Chapter 115
Chapter 115
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 115
Chapter Title: Inferiority Complex
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“Mage countermeasures?”
[Yes.]
“You’re a mage yourself. So why ask me?”
[There’s more to it than just mages.]
If I broke down my combat style by ratios...
Mages make up about 70%, swordsmen or assassins 20%, spirit mages 10%...
...Of course, sometimes it’s something inhuman.
“Hmm... I see.”
[Yes.]
Veronica scratches her chin and tilts her head.
Maybe sensing the sincerity in my words, her eyes narrow.
“You’re serious about this, huh?”
The assignment was nearing its end.
Meaning...
My turn was coming up soon.
[The valedictorian’s human rights are in such a sorry state.]
“What do you want me to do about it?”
[Exactly.]
“Yeah.”
[Yeah.]
“?”
Veronica, still propping her chin, starts circling around me.
...I plop down on the floor, hug my knees, and just turn my head slightly to follow her with my eyes.
“You know, come to think of it, you remind me of Delphin.”
[That’s going too far.]
Comparing me to someone so rigid and utterly lacking in flexibility...
That’s a blatant insult.
“You’re both crazy, for starters.”
[I’m not crazy.]
“Yeah, you are.”
[?]
This brat...
Does she even know how much it hurts a normal person to be called “crazy”?
......She probably does.
The problem is she says it anyway, without a care.
“You both do things no sane person would, totally unfazed. You really are alike in that way.”
[For example?]
“You’ll do anything to win, no holds barred.”
[??]
“Delphin uses her body as bait—gives flesh to take bone...”
She glances at me.
“You... give bone to take bone?”
[I’ll take that as a compliment.]
“It’s not.”
“Then I’ll take it as an insult.”
“That might be right.”
[Yeah.]
I thought she was praising me with that admiring tone.
I scratched my head for no reason.
“But... Delphin was a failing student back then, while you’re the valedictorian. Clear difference there.”
[A failing student?]
That Delphin?
The rigid, nitpicky one was a failing student?
“You didn’t know?”
[No.]
“She’d kill me if I told you.”
[The dean’s been talking about me to the professor too.]
“How’d you know that?”
She thought I wouldn’t find out.
In conversations with Delphin, the phrase “The dean said...” always popped up at least once.
“Hmm... so you two badmouth each other?”
[We call it camaraderie.]
“You package it like that, huh.”
[Working on it.]
Camaraderie between blood relatives is kinda creepy...
Just call it familial bonds.
“Well... back then, Delphin was more the emotional type than rational and cool-headed.”
[Hard to imagine.]
“Right? A guy scraping the bottom in talent... but with the stubbornness of a mule.”
From the stories, she sounds like an even bigger delinquent than me...
But current Delphin and failing-student Delphin don’t match at all.
“Then one day, she changes completely.”
[Why?]
“How should I know?”
[??]
“Just... a need for recognition, maybe?”
[Need for recognition?]
“A basic human desire... the instinct to want affirmation from others.”
[Not inferiority complex?]
“Could be... but.”
Whoosh.
Veronica raises one finger and jabs at the air.
“The professor position she holds now... that’s the result of chasing that one desire.”
[. ]
“Her strength probably comes from that too.”
A position climbed by fixating on that single desire.
By turning everything upside down if needed, to become a “necessary person” in someone’s eyes.
And...
Veronica’s vertically slit pupils reflect my golden irises.
“What are you fighting to become strong for?”
What am I fighting for?
The answer was simple.
To survive.
My path... the story of “Arcrain” is anything but bright.
If protagonist Klaus makes even one mistake, the world crumbles in an instant.
Because that’s the essence of this “Arcrain” world—it can’t withstand even a single error.
So I...
[To protect?]
...Yeah.
To stop that.
To prepare for Klaus’s mistakes... I have to get stronger.
“What?”
[Something precious?]
To protect what’s precious to me.
For that one reason... I struggle endlessly to grow stronger.
“Oh... kid’s got romance, huh?”
Veronica grins slyly as she approaches.
Swish.
Her shadow falls over my eyes...
“So... am I included in that precious something?”
[?]
“Why the silence?”
[The dean’s already strong.]
“You never know.”
...I said nothing.
“......”
Because I know.
The future that will come someday... not far off at all.
[I’ll try.]
In the end, you sacrifice yourself for everyone... and choose death.
It’s... something no one can stop or avoid.
A fate that will inevitably arrive...
An unavoidable destiny.
***
-Hyah...!
-Your movements are obvious, Ceros.
An ice spear clashes head-on with Ceros’s elegant spear flow.
But...
The one pushed back is Ceros’s spear.
-Oh, Ceros... shouldn’t something like mere ice not overwhelm you?
-W-what...!
-Come to think of it... I hear you get beaten by Rapia all the time.
-Eeeeek......!!
Ceros, mentally damaged first, barely steadies his disrupted stance.
I thought blankly.
Is that what failing-student Delphin looked like...?
-Boom!
In the end, the moment Ceros’s stance wavers.
Delphin completes her magic circle, and a massive fireball crashes down on Ceros’s head.
And that’s it.
The duel between Delphin and Ceros ends.
“Brutal... mental attacks, no less.”
Next to me, Klaus was munching popcorn vigorously.
Then, something on Klaus’s wrist catches my eye.
[What’s that?]
A silver bracelet glinting brightly.
He’d been wearing it a lot lately.
“Oh, this? Artifact from the dean.”
[Artifact?]
Like how I got the Petit Veronica series...
Klaus got an artifact from Veronica too.
“Yeah. Makes the weight up to 100 kilos when worn.”
[100?]
“Using it for workouts here and there.”
I let Klaus’s words go in one ear and out the other.
His sense of normal is on a whole different level from mine.
Calling a 100-kilo bracelet “workout use.”
I shook my head.
“Oh, my turn next?”
[Seems like.]
“Tch...”
Klaus eyes the freshly opened popcorn regretfully, then stands.
And then...
“Ughhh...”
He glances indifferently at Ceros sprawled before the sub-space portal...
Spreads his legs wide to step over him, and enters the sub-space.
A few minutes later...
-Ugh...!
-Klaus, emotions overtaking reason is a problem.
Delphin continues her attacks in a calm tone, emphasizing “rational thinking.”
But in reality...
-I hear you’ve been hanging around Sharlot lately?
-...
-You two an item? That bracelet on your wrist... from her?
Delphin smiles sweetly, digging into Klaus’s psyche.
Pushing him to crumble emotionally over reason...
Creating cracks with words, pressing the attack.
‘Tsk tsk.’
I clicked my tongue at the screen.
Working under Veronica, the professor’s personality...
Is starting to resemble that wicked brat’s.
...Or maybe she was always like that.
‘Hmm...’
I glanced around.
Only S Class students could observe this duel, but due to lecture schedules, the seats were empty.
Just me and Lev left.
“......Don’t wanna do it.”
【Me too!】
“......You’re not even doing it.”
【I’ll cheer for Lev!】
Next up was Lev.
And after that... the final highlight, the valedictorian with zero human rights.
Me.
[You got this.]
“......You got this?”
[I’ll cheer for you.]
“.........Yeah.”
In that moment of brief exchange...
The sub-space portal ripples, and Klaus trudges out.
“Whew... no way I can handle that.”
Head, body, and mind all ragged.
He comes to my table and flops down.
[What happened?]
“Magic keeps flying at me... and the mental attacks never end...”
Klaus tilts his head back, staring at the ceiling.
Drained expression.
“The professor’s on another level... totally different dimension.”
Whoosh!
Then he suddenly springs up.
“No good. Adel, wanna train with me?”
[Have fun.]
“Tch... alright. I’m off first.”
Klaus leaves the auditorium in quick strides.
I watch his back and shake my head.
***
While Lev and Delphin are away.
I’m still sitting blankly in the auditorium.
And...
【Mister, why so many thoughts?】
Suddenly.
Lamento pokes his face through the eyeholes of my mask.
Lately, he’s been taking up half my vision more often.
[Nothing.]
I write that on the whiteboard, but Lamento shoves the board aside with his head.
And shoves his face right in front of mine again.
【Doesn’t look like nothing.】
Hit the nail on the head.
Yeah.
It wasn’t nothing.
Too many stray thoughts.
Thud.
I finally set the whiteboard on the table and lean back with a deep sigh.
As I tilt my head back...
【Ugh...!】
Lamento sways from the motion.
But I ignore it.
Whether Lamento wobbles or not, right now... I just don’t want to do anything.
‘...Am I doing well?’
The thought crosses my mind.
In this damn world, am I really giving my ‘best’?
‘...I know.’
That this worry is pointless to begin with.
But recalling Delphin’s past from Veronica...
A strange ache stabs my chest.
‘Inferiority complex... no, sense of inadequacy.’
If Veronica’s right, Delphin and I have a lot in common somewhere.
Delphin was born with low mana, couldn’t even draw magic circles properly—a failing student.
While I... have no mana to begin with, can’t even use magic properly—the valedictorian.
‘......’
But in the end, Delphin overcame all those limits and became the youngest professor.
...Then what about me?
Effort alone got me nowhere.
I barely seized the valedictorian spot by half-killing my own body.
【Mister jealous?】
“......”
【Jealousy’s my specialty, though.】
Whoosh.
Lamento climbs on my head, bends down, and thrusts his face in front of mine.
Probably to block my view, staring straight down at me.
“......”
Thwack.
【Ow!】
I flick Lamento’s forehead right in the center.
Bounced back, Lamento returns pouting, puffing out his little mouth.