25. A Certain Man’s Diary 1

 

* * *

 

While walking in the mountains for hunting, I found a girl being chased by wolves.

I ended up saving her without thinking.

Since she fainted, I carried her to my hideout.

 

* * *

 

The girl wasn’t injured, but she was quite exhausted.

I decided to let her stay at my house until she recovered her strength.

When I gave her some barley porridge, she ate it while crying her eyes out.

But her expression didn’t change.

Crying without changing her facial expression, she’s quite a skilled child, I thought.

She asked why I saved her, despite her having black hair and eyes.

It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, so there’s no particular reason…

Maybe she’s been persecuted for her hair and eye color and finds it hard to trust people.

Just like me when I was little.

After she finished the porridge, she started peeling off the walls of my house for some reason.

I thought she should stop.

Then she took out something like a white bug from inside the wall and tried to give it to me.

I thought I didn’t need it.

When I refused to take it, she started cooking it with magic and ate it.

Honestly, I was a bit taken aback.

 

* * *

 

The girl, apparently named Emi, quickly regained her health.

So, I tried to make her leave by intimidating her, but it had no effect at all.

Instead, she seemed to become attached to me.

Why is that?

But since she cleans the house, I guess it’s fine.

Emi wanted to come hunting with me, so I took her along.

In the end, we moved at a considerable speed, but Emi followed without even getting out of breath.

Honestly, I don’t think such movements are possible for such a young girl.

What is she?

During the hunt, I showed her 【Grasshopper】 and 【Mantis】, and she was thrilled.

As someone not used to receiving kindness due to my profession, I felt incredibly embarrassed.

While I was processing the deer we hunted, Emi seemed to be trying to imitate 【Grasshopper】 beside me.

It felt endearing, like a child playing at mimicking their father.

…No, considering the ages, more like a grandfather and his grandchild.

Either way, it’s something I never managed to have.

But surprisingly, Emi didn’t stop at just playing around; she replicated my 【Grasshopper】 and leaped high into the air.

I was truly astonished.

Emi must have been surprised too, as she fainted and fell, so I caught her.

That was dangerous.

I got a little angry.

 

* * *

 

Since then, Emi has been pestering me to let her become my disciple.

But that puts me in a tough spot.

Even if she asks to be my disciple…

I’m not good at talking.

Teaching someone is impossible for me.

There have been several people who came asking to be taught my techniques, but none of them really made it either.

I didn’t learn my techniques from anyone else.

All of them were self-developed for the sake of survival and work.

Since I use them intuitively, I can’t really explain how they work.

Moreover, in the end, my techniques are meant for killing.

I don’t think it’s appropriate to teach such things to a young girl.

That’s why I’ve been ignoring Emi’s requests.

But Emi didn’t give up.

She says she doesn’t want to die and wants to become strong, begging me to teach her.

She wants to be taught by the kind and cool grandpa…

Honestly, I never imagined I’d be described like that.

I thought I would live and die alone.

…After much deliberation, I finally gave in and decided to take Emi as my disciple.

But since I’m incapable of teaching, I just showed her the techniques and let her practice on her own.

First, I demonstrated 【Silverfish】, walking on walls and ceilings.

Emi was expressionless as always, but I think she was very surprised.

She immediately started practicing 【Silverfish】, sticking her feet to the wall.

…Even though it’s my own doing, why can I walk on walls?

In a desperate bid to escape pursuers, I once frantically climbed up a castle wall.

Before I knew it, I could do it.

That’s 【Silverfish】.

Emi is lying down, intently sticking her feet to the wall.

Can she really learn 【Silverfish】 like that?

I don’t know.

* * *

A month has passed.

Emi has completely mastered 【Silverfish】.

I was shocked.

Absolutely shocked.

She’s a genius.

How can just sticking her feet to the wall enable her to walk on walls and ceilings?

Now, Emi is stuck to the ceiling, taking a nap there.

How can she do that?

Well, I can do it too, but…

Anyway, since she’s had enough practice with 【Silverfish】, I gave her the next challenge.

By this time, I found myself wishing to teach her everything I could.

I had grown fond of her.

But it wasn’t just that.

I was captivated by her talent.

Not just techniques.

I thought I’d train her in everything possible.

Lately, I’ve been giving Emi poison every day.

When I was young, I was taught by colleagues that gradually taking in poison would build resistance or something.

I don’t know the rationale.

But when I tried it, it turned out to be true, so now my poison resistance is quite high.

Since Emi is still small, I started with really small amounts.

Sometimes Emi tries to open the cupboard where the poison is stored, so I stop her with 【Intimidation】.

I still think it’s dangerous to let her handle poison directly.

Thanks to the daily doses, although she used to turn pale right after drinking the poison, she seems quite alright with it lately.

I’ll increase the amount a bit from tomorrow.

By the way, the colleague who advised me to drink poison, when I let him drink the poison I usually consume, he died unceremoniously.

What was up with that guy?

 

—

 

Author’s Note: I think that colleague was probably trying to deceive and kill the master… And, to dismiss someone’s death with a thought like “Why did this guy die?” shows that the master is quite the villain himself. Let me also make it clear that the training of drinking poison to build resistance is a feat possible only because the characters reside in a fantasy world with the existence of magic and are fictional beings. If anyone in the real world tries to imitate this, they will, of course, die immediately. Please, absolutely do not attempt to replicate this.