"Sigh... I wonder if a Greater Demon, or maybe one of the Seven Sages of Destruction, could come and have a chat with me."
A new day began, and the seemingly harmless Miss Fíliya continued on her way to the border garrison.
She was puzzled.
More than ten hours had passed since yesterday's incident.
She was a walking piece of tender... no, lean meat, so why hadn't more of the Demon Race come to attack her? It was making her journey incredibly dull.
Of course, for all her talk about wanting to meet a Greater Demon, Miss Fíliya was just posturing.
She was extremely confident in her own abilities, to the point of arrogance.
But she wasn't so delusional as to think that a Second-Class Mage like herself was a match for a Greater Demon.
What was that saying again? She still needed to mature a bit more.
To cross swords with a Greater Demon, I'd need at least another ten years of training, wouldn't I? Fíliya thought.
She had absolute confidence in her path of magic; she was a once-in-a-generation genius, and what's more, she had the aid of that strange thing called the [System].
If she had to name a flaw, it would be her exceptionally meager pool of mana.
If her ability to analyze, develop, and comprehend magic was SSS-rank, then her speed at accumulating mana through training was B-rank at best.
And the most frustrating part was that the System Shop in her mind, while able to exchange for any magic she desired, couldn't directly exchange for mana.
Mana, the most fundamental and crucial attribute for a mage, had always been a major headache for her.
She couldn't even cheat to get it, and her own training was slow. What was she supposed to do?
...She had what felt like an innate aversion to meditation.
In her eyes, every minute spent meditating was a minute lost on research—a terrible trade-off.
Unless... hmm.
She rummaged through her mind and actually found something interesting.
[Magic to Do Two Things at Once]
If I could learn this, couldn't I meditate and research at the same time?
Unfortunately, the exchange requirement for this magic was... 5 million points. And right now, after spending one million last night, Miss Fíliya had... less than 2 million points left. This was the total sum she had accumulated in her seventeen years of life.
Thinking of this, Fíliya couldn't help but shake her head. She always felt that she spent points faster than she earned them. Would she ever be able to afford that grimoire she dreamed of in this lifetime?
...Sigh.
A little more time passed, and still, Miss Fíliya's eagerly awaited Demon Race attackers failed to appear.
The good news, however, was that there was something interesting not far away that seemed like it could alleviate her boredom.
She quickened her pace and walked up to the bronze statue.
Hmm, it's a wild Himmel... statue.
"To think I'd find a bronze statue of Himmel in the middle of nowhere like this?"
she muttered to herself.
Fíliya had grown up hearing the legendary tales of Himmel the Hero, so she was incredibly curious about this legendary figure.
She truly wanted to know what kind of person this immortalized legend really was.
In fact, she actually could do it; there were even two ways for her to meet the long-departed hero in person.
The first was to learn [Time-Traveling Magic]. Of course, this was an idea she immediately dismissed.
Because [Time-Traveling Magic] cost a whopping 150 million Emotion Points. Never mind how she'd earn that many points; even if she could, she would definitely prioritize exchanging them for a different magic.
The second method required the assistance of someone who cherished and loved Himmel the most. As an expert in the field of illusions, she had created a very powerful spell that could even manifest a person's thoughts and memories.
But where would she find such a person? Fíliya, at least, had no idea.
It was easy to find people who worshipped or admired the great hero, hmm... there were plenty of them at the magic academy, at least. But someone who truly 'cherished' and 'loved' him most? Fíliya had no clue where to start looking.
"Hmm, I wonder if that Elf named Frieren would work. After all, she traveled with the hero for many years. But I've heard Elves are all blockheads... how could they possibly have an emotion like love? Besides, the world is so big, where would I even find this Frieren? Elves are creatures with no sense of time; she could be hiding somewhere for decades at a time. Sigh, I guess that won't work either."
After a moment of thought, Fíliya reluctantly gave up on the idea.
As for why she was so fixated on the hero, the reason was, of course... she wanted to see if she could trade a few blows with him.
Even though the Hero class was a far greater counter to mages than even an [Assassin], she still wanted to try.
Hmm... even if I'm no match for him at all, the hero wouldn't kill a weak girl like me, would he? Heh, that makes it perfectly safe.
In the end, after dusting off the wild Himmel statue, Fíliya continued on her journey.
...
And then, she arrived at her destination.
The state of the place, however, was a great disappointment to her.
She had expected the border garrison to be impressive, with a proper bunker or something... but all that stood before her were a few tents pitched in the wasteland. The most prominent structure was just a timber-built building that looked like a temporary command post.
Well, I should report in first, Fíliya thought.
Once I'm assigned my own barracks, I should be able to eat... proper human food.
She walked to the camp's entrance, presented her identification, and was then led into the encampment by a guard.
She soon met the person in charge.
He was a very young man, you could even call him a youth.
The young man's eyes had a fierce glint. The first things Fíliya noticed were his choppy, silver-gray hair and distinctive earring. His aura was sharp and aggressive, radiating an undisguised intensity.
Hmm, working with a young person was a good thing as far as Fíliya was concerned. She had no desire to listen to some doddering old man on his last legs ramble in her ear all day.
"Captain of the Northern Magic Corps, Second-Class Mage, Wirbel."
The man introduced himself first. His tone was surprisingly gentle compared to his sharp demeanor.
"Fíliya [Second-Class]. I was sent by the Association to support you."
Fíliya stated her name as well.
"Yes, I was already aware of that. You're the advance party, right? What about the follow-up squad? When will they arrive? Tomorrow? The day after? It's a bit embarrassing to say, but the situation here is quite urgent. It would be best if all reinforcements arrived by tomorrow."
Wirbel's expression was slightly feverish; it seemed he really wanted the reinforcements to arrive immediately.
In response, Fíliya pointed a finger at herself.
"That's it. I'm the only reinforcement."
Fíliya's expression was perfectly serious. Wirbel, on the other hand, looked completely dumbfounded.
"Huh?"
He froze for a moment, the corner of his eye twitching.
Finally, all his shock coalesced into a single, drawn-out syllable.
"HUUUUH?!?!!!"
_____
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