Chapter 53: The Uninvited Hero (5)
‘…What the hell?’
There’s no way he died just like that, right?
That thought flashed through my mind for a mont—but as if to deny it outright, the boy revealed himself once more.
Poking his head out slightly between the trees, he gave Rubia a firm signal.
Whether the beast noticed it or not, it let out a shrill, furious roar and kept clawing uselessly at the ground.
Without hesitation, Rubia simultaneously deployed Paralyze Field and Mud Swarm.
The beast realized its mistake the mont it saw the magic circles appear beneath it.
But unlike before, it was far too late to run now.
Its body stiffened up entirely, and soon enough it began to be pelted rcilessly with waves of mud.
After about two minutes, the mud had completely adhered to the beast’s body and hardened in place.
When Rubia imdiately used Ignite Field, the entire area was instantly engulfed in flas.
Though the paralysis had worn off, even a B-rank beast couldn’t shake off the hardened mud caked all over its body.
As it crashed and writhed in all directions, rapidly consuming its life force, the girl sprinted toward the boy.
“Sir Eugene, quickly!”
“…Thought I was done for.”
Leaving behind the beast’s dying screams, the two managed to escape the scene safely.
The smoke billowing from the flas thickened the air even more.
Watching it quietly, the two of them savored their miraculous survival for a brief mont.
“……”
“Um… Sir Eugene.”
It was Rubia who broke the silence first, unable to contain her curiosity.
“At the end… you did sothing, didn’t you?”
“What?”
“The beast suddenly attacked a random spot, right? As if you were actually there….”
“Oh, that.”
The boy caught his breath and answered casually.
“I used Illusion Barrier just before that.”
“Ah….”
So that’s what it was.
Illusion Barrier—a barrier that projects illusions.
Compared to ordinary barriers, its defensive power was drastically weaker, but its exceptional illusionary capabilities made up for it.
The beast must have thought it was finally tearing its prey to pieces, attacking excitedly—but what it had been seeing all along was just an illusion.
‘That’s a pretty rare ability. It wouldn’t have been easy to acquire even through Mana Devour….’
I couldn’t help but wonder, once again, just how absurdly powerful Eugene Carter must have been at his peak.
He was only fifteen and already capable of this level of performance.
Then, how powerful had he been during his Special Task Force days, when people said he’d fully blossod?
‘Maybe his pri had already begun at this point.’
As I marveled inwardly as though it were soone else’s affair—
He brushed the dust off his clothes with a sigh.
“Phew, it must’ve been pissed as hell. Charged at without even checking. Thanks to that, I barely made it out ali—”
He stopped mid-sentence and looked down at his left calf.
Through a tear in his pants, a small wound was visible.
Around it, dark reddish blisters had begun spreading along his veins toward his foot and knee.
“…Damn it.”
“Sir Eugene!”
When the boy struggled to roll up his pants, Rubia tore a piece of her cloak and tightly bound it above his knee.
It was the bare minimum of first aid to slow the poison’s spread—but even that was already too late.
As his complexion paled rapidly, she clutched both his hands in panic.
“Stay with ! Just hold on a bit longer, the people from the Magic Tower will—!”
“At least… you’re safe… that’s… good….”
His words faded out.
“…Sir Eugene?”
Contrary to her hopes, the boy lost consciousness right then and there.
“Sir Eugene!”
His lips had turned pale and were trembling faintly.
Seeing that, Rubia froze in despair, frantically glancing around.
“Soone! Is anyone there?!”
There’s an injured person here—he’ll die if it keeps up like this—please, soone, save him!
Her tears fell one by one as she scread until her throat tore, but in the vast forest, her cries couldn’t reach anyone.
After shouting for a long while, Rubia collapsed to the ground and lowered her head.
“What… what can I even do….”
The helplessness of her own powerlessness only drove her deeper into despair.
‘…How cruel.’
It was just a mory, so I couldn’t be certain—but honestly, she hadn’t done anything wrong.
Seeing illusions in the Forest of Delusion was common, and escaping from them wasn’t an easy feat either.
For her to have broken free that quickly was sothing to be praised, if anything.
Even in the later battle, it was the sa. Though the boy had held the line, Rubia had been the one to land the killing blow on Delusio Corpse.
But fate had been unkind to her.
Despite all her efforts, what she’d been left with was the poisoned, unconscious body of the boy.
Crack—!
Right then—
Boom!
While Rubia was still drowning in her sorrow, an earth-shaking noise erupted in her ears.
Along with a fierce gust strong enough to blow away all the smoke that had filled the forest.
“Huh…?”
The trees that had thickly grown along the side were now neatly cut down.
From beyond them erged an elderly man with an impressive brown beard.
Behind him stood a number of attendants.
“……”
The old man seed to say sothing to Rubia—
But as if her senses were glitching, no sound reached her ears.
Her hearing faded, then her vision went dark, and finally even her sense of sll—the scent of earth and smoke—disappeared.
That was the end of the dream’s glimpse.
It was ti to return to reality.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the sa space-like room from before.
I was half-leaning forward, both hands still pressed against the Episode Gazer.
“……”
The mont I calmly took my hands off the artifact, a searing pain surged through my entire body.
“Kh—ugh?!”
“It was quite long.”
Standing a few ters away, riel spoke softly.
“I didn’t ntion the side effects that follow after using the artifact. My apologies.”
“…It’s fine. More importantly, how much ti has passed?”
“Exactly ten minutes just now,” she said after glancing at her wristwatch.
“Only?”
“It’s not ‘only,’ it’s ‘as much as.’ The average usage ti of the Episode Gazer is around two to three minutes.”
“…What about Rubia?”
“We’ll have to check on her now.”
Just as riel was about to leave the room, she suddenly asked,
“How was it? The woman in the dream… did she look happy?”
Ah, right. She did say sothing like that earlier.
“You ntioned before—that she wasn’t waking up because she was having a happy dream.”
“I was only speaking in general terms. That if soone’s having a pleasant, happy dream, they don’t want to wake up.”
I let out a faint sigh and replied,
“…Maybe it wasn’t that she didn’t want to wake up, but that she couldn’t.”
“…Is that so.”
What was it that bound her so tightly?
Was it guilt for failing to save ?
Resentnt and despair toward her own weakness?
Or perhaps the sense of duty she gained afterward?
Creak—
When I opened the door and stepped into the room, a familiar figure ca into view.
Rubia Magnus was sitting against the wall with a blank expression.
Even after we arrived at the lounge, she had remained silent for quite a while before finally speaking softly.
“Could you… leave us alone for a mont, riel?”
“……”
riel looked at us with a conflicted expression, then quietly stepped out.
Rubia stayed silent for so ti longer. I went over and sat beside her, leaning against the sa wall.
Feeling her furtive gaze, I awkwardly rubbed the corner of my mouth. A sigh escaped her.
“Haa… This isn’t a dream, right?”
“It’s not.”
I spoke gently to her, who had both hands covering her face.
“I’m sorry.”
“…Sorry? For what?”
“For peeking into your dream without permission.”
“…So it really was you, Sir Eugene.”
Rubia wiped her eyes roughly and leaned back against the wall.
“Honestly, I was scared. I promised myself that this ti, I’d definitely protect you—but then I thought, what if I fail again? The thought terrified so much that… I just couldn’t wake up.”
“So that’s why you didn’t want to wake up.”
Sniffling, Rubia nodded slightly instead of answering.
I thought for a mont about what I should say, then took both of her hands firmly and said,
“Look closely, Rubia. You did it.”
“……”
“This ti, you protected —safely.”
So now, she didn’t have to be crushed by the weight of her past anymore.
I was here, alive and well. So it was okay now.
I barely stopped those words from leaving my mouth.
It was strange, even for .
Could I, the present , really speak about things from the ti before I beca Eugene Carter? That little question sealed my lips.
Even so, there were things that had to be said.
For the Rubia I had seen all this ti, I gave her a short word of encouragent.
Her eyes were red and swollen, probably from holding back tears all this ti.
When tears finally rolled down her cheeks, I gently wiped them away.
Rubia pressed her lips together and lowered her head.
It was her way of saying she didn’t want to see her cry, so I just patted her back silently.
anwhile, I was also organizing the questions that had arisen in my mind.
It took fifteen minutes before her tears finally stopped completely.
11:05 a.m.
The three of us were sitting in riel’s private room.
Watching the faint awkwardness lingering between the two won, I nodded inwardly.
‘Things must be quite complicated between them.’
I’d raised countless main and supporting characters over ten years.
If there was one thing I knew well, it was a character’s potential and limits.
The level of talent Rubia Magnus possessed surpassed not only most deputies but even precursors and great sages.
Even compared to geniuses like Francia Brida or Karen Rosefield—renowned for their unfairly imnse talent—Rubia outclassed them in terms of raw firepower.
Her only weakness was her fragile ntality. But if she could overco that, she would beco the strongest area-of-effect damage dealer in Apocalypse Mode.
So, having to compete with soone like her—it wasn’t hard to understand the other’s feelings.
‘But I doubt that’s the only reason.’
I recalled the expressions riel had shown toward Rubia earlier.
If she saw her purely as a rival, she wouldn’t have looked so sorrowful.
And if she saw her as a dear colleague, she wouldn’t have shown that faintly condescending gaze.
She probably wanted Rubia to leave the Magic Tower—but not to end up in such danger. Sothing like that.
‘Well, I’ll find out soon enough.’
I cleared my throat and began to speak.
“First, I want to express my gratitude, riel.”
“…Pardon?”
“If it weren’t for your help, Professor Rubia wouldn’t have regained consciousness this quickly.”
“……”
“Thank you for saving the life of soone precious to .”
When I gave a short bow, her expression twisted slightly.
“I did consider stepping back now that Professor Rubia has safely recovered, since that would be the proper course… but honestly, it just doesn’t add up to stop here.”
Paying no mind to her discomfort, I continued from where our last discussion had left off.
“Shall we resu the conversation we were having earlier?”
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