“Now then, how about you tell me what you know about mana and magic” She asked.

“Well, it’s about using chants and… use the right word for activation? Also consecutively using magic make activating stronger version possible or maintaining the current version for longer. Also the whole mana inside and outside the body?” I said. I’m not really sure about this myself, I really don’t know much theoretical stuff on mana and magic.

“I see that you got the basics down, of course there’s much more to magic than just that. I think some misconceptions needed to be clear” She said. What does she mean by that?

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“First of all, magic doesn’t need chanting, as long as you know how to manipulate mana and have good image in your head, along with the mana necessary of course, you can use magic without chants” She explained. So something like that is possible?

“Really?” I asked. And without saying anything, she opened her palm and fire appeared on it, without any incantation.

“Seeing is believing, so here’s an example” She said, and quickly extinguished the flame.

“Anyway usually how one can better themselves in manipulating the mana from in and out of body is meditation, it can be long and boring but it’s practical and anyone could do it, it’s one of the ways to practice magic chantless” She said.

“So I am to meditate… how exactly?” I asked.

“Just try to feel… the surroundings and within yourself? It’s hard to explain” She said, that’s certainly not a lot to go on.

“That’s not a lot to go on and you know it” I bluntly stated.

“True enough, how about try sitting down, folding your legs inward, and try closing your eyes and feel the mana around you, inside you, and try to interact with it” She said as she did exactly just that, at least that’s some direction to go on. I guess I’ll try this out now. Closing my eyes and sitting down on the ground, trying to feel the mana…

“Try to concentrate it into a form of some kind, try imagining something” She said while I do so… I don’t know what I should imagine… perhaps a ball of light will do… the mana… I can feel it moving around, but I don’t know how well I can weave it around to do as I thought…

“Try moving your arms and hands around to guide them if you have any trouble” She said, and I do so. I think this is certainly easier… just think of light… 

…

I don’t know if that worked or not, and open my eyes.

“Well that was close, you almost got that. I mean not everyone can mastered something on the first try, you did good” She said trying to cheer me up on my failure, she’s way too nice to be the Demon Lord, I’m sure everyone will think that. I still really don’t know her full story, but she doesn’t know mine either. Perhaps I should tell her about it later… but not now.

“I’ll try again” I declared.

“Well that’s fine, I’ll tell you if you miss something” She said.

 

#####

 

…[Flash]

*Flash*

“...That’s a bright light alright” She said, then I immediately open my eyes.

“Congratulations on your first chantless magic” She said to me with a confident smile.

“Thanks” I replied. There’s definitely some sort of feeling for her… I don’t quite understand.

“H-Hey, no need make a face like that” She said. Did I do something to offend her?

“What‘s wrong?” I asked.

“Oh, you face reddened a little with a smile, quite different from your usually unmoving face” She explained, did I did that unconsciously?

“My apologies for inconvenienting you on that” I said.

“No no, it’s nothing like that, just surprised is all” She said.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah, anyway do you want to continue practicing?” She asked. I think I’m fine for now, feeling tired of doing this for a long time.

“I’m fine, let’s go back” I said.

“Very well, I’ll put the corpse and the items in this bag and I’ll come up with the cover story, you just have to agree with me okay?” She instructed, I simply nod.

“Good, let’s go, Rosia” She said as she take the lead.

“Yes, Demon Lord” I replied. She then awkwardly stopped.

“Can you please don’t call me that?” She asked.

“Okay then, Mao-va” I said.

“It’s pronounced Ma-o-va” She corrected.

 

#####

 

As both of us walk to the gate, the two guards looked at us somewhat suspiciously.

“What is it?” Maova asked.

“That bag is rather suspicious, what’s inside” The stern guard said and questioned.

“If you can believe it, it’s the remain of the adventurer who went missing a few days ago, I was tasked to find him and this is all that left, this girl came along to help me find her” She explained.

“I see, I supposed looking is not an issue?” He asked.

“Dude are you seriously going to look through what could possibly be a corpse? I’ll pass” The carefree guard said.

“That’s fine, just try to not sully the dead” Maova said with a malicious look and sound.

“...Fine, I’ll leave it at that” Stern guard replied and let us pass.

 

#####

 

We got some suspicious looks along the way but otherwise nothing troublesome happened, right now we’re in the guild and Maova is talking to a girl at the reception.

“I supposed I have to explain as to how I came across this didn’t I?” She said to the girl.

“W-Well, that’s exactly what you’re supposed to do, the guild master will review this case himself, so please go upstairs to meet with him… the body can be left with me” She replied.

“Okay then, let’s go Rosia” Maova said beckoned me to come along.

...We both walked up the stairs

*Open*

“Hey so we find the guy and he’s dead soooooo” Very unprofessional of her to say in such a tone.

“I heard ya, just sit down” A young man replied, is he the guild master? I expected someone way older. Both of us then sit down in front of the desk with him at the other side. There’s a woman here as well, probably his assistant.

“So how did you came across his body?” The man asked.

“Yesterday I went to search area around here but find so sign of him, as well as part of the forest, but I didn’t find him at all. And then this morning this girl came to visit me, so I asked her if she spotted him anywhere, she said she saw him went into that forest a few days ago, so her and I went to look for him deep in the forest, and all we found is a corpse, left with nothing but bones and gears” She explained. The man thought for a moment then eyeing at me. Stressed.

“Hey don’t look at her like that, she’s innocent okay?” Maova said.

“Sure… Well thanks for finding what remained of him, give me your card and I’ll promote you to gold rank” He said and Maova did so.

“Also since she’s here, do you want to be an adventurer?” Maova said to me.

“Sure” I replied.

“Well as a seasoned adventurer by now how will you evaluate her?” The guild master asked.

“As much as I want to say gold the same as me, I think she shouldn’t start too high, I think maybe bronze rank” She replied.

“Is that okay with you?” The guild master asked.

“Yes” I replied.

“Very well, your name?” He asked.

“Rosia” I replied, even I know not to spelled out my last name, as such a thing is usually only reserved for nobles and the like.

“Class?” He asked.

“Swor-” 

“Paladin” Maova cuts in. Why? She’s winking at me. Is that a cue of some kind?

“Really?” The guild master skeptically said.

“That’s okay” I said. He sighed.

“...Fine fine, go issued the card, and upgrade this” He said this to assistant.

“Right away” She said then walked out. I guess it’s just us three. Maova is looking at him with a somewhat threatening stare.

“I won’t press on the matter” He said trying to sound calm, and she forgo the act.

“Good, so when can we expect the cards?” She asked.

“Just wait downstairs for a while then Aruni will give them to you” He said.

“Aruni? Who’s that?” Maova asked.

“The receptionist girl, I supposed she never told you her name, or rather you didn’t appraise her” He explained.

“Sure didn’t, there wasn’t a need” Maova replied.

“Well now you know. Anyway you can go now” He said.

“Okay, let’s go” She said to me and both of us go downstairs.

…

I guess we have to wait.

“So there’s this thing about your rank being lower than mine, it’s forbidden for you to do requests and such that are higher ranking than you without someone higher ranked involved, and I’m significantly higher in ranks. So there’s two options, one is we both do requests separately, or two, you’ll have to stick with me at all times to do any actually valuable quest” She said.

“...I really don’t know what to do myself” I replied. I don’t want to drag her down, so I should choose the first option… but can I really go do this alone?

“Well you can take your time thinking about it, there’s no rush really” She replied. I guess I have to try doing things alone…

“I’ll… try to do requests alone” I replied.

“I see, well I’ll follow at a safe distance if I’m not doing anything at the moment, so would you- Hm?” She said then interrupted herself. She have her gaze toward two adventurers, seems pretty young honestly, probably around my age, maybe slightly older. One is a blonde girl with wavy blonde hair and dark brown eyes wearing a white robe, other is a boy with messy brown hair and eyes with an axe as his weapon. What’s so interesting about the two? Maova then let out a devilish grin.

“Those two are of no concern for the time being” She said to me as if reading my thoughts.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“No need to worry yourself. Anyway back to what I was saying, I think about having you trying out the paladin role, which is why I told them to classified you as one, you seems to be talented in light magic, and a bit for life magic, so you would make a great paladin” She explained. I guess I would? Paladin are considered high ranking knights and known for their use of ‘holy’ magic, but isn’t it kind of ironic that a demon would be in that kind of class? Or does she find the irony hilarious and that’s why she wanted me to be one. Well it doesn’t really matter to me.

“I’m fine with that, not like I have any other path anyway aside from being a mundane sword fighter” I replied.

“Good, then how about you go try out a request or two? Then I’ll help you learn some more magic later” She said.

“Sure” I said.

“Good that we agreed on that, but we still have to wait for the guild cards… oh there she is” Maova said as she noticed the receptionist girl walking toward us and hand out the two guild cards.

“Here are your cards” She said.

“Thanks” Maova replied as she took her card and I took mine. The girl when go back to her station.

“Well I guess it’s time for me to try out some gold missions, how about you go try some bronze ones now?” She said as she stands up showing me her gold card.

“I’ll do just that” I said as I stand up as well and went to the board… let’s see… hunt three wolves, escort to another town take about a day, hunt down a bear… I’ll just go with the first one, sounds easy enough.

“So you choose that one, remembered to have a bag ready, we can’t have people know about the box” Maova said as she finished picking her quest as well and give me a pretty large bag.

“Of course” I said taking the bag and the quest paper, walk to the the reception, signing the paper and all that, and go off. There should be some wolves in the forest.

 

#####

 

*Slash*

That’s the last of them. Aside from finding the wolves themselves this quest isn’t hard at all. Putting its corpses into the bag and then it’s time to go back.

 

#####

 

“Here” I said as I give the wolves to the receptionist, who then arranged the rewards and have me sign the paper. And so I did. The reward isn’t much but at least I got some money, something I didn’t have.

“That was quick” Maova commented even though she did a higher ranking quest and came back even sooner.

“So are you” I remarked.

“True enough, I think I’ll go for another quest for the day, what about you?” She asked.

“I guess I’ll go for another as well” I said. And so both of us go pick a mission.

“Excuse me” Or at least I tried to. The receptionist girl interrupted me.

“What is it?” I asked.

“If it’s all possible can you please try out this request?” She said handing me a paper containing details of a bronze rank mission.

…

“Very well” I replied.

 

#####

 

So this is the place… I just picked up a request about a bandit hideout, and apparently it’s around here, from the looks of it it should be in a cave around here? Apparently someone found out about this and asked someone to come and kill them. I would expect this to be a silver rank or higher request but apparently not. From the sound of it it seems like others tried this request before but no one ever returned, how strange.

“Psh! Seems like there’s another lamb to the slaughter! A cute girl this time” Do these people seriously thinks I didn’t hear them? Well I could hear their voice from somewhere, sounds echoing… I think it’s this way.

…

Oh here it is, seems like they went inside, I think I know what to do.

…Opening my palm and thinking of a flash of light… [Flash]

*Flash*

“Gah!”

“What was that!”

“A mage!?” 

“I didn’t hear any chants though!”

They reacted, let’s quickly went in there… the cave here is quite spacious. There are some bandits around, let’s get rid of them quickly.

*Lunge* *Stab*

“Aaaaaaa!!!” There’s the first. There’s one nearby.

*Turn* *Swing*

“Grg!” I did a quick turn and slash a man’s torso.

“Don’t think you’ll get away!” Another man immediately approached me along with others, seems like they recovered from the blinding light.

“Yah!” One man yelled lunging toward me with his axe.

*Parry* *Stab*

Weak.

*Slash* *Slash* *Slash*

Three more down.

“W-What the hell!?” One man shrieked. I turn to look at him and he cowered.

*Stab*

I stab him in the forehead as a response. There are still a lot more bandits about, maybe a few dozens. And the solution for this is simple, kill them all.

*Flash*

 

#####

 

“P-Please spare me!” The last man said collapsing onto the floor heavily wounded. I have no time for that.

*Turn* *Swing* *Evade*

“I’d reckon there’s a leader” I commented looking at the man far more noticeable than the rest, he use a giant sword as his weapon, very rugged looking. 

“P-Please save me!” The underling plead.

“Shut up useless maggots, as for you” He said.

“I have no time for chatters” I replied, pointing my sword at his direction. Then I realized something. There’s someone besides him.

“Oh really? Do you want this innocent lass to kick it?” He said chuckling and pointing his large blade at her throat.

“You’re not in the position to bargain” I declared.

*Flash* *Slash* *Clank*

“Gargg!!!” The leader yelled out as his sword fall onto the floor, along with his arm, the woman is set free and immediately run.

*Stab* *Slice*

I stabbed him in the chest and slice upward, this blade might not look flashy but it is certainly very effective. Blood flows out and he falls onto the floor with no response. Nothing but a corpse. I turn to look at the last underling and he’s unconscious. No matter.

*Stab*

Again right in the skull. And with that every bandits is dealt with. Hm? That woman came back.

“What?” I asked.

“P-Please save everyone else! They’re all imprisoned!” She desperately said.

“Honestly lady that’s not part of the mission” I bluntly said.

“Please!” She plead. A sight for sore eyes alright.

“Fine, just show me where they are” I said. Her expression quickly brightened up.

“Over here!” She said while taking a lead…

… 

After a long walk I saw many cell with people inside, many females, in fact no men to be seen… let’s just get them out and worry about this later. I don’t have keys or anything… damn.

*Punch* *Bend*

Huh? Did I just punch the metal bars and it bend? Then perhaps… 

*Grip* *Tear*

I tear the metal bars open, quite easily as well, seems like I have more strength in me than I expected. There’s a few more cells to go through.

 

#####

 

*Grip* *Tear*

“That’s all of them” I said. They all seems so shocked and can’t come up with anything to say.

“Guess I’ll go now” I said as I began to walk out.

“Wait please!” One woman yelled out.

“What?” I said looking back and irritated.

“Can you please… lead us back to a town somewhere?” She asked. That sounds like more trouble than it’s worth.

“What a pain” I replied.

“Please, we won’t slow you down!” She said.

“Just shut it, half of you can’t even stand” I sternly said. She then looked back to see many woman still resting and some unconscious.

“Then what are we-”

“I’ll go ask people from the guild to do something about it, just stay here” I said as I walked out. Not before some proof of extermination of course.

 

#####

 

“Here’s the corpse of the leader” I said as I handed down a bag of corpse. She cringed at the sight, I mean any sane person would be so I can’t reprimand her on that front.

“T-This’ll do as proof” She said.

“Also” I chimed in.

“W-What is it?” She asked,

“There are many woman trapped in the cave, I open the cells for them but they’re all too weak to go anywhere else” I said.

“Ah, then we’ll personally issued a rescue team, do you want part in it?” She asked.

“No” I replied.

“Oh… Also with this mission done you can get a promotion to silver rank” That was quick and came out of nowhere. Regardless this is my first day as an adventurer and it goes pretty well, but who knows what she’ll have in store for me later.