I’d Rather Live Shamelessly Than Bloom As A Flower That Dies A Hero.

Sword Breaker, a weapon-destruction spell.

How to use: Touch the target weapon, picture it “shattering,” pour mana into it, and release it.

Note: Only the hero could truly master this spell as well. In general, the stronger the weapon, the more mana it took to destroy it.

“Ah, so mana really is important.”

“That’s how it is. Oh—want to try it?”

As she spoke, Aria took out a broom that had been sitting nearby.

It was a short broom for lightly sweeping the room, but was it really okay to use it for an experiment like this?

When a hesitant Kikori asked, “Is that okay?” she replied, “Sure.”

“It’s a cheap broom. It’s probably better than using it without any practice, right?”

“Huh?”

“It’s written all over your face that you think you can do this.”

“Am I really that obvious…?”

“Oh, absolutely.”

Feeling a bit deflated as Aria nodded, Kikori reached out and touched the broom she was holding.

An image of it shattering. Since it was wood… he pictured it going crack in a clean snap.

With the image of the broom’s wood deteriorating and breaking, he tried to pour mana into it…

“…Mana… into it…”

“What’s wrong?”

“What does it feel like to ‘pour mana into it’?”

“Ahh… yeah.”

Aria put the broom back where it had been, then took out a book from the stack on the desk titled Easy Magic for Beginners.

“Let’s read this first. It’s a picture book, so it’s easy to understand.”

“Thank you…”

Face reddening with embarrassment, Kikori opened Easy Magic for Beginners.

As he read, Aria moved behind him and leaned her weight onto him.

“A-Aria-san?”

“Kikori, you’re working hard, aren’t you? Honestly, I still think you don’t have much talent.”

“Uh…?”

“But you’re getting results. Even people with way more talent than you die in a single day.”

That reminded Kikori—he had heard that even adults could end up crying against goblins.

…Well, Kikori was basically brute-forcing things with the raw attack power of his axe.

If he tried to fight more properly, he might not survive at all.

Even now, he knew he was fighting in a pretty pathetic way.

But even so. Rather than dying while fighting “properly,” Kikori wanted to live, even if it was ugly.

“…Even if it’s pathetic, I want to live.”

“I can relate to that. In the end, it’s the survivors who win. I think I’d be happier living shamelessly, then dying miserably of old age, than blooming as a flower that dies a hero, you know?”

Kikori agreed with that completely.

He did not want to die in some “cool” way.

That kind of life… just was not for him, he thought.