Little Ubel

Early the next morning.

Shane made a point of waking up extra early.

He planned to head to the Adventurer Guild in the city to check on the status of nearby dungeons, hoping to map out a strategy for his scavenging career.

"Morning, Mr. Shane. The usual?"

The beautiful landlady stood behind the counter, smiling radiantly as she held out a cup of hot milk and some bread.

Shane took them naturally, taking the opportunity to compliment her cooking. "Thank you, my beautiful lady. This is the most perfectly heated milk I have ever tasted; you must be the woman who knows how to heat milk best in all of Gostan City."

A simple sentence that sent the landlady into a fit of giggles.

After asking the landlady to wake Frieren before lunch and to deliver a portion of breakfast to her room, Shane stepped out of the inn.

He strolled leisurely down the main street, observing the surrounding shops while calculating potential ways to make money.

After looking around for a while, it seemed there wasn't really any work suitable for him.

"Hahaha, Ubel is going to be a bride!"

"A bride, a bride!"

"Wuu... I don't want to be a bride... wuu..."

Turning a street corner, the sound of children playing reached his ears, and Shane looked over.

He had actually walked to the tailor shop where he had hidden that night.

In a corner not far from the tailor shop, two eight or nine-year-old boys were circling a green-haired girl of the same age, laughing and teasing her.

The little girl was none other than the tailor shop's little sister, Ubel.

Ubel's head and body were covered in colorful ribbons—the handiwork of the two boys beside her.

It was clear that Ubel did not enjoy being the "bride" the boys kept talking about. The little girl looked extremely aggrieved; she clutched a rag doll to her chest with one hand and rubbed her eyes with the other, crying incessantly.

Her sobbing was very soft, as if she were trying hard to hold it in, not wanting anyone to hear.

Shane sighed.

He hadn't seen this kind of scene—young boys teasing a girl during puberty—in so many years. It was quite nostalgic.

Shane walked up and grabbed the two playful boys, one in each hand.

He crouched down and began to lecture them sternly:

"You can't do this! When you like a girl, you must treat her gently. You cannot use methods like this to get her attention; it's a behavior that ruins a girl's impression of you."

A single sentence left the two boys stunned.

A few seconds later, the boys' faces turned as red as monkey butts, and even their speech became stuttered.

"W-who likes Ubel! I don't, I don't like her at all!"

"That's right, I don't like her either! I, I, I don't like crybaby cowards!"

After saying that, they pushed Shane away and scurried off in a flash.

Still claiming they didn't like her?

If they hadn't run, their faces would have started smoking from the redness.

Shane found it somewhat amusing.

Little boys of this age are always like this. When they have a crush on a girl, they don't express it directly; instead, they use teasing. The more they like someone, the harder they tease, and the sight of the girl pouting and scolding them feels like a reward in their eyes.

No matter which world they are in, little boys are just as simple-minded.

"Alright, the bad kids have been chased away by your uncle. Be a good girl, stop crying now."

He wore a smile on his face and gently comforted the little girl in front of him. "Next time you encounter a joke you don't like, be brave and say it out loud. Just crying won't solve anything, you know."

Seeing Shane step in to help her and comfort her so gently, the little girl finally stopped her tears.

She lowered her head in embarrassment, kneading the rag doll in her arms, and said in a muffled voice: "I wanted to yell at them to go away too, but if I did that, my sister, who is making clothes inside, would get worried and run out immediately."

"If that happened, she wouldn't be able to focus on her work again."

Oh my, what a thoughtful little sweetheart.

Compared to those bratty kids who liked to play pranks, this soft little girl was much more likable.

"It's good that you know how to look after your sister, but you shouldn't just suffer in silence. If you accidentally get hurt, your sister will definitely blame herself and be sad when she finds out later."

Shane helped Ubel remove the ribbons from her body, trying his best to guide the little girl.

The little girl pursed her lips stubbornly.

"...If only I knew magic. I could just use magic to cut these annoying ribbons, and then they wouldn't dare to bully me anymore."

Well, children do love to fantasize.

Hm?

Wait! Why does this magic sound so familiar?

[Magic that cuts almost everything]

Shane suddenly remembered who the little green-haired girl before him was.

Ubel!

The God of Concepts, Ubel!

She possessed magic capable of cutting through anything!

This magic could sever any object that Ubel unilaterally perceived as "cuttable," regardless of its hardness or material, even a person... as long as Ubel believed it could be cut, it would certainly be cut!

He stood up abruptly, staring at the little girl in disbelief, unable to imagine that this well-behaved and sensible little girl would grow up in a few years to become an existence that would kill gods if they stood in her way, and Buddhas if they blocked her path.

With dead fish eyes, devoid of love or mercy, she was essentially a "human-shaped demon."

Thinking of this, Shane couldn't help but take a step back.

"Uncle, what's wrong?"

The little girl hugged her ragdoll and tilted her head, her eyes full of innocence and purity.

Shane swallowed hard.

After thinking calmly for a moment, he decided to say something to slightly alter the future worldview of the little girl before him, even if it was just a little bit; it would be a contribution to all of humanity.

"Even if you have magic that can cut through everything, you must use it carefully."

"Why?"

"Because magic is powerful, but it is also dangerous. If you don't control it well and cut someone, what will you do? If they tease you, giving them a little lesson is fine, but if you accidentally cut or kill them... your sister would surely be heartbroken by that version of you."

"Then as long as I control it well, for example, only this far in front of me." The little girl reached out and gestured, "Just 3 meters, no, 5 meters, if I cut from this distance, would that be okay?"

"...Even if you can control it precisely, you should think about it first. For example, consider why the other person did that? What was their mood, and could they just be joking? Oh, anyway, just try to empathize with the other person and don't make decisions so quickly."

"Empathize... consider the other person's mood..."

Ubel frowned and tilted her head, struggling to think about Shane's words; she didn't quite understand the meaning of these terms.

But since the kind uncle said it, it must be right, and she should think about it carefully.

Seeing Ubel's little expression, Shane breathed a silent sigh of relief.

It was good that she was thinking, good that she could listen.

Thinking of the future god of slaughter and looking at the soft, cute little girl now, Shane shivered.

"I hope your personality will change for the better in the future."

The Adventurer Guild in Gostan City was much grander than the one Shane had seen in the small town.

Inside, there was a dazzling array of magical items, weapons, and equipment.

When Shane walked in, he happened to encounter a party coming to sell some goods.