Arc 1. Chapter 5-4
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Thankfully Mathias took no notice of Isabella’s obvious star-struck eyes and only scoffed, in all the marvelous fashion of the brooding bad boy stereotype every girl goes gaga for.

I am unfortunately guilty of that as well. But only in my past life, and only with fictional characters, ok?!

“I don’t need anyone babysitting me. I already lost too much time. I need to go” he turned around, signaling the conversation was over, and walked away.

He was stopped by a knife gracing his cheek and incrusting itself in the wall in front of him.

“I said…” Isabella started, her voice low and dangerous; “you stay with us.”

Ah, yes; Isabella, at the very least, took bullshit from no one. Not even the guy she was crushing on. And she always prioritized her job. At one time in the manga, she was even willing to kill Mathias for the greater good. It was, however, an extreme situation, but she still tried to. And didn’t back away just because she was so in love with him she couldn’t do it. Despite all of that; why Isabella? Why!? You were the cool one!

Mathias raised an eyebrow, but he looked pissed. “Who are you and why do you think you have any authority to give me orders?”

Yeeeeeah, this was getting out of hand pretty fast. Just as Isabella was about to throw a caustic retort, I stood between the two, raising my hands in a placating gesture. “This is not the time for this. Mathias” I turned to him before any of them could say anything. “Sebastian isn’t with your father. Why do you think is that?” I asked.

Now, I wasn’t asking because I knew the reason and wanted him to come to the same conclusion as me; I wasn’t that cool yet; but because I was truly curious. Sebastian was the viscount’s loyal butler. Why was he dandling behind while his master was fighting for his life? However, the way Mathias’ eyes widened and he cursed without answering, made me believe he actually thought I knew the reason as well.

Well, if he wanted to think me more cunning than I actually was, better for me. Whatever.

“Shit” he spit with anger again, shaking his head and closing his eyes. The others looked at him, bewildered, while I crossed my arms and waited for him to do something more than cursing. Finally, Mathias looked at Domenic, serious. “What’s Sebastian’s trajectory?” he asked dryly.

“He’s moving counter-clock wise. He’s getting closer as we speak, but I doubt he knows of our presence yet” he answered with the same seriousness, falling back into business mode. Mathias nodded, letting out a sigh of relief.

“Good, he’s walking in our direction. That means he hasn’t touched the places I put an onion on yet” he sighed again. “I swear, if I had to do all of that again…”

“Mathias, before you start complaining, don’t you think it’s better if we move?” I interrupted, a little exasperated. I had no idea what Sebastian was doing, but if it had to do with the onions Mathias was placing everywhere in the castle, then it couldn’t be anything good.

Luckily, the boy nodded, gesturing with his head for us to follow him. Surprisingly, Noah, Isabella and Domenic did so without complain. Mathias spoke as we walked. “I think I don’t need to ask if you know of Sebastian’s ability both in physical and magical combat, right?” the silence was confirmation enough. “I don’t know for sure, but now that Elaine mentioned it, there should be little doubt about it. This castle it’s my father’s territory. Cutting out the power of the mana spaces will affect him much more than anybody else, but so will increasing the output” he looked at Domenic, who understood immediately what he wanted.

“Two-hundred meters, northeast.”

“In that case” he continued, guiding us through the barely illuminated hallways; “Sebastian is doing the opposite of me. He has both the magical ability and affinity for my father’s magic to do so, which makes this doubly dangerous. So, this is what we’re going to do” he halted in a corner, hidden from outside view by a large tapestry hung from two pillars. I eyed the golden rope at the end of it and played with it as Mathias explained. “Since Sebastian is of Magi descent, he has far greater sensitivity to magic than the rest of us. However, his control is much more precise, so unlike the shrimp here a simple pulse like what I did before won’t be enough to stop him for long.”

“Hey!” Noah complained, but one look from Isabella instantly shut him up.

“Therefore, while I charge a concentrated enough magical pulse, you three will distract him and protect me. When the pulse is done, the one with the least magical potential will have to cut him down while he’s off-service.”

“That would be me” Isabella said, nodding. That’s right, Isabella was the only one of the original group that had no magic whatsoever. In this world, magic was a born trait. Everybody possessed it, although very few had talent for it, and even less could grow into full-fledged mages. There were a group of people, however, who had absolutely no magic in them. Isabella was one of the few in this world born without magic veins. This was both a weakness as well as a strength, as attacks directed to the magic veins could not touch her, thus giving her a solid advantage in situations where others like Noah could not go against.

“Once Sebastian it’s out, simply placing the onions on the mana spaces will be enough to counteract the heightening he did before. Once that it’s done, we can go back to the courtyard as backup. Though I believe by that time our help won’t be needed anymore.”

Everyone else nodded, agreeing to his plan. I was left astounded. Now that sounded a lot more like the Mathias I knew from the manga. Where was he all this time? In the end, I wasn’t needed at all, something I was grateful for. However, that left us with only one problem left.

“Hmm, then, what should I do? Do I stand back or use the moment to put the onions on the remaining mana spaces?” I asked, still playing with the rope, pondering taking it with me. Never knew when one may come in handy.

Mathias blinked at my question, his gaze fixing on me, as if he had forgotten I was there at all. Hey.

“You…” he frowned, before sighing. “Stand behind me. You don’t know where the mana spaces are anyway, and it would be dangerous for you to be left alone somewhere else” then he looked at the rest of the group again. “Everyone ready? Good. Let’s go.”

And with that, we went. And all of a sudden, I felt like a very useless package.

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