Chapter 14

# Chapter 14: Rookie Adventurer Bern (12) – Desperation

After roughly handing over the remaining tasks to Renya, Bern escorted Blankah back to her inn.

Though initially bewildered by Bern’s words and actions right after the battle, Blankah’s expression had grown progressively darker. Now, it was obvious to anyone that her dejected emotions were laid bare.

Bern, scratching his cheek, spoke to her.

“Your condition doesn’t seem quite right today, so you should get some rest. I’ll meet you tomorrow. I’ve booked the room next to yours again, so if anything happens, I’ll be able to respond quickly. So please, don’t worry—”

“Bern, can you spare me a moment?”

Blankah interrupted Bern with eyes that seemed to have made a decision, looking directly at him.

After a brief moment of thought, Bern sat back down in his chair.

Blankah’s story began.

***

Blankah’s mother was a magician.

This wasn’t a metaphorical expression, like how parents can seem magical to children—it was literal. Her mother really could produce fire from nothing and heal people with just a touch.

Magic is a rare and precious science. Even the most basic kinds of magic, like “burning trees” or “freezing water,” are prohibitively expensive for commoners, and even if someone managed to get their hands on any so-called magic, it was more often than not fake.

In this sense, it was truly extraordinary that a housewife in a small rural village, without noble lineage, could skillfully wield several types of magic.

However, young Blankah had not easily noticed this strangeness.

Her mother, far too clean and beautiful for a rural housewife, the father she had never met, an old and weathered sword her mother always kept carefully maintained, learning to read and write and observing dining etiquette, all these things felt so natural that they were taken for granted.

As Blankah grew older, ventured into society, and gained experience, she realized that everything she took for granted was, in fact, “not normal.” But as a young girl, she lacked the insight to understand the value of what she enjoyed.

The mother and daughter’s life was relatively comfortable.

Beautiful and dignified, Blankah’s mother stood out unnaturally in the rural village. But they could not afford to ostracize her, for the healing powers she possessed were far too valuable.

In a village without even a temple or a proper herbalist, how could they turn away a magician who could heal simply by touching someone?

Though her mother didn’t accept payment for healing the villagers, they in turn willingly gave her “gifts” as a token of gratitude.

Because in the event that they, their family, or their lovers ever got hurt or sick, having a good relationship with the sole person who could heal them was nothing but good.

This respect and goodwill extended to Blankah as well. Though vaguely, she was aware of this fact.

Blankah loved her mother, and her mother loved her.

Their peaceful and happy daily life seemed like it would continue forever.

But that happiness was cruelly taken away.

A deep, toxic violet mist.

Chilling screams that echoed through the fog, louder than anything.

The jovial uncle who used to hand her tree fruits while laughing loudly now walked the road with gooey liquid trailing from his cracked skull.

The third son of the village chief who boasted about becoming an adventurer one day had bitten into his brother’s neck like a wild animal.

The dead attacked the living, and those who lost their lives became perpetrators, slaughtering others.

In the chaos of the village, Blankah’s mother became the center of people’s hope.

The flames she used to bake pies for Blankah during peacetime now incinerated bodies into ashes. The villagers clung to her in hope of survival.

When all the corpses had been dealt with, and hope began to rekindle on their faces—

It appeared, as if waiting for this moment.

「What a pleasant surprise. I was only planning to recruit some common soldiers, but I didn’t expect to find new heart material in this village.」

The pale skull of a Richi, its eyes glowing with an eerie blue light, spoke in a joyous tone, as if it had stumbled upon a valuable coin while walking.

Neither Blankah, her mother, nor the villagers could object to the Richi.

For with a simple wave of its hand, all the undead they had fought so desperately against rose again.

Seeing this effortless undoing of all their hard-earned efforts, the villagers, one by one, fell into despair.

There was one lone individual who, despite her trembling, did not lose her fighting spirit—only Blankah’s mother.

Looking at such a Blankah’s mother, the Richi spoke in a friendly tone as if a delightful prank had just come to mind.

「Killing all of you and taking your blood and souls would be easy enough… But I am in a good mood today. So, allow me to bestow a single mercy.」

「If you willingly offer me your soul, I will leave the rest unharmed.」

What seemed like an act of mercy was, in fact, a poisoned wine laced with malice.

In the world of magic, one’s will is crucial.

Contracts made by external force do not compare in coercive power and stability to those willingly consented to by the self.

When one is killed by a Richi and their soul is taken, it is a tragic fate. But when one willingly offers their soul to a Richi, the chains that bind them are far heavier and more binding.

One becomes a slave to the Richi, forever and endlessly.

Young Blankah did not know this magical knowledge.

But seeing the malevolent glint in the Richi’s eyes glowing blue, she instinctively realized that she couldn’t just let this happen.

Hiding with the other children in the house, she ran towards her mother.

Grabbing hold of her mother’s leg, she cried, pleading not to go, begging that this couldn’t be done.

When she thought back to that moment in the days that followed, Blankah hated herself enough to want to die.

Why was she trying to make demands of her mother in front of the Richi? Exposing her mother’s weakness in such an idiotic and childish way—what stupidity could be greater?

If she truly wanted to help her mother, she shouldn’t have rushed to her side like that.

If she had run in the opposite direction instead, maybe her mother wouldn’t have needed to make such a choice.

Her mother, soothing the crying daughter, handed her the staff she had been holding.

「I’m sorry, my child. If I had known, I would’ve taught you more, sooner.」

「Eat well, don’t say bad words carelessly, and practice magic diligently.」

「I love you, Blankah.」

That was the last memory Blankah had of her mother.

As the warm light from her mother’s hand enveloped her, Blankah fell into a deep sleep, only to wake up to find that everything was over.

When she awoke, Blankah appealed to the surviving villagers.

“We have to save my mother. Please, help me.”

Adults who used to dote on her did not respond. Worse, they tried to stop her, worried that her reckless actions might anger the Richi.

Disappointed, Blankah appealed to the Lord who ruled over the village.

“A wicked Richi attacked our village. He must be somewhere in this territory; please, stop him.”

The Lord wouldn’t even meet with her.

The soldiers who were supposed to protect the territory instead noticed how valuable the staff and sword Blankah carried were and tried to confiscate them under the pretext of inspection.

Somehow escaping from the soldiers, Blankah returned to the village and sold everything except for the staff and sword her mother had left behind.

With the money she made, she sought out the Adventurer’s Guild.

“I want to submit a request. Please, defeat the Richi.”

An employee who would later become the registrar for the eastern branch office watched the young girl, full of coins, with a complex expression but accepted her request without hesitation.

However, even if the guild accepted a request, unless adventurers actually took it, it was meaningless.

Veterans knew how dangerous a Richi was and wouldn’t accept the request. As for those greedy for money, they fled without even being able to defeat a single undead summoned by the Richi.

After this repeated a few times and the Richi extermination request became something everyone ignored, Blankah finally realized.

Unless she herself acted, there was no one in the world who would rescue her mother.

That’s how Blankah became an adventurer.

Many adventurers wanted her as a precious magician colleague, and she had the staff her mother left behind.

Though Blankah’s innate magical power wasn’t strong, with the staff’s power, she could cast potent spells easily enough.

She climbed the ranks as an adventurer remarkably smoothly and met capable companions.

If things continued like this, just a little more…

Then she could surely defeat that accursed Richi and liberate her mother.

Another tragedy struck right around that time.

Kwaaak.

As she prepared to use the strongest spell she knew against a giant orc, a ominous crackling sound rang out from her staff.

The magic went rampant, and instead of hitting the orc, a blaze of fire surged toward a noble’s hunting ground, starting a fire.

The orc itself was eventually defeated by her remaining party members, but from then on, Blankah’s journey went downhill.

The noble whose hunting grounds were burned demanded exorbitant compensation, which became Blankah’s debt in its entirety.

Even with her full capabilities intact, Blankah might have eventually been able to repay it, but without her staff, her magic had become significantly weaker compared to before.

Karina, who had always harbored a subtle sense of competitiveness with Blankah because she could only use ice magic whereas Blankah could manage fire, healing, and enhancements, seized the opportunity to hire a new healer. Not long after, Blankah was expelled from the party.

Blankah did not protest.

She too was shocked to realize that her capabilities, which she had thought signified growth, were nothing but a mirage based on her reliance on her mother.

Trying to find a new party and climb back up proved to be no easy task.

Blankah wasn’t strong enough to join Level 3 adventurers, and Level 2 adventurers mockingly looked down on her situation of having fallen from a higher rank.

Experienced adventurers who weren’t swayed by petty jealousy or inferiority saw that Blankah’s abilities were still usable and attempted to work with her, but upon realizing her unrealistic goal of defeating a Richi, they decided it was best to cut ties.

As her situation deteriorated further and she could no longer repay even the interest on her debt, she took on receptionist work.

And at that time, she found something.

A rookie who seemed to fit her unlikely goal—someone who possessed both madness and skill.

***

“That person, Bern, was you.”

After telling a longer story than Bern had expected, Blankah let her shoulders slump, appearing somewhat exhausted.

“An outstanding rookie with remarkable potential who was naive enough to say ‘wanting to be an adventurer’—I thought if I helped you out by erasing your debts and mentoring you, it would help me achieve my goal in multiple ways. Or rather, that’s what I thought.”

Bern tilted his head in confusion.

“Isn’t that the case now? I don’t remember displaying any glaring deficiencies.”

Blankah sighed deeply, then switched to another topic.

“During the goblin extermination mission, all I was was your assistant. Even without herbs to drive off goblins or a fire spell, you would have completed the mission somehow.”

While reviewing the mission, she realized this again and felt a sense of disappointment, but she didn’t let herself become disheartened.

This time was just the first mission. Next time, she would do better.

With her experience and background as an adventurer, there must be ways she could be of help.

But this incident told her something else.

“My old teammates had prickly personalities, but they were certainly skilled. It wasn’t just empty boasts about their party reaching the fourth rank. Yet you, alone, managed to overwhelm a quasi-fourth class party without even sustaining minor wounds.”

If there’s an individual who can subdue a team of quasi-fourth-rank adventurers, what level does that person belong to?

At the very least, mid-fourth to high-fourth-rank, or maybe even fifth rank.

And that meant Bern had already approached the apex of adventurer guilds at this point.

What meaning could titles like “rookie” or “veteran” hold for such a person?

Could anything Blankah had learned and accumulated so far have any value to Bern?

Bern had asked her for the knowledge and experience of an adventurer, but even if she offered only that, she thought it would be impossible to balance the scales with his power.

Since losing her mother, Blankah had learned something: one-sided relationships of giving never ended well.

Right now, Bern seemed to be amicable towards her.

But how long would that goodwill last?

And the worst-case scenario for her would be if he considered her to be easily replaceable.

So, to prevent that—

Silently.

Blankah’s coat slid off her shoulders.

As their scents grew closer, Blankah said to Bern,

“I’ll teach you about adventuring knowledge. I won’t ask about your secrets. Those were all the things you asked for before, but is that still the case? Do you still have nothing else to ask from me? Tell me anything. I’ll do anything.”

***