“It’s been a week since the Abyss Worshipper Incident.”
The investigation team tasked with uncovering the truth behind the attack worked tirelessly to get to the bottom of it.
But honestly, it was an impossible mission.
After all, all the Abyss Worshippers responsible for the attack were dead. There was no one left to interrogate.
One week later, the investigation team concluded that the attack was simply the work of some lunatic mages and announced the end of the investigation.
Compensation was generously given to the families of the fallen special operations agents, and of course, the students who almost got abducted were promised treatment and reparations.
By the tenth day, most of the students involved in the incident regained their composure and returned to their daily lives.
The Abyss Worshipper incident that had caused such a stir at the Academy had come to an end.
“But it’s not completely over.”
There was still a real big event left.
According to the original main scenario, there would come a time when the Abyss Worshippers would lead monsters to attack the Arsen Academy.
But Noah didn’t need to worry about that.
“Because by then, I’ll have already… “
Graduated from the Academy a long time ago.
So, to put it bluntly, it had nothing to do with Noah. Just as her thoughts were winding down and she was trying to snap out of it,
she suddenly heard a sigh from across the room.
“Haaah.”
A sigh as heavy as if the ground was going to swallow it up.
It was Ivella.
Currently, both Noah and Ivella had found an empty classroom for their study sessions.
But it hadn’t been long before Ivella started sighing repeatedly.
“Ugh, I don’t understand anything!”
With her face buried in the desk, it seemed the contents of the book just wouldn’t stick in her mind, as she let out constant groans.
That was when Noah casually asked,
“Do you want some help?”
“Really? Can you teach me?!”
“Sure, as long as it’s not too difficult.”
In reality, it didn’t matter how hard it was.
With one of Noah’s traits, ‘Inquiry,’ she could understand even the most difficult material.
Just after Noah responded,
Ivella jumped up as if she’d been waiting for this.
She quickly sat beside Noah and pointed to the parts she had been struggling with.
“Then help me out with this.”
“Hmm, let me take a quick look first.”
Noah glanced at the book Ivella was reading.
She wanted to quickly grasp what it was about. Before long, she perfectly understood the content Ivella pointed out.
“Luckily, it’s something I know.”
“Wow, really?”
“Yeah. If you do it this way…”
Thanks to Noah’s detailed explanation,
it seemed like Ivella was slowly beginning to comprehend the contents of the book. However, there were still some parts she struggled to grasp even with Noah’s explanation.
‘Well, I guess that’s to be expected.’
It wasn’t as extreme as Ulan, but Ivella also had a penalty related to academics.
Noah secretly blinked.
She wanted to check Ivella’s status window.
[Name]: Ivella Elea’ad
[Age]: 17
[Rank]: S
[Traits]: Blessing of the Sword
[Characteristics]: Swordsmanship Genius, Bravery, Persistence, Purity, Passion, Fellowship, Muscle Enthusiast, Jealousy, Lack of Understanding
Because Noah had become somewhat close with Ivella, she could now access the traits Ivella had three days ago.
‘Ivella has two penalties.’
Jealousy and Lack of Understanding.
However, jealousy wasn’t a huge penalty. After all, the original Ivella had never fallen in love or dated, so it wasn’t like it had ever come into play.
‘Of course, there’s no rule that jealousy only activates with the opposite sex…’
But still, there wasn’t much of an issue.
Thanks to Ivella’s ‘Fellowship’ trait. So even among the seven heroes, the jealousy penalty seldom activated.
In other words, as long as she didn’t engage in romantic relationships, she only had one penalty to deal with.
‘Lack of Understanding.’
This penalty primarily activates when acquiring new information, knowledge, or academics. Its effect reduces understanding to below half of the average level.
Thus, unless it’s explained in extremely simple terms, she can’t grasp the knowledge itself.
‘Of course, swordsmanship is an exception.’
With the S-rank trait, Blessing of the Sword.
When combined with the talent for swordsmanship, she didn’t experience the Lack of Understanding penalty in studies related to swordsmanship.
‘Given that…’
It was almost as if Ivella didn’t have any penalties at all.
If she kept her distance from romantic relationships and focused exclusively on sword training, neither penalty would activate.
Was that why?
In the original story, Ivella was also known as the most favored named character among the seven heroes.
‘But why am I like this?’
With weakness and terrible stamina.
That was a lethal penalty, not just in battle but in day-to-day life too. Feeling pitiful, Noah sighed heavily again.
As the two girls sighed together,
there came a loud rattle!
Suddenly, the classroom door swung open.
Ivella’s eyes widened slightly. It was as if she spotted a familiar face.
“Oh, Ulan!”
It was Ulan, who had been studying with them.
Having just come back from the restroom, his face was wet, as if he had just washed up. Ivella quickly pulled out a handkerchief.
“Use this to dry off.”
“I appreciate it.”
Ulan took the handkerchief and dried his face.
Before long, the soggy handkerchief was wrung out, and Ulan bowed his head slightly.
“No, you don’t have to. Just keep it.”
“But when borrowing a handkerchief from someone, it’s polite to wash it and return it…”
It had been written in the guidebook.
And it would feel uncomfortable to take it back like that.
But Ivella shook her head.
“It’s fine, just take it.”
As if she didn’t care either way.
She quickly snatched the handkerchief, tucking it into her coat like it was something precious.
Just as they were about to sit back down, Noah suddenly looked at Ulan.
“Why do you have a nosebleed so often?”
That was the reason Ulan had gone to the restroom.
He’d suddenly started gushing blood from his nose while reading a book. This was already the third time.
Ulan answered, “I’m overloaded.”
“Overloaded?”
What does that even mean?
Noah frowned.
It was as if she didn’t understand. Just as she was about to ask curiously,
“Oh, right. Speaking of which, Ulan,”
Ivella jumped in first.
With a face as if she had just remembered something she had forgotten, she posed a question.
“Did you read the letter I gave you last time?”
“Huh? Letter?”
“The one from my house.”
“Oh, that? I read it all.”
Ulan nodded his head.
What Ivella referred to was the letter sent by Count Deorg, which he started reading ten days ago and finally finished just the other day.
“Really? Then…”
Ivella, trailing off, glanced around.
Then she lowered her voice and asked, “…Can I ask what it said?”
“That’s not hard to say.”
It wasn’t like there was anything he couldn’t share.
Ulan readily nodded his head.
Then, he began to recall the contents of the seven-page letter.
‘Most of it was just general updates.’
The letter began with Istan leaving the Academy and returning to the Count’s territory.
After arriving at the Count’s land,
Istan initiated a bloody reckoning.
The servants who had tormented and ignored Ivella and her mother, along with the Countess and vassals who had bullied them, were all among those to be punished.
The investigation lasted over a week.
During this time, other offenses also came to light.
It was revealed that while Istan was at the front, the Countess had secretly had an affair with other vassals.
And as a result,
the servants were sent to prison on charges of insulting the nobility, while the vassals had their lands and properties confiscated, losing their titles.
The Countess didn’t escape either.
She was immediately expelled from the territory and sent back to her family. It was noted that she would be put on trial for various charges afterwards.
‘Next…’
There was shocking news that Ivella’s mother, Idelin Elea’ad, had been added to the Deorg family.
Once the trial with the original wife was concluded and they were officially separated, it mentioned that she would be formally welcomed as the Countess.
Lastly, there was information about Himel.
Himel, who had left with Istan, was sent not to the Count’s territory but to the front lines of the southern battle line.
It was also noted that she wouldn’t return to the Empire until she could play a significant role.
This was the summary of what was written in the letter.
While rifling through his memories, Ulan summed it all up in one sentence.
“It was just a normal check-in.”
“Really? It was just a check on how things were?”
Ivella responded, sounding surprised.
Just as she was nodding in silence, suddenly, a memory struck Ulan.
“Oh, there was something I didn’t understand.”
“Huh? What was it?”
“It was something written at the end.”
Since he had the letter crumpled up in his pocket, Ulan unfolded it.
It was the postscript from the seventh letter. It contained this message:
『P.S. I heard the detailed story from my daughter. I’ve prepared a modest gift for the two of you. I hope you create lovely memories with it.
Take care of my daughter, alright?』
That was all that was written in the postscript.
Ivella tilted her head.
“A modest gift?”
“This.”
Ulan pulled out what he had in his pocket like he had been waiting for this moment. It looked like some kind of ticket.
What’s this?
As Ivella squinted her eyes, the girl next to her, Noah, suddenly revealed its identity.
“It’s a hotel accommodation voucher.”
“…A hotel?”
“Yep. It says here that from April 30th for half a year, you can use a suite at the Imperial Hotel for two days on any desired date, free of charge.”
“April 30th… that’s…”
It was the day when midterms would finish.
And the weekend right after that.
Ivella intended to use her outing permission. She planned to spend time in the capital city of the Empire with Ulan.
Just as she pieced this together…
“…!?”
All the pieces clicked into place for Ivella.
Her face flushed bright red.
She then swiftly snatched the accommodation voucher from Noah’s hand.
“I, I’ll return this!”
“Return it?”
“I think my father, no, I mean! I think Count Deorg must have sent this by mistake! Yep!”
Ivella stammered,
Clearly flustered, but Ulan didn’t mind. If it was a misplaced item, it made sense to return it.
“Alright. Then please take care of it.”
“Leave it to me!”
After forcing a smile,
Ivella tightly clutched the accommodation voucher.
‘What on earth is going through her mind?!’
Her face still burning.
Ivella tried to calm her racing heart in surprise. As soon as she got back to her room, she thought she needed to write a letter immediately.
While trying to cool her heated face,
Noah stared at Ivella.
‘She’s definitely become better than in the original.’
In the original story, Ivella, the Sword Saint, was known for her icy demeanor and expressionless face.
But now, she was completely different.
Her emotional expressions were far richer than what Noah had seen in the original, and her gestures were more varied.
‘All thanks to Ulan.’
If Ulan hadn’t made Himel speechless during the selection match, Count Deorg would never have come to the Academy.
Then the misunderstanding wouldn’t have been resolved, and Ivella would have ended up suffering from Himel’s bullying, possibly dropping out in the second semester, just as in the original.
‘Had that happened, it’s unlikely that Ivella and I would have become as close as we are now.’
Even if the events deviated significantly from the original storyline, Noah found this turn of events much more appealing.
Even if they strayed from the plot of the original, it was far nicer to see Ivella heading toward a bright future rather than an unhappy one.
‘There’s no turning back now.’
First Ulan, and now Ivella.
Two named characters had already deviated from their storylines. Noah decided to change her goals and direction moving forward.
‘From now on, let’s ignore character stories.’
After all, this issue was no longer in Noah’s hands.
So, she decided to take it easy and focus only on securing events, hidden pieces, and rewards that were less likely to change.
‘It doesn’t have to be monopolized…’
But she intended to obtain rewards that would help with future developments as much as possible. Noah made that resolution.
Just then, the clock tower rang.
Ding! Dong!
It signaled noon.
“Oh no, it’s already lunchtime.”
“Should we eat first and continue?”
“Good idea.”
After bleeding from his nose since this morning, Ulan felt his stomach growling, so neither of the girls hesitated to leave their seats.
As they walked toward the dining hall,
another named character suddenly came to mind.
‘Wait, now that I think about it…’
She hadn’t seen Delia recently.
Since the prophecy had come true, she thought Delia might say something related to it.
Or maybe she was still in the hospital?
Suddenly thinking that, Noah immediately asked,
“Hey, Ulan.”
“What?”
“Is Delia still in the hospital?”
“Yeah. I heard she’s being discharged tonight.”
Ulan nodded his head.
Noah felt relieved since there was a reason she hadn’t seen her.
“It seems like her hospitalization lasted longer than expected. Was she that badly injured?”
“She looks fine on the outside. But she suffered from a magic shock and lost a lot of strength. So it took her a while to recover.”
But now she was much better.
It seemed her voice, which used to lack energy, had returned to normal and her stamina had largely recovered. Ulan responded with a light smile, and Noah smiled back, relieved.
But there was one person who wasn’t smiling.
The blonde girl walking alongside Ulan.
It was Ivella Elea’ad.
![[TS] The End of Magical Girls Has Come](https://i3.wp.com/darkmtl.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1737407792-8993-TS-The-end-of-magical-girls-has-come.png?resize=85,105 "[TS] The End of Magical Girls Has Come")
