While Emilia was still bedridden, Youko visited her once.

She didn’t say anything, didn’t have the courage to. Youko has always been a socially awkward girl, naturally she had no idea how to comfort someone. This didn’t mean she didn’t understand, however. She knew Emilia must be devastated.

She was devastated as well.

While she stayed quiet, she had brought a few flowers. They weren’t just any flowers: it was a special species, a highly prized kind of magical flower. Youko had saved up for a while now, and spent all her money on them.

Emilia wasn’t quite sure whether to accept them, but before she could protest, Youko turned around and left.

At this time, she couldn’t face her former tutor. Emilia was now weak and had lost her strength, Youko still wasn’t very strong either.

The young girl made up her mind. She had to become strong, so she could protect her benefactor. Maybe, if she studied hard enough, she could find a way to get her magic back. If not, she could be the one to protect her. No matter what, she wanted to repay Emilia’s kindness.

And so, from that day onward, she was usually seen either in the library or the training grounds. While Isaac was happy to see her spend more time on her studies, he was getting a bit worried about her new fixation. Still, he was fairly strong himself, and thus he helped her out as best as he could. Soon, she had become the top student in her class.

In the meantime, Emilia had recovered her physical injuries. While the school had allowed her to stay while injured, she had to leave now. They saw no point in taking care of someone who didn’t have any magic power.

When the other students heard she lost her power, they gradually started talking to her less and less. Some were childishly scared they’d be infected, most had simply befriended her for the sake of her immense strength. Without it, they lost interest.

Isaac was the only one who still visited her occasionally, but he was especially busy with his last year approaching and Youko constantly bothering him for more and more obscure magic books and tools. (He felt she was becoming more and more like Emilia used to be. Whether this was a good or bad thing, he didn’t know.)

Emilia didn’t tell anyone when she returned to her home-town. Even when there, she didn’t leave the house much, feeling too ashamed to show her face.

Her parents didn’t have much contact with her, as they’d grown out of touch when she’d left for school in the first place.

As her father was a strong magician, he was clearly disappointed, even though he tried not to show it. Her mother was more of the worried type, but this worry felt suffocating. She didn’t want to play the victim, but she couldn’t find the strength to leave this role behind.

In the end, she turned to fiction. Holed up in her room she read many stories about powerful adventurers. Amongst them, there were even some without magical powers. It was a common fantasy for the common folk, for someone without talent to gain strength and become a hero. While her situation was a bit different, she got attached to this fantasy, this idea that even she who was now weak could climb up from the bottom.

When she’d read all the books of this genre the small town library had to offer, she started writing herself. Her books weren’t very good at first, but as she kept writing, they grew better and better, her style more polished, her characters better developed. In the end, she started publishing them, under the pen name Emi. (Despite her talent, she wasn’t very creative with names.)

Soon, she gained a small fanbase. The only person who knew her actual identity was the town librarian, Jakob, who had encouraged her to start writing, and now edited the books and brought them to be published.

There was one thing he couldn’t quite figure out, however.

“Emilia, here’s another fan letter.” She occasionally got those, and he was the one to deliver them. “It’s the same as usual, praising your literary style, but mad about the ending to your latest work.”

“Just send out the standard reply,” she sighed. Lately, she’d been getting so many letters she didn’t have time to personally reply to them all.

Jakob nodded. “Can I ask one thing, though?”

“Sure.”

“Why do you end your novels that way?”

While Emilia’s first novels had been generic escapes from reality, starting with her first published one, they all had downer endings. Of course, the hero reached his (or her, sometimes) goal and defeated the enemies, but more often than not there was a catch.

Emilia had become a master of writing pyrrhic victories.

Each time, she led the readers on with hopes of a better ending, each time the hero came closer and closer to a happy end, but he never got it.

Along the way, he always ended up losing his lover, a limb, a family member, his job… whatever was most related to his happiness.

She sighed once again.

“A happy ending like that, I don’t like it.”

“How so? Wouldn’t most prefer a satisfying conclusion?”

“Oh, but it is satisfying. Since I can’t be a hero, I won’t allow any of my creations to be happy being one.”

The conversation ended there, as Jakob felt it best not to bring up such a sensitive topic any more.

While their lives continued on like this, Emilia had almost forgotten Isaac Youko. She didn’t like thinking about her days at the academy.

Youko, however, hadn’t stopped thinking about Emilia. In fact, she had become one of her biggest fans.

While the academy library didn’t have those kinds of adventure novels, she had read all books there long ago. She moved on to smaller, lesser known libraries. In those, she found not only rare magic books, but also a few novels by an author with a very familiar name.

She didn’t immediately believe it was Emilia, of course, Emi was a common nickname. But after reading a few stories, she felt that the pain in the endings must have been similar to what her tutor must have felt, falling off such a pedestal.

In the end, while she wasn’t quite sure whether it really was Emilia, she became a fan of this writing style.

This new hobby didn’t hinder her studies, however. If anything it made her work harder and more diligently. Soon, the day came when she could be called the academy’s number 1.

She was 17 years old now, but had skipped a grade. Her final exams had passed smoothly and she had successfully graduated.

Now that she had a license, proof of her power, she felt she could finally face Emilia again.

As we know however, Emilia had left the academy a long time ago. She didn’t get outside much, and so no one in her town really knew of her existence. She’d moved house shortly after the accident, so the academy didn’t have her address. While Isaac had wanted to send her letters, she didn’t tell him before departing, and so he had no way of contacting her.

But that didn’t stop Youko. She was a damn persistent brat, really.

The school had her old address, and Youko asked around there as much as she could. While the landlord didn’t know much, she ran into someone who did know.

Jakob, the librarian, was picking some books up in the neighbouring town, when he by coincidence heard some loud arguing. He didn’t particularly want to get involved, until he heard one of the parties shout a very familiar name, followed by a plead to find her.

The person in question was a young girl. She was fairly short and had long, jet-black hair. From the way she was dressed it was clear she had money to spare, and a badge on her chest indicated she was a magic user.

Why would someone like this be looking for Emilia?

Just as the girl gave up and was about to leave, he lightly tapped on her shoulder.

“Miss, I apologise for listening in, but I may know the one you’re looking for.”

-

Note: I apologise for not updating;; I will try to update regularly from now on!!