I Have Become The Heroes’ Rival

The following morning, after receiving the mysterious sword.

I pulled myself up, rubbing my stiff eyes that were dry from pulling an all-nighter. I couldn’t sleep because I was confused and worried all night.

The situation was vague and unclear in many ways, but I was grateful to the heavens that Felix returned safely.

It was also fortunate that he was not devoured by the devil completely.

Yes, on the bright side, that was enough. Thanks to our advanced preparations, we successfully avoided the first gate to destruction, unharmed.

The problem was, I could not predict at all what the second gate would be.

Henceforth, it was time to exclude the original novel. The reality now would be completely different from the novel.

Of course, except for the plot, the knowledge of characters, circumstances, and everything obtained from the novel was still valid.

And right now, my biggest concern was this.

‘What should I do with Felix in the future?’

He once told me he had a desire similar to wanting to hurt me. Of course, I couldn’t blame him. All humans had a secret taste that they couldn’t ever tell others.

I actually had one of those. I felt great when someone patted me on the butt. Not a hit hard enough that it hurt, but rather, just a pat.

I had no heart to tell anyone because I felt like a pervert.

Anyway, Felix might have one of those.

The problem was that Felix would have never revealed it if it wasn’t for the devil. He was definitely not a man who acted on impulse.

Even if it was a mistake and I got hurt, it would pain him more. It was now necessary to thoroughly and calmly distinguish between desire and reality.

I was sure that he was the one suffering the most. If a man like Felix had a constant impulse that went against his reason and belief, it would feel like torture to him.

It seemed so hard that I thought I wouldn’t mind getting hurt if it was just a little bit…….

I looked down at my left arm, bandaged and supported by a splint. Frankly, I wasn’t confident that I could handle Felix’s desire.

Felix was desperately avoiding me because he knew that.

Just look at it yesterday. He gave me a sword and told me to stab him.

‘Why are people so extreme?’

Not to mention the act of leaving abruptly – this was just his drastic idea of dying with the devil.

I glanced at the decorative sword I received from Felix and headed to his room. Since he was now a dead man, he couldn’t leave his room.

If I considered his situation, it would be easier for him to live without seeing me for a while, but that was hard for me.

We had to plan for the future and get through it bravely.

Above all, I liked Felix very much. If I didn’t see my sunshine for a day, I might get depressed.

I had no choice but to admit it. Felix completely tamed me. Was this how the rose felt when the Little Prince¹ abandoned her?

When I arrived at Felix’s room, he leisurely greeted me with a cup of tea in hand.

“Good morning.”

It was such a carefree greeting.

His neatly arranged snowflake-like hair covered his forehead.

The glasses placed on his high nose bridge were round gold frames and softened his impression.

He smiled gently at me. Everything was the same as usual. As if everything that happened yesterday was a midsummer night’s dream².

But his smile was somewhat awkward as if it would fall apart at any moment, and there were no lenses in his glasses.

‘I thought he lost his glasses in the commotion yesterday, but it looks like his eyesight got better.’

The devil’s ability to proportionally bring positive effects made me uneasy.

Profound strength, improved eyesight, better body shape……. that was enough.

In any case, if one received something without a price, there were bound to be side effects.

What more, the opponent was the devil. It was uncertain what would happen in the future.

His eyes lingered on my left arm. As soon as he did, his smile dimmed, and he naturally turned away from me.

“…….”

I sat down in the distance, feeling flustered inside. He had a hard time being with me, so I decided to maintain a reasonable distance at all times.

Of course, I didn’t intend to do this for the rest of my life and planned to narrow the distance little by little each time he got used to it. Just as Felix did to me, there was no need to rush.

I threw in some light words to brighten up the atmosphere.

“I guess the three useless brothers must be there by now.”

“Useless……. three brothers?”

Felix didn’t seem to understand their title that I uttered unconsciously. My eyes twinkled as I explained to the confused man.

“It’s the name I gave them since they’re like three brothers who are truly lacking.”

“Ah, that’s why they’re useless…… what about them?”

“I meant to say that they must be surprised enough that their eyes pop out like this.”

I described a pretty brutal scene with a gesture.

Felix had a rather disconcerted look on his face as if he was wondering whether or not to tell me that I should use kinder words.

However, the situation was already at this point, so he decided that it didn’t matter. He gave a faint smile that eventually reached his ears.

“Ah, you finally laughed.”

I smiled brightly with Felix as if I had the whole world.

Then his expression subtly twisted and became cold again.

I was afraid that I would become familiar with being shunned. I was afraid that the blue lake, which had bent finely at me, would remain a memory and be worn out.

The corners of my mouth trembled and drooped. Felix, who had smiled affectionately in the past, now didn’t even look at me.

Somehow, it became hard to maintain my composure because I thought this might last forever.

It didn’t matter if Felix changed due to the power of the devil.

However, I didn’t expect it to bother me this much when he avoided me.

As he was already struggling, I wanted to respond calmly and level-headedly so that I wouldn’t worry him. Even so, his expression heavily hit me hard in the heart.

In this case, time would be the medicine.

‘Let’s stop thinking about it. Let’s not be nervous. It’ll get better someday.’

Thinking so, I recalled the business I came here for.

“Anyway, can you tell me what happened so far?”

At my words, Felix turned to me again. His gaze was still slanted away from my face, but he quietly explained everything he had gone through.

What differed from the novel was that the three useless brothers completely removed their prudence before Claudia.

They acted as if they didn’t care if she found out what they did.

That meant that they would move and act more recklessly in the future.

They had probably waited with popcorn all morning, anticipating the moment Felix exterminated the Chamberlain family himself, but it didn’t work out.

They should just suck their thumbs while watching the mansion burn to ashes.

“I have absorbed all the mana in the devil’s relic, and all the traces left at the scene should have burned away. The pile, which I made myself and disguised as my corpse would be so badly damaged, it would be hard to analyze…….”

It meant that the three useless brothers would not be able to pin the incident on the Chamberlains.

“I’m a little relieved now.”

I was so scared at the thought of them trying to eradicate the family. They couldn’t frame a family as big as the Chamberlains without any evidence.

At least Felix was dead – they would be satisfied with that.

They might approach Claudia and make a big deal out of it.

‘For now, let’s think about that later.’

Felix picked just two trusted servants before he left.

The family doctor and the butler, Alfred. Both of which had sworn allegiance to the Chamberlains for generations. Only these two men knew that Felix was still alive.

Since he knew how to use magic anyway, it was unnecessary to increase the risk by informing other people. That was the judgment.

There was also a possibility that there were spies secretly planted by Benjamin.

Anyway, as long as there was magic, hiding his voice or appearance was as easy as breathing for Felix.

He must have thoroughly removed the artifacts that had restricted him from his body.

Felix was a free sorcerer now!

However, I heard something shocking.

“What? What did you just say…….”

“I can’t use magic.”

Felix spoke so calmly – it was as if he was talking about someone else. It was so indifferent that I thought I heard it wrong.

Felix used magic as if he were breathing from an early age and devoted his entire life to studying magic.

The inability to use magic was bound to evoke the same magnitude of loss as if a part of Felix’s body had fallen off.

It was like a painter losing their sight and not being able to use their arms.

He must have felt like he lost a massive part of his life, but he didn’t express a hint of his frustration.

He just objectively explained the current situation to me.

“Every time I try to control my mana, the power of the devil, Leraze, comes delving in.”

“What do you mean by delving in?”

The knowledge that I possessed varied quite a bit. In some fields, I was at the level of experts, while in others, I did not even know the basic principles.

It hadn’t even been two years since I fell into the world, so I mainly focused on accumulating the knowledge that I believed was necessary.

I knew nothing about the details about magic. Moreover, even the novel didn’t elaborate on the specifics of magic.

I was aware of the location of the independent spirit and the relic of the devil, but I did not know the basic principles of mana.

Felix might have found it strange, but he didn’t question it.

Instead, he kindly explained it to me.

“Would you understand if I said I feel like my life is being eaten away?”

“…….that makes a lot of sense.”

However, I felt desperate because I couldn’t understand. How on earth could he be so calm?

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T/N: To make up for last week’s solo update, I’ve translated 3 chapters for this week! Once again, thank you for your patience everyone~

Also, can you believe we’re ⅓ through the novel now?! For anyone interested, there are 151 chapters in total + 13 side stories.

^{1. The author refers to the novel by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “The Little Prince”. If you haven’t seen the story (or movie adaption).↩}

^{2. This is a Shakespeare reference. It pretty much means that it felt like a dream (similar to Shakespeare’s play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”).↩}

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