Chapter 208
Chapter 208
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 208
Chapter Title: Temptation is Cat Food
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“…….”
Fail backed away with a look of disgust on his face.
The silver fox mask in front of him clearly knew his family.
‘He knows my family and still oozes that much confidence...’
Fail swallowed hard.
‘Does that mean he’s got the skills to back it up?’
The opponent’s murderous aura was chilling.
Just as his heart was shrinking to the size of a pea.
“Boss, but I don’t think you need to worry that much?”
One of his classmates muttered.
“Look closely. That guy’s weapon is a club. Not a staff.”
“Huh, you’re right.”
Another classmate let out a relieved breath, tension draining from his body.
“Damn it, what the hell? We got tricked? He’s not a mage?”
“Yeah, a non-mage putting on that kind of show. What a joke.”
In the world of magic, the ultimate profession was mage.
All other jobs were mere offshoots.
Fail and his classmates, now over their initial shock, started acting cocky again.
“So what is he? Assassin? Swordsman? What do you call someone with a club? Clubber?”
One classmate tilted his head as he eyed the silver fox mask—Joo Dong-hoon.
His gaze landed on the blood-red club.
“Hey, hey, wait. Now that I think about it, that guy does use magic.”
“Huh? What magic?”
“Magic to make a club, kekeke! Flames burst from his hand—poof!—and the weapon appeared? That’s it?”
“Puhaha, what useless magic!”
The relieved classmates clutched their stomachs, laughing and mocking him.
By their common sense.
A club could never beat a staff.
In other words, on Earth.
It’d be like charging at someone pointing a gun with a knife.
“Hahaha, no need to worry after all. What do you say, Fail? Shall we burn him to a crisp? Or drown him?”
One thuggish classmate looked at Fail with leisure.
Hearing the suggestion, Fail pondered.
The insolent fool who dared insult his family.
And startled him, even if just for a moment.
“Don’t kill him. Beat him to within an inch of his life. First, let’s rip off that mask. See which family dared defy the Eloises.”
“Got it, Fail.”
“But once we’re done with this punk, you’re treating us again tomorrow, right?”
Kahk! Ptooey.
One classmate spat and aimed his staff at Joo Dong-hoon.
“Hey, why’re you just standing there? Scared now?”
Woooong!
Mana surged into his staff.
Yet the silver fox mask didn’t twitch.
“Kekeke, he’s frozen stiff. Should’ve picked your fights better, punk. Hold still—I’ll fry that arm first.”
“Thugs are the same whether in this world or the next.”
That’s when the silver fox mask raised his head and muttered.
“What’d you say?”
The classmate scowled.
“Arm first, right? Okay, noted.”
The man nodded and charged.
At the same moment.
Pwoof!
The cocky classmate frowned at the sudden thudding impact.
‘What sound was that?’
The thought barely formed.
‘Huh?’
His right hand, gripping the staff, sensed something off.
It felt numb, strength draining away.
Then pain rushed in like a torrent.
“Guh? Guh, guaaack!”
What the hell.
When did my arm end up like this?
Did he hit it the instant I charged?
How’s he so fast?
The classmate stared in disbelief at his dangling arm.
Fractured.
The staff had long fallen to the ground.
All he could do was clutch his arm and roll on the floor.
“Gaaack! It hurts! Fuck! It huuuurts!”
“…….”
The other classmates’ pupils dilated.
Fail’s jaw dropped, body rigid.
‘What kind of guy is he?’
As a noble of the Eloise family, Fail didn’t keep weaklings as underlings.
The guy clutching his arm.
Was top-tier even in A-Class.
‘How...’
With a mere club, not magic.
Neutralize a mage in one hit?
“W-What are you doing!”
Fail shouted urgently.
“Block him before he moves again! Block him!”
“Y-Yeah!”
But the other classmates were no different.
Puck! Puck! Pwoock!
“First, break all their arms.”
The silver fox mask’s leisurely beating was artistry.
Puck! Paak!
No wasted motion, precisely targeting vitals with elegant strikes.
“Phew, you weren’t planning to just zap my arm, right? Nah, you’d go for the legs too, wouldn’t you?”
“W-Wait! Uwaaaah!”
He mercilessly smashed the thighs and ankles of the screaming, prone classmates.
Not a shred of mercy in his actions.
“Gaaaaack!”
“Sp-Spare me!”
The mages couldn’t cast a single spell.
“Gaaack! Please spare me!”
They just dropped their staves and wailed.
‘Fast.’
Fail thought.
No chance to chant.
Even if there was time?
No way to hit someone darting like lightning.
‘Takes at least the family head or elder professor level...’
Cold assessment.
If he one-shots an A-Class mage?
No average student could handle it.
‘Then.’
Run and report to the family head.
Drip, drip!
But facing the man approaching with that razor-sharp killing intent, Fail lacked the confidence to flee.
Fail realized.
Like wild prey.
The moment he turned his back, merciless beating would begin.
“H-Hey. Hold up.”
Fail’s mind raced.
To turn this around.
First, figure out what the opponent wants.
“W-What do you want? My bad. Just, uh, stop right there!”
“What I want?”
Cruelly, the silver fox mask ignored Fail’s plea.
He walked forward calmly.
Whoosh!
Swinging the club at his leg.
“Gaaaaack!”
Fail collapsed.
With his lower body sealed, all he could do was.
Watch the masked man raise the club again.
“What was it you said? Beat him to within an inch of death?”
“Th-That was...!”
“Payback in kind. That’s my creed.”
“W-Wait, mmph...!”
Pabababat!
The man’s club danced fluidly.
Light taps embedding into every meridian and vital point on his body.
“G-Guaaaack!”
Fail screamed like he was being torn apart.
Pain he’d never felt in his life.
Skin swelling, flesh and bone mashing together.
“Listen well while you take it.”
At the same time.
The man’s voice rang clear in Fail’s ears.
“This much pain isn’t even pain. No need to whine.”
In the world.
If this wasn’t pain.
What the hell was?
“If you tell your family or the Magic Tower about this...”
Drip, trickle!
Tears poured from Fail’s eyes.
Thud, thudthudthud!
The club still hammered his body.
“I’ll come find you again. Then you’ll learn real pain.”
Mystifyingly.
The beating stopped just short of blackout.
No—more precisely, whenever he neared unconsciousness, greater pain snapped him awake.
“And think hard about why you got beaten.”
“……?”
Reason for the beating?
Didn’t that punk start it?
You’re the one who blocked the road with that creepy mask!
“Phew, looks like you don’t even know the real reason. If you still don’t get it in a year...”
Whoooosh!
The silver-masked man’s final blow slammed into Fail’s gut.
“Guh, guheeeok!”
“Then you’ll get thrashed like this again. Got it? Oh, and one more thing.”
The man plucked the Eloise insignia from Fail’s pocket.
“Confiscating this for now. Like I said, tell your family... and you’ll see hell.”
With those final words.
Fail finally let go of consciousness.
* * *
The next day.
In the 22nd-floor archive secret room.
Munch munch.
Arin slowly savored a precious hardtack biscuit while reading.
Plop!
She caught a sound from outside.
‘What’s that?’
Arin flinched.
This was the most remote corner of the archive.
Deep in the archives.
A personal nook she’d painstakingly carved out in the corner of a massive bookshelf over a month.
‘No way...’
Did the Tower Lord find out?
Swoosh.
Arin quietly set down her book and stood.
Having eaten only three hardtacks all day, her head spun.
Anemic.
Beyond hunger.
Her body lacked calories and nutrients.
‘What do I do?’
But the outside noise worried her more.
If one of the permitted 22nd-floor classmates was tailing her.
Or if a professor spotted her.
This wouldn’t be her space anymore.
That terrified Arin.
‘Still.’
She had to check the noise.
She crept forward and slid open the secret room door with a creak!
‘Hm?’
Her eyes widened.
Before her sat a small magic pile she desperately needed... and...
‘What’s this?’
Some strangely shaped food.
But the aroma was no joke.
Grrrooowl!
Her stomach roared on its own.
And.
On the paper in front.
[Don’t doubt it. Just eat.]
[Scam or not, gotta survive first, right?]
[Eat to study.]
[-Sponsor-]
‘What... is this?’
Arin was bewildered.
* * *
Atop the opposite bookshelf.
Holding the Eloise insignia, I sat watching Arin deliberate.
For reference, that handwriting.
I had a passing student write it.
Communication works, but I can’t write letters.
“But you know.”
The old man muttered beside me.
“Why give such a tiny amount of those ingredients?”
“That?”
I smiled.
“Stray cats get warier if you overdo it at first.”
Even now.
Arin hesitated to approach.
“See? She’s agonizing even over that little bit.”
“You brat.”
“Yes?”
“It’s not the amount... She’s wary someone knows about that secret room.”
“Can’t help it.”
Her nickname’s the archive ghost.
If I don’t visit personally.
When do I resolve her grudge, clear the dungeon?
“That’s why I prepared that.”
“That thing from your world called ramen?”
“Yes.”
The food I prepared.
None other than Korea’s representative dish: ramen.
In my bag’s emergency pot.
Brewed bubbling with sorcery.
Of course, the mildest, least spicy kind.
Slurp.
Ah, my mouth waters.
“Wary or not, let’s see her resist. After days of starving, can she ignore that smell...? If she does, I’ll admit defeat.”
“Huh, I’m curious now. Is it really that good?”
The old man eyed Arin curiously.
Yes.
Someday.
I’ll treat you to that ramen too, elder.
“For now. Let’s call it here today.”
I quietly stood.
Whether she eats or not isn’t the point.
Slowly.
Like with a stray cat.
I’ll keep bringing it steadily.
Until she opens her heart.
“Already? Not watching her eat?”
“Gotta practice sorcery. Prep lessons for that Andrew punk too. Sigh, such a hassle.”
No more slacking off.
Ssssh!
I stepped into the shadows toward the secret passage I’d made.