Chapter 205
Arin Eloise.
The youngest daughter of the prestigious Eloise family, and a girl with a worn, haggard appearance.
‘…I will.’
Her limbs were so gaunt it looked as though she had been starving.
It was a wonder she could even walk at all.
‘Someday, I’ll erase the Magic Tower. I’ll burn it all down.’
The girl muttering such terrifying thoughts to herself slowly walked across the plaza on the 18th floor of the Magic Tower.
Trudge, trudge.
Perhaps because she had not been under the sun in so long, her skin was deathly pale.
Even so, not even her unwashed, tangled hair could hide her dazzling looks.
“Whoa, look at her. Why is she so skinny?”
“Is someone starving her? Still, she looks pretty noble… Huk, wait! That Sigil…?”
“It’s the Sigil of the Eloise family, the one that symbolizes flames. Ah… then is she that Library Ghost?”
“Library Ghost?”
“Yeah, you know. The one who stays shut up in the Archive and never comes out.”
“Ah, so that was her.”
People murmured around her.
A few recognized her, but Arin paid them no mind.
She was already used to it.
From a young age, countless expectations had been placed on her.
When she was learning to walk.
When she was learning to speak.
When she was learning the language left behind by “Ancient Magic.”
You are destined to one day bear the Eloise family on your shoulders.
You will become the Magic Tower Lord, standing tall above all other families.
Therefore, you must work hard. No, working hard isn’t enough. You must excel. This is a place where only those who excel can survive.
Pressure.
Everything was pressure.
But what could she do?
She had been born into a world that forced pressure onto her.
And just to survive in that world, she had tried to live up to those expectations.
Hmm?
Is that really all you can do?
Hah, how could the Eloise family produce such a dullard…
The words of Arin’s first teacher.
For some reason, those words sounded to the girl like a death sentence.
Was it because, even then, she had vaguely realized what kind of life awaited her from that point on?
Her teachers kept changing.
From retired old professors to elder-level professors.
The greatest authorities in the world of Magic came to teach her, but—
Hah, I don’t think this is right.
I’m sorry to say this, but I don’t know if she can even manage Tower Entry, let alone graduate from the Magic Tower.
I’ll take my leave. This is as far as I can teach her.
How about finding some other kind of happiness for this child?
One by one, they all gave up on her.
The world’s greatest dullard.
That was how every Mage referred to Arin.
…You worthless girl.
The shame of the family.
Go to the Magic Tower. And until you graduate, don’t you dare seek out your mother again.
The world was a frightening place.
She was only a little less talented than others.
How could they be so cruel?
Even after she entered the Magic Tower, nothing changed.
Hey, hey, they say she’s the idiot of the Eloise family.
Tsk tsk, what’s the point of being born with a silver spoon if your skills are that pathetic?
They say she doesn’t even try, right?
I thought she did seem to be trying, though?
Nah, no way. Think about it. Could someone with no talent really exist? In the famous Eloise bloodline? She was just born with a silver spoon and got complacent, so she turned out like that. Who else could be blamed?
The gazes of her classmates were cold.
You. Don’t act like you know me.
Don’t embarrass me. Just live like you’re dead. I’ve never had a youngest sibling like you.
Her own siblings from the family had turned their backs on her as well.
And then—
Grit!
Arin, who had been walking, ground her teeth.
‘Andrew Patrick.’
That damn bastard.
He bullied her relentlessly for no reason.
That bastard had deliberately gotten himself demoted to F Class, the class she was in, just so he could keep tormenting her.
‘Actually.’
It was all because of him that she had become the Library Ghost of the Archive.
It was why she had built a Secret Chamber so deep inside that even Patrick could never find it.
“…”
Arin’s eyes trembled.
Andrew’s bullying, carried out as though she were some mortal enemy from a past life.
Neither the professors nor her family had stopped him.
No, it would be more accurate to say they chose not to stop him.
At least, not for the past few years.
The world had already turned its gaze away from her.
And because of that, Arin starved herself.
She stayed awake day and night, reading books.
She had heard that the Magic Tower’s Archive stored knowledge about the existence known as “Ancient Magic,” which had remained since the dawn of time.
It was said that even Gospelheim, the Magic Tower Lord, had not conquered even one percent of the archives kept there.
‘Surely.’
She believed there had to be a way to solve her problem.
‘…I will.’
Trudge, trudge.
As she walked, the girl clenched her fists tightly.
‘I will definitely improve my skills.’
She squeezed so hard that a drop of blood formed on her delicate palm.
‘And I will erase the Tower.’
A world where only talent mattered.
A world where those without ability could never be happy.
Arin saw the reason such a world existed in that towering structure itself.
‘If my misfortune… and the misfortune of others like me comes from the Tower…’
Then a Tower like that would be better off gone.
===
The Eloise family’s regular event was held once a year.
Its purpose was unity.
Hosted by the family head, the family’s students who had worked hard all year gathered to drink and dance together.
‘I really, really don’t want to go…’
Arin despised this event.
It made her teeth chatter.
Of course it did, when every single participant looked down on her and treated her with contempt.
Even so, there was one reason she absolutely had to attend.
‘Because they hand out the renewed Sigil and allowance.’
This was one of the unique traits of the Eloise family.
They distributed allowances according to each person’s performance over the year.
And the Sigil symbolizing Eloise was renewed through the family head’s Magic.
She needed the money to buy materials for her Magic Experiments.
And she needed a renewed Sigil in order to enter the 22nd floor of the Archive, a privilege granted to the Four Great Families.
“My, my, who do we have here? Isn’t it our youngest, Arin?”
“Why are you acting familiar with her? Surely you don’t still think she has the same blood as us, do you?”
“Nah, of course not. It’s just… fascinating. How she still keeps showing up to this event so diligently with skills like that.”
“Right? Let’s hurry inside. I don’t want to catch bad luck just by standing near her.”
“What bad luck?”
“What do you think? The bad luck of losing your talent. Hehehe.”
Even now.
Whenever Arin passed by, the blood relatives from her family who noticed her ignored her or mocked her.
“…”
Trudge, trudge.
Even so, Arin’s expression did not change.
She was already an expert at enduring this kind of scorn.
She was practically a master of “Ignoring Immunity.”
‘Right.’
I just have to do the same as last year.
Skip the festival.
Take the Sigil and the money, then leave.
‘Though they’ll probably give me next to nothing.’
Still, it was better than nothing.
She had to eat to stay alive, after all.
As always, the girl shut her ears and closed off her heart.
If this had happened in the past, she would have cried.
Now, not even a single tear would fall.
Had she become numb?
Or had her heart already been torn apart so thoroughly that there was nothing left to tear?
Strangely enough, she did not feel sad.
In just a moment, the grand event of the Eloise family will begin.
We ask all our honored guests to please take their seats.
===
Before long, the event began with the voice of the hired emcee.
Naturally, Arin sat hunched over at the very end of the farthest table.
The ceremony itself was simple.
The family head would appear and offer a brief greeting.
Then came a lecture about working hard and the like.
After that, the children were ranked and then awarded their Sigils and money.
Next is Elima Eloise, who has risen to S Class this time! Please come forward!
Clap, clap, clap, clap!
The tiresome sound of applause and the direct presentation by the family head.
As befitted one of the Four Great Families, the Eloise family had immense wealth.
Naturally, its children received allowances large enough to make anyone else’s jaw drop.
But—
And now, the last one.
Ahem, Arin Eloise! Please come forward!
Silence.
Not a single person clapped.
The girl found that strange.
You would think at least one person would clap out of pity…
But this was nobility, and this was Eloise.
A clan more merciless than any other toward those without talent.
“…”
Biting her lip hard, Arin stepped onto the platform.
She could feel the family head’s cold gaze on her.
“So, I hear you’ve been living as a shut-in the Magic Tower’s Archive these days?”
“…That is correct, Family Head.”
The girl lowered her head.
“Family Head…”
Not a trace of goodwill could be found in the family head’s quiet murmur.
“Do not misunderstand, Arin.”
“…Yes, I know.”
“And what is it that you know?”
“Last year, you said you did not wish to be known for cruelly casting out a family member. That is why you grant me the Sigil and the allowance. I am…”
Blood welled up at the lip she had bitten.
“Not a person of Eloise.”
Her blood was Eloise.
But her ability was not Eloise.
Then that meant she was clearly not Eloise.
That was the creed of the family head.
“You understand well enough. That is sufficient.”
“…”
The allowance the family head handed over was, to her astonishment, a single Gold Coin.
Equivalent to ten Silver Coins.
An amount barely enough to survive on for a single month.
“Since all you do is go into the Archive and never come out, that should be enough, correct?”
While the others had received anywhere from a minimum of 200 to a maximum of 500, she was given only one Gold Coin.
“…That is correct.”
Arin hurriedly accepted it.
What mattered to her was not the Gold Coin, but the renewed Sigil.
“Live quietly, as if you are dead, exactly as you are now.”
“Yes, I will keep that in mind.”
The steps she took as she came down from the platform with it in hand, like a beggar, felt unbearably heavy to Arin.
===
Naturally, she skipped the festival.
One Sigil and one Gold Coin.
Holding them carefully in her thin hand, Arin once again walked across the plaza.
The Gold Coin she had received today would all be spent on a few emergency rations and materials for Magic Experiments.
‘Let’s go.’
Go quickly.
And read the books again.
Thinking about useless things only made her heart sink further.
Only by burying herself in the Archive and reading books could she drive away these pointless thoughts.
‘…Let’s never give up.’
Her one and only goal was to destroy the Tower.
And to destroy the Eloise Family, who had ignored her.
And the Four Great Families as well.
Tap, tap, tap! Tatatat!
Her footsteps grew faster and faster.
As if trying to hide the pounding of her heart, she kept her eyes on the ground and hurried forward, and at that moment—
Thud!
She bumped into someone.
“Gasp!”
Was it because she hadn’t eaten properly for so long?
Even though it had only been a light collision, her breath caught in her throat and she fell onto her backside.
“…Who.”
When Arin lifted her eyes upward,
she saw a black-haired man.
‘What is this?’
If someone bumped into her, they should either apologize or get angry.
They should react somehow.
But the man merely stared at her blankly.
No, more precisely, it felt as though he were lost in some kind of dream.
‘What the?’
What a strange person.
Frowning, Arin slowly got back to her feet.
“Hoo.”
She didn’t even have the energy to be angry.
If she had been one of the other children of the Eloise family, this would have been an offense worthy of severe punishment.
But she had neither the strength for that nor the mood.
“It’s fine. You can just go.”
Just as she was about to keep walking—
“Wait.”
The man grabbed her wrist.
His grip was so strong that she couldn’t pull free.
What is wrong with this guy?
Did he finally come to his senses?
“Arin Eloise. I have something to discuss with you.”
“You know me?”
Well, of course.
Wouldn’t it be stranger to find someone in the Magic Tower who didn’t know her?
The girl let out a faint sigh.
“I have nothing to say to someone I don’t even know. So please let go of my arm.”
“…Someone you don’t know, you say.”
A faint smile touched the man’s lips.
“I am your attending professor. You’ve heard of me, haven’t you? The new professor who was just appointed. Shall we talk for a bit?”
************************************************************
Premium Access is now available!
If you want to stay ahead, you can now read 15 early chapters in advance through my new Premium Access tier on Ko-fi.
Price: $2.99 per month
Benefits:
– Instant access to 15+ chapters ahead
– 5 new early chapters every week
– Full archive access from Chapter 1 to the latest premium release
– Optional Discord notifications for every new chapter drop
– This is an ad-on from the Legendary Hero is an Academy Honor Student premium access.
If you’d like to support the translation and read ahead, you can join here: https://ko-fi.com/s/372bf00894
Thank you for reading and supporting the series!