Chapter 73 – Colorless

000

A long hallway where bright sunlight streams in through the large windows.

Red curtains hang on the walls, and the sound of walking on the carpet of the same color echoes.

Short stature with red hair. Once the blue-eyed girl made her way.

The idiots who were standing in the hallway were frightened and stepped aside.

The girl’s name is Lyla Flamewatch.

Despite being a mage from a commoner in the countryside who entered the academy.

With the amount of magical energy that is second to none even among nobles, and the intelligence called a genius.

He quickly made his name known within the department and even rose to the second position.

However, a known name is not an ordinary ‘famous’ or ‘fame’.

Rather, it would be closer to ‘notoriety’.

A harsh attitude that seemed to cut off everyone who approached.

The gaze of contempt toward the surroundings contained in that gaze.

Of course, it was true that most of the students were still less capable than her.

Even so, her attitude was never tolerated by those around her.

This is a place of learning. Academy.

Most of those gathered are boys and girls whose souls have not yet been fully established.

For them at a time when they were sensitive, Layla stood out in many ways.

It was something that was not easily accepted.

Even the boys who initially showed interest in her.

If you show one side of flame magic with burning eyes.

It knows how to run away and run away.

Students enrolled in the Magic Department are classified into two types.

Either a researcher or a non-researcher.

Lyla, of course, was the former.

Magic is originally a science that goes back to the past.

Making fire from his hands and burning his enemies was just a means of protecting his body discovered incidentally in the course of his research.

Those who understand that duty, even if it’s the magic department of the academy, the best educational institution on the continent.

Only a handful of people who are not a handful.

However, originally, the family of magicians is a family that inherits the family from generation to generation and accumulates the results of its research.

The longer the history, the more established their status as nobles.

In other words, most of the researchers in the Department of Magic are nobles.

Their peculiar eccentricity and contempt for life as researchers, and their elitism as aristocrats.

Even Layla, who is obviously of the same kind as them, rejects them by looking below them.

A red-haired genius.

Until Layla Flamewatch, the successor of the Fire Watcher, was isolated within the department.

It didn’t take long.

But she didn’t care about her situation at all.

No, on the contrary, I thought it was a good thing for her.

If you have time to devote to human relationships and life skills, read one more book and research one more paper.

To take a place in one of the school’s 12 circles, to break the noses of old people who disrespect their grandfathers.

Even in this life, I needed a lot of time.

As much as that, it was quite an arduous task to climb to the seat of the 12th circle.

A feat as a mage to rise to their place.

It was necessary to discover ‘a completely new magical theory’.

To put it simply, it was to find a magic that could change some of the common sense existing in the natural world.

Many wizards challenged the feat, but most of them turned into a handful of ashes at the limit of their lifespan.

That’s why lately, eating and sleeping have been solved through magic.

The magic of sending the burden of the body to the future, called ‘can-bul’, was strongly forbidden when my grandfather was alive.

Now that he was dead, there was no one by her side who could stop her.

-Go, Layla herself was thinking.

“Lyla~!”

When she turns her head when she hears a voice calling her from behind.

Brown hair, black eyes, normal-… No, her little chubby girl was coming towards her waving her hand.

Of course, she had cheeks suitable for her age group, and she gave off a cute impression.

“…”

But Layla checked her like that and

She turns around with a frown on her face, and tries to continue on her way.

But the girl catches up to Lila from behind and stands next to her, breathing heavily.

“Ha… Ha… Seriously, where’s the point of leaving the classroom without saying anything?”

“It doesn’t matter because class is over.”

Even though her body was weak, she ran down the hallway to the girl who approached her with a tired expression.

Lila replied in a cold voice.

This girl’s name is Bea.

Although she had the aristocratic name of Beatrix, she was a commoner girl.

Her grandfather was a former aristocrat, but the family fell due to something.

This name was given as her grandfather’s last request.

Say, what she was talking about by her own side without her interest.

Lila remembered it well.

She didn’t want to remember much, but she remembered what she had heard once.

Even as she was, it wasn’t a situation she wanted very much.

“Layla, do you always eat lunch alone? I brought a packed lunch today, so let’s go and eat in the vacant lot together!”

She says so and shows her picnic basket in her hand.

Lila then looked at the basket for a moment, then turned her head and opened her mouth.

“I don’t have time for lunch. I have to return books to the library and read new ones.”

As she said that, she showed the thick book she was holding in her hand.

It was not, to put it mildly, a book that a girl her age would read.

Even graduates who graduated from the department might find it difficult to read.

Bea looked at the book and Layla for a moment before raising her voice.

“I’m sorry!”

The dialect mixed with how much emotion was put into it.

When the eyes around you are focused for a while, and the sound of laughter rises from all over the place.

Layla was blushing and accelerating her steps because she was embarrassed even though she wasn’t the object.

“Are you… On purpose?”

“What, what? Me, dialect came out again?”

In addition, Bea accelerated her steps in order to somehow catch up with Layla.

She seemed unaware of herself.

Even the reason Layla was shy about her was her grittyness, and she was in that and her insensitive personality.

It’s normal for most people to get off on their own if they get a little rough.

This woman named Beatrix was the only one in her department the same age as herself.

She and she come to herself with a thick face that is indifferent to people’s displeasure.

Once she gets caught up in this girl who arbitrarily calls herself a friend.

How much of your precious time would you waste?

Layla was the only one worried about that.

What pisses me off most of all is-

“Look! This sandwich! I made it with magic yesterday! Boil water with fire magic, cook potatoes…”

When you open the picnic basket proudly, you see a sandwich of bread with plenty of potato salad.

Layla shakes her head, though she unknowingly gulps at the smell of spicy mayonnaise.

This girl, Beatrix.

The fact that she has a high magic potential similar to his own.

I know it even if I don’t check it with magic time.

Every time Bea comes close to herself, the amount of her magical power she is unconsciously releasing.

It was never anything out of the ordinary.

What hurts Lila’s pride more than anything else

The fact that she was the only one feeling the pressure of her magical power was the fact that the total amount of her magical power she had was greater than her own.

This carefree gluttonous girl.

She spared no time to sleep, no time to eat, and herself who was barely climbing up.

Lila clenched her fists, naturally biting her molars.

“Listen up, potato lady.”

“Go, potato girl!?”

“As I said before, I have no intention of being friendly with you. You who use magic with your natural talent without making any special effort… I can’t even belong to a wizard.”

For Lila at that time, this was her true intention.

Bea widens her eyes as she looks at Layla, who pours her rants on her.

Lila turned her body as if she had nothing more to say and proceeded down her hallway.

Looking back at her, Bea stood there with her head down.

“…”

Lila just walked away without saying anything.

Because time was too short to stop.

001

After all, the day was spent traveling back and forth between lectures and the library.

According to the academy’s rules, students under the age of 15 had to return to their dorms before a certain time.

Lila, who at the time was not yet a senior, hurried her steps back to her common dormitory.

Today was also a fulfilling day.

She found a paper to support her theory, which she completed last night.

She thought of several new spells in her nonstop, taut head.

“The characteristic of flame magic is, of course, overwhelming firepower. However, the drawback is that so much magic power is wasted on the use of magic. Then, a new type of attack magic that raises the necessary magic power and releases only a portion to attack the enemy…”

Put your thoughts in your mouth and organize your thoughts in your head.

Seeing her like that in her department, the perception of her as ‘her weird guy’ becomes stronger.

Lila didn’t care at all.

Go back and organize everything you came up with.

And tomorrow, let’s do another study based on what we organized today.

And again. When new things come to mind. That…

Suddenly. The feet stop.

It’s a fulfilling day.

It’s a rewarding day.

Today, several times, I reminded myself like that.

“…”

Rumbling…

And a sound echoes from the ship.

`Gabul` does not eliminate `empty hunger` or `fatigue`.

Even if you’re hungry, you don’t have to eat.

Even if you are sleepy, you do not have to sleep.

That’s it.

Converting mana into life force, the sensation of moving the ungreased body with a thread.

I am feeling hungry, and I am also feeling sleepy.

It will probably get worse.

But she was scared.

If you cancel this advance payment, which has already been going on for nearly a month.

How much do you have to pay for yourself?

“It’s all because of her… She puts something like a sandwich in front of her eyes…”

During the day, Layla pictured in her mind the face of the girl she had thrown out for saying nasty things.

She had a sad face.

She thought she didn’t know.

However-.

However… The fact that she felt sorry at all.

No matter how many times he denied it, he eventually accepted it.

It happened before.

It was Layla’s harsh words to Bea that kept her apart.

But after a day, she follows her around again as if she never did.

Interested or not curious.

Pure favor.

Layla “guk” and clenched her fists once more.

Reminds me of something I read in a book not too long ago.

`Exposure effect. A phenomenon in which goodwill is generated by meeting several times

This is just an illusion.

Lila internally chews up her feelings like that.

Gulp- and pass it through her throat.

Her worries about her others, which were disturbing her mind, also disappear.

“…I stopped for a minute. If I don’t hurry up and go back…”

The moment after Layla said that, she stepped out.

Charleuk! From her comes a sound that grieves her ears,

Around her, a barrier of chains enchanted with her spreads.

“What, what… ?”

When Lila looks around her in bewilderment.

He could see strangers in red uniforms surrounding him.

All of them are armed with dangerous-looking weapons in their hands.

I was letting out a bad laugh.

“Lyla Flamewatch. As you’ve heard, it’s a great amount of magic power. If it’s this, there’s no shortage of ‘vessels’.”

Goosebumps ran down her spine as the man who appeared to be the leader opened her mouth.

Layla instantly understood that their purpose was her own personal safety.

“Who are you guys…?”

“You’ll find out soon. If you kindly follow me, you won’t be hurt in the process.”

At her request to obey her, Lila puts her thoughts out of her head and puts on a cold expression.

Her magical energy engulfs her whole body, and her red hair begins to sway as if on fire.

“Who are you talking to? You.”

The next moment, dozens of fireballs appeared as if they were exploding.

At the same time, it fires indiscriminately as if shattering the surroundings, melting the barrier of the chain.

In the other enforcement departments, even those who defended against magic took considerable damage or were knocked down.

Only the man who protected himself with chains raises the corner of his mouth.

“I see, this is the power of the descendants of the family of the beginning.”

“I know it well, then this too-… Keungh…”

The next moment, when Lila tried to use her newly created magic.

The sense of omnipotence of the magical power that covered her body evaporated.

A feeling as if a thread had been cut.

Hurry up and check her own body.

The large storehouse of her magical power was empty.

The side effects of ‘appreciation’ that flows in Laila’s head.

Her magic power had already reached its limit.

With the use of magic a while ago…

“…Ah… Ugh…”

Dizziness due to exhaustion of mana.

Hunger and sleep cravings.

If you fall down on this spot, you don’t know when you’ll get up.

What will happen to you while you sleep…

“We waited for your stamina and mana to be depleted. You moved as we expected.”

The man approaches Lila with a bad laugh.

`No, no… Ha ha… Buggy…`

Before losing consciousness, he recalls the face of his kind grandfather.

“Huh? What are you, what are you!? Kwaaaaak!”

The next moment, Layla heard the man’s scream.

Fell into a long sleep

002

Laila woke up to the smell of the fragrant soup and the feel of the warm blanket.

The clothes had been changed at some point.

Her hair was loose, but it didn’t look like she was doing anything strange.

Looking around, it was the first place I saw.

However, strangely, the lower part of the neck did not move.

My mind is a little hazy, but there is no problem in judging the situation.

The last place he was was on the way back from the library to the dormitory.

I was attacked by guys in red uniforms who didn’t know who they were…

“Kuh…”

Mistake of a lifetime.

Is this their hideout?

If I don’t recover somehow…

Concentrate your mind and notice the people around you.

In this bedroom-like space, it seemed to me that I was the only one.

Beyond the door… There is no one. There is only one person at a distance.

If it’s just one person, he can control his body again with magic…

At that time, you feel the person approaching the room you are in.

Layla quietly gathers some of her recovered magic.

And when the door opens.

“Wow! You’re awake!”

He had a mitten on his hand and was holding a bowl of warm soup.

He saw Beatrix looking at him with a smile on his face.

“You, you… You…!?”

Lila just repeated the word ‘you’ and looked at her with her eyes wide open.

The raised mana is scattered in the air, and the mana tank inside the body is once again empty.

“I just woke up. Thank God she’s light! I was able to carry it on my own!”

Bea smiled innocently and sat down in the chair next to her.

“I, what are you trying to do by arresting me? Are you also one of them?”

“The gang? Those guys? Aah. If it’s the older brothers who tried to do bad things, I punished them!”

Bea, who tilted her head at Lila’s words, smiled and said, “Whoa.”

“Hon… Give it to me?”

“Yeah! There’s a magic Layla muttered about before. I’ve been studying it myself!”

She puts her hands together as she says that.

Then, a small red fireball formed from there, and from there, a spike of flame was seen protruding and wafting through the air.

“Flame Octopus!”

“It’s a flare spike!”

When I said the absurdly corny name of the magic, Laila let out a cry involuntarily.

And she’s ‘hot’ and comes to her senses her, confirming her magic her.

Theories, magical constructs, and the use of magical powers.

Although the size and scale were of course smaller than he had imagined, it must have been because he suppressed his power to activate it.

Of course, when she was by her side of her, she might have muttered something about this magic herself.

She said that she had reached the point where she understood and used it herself… ?

“You, what the hell…”

“More than that! It’s because you rumbled all over the world while you were sleeping, Lila. Are you really hungry?”

“Ah, you… I…”

Layla sheds her tail at Bea’s words her.

To be honest, it felt as if my stomach and back skin would stick together even now.

In the meantime, the smell of the soup that gave off the savory scent of the milk she boiled herself in front of her eyes.

It was almost like torture.

“Come on, ah-“

As Bea scoops soup into her spoon and tells her to open her mouth.

Layla blushed and freaked out.

“Ba, you idiot! What are you doing?”

“What are you doing? You’re feeding Lila, who can’t move her body her.”

“Wait, wait. I’ll take care of it once I recover my mana…”

Lila tries to move her body her somehow, but in the end she does n’t get the slightest bit of her energy her back, so her face her becomes somber.

“Magical power is restored only when there is vitality. Lila’s current body condition is empty on both sides, so of course recovery is slow.”

Saying that, Bea thrusts a spoon at her as if telling her to open her mouth quickly.

“Ugh… Kuh… It’s a disgrace… This Layla Flame Watch couldn’t believe she would go through something like this…”

Eventually, Lila opens her mouth and passes the warm, fragrant soup that enters her mouth her and down her throat without resistance.

It was a little bit, but it felt like her body was warming up.

“Yeah! I’m eating well~”

“Oh, because I’m not a child.”

Layla says so, and she involuntarily opens her mouth and waits for her next.

… After all, it didn’t take long for her to finish her bowl.

As Bea puts her bowl away, Laila hesitates before opening her mouth.

“… Thank you. Well, for saving me.

“Huh? Even if you say so, D-“

She answers in a snorted tone, but because of her dialect her, she does n’t understand what he’s saying.

“…Ah, it’s okay…”

Bea suddenly comes to her senses her and corrects her dialect and speaks again.

“…Yeah, by the way. You must have been very sleepy? I slept all day for three days.”

“Three days… -Three days!?”

Lila’s mind went blank.

Three days of her precious time of her own was wasted.

At best, she found a new research point.

If she doesn’t hurry back and continue her studies…

“…!”

The next moment, Lila realizes.

What she knew before she passed out, what she had in mind.

She doesn’t remember any of it.

The performance of the brain that has already fallen as soon as it falls before remembering properly.

She could not properly record the events of the past, and she left the important facts as they were.

When her head her went cold with despair, her humidification became stuffy.

My head hurt like it was about to tear.

Of course, this is a fact she once realized herself.

But the time she used for him doesn’t come back.

It’s a knowledge she gained even by going against her grandfather’s orders her.

It was blown away so stupidly.

She hated her own stupidity so much.

But the next moment, Bea speaks.

“Oh, and. I wrote down what Lila muttered in her sleep and put it on her desk at her.”

“Chae, desk? Are you muttering? Now, wait! Bea! Give me that paper!”

Upon hearing her words of her, an excited Lila tries to move her body of her.

Bea looks at her strangely and hands her paper over to her.

Let’s read the wad of papers Laila received.

Little by little, the things I had forgotten about, my study and research came back to my head.

The crooked handwriting of the official language that is written on the 30th page of the chapter.

All belonged to Bea.

“Uh, why…”

“Huh? Yeah, because Layla wanted to study while she slept. I thought I’d need it when I woke up.”

As Bea draws a V, she smiles brightly.

Silence passed.

The silence that pervaded her room was caused by Lila, who suddenly stopped moving and dropped her head.

Bea wonders if she did something wrong. She looks at her face as she is worried.

Then I heard an unfamiliar sound.

Drop, drop.

Something, water droplets came out and landed on the paper.

Bea opens her eyes wide, and she wriggles as if she doesn’t know what to do.

“Eh, Eight!”

Then he hugged Leila, who was quietly crying.

“Bah, you idiot… If you do this, the paper will get crumpled…”

If Lila continues her voice as she cries.

Bea continues her story, unable to hide her embarrassment.

“My, when I cry, my mother always hugs me tightly… Mi-sorry…”

Doing so, let Bea try to get away from Lyla.

Lila also turned her hand over her back her to her bea and grabbed her her, gradually increasing the amount of tears she poured out.

What fills the empty girl inside.

The taste of warm and delicious soup.

The feel of a soft blanket.

The touch of a person who feels after a long time.

And with the death of my grandfather.

In her life her, where all light has gone and turned colorless.

It was a ray of light that was unchangingly warm.