrüt yeşili saçlı ve alnında kırmızı bir mücevher taşıyan birini görürsen, sakın yanına yaklaşma.”

Evet, buydu! Kırmızı mücevher kısmını unutmuşum. Bu çocuğun alnı ise pürüzsüz ve bembeyazdı.

Oh be. Güvendeydim. O pis Superdlerden biri değildi. “T-teşekkür ederim…”

Çocuğun minnettar sözleri beni bir anlığına gerçekliğe döndürdü. Vay canına. İçimi bir tuhaf yapmıştı.

Ona biraz öğüt vermeye karar verdim. “Bak, böyle insanlara boyun eğersen, peşini asla bırakmazlar, haberin olsun.”

“Onları yenemem ki…”

“Karşı koymak istemelisin; püf noktası bu.”

“Ama yanlarında hep daha büyük çocuklar oluyor. Ve ben incinmek istemiyorum…”

Ah, demek buydu. Karşı koyarsa, o çocuklar arkadaşlarını çağırır ve ona güzel bir dayak atarlardı. Hangi dünyada yaşarsan yaşa, bu hep böyleydi. Roxy çok çaba sarf etmişti, bu yüzden yetişkinler iblisleri kabul etmiş gibiydi ama çocuklar etmemişti. Çocuklar çok acımasız olabiliyordu.

Bu durum düpedüz ayrımcılıktan pek de uzak değildi. “Saç rengin yüzünden Superd’e benziyorsun diye zorbalığa uğramak çok zor olmalı.”

“Sen… rahatsız olmuyor musun?”

“Öğretmenim bir iblisti. Sen hangi ırka aitsin?” diye sordum. Roxy bana Migurd ve Superd ırklarının birbirine yakından ilişkili olduğunu söylemişti. Belki onun ırkı da öyleydi.

Ama çocuk sadece başını salladı. “Bilmiyorum.”

Bilmiyor muydu? Bu yaşta mı? Bu garipti. “Peki, baban hangi ırktan?”

“Yarı elf. Diğer yarısı insanmış, öyle dedi.”

“Peki ya annen?”

“İnsan ama içinde biraz da canavar adam kanı varmış.”

Yarı elf ve çeyrek canavar adamın çocuğu mu? Saçlarını bu mu açıklıyordu o zaman?

Çocuğun gözleri yaşlarla doldu. “Ve bu yüzden—b-babam, o… o bana iblis olmadığımı söylüyor, a-ama… saçlarım onun ya da annemin renginde değil…”

Hıçkırmaya başladı ve ben de onu rahatlatmak için başını okşadım. Ama saç rengi ebeveynlerinden hiçbirine benzemiyorsa, bu büyük bir meseleydi. Annesinin bir yasak ilişki yaşamış olabileceği aklıma geldi. “Sadece saç rengin mi farklı?”

“K-kulaklarım da babamınkinden daha uzun.”

“Anlıyorum.” Uzun kulaklı ve yeşil saçlı bir iblis ırkı kulağa yeterince mantıklı geliyordu. Yani, bir yabancının ailevi meselelerine burnumu çok sokmak istemiyordum ama ben de zorbalığa uğramış bir çocuktum, bu yüzden onun için bir şeyler yapmak istedim. Ayrıca, sadece yeşil saçlı olduğu için zorbalığa uğramasına çok üzülmüştüm.

Benim yaşadığım zorbalıkların bazıları aptalca şeyler yapmamın sonucuydu. Ama bu çocuk öyle değildi. Ne kadar uğraşsa da doğuştan gelen bu halini değiştiremezdi. Sadece saçları biraz yeşil diye, doğuştan yol kenarında çamur toplarına hedef olmaya mahkum edilmişti. Öğğ.

Sadece düşünmek bile tekrar sinirimi bozmaya yetti.

“Baban sana iyi davranıyor mu?” diye sordum.

“Evet. Kızınca korkutucu oluyor ama uslu durursam kızmaz.”

“Peki ya annen?”

“O iyi.”

Hmm. Ses tonu doğruyu söylediğini gösteriyordu. Gerçi, kendim görmeden tam olarak bilemezdim.

“Pekala,” dedim. “Gidelim mi?”

“N-nereye gidelim?”

“Nereye gidiyorsan oraya.” Hey, bir çocuğun yanında kalırsan, ebeveynleri mutlaka ortaya çıkar. Bu, adeta bir doğa kanunu.

“N-neden benimle geliyorsun?”

“Şey, az önceki çocuklar geri gelebilir. Onları kovarım. Eve mi gidiyorsun? Yoksa o sepeti bir yere mi götürüyorsun?”

“Ben, şey, b-babamın öğle yemeğini götürüyorum…”

Babası yarı elfti, değil mi? Hikayelerde elfler genellikle uzun ömürlü, diğer ırkları küçümseyen, kibirli tavırlara sahip, yalnızlığı seven insanlar olarak karşımıza çıkardı. Yayda ve büyüde ustaydılar. Su ve rüzgar büyüsü uzmanlık alanlarıydı. Ah, ve tabii ki uzun kulakları vardı.

Roxy, “Büyük ölçüde doğru, gerçi o kadar da yalnızlığı sevmezler,” demişti.

Bu dünyada da elf erkeklerinin ve kadınlarının çoğu çok mu güzeldi? Hayır, hayır. Elflerin hepsinin çok güzel olduğunu düşünmek kaba bir Japon önyargısıydı. Batı oyunlarındaki elflerin yüzleri çok köşeli ve sivriydi, hiç de öyle güzel görünmüyorlardı. Sanırım Japon otaku’ları ile yabancı normal insanların duyarlılıkları farklıydı.

Ancak bu çocuğun ebeveynlerinin çekici olduğu kesindi.

“Peki, şey… neden… neden beni… koruyorsun?” diye kekeler gibi sordu, tavırları bende daha da koruyucu bir içgüdü uyandırıyordu.

“Babam bana zayıfların müttefiki olmam gerektiğini söylemişti.”

“Ama… diğer çocuklar bu yüzden seni dışlayabilirler…”

Belki de. Bu yaygın bir hikayeydi: zorbalığa uğrayan birine yardım ettiğin için kendin zorbalığa uğramak.

“Eğer öyle olursa, ben de seninle oynarım,” dedim. “Bugünden itibaren arkadaşız.”

“Ne?!”

Artık aynı gemideydik. Zorbalık zinciri, yardım edilen kişi minnettar olmak ve iyiliğin karşılığını vermek yerine yardım edene sırt çevirirse büyürdü. Gerçi, bu çocuğun mağdur edilmesinin nedeni bundan daha derin bir şeye dayanıyordu, bu yüzden zorbalara katılıp taraf değiştireceğinden şüphe duydum.

“Ah, genellikle ev işlerine yardım etmekle mi meşgulsün?” diye sordum.

“H-hayır, pek sayılmaz…” Çekingen bir ifade takındı ve başını salladı. Adamım, gerçekten de güzel bir yüzü vardı. Eğer shota hayranı bir kızsan ve aradığın buysa, anında bağlanırdın.

Bilirsin, böyle bir yüze sahip olması işime yarayabilirdi. Büyüdüğünde bir sürü kızın ilgisini çekeceği kesindi ve ben de onunla takılırsam, seçmedikleri bana kalabilirdi. Benim yüzüm de öyle ahım şahım değildi ama iki erkeği yan yana koyduğunda, biri ne kadar iyi görünürse, diğeri o kadar sıradan dururdu. Ve böylece kendine daha az güvenen kızlar kesinlikle beni denerdi.

Ayrıca, özgüven patlaması yaşayan bir kıza kıyasla, kendine biraz güvensiz olanları tercih ederim.

Bu işe yarayabilirdi. Güzel kızların yanlarında çirkinleri tutması gibiydi, herkes onların ne kadar güzel olduğunu fark etsin diye, ama tam tersi.

“Ah, doğru. Adını daha öğrenmedim. Ben Rudeus.”

“Ben… ben Sylph—” Sesi o kadar kısıktı ki ikinci kısmını zar zor anladım. Sylph, ha?

“Güzel bir isim. Tıpkı bir rüzgar ruhu gibi.”

Bunun üzerine Sylph’in yüzü kızardı ve başını salladı. “Evet.”

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