Magic? Muscle Is Much More Important Than Such A Thing! Chapter 33

We went to gather information on the fugitives.
Yet while we'd get some hits on names, n.o.body knew any of their actual whereabouts. Well, makes sense.

We end our information search and head back to the inn.
Phelia had been brooding ever since we left the station and had barely spoken.
Well, after something like an abduction, it's a natural reaction.

When we get to the inn, Phelia speaks for the first time in a while.

“Yuri, I have something to tell you.”
“…What is it?”

Her stiff expression instilled me with no small amount of nervousness.

“What happened earlier reconfirms my weakness. As I am, traveling with Yuri is simply out of the question. Especially when you factor in that I'm an elf, I don't know who all might end up targeting me.
“…That might be so.”
“So, I'm thinking of revisiting the forest where I was born and raised. Would you come with me, Yuri?”

I can't read the true intentions behind Phelia's unexpected words.

“Tell me the reason.”
“I'm pretty sure I told you before that my talent was [Mind Read], but…That, actually it was a lie.”
“A lie?”

I have some doubts.
I was sure that Phelia had been able to read my thoughts a number of times, yet what's this about it being a lie?

“The truth is it's a talent called [Mind Probe]. Regardless of the target's intentions, it allows me to freely read into the thoughts of surrounding creatures to determine their true nature and abilities and such. Well, right now I can't use it, so you could almost say that it wasn't actually a lie.”

…Yeah, I don't get it.
Recently there's been all sorts of things I couldn't keep up with. I must be skimping on my brain training.
I lightly touch my head while thinking that I should have done some more training even if it was only headb.u.t.ting rocks.

“Sorry. I don't really understand, so could you reorganize your thoughts and then try telling me?”

“I understand,” Phelia responded with a nod then began to explain her circ.u.mstances.

“I think I told you a while back that I was being avoided by my peers, but [Mind Read]…or rather [Mind Probe] wasn't the cause. It was due to [Wind G.o.d]. I'm actually a Dual.”

Phelia says and smiles.
I could spot just a tinge of loneliness in her expression.
I see, so the wind magic Wind G.o.d she showed at the Magic Fighting Tournament was a mock reproduction of her talent [Wind G.o.d].
In that case, being a Dual seems like it should garner respect, shouldn't it? No wait, maybe it's too strong…?
Being shunned for being too strong would be understandable.

“It all started when one day my talent manifested. Yuri might not know of it, but we elves are almost all believers of the Wind G.o.d. The Wind G.o.d is a G.o.d who governs over nature in this world or simply put the G.o.d of the winds. The village chief considered that I, who had a talent such as [Wind G.o.d], was basically a blasphemer who besmirched the face of the Wind G.o.d whom we all revered, and so from then on, I began to be discriminated against in various ways.”

Phelia spoke indifferently as if what she recounted had happened to someone else.
And so, it became clear that my thoughts earlier had completely missed the mark.
Even though it should be common knowledge that one's own talents are not the sort of thing that one can choose.

“Well, I was surprised, you know. For everyone in the village, even including the mother and father who had been so kind up until that point, to just act like I didn't exist was something I never could have imagined. Not to boast, but even among the elves, I'm a considerable beauty. Perhaps due to that, everyone in the village had been quite kind to me up until then, so I ended up extremely shocked.”

Phelia smiles self-mockingly.

“At such a change in behavior, I asked, ‘Why? Just why?'. They would only grimace and tell me, ‘Could you not talk to us please…?'. Thus, I would think, ‘Ah, I shouldn't have been born.'”

Suddenly, tears flowed from her eyes making her cheeks wet.
Phelia herself even seemed surprised as she wiped at her tears with her sleeve.

“Then…it was a year later, maybe? I was depressed, but one day an unusually large magic beast appeared in the forest. Even everyone from the village together couldn't handle it, and when the village was moments away from total destruction, an S-rank adventurer who happened to pa.s.s by took the beast down in one strike. Witnessing such a feat, I was inspired. ‘I want to be like that', I thought. Well, children really are quite simple, yeah?”

Perhaps taking notice of how heavy the mood had become, Phelia tried saying something light-hearted.
I must give my appreciation to that adventurer. It was thanks to them that I could meet Phelia, after all.

“I tried leaving the village without letting anyone know, but after getting caught by the village chief, I got scolded pretty harshly. Using some sort of box that apparently came from the corpse of the unusual magic beast, my [Wind G.o.d] was absorbed. As a side effect, my [Mind Probe] was degraded into [Mind Read]. Rather terrible, don't you think?”
“It really is.”
“Well, not like all of that would discourage me, the excellent beautiful girl elf.”
“Don't say it yourself.”

Discouraged or not, it has nothing to do with your appearance, right?

“Ehehe. Well anyway, I thought I'd try waiting for another chance to escape.”

So she was undeterred, huh.
Phelia was surprisingly resilient.

“But you know, with the Wind G.o.d sealed, for some reason…everyone's att.i.tude towards me changed. Well, simply put, things went back to before. How it was before Wind G.o.d manifested.”

Phelia's body trembled.

“That terrified me to the core. When an elf who wouldn't even say a word to me yesterday would suddenly tell me, ‘Phelia is as cute as ever', I got gooseb.u.mps. Well from their perspective, I who had relinquished the Wind G.o.d had atoned for my sin, or so I supposed was the reason. Anyway, I was scared.”

That would be scary.

“So, I wound up running away. Without Wind G.o.d my wind magic was weakened, which made things difficult, but conversely, it seems like the village chief and the others didn't think I would even try to escape without Wind G.o.d. Wind magic was inherently my specialty and the magic beasts of the forest were considerably strong, after all.”
“So then you escaped the forest while flying, and that's why you ended up lost, huh?”

“That's right~”, Phelia says as she snaps her fingers.

“While I was overcome by a newfound sense of freedom, I strayed into an unfamiliar forest.”

Tehee~, she knocked her hand against her head. Sly.

“Don't just go ‘That's right~', are you some kind of idiot?”

Was she in any position to be calling me a muscle head? That sort of recklessness is no different than how I was today.

“To think a day would come when I would be called an idiot by Yuri…”

Phelia hung her head.
Perhaps because she had gotten everything that had been weighing on her mind out, she seemed to be back to her usual self.
I'm quite thankful. After all, I'm not good at encouraging others.

“So Phelia, does that mean you're going back to the forest to regain those two talents?”
“Yes. Having [Mind Probe] and [Wind G.o.d] would raise my combat ability, to the point where I should be able to deal with something like what happened today with a greater margin of safety.”

I see. Certainly if it's for self-defense, it would be better to have those talents.

“If that's what Phelia wants to do, I have no objections. So after we make our preparations, we'll be heading to the forest where you lived then?”
“There's just one problem.”

Problem?

“What is it?”
“I don't know the location. I had never left the forest before, and once I left I was caught up in my excitement and didn't really pay attention to my surroundings.”
“That's…Doesn't that make this basically impossible?”

It's hard to get somewhere without knowing where it even is.

“Yes.”
“What do you plan to do?”
“Please do something about it.”
“…Don't ask for the unreasonable.”

No matter how much of an intelligent muscle I am, there's nothing I can do. I mean, the only clue is that it's a forest.

“For now, I want to try visiting forest areas.”
“Okay, sure let's do that.”

We were done talking now that we had decided on our next course of action.
Phelia dives into bed while I start a handstand. The same as always, it's our usual routine.

Yet, no matter how much time pa.s.ses, I don't hear the sound of her sleeping breath.
When I take a glance her way, the futon is trembling just a bit.
I become aware of my own naivete.

To be abducted and nearly made into a slave—There's no way she wouldn't be scared.
I stop my one-armed elbow lever for balance training and approach Phelia.

“I'm sorry, Yuri. I'm too scared to sleep…”

I take a hold of Phelia's trembling hand.
Her body quivers for a moment, but eventually her tension eases.
Her hand is soft like a child's and white as snow.
Though she might be able to use magic, Phelia is just an ordinary girl.
I regret my own thoughtlessness for not realizing that.

“Is it really okay for me to stay next to you even though I might get targeted?”
“Of course. You don't need to worry and just stay with me. I'll handle it. Whether it's a brokkina or some thieves, I'll take them all out in one hit.”
“Thank you…so much.”

Overcome with emotion, Phelia starts to tear up.
She ducks her head under the covers to try to keep me from seeing her crying face.

“And if for some reason you start feeling anxious, then you should take a look at my muscles. These fully trained pecs and biceps, just looking at them should put your mind at ease. Want to try touching them?”
“No…that's okay. Really. Really, I'll be alright.”

My proposal was firmly rejected.
And here I had only the best of intentions. Even though just looking at these muscles should make your worries all but disappear.

Eventually some twenty minutes later, Phelia finally fell asleep.
Confirming she was out, I try to separate my hand, and yet Phelia who should be sleeping retains her grip.
In the end I remained by Phelia's side through the entire night.