Eldmia Ega

"Fuck, fuck, what do I do about that? What do I do?"

Three left. The ones behind were probably already dead, and the one whose throat had just been cut was in the midst of spectacular convulsions, but since the living ones showed no intention of helping him, he'd be dead soon. I pretended to rub my eyes with my blood-soaked hands and studied them.

Even after all that, they neither ran nor rushed me together to kill me. That was clear proof that the Demon Sword was valuable enough to tempt them, while their own skills were lacking. I had no intention of letting them live. They came to loot a place that already had nothing left? As far as I was concerned, they weren't people anymore. They were worse than animals.

"Shut the fuck...!"

When I started bawling my lungs out beside them, one of them lost his temper in the confusion and was about to scream, but the man next to him hurriedly cut him off.

"You crazy bastard! Don't provoke him! Hey, hey! Kid. C-could you put that sword down for a second?"

The sight of the sneaky bastard forcing a smile while dripping cold sweat was utterly disgusting. Right. It was about time they got the brilliant idea that since holding it was causing the problem, putting it down would fix everything.

"Hic...hic...I, I can't let go."

In this moment, I was a pantomime actor incarnate. After putting on a bout of method acting to make it look like I was trying with all my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠might to drop the sword from my left hand but just couldn't, I burst into tears at the top of my lungs again.

"Waaaaah, Mommyyyyy."

Mother! Father! Look down from there and behold as your son sends those sons of bitches hurtling straight into the twisted netherworld! I will show you that your son can persevere and survive in this harsh world!

My Magic Power was still sufficient. I had slammed Magic Power into my body anticipating joint damage, so I could still hold out. I kept on sniveling as I walked toward the grave where my parents were buried.

The sword I held was the one my mother had been carrying, and my father had an identical one. If these bastards were after the Demon Sword, their eyes would light up with greed the moment they saw it.

"Hey! Where are you going!"

"Waaaaah!"

If they were curious, they'd have to follow. Sure enough, the bastards hesitated but eventually shuffled closer, dragging the slave along to see what I was doing.

"Fucking hell, I'm going crazy...huh?!"

I heard the rapid thud of someone bursting forward. I whipped my head around, and the charging bastard already had his eyes fixed on the longsword in my father's hand, so I drove my sword straight into his heart.

-Shlunk!

"Ghuuurk...!"

The resistance felt different from slashing, and I nearly dropped the sword, but I gritted my teeth and held on. I could feel every blister I had popping, but that was better than dying. As I forced myself to hold up his body collapsing toward me, the thief slumped to his knees with a thud and his breath cut off.

In that interval, I pulled a dagger from the bastard's belt, hid it in my chest, and wailed at the top of my lungs.

"Markkkkk!"

"Waaaaaah!"

The other two still couldn't grasp what was happening and were stamping around in confusion... but the woman in the iron collar was unnervingly calm, as if she were in a world of her own.

Looks like she caught on.

"Huh... h-huh?"

I pretended to be flustered. Pretended not to understand, and let go of the sword with both hands. At that sight, the two bastards' eyes flew wide open.

"Huwaaah, Daddyyyy!"

There were two swords anyway. And I had a dagger in my chest. I went over to my father's corpse, pretended to collapse, and grabbed the sword.

"Hey, shit, grab that thing quick!"

Once I moved completely away from the sword, both of them rushed over without a moment's hesitation, crouching down beside the corpse of the one called Mark.

Were they morons? A little kid holding the sword had just killed everyone who came near, and it didn't occur to them that the moment one of them grabbed it, the other one might die? I'd half-expected them to immediately start fighting over it, but it wasn't even that.

They were just a pair of buddy-buddy morons. I picked up the sword without hesitation, charged, and stabbed one in the throat.

"Hurk?!"

"Huh? Huh?!"

I didn't even need to pull it back out. I drew the dagger from my chest and, from right under the chin of the bewildered bastard next to him, I stabbed upward with all my strength.

"Ghk!"

Because it wasn't a longsword, I gathered every last bit of Magic Power I had and drove the dagger in with everything I had, burying it all the way to the hilt. Only after I hit the ground with the bastard collapsing backward did a deep sense of relief wash over me.

"Fuck! I thought I was going to die, seriously! Is this what my life is now?!"

There are limits to hardcore, seriously!

If not for the mage who'd taught me how to manipulate Magic Power, I'd be dead right now, or crying my eyes out in the mountains because I couldn't even protect my parents' bodies.

"Aaaaaaaargh!"

Of course, I was screaming right now because I was overwhelmed by that same misery.

But I still had a lot of life ahead, so I decided to stop the hysterics, dust off my ass, and get up. Then I shifted my gaze toward the slave who was looking at me.

She wore something like a filthy dress, and calm eyes watched me from beneath her disheveled platinum-blond hair.

"You realized, didn't you?"

"...Yes."

She was speaking politely. Was it because ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she was a slave? No. If my own hands and feet were bound and there were a little psycho in front of me who'd just killed six people, I'd probably be polite too.

Since she might have been trying to kill me, I pulled the longsword out of the dead thief's throat and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠approached warily. Only then did I realize she was an elf. Her disheveled hair and drooping ears had hidden it until now.

"An elf?"

At the same time, that was tremendously good news for me.

"...Yes."

Unidentifiable symbols were etched into the chains around her neck and the restraints binding her arms and legs. Unless those were decorations, there was clearly only one reason they had slapped those on her.

"Are you a mage?"

"......Yes."

In that instant, I felt like a radiant halo was shining from the filthy and utterly haggard elf woman, and before I knew it, I dropped to my knees and cried out.

"Thank you, God! So you were there, you motherfucker!"

A mage! An elf mage, no less! An elf bound by magic, no less!!

Clearly, the world wasn't just out to kill you. After some shitty business passed, good things came too! But from someone else's perspective, it probably just looked like a fit, and the elf, extremely wary, backed away.

A horse snorted loudly, snapping me back to reality. I sprang to my feet and grabbed the elf's hands.

"Aaaah!"

"I have a proposal!"

"What?!"

"A proposal!!"

Mages cannot lie.

It was an immutable truth, verified by the mage who was no different from a life-saving benefactor to me, and by the words of both my parents.

I would make an offer she couldn't refuse.

◈

"So... in exchange for setting me free, you want me to raise you until you turn 16?"

"That's not exactly a flawed way of putting it, but to be precise, I'm asking you to teach me the survival skills and general wisdom of life that you possess."

Her name was Asilie. Said she was an adventurer.

I couldn't understand how she'd been caught by those idiots, but as it turned out, those idiots had raided another slave trader and she was simply part of the spoils they'd grabbed. And, delighted by this unexpected prize, they had been heading to a city looking for a slave market when they discovered our village.

It was even more baffling how the bigger idiots who got robbed by those idiots had managed to catch an elf in the first place, but I just chalked it up to shit happens.

"As you can see, the Demon King's invasion left me with nothing. So how is an 8-year-old brat supposed to survive this world? Eight years isn't a short time, sure, but you're an elf, Asilie. If the alternative was being dragged around as a slave for the rest of your life or dying on the spot, getting off with an eight-year obligation to me is a bargain, isn't it?"

All the conditions were perfect. The fact she was caught by idiots might suggest she wasn't the brightest, but elves as a species, and mages for that matter, weren't so easy to handle.

The chance of a fateful encounter passing through genuinely good people and somehow landing an elf slave in the hands of morons was higher than the chance that she was a moron elf mage.

And now, being in a position to bargain with her, it was as if I was holding the opportunity of a lifetime.

"I'd love to learn magic as well, but honestly, I don't assume I can learn it just because I want to."

She was an elf who'd lived for 120 years. A full 120 years! She was a mage, but she could also use a bow and said she'd dabbled with a sword. For elves, though, 'a little' really was relative—one or two years of practice didn't even count as having learned it. She was a walking encyclopedia, packed with everything from survival skills to adventuring tricks.

"Please, Big Sis! If it's not you, this pitiful human boy is going to die within the year!"

I said I'd make an offer she couldn't refuse, but I was terrified she might refuse it. In the end, I knelt down, bowed my head, and begged and pleaded.

"...Couldn't you just keep me as your slave?"

"What? No, why would you say something like that? What do you take me for?"

This lady was saying some dangerous shit. My mood soured instantly and my face crumpled right along with it.

"Who do you take me for, some fucking butcher? A slave? I didn't take you for that kind of person, but that's an incredibly violent worldview. Do elves have slavery too?"

"Of course not!"

"Then why would you say something like that!"

When she got angry back at me, I yelled at her even louder. You don't even have a slave system, so why are you bringing up slaves and running your mouth!

"...Are you really human? You're 8?"

She looked at me as if ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she found it completely unbelievable, but I answered indifferently.

"You've lived in this world long enough to see all kinds of strange people. Just roll with it. It's not going to change."

Having already killed six people, what more was there to hide by pretending to be a child? But I had no reason to do things that would make people doubt my sanity, like babbling on about how I was actually reincarnated.

Her gaze, strangely full of suspicion but with the wariness gone, fixed on me for a long moment.

"Fine. I accept."

"...Really?"

"Truly. I swear upon the name of Asilie Enderinia, elf of the Blue Vine and a mage. For the next eight years, I will aid you and help you become capable of surviving on your own."

I was saved! I was so moved I was almost brought to tears, but I quickly got up and began removing the restraints from Asilie's body one by one.

The bandit leader had the keys, so it wasn't hard. But for some reason, throughout the entire process of removing her bonds, Asilie wore a strange expression, and then she opened her mouth.

"You're just untying me like this?"

"Huh?"

"No, I mean, a pact or something..."

"...Eh?"

What was she saying...? Don't tell me...?

"What were you going to do if I just packed up my things and ran off? Normally, when you release someone wearing slave restraints by setting conditions, you place your hand on the restraints and make a new contract."

"Hieek!"

In an instant my mind went completely blank and I nearly lost it.

"P-please! Help me! Help!"

I clung to her calf and flailed around, on the verge of actually crying. I was fucked! Completely fucked! I'd thought all I had to do was unlock the restraints!

"No, wait! I won't run! I have my honor too!"

Fortunately, Asilie was an elf with honor and common sense. Having calmed me down from my near-panic, Asilie stroked my head and spoke.

"Don't worry. No matter what, you are my benefactor. Elves never repay kindness with betrayal."

"Just like how mages don't lie?"

"Truthfully, there are some unscrupulous bastards among mages who do lie."

"Huh?!"

It wasn't... the truth...!

"Pfft. No, well, it is generally true that they don't lie. But it's not an absolute. So you shouldn't blindly trust the idea that mages don't lie."

To think that such outrageously wicked bastards could wield the colossal power of magic. This truly was an unreasonable world.

But despite that, Asilie gently placed her hands on my shoulders, looked me straight in the eye, and spoke. Her two emerald pupils, unlike before, were clearly brimming with life.

"But no elf repays a kindness with betrayal. You don't need to worry about that."

"Phew... thank you."

For a moment I'd thought I was seriously screwed, but it looked like I'd at least escaped the hardcore isekai survival route.