Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Confinement
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“…What’s wrong?”
Lev asked cautiously.
[It’s nothing]
As if.
I’d only been teasing her because I wanted to see her flustered for once.
But I couldn’t say that.
“…Really?”
[Really]
Tch.
I shouldn’t have said it was good.
That flustered look on the usually stoic saintess.
A sight I’d never seen even in the game.
I’d held out hope that maybe I could catch it.
What a letdown.
[But you’re learning magic too, Lev?]
As we left the classroom together, I wrote my question on the whiteboard.
“…Yeah.”
[A saintess doing magic is pretty unusual]
“…There are limits to holy magic when it comes to protecting yourself.”
Fair point.
Holy magic—holy arts, that is—was specialized for healing and support.
Protecting others or backing them up.
But Yoram wasn’t some ideal world.
If you couldn’t protect yourself, no one else would.
[It fits you well]
“…?”
Lev stopped in her tracks for a moment.
Her red eyes turned to me.
“…Fits me?”
[Yeah]
“…Why?”
Why?
How was I supposed to explain that?
Lev lowered her head.
Her lips pressed together as she seemed lost in thought, then she spoke quietly.
“…I’m a saintess.”
[I wasn’t talking to the saintess]
“…?”
[I was talking to the Lev right in front of me]
Saintess or Lev, what did it matter?
If she wanted to learn, she learned.
If she wanted to do it, she did.
“…”
Lev stared blankly at my face.
“…Yeah.”
She gave a short nod and started walking again.
I fell into step beside her.
‘What’s her deal?’
She was one baffling friend.
***
A few days had passed since enrolling at Yoram.
I’d found the classroom where a lecture was underway.
“Spirits handle pure mana.”
The class was already in full swing.
“Unlike the mana humans use, the mana spirits wield is the pure kind scattered throughout nature.”
With a wave of his hand, the professor summoned spirits.
Small spirits in various shapes swirled around him.
“That’s why there are no limits to a spirit’s power. As long as nature’s mana doesn’t vanish, spirits can draw on strength endlessly.”
“…Professor! How do you communicate with spirits?”
A female student shot her hand up.
“Good question.”
The professor nodded and continued.
“Communicating with spirits… well, it’s less about exchanging words and more about connecting with your heart.”
And at that moment, the spirits circling the professor turned to look at me.
-Mask!
-A weird human with a mask!
‘…?’
Were they talking to me?
“Spirits don’t use language, but they communicate through strong emotions and images… sort of like familiars.”
“…”
“But high-grade spirits and above can speak a certain form of language, making conversation possible.”
For reference, spirits and familiars were different.
Spirits were natural beings from the spirit realm, while familiars involved contracting with intelligent magical beasts from this world.
But.
-Ugly!
-Ugly mask!
-Ugly human!
The spirits shrieked as if making sure I could hear, flooding me with their feelings.
‘…How long are you gonna keep trash-talking?’
I casually averted my gaze.
Even so, the spirits’ muttering didn’t stop.
‘More importantly, why can I understand them?’
He said you had to connect with your heart.
‘Ah.’
A certain trait flashed through my mind.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
[ Adel ]
Breakthrough Limit: ★☆☆☆☆
Unique Traits
: 【■■■■】
: 【Laplace’s Eye】
: 【Interpreter of Languages】
: 【Stigma】
: 【…】
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
‘…Interpreter of Languages.’
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Interpreter of Languages】
If you have ears, hear.
If you have a mouth, cry out.
: Understands and interprets all languages.
Even silence speaks to him.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
‘…So this includes spirits?’
Their emotion-based communication apparently translated into language for me.
“So… Huh? The mask?”
Sometime during that, a little spirit tugging at the professor’s arm had apparently brought me up.
‘Ah, crap.’
The professor’s gaze landed squarely on me.
Without hesitation, I activated 【Silent Stepper】 and slipped quietly out of the classroom.
‘Second-year classes aren’t anything special either.’
That’s right.
I was attending a class right now.
A second-year classes, no less.
‘Harvest… tch.’
I’d sat in on the spirit lecture hoping it might help with taming—no, training Leviathan.
But i'd had no real gains.
‘Come to think of it, is Leviathan a familiar?’
She was not a spirit, but a magical beast.
A dragon dwelling in the abyss.
‘Did I do something pointless?’
I shook my head.
‘No.’
Straight into a mental victory.
‘I confirmed the scope of the 【Interpreter of Languages】 trait, didn’t I?’
Being able to talk to spirits was hugely important info.
It’d come in handy somewhere for sure.
But.
“…Huh?”
“…?”
Someone who looked like Carnel walked by…
“Ah! You!!”
Nope, it was Carnel.
“You just came out of that classroom!”
Ah, busted.
This was gonna be a hassle.
For real.
“You sneaked into a second-year class?! Illegal attendance! That’s a zero!”
No way the timing could be this absurd.
[Illegal attendance?]
“Then what was it!”
[A stroll]
I scribbled on the whiteboard and turned away as naturally as possible.
“A stroll?! What kind of stroll goes inside a classroom!”
[Yoram encourages free exploration as an educational institution]
“That’s exploration! Attending a class isn’t exploration!”
[I explored anyway]
“…Argh!!”
[Plus, I didn’t disrupt the class, so what’s the problem]
Exactly.
I hadn’t asked a single question, and the professor probably hadn’t even noticed me.
If the spirits hadn’t snitched.
“That makes no sense!”
Carnel rolled on the floor once like an angry chick and yelled.
Her voice stayed in that aristocratic tone, though.
- Rattle.
Right on cue, the classroom door opened, and students poured out as class ended.
“Oh, it’s the president.”
“Hey, Carnel~”
Idol.
That’s the word for her popularity.
Just her being in the hallway drew all the students’ eyes instantly.
“Carnel~ Still diligently patrolling today?”
“You keeping an eye on our scores?”
“I still remember that 71 you gave me for my greeting posture!”
She was surrounded by students.
‘Good luck with that.’
I used the opening to turn and slip away from the crime scene naturally.
***
‘Hungry.’
It was lunchtime.
I headed to the cafeteria on campus.
Yoram students often ate at off-campus restaurants.
‘It's too expensive though.’
Incredibly expensive.
Unless you were some major noble, daily meals there weren’t feasible.
Plus, the cafeteria was nothing to scoff at.
Yoram’s cafeteria maximized quality and value for money.
‘Even Carnel eats here.’
For her family, living off gold plates of grapes wouldn’t be weird, but she’d declared the cafeteria food “91 points!” because it was delicious.
Practically perfect.
And.
“Ha, look at this? Blocking?”
“An F-Class roach blocking Grace’s attack? You’ve lost it.”
Familiar lines.
The hierarchy spiel you heard anywhere.
Behind the building, in the shadows out of sight.
That’s where the relentless mockery and kicking sounds came from.
‘Figures, no way there’s no bullying.’
In this place called Yoram, it was all about skill, rank, and talent.
Fall short in even one, and you started at the bottom of the food chain. That was the norm.
And below that, someone was always getting stepped on.
‘…But.’
I turned toward the source of the noise.
‘What are you doing there… Klaus?’
The protagonist of ‘Archaic Evil’, no less.
Klaus was crawling on the ground.
The group surrounding him turned as one when they heard footsteps.
“Huh? Mask…”
“The top student?”
“Oh, that’s the top enrollee?”
Yeah, that’s me, the top freshman.
“Hey, come over here and sit.”
One beckoned me.
“Give this one some education too, Grace.”
“Got so many clueless roaches, gotta squash ’em now and then.”
Education?
Who?
I pointed at my face.
Me?
Seriously?
“Yeah, you.”
The guy standing most arrogantly in the group spoke.
“Be grateful you get ‘education’ from Grace von Est herself. Commoner.”
Impressive intro.
‘More than that, it hasn't been long since enrollment and they’re already acting up…’
Right?
Seriously.
I was pondering how to crush them when.
“…Just let him go.”
Klaus lifted his dirt-smeared face, barely forcing out words as he got up.
“That guy… has nothing to do with me.”
“…Ha? Who are you to say.”
- Thud!
Without hesitation, Grace kicked Klaus.
“Don’t butt in, you trash bastard.”
“…”
What to do.
Kill them?
‘No, that’s too far.’
Yeah. I'll have to table that.
I tapped my chin, deep in thought.
‘Ah, right.’
I pulled 【Leviathan】 from my inventory.
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【Leviathan】
Grade: Mythic
The sword once held by 「The Silent King」 Laplace.
The slumbering abyss opens its eyes for a new master.
Unique Skill
: 【Toward the Abyss】
For 5 minutes, the abyssal sea unfolds, and the will of the sea 「Leviathan」 manifests.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
‘Do you all know?’
The majesty that transcends legend, reaching myth.
‘I can't use the unique skill though.’
And no summoning Leviathan.
That’d get my limbs sliced off by Veronica for real.
“Wh-what…!”
“What’s that…!!”
The sword etched with the legend of the abyssal dragon, Leviathan.
A blade that was threatening by its mere existence.
That was 【Leviathan】.
‘Ahh. Sorry…’
I’d sworn never to draw it again.
‘Wail, Hellblade… no, Leviathan…!!’
I slowly raised the sword.
And right then.
“Aaah! You! I finally found you!”
《Time / Intermediate Magic》
「Time Stop」
Huh.
Thud…
My body froze solid.
“Threatening a student with a weapon inside Yoram, no less?! That’s a zero!!”
Carnel hoisted my body up with one hand.
“Confinement… no! Straight to the disciplinary room!!”
…Hold on, president.
Didn’t you just say confinement?
“Criminal, time to reflect on yourself!”