The Feeling of Winning to Lose
The blast continued for thirty seconds.
That was too long.
It was a sign of uncontrolled magic fire.
I gritted my teeth and focused intently on the direction and the spell itself, because if I flung that thing around, I would end up killing allies—and the mission would be a failure.
The force of the blast was strong enough to push me back a step when I unleashed it, forcing me to find a better footing. This was my first time using a spell like that. Hell, this was my first time using magic to attack at all.
What Zeraff taught me was the incantation only. I had neither the place nor the time to practice.
It was a miracle the magic worked at all—and so well, too.
“Come on.” I grimaced and grunted as I tried to close my palms together to stop the spell.
It was a challenging task to accomplish because the force of the blast was directly opposing me. Here, brute strength was the only thing I could rely on to contain and stop the magic, since I had no magic control to speak of.
So I planted my feet firmly in the ground, and with all my strength, I flexed the arm muscles I had developed through training, veins bulging visibly beneath my skin.
With one last grunt, I forced my hands together, closing my palms. The magic flickered, shot into the distance, and the magic circle disappeared as well.
I hunched forward slightly, my palms still pressed together, and pumped fresh air into my lungs faster than they could process it. As I breathed heavily, my body finally gave out and I fell to the ground on my knees.
Everyone in the vicinity saw it—the soldiers, Reina, and even Bradsby, who was watching from the basement door.
“What the hell? Who even are these people?” Bradsby muttered to himself.
His jaw dropped when he saw dragon breath coming from a human. Power capable of leveling a town was being used so casually right in front of him.
He couldn’t believe his eyes.
I glanced to the side and saw a group of soldiers staring at me, dazed, fear creeping across their faces.
When my hands moved—not to attack—they still ran in panic, terrified of that dragon breath. They didn’t want to get cooked.
“You really went overboard on that last attack.”
“Yeah… and now—I’m tired.”
Asahi was already healing me, lecturing me at the same time.
“Your legs were broken as well. How did that even happen?" He inquired but— "You know what—never mind. You need to rest.”
“No!” I snapped.
Those words weren’t supposed to be said. Becausethey were like a trigger to me. As soon as I heard them, I forced myself up before he could finish healing me completely.
“I’ll rest when we’re done here,” I said. “I need to find Miss Mary.”
“…”
Asahi couldn’t stop me. Being friends from our past lives, he knew me too well—if I set my mind on something, especially something important, I wouldn’t stop until I saw it through.
All he could do was support me and hope I didn’t do anything stupid.
As I turned toward the mansion, a voice called out from that direction.
“Don’t be a fool! Listen to your friend and relax.”
“Master?”
Reina was walking toward us from the mansion, carrying Mariada as she moved. Mary—normally so refined, a maid of great honor—was completely out of sorts in both her clothes and her condition.
She lay quietly in Reina’s arms, bathed in moonlight.
“Mariada is fine. No need to worry,” Reina said.
She reached us, and I couldn’t contain myself. I rushed forward, limping to help her lower Mariada to the ground.
Fine was an overstatement from Reina.
Mariada was conscious—but barely.
To say she was fine when her fur was ruffled and filthy, her cheeks sunken, and her eyes looking as though they hadn’t known rest in days, was an exaggeration.
But she was alive. I guess that was fine for Reina.
“Miss Mary.”
“Krai, is that you?”
Her voice was weak. The moment she spoke, she lost all her strength and slipped into unconsciousness.
I smiled in relief when I saw her still breathing. A small, fragile joy crossed my face.
That was enough for now.
Asahi stepped forward without wasting time and began healing her, just as he had with the other girls.
“Now that everyone is here, we need to leave post haste,” Reina said, cutting through the moment.
“But why so soon?”
“This place will be swarmed with adventurers and sevilinces any moment now,” she replied. “That blast of magic would’ve created a spectacle. I’m guessing that was your doing?”
“Ah—yes,” I said, hesitating.
Reina sighed.
“…But how are we going to transport everyone?” I continued. “They’re in no state to move right now. Besides, they still have these damn collars on.”
I snapped before I could stop myself.
“We’ll deal with them on the way,” Reina said calmly. “We don’t have time.”
We prepared for a departure we weren’t ready for. How were we supposed to leave? How were we supposed to move them?
We didn’t know.
“We’ll use one of the carriages from the basement.”
Asahi suggested using the carriages meant to transport slaves to the market.
Everyone agreed almost immediately.
With Reina joining us, we numbered twelve. Using a carriage was the best option.
While we discussed our next steps, Bradsby stood at the basement entrance, deep in thought.
“Vevil just lost… and the Count,” he murmured. “What happened to him? Could Reina have defeated Zrek?”
He was still in awe, but this was no time for amazement. There were important matters at hand, and if he didn’t act quickly, the opportunity would be gone.
Overhearing our plans, an idea formed—one tied to the wish he had carried for most of his life.
Without thinking twice, Bradsby rushed forward and dropped to his knees before Reina Stacia.
“Wait!” he shouted, his forehead pressed to the ground. “Reina Stacia, I have a request. Please take the others with you when you leave!”
He slipped past us so easily that none of us noticed until he was already bowing.
We were startled—but drawing weapons would have been overkill.
Reina looked down at him, confused.
“Who is this?” she asked.
“My name is Bradsby Orwell,” he said. “Miss Reina, I beg you to save them as well.”
“Save who? And raise your head.”
He did as he was told and raised his head.
“The other slaves,” he continued. “They’ve suffered enough. Please, I want them to be free.”
This was the wish he had fought for his entire life.
How to save them. How to grant them freedom. And the opportunity to accomplish it had arrived.
In the past, all I could do was promise them good masters. Now, I have a chance to provide them freedom itself, Bradsby thought.
I don't know what kind of person Reina Stacia truly is.
But my instincts tell me to bow for help.
Bradsby plotted and preyed on Reina's kindness to fulfill his wishes and desires. No one could blame him.
In any world, humans live to use each other for their own benefit. It is just a matter of whether it is for a good deed or not.
“Master…”
I met Reina’s eyes and nodded. She understood immediately.
“Fine,” she said. “You know this mansion well, right? Get us carriages and secure a route to my mansion. No one must see us.”
Bradsby’s eyes lit up like a light. He smiled lightly and nodded.
“Yes, ma’am!”
He got up and was about to leave, then Reina remembered another important thing.
“And bring the keys to the slave collars,” Reina added, pointing to the collars around their necks.
Bradsby nodded and handed over a cluster of keys.
"I have those right here."
Then he shifted his gaze to Mariada with concern.
“But I can’t help with Miss Mariada’s collar,” Bradsby said softly. “It’s special. Only the Count can remove it. And no one but him knows where the seal is."
“It’s fine,” Reina replied. “We’ll figure something out. Just get the carriages.”
Bradsby bowed and ran.
One by one, collars clicked open as Asahi and I freed the girls.
Reina watched the collar still fastened around Mariada’s neck.
“I was careless,” she muttered. “I should’ve made him remove it. Now I don't know what to do."
She said nothing more.
Elsewhere, Count Juliq Herlon dragged himself across his ruined office floor, breathing heavily, groaning in pain.
“That woman thinks I’m defeated?” he snarled. “I’ll show her.”
He pressed a hidden button beneath his desk. A compartment opened, revealing a piece of paper etched with a magic circle.
He took the paper out, not even closing the compartment.
He smiled.
He wasn't happy or anything. He was rageful and it had driven him to the end.
Now he was spiteful.
Count Juliq smiled because he was about to end it all. The thing he wanted the most—he was going to sacrifice it.
His blood dripped onto the paper.
The circle glowed red.
Count Juliq maniacally laughed when he saw this.
"Now, neither of us can never have it!" He said to himself.
Then he fell to the ground.
Outside, while Reina was still examining the collar on Mariada for a way to remove it, the slave collar began to glow.
Reina gasped.
“This is not good.” She said.
And she was right.
Mariada was peacefully resting, when suddenly the collar tightened.
Her eyes flew open unnaturally wide as the metal constricted around her neck.
She clawed at it, choking silently, spit pooling at the corners of her mouth as her body convulsed.
“Mary!”
Reina slammed both hands against the collar—her true arm and the frozen one she’d taken from Juliq.
She too tried by all means to yank the collar, but she was a minute too late.
The collar was too tight.
Krai and Asahi saw this and ran to their side with not a moment to waste.
"Master whats going on?!" I asked.
"Stay back!" Reina shouted at me, frustrated.
Even Asahi stopped himself from speaking. Unless it was a solution to their problem, he should keep his mouth shut.
Reina tried her best to insert her fingers between the collar and her neck, even though she knew it was pointless.
And Mariada was already tired from being kidnappedand whatever they did to her. And with the collar tightening her neck—she would surely die.
She lost all the strength she had trying to stop the collar. Her eyes slowly rolled back.
"Mary! Don't die on me!" Reina screamed.
All of us just watched. It wasnt TV show, but we all hoped she would succeed in saving her.
Me greatly.
Reina was even sweating, her teeth clenched and fear creeping on her.
All this motion made her lose control of the ice on her left arm. It started to melt, loosening the grip on her shoulder.
But she didn't care.
Blood trickled down from between the arm and her shoulder, slowly sliding down the ice arm.
Her hands were still on the collars. By whatever means necessary, she wasn't going to let go of that collar until Mariada was safe, or dead.
And at the moment, she was neither. This persistence was going to be their saving grace.
The blood that slid down the ice arm to the fingertips, wasn't Reina's, she was never injured after all. It was Count Juliq’s blood from the arm.
It trickled onto the collar, until it fully circled her neck.
Reina kept trying and Mariada kept losing her grip on consciousness.
"Come on!" Reina screamed.
The collar ceased glowing. It ceased glowing when Count Juliq’s blood touched each glowing circle on the collar.
Now as Reina tried to yank the collar off, it came off.
She yanked the thing off her neck so hard she almost fell.
When she saw that she actually removed it, she was relieved, but she quickly crawled to her side and found Mariada gasping for air.
She coughed, she breathed and she coughed again.
Signs of bad health, but alive.
"Mary, are you alright?" Asked Reina.
But she didn't respond.
Asahi and I both leaned in when we saw her choking with life.
"Is she alright?" I asked master Reina.
Mariada's health condition worsened after that encounter. She started sweating uncontrollably and her breathing became labored.
"Master what happened?" I asked again.
Reina was tending to Mariada, wiping her sweat away.
"That bastard must have activated the collars failsafe to kill Mary." She answered.
I couldn’t respond. Rage burned beneath my silence.
“You didn’t kill him?!” I finally shouted.
She ignored me.
“Asahi. Heal her,” she ordered.
She had lost all patience and now demanded instead of asking.
"Y—Yes ma'am." He quietly agreed and proceeded to the task.
While on the task, Bradsby arrived with two carriages arrived soon after.
We loaded the slaves into one, master Rei’s servants into the other.
Asahi was still healing Mariada. But with all that healing, nothing seemed to be changing about her physical state.
He noticed this and chose not to say anything to anyone. He just kept healing her and hoping for something to happen.
We arrived at the mansion, everyone got out of the carriages, and those who couldn't stand were assisted outside.
"Everyone this way!"
I didn't waste any time leading them to the magic circle that connected the Mist Country and the mansion.
Asahi was still focused on Mariada all the time.
From the count's manor to the magic circle, Mariada was still coated in the golden light of Asahi’s healing magic.
About 19 people were standing in the magic circle. No one showed any resistance to the unfamiliar place and the magic circle.
But the newcomers stood close to Bradsby, revealing their uneasiness.
The magic circle glowed like it always does, and then they were engulfed in purple light before vanishing from the circle. Nothing was left like usual—except for the horses—and they appeared at the other end of the magic circle.
As soon as they appeared in the forest, the newcomers began to show signs of fright over the new place that screamed of dangerous monsters at every corner.
Only if they knew that the place they were in was a safe zone they would relax a little bit.
"... They are back." Tessa said, like she could sense them.
She got up from her seat and headed for them.
She had stayed up all day drinking tea while waiting for them to return.
I guess being a Dryot comes with pecks of not needing sleep that much.
Everyone walked for a while until they came to the house on the plateau, where they found Tessa standing at the front door waiting for them.
"Welcome back."
She expressed her joy of seeing them back with a simple welcome back. She maintained her tough exterior.
Reina scoffed, and Krai smiled, showing his teeth. Asahi was acting weird for the duration of the travel. He had not taken his eyes off of Mariada.
No one noticed this because of the joy they were feeling over the success of the mission.
However, Reina glanced back at him with Mary in his hands, and she instantly understood the situation.
After that choking with the collar, and the state she was in before that, it was clear to her how serious this was.
Everyone got into the house—everyone—including the newcomers. The building that was supposed to house about ten people quickly became a cramped hostel. Although most of them occupied the first floor.
Upstairs were Tessa, Reina, Asahi, Mariada, and I.
We three looked over Asahi, continuing with healing Mariada.
"So when will she wake up?"
I eagerly asked that question with no regard for anything else. This could be discerned because that question only had one meaning.
To me, Mariada was going to be alright, so now I wanna know when she will wake up.
This was a show of confidence I had in Asahi's healing magic—and it's understandable—but I had missed something. I had desregarded the collar incident as nothing more than a passerby.
"This woman..." Tessa spoke with a worried expression. Almost sad.
"Ryu," Asahi’s voice rang with hesitation. "I'm sorry... But—I can't heal her."
"Huh?"
Mariada couldn't be healed.
Those words hit me like a truck. I wanted to hear when she would wake up, not if he could heal her or not.
