Damned Transmigration - Chapter 7

WeTried Translations

Translator: Joy

Editor: Joy

◈ Damned Transmigration ◈

Chapter 7: Elena (1)

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Elena walked right up to him, boldly reached out, and flicked Yuri’s old, ragged shirt. Rat-a-tat-tat! Though her fingers had not even touched it directly, every button came undone.

“Hey, what, what are you doing?”

Yuri asked again, genuinely flustered. Elena gave no answer this time either. Her blue eyes widened as she looked over Yuri’s upper body.

Old scars. Burns from a hot iron. The wounds he had inflicted on himself at the Black Snake Gang office had already healed into new scars. Elena’s eyes trembled as she took in all those scars.

“Ugh...”

Elena bit down on her lip and swallowed a groan. She lowered her head, clutched her skirt, and took a moment to compose herself.

“I got... a letter from Mr. Gordon.”

What?

“Yuri, about how you lived after leaving the orphanage. You... joined some ridiculous trash organization called the Black Snake Gang?”

Damn it. Yuri pressed his lips shut. He had wondered why Elena had suddenly come looking for him. It was because she had received a letter from Gordon at the general store.

“I know your organization was attacked too. Yuri, I know you survived... by sheer luck.”

Elena’s voice shook more and more. After steadying her breathing several times, she raised her head and glared at Yuri’s body.

“You almost died.”

“It... wasn’t that bad.”

“What do you mean it wasn’t? Does not being critically wounded mean you didn’t almost die? You were the only one who survived there!”

Crackle!

The emotions Elena could not control sent electric currents sparking around her.

Elena belonged to the Dersia Mage Tower. Just as in the game, the Dersia Mage Tower in this world wielded the lightning attribute, and naturally Elena, who had studied there, wielded lightning as well.

“...Hoo.”

Elena steadied her ragged breathing. The crackling currents subsided too. She pressed down the hair floating from static with one hand and glared at Yuri.

“What the hell is this?”

“...”

“I knew you did shady things. But there should be limits, shouldn’t there? You never told me anything, and neither did Mr. Gordon or the director! No one ever told me about you.”

Elena let out a hollow laugh and shook her head.

“So I was the only one who didn’t know. What you did, how you lived.”

“You didn’t need to know.”

He could not stay silent forever. Yuri narrowed his eyes and glared back at Elena.

Over the past month, he had gotten a rough sense of what the original Yuri’s personality had been like.

The bastard had simply had no manners.

“You’re doing well at the Mage Tower, so why would I tell you about my life?”

“What...?”

“Like you said, I lived a shady... Hah, fine. I lived like trash. So what? What business is it of yours how I live?”

Yuri snapped at her in a harsh voice, pushing Elena’s hand away. Then he began fastening his undone buttons again with a laugh.

“What business is it of mine...?”

Elena clenched the hand he had pushed away. After blinking several times, she composed herself and opened her lips.

“How could it not be? Yuri, you and I...”

“Childhood friends? Isn’t that ridiculous too? We were just the same age and lived in the same orphanage. That’s all.”

“Yuri...!”

“Please, Elena.”

Yuri cut her off with a short sigh.

“It’s been ten years.”

“...”

“Ten years. It’s been ten years since you left for the Dersia Mage Tower. I don’t know how you remember the old me, but I’m... not the same bastard as the ten-year-old kid you remember.”

That was true. Yuri, Elena’s orphaned childhood friend, was dead. The one standing here now was Lee Su-hyeok wearing Yuri’s skin.

Of course, that was not what he meant. It was only groundwork for a possible future emergency.

Please.

Yuri hid his desperation and looked at Elena. She wore a blank expression, as if she had suffered a great shock.

Seeing her like that softened his heart, but it could not be helped.

No matter how rude the original Yuri had been, there was no need for the current Yuri to be rude too. They said even rivers and mountains changed in ten years. A person’s personality could change all the more. And since this was a childhood friend he was meeting again after ten years, he could say kind things if he wanted.

He was deliberately choosing not to.

He desperately hoped Elena would lose all affection for Yuri. That she would despise the childhood friend who had changed from the boy she remembered into a piece of trash, then leave. So they would never, ever get tangled up again.

“...”

Elena glared at Yuri in silence. She seemed to be getting angry. Yuri opened his mouth, thinking that.

“Go back.”

To drive the point home.

“You don’t need to worry about me. I’ll take care of myself, so you...”

“Take care of yourself?”

This time, Elena cut Yuri off.

“What exactly are you going to do for yourself?”

Elena moved her hand. She laid it on the center of Yuri’s chest, where the scar from the stab wound remained, and twisted her lips.

“The Black Snake Gang? When I first heard the name, I thought it was some Black Path sect. But when I looked into it, it wasn’t even that. Yuri, you should have joined a proper Black Path sect instead. You might have at least picked up a third-rate Heart Method.”

The Veil of Deception was working perfectly. Elena could not sense even a trace of inner power from Yuri.

“Ten years? You’re right, Yuri. Ten years is a long time. I changed, and you... changed too. But listen.”

Elena withdrew the hand from his chest and let out a short sigh.

“Is there... nothing you want to say to me, now that we’ve met again after ten years?”

“What about you?”

Yuri asked in return.

“If you hadn’t come here like this, maybe I would’ve said something else.”

After blinking several times, Elena let out a short sigh and stepped back.

“You’re right.”

Elena nodded with a calm expression. She removed the wide-brimmed hat from her head and bowed to Yuri.

“I was rude. I’m sorry for suddenly coming here, breaking down your door, and only scolding you without considering how you felt.”

“I didn’t say that because I wanted an apology.”

“Yuri.”

Elena raised her head.

“I’m taking you with me.”

“What?”

“I won’t listen even if you say you don’t want to. I decided the moment I read Mr. Gordon’s letter. I’m taking you with me.”

There was no hesitation in her voice. Elena looked around Yuri’s tiny room and continued.

“I’m taking you out of this little room. Out of this countryside where you have nothing and can do nothing.”

This was the worst.

“I came here having already decided that.”

She hid the trembling in her fingertips by gripping her hat tightly. She held back the feeling that she might cry.

Her clothes did not suit the rural scenery. Her shoes were spotless. She looked like the city Yuri and Elena had admired together as children. Elena stood with her back turned, biting down on her lower lip.

If he had not spoken so coldly to her, would he have told her she had become pretty?

“Why?”

Yuri could not understand Elena. They had not seen each other even once in ten years, only occasionally exchanging letters. A few of those letters had mentioned worries about Yuri, but he had never imagined she would act this decisively.

He searched through old memories. Their days at the Oldor Orphanage. Fine, he would admit this much. Yuri and Elena had been close at the orphanage. If anything, Yuri had played the role of Elena’s older brother back then.

Before Elena discovered her talent for magic, that orphan girl had everything. She had talent for magic, and she was pretty too, so the spiteful children at the orphanage often bullied her.

They said the promise of a great tree showed in its first leaves. Yuri had been a troublemaker from childhood.

Young Yuri would pick fights with the other orphans at the slightest provocation, but he had been incredibly kind to Elena.

Whenever Elena was bullied, Yuri stepped in and beat the other orphans down.

Was that why?

That had been ten years ago. Or was it because he had nearly died a month ago? Over something like that?

No, was it really something he could call insignificant?

Had it shocked her that much to hear that her distant childhood friend had barely survived?

“Why? Why do you think?”

Elena sharply turned her head.

“Because I don’t want to leave you here.”

Her face held firm determination as she said it.

There was no persuading Elena.

That was all there was to it. There was no persuading Elena. She had come here after deciding to take Yuri away with her, and Yuri had no valid reason to refuse her demand.

He could not tell her about what he needed to do or what he wanted to do. It was not as if he had some grand vision, either. The Black Snake Gang could hardly be called a job, but he had lost even something like a job. He had nearly died in the process too.

Even without bringing up his modern perspective, Elena had objectively already succeeded in life. And she would fly even higher in the future.

In this world, Seronis, Mage Towers stood at the forefront of magic. Not every great mage came from a Mage Tower, but every Mage Tower Master was a great mage. Even in the game, every named character with the title of Mage Tower Master had been difficult to kill.

Elena’s talent had been recognized by one of those Mage Tower Masters.

And judging from the last letter he had received, the Dersia Mage Tower Master, Heavenly Thunder Orca Dersia, had even personally arranged requests to broaden Elena’s horizons.

That made it seem clear that the Mage Tower Master regarded Elena highly.

That extraordinary Elena had come all the way here herself, insisting that Yuri go with her because she would take care of him.

No matter how rude the original Yuri might have been, simply being rude was far too weak a reason to refuse in this situation.

Just insisting that he did not want to go...

That probably would not work. Elena was determined to take Yuri with her by force if she had to.

Checkmate. There was nowhere to retreat.

Was this actually better?

For one thing, his life would definitely be much better than it was here. He had encountered more inconveniences than he could count while living in Oldor, this rural city.

There were risks, of course. He could probably pass off the changes in his personality with ten years having gone by, but he would need to avoid subjects like memories of their time at the orphanage. He had the memories, but none of the emotions attached to them.

And I need to hide anything that might mark me as a Transmigrator.

Without the Veil of Deception, the moment he ran into Elena, he might have had to flee... Or he might have needed to sucker punch her in the solar plexus. Or desperately come up with some absurd excuse.

At least the Veil of Deception means there’s no way she’ll discover my inner power.

Just as the game and reality differed, so did the Veil of Deception’s effects. It would have been nice if it had come with an instruction manual, but neither the Sect of Order nor Lorelia possessed that kind of consideration.

It was fine. After putting the Veil of Deception around his neck and testing it in various ways, he had figured out how the item worked in reality and how to use it.

It felt as though there were a switch in his mind. There was not actually one, but by imagining it, he could control the Veil of Deception.

The Veil of Deception did not prevent him from using inner power or mana entirely just because he wore it. They simply could not be sensed from the outside. That was its default state, and he could control its output by focusing on the imagined switch.

He could make himself look completely ordinary, or like a novice who had only just started. Deceiving others like that was the item’s true value.

It would be nice if I could get a mana cultivation manual or a Heart Method through Elena.

He had secured inner power through the Heavenly Art of Annihilating Evil, but he would need an excuse later.

Good.

After much thought, he accepted it completely. First, he would leave rural Oldor with Elena. And while he was at it, he could benefit a little from his accomplished childhood friend.

“Are you done yet?”

Elena, who had been standing in the corner with her arms crossed, spoke to him.

While his mind had been busy thinking, his body had kept moving. He could not just follow Elena without bringing anything. At the very least, he had to pack.

“Don’t just stand there. Sit in a chair or something.”

“It’s too dirty.”

What did she mean, dirty? Yuri frowned and glanced at Elena, then looked over her outfit again and understood. A pure white dress that did not belong in this rural city. Clothes like that would gather dust just from standing still.

“...Why are you dressed like that?”

“What?”

“Your clothes. You remember what this city is like, don’t you?”

Oldor was the kind of place where he could stand in the street for hours and never see anyone dressed like Elena. Her outfit made her look like an outsider to anyone who saw her.

“...I can wear whatever I want.”

Elena answered with a frown. The irritation in her voice made Yuri wonder if he had said something wrong.

Ah.

Was it a kind of display, saying that although she was from here, she was now someone with nothing to do with this place? Looking at Elena’s personality through her letters, he thought that might be it.

At the orphanage, she had always followed behind him, calling, Yuri, Yuri. Who would have thought she would grow up so prickly and cold...

“You look pretty.”

Yuri turned back around and muttered it.

Earlier, he had been rude to make Elena lose her attachment to him. But now that he was going with her, he needed to change his attitude a little.

“What... did you say?”

He had meant for her to hear it. If she had ignored him, his own feelings would have been hurt instead.

“I said you look pretty.”

“...”

“Did I say something strange?”

“No... Um, right. Thanks.”

Her cold voice softened a little, and he heard an awkward cough from behind him. Yuri paid no more attention and continued packing.

There was not much to call luggage, really. A change of clothes for the journey, the emergency savings Yuri had diligently collected, a diary drenched in self-loathing, and...

“That.”

Elena, who had been standing nearby fidgeting with her fingers for no reason, came closer.

“Are those... my letters?”

Letters stacked in the bottom drawer. Yuri had been carefully placing them into his travel bag one by one when he looked up at Elena beside him.

“Yeah.”

“You... didn’t throw them away? You kept them?”

“Why would I throw them away?”

At that reply, Elena’s eyes trembled faintly.

Honestly, she had thought he might have thrown them away.

She had gotten that impression from Yuri’s replies. They had barely contained anything about his own life, and she could strongly sense that he had sent them only out of formality.

No matter what kind of letter Elena sent, Yuri’s replies lacked communication and empathy.

Life at the Mage Tower had become busy... and when they were younger, she had not liked Yuri’s attitude either. So Elena had gradually stopped putting care into her letters as well.

Their relationship as childhood friends was sustained only by shallow memories of the past.

It would not have been strange if their relationship ended at any time, but she had not wanted to end it.

It felt like she should not.

“You kept them...”

Elena glanced at the letters still in the drawer. Most had loose seals. She could not be certain, but they looked as though he might have opened and reread them recently.

Perhaps he had read them again and again.

“...Are you taking them with you?”

There was no need to ask. Yuri was putting the letters into his bag. Even though they had met in person now. He was not throwing away those letters exchanged over ten years, letters that had gradually made them realize the distance between them. He was taking them with him.

“Yeah.”

Why would I throw them away?

He absolutely could not throw them away. These letters contained ten years of information about Elena.

“Did you throw away my letters?”

“Ah... No, why would I have thrown them away?”

“That’s a relief.”

“What’s a relief about that?”

“It would be weird if I were the only one who kept them.”

If possible, he wanted to read the letters Elena had kept as well. The personality of Yuri that he had pieced together from memories and the diary lacked details. The memories themselves were not entirely clear, so he could not remember exactly what Yuri had written in each letter.

Judging from the memories he had pulled out, the personality he had identified, and Elena’s replies, Yuri did not seem to have written anything substantial in his letters... Still, reading them would help.

But wouldn’t it be weird to ask to see letters I sent long ago?

As he thought that and put the letters into his bag, Elena hesitated before speaking.

“Can I read them later?”

“...The letters you sent?”

“Yeah.”

“Why...?”

“Just... I mean, among the letters I sent a long time ago, I might have written something... strange.”

So it was not that ridiculous after all?

“I started sending them when I was ten. I, I was young, so I don’t remember very well...”

“We can exchange them and read them.”

He bit immediately.

“I don’t remember what I wrote long ago either.”

“Okay.”

An awkward smile appeared on Elena’s lips. Yuri matched it with the same smile.

After taking the things worth keeping from the drawer, he opened the drawer by his desk.

Four books that reeked of scams. He had decided they were not worth taking, but he deliberately opened the drawer and took them out in front of Elena.

“What are these?”

Just as he had hoped, Elena was interested. She quickly came to stand beside Yuri and picked up the Basic Mana Primer first.

“Yuri, do you... want to become a mage?”

“I was just reading it to pass the time.”

It was an obvious lie, meant to ensure Elena noticed it. Elena gave him a strange look, opened the Basic Mana Primer, and read through it with a fairly serious expression as she turned the pages.

Flip...

She focused on the first few pages, but soon began turning the pages faster.

“You didn’t pay money for this garbage, did you?”

He did not know. It did not look stolen, so Yuri probably had paid for it.

“And it’s secondhand too.”

He knew. At least three people had owned that book before Yuri.

Had the people who read it before Yuri and left notes behind become mages?

“Is there... a problem with it?”

Of course Yuri knew the book had problems. But he could not let on that he knew. Yuri made an uneasy expression and asked, while Elena let out a hollow laugh and flicked her fingers.

Fwoosh!

The Basic Magic Primer burned away in Elena’s hand.

“This is trash.”

Elena delivered that cruel truth to Yuri, who was putting his heart and soul into looking aghast.

“To someone who knows nothing about magic, it might look a little plausible. But even then, it’s mostly nonsense. It’s a fake. Why do you even have a book like this?”

“Because it was the best I could get.”

It truly had been the best he could get. There were no proper magic books in this rural city to begin with. Even if there had been, Yuri could never have acquired one.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Elena asked with a frown.

“You had a mage from the Dersia Mage Tower you could turn to! If you had written to me saying you wanted to learn magic, I could have...”

“I didn’t want to.”

Elena was right. If he had truly wanted to learn magic, asking Elena would have been quicker and better than buying a secondhand book like this.

But Yuri had not done that. Why? He did not know the exact answer. Yuri, who could have answered that question, had died from excessive blood loss after being stabbed in the stomach at the Black Snake Gang office.

Still, he could guess at the reason. Yuri resembled Lee Su-hyeok, and if Lee Su-hyeok had been in Yuri’s position, there was only one reason he would not have written to Elena.

Pride.

Because of that pathetic pride. Elena, the childhood friend who had gone too far ahead, who made him feel his inferiority and harsh reality with every occasional letter they exchanged. He had not wanted to show weakness before her, and he had never wanted to ask her for anything.

There was no need to explain that miserable, pathetic, long-winded story. I didn’t want to was enough. It was also a direct statement that he did not want to say anything more.

“...”

Elena was not stupid. And the Elena he had actually met possessed more consideration than he had sensed from her letters. She looked at Yuri’s face for a moment, then nodded with a short sigh.

“Okay.”

The completely burned Basic Mana Primer fell to the floor as black ash. Elena was quiet for a moment before turning her gaze to the other books in the desk drawer.

“Did you want to learn martial arts too?”

“Magic didn’t seem to suit me.”

“May I look?”

“Go ahead. They probably aren’t worth reading either.”

Elena glanced at Yuri’s coldly stiffened face. Regretting what she had said earlier, she examined the contents of Pungwon Heart Method and Three Talents Sword Art.

Sure enough, those two books were trash nearly impossible to rank above or below the Basic Magic Primer. But unlike before, she neither let out a hollow laugh nor burned the books herself. Instead, she silently put them down.

The last remaining book. Elena quietly stared at its title. She did not need to examine its contents. It was obvious what books with titles like that said.

Many mages who yearned for a Mage Tower but hit the limits of their talent found comfort in books of that sort. Elena was not that kind of mage. She knew she possessed tremendous talent and had never felt a lack of it.

If someone else had immersed themselves in such a book for comfort, Elena would have mocked that comfort as cheap. She would have sneered at them to train harder instead of reading garbage like that.

But she could not do that to Yuri.

“I’m glad I came to see you.”

Elena murmured that instead. She took her eyes off the books she had set down and looked at Yuri with a serious expression.

“I’m glad I found out now, at least.”

“...”

“I promise you, Yuri. You will...”

Elena took a short breath and turned around.

“You’ll come to think it was fortunate that I came to take you away today.”

He put his few belongings into the bag.

It was time to leave Oldor.

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