I'll Plagiarize a Bit!
I'll Plagiarize a Bit!
When another pair of arms began to sprout beneath her own arms.
That was probably when it started.
When her mother and father decided to abandon her.
In less than three months, the lower arms suddenly grew. As soon as they discovered them, her father and mother tried to cut them off.
They tied her down and tried to cut them off by force.
When her father's saw bit into her lower arm, she was so terrified and in so much pain that she unconsciously used magic.
Her father and mother were flung away from her and slammed into the wall.
Her father was injured, and her mother stared at her and screamed.
I should never have given birth to something like you.
She distinctly remembered those words.
She remembered her mother and father coming at her with a kitchen knife and a sickle, screaming that she was a demon and telling her to leave.
She cried and said she didn't want to go, but they swung the kitchen knife and left a deep gash on her forearm. Only then did Erpa leave the house.
If her own family reacted like that, other people wouldn't be any different.
That was why Erpa had no choice but to live in the forest.
Thankfully, her prodigious magical talent allowed even a child to survive in the woods.
Having four arms also meant she could work twice as fast as others.
Then, around the time she turned twelve, on the left side of her face, one by one.
Eyeballs began to sprout.
Even she could see it was a hideous sight.
So she covered half her face with leaves whenever she went out.
In the forest, even though no one had taught her, she wielded all kinds of magic freely.
Fire ignited at a single word, ferocious wild beasts met their deaths, and meat was butchered and roasted to her liking, laid out before her.
But even though she could do all that, her grotesque arms and face were never healed.
One day, after dreaming again of the moment her parents abandoned her, Erpa made up her mind and resolved to eliminate her lower arms and the left side of her face.
Passing out and waking, passing out and waking, over and over, Erpa cut off her two extra arms and scraped away the left side of her face.
As she cauterized the left side of her face with fire and staunched the bleeding from the severed arms, she was drenched in cold sweat. She thought that when she woke the next morning, she hoped she would look normal.
But her body betrayed her hopes.
The next day.
When she woke again.
She realized that her arms and face had returned to their original form.
The arms had grown back, and the eyeballs she had plucked out one by one had regrown atop the discolored, hideously scarred, cauterized skin, as if mocking her.
Those hideous things, no matter what she did.
No matter what magic she used.
They never disappeared.
For the first time, a desire to learn more proper magic arose within her.
She wanted to be able to wield more powerful magic.
She hoped that by doing so, she could erase these arms and eyeballs and live among people.
That was why, when Tudel discovered her living in the forest and extended a hand to her, Erpa did not refuse.
And with Tudel's help, Erpa truly researched like a madwoman.
She researched, and researched, and researched again.
On how to wield stronger magic.
The Three Primary Colors Research was the result born of that obsession.
Maximization of magical power and efficiency.
It was also research that helped control magical phenomena on a scale beyond human capability by using the mana contained in the human body.
Through this research, she intended to handle far greater magic and restore her body to normal.
And when her body was healed.
She planned to show it to Tudel and surprise her.
That was... what she had planned.
"You hideous witch!"
"It makes me sick, seriously!!"
"Bluaaargh!!"
Beyond her vision, still hazy from the anesthetic, she saw mud and stones flying at her.
She heard the insults and curses of the crowd.
Even if she returned to normal.
Would those people ever accept her?
Those people who had already seen her hideous left side—even if she appeared looking like an ordinary human.
Would they ever treat her normally?
Why?
Because I'm ugly?
Because I'm hideous?
Simply because she didn't look the same as them, even though she had done nothing and committed no wrong, they would go this far?
Rage seized her body.
Slowly.
The immense mana within her and the genius of her overwhelming talent began selecting targets upon which to vomit her flames.
Because the magic power suppressant still remained in her body, forcibly operating her mana risked burning out or driving every mana circuit in her body insane.
But Erpa didn't care.
It was already over.
When everything was already ruined, what was left to fear?
If she combined the achievements of the Three Primary Colors Research with the mana inside her, she could probably sweep away the entire capital.
And further, perhaps even scorch the entire empire away.
She was exhausted now.
All those years of thrashing about, desperate to be acknowledged by them, felt foolish. She no longer wanted to live.
Together with this empire that had given her nothing but wounds.
Together with Tudel, who had betrayed her.
She intended to burn it all down.
Her mana began to boil.
Despite the interference of the magic power suppressant, mana gathered, intense enough to instantly shatter the miracle restraining her body.
Now she only had to unleash it.
Unleash this magic, burn together with everyone, and it would all be over.
Just as she thought that.
"Stop!! I said stop!!"
"It's the Saint! It's the Saint!"
"Don't throw things at the Saint, you lunatics!!"
An odd sight entered Erpa's hazy vision.
A man.
Staring straight at Erpa, walking slowly toward her.
***
You goddamn fucking morons!
Why don't you just tap-dance on a nuclear bomb while you're at it!
Are you bastards—myself included—planning to all die today??
We'd win a collective Darwin Award.
Gawking at the clergy of the White Order, helpless against the mud and objects flying from all directions, and the four-armed witch being restrained and dragged along between them, I nearly had a heart attack and jumped back onto the road.
The roads in this era were full of mud.
Cars and trains were running, but radios hadn't even been distributed nationwide yet. From a modern person's perspective, it was a violent era where romance and savagery breathed side by side.
Pushing through the people snickering without a shred of guilt or awareness, hurling filth-covered mud, stone fragments, and bottles, I stepped onto the roadside and began moving toward the witch. Naturally, stray shots started flying at me as well.
Mud mixed with shit, piss, and vomit splattered onto my clothes.
Some rock or bottle thrown by some idiot hit my head and bounced off.
Blood soaked my head and streamed down my cheek, dripping onto the roadside.
Only then did the holy knights of the Sun Order, the police, and the slum-dwellers who had been receiving treatment from me rush out and start stopping the crowd.
"It's the Saint! The Saint!"
"What are you doing! Stop this instant!!"
"Do not harm the Saint!!"
An enormous number of slum residents swiftly took control of the street, and the filth and stones flying toward me and the witch ceased.
Not knowing when the witch might explode, I was so tense I didn't even have the time to wipe the blood running down my cheek. Slowly, mechanically, I advanced toward the witch.
"Halt! This being is an Abomination!"
"She is a Calamity Bearer who brings disaster!! Stop! Come no closer!"
"If you come any closer, we will atta!......"
The clergy of the White Order raised their hands toward me, but their words were cut off immediately by the holy knights of the Sun Order surrounding me.
"How dare you spout such nonsense at the Saint, whom the Goddess of Grace personally sent down to the mortal world!!"
"Followers of the one who eradicates evil, show respect!! He is a Saint chosen by the gods!"
I was telling them, I wasn't!!
I had zero connection to the goddess Lilia!!
I'd never even uttered the letter L in Lilia!!
Why the hell were they spreading those rumors!!
I wanted to scream, but I couldn't, afraid I'd provoke the witch into exploding.
I slowly approached the witch.
"D-don't come......"
Seeing my face, frozen stiff in front of a bomb that could go off at any second, the clergy of the White Order must have misunderstood something again. They retreated, drenched in fear and terror.
As they stepped back, naturally.
The miracle restraining the witch's body was released.
As the miracle released and she began to collapse onto the filthy mud floor, I carefully supported her.
Wow.
I was fucking terrified.
I was scared shitless.
In my previous life, even when I threw a grenade for the first time at boot camp, I wasn't this scared. Seriously.
For a weakling like me, this was far too cruel an ordeal.
But what could I do?
If I didn't do something, everyone here was going to die.
Including me.
As I slowly held the witch in my arms, I began wiping away the filth-covered mud on her face and body.
This was, how should I put it.
Like the hand soothing a cat about to be neutered.
There, there.
Good girl, right?
Please don't explode.
Fuck........
Please, don't explode.
"Are you okay?"
Without realizing it, my voice came out thick with moisture.
Because I was scared shitless.
Because I was so terrified.
If I relaxed even a little, I felt like I'd simultaneously piss and shit myself and collapse. I barely held it in, held it in until only tears came out.
In a total daze, I succeeded in wiping all the mud and filth from her face.
The face revealed underneath was.......
Whoa boy.
A gross pic.
But I didn't care at all.
I had a very high tolerance for gross pics.
In my previous life, my hobbies were Japanese anime and gore films.
To the uncivilized people of this era, it might be frightening and shocking, but to me—well, it wasn't much different from Monster Musume arachne lewds you could find with a quick internet search.
"........In your eyes, am I hideous too?"
The young witch in my arms gazed up at me with unfocused, vacant eyes and muttered, her speech slightly slurred.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
She was in bad shape.
Wasn't she about to explode at this rate?
No!! I didn't want to burn to death!
What was I to do!
My brain—please!
Think of something!
Since I was a forever-alone virgin who had never even held a girl's hand in my previous life, I had zero data on what to say to make a woman feel better when she reacted like this.
In a situation where I had to do something immediately.
The choice I reflexively made was this.
Slowly.
I bent down and kissed the utterly hideous left side of her face.
With a prayer that she wouldn't explode, that is.
At my kiss, the witch's body flinched.
Her body began trembling uncontrollably.
I was totally fucked!!
Was this a mistake!!
Was she about to blow!!
Right!
Of course she'd hate it if a stranger suddenly kissed her!!
A line!!
I had to say a line!!
A line that would move her!!
A damn cool line!!
Didn't I have anything!
Since all I normally watched was Japanese anime and gore films, nothing came to mind, fuck!
They say when a person is pushed to the limit, their mind works faster.
At last.
One line surfaced in my head.
Sorry, Grandpa Miyazaki!
I was gonna plagiarize a bit!
"You're not hideous."
I held her tight.
"Live."
I didn't have the courage to look into her face.
The moment her expression turned even slightly hostile, I felt like I'd drop the whole act, shit and piss myself, and pass out.
Is this what it felt like to dance on a knife's edge?
Due to fear and terror, my voice was now so thick with moisture I couldn't hide it.
"You are beautiful."
Please.
Please.
Don't explode!!
Don't explode!!