Emi Gets Fired Up

Heeey! Hello, everyone!

It's me, Emi-chan, the black-haired, black-eyed absolute beauty who just turned 7!

Right now, I've left the town of Yoshanka, headed straight south, and just arrived at the edge of Kaise Forest.

See, the receptionist at the Adventurers' Guild branch office gave me a ‘task’ I have to finish if I want to become an adventurer, but......

<Emi, I simply cannot accept this!>

Arara, Omake-sama is angry.

Well, I can understand how she feels.

I mean, telling me to ‘Go bring back some Cysh grass’, that's clearly not the kind of task you give a beginner who wants to be an adventurer......

<Why does the one who picks a fight with you at the Adventurers' Guild have to be a silver-haired boy! In cases like this, isn't the standard that it's some violent, grubby old guy who never got anywhere in life!?>

Ehh!? Wait, Omake-sama, what are you snapping about!?

Is that the point you should be snapping at!? I have no idea where your boiling point is!

And what do you mean, ‘the standard’!?

<The standard is the standard! It's what you call a staple of Isekai Reincarnation Broadcasts! A time-honored form that must be upheld!>

No, Omake-sama, my life isn't being filmed and broadcast by some god or other, so let's stop getting angry just because the staples you expect weren't followed, okay?

<Then what were you angry about, Emi!?>

Look, Omake-sama...... whatever.

What I'm angry about, Omake-sama, is that this ‘Go bring back some Cysh grass’ ‘task’ is obviously not meant for beginners, right?

<Ah...... now that you mention it, you're right.>

It's true whether I mention it or not.

Cysh grass is that stuff, right?

It's that light blue herb with the jagged leaves, right? The one I saw once back when I was with Master, and he told me it was ‘a medicinal herb that sells for a decent price’?

<Yes, exactly. I saw it on ‘the Medicine God's Isekai Reincarnation Broadcast’, so there's no mistake. It only grows on land with a high concentration of magic power, and the places it grows overlap with the lairs of dangerous monsters, so it's hard to gather.>

Right, I remember it well because Omake-sama explained it to me like that back then.

Anyway, giving a beginner a ‘task’ like bringing back an herb that's so hard to gather, isn't that a little cruel?

They have no intention of letting me become an adventurer, do they?

I mean, are they trying to kill me?

Isn't this treatment terrible?

<Hmm, it certainly is cruel. But isn't this just how it usually goes?>

Hm.

......Hearing that, I remembered.

That's true. She's right.

Lately I'd been living at Baron Martz's mansion and getting treated pretty decently, so I'd completely forgotten.

I am, black-haired and black-eyed.

I am, a cursed child.

In this world, I'm someone who can be blamed for no reason and persecuted (no idea why, though).

Whether I'm treated unfairly at the Adventurers' Guild reception, picked on by some weird adventurer, or handed an absurd ‘task’, it can't be helped.

Because that's just the way the world is.

If anything, I should be grateful just for being allowed into town.

I really owe it all to the Baron's letter of recommendation. Thank you, Baron.

<So, what will you do?>

Eh?

<You've been treated unreasonably. What are you going to do about it, Emi? Whine and run away?>

Hmm.

......As if, I would!

<Right? Emi, you've become strong. And you will continue to grow stronger. Why is that?>

To overcome, the unreasonable!

<Then you don't have time to stand around here complaining! Let's get this ‘task’ done, Emi. Let's give that hopeless receptionist a shock. Hit it head-on and smash the unreasonable! You already have more than enough power to do it!>

......Thank you, Omake-sama.

Somehow...... somehow, I'm getting fired up!

Unreasonable treatment? An impossible ‘task’? So what!

To be honest, until a moment ago, I was starting to think that if I was going to be treated like this, maybe I didn't need to become an adventurer after all.

It's not that I decided I wanted to be one, I just thought I'd try registering because the Baron suggested it.

Being able to get an ID would be nice, but I've gotten by this long without one anyway.

But after Omake-sama lit a fire under me, I realized.

This isn't a ‘task’ just for the sake of becoming an adventurer.

It's also a ‘task’ to show how I'm going to live my life from here on.

It's a ‘task’ life itself has handed me!

Like hell, I'm running away!

I glare at Kaise Forest spreading out in front of me.

The pitch-black forest spreads across land that sits a little low, like a basin, and it goes on and on as far as the eye can see, past the horizon.

That faint pressure I feel now and then, even from outside the forest, probably comes from the monsters living in it.

A true demon realm.

A world where anyone who can't fight would freeze up just from getting close.

But I won't lose!

If you think this much of the unreasonable can stop me, think again!

Monsters, if you're coming, come at me!

......I'll kill you all!!

I'm getting fired up.

Fired up to kill, too.

Before I know it, my magic power, my killing intent, is overflowing.

The magic power overflowing from the forest and my own magic power clash, making a mishi mishi sound......

“H, HEEEEY! You, hurry up and rein in that killing intent! You're gonna draw in a bunch of extra monsters!!”

......and then, suddenly, a voice called out from behind.

When I turned around, standing there, breathing hard, was the silver-haired boy who had picked a fight with me at the Adventurers' Guild branch office.