Never Saved You

As Yennit suddenly changed her mind, she likewise changed her words.

“I-It’s nothing big. It’s just, I don’t think I saw Lord Alejandro today.”

“If you’re asking about Alei, then he went to the temporary temple. I heard that there’s a lot of work to do because the building needs to be renovated.”

Since Cadelia brought with her some priests, the temporary temple was where they were going to stay. Ophelia briefly recalled that building, where the beach was visible from the ridge. She smiled again.

“He said he’ll be back before teatime, so I think he’ll be back any time now. Why don’t you go out and welcome him back?”

“I’ll do as you say. Thank you for your time.”

“It’s no trouble.”

When Ophelia said this as she smiled, Yennit bowed towards her and then left.

Compared to when she entered the room earlier, the door now closed with a pleasant sound. Only then did the smile on Ophelia’s face disappear.

“It’s over now.”

“I wanted to do something earlier, but.”

Sante approached Ophelia as he was told. As though annoyed by the fact that half of Ophelia’s face was swollen red, he frowned.

Ophelia glanced at his handsome face once, however she turned her head and averted her gaze.

“There are some things that I have to bear in order to get definite results.”

Thanks to this, everything was going according to plan.

Ophelia’s tone as she said this was contemplative.

And the recollection of what happened to her just a moment ago was swept away.

* * *

The entire story was simple.

Everything was moving according to Ophelia’s machinations.

The letter that Cadelia received that morning was not from Lilith. In fact, Lilith did not even write it.

It was simply a trap that Ophelia had set to ruffle Cadelia’s feathers.

For Ophelia, this was something so simple to do when at her side were the best mage and the fastest siren in the world.

Of course, it wasn’t true that Ophelia and Ian had met at the beach.

Neither was it true that they were having frequent meetings.

If there was one fact in all of it, perhaps it was that Ian was showing constant interest in Ophelia.

“What did I tell you? She definitely got angry and slapped me.”

“Sure. You guessed correctly so you must feel like you’re soaring through the sky. Thanks to you, I feel like I need to do something.”

“Haha.”

Ophelia laughed dryly in a way that didn’t sound pleasant at all. Maybe she wasn’t taking Sante’s words seriously. But truthfully, Sante was being serious.

The very moment Ophelia’s head turned to the side accompanied by the loud slap, Sante wanted to blow up that female human’s head right then and there.

However, as Ophelia didn’t know what was going on through Sante’s mind, she replied with only this.

“Anyway, I believe it’s worth sacrificing one cheek if it meant succeeding in provoking Cadelia and showing Yennit a pitiful side of me.”

Ophelia needed the hot-headed Cadelia to go out and set off some fireworks for her, so this was bearable enough.

Rather, one cheek was a cheap price to pay.

‘Cadelia didn’t seem to be able to move her body freely earlier.’

Sante knew what was going to happen, so he must have magically restrained her.

Not all sirens had good magical skills, but Sante knew how to do quite a lot of things because he’s lived for many years.

She heard that some of what he knew were things he learned from Alei.

As someone who has recently been benefiting from these happenstances, Ophelia thought it was all very efficient.

Of course, the individuals involved didn’t seem to think so.

As Sante listened to Ophelia’s calm tone of voice, he spoke up sarcastically.

“I don’t know about you, but Dian probably won’t feel the same way if he saw this.”

“Of course, this is a secret from Alei.”

Sante’s expression hardened for a moment.

“…Huh?”

“Alei is busy trying to regain his memories faster. I don’t have to tell him about this and make him worry.”

“Aren’t you just making excuses because you want to hide it?”

And she couldn’t deny this. Hearing Sante’s rebuttal, Ophelia looked down at her hands instead of answering.

To be exact, she glanced at the ring that was on her hand.

It was the ring that Alei had made for her to block mana.

This was the only item that Alei had made for Ophelia that continued to remain in her possession.

Thinking of Alei, who she knew made this ring while staying up at night, she recalled how she used to smile without realizing it whenever she looked at this ring.

Now that she couldn’t at this moment, it meant that they hadn’t been spending that much time together.

It’s been a while since they last met.

Rather, it would be more correct to say that Alei was avoiding Ophelia.

While they were together with other people, Alei would talk to her and speak lightheartedly as he usually did, but unlike before, they didn’t spend time alone at all.

When only the two of them would be left, Alei would hurriedly run away as though there was a fire to escape.

It was like that earlier today as well. When only Alei and Ophelia were left behind and everyone else had their own business to do, Alei hurriedly ran off.

“I’ll go see the temporary temple. If something comes up, ask Yennit to do it. I’ll see you later this afternoon.”

After saying so, he immediately disappeared as he teleported, not leaving any chance for Ophelia to respond.

Only then did Ophelia become sure of it.

‘Does Alei no longer like spending time with me?’

It was a fact that he felt reluctant around her.

It’s not like this was something entirely unexpected.

First of all, Alei was focusing on finding his memories recently.

Back then, on the day that Cornelli and Yennit arrived in Ladeen,

—I found a clue to regain my memories, Ophelia.

After saying so, Alei had been constantly holding onto his research papers on magic without an hour’s rest.

Perhaps he was forcing himself to find his memories quickly.

It was also true that Cornelli and Yennit were looking for a way to break the spell on Alei, so they were putting their heads together.

And this was the second time that this has happened.

That Ophelia couldn’t remain by his side because there was a crowd of people surrounding Alei.

‘Since there are people around him, naturally, there would be fewer reasons for him to interact with me.’

It was obvious that Yennit or Cornelli were better suited to talk to him since they all could talk about magic. The only reason Ophelia and Alei had gotten close to each other in the past was because there was no one else around them both.

‘Not anymore.’

Now that Alei was amongst his fellow mages, he looked like he was in his element—like a fish that’s returned to the waters.

“Lord Alejandro, what should we do here? It’s not that I can’t start it here, but I heard that there’s a lot of magic involved, so I was thinking that perhaps we could fix this up.”

“The first part of the formula looks too messy—it’s better to take this out and put this there. Look here. Like this.”

And as Alei waved his hand, a gust blew past the windless space.

Even in broad daylight, a twinkling akin to stars could be seen and the sea became as calm as a lake.

Alei, who improved the magic formula that Cornelli brought over to him, activated the formula as a demonstration.

And it was also the first time Ophelia had witnessed the manifestation of a magic formula.

She had seen Alei cast magic countless times, but he usually did it without having to go through the process of constructing the runes or reciting the spells.

He was able to naturally cast magic through his will with only a light gesture or a simple glance.

Cornelli explained this to Ophelia.

“If you can fully understand and have already memorized the method of composing and materializing runic formulas, then you can use magic without saying anything. Of course, only the ones that you’ve already memorized!”

He added that most mages would memorize frequently used spells like telekinesis and flight magic.

Along with these, mages memorized only a few more spells that they preferred to use, and this would determine the mage’s classification.

“Other than that, it’s difficult to memorize the others. High-level magic like teleportation is convenient, but it’s overwhelming just to try and memorize the formula.”

“But Alei always uses it?”

“That’s why he’s amazing! Miss Ophelia, Lord Alejandro doesn’t just have a lot of mana.”

Comprehension, memorization and application. He made everything that other mages found difficult look so easy.

“The amount of mana you’re born with is what comes next. But in the first place, there’s no one who can hold a candle to his amazing talent, so who’s there who can compete?”

Cornelli expressed his trust, reverence and pride in Alejandro.

Perhaps because Cornelli was a mage himself, so he felt that Alei was extraordinary.

Ophelia wasn’t a mage, so it was difficult to say that she could fully understand what he was saying. But still, she thought the same way as Cornelli.

Who would be able to compete with him?

To this man whose very existence was akin to a cataclysm brought upon by nature itself.