There Are Too Many Backstories in This Possession Novel – Chapter 4

—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: TushChen
—————————————————————–

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

Nias’ attempts to kill me continued the very next day. As I was lying on the bed reading a book, Nias came with a tea set.

“Young Master, I brewed some tea! Would you like to have it while reading?”

Despite Nias’ pure and cheerful smile as she spoke, I detected the tingling killing intent emanating from her.

No one would put something to their mouth, knowing it was dangerous. Of course, I refused.

Tak.

“Get lost. You think I’d drink something you made? It probably tastes like water wrung from a rag.”

Crash.

The tea set fell to the floor and shattered. In Nias’ black eyes, a glimmer of shock briefly surfaced. This was odd, coming from someone who had just tried to kill me.

“Hehe… I spilled it. What should I do? The head maid might scold me.”

Nias stared at the teacup momentarily, then smiled awkwardly as if in a predicament.

Her lips were smiling, but her eyes were brimming with moisture as if holding back tears. Then she started picking up the broken teacup pieces with her hand to clean them up.

Nias, who had no way of knowing that I was aware of her true identity, intended to weaken my resolve in this manner. Then, when I let my guard down someday… Stab! She would kill me. Did she think I would let it be resolved so quickly?

*Ding!*

And the content of the system window that rang out next was apparent.

As I thought… It only decreased her favorability. I realized one thing.

Simply doing severe actions wouldn’t make Nias aware of her masochistic tendencies; it would only decrease her favorability.

Even within the same value, there seemed to be invisible stages applied.

At first, when Nias became aware, her value increased just by insulting her. However, as Nias gradually realized her preferences, they no longer increased just by tormenting her.

“Ouch.”

As I pretended to read the book and focused on my thoughts, I heard Nias’ pained voice beside me. Red blood was flowing from the fingertips of Nias, who had been cleaning up the teacup pieces.

“What are you doing?”

When I asked, Nias hurriedly covered her hand with her uninjured hand and hid it behind her back.

“N- nothing at all.”

“What do you mean nothing?”

As I approached, Nias hunched her shoulders.

“Show me your hand.”

At my command, Nias hesitated and only backed away. Only after I gave a firm order again did Nias carefully hold out her hand.

The wound on Nias’ fingertip wasn’t severe, but it was bleeding profusely as if it had been cut very sharply.

“This is nothing? Why did you hide it?”

When I spoke angrily, Nias shrank even more and answered with a frightened expression.

“Well, I thought… you would hate it…”

“Of course I would. Is there anyone who likes seeing someone do something stupid? You pig.”

“I- I’m not a pig! I’m not that fat…”

I flicked Nias’ forehead.

“Eek!”

Nias rubbed her forehead with an expression as if it was unfair.

“Stay still. I’ll treat it for you.”

I gently used a healing spell on Nias’ hand. A healing spell without divine power only had the effect of healing shallow wounds, but it was enough to cleanly heal the wound on Nias’ hand.

“There, done. Don’t do anything stupid from now on and be careful. It’s really bothersome.”

I gently released Nias’ hand and stood up. But Nias was blankly staring at the hand I had healed.

“What? Not answering? Are you defying me now?”

“What? Yes! I understand! I’ll be careful!”

Seeing Nias start cleaning again, I was about to read the book when an alarm suddenly rang.

*Ding!*

Huh? What did I do… I helped her, though?

I was momentarily perplexed, but… As I thought deeply about Nias’ masochistic tendencies, I started to get a sense of something.

At first, I thought Nias simply enjoyed losing. But if there was a more complex reason…

‘Could it be that Nias likes being dropped and then picked up?’

For example, she might want affectionate tormenting.

‘It’s extremely annoying.’

If that was the case, it was nearly impossible to create a situation that always satisfied Nias. Even if I perfectly made Nias aware of her masochistic tendencies…

‘It’s impossible to fill it 10,000 times.’

I couldn’t produce such a situation every single time.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

Is it really not possible, though? Since my life’s peace depended on it, I prepared a plan to prove the ‘drop and pick up’ hypothesis.

Creating the plan started from the place where I received magic lessons.

“To have already mastered this much at the age of 8, even though you were chosen by a superior star… It’s amazing. Truly amazing.”

My father marveled at the stone split in half by my magic just now. The black stone, artificially reinforced using magic, had a hardness equivalent to a diamond and had been shattered.

“Since you’re only 8 years old, you must be lacking in absolute mana quantity. Yet you’ve already deeply grasped the principles of magic.”

Magic in this world was like this. Magic was used to give concepts to mana.

For example, suppose you imbue mana with the conceptual attribute of firmness and cast magic on a stone. In that case, the stone becomes firm as the conceptually imbued mana permeates it.

In this case, how should one break a magically enchanted stone?

The simple idea would be to inject the concepts of destruction or softening. However, in the case of magic that directly opposes this, it requires possessing mana equal to or superior to the opponent

Of course, there was no way I, as an 8-year-old, had accumulated that level of mana, so I used a trick.

I further injected the idea of firmness inside the stone imbued with firmness.

Doing this, it seemed like the magic would overlap and become even firmer, but a difference in imagery occurred. When the desired firmness matched, it indeed played a role in reinforcing the existing magic.

However, when the imagery differed, magics with similar properties repelled each other to push each other away. In this process, the enchanted object couldn’t withstand the repulsion between the mana and collapsed independently.

It was challenging to grasp this principle level at the age of 8.

However, who was I? An enthusiast. There was a reason I read books every day. In the end, this was a world inside a novel. The books here were no different from the additional settings for me to read.

“I cannot tarnish the name of the Deinhart family. No matter how young I am, I have at least realized that much.”

I spoke with feigned modesty.

“How can my son be so competent?”

In the original work, the father was only strict with his son, but now he was no different from a doting parent.

The protagonist in the original was chosen by a superior star but was quite incompetent when young, according to the setting. From the Deinhart family’s perspective, which greatly emphasized meritocracy, he was an embarrassing existence.

However, I disliked such inconveniences, so I had been demonstrating competence from an early age. But in moderation.

Today, though, I didn’t exercise such restraint.

“…On the other hand.”

Father turned his head to look at the princess. In front of Yuria, a black stone was placed, but it was unbroken. As Father’s gaze fell upon her, Yuria’s face turned bright red.

“You still lack a bit of training. Even my 8-year-old son managed to do it.”

“Th- this is because my condition isn’t good today…”

“If you have firmly grasped the magical principles, you can do it regardless of your condition. Excuses are a sin for a mage!”

Father shouted at Yuria.

“Ugh… How shameful.”

Yuria was a typical case of being robust against the weak and weak against the strong. One could say she had the qualities of a villain.

Of course, the relatively weaker one here was me, and the one being resented was me. Yuria was glaring at me as if it was humiliating.

After the lesson ended, I deliberately visited the library. The library of the Deinhart family, a family of mages, was so vast and extensive that it was comparable to the royal archives. For an enthusiast like me, it was indeed a heavenly place.

However, unfortunately, to the point where I really wanted to stomp my feet, the library, where a chilly atmosphere lingered, was not my favorite reading spot.

Due to the penalty of being sickly, if I read books in a place like this, I would immediately suffer from a cold.

“Young Master.”

“Be quiet.”

“Why are you reading here today?”

Nias asked curiously, pretending not to hear me say to be quiet. Seeing this occasionally, she wasn’t weak-willed, befitting a demon king. I didn’t think so from the beginning, anyway.

“I like reading here. Are you playing hooky? Or are you deaf? Why are you being absurd?”

“What? I’m not playing hooky! I can hear well too!”

Nias answered with a startle. This girl sometimes interpreted words literally. Was she teasing me?

But it was about time. I flicked Nias’ forehead and got up from my seat.

“Eek!”

“Talking to you is making me angry. I’m going to get a book now, so don’t you dare follow me. It’ll take a while.”

I spoke firmly to Nias, who was rubbing her forehead with an expression of being mistreated after suddenly being hit on the forehead.

“B- but…”

“I said, having you next to me is constantly annoying me!”

I lost my temper to ensure she couldn’t follow me and walked into the bookshelves.

And in reality, I hid behind a bookshelf where Nias was directly visible. Left alone, Nias was fidgeting restlessly as if anxious.

At that moment, Yuria suddenly appeared and walked toward Nias with an enraged gait.

I expected she wouldn’t have reflected even after experiencing the previous incident.

As an inherently villainous character, she had been looking for me to unleash her retribution for her humiliation.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇