I Thought Your Friend's Sibling Wasn't a Girl? - Chapter 103

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 103
* * *
The appearance of a Demon Beast.
Aiden’s heart began to race erratically at the unexpected turn of events.
“Ah, ugh…….”
“Oh, Olivia. Olivia! What’s wrong with you? Come to your senses.”
His hand gripping the sword trembled alongside his voice. Though he knew all too well how dangerous it was to lose composure in such a situation, his mind would not obey him.
Losing control of his emotions, abandoning his calm and acting on impulse—these were things he dreaded most, yet over the past few months he had experienced them countless times.
All because Olivia existed by his side.
He was the most incompetent, most pathetic fool in the world, shaking this badly just from her presence alone. Self-loathing crashed over him.
“Aiden! Cover the rear!”
“I, I’ll go now. I’m……. I’m fine.”
The moment he saw her lips drained of color, her green eyes drowning in pain, a terrible memory surged back to life. The memory of that day when he’d nearly lost Olivia.
“Why, like this……. You came so late.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I was far too late. Forgive me…….”
Olivia, already half-conscious, and the Demon Beast that waited like a vulture, ready to steal her life.
Then too, Olivia had been in the forest, and the trees around her had been pitch black. At the sight of a landscape identical to that day, Aiden’s eyes swelled with turbulence like a ship caught in a storm.
“Go!”
Olivia’s voice struck his ears. Only then did Aiden realize the Demon Beast had drawn near.
“I don’t want to be a burden.”
Olivia was different from him. He was weak and fearful, trembling at the mere recollection of that day, yet Olivia was rising to her feet.
With a sword that shook in her grip, she braced herself as if to prepare even if she couldn’t rejoin the fight.
Then at the very least, he must not hinder her. Aiden forced his reluctant arms to move and released Olivia from his embrace.
The small warmth slipping from his arms left behind an almost unbearable emptiness, but there was no time to linger.
-Shriek!
The battle had begun.
* * *
The battle with the Demon Beast stretched on for quite some time. Throughout it, Olivia could do almost nothing.
All she could manage was to keep her grip on her sword. If she failed even at that, there was no reason she’d come this far.
“Sena! To your right!”
“Huff, puff. Coming now!”
Had only a single Demon Beast appeared, that might have been manageable, but this creature had apparently once belonged to a monster horde and had brought a entire pack of friends with it.
Demonized monsters appearing alongside the Demon Beast. With mutated creatures pouring in by the dozen, even the Lux Knight Brigade, specialized for such situations, could only struggle.
The thought that she was dragging down her teammates burrowed deep into her heart.
Thrummm, thrummm.
“Cough, hack.”
A metallic taste rushed into her mouth.
The unit members were sustaining the fight, yet Olivia was the one bleeding the most. And she wasn’t even fighting—why?
And when did these confused memories begin? What caused them? Was this similar to what Sirius was experiencing?
Olivia clenched her teeth and struggled to steady her trembling body.
The Defensor’s vibrations grew more intense. Olivia endured everything, barely cutting down the monsters that tumbled toward her.
She said she didn’t want to be a burden. She’d said she wanted to stand beside them and endure together, not merely be protected. But look at her now.
She was useless to anyone. Rather than being helpful, she was nothing but a burden, sheltered at the rear, restricting her teammates’ movements.
-Screech!
“Olivia!”
Crack.
Olivia slammed the Defensor down on a monster, her eyes spinning wildly as she tracked her teammates’ movements. The melee made it difficult, but she had to do something—anything within her power.
Thrummm, thrummm!
She breathed as Yugin had taught her, forcing the Mana in her body to circulate. The already unstable Mana lashed at her insides under that coercion, yet Olivia paid it no mind.
The single thought that she must succeed, that she must be useful, that she must protect those beside her—only that thought made her forget all pain.
Thrummm, thrummm, thrummmmm!
The Defensor in her hand vibrated as if possessed.
Before, she had drawn upon the Defensor’s power to achieve a near-Awakening. If she could just feel that sensation of connection again, the rest would follow swiftly.
Not a fleeting, fragile connection, but a complete Bond. That was precisely what she needed now.
Slash! Blood sprayed. Even the most skilled could not emerge unscathed from a battle like this.
Blood was welling up from Aiden’s forearm as he moved in to back up Sena.
“Aiden!”
“I’m fine.”
“Sena. Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine too. I’m heading to Luka!”
Amid the teammates grinding their teeth and pushing through to protect one another, only Olivia stood apart, isolated and alone.
‘I want to help too.’
Thrummmmm…….
‘I want to destroy that thing with my own hands.’
An impulse uncharacteristic of the usual Olivia—something violent. It was the moment she first craved the blooming of power.
And then.
[Truly?]
An unfamiliar voice called out. No—not unfamiliar. The voice she’d heard during meditation not long ago. That voice was now speaking to her.
And in that instant, memories she had ‘forgotten’ struck her mind like lightning.
“This Mana Stone……. I think I’ll have a use for it.”
The memory of that day when she’d gone to the Dean’s office for its return, only to have turned back as if entranced.
She had been drawn to that Mana Stone. Back then, she had clearly known its purpose, and it was someone who had clouded her memory to stop her from acting on it…….
‘So it was you, Defensor.’
But now it was finished. Olivia’s will had moved. Yet the memory that had surfaced so vividly was fleeting, leaving only instinctive action in its wake.
Olivia’s hand moved with speed. She reached into her pocket, pulled out her target, and didn’t hesitate.
Click. Something locked into place. And—
A strange exhilaration suddenly washed over her. Simultaneously, the pain that had been gnawing at her body vanished. The chaos around her fell silent, the emotions tormenting her stilled in an instant.
A sensation of detachment from reality. It was the same sensation she’d felt during her last Field Training Exercise.
“……! …….”
Her body began to move. Impossibly light, impossibly swift. So this is connection, she thought dazedly.
As she cut down, pierced, and shattered everything before her eyes, she knew no sense of burden. There was only a feeling of liberation.
She could not fail to recognize this as the pinnacle she’d so desperately desired.
Her vision held only ‘enemies.’ Her sword swung without hesitation in every direction.
“……stop.”
What? Who’s calling to me?
“Oli…via. You……!”
No. She must not stop. A foreign emotion, its origin unknown, tangled with her own and consumed her whole.
“Stop!”
In that instant, a voice like thunder itself pierced her ears. Olivia instinctively moved to strike the one who’d interrupted her, but froze immediately.
She recognized the warmth wrapping around her, holding her tight.
Bloodstained cloth filled her vision first. The iron scent of blood rushed in next. Only then did she realize her heart was pounding as if it might burst.
The raging flow of Mana cut off abruptly. She forcibly suppressed the Mana threatening to reverse through her body, blinking blankly.
“Olivia. It’s all over. Stop now, it’s finished.”
A trembling voice reached her from close by.
She looked around. Never had her teammates been this wounded, never had they felt such a threat to their lives.
“Olivia, are you alright?”
“Just……, sir.”
“Rest for now. You did well.”
Monster corpses lay scattered on all sides. The Demon Beast, too, had been disposed of without issue—its corpse mingled among the creatures. Luka and Sena were visible extracting Crimson Magic Stones from the pile.
Magic Stones, denser and more crystallized than those from demonized beasts. Crimson stones glimmering with a deep red hue pulled free from the Demon Beast’s body, drenched in its blood.
Two stones. Two hands to hold them. Wait, now there are four stones……. Four hands.
“Why are there so many stones? Wow, the Demon Beast must be different.”
“She’s talking nonsense.”
“But why does the right hand have four? Sena, you sure have a lot of hands…….”
Four right hands meant four left hands too. That would make eight limbs total…….
With two legs as well, Sena had more limbs than a spider. Olivia babbled without knowing what she was saying, and Sena, now with four pairs of eyes, let out a dry laugh before opening her mouth.
“Knock her out. This won’t do.”
“Senior, there are four of you now!”
That was the last thing Olivia said while conscious. As an invisible force poured into her body, her awareness sank into the depths.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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