The Golden Eye of Truth
Elena (4)
Several possibilities overlapped before my eyes. The demon race charging straight at me. The one sheathing his sword and lowering his stance to prepare a counterattack. The one ducking his head to the left to slip past my strike and advance. And so on.
'So this is the Eye of Foresight.'
It was an eye that calculated countless possibilities like a calculator and materialized them. I could see exactly which direction the demon would approach from, or how he would dodge my attacks.
-Clang!
The demon’s sword path, which had been impossible to even follow before, was now completely visible. Was this guy’s sword always this slow…?
“You bastard!!!!”
The demon spun around me in circles, drawing and striking with his blade in rapid succession. So he’s spinning around me. That must be the Demonic Spin or whatever it’s called. Anyway, dozens of sword energies were flying at me from every direction—front, back, left, and right—razor-sharp and ready to cut.
But.
“How pathetic. To think you’d swing around something so trivial and call it a sword.”
I spun my body at the same time as I swung my blade. The incoming sword energies were sliced apart and glanced harmlessly past my body.
“Is that all the tricks you can show off, demon?”
“I’m not done yet!”
The demon’s aura surged even stronger. Did he pop some kind of demonic viagra before coming here? Why won’t his momentum drop? Still.
“It’s all so utterly insignificant.”
The duration wasn’t long anyway. Time to wrap this up.
I raised my sword high overhead, then poured power into a vertical slash. A blade of energy shot forward, giving the demon no time to react as it cleanly severed his left arm.
“Gaaaah!!”
“Now that’s a pleasant scream.”
“I’m not—!!”
Not done? Yeah, right. I kicked the demon square in the head. With both arms gone, he looked utterly ridiculous as he crumpled backward without resistance.
“Any last words? I’ll be generous enough to hear them.”
“Just one question. That swordsmanship… where did you learn it…?”
“It’s talent.”
Schlick.
The demon’s head parted ways with his body. At the same moment, the duration of Golden Truth ended. My legs nearly gave out, but I used my sword as a cane and barely managed to stay upright.
'There are eyes watching, after all.'
I lifted my head and looked at Priya. She was lying on the ground with her massive greatsword beside her. She was staring right back at me.
Right after that.
“What the heck?! How did you do that?!”
Priya’s eyes sparkled as she latched onto me. Her weight nearly sent me toppling backward, but I held on through sheer willpower.
“Huh? Hmmm?? Where’d you learn that sword style? And if you had that kind of power, why were you hiding it? Huh? Huh?”
“Ask one question at a time…”
Doesn’t this girl ever get tired? I’m on the verge of collapsing here.
I gave Priya’s condition a quick visual check. There were multiple wounds from taking the demon’s sword head-on. …And yet she’s still moving around like that? I have no idea what her body is made of. Maybe Priya’s physical durability is even harder than golden armor?
Anyway.
“The barrier still hasn’t disappeared.”
I looked up at the sky. Something like a giant soap bubble was enveloping the entire island, and I could sense something unnatural coming from all directions. It seemed to be blocking the ability to read the flow of mana. That bubble was probably what was cutting off communication between the academy and the island.
I fiddled with the Magic Tools on the unconscious students lying on the ground. They weren’t teleporting back to the academy.
'Looks like I have no choice but to destroy that barrier.'
In that case.
“Elena.”
The finishing touch is up to you.
Golden Truth Duration Expired
⚠ Physical exhaustion detected
⚠ Temporary muscle weakness
**
“Haa… Calm down, Elena.”
Elena scanned her surroundings. There was nothing but dense trees. Nothing suspicious stood out. She tried to search using the flow of mana, but even that was difficult because of whatever was covering the island.
“How am I supposed to find this…?”
The mission Kiren had given her: Find and kill the demon blocking communication between the island and the academy.
But Elena felt completely lost. She couldn’t see any path forward. Still, she couldn’t give up.
'Kiren… acknowledged me.'
Kiren didn’t see her or the others as equals. He always acted as if there was an invisible gap between them.
'And honestly, there is a gap…'
Kiren was strong. For someone like him to ask something of her… maybe it meant he saw her as at least a little bit equal?
“So I can’t give up.”
Elena clenched her fist tightly. She began organizing her chaotic thoughts.
'Searching by running around the island with my own two feet is impossible.'
On an island this vast, if one person was truly determined to hide, she would never find them. Besides, Elena was a mage. She didn’t have the stamina to run around like that.
“Then there’s only one way.”
The thing Elena was best at—magic.
However, whatever was covering the island was interfering with tracking. She couldn’t track anything unless she got rid of it.
'What method should I… Ah.'
A memory from a few hours ago suddenly surfaced. The moment when Kiren had told her to face two enemies at once. She had fired Wind Blades at the ground and used the sand as a smokescreen. Even now, she thought it was a pretty good idea.
Why was that memory coming to her now?
“Ah!”
Elena’s face lit up with realization.
“If I don’t know the location, I just need to cut away everything that’s blocking the tracking.”
Just like how she had sliced through the sand smokescreen with her Wind Blades.
She would cut away this unnatural interference that was blocking her ability to read the flow of mana.
Elena closed her eyes and steadied her breathing. She drew out every last bit of mana she could use.
'I need to modify the formula.'
What she needed to cut wasn’t something with a physical form. She adjusted the spell so it could slice through the unnatural interference blocking her tracking.
Her talent lay in her deep understanding of magic and her ability to modify it on the fly. The formula for Wind Blade began to rearrange itself.
A moment later, Elena slowly opened her eyes. The spell’s recalibration was complete.
“Let’s cut it all away.”
Elena deployed her Wind Blades. But this time, their form was far more beautiful and shone much brighter than before.
She controlled the blades. Along their trajectory, the unnatural interference was sliced apart.
And finally.
“Found you.”
The flow of mana returned to normal, and soon the origin point of the barrier came into view. There stood a demon with a body even smaller than half of Elena’s—tiny in stature.
“Hello?”
“Wha—.”
“And goodbye.”
Without hesitation, Elena fired her magic at the demon. The creature collapsed far too easily.
The moment the demon fell, the barrier covering the island vanished as well.
Elena slowly clenched her fist.
'As expected, following Kiren was the right choice.'
It was an idea she never would have come up with without Kiren’s teachings. Before she realized it, a small smile had formed on her lips.
**
“The barrier is disappearing.”
Like a soap bubble popping, it began tearing apart slowly from the top down. Looked like Elena had succeeded.
'Good thing I bought low.'
To be honest, it had been a bit of a gamble. I wasn’t sure if Elena could win one-on-one against a demon when she was still basically a beginner. But seeing how easily she handled it, the mage-type demon must have been pretty weak.
'Even taking that into account, her growth is fast.'
I’d said it many times before—early on, Elena had been less than useless. But now?
Our Elena can definitely pull her own weight!! This is what buying low looks like.
Anyway.
“So now the professors are coming?”
“That’s right. Just wait a little—.”
Flash!
A pure white light appeared right in front of us. Speak of the devil. They must have been spamming the teleport button the moment the island became accessible.
A moment later the light faded, and the first face I saw was…
'The principal?'
Principal Beatrice was the first to arrive. But wait…
Purple magic circles were floating above both of Beatrice’s palms. Before I could say anything, she cast her spell.
“Kneel.”
“!!!”
My body suddenly felt incredibly heavy. It was like five African elephants had been dropped on my shoulders. However.
'…It’s more bearable than I expected?'
It wasn’t to the point where I couldn’t endure it. Standing on two legs would be difficult, but using my sword as a cane made it manageable.
While enduring the weight, I glanced at Priya standing beside me.
“Ugegegegeck……”
…She had already achieved perfect unity with the ground. Anyway.
Principal Beatrice looked around after casting her spell.
“…Kiren?”
Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw me desperately holding myself up so I wouldn’t collapse. The pressure crushing my entire body vanished immediately after.
'Haa, now I can finally breathe.'
I knew about the principal’s abilities, but experiencing them firsthand was no joke. So this was what it felt like to face one of the five Great Mages of the continent.
“Kiren! Are you alright? What happened to the demons?”
She didn’t know about the final moments, huh.
“I’m not badly hurt. The demons are over there.”
I pointed with the tip of my sword at the demon’s head rolling around on the ground.
There was a brief silence.
“…You caught them?”
“What else would I have done?”
“A demon?”
“Yes.”
Beatrice knelt down to examine the demon’s head. While she was doing that, the other professors began teleporting onto the island one after another.
Among them, a professor even smaller than Erien ran over to Beatrice.
“Principal! What happened to the demons—.”
She froze. Her gaze landed on the demon’s head rolling on the ground.
“As expected, you already took care of them! Amazing!!”
“…No, it wasn’t me.”
“Aww, you don’t have to be so modest. Right now, who else on this island besides you could possibly—.”
“I said it wasn’t me. That guy caught them.”
The principal pointed at me, and all the professors’ eyes followed her finger in my direction.
This is a little embarrassing.
“…That student?”
“Yes. I’ll need to investigate the exact details, but it was definitely Kiren.”
The area instantly became noisy.
“A first-year took down a demon… in a one-on-one fight?”
“I knew he was strong, but I didn’t think he was this strong……”
“And he doesn’t even look injured! Did he dodge every single attack while fighting?”
“No way. Is that even possible?”
While the professors whispered among themselves, I saw Elena coming up from below. In her hand was another demon’s head.
“Kiren! Here, a present.”
I caught the head she tossed and handed it over to the principal.
“This demon… is quite young. Its durability isn’t very high either. It’s the kind that students could handle.”
So that’s why Elena was able to take it down alone.
The professors collected both demon heads and teleported back to the academy first. Once everyone had disappeared, Beatrice spoke.
“Well, anyway, good work. I’ll have to investigate the details, but….”
Beatrice bowed her head.
“I’m sorry. I never expected something like this to happen……”
“No one died, so it’s fine.”
The two students who had collapsed were only unconscious for a short time. With proper treatment at the academy, they’d wake up soon. Elena and Priya had taken some injuries, but nothing too serious.
“Still, as principal, I feel I should apologize. I’ll make sure to give you proper compensation later.”
“If you want to, go ahead.”
And with that, the incident on the island came to a close.
**
“Hmmm, how interesting……”
In a dark room where not even a single ray of light could enter, a pink-haired girl sitting up in bed. In her hand was a crystal orb. The orb displayed a perfect image of the massive volcanic island.
“It was hastily made, so its durability was low… but to think it would be defeated by first-years…”
'Should I have sent a stronger one even if it meant accepting the loss?'
The pink-haired girl shifted into a more comfortable sitting position. The small wings on the back of her hips fluttered.
“But no matter how I think about it, it’s strange. Just how did he do that?”
She manipulated the crystal orb. The image inside rewound and then stopped at a particular scene. Playback resumed.
-Clang! Clang! Clang!!
The sound of swords clashing rang out. Neither side allowed the other a clean hit. Then one of them sliced off the opponent’s right arm. Not long after, the left arm also parted from its body.
“To think a mere first-year at the academy has this level of ability.”
What would happen if that guy continued training and putting in effort?
…This won’t do.
“Should I go myself?”
The demon lifted her head and looked at the academy uniform hanging on the wall. It was something she had acquired some time ago.
“What a dilemma……”
With those words, the pink-haired girl lay back down on the bed.