Seems Like I'm Being Searched For

It was evening on a clear winter day, and the sun had begun to dip.

On the roof of someone's house, somewhere in the town of Serelirin.

A cursed child, clad in something like murky black rock, lay flat on her back.

Under full 【Presence Concealment】, she simply lay there, perfectly still.

She didn't move.

Like a real rock, she just didn't move.

Near the cursed child, a pigeon was flying.

This pigeon is the same gray bird we can come across in parks and such.

Broadly speaking, you can think of it as a bird that, by our common sense, looks like what we'd call a pigeon.

That pigeon was about to pass heedlessly over the cursed child...... and at that very moment!

A part of the murky black rock-like thing covering the cursed child's body unfurled, extending with the agility of a frog's tongue, and snatched the pigeon!

Caught by the murky black something, the pigeon was squeezed tight and died before it could even make a fuss.

“............”

Drawing the murky black something...... her 【Black Arms】, in close, the cursed child stared intently at the dead pigeon she'd caught.

Then, what do you know?

Just as a wisp of smoke rose from the pigeon's carcass, it was suddenly engulfed in flames!

This was the special ability possessed by this cursed child: 【Ignition】.

Made into magic by the God of Magic and familiar to people as “life magic,” this ability can normally manage no more than a small flame in easily lit wood shavings.

This cursed child, by forcibly pouring in her overflowing magic power, had refined it into an ability that sets its target alight and cooks it directly.

A short while later, the pigeon gripped in 【Black Arms】 had become a crudely roasted whole bird.

With an expressionless face, the cursed child began to devour it, crunching through the bones.

◇ ◇ ◇

Hmm, hmm, hm-hm~mm!

Hm-hm-hmm, hmm, hmm!

<My, my, you're in a wonderful mood, Emi.>

Ah, Omake-sama, can you tell?

Exactly! I'm in a fantastic mood!

<Well, thanks to the “Barter Operation,” you've been eating plenty of human food lately.>

That's right!

I'm grateful for the encounter with that boy, which started it all......

A chubby boy I met in a back alley where I happened to lose my footing and fall.

In exchange for my churros, he gave me a bag full of dried fish.

From that experience, I had an epiphany!

A revolutionary idea: obtaining food through bartering!

<About as revolutionary as something ancient humans figured out ages ago, yes.>

This operation has paid off, and so far I've been able to get my hands on all kinds of food.

Besides foods I'd seen or heard of in my previous life, like dried fish, there were sweets I'd never seen before, and I got weirdly moved, like, ah, so this is isekai culture.

By the way, I'm carrying out this barter operation by targeting children.

Reason number one: for some reason, children in this town often walk around with snacks.

Reason number two: if I deal with adults, they'd likely cause an unnecessary fuss, like calling the guards.

Reason number three: I think children generally like shiny things, so they'd probably be genuinely happy to get my churros as payment.

<But is that really okay? Those deer antlers you call churros are actually materials with a staggering amount of magic power, you know? If you sold them to the Adventurers' Guild or somewhere, I think they'd turn into quite a bit of money.>

It's fine. Too much of a hassle.

Odds are I'd just be turned away at the door for being a cursed child, and that'd be that.

The perverted old geezer I met in the forest, the office worker—people like them are surely the exceptions.

Besides, even if I got money, most shops probably wouldn't let me go shopping.

It's pointless.

In that case, it's better to make the children happy.

I'm sure that big deer would want it this way.

I bet it's up there in the sky right now, looking down on us and laughing......

<I'm absolutely sure that's a strained, dry laugh.>

Well, that's how it was.

I was chatting with Omake-sama and filling my stomach with the roasted pigeon I'd caught...... And it was then.

“Cursed chiiild! Where are you, cursed chiiild!”

That a shout like that reached me from far away.

<What's this? Someone's looking for you, Emi.>

I popped my head over the edge of the roof and looked down at the back alley.

Since it was a street with little foot traffic to begin with, I knew immediately who the voice belonged to.

It's a boy walking toward me from over there, looking all around as he comes.

He's the one calling me.

He's probably younger than me.

He's wearing a hat that looks like a helmet, and on his back is a bag that clanks with something metal inside.

And then...... is he wearing a cutting board around his stomach?

What a weird outfit.

<I don't think a single person in this world would want to hear those words from you.>

Hey, Omake-sama, you've been casually insulting me lately, haven't you?

What's up with that?

<My sincerest apologies.>

Fine, I forgive you.

Now then, let's get back to that boy.

“Come out! Come out, cursed chiiild!”

The boy has a snack like fried bread in his left hand and a metal tool like a wrench raised in his right, and he's searching for me in a wobbly, scaredy-cat crouch.

His features are pretty handsome.

With those upturned eyes, he gives off a strong-willed impression.

<............? That boy, I feel like I've seen him somewhere before, don't you?>

Omake-sama says that, but I have absolutely no memory of him.

He wasn't among the children I've met in this town, I'm sure.

There's no way I've seen him.

It must be your imagination.

For now, I loosen 【Black Arms】 and rummage through my pocket to check how many churros I have.

I have 3 left.

Well, let's go for a trade this time too.

I'm happy to get food, and the other party is happy to get something valuable; it's a barter where both sides only gain.

I leaped down behind the boy without a sound.

Even though I said, ‘From the next chapter, the story gets moving,’ it hasn't moved at all, has it!