In the dark space, I try to grasp my floating consciousness.

What is going on?

My head is cloudy and I can't control my body.

“ … Luxe!”

A familiar voice is calling me. Is that really her, the one that gave me endless love, the one I looked up to?

With delight from hearing the nostalgic voice, I slowly open my eyes.

In front of me are a couple. A woman in her early twenties, with a beautiful long light green hair and emerald green eyes. While her round face shape and round eyes make her look younger than she actually is, her caring eyes that has always looked over me are undoubtedly those of my mother, Lizelotte Von Arden.

'I thought she was around my age when we first met, and I wondered if we could be friends...'

I try reaching my hand out to her, but it appears that I still didn't regain the control.

'Liz... Don't cry.'

Traces of tears can be seen around her eyes. Her usual gracious expression is tainted with signs of anxieties.

“Luxe! Did you wake up?”

Behind her is standing a man in his mid twenties. With his muscular body and a large scar on his cheek reaching his chin, he looks older than he actually is. With his combed-back blue hair and his cool blue eyes, my first impression of him was that he was rather handsome.

That stays true even now. I just thinkthat he is a bit too muscle-headed, and looks a bit scary when he smiles at me. Well, it can't be helped, his smiling expression doesn't match his form.

His name is Willfred, a former mercenary who settled down as a hunter after Liz got pregnant with me.

“Are you okay? We found you collapsed at the yard in the... that state, do you remember?”

Collapsed?

...Ah, that is right.

After becoming five years old, I managed to be able to run faster than my friends in my previous life. Isn't this world just amazing? Since my body used to be so weak that I could only rarely go outside, I was so excited that I had been reborn in this world with a healthy body.

Because of that, I got carried away. Thinking that it was just like a game, where you hunt monsters and raise levels in order to become stronger quickly, I secretly went out to hunt a horned rabbit.

I planned it carefully, and in the end, I managed to kill it without a hitch. After all, the magic lessons Liz gave me and the swordsmanship Will taught me made me strong enough to defeat weak monsters.

However, there was one thing that I didn't expect. No, that I forgot due to my excitement. It's that I had never killed anything before.

The feeling of cutting through the flesh, the red eyes of the horned rabbit filled with resent and anguish... As I remember those, my hands start trembling again.

Even though the blood gushing out of the rabbit's neck was so warm, only thing I could feel was coldness as if my body was exposed to the heavy rain from outside.

My body starts trembling as well. I feel like throwing up, even though there would be nothing left to throw up at this point.

I can feel warmth around my hands. As I try to find the source of it, I meet her gaze.

Her still teary eyes are focused on me. As if she is trying to chase away the sticky feelings that was overwhelming me, she pours her warmth within myself: with her hands, with her gaze, and... with her voice.

“Luxe, I understand why you are so worried. I also know that you are being hasty.

But you don't have to do what you don't want to.

Me and Will are here for that, after all.

We will protect you, so we just want you to do what makes you happy.”

Her voice works like a narcotic in my distressed condition.

I look at her, and feeling the warmth from her chasing away the darkness in my heart, I smile happily. Yep, it's just like she said. I don't have to worry about anything. I have Liz and Will who care about me so much, after all.

No... That is wrong.

Feeling the incongruity, I look at my smiling self once again.

The five years old girl smiling so brightly looks as if she would wipe away all the worries from anyone who sees her.

However, that is not right.

You can't be smiling now.

This world is not one where a weak child like you can just smile and be protected.

You have the possibility, and you saw it yourself. You have to make one more step forward instead of being soaked in a worthless feeling like that.

Because if you did so, then I...

With my vision going blur, I can feel that something is wrong with my body.

I look at my chest. In the small chest of a 5 years old child, a spearhead-shaped hole has been opened, connecting the front to the back.

With the blood gushing out of it, my vision is all painted in red.

I need to use my light magic.

With it, this much is nothing.

I try closing the wound with it.

However, I am unable to gather the mana.

What is wrong? The magic that saved me countless times, is betraying me now.

It's impossible.

I closely inspect my body.

Feeling the incongruity once again, I slowly come to a realization.

…

I wake up in a dark room. I can feel the fluffy bed that Rina gave me.

This is the room Rina prepared for me yesterday in her house.

Outside the window, I can see that it is still dark.

I look at the two moons floating in the sky.

Did I sleep perhaps, four hours?

To sleep so soundly, to even have a dream, it seems that I got carried away.

Did I get infatuated with all the hospitality they offered me?

'I will protect you.'

Sionna and Liz's voices overlap inside my head.

Don't make me laugh. Everything could have been different only if she didn't say those things back then.

… No, I know that I have nobody else to blame than myself.

And that is exactly why, I can't make the same mistake.

…

It seems that foxes are still sleeping soundly.

I use the wind magic to keep the sound and scent from spreading.

It is still dark, so using light magic should be unnecessary.

I exit the house, and using Wind Step, I jump into the sky.

Wind Step is a magic to create air footings mid-air to jump on. As long as I have mana and the ability to control it, I can keep jumping infinitely mid-air.

I can also use Flight, that allows me to fly, but Wind Step is my favorite in this situation.

It's because while Flight relies solely on magic, the movement using Wind Step is mostly based on the physical performance, resulting in a much lower mana consumption, as well as splitting the burden into physical and mental controls.

Soaring towards the red moon riding in the middle of the dark sky, I check the surroundings. While there are some guards still awake, it doesn't seem like anyone noticed me. That is the case for even Sionna and Lisa who were in the same house.

'Shall I check out the deeper part of that forest?'

I jump towards the direction me and Rina came from.

I assist my movement using wind magic.

When I'm trying to cover a long distance, removing the air friction is enough.

After all, if I can completely remove the friction, then I can keep increasing my speed, as long as I can keep kicking the footing I create. Even when that becomes impossible, I can use Flight to increase the speed even further.

However, aiming for such a high speed is not what I am going to do.

After all, the amount of mana required to remove the friction once I reach the speed of sound increases drastically. It is not worth spending so much mana to shorten the travel time for a mere few seconds. Not to mention that traveling too fast also has its risks, similarly to breaking the speed limit when you drive.

Upon leaving the town, I realize that my clothes that Rina gave me disappear.

Is that because they are made from her magic?

Well, whatever.

I reach the forest within a minute. Looking for the “deep part” of the forest where the stronger monsters are supposed to live, I spread my senses.

Even while traveling at high speed, thanks to my high agility, I am able to properly grasp everything around me.

Agility, to put it simply, is like that stat in games that allows you to take more actions per turn, or per time frame, if it makes it easier to understand. Even though it doesn't directly increase the strength of my body or mind, it allows to control everything much better.

For instance, while traveling at a speed close to the speed of sound, I use magic to detect a large area around me, and recognize the kinds of monsters living in it. While intelligence allows the processing of all the information at a high speed, agility allows to control the mana that is necessary to use the magic. In the end, the combination makes it as if the time flows slowly for me.

Deep inside the forest, I find a primitive village.

The houses are made of straws, and the inhabitants are large creatures looking like pigs.

Those ugly monsters that are hostile to humans are orcs.

I closely inspect the village.

There are four general orcs and one orc king.

Since I have fought those before, I manage to recognize them easily.

Orcs are monsters that rely heavily on their strength. Their agility and intelligence are decent, but nothing to boast of. While they are intelligent enough to form a group and hunt together, it still remains sub-par.

For example, they will keep fighting until their leader dies, without being able to take individual actions.

That simple-mindedness might be practical to fight in a group, but that is also the weakness I can exploit, to make them an easy prey for me.

Having decided the target, I move towards the sentry post where several orcs are keeping guard.

…

I cast Wind Blade around my arm. It is a magic that creates a cutting wind revolving around myself in order to enhance my attacks with slashing attribute.

It sounds simple enough, but in this world where the monsters bodies are reinforced with mana, the blade has to be powerful enough to cut through their defense.

And that is only achievable by overlapping the cutting wind in a cycle multiple times. In order to keep it's sharpness without losing the wind when the magic is overlapping multiple times at the same place, an accurate control of the mana is required.

It is a difficult magic, and the reach is limited to only around the part of the body I use the magic on, since mana is easier to control the closer it is to my body.

No, I should say that I limit the reach to be only near my body, in order to increase the blade's strength.

With the momentum from the travel, flying down diagonally from the sky, I cut through one of the orcs guarding the post, and land on the ground behind it.

A small crater forms underneath. It seems my control went a bit astray. It can't be helped, though, since I couldn't use this tactic nor fought against orcs in my past two years.

Well, it's not a big deal since I can just correct it.

The other orcs, hearing the sound of impact, start shouting.

“Intruder! Enemy! Attack!”

As expected, it is calling for help.

Since they won't escape until their leader is killed, I don't have to worry about them running away and spreading rumors about me.

After all, I only have to keep their leader alive until the end.

And them calling their allies also makes it easy for me, since I don't have to go around looking for them.

Seeing one of the orcs running away to get more helps, I cut down the rest of the orcs. The main spot I aim for is their neck, since it is the least protected place among the fatal spots.

Because of the difference in height, I have to jump to reach their neck. Since they also expect to be attacked there, it used to be quite difficult to do so, as movements in the air used to be limited.

Well, that is not the case anymore.

With a proper usage of Wind Steps, I can freely move mid-air.

With increasing levels, the gravity binds me less and less.

At this point, if my enemies are still dumb enough to believe that my movements will be limited mid-air, then I can use that against them.

The unexpected creates opportunities, after all.

However, against monsters of this level, all that is unnecessary.

Quickly eliminating the two other orcs, I wait for the reinforcements to arrive. I could move on to the next sentry post, but since enemies should be gathering here soon enough, it shall be faster this way.

Meanwhile, I check the equipment that they have. A great sword that an orc uses can't be used by me. I can lift it, but it's size makes my movements so awkward that I'm simply better off without it.

However, there are also weapons that I can use.

Maces, axes, swords …

I find different weapons in their sentry post, and try to choose among them.

Since I have been fighting bare-handed in the cave, my Martial Arts skill's level has risen too much compared to the other skills.

Well, there is nothing such as too much, but I would also like to raise other skills' levels.

Because my strength is so low, Martial Arts aren't too good for me, after all.

It's better for me to use a weapon to make up for my weakness.

However, there is a problem with weapons in this world.

Because monsters are reinforced with magic, and I also wield it with a strength unimaginable on Earth, they break easily.

I look at the Will's dagger.

Since I kept using it, even though I have been careful, it is in no condition to be used anymore.

It is in fact, a miracle that it is still maintaining its form.

I'm sure this dagger was a high-class item.

The weapons I choose are two swords.

Sword is the first weapon I have learned to wield in this world, and also the most common. Since I have mostly been using whatever weapon I could find, Swordsmanship naturally became the highest weapon skill I possess.

Using two swords offers higher offensive abilities, at the cost of a weaker defense and a higher difficulty of control which I should be able to handle against opponents of this level.

But more importantly, I can increase the Dual Wielding and Swordsmanship at the same time using two swords. Having more skills means more options during fights, hence I want to practice this whenever it is possible.

Taking one steel sword in each hand, I silently wait for the orcs to arrive.

“Human! Enemy! Kill!”

A bunch of orcs have gathered. They number about one hundred. It seems like I won't have to wait before they bring the next batch.

“Girl! Impudent!”

“Friends! Dead!”

“Vengeance!”

“Retribution!”

“Pervert!”

I can hear their battle cries as they shout out words of animosity. I would like to return their intimidation with one of my own, but I can't do that.

Last time I tried, I was laughed at by goblins, and it wasn't a fun experience.

Instead, I charge in holding my two swords.

This is my way of returning their battle cry.

I jump towards the first orc, aiming for its neck. I cut it down swiftly, and before they grasp the situation, I do the same on the orc next to it.

I'm not using the Wind Blade anymore. Since I am using weapons, it is less efficient than when I am bare-handed. Instead, I will be practicing a different magic.

On the third orc I jump on, since it expected my movement, it swings its sword towards me.

Instead of dodging or parrying it, I just proceed with my attack. The orc's sword slices my shoulder, leaving a deep wound.

Even though my level is much higher than the orc's, since my strength is on the low side whereas the orcs specialize in strength, they are able to hurt me.

Normally, this wouldn't happen, since my agility is so much higher than them, but I didn't avoid their attack on purpose.

After all, there is no real danger to me, since I am able to control the situation perfectly against this kind of opponent.

As I cut down the third orc, I heal my wound at the same time with light magic.

The magic that was spent on Wind Blade is now used on Heal.

Neglecting defense to keep attacking does increase my offensive abilities. However, if that was the aim, there are better ways to do it. For instance, just keeping using the Wind Blade would be simply better, since healing is quite heavy in mana consumption.

There is actually a reason why I am doing this.

It is so that I can train the light magic and physical resistances.

Healing is the best way of training light magic, and practicing magic during combat is also the most efficient way.

Physical resistances are the three resistances : pierce, slash and blunt resistances, and raising their levels has allowed my paper like defense to be somewhat decent.

Those skills are all really difficult to train, but fortunately, I can train them together this way.

The small boost in the fighting potential it brings when I neglect the defense is a small bonus compared to that.

As I keep killing the orcs, more reinforcements arrive. They number about five hundreds this time, and there are the four orc generals I have seen.

Seeing my state covered in bloods of orcs and myself, they charge at me at the same time.

It seems that they recognized me as a powerful foe.

There is no need for words at this point, and it appears that they also realized that.

I have changed weapons many times already. Even though I saved them from breaking by not parrying the attacks, slashing the thick flesh of the orcs still puts them under heavy strain.

As I endure the attacks from the four orc generals at once, I realize that it would be difficult to deal damage to them at this rate.

While I could prolong this to a battle of endurance using my light magic, I choose another method.

I activate the wind magic Haste. It is my favorite supportive magic that has been with me from my first hunt. At start, it was just creating a small wind to give me a small push to assist my movements. However, the way I am now, I can control the air around me at my own will.

With this, the friction isn't able to hinder my movement, and the wind will instead further increase the accelerations. This way, the supersonic waves that would have formed upon moving at high speed get converted to my attacking power and speed.

While Haste might sound like it is a buff type skill, it is not something that I can use once for it to stay for a while. Since I have to keep controlling the air around myself, and adjust to the movements I make, it requires heavy concentration and continuous activation.

Luckily, thanks to the fact that it is a magic that I am so accustomed to using, the mental burden isn't that heavy. Thanks to the high intelligence I have on top of it, I am still able to use Heal to a certain extent. Well, I will have to avoid some of the attacks, but it is not a big deal with the increased speed from Haste.

Combining my high base agility and Haste, the orc generals are unable to catch up to my movement anymore.

Even though there are four of them, it doesn't mean that they can attack me four times more.

If they surrounded me from four different sides, that would have been the case.

However, by moving around them, I can limit the opponents I face at once to two at a time at most.

Adding in the mid-air maneuverability coming from the Wind Step, I create opportunities to deal with only one at once.

Since they are so wary of their neck, I aim for their tendons. Cutting their legs, their movements become impaired. Cutting their arms, their attacks become flawed. On the other hand, I can move more efficiently the longer the fight goes on.

It is natural, after all. Fighting a type of monster is an experience on its own, and the more I repeat that, the more I can do it efficiently. I find little improvements ranging from a better path for my blades, to the optimal decisions about when to take attacks and when to switch focus on different magics. As I optimize my movements, the four orc generals can't handle it anymore, and I manage to kill one of them. Once the balance is broken, the rest is easy. I swiftly eliminate the rest of the orc generals.

The fight continues. The orc king has already arrived, but I have no intention of fighting it until I finish off all the other orcs. As expected, they don't run away, and they keep charging at me. While one might praise them for being loyal and resolute, I don't really understand them nor I need to. All I need to know is that they are like that, and therefore are easy preys that I can hunt.

…

How long have I been fighting for? The reinforcement kept coming, and while I lost count, I estimate their accumulated number to be over three thousands.

Since my light magic is able to maintain my body at its top condition, I can keep fighting at my fullest as long as I have mana and mental capability. The orc king that tried to chase me as I kill all its subjects one by one is the last one to fall. As its severed head hits the ground, the battlefield falls into a total silence.

Standing on top of the pile of corpses, I look into the sky. The red moon that was illuminating the bloody scene is almost gone, and the morning sun is rising.

Looking at the beautiful sight of the dawn, I give it a small thought.

The orcs that now have become corpses will not be able to see today's sun, and the weak ones of their tribe hiding away in their settlement will follow them soon enough. Since they lost their king and most of their fighters, there is no chance they will prevail in the struggle of survival among the monsters.

Even though they are man eating monsters, I'm not killing them out of hatred nor revenge. I'm not saying this because I want them to understand me, nor because I feel sorry for the carnage I have been creating.

Even though I was their hunter this time, if I show a weakness of mind, I will be the one being predated upon next time. In this place filled with monsters, I live in a constant danger of death, and it is the path I have chosen. That is why, I can't do anything more than sparing a second to think about those I have slain.

…

In this world, even though it is magic reinforces the body and mind, using them still comes with a high energy consumption.

I need to eat a lot to make up for moving so much..

'I'm hungry.'

I tear off an arm from an orc's corpse lying around.

It is bloody and stinky, but at this point, I am able to eat anything.

I have done so in order to survive. Because I didn't follow through the possibility that I saw back then, I was unable to do anything when it counted. I don't want to make the same mistake and regret again.

'I will protect you.'

There was a time I believed in it, but I now know that I can't.

In this world where gods exist, what can a weak being like us protect anything?

'I'll make you delicious food again tomorrow!'

The expression of the orange fox girl comes to my mind.

“...”

After fighting those orcs, I fully realize it.

What Rina told me is true.

Although there are monsters of decent strength out here, the strongest ones are the five tribes.

After all, the might of the orc leader was no where near Sionna's.

I was lucky to find orcs this time, since I can fight them without worrying about them running away.

However, can I do the same against the other monsters?

Against those intelligent and strong demons, I will be found out and get eliminated before I can do anything.

In that case, isn't it my highest priority to learn as much as possible about them and prepare countermeasures?

For that, isn't it the best to return to Rina's side for now?

I am sure that is the case.

Throwing away the orc's arm that I was holding, I look at my own body soaked in blood.

Yep, I need to take a bath first, and do something about my clothe.