The Villains I Taught Became Heroes

“Look there!!”

As Lee Hyun’s party walked a bit to exit the forest, Asura sect members appeared.

Their appearance was different from the Asura sect members they had faced until now.

These enemies looked capable.

“Lord of Wind.”

As Lee Hyun pointed his sword, a massive blade of wind wrapped around the enemies.

As the Asura sect members who couldn’t withstand the wind fell, Lee Hyun said to Lena, who was standing behind him.

“Don’t fall behind and keep up. Right now, it’s going to be hard for you to deal with them.”

“What? B-but…”

She had also learned intermediate magic.

Thinking multidimensional magic and the Shadow Spear might help, Lena attempted to use magic against the newly appearing enemies.

But surprisingly, her magic didn’t hit any of the Asura sect members.

It vanished midway.

Startled, Lena opened her eyes wide as Lee Hyun swung his sword and took them down.

“The elite of the Asura sect have quite a few with magic nullification artifacts. The probability of nullifying intermediate magic is high, so conserve your mana.”

“Bu-but then, Master’s fighting alone!! I-I’ll summon Sylphid…”

“There it is!! There it is!!”

Another rough shout echoed.

Surprised, Lena hurriedly tried to summon Sylphid.

But Sylphid didn’t come.

As Lena stared in shock at that, Lee Hyun slashed down the approaching enemies.

“This is the Asura sect’s sky net. They’ve put up a barrier in this forest area, making it hard for spirit summoning.”

Without being able to summon spirits and with magic being useless, it meant she was just a burden.

As Lena’s complexion turned pale, Lee Hyun smiled and ruffled her hair.

“Don’t worry. I will definitely protect you.”

Like hunters surrounding a tiger, the Asura sect members continued to attack Lee Hyun and Lena.

Though Lee Hyun was fending them off each time, it was inevitable that his wounds were slowly increasing.

“Master…”

Seeing that, Lena could only wear a sorrowful expression.

She thought she had changed.

She thought she had gained strength.

But no.

She was still far too inadequate.

To stand beside Lee Hyun.

“Huff… huff… huff…”

After countless assaults, Lee Hyun breathed heavily.

Suddenly, he stumbled.

As he was about to fall, Lena caught him.

“A-are you okay?”

“Haah… I’m fine.”

Wet blood touched his face.

With a tearful expression, Lena supported him.

She couldn’t let him continue fighting in this state.

“Over there! There’s a cave! Let’s rest there a bit…!”

“Okay. Let’s do that.”

Supporting Lee Hyun, Lena headed toward the cave.

It was a cave she had discovered while gathering medicinal herbs in the past.

It was small, but they could hide for a moment.

Arriving at the cave, thankfully, there was no one inside.

Entering the cave, she laid Lee Hyun down and took out a healing potion to treat his wounds.

‘T-there are too many wounds…’

Though there were no deep cuts, there were many shallow ones.

As she applied the medicine to the scorched and scratched wounds, tears streamed down Lena’s face.

“You can heal, so save the herb.”

“But using, using mana… Master has already used a lot of mana…”

How many times had Lee Hyun used advanced magic on their way here?

No, not just that; using swordsmanship also consumed mana.

Lena had to recognize that their fight alone must have left Lee Hyun low on mana.

“I’m so sorry… so sorry… sniff

…”

“Why are you sorry?”

“sniff Because of me… sniff Master…”

“It’s not your fault.”

Lee Hyun caressed Lena’s cheek and wiped her tears.

Was it because of that touch?

Lena felt the flow of tears slow down a bit.

“The bad ones are the Asura sect members. You are no longer a test subject of the dark cult nor anything else. You’re just my proud disciple Lena. It’s wrong for the Asura sect to attack you; you did nothing wrong.”

Cutting off her negative thoughts, Lee Hyun denied Lena’s feelings.

But there was no denying that his words only made her tears flow more.

Now tears like pearls began to roll down Lena’s cheeks as she leaned into Lee Hyun’s embrace.

“B-but… sniff Waaah! M-Master, you… sniff…”

“What’s wrong with a master gathering strength to protect his disciple? I’m just doing what I should.”

Gently patting Lena’s small back, Lee Hyun spoke kindly.

Hearing those words, Lena couldn’t hide her embarrassment.

‘I’m, I’m such a fool…’

Master was working so hard for her.

He was putting forth this effort for her.

She had to try harder.

She needed to strengthen herself.

If she had learned advanced magic, it would have relieved Master’s burdens.

Guilt against herself began to take hold.

As if he noticed that, Lee Hyun patted and comforted Lena.

“You’ve always done well. Mastering intermediate magic in just a year is an impressive feat. So don’t belittle yourself.”

“sniff… Waaah… sniff… Huuuh…”

After the treatment was done and she had recovered a bit, Lee Hyun and Lena exited the cave. They moved cautiously, but as soon as they started to move, the Asura sect members instinctively knew and began to swarm.

“Here they are!!”

“Ugh…!!”

Arrows flew in.

As Lee Hyun blocked them with his arm, he was about to use magic when—

Swish!!

His arm was deeply slashed, blood bursting out.

When Lena’s eyes widened in shock, Lee Hyun glanced at his arm that had been cut by something.

A circular blade. A chakram.

“Looks like a strong one showed up…”

Clicking his tongue, Lee Hyun cast a heal on his injured arm.

As Lena marveled at Lee Hyun’s changed demeanor, a man cloaked in black stepped out from the forest.

“Well, isn’t this surprising? So you were here, Lee Hyun?”

“Long time no see, Luciar.”

“Lu, Luciar…? M-Master, do you know him?”

“I do. He’s the Bishop of the Wrath of Asura sect.”

Bishop.

While she couldn’t know for certain, it was clear he wasn’t a weak opponent.

‘What should I do?’

Luciar, spinning the chakram, glared at Lee Hyun as he appeared slowly from behind him, black-clad Asura sect members.

Those were indeed the elites.

“Ren.”

“…Yes?”

“When I give the signal, escape.”

“…M-Master…”

Lena paled at Lee Hyun’s calm voice.

He intended to sacrifice himself to help Lena escape.

“I can’t fight all those on my own. You need to run.”

“B-but…”

“You wouldn’t dare disobey your master’s orders, would you?”

With a bright smile, Lee Hyun ruffled Lena’s hair and then firmly grasped his sword.

At that, Luciar threw the spinning chakram at Lee Hyun.

Clang!! Clang! Clang!

“Haha!! You’re weak! Lee Hyun! You don’t have even a bit of that sharpness from before!!”

Even with his shout, Lee Hyun only moved to protect Lena.

Watching that, Lena covered her face.

‘I hate this! I hate this! I hate this! I hate this! I can’t leave Master alone!’

This was because of her.

Because she was weak.

If she had been strong enough to stand beside Master,

Then such a thing wouldn’t have happened.

Suppressing the rising anxiety and self-denial, Lena moved her mana.

“Ro- Road of Fire!!”

But what she created was a mere fireball.

Of course, Luciar and his subordinates used the magic nullification artifact to nullify the fireball.

‘This isn’t right.’

She had to be stronger. Stronger. Stronger.

Desperation summoned focus and focus sharpened the precision of her magic.

Lena closed her eyes, feeling every flow of mana.

She focused more finely than usual and absorbed the natural mana more powerfully.

‘This isn’t right. This isn’t right. This isn’t right.’

Stronger. Stronger. Stronger.

She had to be more powerful!!

“Road of…”

The immense power of nature began to flow into her body.

Accepting it and refining it, she heated the mana circuits in her body.

Advanced magic was different from intermediate and lower magic.

To exert that vast power, natural mana must be continually absorbed.

Slowly.

Without stopping.

Continuously.

As Lena opened her eyes, she completed the last word.

“…Fire.”

At that moment, a gigantic fireball began to form from Lena’s staff.

Not one, but a massive flame multiple times that of a fireball, one, two, four, eight…

It kept multiplying.

“W-what is that?!”

“Attack!!”

The huge flames began to exponentially multiply in an instant, sweeping away all Luciar’s subordinates.

Even magic nullification artifacts were useless against those flames.

“T-this…”

Luciar watched in horror as his subordinates turned to ashes in an instant but couldn’t express it.

With Lee Hyun having approached and slashed his neck.

Holding his neck, where blood spurted, he waved in the air a few times before collapsing, and Lee Hyun, having completed his advanced magic and unleashed multidimensional magic, smiled at Lena.

‘Pretending to be weak is not easy.’

But for Lee Hyun, the outcome was not bad.

In any case,

[Job Quest – Sage]

[Accept two disciples and help them grow above a certain level.]

(2 / 2)

The quest objective was achieved.

“…Let’s go.”

“Y-yes!”

With Luciar, the core of the sky net, dead, the sky net could no longer function properly.

Thanks to that, Lee Hyun pushed through the barriers and out of the forest, giving Lena’s back a few pats as she caught her breath.

“You did great!”

“Haah… haah… T-thank you…”

“I thought you would quickly master advanced magic.”

At Lee Hyun’s praise, Lena felt joy, only to go pale.

She recalled something she had been ignoring.

The moment she mastered advanced magic, Lee Hyun could no longer teach her.

And that was no different from him leaving her.

---