Chapter 6
Chapter 6
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: Their Circumstances: Ria El Nermia
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# 6
1. I didn't know back then. (5)
#5 Their Circumstances: The Future Hero's Situation
Silver rain falling from the night sky.
But it was merely reflecting the moonlight, nothing more.
In reality, it was chunks of ice shot down from high altitude.
A curse-like bombardment that destroyed everything on the ground, the devilish tactic that had sent roughly two legions to hell during the last great war.
But in this moment, it was merely the backdrop for a beautiful dance.
She passed through the rain of bombardment with light footsteps.
Behind those footsteps came merciless destruction.
But the bombardment never touched her small body.
One step, another step.
A path where even the slightest mistake would turn her into an unrecognizable lump of meat.
Yet the girl ahead walked on with a smile.
Everyone held their breath.
The shouts and screams from moments ago were gone now. All that could be heard was the sound of the silver rain of destruction pouring from the sky.
How much time passed like that?
"Crazy."
With someone's curse as the finale, she passed through that nightmare of silver rain.
And I clenched my fist as I watched the small back of the one who had lightly crossed the bombardment and now sat dumbly on the ground, fiddling with something.
I knew who she was.
The exact opposite of my ranking.
If I was No. 1, the one at the very front, she was No. 1000, the one at the very end.
Until now, I hadn't put much meaning into being No. 1.
No, honestly, I thought it was only natural.
Even though I had become a sacrificial pawn in the hierarchy battle and ended up here, I was a child of the Raina Archduke family, called the pillar of the empire, trained by exceptional knights since the age of five.
I had tempered myself following my father's words that I must always be the empire's best, and I never thought I would lose to any peer.
But now, I felt nothing but pathetic and ashamed of myself for thinking that way.
As a member of the empire, I knew all too well what that silver rain was.
The six-year war where seven empires and kingdoms mobilized their principalities and vassal states against each other.
The war that had started when I was born—the empire emerged victorious, and that tactic had played a huge role in the victory. That's why it terrified me.
That they had merely imitated a tactic only the Imperial Army could use.
That was fake.
Not the Imperial Army's tactic.
Just a mimicry.
Not the empire's advanced technology, but a simple trick.
And I hadn't realized it. All because of fear.
The moment I realized it, I gripped my sword and charged.
"You wanna die?!"
A sharp yell.
Probably the sharp-eyed one who had been subtly leading the kids from earlier, the one who had figured out the true nature of that umbrella.
But even that sharp-eyed one had missed something thanks to his keen sight.
One step. Another step.
Behind the advancing footsteps came the sound of the ground being pounded.
Even a slight brush would shatter my body to pieces, but it couldn't stop my footsteps.
How much time passed like that?
It felt like an eternity, yet like a mere instant, and before I knew it, I had arrived where No. 1000 and the instructor were.
No. 1000 sat on a small rock, munching on something indifferently.
Even as the sound of bombardment echoed behind her and I stood right in front of her, she didn't care, lifting her head slightly to look up at me with those indifferent eyes.
"I'm not going to lose anymore."
I said it strongly, to my opponent. No, to myself.
No. 1 and No. 1000 didn't matter. The numbers from the junior training camp ended there.
Humans are beings who always move forward.
So, I acknowledged it.
The being before me had advanced ahead of me now, and was my rival.
And on this day, I learned the spirit of never giving up on anything.
…Except for one thing.
#6 Their Circumstances: Ria El Nermia
"Isn't this... doable?"
"I've only heard rumors, but isn't it no big deal?"
I'm going insane...
I could only let out a sigh amid the murmurs around me.
Why did I, of all people, have to endure this ordeal in a place like this?
Even if it doesn't look like it, the Karan Empire is called the strongest nation on the continent.
If you asked for the empire's top magic family, nine out of ten would name the Nermia Count family, and I am that family's second daughter.
The sole reason I joined this organization called Howling?
Because there's a chance that Howling has the second half of our family's swordsmanship manual and our family seal, stolen from us.
It started one day when my grandfather—the former family head who had now relinquished all rights to the family and lived solely as a magic tower master—visited the family for the first time in three years by chance.
And when that grandfather snatched the seal from my father, who was reviewing documents, with a shocked expression.
That's when the family realized the seal was not genuine but an exquisitely crafted fake, and subsequent investigations revealed that the second half of our family's swordsmanship manual had also vanished.
The Nermia family is a founding merit family born alongside the empire's inception, a prestigious house of magic that has produced countless mages and magic engineers to this day.
For such a Nermia family, swordsmanship was basically a self-defense technique for mages, nothing major.
No, these days, with the imperial family's more effective mage training methods, it's practically obsolete. Honestly, its absence wouldn't matter much.
But the seal is different.
All family business ultimately falls under the family head's responsibility, and the seal represents that family head.
The seal is the family's diplomatic symbol and its history itself. If it came out that the seal used for countless dealings all this time was a fake from who-knows-when, it wouldn't end as mere family disgrace.
If others found out and came at us with real intent, every contract made with that seal could be invalidated.
Thanks to that, all the direct descendants who knew about this had been unofficially searching for the seal, and my choice was to infiltrate Howling—the organization with the highest probability of possessing it—as a member.
There was strong opposition at home that it was too dangerous, but honestly, if I just stayed put, I'd end up married off to some influential noble's son or, if unlucky, as a concubine to some old powerful noble, so I staked my life once to gain more say in the family.
According to the family's intelligence network, Howling frequently recruited members, so I sold myself to a slave trader and safely entered the organization. Up until learning as a junior trainee, there were no major issues.
No, thanks to my prior basic training, I even climbed to the upper ranks as No. 17.
But.
'I should've just gotten engaged to some decent influential noble's son...'
Watching the silver rain falling before me, I cursed my past reckless self.
What the hell is that?
Isn't that the worst high-altitude bombardment magic from the great war that made the empire's top magic family—the Nermia—and every magic tower across the continent, every mage, gasp in shock and dive into research?
And the more I examined the umbrella they tossed us, the more it matched the premium imperial product our family had been studying.
A great magic-engineered staff that efficiently deploys basic magic barriers, adds physical defense to the barrier, and, in preparation for high-altitude bombardment, reduces object acceleration by slowing any magic or object touching the barrier.
But tossing that to kids who only had basic magic education—the kind four-year-olds in the Nermia family learn—expecting them to use it properly? No way.
At least the instructor doesn't seem intent on killing us; unlike what the family taught, the bombardment level is quite crude.
Probably, the only way is to pool everyone's mana: half for the defense ritual, the other half to weaken and intercept the bombardment with another defense ritual turned offensive.
As I pondered how to organize the personnel.
'Huh?'
One person advances toward the bombardment with light footsteps.
Even if it's a crude ritual, getting hit means instant death.
Whether to crush our spirits or foster teamwork, I doubt the intent is for us to charge in like that.
'Huh?'
But nothing blocks the light footsteps weaving through the bombardment.
The magic engineers above aren't dodging their attacks.
The bombardment's sole weakness: it can't be controlled.
Since it's accelerating objects from high altitude, once fired, they just plummet downward at ever-increasing speeds—a simple barrage.
If you could control that bombardment, it'd be more realistic to call the user a dragon than a human.
So, is it about watching and dodging? That makes even less sense.
No, she's basically advancing in a straight line, occasionally spinning gracefully like dancing, but her gaze is fixed ahead. Not even glancing at the sky.
It's almost precognition territory. One late step and she'd be caught in the blast.
Yet she doesn't get caught. The bombardment falls a paper's width away, but it can't even scratch the little girl's body.
I just stared blankly. Before I knew it, the small girl had emerged beyond the bombardment.
'Is that possible?'
It is. I saw it with my own eyes. An undeniable fact.
'Can I do it?'
No. My physical abilities aren't lacking, but that's far beyond physical limits.
I'm no fool who stakes her life on vain possibilities.
"What?"
"You can just pass through?"
Voices of agitation rise from everywhere.
Honestly, I even wondered if that bombardment was illusion magic after all.
I had pondered if we were just scared by an illusion.
But the conclusion was simply: [It's not an illusion.]
That was when.
"You wanna die?!"
Amid everyone's panic, someone dashed forward.
A familiar blond head. No. 1, who had overwhelmingly held first place in the junior training camp.
But even so, imitating that...
"She made it?"
Not exactly the same. The first was like a casual stroll, the second like a lion charging at its target.
But the result is turning out the same.
Despite the precarious charge with fierce momentum, the bombardment doesn't even graze him.
And now, seeing No. 1 arrive alongside No. 1000, the agitated voices around confirm the current reality.
One person is a miracle, but two makes it feel like I can do it too.
Aah, I'm really losing it!
I had carefully planned the group composition! Even if not No. 1000, I had slotted No. 1 as a key member, and now I have to scrap it all.
And now these guys slyly trying it themselves!
I want to tell them to just go die once, but pointless losses hurt me too.
So, time to teach them.
"You idiots. Watch closely."
With a slightly irritated voice, I drew everyone's attention, then used mana to lift a fairly heavy rock.
Roughly just under twice my head's size.
"This is your skull."
A bit heavy, but with force, I hurled it toward where the bombardment was falling.
Fortunately, it flew a bit far and hit the predicted spot.
Thud!
A small but heavy sound.
Boom!
Then, as the rock shattered under the falling bombardment, I pointed at it with my finger.
"Alright, anyone whose skull is tougher than that rock. Step up and take a hit."
The kids who faced reality shut their mouths. Better than the noise.
"If there's no skull master who can infuse mana into their head, listen to me."
After waiting for all eyes to gather, I raised the staff in my hand.
"Any idiots who don't want to go back to junior training camp, grab your umbrella. Gotta dodge the rain, right?"
Alright then. Once. Not like those two morons, but let's stake our lives.