Freesia of the Night Sky
“...”
While restoring the barrier, Freesia had been oblivious to everything around her. The moment the repairs finished, however, she too could feel the sticky killing intent saturating the air.
Turning around was the natural response. What met her eyes was anything but natural.
Balikan’s enraged howl was drawing every gaze in the vicinity, yet Freesia’s eyes fixed on a quiet corner instead. There, utterly still, a girl stood with her eyes closed and a satisfied little smile on her lips.
Elicia Frentz.
At first she had been nothing more than Bold Academy Student A. The girl who had found Freesia napping, chattered away without waiting for answers, and even stroked her body without permission.
So Freesia had decided to tease her a little, dragging the clearly cash-strapped girl into her magical experiments.
Inside Freesia’s heart, Bold Academy Student A became Magic Assistant A.
Of course Freesia never knew why the girl put up with her spitefulness. No matter how often she was summoned, Elicia always arrived with a smile, indulged every selfish whim, and even willingly served as a test subject for the more troublesome spells.
Money, Freesia guessed. That had to be the reason she endured it all.
Yet even if their bond had begun with coin, every time Elicia took her hand, every time she stroked her hair, every time she spoke in that warm voice, Freesia found herself craving just a little more affection.
Of course, the slap on her backside had been outrageous, so she had returned the favor in kind.
Inside Freesia’s heart, Magic Assistant A became Elicia Frentz.
And now the girl who had first taught her what affection felt like lay collapsed on the ground.
Even as she bled, even as consciousness slipped away, Elicia was grinning like an idiot. The sight was utterly unbearable.
Freesia walked slowly toward her.
Fortunately, Balikan seemed in no hurry to finish the girl off just yet.
Standing over Elicia, Freesia drew a magic circle the way she always did for her. A soft light bloomed, and the blood flowing from Elicia’s side gradually stopped. She had already lost too much, though; her face remained deathly pale. A simple healing spell could do no more.
“Keh-keh… kuh… Healing the little bitch, are you? I suppose I should thank you. Now she won’t even be allowed to die—she’ll live the rest of her life in agony.”
Emergency treatment finished, Freesia rose and faced Balikan. Piecing together exactly what had happened was difficult, but it was easy enough to see that the man before her was the one who had reduced Elicia to this state.
“A demon?”
“Keh-keh… A mage without even a vanguard. Kneel, mage. Do that, and I’ll see to it that you at least receive the Demon King’s grace.”
There was only one response Freesia could give to such arrogance.
A soft murmur, a flick of the fingers, and a simple magic circle took shape in the air.
Countless arrows rose around her—arrows of fire, arrows of ice, arrows of water, arrows of lightning, arrows of stone…
Arrow magic was the most basic of offensive spells, yet the sheer number and variety made it anything but simple.
Dozens of arrows streaked toward Balikan. He swatted them aside with his remaining hand as if brushing away flies.
Even the occasional hit that landed failed to pierce the magic resistance of a mid-level demon’s hide. Arrow magic was nowhere near enough.
Having watched Freesia’s little performance to the end, Balikan charged.
With a body that had never known physical training, dodging his attacks should have been impossible. Yet the spells she had cast on herself let her slip past by the narrowest of margins.
Body acceleration, multiplied strength, sharpened senses—the very spells she had once tested on Elicia, half for fun and half for study, were now helping her survive the immediate crisis.
Still, she was a mage who had never experienced close combat. Taking a solid blow was only a matter of time.
Thud!
Balikan’s razor-sharp claws stabbed into her slender abdomen, yet a dull impact rang out and he himself was the one sent flying backward.
“Hmm. A barrier artifact, is it? How long do you think that will last?”
The necklace around Freesia’s neck, inscribed with a barrier spell, was already cracked from a single strike. Two or three more hits at most, and it would shatter.
Her response never changed. She summoned another volley of dozens of arrows and barely twisted away from Balikan’s attacks with clumsy footwork.
Thud!
Another hit.
Thud!
And another.
Crack…
The necklace had reached its absolute limit; the slightest touch would reduce it to dust.
Shatter!
At last the barrier broke, and the shock hurled Freesia backward.
She bounced across the ground, slammed into a rock, and came to rest in a bloody heap, seemingly unable to rise again.
The outcome of the fight was painfully clear.
Even though the battle had been disappointingly one-sided, Balikan of Pride granted her a measure of recognition. Had a low-level demon stood in his place, it would have been in serious trouble. The volume and power of her arrow magic far exceeded anything one would expect from a basic spell, and her enhancement magic had turned an untrained mage into something close to a proper warrior.
“I am Balikan of Pride. Mage, speak your name. I shall personally remember the name of one about to die.”
It was the highest praise he could offer for the talent she possessed—along with a flicker of excitement at the thought of what she might have become with just a little more maturity.
No answer came from Freesia.
“Mage, do you still cling to futile resistance? The sun has already set. I am of the Night Clan. Whatever slim chance you once held has vanished completely.”
True to his words, the sun that had painted the sky with sunset had sunk beyond the horizon, and the first small stars already glittered in the night sky.
Even the bloodied Freesia lying on the ground could see the darkened heavens.
With a trembling hand she reached upward, fingers splayed wide so that the tiny stars slipped between them.
She closed her fist around empty air. Of course nothing came to her grasp.
Even so, she clenched it tight—
around the stars of the night sky.
The girl’s earliest memory was a back alley where restaurant scraps were dumped. In that memory she was rummaging through the refuse, scraping together whatever scraps remained to fill her empty stomach.
Whether she had been born and raised in the alleys, abandoned by her parents, or simply wandered there after losing her way—she did not know.
None of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was surviving each day in one piece.
One day a pitying housewife pressed a single coin into her hand. The girl had no idea of its exact value, but she knew it could be traded for bread.
Clutching it carefully, she ran—only to be blocked by a man. Probably one of the thugs who extorted protection money from the alley orphans.
He tried to snatch the coin, of course. She resisted, of course.
The price a tiny girl paid for angering a grown man was merciless.
He showed no restraint for her age. His boots simply stomped and kicked, indifferent to whether she lived or died. Perhaps he saw it as a chance to make an example for the other brats; he trampled her more savagely than usual.
As consciousness faded under the rain of kicks, a shooting star streaked across the night sky in her dimming vision.
Recalling some half-remembered superstition, the girl gazed at the falling star and made a wish.
That was her first magic.
Boom!
Balikan could not comprehend what had just happened. All he knew was that he was suddenly lying on the ground.
It was as if only the result existed, with no cause at all.
“…Gyaaaaah!”
Then the pain arrived, late and overwhelming—like being struck by a colossal hammer across his entire body.
It dwarfed even the agony of having his wrist severed by the collapsed Elicia. The torment now wracked every inch of him.
Footsteps approached the thrashing demon. The one who had been lying broken moments earlier—Freesia—now stood over him.
“Of the Night Clan, you say? What a coincidence. I’ve always been rather fond of the night myself.”
She glanced briefly at Elicia, then looked down at Balikan once more.
“You’re not worth the cheap price of knowing my name… but I’ll make a special exception. Remember it until the day you die.”
Her expression was pure arrogance.
“My name is Freesia. Freesia of the Night Sky.”