Professor Lily's Fourth Lecture
Three days after the trip ended.
I was preparing the lecture broadcast I'd been putting off all this time.
The original plan was to hold it right after the Mock Siege Battle, but Sgaredo's appearance had pushed the schedule back. And since I'd been on something vaguely resembling a vacation in the meantime, I was nearly three months behind. With nothing special on the calendar for a while, it was about time to get back to it.
“...Oh?”
I checked the condensation stones I'd handed out. Out of several hundred stones, forty-eight people had managed to awaken their mana on their own. Of those, twenty-two had completed the second homework assignment as well.
The last class had only seven, so the number had nearly tripled. Quite a few rankers were among them — I suspected the brief lecture I'd given during the Sgaredo incident had become the stepping stone that let them climb this far.
'Calling everyone might be a bit much.'
Honestly, it wouldn't matter even if I did, but as I announced beforehand, participation in the lecture requires completing the third homework assignment. The assignment is to fill at least ten percent of the condensation stone I gave you with your own mana.
The original seven had all completed it, and Vlack and Devil, who attended the extra session, had finished theirs too. Those alone would be enough, so I'd invite the twenty-two once they finished the third assignment.
'More importantly — Yena. She finally did it.'
She failed over and over, long after Vlack and Devil had both managed it, and only succeeded around the time I left for my trip. Maybe I'll compliment her when I see her.
Hmm.
“Speak of the tiger, and it appears.”
■
Dying.
I am genuinely dying.
Three days of writhing in bed — Yena exhaled a long breath and stared blankly at the ceiling.
She didn't have a fever. Nothing hurt in any particular place, and nothing inside her body was specifically wrong.
'It just HURTS!'
Her whole body ached like she'd come down with the flu. She'd gone to the hospital feeling like she might actually die, only to be handed a few pills and told there was nothing really to treat.
“Phantom pain…”
That was the doctor's diagnosis.
The painkillers she'd been prescribed did nothing. There was only one person left who truly understood this pain.
Ding-dong~
─Yena?
All she had to do was call Lily.
“Ngh.”
Hugging her trembling arms and legs, she dragged herself to the door. Today, the apartment felt wider than ever, and Yena bitterly discovered the one flaw — well, arguably a flaw — of an expensive high-rise: the distance to the front door. She opened it.
Thunk!
The moment the door swung open, there stood Lily — black t-shirt, black mask, fully equipped. The culprit behind this whole ordeal and, at the same time, the cure…
Yena wanted to pour out every ounce of her resentment over this suffering, but the moment the mask came off, that beautiful face appeared, and the words simply dissolved on their way out.
An unfair world. So unfair.
“Urgh.”
“Are you okay?”
“Gonna… die…”
She collapsed on the spot. A pair of pale white arms caught her.
“Hoo…”
“How long has it been going on?”
“I don't know… I was just, practicing the technique like normal…”
“How many times?”
“Three…? And it's hurt for about three days now…”
“I see.”
I see?
She'd expected a little more concern than that. Instead, as if this situation were the most natural thing in the world, Lily scooped her up without a flicker of trouble and laid her back on the bed.
This is really it. I'm dying.
“Have you been eating?”
“Just delivery…?”
“Hmm.”
“What…? Am I supposed to be eating something specific?”
“No. Just checking you haven't been skipping meals.”
Lily walked naturally out to the living room and came back with a glass of water and something else.
“Normally I wouldn't give you this, but you look like you're really struggling. Here.”
“...Painkillers?”
“Yes. You've taken one before, remember?”
“I do…”
A painkiller with suspiciously miraculous efficacy. It had no particular side effects — though strangely, the one time she drank alcohol after taking it, she got absolutely hammered. When she'd asked back then if it was a drug, Lily had just laughed and said no.
'...Come to think of it, aren't painkillers basically a category of drugs anyway?'
“Nothing strange about it. It's just a customized service.”
“I trust you, Lily. I do.”
Mm.
Glug. Glug.
She swallowed the pill. Five seconds after taking it, her body loosened as if by magic — instant relief.
“Wow.”
“Feels like living again, doesn't it.”
“It's really not a drug?”
“I told you it's not.”
“Then how?”
For three whole days she'd groaned in bed, out of her mind every single time it hit her, and now she felt like she could fly. Like she'd spent eternity crawling through the deep abyss and finally surfaced into the world.
Lily smiled.
“I taught you the technique, remember? So naturally I know how to treat its side effects too.”
“Are you seriously an alien?”
“Honestly, yes.”
Yena was earnestly weighing the credibility of the Lily-Is-An-Alien theory when Lily sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at her.
“If it's too much, you can take it slower. I'm not forcing you to push through.”
“But if I don't do it within a month, the Green Hermit gets taken away?”
Right. In exchange for lending Yena the Mythic-grade Green Hermit, Lily had proposed a deal: succeed at Spear's Roar within one month.
She had the support of a Mythic-grade item, and she'd succeeded once before, so she'd accepted with some confidence…
'I'm actually going to die…'
The pain reached through DeoEn all the way into reality — dozens of times a day, it made her want to quit.
Maybe I just shouldn't take the deal. Why am I even doing this? Am I really going to die?
Amid the flood of thoughts, Lily shook her head.
“Someone working this hard deserves a little grace period, don't you think?”
“Really?!”
“Yes. Three months instead of one? That should be plenty, right?”
“...Three months?”
“Yes. Three months.”
Three months… She might actually be able to pull that off. Same as during the Sgaredo fight — it kept hurting, but more and more, every time she practiced, she could feel herself getting closer. The only question was whether her mind could hold out that long…
“That's actually still a lot—”
“Nope.”
“Why not?”
“Because if you take too much of this, you get addicted.”
“IT IS A DRUG! You scammer! You're trying to turn me into a painkiller addict!”
“I'm not.”
Regardless, the answer was no. Lily laughed softly and shook her head, and a surge of indignation shot through Yena as she flailed her arms, trying to grab her. Just one hit. If she could land just one hit on that insufferable woman—
“Ahh.”
Why is the world spinning?
Thud.
“Patients shouldn't be flailing around like that. You need rest.”
“...Wow. You spun me in midair.”
“Shall I give you another twirl?”
“No.”
It was a rare experience, sure.
Grrrowl…
But her stomach was hungrier right now.
“Want to stay for a meal?”
“I'd love to.”
■
“I'm planning to hold the lecture soon.”
“?!”
Yena slammed her spoon down like a scene out of a melodrama, and the chicken mayo rice bowl I'd made went scattering across the table.
Was it really that shocking?
“R-really?”
“Yes. I've been swamped lately, so I couldn't. But it feels like time to start again.”
For the guest list, I was thinking of the original seven plus Vlack and Devil — nine people. I couldn't be sure everyone would come, but I figured most of them would show.
“That means everyone will be there, right?”
“I suppose? Busy people don't have to come if they don't want to.”
“I'm coming!”
“Will you be okay?”
“Huh? Oh, my body's rough, but I'm a bit better inside DeoEn. And I took my medicine, so it's fine—”
“No, not that.”
This class.
“This class is a duel.”
“...Yes?”
Professor Lily's fourth lecture.
The subject: one-on-one combat.
■
The students who had come rushing in for the fourth lecture. The scene looked the same as always, but the seven students seated in the lecture hall radiated a subtle tension, a pre-battle stillness in the air. The reason was the one announcement Lily had made before summoning them here.
'Today's class will be one-on-one duels. It won't be a plain brawl — a special device will be applied — but come prepared.'
Oh, and by the way, for the final victor…
“Whew.”
“I'M GOING TO WIN!!!”
“Keep it down.”
“Noisy.”
“......”
Haah.
Yena drew a breath. This fight — she absolutely had to win.
Of course, in a pure one-on-one, she'd lose without question.
“Hehe.”
Yena looked at the front-row seat. A tiny child chatting away with her spirits, wearing a smile of utterly pure, unclouded innocence.
But her true identity was one of the strongest players in DeoEn, a being capable of toppling a kingdom: Leo.
If everyone in this room attacked Leo at once, Leo would still come out on top. That was how powerful and all-conquering she was, but…
'The device.'
Lily had definitely said a special device would be applied. She couldn't know exactly what it was, but the odds were high that it was something like the damage reduction she'd used against the golem. Presumably, whoever understood that damage reduction better and shattered it first would take the win.
'...Didn't Leo figure it out first, though?'
“Mm.”
Was it hopeless after all?
'But if I can land it…'
If she could pull off that Roar even once, couldn't she take a shot at the championship? Granted, using it once would knock her flat, so she'd have to climb to the finals on pure skill alone.
Kzzt…
Tak.
“?”
A strange sound from behind her. Turning her head, she saw a pink magic circle etching itself into empty air, and through it, a magical girl holding a giant candy arrived in the lecture hall.
Candy Star, was it? Teleporting straight into the room instead of using the door — she'd clearly come in a rush.
Candy Star took her seat and met Yena's gaze, which was fixed on her.
“What.”
“Yes?”
“Nothing. Pay me no mind.”
Candy Star snapped her head away coolly, but for some reason her face was flushed, as if she were embarrassed by her transformed state.
'Wait… why does she look so familiar?'
She'd definitely seen her before, but today she felt strangely, almost uncannily familiar. Where had they met?