Chapter - 119

Personally, black magic was something that I wanted to try out someday. Black magic generally consisted of curses, control, or destruction: it tended to focus on harming, but there was a rumor that the higher levels of black magic touched on dimension-related magic. It wasn’t confirmed, though.

The pinnacle of normal magic was time, the pinnacle of white magic was movement, and black magic was dimension. Of course, it was only confirmed for normal magic–time magic.

Anyway, it was a teeny bit, but I had a bit of black magic, so I should be able to study it. In the dream, I succeeded in using black magic with my own magic, but it wasn’t working out now that I was trying again.

It was because when I tried to use magic, my calm, normal magic suddenly grew ferocious and went erratic.

‘….The duke mentioned that I shouldn’t use magic for now, right?’

I think I figured it out. I didn’t want to experience that overflow again.

I needed to focus on swordsmanship instead of magic for now.

Because I was in that dream, I had lost all energy and wasn’t able to practice swordsmanship as much.

Unlike other students, I was trying to become a magic knight. It was counted as an elite level of knighthood, so it was important for me to have a good balance of both swordsmanship skills and magic skills. But these days, it felt like my swordsmanship wasn’t up to par.

I hadn’t exercised a lot recently, so all of my small but very lovable muscles were shrinking. At least, it felt like it.

After classes were over, I decided to head over to the training hall instead of the dorms. I was trying to get some light exercise in.

Usually, the training hall was empty after school. But today, someone was already there.

I saw a girl with long blonde hair pulled into a high ponytail as she gritted her teeth and stabbed the target in front of her.

Her green eyes, shaped slightly upwards, were burning with pride. She yelled as she continued swinging her sword. It looked like she had been doing this for a long time–her clothes were damp with sweat, and her breaths came out in long pants.

I knew her well, so I approached her and called her name.

“Viedielle?”
“Ha! Hyap! Kyaa! Unni, you scared me!”

Viedielle seemed completely focused on her sword. She screamed when I called her and dropped her wooden sword.

I wasn’t trying to surprise her, but seeing her surprised made me laugh. Viedielle glanced at my face for a brief moment before she grabbed her wooden sword and stretched her back.

My eyes wandered towards Viedielle’s hands. It looked like she had recently gotten blisters. Blisters grew on top of callouses, and the blisters ripped to become weeping sores. Her skin ripped as it bled.

I could tell from a single glance that she was trying her best. When I stared at her hand full of scars, Viedielle hurriedly pulled her hand back as if embarrassed.

I wondered if she was practicing so hard after that attack.

“W-what. Wait, unni, are you here to practice?”

When I nodded at her words, Viedielle’s face scrunched into a scowl as she spoke.

Well. Her voice was incredibly loud.

“Wh, unni, you barely woke up! Last time, you passed out in your club room and didn’t wake up for five straight days, and then immediately after you woke up, you worked yourself so hard that you bled your body dry, and now you’re telling me that you’re going to practice the sword as soon as you wake up? Are you nuts?”

I was surprised. Why was she getting all angry all of a sudden? My body was in tip top shape after Duke Blanche healed me. Excluding the magic part of it.

Viedielle continued to angrily chide me after that.

I continued to listen to her nagging, which felt like it had come from nowhere.

I think her emotions just flooded out of her as soon as she saw my face.

As she continued to yell, she stumbled on her words often–which was definitely not like her usual self. It was like what happened when you forced yourself to talk when you didn’t know what you were saying.

Viedielle wiped her blood and sweat on her training uniform as tears glistened in her eyes.

“T, the! Ugh, it’s so annoying! Ugh, why can’t I speak properly.”

Huh? She was crying now.

She was surprised a moment ago and then she was angry and now she’s biting at her lips and trying not to cry. Wow, you sure are busy. Good on you for having so much to do.

“I feel like you’re the one pushing yourself too hard.”

After that incident, it looked like Viedielle, like Cory, had lost some of her calm.

Well, she was still young, and I did show her some traumatizing sights to her. She had gotten that deep leg injury right as assassins were trying to kill her. She must’ve gotten a considerable amount of shock.

It was good to see that she was trying to get over that shock by improving her sword skills. Even if it wasn’t good that she was overworking herself. Of course, I wasn’t one to speak.

I stared at Viedielle’s injuries and thought about taking out one of the ten healing rings that Swanhaden had given me before choosing not to.

Those scars needed to heal on their own for her skin to become tougher.

Instead of the ring, I took out some ointment and bandages before I scowled at how nice I felt. I just suddenly felt out of place.

In my past life, I had spent all of my time, effort, and life to raise my younger siblings as best I could, and I had promised to live this life as selfishly and as self-serving as I could…… Somehow, it seemed like things weren’t going the way I wanted.

Maybe I was growing too soft, seeing how many people I was adding to my flock. Most of my relationships were a solid give and take so it wasn’t like I was losing anything, but I felt like it was growing apart from my original ‘I’m going to live my life and eat, sleep, and live however I want.’ life motto. The amount of people I thought of as precious seemed to increase by the day. And that meant that I had just as much more things to care about.

I wasn’t sure if this was a bad habit of mine or a part of my personality. I felt complicated.

I grew quiet as I treated Viedielle’s injuries and thought about my life. Viedielle grew quiet too.

It was my fault for being weak against children. She was Cory’s little sister and her tone and actions were kind of annoying, but she was also cute.

“Do you want to duel?”

I had almost wrapped up treating Viedielle’s hand when I asked her to duel. I was going to just warm up slightly, and it wouldn’t be too much of a difficulty for Viedielle to work with me.

At my words, Viedielle’s face grew slack.

“Are you serious?”

She showed me her hands. They were wrapped in so many layers of bandages that she wouldn’t even be able to hold a sword. I had been so deep in my thoughts that I had wrapped them too hard. They looked like they’d be hard to remove.

“Then maybe just hand-to-hand combat……”

I hopped a few times and showed her a few awkward jabs. Viedielle stared at me, pity glinting in eyes.

Fine, sorry.

But you probably wouldn’t need any boxing gloves thanks to your bandages.

In the end, Viedielle and I decided to run laps around the training hall instead of having a duel.

We were running together, but Viedielle kept shooting glances at me ever so often. I wondered how weak I looked to Viedielle for her to keep talking to me. She seemed worried that I would faint mid-way.

But when I ran much longer and faster than Viedielle, she stopped nagging me. It seemed like she had gotten competitive. Looked like she finally understood that I was healthier than I looked.

When we ran more than ten laps, we stopped counting and just let our bodies continue running.

My breaths came in sharp bursts. My head seemed to ring. I kept running even when I started coughing because of my dry throat.

I swore I was only going to run enough to warm up. But Viedielle, who was breathing harshly and looked like she was going to pass out, suddenly seemed to get a burst of energy and continued running.

I found our running competition, which had morphed from a light warm up, so stupid that I wanted to call it quits. But whenever I wanted to, Viedielle kept taunting me so I ended up running as hard as I could.

Right when my thighs were beginning to cramp, Viedielle tripped on the ground. We finally stopped our stupid competition.

Viedielle flipped onto her back from where she tripped as she stared at the sky. She was sweating so hard that it looked like the ground was getting wet.

I laid down next to her as I caught my breath.

Viedielle really seemed like she had pushed herself too much–she kept coughing into the air. She basically crawled towards her belongings to get some water.

Then, she sprayed her water on the both of us and drank the rest of the awter.

“That was, hard. Unni, are, you having, a, hard time, too?”
“Don’t, talk, to me.”

When I told her to stop talking because it was hard to breathe, Viedielle grew quiet. When the two of us finally caught our breaths, Viedielle opened her mouth to speak again.

The only thing we could hear here were our breaths. Suddenly, I could hear her tired, slightly hoarse, voice.

“I was just sorry, and ashamed.”
“What?”

She was still catching her breath. Her words came in short bursts. When I asked her a question in response, Viedielle continued to speak.

“I’m whiny, and I have too much pride.”
“I felt like I was always getting pampered, so I began to practice the sword and magic.”
“So I just became proud that I attempted something, and I used that as an excuse.”
“But in the end, I didn’t really improve. I only grew more and more prideful.”
“That time, if you and my older brother wasn’t there……..”

Her thoughts came out in verbal bursts.

Viedielle explained to me how she had taken away all of the love and attention that Cory should’ve received until now.

She suddenly apologized to Cory, explained how shameful she was, suddenly complimented me before talking smack about me, cried, and blanched.

I suddenly grew hot as I listened to her words. I stopped drinking water from my bottle and splashed some water on my face.

I also splashed my water on Viedielle’s face. She looked like she had a lot to think about. Tears, water, and sweat all mixed together and dripped onto the ground.

Viedielle continued her messy, unedited monologue, and I felt awkward just leaving her there so I stayed next to her. I felt like if I just stood up to leave alone, then Viedielle, who had a lot of pride, would feel it was a personal attack against her.

I soon grew tired as I listened to Viedielle’s words. I laid down on the ground and soon fell asleep, and Viedielle also fell asleep during her speech.

Hazel and Hestia found the two of us asleep on the training grounds.

I listened to two of them worriedly chide me as I carried Viedielle, still asleep, into the dorms.

My body felt like it was made of lead after I fell asleep on the training ground yesterday.

I couldn’t even do the beauty stretches that Hazel and I did every night. As soon as I washed up, I fell asleep.

The muscle and strength training that Hylli and I did all the time was harder than our run yesterday, so I didn’t have any muscle cramps. My body just felt stiff because I slept wrong.

…Honestly, it was very stiff.

I tried not do things like this, but my back hurt so I stopped next to a tree.

After I checked to see if anybody was around me, I began to hit my back on my tree. I tried to bounce the parts that hurt the most on the tree.

I was just trying to get a few hits in, but it was a lot more effective than I thought so I just continued to hit my back without a single thought in my head.

Chapter - 119

Personally, black magic was something that I wanted to try out someday. Black magic generally consisted of curses, control, or destruction: it tended to focus on harming, but there was a rumor that the higher levels of black magic touched on dimension-related magic. It wasn’t confirmed, though.

The pinnacle of normal magic was time, the pinnacle of white magic was movement, and black magic was dimension. Of course, it was only confirmed for normal magic–time magic.

Anyway, it was a teeny bit, but I had a bit of black magic, so I should be able to study it. In the dream, I succeeded in using black magic with my own magic, but it wasn’t working out now that I was trying again.

It was because when I tried to use magic, my calm, normal magic suddenly grew ferocious and went erratic.

‘….The duke mentioned that I shouldn’t use magic for now, right?’

I think I figured it out. I didn’t want to experience that overflow again.

I needed to focus on swordsmanship instead of magic for now.

Because I was in that dream, I had lost all energy and wasn’t able to practice swordsmanship as much.

Unlike other students, I was trying to become a magic knight. It was counted as an elite level of knighthood, so it was important for me to have a good balance of both swordsmanship skills and magic skills. But these days, it felt like my swordsmanship wasn’t up to par.

I hadn’t exercised a lot recently, so all of my small but very lovable muscles were shrinking. At least, it felt like it.

After classes were over, I decided to head over to the training hall instead of the dorms. I was trying to get some light exercise in.

Usually, the training hall was empty after school. But today, someone was already there.

I saw a girl with long blonde hair pulled into a high ponytail as she gritted her teeth and stabbed the target in front of her.

Her green eyes, shaped slightly upwards, were burning with pride. She yelled as she continued swinging her sword. It looked like she had been doing this for a long time–her clothes were damp with sweat, and her breaths came out in long pants.

I knew her well, so I approached her and called her name.

“Viedielle?”“Ha! Hyap! Kyaa! Unni, you scared me!”

Viedielle seemed completely focused on her sword. She screamed when I called her and dropped her wooden sword.

I wasn’t trying to surprise her, but seeing her surprised made me laugh. Viedielle glanced at my face for a brief moment before she grabbed her wooden sword and stretched her back.

My eyes wandered towards Viedielle’s hands. It looked like she had recently gotten blisters. Blisters grew on top of callouses, and the blisters ripped to become weeping sores. Her skin ripped as it bled.

I could tell from a single glance that she was trying her best. When I stared at her hand full of scars, Viedielle hurriedly pulled her hand back as if embarrassed.

I wondered if she was practicing so hard after that attack.

“W-what. Wait, unni, are you here to practice?”

When I nodded at her words, Viedielle’s face scrunched into a scowl as she spoke.

Well. Her voice was incredibly loud.

“Wh, unni, you barely woke up! Last time, you passed out in your club room and didn’t wake up for five straight days, and then immediately after you woke up, you worked yourself so hard that you bled your body dry, and now you’re telling me that you’re going to practice the sword as soon as you wake up? Are you nuts?”

I was surprised. Why was she getting all angry all of a sudden? My body was in tip top shape after Duke Blanche healed me. Excluding the magic part of it.

Viedielle continued to angrily chide me after that.

I continued to listen to her nagging, which felt like it had come from nowhere.

I think her emotions just flooded out of her as soon as she saw my face.

As she continued to yell, she stumbled on her words often–which was definitely not like her usual self. It was like what happened when you forced yourself to talk when you didn’t know what you were saying.

Viedielle wiped her blood and sweat on her training uniform as tears glistened in her eyes.

“T, the! Ugh, it’s so annoying! Ugh, why can’t I speak properly.”

Huh? She was crying now.

She was surprised a moment ago and then she was angry and now she’s biting at her lips and trying not to cry. Wow, you sure are busy. Good on you for having so much to do.

“I feel like you’re the one pushing yourself too hard.”

After that incident, it looked like Viedielle, like Cory, had lost some of her calm.

Well, she was still young, and I did show her some traumatizing sights to her. She had gotten that deep leg injury right as assassins were trying to kill her. She must’ve gotten a considerable amount of shock.

It was good to see that she was trying to get over that shock by improving her sword skills. Even if it wasn’t good that she was overworking herself. Of course, I wasn’t one to speak.

I stared at Viedielle’s injuries and thought about taking out one of the ten healing rings that Swanhaden had given me before choosing not to.

Those scars needed to heal on their own for her skin to become tougher.

Instead of the ring, I took out some ointment and bandages before I scowled at how nice I felt. I just suddenly felt out of place.

In my past life, I had spent all of my time, effort, and life to raise my younger siblings as best I could, and I had promised to live this life as selfishly and as self-serving as I could…… Somehow, it seemed like things weren’t going the way I wanted.

Maybe I was growing too soft, seeing how many people I was adding to my flock. Most of my relationships were a solid give and take so it wasn’t like I was losing anything, but I felt like it was growing apart from my original ‘I’m going to live my life and eat, sleep, and live however I want.’ life motto. The amount of people I thought of as precious seemed to increase by the day. And that meant that I had just as much more things to care about.

I wasn’t sure if this was a bad habit of mine or a part of my personality. I felt complicated.

I grew quiet as I treated Viedielle’s injuries and thought about my life. Viedielle grew quiet too.

It was my fault for being weak against children. She was Cory’s little sister and her tone and actions were kind of annoying, but she was also cute.

“Do you want to duel?”

I had almost wrapped up treating Viedielle’s hand when I asked her to duel. I was going to just warm up slightly, and it wouldn’t be too much of a difficulty for Viedielle to work with me.

At my words, Viedielle’s face grew slack.

“Are you serious?”

She showed me her hands. They were wrapped in so many layers of bandages that she wouldn’t even be able to hold a sword. I had been so deep in my thoughts that I had wrapped them too hard. They looked like they’d be hard to remove.

“Then maybe just hand-to-hand combat……”

I hopped a few times and showed her a few awkward jabs. Viedielle stared at me, pity glinting in eyes.

Fine, sorry.

But you probably wouldn’t need any boxing gloves thanks to your bandages.

In the end, Viedielle and I decided to run laps around the training hall instead of having a duel.

We were running together, but Viedielle kept shooting glances at me ever so often. I wondered how weak I looked to Viedielle for her to keep talking to me. She seemed worried that I would faint mid-way.

But when I ran much longer and faster than Viedielle, she stopped nagging me. It seemed like she had gotten competitive. Looked like she finally understood that I was healthier than I looked.

When we ran more than ten laps, we stopped counting and just let our bodies continue running.

My breaths came in sharp bursts. My head seemed to ring. I kept running even when I started coughing because of my dry throat.

I swore I was only going to run enough to warm up. But Viedielle, who was breathing harshly and looked like she was going to pass out, suddenly seemed to get a burst of energy and continued running.

I found our running competition, which had morphed from a light warm up, so stupid that I wanted to call it quits. But whenever I wanted to, Viedielle kept taunting me so I ended up running as hard as I could.

Right when my thighs were beginning to cramp, Viedielle tripped on the ground. We finally stopped our stupid competition.

Viedielle flipped onto her back from where she tripped as she stared at the sky. She was sweating so hard that it looked like the ground was getting wet.

I laid down next to her as I caught my breath.

Viedielle really seemed like she had pushed herself too much–she kept coughing into the air. She basically crawled towards her belongings to get some water.

Then, she sprayed her water on the both of us and drank the rest of the awter.

“That was, hard. Unni, are, you having, a, hard time, too?”“Don’t, talk, to me.”

When I told her to stop talking because it was hard to breathe, Viedielle grew quiet. When the two of us finally caught our breaths, Viedielle opened her mouth to speak again.

The only thing we could hear here were our breaths. Suddenly, I could hear her tired, slightly hoarse, voice.

“I was just sorry, and ashamed.”“What?”

She was still catching her breath. Her words came in short bursts. When I asked her a question in response, Viedielle continued to speak.

“I’m whiny, and I have too much pride.”

“I felt like I was always getting pampered, so I began to practice the sword and magic.”

“So I just became proud that I attempted something, and I used that as an excuse.”

“But in the end, I didn’t really improve. I only grew more and more prideful.”

“That time, if you and my older brother wasn’t there……..”

Her thoughts came out in verbal bursts.

Viedielle explained to me how she had taken away all of the love and attention that Cory should’ve received until now.

She suddenly apologized to Cory, explained how shameful she was, suddenly complimented me before talking smack about me, cried, and blanched.

I suddenly grew hot as I listened to her words. I stopped drinking water from my bottle and splashed some water on my face.

I also splashed my water on Viedielle’s face. She looked like she had a lot to think about. Tears, water, and sweat all mixed together and dripped onto the ground.

Viedielle continued her messy, unedited monologue, and I felt awkward just leaving her there so I stayed next to her. I felt like if I just stood up to leave alone, then Viedielle, who had a lot of pride, would feel it was a personal attack against her.

I soon grew tired as I listened to Viedielle’s words. I laid down on the ground and soon fell asleep, and Viedielle also fell asleep during her speech.

Hazel and Hestia found the two of us asleep on the training grounds.

I listened to two of them worriedly chide me as I carried Viedielle, still asleep, into the dorms.

My body felt like it was made of lead after I fell asleep on the training ground yesterday.

I couldn’t even do the beauty stretches that Hazel and I did every night. As soon as I washed up, I fell asleep.

The muscle and strength training that Hylli and I did all the time was harder than our run yesterday, so I didn’t have any muscle cramps. My body just felt stiff because I slept wrong.

…Honestly, it was very stiff.

I tried not do things like this, but my back hurt so I stopped next to a tree.

After I checked to see if anybody was around me, I began to hit my back on my tree. I tried to bounce the parts that hurt the most on the tree.

I was just trying to get a few hits in, but it was a lot more effective than I thought so I just continued to hit my back without a single thought in my head.