VIP Chapter 498: Carver’s Memoir (1)
Thirty years ago, on a plain sunny afternoon.
For example, as the family head with the highest achievements in the Hysterm Family, as a great adventurer ranking in the top ten of all adventurers, and as the merchant who would later run the Adventurer’s Guild most successfully…
His story, at least in his heart, began here—
“Be serious, don’t keep staring at me.”
The girl named Mits, after finishing drawing a beautiful magic circle on paper, looked up and found Carver not looking at her drawing, but staring into her eyes.
“I’m sorry. It’s just, did you dress up a bit today?”
Compared to Carver, who wore the exquisite clothes of a young master, Mits had long braids, and her hair was slightly curly, making her look much more rustic.
There was a hint of “ordinariness” about her.
However, though she was “ordinary,” she also had her unique characteristics.
For example…
Her clothes had no sense of “coordination” at all; she wore a short-sleeved shirt on top, with her outer jacket tied around her waist, while for her lower body, she wore a long skirt that exuded a slightly “elegant” vibe.
It was as if she was jumping between being an ordinary girl and having a “noble” status.
Yet she possessed the lightness of a little rabbit.
The gentle afternoon breeze ruffled her long brown braids, making them sway.
Her equally brown eyes gazed at Carver, and on this small afternoon, it felt as though the whole world revolved around Carver for her.
“I admire that you could tell. Mother heard I was going to the booming Hysterm Family and specifically applied makeup for me—I said Carver wouldn’t notice, and she didn’t believe me.”
“…Actually, I could tell.”
Carver admitted in a very honest tone, avoiding her gaze at the same time.
Because he wore glasses, his avoidance was accompanied by reflections, making it particularly obvious.
“Didn’t you get all these questions from the teacher wrong? You, do you really have no interest in magic at all?”
Mits cheerfully began to explain.
“Magic symbolizes the ‘possibilities’ of the world. Theoretically, it can write all the ‘stories’ that the entire world can have, it’s a very, very important thing!”
“My affinity is too poor, I’ve been estranged from it from the beginning.”
“You completely don’t understand! You can’t use magic as well as I can, but you can still understand what it can bring you.”
“Understand… what it can bring me?”
“As long as you have a great mage by your side, you can feel all these small magics.”
Mits stood by the garden table, in front of that small table.
She pointed at the test paper.
“For example, simple gravity magic.”
She looked at Carver’s crossed arms and picked up her staff.
The staff looked as if she had pieced it together from materials she found herself.
“Like a bird breaking free from the ground’s constraints, like the wind blowing across the ends of the sky…”
A gust of wind gradually began to blow in the garden.
It ruffled Mits’s brown braids, and she opened her eyes.
“Release from this heavy oppression—”
She cast a little “gravity” magic, and then…
Carver’s arms slowly floated up, relieving him of the effort of holding them up.
“…What it brings me… is something like this…”
A trace of light flickered in the young boy’s deep blue eyes.
For him, who was not valued by his family, was bullied by his classmates at school, and always came in last no matter what he did…
Mits, who used such simple gravity magic, was just like this magic herself…
It made the heavy burden weighing on him feel much lighter.
“Yes. It is said that from dungeons, we can obtain many, many magic books and many, many methods for casting magic.”
Mits happily hugged her staff and sat on a chair, her eyes still on Carver’s disastrous report card.
“By then, Carver, will you accompany me? After all, you are the future head of the Hysterm Family!”
Mits seemed to get excited just by “imagining” it.
“Won’t I become… the protagonist of a story? You’ll be the male protagonist, and I’ll be the hero—a story of clearing dungeons from when we were young.”
“The head of the family… won’t be me.”
He sat down, quickly shattering her illusion with “reality.”
The thick glasses reflected intense light, making it impossible to see what kind of expression was hidden beneath his lenses.
“First… I have to defeat my older brothers. Especially those who have already made achievements in dungeons. Secondly… I have to gain my father’s approval… Lastly, let me think… if I can’t become a very powerful adventurer, it will be difficult for others to acknowledge me. At that time… I might still be bullied like this?”
His intertwined fingers rested on the homework paper and test paper, as if he wanted to press down fiercely on the conspicuously red marks.
And the lightness brought by the gravity magic was only “temporary.”
“Even if such a story truly existed in the world, I would only be a supporting character. Perhaps, the kind that serves as a stepping stone…”
He was not someone who had a future.
In this world, no one had ever chosen to stand by his side, and no one believed that the “epic of a hero” would be written by him.
Until—
Mits’s slender fingers clasped his.
Very forcefully, she pulled his entire hand, which was sinking down onto the test paper, away.
“I’ve already dealt with the people at school who looked down on you.”
“Hm?”
“You have a friend who will surely become a great mage. Your starting point is much better than your brothers who are busy recruiting talent everywhere.”
“Th-this…”
“Even if you lost an arm, you could still use your non-dominant hand to perform those giant axe techniques. Isn’t this the most protagonist-like thing about you?”
Mits became more and more excited, but she seemed to have no intention of stopping.
“No… you don’t need to praise me… I… I know my place…”
Carver wanted to interrupt her fantasy but didn’t know where to start.
“You should write the story you want for yourself.”
The young boy was drawn in by the such confident voice and finally looked up, seeing himself in her brown eyes.
The blond-haired him seemed to shine so brightly in the girl’s eyes.
“I will be by your side, holding your hand like this, and on the day you reach the pinnacle, I will tell you that you are the protagonist of the entire story.”
*Swish—*
The moment she let go, accompanied by the sound of waves hitting the distant beach, a strong sea breeze blew from afar.
It blew away the papers on the table that Carver’s hands had not pressed down.
“Wait… they all flew away—”
Carver reached out to grab them but watched helplessly as these papers flew away one by one before his eyes, like flipping pages.
As if a storybook had been swept open entirely.
Quickly narrating page after page, quickly moving from a person’s birth to a person’s death.
“Ahhhhh~”
In the moist and strong sea breeze, he could only see Mits’s face, half obscured by the flying papers.
But he could hear her happily humming a song.
“Oh traveler, far from home, could you briefly stay?”
“Let me sing a short hero’s tale…”
But she didn’t finish singing, because her voice, not suited for the song, ultimately got stuck on the rising high note.
The melodious sound spread, but was interrupted by her final laughter.
“Hahaha… Let me think, by that day…”
On that half-visible face, bathed in the bright sunlight from the sea, her lips bloomed into a smile as bright as the light.
The only thing visible from these pages flying away was the slightly red lobe of her ear.
“As a reward for my foresight, can you give me a kiss?”
…
*Whoosh—*
In front of Carver’s eyes, breaking through that smile was Will’s giant fireball.
