Omen
Omen.
Monsters.
Mutations born from the mingling of negative mana and living creatures.
In the beginning, no such species as monsters had ever existed.
But during the great racial war of ages past, staggering quantities of mana had collided. The mana that had once been pure grew unstable, tainted by the countless dark thoughts born of that war.
That unstable mana reshaped entire ecosystems, and among the creatures twisted by its malevolent influence, those that had taken on an evil nature came to be called monsters.
Most monsters warped by that negative force developed violent temperaments, attacking every race without distinction.
And so, every faction except the demons marked monsters as targets that had to be purged.
Nearly half the novel was about Robin slaughtering monsters.
Things were still quiet for now, but starting in Imperial Year 500—the moment the protagonist first appeared in the story—calamity-class monsters would gradually begin to surface.
Man-eating werewolves. Wyverns, predators of the sky. Colossal minotaurs. Krakens of the abyss. And more.
All manner of monsters had threatened the Empire.
But I already knew Robin and his companions would take care of every last one of them, so I felt no real worry.
All I had to do was quietly watch from the sidelines and make sure the protagonist was doing his job properly.
"Unnie. I found them."
Lily pointed in one direction. Looking that way, I spotted monsters with green skin.
Monsters, yes—but intelligent enough to use weapons. Goblins.
Right now Lily and I had come into the forest alone to handle the goblin extermination Gorjan had requested.
When I told her I wanted to give her some real combat experience, she had agreed without the slightest hesitation.
Dania had opposed it at first, but through our persistent efforts we managed to talk her around.
And so the two of us had been wandering the woods until we finally ran into goblins—which brought us to this moment.
"Think you can handle it, Lily?"
There were four of them in the group, every one clutching a blunt weapon.
If I stepped in I could finish them in an instant, but this was training meant to build Lily's practical experience.
She had to take them down herself.
"I'll give it a try."
Lily drew the new dagger she had bought at the weapons shop before we left and answered.
Gripping the blade tightly, she soon erased her presence and began slipping through the undergrowth.
I crouched as well and carefully followed after her.
This was only training. I had to make sure Lily never got hurt.
Keeping myself ready to spring out at any second, I trailed her, and in no time we had stolen right up beside the goblins.
Lily closed her eyes and drew in a breath. Gray light wrapped around her dagger.
When she opened her eyes again she pushed off the ground, dashed forward, and—
"Kieeeeek!"
—drove her blade into the back of one goblin's skull. The creature died screaming in agony.
Before the others could even grasp what was happening, Lily moved like lightning and buried her dagger in a second goblin's throat.
"Guh… glrk…"
"Kieeek!"
"Kyak!"
As the remaining goblins finally started to understand the situation, Lily spun to withdraw.
But the goblins were faster than expected. One of them seized her by the wrist.
"Nngh…!"
The last goblin swung its club at the startled girl—
THWOOM—
—only for my fist to explode through it before the swing could finish. The goblin's lower half toppled limply to the ground, its upper body gone.
"Kyeek?"
The final one still hadn't processed what had just happened.
The moment its eyes met mine it began to tremble violently.
"Kieeeeek!!"
It flung its club to the dirt and bolted for its life.
"You okay, Lily?"
I watched the fleeing goblin for a second, then turned my gaze back to her.
"Yes… thank you, Unnie."
Maybe because she hadn't finished them alone, Lily wore a faintly disappointed look.
"You don't have to feel bad. You did more than well enough."
I meant every word.
Lily had never experienced anything like this before.
And yet she had approached in perfect stealth and, without a moment's hesitation, stabbed the goblins through their vital points and killed them.
From my perspective it was actually astonishing.
Is this… an assassin's talent…?
Or maybe…
"Lily. Have you ever killed a person before?"
"Nyeh?!"
She was so startled her tongue even tripped over itself.
"No, it's just… you killed them without any hesitation at all. Most people can't do that so easily."
"Heh… heheh… N-no?! This was my first time."
So it really had just been pure talent after all.
Of course. There was no way a girl this cute and kind could have killed anyone.
Lily twisted her body as if suddenly uncomfortable, so I reached out and gently stroked her hair.
"Is that so? Amazing. Our Lily must be a genius."
"Heh… heh…"
"By the way, Lily. That goblin grabbed you earlier, didn't it?"
I launched straight into the feedback.
"Yes…"
Lily swallowed hard, looking tense.
I smiled to put her at ease and continued.
"I'm not scolding you. I just want to help. Why do you think you got caught?"
"B-because my reaction was too slow…?"
"Mm. That's part of it, but the root problem is a lack of speed."
Stealth and swiftness—the two essentials of an assassin.
She already possessed the stealth, but her body was still that of a young girl, so her speed fell short.
"Should I… start running more…?"
"Pfft."
I couldn't help myself and ruffled her hair all over at the adorable suggestion.
Running would help, sure, but she would get more than enough of that once she entered the Academy.
"That's one way, but there's a better method. Using mana."
"Mana?"
"Yeah. Only instead of putting it on your blade, you put it on your feet."
Enchant. The magic of imbuing mana into objects—or parts of the body—to strengthen them.
Applied to a sword or spear, it turned the weapon into something that could pierce even steel.
Applied to the body, it let you unleash far greater power than usual.
"Try putting mana into your dagger first."
Hearing that, Lily closed her eyes and wrapped gray mana around the blade.
"Now, can you move that mana down to your feet?"
"U… um…"
She looked flustered at first, but soon quieted and focused again.
Slowly the gray mana began to travel along her arm.
"Ah…!"
But the moment it neared her torso it shattered like glass and scattered in every direction.
"Hard, right? It'll probably take a little while to get used to."
Freely controlling mana demanded serious concentration.
An ordinary person would need months of training.
But our Lily managed it in a single week!
In the novel she had fretted over how to make up for her lack of speed, then hit upon the idea of enchanting her legs to produce explosive bursts of velocity.
After a week of practice she could freely channel mana into her legs and move with blinding quickness.
Heh. Lily really is a genius.
That first failure was only natural.
I was about to offer some encouraging praise to bolster her will.
"Lily, you'll probably manage it in a wee—"
"I'll try again, Unnie."
"A wee… huh?"
Lily closed her eyes once more and layered mana onto the dagger.
The mana moved slowly—and this time it reached as far as her chest.
"Oh, Lily. You're picking it up fast."
"One more time."
Now the mana flowed all the way down to her waist.
"Again."
From waist to knees.
"Just one more."
From knees to shins.
And at last—
Woom—
"I did it."
Lily had successfully enchanted her feet with mana.
Beaming with joy, she looked up at me.
"I did it, Unnie!"
"…Huh?"
She… did?
How…?
I couldn't believe it, yet the gray mana glowing clearly beneath Lily's feet insisted this was reality.
What? Did I misread the novel?
In the story it had definitely taken her a full week.
But right now Lily had successfully transferred the mana in less than an hour.
The difference was unbelievable.
Does that even make sense…?
I was still reeling from the impossible situation when Lily suddenly grabbed my arm and called out.
"Unnie!"
"Y-yeah?"
When I came back to myself I found Lily staring at me with eyes that seemed to hunger for something deep.
"I said I did it."
"R-right!! You're seriously amazing, Lily…!"
"Just words?"
"U… uh?"
Was she hoping for some kind of reward?
Lily was looking at me as if she expected something.
"W-want Unnie to give you a kiss or something?"
"A kiss would be nice too… but please grant me one wish."
Just like last time, she was asking for a wish.
"A wish? …Mm, sure. Is there something you want?"
But Lily shook her head as if she didn't have one yet.
"I'm going to save them up. Until I become an adult."
There was something faintly chilling about the way she said it.
A wish that can only be granted once she's an adult…?
I thought carefully about what Lily's wish might be, and memories of students back in Korea before my transmigration floated up—kids who had desperately waited to come of age.
The second the clock struck midnight they would slap their IDs to their foreheads and line up outside bars and clubs.
Don't tell me Lily also…?
There were no clubs here, but similar entertainment establishments did exist.
Had Lily somehow developed an interest in places like that?
Absolutely not.
I had zero intention of ever letting Lily set foot in somewhere like that.
I would drink with her all she wanted, but I would never stand by and watch her fall into a life of debauchery.
"Lily… nowhere too weird, okay…?"
"Huh?"
Lily looked at me with pure confusion.
"What are you even thinking… It's nothing like that. I just have a few things I want to make Unnie do."
Ah. If that was all…
Realizing Lily had no interest in that kind of culture, a deep wave of relief washed through me.
"If that's the case, I'll grant as many as you want!"
I smiled as I told her, and she smiled back at me just as cutely.
But I didn't know then.
If I had known what Lily intended to make me do with all those saved-up wishes…
I wouldn't have been smiling so carelessly.
When we finished the goblin subjugation and returned home, Dania greeted us with a warm smile.
"I've been waiting. Come inside and eat already."
Seeing Dania welcome me so gently made something in my chest go soft and warm.
Before my transmigration I hadn't been unhappy, exactly, but I had lived a lonely life.
My mother had passed away early, and my father had raised me as if he were discarding me.
I had somehow gotten into university and landed a decent job, yet the solitude never changed.
But things were different now.
We weren't bound by blood, yet Lily and Dania treated me like family.
I had a cozy home that accepted me, and the strength to protect that home.
From here on out, it's a real happy life.
Until the protagonist reached the novel's ending, I just needed to stay here.
Lily would leave for the Academy, but Dania would remain.
All I had to do was live well in this place with her, waiting for the day Lily came home.
With that firm resolve I stepped into the house that always welcomed me.
And so time flowed swiftly by.
"Half a year already, huh."
I muttered to myself while sitting atop a monster's corpse.
Half a year had passed since I vowed to live a happy life.
The West District had become a surprisingly pleasant city to live in.
Drax was still a city of criminals, but most of them had settled in other districts specifically to avoid the West.
"What? You're going to the West? Are you insane?"
"Why? I heard the atmosphere there's pretty nice."
"Don't you know there's a monster there who rips criminals apart on sight? The North's better. I'm never going near that place."
Rumors like that had spread all across Drax.
Well, they weren't entirely wrong. Every criminal who tried anything here got beaten down by me personally.
Bit by bit the West District transformed into a lawless city with almost no crime at all.
On top of that I had spent the months hunting monsters that threatened Drax alongside Lily.
Before I knew it the whole city had started treating me like some kind of guardian deity.
A great many things had changed, but the biggest change of all was—
"I'm back, Unnie."
—Lily, casually lugging a monster far larger than her own body.
Over the past six months Lily had grown tremendously.
Whenever I fed her information from the novel she absorbed every scrap of it like a sponge.
And every single time, she banked another wish.
If she keeps this up she'll hit a hundred soon, won't she…?
At some point I had given up counting. I told her I probably wouldn't be able to grant them all later so she should just tell me what she wanted ahead of time, but she stubbornly refused.
"Not yet."
I still didn't really understand what "not yet" meant, but since it didn't particularly matter to me I let it slide without much thought.
She'll handle it herself, I guess.
Thinking that, I stared hard at Lily.
"??"
She tilted her head at me in confusion.
Lily kept growing stronger without pause.
Hunting monsters with me almost every day meant she was piling up an enormous amount of experience.
At this rate, two years from now she would be regarded as a considerable talent even at the Academy.
And that would make Robin's path that much smoother as well.
"What are you thinking about, Unnie?"
Lily had somehow come right up in front of me and was looking into my face.
"Just… how fast time seems to be flying."
"Hehe. That's because you're with me."
She really was adorable.
I stroked the head of the grinning Lily.
We finished packing up after the monster hunt and prepared to head home when—
"Lady Hera!!"
In the distance a soldier came sprinting toward us in a panic.
It was Charlson, one of the guards who kept the peace in the West District.
"What's going on? Why are you running so hard?"
Charlson was drenched in sweat from head to toe.
He must have been searching for me for quite a while.
Lily and I both stared at him in bewilderment.
"Hah… hah… I-in the city… that person…!!"
"That person?"
He still hadn't caught his breath enough to speak properly.
"Th-the Hero is looking for you."
"Okay, but who is that supposed to be?"
My irritation slipped out and I dropped into casual speech.
He finally sucked in a huge breath and answered.
"The Hero of the Empire. Lady Athena is looking for you."
……What?