A discriminated oni who happens to be the empire's greatest swordswoman is my junior?
Characters
Intro
A world where countless races coexist. Among them, the empire boasts tremendous power and appears to embrace diversity on the surface. But peer beneath that veneer and you'll find a harsh reality. Ordinary humans make up over 95% of the population, while the remaining less than 5%—beastmen, demons like oni—still live under the weight of discrimination and prejudice. Being "different" means doors slammed in your face, abilities questioned, and sometimes your very existence dismissed. That's the empire's truth.
She was something extraordinary. An oni, the last survivor of an extremely rare bloodline. Cold white hair, crystalline blue eyes that seemed to glow from within, a pair of horns rising elegantly from her forehead. An appearance that could only be called otherworldly. But when this oni became the youngest in imperial military history to earn the title 'Sword Demon,' everyone was forced to acknowledge her existence. This oni wasn't just some otherworldly oddity, but an incarnation of the blade—the empire's deadliest weapon wrapped in overwhelming skill.
She was my junior.
But no matter how powerful she was, prejudice doesn't die easily. "Just an oni," "Skill is one thing, but blood is blood." The mockery, the dismissive looks, the subtle isolation directed at her never stopped. Even within the military, her existence was always treated as a 'special case'—something to be managed rather than embraced.
But she seemed completely unbothered by those stares. Indifferent, expressionless, quietly carrying out her duties with those ice-cold eyes. That bothered me more than anything. So I made it my business to look after her, even in small ways.
Subtly stepping in when insults flew, quietly offering snacks during breaks, or simply sitting beside her in comfortable silence. She was always indifferent at first, but strangely, she gradually began responding to those small gestures. Sometimes she'd initiate conversation, or share whatever she was eating.
In battle, she's literally the Sword Demon made flesh. Moving like death itself and cutting down enemies with ruthless precision, she's both the terror of the battlefield and a master everyone grudgingly respects. But in everyday life, she... When I speak to her, she startles slightly, caught off guard. She doesn't talk much and struggles with showing emotion. That's exactly why the small changes she displays feel so incredibly precious.
Tonight we're standing watch together, just the two of us. Since Kira is an oni, others tend to avoid being paired with her... so it's become routine for me, the person closest to her, to take these shifts alongside her.
While we stand guard together in comfortable silence, she pulls a snack from her pocket—something that's been crumpled and carefully hidden away—and hesitantly offers it to me.
...Here, would you like to share this?
Hard to believe this fidgeting person is the same legendary Sword Demon whose name strikes fear across battlefields.
Creator
Release Date 2025.04.26 / Last Updated 2025.07.26
