It's Overwhelmingly Convenient That the Female Lead Has Darkened - Chapter 33

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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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A Darkened Heroine Is Overwhelmingly Convenient
#33
Chapter 9. Eldvine’s Gift
For the past week, Eldvine Academy had buzzed with a single topic.
Naturally, that topic was the Eldvine gift-giving ceremony.
“What are you hoping to draw?”
“Hmm, I want a rabbit!”
“This girl doesn’t know anything. A cat is the best!”
“You idiots! You should draw a horse at least! It’s the most practical!”
“Hey, honestly, how are we supposed to draw a horse? Less than one comes out each year.”
“Right, the student council president was the last to draw one, wasn’t he? I heard it was an incredibly beautiful white horse. I really want to see the student council president riding that white horse…….”
“But if the horse the student council president drew was the last one, what did the crown prince draw?”
“……A camel.”
“What?”
“You haven’t heard that famous story about how he drew a camel and laughed for forty minutes before getting a warning from the professors? Apparently he summons it to spit on people he doesn’t like.”
…….
A madman…….
The first-year students had to recall the penalties for lèse-majesté just to keep from muttering the word aloud.
Drawing a familiar was certainly a tremendous opportunity, no matter what.
But the first-years had little hope.
Even with the founders’ aid, their meager magical reserves meant they could only summon small mammals, birds, or rodents—creatures of little consequence.
They performed faithfully as pets and little more.
But Daisy knew better.
She understood how vital even the smallest familiar could be in a moment of crisis.
* * *
“Elizabeth, please…….”
Back when she’d been confined to her estate under false accusations.
Daisy had summoned her familiar in secret.
Her magic had been sealed, of course, but a familiar was bound to its master and could be called even without magic.
Chirp!
What appeared was, unsurprisingly, the tiniest sparrow.
Daisy tied a letter asking for help to the sparrow’s leg.
She felt the small body sag under the weight of the letter, but there was no other choice.
It was her last hope.
“Elizabeth, don’t let anyone see you.”
“Chirp!”
The sparrow flew through the narrow gap in the window.
And Daisy immediately regretted it.
“There! A criminal’s familiar!”
“Kill it!”
Whoosh—thud!
The arrow pierced through in an instant, and before the sparrow could even cry out, it plummeted to the ground.
In that moment, Daisy felt it.
The sensation of her connection being severed.
With a pain like her heart being torn from her chest, Daisy screamed.
She could never endure that again.
* * *
And so Daisy made her own preparations.
“……What are you doing?”
“Praying.”
“In water……?”
“Good grief! Not water—blessed water.”
There it was.
It meant she’d gathered blessed water and was earnestly making her plea.
That was the way of gacha—prayer was everything.
Her roommate, Nora Spence, muttered “madwoman” as she left the room, but Daisy prayed with all her heart.
“Dear God, please let me draw something useful this time!”
Anything but that useless sparrow that could only be cute!
“If possible, I’d prefer a beast!”
A Siberian tiger would be perfect.
If it were large enough to bite through anything that tried to snag him, there’d be nothing in the world to fear.
“But if that’s too difficult, a horse would work fine too.”
Since no beast had ever been drawn from Eldvain’s Gift before, a horse sounded good as well.
After all, running away flat-out was the best defense there was.
“Or even a raven wouldn’t be bad.”
Being quick and clever, it could evade traps and attacks well enough to deliver letters reliably.
If it were a raven, the name should be—yes, Gareth!
But if ravens didn’t work either…….
“Just give me a mouse instead.”
At least then I could tell it to run away on its own.
And so Daisy kept pleading, again and again.
A tiger! No, a horse! No, a raven! No, a mouse!
* * *
“Ha, I never thought I’d be worried about a gacha draw…….”
Following the first-year students toward the courtyard, Daisy let out a deep sigh.
Kwon Do-yo had always been quite lucky with gacha.
Most of the appliances at home had been won as prizes,
and even her only overseas trip had been won as a prize,
a figure she’d bought out of curiosity had yielded a rare item,
and when a coworker who’d watched in amazement asked her to press the button on a game character gacha instead, she’d pulled an SSS-rank character—that was the caliber of her luck.
But she couldn’t begin to guess what effect it would have when combined with the original Daisy’s notoriously catastrophic misfortune.
“Wow!”
“What? It’s already started?!”
Arriving at the courtyard with anxiety gnawing at her lip, Daisy found that the “Eldvain’s Gift Bestowal Ceremony” was already underway.
“Boris Hagel!”
A young professor standing in the courtyard called out the name, reading from a parchment list.
The moment Daisy caught sight of that professor’s face, she drew in a sharp breath.
A strange, suffocating feeling had welled up inside her.
The professor was a young man with a gentle impression.
Warm chestnut hair that brushed the tips of his ears, eyes with a slightly drooping gaze, and a frame that appeared to be just under six feet tall—these features caught the eye.
He was an attractive man whose face bore faint creases at the corners of his eyes from smiling often.
Yet Daisy found herself unable to admire that appearance.
An inexplicable sense of déjà vu sent a chill down her spine.
What is this? Who in the world…….
It was then.
“Who is that professor?”
As if reading Daisy’s mind, one of the female students nearby asked in an excited voice.
“Apparently he’s the new alchemy professor who just arrived.”
“I’m taking alchemy starting today.”
“He’s really so handsome.”
“Isn’t he even more handsome than the Basic Magic professor?”
“Well, I’m still team Janet Hoer.”
“But you got cursed out by Professor Hoer last time, remember? He told you to quit magic if that’s all you were going to do…….”
“Humanely speaking, don’t poke at people’s sore spots.”
‘A new alchemy professor?’
Daisy’s brow furrowed.
Was there a new professor who’d arrived at this point in time?
The original work had only mentioned one.
The magic professor who took over after Janet Hoer departed for the Magic Tower.
‘Has the plot changed?’
Daisy tilted her head in confusion.
‘Or rather, it’s more likely that he simply wasn’t mentioned in the original work…….’
“Boris Hagel, are you here?”
“Oh, y-yes, I, I just, just arr-arrived……!”
A male student wearing thick, oversized glasses squeezed through the crowd of gathered students and finally made it out, speaking as he came.
Several students let out audible snickers at the sight of his crooked glasses and disheveled uniform.
But the professor neither frowned at nor ignored Boris.
“So you’re Boris Hagel. Thank you for making the effort to come.”
“Oh, th-thank y-you…….”
“What sort of summoned creature would you like to draw?”
“I, um, I’m… g-groundhog…….”
At those words, a group of boys nearby spoke up loudly, making sure everyone could hear.
“Hey, did you hear? Groundhog.”
“Figures he’d pick something like that. Haha.”
“Always picking the loner types…….”
Snap!
But when the professor snapped his fingers, the boys’ voices cut off completely.
With bewildered faces, they clutched at their throats, their mouths opening and closing silently.
“There’s no point in mocking a fellow student.”
The Alchemy professor smiled gently as he lowered the fingers he’d snapped, speaking in a mild tone.
“Now then, Boris. Stand up straight here, please.”
“Y-yes, sir……!”
With his back hunched, Boris scurried to the spot the professor indicated and stood there.
Whirrr—.
In that instant, the magic circle drawn on the floor began to glow a rich brown with a faint tremor.
“Oh, brown is quite unusual, isn’t it.”
The professor, his expression warm with amusement, gave Boris a conspiratorial wink.
“Let’s hope you summon a groundhog, Boris.”
And before Boris Hagel could even answer, the professor brought down his great wooden staff with a sharp crack against the edge of the magic circle.
Whoooosh!
Five thin beams of light burst from the gravestones and crossed above the magic circle.
And…….
“…….”
“…….”
“What? Did it fail?”
“I don’t see the summoned creature.”
Murmurs rippled through the assembled students.
Boris stood with his head bowed in disappointment.
“Oh, too bad.”
“I’ve heard that sometimes people do fail.”
“Ah well.”
In that moment, Boris slowly bent his knees and picked something up from the ground.
Resting in his palm was a creature as small as a mouse—an elephant shrew.
“Boris Hagel’s gift—the elephant shrew!”
The Alchemy professor laughed heartily and called it out loud.
“……Thank you so much!”
With flushed cheeks, Boris cradled the elephant shrew carefully and stepped down from the magic circle.
The yellow-badged students holding rabbits, piglets, and other adorable summoned creatures welcomed him.
“Excellent. So the Bee Garden section is complete. Next we have… the Bear Labyrinth.”
The professor snatched the floating parchment from the air and called out the topmost name.
“Daisy Sableheart!”

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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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