Three days passed since I left the Bauer household, I don’t know how far I’ve travelled or if I’m getting any closer to civilization. Well it’s not a problem to me anyways, I bought with me three changes of clothes. Actually two would be enough but the third one is in case I ripped one of my clothes.

I could stitch it up but then in the wild where danger is always around the corner I can’t afford to focus on patching the clothes. Well I could always use magic but, with the training I am currently doing it doesn’t matter that much.

Also I was able to advance considerably since I began my journey. The giant red mark on my chest actually had another skill. Well the skill only applies to any creature with magic. It is that if I consume the meat of a magical being then I could increase my mana capacity without having to deplete it every time.

Of course the red mark passively increases my mana capacity but unlike before it has slowed considerable. So for a faster increase I will need to deplete it until I got to eat demon beast meat the other day.

Though people say that demon beast meat is poisonous I had the feeling that I could eat it for some reason. And I was actually able to eat and digest it. No moreover the demon meat was delicious, it tasted better than the roasted duck we had for my siblings birthdays.

In any case I continued my travels while catching game and collecting magic cores. Well to lighten the load I ground the magic cores and mix them into hot water. I know that it’s not possible to eat magic cores as magic cores are solidified magic power so the density of magic in them may be high but in taking them will kill humans.

Well I don’t care about that since the magic core tea tasted better than the silverwood tea that my parents drink. Well silverwood is actually not that high class of an item but considering the location of my family's territory it becomes a luxury. Of course I understand that eating demon meat and drinking magic core tea is due to the red mark.

But I seem to understand the effects of the red mark somewhat. Throughout a human's life mana is absorbed into our body naturally. I read that there are places wherein they have a technique to forcibly absorb mana from the environment but more importantly when humans exhaust their mana they reabsorb more mana thus increasing their mana capacity. Also it seems that no matter how large the capacity of mana increases the regeneration or reabsorption as I would like to call it would always take 5 to 6 hours.

In this case I am different as the red mark increases my mana capacity even if I still have a full tank of mana. Well at first I thought that it would be scary but I noticed that the rate of increase slows down as the capacity increases. Well after all no matter how fast the increase is I am still bound to the fact that I am human.

Well books I read said that the demon race named Malumia, had ten times the mana capacity of humans. It seems that humans would always reach this point where they can’t increase their mana capacity anymore and that capacity compared to the maximum of a demon is ten times lower.

This is also one of the reason as for the rise of familiars who have random capacities. But if I remember correctly, the kingdom recently had this hero from another world and it seems that his familiar is a humanoid type. I didn’t remember anymore of the news but it seems that the hero is a female and her familiar is similarly a female.

Of course many men even the princes were said to be in love with her but considering the fact that her familiar has a mana capacity much like that of a demon and that her familiar is also a humanoid type all those males just held back and simply admired her.

Though I was shocked by the news, the reason was very different from what you think. My brother laughed loudly as he declared that he would make the hero fall for him and my sisters already treats her as an idol of some sort. Seriously they haven’t even seen her with their own eyes and yet they already have this reactions. No more than that, the news of a beautiful hero comes to our territory that fast and yet news on the current state of the nation hardly arrives.

Actually all the facts I know about cities and the maps at home are all 100 years old! Well the territories in the kingdom could possibly have not a single change in the past 100 years but truthfully that’s very unlikely. I don’t know if it’s just the people and father being useless or that they just don’t give a damn about the other territories.

[rustle]

Jumping to the top of a tree I reacted immediately to rustling. Currently I am walking through a dense forest and I could only say this might already be demon beast territory. Well even if it is I don’t mind as I could easily obliterate them. Though that may be the case I am still a frail young 16 year old boy.

When I look down I see a black wolf like monster it had glowing red eyes as it stared back at me from the bottom. Judging from the size of its foot marks that were on top of mine it would be about 3 meters tall. Seriously of all the monster to appear it had to be the shadow dire wolf. And of course since it’s a wolf…

[Awoo~]

With that a bunch of other wolves a bit smaller than it but not much came. They were 12 to 15 of 2 meter tall wolves that all gathered around that single dire wolf. This is one of the cases that adventurers don’t want to face, getting surrounded by wolves.

Well that is if I was a normal adventurer or traveler but unlike those useless people who rely on their familiars I could destroy these beast easily. Though I felt pity towards these wolves, the world revolves around the concept of eat or be eaten. I focused mana around myself and made 20 arrows of pure mana. I then fired each arrow accurately towards the necks of the wolves. They look like they don’t understand what is happening as they didn’t move from their spot.

“I’m sorry wolves but, bye”

With that the 20 arrows pierce the wolves necks and release a mana blade that beheaded the wolves perfectly. I then extended my mana to the trees and used their roots to coil around the wolves carcasses. Using the roots I drained the blood of of the wolves bodies and dismantled them by creating mana blades. Hanging upside down the wolves were all dissected and everything else was placed inside a magic bag.

This magic bag has a capacity that is directly proportional to the mana of the user. My siblings and parents wanted the bag but since they had a miniscule amount of mana this bag to them was trash once again. And because of this I was able to bring a whole lot of materials.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

I collected the fangs and used transmutation magic to turn them into knives. Though a bit rough on the edges this knives could still be considered as great equipment as the raw materials are from demon beast. Testing out the knives I put my mana into it and soon after the knives were enveloped by a dark aura.

The dark aura seems to increase the sharpness of the knife as well as adding a rotting effect to whatever the blade touches. The effect wasn’t that serious but even this could probably kill my brother if he is not purified immediately. Also even if I stop putting in mana the blade will take a good 5 minutes before the dark aura completely disappears. It seems that the mana is somewhat stored into the blade and the dark aura will appear continuously unless the mana is completely depleted.

I made holsters for the knives about 4 knives are hanging on my waist while the others are stored in my magic bag. As I was preparing to leave I heard a scream.

“Help!”

From the pitch of the voice the owner must b e a woman and since she screamed in the forest it’s more or less a demon beast attack.

“I’m not a saint… I’m not a saint...I’m not a saint… ”

I will not save her I am not a saint…

“Haha stop resisting and let us see those bountiful mounds of yours!”

“Noo!”

[sigh]

I guess that I’ll have to save her then. Wait if they want to rape her here then that means there's a town nearby… I hope I get there before she losses her virginity. Following the voice I soon arrived at the scene of the crime.

There are four men surrounding a 13 to 14 year old girl. The men consist of two old men with grey unkempt hair, a fat guy and a guy who looks to be skin and bones. Though they are all different they all have that disgusting look on their faces.

“Haha little Tirza from now on you are our toy!”

One of the old men grabbed her hands and was pulling the clothes at her chest area trying to stipr her. Next the other old man went behind and started to lift her skirt up. Feeling the old man's hands on her chest and bottom she let out a scream as tears were flowing down her cheeks.

“Please, no”

Her voice was losing it’s power as she felt the helpless situation she’s in. Well she may be young but she’s still a beauty also a young girl being treated like this is just. Unconsciously I already released mana and that mana went into the heads of all four men and they all dropped down falling asleep.

The girl losing her balance also almost followed the men but I immediately used teleportation magic and caught her before she fell. It was already evening and the moonlight on the girl's face made her look even more beautiful. I took out a handkerchief and gently wiped her tears.

“It’s fine you’re safe now”

As I said that she started to cry and dived into my chest. Well she did almost get raped by four men so I could just leave her be, this is not because she’s beautiful definetly not! Well going to the main problem I used magic and tied the men to wooden poles that are actually roots of trees coming out of the ground. I tied them using the roots and with that these four men can’t possibly escape now.

Also after I finished tying the men up the little girl named Tirza already fell asleep it seems. Well I simply made a small house out of earth and laid her on a mattress of  soft tree leaves and went out to train magic.

The next day the four men as well as Tirza all woke up, currently I am standing i between her and the men. The men were staring at me hatefully, if gazes could kill then these men would already killed me a thousand time over. On the other hand Tirza was standing behind me still fearful of the men.

I questioned them and it seems that they belong to a village also Tirza is apparently the village heads… daughter. Well that’s not the main problem now, as I was questioning the four men, I noticed that they had cat ears and tail… slowly I turned and behind I saw that even Tirza had such ears and tail. The relationship between humans and beastmen could be called anything but friendly and being able to finally notice their appearances cold sweat emerged on my back.

“Where is this?”

I asked Tirza as I fear that I may have wandered too far from my original goal.

“This forest is at the border of the Holy Beast Empire and Trysting Kingdom”

So I reached the border huh? Well considering that my family’s territory is close to the border it’s acceptable but if I remember correctly I should have gone through a town where humans and beastmen live in harmony. The name of that town…

“Is there perhaps a town called Trismegria closeby?”

When she heard my words Tirza immediately showed my a bewildered expression. Contrary to my beliefs the one who answered me was the old men tied up.

“Boy that town is long gone, after the war with the demon race the town was attacked by the remaining soldiers of the demons and burned to ashes.”

So it seems that a lot of things happened huh. I would’ve already known about this if my parents were more serious about their responsibilities but seems like I can’t change it already.

“Then Tirza please lead me to the village”

Though I already know where to get I atleast have to ensure that this little girl gets back to the village. But Tirza looked at me with lonely eyes and she looked down as she quietly wept. Hmm? Why would she cry? It couldn’t be that the rape thing a while ago was some kind of ritual, could it be?

“Don’t even think that returning would do anything at worst we would only be reprimanded by the chief but that girl she can’t return”

The fattest one of the four rapist told me with despise, after which he looked at Tirza with more lust than ever. His gaze was also accompanied by a waterfall of drool from his mouth, also his little brother was standing upright. Geez, is this guy in heat or something.

“Well you should give up cuz that girl ain't got a future fer er”

Though this was the first time he spoke the thin man had a strange accent but then again it seems that Tirza was most likely thrown away, but why?

“Oh? And why is that?”

I asked the four men while showing them a huge fireball floating beside me. They still shut their mouth but when the fireball increased to a dozen they started talking.

“A cu-curse the child is cursed!”

“All cursed children will be thrown out!”

“We just took the chance to play with someone the village doesn’t care for anymore~”

They immediately blurted out words one after another. They were rushing some stuttering and the fat guy even started weeping. In any case it seems that she was cursed with some sort of mark. If I remember correctly even beast men have familiar mark but it seems that Tirza’s mark was different. Unlike the normally dirty  white mark her mark is black.

Well since ancient times when the familiar’s started rising in popularity the black tinted marks were seen as cursed marks. In contrast those pure white marks were seen as holy. Well to me they have no difference as both my eyes have the same effect. Though I am still curious as to what kind of familiar this black mark has.

“Her familiar?”

“She doesn’t have one”

I think he meant that her familiar was not born alongside her but in any case it seems that her familiar was… wait could it be. I shut the four mouths with vines and took Tirza’s hand. On it was a mark, although it’s black it’s very different from mine. It seems that we’re both in the same situation.

“Well since we can’t bring you back where do you wanna go?”

I asked her and to my question she just looked down. I know how she feels, being rejected for being different and all. But unlike me she was thrown at her young age, well I wanted to be able to get out at a young age and not wait till 16 but everyone is unique so she has a different state of mind and.

“If you want you could travel with me”

Tirza didn’t answer but I knew that she showed a desire for a minute but that died down. Does she not trust me? Well isn’t that natural as I am a human and just showed up to save her. She doesn’t fully understand me and all. Well I could always use that.

I took out the mirror and showed her the reflection, there Tirza saw my pupils and the silver line that wrapped them.

“I am just like you”

I told her with a smile and looks like she kinda grew some trust but then someone's voice resounded from behind.

“So you are just like her”

It was the skinny one among the four, it looks like he bit through the vines. But as expected of beastmen their physical prowess is indeed top class.

“What of it?”

“So that’s it, you you guys are monsters! Monsters! MONSTERS!”

To the guys screams Tirza looked to have remembered something.  Sighing I knocked the guy out and then put TIrza to sleep. I look like I’m kidnapping her but, well I need to bring Tirza somewhere else. Well it seems that I am not the only one with this huh, should I travel saving people like me?

...to much of  a hassle, and this girl… hmmm… That’s it I saved her on a whim! Someone like me who face the same hardships I can’t possibly leave her right? I mean I’m not a saint but I’m also not a demon. Um um that’s it ha~ really why do I need to make excuses to myself.

And with that began my journey with the Cat Girl named Tirza.