A Girl Who Was Told “You Have No Talent” Turned Out To Be A Talented Monster

The Girl Was Told That She had No Talent

“You have no talent. Therefore, you are expelled from the party.”

The party leader, Aldis, told the girl. The girl accepted Aldis’ statement with a serious look on her face.

It had already been half a year since she became an apprentice to Aldis, the hero she admired. Laundry, cooking, luggage carrying, cursing, violence. Every possible necessity and unreasonableness, the girl silently accepted. Even if the girl was not at fault, if Aldis were displeased, he would hit her. They would spit on her.

Her light pink hair, which was supposed to be beautiful, was now all dirty.

They would not even let her carry a weapon for self-defense, and she had to pull the cart as hard as she could with her small body.

Meals were the leftovers from the last meal, and sometimes there was even nothing left behind. Always hungry, she barely had time to sleep.

Whenever they were camping outside, most of the time she was the one who was assigned to watch over the camp. It was not uncommon for her to get almost no sleep at all.

Even so, the girl persevered. She was an apprentice, so it was only natural that she should be able to do this, was what she thought. In such a situation, Aldis, her mentor, was testing her, she believed.

The girl did not make a single unpleasant expression, on the contrary, she was always smiling. Whether she was kicked in the back or cussed, she interpreted that as she was the one in the wrong, and it would be fine next time if she was more careful. The girl was impossibly positive.

“Do you disapprove? But that’s a fact.”

“No, no…”

The party Yggdrasia was led by Aldis, the hero who conquered the unconquered Bottom of the World. Aldis, the leader of the party, could single-handedly wipe out thousands of monsters when he stood in the forefront while leaving not even a single survivor to harm the rear guard.

He was the only one in the world to have the highest class job of Ark Knight. He was versatile, courageous, a genius and a hero. People praised him without reservation.

“Finally, huh?”

Dorland, half-beast and half-human, could easily knock a dragon off its feet with a single punch. Many considered him a better fighter than Aldis when it came to fighting without magic.

No job pushed the limits of the body more than that of a World Grappler. His unarmed bursts of ki bullets were notorious for causing even magicians’ faces to pale.

“Now, now, she did her best, too. Right?”

The man who took the neutral position, Zuhl, can make all traps meaningless.

Even demons wrapped in tough scales would not pose a threat because of the poison he created. Sometimes, with one trap in place, it would be more than enough for him to hold back even a horde of monsters.

He combined Thief skills and dexterity, Ranger’s terrain awareness and trapping, and Assassin’s assassination skills into a single, fully upwardly compatible job. That’s what his job as a Shadow Ranger is all about.

“It helped relieve some of the stress, didn’t it?”

Clarine, the party healer who is also infamously known as the Lazy Nymph, was as rude and foul-mouthed as her nickname suggested. However, her timing of support and recovery magic, which was even said to predict the future, was nothing short of divine.

The Holy Bishop class surpassed the Bishop class, which was the highest level of the clergy. It was generally believed that it was difficult to cure illnesses with healing magic, but a Holy Bishop could do so.

“If you combine fire and wind, that magic will be complete…”

Bandera, the feared sorceress known as the Fire of Disaster, was so absorbed in her reading that she didn’t even look at us. Her only curiosity was magic.

Sage referred to a higher rank of sorcerer, and there were only a few of them in the world, including Bandera. Combined with her alias, a single shot of magic could kill or destroy any living creature.

Dorland stood alongside Aldis and looked down at the girl. The girl only looked up at the big man quietly, even though he was oozing with intimidation as he stared down at her.

“Our next goal is to reach the ceiling of the world. You are 15 years old but still have no experience, skills, or titles. Anyone capable would have developed by now. You’d be better off back in your village, working the fields.”

The reason why Yggdrasia brought the girl with them from a village they had stopped in was solely on the whim of Aldis.

A play on the devil’s errand because she was not talented. To put it another way, he plainly just wanted to bully the weak.

The parents, who sent their daughter off on her own, had high hopes that a group of world-renowned heroes would be able to bring fame to her, and they could not have expected what it actually entailed.

The girl’s village was in a remote area deep in the mountains. The only income they could earn was from the small amount of crops they grew. The only thing she was looking forward to, were the occasional idle stories of travelers that came to the village. Stories that were longed for by the Girl.

In the world, there were endless underground corridors.

In the world, there were gardens that led to the sky.

In the world, there were walls sealed with darkness.

A story of a brave man astride a dragon who challenged the world.

The story of the girl who could manipulate things at will.

These stories were not always true. The more she heard, the more her longing for the outside grew. But her parents were against it. There was no way they would allow their only daughter to be sent off to become an adventurer.

Even if she tried to imitate a swordsman by swinging a wooden stick in secret, she always got caught and scolded. The closed environment oppressed her, but it did nothing to stop her.

She didn’t want to be the hero of the story. That supporting role, no. She didn’t even care if she was just watching from afar.

She just wanted to see it, wanted to hear, wanted to feel it. She could barely sleep at night just fantasizing about it.

If Aldis and his group had not appeared, the girl might have ended up living her whole life in the village. Or she might have tried to run away one day.

If Aldis had not found the girl wielding a wooden stick like she usually did, if he had not said, “You have some potential, let me make you my apprentice”.

***

“Please let me watch your swordsmanship! If that doesn’t work for me, I will give up!”

“Oh, yeah. That’s not very satisfying, is it? Okay, this Aldis-sama will give you a chance.”

“Really? Thank you very much!”

“It’s a little too early to thank me, don’t you think? After all, you’re going to spend a week in the Demon Forest. If you survive, you will not be expelled.”

“The Demon Forest?”

Only the girl did not understand the true meaning of Aldis’ smirk. Even Dorland, who had just criticized the girl, turned to Aldis and frowned.

Clarine blurted out something in agreement, and Bandera stopped reading. They all figured it out.

“So, what are you going to do?”

“I’ll do it!”

“Okay, we’re on our way. It’s just a few blocks from here.”

“Oh my… he really has a terrible personality.”

Clarine did not look disheartened as she spoke her assessment of Aldis without hesitation. Despite the girl’s excited anticipation, the group’s feelings were very different.

In the hours leading up to the Demon Forest, the girl struggled to get him to reconsider even a little bit. Her cooking skills were better than before, and she gained strength from pulling the cart. She was able to prepare the camp and keep an eye on things with precision. If a monster approached, she would notify it with a loud voice.

After the meal at the campsite near the Demon Forest, each member of the group was relaxing. The girl, on the other hand, was trying her best to satisfy her hunger by skimming the bottom of the pot.

“Hey, it’s funny to see someone who has no talent trying. Efforts are made by those who are successful, that’s why they are called efforts. Incompetence is just a waste of time.”

“Then Aldis, have you ever made that effort?”

“I don’t even have to try, Dorland, what about you?”

“I’ve been trying to keep my strength up, but ever since reaching the bottom of the world, I haven’t had the energy to do it…”

Aldis was a genius. He was born a commoner, but from an early age, he showed a talent for both swordsmanship and fighting, and by the time he was seven years old, he had surpassed all the adults in the world. In the following year, he defeated the lowest level of monsters by himself.

When he was 13 years old, the king heard about him and recommended him to be admitted to the Royal Academy, where many prestigious aristocrats were gathered. Although he was scolded for being a commoner, he graduated in just two years, silencing all opposition.

However, even the teachers were unable to talk back to him after only six months of his enrollment.

Even if he kept his mouth shut, he was admired and women would approach him. It was inevitable that he would develop a personality that would be compounded by arrogance, as he would never have the heart to care for the weak. In his spare time, Aldis would pick on girls.

“Hey, kid. Do you really want to be an adventurer?”

“Yes! In the village, I-“

“No, I don’t want to hear anything else. I don’t need you to repeat it.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Then you should be able to survive in the Demon Forest on your own, right? Kakakakaka”

Aldis’ words were lies. The “Demon Forest” was full of monsters that could only be defeated by adventurers of at least the fourth rank, in other words, adventurers who had been recognized for their achievements by the Adventurers’ Guild branch.

Even if such adventurers form a party, there would still be a possibility of death. It was not an environment in which a girl with no actual combat experience could survive.

“Tomorrow we will finally arrive at the Demon Forest. We will say goodbye there. We’ll talk about the rendezvous point later.”

“Yes!”

After arriving at the Demon Forest, everything else in the talk was a lie. He let a village girl face the hopelessness of death by making her have high hopes for the future. In his mind, he justifies it as kindness.

It was undeniably unfortunate for the girl to have met Aldis.

***

“Well, I’ll leave you here. I’ll be waiting for you at the entrance in a week.” (Aldis)

“Um, weapons?”

Aldis gave a disgusted smile, indicating his answer to the girl. Then he verbally slapped her with despair.

“What? You don’t need weapons in a place like this. What kind of adventurer are you if you can’t survive here unarmed?”

“Eh, is, is that so?”

“Besides, I told you that all you need to do is survive. In other words, you should be able to devise a way not to fight. Can’t you even come up with something like that, simpleton?”

“I’ll be diligent…”

As expected from the girl, despair came to her mind. At this point, she could hear the squeals of unknown monsters mixed in with several other sounds.

It was hard not to get scared and want to run away. But she also didn’t believe that it would be easy to make her dream come true.

“Now then, I’m going! See you in a week!”

“Oh, good luck.”

The girl did not look back and continued to head deeper into the forest. Shortly after, Aldis erupted in a laugh, Dorland giggled, and Clarine brushed her bangs before taking a deep breath.

Bandera was the only one who silently glanced over at Aldis.