Only one life left. The other players have each failed their magic once and probably have a rough idea of what their magic is by now.
Now, you can’t even hope for the luck of not being attacked until your next turn.
For Adela to win…
She had no choice but to drain Vermily and Kyle’s life points entirely during her turn.
But if she makes even a single mistake, she’s out.
“…Sigh.”
Calm down. Pull yourself together.
It’s not entirely impossible. Normally, you’d be unsure if hitting all five stone tablets in front of you would be enough to win, but…
[Continuing Magic: The next magic you cast will have its effect applied twice.]
A hidden magic given to the first player whose life drops to 1.
With this effect, which can be used immediately without needing to hit anything, it wasn’t entirely impossible.
“Magic below grade 5 is meaningless. If I’m going to do it, it should be [Lightning Magic] or [Ice Magic] that can knock that guy out in one shot…”
But is that really the right move?
It’s not that I no longer want to knock Kyle out or that I don’t want to lose to him.
It’s just that if I use the hidden magic like that, I’ll end up in a one-on-one with Vermily, who still has four lives left.
…I thought it would be fine to lose to Vermily, but…
I felt something from his determination to win.
“Since the Master is… watching.”
It’s not just that I don’t want to lose to that guy. That’s not enough.
Victory.
I want to win proudly in front of everyone in the tower, in front of Master Olfin.
I want to turn the attention that was poured on Kyle Byron back to me───
“…Ah.”
──And that was jealousy.
The kind of jealousy a child feels when their parents’ attention is taken away.
The jealousy of wanting to be seen again.
A jealousy I had never experienced before, so I wasn’t aware of it, but I knew the feeling.
The unique jealousy of a girl who lost her parents at a young age and considered the Master and the magicians of the tower as her family.
For a moment, Adela’s eyes widened as she looked at Master Olfin. In response, the Master simply smiled.
“Is that why…”
Is that why you told me to play the board game with that guy?
Is that why you said understanding this emotion was the first step?
Adela recalled what Olfin had said.
──The jealousy of having your home and family taken away. It’s a feeling you couldn’t recognize because I… raised you wrong.
For Adela, the tower was her home, and the Master and the magicians were her family.
Only after realizing that she was jealous of Kyle could she finally grow out of being a “child.”
As Adela looked at Olfin’s warm smile, she then turned her head toward Kyle.
“Adela?”
“…………….”
But still, she disliked him.
Even though she now knew it was just childishness, she still couldn’t see herself getting along with him.
Master Olfin, who had always been by her side and always understood her. Someone who was like a father to her.
The fact that he was giving his full attention to someone else, an outsider who wasn’t even a member of the tower…
And rejecting Adela’s attempts to persuade him…
“…It wasn’t persuasion.”
If Adela truly trusted and followed the Master, she should have trusted his decision to believe in Kyle.
But Adela didn’t trust the Master, who didn’t take her side, or Kyle, who was the cause of it.
How must that have looked to Olfin?
That must have been the trigger. That must have solidified the Master’s decision.
Believing in Kyle’s abilities and investing in him was also an opportunity to change Adela.
“Then, have I…”
Can I say I’ve taken a step forward?
Can realizing this ugly, pathetic, childish feeling of “jealousy” be called growth?
If I had never known this feeling, I could have continued as I was.
…To myself,
You shouldn’t have had to feel embarrassed.
However, it was Master Olfin who wished for it.
Adela decided to trust her father.
“Adela, you’ve been thinking for a long time.”
“………Kyle, Byron.”
“This is just a board game, a simple pastime. Go ahead and make your move boldly.”
It’s just a simple board game, a mere pastime.
Adela thought that was the right thing to say.
“I’ll use a hidden magic spell.”
“Good choice, Adela!”
“Then, what’s the next spell………?”
“I──”
But at the same time.
She thought that was the wrong thing to say.
‘If I hadn’t played that board game with him, would I have ever realized my jealousy?’
Abracadabra was the trigger. The trigger that made her see herself.
What if she hadn’t played Abracadabra?
Adela would never have realized her jealousy.
And it would have continued even after Kyle left the Magic Tower.
Every time she saw the giant board game board Kyle had created, she would have kept recalling the jealousy she hadn’t realized.
‘To me.’
It was her first time playing a board game.
So no matter how much they said it was just a pastime or a way to kill time, Adela had the right to define the board game she played as something different.
And so, she concluded that, to her, the board game was.
A turning point.
“The spell I will memorize is───”
Even if everyone in the world dismisses board games as mere pastimes.
Adela, at least, will never forget this first board game.
Adela, who realized her jealousy, couldn’t help but become completely different from the Adela before playing the board game.
That’s why the board game was a turning point in her life.
‘I know.’
Some might laugh and say, “How can a mere board game be a turning point in life?”
But that’s also a ridiculous statement. Adela thought so.
There are countless people who change their thoughts due to ordinary words, ordinary pictures, or random events. How could board games be an exception?
Thanks to the board game, Adela realized her jealousy and was finally able to take a step from being a child to becoming an adult.
Even though it was a very late step compared to Kyle, who was the same age, it was a huge step for her.
……So this is a small revenge on Kyle.
In front of the man who said the board game was just a pastime, Adela didn’t smile and became more serious than ever.
With a confident voice, she glared at Kyle and shouted.
“───[Dragon Breath]!!”
“Dragon Breath………!!”
“……Adela!”
[Dragon Breath]. The only existing first-class magic.
From the moment Vermily failed after reciting it first, it was normal to assume that Adela and Kyle’s stone tablets didn’t have [Dragon Breath].
It was obvious. If one of their stone tablets had [Dragon Breath], there would be no need to recite the only existing magic.
But even so, Adela recited [Dragon Breath].
It wasn’t a thoughtless action.
Because this was the best way for her to win.
‘If the hidden magic effect applies, [Dragon Breath] will reduce 6 life points.’
And coincidentally, Kyle and Vermily’s remaining life points combined were exactly 6.
It was a do-or-die gamble.
But for her plan to work, there was one prerequisite.
‘Vermily…… knew I had [Dragon Breath], but still recited it.’
Why? To intentionally fail.
Why bother? To reduce Adela’s life to exactly 1 and pretend to aim for victory herself.
Then, how could she have noticed that?
………Actually, it wasn’t certain.
But it was something Adela, who realized her jealousy and took the board game seriously, could remember.
Right after Vermily recited [Dragon Breath].
Because Kyle’s gaze turned toward Adela.
Even though he knew that Vermily didn’t have [Dragon Breath], Kyle Byron glanced at Adela’s stone tablet with a smile.
Adela bet everything on that possibility.
Using Kyle’s mistake, she handed him defeat.
That was the small revenge Adela had in mind.
Grrrrrrrr───
Once again, the dragon revealed itself on the ceiling of the Magic Tower. But this time, the dragon that appeared had two heads—a twin-headed dragon.
Thanks to the hidden magic [Continuing Magic], [Dragon Breath] was applied twice.
However, this time, no one looked up to stare at the twin-headed dragon.
Kyle and Vermily already knew the outcome.
“That was amazing, Adela.”
“Congratulations.”
They just smiled like that.
Immediately after, the breath from the twin-headed dragon’s two mouths swept across the board game.
“The winner is Adela!”
“Waaaaah!!!”
As Master Olfin declared the winner, the spectators who had been holding their breath erupted in cheers.
Adela looked at Kyle.
And he just smiled brightly at her.
“Welcome to the world of board games, Adela. Not bad, right?”
“…Yeah, I guess.”
Really.
Not bad at all.
*
After the first demonstration of Abracadabra.
Abracadabra won the approval of almost every magician. The only ones who opposed it were senior magicians who were deeply immersed in magical labyrinths or those who were obsessed with specific board games, so it was practically unanimous.
It was also thanks to the appropriate house rules. They completely removed the [Magic Potion], an 8th-level magic in Abracawhat that could restore 1 life, and limited recovery methods to the 3rd-level [Sanctuary of the Gods], while reducing overall damage.
Moreover, originally, [Dragon Breath] and [Sanctuary of the Gods] required rolling dice to determine damage or recovery amounts. They completely removed that random element. It was thanks to some magicians in the tower who tried Abracadabra and complained that it was too random.
Instead, they added a hidden magic element that wasn’t in the original. They needed to bring something new to each game to keep it popular for a long time. By the way, this was a rule that Master Olfin actively advocated for.
They also changed other rules, like only being able to chant higher-numbered spells consecutively, the existence of secret stones, or being able to win by chanting all the spells in front of you when you run out of spells to replenish.
And so, the game was decided, but I was still staying in the tower.
Just because it was decided didn’t mean it could be immediately implemented on the giant board game. While one person’s illusion might be manageable, the giant board game was maintained by numerous artifacts and magical structures. I heard it would take quite a while to overwrite that.
So, in the meantime, I was helping with the illusion construction while reviewing various elements of Abracadabra.
“[Whisper of the Death God]… With this, another victory for me.”
“…Aren’t you tired, Adela? It’s already… been over 7 hours.”
“When you played with the Master, it went over 13 hours. Let’s prepare for the next round.”
“Yes………”
It’s been a week since we started playing Abracadabra.
It’s good that Adela, who seemed wary of me at first, has gotten closer.
But no matter how much we play, the game never ends…
‘If it were Hali Gali or Cockroach Poker, it might be manageable, but Abracawhat is hard to play for long.’
At this point, it’s hard to keep the tension up every time we chant a spell, and the 13-hour board game was largely because Master Olfin didn’t stop. I was also stubbornly holding on from the middle.
I tried suggesting other board games, but…
“No. I will only play Abracadabra.”
“Ah, okay………”
She’s so stubborn, there’s no answer.
I started spreading board games to find opponents, so in a way, the initial goal has been achieved.
‘But isn’t she a bit too much…?’
It would be better to end Abracadabra quickly and sharply like Vermily.
Maybe I introduced too dangerous a talent into the world of board games.
When I got scared.
“By the way, Adela, do you really like Abracadabra?”
“…What do you mean?”
“Well, you’ve never smiled while playing board games. If you really liked it, you’d probably have fun…”
It was just a sudden question. It was suspicious that someone who loved board games enough to play the same one for over 7 hours had never laughed.
Adela stared at me intently.
“Kyle, you said it yourself. Board games are just for fun.”
“That’s true.”
“But for me, board games are a turning point in my life. That’s why I take them so seriously.”
…A turning point in life?
Was Abracadabra, which we played for the first time a week ago, really that impactful?
I couldn’t tell exactly what aspect she considered a turning point, not knowing her thoughts or circumstances.
“Hmm, that’s quite a strange coincidence.”
“…Coincidence, you say?”
“Yeah. When I first tried board games, I thought similarly…”
Old memories came back. Not exactly good ones, though.
Now, I think board games should be fun, but back then, I was similar to Adela.
So, even if it’s vague, I thought I could understand Adela… maybe?
“Adela? What’s wrong?”
“…Revenge…”
“Huh? Revenge?”
Did she figure it out? Did she notice I intentionally messed up the [Fire Magic]?
At that time, there were 6 [Fire Magic] left—three for Adela and three for Vermily. I messed up on purpose to give Adela another turn.
But hey, Vermily did the same with [Dragon Breath]. I even gave her a hint by staring at her stone tablet while she was memorizing it.
“…Let’s play one more round. No, let’s add 6 more hours.”
“Uh, Adela…?”
“If we’re doing it, we’re doing it…!!”
What’s wrong with her?
I thought we were getting closer…
I was startled by Adela’s sudden fiery attitude change.
Sally, who had been away for a while, handed me something.
“Sally? What’s this?”
“A, a letter from the family…”
“From the family? Did Father send it?”
Well, it’s been a while since I left the Byron Viscountcy.
It’s been almost 2 weeks at the Everts Duke’s house and over a week at the Arkhé Magic Tower.
It’s about time for a letter telling me to come back. When I return, I’ll check how much Kyle Galli has spread—
“………”
“Young Master…?”
“…Kyle Byron?”
“…Let’s go back, Sally.”
“W, what? To the family?”
“Yeah, right now.”
“Wait, Kyle Byron, the Magic Tower still needs your help. The illusion isn’t fully constructed yet, and we need to continue Abracadabra…”
“I’m sorry, Adela. Really…”
[To Kyle.
How are you? I usually get updates through letters, so I’ll keep this brief.
Your second brother returned 4 days ago.
Today, we gambled with Kyle Galli.
You remember the conditions of the promise, right?
Come back to the family soon.
William Byron.]
“…It’s an urgent matter.”
