I Became a Burden to the Conscienceless Party

Magicians are those who best understand the principles of this world.
They feel mana and move its flow to interfere with the world.
It was an area possible according to talent and training, but…

“This world is overlapping.”

Milia could see all those flows from the moment she was born.
A heterogeneity that’s even embarrassing to evaluate as talent.
Milia, who could simultaneously see the world full of mana flows and the original world from the moment of birth, was different from others.
And being different…

“Woo! This witch!”

It was bound to bring discrimination.
Milia, who wasn’t loved by her parents and was considered an eerie existence by her peers, first learned how to protect herself.
Yes, she learned how to become insensitive to all of it.
Milia, who had distanced herself one step from being human, became even closer to the world full of mana flows.
The things others call magic.
Abilities accumulated, analyzed, and implemented over dozens, hundreds of centuries.
Supernatural powers that interfere with the world by twisting and connecting flows.

“So this is how it sparkles.”

Yes, Milia could implement magic instinctively.
A magician becomes useful at the point where it’s possible to touch the flow.
And Milia was already a magician from the moment she was born.
A child born not as a human, but as a magician. And thus, a discriminated child.
It didn’t take long for rumors of such a child to reach the Magic Tower.

“Those who despise and criticize you are all ignorant ones.”
“You are more special than anyone and a being that shows beyond human.”
“You are the symbol of evolution.”
“So there’s no need to listen to or accommodate the voices of mere ordinary people.”

The masters of the continent’s seven great Magic Towers. They were beings living halfway in a different world, having reached the extreme of magic.
That’s why their perspective was different.
They were beings looking at a world similar to Milia’s.
So they didn’t care about the heterogeneity Milia harbored at a young age.
From their perspective, Milia was just superior to others.
But it wasn’t so. Although she seemed similar to them, Milia was crucially different from them.

“What should we do with those fellows?”

The moment Milia was sold by her parents for just a few gold coins.
The Tower Masters wanted to punish them. Even they didn’t know parents would sell their child.
They are ignorant fools who couldn’t recognize a treasure, and foolish ones who couldn’t love their child.
Yes, they could be called complete beings in a sense.
Their confidence was accompanied by appropriate knowledge and insight.

“What do you mean, how?”
“Aren’t you resentful?”
“No.”
“Aren’t you disappointed?”
“I’m not disappointed either.”
“Do you pity them? Or do you miss them?”
“Do I have to think about anything in particular?”
“I see.”

But Milia wasn’t.
Separate from having outstanding qualities, Milia didn’t voluntarily try to know about this world.
Seeing the girl who had closed her heart like that, the Tower Masters sighed.
It wasn’t particularly because they had human aspects.
It was just because they knew that emotions themselves could be a driving force.

“For now, it’s better to do what we can.”

And they came to the conclusion of ‘pending’ regarding that situation.
Unless it’s a moment when the driving force of emotion is needed, they can’t just let the talent of a girl with innate abilities go to waste.
And so.
Ten years passed.

“Did you understand everything?”
“Yes.”
“Then it’s this one’s turn next.”

The essence of magic created by each Tower Master, by the towers they rule, accumulating history over a lifetime.
Milia was absorbing all that knowledge like a sponge.

“This is magic you can handle at your current level. Memorize it within three days.”
“Yes.”

She was emotionless, just like when the Tower Masters first took her in.
She was just living day by day immersed in magic, except for the minimum necessities of food, clothing, and shelter.
It’s not because she liked magic. She just did it because she was told to do so.
A puppet doll with almost no self-will and never questioning any order from her masters.
That was Milia.

“Yes, if you poke here…”

Flinch!

“Haha! This is how you can observe stiffening! The human body has as many mysteries as the universe.”

She lost her morality, lost her sociality, and lost her humanity.
For her, even if it’s another human, if there’s an order from her master, it’s just a mere experimental subject.
That’s probably why.

“Mom?”

Just like any other time, when she was about to experiment on a human.
She realized that the face of the corpse was familiar.
Whether they were killed and preserved from the beginning, or if they really happened to flow into the tower by chance.
Even seeing her parents’ corpses on her experiment table, Milia felt no emotion.
Yes, that’s probably why.

“…I’m strange, aren’t I.”

When she could notice her own strangeness.
It wasn’t particularly anyone’s intention. The Tower Masters could have investigated whose corpses were on her experiment table.
But, from the point when the surprisingly emotionless girl started to look like a doll rather than a disciple, it had been twisted.

“…”

Emotions she had forgotten for a long time sprouted in her heart.
Seeing the traces of her parents she had dissected with her own hands, Milia shed tears with an expressionless face.
But she still couldn’t understand the reason for her tears.
Why was she crying?
Was it because she felt sorry for her parents? Was it because she resented them? Or was it just because dust had touched her eye membrane?
The current her couldn’t even know such things. Although she had come closer to the essence of magic, she had infinitely distanced herself from humans and society.
And even at such a turning point.

“Milia, are you there! Today I’ve compiled a new magic for you! Other idiots might not, but you’ll surely be able to learn it. This is a simplified version of high-level magic…”
“Yes, I’m coming now.”

No one noticed it. Milia didn’t tell anyone about it either. She thought even this wasn’t a big deal.
And so, Milia was slowly going mad without even realizing it herself.

And a few more years passed.
This time, it was an unusual situation where everyone gathered, just like when the Tower Masters first came to find Milia.

“You said a Hero? Hmph, I don’t understand the intention of sharing such information even with us.”

Since the relationships between the Tower Masters weren’t particularly good, such doubts naturally followed.
It’s information that would have been more helpful if kept to oneself.
They can’t help but be suspicious when it’s being shared without any conditions.

“Hmph, do you think this is for you? This is all for the world and for evolution. I thought there would be at least this much compromise even if we’re in conflict, but was I wrong?”
“That means…”

The Tower Master who first brought the information.
The Sidus Magic Tower, which explores the future and fate through the sun, moon, and stars.
As the magician who looked the farthest in this world, he was also the person most obsessed with human evolution.

“Milia, keep that child by the Hero’s side for the time being.”
“Hmm…”

Although it was just a conclusion, the Tower Masters could understand what the Sidus Tower Master was thinking.
Although the Magic Towers differed in the magic they handled and how they operated, they had one common ideology.
It was human evolution. Becoming a more advanced existence.
And the Hero is a being destined to become a transcendent of humanity.
As perilous as that destiny is, its reward is also outstanding.
And the Tower Masters recognized such a Hero not as a human, but as a being one step beyond human.

“With Milia’s eyes, that child might be able to uncover it.”

Artificially creating a Hero.
Making everyone a Hero.
Yes, through that, standing in this world as the only completed race.
That was the common aspiration of the seven Magic Towers.

“If we can only research the Hero and uncover the secrets of that existence! Wouldn’t some sacrifice be worth it?”

And so, observation of the Hero through Milia began.
The content that Milia was instructed by the Tower Masters was really simple.

“It’s… nice to meet you. I’m Milia Aslin. Ah, I-I’m a magician. Please take care of me?”

Uncovering the secrets of the Hero.
It was an order to even use the corpse for that purpose.

“Wow! Thank you everyone! Let’s work hard together to save the world, okay? We’re the proud hero party after all!”
“…”

But unfortunately, Milia, who received such a special mission…

‘How should I respond?’

Couldn’t do anything against the Hero because her social skills were the worst.
The Hero, Esmeralda, who had been staring at Milia, who was just tilting her head alone, soon left to talk to someone else.
And so Milia’s journey began.
Of course, it’s not that she didn’t do anything during that time.
She was in a state of observing the Hero, Esmeralda, for now.

“Is something wrong, Milia?”
“Eck, ugh… N-No, it’s nothing.”

But unlike the already dead corpses, Esmeralda is alive and speaks to her.
It was unprecedented terror.
First of all, it was too difficult to deal with Esmeralda because her only conversations were with the Tower Masters who had gone mad to a similar degree as her.
Because the Tower Masters had also instructed her not to be found out, Milia couldn’t get too close to Esmeralda or talk to her more than necessary.
It was a problem with no known answer, encountered for the first time in Milia’s life.

‘I don’t know what to do. What should I say? What should I ask to investigate? I can talk about magical discourse, but…’

She doesn’t know what to say other than magic.
Milia, who had been awkwardly orbiting the hero party like that, one day.

“Sob sob! The monsters living in the forest turned the village into this state! I want revenge, but I don’t have the power! Please, Hero, please…! Please…!”

She met a demon pretending to be human and approaching. Yes, she saw through the opponent’s existence at once.
It’s not that she recognized it through any special ability.
She just knew. The moment she saw Jim, she knew he was a demon.
As a magician, she was usually confident in her discernment.
That’s right. She had seen through Jim’s identity at first glance.
Yet the reason she didn’t mention it was simply.

‘Since everyone else isn’t saying anything, I should just stay quiet too.’

It was just because she was timid.