CH 1

"Lucious, you are useless!"

One day, while practicing my magic as usual, my childhood friend Elena Arberstain insulted me.

"You are incompetent when it comes to using  magic! You don't know the proper way to generate it."

"Y-you can't talk to me like that."

"What!? Are you talking back to me!? You're so conceited!"

Elena grows angry at my words and starts kicking me.

It hurts, it hurts!

It may be just a joke to her, but I'm not very strong, and those kicks hurt too much.

Because of Elena's daily harassment and beatings, I'm covered in bruises under my clothes.

It's horrible, why do I have to go through this?

"You're a pain in the ass! You have no redeeming qualities! But don't worry, that's what you have me for. Your super genius childhood friend, Elena-Sama will train you!"

Elena says that and turns around with a 'hmph'.

It's frustrating, but it's true that Elena is a genius.

From the first time she used magic when she was three years old, she developed a series of talents that eventually led to her being called a child prodigy.

In addition, she is a very beautiful girl. Her eyes are large and clear, with long, perfect eyelashes. Her black hair is long and shiny. And her breasts are so big that even adult men can't help but notice them.

Elena was a very beautiful girl, her beauty was wasted in the town where we lived.

However, her personality is the worst.

Although on the outside she seems to be a kind and good girl, the truth is that with me she was very violent, made it a habit to beat me regularly and treated me badly.

And now she's taken the liberty to tell everyone that she is my lover.

I'm not kidding, I'm the kind of person who is far gentler!

I wanted to tell her, but my fear of her was so ingrained in me that I couldn't bring myself to do it.

I had totally given up, I thought I would never stand up to her.

But one day, when I was 15, I reached a turning point.

"Well, Lucious, I, your amazing and kind girlfriend, will train you again!"

I was trying to train behind my house, sneaking away from Elena. Unfortunately, however, she found me.

She spoke those words while looking at me with a nasty smile and a lot of condescension.

I'm not kidding. Elena's training only hurts me and doesn't make me stronger.

Elena is a child prodigy, she has no idea what I'm going through with my lack of talent.

I don't know what to do. I want to take my time and train peacefully just for today.

"...I'm sorry, but I want to try training on my own today. Maybe some other time."

"What!? Do you really think you can get strong on your own?! Lucious, you have no talent, you can't be strong. Stop wasting your time on such useless things...! You should be with me!"

So it's a waste of time, huh?

For the first time in my life, Elena's words angered me to the point of churning my guts.

Does this girl have any idea how hard I've been training? How dare she belittle all my hard effort without even being aware of it!!!!

"I have an idea! Lucious, you should leave town! This way you won't bother the villagers. I know you're going to miss me, but I'll come visit you every day, don't you think that's a good idea? Hoho, lucky me!"

And if that wasn't enough, now she wants to banish me from the village.

...Elena wants to take everything away from me; my home, my job, my purpose in life, my pride.

There is no way I can take this.

I can't take it anymore!

"...I can't take it anymore. I don't want to be with Elena anymore."

"What? What do you mean?"

Elena was visibly upset as I spoke coldly.

I guess she didn't expect me, who has less power than her, to reveal myself.

"Do you want to give up on being my boyfriend!? It's a miracle you're dating a cute girl like me!"

Even though I didn't want to be your boyfriend in the first place...

Well, it's okay for now.

"You're wrong."

When I said that, Elena's face suddenly brightened up. Why are you so happy to be my girlfriend?

She doesn't even like me anyway. She just sees me as a punching bag, something she can just beat on forever.

I'm so frustrated.

I'm going to end this relationship.

"Not only do I not want you as my girlfriend anymore, I don't want you as my friend either! I don't want you around me anymore!!!"

For the first time in my life I show a strong rejection to Elena.

And Elena's face paled.

"S-Stop it. Enough with the teasing. You love me, Lucious, right? Please tell me you're lying"

"...I loved you when you were someone kind and sweet, but now I hate you. I hate what you've become, I hate that you've grown drunk with your power. You want to banish me from this town!? Fine, I'll do it! I'll leave this town that you live in!"

"Hate me? B-But... But… I've been very kind to you..."

Elena is stunned as she says something I don't understand.

Now that I have a chance to escape from Elena, I ran into the nearby forest.

As I ran, I heard Elena screaming "Please wait!!!" behind me, but I ignored her screams and kept running.

I'm going to get stronger on my own.

And one day, I'm going to get my revenge on Elena.

I swore in my heart to take revenge on her, and I will start my training.

"Fueeh, how hard it is to walk in this forest."

I, Lucious Vardy, was running away from Elena and walking through the forest near the village.

It's easy to get lost in this dense forest, so the villagers rarely go near it and there aren't many magical beasts, so it's perfect for my secret training.

I don't plan to return to the village for a while, so I'll build a small house here later.

I can survive on berries, nuts and edible plants.

"I think this is a good spot."

I found an open area where there weren't many trees and decided to make it my training spot for today.

First I'm going to start training with wind magic.

When it comes to wind magic, anyone can learn how to make a gentle breeze with some simple instructions and a little effort, you don't need to have great skills to perform something like this.

But I am different.

For me, generating a gentle breeze alone is too complicated. I can't even do something as simple as this, and Elena always teases me about it.

But I'm sick of it.

It's very difficult for me to use magic.

And I can't help but think of my parents looking down on me from heaven, disappointed in me for being such a pathetic son.

"Okay. Let's get started."

I sat on the floor, closed my eyes, and concentrated my thoughts.

Then I concentrated the magical power of my body into my fingertips, and kneaded it carefully.

"Okay, so far it's working."

The problem is, after this.

I'm not very good at converting this kneaded energy into magic.

"Haaaah! Sweeping Wind!"

The kneaded energy is released causing the magic to activate, but the magic power disperses with a pitiful sound.

Ugh, what bad luck.

But these things happen all the time.

I have to learn to manipulate the wind with one of the fallen leaves as a target.

After that, I tried again and again, but I couldn't get any better.

Of course, it was because I was clumsy, but also because there was one more thing bothering me.

"Hmm. I still have a strange feeling about this."

The air flowing through the forest is strange. And I haven't run into any animals yet.

"Maybe there's a demonic beast nearby... Sooner or later it will come for me."

I'd like to train more, but staying alive is even more important.

As I was getting ready to pack my luggage and go home, I suddenly noticed something.

"....? I can feel someone's magic power from there."

It was a magical power of such magnitude that even I, with my low magical detection ability, could sense it.

Normally, I wouldn't approach something so mysterious, but I found myself drawn towards the source of the magical power like a moth to a flame.

"Is this... A hole?"

What I found ahead was a 10-foot-long crack in the ground.

A dazzling light was coming from the crack, and even when I looked through it, I couldn't really see anything.

"So this is where the magic power comes from. I have to report this to the villagers."

It's a relief to know it's not a demonic beast. But I can't ignore something as dangerous as that.

As I was about to return to the village, I slipped into the crevice.

"Huh?"

A pile of leaves under my feet caused me to lose my balance as I stepped on them, and due to that embarrassing reason, I ended up falling into the mysterious crevice.

If I were a normal person, I would be able to get back on my feet immediately after losing my balance, but I am notorious for having no motor skills whatsoever. There's no way I could do something like that without practice.

"Oh god, if you're going to reincarnate me in another life, please at least give me a childhood friend who will be kind to me..."

I fell into the crack with such pathetic words coming out of my mouth.