Arisa – Chapter 38

Paradise

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“—BUMOOOOOO!!!”

A wild boar monster roared.

“…You’re annoying.”

Ellie jumped from trees to trees, dancing in the air.
She’s currently escaping from the wild boar monster between the trees of the forest.

(Just a bit more…Just a bit more and I’ll get the timing right…)

Ellie calmly observes the rampaging wild boar monster just underneath her.
The monster was running around, leaving footprints and toppling down trees on its wake.
If one were to receive that charge head-on, they would probably be pulverized in one hit.

(—but if I can get the timing right to get close…!)

On the other hand, Ellie could also kill it in one hit with her blade.

“—BUMOOOOOOO!!!”

Alright, I can do it.
Ellie accurately dodged the charging boar from above, and—

“—Hmph!”

Within that moment, she swung her knife and cut through the monster’s neck.

 

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“Ellie, you pass.”

After Ellie reports back, Arisa said thus without excitement or joy.

“I’ll have you fight some stronger opponent next time, alright?”

With a ruthless expression she could never show to Edgar, Arisa said those words indifferently.

“…yes.”

(…a stronger monster, huh…)

Despite the uneasiness those words brought her, Ellie nodded regardless.
Seeing Ellie’s conditions, Arisa smiled slightly.

“…Don’t worry. If it’s you, you’ll be able to kill any opponent.”
“…understood, I’ll do my best on the next one. Thank you very much as always, Arisa-sama.”

Ellie kneeled and expressed her thanks to Arisa.

“No, the reason you get stronger is because you wished for it from the bottom of your heart.”

Arisa then brought her face closer to Ellie and whispered to her ear;

“…Are you that desperate to be useful for Ed?”
“…”

Ellie did not answer.
However, looking at her animal ear fluttering about, the answer was obvious.

“Alright, let’s go back then Ellie.”

Clap!, Arisa clapped her hands as she returned to the usual Arisa.
She smiled as she reached her hand out to Ellie.

“Yes, Arisa-sama!”

Ellie took her hand happily and followed after Arisa.

 

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After that day when Ellie was formally accepted as Arisa’s disciple, she had been spending her time training.

She learned sorcery; how to use her mana and forming the image of offensive spells. She learned that in the lab, while their field work involves hunting monsters just like earlier.
During those times, the Arisa that appeared to meet Ellie in her cell resurfaced. The Arisa who were so cold that she looks at people as if they’re just another object. She had a suspicious expression that normally she wouldn’t show anyone.

However, Ellie did not think that Arisa is weird or scary.

At the start, she thought that Arisa was upset, but it was far from it. Instead, she was in a condition where she had a complete presence of mind to make decisions according to the situation at hand.

Thus for that reason, Ellie was able to do her best to temper herself.
Arisa would spew harsh words to her, and there are chances that it would cause anxiety if she were to show disappointing results, but at the same time, since she was able to guide her seriously, Ellie was a bit happy.

 

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After draining the blood of the boar she killed earlier, Ellie’s ears caught a voice she couldn’t ignore as she was just about to return to the lab.

“…KYAAAAAAA!”

It was someone’s scream.

That moment, Arisa and Ellie’s smiles disappeared, and their face showed wariness instead.

“—ugh…my legs…! You…stay away! You monster! Stay away…!”

(It’s a person…a girl at that.)

Ellie abandoned the thought of anything else and thought about the situation.

(More than anything, the problem is…)

“GYOAGYOAGYOA!”

There was the roar of a monster.

(A girl and a monster…)

There were two voices the could hear.

(That’s weird. This is a dangerous forest with a danger level of 5 where you could die the moment you stepped your foot in here…but a human? Alone this deep in the forest?) Ellie thought.

“…”

“—”

Ellie and Arisa stayed quiet as they exchanged glances.

Neither of them were thinking if they were supposed to save the girl or not, but whether if the girl would pose a threat to them, or if the girl would pose a threat to their livelihood..

Arisa and Ellie silently headed towards the source of the voice.
They climbed on to a tree near the location to get a better view, and they understood the situation in just a glance.

The blond-haired girl is crawling backwards after she fell on her back as a monster that looks like a mix of fish and human cornered her.

(—Is that what Ed called twintails back in his world?) thought Arisa, and she considered, perhaps I should change my hairstyle too from time to time.

At that point, the two of them couldn’t care less about the girl.
The girl was a nobody who would pose no threat to them, and as she understood that, she wouldn’t care about what would happen to the girl.

 

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“N-No…No…! Why did this happen…!”

Mana depletion.

Since the moment she stepped into this forest, she had been fighting with agile, tough and strong monsters.

This is the fifth monster she faced.

She can no longer cast spells.
Though it was exactly because she had been fighting for her life that she had ran out of mana.
A human that could not cast spells would not be able to win against monsters.
The difference between their strength, power and endurance is like heaven and earth.
That was why living without magic would be very difficult for humans.

(But…but…!)

“As the disciple of the Wind Sorceress¹…I can’t die by the hands of something like you…!”

She must not die.
There must be something she can do to survive.

(—is there really anything? In this kind of situation?)

She couldn’t even use her legs for they are both bent in unnatural directions.
The approaching merman² had done this to her.

“GYOAGYOAAAAAAAA…!!!”

“Guuhh…”

While trying to withstand her pain, the blonde girl attempted her last form of resistance.

If she can’t cast spells, she’ll wield her weapon.

On her hand was a single knife she kept for the time she needs it.

She launched it forward, aiming at the creature’s neck, but—

“—GYOAH!” The merman caught it with one hand.

“No…stay away…stay away…!”

The girl started to haphazardly throw her belongings at the monster.

(—I want to live…I don’t want to die…no…I don’t want to die here…!)

With a desperate struggle, she threw her vials, books and even her bag…yet everything was in vain.

“Gyoa? GYOAAGYOAGYOA!”

Seeing the girl’s futile resistance, the merman laughed at her.

As if it’s saying what, is that it?
Its eyes were ridiculing her, saying don’t bother doing useless things.

The merman finally reached the girl’s side.
It opened its massive jaws, showing its countless sharp teeth.

“Hii….!?”

The girl instinctively closed her eyes to that visceral disgust.
The monster’s rotten stench reached her.
The girl’s body convulses as she prepared herself to die.

“……eh?”

But it didn’t come.

Instead,

Splurch.

There was a sound of something being torn…the sound of flesh being torn.
Afterwards, warm liquid vigorously poured over her body.

“—Eh? W-w-what happened…?”

As she opened her eyes, she saw…a dead merman with blood spewing out of the neck where its head was supposed to be.

“…Hii!?”

She is currently soaked in its blood.

—And behind it was a black-haired beastwoman, glaring her sharp eyes towards her, standing as she held the head of the merman in one hand.

“Ah…”

The last thing the blonde girl saw before passing out was the other girl’s eyes that was filled with irritation.

 

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Ellie looked down at the unsightly, collapsed blonde girl and whispered;

“This small fry is the Wind Sorceress’ disciple?”

Her eyes were clearly not only literally looking down on the girl. Or rather, she was exasperated. The human, without even knowing how to properly manage her mana, recklessly decided to go in the forest where there are monsters can kill her in one hit.

—she was beyond foolish.

“You can’t do that, Ellie. You can’t say it like that”, Arisa said as she walked closer with a pleasant smile on her lips.

“What do we do with this girl, Arisa-sama?” Ellie asked as she searched through the girl’s belongings.

“Let’s see…” Arisa pondered.

First of all, why does the girl come to this place? By herself at that?

No, that’s not it, she thought.

There’s no way she came by herself to this paradise of monsters.
There is a high chance that she had some companions.
However, there was as large of a chance that she had been separated by her companion or they already have died.
Supposing that she came with some companions, as a fellow Wind Sorceress’ disciple, their skills are subpar.
This girl is no more than a small fry herself.
She was immediately rendered powerless.
In all honesty, she can’t even hold a candle against Ellie whom Arisa had just met recently.

(But where’s her companion then?)

There might be someone stronger than her coming…perhaps the Wind Sorceress herself.

If that’s the case, then it will be a bit troublesome.
Be it to drive them away or to eliminate them.

“…Ellie, let’s keep her alive. We’ve heard what she said, so she might have an utility value.”

Afterwards, she instructed Ellie to carry the girl, and the two hurried back to the lab.

There are a lot of things they must do, and they cannot fail to do any of them.
This place is not only a paradise for monsters.
Yes, it’s also our paradise.
That’s why we must eliminate everything—anything that would contaminate this place.

“Fufu, don’t worry, Ed…! I will properly take care of everything…!”

 

< Chapter 37     <TOC>     Chapter 39 >

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TLN:

¹ The title in the raw is genderless (as with lot of nouns in Japanese). So far I don’t know if this person is a she or a he, but so far all the big(?) sorcerers are women so I’ll put it as a sorceress for now. Will change it later if we finally know their identity.

² Raw said “Fish person” but putting “fishman” would be weird.