Chapter 262: Not Hated by Mana

"Demon!"

Marzana could not form complete sentences due to the dizziness that was still assaulting her mind.

Panic was written all over her face as she curled up on the cushioned bench.

Her whole body was trembling as tears welled up in her eyes.

Demons were the enemy of the world.

Every creature would feel the evilness at the smallest speck of demonic power.

This aspect affected elves more than the other races.

They were the race closest to nature, and thus they could feel the impurities of demonic power more vividly.

Moreso for Marzana, who was a direct descendant of the royal lineage— born with the purest elven bloodline.

Regis could not help but facepalm before mustering the courage to take a slow step towards her.

"No! Don’t—"

However, this action of his only scared Marzana further.

"Please, no—"

Seeing her intense reaction, Killian could not help but feel guilty.

He whispered towards Regis, "Boss, couldn’t you have gone a bit easier on her?"

"I didn’t think it would result in this..." Regis answered while scratching the back of his neck.

Killian did not know whether to laugh or cry as he tiptoed towards Pandora, "Hey, don’t you have any magic that could calm her down?"

Unfortunately for him, Pandora shook his head, "I’m not confident in casting mental magic yet."

She had set down her comically large book a while earlier as she, too, felt pity towards the elven girl.

However, even with the vast amount of magic knowledge she had amassed, everything remained a theory.

There were also no mages in Harmonia who specialized in mental magic, thus making it impossible for her to copy it from someone else.

"It’s fine, I’ll handle this myself." Regis spoke decisively with a serious look on his face.

Immediately afterwards, he took slow and careful steps towards Marzana.

Seeing him walk closer, the elven girl seemed swallowed by her fear as she crawled backward on the cushioned bench.

She also started hurling the nearby wooden chairs and anything her hand could reach towards the demon in her eyes.

Various sounds echoed in the area as Regis was hit with all sorts of things, which ranged from wooden chairs, wooden swords to other training equipment.

However, as Marzana continued moving backwards, she did not notice that she had already reached the edge of the cushioned bench as she fell.

Thud—!

"Ow!!!"

Marzana could not help but shout as she somehow fell headfirst to the ground.

Fearing that getting too close to her might worsen her panic, Regis stopped himself from catching her.

Meanwhile, Pandora, Killian, and Surelia did not dare join in.

Thus, Marzana helplessly fell to the ground.

On the bright side, the pain somehow helped her regain her calm as she looked at the group behind Regis.

’Why aren’t they doing anything? Did they not know that he’s a demon?’

As far as she knew, only demons were capable of wielding such pure demonic power.

’If it weren’t for the fact that he’s a mortal... Wait a minute...’

At that moment, the scenes of what happened earlier began to appear in Marzana’s mind.

Earlier, she had been too overwhelmed by the shock of sensing demonic power that her brain failed to think things through.

Though a major part of her reaction stemmed from Regis’s sudden actions.

Nevertheless, this moment of realization helped her recover from her panic.

Sensing the shift in her mood, Regis carefully asked, "Can I come closer now? I still need to tell you the result of our experiment."

"Give me a minute." Marzana replied coolly, though there was still a slight tremble in her voice.

She slowly stood up, holding the edge of the cushioned bench for support.

Her expression looked blank, as if she were lost in thought.

This lasted for a few moments before she looked at Regis and the others, "I believe an explanation is in order before we proceed to the results."

"Oh, she’s back with her formal speech..." Killian commented in a low voice.

Aurelia glared at him before approaching the elven girl and sitting beside her, "When I first learned about his demonic powers, I was shocked as well. But, Regis isn’t a demon."

"What does that mean? You mean that, despite being a mortal, he could freely command both divine and demonic powers?" Marzana asked the question that had been bothering her since earlier.

Regis chimed in as he smiled sheepishly, "Well, it’s purely because of my gift."

"What..."

Marzana was at a loss for words as she heard his reasoning.

"Although there are gifts that are even stronger than racial abilities, this is the first time that I have heard of a gift that gives one the capacity to use energies that only higher beings are capable of."

She muttered in a low voice while thinking, ’Asking a human about their gift is the same as asking other races what their racial abilities were...’

Although she felt as if her curiosity would swallow her whole, Marzana decided to control herself.

Her eyes darted at Pandora and Killian, further realizing that they must have known that their friend could use demonic power.

Marzana soon calmed herself with deep breaths before looking at Regis.

She still felt a little dread deep in her soul, but was able to contain it as she spoke, "So, what were you able to discover earlier?"

’To think that she wouldn’t ask me about it...’

Regis knew that what he had shown her was something that breaks not only common sense but also the laws of this world.

Thus, he could not help but be a little taken aback, "Well, these are just preliminary findings, but I was able to conclude that..."

"That what?" Marzana felt a tinge of impatience in her heart.

"That you are not hated by mana."

"What?"

"You’re hated by mana, aura, divine power, and demonic power themselves."

"..."

Marzana became speechless as she stared at the teasing smile on Regis’s face.

"Pfft!! It’s getting awkward already— Ow!!" Killian muttered as he tried to stifle his laugh.

But the room was pindrop quiet. A warning pinch from Pandora in his side ensured he kept it that way.

Regis cleared his throat with a cough, trying to somewhat ease the awkwardness, ’I was just trying to lighten the mood...’

He outwardly feigned ignorance in an attempt to hide his embarrassment as he spoke in a serious tone.

"What I mean to say is that you aren’t ’hated’. It’s just that you have another power inside you that’s able to nullify energies."

"W-What..." Marzana could not believe what she was hearing, her eyes widening.

Regis kept explaining, "Yes. Your and Aurelia’s cases have a lot of similarities, particularly in the way that you’re both gifted with strong abilities that you just can’t control yet."

"T-Then what must I do? I want to get stronger as well..." The elven girl was on the verge of tears.

Where earlier fear had drawn her tears, now they flowed freely from a heart too full of a brighter, warmer emotion.

Joy. Longing. Hope.

Marzana was happy to finally have the chance to reach for something she had longed for many years.

Seeing her expression, Regis and the others broke into a warm smile.

Killian even became a little teary-eyed, though it was unknown whether it was because he was touched by the scene before him or because he was pinched painfully by Pandora.

Regis thought for a moment before replying, "From what I sensed earlier, your power is too passive. We need to learn how it behaves first. But if it’s different from all the known energies and couldn’t be formed into stars, then we may have to create another method..."

"I understand."

His words struck Marzana with a cold clarity: the path ahead would not be easy.

Difficulties still lie in wait.

But still...

’This is enough for now.’

Marzana was not discouraged as the fire of hope in her heart began to become brighter.

Seeing her reaction, Regis asked, "I’ll be asking all the parties under our soon-to-be corporation to gather tomorrow so we can start training together. Would you like to come? If you prefer one-on-one sessions, I won’t force you."

"I..."

Marzana fell into deep thought.

Earlier, she had requested that they be alone for the experiment because she viewed her strange power as a curse.

But now that she knew this power was, in fact, her strength...

"I-I’ll think about it first." Marzana still could not make up her mind.

However, just this was enough to surprise Regis, ’To think that she didn’t refuse right away...’

Seeing that the situation was stable, Aurelia clapped her hands as she smiled widely, "Well, why don’t we eat lunch while you think things through?"

Her big-sister energy seemed to lighten the mood as Marzana smiled, "Okay..."

They arranged the wooden stools around the table and began to eat.

As they shared the meal, the conversation turned to various topics, with most of their questions circling back to elven culture.