Chapter 4: The witch
TL: I have changed Elle to Herm in japanese they write it as Erumes but say it elumes.
At the time of the banishment, Hermes was given a reasonably decent outfit that was not the rags and tatters of the past, and some gold coins.
Even though they were kicking me out, I was still a former family member. I wonder if they’ve done a little something to make sure I don’t die in the wild right away…
—-I was wrong to think that.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha! It’s my lucky day!”
I thought it was a dull job, but I never thought I’d get such good catch!”
“These clothes are ridiculously good, too. It’s as if the nobleman’s son is asking to be caught walking around like that!”
Originally, the Frembreed family had no intention of letting Hermes live in a straightforward manner.
Hermes was thrown out in a poor town far away from the royal capital.
There was one boy walking alone in such a place, dressed in fine clothes, and carrying a little bit of money that would be dazzling to a commoner, but he looked weak.
To a kidnapper, it would have looked like he was begging to be targeted.
The only reason why my father didn’t take action himself was to avoid the ugly news that he had killed his own son.
That’s why he gave him the bait, pretending to be a handiwork, in order to get rid of him by a suitable person in the downtown area.
And sure enough – just as Zenos had predicted – Hermes was quickly caught by some crude men, stripped of all his clothes and rolled to the outskirts of the city where there was no public.
“So what do we do with this kid? Do we go for the ransom or sell him to the slavers?”
“Don’t do either of those things. Sometimes there are abandoned children of noblemen like this. Of course, you won’t get any money and you won’t be able to sell this poor little guy.”
“Well then”
“Yeah, just kill him without a second thought.”
It was an easy decision.
Deciding on the worst treatment with the casualness of small talk, one of the men approaches us with a blade in hand.
“Hee…!”
I don’t want to die.
Following his natural fear, Hermes tried to crawl away from the scene.
“Hey, hey… don’t make me do this.”
“Agh!”
Without being allowed to escape in such a hapless manner, I was stomped on my back and blocked from moving.
On top of that, he kicked me and slammed me against a nearby wall.
“I heard that, kid. I heard that you were abandoned by a good nobleman.”
With a lowly smile, a man approaches me with several others following him.
“Since you don’t seem to know, I’ll tell you something. We, the people at the bottom, hate the nobles!”
“Even if you were abandoned, you’ve had a good life up until now, haven’t you?”
“If that’s the case, why don’t you at least let us poor commoners vent our frustration at the end? That is the duty of a nobleman, right?”
They took turns assaulting me, one after the other. Gradually, I lost the will to resist.
—I wonder what my life has been like.
Finally, resignation took over my mind, and all the events that had taken place so far flowed through my mind like a running horse.
A shining childhood and a boy whose life took a turn for the worse. My efforts, which I believed would be rewarded one day, were in vain, and I lost my life in a place like this without anyone knowing.
If that was my life, then… everything was a waste. There was no meaning to my life.
That’s what I have to conclude.
(No, no. ……)
Even though I felt rejected, there was nothing I could do about it.
The man who got bored with the lack of resistance swung the knife carelessly.
With hallow eyes, I couldn’t see it swinging down on my neck.
“Gobaa!?”
Because just before that, some kind of magic exploded on the man’s side.
He let out a strange scream and the man was blown away from in front of me.
“—Oi…give me a break.”
A beautiful female voice with a boyish tone responded.
“I’ve been on a rampage for a while now, and I was just about to head home in a good mood.”
What Hermes saw with surprise was a beautiful woman with a sunset behind her back.
“What are you guys doing on my way home? It’s disgusting to see a bunch of big men getting together and assaulting a young boy. It ruins my good mood.”
Her long, luxurious red hair still blazes in the evening sun. In contrast, the intelligent blue eyes glare at the men with a sullen glint in her eyes.
“— and that why”
Hostile words spun from those shapely lips.
“I’m going to beat the s**t out of you now, motherfuckers. Don’t complain, okay?
The battle that began there was a scene that was hard to believe.
The men, offended by the blatant provocation, attacked the beautiful woman at once.
“Don’t act like you’re on the side of justice, you b***h!”
“I’m going to teach your body what happens when you challenge us!”
The men shouted in anger, shame, or even lust in front of the beautiful woman.
But despite their voices, they were skilled in their maneuvers.
A few of them seemed to have some knowledge of magic, and they were able to move quickly using reinforcement magic and powerful long-distance magic.
On top of that, the difference in the number of people was such that even a bloodline magician would probably be beaten to death with half-hearted ability.
But.
“Oh, scary, scary.”
She handled all of them with a graceful smile that made her feel comfortable.
The men charging at her at close range were fended off with even more strengthening magic and martial arts, and the long-distance magic was blocked by a wall of light that prevented even a gentle breeze from reaching her.
And then, in return, she unleashed a bunch of magic so powerful that it made the men’s magic we had seen so far seem like child’s play.
Fireballs, wind blades, ice cubes. As if to show off, she deployed a wide variety of magic and unleashed it while flying around.
They were overwhelmed by her power and movement. It’s a very one-sided play.
“No way ……”
In the middle of the battle, a murmur suddenly spilled out, which belonged to Hermes.
I was surprised at the difference in rank – but that was not the point that surprised me the most.
“What the hell kind…….. of magic is that woman using ……!”
Here, I will describe one property related to bloodline magic.
In principle, only one bloodline spell can be cast per person.
Therefore, the magic that one person deals with is basically biased towards one attribute.
There are exceptions, of course. For example, general-purpose magic, which can be used by anyone, is not limited to one person. This is probably what the men were using, and if you use it, it’s not impossible to create a wide variety of magic like she did.
However, there is one serious contradiction.
“The power is too …… strong!”
Yes, all of her magic is far beyond the scope of general-purpose magic. In fact, it’s so powerful that it looks like a joke.
Hermes wasn’t the only one who was astonished by this sight. Any aristocrat who understood bloodline magic to some extent would have doubted their eyes.
What was unfolding in front of him was the power of unreason. Hermes gazed at it… but he soon stopped caring about it.
Because.
“…… amazing.”
Because I was admiring her. The one who runs the battlefield more freely than anyone else, understands magic more deeply than anyone else, and wields it more freely than anyone else.
It was indeed the great wizard he had longed to be. Because there was the embodiment of the longing he had dreamed of since he was a child.
“…… that hair, that tone, and most of all that ridiculous magic, no way ……!”
Eventually, one of the men notices something and looks at me in despair.
“Boys, fall back! This is the ‘Sky Witch’, Rose, a walking disaster! Before she does any more damage…”
“It’s too late, fools.”
There is no escape.
As if to declare this, the beautiful woman called Rose surrounded the entire area with a wall of light, trapping every single man.
“You guys are surprisingly strong for such lowly looking people. I’ll show you my magic as a thank you for all your trouble.”
She raised her left hand to the sky, took a deep breath, and started to chanting
“[The heavens and the earth are all visible, the eyes are fountains, the head is a sacrifice, and my rank is the summit].
With a fearless smile, she waved her hand down and declared in a high-pitched voice.
“Bloodline magic |Frizzcalv, the Meteor Throne|!
Right after.
The countless rays of light that seemed to have come down from the heavens landed on the ground.
It was worthy of being called a trump card, and even among the magic she handled, the power was beyond standard. Dust and sand rose up at once, and the screams of the men echoed in the midst of it.
Eventually, all the screams stopped and the dust cleared.
“I’m not going to kill you. No one wants to get their hands dirty with garbage, right?”
There was a group of fallen men and a beautiful woman still standing gloriously in the middle of them.
“……Well.”
When she saw that, she relaxed her shoulders.
“There you are. You’re safe now—-“
She was about to run up to me with a gentle smile, but.
At that moment, Hermes sensed a faint flicker of magic in the distance.
“—Onee-chan! Left rear, sniper!”
“!?”
Hermes shouted with all his remaining energy, following his intuition.
Just as she was about to finish her words, a ray of light came from a building far away.
It hits her in the forehead… just in time.
“……Well done.”
I was blocked by a wall of light that unfolded at a paper-thin distance.
“If you had hit me, you could have at least scratched me.”
In return, she pointed to the light and a meteor ray fell on the building.
“You hired a sniper just in case? You’re surprisingly well-prepared… well, I don’t really care.”
After confirming the incapacitation, this time she walks over to us and stops right in front of Hermes.
When I look at …… again, I see that she is much younger than I imagined. If you just look at it, it’s probably around 20 years old.
Her eyes are large with the faintest hint of a girl’s, and her nose is well-defined. Her beauty is such that it is rarely seen even in the capital.
The perfect golden ratio of the body is wrapped in a chic black-based dress, and the contrast between the translucent whiteness of the long limbs stretching out from it is vividly illuminated by the setting sun.
With her overwhelming magical abilities, she had a somewhat isolated impression of appearance, and she bent down to look at Hermes.
“—You’re amazing!”
Her eyes shone like a child’s, and her face was close to mine.
“What kind of sensing ability do you have to be able to notice magic that far away that I couldn’t, even though I was caught off guard?!”
Her cheeks were flushed with excitement, and her beauty, with a touch of cuteness, was very close to me.
Hermes is so nervous and upset that he momentarily forgets the pain and fatigue in his body.
“And at this age! I’ve never seen anyone with more talent than me.”
Despite his state, she gave him a friendly smile and said:
“I’m interested in you, my little wizard boy. My name is Rose, what’s yours?”
Hermes von Frenbrede, age 10.
At the age of seven, he was knocked down to the bottom of the world, but at this moment, at the age of ten.
This time, at the age of ten, he meets Rose, the “Witch of the Sky” and enters his second turning point – the exact opposite of his first.