Chapter 6
Chapter 6
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: Joker Card
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A cozy lounge room, tastefully decorated.
Two women and one man were inside.
Roze was buried deep in a plush sofa, indulging in laziness to her heart's content, while Merdi and Barton sipped tea at the table right beside her.
That's when Roze, who had been checking her wrist panel intently, started groaning.
"Why isn't he replying?"
"Who are you talking about?"
"We trained together yesterday, but he didn't show up for class today either."
"Oh, that disciple of yours?"
Merdi's eyes sparkled as she asked.
From her perspective, Lemon was a truly intriguing existence.
How had such trash caught Roze's interest?
It made no sense to Merdi at all.
"Why do you like that kid so much?"
"Lemon? Well... he's just great!"
"You're not saying it's because of that pathetic so-called 'courage,' are you? You've had plenty of people approach you before. You brushed them all off, and now this?"
In the academy, martial prowess equaled power.
Moreover, everyone living here was a genius.
Young as they were, they knew their positions well.
As a result, intense political interests clashed within the academy—fiercer than among adults, if not quite as refined.
Amid all that, Roze—with her skill and charming personality—received countless love calls.
So many that she'd mastered the art of cold rejection.
"Uh..."
Roze's eyes darted around.
This time, she seemed to be doing some actual 'thinking.'
Merdi soon got her answer.
"Well, at first, his body felt kinda unique, so I sparred with him. But he was way weaker than he looked, and I almost killed him. Felt bad, so I went easy... and then I started liking him more and more..."
Roze rambled on, expressing her feelings exactly as they were.
But the reason boiled down to 'it just happened.'
Merdi wasn't pleased at all.
"And you just up and made him your disciple? Trash is trash, no matter how big it gets."
The moment she said that...
Roze's demeanor shifted completely.
Her expression unchanged, she simply stared at Merdi, and the air in the lounge grew heavy.
"You're wrong, Merdi."
"Really? Looks like playing with a toy to me."
Merdi wasn't one to back down from the heavy pressure head-on.
Instead, she grinned and prodded Roze even more.
"You think I'd teach Roze-style as a joke? Lemon has potential."
"Oh? Really? Hard to believe. Anyway, let me know if you get bored of him? I wanna play with him too."
The atmosphere turned even more hostile.
Merdi's face flushed deeper with excitement.
'Haah... yes, this is it.'
The tip of her nose tingled.
Endorphins surged, her head heating up.
This was the pleasure of feeling alive.
Merdi's way of living could be summed up in one word:
Interest-driven.
Born with immense psychokinetic power, the world felt like fragile toys to her—things to handle with care.
One slip, and people around her died like ants.
They feared her, called her a monster.
Even her parents.
People awed by her power tried kidnapping, murder, scams nonstop—but even those were mere amusements, her innate abilities so vast.
Raised that way, Merdi grew bored with everything around her.
Lost interest in it all.
Entering Cradle of Heroes Academy was a stroke of luck for her.
She met fellow humans among the ants.
Three of them, no less.
Roze intrigued her the most.
Sticking by Roze kept her from boredom, so she always stayed close.
Plus, it was the perfect way to vent built-up stress.
"Enough, both of you."
As their standoff neared its breaking point, Barton intervened.
The heated air cooled abruptly.
Temperature plummeted, frost forming over Roze and Merdi's heads.
"Cool your heads, both of you."
"Huh?"
"You've already got two warnings accumulated. The principal just warned you, and you're stirring trouble again? If you wanna fight, use the sparring room."
"Oh! Right, the warnings."
Roze made a pouty face.
Three or more warnings meant all sorts of penalties.
Most didn't faze Roze, but switching her meals to tasteless preserved rations? That was worse than the sky falling.
Barton turned to Merdi this time.
"Don't provoke Roze needlessly. Nothing good comes of it for you either."
"...Hmph."
Merdi brushed the frost from her hair and brought her tea to her lips like nothing happened.
Then pulled it away immediately.
"It's cold now..."
"Here."
Barton had somehow brewed fresh tea and swapped it with her cup.
"Oh? What's this? Our perceptive Ice Prince is being nice?"
"I cooled your tea, so I fixed it. That's all."
"Hmm, really~?"
Barton ignored her teasing and returned to his seat.
But then, a loud whine sounded, and everyone's panels vibrated.
An announcement blared through the lounge simultaneously.
[Level 1 alert: Hazardous situation detected. Alien signal in Dormitory Building 9. Exercise caution.]
"Level 1? No big deal."
Merdi and Barton dismissed it instantly.
Probably some leak incident.
These were routine annual events from carelessness.
But Roze reacted differently.
"Building 9—that's where Lemon's dorm is!"
Roze bolted up from the sofa and dashed out of the lounge.
Barton smoothly tidied his and Roze's spots as if he'd planned to leave anyway, then followed her.
Merdi rested her chin on her hand, staring at the closing door, and muttered.
"Is there really something to him...?"
Her tapping fingers created faint echoes circling the lounge.
***
I was pinned down by sleep paralysis.
My body felt locked underwater, immobile.
But it wasn't unbearably suffocating.
Compared to the nightmares every night before, this was more peaceful.
'I should get up soon.'
Still, I couldn't stay like this forever.
Felt like I'd slept a long time.
I focused my mind to wake up.
Thanks to training in Roze-style, my consciousness surfaced quickly.
I opened my eyes—and a loud noise assaulted my ears.
"Lemon!"
"Huh?"
Familiar scarlet hair filled my vision.
Roze.
But her hand was aimed at my heart, like she was about to strike.
Startled by the threat to my life, I yelled.
"I'm up! I'm awake!"
"...Good."
Roze lowered her hand with a disappointed look.
Why was she here, though?
Other people's dorms usually required permission to enter.
Barton cleared up my confusion.
"This is the infirmary. We came to visit after hearing you were infected by an alien."
"Infected?"
"The infection response is completely gone now, they say. By the way, you've been out for three days."
"..."
No way.
I glanced at Roze involuntarily.
She nodded, confirming it was my fault.
After manifesting her ability and applying alien factors to me, I'd felt off, but not this bad.
'Come to think of it.'
Lemon had fallen seriously ill after first manifesting his ability in contact with the Mammoth.
Should've been more careful.
"Must've caused a fuss."
"Level 1 hazard. Nobody cared."
"Good."
"Not good. We were shocked."
New footsteps arrived with a crowd in various uniforms.
Academy administrators.
Makes sense—even a minor alien issue couldn't be ignored.
"Visiting hours over. Visitors, please leave. Cadet Leonard Monarch, a word with us?"
"I'll wait outside, Lemon."
Luckily, the meeting with the admins was short.
They knew I'd requested the alien capture, so they pinned down the cause clearly.
In the academy's daily chaos of unimaginable problems, a Level 1 wasn't worth severe punishment.
I disclosed part of my ability at a non-sensitive level, got warned, and was released.
Sadly, they refused re-requesting the alien.
"Huff! Huff!"
"Good work."
We headed straight from the infirmary to the sparring room.
Roze, understanding my physical changes better than anyone, guided me with utmost care.
"Nngh...!"
"Impressive. Your handling feels sharper for sure."
"Even... huff! so... haa."
"No. You've surpassed what training alone could achieve at your level. That fly-like reactivity too."
Fly-like.
The Claw would cry.
Before sparring, I was confident.
The fine hairs on my body acted like new sensors, hypersensitive.
I could sense movements at a distance without seeing them, like drawing them in my mind.
I even dodged Roze's punch the first 'one' time.
Exactly once.
After that, I got beaten as usual.
Even knowing her punch's path was bizarrely impossible to evade.
"Don't rely on that sense too much. Useful, but only in limited situations. Easy to disrupt too."
"Limited situations?"
"Yeah. Like, for example, this?"
"Why look at me?"
Roze casually deferred to Barton.
Barton glanced between me and Roze, then pointed at himself.
Roze nodded, and he made a annoyed face, pinched his thumb and index finger, and flicked toward me.
Thwack!
Intense sound.
"Ah..."
I'd instinctively jumped into a defensive stance without realizing.
Overreacting to the wind pressure.
The stabbing gust felt like a sharp blade thrusting.
"You're not distinguishing your original senses from the new one properly. Plus, it's overly sensitive. If this were a noisy place, it'd be way worse. And..."
The surrounding temperature dropped suddenly.
Barton was siphoning the heat.
As it chilled my face, I got what he meant.
"As you see, environment affects it hugely. And when facing aliens later in full-body armor, that sense gets heavily restricted."
"...Right."
Thought it was decent, but I was wrong.
"No need to be down. If you use it right when you can, it's plenty good. I'll make sure of that."
Roze approached my deflated self.
Then started kneading my body all over again.
"I'm more amazed by this part. Kinda jealous, even."
The spots she focused on were my wrists and heels.
Newly applied alien factors this time.
After inspecting meticulously for a while, she pondered.
Then muttered to herself so softly it was barely audible.
"This way... and here... Good. Got it."
Suddenly, Roze entered meditation standing up.
Self-observation.
Entering it that easily was incredible.
Proof she'd fully placed every cell from head to toe under her will.
But that wasn't the end.
Her body vibrated so quietly and rapidly it blurred from view.
'What is she doing?'
At first, no clue.
But soon, something felt off.
Looking closer, her physique was changing ever so subtly.
"Ha, crazy!"