I: Meeting my Master
I was in a wild, primeval forest, free from all human interference and infested with vicious monsters that ate each other to survive. In front of me, set against the backdrop of the moon above her, stood a beautiful, red-haired woman. The woman’s resolute gaze told me that this fantastical scene was no fantasy, but it was still hard to believe what she was saying.
She was telling me to become her apprentice—because I was eating monster meat.
Not because of my talent with a sword, but because of what I’m eating?
“It’s a slow process, but every time a person eats monster meat, they absorb some of that monster’s strength,” she explained. “I didn’t realize it until I was fifteen. You’re younger than I was then, and you’re already eating monster meat. That disgusting meat. Not just anyone is capable of that.”
Huh? You can get stronger by eating monster meat? Now that she mentions it, I do feel like I’ve gotten a lot stronger over the past year… Was that because of my all-monster diet? Wait, is she eating it too? But it’s disgusting!
“Well, I’m not eating it because I like it,” I protested. “I just don’t have anything else to eat, so I’m living like this, that’s all…”
“Really, you don’t? Are you an orphan? You don’t look like one…”
I was a prince, so naturally, I looked like a prince. There probably wasn’t an orphan anywhere in the world who dressed like I did. So, I explained everything that had happened to me up until that point to the woman. It was a disgrace to the kingdom, sure, but everyone in the castle already knew the score, so I didn’t feel any need to hide it.
“You were afraid of being poisoned, so you started eating monster meat?” the woman asked. “Even though monster meat is also poisonous?”
Oh, so it is?
I had thought something was off. When I’d first started eating monster meat, I had often gotten sick afterward, and even thrown up. Still, it was better than the poison in my food at the castle—that stuff made my food taster faint in agony from the smallest bite. And besides, after eating nothing but monsters for a while, my body had eventually adapted.
“Well, it’s not totally inedible, once you get used to it,” I said. People could eat anything if they were starving. Anything other than pure poison.
“Oho, I knew you had promise. But as long as you’re still afraid of poison, you’ve got a long way to go,” the woman said. Then, she put a hand into her breast pocket. “I bestow this upon you.” She took out a ring and tossed it to me.
A ring with some sort of ominous, purple gemstone set in it… This must mean what I think it does, right?
“Is this a magic item that makes its wearer resistant to poison?” I asked.
Magic rings that could neutralize any and all poison did exist. Of course, they were rare, and royalty the world over always wanted to get their hands on them, so they were incredibly valuable. You could buy a whole castle for the price one of those rings fetched whenever one was on the market. And unfortunately, our kingdom didn’t have any. And to think I stumbled across one in a place like this… What luck!
“No,” the woman said. “It’s a ring that poisons you.”
“Huh?”
“You won’t get anywhere if you rely on items to deal with something as trivial as poison. Just use your own strength to conquer it.”
If I could just conquer it, wouldn’t that mean it wasn’t poison?
Naturally, my inner monologue didn’t reach her, and she continued her explanation. “Hence, the ring,” she said. “By constantly poisoning yourself, you struggle against the poison, and by defeating it you can build up an immunity.”
What the heck is she talking about? Does she have a screw loose or something?
Yes, everything she said sounded correct, but if it was really that easy to become resistant to poison, no one would ever worry about poison.
“Um, how strong is the poison in this ring?”
“Hm? Well, it’s poison, so if a normal person puts it on, they’ll die. Also, if you put it on, you can’t take it off your finger until you either die or conquer the poison.”
That’s just a cursed item! Who the hell besides a suicidal person would ever put this thing on?!
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. Won’t I just die? Isn’t putting on a ring like this something you shouldn’t do, like as an intelligent person?”
“Don’t worry. You’ve already conditioned yourself to the poison in monsters, so you’ll be able to withstand it,” she said. “When I first put on the ring, it put me out of commission for a week, but I adapted. Now, it isn’t enough for me, so I’m wearing an even more powerful ring.” She showed me her right hand. There was a ring with a red gemstone on one of her fingers, and it radiated a truly menacing aura. “Besides poison, there’s paralysis, petrification, curse, and confusion all jammed into this little thing. You won’t find a beauty like this just lying on the side of the road. It took me a lot of work to get my hands on it.”
…Wow, she’s crazy. I absolutely shouldn’t have anything to do with her. Tomorrow, I’ll throw this ring into a lake or something.
Still, despite her dubious mental state, there was no doubting this woman’s abilities, so I decided to at least ask for her name, thinking it might be useful. “R-Really?” I started. “That sure is amazing. Um, I have to get back to the castle soon, so would you mind telling me your name? I’m a prince of Farune, and my name is Mars.”
“Mars? That’s a fine name. I’m Cassandra.”
Cassandra? I’d heard that name before. It was pretty common, but there was only one woman with that name who was also a red-haired swordmaster. “Could you be the swordmaster, the Red Demon Cassandra?!”
“That’s what they call me. Although I’m not really a fan of the nickname ‘Red Demon.’”
The Red Demon Cassandra—she was a monster, terrifying enough to make even the most hardened criminal shake in his boots. She was crazy about fighting. It was said that if she met a man, she killed him; if she met a sorcerer, she killed him; if she met a dragon, she killed it; and if she met a god, she killed it, too. In one story, a certain country demanded she submit to its authority. She had challenged everyone there, saying she’d serve the country if even a single citizen could beat her. She immediately brought the entire country to ruin. She was an uncontrollable berserker.
“You have seven days,” Cassandra said. “Show me you can conquer that ring by then. As your master, I’m giving you this task as your first trial. Let’s meet here again in a week, my apprentice.” And with that, she turned and vanished deeper into the woods without giving me a chance to reply.
“Well, I haven’t really decided yet if I want to be your apprentice…” I mumbled. I didn’t know what she’d do to me if I said it loudly enough for her to hear.
The ring felt strangely heavy in the palm of my hand.
II: A Ring of Poison Resistance and an Armlet of Strengthening