Chapter 276
Chapter Title: Giants and Grievances
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276
“I can’t feel my arms or legs…”
Karl muttered in a dying voice as he lay collapsed on the floor.
He wasn’t the only one groaning in pain.
Most of the students who had been targets in the Demian students’ scramble were lying on the ground, half-exhausted.
“You’re all pathetic!”
Chelsea declared, hands on her hips and chin held high.
“If you look this weak, the other hero academies will look down on us!”
Growling, Chelsea grabbed the fallen Karl and shook him violently.
“Get up! Karl!”
“Hey! H-hey! Don’t shake me by the arm, aghhhh!”
Karl screamed.
Watching the scene unfold, Leo asked.
“What happened? You seem to be in a worse mood than usual.”
“Leo, you wouldn’t know, but she’s always this prickly.”
At Karl’s words, Chelsea shot him a sharp glare.
“She just acts all innocent in front of you… Gack? I, I surrender! Gurgle! Surrender!”
Karl, who had been taunting her, flailed and shouted as Chelsea started to choke him.
After narrowly being released, Karl asked.
“Anyway, why are you in such a bad mood?”
“Those Azonia bastards called me tiny and looked down on me.”
The reason for Chelsea’s foul mood was none other than the Azonia students.
When the Azonia students spotted Chelsea, who had been avoiding the bothersome dwarves, they had said:
“Lumerne even lets tiny kids like that attend. Who is she?”
“I think that’s Chelsea Llewellyn.”
“Chelsea Llewellyn? Isn’t she a pretty famous student? But she looks like a strong gust of wind could blow her away.”
“Hey! Who are you calling tiny? Who are you calling weak-looking? Fight me!”
At her words, the Azonia students looked at each other and burst out laughing.
“Sorry, but we’d get in big trouble if we fought a kid like you.”
“If we hurt your feelings, I apologize. This is a token of our apology.”
And with that, they had given her a piece of candy and left.
She had been about to fly into a rage and punish them, but the swarm of Demian students had foiled her plans.
“Treating me like a child? Hehehe, you just wait. You damn beasts.”
A vein pulsed on Chelsea’s forehead as she clenched her fist.
Watching her murderous expression, Karl whispered to Leo.
“Hey, you should calm her down. When she’s this on edge, it’s me who suffers.”
At his words, Leo took something out from his pocket and gave it to Chelsea.
“Have some candy and cheer up.”
What Leo handed her was none other than the candy Karl had made using a fatigue recovery potion.
Seeing Leo, Karl screamed internally.
‘Why are you treating her like a kid too!’
“Thanks, Leo!”
But Chelsea beamed a bright smile, popping the candy Leo gave her into her mouth and rolling it around.
Watching her, Karl muttered.
“She really is a kid.”
“There’s only a one-year age difference between us, you know?”
Chelsea glared at him.
“Karl, I wanted to ask you something.”
“What is it?”
“That girl from before, Driana. Why is she on such bad terms with her Demian classmates?”
“Driana? You mean that cute dwarf from earlier?”
Chelsea also wore a curious expression.
Seeing their reactions, Karl said.
“Oh, that? I was curious too, so I took a moment to do some digging even while being hounded by the Demian kids.”
Karl, a master of information gathering, crossed his arms.
“Driana. She’s the granddaughter of Demian’s principal, Gerwin. And she was admitted through a special recommendation, without even taking the entrance exam.”
“Well, that’s a good reason for the Demian kids to dislike her.”
Chelsea nodded as if she understood.
“No, that’s not why they dislike her. In fact, not a single student has ever complained about that part.”
“Why?”
“Driana was a born genius smith. I heard she made an enchanted magic sword when she was only five.”
“An enchanted magic sword at five?”
Chelsea’s eyes widened.
There were two main ways to create a magic sword.
The first was to use materials that contained mana.
The second was to enchant it with mana.
“That’s incredible.”
Chelsea clicked her tongue.
Creating an enchanted magic sword was far more difficult than making one from mana-infused materials.
Enchantment magic itself wasn't particularly difficult.
Chelsea, who had also been called a genius since she was young, had learned enchantment magic at the age of five.
But the general enchantment magic and the enchantment used for magic swords were completely different concepts.
The enchantment used for magic swords was, quite literally, making the object itself hold mana.
It was a skill in a realm impossible to reach without innate talent, not just magical aptitude.
“With that level of skill, special admission would be a given. But then why do the Demian students hate her so much?”
Chelsea tilted her head.
Seeing her, Karl scratched his head.
“Driana apparently worked hard making weapons until the first semester of her first year. In fact, she was the class representative until then. But starting in the second semester, she suddenly lost interest in making weapons.”
“What?”
“And even when she does make something, I hear she just copies the weapons made by Lord Dweno.”
“But why? What a waste of talent!”
Chelsea was shocked.
An artisan who could make an enchanted magic sword at the age of five.
She was someone with the talent to create weapons that could write legends in the hands of heroes.
And yet, she was letting that talent go to waste!
“No one knows the reason. I just heard she says she’s pursuing art and makes a bunch of strange things instead.”
“Art?”
“Yeah. She calls herself the greatest artist born of Dweronia. I heard she even held her own exhibition in the city.”
Chelsea wore a look of utter disbelief.
A Demian blacksmith, who should have more pride than anyone, was only making copies instead of creating original works.
And the object of her imitation was the divine blacksmith Dweno, whom they revered.
It was only natural for the Demian students to dislike a person like Driana.
“The Demian students seem to think Driana is tarnishing Dweno’s name.”
At those words, Leo raised his sword.
It was the Wolf Fang he had acquired earlier.
‘But her skill is undeniable. She managed to replicate Dweno’s craftsmanship, even if imperfectly.’
And she hadn't even been taught by Dweno.
Yet she had managed to recreate a sword made by him to this extent.
‘It would be impossible without skill.’
Leo’s eyes narrowed.
‘Then why did she stop making weapons?’
***
That evening.
After returning to the dormitory assigned to Seirun, Lunia had dinner and went back to her room.
Normally, Lunia, who was considered a candidate for the next student council president, would have been surrounded by people.
Lunia was the pride of Seirun, and the pride of Seirun was synonymous with the Elves.
The lower and middle-class Elves would try to hover around Lunia in any way they could, hoping to get on the good side of the future hero who would represent their race.
But after the incident during the day, they were busy whispering as they looked at her.
“I never thought Lunia could be such a violent Elf.”
“She’s scary.”
Lunia scoffed at her whispering classmates.
She had fully expected them to react this way.
‘There’s no reason to care about people like them anymore.’
The moment she decided to stop pretending, Lunia had stopped caring one bit about her surroundings.
“Oh, welcome back, Miss Lunia.”
Inside the room, Eiran, who shared it with her, hastily hid the book she was reading behind a pillow and greeted her.
Her hair was still wet, as if she had just finished showering.
‘She’s reading another novel by a human author. I wonder if it’s any good? She never lets me see it.’
Whenever she asked about the contents, Eiran would hide even the title like that.
Eiran looked at Lunia, who closed the door and sat in a chair, with a worried expression.
“Miss Lunia, are you alright? Are the other Elves not looking at you poorly?”
“I expected this anyway. Actually, it’s a relief. I don’t have to pretend anymore, right?”
Lunia smiled brightly.
“Or do you prefer the me who used to put on an act?”
“No! I think you’re much cooler now, Miss Lunia. I’m sure Luca would think so too.”
Eiran said, clenching her fists.
“Thank you.”
Lunia, who gave Eiran a bright smile, said.
“Ah, more importantly, Eiran.”
“Yes.”
“Leo said he wants to see you.”
“Master Leo?”
Eiran’s ears perked up, her expression brightening.
“When! When did Master Leo say he wants to see me?”
“He said to meet him later in the grand hall from earlier, after midnight.”
“M-midnight? Isn’t that past curfew?”
“That’s right. He said to sneak out.”
“F-for what reason, at midnight…?”
“He said he’d tutor you.”
“T-t-t-t-tutor me?”
“Why are you so surprised? Of course, he’s in the same year and younger than us, but there’s a lot to learn from Leo.”
“Th-that’s right! There’s so much to learn from Master Leo… Oh!”
Eiran covered her face, which had turned beet red.
‘She must be having some strange delusions again. Eiran really does have a vivid imagination.’
Lunia shook her head, thinking Eiran was embarrassed after her strange fantasy was revealed to be just about tutoring.
“Yes. So get ready.”
Lunia left the blushing Eiran behind and exited the room to take a shower.
Meanwhile, Eiran, now alone, was red all the way to her ears.
‘W-with Master Leo… just the two of us… late at night for tutoring…!’
Just as Lunia had guessed, Eiran’s delusions were running wild.
The problem was that they were still running.
Eiran took out the novel she had hidden behind her pillow.
[The Male Tutor’s Secret Lessons.]
‘It-it was real. Th-these humans… tutoring in the middle of the night…’
The former shut-in, swallowing hard, was smoothly misunderstanding the situation.
***
Mount Erdien.
The eastern edge of the continent.
A cursed land where monsters were born.
But to the dwarves, this land was also another blessed land.
Countless mana stones and rare ores were buried here.
For the weapon-crafting dwarves, it was a very important place.
That was why the great dwarven city of Tarkam was located just beyond the forest adjacent to Mount Erdien.
And the walls of Tarkam were high.
This was because once every few decades, a large-scale invasion of monsters would cross Mount Erdien and the forest.
On that day, too, the guards on the walls of Tarkam were watching Mount Erdien.
Rumble—!
Then, the ground shook.
“An earthquake?”
“There have been a lot of earthquakes lately.”
Earthquakes were frequent around Mount Erdien.
Thus, Tarkam was used to them.
As they chatted casually, the dwarf keeping watch from the highest point of the wall, the watchtower, felt something strange.
Thud! Rumble!
It felt as if the very axis of the earth was shaking.
It was somehow different from an earthquake.
‘What is it?’
Just then, a deep darkness fell upon a section of Mount Erdien.
For a moment, it was as if the moonlight had vanished.
He rubbed his eyes.
In that fleeting moment, the moonlight was shining down again as if nothing had happened.
‘Did I… see it wrong?’
Feeling a sense of strangeness, the dwarf raised his spyglass.
He carefully observed the area around Mount Erdien.
Suddenly.
Flash—!
He met eyes with a pair of jet-black pupils that shone even in the darkness.
“E-emergency! Emergency! A-a monster has appeared!”
Clang, clang, clang—
The dwarf, who had seen the colossal giant, fell into a momentary panic and rang the bell like a madman.
The entirety of Tarkam was thrown into chaos.
But the dark giant, which had displayed such a terrifying presence, had vanished in an instant.