Chapter 118
Chapter 118
Chapter 118
For Eleanor, the fact that Lucia was a soldier was no big deal at this point.
Yes, that was certainly the case.
In the first place, it was something she could have fully expected from the moment she knew Lucia was hiding something from her.
However, what was no big deal to her…
“Ah…”
…was, for someone else, a shame so great they wanted to hide it for their entire life.
Lucia had always agonized over the fact that she was deceiving Eleanor. She felt an immense guilt that the relationship she had built was a complete fabrication from beginning to end.
The only reason she had been able to endure while maintaining such a lie was that the other person was a liar too.
But Eleanor had changed.
Unlike Lucia, she didn't want to remain a coward and wished to build something new.
She was different from Oz.
Even watching Oz break and rebuild his relationship, the thought that she couldn't do the same was sickening. She didn't have the courage. And even if she wanted to, she couldn't.
She was a soldier. One of the cogs that moved like clockwork.
She couldn't just arbitrarily end her current relationship just because she wanted to.
“No…”
Before infiltrating [Scientia], the only friend Lucia had ever had was Ulla, whom she had known since childhood.
But even that was an exchange between families, a professional connection. Yes, that was why Eleanor was the first.
The reason she could treat someone as a friend, not a soldier…
The reason she could sit on her bed at night and chatter away about the trivial things that happened during the day as if they were extraordinary…
The reason she could sit at a desk and rack her brain while studying with someone…
The reason she could form a relationship not as a soldier, not as an executioner of the Punisher family, but simply as a friend of the same age…
“Of all times, why now…!”
…was because the other person was a liar.
Because they were both liars.
It was because their relationship was built on such lies that Lucia had felt comfortable.
But Eleanor, having grown, tried to cast aside her liar self and reveal her true form.
That was painful.
Because even though the other person was being sincere, she had to continue her lies as part of her job.
As a soldier, she was not allowed to reveal the current deception.
But now, she no longer even needed to have such worries.
“To you of all people… I didn't want to be found out…”
Because their false relationship had come to an end in the most absurd way.
Lucia found herself so repulsive that she couldn't bear it.
Well, yes.
As always, it's the worst-case scenario.
But at this point, I’m not even surprised when things get twisted like this.
I'm just tired at the thought of having to sort this situation out.
Noah is fine.
Having been beaten down enough to become tough, something of this level won't break her mentally anymore.
“Lucia?”
“Noah, I…”
The problem, however, was Lucia.
Her mental fortitude was excellent due to her training, but this incident felt like everything that had been building up had burst at once.
For her, it must have been a series of new experiences.
She, who had blended into the group as a colorless entity, had been stained with color.
That was the life of a person named Lucia, not of a soldier, not of an executioner of the Punisher family.
Of course, it would feel strange. Everything was a first for her.
Yes, even figuring out how to handle a lie told to a friend was a first.
For her, fixing a relationship that had been a lie from the start would have been considered impossible.
But I had carved into her mind the fact that it was possible.
In Chrysos, I had redefined my relationship with Eleanor.
So what must Lucia have felt, watching that?
I had failed to consider that point.
“Th-That's not it… I…!”
Her self as a soldier and her self as Lucia were tangled up inside her, causing an overload.
She tried to make excuses as if by instinct, but she just stuttered, not knowing what to say.
“I can’t watch this.”
Intermediate Magic
[Fire Wall]
I twisted the formula to expand the [Fire Wall]'s range more than necessary. It’s inefficient and unstable, but that doesn't matter.
“Whoa?!”
This spell is meant to separate the two of them.
Not yet.
Lucia still needs to prepare herself mentally. No, it's probably not just Lucia who needs mental preparation. Eleanor also needs time.
She might not care that Lucia has been deceiving her all this time, but that's what makes it worse.
She won't be able to understand Lucia's pain right now, and because of that, Lucia will only get hurt even more.
Mediation is needed right now.
“Can we talk for a second? Luci…”
Just as I blocked the space between them with magic and tried to calm Lucia down first.
“This much is nothing…!”
Skak!
Scratches began to appear on the wall of fire. A golden radiance that dyed mana itself.
It was the [Key of Understanding].
“No way…”
This kid… she’s grown too much, hasn’t she?
The giant wall of fire should have been intimidating enough on its own, but she charged as if it didn't matter.
It's great to demonstrate your growth, but I wish she would judge the time and situation a little better.
“Stop! Noah.”
“Even if it's my master's request, I refuse!”
The golden radiance extending from beyond the wall of fire grew closer.
“I can see that Lucia is in pain, you know? I can't just pretend I don't see that and let it go!”
“This is driving me crazy.”
Does she not realize that her kindness is what’s cornering Lucia right now?
Then again, if she knew, she wouldn’t be acting like this.
“Marie.”
The [Fire Wall] will collapse in about five more strikes.
I need to buy time.
If I don’t calm Lucia down now, it’s hard to predict how tangled the situation will get.
“Just for a moment is fine, can you stop Eleanor?”
“Zzzzz…”
“Are you sleeping?”
You can sleep in a situation like this?
No, more importantly, you were just relentlessly attacking Stacia a moment ago, and now you can fall asleep?
This kid’s drunken habits are no joke.
…It was definitely Baekyang who gave Marie alcohol. I’m going to have to hit her once.
“Haaah…”
The situation is the worst. It's a regular occurrence, but this time, I’m a little short on time.
And does it even make sense to be in this situation because of an ally?
Alright, let’s observe the surroundings.
Two people who seem drunk on blood and alcohol, reeling.
One person in a state of panic.
One person like a wild boar, charging first and thinking later.
Five hesitant agents of [Tenebris].
One goblin, watching from the sidelines.
Ah, yes. Looking at it again, this situation is truly maddening.
The best I can choose is the lesser of two evils.
“If you can’t grasp the situation, just take those two and get out of here.”
“Ye… Yes!”
I said, grabbing one of the dazed [Tenebris] agents by the collar. With their elite agent Lucia in such a state, their entire chain of command has fallen apart.
It’s strange, though; even if there’s no one to give orders, there should be an emergency command structure.
Is it because they’re a unit focused on individual activities rather than being part of the regular army? Perhaps, aside from the elite agents who operate externally, they don’t even know how to function as soldiers.
If Ulla hadn’t left the scene under Lucia’s orders, the confusion wouldn’t have been this bad.
That one isn't as delicate as Lucia, so she would have been able to brush off being discovered by Eleanor.
“Alright, then…”
I need to teach a lesson to that boar-like charging girl.
Eleanor has grown in many ways.
But that's a matter of her personal mental strength; her ability to judge a situation is still lacking.
She doesn't know that the concern she's so desperately trying to show right now can be poison to someone else.
Because she’s an attention-seeker, she doesn’t know how to keep her distance.
Once she decides on something, she doesn't look back. But more than that, she doesn’t look at her surroundings either.
Right now, all she can see is the pale-faced Lucia being led away as if being dragged.
Beginner Magic
[Light Bomb]
I deployed a spell to shift the endlessly narrow-sighted Eleanor attention toward me.
It's just a beginner-level spell.
It will literally only serve to get her attention.
But that should be enough.
“Open.”
“This bastard?”
“The warmth of kindness!”
Eleanor’s greatsword glowed with an even brighter golden light. The spells I fired to get her attention shattered and were absorbed upon meeting that golden light.
The damn power of harmony.
What's more, because they were beginner-level spells, just touching them was enough for them to be converted directly into Eleanor’s power.
Now that I'm facing it as an enemy, it’s an unimaginably annoying power.
Eleanor absorbed the beginner spells I deployed one after another, charging forward without slowing down.
“…Right, you've gotten a bit of power recently, so your confidence has grown, is that it?”
What an insolent brat. Your head has gotten a little bigger, and now you don't even recognize who's above you?
When did you stop calling me Master? You're completely ignoring me.
Intermediate Magic
[Stalagmite]
“Ugh?!”
For the first time, Eleanor’s ferocious charge was hindered.
The power held by the [Key of Understanding].
It is certainly formidable. The power of harmony and severance, which can ignore an opponent's attack and cut off their very source, would be enough to grant her the qualifications of a protagonist on its own.
But she is still immature. She will grow even more in the future, but she still has a long way to go.
“Alright, shall I do something master-like for the first time in a while?”
“How…?”
As if she couldn't believe she was stopped by a mere intermediate spell, Eleanor turned her gaze toward me for the first time.
“The power of harmony is impressive, I’ll give you that. But it can’t help but be weak against phenomenon magic, which merely induces a phenomenon rather than being composed of magic itself.”
The power of harmony has the ability to dye the opponent's energy itself with its own color and make it its own.
But she should have realized this from the moment she fought the [Death King]'s incarnate body.
Even though she had managed to scar the incarnate body, the body itself had not been neutralized.
What the power of harmony can absorb is, at the end of the day, only energy. It cannot respond to pure physical force.
In the face of pure physical force, it's nothing more than a shiny sword.
“In that case…!”
Of course, Eleanor doesn't only have the power of harmony.
She has her own power that she had steadily built up, her mana.
“Haaaaaap!”
Eleanor’s sword took on a blue light as she began to imbue it with the power of mana instead of harmony. With that much mana, she should be able to lightly cut through intermediate spells like [Stalagmite].
However…
“The one wielding that power is far too inexperienced.”
Eleanor was still lacking.
She had merely acquired something special.
The experience she herself had accumulated was far from enough. I can see her next move clearly.
If the power of harmony doesn't work, she'll use another power. Yes, she’ll use mana.
Such a one-dimensional thought process.
“No matter how good your abilities are, it's useless if the software is a mess.”
Intermediate Magic
[Waterfall]
The power of mana simply increased sharpness and destructive force. Yes, it’s simple.
In that case, can that simple physical force cut something formless like water? Well, if one reaches the state seen in martial arts novels, it might be possible.
But not Eleanor.
“All you know is how to swing your power around, how to force your own dogmatic way.”
She lacks flexible thinking.
Then again, if she were capable of that, she wouldn’t have charged in like a wild boar in the first place.
“With such a simple way of thinking, it will be impossible to achieve your goal of rebuilding Chrysos even after a hundred years.”
“…”
Eleanor’s eyes, as she withstood the waterfall, quietly began to burn with heat. She wasn't swayed by the taunt.
Then again, being dogmatic also meant that one's own convictions were firm.
What dwelt in her eyes was not anger, but a look of someone trying with all their might to find a way.
Simply swinging power around was not enough. It must be supported by technique, supported by a plan.
She was desperately searching for that method right now.
“A good attitude.”
It seems I’ve done something master-like for a change. Then, this time, it’s time to do something not master-like, but me-like.
“But you have to pay the price for ignoring my words and running wild.”
“…Pardon?”
Searching for a method? Good.
But who is going to wait for that? A real battle is ruthless.
So, is this training? No.
Master or whatever, right now I need to collect the price for her insolence.
Before Eleanor could find a method, I prepared a new attack pattern.
If the first was phenomenon magic that induces a phenomenon, and the second was elemental magic that reproduces a waterfall using mana, then the third means is physical magic.
Yes, simple physical force. Punching power.
“Wai- Master?! No matter what, you can’t punch a girl in the face…!”
“That's not something the one holding a giant greatsword should say.”
Of course, I didn't actually hit her in the face. It’s not like we won’t see each other tomorrow, I wouldn’t do something that would hurt her feelings like that.
So, I struck her abdomen with all my might. An uppercut, or was it called a body blow? I don't really know.
“Keoheuk!”
Anyway, Eleanor, who had been blocking the pouring waterfall, knelt from the additional impact from below and was swallowed whole by the cascade.
“You’re quite weak to physical force. Strive to improve from now on.”
[Stalagmite], [Waterfall], and a simple body blow.
Phenomenon magic, elemental magic, physical magic. They were all called different things, but they were all the same in that they use physical force.
That will be the homework Eleanor must overcome in the future.
“Alright, then…”
The [Tenebris] members have safely evacuated with Lucia and Stacia.
The soaked Eleanor was pathetically stuck to the ground.
Two people remain.
Marie, dead drunk and asleep, and Baekyang, who was just observing the situation.
“Hellooo. The situation is a bit chaotic, but this worked out well. I had something to tell you anyway, Mr. Oz…”
“Come to think of it, when you get down to it, this whole mess is your fault.”
“Pardon…?”
The situation became twisted due to the intrusion of a drunk Marie, and the cause of that was the goblin in front of me getting her drunk.
This girl was the root of all evil.
“Well, the first time is always the hardest, the second time won’t be as hard, will it?”
“Huh? What are you suddenly talking about, no, more importantly, why are you approaching me with that expression…”
Yes, I had already become accustomed to exercising physical magic.