A Certain Man's Diary #1

While walking the mountains on a hunt, I found a girl being chased by a wolf.

I ended up saving her without thinking.

She fainted, so I carried her back to my hideout.

◇ ◇ ◇

The girl wasn't injured, but she was pretty exhausted.

I figured I'd let her stay at the house until her strength returned.

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

But her expression didn't change.

Bawling her eyes out while staying totally expressionless. Quite the talented kid, I thought.

She asked me why I saved her, even though she has black hair and black eyes.

It was a split-second decision, so there wasn't really a reason......

Maybe she's been persecuted because of her hair and eye color, and can't trust people.

Just like I was when I was little.

Once she'd finished the barley porridge, for some reason she started tearing pieces off the wall of my house.

Cut that out, I thought.

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

Don't want it, I thought.

When I didn't take it, the kid roasted it with magic and started eating it.

Honestly, I was a bit put off.

◇ ◇ ◇

The girl, who apparently goes by the name Emi, recovered in no time.

So I hit her with 【Intimidation】 to try and kick her out, but it didn't work at all.

If anything, she kind of got attached to me.

Why.

But she cleans the house, so I figured, whatever.

Emi wanted to come along on the hunt, so I took her.

We ended up moving at a decent pace, but Emi kept up without even getting winded.

Honestly, I don't think that's the kind of agility a young girl should have.

What is with this kid.

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

Given my line of work, I'm not used to people liking me, so it was weirdly embarrassing.

While I was processing the deer I'd hunted, Emi seemed to be trying to mimic 【Grasshopper】 beside me.

It felt like a child playing at mimicking their father, and I found it endearing.

......No, age-wise, maybe grandfather and granddaughter.

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

But, to my surprise, Emi didn't stop at playing pretend.

She reproduced my 【Grasshopper】 and leaped high into the sky.

I was genuinely shocked.

Emi must have been shocked too, because she fainted and fell, so I saved her.

That was dangerous.

I got a little angry.

◇ ◇ ◇

Ever since then, Emi's been pestering me with “I want to be your disciple.”

She can say that all she wants; it just puts me on the spot.

Being asked to make her my disciple, huh......

I'm bad at talking.

And teaching people is just impossible for me.

A few people have come to me in the past asking to be taught my techniques, but in the end, none of them made the cut.

My techniques aren't something I learned from someone else.

They're all techniques I devised myself for the sake of survival and work.

Since I use them by intuition, I can't actually explain the techniques.

Besides, at the end of the day, my techniques are for killing.

I don't think they're the kind of thing I should be teaching a girl like this.

That's why I've ignored Emi's requests this whole time.

But Emi didn't give up.

She says she wants to be taught because she doesn't want to die, because she wants to get strong.

She says she wants kind and cool Grandpa to teach her.

Kind and cool Grandpa......

Honestly, I never imagined I'd be called something like that.

I'd always thought I'd live my whole life alone, from birth until death.

......I hesitated quite a bit, but in the end, Emi wore me down, and I decided to try making her my disciple.

But since teaching people is still impossible for me, I decided to just show her the techniques and let her practice on her own for now.

First, I used 【Silverfish】 to walk along the walls and ceiling.

Emi was expressionless as usual, but I think she was incredibly surprised.

Emi immediately started practicing 【Silverfish】, sticking her feet to the wall over and over.

......I say this as the guy who just did it, but how can I walk on walls, anyway?

To escape my pursuers, I scrambled up the castle walls in a frenzy.

Before I knew it, I could just do it.

That's 【Silverfish】.

Emi, lying on her back, diligently sticking her feet to the wall over and over.

Can she really master 【Silverfish】 doing that?

I'm not sure.

◇ ◇ ◇

1 month since then.

Emi has completely mastered 【Silverfish】.

I freaked out.

Totally freaked out.

Turns out this kid's a genius.

How do you become able to walk on walls and ceilings just by sticking your feet to the wall over and over?

Right now, Emi is stuck to the ceiling, taking a nap.

How can you do that?

I mean, I can do it too, but still......

Anyway, she's had more than enough practice with 【Silverfish】, so I gave her the next task.

By this point, I'd started to feel that if I could, I wanted to teach this girl every technique I know.

I've grown fond of her.

But it's not just that.

I've been captivated by this girl's talent.

And not just techniques.

I decided I'd train anything that could be trained.

Lately, I've been making Emi drink poison every day.

When I was young, a colleague taught me that by taking in small amounts of poison, you could build up a resistance to it.

No idea how it works.

But when I tried it, it was true, so my poison resistance is quite high now.

Since Emi's body is still small, I'm starting with truly tiny amounts.

Occasionally, Emi tries to open the cupboard where I keep the poison, so I stop her with 【Intimidation】.

I think it's still too dangerous to let that child touch the poison directly.

The daily doses are paying off: at first she'd go pale right after drinking it, but lately she seems pretty much fine.

I'll increase the dose a bit starting tomorrow.

By the way, the colleague who recommended I drink poison up and died, just like that, when I had him try the poison I usually drink.

What was his deal, anyway?

I think that colleague was probably trying to trick Master and kill him......

Also, Master is quite the villain himself, enough that seeing someone die only gets a reaction along the lines of “Why's this guy dead?”

I'll also state the obvious: the training of drinking poison to build resistance is an extreme method that is only possible because the characters in the story are fictional beings living in a fantasy world where magic power exists; if you in the real world try to imitate this, you will, naturally, die immediately.

Never, ever try this. Please.