I Possessed the Heroine’s Teacher

I tasted blood in my mouth. It seemed that I had taken a bit of a hit during the fight. Unfortunately, there was no mirror around to check my appearance.

“You… you really don’t know who I am? If you kill me, you won’t come out of it unscathed…”

“How is it that everyone says the same thing before they die? Talking about how I shouldn’t kill them, or asking if they know who they are… do you think I’m a professional? A pro checks whether it’s okay to kill someone, and understands who their opponent is, that’s basic, isn’t it?”

He staggered backward, trembling, and pressed a knife toward me. Judging by the stench, he must have shit himself, how pathetic. I guess I should start teaching these guys about basic hygiene.

“I am Werner, a Royal Magician. I came here to investigate the abnormalities occurring in this territory.”

“Why is the royal family here…?”

“Because you guys have been making such a stinky mess that the smell reached the palace. Piss and shit… you disgusting, poorly-trained dogs.”

“What have we done wrong! We were just advocating for the human rights of the miners who were being exploited!”

I had heard that it started as such an organization. But Count Halstead, a kind man, raised the wages and improved the labor conditions, and that’s when they started to go overboard. They got drunk, picked fights, killed people, raped women, and then used money or connections to cover it up. Trash.

“Is that knife supposed to stab me? How interesting, go ahead and stab me. Of course, if you do, you’ll die. But even if you don’t stab me, you’ll still die.”

If he thought a single strike could take me down, he was gravely mistaken. On one occasion, I took 17 stabs. That day, I ended up not being able to play the gacha event due to anemia, but the anger from that experience had only made me stronger.

“You… if you kill me, your loved ones will all die! They’ll all die!”

“That’s unfortunate.”

Werner’s loved ones weren’t the kind of people who could be touched by a mere miners’ union…

“The person I hold dearest was killed. Well… I killed them myself.”

I immediately knocked him down and stomped his head until it burst open. Warm blood splattered on my face, which felt unpleasant. Seeing the scene, I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. Wait… this is bad. I shouldn’t keep this idiot awake for too long.

I began to repeat everything I knew about myself.

“Heir of Confucianism… the 14th disciple of Jesus… wielder of the strike that kills gods… Mezudo’s fang… heir of Darwin… reincarnation of the Ten Warriors… reincarnation of King Richard… disciple of Elvis Presley… model nobleman… heir of the martial god Bruce Lee…”

I repeated it again and again, in that very spot. So that I could suppress ‘another me’ inside me.

“I really am an idiot.”

Anyone who saw me would probably think I was crazy.

.

.

.

“There you are, Lorcha.”

After wandering the streets for two hours, asking around with nearby merchants, I found out that she had headed toward a nearby valley. Thanks to that, my whole body was drenched in sweat, and my clothes were soaked, making me feel very uncomfortable.

And there she was, sitting on a rock, watching the flowing valley water. The valley water, tinted with the evening sunset, looked beautiful, and Lorcha, with that water in her eyes, was even more beautiful.

“… It’s getting dark. Let’s head back before it gets too late. The security around here isn’t the best either.”

As I had seen earlier, there were plenty of trash people who would start trouble for no reason. In this damn fantasy world, if Lorcha accidentally bumped shoulders with one of them, there would be horny bastards who would demand her body on the spot.

“Do you think I’m afraid of some punks swaggering around the streets? How far are you going to underestimate me?”

No, it’s not that. I was just worried because her personality could lead her to kill those punks and their entire families. I’m someone who rejects the idea of collective punishment.

“No… I was just worried that we might get lost on the way once it gets dark…”

“I’ve run through the streets at night, crying and racing by myself. You probably know who made that happen, even without me saying it.”

Damn, she was really upset, wasn’t she?

“Lorcha… I’m really sorry. I… I was just so tired.”

“The fact that you didn’t even contact me means… I must be one of the people who make you tired too, right?”

Honestly, even if I had a hundred mouths, I couldn’t find a way to rebut that. If it were another colleague or acquaintance, maybe it wouldn’t be so hard, but Lorcha had only been hurt by Werner.

There was no element that would allow me to brazenly argue, “You… you were also wrong, you crazy bastard!” If anything, if she had been late for a promised time in her childhood, I might have had a chance, but Lorcha had always only looked at Werner since she was young. If they agreed to meet at 3 PM, she would come out early and wait, sometimes arriving at 1 PM.

Werner had wanted to hide everything until the end, but in order to resolve this situation, he had no choice but to speak the truth.

“I didn’t want you to get involved. Once I took care of one of those bastards, they’d start targeting the people around me. And I felt so powerless that I couldn’t even protect my brothers and sisters, and instead, I had to be the one protected, like with marriage. That’s not the only reason I ran away, but… you were one of the reasons I ran away, Lorcha.”

In truth, Werner had been fighting against the Black Round Table’s pursuers, who were disguised as a criminal organization. He had killed the pursuers and barely stopped the higher-ups of the Black Round Table from arriving. The criminal organization that had once wreaked havoc in Bekem was a subordinate group under the Black Round Table.

“So what! Even if you say that now, nothing changes, does it? What use is it to say that now!”

“Yeah, nothing changes. But still… I want to restore our relationship. Even if it’s selfish of me to say so.”

I approached her. Through her beautiful eyes, I could see my own reflection. Indeed, my face was covered in blood.

“Werner, where did that blood come from…”

“Don’t worry, it’s not mine… I got into a bit of a scuffle on the way here.”

“Clumsy as ever…”

Lorcha took a handkerchief out of her pocket and gently wiped my face. Her soft touch pleasantly caressed my cheek.

“You always get food all over your face when you eat… can’t clean up after yourself… If you’d been born in a world without magic, you would have starved to death.”

“Well… maybe I would have made a living as an assassin?”

“You, an assassin? If you were an assassin, I’d go to a temple.”

Was this a proposal? I really had lived like that.

“All done. Anyway, how would you live if I weren’t around?”

She said this and tossed the blood-soaked handkerchief onto the ground. It was clearly a high-end silk handkerchief, but she didn’t seem to care. She probably treated high-quality items like tissues and discarded them without a second thought.

She lived by the principle that if something got dirty or used, it was thrown away. But for Werner, she made an exception. Even after he was injured and lost his great magic, she didn’t discard him; she wanted to keep him close. She loved Werner more than anyone else in this world.

But love, like the water she controlled, could change easily. Water could turn into hot steam or cold ice. The cold words from Werner and the long years had been enough to freeze Lorcha’s once-flowing heart, which had been as smooth as water.

“Yeah, I might actually starve to death without you.”

Upon realizing what he had just said, her face turned bright red.

“If you starve to death, it’s none of my business, you know?”

“Hah… don’t be like that. Help me so I don’t starve to death.”

“What, what, what?”

Lorcha’s face had turned completely red. Looking at her, you’d think she was a fire mage, not a water mage.

“Didn’t you tell me before? You said the person who would become my wife would have to work hard to take care of me. So, why don’t you take care of me now?”

“Shut up! And you have a fiancée, don’t you? What the hell are you talking about!”

Oh, I just wanted to make up and be close again like we used to, but it seemed like she misunderstood it as a proposal. But when I saw her embarrassed face, I couldn’t help but want to tease her more.

“It’s okay, right? After all, the empire allows polygamy, so I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”

“When you were young, you turned down all the women who confessed to you… Why have you turned into a womanizer who hits on women now?”

“Well, the world made me this way.”

“No, if you look at the things you used to say and do when you were younger, you were always a potential womanizer.”

Even as she scolded me, she was still wearing the cheap necklace that Werner had given her.