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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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It was a strong and energetic morning!
“Yaaawn… I’m so tired…”
The Hero Luna opened her eyes in bed.
Since training was always hellish, she didn’t feel refreshed at all even after waking up.
Still, since she was sending money to her family, she had to muster her strength.
“Let’s do our best today too! You can do it, Luna! Go go!”
Luna cheered herself on, and the Hero immediately ran to the bathroom.
She washed her face and brushed her teeth thoroughly, then checked herself in the mirror.
“What’s this, have I put on some muscle?”
Her biceps were forming, muscles were developing, and even some abs were starting to show.
At this rate, she might become a fitness model.
“Heheh, I’ll be able to take down that old man soon! The era of Luna is coming!”
Having seemingly forgotten her utterly crushed past, Luna greeted the morning alone with positivity.
However, perhaps because she was too caught up in her own world, she failed to notice that the bathroom door was open.
“Luna, come eat.”
“Eek! Wh-When did you get here?! M-More importantly, you should knock!”
“…I knocked at least 5 times. Could you not hear? With that kind of awareness, shouting that you’ll defeat me is lacking in conscience, Luna.”
“O-Okay, I get it… People can’t always be focused… Tch, would it kill you to give me some praise.”
He gave Hare so much praise.
But there was none for her.
Luna pouted as she sat on the bed.
Today’s breakfast menu was toast and fried eggs.
Seeing the delicious food in front of her, her feelings of resentment disappeared in an instant.
“Finish eating and come down in 30 minutes. We have training today too.”
“Mmm, looks delicious… Oh, yessir, understood.”
“And don’t be too surprised…”
“…?”
What did he mean by that?
Don’t be surprised? Was it a surprise gift?
Luna couldn’t understand his last words.
At least not until she went out to the yard.
She tied her hair with the red ribbon Jun-woo had given her, picked up her wooden sword, and headed down to the yard.
There, a black-haired girl was sitting in a chair reading a book.
She was a girl with scary-looking triocular eyes.
It was a girl Luna had never seen before.
“Did this old man kidnap someone again?! Wh-What kind of person is he really?!”
For what reason did he kidnap her!
How far was he planning to go with these kidnappings?!
Luna’s head was spinning.
‘…Hare came here of her own will. How did this one end up here? Still, since we’re in the same boat, I should greet her.’
Luna approached Saten with a bright smile.
Saten’s face was expressionless.
Luna was startled for a moment, but pretending not to be fazed, she smiled and said,
“Oh, hello! I’m Luna Lunasia! What’s your name?”
“Saten.”
“…?”
What was this?
Was there nothing more to say?
Feeling awkward, Luna cautiously asked.
“Is… that it?”
“…What more do you need?”
“Oh, nothing…”
Shouldn’t there be some kind of “Hello!” in response when she greeted her?
When she asked for her name, she really just said her name and nothing else.
Luna thought to herself that this new friend seemed quite unusual as well.
Saten spoke to Luna, who wasn’t leaving.
“If you have no business here, could you please go? You’re disturbing me.”
“Oh, no. There’s one more thing I wanted to ask. Why did you come here? Were you kidnapped like me?”
“No, I asked to be kidnapped.”
“Huh…?”
“Do you need more of an answer? If not, please leave.”
Saten waved her hand as if shooing Luna away.
Luna was driven off with a blank expression, not even having time to think.
She couldn’t understand it at all.
“Normally, do people ask to be kidnapped…?”
Usually, wouldn’t they shout “Please don’t kidnap me!”?
If they were normal, that would be the case, right?
Whether it was a child who came of her own will, or one who asked to be kidnapped…
This place defied all common sense.
“Why on earth are the kids here coming in of their own free will…?”
Am I the strange one for being kidnapped and trying to escape from here?
Ughh…
Luna clutched her head.
“Am I the weird one…?”
Wondering if she was the strange one, Luna looked over at Hare, who was gazing out the window.
Hare’s gaze was fixed on the old man without the slightest waver.
There was not a hint of hesitation in those red eyes.
Luna shouted loudly.
“Th-This isn’t right! The world has gone mad!!”
“What isn’t right, Luna?”
“O-Old man! Something’s wrong! Common sense has stopped making sense!”
“The only thing defying common sense is your skill level, Luna. Go run laps around the yard.”
“Arghhhh!”
Recalling the kidnapping motives of Hare and Saten, Luna ran around the yard feeling like her head was about to explode.
She felt incredibly sad at the fact that no matter how much she ran, she could never escape this place.
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Lunchtime.
Luna, who had fainted from another brutal training session, woke up and sniffed the air.
Her appearance was very similar to a Golden Retriever smelling snacks while sleeping.
“Mmm, what’s that smell…?”
There was a scent.
The aroma of delicious soup…
Luna got up from the bed and checked her desk.
There was a fragrant soup sitting there.
It was quite an upscale soup with various vegetables and meat.
“This old man’s cooking is really something else… I wonder where he learned to cook so well?”
Anyway, Luna approached the soup, drooling.
“Huh?”
However, there was something even more important than the soup next to it.
A letter.
It was a reply letter from her family.
It seemed Jun-woo had already inspected it, as it was already opened.
“Tch, it’s a letter from my family… How dare he read it before me!”
Luna turned her attention from the soup to check the letter.
The handwriting was her mother’s, and the letter contained stories about her family.
It contained light stories about how their day went, how they were using the money well, and how her younger siblings were growing up nicely.
Perhaps because it had been a while since she’d heard from them, Luna’s eyes grew moist.
“Sniff, I’m glad they’re doing well…”
She felt like the exhaustion from the harsh training was melting away like snow.
Luna felt truly fortunate that she could feel her family’s warmth like this, even from so far away.
‘Still, I hate that old man. He kidnapped and imprisoned me.’
No matter how much money he sends to my family, this is still a crime!
Luna’s heart was filled with both gratitude and hatred.
“If that old man is going to be bad, he should just be bad all the way! Sometimes he’s so kind! I can’t even hate him completely! Ugh! I don’t know! I hate him! I’m just going to eat!”
Chomp.
Luna’s body was more honest than her words.
The bowl of soup Jun-woo had prepared returned sparkling clean, not even needing to be washed.
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“Tomorrow is the test, huh.”
“Y-Yes sir! Mister! I won’t disappoint you! I’ll study more today too! I’ll find out everything about you!”
“No, you don’t need to go that far…”
What’s this about finding out everything about me…
Hare studied the language of this world, her eyes shining brightly.
After finishing Hare’s basic knowledge lesson, he headed to Saten’s room.
Knock knock-
“May I come in, Saten?”
“Yes.”
At Saten’s cool voice, he entered the room.
She was sitting at her desk, reading a book.
It was a classic fantasy novel about a hero defeating the Demon Lord.
He asked her, as she kept her eyes fixed on the book.
“Is it a good read?”
“No.”
How blunt.
Saten seemed to have many points she didn’t understand, as she closed the book with a thud and started speaking.
“Why does the hero save people? Sacrificing oneself for useless insects. The protagonist of this book seems quite stupid. One should live only for oneself. They’re just meddling unnecessarily.”
“…”
He was at a loss for words.
How was he supposed to rehabilitate this personality…
The fact that Saten was the mage of the Hero’s party terrified him.
In the midst of this, she began to ask him questions she was curious about.
“Did you send my letter to my family? And please tell me at once why you came here for me.”
“…I did send it. I came here to teach you magic. That’s the reason I kidnapped you.”
“I’m glad you didn’t come here to say pointless things.”
Saten spoke as if she was relieved it wasn’t some bothersome matter.
Then she brought her face close to his, almost close enough for their noses to touch.
“So, how did you use that magic back then?”
“…Your face is too close. Step back a bit, I’ll teach you magic after that.”
“Alright.”
Saten followed his words without complaint.
She seemed to genuinely want to learn the magic he had used.
The magic she had developed and used, which he had inherited.
“Ahem, first I’ll tell you the name of the magic you’ll be using.”
“Yes, please tell me.”
“The magic that turned people into dust and erased their very existence is called ‘Non-Elemental’ magic.”
“That’s a lie. The world is made up of four elements. Non-elemental magic doesn’t exist.”
You lied to me.
Saten glared at him with a cold expression.
However, contrary to her thoughts, non-elemental magic did exist.
“I’m not deceiving you. The word ‘non-elemental’ itself exists, doesn’t it? If non-elemental truly didn’t exist, the word wouldn’t exist either.”
“What kind of word play is that?”
“The world is originally made up of word play. If you can’t understand this, you won’t be able to use this magic.”
It had taken him 4 years to grasp this magic, after all.
The definition of non-elemental magic was roughly like this.
If you say non-elemental ‘doesn’t exist’, then the ‘word’ non-elemental itself ‘exists’ in that place.
But if you say non-elemental exists, you ‘acknowledge’ that non-elemental doesn’t exist, so non-elemental disappears.
It was an elemental magic with its own philosophy.
“To explain it simply, to use the magic, you need to think as if non-elemental doesn’t exist.”
“…It’s difficult. I’ve never heard of this before. That’s nonsense that goes beyond calculation.”
“I told you, didn’t I? The person who created this magic was a genius even more amazing than you. If you can’t understand it, that’s just the extent of your talent.”
“…”
Saten frowned at those words that gnawed at her pride.
And unusually, Saten didn’t reply.
She seemed to acknowledge that she couldn’t understand, even though it was unpleasant.
“…So, how do you use this non-elemental magic?”
“For that, read this book. It’s written by that person. If you can understand it, you’ll be able to use it automatically. Ask me if there’s anything you don’t understand.”
“Alright, I’ll read it. But I have one question.”
A question.
Of course she would be curious after seeing the book.
He nodded.
“Why is there only one volume? This book is incredibly thin. It’s not even 100 pages long and it’s such amazing magic.”
“That’s… It was made that way on purpose.”
“What?”
“It was made that way with the meaning of learning slowly.”
“…”
Saten tilted her head, as if she couldn’t understand.
He didn’t understand the meaning of learning slowly back then.
But now he could grasp that meaning.
‘Because you can stay by their side for a long time.’
If you give them a single thick book, the relationship ends there.
If you learn all of the magic, the teacher-student relationship ends right there.
Probably, his teacher, that woman, didn’t want to end their relationship by giving him all of the books at once.
For Saten as well, with this meaning…
No matter how much she studied magic, unless he allowed it, their teacher-student relationship would never break.
Saten asked, as if bothered.
“Where’s the next volume?”
“I’ll give you volume 2 when you achieve your goal.”
“Hmm, what’s the goal?”
A goal.
A goal related to Saten’s very life.
He gently stroked Saten’s head and said.
“I’ll give you one volume each time you discover one emotion. Understanding your own emotions. That’s your goal.”
“…You’re making this troublesome.”
“If you’re dissatisfied, you can give up on learning magic.”
The one who would regret it isn’t me, but you.
Saten remained expressionless and still.
She seemed to be organizing her thoughts.
Soon, as if she had sorted out her thoughts, she nodded.
“…I’ll try learning about emotions too.”
“That’s a good choice, Saten.”
He stroked Saten’s head once more.
She tilted her head, not understanding why he was doing this.
She also seemed uncomfortable with the head patting.
‘With time, you’ll be able to understand the meaning of this action too.’
Because your emotions aren’t extinct.
Saten’s emotions remained, albeit so faintly they could barely be grasped with fingertips.
It was a fact that only he, who had directly experienced her past emotions, could know.
And so, the first lesson for Saten the mage.
Not a magic lesson, but an emotion lesson, officially began.
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After the lesson ended.
Saten stood alone in front of the mirror, and looking directly at herself in the mirror, she began to talk to herself.
“Emotions.”
I may have lost my emotions, but…
How can I regain them?
What did those emotions I felt back then feel like?
Saten couldn’t grasp it at all.
“…Is this how you do it?”
Joy.
The expressionless Saten used her fingers to lift the corners of her mouth.
It was a strange sight, with her blank eyes and only the corners of her mouth raised.
There was no soul in her smile.
“Understanding emotions is too difficult.”
While Saten was called a genius when it came to magic.
She realized that when it came to emotions, she was no different from a newborn baby.
The expressionless Saten in the mirror forcibly twisted up the corners of her mouth.
“…”
Unlike other people’s smiles, Saten’s expression looked incredibly lonely.
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You can fix her bro!