The Cause of My Mana Inability
It really was peaceful. Diana fussed over my posture and chattered away in a voice like tinkling bells. A disabled man and a beauty! That absurdly violent description was somehow painting the current scene in the softest, most tranquil light. After all, when a devoted beauty takes care of a crippled man and describes the world outside the window for him, it belongs in one of those heartwarming tales people love to tell.
Ha. Fuck. I loved her.
But I wasn’t actually disabled, and Diana’s attentive care doubled as strict surveillance. The only reason a perfectly healthy guy like me couldn’t move an inch was because this woman had trussed me up with ropes and shoved a gag in my mouth. My head was a complete mess, a perfect storm of rage and sheer disbelief.
How long have I been unconscious? Can I still enroll at the academy if I’m this late? How much time is even left?
The anxiety of missing the academy right in front of my eyes pressed down on me like a physical weight. At a moment when every second counted, I had to deal with this ridiculous situation. I could feel ten years of careful planning crumbling into dust all at once.
“Mmph… ngh!”
“Oh dear, is it uncomfortable? Just bear with it a little longer. If you make a fuss, we’ll be far too late.”
“Mmph mmph!!”
“I’m sorry. I really can’t understand what you’re trying to say. Why don’t we just look outside together?”
Despite everything, she was still Diana. Even after pulling off this insane, psycho-stalker kidnapping, she kept smiling gently, soothing me in that calm, friendly tone like nothing was wrong.
Why the hell?
No matter how I turned it over, I couldn’t make sense of it. The way I’d suddenly collapsed—she must have drugged me. That meant she’d probably arranged the café too, and the fact that the coachman hadn’t said a word proved the carriage had been prepared in advance. So she’d planned the kidnapping from the start.
But why?
I’d made a lot of money through business, sure, but it was barely enough to even register on a ducal house’s radar. There was no way they’d hand over their entire business foundation just because their youngest daughter had been taken. At most they might demand ransom, but that didn’t make sense either. The duke’s only daughter could get that kind of pocket change whenever she wanted.
So money isn’t the goal.
Once my thoughts reached that point, the heat of my emotions began to cool. When I finally touched the fundamental question—why?—it became crystal clear that this kidnapping hadn’t come from any ordinary motive.
“The weather’s lovely today. It’s so warm I could just take a nap.”
“……”
“Why do these stones keep showing up no matter how many times I clear them? Sorry about all the bumping.”
“…………”
Even though I’d stopped responding with groans, she kept chattering without pause. Whether I should take it as teasing or some twisted form of goodwill was entirely up to me.
If this had been before, I would’ve definitely gone with the latter.
Honestly, this kidnapping had sealed up some of the cracks in my head, so I wasn’t feeling quite so generous. …She’s still beautiful, though.
The funny part was that the cracks had only been sealed a little. They say love makes you focus. “Did you know? A single lemon contains enough sourness for one whole lemon?”
I listened to Diana’s endless stream of chatter, focusing on her voice, her tone, her gestures. Damn… My one-sided crush went on way too long.
It was the price I paid for deliberately holding back information so I could match her level. The desire to know more about the person I liked had made me pay attention to her every little move. If I’d known this affection would twist into something this grotesque, maybe I would’ve been more careful. …No. It probably would’ve ended up the same.
A gut feeling hit me like divine revelation. Even if I’d known this future and prepared countermeasures, nothing would have changed. Even if we hadn’t met in that garden that day, I would’ve fallen for her somewhere else. The degree of emotion might have been different, but that one fact felt inevitable.
Enough with the pointless thoughts.
I’d caught a proper hint from what she’d said earlier.
“Are you really going to keep ignoring me like this? You’re ruining the mood, you know?”
“……”
“Hmph. You’re so mean.”
Nobody could produce infinite amounts of meaningless small talk. Eventually they’d have no choice but to slip in things they knew and things they were thinking. Using the hyper-focus that came from my long-held affection, I kept listening to her every word. Observation revealed patterns.
“Still, we’re almost there. Just wait a little longer, okay?”
“…………”
And I reached my conclusion.
The coachman dropped me off and rode away as if nothing had happened.
I have no idea where we are.
The only thing I could tell was that we were in the mountains. But since there were plenty of mountains around Solbera, that didn’t help much. The fact that he’d untied my legs suggested this wasn’t a place I could easily escape from.
“If you promise not to shout, I’ll take the gag off too.”
“……”
It was such a textbook kidnapper line that I almost laughed, but I had no choice. As the victim, I had to play my part.
“Good.”
When I nodded, she immediately pulled the gag from my mouth. I spat out the thick clump of saliva onto the ground and brought up my first question.
“When you kidnapped me…”
“Yes?”
“Did you say that on purpose?”
“……”
She didn’t answer.
“You. You’ve been kidnapped.”
It wasn’t actually that strange a thing to say. She really had kidnapped me, after all, and it was exactly the sort of thing a kidnapper might say. But at the same time, it was oddly awkward. The situation was obvious enough without needing the explanation. So there had to be a reason she’d said it anyway.
For example, to send a signal.
Because that line was a famous movie quote. It fit the situation perfectly, and to anyone who recognized it, it was a clear message.
“Did you know? A single lemon contains enough sourness for one whole lemon?”
That was nonsense on the surface, but it was also a fairly well-known meme. And throughout the entire ride here, many of the things she’d chattered about had reminded me of phrases popular in Oh Ji-o’s world. One or two could be coincidence. But the more there were, the less likely that became.
“Well~ I was simply describing the situation as it is?”
Diana said this with a wink. Taken individually they were unrelated words and actions, but this too was a kind of signal. Since ancient times, a wink had been a sign meant to be noticed.
“Does this have something to do with your unique ability?”
I let out a sigh as the situation finally clicked. Diana’s unique ability was regression. In the game it had only returned her to the moment right before death, but it would be naïve to assume that was still the limit. After all, I myself had already pulled in my parallel-world self. Whether through training, awakening, or magical assistance, it was only reasonable to assume her ability was far stronger than what the game had described.
“……”
Diana didn’t answer. She simply kept wearing that faint, gentle smile she’d shown all along. And that was answer enough.
“You’ve done this multiple times, haven’t you?”
“……”
“There seem to be quite a few restrictions?”
“…………”
She neither confirmed nor denied it.
“…Did we plan this together?”
“Ah, prior knowledge really is wonderful! It makes conversation so much easier.”
It was an abrupt remark, yet it was the perfect answer. Regressor. Once I accepted that keyword, the whole situation started to make sense. The meeting, the kidnapping—every action in the sequence. This was all part of a regressor’s speedrun route. And from that realization, one conclusion emerged.
“Looks like our ending wasn’t very good, was it?”
If we’d gone the normal route, a bad ending would have been guaranteed.
“Feeling a little calmer now?”
“Ah, yes. The shock is still there, though.”
All the resentment—including my crumpled one-sided love—had vanished. Thinking about it now, her kidnapping had been so natural, so fast. She clearly hadn’t done it just once or twice. And the fact that a regressor like her had repeated it meant this was the most efficient method.
Anyway, I didn’t have any real attachment to the academy itself.
I’d focused on it only because I needed to solve my mana inability constitution. Since I couldn’t even identify the cause, I’d planned to use the strongest information-gathering ability I knew. But with a regressor here, all those steps could be skipped.
“Here, take this.”
“…How did you get this?”
“I just brought it.”
“That line really drives home the difference in status.”
What she handed me was the answering stone. For me it was a magical tool that would’ve been difficult to obtain even if I knew its location, but for her it was apparently just another rock she could pick up whenever she wanted.
This is the gap between upper-tier families and true top-tier ones.
To achieve the love that was beginning to bloom again in my heart, I needed to close that gap. And the method was now in my hands. All that remained was the key to open the door.
“Just ask it to confirm your ability in the form you know best.”
“Status window?”
“You mentioned it quite often.”
It wasn’t actually a completely new question. After all, that option had existed in the game too. Players could see exact stats because it was a game, but those values couldn’t be checked within the game world itself. Asking this question revealed objective abilities even inside the game and changed certain scripts. High stats led to recognition, faster favorability gains with related characters, and altered quest difficulties. Still, the changes weren’t dramatic, so the event had been half-forgotten. To think I’d be the one triggering it myself.
“In the form I know well, I want to confirm my abilities.”
But none of that mattered now. Finally—finally—the long shackles were about to come off.
With a familiar system chime, a glowing panel appeared before my eyes. It was the status window, visualized exactly as people usually imagined it. My name, evaluations of my physical abilities—everything was listed there in clear, objective numbers.
But none of the miscellaneous details caught my attention.
“Huh?”
Because there was one number highlighted in vivid red.
Name: Helio Helisbort
Physical Strength: [High]
Endurance: [High]
Agility: [High]
Mana:999+++
What the hell is this…
I understood it in a single glance. That was the exact cause of my mana inability constitution.