Chapter 8

" Tina! It went that way!! "

" Leave it to me. "

One day, a month after my reincarnation, I found myself in the forest near the mansion with Tina.

Here, I was doing my first hunt.

The target was a monster. In this world, you can level up and become stronger by defeating monsters.

It's rare for a child from an ordinary family to start leveling up by defeating monsters at the age of five. However, in the Silveray family, it has been a tradition for children to begin combat training at the age of five, and once they have gained a certain level of strength, they transition to monster hunting training.

When a large number of monsters appear in the Silveray territory, the head of the household—my father, the earl—personally leads his private army to hunt them down. This is something that all the previous heads of the household have done. The head of the Silveray family cannot be a weakling.

Even though I am the third son, I, born into the Silveray family, needed to become strong. Of course, it was customary to have high-level knights watch over the children during training to ensure they didn't get hurt, and high-level healers would accompany them in case of emergencies.

However, the only person accompanying me for my monster hunting training was Tina. My father judged that one person with combat abilities surpassing high-level knights and the ability to use high-level healing magic was sufficient.

Over the past month, I had trained in magic and swordsmanship with Tina, and I had fully felt her greatness. I followed my father's decision without hesitation.

" Ice Wall! "

Tina's magic created a wall of ice, cutting off the escape route of the monster that was fleeing from me.

" Thanks, Tina. "

I rejoined Tina.

" Yes. More importantly, be careful. Even though it's weak, it's still a monster. "

" Yeah, I got it. "

I turned my attention to the rabbit-like monster with a single horn on its forehead—a Horn Rabbit.

The Horn Rabbit had been trying to break through the ice wall with its horn to escape, but Tina's magic was too strong. Realizing it couldn't break through the wall, it changed direction and ran towards the only remaining escape route—the back, which was where I was.

" Master Halt! "

Tina called out, worried about me.

But I was fine.

My magic was already prepared.

" Fire Lance! "

A finely shaped spear of flame pierced the body of the Horn Rabbit that was charging at me.

The Horn Rabbit died instantly from that one blow.

" In one hit... That's amazing, Master Halt. "

" Thanks to Tina's magic, it had no choice but to come straight at me. "

" Even so, it's not easy to calmly deal with a monster suddenly charging at you—H, Halt, are you okay!?"

I realized my body was shaking.

I had seen the blood from the Horn Rabbit, which had stopped moving, flow to my feet. Even including the seventeen years I had lived in my original world, I had never directly killed an animal before.

" Tina... I, I killed a living thing—"

" Master Halt. "

She hugged me tightly.

" The Horn Rabbit is a weak monster. It doesn't directly harm humans, but its meat is delicious, so many carnivorous monsters gather to hunt it. If you don't regularly hunt them, they can attract stronger monsters. "

Tina was trying to justify my actions. I understood what she was saying. I thought I understood. But I realized I didn't understand anything at all.

" The world you live in is like this, Master Halt. "

Tina, who had moved away from me, took out a dissection knife and approached the Horn Rabbit. Many monsters in this world are edible, and I had eaten Horn Rabbit meat several times before.

" I... I'll do it. "

" Teach me how to dissect it. "

" As you wish. Master Halt, you are very strong. "

I took the dissection knife from Tina.

It felt very heavy today, even though I had held it several times as part of my training.