Chapter 119
Chapter 119
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: Hard
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“My… my spirits…….”
Thud.
Laphia dropped her head limply, slamming her forehead against the table with a bang!
Then, she reached out pathetically toward the empty air where her spirits had vanished.
Her hand trembled.
She wanted it so badly… but there was nothing to grab onto.
“Pfft… hahaha…! They ditched you~ They ditched you~!”
Beside her, Seros finally burst into laughter.
He clutched his stomach, slapped his knees, and practically rolled on the floor laughing…
Laphia reflexively clenched her fist.
“You’re just…!”
But the hand that gripped into a fist held no strength.
The shock of being abandoned by her spirits was too great.
Mentally and physically… a fatal blow.
“How could you leave me behind?!”
Her bond with the spirits had been her pride.
They were always with her, the closest to her, the ones she trusted most.
Yet those spirits… didn’t even glance back at her, rushing to Adel without a shred of hesitation.
“Urgh…!”
In truth, she wasn’t that angry about them going to Adel.
What infuriated her most was that they never once looked back at her during the process.
I’m your master… why wouldn’t you even glance back once?!
“This is cheating…….”
Spirits obey their master.
Spirits resonate with their “master”—that is, their “contractor”—and bend to their will.
That was the foundation and principle of spirit arts.
So why… were those “foundation” and “principle” crumbling so utterly?
“Puhahaha—!”
Seros couldn’t stop laughing, tears welling up in his eyes, while Laphia ground her teeth and pressed her forehead harder against the table in despair.
“Eeeeek…!”
If there had been even a single blanket here right now, Laphia would have silently pulled it over her head, curled up, and rolled around sobbing.
*Bang!*
Regardless…
The spirits on the screen paid no mind to Laphia’s despair.
Instead, Laphia’s spirits laughed merrily, kiki…
They were definitely “Laphia’s spirits”… but now, they looked like Adel’s spirits.
And soon…
──────!!
The final shockwave rang out on the screen.
Delphine and Adel’s battle finally reached its conclusion.
The victor… Adel.
“…He beat the professor?”
“No way…….”
A group whispering quietly in the corner finally spoke up.
The same group that had been relentlessly trash-talking Adel from the start.
But now, instead of more trash talk, they denied reality with “No way.”
“Whoa… he beat Professor?”
“Insane….”
And then… admiration from another side.
Not so much shouting…
As jaws dropping in awe.
“What have I even been doing all this time?”
“Same here….”
“Let’s go train or something….”
“Good idea….”
They trailed off, unable to continue, and shuffled out of the auditorium with heavy steps.
Shoulders slumped… heads hung low.
“Wow… now he’s even beating professors, huh, Top Student?”
Seros shook his head, staring at the screen in disbelief.
He’d started sprawled on the floor cackling, but now he’d straightened up, fixed his clothes, and let out a sigh of admiration.
“Wasn’t that ‘assignment’ designed for him to fail?”
“Yeah… fighting a Cradle professor seems impossible in itself.”
“You think so too, right, Klaus?”
Seros scratched his head vigorously, then grinned and shouted.
“Totally absurd!”
Seros nodded, adding, “As expected of Top Student,” but…
Beside him, Erwin crossed his legs arrogantly and tossed out a line.
“Not absurd, he made it possible──”
“Oh~ he made it possible, right? Yeah, that’s what you were gonna say? Got it perfectly.”
“…Glad you understand.”
***
“My defeat.”
With those words, Delphine’s form was engulfed in light and vanished.
The sight of dissolving into light had become somewhat familiar by now.
…Thud.
The shortsword in her hand dropped onto the snowy ground.
And… I lay down beside it.
The snow-covered ground was so cold it numbed my senses.
“…….”
And there, I just stared blankly.
……Truth be told, I wanted to move, but my body wouldn’t listen.
So I just… stayed still.
“Haa…….”
Each breath released a puff of white vapor.
…The sub-space air was still unstable.
Delphine’s magic had altered the very air currents here.
A world where extreme cold and extreme heat clashed, exploded, and mixed.
The aftermath still lingered, scattering as echoes everywhere.
For example…
“…Ow, hot.”
The snowflake landing on the back of my hand burned.
…Snow being hot didn’t make sense, but Delphine had made it so.
“Haaa….”
A much longer sigh this time.
White vapor billowing out between the gaps.
There was good reason for it here.
The moment Delphine said “defeat”… I sensed leisure in her.
Delphine could have moved more.
She still had mana left, and she hadn’t stopped judging until the end.
Of course… it might have been my imagination.
But I was certain.
Delphine could have won… but accepted defeat.
“…Tch.”
Inferiority complex? Jealousy? Envy?
I wasn’t feeling those kinds of emotions right now.
This was something simpler, more fundamental—a desire.
One anyone human couldn’t help but have… perhaps the purest craving.
“I wanna get stronger…….”
I… wanted to grow stronger.
Strong enough to surpass Delphine.
…And someday, if this world gets devoured by catastrophe… so I wouldn’t crumble before it.
“…….”
Crunch… crunch…
Light footsteps stepping on the snow.
Swish…
A shadow fell over me as I lay on the snowfield.
At the same time, soft hair cascading over the mask.
“What’re you looking at.”
I turned my head with effort and spat out a word.
In response, the crouching Leviathan pointed a finger at my mask.
As if that answered my “What’re you looking at.”
“Is it okay to be like that?”
Leviathan in human form.
I shot her a worried glance, wondering if it was visible from outside…
But Leviathan tilted her head up slightly to gaze at the sky.
“It’s fine, human.”
Of course, I couldn’t take this fish’s word at face value.
So I followed her gaze to the sky.
The magic tools illuminated by 【Laplace’s Eye】.
But they’d all lost their light, heads drooping limply.
“Aren’t *you* the one who’s not okay?”
“Not okay.”
I said flatly.
Okay? What was okay about this.
My body was already about to shatter from the backlash…
I was just blurting things out with a “might as well enjoy it” mindset.
“What do you want me to do.”
“You asked first.”
“So?”
“Fuck off.”
“No dick to show, huh, stupid human.”
“……I see.”
She was right again… so I couldn’t retort.
…Can’t be helped.
【Grr…】
I turned to see Bahamut padding daintily to my side, carefully planting his butt and sitting.
Then… he lowered his massive head slightly.
Like a puppy.
“…You know that doesn’t suit you at all.”
Dripping jet-black shadows.
Twisted horns, wings scattering like mist.
This terrifying creature sitting beside me, growling “grr”…
No matter how I looked at it, it didn’t fit.
【…Does it not?】
“Yeah.”
【Then ‘grrr’…?】
Haa…
Seriously… why is nothing around me normal.
“Grr” or “grrr,” what’s the difference…
“Ugh….”
I forcibly dragged my mind back from the edge of the universe.
The snapped thread of sanity barely reconnected, but…
-What’s wrong?
-What is it! What!
Pitter-patter.
Spirits leaping lightly onto my body and piling on.
There’d looked like dozens earlier…
But now, only Laphia’s spirits remained here, plain as day.
“…When are you guys leaving.”
I felt bad saying it after calling them, but…
Couldn’t they go now?
Besides, your real master’s someone else.
-Let’s play!
-What should we play?
“…….”
I turned my head smoothly to look at the crouching Leviathan.
I fired a “help me” look her way, but…
“…Heh.”
Leviathan smirked smugly…
And slowly raised a finger.
Her middle finger.
Then—poof!
She shifted to mini-fish form and leisurely vanished into the abyss.
“…….”
Swish…
This time, I looked at Bahamut.
And he did the same…
Poof!
Silently shifting to lizard form, he waddled off slowly… in some inexplicable gait… toward somewhere.
“…….”
Nothing normal around me at all.
At this point… was I the problem?
And that moment…
“………Oh.”
I realized it.
That was it.
A truth beyond human reason, piercing the laws of the cosmos…
An eternal verity.
“……Tch.”
The problem was me.
***
Thud, thud…
My body exiting the sub-space with lonely steps.
Laphia’s spirits clung tightly to it.
“…Hey!”
Spotting me emerge from the sub-space, Laphia’s eyes widened, and she came rushing over.
She reached out toward my body and yelled.
“Hey, hey…! Get over here!”
-Kkiiing!
The spirits plastered to my body refused to let go.
The more they clung, the harder Laphia gritted her teeth, trying to peel them off one by one.
“Hey, hey… Top Student! Do something about this…!”
“Do what.”
“………Huh?”
Stop—
Laphia’s hands froze mid-peel.
…Her head creaked around, her pupils shaking wildly as she stared at me.
“…Y-you can talk?!”
“Hey~ Third Place. What’s up?”
Laphia’s shocked yell.
And a leisurely voice drifting from afar.
“Hey, hey…!”
Laphia hurriedly…
Hid behind Seros, who approached with relaxed steps.
“Th-that thing’s talking…!”
“Huh? What about it.”
“Top Student’s talking…!”
“Even he can talk sometimes.”
Seros approached me nonchalantly and patted my back.
“What’re you up to this time for the evaluation, Top Student~?”
“Yeah.”
“………Yeah?”
Creak.
Same reaction as Laphia.
Seros’s head creaked around.
“Hmm…… must be a dream. Top Student’s speaking proper language….”
Seros muttered that, face blank, and wandered out of the auditorium.
…Laphia, equally dazed, hastily peeled off the spirits and bolted away.
And…
“Guess I’m not the problem after all….”
I had no choice but to think so.
Too many injustices to call it my fault.
But…
“What’s the problem then?”
A whisper in my ear.
I jumped and whipped around.
There stood Veronica, crunching candy with a sly grin.
“Why so startled?”
“……Anyone would be if you sneak up like that, Headmistress.”
“This punk’s talking again.”
“Can’t I talk?”
“Nope.”
“You’re so rigid.”
“The candy’s hard, yeah.”
Crunch—
Veronica bit down on the candy again.
And…
“……Hey?”
Wobble—
My vision swayed.
Not just dizziness…
My body was slowly collapsing.
Drip…
Nosebleed gushing, blood trickling from my mouth.
“Ow…… fuck.”
With Veronica recoiling in disgust…
My body toppled straight toward her.
Thud.
“Sigh… figures the perv would go for this.”
“Headmistress…….”
“What? Nice and soft?”
“……It’s hard.”
Whether my body was ridiculously weak…
Or Veronica’s body was insanely tough.
Unclear which.
But the moment my head hit her body, I blacked out.