Mina

The last rays of the setting sun vanished beneath the horizon, and night spread across the sky like ink. The party followed a forest path, planning to seek lodging in a small village barely visible ahead.

As they approached the village entrance, a faint commotion came from the woods at the other end of the village: cries mingled with anxious shouts. Several wavering torchlights flickered among the dim trees.

"Looks like something's happened." Himmel frowned slightly, his hand moving to his sword hilt out of habit.

Heiter narrowed his eyes and looked ahead. "Sounds like... they're looking for something? No, they're looking for someone."

Eisen silently shrugged off his pack and took his battle axe in hand. His movements made no sound, but he was on guard.

Ruby stood on tiptoe and strained to see. "Looking for someone? Do they need our help?"

Just then, Frieren, who had been walking quietly at the edge of the party, stopped. Her emerald-green eyes turned toward the deepening shadows in the forest, seemingly the direction from which the villagers' calls came.

"Lowell," she said slowly, her voice flat, yet like a small stone dropped into a still lake.

Lowell, who had been looking down and brushing dust from his traveling robe, paused and raised his head, following her gaze. His eyes retained their usual lazy, easygoing look, but something deep within them seemed to still for an instant.

"Yeah," he replied, his tone level. "There's one."

Ruby looked from side to side, bewildered. "Huh? What are you talking about... Is something there?"

Unlike mages, Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen couldn't sense mana precisely, but their extensive adventuring experience and instincts for danger allowed them to grasp the key point in Frieren and Lowell's brief exchange at once. Himmel's gaze sharpened, Heiter's joking expression vanished, and Eisen took half a step forward, subtly shielding Ruby behind him.

Almost at the same moment.

Lowell's figure vanished from where he stood like mist scattered by the wind, without a sound or a speck of dust stirred.

The next instant, from behind a dense thicket over a hundred meters away came a soft "Ah" and the muffled thud of someone being slammed to the ground.

"Go!" Himmel called out, and the others immediately raced toward the sound.

The villagers heard the noise too and saw the figures racing through the woods. Holding torches and shouting, they came rushing over. The swaying firelight instantly illuminated the small clearing among the trees.

The scene came into view.

Lowell knelt on one knee, one hand pinning a small figure firmly in the dirt. She was a human girl who looked no more than seven or eight, dressed in a gray robe covered in dirt. Her features could even be called delicate and cute, but her face was expressionless, like a doll's. If not for the unmistakable pair of pointed white horns curling upward from her forehead and the fresh blood at the corner of her mouth, anyone would have taken her for a lost farm child.

Another little girl lay unconscious beside her, with a conspicuous wound on her arm where the flesh had been torn open. Blood had stained her sleeve red, but it seemed only a small piece of flesh had been bitten off. The wound wasn't deep, though it was horrifying to look at.

"Ah... my child!" A farm woman with her hair in a disheveled bun rushed out from among the villagers and threw herself down beside the unconscious girl. Her voice was shrill, and her trembling hands didn't dare touch her daughter's wound. She looked up and saw the distinctive clothing and weapons of Himmel's party, as if she had found a lifeline. "Hero... You must be a hero passing through! Please! Sir Priest! Please save my child! She... she's still alive, isn't she!?"

Heiter had already crouched down to examine the unconscious girl. He spoke to the farm woman gently but quickly. "Don't worry, ma'am. Your child is only unconscious. The wound on her arm looks frightening, but it hasn't damaged any tendons or bones. It's only a flesh wound. I can heal it, and she won't be left disabled, so please rest assured." A soft healing light rose from his palm as he began treating the wound. "She just fainted from fright. She'll be all right soon."

"Th-thank you! Thank you so much!" The farm woman could barely speak through her sobs.

Only then did everyone's attention turn to the "girl" Lowell had restrained.

She was pinned to the ground, her head against the cold dirt, but she didn't struggle at all. She simply looked calmly at Lowell with vacant, unfocused purple eyes. Her tone was almost curiously analytical, without a trace of panic at her scheme being exposed:

"Ah, I've been caught. You're skilled. You moved so fast I couldn't even see you."

Her all-too-calm reaction left the villagers, who had arrived full of anger, momentarily stunned.

Ruby looked at that innocent face and those cold purple eyes, then at the injured, unconscious girl on the ground. Her little face was full of confusion and disbelief. "Why... why would you do something like this? You're still so young..."

The demon girl called "Mina" tilted her head, seemingly unable to understand the question. "Do I need a reason? I was hungry, and this was the only 'food' nearby that looked convenient. Her flesh seemed very tender, so it should taste good. Too bad I was interrupted after just one bite."

She spoke as if she were discussing the ingredients for tonight's dinner, without any malice, yet everyone who heard her felt a chill rise from the bottom of their hearts.

Himmel frowned deeply, his grip on his sword so tight that his knuckles turned white, but his voice remained restrained. "Demons... Are even the children like this? Unable to understand life..."

The demon girl turned her gaze to Himmel. The flickering firelight reflected in her purple eyes, which still showed no change in emotion. "Understand? When you humans eat pigs and sheep, do you need to understand them? Being hungry, then eating—isn't that natural?"

"How can that be the same?!" Ruby protested, her little face red with anger. "She's human! She's your... she can talk to you, and she has feelings!"

Mina looked even more confused. She even tried to turn her pinned head to get a clearer look at Ruby. "Talking? Feelings? But don't the pigs, sheep, cats, and dogs you raise have feelings too? They have languages of their own. Language is just sounds and signals made by 'food.' It doesn't change their nature as 'food.'"

Frieren watched the scene quietly, her face expressionless, as if what was happening before her were nothing more than the most ordinary act of predation in nature. Lowell said nothing either, his hand holding the demon girl completely still. His head was lowered, and the shadow of the loose hair across his forehead hid his eyes, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.