“Where am I?”

“What are these chains?”

As soon as I opened my eyes, I realized that I was chained by the limbs to a wall in a very dark place. I saw nothing but a red torch far away from me. I kept screaming and screaming:

“Is anyone here?!”

“What is this place?!”

But to no avail, no one answered. I was completely alone in this bleak place.

“But why am I chained like this? I don’t even remember how long I slept.”

The smell of blood was so strong from the place that I almost vomited. My strength was collapsed.

And suddenly I heard footsteps as if they were walking in a pool of water. And then I started to hear the sound of my heartbeat. Yes, I was scared because this brought back some painful memories.

I said hesitantly:

“Um… who are you?”

The footsteps kept getting louder little by little. And as they approached, the fear in my heart increased until I realized that they were very close. But I still couldn’t see anything. And when they stopped, I heard a voice saying:

“Are you scared? But I haven’t done anything yet.”

Then he started laughing loudly. The voice was like an echo of a strange voice. I can’t tell if it’s a man or a woman.

I said in fear:

“Who are you and what do you want from me?”

“What do I want from you?” He said laughing and then continued:

“You are the one who always comes to me, you ungrateful one.”

I didn’t understand what he meant by that, but I know that I never saw him in my life.

He approached me and then said:

“Poor you, you seem to be injured. Let me help you.”

Then he dug his sharp nails into the wound in my stomach. And then I felt unbearable pain and started screaming from the pain:

“Aaah!”

And at the same time, I regained memories of what happened before I lost consciousness little by little.

Then he whispered in my ear:

“I thought you were dead all this time. This is your punishment. But this is good. I will be able to benefit from you.”

I screamed and screamed. And suddenly

“What?”

I found myself sleeping on a bed in a large room. And as soon as I looked around, I saw someone sitting on a chair reading a book. I said to him while I was exhausted:

“Where am I?”

He answered me as he folded the pages of the book:

“You are in my house.”

I saw his face. It was Celestia.

She said:

“Is your wound okay? You were screaming a while ago and saying stop. I thought you were talking to me at first. But it seems that you were dreaming.”

I said confusedly: “Was it really a dream?”

I removed the cover from over my body and saw that the bandages filled it. Then I said: “I remember now. I fell after my duel with Ren, but what happened after that?”

Celestia smiled lightly and said: “I saw you before you fell to the ground soaked in your blood. It was terrible, and I couldn’t ignore it.”

I said sadly: “But why? After you lost to me, you could have taken revenge?”

When I said that, Celestia laughed: “You fool, do you think that losing in the duel would make me hate someone so much that I let him die!”

“But didn’t you say that you hate…”

She interrupted me saying: “I’m sorry for saying that. I was angry because of the loss, but I knew in my heart that you were right.”

Then she continued: “Thank you also for giving me these tips even after I said those harsh words to you.”

I looked down from embarrassment and then said: “I’m the one who should thank you. You saved my life.”

I heard someone knocking on the door, so Celestia said: “Come in.”

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Johan entered and then said: “Sorry, ma’am, but Mr. Brown is calling you.”

Celestia said: “Okay, take good care of him, Johan, until I return.”

Johan said: “As you wish, ma’am.”

I sat absent-mindedly thinking about the harm that I caused to others.

“Mr. Jin!”

“Yes.”

He said: “I liked your fighting style. You defeated one of the heroes without using your secondary element.”

I said: “Not because I didn’t want to use it, but the thing is that I don’t have it.”

Johan didn’t look surprised like the others. Then he said: “Something interesting. I haven’t heard of anything like this before. Nor did I know that there was someone who could use all this amount of mana at once.”

I didn’t say anything, and I think he understood that I didn’t want to talk about this matter.

Johan looked sad and then said: “Miss Celestia is really poor. She is the opposite of that. She has a very small amount of mana since birth, so she can’t use it in combat. It’s a sad thing. She tries hard, but this world is really cruel.”

That surprised me, and that increased the sadness in my heart. I said harsh words to her even though I didn’t know the truth. She must have been trying to compensate for this lack that she has by training hard.

I said with sorrow: “I’m really sorry. I didn’t realize that. I was foolish and let my pride take over. I shouldn’t have said that to her. It must have hurt her.”

Johan smiled and said: “That’s not what can discourage her. She has suffered worse than this and yet she continues to smile. What a wonderful girl she is.”

I tried to get up from the bed, but the pain was severe and I couldn’t.

Johan looked at me and said: “Don’t strain yourself. You will need at least two months to recover your health. When Mrs. Celestia found you, you were almost dead. If she hadn’t brought you to her house quickly and bandaged your wounds herself, you would have died.”

I said to myself: (Here I am indebted to another person.)

“Why are you trying to get up!” Celestia said loudly and she seemed angry.

I said confused: “I…”

She said frustrated: “Oh my God, you are really troublesome.”

“I’m really sorry, I know I don’t deserve your kindness with me.”

She hit me on the head and said: “Stop apologizing, I didn’t tell you it’s okay.”

She sat down and continued talking: “So what happened between you and Ren? I heard he is still being treated for his injury. You looked like you wanted to kill him in the duel.”

I remembered what happened in our duel and I didn’t know what happened to me at that time. I had lost control of myself, it must have been that eye that caused it.

I asked her: “Does anyone know that I’m here?”

She sighed and said: “No, no one knows about your presence here except me and Johan.”

I said: “That’s good, but what happened in the competition yesterday after I left?”

She said: “Yesterday?! That was a week ago.”

“That means I’ve been sleeping for a week!”

Celestia laughed and said: “How strange you are.”

Then she continued: “It was hard, taking care of you every day and changing your bandages and bearing hearing your delusions while you were asleep.”

My face turned red with embarrassment and I didn’t know where to turn it.

“Madam, it seems that you have embarrassed him a lot.”

She said embarrassed: “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean that. I was trying to cheer up the atmosphere only.”

Johan said: “Don’t worry, even though she says that, she did it because she is happy that she wants to duel you again.”

She said confused: “Johan! Stop.”

Johan laughed, and when he saw him like that, she smiled. I think I misunderstood her at first. How embarrassing this is.

After a while, they left the room and left me, then I took the opportunity and went out to the garden to breathe some air. The weather was very hot and the sun was bright. I kept looking for a shady place until I found something like a rest area and sat there.

(What will I do now? What a frustrating thing!)

“Oh my God, at this rate you won’t recover quickly. You are really troublesome.” Celestia said that and then sat in the adjacent chair. Silence prevailed for a while then she asked me: “Jin, where did you come from? And what is your goal?”

“I…”

She interrupted me saying firmly: “And I won’t accept vague answers.”

I smiled and said: “After what you did for me, I won’t be able to lie to you, I came from outside this kingdom and I came because someone advised me of the guild in this city. And also I have another reason, I am seeking to clear someone who was wronged.”

“Is this the same person who advised you of this city?”

“Yes.”

She said: “Then why don’t you tell me about him and maybe I can help him too.”

“You won’t be able to because this person is dead.”

She wondered saying: “Then since he is dead, what is the point of clearing him?”

I said: “Despite that, this is what I have to do and I don’t care what happens to me for that sake.”

She looked at me and smiled a faint smile then said: “I know that you didn’t tell me the whole truth, but you didn’t lie either. Anyway, don’t think now except about recovering, because I want to return your defeat.”

“How much I wished to tell her that I would do that, but I had decided. I will leave this place, for I always cause trouble for those around me.”

I asked Johan for a favor to give me old clothes instead of the ones I was wearing, and he realized that I was leaving, but he didn’t say anything. And the next day, with the arrival of night, I left secretly from the house, and before I crossed the gate I found Johan waiting for me.

He said to me: “I didn’t come to stop you, I also find that your leaving is the best for the lady. If it was revealed that she was sheltering in her house one of the servants of her rival, her position would be bad in front of her supporters.”

I asked him: “Then, what brought you here?”

He said with interest: “However, Mrs. Celestia asked me to take care of you, so I came to make sure that you are able to leave in your condition.”

I smiled a faint smile then said: “I have been through worse than this. I know that my behavior is unforgivable, after you helped me I left without saying anything. I hope I can repay you someday.”

He also smiled saying: “Then promise me that you will always stand on Miss Celestia’s side if you have the choice, because I don’t know how long I will live, and then she will become alone without me.”

I said sadly: “I promise you that.”

And with that I set off again with a mixture of sadness and loss of hope, but I will always try, perhaps I will find my place in this world one day.