Olivia's One-Day Special Lecture
The dungeon interior began to change with a low, vibrating hum.
Giiiiiiing—
The demonic energy started draining away at an alarming rate. It seemed Jerato on the fifth floor was even planning to use the dungeon core against us. Now that I thought about it, there was no real reason to fight. Or more precisely, there was no reason for the Atelina students to fight.
“Hmm. Come to think of it, there’s no need for us to fight at all.”
“What? What do you mean by that?”
Seria, who had been quiet until now, reacted immediately.
“The students are running low on mana. Jerato probably has a bunch of dark mages under his control.”
“Ah, you mean the ones he brainwashed into becoming dark mages.”
Exactly. That crazy bastard who brainwashes people.
“Right. They’re nothing but empty shells whose original souls have been destroyed. Their bodies have been modified to the point that the Atelina students couldn’t possibly handle them.”
“I see…”
They had already earned enough credit. There was no point in obsessing over clearing the dungeon.
“Everyone, good work. The path out should be safe, so please withdraw. That includes you, Seria.”
“Huh? Go back? After coming all this way?”
“We can still fight.”
The students looked like they wanted to keep going. Right on cue, demonic energy erupted from the fifth floor. He was going to use the dungeon core to fight us.
“There are dozens of dark mages on the fifth floor. You’ve all run out of mana. You’re not seriously expecting me to protect you, are you?”
“…….”
Please, just be realistic, kids.
“So go back. That’s an order. Since the dungeon master pulled out the core, the exit door should be open.”
“Will you really be okay by yourself?”
“Even so, we should help—”
Both Seria and Croissant seemed to think the situation was serious. She could only control thirty teddy bears at most, and from what I saw earlier, she had even adjusted their durability. That would only put her in more danger. As for Croissant, she had no mana left, so there was no point discussing it.
“You’re being way too nice for no reason. I can handle this alone, so take the students and go up, Seria.”
“Are you really sure you’ll be fine?”
“If you stay, you’ll just get in the way and jinx me.”
“Tch.”
Seria clicked her tongue, then took Croissant and the students and left the dungeon.
Anyway, Jerato wasn’t that important of a character. Honestly, if he had only messed with the Kingdom, I wouldn’t have bothered helping unless I was officially dispatched. The problem was that he had touched the Empire.
So I went in alone.
“What the—? She came in by herself?”
When I reached the fifth floor, I found Jerato and his dark mages waiting. What a disappointing reaction. Yeah, I’m disappointed too. All that buildup and it’s just a couple dozen dark mages?
“About twenty of them.”
Looking at their physical conditions, none of them were sane anymore. The purple runes floating on their foreheads were proof they were nothing but puppets. There was no saving souls that had already been destroyed.
“Well, whatever. You foolish bitch. You really thought you could handle this all by yourself? How pathetic. Grab that woman immediately!”
“““Yes!”””
Clatter-clatter-clack!
Purple bars shot up from all directions, trapping me. It was one of the dark magic spells—Prison of Darkness. Not a bad way to restrain someone. It would probably work perfectly on a normal person.
But here’s the thing. The opponent was all wrong from the start.
I lightly tapped the bars with a hand wrapped in mana. They all shattered at once.
The dark mages, who were already just shells, looked visibly shaken.
“You seem to be misunderstanding something.”
“What?”
“The real idiot here is you. With that tiny brain of yours, you probably came down here relying on that oversized mana circuit, thinking you could use your comrades to attack me. Then you’d embed some malice-filled magic stone to turn me into a demon or make me your puppet. That’s what you always do, isn’t it? So damn predictable and creepy. You’re useless in a real fight. Can’t even pull off proper battle mage tactics.”
“What?”
“Your tricks are so obvious. You arrogant fool who thinks you’re the greatest mage alive. You can only manage a half-assed Mana Fusion, yet you act like you’re hot shit.”
That bizarre two-toned hair still looked ridiculous. Why not just pick one color? Maybe he thought that simply attempting Mana Fusion made him strong.
“What nonsense. How do you even know I only completed half of the Mana Fusion?”
“In short, you’re a brainless piece of shit with zero learning ability.”
After saying this much, the bastard would definitely start losing it mentally. Why? Because these were the exact same things I used to say to him every single time we met. And the fact that he never fixed any of his weaknesses despite that was also true. He had just enough pride to know he always lost to me, yet he refused to change his path. All he did was leech power from Clanice and swing it around.
“Kill her!”
So predictable. He was even dumber than before. Since his combat ability had dropped, the only thing he could rely on now was magic. But even that wasn’t particularly impressive.
“Haaaaaaaah!”
“You’re a saintess, aren’t you? Surely you wouldn’t kill fellow citizens of the Empire, right?”
Would I?
Snap!
I flicked my finger. Pillars of flame erupted from the ground and swallowed the dark mages.
“Gaaaargh!”
“You crazy bitch! You’re killing Empire citizens? Are you even a real saintess?”
So he was calling me a saintess now. Even though I technically am one, hearing that word pissed me off. It reminded me of that other saintess in so many unpleasant ways.
“Saintess? No, I’m a mage.”
“Even if you’re a mage, what you’re doing is—”
“They’re just empty shells with no souls, being forced to move. That’s all.”
Essentially, they were undead that didn’t rot. Or more accurately, they were dolls. What was the problem with killing something like that? If anything, because of those bodies, their souls couldn’t even properly ascend.
“The main characteristic of mages is that they all have a superiority complex, thinking they’re better than everyone else. Yet most of them can’t even use chantless magic. If they do use dark magic, it’s only the kind that can be cast without chanting. You’re one of them. That’s why you’re a dark mage.”
Snap!
I flicked my finger again.
“Aaaaaaaaagh!”
The dark mages screamed as they burned beautifully, collapsing one by one.
“You… Who the hell are you?”
“The grim reaper who’s going to kill you.”
“This isn’t working! What are you all doing?! Charge her!”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The mages flew toward me and exploded. They didn’t run—they flew. Clear proof that they were no longer in the realm of humanity.
“I told you, your attacks don’t work on me.”
Thud. Thud.
Some strange sound was coming from my body. My chest. Specifically, right around my solar plexus felt tight. When I glanced down, I saw a bizarre magic stone emitting thick black energy embedded there.
Wait, it wasn’t just any magic stone. Its shape itself was subtly different.
“Huh?”
“Saintess, you let your guard down too much.”
“After all that, you try something like this on me? Wait, this is…”
Something was burrowing deep into my body. This wasn’t an ordinary magic stone filled with demonic energy. It wasn’t just a stone meant to plant malice in the brain and corrupt someone. If it were, it wouldn’t have worked on me in the first place. For a stone powerful enough to be embedded in my body…
“A Demon King’s Fragment?”
“Oh? You even know about that. Well, fine. Since your mana circuit is that strong, it should be able to accept a fragment.”
The Demon King’s Fragment began taking root. The fragment embedded in my chest intertwined with my pure white flesh, fusing into one and assimilating. Long ago, I had seen a parasitic monster that fused with human bodies. Malicious mana flowed out from the rooted fragment.
“……”
“I modified that one myself. Even though it’s a fragment of the Demon King, the spell formula inside is designed to submit to me.”
“……”
“Even if it doesn’t, it doesn’t matter. If you explode and die here, I’ll have eliminated a potential threat who might have become someone like Noah.”
“……”
“Kuhahaha! The sight of you turning into a demon is truly delightful!”
This was definitely not good. The Demon King was a being condensed from pure hatred toward humanity. If its fragment entered me, it meant I would become the same kind of existence. That malice was flowing into me.
A bizarre scene unfolded before my eyes. The world was engulfed in flames. Mountains of corpses surrounded me, and blood covered the earth and rivers.
-S-Save me!
-Please, don’t kill me!
-Kyaaaaaaa!
I was killing people with magic as they screamed and begged for their lives. Every time I killed someone, an indescribable ecstasy and pleasure surged through my body. So I kept killing.
-Hehe. Fun, right? If you become my subordinate, you can do this for the rest of your life. I’ll use you until the day Armenia is destroyed.
All kinds of malice dominated my mind, and a tiny voice whispered for me to swear loyalty to Jerato.
Tsk. If it were a normal mage, their body would have burst and killed them. A high-ranking mage would either fall to corruption or be brainwashed, just like he said.
But there was one problem.
The guy demanding loyalty was the very same bastard I had beaten to a pulp every time we met. There was no way I would ever swear loyalty to someone like him.
I placed my hand on the Demon King’s Fragment embedded in my chest.
“Do you really think you can pull out something that’s already taken root in your chest? Your body is already mutating!”
“I was thinking of pushing it in deeper.”
I used my hand to shove the fragment further into my body.
Thud.
A heavy pressure settled inside me. The fragment that had only taken root now sank deep into my body, planting the seed of corruption.
“What? What the hell are you suddenly—?”
Yeah, it must be shocking. After all, I was doing something completely insane. But strangely, I felt completely calm. If he thought something like this could brainwash or corrupt me, that was laughable.
If I had to give him any credit, it was that he had an eye for talent. He had recognized that Olivia’s body possessed exceptional aptitude and used the fragment on it. The trap was that he didn’t know I was Noah.
Of course, letting my guard down like an idiot was my own fault. But this wasn’t so bad. This was a Demon King’s Fragment. It was something Clanice had been researching—used to create vessels for the Demon King, awaken someone as the Demon King, or implant the Demon King’s power into a being.
I knew about it because I had read the experiment reports we obtained while tracking Clanice.
To think he would use it on me. How surprising.
“Mages show interest in any knowledge related to magic. Especially anything involving the Demon King. It’s famous not just in the Kingdom but among the Empire’s court mages as well. No matter how much of an enemy it is, the Demon King itself is an unknown entity. If it’s a Demon King’s Fragment, they’d go crazy over it. If I can learn more about it, that’s not a bad thing at all.”
“You crazy bitch. You did this just for that reason?”
“Besides, I can’t take it out now anyway. It’s true I let my guard down against you, and that’s humiliating enough that I kept my mouth shut until now. Turning into a demon?”
Becoming a demon was no big deal. Alright then. It was time for a special lecture just for our dear, lacking Jerato.
“You… What are you—?”
“During the process of turning a person into a demon, an enormous amount of mana is released. It gets injected all at once, driving the person insane. In that moment, malice and demonic energy penetrate the brain and begin corroding the entire body.”
“What the hell are you trying to say?”
What was I trying to say? Well then. I’ll give you a special lecture. Just for today. The tuition fee will be your life.