Mahoutsukai no Yome (The Ancient Magus' Bride)

You're going to ruin her if you continue to do nothing more than let her live with you.

Elias...

That's right.

His name was given to him by my master.

Welcome, Elias, to this dizzying, disgusting, beautiful world.

All right, take care of Elias for me,

Lindel.

This is all so sudden.

Well, from now on, you're Elias.

For a few years, the two of us traveled the forest, chasing reindeer.

We traveled, enjoying the sight of the lakes and fields as we went.

Hey, what are you doing?

You shouldn't take things you aren't even going to eat.

I shouldn't?

Elias seemed to be missing something.

He learned quickly, but he seemed as though he was looking at everything from the outside.

One day, when we were running low on food, we visited a home.

Hello, I'm a shaman.

Is there anyone sick or injured here?

Would you spare me some food in exchange for healing?

My grandson happens to be bedridden.

I can make use of my hands for a fever.

It must be awful for you.

You'll be better soon.

Sleep well.

You're his little sister?

Don't worry.

Your brother will be fine.

That man...

There's something in his shadow.

I'm scared!

What is it?!

It's a monster!

A m-monster!

Hurry!

It's evil!

It's a demon!

He was going to take the kid!

There was a child with the sight in the house.

Shit.

Sorry, Lindel.

It's not your fault.

You demon!

Demon!

I'll kill you!

Evil!

Demon!

Demon!

I'll kill you!

Send for help!

Stop, Elias!

Veil of the forest, lift yourself for us!

He's gone.

Where are we?

This is where the forest gods live.

Lindel.

This is what happens when I force myself to use magic.

We need to get out of here.

Spruce.

Take us outside, to Lindel's reindeer.

I taught him that.

You're surprisingly good with your hands.

I've seen you do this lots of times.

Thanks.

Is something wrong?

Lindel,

I'm pretty sure I've eaten humans before.

What do you think, Chise?

What if he's a man-eating monster?

I could see things from the other side ever since I was little.

A lot of them would talk about how tasty or gross humans are.

I was really scared.

But Elias has never scared me, not once.

So, if he really used to...

Tell him the rest yourself.

But you were the one who asked.

My bad.

You're well-spoken.

You should talk to him lots, too.

What did you say in response, Lindel?

Me?

I said...

I bet I'm tasty. Don't eat me.

I'm... not going to eat you.

Okay, good.

But sometimes I feel the urge to...

Even though I'm sure I don't really want to.

Aren't humans afraid of things like me?

Hey, there are lots of things that eat humans.

I have no reason to be fearful of you in particular.

Eat all kinds of things, and soon enough,

you'll forget all about your ambivalent taste for humans.

I kind of killed the conversation on purpose.

I was actually scared, after all.

You were, huh?

You'd be shocked, too, at least for a moment,

if you found out that the cat curled up on your lap actually ate humans, wouldn't you?

Comparing him to a cat?

Either way, my fears vanished as soon as I took a sip of the soup.

Also, that soup tasted unbelievably bad.

Thank goodness for Silky.

Still, humans are the most easily-scared and cruel creatures of all.

I told him he shouldn't tell people about it too much.

I don't know if he's following my advice, or if something else happened...

But he absolutely refuses to tell people about himself.

He's still stuck as a child.

Sorry for the long talk.

You should get some sleep.

Can't sleep, Chise?

Nah, thanks, Ruth.

Did I look tasty?

I guess I've heard something he didn't want to say.

It's morning.

Oh, right, I'm in the land of dragons.