Nice to Meet You
Katherine often dreamed of that day.
She dreamed of the day the makeshift palisade crumbled and monsters poured into the once-peaceful village.
The small, warm house where she’d lived, the garden patch she had tended with her parents, the home of the kind woman who had always treated her well—
all of it was trampled beneath the monsters’ feet without mercy.
Her hometown, far smaller than Blum Village, vanished that way.
Running along the rough mountain path with her parents’ hands in hers, she made herself a promise.
She would become strong enough that she would never have to endure something like this again.
From that day on, she took up the sword.
She trained in silence, alone, with no one to teach her, and spent her days fighting monsters head-on.
“Congratulations, Lady Katherine. You have been promoted to Silver-rank Mercenary.”
In the end, Katherine succeeded in earning her silver badge with her own strength.
Silver badge.
The stage at which one was acknowledged as a proper mercenary.
The day she received it from Liberi, Katherine had cried.
Even she herself didn’t know what emotion had filled those tears, but as she wiped them away, she had felt it.
She was one step closer to the vow she had made in the past.
…Ah.
At least, that was what she had thought.
Standing before the ogre horde advancing toward the village, Katherine came to a realization.
She had been promoted, she had grown stronger, and yet she was still only the village girl who had once run with her parents’ hands clutched in her own.
But there was one thing that was different now.
Unlike that mountain village, where there had been no one to help and nowhere to seek aid, this time she could ask for help.
So Katherine had begged Journey.
To please save this village… and all the other Katherines out there.
The Apostle of kind-hearted Edel had accepted her plea, and everything seemed to be going smoothly.
That had been true right up until they learned how many ogres were approaching the village.
“T-ten of them?!”
The people, who had been relieved to be alive, each scrambled desperately for a way to survive, their faces drained of color.
In the middle of the ruined square, Katherine stood dazed and bitterly laughed at herself.
So in the end, I still couldn’t do it.
She had run herself breathless for this exact situation, and it still hadn’t changed a thing.
Lost in despair, her gaze happened to fall on Journey.
He was gripping the hand of the girl who had come with him, speaking to her in a voice full of urgency and earnestness.
Katherine knew that girl was stronger than anyone else present.
But no matter how strong she was, there was no way she could stand against the ogres alone.
However skilled her swordsmanship might be, the gap between a girl and an ogre was simply too vast in body alone.
“Move.”
At Journey’s words, the girl drew her sword and stepped forward.
Her feet turned toward the edge of the village.
Don’t tell me she’s actually going to fight?
At the sight, Katherine’s eyes flew wide before she could stop herself.
“No…!”
She had wanted someone to come and help, yes, but she had never wanted to see a little girl like that throw her life away for nothing.
Just as she hurried forward to stop the girl—
Swish.
With a motion that suggested the cape was simply in her way, the girl flung it off, and under the moonlight Katherine caught her breath at the face revealed beneath.
The face hidden by the cape was younger than she had expected, and far cuter than she had expected too.
She looked so gentle, so soft, that she seemed like the sort of child who couldn’t even bring herself to squash a bug.
That girl was going to fight ogres?
For a moment Katherine came fully alert and reached out toward the girl.
“…Huh?”
Her arm cut through empty air.
She had clearly been there a moment ago.
But the girl was nowhere to be seen.
She wasn’t the only one shocked.
The girl had vanished so suddenly that everyone watching her failed to hide their confusion.
“A mage…?!”
“That tiny kid is a mage?”
“Are you seriously saying all of us saw the same hallucination?”
“That kind of thing— …W-whoa?!“
Huuuuuum—!
Without warning, a gust of wind slammed into the crowd.
It was strong enough to send even grown men staggering, and Katherine barely managed to keep her footing as the gale buffeted her.
The sudden, violent wind.
It was heading toward the outskirts of the village.
The girl hadn’t disappeared.
That was only how it had seemed to Katherine—and to everyone else.
Realizing this, Katherine asked in a trembling voice, “What on earth is she?”
Journey answered with a faint, helpless smile.
“She’s just my little sister.”
“….”
What was she supposed to say to that?
Katherine’s lips parted and closed again before she bowed her head deeply.
“Thank you… for indulging my stubbornness.”
“There’s no need to thank me. If you want to thank someone, thank Cana when she gets back.”
“…Yes. I will.”
By then, the doubt she had been feeling a moment earlier had long since vanished.
“I absolutely will.”
Someone who had mastered swordsmanship and mana wasn’t about to lose to ogres of all things.
* * *
“C-could she have gone to fight the ogres? Then…”
“Then what, go rescue her? There are ten ogres coming, not one.”
“Doesn’t it embarrass you that such a little girl was the one who stepped up to help?”
“She’s the one who stepped up without anyone even asking!”
…
Journey silently watched the people arguing.
Wanting to help, or wanting to run—those were both understandable.
But to turn around and treat the girl’s kindness as a mistake instead of gratitude….
“That’s pretty rough.”
The viewers felt exactly the same way, and Journey’s chat was ablaze.
One of the players, watching with a disgusted expression, said, “Shouldn’t we go help?”
“Would we even be any help if we did?”
“…I mean, maybe?”
“Maybe it’s already over by now….”
Even if ogre hide was tough, could it be tougher than the ground they were stomping on?
It didn’t seem likely that ogres could withstand attacks that tore up the earth itself.
Besides, Imperial elite knights who were certainly stronger than ogres had been wiped out in an instant.
For that reason, Journey agreed that going there probably wouldn’t help.
“I’m going.”
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to move.
“I might not be able to help, but I can still go meet her, can’t I? So I—”
Journey suddenly stopped speaking.
He wasn’t the only one.
The villagers arguing, the merchants hurriedly loading their carts, the mercenaries tightening their grips on their weapons with grim faces—
everyone froze.
────!
A resonance like a blow to the soul.
A heavy, powerful vibration that could even be felt by those who couldn’t manipulate mana.
Journey turned his head.
Toward the mountain Cana had been looking at earlier.
“What is that…?”
* * *
“…Kgh!”
He had to dodge backward to avoid the dark-green paw hurtling toward his head as if it meant to crush it.
No, if that thing hit, it wouldn’t just crush my head. It would turn my whole body into mush.
Personally, I didn’t hate small animals like dogs or cats, but for some reason it felt like they didn’t like me back.
It was the same when I first met Garid, and it was the same now.
“Isn’t that right?”
“….”
“So cold.”
It answered with a rough snort instead.
Couldn’t it talk, or did it simply have no intention of conversing?
Either way, what I had to do was obvious.
“Hoo….”
I let out a long breath and tightened my grip on my sword.
A huge mountain rose beyond the village back hills, standing between Ordo and the village.
The pup in front of me had burst out from the mountain’s summit.
Well, if you could call a dimensional beast that was the size of a proper fortress wall a pup.
Come to think of it, it didn’t really look like a dog either.
If anything, it was a little like a wolf—except wolves didn’t have six legs, or two heads, or mouths growing out of their bodies.
Anyway, dimensional beasts were all weirdly built.
“Is there some requirement for joining the dimensional-beast club that says you have to be ugly?”
“Grrr….”
“Or not.”
I’d only asked because I was genuinely curious, and that was harsh.
Maybe I should stop joking around now.
I was being a little playful, sure, but this dimensional beast…
Mm. Calling it a dimensional beast over and over was annoying, so let’s just call it a wolf.
Anyway, this wolf was pretty strong, so I should focus a little.
I didn’t think I’d lose, but if it bit me, I might catch rabies….
“With six legs, it’s fine to lose one, right?”
Screeeeech!
Pink sword qi tore through space.
The wolf leaped to the side, evading the blade of light that sliced in vertically.
The sword qi was a feint from the start.
I had already moved to the place where the wolf would dodge and was preparing my next strike.
Canary Blade—
I still hadn’t completely shaken off my feelings about my own name.
No matter how nice the sound of it might be, how was I supposed to feel positively about a name like “Canary” when I knew what kind of thoughts the people who had given it to me must have had?
But even so, the reason I had given my own name to the sword art I created was….
“Peck.”
Why else? Because of Garid.
I surged toward the wolf, which still hadn’t landed on the ground.
A pink flash shot forth with my body’s sudden acceleration.
Once, then twice.
The two thrusts flew out almost at the same time, striking like birds going after their prey and pecking at the wolf’s leg.
Crack-crack-crack!
Thud—!
The leg that took both thrusts exactly where they landed tore apart as if it were paper.
The severed lower half hit the ground, and the wolf threw back its jaws and screamed.
“Yip!”
“What, it was really a dog?”
Yip, huh. That really didn’t fit.
I spun my sword once and reset my grip into a shape better suited for cutting again.
Then came the follow-up combo.
I drove my right foot down hard and twisted my waist with all my strength.
Power rose from my legs, traveled through my hips and arms, and poured into the sword.
It was a technique I’d even taught Journey once.
“Technique” was generous, really. It was just a method for swinging hard.
“Grrrr!”
Unfortunately, the guy whose leg count had gone from even to odd recovered very quickly.
I’d meant to make it even again.
But because it had leapt back and slashed with its paw, not only did my attack fail, I also lost the chase.
If it had been a person, it wouldn’t have recovered that fast after losing a limb.
Dealing with things that weren’t human was such a pain.
Monsters, beasts, snake bastards…
The wolf didn’t rush in carelessly. It just stared down at me.
It was wary of me, but it didn’t seem to think it would lose.
Still, there was something else about it that pissed me off even more.
“You know, I hate tall bastards.”
It was only a little taller than me, and yet it looked down at me like it was something special.
So, I’ll start by ripping off all your legs.
Let’s see whether you can still look down on me after you’ve lost them all and are crawling on the ground.
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