The Banished Incompetent Mage Achieves Revenge with His True Power
He was the decoy. The baggage. The "incompetent" Rank One.
For three years, Kyle endured it all—the mockery, the beatings, the times his party tied him up and left him to die as bait. In the Kingdom of Regnica, your talent crest decides your worth, and his was the faintest of them all. So he swallowed his rage, smiled, and survived.
But when his party abandons him in the depths of a dungeon one last time, something inside Kyle finally snaps—and a power he never knew he had awakens. A power the
The Banished Incompetent Mage Achieves Revenge with His True Power - Seal Activation — The Night He Became Truly Incompetent
The forest at night was silent.
In front of the Sealed Crest Tower, Kyle stood alone on the bare earth. His dark navy hair, nearly black, fell into his eyes, and his gray gaze looked clouded in the gloom. His patchwork gray mage's robe swayed heavily in the night wind.
(If you're coming, then come.)
He murmured it in his mind.
Unconsciously, he clenched his left hand, where an old burn scar remained. Proof that he'd been used as bait for three years. Days spent bound within reach of monsters' tongues, listening to Gale's mockery behind his back—all of it slept beneath that scar.
(Lizette.)
Just thinking her name made something deep in his chest ache.
Last night, she had collapsed from poison. A false request orchestrated by Seraphina. Poison slipped into her herbal tea. Healing magic hadn't worked, and Lizette's body had grown cold. He hadn't been able to do a thing. All he could do was pound his fists against the floor and cry.
(That's why I came here tonight.)
To offer up his own crest in exchange for Lizette's life.
Kyle looked up at the sealing crest carved into the tower's wall.
A complex pattern of spirals and straight lines covered the entire wall. A special crest developed by the Royal Court Magical Institute to "make another's crest appear faint" and "seal its functions." Someone had once told him this tower was the ruin of a facility where the Institute had conducted "crest experiments."
(Here, I—)
On a rainy night, he had wandered into this tower. The moment he touched the wall, something deep in his chest had groaned. His magical power had reversed, and he'd lost consciousness. When he woke, a dead tree had sprouted buds. Cracks had run through the stone paving.
(What was that?)
He didn't know. Without ever knowing, he had ended up here.
The wind slipped through the trees.
Footsteps. Two sets.
One was heavy and intimidating, the kind that made the ground tremble with each step. The other was light and smooth, approaching as if stitching through the night air itself.
Kyle did not turn around.
"So you came."
His voice was quiet. Even he was surprised by how little emotion it carried.
"Ha! Kept you waiting, didn't I, you incompetent fool."
Gale's voice.
Short-cropped blond hair. Blue eyes. A hawkish nose. Stubble on his chin. A dark crest glowed on the back of his left hand. The man's figure, chest thrust out, emerged from the darkness.
"Good evening, Kyle. I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting."
Seraphina's voice.
Long silver curls. Narrow violet eyes. A deep, dark crest at her left collarbone. The woman who always wore a faint smile—a smile that never reached her eyes.
The two of them stood before Kyle.
Gale pulled a piece of parchment from his breast pocket.
"Look. Do you know what this is?"
Gale thrust the parchment in front of Kyle's face.
Kyle looked at it.
It read:
"Detoxification treatment of Lizette Irving, complete. Performed via Royal Court Magical Institute detoxification technique. No residual poison. Healer's crest functioning normally. — Signed, Varna Crow, Healing Mage of the Royal Court Magical Institute."
Kyle's fingertips trembled faintly.
(Lizette is safe.)
(She's really safe.)
He felt something deep in his chest come loose. At the same time, something else tightened around it.
"How about that? Your precious healer is alive and well. Thanks to us—thanks to the Institute's detoxification technique."
Gale tucked the parchment away, laughing mockingly.
"...I understand."
Kyle spoke quietly.
"Give me your power."
Gale's voice dropped a register.
"I'll bind your crest properly with a sealing crest. Strip every last drop of your magical power. Do that, and the girl is completely saved. ...Of course, you'll become truly incompetent."
Gale's eyes moved to the nape of Kyle's neck.
"The crest on your neck was faint from the start. Hold it up to a crest-meter and it reads 'one'—the lowest possible number. Just how much power could a crest like that hold? ...Well, whatever. Your power is negligible anyway. But even that negligible power was more than you deserved."
Kyle said nothing.
(Three years.)
(I've been used as bait by this man.)
(Laugh at me as incompetent, then discard me when I'm used up.)
Anger smoldered in the pit of his stomach. A quiet, but certain, anger. He desperately suppressed the urge to raise his voice.
(But now isn't the time for that.)
(Lizette's life is on the line.)
Kyle took one step forward.
"...Do it."
Kyle's voice was hoarse.
Gale grinned.
"Good answer. Stay still. This will hurt a little."
Gale raised his right hand toward the nape of Kyle's neck.
Seraphina stepped back a pace and watched.
"Kyle. That burn on your left hand—it's quite old, isn't it?"
Seraphina whispered in a honeyed voice.
"What could you possibly protect with that hand? Thrusting it before monsters again and again, layering burn upon burn. And still, you protected nothing."
Seraphina's violet eyes glinted coldly in the darkness.
"Tonight will be the same. You'll protect nothing. Not even your own power."
Kyle did not look at Seraphina.
He simply stared ahead.
Gale's hand touched the nape of Kyle's neck.
"—Sealing crest, full activation."
Gale began a low chant.
The words sounded like an ancient tongue; Kyle couldn't understand them. But with each word woven, the crest on his neck grew hotter.
(It's hot.)
Kyle gritted his teeth.
From the nape of his neck to his collarbone. From his collarbone to his chest. From his chest to his belly. From his belly to his back. From his back to his limbs.
Something was crawling through the inside of his body.
No—that wasn't it.
Something was being dragged out from inside him.
(What is this?)
Strength drained from Kyle's entire body.
No, not strength.
Something more fundamental. Something like the core of what made him himself was being plucked out, one strand after another.
(Stop.)
(Please, stop.)
A soundless scream died in the back of his throat.
The crest on his neck was fading.
One line, then another—the spiral lines, the straight lines—growing faint. As if a picture drawn in sand were crumbling away in the wind.
(My crest—)
Kyle looked at his own hands.
Sensation was vanishing from his fingertips.
Hot. Cold. Pain. Nothing at all.
Sensations blurred together and broke apart.
"Haha! Look, Seraphina! It's disappearing! Your crest is vanishing before your eyes!"
Gale's laughter echoed from far away.
"Yes, magnificent. Now Kyle is truly a man with no power at all."
Seraphina's voice was distant too.
(Ah.)
(So I really am becoming incompetent.)
Kyle's knees buckled.
The ground rushed up to meet him.
The smell of earth. The smell of grass. The cold night air.
Kyle collapsed onto the dirt.
"Now you're finally, truly incompetent!"
Gale's shrill laughter rang through the forest.
"Three years I used you as bait, and tonight you've become nothing but dead weight! No—not even that! A pebble on the roadside! Hahahahaha!"
Kyle lay face-down on the earth, unable to move.
He couldn't move a single finger.
Even if he tried to cast magic, there was no magical power left. None at all.
(Is this the end for me?)
Kyle thought.
(No, I'm not going to die.)
(I've just had every reason to live stripped away.)
(That's all.)
"Oh, Gale. Must you laugh quite so much?"
Seraphina said, smiling.
"I feel sorry for Kyle. ...But really, was this truly for the best?"
Seraphina turned an intrigued gaze toward the nape of Kyle's neck.
"This man is still hiding something. ...This sealing mark. The Royal Court Magical Institute's design. Why would a man like this have something like that?"
Seraphina traced with her fingertip the faint mark remaining on Kyle's neck.
"...But no matter. Right now, Lizette's detoxification takes priority. This man's mysteries can wait for later—we'll take our time."
Seraphina rose to her feet.
"Mysteries, whatever. It's all the same now. This one's finished."
Gale looked down at Kyle.
"The healer you tried to protect—we saved her. Your power never had any value to begin with. ...Remember this. The only reason you're still alive is my mercy."
With that, Gale turned his back on Kyle.
"Goodbye, Kyle. ...Your crest wasn't wasted, you know. It truly bought Lizette's life."
Seraphina followed after Gale, still smiling.
Their footsteps receded.
Their figures vanished into the forest's darkness.
Kyle was left alone on the earth.
(Lizette is safe.)
(That's enough.)
(That should have been enough.)
Kyle closed his eyes.
He couldn't see anything.
He couldn't feel anything.
Not the cold of the earth, not the cold of the night wind, not the weight of his own body.
Everything was far away.
(What have I been living for?)
(Three years of enduring, enduring, enduring.)
(And this is what it comes to.)
(My crest is gone.)
(My power is gone.)
(I've become truly incompetent.)
Inside Kyle's heart, something quietly crumbled.
It wasn't sorrow.
It wasn't anger either.
It was simply emptiness.
A deep, deep emptiness that made everything cease to matter.
(It's fine now.)
(It doesn't matter anymore.)
Kyle lay still on the earth.
—How much time had passed?
Kyle didn't know.
It might have been an instant.
It might have been an eternity.
He had lost all sense of time.
Then—
"—Kyle?"
He heard a voice.
A hoarse, trembling, tiny voice.
(Lizette?)
Kyle tried to open his eyes.
But he didn't have the strength left even for that.
"Kyle! Kyle, where are you?!"
Lizette's voice drew closer.
Staggering footsteps. Ragged breathing.
"Kyle...!"
Lizette's cry echoed through the night forest.
Kyle dimly understood that Lizette had found him lying on the ground.
"Kyle! Kyle, please, stay with me! Why—why did this happen..."
Lizette lifted Kyle's body into her arms.
Her hand searched the nape of his neck.
"Your crest... your crest is gone... Kyle's crest is nowhere... What did you do, Kyle? What did you do for my sake..."
Lizette's voice was wet with tears.
Her tears fell onto Kyle's cheek.
Warm.
Only Lizette's tears were warm.
Kyle said nothing.
He couldn't answer.
He didn't have the strength left to make a sound.
(Lizette.)
(You're safe.)
(That's enough.)
(That alone should be enough.)
Kyle murmured it in his heart.
But deep, deep down, another voice was whispering.
(Is that really enough?)
(You gave up your crest.)
(Your power is gone.)
(How will you live from now on?)
(Who are you?)
Kyle couldn't answer.
There was no answer.
"Kyle... I—I did this to you... Because of me, because I collapsed from that poison..."
Lizette held Kyle's body tightly.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Kyle. Because of me, your crest... your power..."
Lizette's tears wouldn't stop.
They soaked his cheek, his neck, his chest.
Warm.
Only that warmth kept Kyle tethered to reality.
(Lizette's tears.)
(Warm.)
(I am, right now, definitely alive.)
(But my crest is gone.)
(My power is gone.)
(What am I supposed to do now? How am I supposed to live?)
Deep in Kyle's chest, something tore open.
It was sorrow.
It was anger.
It was despair.
For the first time, Kyle finally realized the sheer magnitude of what had been taken from him.
(I wasn't incompetent.)
(My crest was never faint.)
(My power was sealed away.)
(And now, that power is truly gone.)
(By Gale's hand.)
(Before Seraphina's smiling face.)
(I've been made truly incompetent.)
Tears spilled from Kyle's eyes.
Without a sound, quietly, only tears flowed.
"Kyle... Please don't cry. I—I will never leave you alone. I promise..."
Lizette took Kyle's hand.
Her hand was small, and warm, and trembling.
"I'm a healer. My crest is faint, but when it comes to sharing what I have, I won't lose to anyone. ...So, so, Kyle. Until your crest returns, I'll be your strength."
Lizette's words dissolved into the darkness of the night.
Kyle couldn't squeeze her hand back.
There was no strength
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