Only the Party Members Returned, Not the Hero

16. A wizard who can’t handle mana (7)

16.

Pliaote.

Plea-Ote.

That’s what it meant.

I tried to murmur a spell without even realizing it, but the mana was scattered due to the constant pain in my chest.

“You idiot, idiot, incompetent bastard, out of your mind.”

Elish’s small fist rolls up and hits me in the chest.

Knock, puck, knock on me with a sound.

“You are very good. What do you mean by becoming strong with such an easy mind? So you’re saying you can be strong? Then why did you die like that? How many times do you think I’ve stood by the tree and seen you dead?”

No matter how much I wanted to get angry, I was afraid I would get hurt, so the powerless fists only made my upper body sway back and forth like a cotton bat.

It wasn’t until Elish grabbed my collar and threw me on the grass with so much force that I felt a little soreness in his buttocks.

“Do you think I haven’t seen it? Saw it all I saw all of your training in thought. The fact that your body is being torn apart-“

Elish, who took the form of riding on top of me, patted my chest for a long time after that.

In addition, a few drops of her tears began to fall and wet the clothes on her chest.

Elish could tell. Little by little, though, through her direct contract, his feelings flowed into her.

Beautiful, yet tyrannical, tenacious, and merciless.

His sword and magic have changed markedly from his days at the warrior school.

The old sword that could be used once and thrown away right away, and the cheap clothes that I wore every time.

When I told them to eat, the three women didn’t dare to be sick when they ate delicious food, and stared blankly out the window while chewing hard bread next to them.

How self-destructive.

Stupidly, I made a contract with him and even returned.

After that, I only found out after a few days.

“… Is it because of me?”

I didn’t know until Elish raised her head.

“Is it because I hurt you immaturely?”

It was the first time I had seen the tears welling up around my big black eyes running down my cheeks. What is that? Holding onto my collar as if it were my life.

“I’m sorry.”

I didn’t want to receive an apology.

Nothing changed anyway.

“… ….”

“I’m sorry.”

I stopped breathing.

The clogged breath, whether I inhaled or exhaled, it just went round and round as if the lower part of my throat was tightly blocked.

“Wake up.”

“Ellen.”

“Before you get really angry.”

“Ellen, I am not asking you for forgiveness.”

Then why are you looking at me like that?

Again, something big began to stomp in my chest.

It’s too much. Excessive emotions were out of control today. As if his face had been shattered, his expression did not move the way he wanted.

It’s okay.

It’s fine, go and tell me more about magic.

In order to be strong, you have to do that.

I should say so.

“To be honest, at first, it is true that I thought that I would be able to get over it if enough time passed. But, that was my mistake…. Again, I know you despise me.”

Elish bowed her head again. The gaze that was facing me drops down.

“Why did you say it so well? Why did you act like nothing happened? Like this, even though my heart was not good to the point that my mana was rotting away….”

I looked down at Elish, who stretched out her index finger.

“It must be because of me. I know it’s my fault.”

My outstretched fingers scribbled a few small letters on my crumpled chest.

“So, hurry up… I won’t beg you, Just allow me to say these words. I am begging….”

The tear-soaked voice split again and again, but Elish said that while stuttering.

The letters written on the chest became small lights and scattered in the air, and a thin, invisible ray of light began to appear between Elish and me.

Thousands of strands of light, as thin as a thread, were densely gathered and connected my heart to hers.

That was no different from the mana thread that stuck to my fingers one by one that day.

“I, Ellen…. To you, I want to say thank you.”

Only then did Elish raise her upper body and look at me.

“I will make you understand. Why am I living for you?”

“What you gave me. Why is life without you meaningless to me? .”

On top of me, half lying on the grass, with teary eyes.

A few more drops run down her cheeks, staining my hem gray.

“This is it.”

Elish took my hand that was lying on her grass, and she slowly brought it to her own chest and ran it between her breasts in a short, straight line.

The threads of light that my fingers passed over once vibrated and quickly began to shed something opaque.

And at that moment, I felt my five senses expand.

As if I became two people.

My vision widened, all my senses sharpened, and my ears sharpened enough to hear the wind rustling grass in a distant clearing.

I was able to grasp even a single drop of mana flowing from her body.

In addition, the tickling and soft sensation of Elish holding my hand.

I felt it too.

Elish uttered a passage from her spellbook with the shape of her mouth, and raised a small water ball with one hand.

I could feel in her heart that she was going to use her elemental magic even before she did it.

Because the mana moved in my body the same way I used elemental magic.

“This is the direct contract you made for me.”

Elish said quietly in her subdued voice.

Usually, it was so small that I couldn’t even hear it.

That was enough. It sounded as clear as whispered in my ear.

Tok, talk.

I heard the sound of a few more drops of water falling on the hem of my clothes.

‘Can you imagine how thrilling it would be if a blind man who had been blind all his life opened his eyes?’

“Thanks to you, I learned about mana that I had never felt before.”

Elish pulled the mana accumulated in my body like the ebb and flow, and filled it up again like the tide.

Despite the fact that having mana stolen by others is dangerous, he did not feel repulsive.

It was as natural as moving mana from right hand to left hand.

“I had to understand the magic with my brain that my empty heart couldn’t. No, I didn’t even understand that. It was just a simple memorization. That’s why I was jealous of you, who was a non-conformist like me. Enough to disillusion you.”

Elish let go of my hand and placed her hands on my chest.

The wave spreading around me forms a cube and divides space from space.

It was a near-perfect space isolation magic. From the outside, it would have looked like we had teleported.

“Ellen, you are my world now.”

Wizards are those who live while feeling the mana of the world.

“You are my heart.”

He fills his heart with that mana and lives his life using magic.

Elish lowered his head slowly.

The slanted body bent even further, until her forehead touched the nape of my neck.

Until the tears in her eyes wet my rough flesh.

“I love you. I will love you till i die Even if you die, even if the mana in my body disappears again, even if it’s time to dry up and die, I will close my eyes and love you.”

Between the wave-like flow of mana, I could feel the flow of warmth.

That flow, which was about the size of a small thread, becomes another wave before you know it.

“So, I don’t ask for your forgiveness. I don’t want anything more. I, I just until the end….”

The waves dyed the surrounding mana, gradually warming all the flows.

Thump, pound. With the sound of her chest.

“To you, I didn’t have time to say thank you….”

That kind of heart that cannot be false becomes a tsunami and sinks.

“So please don’t die.”

“You may use me, you may sacrifice me.”

“Please don’t die.”

“Don’t die.”

“Don’t die.”

Elish’s pleading continued until my hand touched the back of her head.

So I couldn’t bear to say it.

My swordsmanship has been this way ever since I graduated from the hero academy.

Maybe it will be like that in the future.

Because we’ve done too many things to change already.

***

Elish and I returned to the inn without saying anything after that.

I sat down on the sofa in the living room watching the backs of the three women as they entered their respective rooms.

A fireplace with a burning fire catches my eye.

Kikkik, kiik.

The sound of a door closing.

“… ?”

After hearing the sound of the door closing only twice, I looked towards the door that hadn’t closed yet.

Elish stood hesitantly holding the doorknob, then she turned to me once.

Two eyes meet.

‘Sleep well.’

Elish said that with her mouth and closed the door.

Kikkik.

Just then, the third sound came.

Did I really need to say good night?

I could already feel Elish’s heartbeat.

Fast, a little faster, then subsiding, then slowing down again.

What do you really want, and what should I do in the future?

I took my pocket watch out of my pocket and ran my thumb over the faded surface out of habit.

A pocket watch that stops moving after moving three divisions.

My face reflected in the glass of that watch resembled my father’s.

“Ha ha.”

One sigh is too weak to put out the fire in the fireplace.

It’s been a long day.

I was so tired.

I looked at the burning wood fire with a tired expression and closed my eyes.