Claire was quick-witted and exceptionally good at assessing a situation.
It was just that, in a quiet rural village, she had rarely had any occasion to use that ability.
Besides, hadn’t those four bastards openly said they would see her again?
They had withdrawn for the time being because so many people had gathered, but once there were no people around, they would surely return and cause trouble.
She could not tell exactly what they wanted.
That was because she lacked experience with the world.
But those unpleasant eyes and actions, impossible to describe in words—
Judging by those alone, Claire could not imagine anything good happening, and so she left the house.
‘I have to stop them before they enter the village.’
She could not drag a whole crowd of people along.
Not only did she have no justification for doing so, she had no authority either.
Still, she instinctively understood that if she did not go first, she would ultimately be the one to suffer.
‘······Bastards!’
How shocked had she been when she came out of her room because of the commotion downstairs?
Hio, repeatedly apologizing as he simply took the blows, and the four rough-looking men laughing as they struck him without restraint.
It would have been understandable for her to panic in a situation she was experiencing for the first time, yet Claire had rushed down without hesitation and protected Hio.
And even after seeing her flames, those men had not been frightened.
Far from being afraid, they had watched them with eyes full of interest.
‘They’re dangerous.’
If men like that suddenly barged in again, she would truly have no choice but to be helplessly beaten.
Perhaps Claire alone could manage.
But Hio and Seli had no abilities whatsoever, and they could be seriously injured.
“······What an idiot.”
As her thoughts turned to Hio, a sighing mutter escaped her lips before she knew it.
He was the kind of idiot who merely chuckled good-naturedly when children who were not even worth a single punch teased him with words that crossed the line.
No—he was simply an idiot.
In the past, she had found it strange that he did not even get irritated after being beaten as badly as he had been today. Now, she found it nothing but pathetic.
Before, she had merely thought of him as a kind person with a good nature.
But after watching him for the past two years, she had realized that he was nothing more than a coward who was afraid to get angry himself.
As if the word “resistance” did not exist in his mind.
“He’s still a good person, so I have to protect him.”
Claire’s skill had developed considerably.
It was the result of researching and practicing on her own every day despite having no foundational knowledge whatsoever.
She had reached the point where she could launch flames at a designated location.
That was why she could make a plan like this.
‘First, once I find them, I’ll keep throwing fire at them from a distance.’
If they spotted her and came after her, she could simply run away while continuing to throw flames.
The injured men would eventually be frightened and have no choice but to flee.
There was no living creature in the world that was not afraid of fire, after all.
“Hmm······ They definitely went in this direction···?”
Claire’s footsteps gradually carried her farther away from the village.
* * *
It was only after quite some time that she found them.
As expected, they had not gone to another village. They had been waiting nearby.
Doris and his group had settled down near the road to rest, seemingly with no intention of hiding themselves.
Claire quickly hid behind a tree and took a deep breath.
‘I can do this··· I can do this······.’
This was the first time she had directed her ability at people.
It was only natural for her heart to be pounding.
‘If they really get hit by fire, they’ll definitely be scared and run away.’
That was the best way Claire could reassure herself.
She was talented, clever, and quick to read situations, but she did not yet know that such qualities alone could not resolve everything in the world.
“······Here goes.”
Once Claire had steeled her resolve, two fist-sized balls of flame quickly formed above her hands.
She threw one fireball at the leg of the man who appeared to be their leader.
She threw the other right beside one of the remaining men as a warning.
The two fireballs flew swiftly, just as Claire had intended.
“Hm?”
By the time Doris, sensing something strange, raised his head, it was already too late.
“Argh! W-What the hell!”
The fist-sized flame had reached him and caught on to his pants.
“Fire! It’s fire!”
“What the hell is going on all of a sudden!”
The other three men sprang to their feet in surprise and warily scanned their surroundings. They soon discovered the culprit behind the incident.
“That bitch! The girl who uses skills is here!”
“What kind of crazy bitch···!”
Claire was not standing idly by either.
By the time their eyes met, two new fireballs were already floating above her small hands.
“You bastards! Eat this!”
The fireballs flew straight toward Haman and Polke, but—
“What’s with these slow-ass things?”
To men as seasoned as they were as mercenaries, it was nothing more than a laughable trick.
Even if the fireballs were flying fairly quickly, there was distance between them, and they were coming directly toward them. Why would they be unable to dodge?
Once their surprise subsided and they grasped the situation, thick smiles spread across the mouths of all four men, Doris included.
“Hehehehe. She came looking for us on her own feet······.”
“What a stroke of luck!”
“We don’t even have to wait until night?”
The fire attached to Doris’s pants had gone out by then.
Claire’s flames were still only that powerful.
Feeble flames that could be extinguished simply by rubbing dirt over them.
Doris looked at Claire with a lewd smile.
“Did you come alone?”
Claire did not answer.
Something··· something had gone wrong.
She had thought they would be startled and flustered by her first attack.
She had thought the sight of the fire in her second attack would frighten them.
That was what she had expected, but their responses were far too quick and precise.
It was the difference between a girl experiencing her first real fight and mercenaries who were not only seasoned, but downright vicious.
Realizing this, Claire turned around without delay.
“Get her!”
“Hehehe. Where do you think you’re going?”
“So you secretly wanted to play with us after all!”
As she ran, she created flames and threw them without hesitation at the men chasing her.
But as expected, it was useless.
“Little girl. Do you have any idea how many Awakened we’ve met?”
“We’ve even encountered monsters like that. Did you really think we’d be frightened?”
“Greenhorns like you are a dime a dozen in this world!”
At the increasingly close voices, Claire bit down hard on her lip.
When she had trained alone, she had felt as though she had become the greatest person under heaven.
She had been able to keep creating fire and send it flying far away.
But there was something she could never have learned while training alone.
Her flames were slow and weak.
Naturally, she had no idea how to make them faster or stronger.
With no one to teach her, she had no choice but to figure it out herself.
Yet the situation behind her was far too urgent for her to think about that.
“D-Don’t come any closer!”
She scattered the flames she had created toward the men.
“Hahahaha! You came after us first, and now you’re telling us not to come closer?”
Of course, it had no effect whatsoever, and the voices behind her drew closer still.
She had to make them faster and stronger.
Another flame formed and rose above Claire’s hand.
‘Faster···!’
She did not know how to increase the speed of the fireballs.
So all she could do was launch them while desperately wishing for it in her heart.
“······Hm.”
“She’s putting up a fight······.”
Doris and Haman narrowly dodged a fireball flying straight toward their foreheads, forcibly swallowing the surprise that had nearly escaped their mouths.
The flames seemed to be flying strangely faster than before, but······ that was impossible.
She had never been taught how, and she had only recently become an Awakened. There was no way she could figure it out on her own after only a few attempts.
‘······It must be because we’ve gotten closer.’
They dismissed the momentary surprise that way and continued pursuing Claire.
“······”
But as they watched the flames begin forming once more up ahead, an odd sense of incongruity crept over them.
‘Already?’
The flames seemed to be taking less time to form.
At first, Claire had thrown a flame, concentrated for a moment, and then created another. Now, as soon as they dodged one and raised their heads, they immediately saw flames flickering before them.
And that was not the only source of their unease.
“I told you to go away!”
A fireball came flying with Claire’s shout.
Its size, originally no larger than a fist, had clearly grown.
“······!”
The fireball reached them in an instant. Doris lowered his head and barely avoided it, but a wave of searing heat swept across his face.
Only then did Doris become certain.
The girl before them was growing on her own.
“Be careful! Something’s wrong!”
Doris shouted a warning, but with the distance between them already narrowed, there was little they could do.
All they could do was hold their swords a little closer to their bodies and heighten their vigilance.
And before that vigilance could even reach its peak, Claire had already finished forming her fireballs.
They were slightly larger than before.
They were slightly faster than before.
“It’s coming······!”
Doris dodged the fireball flying toward them, but Paulo could not.
He tried to block it with his sword, but—
Boom!
Who could have guessed that the fireball would explode upon striking the sword?
“Gah!”
Though it was only a small explosion, its rebound, combined with the force of the direct impact, sent Paulo tumbling backward.
Doris’s face twisted fiercely when he saw it.
“This bitch······!”
The remaining Polke and Haman also wiped the smiles from their faces and tensed up.
The distance between Claire and the men was now only a few meters.
If Doris could dodge that fire two more times, victory would be his.
But being that close also meant it would be much harder to avoid.
“Focus! It’s coming again!”
The newly formed fireballs were shot this time at the two men on either side of Doris.
Polke and Haman tensed up and prepared to dodge, but···
Boom!
Bang!
The two fireballs did not strike them directly. Instead, they slammed into the ground beneath their feet and exploded.
“Argh!”
“Guh!”
Caught completely off guard by the explosions, Polke and Haman were lifted into the air in the direction they had been running and went tumbling across the ground.
“That goddamned bitch dares···!”
The moment Claire realized that her flames exploded, she had thought of a way to use them.
A skill that continued to grow even as she fled, along with her quick judgment and ability to act.
She was no ordinary girl.
But that did not mean they could stop pursuing her.
They were already quite close to the village.
If Claire entered the village now and called the people together, the situation would become serious.
Three of the four men were injured.
If the villagers came rushing out, at least dozens of them would arrive, and their injured state would no longer make them as threatening as before.
Depending on what Claire told them, the frightened villagers might well beat them to death.
“Damn it all······!”
Just a little farther.
They were close enough that Doris could reach out and grab her if he went only a little farther, yet the flames were forming even faster than that.
At such close range, dodging would be impossible.
‘······Fuck!’
Doris, who had spent a long time working as a mercenary, made a quick decision.
It was a bitter shame to give up on the girl he had almost caught, but coldly speaking, the flames would reach him before he could grab Claire.
He had to stop for now, dodge the flames, gather the other three, and hide.
‘And then······ I’ll definitely come back.’
It was no longer a matter of simple lust.
He would make her pay dearly for irritating him this much.
Just as Doris ground his teeth and was about to stop—
“Ugh······.”
The flames that had been growing larger as they flickered suddenly went out with a faint sputter.
At the same time, Claire staggered.
There was no need to say how brightly Doris’s expression lit up.
“H-Hahahaha! You’ve run out of mana, haven’t you, girl?”
Being Awakened did not mean they could use their skills without limit.
He had heard that they possessed something called mana, and that once it was completely depleted, they lost their strength and collapsed from exhaustion.
Of course, this was the first time he had witnessed it himself, but Claire’s condition was abnormal enough for him to understand it at a glance.
The flames vanished, and she staggered alone before collapsing onto the spot.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha! You rotten bitch!”
It took only a moment for those red locks to fall into Doris’s grasp.
“Get away······ you filthy······.”
Claire muttered as Doris roughly seized her by the hair, but her words lacked any force, as though she might pass out at any moment.
Her vision spun, and her body had no strength in it.
This had never happened before.
She had been perfectly fine even after casting Fireball dozens of times······.
“Heh-heh··· I finally caught you.”
With one hand gripping Claire’s red hair and the other holding both her cheeks, Doris pulled her face close.
“What should I do with you?”
His expression was thick with the satisfaction of conquest.
He had thought little of Claire, who had practically rolled into his hands, and pursued her—but she had put up unexpectedly fierce resistance.
Just when he was about to give up, he had caught her by sheer luck when her mana suddenly ran dry. That only made his joy all the greater.
“Ugh··· Boss. Can I hit that bitch just once?”
“This goddamn bitch dares······.”
The other three men, who had been knocked away by the Fireball, joined them with their faces twisted into scowls.
Paulo, who had blocked the Fireball with his sword, was blackened with soot in several places, while Polke and Haman, who had been sent tumbling across the ground, were covered in dirt and limping.
But none of them could be called seriously injured.
Within Claire’s dizzy vision, they came toward her like despair itself.
“What should we do, Boss?”
“First, strip this bitch down, pack our things, and move camp.”
“Can I hit her a few times before that? My leg’s throbbing because of this tiny little bitch.”
“Do whatever you want. Just don’t hit her face.”
“Yes, sir. Heh-heh-heh.”
Claire muttered.
“Don’t come······.”
Naturally, the three men paid her no attention.
“Let’s strip off all those bothersome clothes first.”
“That sounds good.”
“Heh··· There’s no one around to see anyway, so we’ll have a good long look at you.”
As she listened to that horrifying conversation, Claire opened her mouth once more.
“I said don’t come··· please······.”
At those words, not only the three men but Doris as well gave a derisive snort.
“You were so good at reading the situation before. Why are you telling us not to come now?”
“Ha-ha-ha! Don’t worry. We’ll be gentle.”
“Go away······ don’t come······.”
Even as the three men drew almost within arm’s reach, Claire’s muttering did not stop.
“If you come, you’ll die······ you idiot.”
Because those words were not meant for the three men.
Her blurred gaze was fixed not on them, but on the space behind Doris.
“Coward······ why did you come here······.”
Her eyes could barely focus, as though she might black out at any moment, but she still knew.
They had spent every day together for the past two years.
The figure approaching with steady footsteps seemed somehow different from usual, but that was not what mattered to Claire.
How could he come here alone?
He was a coward to begin with.
She had to stop him at once, but with both her cheeks held in Doris’s grasp and no strength in her body, no voice would come out.
So she raised her hand.
She barely managed to wave her trembling hand.
Don’t come.
Run before they notice you.
Claire tried so desperately to convey that message, but—
“Hey.”
A familiar, low voice finally reached them.
Doris and his men turned their gazes toward the direction of the voice.
“Take your hands off her.”
What filled their sight as they turned their heads was a lone figure walking toward them.
And—
“Because I really want to kill you.”
Behind him, dark clouds filled the entire sky.