UDBL~39

CHAPTER 39

The reason Riana originally decided to become stronger… was because of Gray.

If she hadn’t been helplessly captured by those desert traffickers back then, she would’ve never crossed paths with that jerk.

Physical strength could protect her from those kinds of unwanted accidents. And in the worst-case scenario, if someone tried to kill her, it would help her defend herself.

From that point of view, training in the knights’ order—which was Gray’s domain—was absolutely out of the question.

He was exactly the kind of person she might need to fight one day.

“Then why don’t you go run laps around the outer castle wall or something? That alone should count as exercise.”

“Ah, well… that’s a bit…”

She didn’t want to accidentally bump into Deborah while wandering around like that.

Mrs. Baker scowled as she chewed on a bitter bit of cabbage and tossed the stub aside.

“Do whatever you want, kid.”

“Aww…”

Okay, so there was only one option left:

Magic Arts.

Riana went to find Allen. As usual, he was in the back garden on the west side of the castle.

From what she’d observed, he seemed to spend the entire day in that spot. Probably waiting for Deborah to come and rest her head on his shoulder.

Luckily, Deborah wasn’t with him right now. It was the afternoon shift, after all.

Still, just to be safe, Riana carefully approached, looking around cautiously, then greeted Allen cheerfully.

“Allen! Reading a magazine again today?”

Allen lowered the Postverge he’d been reading and nodded in reply—both a greeting and an answer.

He was a man of few words, but Riana knew he wasn’t a bad person. So, she smiled brightly.

She sat down beside him with a friendly attitude and kept the conversation going.

“It’s Postverge, right? I get it too through Mrs. Baker.”

When she showed interest, Allen tilted the magazine toward her, as if to say, “I’m done with it—wanna read?”

“I’ve already read this issue. I actually have the newest one with me. Want it?”

Allen’s face lit up at that. And Riana saw her chance.

“Speaking of which, I saw an article in Postverge about magic-users.”

She wasn’t making it up. That issue really did have an article about a magic-user appearing in the desert kingdom. Lucky timing!

“It said a guy from Diares who fled to the desert kingdom became a magic-user after a while. Can people suddenly become magic-users like that?”

“Usually.”

“What about you, Allen?”

“When I was twenty-two.”

Riana rolled her eyes upward, trying to figure out when she had become a magic-user. Back then, she hadn’t even known what it was—but it was probably around when she was twelve.

‘So I awakened pretty early, huh.’

Not wanting to seem lost in thought, Riana quickly opened her mouth again before the conversation went quiet.

“Wow, twenty-two? That’s impressive, Allen! The person in the article was in their late twenties, so you were much faster!”

Bingo.

Riana grinned when she saw Allen’s lips twitch ever so slightly upward. Then she threw out the next bait.

“The article was totally dragging the Diares royal family through the mud for letting such a talented young person leave… Yeah, right there! Reading it made me realize just how amazing you really are, Allen.”

Even Allen danced when praised.

Riana kept showering him with compliments until pride was practically dripping off him.

And just as his ego reached the clouds—

“But… are magic-users really that rare and special? I mean, I get that it’s impressive, but… doesn’t it seem a bit overhyped just because there aren’t many of them?”

—she cracked the whip.

“I mean, besides helping mages with Magic Deficiency Syndrome, they don’t seem to have that many powers, right?”

Allen’s expression stiffened. He shook his head.

Then, standing up, he gathered mana in his fingertips and created a small light.

Riana clapped brightly and smiled.

“Whoa! You can make light too?”

Pretty as it was, it was something she could also do easily. Still, she lit up her eyes and urged him on.

“What else?”

Allen thought for a moment, then suddenly tensed up.

‘What’s he doing now?’

Riana focused and sensed the flow of mana—he was drawing it from the air into his forearm.

He lifted his fist as if saying, “Watch this,” and punched the wall.

A deep dent appeared, and chunks of broken wall fell to the ground.

“Wow! Wow! Wow!”

Riana clapped excitedly, blinking in awe.

“What else?”

Scratching his head, Allen rolled up his sleeves. He looked around, but when he couldn’t find anything good, he waved his arms around while explaining.

“Magic tools. Mana.”

“You can extract mana from enchanted items?”

Allen nodded eagerly. Riana tilted her head, blinking.

“Does that mean you can deactivate any magic tool? Even the ones from Droche Company?”

In her experience, that wasn’t always the case. She’d tried it herself before.

The enchanted locks the desert folks carried were pretty weak. But the ones from the Droche Company had intricate formulas, and it was nearly impossible to extract mana from them.

As expected, Allen shook his head.

“Depends on ability.”

So the level of magic he could neutralize depended on his skills.

Allen’s shoulders slumped as he said that. Apparently, he couldn’t neutralize Droche products either.

“Still, that’s amazing!”

Riana gave him a big thumbs-up. Allen smiled again.

“What else?”

Riana’s eyes gleamed with curiosity.

Allen’s shoulders drooped. He didn’t seem to have anything left.

“Well, you’re still really amazing! No wonder you get to leave work on time every day.”

After one last round of compliments, Riana subtly dusted off her butt and stood up. She wanted to go practice that second ability Allen had shown.

“Again, agaiiin…”

But this time, the word “again” came out of Allen’s mouth.

Riana turned back, confused—only to see Allen tensing his whole body like he was summoning a spirit bomb.

He looked so serious that Riana couldn’t just leave. She awkwardly stood there and watched as Allen let out a sharp shout—

“Hiyaah!”

And then… he yanked a huge tree straight out of the ground.

He lifted it high with a proud smile.

Riana instinctively clapped—not out of politeness, but as a survival reflex after witnessing something so absurdly powerful.

“Wooooow…”

Still… was that okay? That was someone’s landscaping…

‘Ah, whatever.’

Giving up thinking about it, Riana smiled and said,

“Could you maybe dig a little head-shaped dent in the wall for me to lean on…?”

Allen, delighted, smashed the wall and carved out a perfect spot to fit the back of her head.

Thud, thud, thud.

By sunset, Riana finally escaped Allen’s show-off session and trudged toward the east. She was exhausted.

‘Anyway, that was useful. It’ll definitely help me survive until the auction.’

Now that she had a way to avoid getting swept up in the plot, things were looking up.

Plus, thanks to the memory potion, she had a rough idea of the story from “Boss, Please Hire Me.”

‘Staying out of the original plot? Piece of cake now!’

Feeling smug, Riana’s steps grew lively.

But before a full minute passed, a chill ran down her spine.

What was that?

Riana stopped in her tracks. She was standing on the lakeside trail where the back gate of Genevieve Castle came into view.

Then she spotted something.

“What is that…? That weird bright spot?”

Far in the distance, where trees looked like tiny dots, something was glowing.

The sun was setting in the west, but this thing was coming from the east.

It wasn’t a star, or the moon, or a streetlight—and it definitely wasn’t a walking mana stone.

‘It’s Killian!’

Riana immediately knew.

Killian showing up to flirt with her wasn’t anything new. But this time, he didn’t seem to have noticed her.

Thanks to her excellent eyesight, Riana could tell his eyes were glued to the documents in his hands.

‘So… he’s not chasing after me?’

Her eyes instinctively turned to the third floor of the castle next to her—Genevieve Castle.

At that moment, the light from the third-floor research lab window turned off.

And then it hit her.

The scene she had glimpsed from the original story using the memory potion—

IMPORTANT
Killian♡Deborah’s first meeting: At the lake, at sunset, after the desert kingdom’s welcome banquet.

That was the first time Killian and Deborah were supposed to talk alone.

And right now, Riana was standing exactly where that fateful scene was supposed to happen.

If this went on, she would end up ruining their romance and officially becoming the villainess of this story!