CH 44.2

Insufficient MP. Skill cannot be used.

The moment I try to use magic, a message displays in front of me. My MP is depleted. I hurriedly take out a mana potion to try to recover my MP.

“I won’t let you!”

Alexia quickly aims a Mana Bolt at the mana potion. Purple lightning pierces the bottle, smashing it.

‘I’ve gotta hurry and get a new one,’ I think to myself, but this time, magic chains appear. I can’t even jump out of the way while I’m slowed like this. Just like that, I get captured.

“It seems that this is the end.”

Alexia approaches me, judging that I am no longer able to resist. Paralyzed, I am unable to fight back. Her skill level must be high, since there are several layers of chains binding me and Chain Bind’s effect time seems long.

I’m out of MP. The amount of MP I’ve auto-recovered isn’t enough, so even if I cure the Paralysis, I have no way of turning this around. Alexia is probably coming this close to her enemy because she’s certain that there’s nothing I can do. It really is all over for me.

“Chaoooos!”

Coming between me and Alexia, Roseline swings her sword and faces Alexia.

“Stop, Roseline! You’re no match for her!”

There’s no way Roseline can go up against Alexia. She must have seen the whole fight. Even so, she’s fearlessly facing Alexia. Unable to move due to the Paralysis, all I can do is watch her.

Alexia looks a bit annoyed for a moment and then deploys a Mental Shield in an instant, killing the sword’s momentum. Then, she proceeds to knock the sword aside with her staff.

“I apologize, Princess Roseline, but please do not get in my way.”

Alexia puts Roseline to sleep with Sleep Cloud. Roseline, her consciousness growing faint, collapses onto the floor.

I bite my lip, unable to do anything except lament my powerlessness.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

Chain Bind’s effect still hasn’t been removed. I try to resist, even knowing that it’s impossible, but it doesn’t budge.

“Resisting is meaningless. You know the spell’s effect, don’t you? You cannot move with your body Paralyzed. There is still some time until the spell is lifted. Within that time, I will defeat you.”

Alexia turns back towards me and readies her staff. If she’s coming this close, the spell she’s using is probably Wisdom Burst. If I get hit with a Wisdom Burst from Alexia, who’s a Wisdom-type, that’ll definitely deplete all of my HP. Then, there’ll be nothing left for me except death.

Alexia begins casting. Both my level and my magic knowledge are no match for her. I can’t use magic. And on top of all that, I can’t move.

Is there nothing left for me?

No way to lift the Chain Bind and defend against Alexia’s Wisdom Burst?

No way in which I, a player who can’t move, can surpass Alexia, a resident of this world?

…Wait, player?

There is a way!

There’s no time. I begin to act immediately.

In the next moment, I am completely freed from my bonds. The magic chains disappear, and I immediately start moving.

“What?!”

Naturally, Alexia is shocked that Chain Bind was forcefully released.

I can’t use magic. However, Alexia is close. Despite the difference in speed due to Slow Move, Alexia, in her shock, isn’t as fast as me, having already decided my next move. Therefore, I proceed to lunge at Alexia.

“Grh, let go!”

Interrupting her casting, Alexia resists. Both of us are grabbing Alexia’s staff, not letting go. Scrambling for it, we end up collapsing to the ground.

As we fall, a staff is dropped and rolls far away from us. We separate from each other, and the winner and loser are decided.

I point my staff at Alexia. It was her staff that fell.

“No… How did Chain Bind…?” Alexia wonders, stunned.

The reason Chain Bind was forcefully released is that I cured the Paralysis with a paralysis remedy I bought along with some potions in Clermont.

Chain Bind may look like a physical effect because of the magic chains, but in terms of stats, it’s a Paralysis state. In other words, if the Paralysis state is cured, the spell will naturally lose its effect.

How was I able to use an item despite being unable to move? Because I used the item from my inventory through Emergency Use. Emergency Use isn’t restricted by Paralysis. If I had activated Emergency Use before this, I wouldn’t be able to use this method due to the reuse delay, but thankfully, I didn’t activate Emergency Use yet in this battle.

Alexia isn’t a player. No matter how strong she is, no matter how much magic knowledge she has, unlike me, she can’t use the game system. Just like she couldn’t check the map to search for Roseline, she doesn’t know about the existence of Emergency Use. Therefore, I determined that I would be able to catch her off guard.

To be honest, I was lucky. If I hadn’t been able to get close to Alexia, if the staff hadn’t fallen, if all of those factors hadn’t overlapped, it would have been me who lost.

“Kill me,” Alexia says resolutely. Hearing her reckless words, I get angry. However, after seeing her appearance, that anger quickly fades.

A delicate, petite girl. It reminds me of when I shielded her in the limestone cave, or when the rhinos almost killed her. A girl her age should be protected.

How did it come to this? This desperate battle didn’t need to happen.

I’m asking you if you’re human.

Am I human? That’s what I want to know. I have the body of a game character who doesn’t feel pain and doesn’t get tired. No matter how I think about it, I’m far from human. Though, I doubt that was what she meant. Not human… Does that mean I’d be seen as a monster? Oh, I see, she thought I was a vampire!

I think back to the conversation with the vampire king. The king said that someone gave him life as a vampire. That means he was a human who was turned into a vampire. Vampires suck people’s blood, and their victims become vampires. It fits perfectly with the commonly known traits of vampires from outside the game. Although, there shouldn’t be any special system in place for Another World’s vampires to turn players into vampires, and they aren’t weak to sunlight.

In any case, Alexia has mistaken me for a vampire.

I see, she resisted so desperately because she thought I was a vampire. In that case, there’s no need for us to fight anymore.

I toss my staff aside. I don’t need it anymore. At this sudden, strange change in behavior, Alexia looks at me dubiously.

I crouch slightly and meet Alexia’s gaze. There is fear in her eyes. In reality, she was only acting brave.

Then, I slowly embrace Alexia.

“Wh- what are you…! Cease this at once! I don’t want to be touched by anyone except for him! I would rather die than live in shame!”

“Sorry,” I say, simply apologizing to Alexia as she struggles, half-crazed at being suddenly embraced by a man. “Some things happened, and my eye color changed. I lost my staff for the same reason. But I’m still me. I’m not a vampire, and I’m not a monster. That much hasn’t changed since we were in a party together.”

“You’re lying!”

“I’m not lying. I’m sorry I can’t explain the reason, but I don’t want to fight you anymore.”

I don’t want to fight anymore. I didn’t want to point my staff at a friend. The reason I tossed my staff away was to express this. But if all I do is toss it away, then Alexia might start resisting again. Then we wouldn’t be able to talk to each other. Therefore, I hug her so tightly that she can’t resist.

“I remember all the days we spent together.”

Ever since we met, I’ve never forgotten.

“Irene was looking for party members at the Adventurer’s Guild, so I volunteered and then formed a party with you for the first time.”

At first, I thought she was a pretty scary woman. I summoned the courage to call out to her, and that was the start of my friendship with Alexia.

“Then, when you were upset that you couldn’t defeat a blood rabbit on your own, I taught you how to defeat them with status ailment spells. Lady Alexia, you were really happy when you defeated one on your own, right? You’ve been improving your magic skills ever since then, haven’t you? You’ve gotten really strong.”

She really has gotten strong. I think it’s amazing that she became this strong after starting out as a girl who barely knew how to fight.

“We ate lunch together once, didn’t we? I hope we can all go out to eat again sometime.”

I was laughed at, but even that was fun.

“When I experimented with a spell in the limestone cave after we reached Rank 2 and we all went through that horrible experience, Irene got really mad at me. You didn’t back me up back then. That was so mean, Lady Alexia.”

She just smiled and told me to reflect on it. I haven’t forgotten. I’m considering paying her back for that someday.

“When you collapsed in Brandenburg, I was really worried. But I’m glad you were okay.”

My feeling of loss from back then was real, and I really was terrified. Thinking about it now, I was right to feel that way. So when I knew she was safe, I was really relieved.

How nostalgic. I think back on the events that happened only a month ago. Even though it was only a little over a month, Alexia and I made so many irreplaceable memories. Alexia’s resistance decreases somewhat.

“I remember every last bit of it. That’s not a lie. They’re the memories I made with you in the time we spent together. I could never hurt you, Lady Alexia, the person I made so many memories with. I can’t prove it, but please believe that at least.”

“Are… are you really Teacher?” Alexia asks, her voice trembling slightly.

“Yeah, it’s really me. My eye color is different, and I lost the staff we made together, but it’s the real me.”

“Teacher… Teacher!”

It looks like she believes me. Thinking that it’ll probably be okay now, I try to pull away from her, but she hugs me back tightly. Thinking about it again, I feel like there are a lot of ethical issues with this situation, but I’ll forget about that for now. I mean, what kind of monster would I be if I let go of Alexia while she’s sobbing like this? Burying my embarrassment in the depths of my heart, I do my best to comfort her.

“Then, I’ve done something horrible to you, haven’t I, Teacher? Moreover, I nearly killed you with my own hands.”

I wonder if teachers and students take after each other. She kind of reminds me of how distressed I was a little while ago. I unintentionally let out a wry laugh.

“Teacher?” Alexia says, looking up at me with a puzzled look on her face. Oh yeah, to her, that was genuine remorse. It’s inappropriate to laugh.

“I forgive you, Lady Alexia.”

She herself probably won’t be able to accept it. But I, the cause of her remorse, don’t think anything of it. What happened was sad, but we can only pray that it doesn’t happen again.

“It happened because of a miscommunication. You didn’t do anything wrong, Lady Alexia. The misunderstandings just piled up, that’s all. I don’t hold it against you. And besides,” I say, looking Alexia in the eyes as I try to calm her worries with kind words. “I’m a teacher to you, aren’t I? If my student has strayed down the wrong path, it’s only natural that I correct her.”