A Banished Failure Survives in the Borderland and Becomes an S-Rank Exorcist - 30

This chapter is a compilation of information on the world and characters of our story. There may be some spoilers in here, but it shouldn’t affect your ability to enjoy the story. You can use this chapter as a reference to help you understand what happens. If you’re not particularly interested, there’s no need to read this. 

◇ Main Characters

Yuria 

Gender: Male

Age: 15

Personality: Generally kind, but also rather indecisive. However, he can also be cold-hearted if necessary. 

Appearance: Around 170 cm. Has long, white hair. Overall, he is built rather lean. 

Profile: The main character of our story. He was abandoned in the Twilight and was forced to spend two years out there, but managed to survive. Because of his experience and skills, he became the youngest Special Rank Exorcist. He has Stage 5 Twilight Syndrome – the most advanced case ever seen in a human. He is specialised in close-range combat. 

Also, he has a Demon Eye. He typically fights with a knife whose blade he extends using Illusion Magic. He calls that spell Invisible Blade. When it comes to close-range combat – specifically, combat with an enemy within 5 metres of him – he is currently unmatched by any human, even the other S-Ranks. 

Sherry 

Gender: Female

Age: 15

Personality: Bright and cheerful, but also rather arrogant at times. She has become less arrogant since meeting Yuria. However, she can still be rather difficult at times.

Appearance: Blonde with blue eyes. Her height is in the high 170 cm range. Her hair is long, and she usually wears it tied up. She has good proportions. 

Profile: An incredibly talented Rank 1 Exorcist. As a result, she was incredibly overconfident in her abilities until she met Yuria. After meeting him, she learned to be more humble. She respects and looks up to Yuria and fights with a broadsword. 

Sophia 

Gender: Female

Age: 15

Personality: Rather crude and rarely honest. She is ruthless and will use any means necessary to achieve her goals. 

Appearance: Around the low 160 cm range. She has blue, semi-long hair. Her proportions are rather average. 

Profile: Willing to do anything to achieve her goals, like when she forced Yuria into becoming an S-Rank. However, she has a secret in her past… 

Typically, though, she is rather bright, setting the mood in any conversation. She fights with a broadsword. However, she mainly uses magic in combat. 

◇ Special Rank Exorcists

#1: Cyrus 

Gender: Male

Age: 29

Personality: A typical gentleman. However, he can be rather forgetful, often forgetting to communicate important information. He also enjoys annoying people a little bit too much… 

Appearance: Around the mid-170 cm range. He has long, black, braided hair. His body is quite thin. 

Profile: The #1 Exorcist and the strongest human in the world. He fights with wires and is quite talented with magic, as well. He also has Stage 5 Twilight Syndrome. 

#2: Unknown 

Gender: Female

#3: Gil 

Gender: Male

Age: 40

Personality: Pretty casual, generally a dependable big-brother type of guy. Enjoys taking care of people. 

Appearance: His height is in the upper-180 cm range. He has short, black hair, as well as a beard. He strongly believes in the power of muscles and currently has the best muscles out of all the S-Ranks. 

Profile: Sophia’s father. Typically calm and easygoing, but ruthless in combat against monsters and demons. Spends most of his time worrying about his wife and daughter in the Seventh Barriered City since he’s almost constantly assigned to guard a different city. He fights with a bastard sword. He typically uses magic to strengthen his body. He also wields an Extra ability that augments his vision. He also has Stage 5 Twilight Syndrome. 

#4: Roy 

Gender: Male

Age: 20

Personality: Aggressive. He tries to intimidate everyone he meets. However, he can be respectful once he accepts someone’s strength. 

Appearance: His height is in the upper-170 cm range. He always wears sunglasses. His hair is bleached and he tends to dye it in various colours. He describes his appearance as “rock.”　

Profile: Quite intimidating and aggressive, but incredibly talented in combat. He’s ranked 4th, a rather impressive achievement for someone his age. He’s rather interested in Yuria’s strength. He also has Stage 5 Twilight Syndrome. 

#5: Derrick 

Gender: Male

Age: 32

Personality: Appears calm but quite enjoys poking fun at people. He makes fun of Eira so much that she’s come to hate him, but he enjoys that, too. 

Appearance: His height is in the upper-180 cm range. His hair is brown and short, and he generally wears a neutral face. 

Profile: The most intelligent S-Rank Exorcist. However, he’s also quite talented in combat. He also has Stage 5 Twilight Syndrome. 

#7: Claudia 

Gender: Female

Age: 27

Personality: A (self-proclaimed) gentle, older-sister type person. However she has no mercy for monsters, and she can, occasionally, use rather crude language. 

Appearance: Around the low-170 cm range. She wears her blonde, chest-length hair in curls. She has the best proportions of any woman in this story. 

Profile: An older sister type who enjoys taking care of people. Has been looking to get married for quite a while. However because of her position – and also because of her rather heavy-handed approach to love – she has been unable to get married. Recently, she’s begun to feel that looking for younger partners might be a better idea…

Rather exceptionally, she does not have Twilight Syndrome.  

#8 Unknown 

Gender: Female

#9: Unknown 

Gender: Male

#10: Unknown 

Gender: Female

#11: Unknown 

Gender: Male

#12: Eira 

Gender: Female

Age: 17

Personality: She has no hidden facets to her personality, for better or worse. 

Appearance: Around the low-150 cm range. She wears her long, pink hair in twin tails. As for her proportions… She pretends not to care about them, but she’s been doing various things to try to improve them. She especially wants a larger chest. 

Profile: A sixth-year at the Academy in the First Barriered City. She’s happy to have Yuria, whom she considers to be a good underclassman. She has few friends and has long been ridiculed for being small. Even after she became an S-Rank, that didn’t change. Because of that, she’s very grateful to Yuria for treating her normally… but she’d never say that out loud. 

She wields a knife for self-defence and typically uses magic in combat. She’s also known as “The Frozen Witch” and has Stage 5 Twilight Syndrome. 

#13: Yuria (see above)

◇ Other Characters

Liane 

Gender: Female

Age: 15

Personality: Gentle, but she doesn’t mince words. 

Appearance: Her height is in the upper-150 cm range. She has platinum blonde, semi-long hair. Her proportions are good. 

Profile: The Third Princess. Even though she may be a royal, she is not responsible for maintaining the barriers. She also wields an Extra ability, which she can use to sense the Twilight. 

However, unlike Yuria, her ability works instinctively rather than visually. 

◇ Magic

Magic works by projecting a mental image into mana particles in order to materialise an effect. 

It can be roughly divided into two types: Systematic and Non-Systematic Magic. 

Systematic Magic encompasses the four major Attributes: fire, ice, water, and lightning.

Non-Systematic Magic encompasses Light Magic, Dark Magic, and Attribute-less Magic, such as Healing Magic, Strengthening Magic, Illusion Magic, Barriers, and the various Extra abilities.

One’s magical aptitudes are somewhat influenced by gender. Women tend to have higher aptitudes for magic in general, especially Systematic Magic. Men tend to have higher aptitude for Strengthening Magic. However, this is just a tendency – there are exceptions. 

◇ About Extra Abilities

The scientific name for these types of abilities is “Magic-based Extra Sensory Perception.” Rarely, someone can acquire one of these special perception-related abilities. 

There are two main types of Extra abilities: those that affect the regular five senses, and those that affect a sixth sense. 

Yuria, for example, has a Demon Eye that affects his vision. 

Liane’s Extra ability, on the other hand, affects a sixth sense, and so she perceives it instinctively.

◇ The World

After losing the Human-Demon War 150 years prior to our story, humanity fled westward and built seven Barriered Cities. The world fell to the Twilight and now experiences only dusk and night. There have been no major wars in the last 150 years; however, that is clearly beginning to change. 

◇ The Twilight 

It is a mysterious, unexplained phenomenon that appeared when humanity lost the war. It is considered toxic to humans; however, some have no reaction to it whatsoever, and others can even adapt to it, acquiring Twilight Syndrome in the process. 

Also, the Twilight is not uniform. It can be more or less concentrated in various places. The darker it is, the stronger monsters and demons become. In general, the Twilight darkens as you go east. 

Furthermore, the Seventh and First Barriered Cities in the north and south, respectively, also have rather high concentrations of Twilight. Therefore, even in the safe zone, one cannot let their guard down near those cities. 

The continent has been divided up and “levels” have been assigned to various areas, depending on the concentration of Twilight there. It starts at Level 1, on the west end of the continent, increasing as you go eastward until Level 10, at the easternmost end. Level 1 is itself quite dangerous. As things currently stand, humanity has only really advanced through the Twilight up to a Level 5 area. Yuria is the only human being who has been into a Level 10 area. 

Research on the Twilight is constantly underway, but there is still no cure for Twilight Syndrome. Some protective clothing is all that exists. 

◇ The Academy

An institution that trains Exorcists. Attending it is somewhat similar to attending a military academy. Students attend for six years, and their entry rank in the military is determined based on their Exorcist Rank at the time of graduation. 

However, exceptionally talented individuals can be recruited by the military before graduation, skipping grades in the process. 

The Exorcist Ranks are organised as follows, from lowest to highest:

– Rank 5 Exorcist 

– Rank 4 Exorcist 

– Rank 3 Exorcist 

– Rank 2 Exorcist 

– Rank 1 Exorcist 

– Special Rank Exorcist 

◇ The Military 

They are an organisation of Exorcists, armed to fight against demons. It is divided up into many, various departments: the Twilight Combat Department, Intelligence, Central Command, Research and Development, Medical, Military Police, etc. 

Special Rank Exorcists, meanwhile, exist to show the people that humans have the power to fight the demons. They are somewhat like strategic weapons. 

The ranks are as follows, from highest to lowest: 

Commander-in-Chief: 

– Field Marshal

Commissioned Officers:

– General 

– Lieutenant General 

– Major General 

– Colonel 

– Lieutenant Colonel

– Major 

– Captain 

– First Lieutenant

– Second Lieutenant 

Warrant Officers:

– Warrant Officer

Non-Commissioned Officers:

– Sergeant Major 

– Master Sergeant 

– Sergeant 

– Corporal

Enlisted:

– Specialist 

– Private First Class 

– Private Second Class 

– Private 

 A Special Rank Exorcist holds an entry rank equivalent to a Major. 

A Rank 1 Exorcist enters at Second Lieutenant. 

A Rank 2 would be a Warrant Officer. 

A Rank 3 would be a Corporal. 

A Rank 4 would enter as a Specialist, and a Rank 5 would enter as a Private. 

And, of course, they can be promoted based on their achievements. If they rank up in the military, their rank as an Exorcist also increases, excluding S-Rank. S-Ranks have to have incredible combat ability, so becoming a Major does not automatically make one an S-Rank Exorcist. 

When someone graduates from the Academy – or, if they’re recruited before graduation – their career in the military starts, according to these standards.