WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Magic-Eating Wizard ◈
Chapter 9: Wizards, Too, Are Magical Creatures
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“Urgh!”
The sensation of blood being drained from the back of his neck was sickeningly vivid.
At the same time, Nasrel gulped as she swallowed something, so Haren knew exactly what was happening to him.
“Y-Your wounds are healing!”
Rim shouted in surprise, and Haren glanced down at Nasrel’s body.
Her flesh really was regenerating, pushing out the stone fragments embedded in her body.
He could not see her face, but it too was returning to normal. With faint cracking sounds, her crushed nose, fractured cheekbones, and jawbone slowly returned to their proper shapes.
Rather than forcibly pull her away, Haren leaned against a tree and endured with gritted teeth.
Only when he began to worry that he might truly pass out did Nasrel finally let go.
“Haa...”
She gave a sweet sigh, then let her head fall onto Haren’s shoulder and passed out again.
Haren’s legs gave out, and he sank to the ground.
“I thought I was going to die...”
At least he had only suffered broken bones in the earlier fight.
If he had been as badly hurt as Ruska when she drank his blood, he would have passed out from shock or died.
As Haren tried to stand, his head spun from the blood loss.
“Rim, untie me. Let’s rest here for a bit.”
“Okay. Wait, let me put Ruska down first.”
With Rim’s help, Haren laid Nasrel beneath a tree sheltered from the rain and sat beside her.
Her wet black hair clung to her face as she slept. She looked less like a person than a finely made doll.
‘A vampire?’
That was the first thing that came to mind, a creature he had seen far too often in all kinds of media in his previous life.
She had many of the same traits: beautiful looks, crimson eyes, pale skin.
He had never seriously considered it because no one found her appearance unusual.
After all, in this world, unusual natural colors such as Rim’s blue-gray hair and eyes existed. Blood-red eyes could simply be seen as a remarkable feature.
Haren looked at Rim and Ruska, who were sitting a short distance away.
“Do you know why Nasrel is like this?”
They had become Cardin’s disciples before him, so surely they knew something.
Rim hesitated after hearing the question, then sighed.
“To be honest, we don’t know much either... You remember Nasrel said she came from the border region between Berman and the Empire, right?”
“I remember.”
“When Master and we went looking for Nasrel, people in the villages around there told us there was some kind of blood-drinking monster.”
Legends of mysterious monsters were not uncommon in a world where magical creatures lived and breathed.
But back then, it was treated not as a mere legend, but as a real danger. Victims who had truly been attacked by it kept appearing.
“They said dozens of people had been bitten with sharp teeth, drained of blood, and killed. They were all from the Kingdom of Berman.”
After hearing that, Cardin said, “We came to the right place,” then left the two boys at an inn and went off alone.
Not long afterward, he returned with Nasrel, who looked like a wild child. There was no need to say who that “monster” must have been.
Still, she had never shown a desire for anyone’s blood afterward. Ruska and Rim found it unsettling, but had never questioned her closely.
“A blood-drinking monster...”
As Haren murmured, Nasrel’s eyelids fluttered as she lay there like the dead.
A moment later, the girl opened her crimson eyes and spoke in a sleepy voice.
“...Delicious.”
“What?”
“Delicious. So delicious.”
The girl wore a hazy, drunken expression, but soon blinked and came to her senses.
She seemed confused about why she was lying here.
“I’m honored my blood was so delicious.”
“Blood?”
Only then did Nasrel notice the four sharp fang marks on Haren’s neck.
There was no trace of blood running down from them, but the marks were painfully familiar to her.
“Did I bite you?”
“Yeah.”
“Sorry.”
Instead of turning aggressive or frightened, Nasrel apologized with a dejected expression.
Her calm reaction was unexpected. Haren gave a small sigh of relief and shook his head.
“It’s fine. If drinking it healed you, that’s a good thing. Until then, I was really worried you might die.”
If she could recover like this, he could put up with a little anemia.
To encourage Nasrel, who seemed unusually gloomy, Haren said what he had been preparing to say.
“Thank you, Nasrel. We survived because you fought so hard.”
If she had not desperately held Voras back, Haren would have lost his will to fight and surrendered.
Just imagining what might have happened afterward was frightening.
Nasrel remained expressionless at his thanks, but her hands kept gripping and releasing her skirt, which was riddled with holes and torn to rags.
She seemed embarrassed by the praise.
“You were hurt too.”
Her gaze moved to Haren’s broken fingers, Ruska’s bloodied leg, and Rim’s bruised face.
Haren smiled and nodded.
“That’s true. We all fought hard. You all did well.”
“Hmph.”
“I hardly did anything, though...”
Ruska snorted as usual, while Rim gave an embarrassed little laugh.
Once the mood had eased somewhat, Haren brought up what he wanted to ask.
“So, could you tell us more about your condition? We need to know what to do if something like this happens again.”
Nasrel fell silent at the question, and Haren waited patiently without urging her.
He knew this was not something that could be rushed.
But after a while, the girl’s answer was completely beside the point.
“I’m fine now. Nothing hurts.”
“No, I mean... why do you drink blood? Are there conditions for it, or side effects?”
“Oh. That.”
Nasrel nodded as if she finally understood.
“It’s a bloodline ability. Apparently, one of my ancestors was a wizard who imprinted special magic, and it was passed down.”
“But you definitely have Great Strength...”
Then Haren realized that there was no rule saying someone could have only one blessing or bloodline ability.
A family could pass down more than one bloodline ability. Someone who inherited one might also happen to be born with another blessing.
Such cases were simply extremely rare.
“So you have dual blessings.”
“Yeah.”
“What exactly can you do?”
“I don’t die easily, even if I’m hurt. If I drink blood, I heal quickly. But if I’m badly hurt, I go crazy wanting to drink blood.”
“The person whose blood you drink doesn’t gain the same ability, right?”
“I don’t think so. Probably not.”
Remembering the vampire infection trope from his previous life, Haren had asked without thinking. He gave an awkward smile.
Blessings were rare even among wizards. If someone could gain one just by having their blood sucked once, it would have become widely known in the magical world long ago.
“But sometimes I have to drink blood even when I’m not hurt. If I don’t, I go crazy.”
“Ah...”
At Nasrel’s explanation, Rim let out a sound as if he finally understood something.
Haren looked at him.
“Why?”
“Well, Master sometimes called Nasrel away by herself, and they would go somewhere. It never happened in Moria, though.”
“That’s right. When I said I needed blood, he brought people for me to drink from.”
Nasrel nodded and explained, and Rim gave a small sigh.
“So that was it. I thought Master and Nasrel...”
Rim’s face suddenly turned red, and he could not finish.
It was easy to imagine something improper when an old master regularly summoned his pretty female disciple in private.
Though, when it came down to it, bringing people for her to consume was a far worse crime.
“Do you have to drink until they die?”
“No. But if I drink a lot, I can last longer.”
“Can’t you drink from something that isn’t human?”
“No.”
“I see...”
Haren organized his thoughts for a moment, then made a suggestion.
“Then how about drinking my blood from now on?”
“Why?”
Nasrel asked with a puzzled look.
“If you don’t have to do it, it’s better not to kill people. More than that... I don’t think all the people he brings are villains who deserve to die.”
If it were Cardin, he would probably grab any poor person whose disappearance would not matter and feed them to her.
Haren was not a saint, but if a little effort on his part could save innocent people, he did not want to leave them to their fate.
Besides, Nasrel was a precious friend now. He did not want to let her commit wrongdoing.
Perhaps because of how she had grown up, she did not seem to feel guilty yet. But there was no guarantee she would feel that way forever.
“Okay.”
Nasrel nodded without resistance. Rim, who had been listening beside them, joined in.
“I-If it’s okay, I’ll help too. It might be hard for Haren to do it alone.”
Ruska turned his head as if he were not interested, but Haren knew he would help too if needed.
* * *
After their warm conversation, the four decided to move again.
They were still being pursued, after all.
One thing had changed, though. Nasrel was now carrying Haren on her back.
“This feels kind of strange...”
“What does?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
His head still spun whenever he walked even a little because of the blood loss, so this was the best option.
Now that Nasrel had recovered, she was strong enough to carry five or six boys like Haren if she wanted. There was no problem there.
Rim’s quiet murmur was half swallowed by the sound of rain.
“Do you think Master is alive...?”
“He better be. I won’t let him die before I kill him myself.”
For completely different reasons, both of them wanted Cardin to be alive.
The absurdity of that made Haren laugh briefly. Then, resting his head against Nasrel’s neck, he asked softly.
“Can I ask you something?”
“What?”
“Did you eat people before you met Master too?”
It was an extremely sensitive question, one that might destroy their relationship in an instant.
But Haren asked because their earlier conversation had made him realize that she had no intention of hiding it.
As expected, Nasrel nodded and answered without hesitation.
“Yeah.”
“Because you were hungry?”
“No. Because I was angry.”
“Why were you angry?”
“Because those people killed Mom.”
Unlike her usual blunt, emotionless manner, her final words carried a cold fury.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“Yeah.”
Her explanation was somewhat scattered, but he could understand the overall story clearly.
The Mana Family, which Nasrel belonged to, had passed down a blood-drinking constitution as a bloodline ability for generations.
Their magical inheritance had ended long ago, but they owned the most land in the region. Since they reduced their tenants’ rent in exchange for blood, they had earned great respect from the people.
Then the Great War broke out, and everything fell apart.
Almeria’s army, which swept across all of Sherden, reached even the village ruled by the Mana Family.
Nasrel and her mother, who was holding her as a baby at the time, barely survived. But they lost their home and had to wander and beg.
It was not easy for an unprotected woman and child to survive in the devastated land left by war.
Trouble began when they stayed in a village with an especially large number of Berman residents.
A widower who had fallen for Nasrel’s mother had been secretly peeking into their home. He saw Nasrel drinking her mother’s blood.
Because of an ancestor of the Mana Family who had been active long ago, legends about blood-drinking monsters were widespread in that area. The war had also made people fearful and hostile.
When Nasrel’s constitution was exposed in such circumstances, people became convinced that she was the blood-drinking monster from the legend and tried to kill her.
Nasrel’s mother barely managed to help her daughter escape, but the enraged villagers captured her and burned her alive at the stake.
After fleeing into the forest, Nasrel began taking bloody revenge not long afterward.
She was only ten at the time and not yet a wizard, but her Great Strength constitution had already given her physical abilities that surpassed adult men.
A beast that could think like a person attacked under cover of night. Ordinary farmers had no choice but to be hunted down one-sidedly.
Whenever hunters came looking for her with guns, she hid deep in the forest, then repeatedly ambushed them in secret. Eventually, no one dared come after her anymore.
The few Berman words she knew were things her victims often said back then.
After years of rampaging and becoming infamous in the surrounding regions as a blood-drinking monster, Cardin came to her and demanded that she become his disciple.
Naturally, she resisted. But after being beaten senseless, she gave in and became his disciple.
After hearing everything, Haren was silent because he could not immediately think of what to say.
Only the pouring rain rang in his ears.
“You all... had it really hard.”
He had never imagined there could be lives more terrible than growing up in the worst slums from infancy.
Every one of his fellow disciples had lived a truly difficult life.
The fact that Ruska, who had lost his whole family and was forced to follow his enemy, was the happiest of them because he at least remembered growing up in a normal household was not funny at all.
Nasrel did not answer his comfort. She silently continued down the forest path with him on her back.
But perhaps because he was being carried, Haren felt that her footsteps had become lighter than before.
They walked through the rain for several dozen minutes.
Then Rim, who was walking ahead, gave a small cry and stopped.
“What is it?”
“There’s a light ahead...”
“A village?”
The moment he said it without thinking, Haren realized it could not be.
The light was growing closer.
“Everyone, hide!”
Haren quickly extinguished his Illumination spell.
Their eyes had grown used to the light, and now they could not see even an inch ahead in the darkness. The four had to feel around to make sure the others were beside them.
At least the continuing rain was masking their scent and sounds.
The other side must have seen their light too, but they would not know exactly how far away they were, so they would not find them immediately.
Yet the other party approached in a straight line, as if they could see them perfectly in the dark.
When Haren recognized the face revealed beneath the light, he felt a complicated mix of relief and despair.
“Have you all been well? Judging by your appearance, I doubt you have been having much fun.”
Cardin smiled with his usual relaxed expression.
* * *
‘So he came after us after all...’
Haren felt bitter at Cardin’s appearance, but not surprised.
He had already guessed that the old man had some way of tracking them.
In their current state, injured and with nowhere to go, it was better to accept his protection for now.
Just as Haren was about to say something in greeting, a large mass of water flew toward them with a whoosh.
Ruska, who was riding on Rim’s back, had cast a Water Bullet spell.
“Get lost, old man!”
The Water Bullet burst before Cardin’s eyes with a bang, but the old man did not even blink.
Haren caught sight of the outline of a mana field briefly appearing and vanishing before Cardin’s eyes.
He had not understood before, but now he knew it was proof of tremendous mana control.
The shimmering haze unique to a mana field was a trace left behind when mana was not perfectly controlled.
“Oh? It seems you’ve reached the second tier. Congratulations, Ruska. Though it was about time. If this was all it cost for your leg to end up like that, you got off cheaply.”
Realizing that even his stronger magic could not leave a single scratch on Cardin’s body, Ruska merely glared and breathed heavily instead of attacking again.
Haren suspected that Ruska had not attacked only because he was angry. He had likely wanted to gauge the difference between himself after reaching the second tier and his opponent.
As always, Cardin ignored it and greeted the others.
“Miss Nasrel is unharmed, while Mister Rim and Mister Haren are in rather poor condition. Did you encounter a formidable enemy?”
“He was third tier. We almost all died.”
“Oh dear, that was dangerous.”
When they first encountered the thugs, Haren had suspected throughout their escape that this might be some sort of test from Cardin.
Did novels not often have masters do such things to give their disciples real combat experience?
But that suspicion had weakened somewhat because Cardin’s hand, which held a gas lantern, bore bright red burn scars.
His sleeves were also scorched. He had clearly fought someone and been injured.
Unlike his usual immaculate appearance, Cardin now seemed somewhat less at ease.
“Were you hurt, Master?”
“Mm. I was. I met a formidable enemy. Was his name Colonel Belua? A fine soldier and wizard who reached the fifth tier at a young age. Not anymore, though.”
“Aah!”
As he spoke, the old man took out a round object from his free hand.
Rim screamed when he realized it was a human head.
Suppressing the disgust rising inside him, Haren forced himself to remain calm.
“That must be Colonel Belua.”
“He was a master of explosion magic. If he had gained more experience, he might have become a pillar of the Empire someday. It is truly regrettable that his life ended here.”
The face of the man, who looked to be in his mid-to-late twenties, was twisted with shock and fear.
Just imagining what he had seen and experienced at the moment of death made Haren shudder.
Haren felt despair at the fact that even someone strong enough to crush Voras with ease had fallen to the old man. Yet he also felt a small hope.
At least it proved that a fifth-tier wizard could injure Cardin.
Even if they could not grow that powerful themselves, they could lure in a major figure of the sixth tier or higher and hurt Cardin...
“Fine, we get it. Put that damn head away. Looking at it makes me sick.”
Ruska spoke irritably, and Cardin laughed heartily and shook his head.
“That would be difficult. This head is practically my second most valuable spoil of war!”
“Your spoil of war?”
Since he was a colonel, he was probably from the navy that had been chasing Cardin. Could there be a bounty on his head?
A chilling smile appeared on their master’s face.
“Wizards refine and consume the power possessed by magical creatures to steal their abilities. And wizards themselves are magical creatures too, in the sense that they possess magical power, are they not?”
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