Ch. 75
Luckily, I had already filled the area with fog, so no one would see.
“Ador!”
[It’s been a while, Master!]
I called in a whisper. Ador was my hidden weapon, the Spirit of Lightning, and I avoided revealing him around people knowledgeable about spirits.
I had only used him once before, in front of the Shavel Mercenaries, who were ignorant about spirits—so they didn’t count.
[Focus. There’s an enemy in the fog.]
[What should I do?]
Ador wasn’t as perfectly synced with me as Undine, so controlling him was a bit tricky. I had to spell out every detail.
[The opponent has a sword. Attack it.]
[How?]
[Blast it with electricity!]
[How strong?]
[With ten percent of my mana!]
It was frustrating, how he needed every little thing explained, even in a crisis like this.
Ador seemed to get the idea and darted into the thick fog.
We were wrapped in a dense mist so heavy you couldn’t see a step ahead, and the only thing betraying Rovenin’s position was the faint sound of his footsteps.
Suddenly, a flash sparked to my right.
How did he get so close already?!
“Kuh!”
A shallow groan and the scent of something burnt filled the air.
Rovenin, drenched in water and surrounded by the damp fog, hadn’t expected an electric attack and was caught off guard while still holding his sword.
Ador was effective, as expected.
Holding a sword in front of a lightning spirit was no different from waving a lightning rod!
[Ador, one more time!]
[Ten percent?]
[Twenty percent!]
A tremendous amount of mana drained away, and then I heard the sound of Rovenin dropping his sword somewhere within the fog.
At that point, my mana was almost completely depleted, so I quickly dismissed Ador.
A lightning-struck Rovenin should be easy enough for Undine to handle now.
* What’s happening inside the fog?!
Feeling triumphant, I started worrying about what excuse I would make for using electricity as a water spirit mage.
Yeah, it was just when I thought victory was within reach that I sealed my own defeat.
[Are you alright, Master?]
Undine’s voice reached me.
She was still invisible to save my dwindling mana.
[Undo your invisibility, Undine.]
Since we were still hidden in the fog, I figured it would be safe.
Undine appeared right in front of me, and I focused on listening for any trace of Rovenin.
Where was he?
It was just for a moment.
I stood there, listening carefully—
And if my instincts were right, he was right behind me.
I quickly turned and stumbled back, but Rovenin was already emerging from the mist with his sword raised.
‘Dammit.’
Too late to run.
His sword was charred black, and [Aura Blade] shimmered around it.
He appeared so fast that my mind couldn’t process it.
I had almost no mana left, not even enough time to shout an order.
All I could do was wish—wish strongly enough that Undine would understand.
Protect me, Undine.
Protect me.
[Master!]
Better to get stabbed by that sword than to shout surrender and lose everything.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Then came the sound of something ripping apart.
But I felt no pain.
Only an intense, unfamiliar dread swept over me.
I felt helpless tears spilling from my eyes, panic clawing at me as I opened them again.
And saw Undine—
[Master…….]
Her small form, torn to shreds.
“Undine!”
Her body, slashed by [Aura Blade], burst apart into fragments before my eyes.
This wasn’t what I meant when I asked her to protect me.
Rovenin raised his sword again toward me, but I dodged—not intentionally, but because my legs gave out beneath me.
I collapsed helplessly.
The shock was so great that I couldn’t breathe.
Hearing a spirit scream as it was torn apart for the first time, the forced dismissal of Undine from the backlash—it all crushed me, overwhelming any pain from the blood rising up my throat.
I knelt on the marble floor, vomiting blood.
“Kuh, hup…”
Blood spilled endlessly onto the puddles below me, pouring from my mouth and nose no matter how desperately I tried to hold it back.
My consciousness flickered.
I knew instantly that my internal injuries had worsened.
It felt like my organs had been torn apart inside me.
And what I was feeling now was only a fraction of the pain Undine must have endured.
Gasping and trembling, I was lifted into familiar arms, and someone slapped my cheek.
“Geenie!”
Was it Teacher Iritho? No—maybe? I couldn’t tell.
“Stay with me!”
As I barely opened my eyes, the only thing I could see was the clear blue sky.
The fog had cleared now that Undine was gone.
The last gaze I met before losing consciousness was Rovenin’s.
Rovenin Fedri, with a cold, detached expression, as if he had lost all interest in me.
– The fog is clearing! Yes… and the victor is, as expected, the pride of our Empire! Behold, everyone! The winner—Rovenin Fedri!
* * *
When I opened my eyes, I was crying.
I had been dreaming endlessly of nightmares.
Undine.
Undine.
No matter how desperately I called, she didn’t come to me.
The more I called her name, the more the reality of her absence tore me apart.
She was supposed to be by my side.
She had never once failed to answer when I called. I couldn’t bear it—and so I wept endlessly.
“Teacher…”
“Geenie…”
“I can’t. I can’t summon her. She won’t come.”
I kept calling for Undine without stopping. Kept falling into despair without end.
Held in Teacher Iritho’s arms, I would lose consciousness, wake again, and repeat this for days.
Buried in fear and sorrow that Undine might have disappeared forever, I spent my days crying into my pillow.
Some days, the guilt and heartbreak made me sob until I was nearly sick.
– “We choose our masters.”
Rai’s words kept echoing in my head.
– “An immature master may cause our destruction, but that too is the price of our own choice.”
– “The master’s weakness becomes entirely our burden.”
– “Master, the spirit’s oath is like that. It’s no different from staking one’s life for a human.”
There are countless kinds of sorrow in the world, each with its own depth.
But after becoming a spirit mage—after accepting spirits deeply enough to feel them as part of myself—there could be no sorrow heavier than this.
Some spirit mages even compared it to the hollow devastation of losing one’s child.
It was a sickness unique to spirit mages.
Our greatest flaw and weakness.
If I had been a mage, I would never have known this excruciating pain and sorrow.
– “I like you, Master.”
– “I’ll try harder!”
– “Master.”
At the end of my tears, I arrived at a conclusion.
Rovenin Fedri.
That bastard.
* * *
Even after returning to Dmitri, I was bedridden for over a month.
Once I barely recovered, instead of receiving comfort, I was flooded with congratulations.
The academy dean even tried to call me out to present an award in front of the whole school, but I refused and locked myself in my room.
Winning the junior division tournament meant nothing to me.
All that remained was a humiliation I never wanted to experience again in my life.
“Miss Geenie, you did incredibly well. Truly! It’s been ten years since Drike Academy last produced a tournament winner. You should be proud.”
The only person who even slightly understood my feelings was Master Yael, a fellow spirit mage.
But even she only sympathized with the fact that I had lost Undine.
“No. I’m furious and resentful.”
“Who could beat Rovenin Fedri? That match was decided before it even started.”
“You don’t understand!”
“Miss Geenie…”
“If I hadn’t been such an idiot, I could’ve won! Undine wouldn’t have ended up like that!”
No one blamed me for losing to Rovenin.
Instead, everyone praised me—saying it was amazing that I lasted that long and that it was an honor just to be challenged by him.
But all those words only made me angrier.
“Please don’t be so hard on yourself. Everyone truly thinks you’re amazing…”
“I don’t care what they think! Just the fact that I lost is enough humiliation!”
“Of course, of course, I understand. I know better than anyone how strong your pride is, Miss Geenie. But young Lord Fedri is a genius predicted to become a Swordmaster before he even turns twenty.”
“And who decided that? Who said it was okay to lose to Rovenin Fedri?!”
I had turned completely foul-tempered, and the name ‘Rovenin’ had practically become forbidden around me.
Friends, teachers, everyone—no one dared to offend me, but none could truly appease me either.
For a while, I was like a festering wound at the academy.
“Well! Have you at least seen the gifts sent by His Majesty the King to honor your achievement? He was apparently very pleased and said to support you with whatever you need. And the prize money from the Emperor was enormous too, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t want any of it.”
“Oh dear… Please, don’t be like that. Did I tell you how proud I am to be your instructor?”
“Just give me some paper. And a pen.”
“What for?”
Burning with aimless fury, I finally decided how to end my miserable state two months after returning to Dmitri.
“I’m going to write a letter to His Majesty the King.”
After hearing about a hundred rounds of praise—some for me, some suspiciously for that bastard Rovenin—I finally snapped.
“I’m going to ask for a training hall.”
There was a realm of spirit mages called ‘High Spirit Mages,’ who were on par with Swordmasters, commanding high-ranking spirits.
There was no way I couldn’t reach what Rovenin could do.
* * * * * *
(T/N: Im back! Lol, kidding. I had a free time so I’m trying to do some TL work. Mind you, we are STILL NOT on the regular upload schedule!)