There was something she'd been regretting for a long time.
For Sara, it was the scene most burned into her eyes — the moment her own life had been threatened the most.
Yes, about two months ago. That time when she confronted...
The Beast Tamer of Hell
The three of them had faced a being that defied all conventional knowledge about Monsters — an existence beyond the ordinary — and were forced into a struggle far beyond what they'd imagined. The instant they thought they'd managed to land a single blow, the other side unleashed a merciless and overwhelmingly powerful spell.
Without any means to counter it, the wound was healed. Their only effective hit had been blocked.
And then, in the instant the lightning spell bore down on her, Ermes threw himself forward and took the blow for both of them.
That was right.
——
He had sustained serious injuries protecting someone like her.
That, right there, was the greatest regret of the girl named Sara.
Ermes — the person she'd admired more than anyone in the past. Unlike her, someone who charged forward with unwavering resolve.
That he would turn back and come running for someone of no consequence like her, that he would take on her wounds in her stead — it was something she simply could not bear.
So, she'd worked hard to make sure it wouldn't happen again.
First, she'd thrown herself into finding something solid to believe in, just as he had. Clinging to that faint admiration and those feelings, she'd done her best — however immature — to build a class where everyone could acknowledge one another.
And in battle as well. She sought out his guidance, and without growing complacent over the talent of Dual aptitude, she honed her skills day after day.
It bore fruit. B-Class became a wonderful place for her, and they'd even achieved the result of winning the interschool competition.
Sara was able to feel just a little bit proud of having been able to contribute to that.
...But everything after that.
She'd failed to convince her mother and her classmate, left the cleanup to the friend she respected, and the faint dream she'd harbored earlier had shattered.
From there, until now. Facing her classmate, who had transformed into a hideously powerful Monster, multiple fatal spells were launched at her. With her own magic, with her own physical abilities, she could neither dodge nor endure them.
And then.
—Ermes's body leaped in front of her.
Sara witnessed, right before her eyes, multiple fatal spells striking him directly.
A drop of blood splattered onto her cheek.
"............Ah."
Even for Ermes, there had been no time to deploy his Bloodline Magic in that instant.
So, he had somehow adapted the divine-speed charge he was currently using to reach her, and used his body as a shield.
"Ah, ah..."
In other words, he had shielded her with his own body.
—Exactly the same as that time.
"Ahhhhh...!"
That was all her coherent thoughts could produce.
She caught Ermes's body as it crumpled to the ground.
Clyde was screaming something, accompanied by a grating, insane laugh. But she had no capacity to listen. She immediately fled, still holding Ermes, trying to get as far away as possible.
There was no sense of Clyde pursuing her—for some reason. She didn't know why, but it was convenient; she had to heal him immediately.
Once his voice had faded, she laid Ermes down and unleashed her magic power at full capacity, invoking the...
Star corolla.
She activated the Star corolla. With tears forming in her eyes, she pressed her body close with all her strength and poured her magic power into him.
"H-Ermes… I'm sorry, why, how could this…"
—Why he had shielded her.
No—she already knew without having to ask. They had spent nearly a month together as classmates, after all. She knew that he was the kind of person who would never allow someone he had once acknowledged to be harmed unjustly.
And besides, she had no means of defending against that spell Clyde had unleashed—not in her current state. If Ermes hadn't rushed to her aid, the only path that lay ahead of her after that would have been instant death. She couldn't pull off a trick like what he had just done, picking and choosing which wounds to sustain to avoid only the fatal blow.
…So. This was her fault.
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"
He was gravely wounded.
Magic had struck him directly all over his body, burning, cutting, and tearing into his flesh. If she didn't treat him immediately, it would unquestionably be a matter of life and death.
So Sara channeled her magic while—endlessly repeating her apologies and self-recrimination.
What had she been doing?
She had been trying so hard to make sure things wouldn't come to this. She had believed she was becoming a slightly better version of herself, that she could finally move forward without dragging anyone else down.
…She had gotten carried away.
Intoxicated by small successes.
And now she was treading the exact same path, laid bare in this wretched state.
Inside her head, a voice echoed.
"—You will never become anything."
"A mage who can do nothing on her own."
A voice she had heard once before. A voice she had heard just moments ago. And her own—
—from within.
The voices of self-blame echoing from within combined into a chorus of resentment. It tormented her heart beyond all endurance.
"You're empty—there's nothing left that you could even call a self!"
"You can't protect anything."
"No… stop, please stop…!"
She denied it with her voice, trying to drive the words away—but she couldn't.
She couldn't shut her ears because the voices came from inside.
She couldn't look away—because somewhere in her heart, she already acknowledged their validity.
A girl who, since childhood, had been forced to crush herself and follow the same path as her mother. The intensely cultivated self-denial that resulted would not allow her to dismiss even the hollow words of a mother she had severed ties with or classmates who had written her off.
She had grown into someone for whom words of negation were easier to accept than words of affirmation.
"I… I want to change… so…!"
So, at the very least.
Let her protect everyone from the threat currently bearing down on the academy.
It was nothing more than a talent she had been born with, but right now, it was all she had.
With that singular resolve, she kept channeling her magic over and over.
"…!"
I don't care what happens to me—just let me atone for this mistake. She wished for nothing else, pushing past her limits to drive her magic power higher.
Even if her blood vessels ruptured, even if she coughed up blood, she would keep using her magic—for someone so far beyond her own comparison that the difference was meaningless. She wished, and wished again, just to heal this one wound, until at last—
—there was a snap.
"——Ah."
In that instant, the magic vanished without a trace. The healing spell she had been painstakingly weaving dissipated into the air like mist.
"...Ah, aah...!"
She understood exactly what had caused that result.
It wasn't that some circuit had broken. If it had been that, she could have endured it. She could have mended it herself and carried on.
No—this was something far more fundamental. Something fatal. It was—
"...Magic power... spent..."
Her face crumpled with despair as she whispered the words.
It was hardly surprising. Her Bloodline Magic was voracious in its consumption of magic power to begin with. In this battle, she hadn't had a shred of leeway to hold anything back, and she had just spent a staggering amount trying to heal a wound that was one step away from being fatal. And even then, she hadn't managed to fully close it.
To top it all off, from the moment this assault began, she had been maintaining a barrier that covered the entire school building—
"—!"
That was when the full truth struck her.
Right. If her magic power was gone, then that barrier, too, could no longer hold its form.
In other words, there was no way she could stop the Monsters from breaking through. Everyone who had evacuated into the school building she'd been protecting would have the Monsters' fangs descend upon them without mercy—
"Aaaaaaaahh...!"
Understanding that the outcome was now inevitable, she collapsed where she stood.
There was nothing left she could do.
On top of all her failures up to now, losing her magic power made her truly useless.
She couldn't even finish healing the wounds. She couldn't protect anyone.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry, I'm sorry...!"
She apologized over and over, not asking for forgiveness, but simply unable to bear the crushing weight of her own guilt.
I'm sorry I couldn't protect any of you.
I'm sorry for holding you back.
I'm sorry for being all talk.
...I'm sorry for being hollow inside, for being unable to become anything—a self-righteous saint.
Her confession continued. Even knowing nothing would change, she had lost the ability to do anything else.
Every degrading word that had ever been hurled at her—she could no longer deny a single one.
Even knowing how pathetic she must look, the tears wouldn't stop. Her heart cracked apart at her own uselessness, her resolve crumbled, and she despaired at the future that would be trampled over—
But.
"...You saved us, Lady Sera."
Despite the utterly hopeless situation.
The wounds had only been sealed at the surface, still far from anything close to full healing.
And he must have understood perfectly well that Sera's magic power was completely depleted.
"And I'm sorry—I let my guard down. But your magic turned things around."
And yet, with terrifying composure. Despite it all, those emerald eyes blazed brighter with a will far from despair.
"Now, let's think. —How do we take that thing down?"
And with those words, Ermes—
Not out of self-destructive despair, not to escape reality.
Stood up—refusing to give up, with firm and steady steps, determined to overturn this desperate situation.
I'm sorry for the continued downturn...!
Things will pick up starting next chapter. I'd be grateful if you'd stick with me until the end of Part Two!