The Calamity of Mixed Hearts: Elise Bystana
Dammit. I have no idea. Two floors up, and my bones would crack!
The instant Luke launched his body out the window, regret slammed into him like a truck.
*Ah, if only I’d tried to talk things out first. A more reasonable approach…*
The thought streaked through his mind, but it was already too late.
His body was already plummeting toward the ground.
While Luke considered using the superhuman strength granted by his class to absorb the fall’s shock and land in a crouch, something caught his eye.
“…Huh?”
His body froze mid-air.
Then, slowly, as if time itself were rewinding, Luke’s form began drifting back upward.
Thud.
He was standing right in front of the window inside the room again.
“…Young Master.”
“Y-You… You’re the wet nurse?”
But the woman standing there wasn’t the one Luke expected.
Her golden eyes had turned pitch black, glaring down at him.
And mixed with that stare was her once-bright blonde hair, now streaked with black.
Luke felt it instantly—the overwhelming presence of the character he’d seen a hundred times in Sacred Souls, the one standing right in front of him.
One of the Eight Talents. The Calamity of Mixed Hearts. Elise Bystana.
According to his memories of the original timeline, the woman before him with those black eyes and hair half black, half gold was unmistakably her.
Elise Bystana, the world’s final boss, slowly began walking toward Luke.
Luke swallowed hard without realizing it, his inner monologue racing.
*She’s fine. The Elise in front of me is one of the Eight Talents… but she’s also my wet nurse Elise.*
Still replaying the image of the nanny Elise in his mind, he suddenly looked up at the approaching woman and felt his whole body twitch.
*…No way…*
The moment Luke flinched, the woman spoke.
“You’ll have to take a spanking, young master.”
“…Eh?”
Just like that, Luke received a swat across the face.
***
Smack!
“Ouch! Wet nurse! I was wrong! I was so wrong!!”
Humiliating.
He had awakened his memories of the previous life and thought he was an adult with some sense of propriety…
Yet here he was, in the arms of his own wet nurse, getting spanked.
Go Jungwoo, the hardcore gamer of his past life, and Luke Cerberk in this life—both of them had endured a swat from their wet nurse.
It was too much, wasn’t it? Some might think. But the opponent was Elise Bystana, a world-class final boss in the setting. Even if Duke Belemian showed up, he couldn’t stop her.
The important thing right now was that Luke’s cheek stung like fire.
“Owww…”
While Luke rubbed his stinging cheek, Elise calmly waved her hand.
“The illusion spell has been canceled. Would you like to scream again?”
“No need.”
Luke kept rubbing his behind and stared at Elise.
*That spell earlier… it was definitely Witch’s Magic. It touched the very timeline itself.*
It wasn’t simple air magic that only summoned Luke to mind.
It was magic that rewound time and erased the entire event of him jumping out the window in the first place.
If ordinary mage magic followed the natural order, Witch’s Magic was the complete opposite—rebellious, against the natural flow.
That’s why there were so many weird, inexplicable things in Witch’s Magic.
“Wet nurse. You really are a witch, huh?”
“…Sigh.”
She pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed.
“How did you figure it out, Young Master? You’ve never used magic around me lately.”
Her question was perfectly logical, but Luke had already prepared a flawless excuse.
“I discovered my talent today during the talent search. Turns out I have an amazingly strong one. That’s how I learned your secret.”
Talent search.
The event that everyone knew was basically a lottery for talents.
Elise must have heard the results.
That made his excuse perfectly reasonable.
Fortunately, Elise nodded in agreement.
“…Sigh. Maybe not confirming my talent was the problem…”
She sighed again, then nodded.
“To cut to the chase, Young Master. I have no intention of teaching you.”
“…Why?”
“…The promise I made was only to protect you. I never promised to teach you magic.”
“…Mom?”
That’s right.
Luke fell silent for a moment.
*A promise with Mom…*
What exactly was the relationship between the two of them?
He asked anyway, hoping to clear the confusion.
“Elise. What’s the relationship between our mother and you?”
At that, Elise went quiet, staring into empty space before answering.
“…She was my daughter.”
“…Huh?”
Luke’s mind blanked.
Wait… the wet nurse was my grandmother?
That didn’t make sense at all. He had never heard anything like that in his entire life.
Even with all his previous-life knowledge, he had never heard that Elise had a daughter.
Yet at the same time, a strange sense of pieces clicking into place filled him.
Why had Elise been in the middle of a fierce battle ten years later in Repelheim’s imperial capital, Bertora?
Was that reason…?
*…Because I died?*
That much was clear.
Elise had been pulled into the chaos, and right after Luke died in the Cerberk family massacre, she had stepped in.
*Did she seek revenge because I died? Wait, then…*
One hypothesis stood firm.
If Elise, who had clashed with Terres Servalki—the Calamity of Raging Lightning—felt protective of Luke, then it was safe to assume she loved him.
Then maybe she would teach him Witch’s Magic, right?
*But she said she wouldn’t…*
Another hypothesis formed immediately.
*…Maybe her love for me isn’t strong enough anymore.*
Luke’s mother, Elli, had died during childbirth.
So it was only natural that she might hold some resentment toward the grandson who killed her daughter.
That made sense. That made sense…
While Luke was lost in thought, Elise continued.
“The daughter I gave birth to died. When I was living alone in the forest, I happened to take in an orphan. One day, as that child grew stronger and stronger, the Duke of the Serverki family spotted her during his visit to the capital. He fell in love with her at first sight. When the Duke proposed, Elli nodded…”
Her eyes grew distant as she recalled the past.
“Eventually, she died while giving birth to you. Before her death, Elli asked me to take care of you. So I told the Duke about it and became your nanny.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“I will only fulfill Elli’s request. That is all. I have no obligation to teach you magic in the process.”
The moment Luke heard those words, he understood Elise’s position perfectly.
*Ah, I get it. She’s probably reluctantly obeying her mother’s dying wish…*
This kind of attitude from a witch like Elise made him want to examine the concept more deeply.
Witch.
A mage who walks the path of rebellious magic instead of natural magic.
Because the path of rebellion demands so much, most fail. But those who succeed transcend the limits of ordinary humans.
Their talent alone is extraordinary, but they also achieve a detachment from the world, like immortals or transcendents.
You couldn’t tell from her appearance, but her skill at manipulating time earlier…
If she had lived for a few hundred years, she would be on the same level as an immortal.
An immortal who had barely learned to love someone could she possibly love the person who killed that someone?
Impossible.
But Luke knew what happened in the future.
He knew Elise would fight Terres, the woman who killed him.
That led to one clear conclusion.
Elise was gradually starting to care for the boy named Luke.
Luke only needed one simple step.
He stepped closer to Elise and offered his hand.
“Wet nurse. If you’re a witch at my level, you should be able to tell my talent, right?”
“…Yes.”
“…Will you show me?”
Luke pushed his hand closer.
Elise sighed and took his hand. And at that exact moment—
“…Hm?”
Elise’s brows furrowed.
***
Elise remembered the girl she had raised.
Her beautiful appearance, the playful requests she sometimes made of her.
The cute little girl who had always been there—her memory was gently wrapped in hundreds of years of time.
And Elise felt a touch of sadness about the person who had stolen that child from her.
But now, that child’s talent…
*Natural talent. Overwhelming.*
Overwhelming to the point that Elise’s calm eyes, shaped by centuries of living, widened in shock.
Luke possessed an overwhelming talent.
Talent for walking the path of rebellion instead of the natural order.
Elise had already begun to feel affection for this boy.
*Elli had some talent too, but nothing like this… Maybe genetic inheritance?*
While Elise was lost in thought, Luke pulled her into a hug.
“If you have this kind of talent, can’t I learn it too, Wet nurse?”
The small voice looked up at her.
At that moment, Elise remembered the child.
The orphan abandoned in the forest who always smiled brightly at her.
The child who had filled her long, cold heart with warmth over the centuries.
Elli.
Elise’s eyes suddenly widened.
“Young Master.”
“I’ll do anything, Wet nurse. Ah, if the title bothers you…?”
Luke showed a slightly shy expression and opened his mouth.
“…Mom? Ah, no. Grandmother…?”
The child’s expression passed by so quickly—too similar to that child, filled with longing for that child, and filled with a little love for this child who resembled her.
Elise couldn’t help but nod without realizing it.
*Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!!!*
She didn’t know that her heart was screaming with joy.
While the two were still locked in a long embrace—
Knock, knock.
There was a knock at the door.
“…Hm?”
Elise’s brows furrowed. She gently separated from Luke and walked cautiously toward the door.
When she opened it, a bright voice greeted her.
“Hello? Sorry I came back so soon after saying goodbye earlier.”
The owner of that voice was none other than Luke’s older sister—Terres Serverki.
“I have something I wanted to say.”
Her eyes were fixed on Luke.