TN: This time there are multiple viewpoint shifts marked with ※.
Be aware that the perspectives are Mizera’s and the protagonist’s.
-0-
It pisses me off… it pisses me off… it pisses me off…
I’m really angry.
You say I’m taking advantage of being a Half-Elf?
I may have resented being a Half-Elf, but I have never once relied on it.
What could that man, who came from another world and was merely granted powerful abilities by the Goddess, possibly understand?
Talent wasn’t necessary for him anyway. He’s lived without hardship thanks to the powerful skills the Goddess gave him, right?
That’s why he can talk down to others and decide what makes them happy…
I will decide my own happiness.
That lucky man could never understand me.
I burrow into the bed and keep thinking about what happened today.
Even this bed was probably obtained thanks to his skills.
I even find myself hating the unfamiliar, high-quality feel of these sheets.
「…Mizera. I’m coming in」
Shiro opened the door without permission and entered.
I want to say not to come in, but this room isn’t solely mine anyway.
「Sleeping…? I warmed up your food since it got cold」
「…I don’t want it」
「Hmm. If you don’t eat, you won’t be able to run tomorrow」
「…」
「…Did you quarrel with lord?」
「…」
「Lord looked absent minded during the meal. Seemed like he was thinking about something, like he regretted something…」
Hearing that makes me even angrier.
Regret? Don’t be ridiculous. Don’t do that.
You preach hard truths at me and then talk about regret…
Yes, I know. What he said was the sensible thing to say.
Since Wendy-sama trusts him so completely, he must be a good person.
Even without Wendy-sama, that’s obvious…
I heard he overexerted himself making medicine for me when I collapsed.
He served warm food to welcome me.
Most of all, he treated me like a person…
If someone is only kind, I suspect ulterior motives.
If someone is only strict, I reject them.
He has both, so he must truly be thinking about me.
I already understand that.
But still, haven’t I lived in utter darkness until now?
Haven’t I kept thinking this world should just be destroyed?
After that, you suddenly tell me the world has become bright and dazzling as if it were transformed, and expect me to decide? I can’t do that…
It’s a lie that I don’t want to cause trouble.
There’s no way I’d want to leave such a comfortable place.
If I leave, I already know it’ll be either dying on the roadside or being made a slave again.
But once you taste happiness, letting go of it becomes terrifying… that’s why I sometimes think it’s easier never to have gained it in the first place.
Even so, I know what I’d have to do to obtain it, to stay here… I know.
「Ugh… nn…」
「Mizera? Crying?」
「I’m not crying!」
Even though I know, tears overflow from my weakness, from clinging to excuses that stop me from taking a step forward.
Everything has been prepared for me, yet I’m scared of the disappointment if I fail to meet expectations.
I’m afraid of being scorned, scolded, and abandoned. Knowing I have no talent, I don’t have the confidence to keep trying.
「…Mizera, do you hate lord?」
「I do… He doesn’t know hardship at all…」
「Lord has suffered a lot. Shiro and the others trouble him plenty. Even so, lord still smiles. He smiles and keeps working hard」
「Working hard? That man with so much talent he can get a mansion like this? Don’t make me laugh…」
「…Come」
「Wait….」
Without giving me a choice, Shiro pulled my hand and walked down the hallway.
Even though she’s just a small Catkin, she pulled with surprising strength.
Yet the grip was controlled, firm but not painful on my wrist.
She brought me to the pitch-dark living room.
Then Shiro slid open the glass door to the terrace and beckoned me outside.
She put a finger to her lips, telling me to be quiet.
I wondered what he was doing, but I stepped out anyway, and he crouched low by the railing, motioning me closer.
「Hmm…」
She urged me to look past the railing.
Peering into the darkness toward the garden and the gate, I saw the outlines of two figures.
※
「But Freed, is it really alright over here?」
「We don’t know how much destruction there might be… We can’t risk damaging Hayato-sama’s house…」
「So it’s fine if it’s mine instead…?」
「It is not my Master’s home, but yours」
With that, Freed took his stance.
I chuckled and drew the Mana Eater, facing him.
「Then, here I come」
「Haaah… yeah. Anytime」
I took a deep breath.
Exhaling, Freed closed the distance in a single step, slipping into my range.
His speed was incredible for such a massive body. The pressure crashed over me, and his heavy fist pierced into my torso before I could even guard with the Mana Eater.
「Ghh… uughk…」
「In battle, never let your opponent into range so easily. That is the most basic rule」
I vomited the contents of my stomach and rolled on the ground, and still, whipping my aching gut, I forced myself to stand.
My belly throbbed not just with dull pain but with a pounding, and I grimaced as I faced him again.
「Shall we go for the second one, then?」
「Yeah…」
Freed came straight at me once more, and I swung my sword in a horizontal arc.
But Freed stopped dead just before my sword’s reach, slipped past my swing, and closed the distance.
My clumsy, overextended attack left my shoulder wide open, and Freed’s fist drove into it, sending me tumbling across the garden.
「When you attack, think about the follow-up. If it’s blocked, avoided, or lands, what will you do next? Swinging without a plan is just suicide.」
「Ugh… damn…」
My arm wouldn’t lift.
I produced a recovery potion and drank, then forced myself back in front of Freed.
All right, third strike.
「Hah!」
I swung horizontally again, and once more Freed halted before my range.
This time I compacted my swing so I could recover my stance quickly, but Freed vanished.
In that instant a shock tore through my legs and my body lifted.
My airborne body was struck by Freed’s shoulder and sent flying.
「Combat is about forcing conditions that favor you. Leg trips and feints break the opponent’s balance and create states advantageous to you. That is their benefit.」
「I see… this is something you can only do against a big opponent like him…」
When a giant like Freed steps in, the ground of the garden naturally caves.
I’d just been on the receiving end of a leg sweep from Renge earlier today, and clearly I hadn’t improved at all.
「Shall we continue?」
「Yes. Keep going.」
Renge and the others don’t give you this kind of pain… they always stop just before.
If I were to be injured in real combat and lose my composure, that would be unforgivable.
That’s why I asked Freed to train me.
「Next, let’s use space magic. You should learn tactics that combine skills and spells.」
「Understood. I’ll focus on defense, right?」
「Yes. But I will put strength into my attacks now. If you get careless, you won’t die, but you will suffer serious wounds.」
「…Got it.」
I downed both a recovery potion and a magic power recovery potion and prepared myself.
First, I cast an Invisible Jail around myself.
It was a construct made with a considerable amount of magic power.
「All right, let’s go. Hold for at least ten seconds.」
「Okay. I’ll try.」
No sooner had I spoken than Freed’s figure vanished.
Perhaps because it was night, my motion vision couldn’t keep up at all.
Then, just as I thought he had appeared in front of me, I heard a dull thud right before my face.
「As expected, it’s quite solid.」
I realized the sound was Freed striking the invisible jail, and though I flinched at the weight of that fist, I leapt back to push Freed out of my range and cast another invisible jail in the interval.
「Yes. Using it to keep distance from your opponent is effective as well.」
Freed put out a hand, touched the invisible jail with a soft tap and shattered it easily, then walked toward me at a leisurely pace.
「Your skill can’t be seen. But even if touched, its effect is minimal. It might work against monsters without magic power, but it’s far too weak against someone adept with magic power.」
「Indeed. Honestly, if it’s broken this easily the magic power efficiency is poor.」
「Ideally you’d handle sudden attacks with that power while also casting spells. However…」
「If I can’t use them, there’s no point talking about it.」
「…Yes. Therefore, I still think you should devote yourself to support. As before, floating in the air outside dungeons and caves and protecting the surroundings with skills would be better. But…」
「Yeah. I don’t want to say I can’t go when we have to enter a dungeon or cave.」
With that, Freed took a stance.
「Shall we continue?」
「Yes. Rather, we’re only getting started. Freed, are you all right?」
「Yes, I don’t mind. I will face you with all my strength to repay your courage.」
Freed smiled gently, and I smiled back.
But the developments that followed were fierce and harsh, just as I had imagined.
※
「…What? That…?」
Watching made my whole body tremble.
Seeing the scene before me gave me goosebumps all over.
「Freed. The butler of Hayato’s house.」
「No, that’s not it! Why is he being beaten so badly? Don’t we have to help?」
「Hmm. We can’t interfere with lord’s training.」
「Training…? That? Don’t be ridiculous. He’s just being beaten one-sidedly! If we don’t stop it he’ll die!」
「We won’t stop. We can’t stop…」
「Why…」
Shiro lowered his brows and spoke with a very sad face.
「If lord is trying so hard, Shiro can’t tell him not to.」
「But… that man doesn’t have talent for fighting…」
「No… he doesn’t. But he trains every day and works, reads books to research, and after everyone falls asleep he keeps training. Even though he has no talent and no matter how hard he tries he can’t catch up to us, he still does his best. Shiro can’t stop him.」
Shiro had tears welling in his eyes, keeping them back with all his strength so they wouldn’t fall.
「Why… why would he… do that?」
「Because it’s what lord wants to do. If lord desires it, Shiro will watch over him. Protecting lord’s heart is part of Shiro’s duty as his guard.」
「…Why… why does he want to get that strong? He has the talent of alchemy, and Aina and the others are top adventurers in this town, and you’re here too. Isn’t this enough as it is?」
The Red Line.
The town’s highest A-rank adventurers.
I’d heard how strong those three were, strong enough to handle multiple opponents at once.
The fact an individual could hold such combat power was staggering, and if that was the case, then training himself further seemed unnecessary.
「Hmm… lord said he no longer wants to stay weak. He said he hates being unable to do anything. Even though he’s actually terrible with pain and scared of it…」
「Unable to do anything…」
It’s the same as me.
But the big difference is he has taken a step forward.
He deliberately challenges what he’s bad at and moves forward despite the pain. Watching him stand up and face things again and again made me painfully aware of how small I was.
「…I wonder if he’ll keep going?」
「Hmm… For anything else he might stop, but in this case I don’t think lord will quit. Even if you tell him it’s okay to stop, he probably won’t.」
「I see… I feel miserable. I complained without knowing anything about him. Ah… I have no excuses left, do I…」
「Hmm. It’s because he’s lord. Even if he weren’t from another world, I don’t think he’d change. Being with him helps you move forward. It’s fun. So Shiro will follow lord. Shiro will try harder so he can keep up with lord.」
「…I’m a little… jealous, I suppose…」
「Hmm… Then Mizera, won’t you try with Shiro?」
「Yeah… I wonder if I can?」
「You can. Shiro and everyone will help.」
「…Okay.」
I didn’t know whether what swelled up inside me was because of Shiro’s kindness or the sorrow of realizing I was the one who had given up on myself the most.
But the small light that lit in my heart felt warm and not at all bad.
After that, tears flowed that I couldn’t stop. Supported by Shiro, I returned to my room and ate the now-cold dinner, which tasted good after all.
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