Chapter 3
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 3. Mask. Smiling.
Viktor, 1 month since possession.
Biggest achievement.
Denied entry at the Academy entrance.
“To think Grandia Academy isn’t what it used to be. Seeing someone so substandard bustling around wanting to enroll...”
The assistant instructor sighs loudly as if intending for me to hear.
In front of him, a boy stood hesitantly. Applicant 3720. Real name Viktor.
The assistant clicks his tongue in disapproval.
‘Tsk... even looks weird.’
Was it because of the mask worn on his face?
A clown mask smiling widely.
If it were fashion, it was a truly eccentric aesthetic sense.
Thanks to that, the assistant couldn't shake off the eerie feeling.
‘A mess. It’s a mess.’
He flips through the measurement results. A shining crystal ball.
Theory: A+
Stamina: E
Strength: E
Agility: E
Divine Power: E
Sorcery Resistance: E
Mana Sensitivity: EA level that renewed the lowest score of the day in all sectors except theory.
How did a guy like this think to challenge the entrance exam?
With his stats, he would have a duel of the century even with a goblin.
In slang terms, trash mob level.
‘Funny guy, this one.’
Sometimes there are things like that. Things that challenge impossible goals, blinded by dreams.
The assistant hated that kind of trash the most.
Even while he was clicking his tongue, the clown in front of him kept acting slick.
“Oh? Are the measurement results perhaps very bad?”
“If you have eyes, look for yourself. It’s a comprehensive Rank E.”
“Didn’t Rank E mean Excellent?”
“Then what about Rank A?”
“Asshole? Idiot?”
“Do you think that makes sense?”
The boy reacts ridiculously as if he really didn't know.
Such a reaction strangely matched the clown mask again.
The assistant roughly ignores him and guides him to the last order of the exam.
“This is the last order. The exam content is a duel with the assistant instructor in charge.”
“A duel, you say.”
“You might get hurt. Actually, quite a few injured people occur every year. It would be better to give up the application even now. Since with that skill, let alone passing, you’ll get carried away with something broken anyway.”
“You speak disappointingly. I came all this way, shouldn't I naturally take the exam until the end? Besides, the exam results aren't confirmed yet either.”
The clown answers leisurely. The assistant had no choice but to snort.
“Ha.”
Not confirmed, huh. It wasn't exactly wrong words. Since theoretically, it was so.
It would be different if everything was the lowest score, but since he received a perfect score in theory at least.
If he receives a perfect score in the last practical exam, it was possible to pass by a narrow margin.
‘He might be able to hang on at the bottom.’
The lowest class, probably the bottom of Class E would be possible.
However, that is a story for when he succeeds in getting a perfect score in the practical exam.
‘Sensibly, it doesn’t make sense.’
Lowest score in all sectors except theory. Stamina, strength, magic power... there is not a single sector that is outstanding.
No, he is outstandingly bad at everything.
And yet he intends to get a perfect score in the practical exam? And in a one-on-one duel with an assistant instructor at that?
“Whether he’s being stubborn, or he just doesn’t grasp the situation...”
Even so, one cannot kick out a person who says they will take the exam.
Thinking he should pay attention to controlling his strength so the boy doesn't get hurt as much as possible, the assistant spoke.
“The practical content is simple. Succeeding in landing three hits within 10 minutes after the duel starts.”
“Three times, you say.”
“It doesn’t matter what method it is. It doesn't even necessarily have to be a strike. Just touching for a moment is fine.”
“You mean just grazing is allowed. Moreover, three times within 10 minutes. Isn't it too easy?”
“......”
Like hell. He stares at the clown containing such feelings. The boy scratches his head as if sheepish.
“Um... let’s try it for now.”
“Be careful not to get hurt.”
The condition the assistant put up for passing. Originally, it was a task that the top-ranking students of the Academy would pass without a problem.
However, even mid-ranking students find it burdensome, and below that, let alone three hits, they struggle to even graze once.
Because the assistants don't just stay still like scarecrows.
When the lower-ranking students are about to land one hit or not, the assistant's fist has already landed five times and then some.
“Tsk.”
Assistants are customarily graduates who graduated with excellent grades. It means they are walls incomparably large to applicants who are merely chicks.
“Do we start right away?”
“Come in as soon as you are ready.”
The clown wasn't even holding a weapon. One sheet of antique robe, and also a mask of grotesque appearance.
The assistant breathes out a sigh, not knowing how many times it has been.
‘It seems he really has no intention of giving up.’
The assistant eventually takes a stance. A clenched fist.
Meanwhile, the clown took out a single tree branch from his pocket.
He wondered if it was a wand for sorcery, or a magic tool, but it wasn't that either.
It was just a tree branch without any device that could be commonly picked up on the roadside.
“Huhu.”
The boy fiddling with the tree branch. Whatever he is doing, he repeats grasping and releasing it in alternate hands.
‘Is he trying to stall for time or something?’
The moment he tilted his head like that, an anomaly is captured in the assistant's eyes. Although faint. The surroundings of the tree branch swarming like a haze.
Vision started to wave strangely.
“......?”
“Then, I will start right away.”
Before he could even react to that, the clown leaps.
The boy rushing in a straight route uprightly.
Crack, Cra-crack-!
Along with a noise like glass breaking, the leaves tremble.
As if becoming that headwind, pitch-black cracks form in the empty air.
“What...?!”
The assistant was flustered. Because it was a scenery he hadn't expected at all. Thus, his fist shoots out reflexively.
Swoosh-!
A cleanly extending straight.
‘Hit.’
A strike predicting the movement path. He was certain it was a perfect hit.
However.
“......?!”
As if betraying such certainty, nothing caught on the end of the fist.
There was no feeling of hitting, and only the feeling of missing largely remained.
Whish-!
Consequently, the stumbling assistant. The clown had disappeared from his vision.
The human shadow seemed to static, then scattered away.
‘Disappeared...?’
While he was agitated for a moment.
Tap-.
Someone touches his shoulder from behind.
“With this, once.”
“......?!”
When he turns around surprised, the smiling clown is standing there.
A mask where the eyes and corners of the mouth seemed more torn than at first.
The assistant shakes off that arm and backs away.
However, the boy had disappeared from in front of his eyes once again.
Tap-.
Once again the tree branch touches the shoulder.
“With this, twice.”
“What in the...!”
Swish-!
He swings his arm roughly, but the clown was not there.
The assistant's front. He is standing at a distance quite far away.
As if he had been there from the start.
Standing blankly, he tilted his head consistently.
“......”
Is he seeing hallucinations? Don't tell me he was an Illusionist?
That can't be. Clearly, the boy's Mana Sensitivity was Rank E.
Let alone using magic, it should be impossible to even feel mana.
“Assistant instructor?”
“......”
“Are you alright? There is still one time left.”
Then. Then how should he explain this situation?
Movements he cannot grasp, positions changing every moment.
‘What am I being subjected to?’
Eyes seen beyond the mask. He had an illusion that they seemed to flash crimson.
No. Was it really an illusion?
The corners of the clown mask's mouth tear hugely.
A maw opened gigantically, tears of blood dripping inside it.
Tens of sticky tentacles swarm as the tongue.
Chill-.
“Gasp, gasp...!”
It was a hallucination. When he closed his eyes once and opened them, everything was fine.
There was no red light, tears of blood, or tentacles on the mask.
It was just smiling ominously the same way.
‘Hallucination? Curse? Dream? Or...’
It was none of them. This is.
“I will go again.”
“......!”
He takes a step from over there again. The assistant glared with his eyes wide open to not miss the movement.
Thud, thud-thud-.
Steps approaching somewhat frivolously.
He seemed to go forward a few times, then backed away, and even turned a graceful circle.
‘What... what is it!’
It was a walk where the intention could not be grasped at all. It was the first time in his life seeing such clumsy movements.
The assistant clenching his fist tightly.
“Hup...!”
After predicting the movement path, he loads magic at his fingertips. He discarded the thought of subduing him without injury.
An unpredictable opponent. Even if it hurts a little, he decided to subdue him certainly.
As if a white arrow is caught on a bowstring, it is pulled taut.
—Lightning Magic 3rd Form— ‘Lightning Arrow’
Crackle-!
Flash and electric current stretching in all directions. He is certain he caught him this time, but.
Zip-.
He disappears.
The feet seemed to static, then that blur spreads to the whole body.
When he opened his eyes again, the clown disappears from the eyes and...
“With this, it’s three.”
Tap-.
He appears from behind without fail.
The tree branch placed on the shoulder with a tap.
A chilly energy sweeps past the nape of the neck.
The assistant didn't even turn around, and just stood blankly.
‘This is...’
No. It wasn't that his eyes couldn't follow.
It's not a story of such a simple dimension.
He didn't feel any power.
Any sorcery, mana, or trace of divine power was not sensed.
“What on earth...”
The assistant mutters, having lost his spirit.
“What on earth, how...?”
All stats Rank E. It was a movement that could absolutely not be shown with such ranks.
Clomp, clomp-.
Footsteps ringing exceptionally loud.
The clown approaches smoothly, then thrusts his head in front of the assistant.
“Oh?”
Mask. Smiling.
“Is there any problem?”
The assistant swallowed his breath.