I don’t know how old exactly Illness-san is, but I’ve confirmed from Frea-san’s previous story that she has been around since at least 20,000 years ago, before Alice created the Six Kings and Peerage Ranking System in the Demon Realm.
[Kaito-samaaaa, do you know about the Unique Demooooons?]
[Y- Yes, I’ve heard of it. They’re Demons who were born from magic power, a classification of species that only consists of one person, just like Ein-san, right? However, I don’t know much more than that……]
[Yeeees. There’s no problem with that understandiiiiiing. A singular species of Demon——– while there maaaaaaay be other species with abilities similar to them, there aren’t aaaaaaaany other beings of the same species as them. That saaaaaid, the existence of Unique Demons themselves is still a mysteryyyyyy, so there are still many aspects of which we do not knoooooooow.]
[Is that so?]That was quite surprising. While there are numerous species in the Demon Realm, the existence of Unique Demons, such as Ein-san, should have been around for a considerable time. However, the fact that there are still so many mysteries about them even today, does that mean they are that rare?
[There’s a greeeeeat amount of individual differences between Unique Demooooons. Soooooome are born in fully developed forms that could be considered adults from biiiiiiiirth, while otheeeeers are born in infantile forms and groooooow over time. The magic power and physical capabilities also varied widelyyyyy. Not only thaaaaat, the innate knowledge they are born with aaaaaalso varies. Some are born with a wealth of knowleeeeedge, knowing many things from birth, while otheeeeeers possess only the most basic knowledge.]
[How should I say this…… There’s no uniformity between them huh.]
[Yeeeees. Even though they are referred within the singular teeeeeerm “Unique Demons”, their nature and characteristiiiiiiics are incredibly diveeeeeerse. In the latest academic studiiiiiiies, there aaaaaare statements suggesting the possibility that the magic power converged withiiiiiiiin the Unique Demon during their birth miiiiiiiight be related to the knowledge they are born wiiiiiiith, but everyooooone is still not sure what exactly the answer is.]
[I see……]
Now that she mentioned it, I vaguely recall hearing about this from a casual conversation with Alice. That new species within the Unique Demons have been almost non-existent recently, and the past has seen an overwhelmingly large number of births within their category…… Alice also mentioned that in the past, the Demon Realm had constantly been marked with battles occurring, and the state of magic power in each region was extremely unstable, which is why she conjectured that Unique Demons were more likely to be born in such an environment.
[I was alsoooooo born as a Unique Demon, possessing a consiiiiiiiiderable amount of knowledge and strong abilities from the moment of birth. Even my appearaaaaaance has remained unchanged since birth. If I were to point out somethiiiiing, it would be that my magic power was slightly less, but that’s only in comparison to my peeeeeeers. When compared with the entire Demon Reeeeeealm, I was born with an exceptionally laaaaaarge amount of magic power.][How should I say this…… I can’t quite imagine it myself, but being born suddenly with knowledge and significant power feels like it could be quite bewildering.]
[That’s riiiiiight. Of course, I did feel confused back theeeeen. Howeveeeeeer, I wasn’t the type to ponder questions to myseeeeelf, and since I was born with a lot of knowleeeeedge, I was soon able to calm dooooown. After composing myseeeelf, the first thing I did was to check my abilitiiiiiiies. My earliest memory begaaaaaan with the inspection of the being that I am.]
Only the person themself can know in detail what it’s like to have a certain level of knowledge and power from the moment of birth.
Ein-san told me that she had been raised by Kuro, so it’s possible that in her case, she was born as an infant that had grown with the passage of time.
[My eyes were a biiiiiiit unique. My eyes can visually perceive eveeeeen the magic power in the air not channeled through spells. It’s an ability I can switch off at wiiiiiill, but even when trying not to see magic power, my dynamic vision is abnooooooormally high, to the extent that they can eeeeeeeven be called Demon Eyes. Howeveeeeeer, I can see a liiiiiittle too much and get tired with it, so I usually unfocus my eeeeeeyes.]
[Ahh, I see, that’s why you’re usually……]
The reason why Illness-san’s eyes were unfocused was because her eyes were too good that she ended up getting tired……
[Using those eeeeeeyes, I learnt how to operate my bodyyyyy. In the Demon Realm at that tiiiiime, there were battles all over the plaaaaaace, so I used the movements and magic flow of thoooooose who seemed strong as a reference and trained myseeeeeelf. I didn’t reeeeeally have any particular thought of wanting to become strongeeeeeer, but I thought it was the right choice to be able to uuuuuuse my body’s abilities to the fullest.]
[Speaking of which, Illness-san uses your opponents’ power against themselves…… fighting in a way that you could elude or control their power, just like Aikido back in my world, right?]
[That’s riiiiiiiight. Since I can visually perceive magic power if I wanted to, this makes it easy for me to read the flow of an opponent’s magic power, so my fighting style would naturally end up being in that direction.]
I see, since she has eyes that can visually perceive even the magic power in the air not channeled through spells, it would make it easier for her to anticipate an opponent’s movements, so having such a fighting style seems to be quite logical.
How should I say this…… I’m quite happy to have learned various things about Illness-san that I didn’t know before.
<Afterword>
Serious-senpai : [……Hmmm. It seems like he might have realized the truth of the world. With many mysteries still surrounding and possessing numerous unique abilities, furthermore, in recent years, there has been no newly born Unique Demon. It was as Makina said before. Regarding those Demons, Shiro said that she had been doing various experiments with creating beings…… In other words, does this mean that? Seriously, isn’t she likely the root cause of most things……]
