Chapter 24: Presia of the Night Sky

While Presia was restoring the barrier, she was unaware of the surrounding situation. But the moment the restoration was complete, she could sense the menacing aura scattered around her.

Turning around was only natural. However, what she saw was anything but ordinary to her.

Despite Valikan’s enraged roar drawing everyone’s attention, Presia’s gaze was fixed on a quiet corner. There, she saw a girl smiling contentedly as she slowly closed her eyes.

Elysia Frentz.

At first, she had been nothing more than a bold academy student, someone who found Presia napping and talked endlessly without expecting answers, even touching her without permission.

So, Presia had pulled her into her magical experiments, thinking to tease her a bit, especially since the girl seemed financially troubled.

Over time, this bold student became her magical assistant.

Presia still didn’t understand why Elysia tolerated her harshness. Elysia always showed up with a smile, even when Presia called for her at odd hours, accepted Presia’s whims, and willingly became a test subject for troublesome magic.

Presia assumed that Elysia’s reason for accepting it all was probably money.

But even though it was a relationship built on payment, Presia found herself wanting more affection every time Elysia held her hand, patted her head, or spoke to her with a warm voice.

Of course, she hadn’t let it slide when Elysia spanked her once, giving the same treatment right back.

In her heart, her magical assistant had become Elysia Frentz.

The girl who had first made Presia feel affection was now lying before her, collapsed.

Seeing Elysia smiling faintly even as she bled and was about to lose consciousness annoyed Presia deeply.

Slowly, Presia walked over to Elysia.

Fortunately, Valikan didn’t seem to be planning to attack her just yet.

Standing before Elysia, Presia drew a magic circle, just as she always did for her.

When the circle began to glow faintly, the bleeding from Elysia’s side gradually stopped.

However, her face remained pale, as she had already lost a significant amount of blood.

Simple healing magic would not be enough to restore her completely.

“Ha… treating that wench, huh? I should thank you,” Valikan sneered. “Now, she can live her life in agony, unable to die.”

After finishing the first aid, Presia stood up and faced Valikan.

It wasn’t hard to deduce that he was responsible for Elysia’s state, even if she didn’t know exactly what had happened.

“A demon?”

“Heh… a mage without a guard. Kneel, mage. If you do, I’ll let you receive the Dark Lord’s blessing, just like her.”

Presia had only one response to Valikan’s arrogant taunt.

With a murmur and a gesture, she traced a simple magic circle in the air.

Around her appeared a multitude of arrows—some made of fire, others of ice, water, lightning, and stone.

Although it was just a basic arrow spell, the sheer quantity and variety were far from simple.

Dozens of arrows flew toward Valikan. Yet, he deflected them all with his remaining hand.

The few arrows that did manage to strike his body couldn’t penetrate the defensive power of his mid-level demon skin, which easily resisted simple arrow spells.

After watching Presia’s magical display, Valikan charged at her.

Dodging Valikan’s attack with an untrained body was nearly impossible, but Presia managed to evade, relying on a protective spell she had cast on herself just in time.

Various spells that accelerated her body, doubled her strength, or heightened her senses—magic she had once tested on Elysia in the past.

These spells, which she had created partly as a hobby and partly as study, were helping her escape immediate danger, if only a little.

However, being a mage with no experience in close combat, it was inevitable that she would eventually take a direct hit from Valikan.

Thunk!

Despite Valikan’s sharp claws piercing her delicate abdomen, a dull sound echoed, and Valikan was instead flung backward.

“Hmm. A barrier artifact, is it? Let’s see how long it can last.”

The necklace around Presia’s neck, imbued with a barrier spell, was already cracked after just one block. At best, it would withstand two or three more hits.

Still, Presia’s response didn’t change. She summoned dozens of arrows again, dodging Valikan’s attacks with awkward but barely successful movements.

Thunk!

Once more.

Thunk!

Again.

Crack…

The necklace, pushed to its absolute limit, was cracked so badly it seemed like it would shatter with the slightest touch.

Crash!

Finally, the barrier broke, and the impact threw Presia backward.

She was tossed to the ground, crashing into stones, and now lay bloodied, unable to rise.

The outcome of the fight was all too clear.

Though Valikan, the embodiment of arrogance, found the fight disappointingly trivial, he acknowledged her effort.

If a lower-ranking demon had been in his place, they wouldn’t have escaped unharmed.

The sheer number and strength of her arrow spells were far beyond what would be expected from basic magic, and the enhancement spells had made this untrained mage nearly as formidable as a seasoned warrior.

“I am Valikan, the Arrogant. Mage, speak your name. I will remember the name of one who is soon to die.”

In his own way, Valikan offered her the highest praise he could for her talent, with a thrill at the thought of what might have been if she were just a bit more mature.

But there was no reply from Presia.

“Mage, do you still intend to resist in vain? The sun has already set. I belong to the night clan, and any remaining chance you had has vanished entirely.”

Just as Valikan said, the sun, which had once painted the sky in hues of dusk, had sunk below the horizon, and tiny stars had already begun to appear in the night sky.

Presia, lying bloodied on the ground, could see the darkened night sky.

With a trembling hand, she reached upward, stretching toward the heavens.

Small stars shone between her outstretched fingers.

She clenched her hand at the empty air, though naturally, there was nothing she could grasp.

And yet, she reached for it—the stars of the night sky.

The girl’s first memory was of a back alley filled with discarded food waste from a restaurant. In her memory, the girl was rummaging through the remnants of the food scraps to fill her empty stomach.

Whether she was born and raised in that back alley, abandoned by her parents, or simply lost and drifted there, she didn’t know.

But none of that mattered. For the girl, the only thing that mattered was surviving each day.

One day, by chance, a woman who pitied her gave her a single coin. She didn’t know its exact value, but the girl understood one thing: she could exchange it for bread.

A man blocked the girl’s path as she ran, carefully clutching her precious coin. He was probably one of the thugs who collected protection money from orphans in the alleyway.

Naturally, he tried to snatch the coin, and the girl resisted just as naturally, unwilling to let go.

But the price for a small girl defying a burly man’s temper was steep.

He showed no mercy just because she was a young girl.

He kicked her ruthlessly, trampling her without concern for whether she lived or died.

If anything, he seemed to see this as a chance to make an example for the other kids and kicked her even more brutally than usual.

As her consciousness faded from the relentless kicks, a shooting star crossed her line of sight in the night sky.

The girl, recalling an old superstition, made a wish as she looked at the shooting star.

That was the girl’s first magic.

—

Bang!

Valikan had no idea what had happened. The only thing he knew was that he was lying on the ground.

It was as if there was only the effect without any cause.

“…Aaaargh!”

Then, belatedly, the pain came.

It was an agony that felt like he’d been struck by an enormous hammer, reverberating through his entire body—far worse than the pain he’d felt when his wrist had been cut off.

Step, step.

Approaching the writhing Valikan was none other than Presia, who had been lying on the ground just moments before.

“A member of the night clan? Well, what a coincidence. I quite like the night too.”

She glanced at Elysia for a moment before looking back down at Valikan.

“Not that my name is cheap enough to share with the likes of you… but I’ll make an exception. So, remember it until you die.”

With an arrogant smile.

“My name is Presia, Presia of the Night Sky.”