Translator: Kenar Editor: Sage Yomeiri
Chapter 2 – Shatia the Villager
Shatia has a childhood friend, a girl named Moffy who is the same age as her. She was a girl with big round eyes and chestnut-colored hair tied in twin tails. She is always sticking to Shatia. There were only a few children in the village because the village was small in the first place. That was why most of the children considered friends of the same age precious. That is the case if we are talking about normal children. However Shatia treated Moffy simply as an annoying person with lower intellect because residing inside her body was the soul of a former witch whose age exceed a thousand years.
“Hey, Shatia. Play! play!”
“…Moffy. I’m reading a book right now. Please spare me from your meddling.”
At noon of a certain day. Shatia was reading a book handed by the tutor at the side of a tree. Although she was able to cram about magic for the most part, she had no grasp of the daily life of an ordinary human. Therefore she asked her tutor to lend her a book describing the the daily life living in the royal capital. Shatia, as a study enthusiast as she is, read book on the plains. Meanwhile Moffy, a child who likes playing outside, asked Shatia to play with her and was consequently disturb Shatia’s reading time.
“Because! because Shatia is only reading.” (Editor, I sincerely don’t know how to write how a kid talk)(Sage: Think Navi)
“This is pretty valuable study material to me… hah, all right, all right. I understand. Let’s go play something.”
Shatia decided to play with Moffy because she felt that Moffy would only become more annoying if she was to ignore her any longer. She spent time in the village pretending to be a normal village girl as much as possible so that her identity as a former witch wouldn’t be found out. Unfortunately that was all in Shatia’s mind. There was no problem in her daily life, however she showed no effort in hiding her magic capabilities. As a result, she even surprised the former royal court magician with her resourcefulness and furthermore with her spirit of inquiry. The Shatia who has become a celebrity in a sense was seen dragged by Moffy to play house in the village because she couldn’t beat Moffy’s pure-heartedness.
“Hey! Why is Shatia always reading hard books?”
“Oh, this book? This book is about the royal capital. Anyway, it is my principle to thoroughly study things that interest me.”
“Then! Do Shatia wanna go to the royal capital?”
Moffy asked so as if she was suddenly interested with what Shatia was doing in the middle of the game. Shatia answered Moffy while her hand was holding the wooden cup for playing house and found herself thinking about it once again.
“Well then, do I really want to go to the royal capital?” said Shatia in her mind. She was certainly interested in the magic of humans. But she was simply interested in it and she still didn’t know if she really wanted to go there.
“Well, who knows? Whichever it is, what I’m interested in right now is magic. Therefore the royal capital itself isn’t that important to me.”
There were many ways in learning the magic without having to go to the royal capital. Shatia was satisfied with the current situation because she thought that the amount of magic she could learn in this village was enough. In addition to that, there was no reason for her dear mother to allow her to go out of the village.
“I’m! Glad~”
“Hm, may I ask your reason for being relieved?”
“If Shatia goes away, I will have no friend to play with! That’s why I’m glad~”
Moffy showed a relieved gesture when she said that. It seemed to Shatia that thinking about her childhood friend leaving worried her. Shatia could only answer vaguely to Moffy’s question. Then they continue playing house for a while until Moffy suggested to walk around for a bit to maybe take a breather. Shatia agreed to that easily because she thought that moving the body was also an important basic training to magic.
“Hey, Moffy. It is said that that forest is off limits, you know.”
After walking for a while, the two little girls reached what’s called the end of the village. There was a forest barricaded with fences. It was a forbidden forest even the adults of the village rarely tried to enter. It was said that a monster would come out.
Monsters were evil creatures who has mana unlike your usual animal. That was why only people who are confident in their skill could enter the forest.
“It’s! Okay! Even uncle Rov who have nothing to do but drinking entered this forest the other day! It’s a bit dark but it will be fine!”
“…Is that so. Oh well. I won’t stop us then.”
Shatia thought that the reason Rov entered the forest was to hide the fact that he was drinking from his wife but she couldn’t care less, and not to mention that Moffy wouldn’t stop trying to enter the forest. Actually Shatia herself has entered the forest several times to investigate the ecology in the forest. Well, she couldn’t hold her curiosity anymore. Shatia was also confident that her magic could take care of monsters if they came out. Without hesitation, the two little girls stepped into the forest and walked into its depths. From Moffy’s happy expression, it seemed to her that she thought of herself as something like explorer.
“Wow! This is amazing! There! There is a bird that I’ve never seen before, Shatia!”
“I know that you are happy and all but beware that that is a flame bird monster. And as expected of a flame monster, it will spit out flame, you see. Be careful.”
Moffy thoughtlessly pointed at the bird because it was her first time seeing the bird. That bird was clearly a monster though. Shatia was troubled at how Moffy was a little bit too optimistic although she thought that that was a good point to have too. But Shatia found a similarity between herself and Moffy, which was they were a kid brimming with curiosity. Maybe I will take her going around the forest until she is satisfied, Shatia thought so. Shatia decided to do just that.
Suddenly, Shatia stopped in her tracks. There was an unfamiliar footprint on the ground. It was completely not belong to that of monster but it belong to a human wearing shoes.
“Hmm… Did a human pass by this place too? If that’s the case, is it possible that it is those rumored adventurer bunch? It is hard to think that the humans from the village will walk through this area recklessly.”
Shatia titled her head as if in ponder while touching the footprint. Among the villagers who could enter the forest were at best only the village’s head and Shatia’s private magic tutor. However the village’s head stopped entering the forest as of late and her tutor didn’t want to enter the forest. Which means, these footprint belongs to an outsider. And there was a time when humans called adventurer came to Shatia’s house when she was a witch. Every one of them belong to an organization called guild. They worked by receiving people’s requests. There were paths for travelers though it was unthinkable for them to enter a forest where monster would come out. Can I take it that adventurer are that strong?, Shatia thought so.
“I want to meet them if possible,” Shatia thought so while getting the dirt off of her hand. There were magic-user among the adventurers. Some of them mastered self-taught magic, magic that has been passed down since ancient times, forbidden magic, and even the magic that has been accumulated in battles interested Shatia.
“Kyaa!”
At that time, Moffy’s scream suddenly echoed in the forest. The girl that was supposed to next to her is gone. Therefore Shatia rushed to the direction where the scream was. When she finally reached the source, she was at a clearing in the middle of the forest. Moffy was fallen on the ground because she fainted and there was a giant bear before her. Obviously it wasn’t an ordinary bear. It was a monster which possessed mana.
“Moffy!”
“Grrrr…”
It seemed that the bear-like monster hasn’t attack Moffy yet. Moffy was on the verge of being attacked, though it seemed that she fainted because of the shock from abruptly and accidentally encountering the bear-like monster. Instead of the fainted Moffy, the bear-like monster was more interested in Shatia. It raised a low growl while dripping its drools.
“Grimbear?…. oh, that’s rare. Do you guys even appear in this forest too? You should normally be hiding in caves…”
Shatia understood that the monster before her was called Grimbear and because of that she made a surprised face at that fact. Shatia actually had encountered a Grimbear at the time when she was a witch and even studied their ecology. The Grimbear which was known for its brutality was also afraid of Shatifal the witch thus hiding in a cave. However it has no reason to hide now because the Shatia now looked like a little girl.
It raised an imposing roar and bore its fangs. Shatia put her hand on her chin because she was intrigued at the grimbear which showed different reaction compared to when she studied it as a witch. There was no human emotions within her eyes. Rather than as a monster, Shatia looked at it like she looked at a lab rat.
“Grrrrrrrraa!!”
“What’s wrong? You guys were so clever when I was a witch.”
When Shatia was a witch, a compromise was reached between her and the Grimbear, she even trained some of it. That being said, the Grimbear before her right now could never know of that. What before it wasn’t the Shatifal who captured and made many Grimbear submit but a feeble looking little girl. The Grimbear was angry at such arrogant Shatia and raised its arm overhead showing its claws.
“Sit.”
The very moment after Shatia said that, the Grimbear’s body was subjected to heavy gravity, not because of pressure or bloodlust. It was something similar to a shockwave being transmitted directly to its body. The Grimbear intuitively understood what it was because it was a monster which possessed mana. It was magic. Furthermore it was powerful magic loaded with mana that the Grimbear knew it wouldn’t ever beat. The Grimbear fell to the ground when it came to its senses. It sat down and its head seemed to droop toward Shatia. Shatia seemed satisfied when she looked at the Grimbear.
“Yup, yup. You guys are so cute when you are being this docile. I like both monsters and animals. So do me a favor and don’t do anything rough.”
Shatia said so and gently patted Grimbear’s head. It was a powerless pat from a delicate girl but the Grimbear has a feeling that a demon caught its neck. It wondered how a strong aura like this was radiated from such a small body. The grimbear simply thought so but in reality Shatia was genuinely smiling.
“Grr….”
“From now on, you aren’t allowed to attack this little girl here. Even though she looks like this, this one is my childhood friend. I’ll be troubled in various way if I lose her.”
Mainly the adults would be noisy if that happens though Shatia didn’t say that out loud. She carefully kept it hidden in her mind and gave a warning to the grimbear. Although the grimbear didn’t know human language, it is intuitively understood what Shatia said and simply nod at that.
“Then, off you go. Take care to not be found.”
The grimbear went off to the forest after Shatia slam its back. After confirming that the Grimbear disappear from the clearing, Shatia approached the fainted Moffy and touched her squishy cheeks.
“Well… get up, Moffy. Rise and shine!”
“hmm~… hya! Shatia! The bear! That huge bear!”
“What in the world are you talking about? You got tired of walking and fell asleep, you know.”
Shatia said so to the Moffy who started to rush and jump about because it was too troublesome to fully explain. Anyway, a kid wouldn’t quite understand if she gave her full explanation about what happened. Shatia lightly thought that it would be best to explain that Moffy was too tired from walking. Feeling still unconvinced, Moffy looked around her surroundings but she seemed relieved after confirming there was no giant bear around.
“Eh? … is that true? Maybe that’s true?”
“That’s right. Well, let’s quickly come back home. I know that it feels less severe than you expect. However we will be scolded if the adults see us in this kind of place.”
“Ah! That will be troubling!”
As Shatia said so, Moffy started to backtrack the road where she came from as if she understood the situation both of them are in. Shatia continued to be amazed while walking behind Moffy. Finally the fact that Shatia and Moffy entered the forest wasn’t found out but Moffy was scolded because of her dirty clothes. Shatia unusually and seriously reflected to not get flustered when waking up from fainting.