Mana Duel (Final)
Pain was the first thing I felt.
Not the sharp kind, but the bone-deep ache that settles in after everything else has already gone wrong. It spread through my limbs like heavy fog, pressing down on my chest, my arms, my legs, my head.
Every time I tried to breathe, it hurt like hell.
I tried to move an inch.
It hurt worse.
So naturally, I did the only sensible thing and decided to pretend I was dead.
For a few seconds, I stayed like that, floating somewhere between conscious and unconscious, hoping, very optimistically, that if I didn’t open my eyes, none of this would be real.
Then I heard a voice.
“Aria.”
It was soft. Trembling. Like it was barely holding itself together.
“Aria, please wake up.”
…Damn.
I knew that voice.
I let out a small, pained breath and slowly cracked my eyes open.
A smooth, white ceiling stretched above me. I blinked a few times, my vision swimming, before the world started to come back into focus.
Then Luna's face appeared above me, golden-blonde hair messy, green eyes red and swollen like
she'd been crying for hours.
She was leaning over me, hands gripping the edge of the bed so tightly her knuckles had turned white.
The moment our eyes met, something broke in her expression.
"Aria." Her voice cracked.
I tried for a weak smile. "Hey."
That did it.
Her face crumpled, and she covered her mouth with both hands, shoulders shaking as she tried to hold back a sob.
"I'm okay," I said quietly. "I'm fine, Luna.”
I gently patted her head as she cried.
Sigh. I had made an innocent woman cry. Not the way I was hoping for, but… strangely, it made my heart warm a bit.
Not because of some twisted pleasure in watching her cry, obviously, but because someone cared about me.
She finally stopped, though she was still hiccupping, then reached for the water on the side table and took a few shaky sips.
After she settled down, I asked, “So… how long has it been?”
“A few hours,” she said softly.
Oh, thank God. At least I wasn’t out for days like a shounen protagonist.
“So what happened to me?”
“The healers said you burned your mana circuits by forcing too much mana through them at once. If
it had been even a little worse, you could’ve been crippled. Or worse.”
“But hey, I didn’t.”
She lightly hit my shoulder.
“Ow,” I croaked.
She immediately pulled back, panic flashing across her face. “S-Sorry! I’m sorry, I just—I thought—you were—”
Her words tangled over themselves, her hands hovering uselessly in the air like she didn’t know what
to do with them.
I stared at her for a second. Then cracked a weak laugh.
“Heh. Got you.”
She froze. Then flushed bright red, her fist still hanging in the air as if she wasn’t sure whether she was allowed to hit me again.
She looked like she might cry and laugh at the same time, so I stopped bullying her.
“I feel okay… except when I move. It hurts.”
She let out a long sigh, then asked, “Why did you fight Belle? I heard she provoked you, but I’ve never seen you react like that before.”
Hmm… should I tell her it was because Belle provoked me about her?
There were other reasons too, but the main one was that Belle’s threat made something snap inside me, and I couldn’t think straight.
Saying that out loud, admitting I went into that fight over her, would probably just make her feel guilty. Better to avoid that.
“Nothing,” I said. “I just wanted to surpass my limit.”
“Surpass your limit?” She blinked. “What are you, Goku?”
“Yeah. I was trying to unlock Super Saiyan Three and go berserk.”
I struck a muscle pose and immediately winced.
That earned a laugh from Luna.
I smiled too, just from seeing her smile.
Then she said softly, “Please don’t do that again. If something happens to you… I don’t know what I’d do.”
Her eyes looked strange when she said it.
I swallowed and nodded.
Right then, my stomach grumbled loudly.
I gave Luna an awkward smile.
She stood up with a small smile of her own. “I’ll get you some food. I’ll be back in a bit.”
“Mhm.”
She left, closing the door softly behind her.
I turned toward the side, my eyes drifting to the translucent screen that flickered into existence.
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[QUEST COMPLETED]
Quest: Guide the Mana Duel Episode.
Status: COMPLETED
Calculating appropriate reward...
Reward: +5 Mana Control
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My eyes bulged.
Holy shit. Five whole stats.
Without wasting a second, I pulled up my status window.
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[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Aria Fenrir
Level: 2
Talent: SSS (Displayed as S)
Class: Frost Blade (Rare)
Stats:
Strength: 101
Agility: 107
Endurance: 91
Mana: 120
Mana Control: 01 (40)
Available Points: 1
Skills:
[Absolute Zero] — SEALED
[Swordsmanship] — B-
[Fenrir Style Swordplay] — D+
[Ice Manipulation] — D-
[Frost Step] — E+
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
So my Mana Control had dropped because of my condition… but the full value was still there, just temporarily locked.
Meaning once I recovered—
That +5 wasn’t going anywhere.
I was already feeling giddy in my stomach. “Heh. Looks like my sacrifice wasn’t in vain after all.”
If things kept going like this, I’d become the strongest in first year. Even Adrian wouldn’t be a match for me. I already had the highest stats in the year, but Mana Control was the one thing holding me back.
In the original, it had been Aria’s greatest weakness. If I could raise it to even match my other stats, I’d take it without hesitation.
Just then, another notification appeared.
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[DEVIATION ANALYSIS]
Major Deviation Detected
Aria did not fight the protagonist.
Aria did not go berserk.
Protagonist did not suffer trauma.
Aria sustained major injuries and fought Belle.
May cause butterfly effects in future events.
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My mood immediately did a 180. As they say, every coin has two sides, and my increase in strength
came at the cost of derailing the plot.
In the original novel, Aria was supposed to face B-20 near the protagonist and go berserk, failing to control her mana. Obviously, she wouldn’t hurt him—but she would traumatize him enough that he’d flinch every time he saw her.
That incident would lead Aria to feel guilty toward him.
She would keep a quiet watch over him and, in future events, even help him.
I sighed, feeling my excitement sober up. I pouted. “I knew this was going to happen, but it still
doesn’t feel good.”
Just then, a voice spoke. “What doesn’t feel good?”
Every hair on my body stood on end.
I turned to the side. It was a guy with green hair. Felix was standing there, holding a—
I narrowed my eyes. “What are you doing here, and what’s in that box?”
He was holding a neatly wrapped food box, the kind used for premium meals or gifts, the paper crisp, the ribbon tight, clearly not something cheap or casual.
He set it on the desk. “That’s for you.”
I opened it and Inside it was a steamed grain rice, braised chicken, and a herb broth.
I eyed it suspiciously. “Does it have poison or something?”
He shrugged and said, “It’s a Silverleaf Recovery Bento. Good for recovery.” Just as he said that, he turned around.
“Wait! Where are you going?”
“I was just here to send you this. Good luck.”
With that, he left.
What a weird guy.
Just then, I remembered.
Didn’t I give him the setting of having a crush on Aria?
Ah.
…So that’s what this was.
Suddenly, I wasn’t feeling hungry anymore.
