Episode 68 – Powerful drop kick towards a friend

I knew at least that Werner was popular from before. Not only the girls from the nearby villages, but also the apprentice wizards who were taught at the Mage Tower, the noble ladies, and the princesses all had unrequited love for Werner. Some of them mustered up the courage to confess by handing over chocolates or handmade handkerchiefs.

But Werner was a guy who hadn’t learned how to politely decline a confession.

“What handkerchiefs? I have a lot of handkerchiefs? And what is a handkerchief for the first gift? I’ll buy a better one from the stall over there for a few coins.”

“Let’s go out with you because it was love at first sight? Why? Why do you only care about how you feel? I don’t like you? As long as I like you, it’s everything? Wow, you’re so selfish. I don’t like selfish people, so get out of here.”

“Uh… I don’t like men? No, even if I have long hair, I still don’t like it… Ah… A woman? No, damn it… No, why are you crying?”

“Ah, your dad is a duke? So if you think about the future, it would be better to go out with you? hahahaha fuck you. What, your dad doesn’t stay still? Did he say that? A duke doesn’t look for magic when he’s hit with magic?”

“Oh, I’ll give you chocolate, so let’s go out with you? Hey, even if you’ve starved for a week, you’d refuse this request? I know people as idiots who get swayed by food. It makes me feel bad, really… Hey, won’t it go away?”

There were over 70 women he cried out with harsh words. Of course, this is what I’ve seen, and there may be more to it than that. One day, because he had work at the imperial palace, he promised to meet and have lunch with Werner, and he happened to see him being confessed to by the princess. The princess, full of grace and beauty, confessed her love in old-fashioned words.

After hearing the confession that lasted nearly five minutes, Werner replied:

“Ah, you speak kindly, really. You spin, stretch, twist, and twirle words that should only take 10 seconds. And spray some cologne on me please. I feel like I’m going to break my head while standing and die, damn it. What a young thing. Did you take a bath with perfume?”

Leaving behind the astonished attendants and the crying youngest princess, Werner came over to me and held my hand.

“Hey, I found a place that makes beef intestine stew. Let’s go there and order salmon carpaccio and pork schnitzel in the stew.”

“Hey Werner…”

“Oh, do you like vegetables? It’s okay. The stir-fried vegetables and tomato stew there are also delicious.”

“No, would it be okay to kick the princess like that?”

“Is there any reason not to be okay? Hey, let’s go quickly. I’m hungry.”

At the time, I had love feelings as well, so it was scary to reveal that feeling. I was afraid to hear the same harsh words from Werner’s voice. Rather, I wanted to be satisfied with being able to talk to each other face to face in a relationship as friends.

I wanted to keep watching him eat while getting all the sauce on his face.

“What do you see? What did you put on my face?”

“I’m buried, you idiot.”

I took out a handkerchief and wiped Werner’s mouth. Even his face was soft, he did not reject my touch.

“It really sucks, hey, do you know that the girls you like eat with something on their faces when you eat?”

“I don’t do this at official events because I don’t care if it’s etiquette or nabbing. Of course, I don’t know if eating like that is a meal or torture.”

“Then why are you eating like an animal that has not been hungry for a week in front of me?”

I was worried that maybe they mistook me for a man instead of a woman. Since he has some clumsy parts, he might actually be mistaken for that.

“You’re the only friend I can be comfortable with.”

“What about the other heroes?”

“Brothers and sisters are different. They’re definitely like family, but aren’t they friends?”

“Am I… the only one?”

“Yes, you are the only wizard I have ever recognized and my only friend.”

The relationship was so good back then. If I had confessed…

“What are you doing with me? Hey go away, oh that makes me feel really bad. Hey won’t you go away Mr. Kwak.”

You may have heard this rant. I just wanted to have a proper relationship, treat each other as friends, and die of old age without getting married. But undeservedly, Werner called me to the valley the day after our fight, handed me a rose and said:

“You obviously liked stargazing, didn’t you?”

“Oh, it’s so pretty that every time I see it, my thoughts disappear.”

“That’s why I’m looking at you too. Your face is better than the night sky.”

Unknowingly, I blew him away with magic and ran away. Obviously, I wondered if I had received strange advice from those heroes, but it was an obvious confession. For a moment, I imagined starting a family with him and living happily. The image of having a ceremony with him, having a child, holding hands and growing old happily together. I prayed that it would come true in reality, not in my imagination.

But just like the day my mother died, God thoroughly trampled on my prayers.

I was thinking about how to accept his confession and what to say so that it will remain in our memory for the rest of our lives. However, he suddenly sent a call and asked for help saying that the hero’s daughter had disappeared, and headed alone to the residence of a suspicious organization called the Black Round Table. In my heart, I also wanted to follow him. I should have ignored whatever he said and followed.

However, I was the only legitimate successor to the Magic Tower, and there were too many restrictions on my actions. I waited that way, but when he finally returned, he was bleeding profusely from his side and holding a demonic sword that looked dangerous even at first sight. He asked me to investigate the sword, and left abruptly.

The identity of the sword was shocking. The magic sword ‘Barisada’ that kills wizards. A magic sword for the great mage that is said to destroy the magic circuit of a stabbed mage, and kill quite a few mages on the spot.

I went to him and told him the whole truth. And I accepted his confession in my own way. Stay by my side for the rest of my life, I will take care of you for the rest of my life. But he gave me an angry look. He sent the gaze he didn’t want to see no matter what, and spoke in a tone he never wanted to hear.

“Shut up… Why? Do you feel good? Why don’t you dance around because you’re in such a bad mood? Do you think I’ll be your subordinate?”

I never thought I would like Werner to be under me. Rather, I wanted to keep facing each other in the same location.

“Shut up! You have a strong family even if you don’t use magic! I… I…! I’m nothing without it!”

I couldn’t go to help you because of that family, what a heavy shackle this is.

“Get out of my sight!”

The feelings you had for me were not romantic feelings. Again, I was mistaken, distorted the meaning of your words, and liked it alone. Was I really your only friend?

I had to turn my back Because I didn’t want to show my ugly face from crying.

I had to run Because I didn’t want to be heard whimpering and crying.

“Bad baby! Really bad baby!”

My first love when I was 13 ended just like that.

—–

“Lady Werner has arrived in front of the Magic Tower.”

“Ekaterina, I don’t see anything strange about my clothes or hair?”

“Yeah, you’re beautiful as always. Did you forget who coordinated it?”

However, compared to Ekaterina and me, there were many things that were lacking. Especially the fat on the chest side… No, it’s just fat. Werner isn’t a perverted scum who judges people only by the fat on their chests.

Besides, I was confident that my face would more than surpass such a difference in chest fat. How many young wizards actually courted him? But in my eyes, who know a real wizard, it just wasn’t enough.

But did he leave me like that and go around with three women? I could never forgive.

How should I treat it? I was thinking a lot, but the door opened. Werner opened the door with a very nervous face and was bleeding from his neck. Look at it, where did you make a slight cut? It was clearly scratched by something like a protruding nail. If that was cut by a sword, that person must have reached the level of a master.

The memory of him coming back bleeding from his side made me feel bad for a moment. Because that day all our relationships were broken.

“… Welcome Werner Alton.”

He was still hesitant to say anything, just staring at my face. I had so many things I wanted to say, but you brutally sentenced me to not even saying what you wanted to say.

The sadness I had endured, the happy memories I had suppressed, and the cry of the day stabbing in my heart all exploded at once.

I ran to Werner and cast the kick that Ekaterina had instructed me to do.