Aurora (1)
I let out a sharp yell and unleashed a spinning kick. My foot traced a clean arc, slipping past the shield blocking my path and slamming straight into the side of its head. The impact of the kick combined with the vulnerable hit point on the temple made the whole body stagger. The moment that mountain-like, rock-solid stance crumbled, I dropped low and swept at its ankles.
Thwack!
Its feet left the ground as its body lifted into the air. Before gravity could remember it existed and pull the thing back down, my leg drew a massive full moon in the air—from the ground, up over my head, and back down to the earth.
BOOM!
With a deafening crash, the body slammed into the floor. The impact was so violent that the golem actually bounced slightly off the ground from the recoil. The light in the fallen golem’s eyes flickered. Then a number appeared on the wall.
- 293
“Aaaah~”
I couldn’t help letting out a disappointed groan. The number was way too low.
This was the combat training arena. What I’d been fighting was a training golem. Wait, wasn’t the place for testing magic called the testing ground? Yeah, that’s right. There’s a separate testing ground for combat users too. This place is different from the testing ground.
The difference is that instead of just beating up a scarecrow that stands there and takes hits, you can fight against a golem specifically built for training. If you just want to test the power of a newly developed technique, you go to the testing ground. If you want to see if it’ll actually work in real combat, you come to the training arena. That kind of thing.
The testing ground is closer to the dorms, but since I came here specifically to test out some skills, I made the trip to the training arena.
This might take a bit to explain… but I’ll try to keep it as short as possible.
This is a game world with a medieval fantasy setting, right? People throw around holy power and magic all the time. But up until now, I’ve only been using fighting techniques I knew from reality. And even then, it was just me half-assedly copying MMA moves I’d occasionally seen on video sites.
The fact that I could actually pull off techniques I’d only ever watched in videos years ago—without ever learning them in person—showed just how monstrous this body’s talent really was.
But that’s not what’s important right now. The point is, the techniques I’m using are all from Earth. After coming all the way to a medieval fantasy world, wouldn’t it be a waste if everything I did was no different from reality?
Until now, I hadn’t really felt any discomfort about it. The techniques pro MMA fighters use already felt like fantasy to someone who used to be an ordinary person, and more than anything, it had been enough.
But it wasn’t enough against that black mage we ran into at the Underground Colosseum last time.
Don’t get me wrong—I’m not feeling down or frustrated or anything. Nobody died in that fight, after all. If your damage is lacking, you just have to raise it, right? This is part of figuring out how to raise that damage.
Adding a fantasy twist to my techniques.
I’d run a few experiments, and even with this body that has trouble using mana, I found I could pull off movements that looked pretty damn fantastical. Just look at what I did earlier. The golem I knocked down was a seriously burly thing—180cm tall and weighing 85kg. I swept its legs out from under it, launching it into the air, then followed up with a downward strike before it could even hit the ground. Stuff that should only work in fighting games was actually happening in real life.
How? Hell if I know. It just worked when I tried it.
I’d only just started grasping the basics, but I felt like I finally had a framework for getting stronger.
Still, the immediate results were pretty disappointing. 293. That was the golem’s calculated power of the attack I’d landed. I had some excuses, though. First, the training arena’s golems aren’t as good at measuring power as the testing ground’s scarecrows, so they only calculate the final hit. In the combo of spinning kick, leg sweep, and downward strike, it only registered that last downward strike as 293.
And the other reason—probably the biggest one—was this.
“Ow. My foot hurts. This thing’s seriously hard.”
I rubbed my slightly numb foot. The boots I was wearing right now weren’t the steel-plated ones I usually used as weapons—just regular boots. They were still sturdy travel boots, but apparently they couldn’t handle absorbing the full impact of a rabbit beastman’s full-powered kick. If I’d been wearing my usual boots, the number would’ve been way higher than 293.
Trying to create new techniques was no fun when the numbers wouldn’t even show up properly. I tidied up a bit and left the training arena.
“Ughya. That feels good.”
I stepped out of the shower while drying myself with a towel. Even though it was just a training golem, I hadn’t half-assed it, so I’d worked up a good sweat. Washing it all off felt incredibly refreshing.
I dried myself slowly, then left the remaining moisture that the towel couldn’t reach to dry naturally. It’d probably be dry in about a minute, right?
If I were back at the dorm, Casey would’ve nagged me with something like, “Put on underwear at least before you leave the shower!” Not that I’d be walking around naked if I had a roommate, you know? I’d at least cover up with a towel. It’s not like anyone male is seeing me, and I personally don’t care, but since Casey hates it, I’m just being considerate. See? I’m such a kind and thoughtful person.
But this wasn’t the dorm, so I didn’t need to worry about other people. This was the hideout building. Specifically, my own room that I’d claimed. There was a huge bathhouse in the basement that I used often, but pretty much every decent room in this building came with its own shower.
Why? Well, obviously. So you can wash up right after having sex.
The fact that the original game was an eroge kept popping up at the most random times. I got properly dressed before leaving the room.
I didn’t really have anything planned for today. Well, there were things I needed to do, but nothing urgent. Maybe I should stop by Senos’s general store? I didn’t have anything specific to buy, but you never know—browsing might turn up something I needed.
I’d just decided on my destination and was about to leave the hideout when I ran into Theo in the hallway. When he saw me, he greeted me with a happy smile.
“Luna. Hey. You were here?”
“You were here? That’s my line. The guy who’s been MIA for the past few days.”
“Ah, well… yeah.”
Theo gave an awkward laugh and dodged the subject. Just like I’d said, it had been hard to spot Theo around the hideout lately. He was always out somewhere. Still, from what I’d heard, he wasn’t just wasting time alone—he was going around with Faye and spending all that lovey-dovey time together, so I didn’t really have anything to say about it. He didn’t seem to be slacking on his training either.
Though around the same time, I had noticed more students looking at me with pitying eyes… I wonder why?
Theo glanced around to make sure no one else was nearby before speaking.
“I’ve been looking into my ability lately.”
“Your ability? Why?”
“Hmm… this might take a while to explain. Want to talk in my room? If that’s uncomfortable, we can use yours.”
“What’s there to be uncomfortable about? Let’s go.”
“…You know, the fact that you’re not even slightly bothered by that is kind of concerning?”
“What nonsense are you spouting? You gonna talk or not?”
“I do need to. Yeah.”
Theo started talking even before we reached his room.
“Remember when we fought in the colosseum last time? How I got pushed back in the magic battle against that black mage?”
“Yeah, I remember. I was busy fighting too so I couldn’t watch closely, but I saw the result.”
“My attack spells barely landed at all back then. Part of it was because the opponent was a black mage and his magic was stronger, but honestly, he was just flat-out stronger than me from the start.”
“Seemed that way. That demon you possessed was the same. I probably would’ve lost in a one-on-one too.”
That was exactly why I’d been practicing techniques at the training arena today.
“Even with that big of a gap in skill, when I mixed in my hypnosis ability with my attacks, a few of them actually landed. I thought if I could refine this, it might become my trump card.”
“It’s a power given by the Goddess, after all. It should have that kind of potential. So?”
We arrived at Theo’s room. He rummaged through his desk and pulled out a notebook. Then he opened it at an angle where I couldn’t see the contents.
“What the hell. You didn’t call me all the way here just to show me that?”
“No? I just wanted to read it while I talked. You can sit anywhere.”
…This guy. He used to at least be a little conscious that my body was female, but now he was treating me completely normally. Did dating Faye make him that comfortable around women? Even so, wasn’t the change a little too fast? Not that I particularly wanted to be treated like a girl or anything.
I plopped down on the nearby bed.
“…You’re going to sit there?”
“Why not? You don’t even use it anyway. I know you sleep at the dorm every night.”
“That’s true, but… whatever. Do what you want.”
Theo shook his head with a sigh and turned his gaze to the notebook.
“I ran a few experiments, and what I found was…”
“Ah. Just give me the conclusion.”
“…Fine. The conclusion is that my hypnosis ability grows more the more the target hates what they’re being made to do.”
“Cancel that. Give me a little more detail.”
“……”
His stare stung a bit.
“My hypnosis ability grows when I use it. But not all hypnosis is the same. The kind where the target doesn’t really hate it—stuff that’s easy to cast—doesn’t grow much.”
“And on the flip side, the more they hate it, the more it grows?”
“Exactly.”
“Easy enough to understand. Basically, the harder it is, the more it grows? Like working out.”
“When you put it that way, it does sound pretty obvious. Anyway, that’s what I found out.”
“I get what you’re saying. So?”
“Huh?”
“……?”
Our eyes met.
“What? That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“Dude, you said the story would be long so you dragged me all the way here. And that’s everything?”
“I was going to tell you about all the experiments I did. But you said you didn’t want that.”
“I don’t, yeah. Still, it’s good to see you working so hard. If there’s anything I can help with, just tell me anytime.”
“Got it. Even if you say no, I’ll ask for help anyway.”
“Ahaha. If it’s no, it’s no, dummy.”
Leaving Theo’s joke behind, I left the room. What was I going to do again? Oh, right. I was going to Senos.
I headed toward Senos without giving the finished conversation another thought.
Theo stared at the door Luna had just walked out of.
He’d kept it short, but reaching that conclusion had taken countless experiments. Making the hypnosis target do something they really didn’t want to do. When he ordered someone to steal a piece of fruit from a street stall, the growth had been enormous compared to normal. Of course, after the experiment ended, he properly paid the stall owner.
Crime. Any normal person would hate committing a crime. If Theo hypnotized someone and ordered them to kill—not just one or two people, but to commit a massacre—then the growth would surely be tremendous.
But Theo absolutely did not want to grow that way. Growing by using people’s lives—what would separate him from the black mages he hated so much?
However.
Something that was still a crime, something the target would hate doing, but if handled properly afterward, no one would get hurt…
There was one method that came to mind.
It wasn’t even something he’d just thought of. Luna had always been urging him to use that method, after all.
Thinking about it now, maybe she’d known about the ability’s growth mechanism from the very beginning. Though that seemed unlikely.
To get revenge on the black mages who kidnapped his little sister.
And to make sure he didn’t lose the precious people he had now.
Theo made up his mind.
“Luna. You definitely said you’d help, right?”
Even if she said no, he would ask for her help anyway.