#Miss Villainess’s diary(2):

Autumn wind left the Dungeon City. In its place, the even colder wind was rooting.

The winter.

The season I wanted to forget since the day my engagement broke.

The reason was simple, and more personal than I ever expected.

Returning to the Academy had became my fear. The idea of stepping my feet on that place again made my body trembling like a cowardly rabbit who wanted to believe that it wouldn’t be caught by the wolf as long as it remained inside its den.

Since when did I became such a cowardly person?

I didn’t realize it until the first snow fell. And after Gyllena showed up and pointed out how much I had became dependent on Mr. Roost and Mrs. Roost, finally, I had to admit it. If I denied it, then I would become someone my current else wouldn’t recognize. Someone who was selfish, weak... Such terrible person.

I’d rather be die than become someone like that.

But how could I do the otherwise? Without the Roost Family, I didn’t know where and how I would be by now. At the worst scenario, I might have already become one of the lowlives who were living around the Ghost District.

I had already think about it from a very long time. Mr. Roost was way more powerful than I am. My sword and Magic wouldn’t be much of use for him. While Mrs. Roost had the skill to lift a simple and cheap ingredient like orc meat into a dish that wouldn’t be strange to be found on a plate of a noble. My shallow skill could only make me her assistant at best.

Then, what should I do? The answer was simple. I had to become stronger, better.

Following Mr. Roost’s words, I tried to widen the utilization of Ice Rose.

I analized its characteristic.

And then I found my Magic’s two distinct characteristics.

1.It behaved like plant. More specifically, it was similiar to roses.

2.It was not normal plant, but plant made of ice.

Which led me to think this way:

If the magic was like a plant, then could I plant it into the soil like normal plants? Or could I automate it? Or made it smaller and bigger? Even delay its blooming time, like explosives?

It was made of ice, so wouldn’t it mean I was able to make it colder? Or sturdier? Or made it not only able to attack my foes, but also to freeze their blood?

Suddenly, I saw plenty of paths. And it was opened just because I changed my mindset a little.

No, it was not a sudden improvement. It was because of Mr. Roost’s advice. Without him, I wouldn’t be able to reach this consclusion this fast.

Truly an enigmatic person. Yesterday, he would come up with the most bizarre idea I ever heard in my life. Today, he would say that the world would come to an end in the future. Tomorrow, he would reveal an information that could change the world.

Theo Roost... Are you really was a reincarnated person? Was this world a game, just like what you said?

I wanted to believe him, but I can’t fully believed what he said.

Didn’t it make me a rude person?

I couldn’t even believe the man who had helped me out of the lowest point of my life.

It was just... Too hard to digest.

...

Gyllena was in danger.

Just as what Mr. Roost said, her mansion was almost fell into the hands of the Abyssal New Gate.

I wanted to suggest Mr. Roost to report this incident to the guards when Gyllena came to the restaurant in disarray. However, he said he had a better plan and left.

I wonder with who had he met that day? His friend, perhap? But who might they be? I couldn’t imagine who was that someone, with their ability to craft a potion that was capable of taming Demon, and a dark magic resistance item.

Was it Ahlia? Mr. Roost had once mentioned that name back then, when we were looking for Waveblade. It was a name for a woman... Right?

I didn’t know why, but the thought of him meeting someone I didn’t aware of was... Uncomfortable. I never felt this way before.

What was this tight, unsettled feeling in my chest?

...

An Apostle.

Truly was a formidable opponent.

They were dangerous. Dark Magic was supposed to usable by Middle to high level Demons only, but they was able to control it.

From my observation from our battle with Jahreon Qua Tarram, their utilization of Dark Magic seemed to be limited. They were able to summon Demons, trap people into Illusion world, and shooting some simple Dark Magic spells like dark orbs. All of these spells were indeed dangerous. But the true Dark Magic was way more powerful than that according to ancient literatures written by the Sage himself. So their Dark Magic should be the limited version of the true one.

In the future, if I ever meet one of them again, I should kill them faster than their spells.

...

Also, not less important, I realized something very important during that battle.

About Mr. Roost. He, Theo Roost.

I realized that his Magic was more than just a power to nullify gravity. It was something more versatile and powerful. In my assumption, it should be the power to change how the gravity work on the target.

He was strong. Way stronger than I expected.

Would I able to stand equally beside him in the future?

And then... About me.

My heart raced just thinking about his back as he defied gravity for me.

___

#The Failed Apostle:

During the last power struggle in the Tarram Kingdom, two princes and one princess was unfortunately met untimely ends.

Public received the news of their deaths as accidental or due to some kind of disease. However, when you were one of the Royal Family members like Jahreon, you would know that the truth was way darker than what was being told in the surface.

The night after his lose, Jahreon was thrown into his room in the Layver family mansion with tens of knights guarding the room all the time. Without his Dark Magic though, Jahreon still wouldn’t be able escape even if he was to be left alone.

Inside the dimly lit room, Jahreon stood before the locked window, his eyes staring at the moon. In his hand, which was trembling sofly, a rusty brooch was held.

"I am sorry, Sera... I failed." He muttered, his voice cracked with emotion.

"I failed," he repeated the sentence. "Again!"

Since when did everything gone wrong? He thought. His mind drifted back to that night, at that exact moment when he lost the most precious person in his life.

Inside an empty cathedral, sobs could be hear from the prayer room. Blood stain could be seen on the floor, extending from the entrance to the double door leading to the room.

"Please, God! Please! I only beg for one thing!" The voice was desperate, like a lost man who was begging for water while drifting in a desert.

"You can take everything from me! Everything, except her! Not her, please!"

Jahreon, but younger prostated before the statue of the god, praying. A dead body of a female knight was laying beside him.

"Please, bring her back! Please!"

He kept praying even though his voice had started to become hoarsh and his throat had begun to hurt.

"Please... Please... Please! Not her... Not Sera! She... She is just a dutiful, silly knight! She is innocent!"

All his life, Jahreon had never believe in god. He identified himself as an atheist. Knowledge, logic, sains, magic—was the only thing that construct his world. Yet he now begging for the god’s mercy. Not for himself. But for a dead knight.

Of course, there was a reason for that.

The dead knight, Sera, in a way, was the closest person for him in his life. Since he was never able to get close to anyone when he was young, the King assigned her, who was at that time still a trainee, to accompany him.

"Report, young master! I had finished my training for today! Thirty push-ups, one hundred swings, and four hundreds meters of running!" Said Sera with a bow, all smilling.

Jahreon always reacted with annoyed looks when she came to disturb him when he was studying alone in the library. But deep inside, he never really disliked her approach. Sometimes, he even waited for her to show up, thinking how she would disturb his study today.

From the age of 9s, they were already together.

He thought they would always be together. Now, and in the future. Until the end.

However, the reality proved him wrong.

She lost her life when she was shielding him from an assassin sent by his siblings.

"Please..."

After 4 hours of continuous prayer, Jahreon stopped, his face blank. Then from blank, to sorrow. From sorrow, to rage.

He stood up and began to punching the statue. However, because the statue was made of enchanted stone, he only damaged his own fists. "Why? Why wouldn’t you answer my prayer!? I only wanted one thing! Aren’t you a God!? An omnipotent being!?"

Despaired, he ignored his own beliefs and prayed to the god, yet he got nothing but harsh silence.

At that time, the Abyss reached out toward him.

"I shouldn’t have received their offer back then..." Jahreon sighed deeply, his tear dropped on the rusty brooch, landed on the picture of a smiling young girl, before it then fell to the floor.

"That way, I wouldn’t become a sinner I am now. That way, when I die later, I would still be able to face you with an upright posture."

The apostle had lost his darkness. That opened something purer inside him. Something that moved him from the first place into doing all of this. However, his hands was already too red with blood. Too red with sins he couldn’t face the girl he loved anymore.

Everything was already too late.

But he still had to face reality and continue to life.

Because he knew that she wouldn’t want him to end the story now, when he hadn’t even do anything to pay back everything that he had done until this very moment.