My name is Roxy Migurdia.
40 years old, but I appear to be 14…
Hm… somehow neither sounds very good.
Anyway, I'm a demon race.
So, even though I'm 40, I'm really still in the teenage phase of life.
If converted to human years, that would be…
Well.
When I was 14, I secretly became an adventurer without telling my family.
At the time, I thought it would be the step that freed me from the nightmare of not being able to use "telepathy," and let me step into a wider world.
That's what I thought.
But because my race stops aging outwardly at 14, and because my hair color is close to the infamously feared Supard race, I suffered quite a bit as an adventurer.
But luckily, not long after, I found an adventurer party willing to accept me, and by age 20, I became a B-rank adventurer.
I was lucky.
But happy times are always short.
During a magic disaster, my captain died in front of me, and the party dissolved.
His tragic death remains vivid in my mind even now, but when I returned to the guild to report, their indifferent attitude made me realize something.
This is what it means to be an adventurer.
At the time, I was too naive.
Afterward, I left the Demon Continent and traveled to the Millis Continent.
Because of my blue hair, which glows green in the firelight, and my small size, I suffered more discrimination.
Fortunately, when I reached a port town, there wasn't as much discrimination. The local guild even helped me, letting young me regain some confidence.
When I reached A-rank, I was very happy.
I thought this would prove my strength.
Sure enough, the next day I was invited to take a job — a party said they couldn't do it without me.
An A-rank adventurer is still highly respected.
The task was to disguise myself as a young girl and infiltrate a lolicon merchant's operations to investigate illegal trades.
I suppose that's just another day as an adventurer.
I flew into a rage and wanted to refuse, but they offered me a price I couldn't turn down.
Four times the pay.
I agreed.
The disguise went smoothly, but I had to change outfits often and style my hair like a little girl.
Every time, I endured the snickers of my teammates…
What the hell, I was saving people, wasn't I?
An accident happened — after some time investigating, the slavers discovered me, knocked me out, and locked me in a dungeon.
Because of that, I truly infiltrated among the victims.
I broke the window, and with my team's help, rescued the girls and saw their smiling faces.
I felt it was all worth it.
I accepted the guild's commission to send them back to Milis.
Even though I knew I'd face discrimination there.
…Meeting people always brought some kind of discrimination.
It was a dark period.
I gradually stopped wanting to interact with people.
Later, by chance, I met someone from my hometown who invited me to work at a tavern, which helped me save up some money before I set out again for the Asura Kingdom.
—My teacher's homeland.
When I was young, he had come to our village on his travels and taught me magic, letting me see how vast the world was.
Because of him, I decided to become an adventurer.
But he left without saying goodbye. I thought maybe he didn't want to see me again.
Then I took on a commission — to go to my teacher's home in the Asura Kingdom to press him for his overdue manuscript Adventuring the World.
I hesitated, but accepted it.
At his home, I talked to him about the past. I discovered his sudden departure was just a misunderstanding — he'd hurriedly asked the villagers to pass on a message. But my people mostly use telepathy, and his clumsy demon language left them confused.
In the end, he kept writing his book, and I kept traveling — to Sharia, to study at the magic university for four years.
After that, I left the university. Since the Asura Kingdom purges monsters every winter, there were no steady jobs.
My finances were tight again.
Just then, I saw a remote village knight family was hiring a home tutor for magic — two silver coins a month.
I stayed there two years.
The Greyrat family was kind and made me feel at home. They gave me my first student — Rudeus. A genius child, though a bit precocious. In two years, I taught him everything I knew.
Life in the Greyrat house was happy. It felt like home, my second home.
But where there is meeting, there must be parting.
When I realized there was nothing left to teach, I decided to leave that "home."
I needed to embrace a bigger future. I wanted to adventure and refine my magic, even if it meant being alone.
I really had felt the warmth of home before, hadn't I?
That's what I thought.
Until one day, on the road in a forest, I met…
A boy.
Though young, he was full of manly spirit, tall, but with a trace of boyishness.
We agreed… that in the future we would adventure together.
So.
How far is the future?
Roxy blinked, and in the mist, a pair of dark gray eyes appeared before her.
Eyes half-closed, smiling.
Roxy "looked" at the memory in her mind, her thin, cold lips pursed slightly, her body leaning against the edge of the bath, slowly, slowly…
Plop — she sank into the water.
With a tiny blink, a ripple spread before her eyes.
Bubbles slipped from her mouth, dancing among her loose blue hair like seaweed.
Maybe from lack of oxygen, Roxy felt dizzy.
All she could see were flashes of the past.
Memories…
Roxy slowly closed her eyes.
Plop! — two hands reached into the bath and pulled her up. She should have snapped awake, but only gazed hazily at the palace maid who "rescued" her.
"Miss Roxy! Miss Roxy! You can't close the windows and soak in hot water for an hour like that in winter! You'll faint!"
Roxy, her mind still foggy, realized why all those memories had been flooding her just now.
Oh, it was because she was oxygen-deprived…
The maids hurriedly wrapped her in a bathrobe, her small body flushed red from the heat. The robe was far too big, leaving only her little head poking out.
Her wet blue hair clung to her cheeks, contrasting with her flushed face. As her small feet touched the cold floor, she slowly came to.
And thought, vaguely:
"Good thing Allen wasn't here. If he'd seen me like this, he'd say I was being reckless again…"
Not even thinking about how she was bathing — how could Allen have seen her?
Outside, the moon climbed the sky.
When she cleared her head…
Perhaps it would be another night of writing letters?
(End of Chapter)
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