Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Emotional Scars

Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

Since we talked about Master’s appearance last time, this time we’ll talk about my own appearance.

As is apparent from my status, I have crimson eyes and silver hair.

I’m shorter than you would expect for someone my age (10 years old), and my limbs are thin.

I have a pretty flat chest, and my belly is a bit pudgy. My skin is white as snow.

Right now I’m sealing the attraction aspect of “Golden Ratio,” but when it’s in effect I can boast that I have the lovely appearance of an angel. My black-framed glasses get in the way, but I can’t take them off.

My hair length is about to the middle of my back, and when I wake up I put in into a three-sectioned braid. If I make it too tight, then it feels like my hair is being pulled and it hurts.

My eyes are a deep red, with clarity like a ruby, and a depth that can swallow you.

My clothing is mainly maid-like outfits. The thing is, my Master goes out of his way to buy clothes for me, since I can’t go to the village myself, so I gratefully accept them, but…

Now I’ve gotten completely accustomed to skirts… accustomed to… Waaaaaaaah! (Crying)

In addition, for some reason my Master only buys me short dresses, frilly one-piece dresses, cosplay-like robes, and similar styled outfits.

Other than hot pants to sleep in, and spats for training I have nothing pants-like at all.

In the summer when I walked around in just a tank top and hot pants, a fist came down on me.

~~~*~

Well now, since then the seasons have come and gone… and it’s winter!

We don’t get much rain in this area, but we do get plenty of snow.

And it’s already piled up… and piled up.

“And so today I’ll be shoveling snow!”

The entrance was already drowning in a deep sea (of snow).

“Over here is already drowning too…”

“Where is “Over here”?”

“Where you just stuck your head out from, Master.”

Right now the only way in or out of the cottage is a round window in my room in the attic.

According to my Master, “If we’re talking about a child’s room, then it would be a room in the attic, right?” is the reason for that decision.

My Master’s head stuck out that round window in the attic. It looked like a coo-coo clock, so it was kinda cute.

“I’m sure with my frail body my honored viewers are wondering “Can you manage shoveling snow?” and other such doubts.”

“And who would those viewers be?”

“You, Master.”

I point squarely at my Master who is observing from the window.

“If you are going to observe, then could you please help out?”

“These types of jobs are naturally the work of the apprentice. I feel that you’ve been slacking off too much with a lot of your work, Yuuri.”

“It’s because I have a weak body, and I can’t help it.”

I pout and avert my eyes.

People are suitable and unsuitable for different things you know?

“Also, I can’t possibly get out from this window.”

“Have you gotten fat, Master?”

“If so, then I should start dieting today. I’ll have my apprentice Yuuri join me in doing so.”

“You are thin Master. You are just fine, no problems, none.”

If even my meals are decreased, wouldn’t I get even more frail than I already am?!

“Now then, a long deceased magician once said, “As a magician, what you can’t do normally you should do with magic.””

“Didn’t I say that just the other day? Could you not go killing me off?!”

“And now I reveal, Snowman #1! I’ll use my [Telekinesis] to control it from afar!”

“Ooooh! You’ve thought of something insidious.”

“It’s not insidious. It’s a natural evolution of advanced magic application.”

You’re being awfully rude, Master!

The snowman, with the sounds of scooping snow, is doing a good job of shoveling the snow off the roof. It seems it’s a success after all.

The strength of [Telekinesis] magic techniques corresponds to magic power, so my [Telekinesis] displays an unbelievable amount of herculean strength.

“FUHAHAHAHA, it’s come! Finally my time has come! HAHAHAHA, FUUUHAHAHAHA!”

–Splat-

“Kyuuu”

~~~*~

“I’ve heard of plenty of people slipping, and falling off their roof while shoveling snow, but…”

“chatter, chatter, chatter…”

“I think this is the first time I’ve heard of someone burying themselves in snow they were shoveling”

“shiver, shiver, shiver…”

“First of all, could you drink this?”

While I’m wrapped up and shivering in a blanket, Master hands me a cup of hot milk with honey.

Aaah, it’s warming me up from the inside.

“I’m getting so warm on the inside”

“I’m pretty sure we forbid talking in such a disturbing way.”

After what happened, my Master saved me with his [Telekinesis], then he moved the snow at the entrance and shoveled the snow on the roof.

“However, if it’s this bad over here, then I’m a little worried about Mareba village, you know…?”

Mareba village is the pioneering village at the base of the mountain.

They have 12 households of 3 or less.

Mr. Gusta’s magic tool store is also in that village.

It’s a small village, but since my Master’s best selling magic tools are sold there, they get a lot of foot traffic and the economy is surprisingly good.

“If it’s only to the degree of a barn breaking it would be fine and all”

“Shall we go and check out the situation over there?”

–pikuri

“Yuuri, you could come…”

“No, I’ll stay and watch the house.”

I responded before my Master finished speaking.

Since it’s a village, there will probably be a lot of people there.

I, who is on the path of a shut-in, could not possibly deal with meeting that many people so suddenly.

“… I see.”

It looked like my Master wanted to say something else, but without another word he began preparing to head out.

“Well then, I’ll go check on the village, so I leave the house to you. I’ll probably be back in the evening.”

“Yes sir, take care.”

“While you’re here, continue shoveling the snow.”

“Roger that. Well then-!”

My Master, who holds the title of “Wind”, can use a spell to fly through the air. The cheating bastard!

The person himself said, “Compact the air to make a foothold, then after kicking off and jumping from that, collect the air currents and updrafts to accelerate. Rather than flying, it would be more accurate to call it running through the air.”

By the way, I tried to do that, but adjusting the air power was too difficult.

After suddenly jumping 10,000 meters up, I immediately contracted altitude sickness. Due to the air pressure difference, blood blew out my nose and ears, and I fainted.

In the middle of falling back down, my Master caught me, and I apparently avoided death, but…

When I came to, my Master held me in a princess carry, and we were in the middle of heading back to the cottage.

It became something like a scene of a beautiful girl held by a knight, but I was sticky with blood running out my nose and ears. Could you please read the atmosphere and wipe the blood off for me?!

~~~*~

Now then, since I was asked to take care of shoveling the snow, let’s get right back into it.

This time I’ll avoid getting buried by climbing onto the roof, and use [Telekinesis] on the snowman to shovel the snow.

Shovel… Shovel… It comes down again… And piles up…

“There’s no end to this! I’m getting tired of this, so it’s time for food!”

The snow would intermittently climb right back up, so now matter how long I stand out there, it would never end.

I went back inside, and while having lunch, I considered what to do next about it.

“Geez, I need a more fundamental solution for this.”

I had bread with cheese and ham (from the keratos), along with some milk.

Keratos meat is good without getting used to it.

There’s no bad smell, and it’s easy to digest.

“If I want to immediately melt all the snow around I could use a [Heat Ball]… No, that’s no good. I’m as utterly careless as my Master says, so I would probably submerge the cottage or cause some other horrible accident.”

I’ve recently become aware of my own carelessness, so let’s deal with this carefully.

“After all, it would have to be at the level of evaporating the water… No, I can already see my own future of turning into barbecue that way.”

Hmmm… chew, chew.

“I know, what about [disassembling] it? It’s a solution that only someone who has the knowledge of modern society like me can do!”

Snow is, after all, water. If I disassemble it by running a strong current through, it’ll turn into a clear and harmless form of energy!

I’ll make sure I’m well grounded so that I don’t electrocute myself, and the result will just be hydrogen and oxygen. Completely harmless.

Hydrogen is light, so it’ll escape to the upper atmosphere, which means there shouldn’t be any risk of explosion either right?

“With that decided, let’s get right to it. If I remember right, the construction for a magic circle to run electricity through something is…”

~~~*~

Back on the roof, I immediately give [electrolysis] a try.

Studying the magic circle for an [Electric Current], and constructing the spell to ground myself took a lot of time. It’s almost snack time now.

“Alright, well then… “O Lightning, obey my will and quickly run through”!”

My grounding is flawless. Looking at my surroundings, the snow is melting and disassembling.

In the blink of an eye, the snow on the roof was gone, and I start working on the snow around the house.

“Perfect, perfect, at this rate it probably won’t even take an hour to finish this.”

All of a sudden… I feel like I’ve forgotten something.

“Hum? My preparations for this operation should have covered everything, but…”

I pat myself down a bit to confirm that I haven’t forgotten anything. Next I check my surroundings– And that’s when I noticed smoke coming from the chimney.

“Oh, da–!? The fireplace!”

That’s right, oxygen is a burning accelerator.

And hydrogen is a burning agent. When you disassemble water, those simple substances are highly flammable.

In addition, to keep the room warm I had put some extra logs in the fireplace… There are a lot of other easily burnable things inside too.

In a panic, I cancel the spell, and when I began focusing my magic on the wind to blow away the oxygen—the cottage immediately exploded and burned…

My body, along with my consciousness, was blown away.

~~~*~

“Mm… hmm…?”

Upon opening my eyes, I looked up at a familiar stone ceiling. It seems I’m in the cottage’s basement.

There are four rooms in the basement of my Master’s cottage.

One is a refrigeration room for food. One is a freezer room for long-term storage. One is a storehouse for books and materials. And the last one is an empty room.

“Is this… the empty room in the basement?”

“It seems you’re awake?”

Now that I take a good look, it seems I was being held by my Master while wrapped in a blanket.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Uh? Uwaaaah?!”

“Stop flailing, calm down. You were on the verge of death after all.”

I was reflexively flailing to push myself away, but he easily ended up catching me.

Now that I mention it, there’s a feeling in my body that’s itchy, fuzzy, and… warm?

“Goodness… When I got back to the cottage, it was blown away and there was nothing but wreckage. You were buried in the snow and dying, so I was pretty shocked. What happened?”

“What…? Now that you mention it I—”

What have I done? I finally remembered.

My master’s home… The place I was staying at…

That’s right, the only place in this whole world I loved and could sleep in.

My Master’s home, and the place where my heart could feel comfortable.

The place without anyone to give me bad memories, or painful memories, or even scary memories. That place is…

“Aa, Aaaa…. Mas-ter…. I, am, so, sorry….”

Realizing the severity of the situation, my body trembles uncontrollably.

Out of fear, I can’t even look at my Master’s face.

My tears overflow, and my vision gets distorted.

“I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry! I’m so SORRY! I’m so SORRY! I’M SO SORRY! I’M SO SORRY! I’M SO SORRY! I’M SO SORRY! I’M SO SORRY! I’M SO SORRY! I’M SO SORRY! I’M SO SORRY! I’M SO SORRY! I’M SO SORRY! I’M SO SORRY! I’M SO SORRY! I’M SO SORRY! …”

I got down on my hands and knees, and seemed to bounce up and down as I pressed my head against the cold stone floor.

“I, Master, your home I… destroyed it… I beg you, I’ll do anything, so please, don’t, kick, me, out!”

With my body still cold, snot and tears running down my face, I beg for forgiveness.

My throat clogged with fear, I beg for mercy.

“I… dun wanna be kigged out ov ‘ere!”

“He- hey…”

“I’m begging you. I’ll do anything, if you tell me to lick your shoes, then I’ll lick them. If you tell me to take care of your crotch, then I’ll take care of it. If you tell me to be your slave then I’ll gladly do my best as it, so…”

“Calm down, just calm down!”

I desperately beg for forgiveness on my hands and knees.

–on my hands and knees? That’s actually a bit misleading. I just couldn’t bring myself to get off the floor.

I’m still scared of looking at my Master’s face, and I can’t see it with my forehead against the floor.

This is one of my usual simple mistakes. After blowing up my own home, nobody would say “Oh well” and let me off the hook.

When will he say “Get out”? … Those words will spell my ruin.

When I leave here, I won’t be able to live a normal life.

If I have another encounter like three years ago, then I won’t be able to handle it.

“I’m begging you, Hic… Don’t kick me out… sob… Please let me stay here…”

“–You really think I’d do that to you?”

“… huh?”

Unbelievable words.

I was looking for them, but still, words I couldn’t believe.

“I’m the one who asked you to shovel the snow. And also, it’s not like nobody has ever accidentally burned their house down. What happened today was “Something like that” right?”

“Uu…”

Saying that, my Master gently strokes my head.

As always it made my body stiffen. But, that hand which is offering forgiveness is warmer than usual…

“Indeed, having the house destroyed is a problem, but, well, everything important was stored in the basement. I’m glad you weren’t seriously injured. No, that you got better quickly I suppose?”

“… Uuuu…”

When I raised my head, there was my Master’s troubled, but gentle face.

“Well, try to be more careful next time. Alright?”

“… Uu… UWAaaaaaaAAAaaaaAaaaaaa!”

At those words of acceptance… The turbulent delight, craziness, and other emotions I didn’t understand swept me away. Entrusting myself to my Master’s chest, I cried.

It has been three and a half years since I came to this world. For the first time since coming here—I voluntarily touched someone and cried out loud.