Chapter 104
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: The True Blessing
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“Professor Aiden? What on earth is it?”
I spotted Radia rushing over from that direction and twisted my face in disgust.
Her footsteps halted midway, her expression darkening as if she thought I’d grimaced because she was approaching.
“No need to hesitate like that. I was just preoccupied with thoughts of those other bastards.”
It was because of why that thing had looked human.
Or perhaps, having seen something human-like for the first time in ages, it was hard to accept being downgraded back to a beast.
Either way, it had nothing to do with Radia.
“That’s a relief. I thought maybe it was because of me.”
She sighed in relief, realizing I wasn’t upset because of her.
“Then, may I ask what happened in the hall?”
“I’d like to say it’s nothing to worry about, but were you digging for info somewhere else?”
She answered with silence, so I filtered the information through a sieve once more.
Telling her everything would take too much time, but in short, enemies had infiltrated the palace.
That should suffice.
“You must know a gag order’s been issued.”
“Yes, I heard that much before leaving.”
Even the Emperor knew a gag order wouldn’t truly contain something like this.
He’d clamped down until a clear judgment could be made, but rumors spreading was inevitable.
‘Come to think of it, wasn’t there one rumor already circulating?’
That thought brought my steps to an abrupt halt.
“Professor?”
“…So that’s what it was.”
Ominous rumors swell and thicken as events pile on.
Normally, they’d fade with time, but once additions start layering in, they gradually take solid form.
After that, they snowball uncontrollably.
And the demon spotted in the palace was just the thing to fuel those rumors.
Which meant the rumor that had spread right before...
The capital is cursed.
A fierce battle erupted in the palace, and a demon appeared.
Based on that, the curse rumor would explode even larger.
‘So it all fits together.’
I shouldn’t have dismissed it as a passing rumor.
This was another ploy by the demon worshippers preparing for the Great Demon Lord’s revival.
I had to stop it.
“…More things to do now.”
“What?”
I looked at Radia again.
“If you heard about the gag order, you must’ve heard I don’t know the details either. Why ask me about the truth?”
“I did hear that, but...”
She eyed me with suspicion.
“I figured you had a high chance of knowing, Professor.”
“You think I’m lying?”
“Not lying, exactly. Just withholding info. Like always.”
“...”
“I don’t know why you do it.”
A fair suspicion.
But spilling everything I knew right now would be too much.
That’s why there are restrictions on disclosure.
No one would believe wild claims like the world ending if left alone, so it’s worse than saying nothing.
The Emperor grabbed me as Charlotte approached, so I answered quickly.
“A Great Demon Lord is sealed beneath the palace. The worshippers targeted Princess Lilian to revive it, and I stopped them.”
“…Pardon?”
“Figure out the rest yourself. There’s this one student who’d charge in impulsively if her blood got up, so I can’t tell you everything.”
Radia nodded, probably picturing Elin in her head.
She seemed to soothe her unease with thoughts of Elin’s antics.
Even if she’d learned some composure from that honey bee fiasco, you never knew when she might snap.
“If you’re planning to act, come see me again first. I’ll at least tell you what’s safe to touch.”
Even if the protagonists needed to grasp the enemy’s true nature, digging too deep could backfire.
If they hit backlash from uncovering forbidden truths, I could handle it.
That wasn’t the issue; better to peel back layers gradually than dive in headfirst.
“Don’t just leave me behind. Huff, huff.”
“You should’ve slipped out fine on your own.”
“…Don’t you know all my troubles are because of you?”
I swallowed my words as Charlotte glared.
“Oh, Lady Charlotte.”
“We’re off-duty. Call me like before.”
“Then, Charlotte, are you really okay? I missed the end.”
“She’ll be fine.”
“Not fine at all? Why are you answering for me?”
“If her limbs are intact, she’s fine.”
Charlotte let out an admiring exclamation at my brilliant rhetoric and started from the feet up.
Only after kicking my shin could she sigh in relief and snipe back.
“My neck nearly got sliced clean off, barely surviving by the skin of my teeth, and you call that fine?”
“If it had, the Emperor couldn’t handle my wrath anyway, so don’t worry.”
At worst, he’d hit me with a hefty fine, summon me, and whine.
It’d tarnish his image plenty, but that’s exactly what would happen.
Ignoring Charlotte’s grumbling about how I got off easy, I boarded the carriage.
Radia and Charlotte seemed to continue talking, but I didn’t join in.
Instead, I mulled over that unfamiliar sensation from before.
‘It looked human.’
When I gripped the rapier, the blessing within flowed into my body, temporarily sharpening my vision.
Considering the Hallucination of Disgust on me came from the Great Demon Lord, it didn’t make sense.
Blessings and magic seals beneficial to the user turn toxic in excess.
Like muscles exploding with power but shredding fibers if the body can’t take the strain, leaving you crippled.
No point if you can’t handle the output.
That’s why swords and armor are matched as sets, balancing load so it doesn’t skew one way.
A blessing is load, and load demands precise control.
‘But the side effects vanished?’
Unless the blessing and curse canceled via repulsion...
‘They merged.’
The rapier’s blessing submitted beneath the Hallucination of Disgust.
There’s only one case for that.
When a lesser blessing reinforces a greater one.
Muttering low enough to drown in their conversation,
“…So it really was a blessing.”
The Hallucination of Disgust wasn’t just a gag making me look like a beast to people—it truly protected my body?
From the Great Demon Lord, to me of all people?
‘Why?’
The Great Demon Lord was supposed to lure me to the Pisvolt Ducal House as Young Lord and kill me, yet it gave me a protective blessing?
My eyelids grew heavy over this unsolvable puzzle.
More to do, more to investigate.
Especially considering what that man said before dying.
* * *
“How was it?”
Princess Lilian snapped her head up to look at the Sword Duke.
The Emperor sat beside her, clutching his head.
A somewhat destructive scene lay before her, mostly from the fierce battle.
‘What a total mess.’
She hadn’t examined it closely before, but pondering now, each decoration likely held history and tradition—now smashed.
Princess Lilian hesitated.
“…What do you mean?”
“You said you saw Master Aiden fight.”
“You told me to keep my eyes shut. And it wasn’t something I could even watch with my own eyes.”
The Sword Duke let out a long laugh echoing off the floor.
“Quite the extravagant destruction.”
“I didn’t expect it to be this bad either.”
Crumbled walls, a monster embedded deep in the surface, unrecognizable; something splattered like liquid—impossible to say how.
Tar-like black blood, maybe gore, scattered everywhere.
But the chuckle came from the sheer absurdity of the sight.
“You said no sword.”
“…Yes. There wasn’t one.”
Yet he’d toppled buildings, upheaved the ground, and shredded monsters impervious even to the appraisal team’s heavy gear.
In the end, rather than dissecting an intact upper body, the team opted to collect the flesh and bone chunks Professor Aiden had separated.
Monsters of that caliber.
The successive whooshes of air weren’t illusions, that much was clear.
“That thing... even prime me wouldn’t take lightly.”
The Sword Duke barked a hearty laugh, staring somewhere off.
Unhidden battle lust flickered in his eyes, but faded quickly as he recalled his age.
Princess Lilian’s gaze naturally followed.
The man.
The one Professor Aiden called the “eye.”
His gaunt frame had ballooned like the other monsters at some point, but not grotesquely.
The now burly man had shed body hair, encasing himself in hard chitin.
Mouth, nose, ears—gone too, leaving only two sockets for eyeballs on his face. Nothing else.
“…Pathetic.”
Even unseen, the man had exuded such overwhelming pressure she’d gritted her teeth.
Now, torn apart so gruesomely it pained to look.
No lower body in sight, no limbs intact.
His neck ripped out, embedded in a corner wall.
“And the eyeballs are gouged out.”
“Probably taken by Master Aiden.”
“That... I wouldn’t know.”
The Sword Duke gazed at the scene with oddly fond eyes.
Princess Lilian quirked a brow at the inscrutable sentiment, then shook her head in exasperation.
But after a while, a sudden thought froze her.
‘Kept telling me to shut my eyes... for this reason?’
Warned that eye contact might drive me mad, and hid the battle traces too.
Given her panic and shortness of breath then, not seeing would’ve helped stability far more.
“So, the Master Aiden you saw up close... strong?”
“In my eyes, Professor Aiden and Master Oshuah are too close to call.”
To mere mortals, superiority among superhumans held little meaning. They couldn’t grasp or comprehend the baseline power, so witnessing it was pointless.
All one knew was: if those types turned hostile, blood would flow rivers.
“Master Oshuah... yes, that boy’s a genius too.”
“Hard to find a Master who isn’t a genius.”
“True, but this is different. Incomparable.”
“How so?”
The Sword Duke stroked his jaw.
“Too strong.”
“…Pardon?”
“Not wielding a greatsword, but a thin rapier like that—yet a swordsman with that cutting power and destructive force from punches?”
He scanned the wall, retracing the damage.
Princess Lilian didn’t get it, but a swordsman of the Sword Duke’s level could reverse-engineer the flow from traces alone.
“Strange. Or maybe I’m just outdated. Hm.”
As each sank into thoughts, only Princess Lilian stared straight at the bisected man’s corpse.
“Why does a godless wretch like you receive His greatest favor? I can’t comprehend it.”
“Not like I asked for it, so take it if you can.”
Short exchange, yet brimming with endless questions—Princess Lilian fell silent.
They’d saved her, so clearly not enemies.
But not total strangers either.
‘I need to find out.’
In the end, she’d have to ask Professor Aiden.