A Child Does Not Understand a Parent's Heart
In the internet age, countless memes are born—and just as many vanish.
And yet, even as meme after meme disappeared, one game stubbornly survived, beloved by the fishy denizens of every community board:
It was the game of “ranking things.”
The target changed every time. Sometimes it was famous singers, sometimes skilled pro gamers, and sometimes even things without a physical form, like movies or games.
And Silia Online was no exception.
Popularity meant lots of people enjoyed it, and that, in turn, meant lots of people were going to play this game about it.
Yuki was the clear favorite, right??
Questions about who was strongest among the players were, in fact, very common.
And there were people like this too.
Isn’t the strongest one Journey?
If it looks like you’re going to lose in a fight, just ask Kana to help you, lol.
Journey was not someone who could be called a powerhouse, whether by specs or by skill.
Even the viewers in Journey’s room, who were more favorable to her than most people were, knew it and admitted it—and Journey herself knew it too.
So the matter seemed like it would just pass without becoming much of a topic, but then...
People’s attention fixed itself on something completely unexpected.
(Dimensional Beast as seen from Journey’s point of view.jpg)
This was the Dimensional Beast that appeared on Journey’s stream this time.
It was about the size of a decent house.
What, you think it was just big but weak?
(HP bar showing the Dimensional Beast’s level and health.jpg)
It was a Level 78 Dimensional Beast.
As everyone knows, most people can barely manage a one-on-one fight against a monster of the same level.
And of course, beating a monster that was higher level than yourself in a one-on-one fight was even harder.
Even that mad dog Yuki had a rough time when fighting monsters above her own level.
And the gap was only a few levels, too.
If you thought about that, you could get a rough sense of just how strong that Dimensional Beast was.
(Kana fighting the Dimensional Beast.gif)
But Kana took it down without a single scratch.
She didn’t even look particularly tired.
Of course, level wasn’t an absolute measure of strength—there were players who lost to NPCs of the same level, and the reverse was true too—but it was still a reasonable benchmark.
In other words, Kana had literally crushed a Level 78 monster, which meant she was far higher level than the Dimensional Beast.
And if that wasn’t the case, then it still meant she was strong enough to obliterate a Level 78 monster.
When people were busy trying to get Kana’s first kill during the raid, there hadn’t been any name or level displayed because of missing information. But maybe things were different now?
Judging from the rough consensus, she seemed to be above Expert rank—probably a Master.
If we could see other Masters fighting, we’d know more precisely, but unfortunately the data was too scarce to be certain.
But even if Kana really was a Master, there was still a problem: the average age at which a person in the world of Silia reached the level of Master was said to be in their sixties.
You could say she lacked talent, but in the first place, if you truly had no talent, you wouldn’t even reach Master.
And among those especially gifted, those NPCs called once-in-a-lifetime geniuses, most didn’t reach Master until after forty.
So if our tiny, precious Kana really was a Master, then one of two things had to be true:
Either she was a super-super-super-super-super-genius sickly magical girl who had attained the Master realm at a young age, an offense against the heavens themselves.
Or she was a master who, after long years of training, had reached enlightenment and regained her youth.
- It was basically confirmed she was a Master when she started cutting down the knights.
- So does that mean Kana was actually legal????
[I changed my class to Swordsman after watching Journey’s stream this time, yep]
(Kanaaria-style emergency.gif)
Honestly, how was anyone supposed to resist that?
I’d thought swordsmen were frustrating to watch fight this whole time, but the moment I saw Kana using a sword, I switched right away.
What matters is that Kana is cute.
In that sense, go watch Journey’s stream where the cute Kana appears.
Journey’s teaching Kana Arkish right now.
Watching her speak awkwardly with that expressionless face creates such a gap that it’s honestly ridiculously cute, lol.
(Journey’s stream link)
Hurry up and go watch, go go go go go.
* * *
“What’s this?”
“An apple.”
“Good job. Then what’s this?”
“A carriage.”
“Our Kana is so smart. So what’s this?”
“Idiot.”
“... .”
“A loser?”
“...No! If it’s a person, then say person! At the very least, say Journey!”
Journey, who had pointed at herself with her finger in response to Kana’s answer, made a teary face.
After the fight with the Dimensional Beast, she hadn’t seen even a single monster.
It was as if she’d spent the two days cramming in everything that usually happened during an escort request all at once.
The changes weren’t limited to monsters, either.
“Th-the meal is ready.”
The merchants personally brought food to her and Kana.
“Huh? This looks different from what the others are eating?”
“Oh, no, of course not. We served the exact same thing to everyone.”
The meals were more lavish than what the merchants and mercenaries were eating.
On top of that, there were open displays of reverence, and people would casually come up and start talking to them.
It made sense for them to treat Kana that way.
She was the one who had slain the ogre and the Dimensional Beast without even getting a scratch, so of course they’d want to build a connection with her.
But why me too?
Journey had thought that, but after a moment she realized it wasn’t that hard to understand.
Kana had handled the situation.
And Journey had been the one to bring Kana to the merchant caravan.
Besides, Journey had been telling people that Kana was her little sister.
Even if people didn’t believe that, she guessed they still couldn’t be rude to someone who clearly had some kind of relationship with Kana.
But that’s not the really important part.
A sudden change in treatment? The villagers’ gratitude?
Sure, that was nice.
But for Journey, the biggest gain was something else entirely.
Teach me Arkish.
Who would have thought Kana would ask for that?
At first Journey had been so bewildered she couldn’t tell whether it was a dream or reality, but then she realized it was real and nearly jumped for joy.
On the surface, it was a request to teach her a language. But it wasn’t just that.
It was a small step Kana had taken toward Journey.
After that, Journey taught Kana Arkish whenever she had time.
On the first day of class, Journey asked Kana,
Do you know any Arkish already?
The most important thing when teaching a student was knowing their level.
In answer to Journey’s question, Kana replied, “Save me. Monster. Bastard. Die. It hurts. Retreat. Little brat. Aaaagh...”
“W-wait a second!”
Journey hurriedly clamped a hand over Kana’s mouth as the stream of terrifying words kept spilling out.
And the last one wasn’t even a word, it was a scream.
Journey was reminded once again that Kana had been a knight who went to war and fought.
People always learned bad words faster than good ones, and there was no way good words would be exchanged on a battlefield, so it wasn’t strange that Kana only knew things like that.
In any case, once Journey understood that Kana’s Arkish skill was practically a blank slate, she started from the basics: letters, words, and the like.
Truthfully, Journey didn’t know Arkish all that well herself.
She hadn’t formally learned Arkish either; the game system simply translated what she naturally said into Arkish for her.
So if she wanted to teach Kana, she had no choice but to study Arkish too.
First Granic, now Arkish.
Her studying had doubled in an instant, but the thought that Kana was relying on her made the whole thing not the least bit painful.
“Kana, you did that on purpose, didn’t you?!”
“?”
“Don’t play dumb!”
“I don’t know. Arkish.”
“...Jeez, do you think I’ll forgive you for anything if you’re cute?”
If she’d thought that...
...she was right.
Seeing Kana blink with that clumsy pronunciation, Journey clutched her chest.
Idiot, loser—she had definitely said all of that knowing exactly what it meant, but the moment she saw that adorable expression, her desire to press the issue vanished completely.
“Those are bad words, so don’t use them anymore. Got it?”
“Idiot?”
“Yeah. That one.”
“Loser?”
“...That one too.”
“Ahem!”
Just as Journey was teaching Arkish to Kana, the coachman beyond the curtain in front gave a discreet cough to announce himself.
“What is it?”
“We’ll be arriving in Liberi soon.”
“Wow, already?”
It was the announcement of the end of the long escort request.
Thanks to Kana, she’d enjoyed the long journey quite a bit, but it was true that it had also been exhausting, and at the thought that she’d finally be able to rest properly, color returned to Journey’s face.
No more getting bruised by the carriage’s sway, no more needing to use a half-sleep mode, no more lying in a capsule and sleeping with a night-watch mode on—instead, she could lie down in a soft bed and sleep...
“That’s enough for today’s lesson!”
Journey, bubbling with excitement, announced that class was over.
Kana shifted her gaze away from the suddenly busy Journey and looked out the window.
Far beyond the glass, the scenery of Liberi was drawing closer and closer.
---