A Misunderstood Mentor

I can still distinctly remember the moment I began living together with Alice.
Everyday put my life in danger.

It might have been easier to keep a wild dragon as a pet.
Her power would drag those around her in and destroy them.

“Alice”
“Whaat?”

One day, we were attacked by a giant beast while setting up camp.
It was a fairly large boa known as a boboboa but Alice smashed it to pieces in one strike.
And blew the tent away too in the process.
Furthermore, she also blew me away, leaving me on the verge of death.
I would have been in trouble if it wasn’t for Sasha’s healing magic.

“Alice can you eat the entire boboboa you just defeated?”
“No, my stomachs full from dinner”

Alice immediately responded in the human language.
Her intellect was high and she would immediately remember what I taught her.

“Then you shouldn’t defeat it in this way. You just need to chase it off”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, that’s right. To take a life means to live on and take responsibility for it”

I pat Alice’s head as I spoke and she smiled like a flower in bloom.

“Then let’s clean it up together. Tomorrow we’ll make a delicious stew”
“Yaaay”

Bit by bit, I slowly taught her.
So that one day Alice would be able to live in this world as a normal human.


“Oh father in the heavens, the god of creation. Oh mother in the land, the great spirit. Thank you for the many blessings of life you have bestowed upon us this day”

In the morning, I gave a prayer before eating the boboboa stew.

“What’s that?”
“It’s a way to express thankfulness for being able to eat everyday. You don’t need to speak either. Just think it in your heart”
“Hmm”

Did she understand or not.
Alice copies me and puts her hand together and mumbles.
After she finished for some reason she looked towards me with sparkling eyes.

At the time I didn’t consider that the words of the prayer would become the origin of a great misunderstanding.
Thinking back, this moment was when Alice’s misunderstandings began to ramp up.


While challenging various quests together with Nuruhachi and the others, I began to become nothing but a burden for the party.
I thought that Alice would immediately realise that I was a weakling and be dumbfounded.
However, the more I acted like a weakling, the more respect Alice showed towards me.

“To catch such a small rabi without hurting it, you’re amazing Takumi”

The attack that I made with all of my effort was weak to the point that I was unable to finish off a small animal.

“Even though you possess a power far greater than my own, to be able to hold back to the point that it doesn’t show at all. It’s truly amazing”

I don’t have that kind of power.
It was a horrible misunderstanding but I left it that way.
In order to have Alice mimic me and learn restraint.
If it went well, she would become able to control her overwhelming power and live normally with the others.

That’s what I thought.
However my naive thoughts brought tragedy.

Alice became too conscious of holding back and began to forcefully suppress her power.
With no place to go, that tremendous power gradually accumulated inside of her.

Then half a year after I started living with Alice, the incident occurred.


Having learnt to restrain herself, Alice no longer pulverised monsters in one attack.
She became better at stunning monsters and fulfilling capture requests.

However, the one that we met at the valley of chaos was completely different from the others.
I have no idea how that thing came to be.
It was an amalgamation of various monsters, a mutant known as a chimera that took Alice’s strike and without being stunned launched a counter attack.

Alice was caught off guard for the first time.
And not just Alice.
Nuruhachi, Rick, Sasha, Batz, and me too of course, everyone in the party overestimated Alice’s attack.

Alice reflexively dodged the chimera’s attack.
However, standing behind her stunned, was me.

With a crushing sound, my body was squashed.
I didn’t understand what was going on at all.

In my fading consciousness the one thing I could tell was that things had gone bad.

“aaAAaaaaAAAAAaaaaAAa!!”

Alice lets out a war cry like scream.
My withdrawing consciousness returns to me.
An unbelievable amount of power erupted from Alice.

Her power had began to rampage.

Alongside Alice’s cry, the chimera was torn to pieces in an instant.
Flesh and blood fell down on Alice like rain.
Even though the battle was over Alice’s rampage didn’t stop.

“Alice stop! Sasha heal Takumi. Rick defend everyone. Batz give me support”

I had never seen Nuruhachi panic this much before.
That was how aberrant Alice was.

“Takumi don’t move! Your healing isn’t…..”

I shook Sasha free and walk towards Alice.

“Don’t get close. That’s no longer something we can handle! …..Gah!”

Nuruhachi tried to stop me but got blown back when she got in range of Alice.
Batz’s danger perception was of almost no use.

Alice was being controlled by her vast strength and was unable to control her destructive impulses.

I ignored Nuruhachi’s orders for the first time.
I couldn’t leave Alice alone in that state.
Having managed to suppress her strength, Alice caused me to get injured and is now out of control.

I dragged my feet as I approach Alice.
Strangely I wasn’t scared.

Aah, I see.

I always felt as if something was loose.
No matter how much effort I put in, my body never grew stronger.
Like a vessel with a hole in it that water endlessly pours into, that was the void I always felt.

For what reason was I born.
Will I die without accomplishing anything.
With that train of thought, while being the weakest, I aspired to be an adventurer and was protected by Nuruhachi and the others.

However I understood clearly then.

Just as the strongest in this world exists, so does the weakest.
It was for that reason, in order to stop Alice, that I was born.

Alice’s full power punch flew right before my eyes.
I didn’t even attempt to dodge.
No, there was no way for me to dodge.
Perhaps it was a coincidence. Perhaps it was a miracle.
Or perhaps it was fate.

My wounded body, no longer able to support my weight, fell down.
Alice’s fist flies just over my head.

In that state, I rested my hand on Alice’s head.

“…..Takumi?”

The rampaging Alice returns to her senses.

“Takumi, what’s wrong!? You’re bleeding!?”

Maybe she lost her memories, Alice has no understanding of what happened.

“It’s alright, Alice”

I pat her on the head.

“Don’t worry. Everything is over now”

Alice stares at the decimated chimera, Nuruhachi who has been blown into the ground, and me covered in wounds.

“Takumi is amazing. Even me at my full power is no match”

Her eyes are tearing up but even then Alice scrunches her face and laughs.

“Takumi is the strongest in the universe”

While patting her head, I too laugh within my heart and reply.

“Ah, I’m glad you understand, that’s exactly right”