Well, that was quite an experience, so that's what a battle feels like. It was scary as expected, but surprisingly, it was also fun in a weird way, but that is probably only because I won.

I never really got the impression that I was in any real danger, I can heal from almost anything after all, but if I continue to get into fights like these and I don't truly learn how to use my power, it will be only a matter of time until I end up hurting someone.

The good news is that now that the knight is bound we should finally be able to have a calm conversation like civilized people. Let's see, how can I explain myself?

"You see, I..."

"What are you doing!? Why have you not killed me yet!?"

"No, listen, I..."

"There's nothing for me to listen from the likes of you!"

I send my mana around his mouth and manipulate to keep it closed, let me speak, please!

"Listen, this is all a misunderstanding, I'm not an evil person, I don't know if that prophecy was wrong or if it was just misleading, but I have no intention of causing any harm to anyone, and I'm not going to hurt you or any of your underlings, so please, stop chasing after me"

Hearing me say that only seems to make him angry, he's desperately trying to tell me something, maybe I should listen to what he has to say...

"I don't need you to tell me about your intentions! We searched your room and found the research on dark magic you have been doing, I know exactly what you're up to!"

He has seen my research? And from his words, he sounds like he knows what it was about! Could it be?

"So you really understand what my research was really about?"

"Of course I know! I know it very well..."

Ah, finally, someone who understands! I feel so happy that I cannot help a smile from appearing on my face.

"Then you must know about all the great things that can be accomplished with advanced dark magic! I have a vision of a future in which people all around the world will be able to rid themselves of injury and disease with the power of advanced necromancy and flesh shaping"

He seems to be taken aback by my enthusiasm, but that can't be helped, this is my life's work we are talking about, it's just natural for me to get excited when given the chance to have someone learn about it.

"You cannot seriously think anyone will want something like that! Even if they can turn into something that does not need to worry about disease or injury, the price is simply too high!"

"I disagree, the price will be actually rather small"

I understand that right now only the top mages would be able to put my techniques into practice, so only a few rich people would be able to pay for it, but I'm working on methods to simplify the necessary spells and on better ways to teach younger mages how to use dark magic, by the time my research is finished I'm sure that a lot of average mages will be able to specialize themselves on dark healing magic and the prices for treatment will become quite affordable.

"You think that losing one's humanity is a small price?"

Huh? What is he talking about?

"Losing one's humanity? Look, I know that these fields of dark magic have a bad reputation right now but you need to become more open-minded"

"You're insane..."

Well, I'm aware that I'm a slightly unusual person, but does he need to be so rude?

"I will not allow this!"

I'm starting to think that he didn't understand my research as well as I had assumed...

He begins to activate all the fire mana in his body at once...

WHAT!!? Isn't this a self-destruct move!?

"Mind void" "Mind void!" "Mind void!!!"

I think just the first one was enough to make him fall asleep, but he made me freak out, did he just try to kill me at the expense of his own life? Not that it would have worked...

Seriously, why does he hate me so much? And just when I thought that we were reaching an understanding...

Well, I'm already starting to get used to it, not sure if that is a good thing... in any case, there's still a couple of things I need to do before I leave.

First I need to make sure that the captain won't be trying to kill me again in the future, I'll place a curse of my own creation on him, it will cause him to lose his strength, but only when I make the curse active myself, if he does not try to go after me again, this curse will not affect his life in any way.

Normally a famous hero like him would have an easy time getting rid of any curses, after all, you only need a light magic-user of the same rank as the one who cast the curse, and he would have no trouble getting help from a rank 10 light mage, but I just happen to be rank 20 so he should not be able to find anyone who can dispel mine.

Now all that's left is to find that cat girl and give her back her ribbon.

I walk along the empty streets of the town since I was focused on the fight I didn't pay much attention to it, but there were a lot of people watching from their homes, when I look in their direction they all quickly close their windows, I guess I won't be able to return to this town anytime soon...

"Oh, there she is"

The girl is still sleeping just where I left her, she's so small and cute, I'm a bit jealous... and now that she's sleeping she looks even cuter than before.

I tie the ribbon back to her silver-colored hair, wow it's so soft to the touch... huh, I know that I should not do this while she's unconscious, but this is far too tempting... I take a good look around me to make sure that nobody is watching and...

"Eheheh"

"Hey Luna, what are you doing to that girl?"

"Woah!"

Arana is standing right behind me, when did she get there? I just looked and she was nowhere nearby.

"I'm sorry, I just could not resist... those ears looked so fluffy"

There's no way that I could get so close and not touch, nobody would have been strong-willed enough.

"Well I'm not going to judge your interests, I just wanted to know if you were done defeating the forces of justice"

Why does she always have to word everything in the worst possible way?

"Yes, I somehow managed to win... but now I don't think that we can stay here any longer"

"Well, we already have everything we need anyway, speaking of which, maybe you should have one of these, I already have my own so I don't need this one"

Arana passes me an appraisal stone... she has two of them? Aren't these things supposed to be rare?

"Where did you get this from? Don't tell me that you stole it..."

"What!? How could you accuse your friend of something like that!?"

She says that, but I've caught her several times in the past stealing stuff from me...

"The things I take from you do not count, friends are supposed to share with each other"

She just used the present tense there, does that mean that she plans to keep doing it?

"Let's just leave already, I don't want to stay here with all the sleeping knights..."

I know that it will still take some time for them to wake up but they still make me nervous.

"Sure, I was thinking that we should avoid settlements until we reach another country, I already have a route planned"

And so we leave town to continue with our journey, we don't encounter a single person on the way out, I think that they are avoiding us...

It seems like fixing this misunderstanding will be more difficult than I was expecting, not only did that prophecy make me sound like some evil villain, but there's always been something about me that makes people afraid of me, I've never understood what it was...

But I cannot give up! I know that my research can greatly benefit the world if it's just given a chance, and if the reason why people reject it is that it's the magic of the queen of darkness, then I need to improve my own image for it to become accepted.

One way or another, I'll make everyone understand that the queen of darkness does not want to be the villain.

forli

And so we've reached the end of the beginning, next time we'll begin the start of the thing that comes next.