Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou Zero - Volume 2 - Chapter SS6

They Exist in Every Age

“Haaah... Haaah... That was close.”

A young girl, probably only ten years old, ran through a forest. Her breathing was labored and her face pale. She was clearly exhausted. Her dirty brown pants were ripped in places, and her hair had leaves and twigs stuck in it. Her white blouse was stained with dirt and dust, and the robe she’d worn over it was shredded to the point where it no longer retained its original shape. Were it not for the velvet ribbon tying her blonde hair, anyone would think she was a street rat.

“We’ve spotted the target! She’s a hundred and twenty meters out!”

“They found me!?”

A barrage of fireballs shot through the trees, heading straight for the girl.

“Spatial Severance!”

A black sphere appeared in front of the girl, distorting the fireballs’ trajectory toward it and absorbing them all.

“Release!”

The fifty or so fireballs it absorbed were compressed, and then shot back out toward their casters. They obliterated any trees in their path and hit the ground around the mages, sending up explosions of dirt and rock. The shockwaves sent the girl’s pursuers flying backward.

“Ah...”

Stumbling and barely conscious, the girl bit her lip and kept running. However, her legs were at their limits. Her pace flagged, and her pursuers began to catch up to her. In the distance, she heard the sound of running water.

“Guess it’s all or nothing!”

Despite the levity in her voice, the girl was desperate. She ran with all her might, and finally cleared the endless expanse of trees. In front of her was a deep gorge. The girl turned her back to the gorge and looked into the forest. Her pursuers were close enough that she could see them through the trees. They had dark skin and pointed ears, signaling that they were demons. Furthermore, they were all wearing matching uniforms and were extremely coordinated. One of them spotted the girl and shouted, “You damn brat! I’ll catch you if it’s the last thing I do!”

“What was thaaat? I can’t hear youuuuuu!” Miledi cupped her hands to her ears and taunted the demon. She could obviously hear him, but the way she said that was just so annoying that the demon couldn’t help but get riled up.

“You’re fucking dead!”

His goal had changed from capturing her to killing her. 

“Commander, I understand how you feel, but we can’t do that! Our orders were to capture her alive! I want to kill her too, but we really can’t!” one of his subordinates shouted. Meanwhile, the girl had finished preparing her final spell, and she grinned at the demons.

“Hellblaze!”

A wave of fire shot out from the girl’s hands. The demons skidded to a halt, stunned. However, they quickly got over their shock and deployed their barriers. And while their barriers managed to deflect the flames, they only served to keep them safe. The forest, on the other hand, was burning quite nicely.

“Good luck putting out those fires, demons! You’ve gotta take care of nature, right?”

The arsonist winked at the demons and fell backward down the ravine. As these demons were soldiers, they couldn’t afford to ignore a fire threatening to burn down a huge swathe of their land. As much as it irked them to give up the chase, they had no choice but to focus on the problem at hand. It pissed them off even more that the girl had created a fire just big enough that all of them were needed to put it out before it spread, but no bigger. Trembling with rage, the demon pursuers shouted, “Damn you, you braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!”

They then quickly got to work on putting the fire out. Meanwhile, the girl who’d leaped off landed into the river flowing below and sputtered to the surface. She’d just barely survived that encounter. Consciousness hazy, she left the current carry her away from her foes. And after a few minutes of floating, she squeezed out the last of her strength and swam to the riverbank and crawled onto shore, too exhausted to even stand. Drained beyond belief, the girl fainted the moment she escaped the water.

“Belle...” she muttered in her sleep.

Ten minutes later, someone came across the unconscious girl. 

“Oh my, this is terrible! Miss! Are you alright!?” the girl who found her yelled.

Huh, where am I? Am I alive? It’s so warm, and it feels like I’m floating...

Eyes still closed, the girl tried to make sense of her surroundings. She possessed far greater mental fortitude than anyone her age should. After collecting as much information as she could from sound and touch alone, she slowly opened her eyes. 

A monster stared down at her. It had a terrifying, horribly lacerated face, no eyebrows, angry eyes, and thick lips. The girl’s eyes widened and she screamed.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

She’d never screamed this loudly before. For some reason, the monster staring down at her screamed back at her and leaped backward. The monster’s well-toned biceps flexed as it hugged itself. It seemed the monster had been just as surprised by the girl as she was by it. The strangely effeminate monster had dark skin and pointed ears and was wearing a very cute dress. Upon taking in its full appearance, Miledi once again screamed, “Aaaaaaaaaaaah, it’s a monster!”

“Who’re you calling a hideous, unspeakable, horrifying, disgusting monster, huh!?”

The monster’s reply was so loud the walls shook, terrifying the girl so much that she fainted again. 

Ten minutes later, she opened her eyes once more. This time she had the presence of mind not to scream at the monster—or rather, demon. According to the demon, they were neither male nor female, but a new gender entirely. Incidentally, their name was Jingbelle. Jingbelle explained how they’d happened to find the girl collapsed on the ground, and the girl bowed in thanks.

“Thank you so much for saving me, Jingbelle-oneesan. My name’s Miledi. I’m just your normal everyday genius mage.”

“My! What a splendid introduction!”

This was the first time anyone had been impressed with Miledi’s introduction. This Jingbelle person gets it. Even though they’re almost bald, they’ve braided what hair they have left into a ribbon, so I guess I should have known they had good taste.

“Hey Jingbelle-san, why’d you save me?”

Jingbelle was a demon. They should have had no reason to help a human like Miledi. In response, Jingbelle told Miledi their story. Apparently, even though they were a demon, Jingbelle had no aptitude for magic, and because of that, they’d been ostracized from demon society. Even if Jingbelle didn’t go into the details of the persecution they’d suffered, Miledi could tell just from their expression that they’d had a hard life. But as a result of their upbringing, Jingbelle had come to realize that judging people by their race was a foolish thing, and had begun training to get back at the society that had discarded them. Eventually, they grew so strong that they could compete with mages using physical strength alone. And at that point, they’d grown even more disillusioned with their people and left. It was because they didn’t judge people based on race that they’d decided to save Miledi. After all, human or demon, a girl in trouble deserved help.

“I see... Thank you so much, Jingbelle-san. I wish I could repay you, but I really need to go.”

Miledi then explained her situation to Jingbelle. She’d lost to a certain nun in a fight and had come to the demon country seeking strength. Demons were known for being the strongest mages on the continent, and she’d been hoping that one of them would be willing to tutor her. But when she got to the demon country, she’d been attacked before she’d even had a chance to explain herself to the demons. Irritated, she’d started taunting them, saying things like, “Hahaha, you guys can’t even catch a single human girl? Pathetiiic!” or “Hey, how does it feel, getting the tables turned on you by a child? You mad? Huh?” or “I’m just a normal genius mage, nothing suspicious about me!” 

She kept defeating the demons the kingdom sent after her, so eventually, the demon lord mobilized the army, putting Miledi in a tight spot.

“You can’t be so reckless, Miledi-chan. You’re still so young!” Jingbelle leaned in close as they said that, and Miledi awkwardly apologized.

“As long as you understand. Regardless, you’re not leaving the house until you’re fully healed. Don’t worry, despite how I may look, I’m quite strong.”

“Huh? But Jingbelle-san, I thought you couldn’t use magic?”

Jingbelle replied with a straight face, “If I can’t rely on magic, I just have to rely on my muscles.”

In truth, Jingbelle’s pecs of steel and fists of fury were powerful enough to repel intermediate level magic on their own. Jingbelle could easily defeat an entire battalion of mages. You know what, maybe Jingbelle-san’s a monster after all. Belle, the world’s a strange place.

Years later, Miledi finished telling her comrades about that very tale. She pointed to the dress she was wearing and said, “Back then, I used to wear really boring clothes. Jingbelle-san said it was heresy for a cute girl like me to not wear clothes just as cute and made this dress for me. Apparently, sewing dresses was their hobby. They even wrote down instructions on how to replicate this pattern, so I can just show them to any tailor and get copies made if I need them.”

Miledi did a little twirl, showing off her admittedly cute skirt. Upon hearing the origin story of Miledi’s favorite dress, Oscar and Naiz both thought to themselves: Who cares about the dress!? I wanna hear more about Jingbelle-san!

It seemed a being who defied common sense lived in a tiny corner of one of the demon’s forests.