Chapter 33
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: Ambush (2)
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Adelia stared blankly at the man before her with dazed eyes.
"How did you get into the Academy?"
Aren.
It was Aren.
"Hehe~? And who might you be, big bro?"
"Any Academy student would know me."
"Haha!"
The guy who had burst onto the scene like a comet, snatching the top spot, and then, not even long after enrollment, challenging a public duel—Aren.
He was incredibly famous.
Even Adelia, a noble lady from the empire's frontier, knew of him. Any Academy student would naturally know him; he'd gained that level of notoriety...
"Sorry~ I was just pretending not to know. You're exactly my type, after all."
"That's a shame."
"What is?"
"Because you're about to die at the hands of that ideal type today."
As he spoke, an enormous surge of mana exploded around Aren.
His mana filled the surroundings in an instant.
Control of the space began shifting to Aren. Adelia, who had been on the brink of abduction just moments ago, could only watch in a stupor.
"What a confident big bro~ I really like that about you."
The nameless demon cultist picked up her severed arm and reattached it, flashing a bright smile.
"Wanna come under me? I'll make you feel real good. Unlike that crown prince stuck in the corner over there, I'll treat you nice and gentle. How's that?"
"That's a shame too. I prefer leading over being led."
"Guys like you end up moaning in my arms anyway."
The demon cultist casually lifted her uniform. The breasts revealed beneath were... quite impressive. But Aren turned his head away as if disgusted by the grotesque sight.
The moment she mistook his reaction for shyness and opened her mouth to cackle—
"Enough. I don't have a hobby of shaking my hips at thin air."
"...Thin air?"
"More importantly, you reek so bad it's vibrating. Maybe stop calling me 'big bro'?"
"...What?"
"You stink to high heaven. Must be the demon thing? Guess you can't fool age after all."
The demon cultist's expression hardened.
"I don't know how you snuck into the Academy, but at least you could've done something about those wrinkles under your eyes. It's obvious."
Ah.
Just imagining it made her want to puke.
A grandma acting young and calling a younger guy "big bro"...
It might be fine if she were an elf, a polymorph-dragon, or someone centuries old who still looked pristine. But after spotting those deep wrinkles, it was nothing but repulsive.
If she were a loli, maybe, but this demon cultist wasn't even pretending.
"...Haha. Listen to you, no filter at all."
"What can I do? It's the truth."
Aren smirked mockingly.
"What, craving that school uniform at your age? Must be some serious dementia."
Adelia's mind went blank.
What kind of conversation was this?
Normally, wouldn't you just fight when a demon cultist was right there?
Regardless, Aren kept stabbing with his words.
"Anyway, it's no wonder they say old folks miss the past. Even vermin like demon cultists want to relive their youth when they age, huh."
"...Ha."
The demon cultist bowed her head.
And then.
"...Hahahahahahaha!"
She burst into maniacal laughter.
Clutching her stomach as she laughed, she suddenly lifted her head.
"Did I hit a nerve?"
"Yeah. You did."
And deeply so.
"So I'll take you with me no matter what—even if I leave the girl behind."
"We'll see. Give it your best shot."
The conversation ended. In its place came utter silence. Only the crown prince's intermittent groans from the corner broke through.
And it was then that Veronica and Lydia finally arrived where Aren was.
—Ching.
A clear sound rang out from thin air.
Like the sky plucking a single piano key—and then—
"Heaven"
—the sky split open.
Immediately after, a blinding radiance swept over the ground—more precisely, the spot where the demon cultist stood.
The radiance consumed everything.
Mana, earth, trees, even the sky.
Only a precious few could maintain their existence within it.
The sight, like the heavens parting and a god delivering judgment, filled onlookers with awe.
But.
"...Fun."
"Guess this won't kill you."
"Of course not. Who do you think I am?"
The demon cultist emerged leisurely from the radiance, parting it like a curtain.
Her skin sizzled from the glow—reminiscent of holy power, utterly opposed to the demonic energy from beyond this world.
Yet her existence remained intact.
And that intact form piqued Aren's curiosity.
"Who are you, exactly?"
"Hehe~? Curious about my name?"
"Yes."
He was.
"I'm about to go all out to kill you now, so I might as well know your name."
Even if she was just vermin of a demon cultist.
"So, care to tell me?"
"Sure."
Demonic energy poured from the demon cultist's body.
At the same time, the air tore open, and crimson tentacles began to writhe forth.
"I'm Lucilla of the Truth Church. Lucilla the Half-Human."
"You gave it up easily. Everything here's being recorded, you know."
The professors must be watching. They were probably rushing here after sensing the anomaly.
But the demon cultist—Lucilla—shrugged.
"Doesn't matter. I've already blinded their eyes long ago."
"...Blinded their eyes? Some trick, huh."
"Something like that. Scared now?"
"Hardly. If anything, it makes me think I need to kill you right here for sure."
Demon cultists must be slain on sight.
That fact remained unchanged.
With that, the two stared each other down, needing no further words.
And then.
"Blue Heaven"
"Leader of Ten Thousand."
The battle began.
Kwaaaaaang————!!!!!!!
"...!"
"Ngh...!"
Veronica and Lydia, who had chased after Aren late, huddled against the fierce gale.
What they saw was Aren, backlit by a vast, awe-inspiring blue sky that parted the heavens, and a tentacle monster lunging toward him.
The one controlling the tentacle monster was the demon cultist named Lucilla.
————Kugugugugugu!!
"Lydia!"
"Y-Yes!"
"Hurry and take Lady Bernice and retreat! I'll grab His Highness the Crown Prince and the other student over there!"
"O-Okay!"
Bernice—Adelia's family name.
Lydia nodded and quickly supported the dazed Adelia.
Escaping the battlefield came first.
Confirming Lydia retreating with Adelia, Veronica glanced at Aren battling midair before dashing toward the crown prince and the unknown student.
She couldn't help in the fight, but she could at least avoid getting in Aren's way.
"...You can't lose."
She whispered into the air, hoping the words reached him, then began her retreat.
"Kyahahahaha! Not bad, big bro!?"
"I told you not to call me big bro."
Aren burst the tentacles reaching for him.
But no matter how many he destroyed, they split and regenerated, growing stronger and tougher as they lunged again.
Annoying.
It didn't seem like any creature of this world.
Neither its appearance nor the traits of that tentacle monster.
'Leader of Ten Thousand,' was it?
Just like the demonic energy demon cultists wielded, it seemed to hail from 'beyond.'
Which meant Lucilla was closer to a summoner than a mage or swordsman. Especially with those tentacle creatures pouring endlessly from the air.
'They split when destroyed and regenerate.'
The tentacle monster's trait.
In that case.
"Reversal."
He'd wipe them out at once.
"!?"
The sky flipped in an instant.
Gravity reversed, swapping sky and earth. Half-uprooted trees flew fully into the sky, along with rocks, dirt, and small wild animals.
Lucilla and the tentacle monster panicked in the upended world, plummeting toward the sky—toward Aren.
And Aren, who had deployed Blue Heaven first—
"Judgment."
—pronounced judgment.
On the enemy's death, the erasure of the impure otherworldly being, the explosion of Blue Heaven.
Soon, the vast blue sky seized the falling Lucilla and tentacles, surging toward the ground.
And reversal once more.
"!?"
He saw Lucilla's shocked face. Smirking at her, he spat a single word.
"Fall."
Gravity restored, the brilliant blue sky crashed toward the earth.
The moment the awe-inspiring blue expanse met the ground, Lucilla and the tentacles caught between—
——Kwajik
—vanished in a massive roar.
Kuwooooong...
Aren descended amid the dust cloud blanketing the ground.
However.
"Ha, haha... Thought I was done for. You hit hard, big bro?"
Lucilla lived on, her uniform torn and body mangled.
No.
Her demonic energy felt even stronger.