Warning (1)
The arrogant little shit.
Glover was hanging out with his buddies in their private hideout behind an abandoned building. He’d been stewing over running into Warren earlier that evening. But the target of his fury wasn’t Warren himself. It was that bastard Kael who’d been with him. Somehow, that guy’s presence had made Warren act even cockier than usual. Glover had played it cool in front of his friends at the time, but just thinking about how that little prick had talked back to him without hesitation—humiliating him—made his teeth grind even now.
“Shouldn’t we teach that fucker a lesson soon?”
“Yeah, seriously. He’s been getting way too full of himself lately. Right, Glover?”
The two friends who’d been chattering among themselves turned to him, seeking agreement. Glover wholeheartedly agreed that Warren needed to be put back in his place. But he had an even better idea.
“Yeah. Let’s set a date. But we start with the guy who was standing next to Warren, not Warren himself.”
One of his friends looked confused at Glover’s answer. “You mean that Kael guy from earlier?”
“Exactly. He seemed pretty close with Warren. If his friend gets beaten half to death because of him, don’t you think Warren would just love that?”
Glover gave his questioning friend a relaxed smile as he answered. The two buddies burst out laughing and immediately started praising him.
“Whoa, that’s actually brilliant.”
“As expected from Glover. You’ve always had the best head among us.”
Glover felt a surge of satisfaction at their reaction and started enthusiastically suggesting they do it as soon as tomorrow. That was when it happened.
“Who are you talking about?”
A low, commanding voice cut in from behind Glover. Their boss, Lucian, had arrived at the hideout.
“Young Master Lucian.”
Glover, who had been slouching like a thug, shot to his feet and bowed his head respectfully. He genuinely looked up to Lucian. The reason he could hold this kind of position among his friends without being looked down on was all thanks to Lucian’s backing.
“I asked who you were talking about. Were you talking about me?”
“No, sir, not at all, Young Master Lucian. It’s just…”
Under Lucian’s impatient gaze, Glover groveled and quickly summarized what had happened when they ran into Warren earlier. When he heard Kael’s name, Lucian’s eyes narrowed into slits.
“So it’s that guy who was with Ophelia last time.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Lucian recalled his recent encounter with Ophelia. The Lanchester family heir. Ophelia, who shone brilliantly no matter where she went. And Kael had been standing right beside her, shoulder to shoulder. That alone had been infuriating. The way he’d stood there with his head held high while Lucian politely greeted Ophelia, the way he’d dared to shake hands with the confidence of an equal—nothing about it had sat well with him.
And most damning of all.
‘Sorry, I’m with my friends right now.’
The way Ophelia had treated him like some kind of nuisance. Just who the hell did that Kael bastard think he was? Lucian hadn’t been able to show it in front of her, but the humiliation had been unbearable.
After that, Lucian had looked into this Kael guy. It seemed they’d gotten acquainted because they ended up in the same group as Ophelia. But absurdly enough, the guy was in the Lower Class—and at the very bottom, an E-grade in magic power, no less. Setting aside how incomprehensible it was that Ophelia would ignore him for someone like that, Lucian couldn’t just let the bastard slide.
Fortunately, Glover’s crew had already bumped into him. Perfect. As usual, Lucian could simply sit back and let them handle the dirty work.
“So. When are you planning to deal with him?”
“That trash? If I feel like it, I can stomp him anytime,” Glover replied, looking like an obedient dog waiting for his master’s command, just as he always did.
“Then what’s the point in dragging it out?”
“You mean…?”
“Isn’t today a good day?”
Lucian stopped there and climbed onto a large rock, sitting down. From there, he looked down at Glover and the rest of the group with a leisurely gaze.
“Go find that Kael kid from the Lower Class.”
Glover immediately barked an order at the two quiet guys lurking in the corner. This was what had happened while Kael was still in the library. And quite a bit of time had passed since then.
“Why the hell aren’t these idiots back yet?” Glover grumbled irritably.
The academy was large, but the places where new students usually hung out were pretty obvious. Yet the two he’d sent to drag Kael back still hadn’t returned even after a long while.
“Hey, what’s that over there?”
One of Glover’s friends pointed at a distant light. The area around them was pitch black except for the single magic lantern they’d lit. But now, an unfamiliar white glow was floating in the direction his friend indicated. The white light rapidly began to swell in size.
‘What the hell is that…?’
Everyone stared at the light with puzzled expressions. And then—
Boom!
With a sound like a bomb going off, the white light—which had grown as large as a house—began hurtling straight toward them with terrifying speed.
“What the fuck is that?!”
“Uwaaaah!”
Just getting grazed by that thing would turn your bones to dust. Acting on pure instinct, Glover and his gang threw themselves flat on the ground as the glowing sphere flew at them.
‘Magic…?’
Even Lucian, who had been sitting arrogantly atop the rock, was just as shocked. Seeing the sphere heading straight for him, he frantically dove to the ground to dodge. The mana radiating from it told him it was definitely someone’s spell, but it was a type of magic he had never seen before in his life.
The blazing white sphere of energy tore through the air with ferocious pressure, shaking everything around it. The violent wind made the nearby trees sway wildly. Dirt and dust mercilessly pelted their faces as they lay pressed against the ground. It felt like a small, blazing sun had descended from the sky and was passing right over their heads.
Shiiiing—!
The white sphere, screaming with lethal momentum, slammed directly into the hill behind the rock where Lucian had been sitting.
KWAAAAANG—!
A deafening roar erupted as it carved out a massive crater. At the same time, a fierce gust of wind blasted forward from behind them. They clung desperately to the ground to keep from being blown away. The sudden shock left everyone’s minds completely blank.
After things grew quiet again, no one dared to move. Only after catching their breath and regaining some composure did they slowly turn their heads. Lucian and the others stared at the impact site with completely dazed expressions. The trees and rocks that had been there were gone without a trace. In their place was nothing but an enormous crater, as if a giant had scooped out the earth with a spoon.
‘What the hell was that?’
It was so absurd that they even doubted whether it had truly been magic. It looked like the explosion had simply erased a perfect sphere of space, leaving not even a flicker of flame behind. That precision made it all the more horrifying. None of them had ever read about or heard of magic like this.
“Young Master Lucian…”
Glover and the others remained flat on the ground, trembling violently as they looked only at Lucian—their leader. He was the strongest among them. The one they trusted and followed. Surely he would do something about this. That was the desperate hope in all their eyes.
But even Lucian had never experienced anything like this. Though he acted high and mighty as an Upper Class student from a prestigious family, he was still just a freshman who had enrolled less than a month ago. Still, he couldn’t afford to look weak in front of them while they were all groveling on the ground.
He forced strength into his legs, stood up, and stared in the direction the white light had come from. It was too dark to see clearly, but he could make out a human silhouette flickering in the distance.
“W-who the hell are you?!”
Lucian shouted toward the figure, trying his best to sound unshaken.
“What are you asking? You’re the one who called me here.”
The voice that answered was one Lucian knew very well.
Overlapped Missile
A short while earlier.
Once I realized their hideout wasn’t far, I raised my staff.
Crack!
I brought it down hard on the head of the guy walking in front of me.
“Guh…!”
He collapsed unconscious on the spot. My staff was, after all, a mythic-grade item. Against these pathetic scrubs, it made for an excellent blunt weapon. No matter how weak Kael’s body was.
“You— what the hell are you—?”
Crack!
“Ugh…”
The two guys who hadn’t been on guard at all were easily knocked out. ‘If you’re dragging someone off to beat them up, you should’ve taken their weapon first, idiots.’
I made sure both were properly unconscious before continuing forward. My destination was the exact same place they’d been trying to take me.
‘There are two possibilities. Either I wipe them all out in one go, or I get the shit beaten out of me.’
I’d taken out two of them preemptively, but if I had to face the rest of Lucian’s entire crew like this, I’d be at a serious disadvantage without my stacked missiles. On the other hand, I obviously couldn’t just kill them all. And I had zero intention of letting them beat me up either.
That left only one option.
I would make them lose the will to fight entirely.