The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 8

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 8
According to Beriti, he lacked the ability to open this barrier himself.
“But with your Open/Close ability, you should be able to manage it.”
“But the last time I tried to open a barrier…….”
“I’ve heard from the Lord that you coughed up blood and collapsed.”
Fortunately, Beriti didn’t push the matter carelessly.
The uniform-wearing demon taught me a trick instead.
“You don’t need to open the entire barrier—just touch enough of it so the three of us can pass through. Imagine there’s a door here.”
“A door?”
“The only entrance and exit on this great wall of a barrier.”
Encouraged by Beriti’s gentle urging to take my time, I closed my eyes and pictured a single door in my mind.
A rectangular, elongated door panel.
The handle was on the right side.
‘Right at about this position…….’
As I reached out, I felt something round and smooth beneath my fingers.
“So what should I do now?” Beriti asked, his tone bright with anticipation.

‘Well…….’
I had to open it.
I turned my hand slowly to the right.
Click.
The sound of a lock turning rang clear in my ears.
With a strange sensation of strength draining away, we stepped into the Primordial Forest.
Ian spoke up.
“Hebenia, are you all right?”
“Yeah.”
Just a little tired—otherwise, I was fine.
“Miss, close the barrier now.”
“Oh, of course.”
Click.
Another lock sound echoed.
‘Oh, I’m getting the hang of this?’
Closing the barrier went faster than opening it had.
‘But it really is dark.’
The Village had been bright with clear blue sky in the morning, but the Primordial Forest was as quiet and dark as eternal night.
The only light came in thin shafts, slipping through whenever the branches of massive trees swayed in the wind.
Those gossamer threads of light revealed the forest in brief glimpses.
Buildings reclaimed by ancient trees and creeping vines.
“Judging by those structures, this appears to be a commercial district,” Beriti observed.
He pulled out a Winged Eyeball and threw it into the air; it burst with a bluish glow, illuminating the surroundings clearly.
“Before we begin training, I should warn you about a few things.”
For the first time all day, the middle-schooler demon’s smile faded.
“Most of the monsters gathered here have killed humans. Many have eaten them too. They’re every bit as dangerous as that suggests.”
At his grave warning, I found myself nodding involuntarily.
“So please follow my instructions exactly. Even if my orders seem unclear at first, or make you think I’ve lost my mind.”
“Understood!”
“Understood.”
“Good. Then, miss, if you’re willing—may I count the weapons and various aids we’ll use in this training as part of your wish?”
“That’s fine with me.”
With my permission, Beriti produced several weapons.
I fitted what looked like a Wrist Guard glove onto my right hand.
Ian, meanwhile, took on some basic protective gear and gripped a rusty, dull-edged sword in his hand.
Somewhere in the midst of all this, Beriti’s clothes had changed.
He’d swapped into a thick winter school uniform with a hoodie layered underneath, making him look thoroughly uncomfortable; he kept tugging at his collar like it was bothering him.
That was when it happened.
“Hebenia!”
Ian quickly pulled me behind him.
I swallowed hard.
A terrifying aura—the kind that made your bones ache and your breath catch, leaving you unable to move—came rushing at us like a storm.
‘T-this is pretty scary……’
Ian gripped the dull blade firmly with both hands and adjusted his stance.
“Your reflexes are sharp, Ian. That’s very good.”
Beriti offered the praise readily.
“These creatures must be delighted. It’s rare for anything weaker than themselves to appear.”
I studied Beriti’s school uniform.
‘That uniform is concealing Beriti’s power. So that’s why I couldn’t sense the killing intent when we first entered the Primordial Forest, but I feel it now.’
Yet the power wasn’t truly hidden away.
‘It’s still there.’
The monsters had already encircled the three of us.
But thanks to Beriti, who mocked them with such contemptuous ease, I found myself no longer afraid.
* * *
The training method was brutally simple.
Simply kill the monsters that came rushing in.
Shriek!
With a dull thud, the bizarre creature—a lion’s body crowned with a serpent’s tail—collapsed, its death cry still echoing.
It was the last of the monsters surrounding us to hold out.
“…Hah, hah!”
I exhaled the breath I’d been holding and collapsed to the ground. My right hand, fitted with a Wrist Guard, I clasped tightly with my left.
A body exhausted to the point of collapse, and a throbbing right hand.
‘I’m so tired.’
I had killed the monster that fell just moments before.
I’d hunted it by recalling what I’d learned from the Complete Clavis in One Volume that Beriti had given me, using the method of closing the creature’s vital points.
‘I really did kill it.’
The chilling reality of having ended a living thing struck me belatedly.
‘Can I truly wield this power responsibly?’
A saying came to mind—that great power demands great responsibility.
It was fortunate that the words came back to me now. If I could remember this feeling and never forget it, I would never abuse my strength.
“My, our young lady.”
A hand landed gently on the top of my head.
I looked up to find Beriti gazing at me with pride. His black uniform had grown even darker with monster blood.
“That last one you handled entirely on your own. Are you beginning to grasp it?”
“I can’t say for certain, but…”
I smiled awkwardly.
Open and Close.
The power to open and shut.
I wasn’t sure if I was using it correctly, but I could see that its versatility was terrifying.
‘I can at least protect myself.’
With that thought, I looked down at my right hand, where the pain had already subsided considerably.
“Why does it still hurt?”
“Muscle soreness.”
Beriti produced a small glass vial of Potion and sprayed it on my wrist. The pain vanished as if it had never been.
“According to the reports the Lord has given, you use your hands to channel your power. It was true when we entered the Primordial Forest, and just now in combat as well.”
Without conscious thought, you might strain your wrists, so I fitted you with the Wrist Guard as a precaution.
“That motion seems to be your own ‘Trigger’—the method you’ve chosen to activate your power.”
“Trigger?”
“It’s the motion that allows you to channel your strength powerfully, serving as concentration, aim, and detonation all at once. Like a kind of battle cry, if you will.”
Beriti then offered the vial to Ian as well.
While Beriti and I were talking, Ian was using the dull blade as a walking staff, breathing heavily with one knee bent.
‘Ian did remarkably well too.’
He’d defeated half the monsters alone.
And with nothing but that crude blade.
True to his earlier warning, Beriti had issued instructions throughout that seemed almost mad.
Things like inserting his arm into a monster’s mouth, or trimming its fur—instructions that made no sense.
Yet Ian trusted Beriti’s guidance implicitly and followed every word.
One monster lost all strength the moment a foreign object entered its mouth. Its vital point was hidden inside.
Another monster had carried poison in its fur. Thanks to trimming it short as Beriti instructed, Ian had avoided poisoning.
Beriti spared no praise for Ian.
“You exceeded my expectations! How’s your body holding up?”
“I feel like I’m dying…”
“Yet seeing you endure like this makes the future all the more promising. Your diligent efforts during exile are bearing fruit indeed.”
“Is that something to be counted as progress……?”
“It is progress. Bearing resentment in silence and enduring steadily—that’s no easy feat. If you’ve managed that, you can accomplish anything.”
At those words, Ian laughed as though he might cry.
Ian barely managed to drink the potion from the glass vial, then his eyes went wide as saucers.
“This… surely this isn’t Holy Water?”
“What?”
Startled in turn, I glanced at the empty vial in my hand.
Looking closer, I saw that the vial bore an embossed relief of a sacred angel’s wings.
The shock made me cry out before I could help myself.
“This insane demon!”
“Insane? How hurtful to the demon listening!”
“How can a demon carry Holy Water? Isn’t that suicide?”
“Such a thing to say!”
Beriti launched into an earnest tirade, explaining that demons also visit temples to pray and confess to priests, before boldly downing his own share of Holy Water.
“Wow…….”
A demon tattooed like an angel was strange enough, but now a demon who actually savored Holy Water?
‘Philosophers would love this.’
The coexistence of good and evil stood right here before us.
* * *
The fourth day of the Primordial Forest training retreat.
Beriti was deeply moved by how faithfully Hebenia and Ian had participated in the training.
‘They’re performing even better than I expected.’
The monsters dwelling in the Primordial Forest were no ordinary beasts.
They were calamities that had once destroyed entire nations, or demon gods once revered by heretical cults—all of them gathered here in this place.
‘Ordinary humans could never fight these creatures.’
Only a Transcender who had surpassed human limits, or something approaching that level, could hunt the monsters of the Primordial Forest.
‘The lady is a Clavis, so she’s outside the equation. It’s troubling that he possesses strength beyond expectations, but he’s learned to control his power through this training, so it should be fine.’
In truth, the person who surprised Beriti most was someone else entirely.
It was Ian.
‘Perhaps before long, he’ll be able to hunt monsters alone.’
Which meant.
‘He has the talent of a Transcender.’
A Transcender standing beside a young Clavis.
‘Is this mere coincidence?’
Just as that thought reached him, Hebenia called out to Beriti.
“How far in have we come? It feels like we’ve gone quite deep.”
“If we go a bit further, we should reach the outer boundary.”
At those words, Hebenia’s eyes gleamed, and Beriti ventured a question.
“Want to head out?”
“Hmm…….”
Hebenia glanced sideways at Ian.
The moment Ian heard the word “outside,” his face grew troubled—caught between the longing to leave and the fear of doing so, as though two opposing forces were warring within him.
“Ian.”
Hebenia spoke.
“Let’s scout outside for a bit. While we’re at it, we could slice through a few of the Emperor’s servants and dispose of them!”
“……Going out is fine, but let’s not cut anyone down.”
With that, the decision to venture outside was made.
The three of them huddled their heads together over a map.
“From our current position, the territory closest to Exilium is…….”
Beriti pointed to a city on the right side of the map.
Deste Marquisate
“It’s famous for Magitech.”
“Magitech?”
“It’s the study of applying magic to develop useful technologies. That’s why it’s quite prosperous for a border city. House Deste is also a venerable family.”
“Ah……?”
Hebenia, who had been making an absent-minded sound of acknowledgment, tilted her head.
‘That name sounds familiar.’
As she was trying to recall where she’d heard it, Ian beside her murmured in a subdued voice.
“Dalis’s…….”
“Hm? What did Aunt say?”
“Dalis’s maiden name was Deste.”
“…… Ah! Ah!”
Hebenia’s memory snapped into focus.
Murder of her husband. Child abuse.
And the victim in those charges—her husband—was Marquis Deste.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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