Chapter 15
Chapter 15
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Fear of the Unknown
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A short time had passed since the man's appearance.
The pain that had been gnawing at her body vanished as if it had never been there.
"...My body... it doesn't hurt anymore."
"Things that are good for the body tend to hurt. Like a vaccine that stings at first to ward off illness but ultimately makes the body stronger."
"Vaccine..."
She clenched her fist.
Krak.
It felt completely different from when she'd swung the halberd today.
The immense power she felt as the bandage wrapped around her hand snapped with a pop.
"...This is power."
"That's right. Our power."
She looked up at him.
His mask and loose-fitting coat made it impossible to even discern his build.
"I've become a member of your organization, but you're still not showing your face?"
"Once the true power of that pill reveals itself, you'll join us fully. Not yet."
"True power?"
"Yes. It takes time to fully accept our power."
Time is needed, huh.
She stared at the snapped bandage.
This power wasn't complete?
"Until that power fully manifests, you'll remain a member of the Academy—the self-proclaimed guardians of humanity."
"...Fine."
"Good."
With that, the mysterious man departed.
True power, he said.
Was power that she'd never gained no matter how hard she trained really this easy to obtain?
Laira gazed long at the spot where the man had vanished, her emotions a tangled mix of complexity.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "You've gotten so strong, Laira. What on earth happened in just one day...!"
The teacher watched Laira's training in admiration.
The force behind her halberd swings carried an intensity utterly unlike yesterday.
"Hup...!"
The sharp sound of slicing wind rang out crisply as the straw dummies were cleaved in an instant.
Wow, she's gotten ridiculously strong.
⚙ WRITER-NIM ⚙ [No need to worry. Hmph!] "Hearing you say that just makes me worry more."
Good thing it looked like Writer-nim hadn't made any mistakes.
Those guys must've strengthened Laira properly.
"By the way, Writer-nim, what do you plan to do with the villain in the novel?"
⚙ WRITER-NIM ⚙ [Huh? ...Well, die at the protagonist's hands?] "I see..."
A doomed fate after all?
It didn't sit well with her.
How should she describe this feeling?
It reminded her of playing simulation games as a kid.
There had been times when she'd felt sorry for a unit she sacrificed out of necessity.
It felt kind of like that.
It can't be helped.
To unfold the story as Writer-nim wanted, sacrifices were inevitable.
Academy stories were always like that. Nonstop incidents and accidents.
Someday the Academy would be attacked, and villains would try to turn the world upside down.
In a world with monsters, they could invade at any moment too.
Giving the protagonist trials and having them triumph gloriously—that was the main draw of Academy tales.
No, not just Academy stories. Most webnovels were the same.
To create those trials, villains were needed. She was the one who'd selected them, that's all.
If she didn't, some other character would become the villain.
Besides, they were just characters in a novel.
She was merely peeking at the backstory of villains before they were designated as such in Writer-nim's novel.
With no real connection either. She'd only watched them swing a halberd.
It wouldn't matter if she didn't select them as villains.
Writer-nim would designate someone as a villain anyway.
That much was certain. It was necessary for the plot.
If an unknown person became a villain, someone would suffer. Unforeseen developments would lead to more victims.
What if she didn't help Writer-nim at all and halted the story's progress? If serialization stopped as a result?
Would the world end? Or freeze entirely? She wasn't sure.
In the end, the best option was to help Writer-nim and witness the villains' actions firsthand.
They weren't even real people—just characters in a novel.
I don't know.
Better not to think about it. Like always, smile brightly and help Writer-nim complete the world.
No need for her to overthink. Writer-nim decided everything.
She just offered advice.
Thinking too much would only give her a headache.
They were just ink on a page in the end.
Puppets whose fates were sealed by a flick of Writer-nim's wrist.
"Alright, training's over for today. Time for sparring. Laira, anyone you want to pick?"
"That one."
"Arte? ...You're not still hung up on yesterday, are you, Laira?"
"No. I just want to test my power."
"She says that, Arte. What do you say? You can refuse."
The teacher's voice snapped her out of her reverie.
Glancing over in a hurry, she saw Laira had requested a spar with her.
Hmm...
She really didn't want to.
But those blazing eyes—refusing might lead to who-knows-what.
No choice.
"Sure. ...What are the rules?"
"No abilities. Single round."
"Get ready. We'll start soon."
Hey, wait a sec.
I suck without my ability!
⚙ WRITER-NIM ⚙ [Oh, the reader’s gonna lose. Fighting!] Writer-nim?!
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "...She's gotten strangely strong?"
"Yeah. Way stronger than before. Even in a spar, beating Arte that easily..."
Yoo Siu recalled today's spar.
The girl who'd faced Arte.
Her name was... Laira. Right, Laira.
"You know that one girl who uses a halberd."
"Oh, you mean Laira?"
"How'd you know?"
"She's infamous. A total underachiever. Suspicious that she'd get strong enough to beat Arte."
"...Huh? Underachiever?"
"Didn't know? She trains every day but never improves. That's why she's labeled that way."
Strange.
Yoo Siu felt a sense of incongruity. Similar to before.
His intuition was ringing even without any attack—too vividly to be imagination.
Her, an underachiever?
No way.
She'd clearly been on par with the other students.
...Underachiever?
Come to think of it, she'd seemed especially strained yesterday.
Not just poor condition?
"She was definitely average...?"
"What? Average? No connection to you, and she's rumored as an underachiever. You really don't pay attention to gossip."
"...Is that so?"
"Yeah. Listen to rumors now and then. Who knows what'll happen."
Yoo Siu decided not to dwell on it for now.
Right—his intuition only warned of physical threats, as proven before.
The evaluator teacher had said he had growth potential, but the bar was high.
Something on the level of life-threatening crisis to really grow.
He'd never felt that before.
Not even against that Grade 3 monster—it hadn't been that dire.
Probably just his imagination.
"Her halberd technique's worse than before... But her physical abilities seemed overwhelmingly better."
"Basic stats up at the cost of skill. A potion?"
"Potion?"
"Yeah. Berserk Potion. Boosts stats massively but dumbs you down temporarily. Can't execute techniques well."
Berserk Potion.
He'd heard of it.
But it didn't quite fit Laira's state.
"I've heard of it, but she wasn't rampaging like crazy. That's why it's called Berserk—makes you go absolutely wild."
"Dunno then."
"No leads..."
"Actually, one thing. We learned something unknown can make people stronger."
Knowing you don't know is important too.
Amelia smiled as she said it.
"Knowing what you don't know is key, ri...?"
"Exactly. Humans always fear the unknown."
"...Feels familiar."
He knew that fear all too well.
A woman whose thoughts he couldn't fathom.
Whose heart he couldn't grasp no matter how long he pondered.
Arte Isis. He felt fear toward her.
"Oh? Scared of something? Figure it out then?"
"No, not yet."
"Hmm... I don't know much, but they say fear of death comes from fear of the unknown too."
"...Yeah?"
"Yep. What happens after death? Is there really heaven? Reincarnation? If heaven exists, heaven or hell for me? Ever thought about it?"
Not once.
...What happens after death?
No clue.
"No one knows what happens after death. Afterlife? Just human invention. No one's died and come back."
"...So that's why death terrifies?"
"Right. If we knew what came after, people wouldn't fear it so much. Fun, huh?"
Amelia's beaming smile was a bit unexpected.
Like glimpsing a side he didn't know.
He'd thought her ladylike demeanor hid only ferocity.
A new facet of her.
"Don't know what scares you. But maybe try figuring it out?"
"Figure it out..."
"Yeah. Thought she was a pushover, but nope—steel trap! Something like that?"
Amelia was right.
The side of Arte she'd shown him was frightening.
But a man set on stopping Arte couldn't cower like this.
Just as he'd seen a new side of Amelia.
Maybe he'd see a new side of Arte too.
"...Thanks, Amelia. That helped."
"Glad to hear it. So, what's next?"
"Yeah."
Something like courage began to well up in him.