Ten-year-old strongest mage.

1-1 Happy mining slave.

'There you go, Ferris. Meal of the day!"

''Thank you"

　Ferris jumps and gobbles up the bread that her master throws on the ground.

　The dress is faded and torn in many places.

　Bare feet firmly on the rocky surface.

　Hair that has grown out of place.

　The master watched from a distance as the girl nibbled on the mouldy bread.

　Ferris, who turned ten this year, was a mine slave.

　As long as she can remember, she has been in this magic stone mine, working as a slave.

　A day in the life of Ferris begins with a crude bunk at the entrance to the mine.

　She wakes up on a Mushiro with tattered fibres and crawls out of the mine, where her master yells at her to go and dig for magic stone.

　Ferris takes a breath of fresh air, then dives into the mine and digs for the magic stone.

　The mine is pitch-dark, but after years of working in it, Ferris has developed good night vision.

　Ferris is the only one mining in the mine.

　When Ferris digs the magic stone and returns to the surface, she loads the magic stone onto a trolley and pushes the trolley away.

　The miners and masters at a distance receive it, melt it in the furnace and refine it.

　For some reason, the masters do not want to approach the mine entrance or Ferris. They cover their entire bodies with protective gear and even when they give them food, they just throw it at them.

　One time, after a miner approached Ferris breathing hard and collapsed, vomiting blood, the masters started talking to him from further away.

　Ferris learned to speak politely because she noticed that she could get more bread that way.

　If the masters are in a good mood, they get more bread.

　And the masters seemed to enjoy being respected by everyone.

　So Ferris listened to what the miners said when they spoke to their master and took care to respect him in a clean manner of speech, excluding impurities and accents that varied from person to person.

　Then, they used to get only a pinch or so of bread when their masters were in a bad mood, but now they get a proper pinch of bread.

　When the master was in a good mood, he would sometimes throw two or three loaves of bread. Thanks to this, Ferris was able to reduce the frequency of his stomach rumblings when he was hiding in the mine.

　Ferris was not stupid. If necessary for his own survival, he was able to observe and analyse his surroundings carefully and devise countermeasures.

　But Ferris was too selfless to only perform the analysis necessary for survival.

　But because there were too few people to see and not enough information.

　Ferris did not know why he was the only one being forced to dive in the magic stone mine.

　She did not know why she could dive in the magic stone mine and not die.

　In the first place, she did not even know that the magic stone mines are fatally harmful to humans.

　Ferris was content with the status quo.

　Because she didn't know that there was a better life than this.

　She vaguely remembers living in a house long before she was brought to the mine.

　But the memories are hazy to a point, leaving little presence in Ferris's interior.

　Ferris was happy just to have a place to shelter from the wind and rain, to have something to eat and no one to threaten her life.

　Yes, she didn't know that the sharp pain that sometimes stung her chest was loneliness, and she didn't know that she was lonely.

　Nor did she know that the burning feeling in her chest when she saw her masters eating their sandwiches and meat with relish was envy.

　Ferris was a happy mine slave.

　...... until she secretly heard that conversation between the masters that day.

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　It was a rare occasion when Ferris had trouble sleeping and spent the whole night groggy.

　The morning sun was shining inside the mine, and Ferris opened his eyes, blurry in his bunk.

　From outside, she could hear the noise of miners getting ready for work, and their sleepy chatter.

'Is that kid still sleeping? We're busy early in the morning.

'Absolutely, man. If I was a bit sexier, I'd bring her into the inn for a night's work.'

'Ha ha ha, joking. 'If you strip me like that, I'll be atrophied in no time.'

　Vulgar laughter.

　I don't know what they're talking about, but I know they don't have good feelings towards me. Ferris hugs herself tightly and shrinks back.

'I mean, working with a monster like that every day, it makes you feel dark.

'Oh. 'The way she gorged herself on the bread on the ground, she's a complete animal. We have girls, but I don't want to think of them as ...... the same creature."

　A snide remark pierces Ferris's small chest.

　She had never heard anything like this before.

　He was usually so exhausted from his mining job that as soon as the sun went down he was in a back-and-forth coma, so he had no way of knowing what the miners were usually saying behind his back.

　Ferris had no common sense or knowledge, but he did have feelings.

　No, because reason occupied such a small proportion of her soul, the hostility directed at her by others was felt more strongly.

'Hey, boys. C'mon, guys.'

　At that moment, she heard her master's chiding voice.

　Yes, it's him, Ferris thinks.

　The master is kind. He gives us food. He even gave him a bed to sleep on. He also gives us drinking water, though it is brown and muddy. People who give you what you need to live are good people.

　The master will make everyone stop bad-mouthing him.

　Ferris hoped so.

　But the words that came out of his master's mouth were.

'Ferris is a kid who is worth using. Monster or beasts, it doesn't change the fact that she is useful.'

But hey, mister ......."

　The master interrupts the miner as he is about to speak and continues.

'Well, I'm sure you'll be so battered and bruised that you won't be able to eat, so you can do what you want with yourself. Until then, you've got to keep them in a good mood and make them earn their keep. That piece of rubbish is happy when you give her rotten bread."

Heh, no different.

She's a scavenging trash, man.

'Ah, stinky stinky.'

　Mockery.

　Ferris bit down on her back teeth, just in time.

　Her chest, her head, her whole body, was hot with a cackle.

　Ferris didn't know that it was an emotion called anger, though.

　I don't want to be with those people any more.

　I don't want to work here.

　It was enough to make up her mind.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)