The Fox's Test
The Fox's Test
The hem of my uniform at my waist was pulled taut.
The main lecture hall of the Academy.
In the dazzling space bathed in warm morning sunlight, Ines clung tightly to my back like a nocturnal beast hiding from the light.
Her delicate hands clenched the hem of my clothes as if it were a lifeline.
With every subtle breath I took, the beat of my heart transmitted through the collar.
Ines's shallow breaths rose and fell in rhythm with it.
"That crazy bastard, he brought that filthy maid with him again today."
"How long do we have to put up with that vulgar sight?"
From all over the lecture hall, noble cadets' mocking whispers could be heard.
I twirled my pen, completely ignoring the buzzing of those bugs.
Cowards who loathed me but didn't dare to approach within two meters of my radius. They weren't even worth my gaze.
"Now then, in this situation, if an enemy detachment appears on the left ridge, how should we respond? Cadet Kyle?"
The tactics professor pointed at me, tapping the blackboard.
I slowly rose from my seat. In my mind, I recalled the blood-soaked battlefield from the previous round.
A detachment on the left ridge. In actual combat, the only way to survive would be to abandon the formation and insert a small elite unit to assassinate the enemy commander and induce chaos. If the knight order forms a defensive formation and tries to counter with magic, demons flanking would cut through the formation's center, leading to annihilation.
But I wet my lips and spat out a "hypocritical illusion" that these greenhouse flowers would be most obsessed with.
"The textbook Chapter 12 standard tactic—leading with a glorious knight charge to block the enemy's advance and pressing the right flank with magic support from the rear—is correct."
The professor's rigid face brightened.
"Excellent! As expected of a talent with field experience. That is the very epitome of Imperial knighthood."
Delusions have limits. In actual battle, it would be a trash tactic that would get everyone slaughtered as meat shields.
But the professors and nobles wanted their petty, glorious theory to be called the "correct answer."
I thoroughly scraped away the real battlefield in my mind and perfectly performed the role of a puppet that catered to their tastes.
Practical exams: perfect scores while fooling the instructors. Written exams: perfect scores by reciting only the answers they wanted. Top of the first year at the Academy. Professor Walder's first condition—to let Ines stay by my side and receive the church's treatment—was maintained so easily perfect.
Immediately after class ended.
A secret summons from Professor Walder was issued.
In the dim, dark office. The old fox was flashing his murky eyes from across the desk.
"You've been maintaining the top spot well. The church's treatment support for the maid named Ines will continue."
He rested his chin on his hand and recited coolly.
"But you must pay a separate price for covering up the killing of my disciple. A test to see if you truly are a hunting dog worthy of opening the door to my Magic Tower."
Walder tossed a piece of paper onto the desk. A composite sketch of a face that wasn't an Academy cadet.
"A rat wandering outside the Academy. He dared to steal my belongings and run off. Losing the item is just pocket change, so I don't care, but the price for deceiving me must be paid."
Walder's eyes sank eerily.
"Bring him. Alive."
"I will keep that in mind."
"Before you go, let me give you one piece of advice."
As I was about to turn around, Walder added in a low voice.
"His main specialty is 'ice magic.' It's fast but lacks destructive power. A mage needs a steady breath—an incantation—to control mana. Break through the ice, exploit the blind spots, and hit his solar plexus to cut off his breath. One blow and his casting will collapse."
"I will engrave that."
I nodded once and left the office without hesitation.
Outside the barrier, in the deep, damp forest.
Tadak. Tadadak.
My footsteps cutting through the darkness were rougher and more impatient than usual.
The distance was too far. The place where the thief mage had built his hideout was a deep forest far away from the barrier. The image of Ines left alone in the dormitory lingered in my mind.
I had given her my shirt, thick with my scent, to hold, but that alone had limits in anchoring her empty unconsciousness.
If time dragged and Ines woke from her sleep. Realizing the absence of a heartbeat, she would be seized by extreme anxiety and bite her own white forearm again with her teeth, barely healed.
'.......'
From deep in my core, a sticky, unpleasant impatience boiled up.
There was no time. I couldn't delay even a single second.
Ignoring my muscles screaming in protest, I pushed my body to its limits and broke through the forest at extreme speed.
Before long, a grotesquely distorted space appeared in the middle of the forest. A hideout disguised with shoddy illusion magic and barriers.
Without reducing my speed at all, I hurled myself straight toward the barrier.
Kwaang-!
With a sound of rupture, the barrier shattered and the hideout was smashed.
The mage who had been warming himself by a campfire in the darkness jumped up in terror.
"W-who's there!"
The frightened bastard raised his staff and shouted.
The moisture in the air rapidly froze, emitting a sharp killing intent.
"Ice Spear!"
Dozens of giant ice spears formed and rained down on me like cannon shells.
Normally, I would have conserved stamina and dodged with minimal movement by twisting the trajectory with the flat of my sword.
But now, even that one second of dodging was too precious.
A blind compulsion to return to Ines quickly was dominating my reason.
Instead of drawing my sword, I clenched my right fist tightly.
And I instantly drew up the blind miracle that Ines had left me, festering deep in my heart.
Uuuung-!
A dazzling, brilliant white "holy power" tightly wrapped my fist.
Without dodging the falling ice spears, I extended my fist wrapped in holy power and broke through head-on.
Kwajang-! Kwajik!
Before the pure power of a miracle, ice forged from mana was no more than shards of glass.
As soon as the ice spears touched my fist, they shattered into pieces and scattered through the air.
"Uh, uhh...?"
The mage's murky eyes widened in shock, looking like they would tear.
The shock of his main magic being destroyed by a bare fist.
But he wasn't given time to grasp reality.
I, who had exploited the blind spot of the crumbling ice powder, leaped right under his chin, following Walder's advice.
And I drove my knee into his solar plexus without mercy.
Pueok-!
"Keo, huk...!"
With a terrible impact sound, a shockwave burst out from behind his back.
His breathing was completely cut off. The incantation collapsed, and the surging mana tore his blood vessels.
"Kkuaaaak!"
As he rolled on the ground spitting blood foam, I mercilessly stomped on the joints of his arms and legs with my shoes.
With a crunching sound of breaking bones, the traitor mage was subdued to a half-dead state in an instant.
"Aaaah! Spare me, spare me...!"
The mage's gaze, crawling on the ground while screaming, stopped at the white holy power faintly dissipating from my fingertips.
"H-holy power...? The church... an Inquisitor of the Holy See?!"
His face turned white with fear.
A monster that wraps holy power on its bare body and breaks magic. He seemed to firmly mistake me for a secret executioner sent by the church.
Driven mad by the fear of death, the bastard screamed with bulging veins as if wronged.
"I stole it just like you said! Why! I did everything you ordered, so why are you trying to kill me!"
He cried tears and grabbed my pants leg with bloody hands.
"What about the promise to release my family?! You told me to investigate Walder, the Academy's top professor! You said if I only stole a magical tool from his Magic Tower, you'd return my wife and daughter! You church bastards, why?!"
A pitiful scream.
But.
My flat voice coldly cut off his desperate cry.
"What do you want me to do about it."
At my cold gaze, his mouth fell open in a daze.
Whether it's the church's sinister plot or a poor family held hostage—to me, it's just background noise less valuable than the death of a passing ant.
Only one thing filled my mind. The impatience to return to Ines, left alone in the dormitory, just one second faster.
I kicked away his hand that was gripping my pants leg, and without hesitation, I raised the pommel of my sword and struck the back of his head.
Peok-.
He rolled his eyes back and passed out.
I grabbed the blood-soaked bastard's collar like a piece of luggage and sprinted back toward the barrier without hesitation.
Professor Walder's dim, dark office.
Kwadangtang-.
I threw the mage I had carried like luggage onto the floor.
I also tossed the red magical tool retrieved from his pocket onto the desk.
"I've brought him."
At my indifferent report, Walder, who had been flipping through documents, slowly raised his head.
His snake-like cold and murky eyes scanned between the bloodied mage and me alternately.
"Good work. You crushed him overwhelmingly without a single wound. A very clean hunt."
Walder rested his chin on his interlocked hands and murmured lowly.
Unlike his seemingly satisfied lips, his eyes flashed with grotesque sharpness.
"But."
Walder's gaze pierced into my eyes as if to bore through them.
"Before the prey was caught... didn't he babble any nonsense to you?"