Unable to find any monsters, the girl increases her altitude to get a better mental map of the area. Using the town as a bearing, she can see four distinct roads branching out from it in the cardinal directions. Despite her high altitude, there don’t seem to be any other towns in her sight. Far off the southeast of the town is a large clearing with what appears to be an encampment; strangely, the encampment is cut off from any road.

Nodding to herself in satisfaction, she lowers her altitude until she’s just above the trees and flaps along leisurely, looking for a monster to slay. She can’t fly for much longer, though. Not being used to flying is taking its toll on her already injured body. She will have to return to the earth shortly.

Let’s see, that was about half an hour of flight, I’d guess. It seems this is my limit for now. Night falls, and the girl lights her torch with fire magic and travels the forest on foot. Several hours pass as she searches far and wide for any monster at all to hunt. However, none can be found. I should have fought that orc when I had a chance. She thinks back to the strangely peaceful encounter and lets out a sigh. Eh, maybe not.

Walking in silence, the girl hears a deep breathing sound, something from a large animal. She looks around for the beast, but the dim light of her torch makes it difficult. The animal is nowhere to be found, or perhaps just beyond the torchlight. She brushes the torch on the ground, killing her light in hopes of regaining her night vision. She stands quietly in the darkness as she waits for her vision to adjust. Come on, where are you.

Quaking footsteps can be heard rushing towards her, and in an instant, a massive dark figure knocks the girl off her feet. Still dealing with her previous wounds, the girl forces herself back up to her feet and looks around for the beast. She sees it standing before her: a rabbit twice the size of a horse with two long tusks. Perfect! A horned rabbit tusk is considered valuable since they have a very low birthrate, contrary to other rabbits. It is, however, a monster like any other and is not a fight most adventurers would take alone, not that the girl has any choice.

The rabbit quickly slams its tusks against the girl, launching her towards a tree and leaving her dizzy. A dull pain runs through her chest. The rabbit then charges directly at her in an attempt to impale her with its tusks. Realizing the danger, the girl spreads her wings and immediately jumps into the sky. She holds her sword down as the rabbit charges into it, but her grip on the sword is too weak, causing it to be flung out of her hands, and it lands somewhere in the darkness.

The girl drops from the sky onto the rabbit’s back and leans in to punch it in the neck. The rabbit bucks several times, and with its large weight, manages to throw her off before she can do anything. She skids across the ground and rolls several times.

The rabbit then attempts to trample her, jumping up and down repeatedly. The girl gets the wind knocked out of her as the rabbit’s massive paws come crashing down on her back. Crushed under the weight of the giant rabbit, unable to move, she can only rely on her fledgling magic. In her mind, she imagines a massive fireball with burning heat. Her hand quickly bursts into a flame just large enough to cause the rabbit to panic.

The rabbit turns to run off, and the girl frantically searches for her sword. Within moments she grabs it, and despite her mounting pain, she manages to fly off into the sky. She peers down at the retreating rabbit and readies her sword. Finally, the girl drops into a falcon dive and, with her sword in hand, swings at the rabbit’s nape. The force of falling from such a height shatters the vertebrae in the rabbit’s back with a sharp crack. The sword, overburdened, shatters from the hard impact against bone; A weak iron short sword isn’t made for use by demons. The girl lets out a sigh as the handle of her sword falls to the ground.

That was cutting it way too close. The girl sighs while thinking back to the sloppy battle with such a harmless-‘looking’ monster. The rabbit, clinging on to life, lets out a terrible noise. With its spine broken and now wholly unable to move, the only thing it can do is whimper.

The girl clasps her satchel and bites her lip. She was entirely unprepared for how hollow her victory would feel. She reaches into her satchel and pulls out a small knife. Gripping it tightly, she walks up to the limp body of the rabbit. Reaching her hand out, the girl pets the soft fur on the rabbit’s head. The rabbit’s big eye looks directly at her, cold and exhausted.

“I’m sorry.”

The girl takes her knife and cuts the rabbit’s throat, causing blood to spurt out. The whimpering sound fades in a few moments, accompanying an overwhelming stench of iron, and the forest is silent. With tears in her eyes, the girl brings her hands together in a silent prayer for the life she just took.

The girl hesitantly moves to butcher the monster. Considering her lack of storage space, she primarily wants the monster’s mana core and its tusks. She also takes some meat on a few sharp sticks. The girl claws at her arm as she has no choice but to leave the rest of the creature behind. She silently backtracks for a while until she reaches the riverbank she was at previously.

The girl makes a small stack of sticks at the riverbank and uses fire magic to light a campfire. Atop the fire, she roasts the meat she got from the horned rabbit, then painfully chews it, forcing herself to swallow the previously living creature. As she remembers the rabbit’s soft fur, her stomach wretches.

Once her stomach settles, the girl lays back. Laying on the gravel, the girl gazes up at the stars above. Oh, stars above, please guide me. I don’t know who I am or who I’m supposed to be. I won’t be a monster, so please let me live a normal life. The girl performs a small prayer hoping that someone might answer, though the riverbank is silent.

I don’t know who I was, but I can’t let that stop me. I need to be someone. I need a name. The girl lays there pondering what she might choose for herself. The girl sighs before her mind wanders elsewhere. She gazes at the moon as it hangs there, high above her worldly problems.

“Lunella…”

The girl names herself after the moon. When faced with hardships that make her question just who she is, she can now respond with certainty. A name is more than just an arbitrary designation. A name you take yourself is a promise to become the person you are meant to be. Without fully realizing it yet, the name she chose has already taken shape in her heart.

Feeling at peace, Lunella fades off into a shallow sleep.

Lunella finds herself in a dark place, a plane wrapped in shadow. No matter how she adjusts her eyes, she can’t seem to make out any shape or figure, only black. Feeling a moment of fear, she shouts out.

“Hello…”

“Hello… hello… llo…”

Her greeting echoes back to her as if this space goes on for miles. Finally, she notices a dimly lit hooded figure facing away in the distance. She slowly approaches the figure before a soft, feminine voice comes whispering out.

“Lunella, huh? That’s a nice name.”

“Who are you?”

The figure reaches up and slowly pulls the hood back, revealing locks of silver hair. In that instant, Lunella wakes up as if it were a night terror, her heart attempting to rip open her chest. As she surveys her surroundings, she appears to be on the same riverbank as before. Her fire becoming embers as the time to fly into town draws near.