U.E.
C.1: The Unhinged Girl

In a deserted forest, there was a middle-aged man and a young girl.

The man was dressed in shirt and trousers so dirty you couldn’t tell when they were last washed.
Dandruff scattered as he ran his hand through his unkept beard and hair.
The man resembled a wild beast, and he was looking at the girl with an animalistic and vulgar smile.

“Heh, didn’t expect Jou-chan to invite me.
What did’ya wanna talk about?”
(T/N: little lady)

The girl was a stark contrast to the filthy man.
Shining silver hair hung down to her waist and long eyelashes bordered her purple eyes.
Her nose was elegantly straight and her lips the colour of cherry blossoms.
Her features were well-proportioned and in harmony with each other and her pure white skin was smooth as porcelain.
The pullover linen dress she wore had no decorations.
It was a popular piece of clothing in this village far removed from the towns.
But rather than looking simple, it gave the look of poverty.
Yet on her, it did not look shabby at all.
In fact, the clothing was the decoration that emphasised her innocent beauty.

The girl whose mere presence drew gazes――Krische looked at the man in front of her expressionlessly.

“……umm, Krische would like you to stop, touching Krische’s body.”

Krische simply stated her request to the man who was looking at her vulgarly.
The man’s――Galo’s face showed surprise at her words, but then his grin widened.
In the past, the girl’s expression had shown her displeasure, but this was the first time she had voiced it.

“C’mon, what’s a little skinship.
It’s not like you’ll lose anything from me touching your butt, you’re worrying too much.”

Galo did not have any sexual preferences that lead him to target girls like her.
He was a normal man that preferred adult women with more feminine bodies.
But this girl that the village had taken in, she had something that drove such a man crazy.

Her clear eyes always shone with intelligence and her smile was only a slight relaxing of her cheeks.
It was more than her physical beauty, it was her refined, humble manner that made her charm something seldom found in the village――seldom found even in the towns.
And it was the strange atmosphere about her that lead men astray.

It started with a passing fancy.
Galo is a former soldier, his job to teach the village guards and children the sword.
It was just a little fun while teaching Krische, enjoying some light body touches during lessons.
But she was quiet and showed no signs of discomfort.
That was the impetus.
Krische was different and many found her weird, nobody acted to stop Garo and she herself did not show much resistance.
He could not stop himself――things escalated, leading to today.

She showed no signs of telling her foster parents.
Seeing that, Garo judged that as long as he didn’t go too far, she wouldn’t tell anyone.
Meaning in this deserted forest, a little more mischief may be allowed.

“Relax, I won’t do anything painful.”

Saying that, the man drew nearer, but Krische drew back a step, away from the man.

She glanced around and sharpened her ears.
The presences around, the state of the ground, the direction of the wind and their relative positions.
Just right, Krische thought.

“Will you stop this?”
“C’mon, don’t say that.
Oji-chan just wants to get to know you, ojou-chan.”
(T/N: uncle)
“……get to know?”
“Yeah, get to know you.
Jou-chan knows what I mean right?”

Krische took a step back in fear――pretended to.
Two steps, three steps.
And then she fell backwards, as if she had lost her balance.
The man moved to cover her――

“It’s going to be alrigh, ah, ga……?”

――and a wooden practice sword stabbed into his throat.
It had been hidden beforehand, leaning against a tree.

A thrust that used the opponent’s momentum against them.
Not a bad strike, but a little shallow.
And this position was not optimal for landing the finishing blow.
She twisted the handle, digging into the soft flesh and shifted the man’s body off her.

Not understanding what had happened, the man bent over in agony, pressing his hands to his throat.
Krische got to her feet, then putting all her weight behind it, she thrust the wooden sword towards the bones in his neck.
The first time, the man’s movement caused the sword the slip off the bone, gouging flesh as it stabbed into the ground.
She pulled it out and tried again.
This time she felt the blunt sensation of the neck bone breaking.
Krische nodded to herself in satisfaction and caught her breath.

“Mm, this should, do it.”

Smiling at the strange way the man’s expression squirmed and twisted, she started dragged the man by his clothes.
Nearby, she had dug a hole more than deep enough for an adult to stand in.
With a final check that it was deep enough such that animals would not sniff him out, she threw the twitching man in and shoveled dirt back in, hopping on the earth occasionally to pat it down.
With that done, she checked herself for any stains, then stared at the tip of the wooden sword.

There was a little blood on the wooden sword.
She had only stabbed his throat――there wasn’t much blood, but there’s a chance some stuck on her.
She stripped down to her underwear and squinted at her body, then nodded in satisfaction at the result.

She had been considering how to dispose of this unpleasant man for a while.
Just killing him was simple, but she needed to make sure no one noticed and avoid any chance of being suspected.
An actual blade would cause blood to splatter, but simple blows from a wooden sword was a little lacking.

’
Krische’s body was light, even if she put her weight into it, it would be difficult to cause death instantly using a wooden sword.
Even if she smashed his skull with a hammer or something similar, it would be troublesome if he screamed.
She has never killed an adult before, their stamina could not be taken lightly

In the end, she decided it would be most efficient to make use of the opponents body weight and stab at the throat――once she prevents him from screaming, the rest was simple.
She didn’t have to go to the trouble to steal tools either.
The results were excellent.
Wonderful, Krische smiled in satisfaction, she loved efficiency like this above all else.

She shaved off the bloodied tip of the wooden sword with a knife and used dirt to dirty and hide the shaved area.
She felt no guilt or fear for killing a person.
She only felt satisfaction in disposing of the unpleasant man that touched her.
It is fun when things go as plan.
With this slight discomfort in her days is removed and her life will become more enjoyable.

Clean if the room is dirty.
Kill if the person is unpleasant.

“Ehehe, now to hurry back to buy a pumpkin.”

That was all murder was too her, nothing more.
The girl named Krische is undoubtedly, abnormal.

A Maiden’s Unwanted Heroic Epic

Karka Village was a rural settlement built on hunting, agriculture and salt mining.
The rock salt in particular was of good quality and was their main source of trade.
With regards to this, this village was more blessed than the others.
The harvest was a little poor, but the mountain provided enough food to make up for it.
Half the men of the village worked in the salt mines while the other half were hunters.
The women worked the fields and handled the laundry along with other chores.
Abandoned at the age of three, Krische had been taken in by a hunter of this village.

In a cold house that did not even have a kitchen.
A potato and bean soup stewed over a sunken fireplace in the middle of the house.
It was a simple soup with a miserably small amount of jerky.
The silver-haired girl――Krische sat next to it with her legs tucked under herself.
She occasionally scooped some soup using a wooden ladle, blowing on it to cool it before tasting, then nodding in satisfaction.

“……mhm, tastes wonderful.”

The boar meat in the soup added flavour.
It was at times like this that she was grateful to be taken in by a hunter.
It is a luxury to be able to add meat everyday, no matter how little.
Just adding salt to potato and beans did not taste of anything, there wasn’t enough flavour.
A soup definitely needs some meat in it, Krische thought as she sipped from the ladle.
Krische enjoyed the fragrance, smiling in bliss.

After killing Garo, she had picked some herbs from the forest.
They helped to balance out the stench of the meat.
Without the stench, only the deep flavour of the meat was left――satisfied with the results, Krische smiled as she filled her stomach under the guise of taste testing.
She had made more soup than usual to ‘taste test’.

Krische prefered to act rationally, so naturally being swayed by a base desire like hunger was embarassing for her.
Unfortunately for her, Krische’s appetite was greater than average and she couldn’t resist the bad habit of ‘taste-testing’.
This was likely due to genetics combined with the memories of wandering the forest hungry when she was younger.

――Ingredients and salt thrown into boiling water, that’s it.
The impetus was this disastrous cooking by her foster mother.
It was so bad that Krische proactively helped with cooking despite her young age, but now she has been completely taken by the appeal of cooking itself.
After all, she could season it according to her own tastes and there was the perk of getting to drink as much soup as she wanted to under the just cause of ‘taste-testing’.
Krische was always hungry, so the very concept of ‘taste-testing’ was a gift from the heavens and by this point, she did all the cooking at home.

Her parents used to be indifferent to seasoning, but are now addicted to Krische’s cooking and showered her with praises.
Thanks to that, Krische has a good reputation for being a homely daughter.

Cooking is full of perks, Krische thought as she nodded to herself.
She could eat what she liked, fill her stomach through ‘taste-testing’ and it also improves her reputation.
To Krische, cooking has become part and parcel of her life.

“But, this is lacking something……I really wanted pumpkin soup.”

Krische pouted disgruntledly.
Peddlers had visited the village yesterday.
The peddlers would spend a day in the village then leave the next morning.
Usually, she would’ve bought a pumpkin, but she had to dig a hole to bury the man while everyone’s attention was focused on the peddlers, so she couldn’t.
Instead she intended to buy the pumpkin this morning after disposing of the man, but luring the man out took more time than expected, causing her to miss her chance to buy the pumpkin.

The soup was as delicious as usual.
But for ‘pumpkin-addict’ Krische, it was not enough.

――maybe a little more meat.
No, I can’t.
The rest is for tomorrow.

A few more mouthfuls of soup to ‘taste-test’.
Just as she was filling her stomach while deep in thought, the door slid open with a clatter.

“Ah……”

A woman stepped in.
She was pretty with a slightly freckled face and her long black hair was roughly bundled up at the back.

“Welcome back, Kaa-sama.” (T/N: Mother)

Krische remined seated as she greeted her mother, Grace.

“Krische, I’m back, you’re already preparing dinner?”

’
“I am done.
Today is a little hot so I added a bit more salt, how is it……?”

Scooping up some soup in the ladle, she offered it to Grace.
Krische’s foster mother smiled wryly at Krische――who was supposedly ‘cooking’, and took a sip.
She was aware that the hungry Krische had been drinking the soup under the guise of ‘taste-testing’, but made no mention of it.
To Grace, Krische’s gluttonous tendencies and how she thought she hid it was adorable.
Krische was serious, honest and hardworking, she did everything better than the average person――but she had this childish side to her and Grace watched over her with a warm gaze

“Mhm, it’s delicious, Krische.”
“Really?”
“Fufu, why would I lie?”

When the village’s most beautiful woman, Grace wedded Gorka, a young and skilled hunter, everyone in the village was happy for them and gave their blessings.
But unfortunately, the two were not blessed with child and when they were finally expecting, it was a stillbirth.
At a time when they were still stricken with grief, Gorka found an abandoned child, Krische.

The two of them decided to raise Krische as the daughter god had granted them, loving her as if she really was their own and Krische exceeded all their expectations.
Grace had absolutely no complaints about Krische, who was now known as the prettiest in the village.
Naturally Grace had noticed that her slightly strange daughter had problems understanding the feelings of others, but that did not change her love for Krische.
In fact Grace felt that it was her duty as Krische’s parent to guide her and patiently taught Krische――at the very least, it is thanks to Grace that Krische can lead a normal life.

Krische had no complaints about her parents either.
Aside from their slight overprotectiveness, Grace and Gorka are the ideal parents and Krische felt something close to love for them.

“……Krische, you really are good at cooking.”
“Ehehe……”

Krische smiled as Grace patted her head.
Krische snuggled up to Grace and put her arms around Grace, pressing her face into Grace’s bosom

The fact that she had just killed someone was already gone from Krische’s mind.
She was just a girl, like any other her age.

――This was already the third.
Before today, Krische had also done away with two children her age.
Krische felt no qualms at all about killing unpleasant people.
She only hid it because the community rules did not allow murder.
She never questioned resorting to such methods.

Unpleasant people are unpleasant just by existing.
Killing people never hurt or affected her otherwise.
Then if she kills them, it is a relief and she never has to meet them again.
Her thought process is exceedingly simple and self-centered.
While she is extremely intelligent, she lacks the ability to empathise.
That is Krische’s greatest flaw.

But that did not mean she derived pleasure from murder.
Aside from her peculiar train of thought and her skewed sense of morals, Krische’s feelings are not so different from what other’s feel.
Krische feels something similar to love for her parents who have taught her the various rules of the village and treat her as their own.
Thus she is willing to spare no effort for them.

“Kaa-sama, is there anything else I can help with?”

――gain and loss.
Krische saw things simply and thought of them in terms of gain and loss.
She believes it is natural to compensate those who treat her well and worked to fulfill the wishes of her parents who had taken her in and raised her.
To her, that is the repayment of her gains, a balancing of accounts.

What Krische feels is not so different from the love a child feels for their parents.
When she is loved, she replies with something similar to honest and pure love.
She believes it is natural to answer expectations and spares no effort to do it, making her more well-behaved and harder working than a normal child――she was the ideal child.

“Err……cleaning and……laundry are all done……”

Grace looked around the room, troubled with how to answer Krische’s question.
Their belongings were tidy and the house had been aired.
The room was clean, free of dust and stains, underwear and such had also been hung outside.

“Haa……seriously.
You are so easy to take care of that it feels more like I’m being taken care off.
How’re you such a good girl?”

Grace patted Krische’s head again with a wry smile.
Krische pressed herself against Grace with a small smile, eyes narrowed in pleasure.

“There’s still time until sundown, go out and play a little.”
“……okay.”

The girl smiled quietly and nodded, rubbing her cheeks against her mother, enjoying the sensation.

She was without a doubt, abnormal.
But she was also the very girl she l