Weed

Many thanks to Arexio for editing this chapter!

Sionna creates a huge wagon and starts gathering the bears that are kept frozen inside the blocks of ice.

“Why aren't you killing us?” Rick squeezes out of his voice, unable to stand.

“... You boys are of no matter to me. I am not as idle as to go out of my way to do the unnecessary.” Sionna responds while moving the blocks of ice.

“But I will come again to challenge you once more if you let me live like this.” Rick provokes her.

Hey, why are you provoking her? You are better off staying silent to leave here alive!

“That is fine. You can come at me whenever you want.” Without even looking at her, she declares disinterestedly.

“But that contradicts from what you just said, you know? If you are busy, then isn't it better to just kill me now?” With that last question, Rick falls back on the ground and faints.

“...” Sionna silently continues her job.

“Sionna.” Magnus calls her.

“I will not forgive you.” He continues.

“...”

“I will definitely get back at you, and at that time, you will regret not having killed me here.” He declares, with a small voice that is about to fade off, just like his consciousness.

Seeing him falling on the ground, Sionna silently whispers.

“I'm sorry, Shay.”

Having gathered all the bears, she starts walking away, pulling the wagon in her fox form.

As she moves further and further away, I can hear her small murmurs through my wind magic:

“Ah, I'm so tired.

I want to go home and take a nap already.

No, that would be depressing. I want to caress Rina to my heart's content, but Lisa told me to stop spoiling her and keep my dignity as the village chief.

It can't be helped. I will have to find Luxe. Because of my stupid dignity, I can't go out and look for her, but she comes to my office sometimes... do I have to wait for her?

Oh, those bears. If I bring them to Lisa's office, she will probably come and heal them. Then, I can huhuhu.....”

Uh, I can hear your thoughts, Sionna.

She has developed this sad habit of murmuring to herself her inner thoughts, because of how she pushes herself to look like a respectable village chief.

She is not only the chief of the Tail Fox tribe, but also the brain of the Five Tribe Alliance, so she has to act dignified. But because of this personality of hers, Sionna has so much pent up stress from not being able to act like herself, and here is the result.

Even though she is so strong, how regretful.

When I think back at Magnus’s gaze back then…

It reminded me of this past event that I didn't want to remember.

But how can I forget about it? It was when I lost my most precious person.

Inside the dark forest barely visible thanks to the red moonlight, I was sitting, trying to not collapse.

A hole was opened in my chest, and I knew it was hopeless.

In front of me were three goblins and one woman with long green hair. She is my mother, Lizelotte Von Arden.

However, the situation wasn't good. Two goblins were holding her arms to stop her from moving, and the other one was approaching me in order to give me the finishing blow.

Even though I would die if left alone, he preferred to give me a finishing blow, how cruel.

I would probably get eaten once killed. Goblins like the tender flesh of children is what I heard.

As the goblin approached, I resigned myself to death. However, what I was waiting for didn't happen.

When I opened my eyes, I saw Liz punching him away with all her might. How did she still have that much force left in her? I still don't understand.

However, that was it. Once she stopped the goblin from killing me, she was completely exhausted, even more than before.

The two goblins that got shaken off growled in anger and swung their swords.

Liz's arms fall to the ground, one by one. Even as her flesh got torn apart, her gaze was fixated on me.

I could see tears flowing down from her ears. Under the red moonlight, they looked like tears of blood.

I could barely see her lips moving and just with that, I could somehow discern her words.

“I’m sorry.”

The goblin approached me once again, and I prepared myself once again to die.

However, this time, Liz charged at him with her head. After pushing the goblin back without her arms, she collapses on the ground without being able to keep her balance.

There was no way she had that much force still left, but she still did so.

Stop! You will really die!

I cried, but my voice didn't come out. It was my fault that she was in that state to start with. I just hoped that my death would end all of this already.

Having been interrupted once again, the goblin now cut off her legs.

Liz was lying immobile on the ground. This time for sure, if the goblin tried to kill me once again, she wouldn't be able to do anything.

However, that didn't happen.

The goblins carried her and started moving away.

Liz was still alive. No, she was kept alive.

Realizing this, I couldn't hold on to my consciousness anymore.

The injury was fatal, yet I survived.

It was thanks to my awakening of light magic.

In order to use magic that one has affinity with, one needs to learn how to control the mana of that element. It’s usually done by having someone with the same affinity helping to control it for the first time, like Liz had done for my wind magic.

However, I could use light magic without anyone's help. When my life was about to fade, in my state of unconsciousness, I felt this warm feeling heal my wounds and became aware of how to control the light mana.

When I woke up, the wound in my chest was nowhere to be seen, but the hole in the clothes and blood around my chest were proof that what happened was not a dream.

I cried.

I resented myself for being so powerless. I blamed my parents for not being able to properly protect me. I hated myself for deciding to not fight.

Too many feelings overflowed in to me at once, but there was one that was clearly above others.

Liz was kept alive, and there was a chance that she was still alive.

If I brought her to a competent healer, they might even be able to regrow her lost limbs. Because she is from a famous noble family of the Magical Empire, there was a high chance her wounds could be cured if she was brought there.

However, I was scared.

No matter how I think about it, there was no way I could rescue her.

I kept thinking about different possibilities and a plan of action all while trembling in fear.

The disgusting shape and expression of those goblins as they trampled on everything I had could not be forgotten. I could not stop trembling whenever I thought about them.

My thoughts kept moving in a negative direction from the fear. No matter how hard I thought about it, there was no way I could save her. There was no way that a five-year-old girl who can’t even defeat one goblin will manage to rescue someone from the midst of their den. To start with, I didn’t even know where they brought her.

I was too weak. I chose to not fight, and this was the result.

Tears kept flowing down my cheeks.

I kept crying as it was the only thing I could do, as powerless as I was.

When I reincarnated in this world, I was so happy to have a healthy body. Since there were so many things I was unable to do in my previous life, I thought I would finally be able to fulfill them in this life.

But this was the reality. No matter which life, I couldn't do anything.

Because I couldn't do anything, I kept crying.

How much time had passed? I was lucky that no monster came by while I was being miserable.

I realized it by then.

Liz actually had fulfilled her promise to protect me. I was alive, and this was the proof of it.

I needed a reason to keep moving. I had the responsibility to not waste the life that Liz protected with all her might.

However, I couldn't bring myself to go and try to rescue her. No matter how much I thought about it, it was simply impossible, or I was just too cowardly. It was probably both.

I hated myself for being such a coward. Even though Liz was the most precious person to me, I was still afraid to die.

But that self-hatred wasn't going to get me anywhere, so I redirected it to the goblins.

I swore that I will get stronger and kill all those goblins; that I would take my revenge no matter what.

The feelings I saw in Magnus were the same as myself back then.

The anger, the thirst for a guilt-ridden revenge.

And I had also seen that elsewhere before.

It was from the yellow eyes of monsters while their small and hideous green bodies desperately pleaded for their lives when I had finally accomplished my revenge. It was the goblin children.

It appears that the unknown existence that has been observing the scene is now also gone.

I look back at Rick who is lying on the ground.

Even in that desperate situation, he stood up and fought with a fearless smile.

If he was in my situation back then, would he have been able to save Liz?

I can't see what he tried to show back then as anything other than recklessness.

That's why, I can't understand why that part of him looks so dazzling.

Weed

Changed Lisa's line in chapter 10 about her not having seen any light mage of her level. (Into her having seen it before, but she notices that her level of light magic is pretty high). It didn't make sense with how light mages are rare but valuable.