Chapter 63: Interlude – The Moon Trapped in the Mirror

A hologram appeared above my Hero Watch screen.

[Midterm Evaluation Results – Warrior Division]

[1st Place: Yuren Helios]

[2nd Place: Morris Jin]

[3rd Place: Camilla Vediche]

When I saw the name “Yuren Helios” confidently displayed next to “1st Place,” I let out a breath of relief. “I-I actually got first place.”

I had passed out early in the exam and remained unconscious for the remainder of it. So, naturally, when I woke up, anxious thoughts had swirled in my mind. Had I really shattered the unicorn’s bell? What if I was mistaken? I had fainted right after attacking it. What if I had gotten zero points and didn’t even know it?

Now, after seeing the results on my Hero Watch, I could finally breathe easy again.

Suddenly, another name came to my mind. “Then what about Dale?”

I scrolled down the list, searching for his name. He wasn’t in the top ten, nor the top twenty. My fingers trembled as I continued to scroll. “No way!”

Finally, at the very bottom, it read: “253rd Place: Dale Han.”

A cold shiver crawled down my spine. I bit my lip nervously, eyes fixed on his name at the bottom of the rankings. “Dale…”

This was my fault. At the end of the exam, I had lost control of my mana in a moment of excitement and released a spell far too powerful. Dale had been caught in the blast.

“W-what should I do?”

Technically, cadets weren’t prohibited from interfering with each other during the exam, but my actions had gone far beyond what could be brushed off as simple interference.

The thought that this could ruin my friendship with him made my stomach churn with anxiety. I let out a deep breath and paced around my absurdly large dorm room, alone.

“I need to apologize to Dale later… I’ll reach out to him tomorrow.”

Right now, I had someone else to contact first. In the room filled with silence, I swallowed dryly and powered on my Hero Watch. A list of contacts floated in the air, but there were not many names to scroll through.

I slowly reached out for the name at the very top: Mother. My hand hovered there. I hesitated in silence, then shut my eyes tightly and pressed the button. A clear, bell-like tone echoed in the room, and my heart pounded like it was about to burst.

A holographic window lit up in the air, and a face appeared there. It was the face of Rosanna Helios—the head of the Helios family, a hero once known as Rosanna of the Flash, and my mother.

“What is it?” she asked.

As I stared at her face in the projection, I carefully said, “Um, we had our midterm evaluations recently.”

“Did you now?”

“Yes. So… I just got my results today, and I wanted to let you know.”

My mouth felt like it was burning, and my heartbeat pounded so loudly I could hardly hear my voice.

Still, I somehow said, “It was close, but… I managed to get first place again.

“Close?”

“Oh, uh, there was a really strong competitor this time!” I replied.

“A competitor? Do you mean that half-breed from the Republic, Morris Jin? Or surely not… Camilla Vediche?”

I frantically shook my head. “N-no! Someone else entirely! There’s this friend of mine named Dale. He’s amazing! He beat an assistant instructor in a sparring match, and during the recent demonic monster incident, he took down dozens of monsters all on his own!

“Hmm. Never heard of him.”

“Well, he had his reasons for hiding his skills until recently. But now everyone at the academy is talking about him! He’s that impressive!”

“And?”

“So, um… Still… I won,” I replied in a trembling voice. I could barely breathe, like something was strangling me.

The fight for first place had been close, too close for comfort. But in the end, I had shattered the unicorn’s bell before Dale did. I had lived up to the name “Yuren Helios.” I had earned first place.

A thought naturally came to mind: So please, just once. Even if just once, can’t you…

I wasn’t asking for much, not praise nor accolades.

However, what I got was a cold, biting laugh. “Ha! You’re proud of that? That’s what you’re calling an achievement? Barely scraping by in a cadet evaluation, and against someone no one’s even heard of. You think that’s worth celebrating?”

She clicked her tongue in disappointment. “The real Yuren wouldn’t have even broken a sweat.”

There it was again. Yuren, Yuren, Yuren. That blazing name, radiant as the sun. How much longer would I have to keep clawing and struggling just to be worthy of it?

“Pathetic. By the way, did anyone see your soul stigmata during the exam?” she asked.

Her deep sigh weighed on me like a stone, as I replied, “Oh… no. I kept it hidden like always.”

“Good. You must never let anyone see it. If word got out that the heir to House Helios bore the soul stigmata of the Moon God, it would bring disgrace to the entire family.”

It hurt. Every word she spoke was a dagger, razor-sharp, cold, and merciless. Each syllable cut deep into my chest.

“Is that all you had to say?” she asked.

“Y-yes.”

“Then don’t bother calling me over something this trivial again.”

The call ended. A silence heavier than death settled over the room. For some reason, this dorm, where I had lived for the past three years, felt like a stranger’s home. It was too big and too empty.

I wandered across the room, the ticking of the wall clock thunderous in my ears, and headed into the washroom. Before the large mirror looming above the sink, I gently removed the pendant hanging around my neck.

A soft blue glow enveloped my body. The brilliant golden hair that once shimmered like sunlight faded to a lustrous silver. My limbs became more slender, and my chest swelled into a gentle curve. Etched just above that curve was the soul stigmata of the Moon God, shining like a branded mark.

I reached out and touched the reflection in the mirror. “Yurina…”

It was a name no one called me by anymore, and a name I spoke quietly to myself.

The girl in the mirror smiled brightly and nodded. “I heard you got first place in the midterms. People say third-year exams get a lot tougher. How was it for you?”

I answered, “Mhm. It’s definitely different from the first and second years. This time, they released real demonic monsters into the exam field, and we had to hunt them down just like in a real battle!”

“Weren’t you scared?”

“I was terrified! Especially when that unicorn suddenly locked eyes with me and charged. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest!”

“Really? But you still didn’t run away and fought it instead?”

“Well, because I really wanted to win,” I replied.

“Against Dale?”

“Yeah.”

“What was it like going up against him?”

“He was incredible. I honestly don’t know how he fights so well with less than half the mana I have.”

“That must’ve been tough.”

“Yeah, it was. It was really, really hard.”

“But you won, didn’t you?”

“Haha. I don’t know if you can call it a win when I just brute-forced him down with my overwhelming mana, but…”

“Don’t say that, Yurina. Mana is your strength too, isn’t it? No matter the method, this was a victory you earned through your own effort.”

“Y-you think so?” I asked.

“Of course. Well, except for the part where you lost control and ended up hurting Dale. That was your fault.”

“I-I’ll definitely apologize to him tomorrow!”

“Good. I’m sure Dale will understand, so try not to worry too much.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

The girl in the mirror said to me, “Yurina, you did well. It must’ve been really hard, right? You went through so much. I’m proud of you. Even though Yuren doesn’t exist anymore, I’m glad that you’re still here. So now, you don’t have to be scared anymore. You don’t have to be afraid. It’s okay even if you don’t shine like the sun.”

These were the words I had wanted to hear the most, the words I had been aching for more than anything else, since that day five years ago, when I came home with second place from the Swordsmanship Tournament.

A heavy silence settled in the room. The girl in the mirror let silent tears fall, her face twisted in anguish as she clutched at her hair and sobbed without a sound.

***

The day after the exam results were posted, I arrived at Yuren’s private training room in the evening.

As soon as he saw me, he ran up to me and bowed. “I’m sorry, Dale!”

“Huh? What are you apologizing for?” I asked.

“Um, the exam results came out yesterday.”

“Oh, yeah. They did.”

Even just thinking about them made my head throb. I had really thought I was finally going to escape this cursed last place. Call it fate’s cruel joke, but after fighting that crocodile-like monster, I had collapsed from exhaustion and ended up passing out, earning a glorious dead-last rank among the 253 cadets in the Warrior Division.

If I had known this would happen, I would have hunted a few weaker monsters as insurance before going after the unicorn. However, I had no way of predicting how things would go.

I let out a long sigh and pressed my throbbing forehead, only for Yuren to speak again with a face like that of a puppy who had been scolded. “It’s my fault, isn’t it?”

“Huh? What is?” I asked.

“At the end, I dragged you into my attack, so you couldn’t go after any other monsters.”

“Ah!”

I realized that he thought I had ended up in last place because of him. From his perspective, it was a fair assumption. There was no way he could’ve known an eight-eyed demonic monster had appeared after he passed out.

“There’s no need to apologize. The reason I wasn’t able to hunt other demonic monsters isn’t you,” I explained.

Frowning, he replied in disbelief, “Lies.”

I had promised Professor Baldwin to hide the fact that an outside monster had infiltrated the exam field.

I can’t even tell him the truth. Guess I’ve got no choice, I thought.

I clicked my tongue and said, “Even if I did miss out on other monsters because of your attack, that’s not something you need to apologize for.”

There was no reason to blame Yuren in any case. I had tried to block him from getting the unicorn’s bell too, after all.

He replied, “B-but I lost control and let my mana run wild.”

“Control or not, it was a fair fight. In fact, I was kind of surprised.”

“Surprised?”

“That technique you used at the end. That was new, wasn’t it?”

A quiet sound escaped Yuren’s lips. “Ah! Y-yeah, it was.”

It was as I had expected. That final move, the White Radiance Wave, was something Yuren had created after gaining inspiration from what I said just recently.

I said, “Damn! Just watching it, I could tell it wasn’t easy to pull off. You must’ve practiced a ton to use it in a real battle!”

Even though Yuren was a prodigy with the sword, developing a variation of the White Radiance couldn’t have been easy. It had probably taken relentless effort.

I patted him on the shoulder. “You did well.”

His eyes went wide. “Huh? Wait! What did you just say?”

“Hmm? Oh, I just meant you worked hard. That technique must’ve taken a ton of effort to master, right?”

“Ah, yeah. I guess.”

“I mean, I didn’t see it myself, but I doubt even Reynald could’ve handled the Sun Sword Style that well at your age.”

I gave a soft chuckle and moved my hand off his shoulder. But then, Yuren suddenly grabbed my hand and placed it back where it was. “Dale…”

“Yeah?”

“Could you… say that again? What you said just now.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You know… the part where you said I did well.” Yuren turned his gaze away, his cheeks blushing red.

“Well, sure, I guess.”

I didn’t really understand why a guy who got showered with praise on the daily would want to hear it from me, but I patted his shoulder again and said, “You did well.

A short silence followed. Yuren’s expression softened, like butter melting in a warm pan.

“J-just once more! Please, just once more!” he asked again.

“You did well.”

“Heehee.”

I had never seen Yuren make such a goofy face. There was nothing of the sort in my past life’s memories.

Clutching his hands in front of his chest, Yuren beamed. “Hehe! He said I did well.”

At that moment, his smile shone brighter than any sun.

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