Side Story: Elena di Anteria
Inside the Magic Tower, in the quiet left behind after her commander, Seo Juhan, had departed.
Elena lay curled across the very spot where he had rested, a faint, twisted smile playing upon her lips.
His scent lingering in the air.
The faint traces of his warmth.
And above all, his words.
"Ah, well, who wouldn't jump at the chance to get help from a great Archmage...!"
"No, it's just... I really loved the gift..."
"Seriously, I'm so grateful I could drop to my knees right now."
She replayed the recording device over and over, dissecting each fleeting second into a thousand exquisite fragments to savor. Whenever the emotional thrill began to dull, she simply wiped her own memory with magic to experience the rush fresh once more.
By the time that loop had repeated hundreds of times, her thoughts drifted back into the past.
Back to the days when she had first been brought into this guild by him. In short, back during their nameless beginnings, before Avalon had carved its name into legend.
She had been the eldest daughter of a ruined noble house.
Her parents had been executed for high treason, and she and her younger siblings stood perched on the edge of the chopping block. Trapped in such dire straits, she had only one card left to play: military merit. Carving out achievements on the battlefield was the sole path to survival. For that solitary purpose, she enlisted in a then-obscure guild called Avalon.
Inside, she had found an utterly dry, emotionless swordswoman, a mage who treated every waking second with deadly seriousness, and a scattering of unremarkable stragglers.
Being of highborn blood, Elena had naturally assumed she would be superior to them—stronger, sharper, better. But that pride had been nothing more than sheer arrogance.
"Commander's orders confirmed. Commencing annihilation protocol within a ten-meter radius to the left and right."
"Confirmed."
"A total of 1,321 monsters subjugated."
The girl she had written off as dry and lifeless turned out to be an absolute demon on the battlefield, carving through waves of monsters at horrifying speed. And the mage who had seemed like a bookish eccentric merely flicked a slender finger.
Ruuuumble—craaaash!
A spell leagues larger and more devastating than anything Elena could ever muster eradicated entire swathes of the enemy lines in a single breath.
Only then did reality sink in. The world was vast, and she had been nothing more than a frog trapped at the bottom of a well.
She fell into despair, reduced to burning with ugly jealousy toward those far more gifted than herself. She cursed the impassable gulf between them, realizing that no amount of desperate toil could ever bridge the gap. And in the end, she gave up. Shunted entirely to the sidelines, she was preparing her heart to retire from the front lines when it happened.
You have received a gift: Item 'Growth Elixir (B+)'!
You have received a gift: Item 'Knowledge Elixir (A)'!
You have received a gift: Item 'Intermediate-Advanced Spellbook (A+)'!
The sovereign whom every soul in Avalon revered and followed without question had bestowed gifts upon her.
[Cheer up! You can do even better!]
Accompanied by a single, simple line of text.
Why? Why her? From both an efficiency standpoint and a tactical perspective, pouring resources into that research-obsessed fanatic would have yielded far greater returns. Yet even after that day, the notifications never stopped.
Even as years slipped past, he continued to place his faith in her, sending gift after gift. Though they never spoke face-to-face, the items and short messages he sent conveyed his unwavering belief with crystal clarity.
Because of that, she could not give up. A fresh blaze roared to life within the dying embers of her tenacity and thirst for knowledge. If that prodigy could reach a score of one hundred through raw talent alone, then Elena would claw her way to one hundred and one through sheer, unyielding effort. And if she was still outmatched? Then she would simply grind even harder until she wasn't.
How many years had she spent climbing that mountain with such obsessive resolve? While she had not yet eclipsed the renown of the Half-Blood, she had indisputably grown into an extraordinary power. Furthermore, thanks to the successful subjugation of the Demon King, the charges against her household were overturned, allowing her surviving family to return to their former lives.
It was a picture-perfect happy ending.
Yet even so, Elena was thrown right back into the depths of despair by a single declaration from the Half-Blood.
"I have foreseen the future wherein He severs all interest in this world."
"This fate is nearly set in stone. Exactly one year from now, after subjugating the Demon King, He will vanish from this world, leaving no trace behind."
The Commander... was going to disappear?
No.
He can't.
Her throat tightened until she couldn't breathe. Her vision blurred. She hadn't even met him in person yet. She hadn't even had the chance to show him how much the pathetic fledgling he had taken under his wing had grown. And... she had never even gotten to say thank you.
She hated the thought. She despised it with every fiber of her being. She wanted to stop him by any means necessary. But how?
The other members of the Round Table deliberately made blunders or turned away incoming talent to buy more time, yet their brilliant Commander's tactical genius prevailed in the end, subjugating the Demon King regardless.
A year after the Demon King fell, the visits the Commander had paid almost every single day ceased entirely.
While the rest of the Round Table wept tears of blood and wailed in despair, scouring the continent for solutions, Elena locked herself inside the Magic Tower, conducting endless research into dimensional magic.
"This is His true likeness. Exactly two days from now, He will be summoned somewhere upon this continent. We must locate Him at any cost."
She received a sketch of the Commander's portrait from the Half-Blood. Objectively speaking, his features were fairly ordinary, yet to their eyes, it was the visage of a god.
Clutching the drawing to her chest, she resolved herself. Whether she fell short of the others in strength no longer mattered in the slightest. The mere fact that they could meet again filled her heart with boundless joy.
Elena has activated Soul Partition (SS).
From that moment on, she fractured her own physical vessel and planted a piece of herself into every Magic Tower across the land. If he wished to conceal his identity, he would inevitably seek procedures at a Magic Tower.
One-tenth.
One-fiftieth.
One-hundredth.
Her consciousness grew so thin and splintered that her very sense of self began to fray into nothingness. Yet still, she waited. And waited. All for the sake of the one person who would someday come to see her. For the one who had once offered her encouragement and belief.
And then, just as her mind reached the brink of being shattered into a thousandth fragment...
"Do you really think this is the right place to be picking a fight?!"
A young man made his appearance.
He possessed a boyish, youthful face and the unassuming air of a novice who had only just picked up a blade. At first glance, she had taken him for just another generic would-be hero, but he had picked a fight with dangerous men solely on behalf of a burned, powerless fragment of herself.
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. So what does that make a burn?"
He had exacted vengeance for her helpless shell, and yet...
"He's a bastard who deserves to die, but... please save him if you can."
Even toward a scoundrel who richly deserved death, he possessed the compassion to spare his life.
She was certain. The young man standing before her was none other than the Commander she had sought for so long.
That youthful countenance that had not yet adapted to this world. That slightly dazed expression unbefitting any true noble. And the unmistakable, otherworldly aura radiating from his soul.
Her hundreds of scattered soul fragments began to converge back into one. Their destination was none other than the central Magic Tower.
Ding—!
With a cheerful chime, the Commander stepped into view.
What do I do? How should I greet him? Am I making a weird face right now?
A tempest of frantic thoughts raged through her mind. In the end, she managed to stumble through a slightly awkward introduction and greeting, but then...
Seo Juhan has activated Stealth (S).
He tried to flee from her.
Why? What did I do wrong? Did he not want to see me?
Dark, frantic thoughts swirled through her mind, and her magic lashed out on its own instinct, binding him tight.
No, I didn't mean to do that. I really didn't.
In her panic, she deliberately adopted the haughty tone that Pride was so fond of using.
"I've finally caught you~! Word was that you'd vanished completely from the other Round Table members. To think you'd walk straight into the Magic Tower where I reside—I never could have dreamed of it!"
"............"
"Are. You. Not. Going. To. Answer?"
Once again, her magic surged wildly, completely unhinged by her spiraling emotions. The Commander stared up at her with terror-stricken eyes.
No. Please, don't. Why are you looking at me with those eyes?
No matter how much she tried to speak to him, he simply stared blankly into the empty air, utterly silent, refusing to utter a single syllable.
Her heart sank like a stone into an abyss. The death of the savior who had rescued her from ruin—and the horrifying reality that she herself had brought it about—clutched at her chest like an iron vice.
Elena has activated Mind Recovery (S+).
Elena has activated Mind Recovery (S+).
Elena has activated Mind Recovery (S+).
Even after dozens of recovery spells washed over him, his shattered psyche showed no sign of returning. The world spun before her eyes. Because of me... the Commander—no, my savior—is dead.
Her reason broke entirely. Collapsing to the floor, she frantically began piecing together every revival formula she knew, when suddenly—
"The torture... it's going to hurt, but I'll endure as best I can. So if possible, please wrap it up within a day or two...!"
Incomprehensible words tumbled from the lips of the Commander she had believed dead.
Torture? Kill him? Me, kill the Commander?
Not in a million lifetimes could such a thing ever occur. If anyone belonging to Avalon had ever heard even a whisper of such a thought, they would have issued a hunt-to-kill order without hesitation:
"Slay them. Slaughter them again and again until their very soul is eradicated from existence."
As she listened to the rest of the Commander's rambling explanations, everything clicked. He had completely misunderstood reality. He had mistaken the search notices plastered across every territory for kill-on-sight bounties, arriving at the entirely backwards conclusion that all of Avalon wanted his head.
Wait a moment.
This was, in fact, an unprecedented opportunity. An opportunity to shake off every other competitor and keep the Commander entirely to herself.
"Well, that's just me. But do you really think the rest of the Round Table feels the same way about you, Commander?"
"Pride and Treachery will probably try to slaughter you on sight. Ah, and Duty and Purity will definitely try to kill you too~! Those two practically have 'I'll kill you' glued to their lips!"
"Sigh... I'm really just too kind for my own good. Normally, I should've driven a blade into you like the others would have... but just this once, I'll let you off the hook~!"
Those words sealed his misconception once and for all. He seemed slightly suspicious for a second, but in the end, he swallowed her claims whole.
The codename Collision.
At first, she had wondered why such an epithet had been bestowed upon her. But now, she understood. When she imagined what lay ahead—the absolute chaos that would erupt whenever the other members of the Round Table crossed paths with their beloved Commander—a deliciously wicked thrill bubbled up from the depths of her soul.
It was a sensation several times more intoxicating than unlocking a brand-new magic circle.
"Uuuugh...! If only I could see the future like the Half-Blood, moments like this would be so much more fun...!"
Leaving her slight regret behind, she spent the following days simply indulging in the sound of his recorded voice over and over again.
If the Commander had witnessed this spectacle with his own eyes, he undoubtedly would have recoiled in absolute horror, crying out:
"That crazy woman... what the hell did I raise? I thought she was a reliable, trusty comfort-pick character, but she turned into an angst-guzzling psychopath who gets off on pure chaos?!"
Of course, his discovering that truth was a matter for the distant future.
