CH 20

TN: There are a lot of POV switches. I’ll talk about it more after the chapter.

At Daphne’s words, the faces of everyone in the room were colored with embarrassment, from Georg, who was usually expressionless except for a slight frown, to Nella, who was already frowning a lot, to even me. I heard footsteps behind me. It was Daphne approaching.

“You….”

“You need to apologize for that right now.”

I had never seen her like this before. I could feel a trickle of mana leaking from her as the hardwood floor of the office creaked. The Holy Sword spoke to me in its usual plain voice. Actually, it sounded a little amused.

(Your companion is quite ferocious. It’s terrifying when a gentle person gets angry.)

The light that always shone in Daphne’s eyes was gone now, and it was the first time I’d noticed her eyes were such a deep violet color.

“You’re a silly bitch, too. You’ve already given your body to the Hero, and now you’re pretending to give your heart to him? Did you think I’d be scared if you came on so hard?”

Nella, not wanting to lose a single word, drew her magic together. The mana from the wizard at the end of the fifth circle shook the room. The power emanating from Daphne and Nella engaged in an invisible struggle.

“I don’t think Elroy would accept you if you offered yourself.”

Daphne said, scanning Nella’s body from head to toe, and Nella’s face contorted artistically. She hesitated, took a half-step back, and blushed bright red.

“Ladies,” I said, “why don’t we first calm down and take a deep breath.”

‘This is going to bring my office down.’ I raised my voice, drawing on as much mana as possible to intervene in their stand-off.

“Nella, watch your mouth, and Daphne, stop gathering mana unless you plan on blowing up the Capital.”

I felt a shiver down my spine when Daphne glanced in my direction. Her eyes were filled with hate.

“Elroy, don’t you dare stop me right now!”

I let out a long sigh. It was bad enough that I’d said something to offend Daphne, but I couldn’t even stop her. I had barely organized my mind when I heard Georg’s low voice.

“Well, how about this.”

All three of our eyes snapped to Georg at once. He hadn’t expected all the attention to be on him, and he coughed to stifle his embarrassment.

“I was going to check Daphne’s skills today to see how they stack up. If you two will waste energy fighting each other, why don’t we just go out together and hunt monsters?”

At that, Nella nodded vigorously in agreement.

“Yes, Georg. You’re right this time. Anyway, the important thing is to see who’s more useful in the real world, right?”

I looked at Georg. He raised his hand apologetically, but I could let it slide this time because Daphne looked like she wouldn’t back down either. I trusted her; I wouldn’t stop her if she had resolved herself.

“Daphne.”

I called out to Daphne, who didn’t look down at me but continued to glare at Nella.

“I don’t care; I’ll let her try.”

She had resolved herself, and I wasn’t about to interfere with her will. From now on, it was Daphne Epifon’s fight, and the best I could do was to believe in her. Nella laughed at Daphne’s answer. ‘What a wicked laugh. Definitely a part of the Hero’s Party.’

“You, who has barely four circles under their belt, seriously think you can take me on?”

“If you’re not confident, you could just give up.”

Daphne replied with a stern look, ignoring Nella’s laughter. Nella snorted once more and crossed her arms.

“Okay, then, let’s just say that the one who is objectively more useful stays, and the bitch who isn’t just walks out. We don’t have the option of staying together because my first impression of you is shit.”

Daphne didn’t bother to reply, just glaring at Nella, her eyes furious. It made her usual glow feel nonexistent, replaced by the lightless void behind her eyes. The two glared at each other until I stood up and grabbed my Holy Sword.

“… Let’s move on.”

I said, leading the party out of the building. I narrowed my eyes as I watched Daphne’s flowing light pink hair as she walked out. She didn’t know it yet, but I could see she was only one step away from breaking through the wall.

(Do you think her battle with this wizard is her chance to break her wall?)

‘I believe it would be the trigger, the chance to muster up the courage to take that first step. Even if she couldn’t beat Nella, I was prepared to face her to keep Daphne in the party.’

(I won’t question how you know her talent. But do you keep Daphne around because you believe that her talent, one day, will reach the heights of mastery?)

‘Perhaps.’

I gripped the Holy Sword and narrowed my eyes. It might be right. Maybe I simply saw her as a gifted mage, nothing more than a character in a novel. Perhaps I was beginning to think of her as a flesh-and-blood person, my companion, who breathed, laughed, and cried.

The cool breeze after the days of rain blew around us. I slowed my steps as I watched Daphne walk away with a determined expression.

***

“You guys better not interfere.”

I am mildly disappointed that we were being tested in the forest on the outskirts of the Capital. I stretched her neck while releasing the mana I had stored up. Elroy and Georg said nothing.

“It’s a shame I’m being compared to you in the first place.”

I glanced at Daphne. ‘A wizard of the fourth circle? What a joke.’ The only thing that stood out was her appearance, which made me angry just thinking about it.

I’ll make them regret it.

‘I would overwhelm the pink-haired bitch, and make her leave the party. Afterward, I’ll announce how I felt wronged and leave the party. Those two idiots would come to chase me, begging me to return, and I would gain control as a join once more.’

You can’t recruit a wizard better than me.

I’ll make him realize that, and he won’t dream of bossing around the party anymore. On the contrary, the fact that he had recruited that wizard this time could be good for me.

Both of us moved side by side at the head of the group and began to make our way through the forest. The weather was favorable, and the visibility wasn’t too bad.

With an ear-scratching sound, giant insects from the sky appeared. I wasted no time in converting my energy into magic. A light blue light shimmered from the ground where the monsters stood, and a pillar of ice rose up and pierced through them.

“Isn’t this beautiful?”

I turned with a laugh. Daphne held her right hand before her as if she were about to cast a spell. However, no magic emanated from her fingertips.

“Are you frozen now that you’re in actual combat?”

She definitely heard my words but showed no reaction. Daphne glanced back at Elroy, then closed her eyes. She kept reaching out to grasp the thing that pulsed in her mind.

It had been long since I’d felt something ticking in my heart, like clockwork.

I was only ten years old when I realized it was a circle of mana. With each breath, the mana in the air settled happily into my body, and the circle spinning in my heart grew stronger and more apparent with time.

Learning about magic was fun. Even without a proper teacher, I could circulate mana through my body and manifest it as a phenomenon.

“Kaaaah!”

Nella’s magic fired. With a snap of her fingers, the Hornhogs running toward her were scorched by a pillar of fire. She looked down at the dead Hornhogs, rolling her eyes in disdain.

“I’ll make sure to cover your part as well.”

With that, Nella began to walk forward, deeper and deeper. Sparks flew from Daphne’s hands as the creature appeared. Still, Nella’s spell was complete before her efforts could manifest into anything tangible. This time, it was a simple convergence and release of magic. A lightning bolt burned through a boar, leaving a large hole in its wake.

“A bitch with four circles can’t even use magic.”

Nella sneered. A creature lunged, its head pierced by Nella’s magic each time.

“I’ve heard your name before in the Adventurer’s Guild.”

Another monster met its end at Nella’s hands. She wasn’t even looking in the direction of the monsters anymore; her gaze was on Daphne, who had hung her head in defeat after yet another unsuccessful spell.

“They mentioned that you’re a strange wizard who wanders from adventuring party to adventuring party. Unable to use your magic properly, you’ve been kicked out of every place you’ve been accepted.”

The first was from a village.

A monster came into town. I think it was a giant Ashen Bear. Remote villages in non-urban areas are not as well defended against monsters. The arrival of a dangerous beast was a rare occurrence.

The village elders set out to stop it. They would rather die than lose the village. So they died. The clockwork inside me whispered. ‘You can defeat it.’

So, she worked her magic.

The Ashen Bear vanished, leaving no trace in the world.

Banishment, fear, and rejection. I didn’t think about what happened next. There is no need to. I just have to recapture the moment’s sensation, the feeling of the magic that had left my hands.

Magic began to gather on Daphne’s hand. Nella no longer cared about Daphne and started slaughtering monsters with a barrage of magic to vent her anger. One after another appeared. She began to gather mana to cast her next spell.

Phazik!

Daphne fired her spell. This time, it was faster than Nella. Nella glared at Daphne.

“Bitch….”

The spells coming from Daphne’s hands were coming quicker and quicker. Though most of her spells failed, her blooming magical presence was no joke, and Nella was slowly becoming more alarmed.

She called out urgently to Elroy.

“Shouldn’t we be done with this? Do you need to see more?”

But Elroy only shook his head, one corner of his mouth twitching upward.

“This is only the beginning.”

My first fear was rejection.

That they wouldn’t accept me. For the few who did, they never looked me in the eye. But I still feared rejection from them. I was a driftwood that had lost its roots. Forsakened by the place I was most attached to. I became a wanderer with nowhere to go.

Then I met Elroy.

‘Daphne, let’s go.’

His hand was on my wrist.

‘I will believe in you. And I’ll wait until you finally believe in yourself.

The way he said he believed in me, the conviction and faith in his words. The hands that lifted me from the rock. The blink of embarrassment in his eyes as I scribbled on his bandages. The eyes that never doubted me.

“Daphne.”

A voice that called out with a familiar ring to it. A thin smile.

I don’t want to leave. I would stay by his side. One by one, the chains around my heart began to unravel.

I was done with being abandoned.

The people of that village have banished me.

The professor who didn’t teach me anything and locked me in the tower.

The adventurers who didn’t believe in me. Ruining my name with rumors and gossip.

I can’t be by Elroy’s side if these memories of the past drag me down further. The one who taught me to believe. The least I could do was repay the man who first saw Daphne Epifon as a human being. I couldn’t remain a coward afraid of people any longer.

Snap.

The sound of something breaking. Not the ominous sound of shattering glass but the pleasantly liberating sound of breaking chains. The clockwork in Daphne’s mind, which had been stopped for a while, began to tick furiously. The rings of mana that spun slowly began to build new rings, feeding on the remains of the shattered wall.

Click.

The moment the fifth ring was aligned in Daphne’s mind, all the mana leaking out of her evaporated instantly. In its place, unlike anything she had ever seen, a ball of light began to blossom in her hands with destructive force. It was the precursor to Destruction-type magic.

The first step.

Daphne stepped forward. Nella turned her head at the sudden surge of magic behind her.

Daphne’s lips curled as a bolt of lightning stretched out from her fingertips, burning away everything before her.

Translator’s Corner

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. As I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of POV switches between Nella and Daphne. This made me realize that marking every time it changes is inefficient and bulky.

For now, I’ll write it as I did in this chapter. If you prefer the old style, write it below. I check it sometimes.

-Ruminas