A Terrible Case of Collateral Damage

“Stop! Cursed child!!”

The village adults are blocking my path as I try to sneak into Fenoben Village, just like I always do.

They're holding sticks and sickles in their hands, and it looks pretty dangerous.

“............?”

It's been 3 days since the day I stumbled onto the shocking secrets of Torch-kun and Caro-chan.

I'd suddenly decided I wanted a pot to cook with, so here I am in the village to borrow a spare from Cody's kitchen, since he never cooks for himself anyway.

I mean, hear me out.

While I was picking up pebbles for stone-throwing, I happened to flip over a larger rock.

And there they were.

Shirasu. Baby whitebait!

There were shirasu! Under the rock! Quite a lot of them! Along with some creatures that looked like woodlice!

I thought they were some kind of bug, but no matter how I look at them, they're fish.

According to Omake-sama, they're an obscure species and probably don't have an official name, so I named them ‘Okashirasu’.

TL Note: “Oka” means land, so “Okashirasu” is roughly “land shirasu.”

Apparently they can manipulate magic power, if only a little, and by using water magic to keep things humid, they can survive in damp places like the underside of rocks......

That's the kind of creature they are.

They probably move around on rainy days.

And so, there were shirasu. Doesn't that make you want to boil and eat them?

Until now, I've basically only ever roasted things whole or eaten them raw, so I figured I'd take on a new cooking method and enter a whole new stage of my life.

According to Omake-sama, it's dangerous to get caught up in their ‘story’, the whole hero thing and all that, so I'm a little scared, but just popping over to grab a pot should be fine, right!

That's what I thought as I headed toward my family home.

......But something's weird about the village.

The whole village is on incredibly high alert.

People are stationed on the watchtowers that are usually unused, and several armed villagers are constantly patrolling the village.

I was so taken aback that I spaced out for a second, and one of the patrolling villagers was quick to spot me, which brings us back to the opening scene.

“Black-haired, black-eyed cursed child who brings disaster to this village! We can no longer allow you to remain in this village!”

It seems the village chief was among the villagers who gathered before me.

The chief took a step forward and solemnly scolded me, his utter ignorance practically radiating off him.

“......”

I mean, ‘allow me to remain in this village,’ huh? I basically live in the forest.

What is this old man talking about now?

“Until now, there had been no significant damage, so we have turned a blind eye to you, but we have reached the limit of our patience!”

Eh, ehhh? Did I do something?

I didn't do anything, you know?

......At most, I just got some seasonings from my old house?

Oh, and I also want some new cooking utensils.

“The great explosion that occurred in Naso Forest! To think that your curse...... was powerful enough to cause such a disaster!”

Huh?

“Truly the work of a devil! Unforgivable!”

“Where do you plan to burn next!?”

“We will protect this village!”

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!?

The village adults are cursing me one after another.

Eh? What? In other words, is that it?

They've decided I caused the great explosion the other day!?

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no!!!!

This is crazy, crazy! There's no way I could do something like that!

I mean, Chief! The one who did that was your son! Torch-kun!!

There's no way a 5-year-old like me could do something like thaaaaat!!

......Ah, Torch-kun is a 5-year-old too.

No, wait, that's beside the point!!

First, let's calm down.

Yeah, this is a problem.

I can't get into the village like this.

I can't get my pot.

<No, isn't there something more important than a pot?>

No, the pot is important. Omake-sama, you want to eat shirasu too, right?

<I want to eat shirasu.>

See, so the pot is important after all.

<No no no...... I mean, Emi, you calmed down incredibly quickly, didn't you?>

Yeah, I'm used to this kind of thing from my previous life.

<............?>

In my previous life, too, whenever something bad happened, for some reason it all became my fault.

If a kid got a stomachache after eating school lunch, it was my doing because I served the lunch.

If a kid slipped on the stairs, it was my doing because I was walking behind them.

......If a kid went missing, it was my doing because I had talked to them the day before.

Of course, there was no evidence, so I was never officially charged with a crime.

<............>

That's why I'm used to this level of stuff! Bullying, persecution, what's that to me!

Ehehe, although this is the first time I've been made the culprit of a great explosion!

<......Emi......>

“Hey, cursed child! Why don't you say something!? You burned down our precious forest, and you can't even offer a single word of apology!?”

Losing patience with my silence, a villager, oh, it's Uncle Rand, Uncle Rand curses me out.

Since he's convinced I'm a potato thief, his hatred is all the more intense.

“............It wasn't, me.”

“Shut up, cursed child! Do you think we'll be fooled by your nonsense!?”

And here it comes~~! Excuse-Rejection Mode, activated~~!

Based on experience, once it gets to this point, nothing I say will work. Talking is just a waste of time~~.

I mean, what is that guy doing? Cody.

He's my father, and the village guard, right?

He's the person who absolutely needs to be here in every sense of the word, right?

“Hey! Good-for-Nothing! What are you spacing out for! Hurry up and drive this cursed child away!!”

The villagers must have felt it too, as Cody, who was in the back, was dragged forward.

As I mentioned before, ‘Good-for-Nothing’ refers to Cody.

He's such a failure of a human being in his own right that he gets nothing but dirty looks in the village.

Even now, his face is bright red...... he's definitely drunk.

How has this guy not been fired as the guard yet? Does he have connections in the village or something? Not that I care.

Cody, who stepped forward, was armed with a weapon...... a cheap spear.

Holding it, Cody actually looked somewhat the part. As expected of a former adventurer.

But I wish he'd shown off that coolness when protecting me, rather than when confronting me. Yes.

“Ah...... uhm......?”

Cody, his face bright red, points the spear at me while staggering slightly.

“Well, that's how it is, right? So, could ya just get outta here?”

In those eyes, the sorrow of having to point a spear at his own daughter...... is not there at all.

Yeah...... well, anyone whose feelings worked properly in that department wouldn't just leave his daughter fending for herself in the forest, right?

I knew it, I knew it.

“I don't...... wanna hurt a little girl, ya know?”

I wonder about that!

When I lived at home (meaning, when I was too young to move my body well), this guy would hit me whenever he was in a bad mood.

If I hadn't been taught 【Body Strengthening】 by Omake-sama, I would have been killed by this guy. Through domestic violence.

Once again, he's not a decent father at all!!

“Now, hurry up and get goin'. Otherwise, you're gonna get hurt...... ‘missy’.”

......Huh? Eh? “Missy”?

Eh? What does this person think I am?

I'm your daughter.

And yet, “missy”?

Ah, is pointing a spear at his daughter so painful that he's fooling himself about who I am? Is it one of those things? That type? That kind of mental state?

Eh? No?

Sure, we haven't met recently, but?

Does this person not even recognize his own daughter's face?

......I'm gonna kill this guy.

<Emi!!!>

Awah! Crap, crap!

Intense murderous intent accidentally leaking out~!

Gotta hide it, gotta hide it!

<Even if he is just a washed-up adventurer, and even with your enhanced physical abilities, it is simply too dangerous for a child to take on an adult with a weapon! If you intend to kill him, I believe a surprise attack in the dead of night would be the best course of action.>

Wait, Omake-sama! You're fully on board with the murderous intent, of all things!!?

<Well, to me, the life or death of any creature other than you, Emi, is a trivial matter. Even if they die, they'll just return to the flow of reincarnation and be born again anyway. The total amount of souls in the world does not change, so there should be no problem at all.>

Uwa, there it is, the god-like perspective!

No, but, yeah.

No matter how horribly I get treated or how pissed off it makes me, I still think trying to kill someone over it is something a person shouldn't do.

Yeah, okay, I've calmed down.

......Guess I'll go home, to the forest.

“Get out, now!”

“Don't ever come back!”

As the village adults threw pebbles at me, I turned my back to the village and started walking.

Now and then a pebble hits me, but with 【Body Strengthening】 on, my body doesn't get a single scratch.

Stone-throwing that weak doesn't hurt, doesn't even itch.

You can't even kill a single Naked Awful-tasting Mouse with that!

Perhaps because my anger had peaked due to that trash of a man, I no longer felt anything toward this Trash Village.

Until now, I think there was a tiny part of my heart that felt something like, “I don't want them to hate me~”, toward the villagers......

But now there's nothing. It's a void.

Somehow, if anything, I feel all clear and refreshed.

It's a strange sensation, even as I say it.

The ties, were cut.

Puttsun.

Yes, on this day, my ties with that village were completely severed.

Until now, I was ‘Emi, the village girl who lives in the forest’.

From now on, I've become ‘Emi, the vagrant who lives in the forest’.

Something like that.

There's no change at all in my living situation.

So, what about it~? I mean, who cares~?

Just as I was about to reach the forest, the sky suddenly turned dark, and rain began to fall in drops.

I hate getting wet and chilling my body, so for now, I took shelter from the rain under a tree that caught my eye.

This is the border between the village and the forest.

A small meadow.

Amidst the steadily falling rain, I sat all alone, hugging my knees.

The air that had been warm became chilly as it rained.

The scent of green grass wafted up.

I thought about various random things.

Since that great explosion was pinned on me, I guess Torch-kun managed to hide his blessing well?

<Well, that's probably the case.>

......Torch-kun, made that, my fault?

<The ones who linked the great explosion to you, Emi, were the village adults. That boy probably just played dumb, didn't he? The village children...... well, the adults intentionally kept them away from you, so as you thought before, that boy probably doesn't even know you exist in the first place. In other words, I don't think he intentionally made you the villain.>

Hmm, I see.

So Torch-kun gets to keep on living without a care in the world, never knowing what I went through because of what he did, huh.

How enviable.

As expected of our great hero.

<......Emi.>

......Sorry, Omake-sama. I got a bit complain-y.

Alright, let's think about something more fun.

Let's think about Okashirasu.

Since I couldn't get a pot, boiling and eating them is impossible now.

But I just thought of something, and I think there are various ways to do it.

For example, wrapping them in big leaves and steaming them.

Yeah, I bet they'd taste great this way!

Once I get back to the base, let's go get Okashirasu right away and try it!

Ah! But with this rain...... they might have moved from the place I found them before!? Oh no!!

<......Emi!>

......What is it, Omake-sama.

<No matter what happens, I...... I alone, will always be on your side.>

............

<You are not alone. I'll be with you, always, always.>

......I see.

<Yes.>

............

After waiting for a while, the rain stopped.

It seemed to be a passing shower.

Warm light shone through the gaps in the black clouds, illuminating the nearby Naso Forest.

I...... wiped my slightly wet face with my hand and slapped my cheeks, pan!

And so, I.

We, start walking.

Toward the forest.