Chapter 80
Chapter 80
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 80
Chapter Title: World's Strongest
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“Klaus or whatever, if you have any questions, just ask the kids.”
Tap, tap.
Veronica patted Klaus’s back a couple of times.
As usual, she had to stretch her short arms all the way just to reach his back.
It was a pretty pitiful sight.
Klaus stood there stiff as a board.
It had barely been a few minutes since he’d stepped into the classroom, but he already looked like his mind was going blank.
“Come to the training grounds on your own in a bit?”
The moment those words dropped…
The entire classroom fell into silence for an instant… then deep, profound sighs erupted all at once.
“Ah.”
“Ughhh…”
“…….”
The students expressing their agony in their own ways.
Over there, Seros clutched his head…
And next to him, Lapia slammed her head straight into her desk.
…Hard enough to make the desk rattle.
“…….”
Even Erwin closed his magic book and wore an expression like he’d lost all will to live.
【No…!】
“…….”
Lamenta, sitting next to me, extended her shadow to wrap around Rev.
A scream steeped in despair.
And yet, Rev remained utterly expressionless, as always.
“…?”
Naturally, there was only one person who couldn’t comprehend the atmosphere at all…
Klaus looked around in bewilderment, clearly unable to grasp the situation.
“It’s okay…”
“Yeah… you’ll find out soon enough.”
Was that meant to be reassurance, or self-hypnosis?
Seros and Lapia’s awkward words wormed into Klaus’s ears.
“W-What’s…?”
Klaus cautiously opened his mouth, but no one answered his question.
They simply stared at him in silence, offering silent prayers.
“See ya~”
Veronica shrugged once, waved her hand breezily…
And vanished like the wind, as always. Whoosh~
Slam.
Beyond the firmly shut door lay hell.
And… the only one oblivious to that hell was Klaus.
***
In the center of the training grounds, Klaus and Seros stood side by side.
They were stretching and chatting idly.
“So… S Class doesn’t have any specialized courses.”
“…No majors?”
“Yeah. They’re all replaced by classes with the Dean.”
“Oh… I think I’ve heard that.”
Even in this unfamiliar atmosphere, Klaus took it all in stride.
S Class’s unique structure.
Or more precisely… it was time to get used to the academy’s bizarre Dean, Veronica, and her arbitrary way of running things.
Of course, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
“…….”
Meanwhile, I was huddled in a corner of the training grounds.
I’d been sitting there hugging my knees, quietly passing the time, when I suddenly sensed something beside me.
Pat pat pat.
Rev crept up silently and sat down next to me without a word.
And as always, a small shadow trailed right behind him.
…It had started to feel familiar and natural.
‘What’s going to happen.’
I gazed off into the distance for a moment, imagining how things would unfold.
Klaus.
The F Class student who’d just transferred into S Class.
But according to the original scenario, Klaus should have been in S Class much earlier.
…Which meant the events with the Lust Calamity had undoubtedly gone off the rails.
In the original… the Lust Calamity.
‘Witch….’
The witch Bellamyr gradually possessed her fellow S Class student Sharlot, eventually luring Klaus outside the cradle and forcing him to confront the truth.
In that process, Bellamyr’s identity was revealed, and after their clash, the keyword ‘calamity’ truly began to emerge into the world.
That was the original ‘Aka Calamity’ scenario.
But now… Klaus’s transfer to S Class was far too late.
The trust and bond between Sharlot and Klaus?
…Irrelevant.
Since his transfer was delayed, things weren’t going to follow the original scenario.
‘It’s derailing….’
Whether that was good or bad, I didn’t know yet.
But one thing was clear… nothing was predictable anymore.
‘Ah….’
Come to think of it…
A forgotten thought stabbed into my mind.
‘The gray zone… I need to check it out at some point.’
The gray zone I’d left untouched for over a month.
Caramel’s workshop.
Caramel, who was supposed to be making the potion to resolve my 【Stigma】… I’d basically ghosted her for over a month.
‘Tch….’
She probably didn’t run off, right?
…It was entirely possible.
I’d asked her to make the potion with no pay and a half-threat.
In that situation, with no contact for over a month… running was very likely.
‘I’ll have to check later.’
Of course… I had no intention of letting her go.
Caramel was my one and only hope for resolving the 【Stigma】 right now.
I had to catch her again somehow, tie her down if needed.
I couldn’t let her slip away.
Absolutely not.
“By the way, Seros.”
“Yeah?”
“Did spirits flock to your family too?”
“Oh~ that? Of course.”
Seros nodded nonchalantly at Klaus’s question.
Answering “of course” to whether corrupted spirits had swarmed them.
That was the empire’s reality right now.
“I see…”
“But Duke Delbar came and wiped them all out.”
“Huh? He even went to the Iris ducal estate.”
“Oh… really?”
That was… news to me.
…I had heard that around two weeks ago, Duke Delbar had briefly left the estate.
But to think he’d gone out personally to slaughter spirits.
‘More than that….’
How and where had things gone wrong this time…
For someone who never stepped outside the estate to head straight to the battlefield.
…My head was starting to hurt.
And then…
Bang!
“Everyone here?”
With the rough sound of the door flying open, the wicked dragon made her entrance.
The entire training ground froze in an instant.
Cold sweat trickled down their backs, bodies trembling.
And amid it all, Klaus alone showed no reaction.
Still clueless, he just tilted his head.
“Urgh… so, shall we start right away?”
With a wicked smile curling her lips, Veronica raised both arms high and stretched.
It was… the harbinger of nightmares.
The students were already shrinking back, gauging her mood…
And Seros mustered his courage.
“Dean! This is too much, I think—!”
KABOOM─────!
…A explosion roared through.
““…….””
A long, long silence followed.
“Hm? What’d you say?”
Veronica casually brushed off her hands.
Seros was embedded in the far corner.
“Uh…?”
Klaus finally noticed Seros vanishing from beside him.
Panic crept onto his face.
His eyes widened as he looked around frantically for Seros.
“S-Seros…?!”
“Ugh… yeah… I’m not dead…….”
From afar, Seros weakly raised a thumbs-up with a trembling hand.
It was somehow even more pitiful.
He wasn’t dead… but it made you think death might’ve been preferable.
***
“Milady, you’re too honest for your own good.”
KABOOM────!!
Two swords flew through the air, and Sharlot slammed into the distant wall.
Right after…
Crown Prince Rufus charged straight at Veronica, hoisting his massive greatsword.
But…
“Crown Prince, your swings are too big.”
“Urk…!”
Thud!
Veronica blocked the greatsword with just her fingernail.
“Grrgh…!”
Rufus gritted his teeth and poured all his strength into it, but…
“Didn’t train at all over break, did you?”
“Dean…! Do you know how much chaos the empire’s in right now…!?”
“Yeah. No clue.”
Veronica beamed innocently.
And the next instant…
Rufus flew off like Sharlot, crashing into the wall.
Rubble rained down from the ceiling.
And there… Erwin, who must’ve jumped in unnoticed, dangled limply with his body embedded in the ceiling.
‘That’s gotta hurt.’
Erwin seemed to have taken a particularly hard hit compared to the others.
I was genuinely worried for him.
And then…
──────!!
Klaus rocketed toward Veronica faster than light.
A trail of pure white radiance shimmered behind him…
“Ooh…! Hit her with one—!”
Splat!
“—shot…?”
A single flick.
With that simple gesture… Klaus was embedded into the training ground floor.
“…….”
Seros, who’d been cheering with clasped hands from afar, clamped his mouth shut.
His eyes held only pity… nothing more, nothing less.
‘Hm….’
I gradually deactivated 【Silent Walker】 and stood up.
There wasn’t really a turn order, but hoping the others would wear Veronica down even a little…
I’d been staying hidden on purpose.
“Oh? What brings you out first?”
Veronica tilted her head at me.
I opened my inventory and pulled out a few pebbles I’d picked up outside.
Then… the ring on my finger warped…
[ 【Phantasmal Mask】 equipped. ]
Toss.
I hurled the pebbles one by one at Veronica.
[ 【Daydream】 activates. ]
【Phantasmal Mask】’s unique skill 【Daydream】 triggered, each pebble duplicating my form as they sliced through the air.
“Oh? Looks like the top seat’s multiplied?”
The cloned forms swirled toward Veronica…
- Crackle…
I drew 【Leviathan】.
I tuned threads of mana to coil around my body and charged at Veronica.
At that moment…
Swish…
A pale, misty fog rose from Veronica’s body like clouds.
And… as the fog cleared, what emerged in her place was…
“Hyup.”
The same look from this morning.
A single towel.
…Nothing but that.
No other scrap of fabric, no cover at all…
Veronica, called the strongest being in the world, grinned broadly clad only in that one towel.
No hesitation, no shame in her stance.
The moment I saw her smiling radiantly like that in the middle of the training grounds…
Snap…!
The mana threads I’d been tuning snapped.
My mental thread snapped right along with them.
Thud!
I lost balance and pitched forward, my forehead greeting the hard training ground floor intimately.
“Top seat?”
“What’d he see to end up like that?”
“…….”
Everyone stared at me in confusion…
But not one of them guessed what I’d seen.
Or why I’d ended up like this.
…I lay there face-down, staring at the floor, realizing something profound.
‘…She really is the strongest.’
The title of world’s strongest.
It didn’t just mean overwhelming physical power…
With nothing but a single towel.
A lone scrap of cloth that could shatter a person’s mind to pieces.
The one who wielded that strength was the true strongest.
‘Ah.’
And Veronica had just proven that strength.
‘……’
I swallowed my injustice, sprawled on the floor.
I’d predicted dozens of attacks.
Prepared hundreds of counters…
But that one move… I hadn’t seen it coming at all.
“Why’d you fall?”
…Veronica tilted her head innocently, utterly unaware of why I’d collapsed.
At that pure expression…
I realized once more.
‘Wicked dragon….’
Right. I’d almost forgotten…
Veronica was a dragon.
A bizarre, freakish otherworlder driven by instincts no one could comprehend.
A being beyond the laws of the world.
And… no one could stop that wicked dragon’s rampage.