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「By the way Carol. Do you still remember how old you were when you first ate something?」
「There’s no way I still remember such a thing.」
「Cielmer, she said it was when she was 5 years old.」
「Haah? What does that even mean?」

With a confused look, Carol uttered those words in a heavy tone. I understand how she feels. When I heard her say this, I wasn’t able to reply to her immediately. Although it might not be obvious, I’ve worked with the guild for a very long time. I’ve had different conversations with various kinds of people, so it shouldn’t be difficult for me to continue a conversation. And yet, I was so shocked that I couldn’t even do so. The peculiarity of her circumstances and of her existence itself was made distinctly apparent by those words.

「When I asked her why she wanted to leave this country, she asked me that question instead of answering me.」
「The age you first ate something?」
「Exactly. When I talked about when weaning generally starts, she told me that in her case, it was when she was 5 years old. From the way she said it, I can only assume that infant’s milk probably wasn’t an exception.」
「Then, how did she live for 5 yea… Wait, no. It can’t be, there’s no way anyone would actually do something that foolish…」
「Do you know of something?」
「I do. About 10 years ago, there was once a king that fell into a coma and so the people were trying to keep him alive any way they can. And at that time, there was a certain research that was presented. It stated that, if you dissolved food into a liquid form and poured it into the blood flowing throughout the body, you wouldn’t die. The method was to open a wound somewhere with a knife and then forcefully incorporate the fluid using sorcery; but in the end, it wasn’t adopted for use. I can probably even find the documents if I try.」
「Any rumors of it being implemented?」
「Nope. Still, if that research was still conducted in secret, it would make living until 5 years old without eating quite possible.」

This research is madness… it’s hard to simply pass this judgment. Just thinking about how many people died of starvation after falling unconscious from diseases and the like, I can understand the importance of this study. I’ve witnessed people who, despite having their injuries fully healed through sorcery, ultimately still ended up dying without waking up. If it can be implemented for practical use, it would provide a chance for all those who were previously deemed beyond saving, to potentially survive. It’s a wonderful thing. However, doing that on a conscious child is nothing but madness. Still, all of this is only our speculation.

「The state of her living circumstances is awful, but isn’t the way that she mentioned ‘it’s the first time she ate something‘ quite suspicious as well?」
「Celia, are you perhaps telling me that she remembers everything from the moment she was born?」
「Of course, she might just be implying that she hasn’t eaten anything for as long as she can remember. But if it were anyone else, I wouldn’t even consider that possibility.」
「Her great proficiency in sorcery might also be explainable if she has been using sorcery from the day she was born. Frankly, I don’t believe that anyone can reach that level of mastery in just 10 years but it’s much more convincing that way.」

I know that I might be talking nonsense but in all honesty, I can’t really imagine that Cielmer was lying to me. A part of it is from my instinct as a receptionist, but there’s also no merit for her to tell something that obviously sounds like a lie. Since she’s only 10 years old, there’s a chance that she might just be lying for attention but based on our conversations until now, I shouldn’t think of her as just a regular 10 year old girl in this regard. Rather, if it’s actually a lie, I’m just going to be laughed at for misjudging the situation.

「Lastly, she went out of her way to say this but her hair seems to be originally blonde in color. And then, it became white.」
「One of the reasons that I used the ice spears was because her hair was white but, this is just getting more and more absurd.」
「’White haired sorcerers are a cut above the rest,’ right?」
「Many say that it’s only a myth. Though, I’ll say it now, I didn’t use the ice spears because I believe in the myth. At that time, I was really high from the excitement, okay.」

Hearing Carol say so in an apologetic tone, I suppose I might have overdone it earlier. In any case, I’m going to lecture her later so there’s really no need to delve into this right now.

「What you mean by absurd is the fact that her white hair, which is seen as an advantage in sorcery, is an acquired trait, right?」
「I don’t know if her white hair is from environmental reasons or if it’s from trauma but, I’m pushing for the former.」

It must be from the impression of fighting her. Since Carol seems to be highly confident about it, I should tell Cielmer to be careful about this tomorrow. Being great in sorcery while having white hair is one thing, the fact that it’s an acquired trait is something that can’t be known to other people.

「That’s about all of the information we have right now, but what do you think about her, Celia?」
「First of all, she’s probably a child some noble used as a test subject.」
「With her white hair, that’s the only answer. Moreover, she’s definitely a noble’s daughter.」
「Well since she can use sorcery to that extent, it’s practically impossible for her to be a simple commoner. This is just my speculation, but she might be the said individual’s biological child. After all, nobles have a particularly strong tendency of treating children as the parents’ possession. And moreover, if they either kidnap or buy a child from another house, the risk would be too great.」
「And after that, she was locked up until she was 10 years old. That’s likely the reason that, even though she was born in nobility, she has never seen a magic item before. There might have been a turning point when she was 5 years old, but there’s no way to know what that might have been. Also, I don’t really want to think about it, but she likely has a disappointing Job.」
「Don’t use the term disappointing-… I’ll save it for later. Still, being able to use sorcery that can block the spear of ice while not having a Sorcery Job, isn’t that pushing it a bit too much?」
「I told you, that’s exactly why I don’t want to think about it. Still, she registered here as a hunter, right? In that case, it’s highly possible that she left her house only recently. In other words, she left when she became 10 years old or maybe slightly after. Now then, is there currently any noble affiliated search request in this country’s guild?」
「None. So does that mean that she was confined until they could learn her Job and abandoned her because her Job was unsatisfactory?」

Carol nods in satisfaction.

Certainly, Carol does make a good point. Within the guild, we teach the people that there are no highs and lows between Jobs but in reality, Job discrimination can be seen even between Hunters. Among high ranking Hunters, these kinds of discriminations are practically nonexistent. But among low ranking Hunters, many of them judge individuals by their Jobs. Alejo is one of them as well.

Going back to Cielmer, if she had a Sorcery Job on top of being able to use sorcery of that level, they wouldn’t simply give her up even if she escaped. In nine cases out of ten, they would likely send a search request to the guild with undisclosable details. In the case of high nobility, it’s even possible for them to commission veteran hunters behind closed doors. If our assumptions so far are correct, they would only need to request a search for a missing child and as such, the guild itself would likely authorize it if they filed it as so.

So, since there aren’t any requests like that, it can be seen as such: they’re not looking for her, so she was definitely abandoned. If there is actually somebody tailing her in secret, they likely wouldn’t allow her this much freedom. She would have been captured before she could even reach the guild.

I am not sure why she is given so much freedom, but the idea of her being discarded for being deemed worthless after a decade of upbringing is more plausible to me. Who knows? She might have hid her talent in sorcery while aiming for a disappointing Job as well, I can’t deny that possibility.

「There’s also a possibility that she was sold and escaped from a moving carriage while travelling to their destination. To sum it up, she’s a former daughter of nobility that was abandoned by the house and is a girl with a disappointing Job, that’s about it.」
「And the reason she wants to leave the country is probably so that she can be as far as possible from where she was formerly confined to avoid being brought back.」
「There seems to be more secrets still but that’s about what we know, right? So Celia, do you want to help her?」

That’s the problem. If I get involved with her, there’s a high chance that trouble comes along with her as well. Even understanding that fact, Cielmer is asking me for help. The question she asked me about her leaving the town could also be interpreted as her asking about my loyalty to the country.

After all, with her capability, this town’s guild would be secure. As such, someone from this guild would indirectly try to keep her here.

It’s most likely that at this stage, she trusts me, no, she’s betting her chances on me. If our assumptions are correct, she has absolutely no one to rely on. Even still, for a 10-year-old girl like her, it might have been unbearable for her to keep living on her own.

For that reason, she made a gamble. That’s probably why she talked about her past. However, the reason that she didn’t go into the details is because she knows that doing so would possibly get me in danger as well.

「Well because of a certain someone’s mistake, I don’t really have a choice but to help her, you know?」
「You intend to help her more than what’s necessary, right? Are you sympathizing with her?」
「I do feel pity for her, but I can’t put myself in danger just because of that. However, she’s going to be an amazing Hunter in the future, don’t you think? So as a staff member of the Hunter’s Guild, it won’t hurt to cheer her on as early as I can, right?」
「For now, it looks like she’ll break the record for the fastest C-rank promotion. Considering the fact that she’s going to rise to B-rank not so far in the future, she’s already an amazing Hunter.」
「Most of all, the trouble she’s going to bring with her is likely going to be mostly guild-related ones after all.」
「Well that’s true.」

After all, it’s just my assumption but, the individual that confined her has already lost interest in her. Most of the problems are definitely going to be from dealing with hunters that are going to pick a fight with her and make light of her because of her gender and appearance.

「Well if you want to do so, I’ll lend her a hand as well. I’ve already promised to look after her until she reaches D-rank and I need to atone for what I did as well.」
「My, my, that’s unusual. But even after saying that, you’re only interested in her sorcery, right?」
「I won’t deny that. Still, the atonement part is true too, okay?」
「How admirable of you.」

I tell her that and implicitly put an end to this topic. After this, it will depend on what happens tomorrow when I meet up with Cielmer. In the meantime, I’ll be lecturing Carol for now.

Hiya~! Detective Celia and Carol strikes into the heart of the suspect~!
They basically got everything, probably even more than what Ain intended. However, Carol doesn’t know about one thing, “Cielmer-san” is not alone.

Still, one thing about this is that Ain is acting too “by-the-book” so both Carol and Celia actually don’t see her the way she wants to be seen, an innocent child (lol)

Like, she probably seems more like a young adult actor acting like a child rather than a child actor acting like an adult.

Because of that, they’ve managed to put together that, yes, everything she’s saying might be calculated so let’s think of why that might be! Rather than letting their guard down because she’s a child, lol. OR MAYBE THAT WAS THE PLAN! DUN DUN DUN! (I don’t think Ain is good enough to do that though, lol. Just my opinion.)

We really need more capable adults in isekai web novels, many of them are either enemies, keep the main characters out of the loop, or are the skilled but not leading type people.
Or the definitely-will-not-die-what-are-you-afraid-of mentor figure.
Or maybe I just don’t read enough anymore.

Also, love the fact that this chapter puts emphasis that sorcery is a study. IV magic? Yes!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Feel free to comment and have a nice day~!