The Whisper and the System Notification
I stared at my hand, then looked back at the white-haired woman.
A youthful face, eyes rolled back in a faint.
Normally, I would have checked on her condition, but I didn’t have the luxury right now.
The power of the Outer God grew stronger?
I stared hard at the status window, but nothing appeared.
All those resistance messages I had seen earlier.
It felt like something was resisting with powerful mental strength right now…
<You son of a bitch!>
What the hell.
I heard something muttering inside my head.
I closed my eyes and focused, but nothing came through.
Didn’t someone just call me “son of a bitch”?
For now.
“…”
“…”
When I opened my eyes and looked around, I realized every single gaze was fixed on me.
Lydia stared at me with wide, round eyes. The rest of the death-flag party members wore the exact same expression.
Only Gerd seemed completely clueless about what had happened. He simply blinked at me.
“H-how…?”
One of the death-flag party members finally spoke, his voice dazed.
“What was that just now—”
I don’t know either.
“That much is basic.”
At my answer, the others clamped their mouths shut.
At the same time, footsteps began echoing from far down the corridor.
“What in the world—kyaaaah!”
A familiar voice belonging to Professor Alberto rang out as he appeared.
He took one look at my face and fainted on the spot.
I was covered in blood, sure, but wasn’t this a bit much?
Especially for a middle-aged man.
Anyway, at least I had avoided my own death with this.
A whisper reaches you!
However, your powerful mental strength resisted it!
…I did avoid it, right?
The rumors spread like wildfire.
The story that Aiden Starfive had sliced apart two Variants on his very first training excursion.
One of them was even Benjamin Frick.
Even though he was a discarded son, he was still the child of a man who maintained the title of baron on this ruined continent. His death was bound to cause an uproar.
Yet no one condemned Aiden Starfive.
First, the testimonies from those he had saved were perfectly consistent.
“He saved my life.”
That was what the saint candidate, whose name could not be revealed, had said.
“His words were a little—no, very scary, and his face… no. His face was scary too…”
“B-but he really didn’t kill anyone! Wait, he does look like he’d kill people, and he actually did kill someone, but anyway he didn’t kill anyone!”
The man carrying the enormous shield, whose name also could not be revealed, recalled it this way.
“In all my years, I’ve never seen swordsmanship that fast except for the mercenary captain’s blade during the Il Mare defense. The man vanished like the wind and cut down his enemy in a single strike. I still have no idea what kind of trick that was.”
“He didn’t kill any people. …Ah, probably. No. Please don’t write that down. If they find out, I’m dead.”
Every witness agreed that Aiden Starfive had only killed Variants. Moreover, Benjamin’s corpse had been found in a grotesque state with its spine ripped out—clearly the form of a Variant.
That wasn’t all.
There were also rumors that he had casually restored a student who was turning into a Variant.
“When he touched him, the person went back to normal! The black energy got sucked back into his body—”
That came from the brown-haired saint candidate whose name could not be revealed.
“He was clearly on the verge of transforming, but somehow…”
The large-shield-carrying mercenary who had accompanied Aiden Starfive said the same thing.
“Anyway, it was fascinating. When I asked how he did it, he only answered ‘I ate it,’ so I couldn’t say anything.”
Putting all the stories together, it seemed Aiden Starfive had contained the Variant’s power inside his own body.
“He saved me.”
“He came over and held out his hand. The dark energy retreated, the evil ghost voices disappeared, and my body returned to normal…”
“Hey, are you listening? It was seriously amazing, okay? It was like a miracle!”
“Excuse me! I’m perfectly fine! Don’t take me to the temple! I have to see him!”
“I said I’m fine! Let go!”
Of course, there were also people who couldn’t be reasoned with.
“Throughout history, the number of people who have reversed a Variant can be counted on one hand.”
Albert, who had screamed in a most undignified manner at the sight of the blood-soaked Aiden Starfive before fainting and then recovering, trembled as he spoke to Principal Gildar.
“It’s comparable to the miracles performed by the previous saint or the great magic cast by the Tower Master!”
“…”
Gildar’s head was aching too.
It wasn’t that there were no records of anyone reversing a Variant.
It was simply that every method had been extremely dramatic and required massive preparation.
The story of the previous saint who sacrificed all her holy power to restore a pope who had become a Variant, only to become a cripple herself.
The story of the Tower Master who slaughtered three hundred half-elves to build an altar with their blood in order to save the elf queen.
Every single case had demanded enormous sacrifice.
But to reverse a Variant with nothing more than a touch?
“This should be reported at the official meeting—”
“No.”
Gildar cut off the trembling Albert.
“For now, this remains our secret. Tell the witnesses the same. Say the student didn’t turn into a Variant—he simply suffered a panic attack from excessive tension.”
“P-Principal…”
“Think about it. Nothing has been confirmed yet.”
If word got out that Aiden Starfive could restore Variants, literally every kind of person would swarm him.
From vagrants who had fled after abandoning family members turned Variant, all the way to the emperor who was forcibly imprisoning a prince who had become a monster.
And he would not be able to answer all those demands.
“Just imagine if it goes wrong.”
The previous saint had at least purified them. From what he had heard, Aiden Starfive absorbed the Variant’s power into his own body.
“What if he tries to restore the prince, suffers a backlash, and turns into a monster himself? What if he assassinates His Majesty the Emperor right there?”
Albert’s face turned deathly pale at those words.
They would probably hold him responsible too. No—they absolutely would.
He would be dragged before a hearing and asked, “Just what was the principal doing while a student destroyed the empire? Did you have any intention of managing him at all?”
In the worst case, he could be held accountable and executed.
“T-that’s…”
“Exactly. Since nothing has been confirmed yet, we cannot reveal it right away.”
It would be fine to reveal it after they learned more about his ability.
That wasn’t the only reason.
“The academy’s duty is to nurture students.”
Gildar closed his eyes.
Of course, they were all student soldiers. In an era like this, learning anything was a luxury.
Everyone had been driven out and now lived crammed together on a narrow continent. New Variants appeared almost every day, regardless of race.
That was why the academy’s students learned the bare minimum of combat before being sent to the continental restoration effort.
Because they possessed stigmas.
Aiden Starfive would probably receive a bit of education, form a team, and then be deployed to the restoration front as well.
“We cannot recklessly spread rumors about him when we don’t even know what kind of burden he will have to bear.”
These students were already carrying far too many burdens.
Being worshipped as a hero might be pleasant, but people would always demand heroic deeds that matched those expectations.
“For now, just watch. Especially you, Albert. You’re in charge of his class, so observe him even more carefully.”
“He’s scary though…”
“Tsk.”
Even the iron-blooded Albert was finished.
Thinking that, Gildar let out a deep sigh.
*
While the faculty was reacting that way, House Frick had literally flipped upside down.
“This bastard…!”
Baron Frick slammed his fist onto the desk in pure rage.
With a loud bang, the desk shattered.
“I sent him to the academy after carefully crafting his stigma, and he turns into a Variant and dies?”
There was no greater failure than this.
Of course, he had already thrown the boy away long ago, but he had kept him around thinking he might still be useful someday.
“Hoo… Hoo…”
After letting out several rage-filled breaths, the baron looked at his loyal subordinate, who stood with his head bowed.
“So, what about that Starfive brat?”
“He has no injuries. Only a slight ankle sprain, apparently.”
“…”
The baron’s pride crumpled. So did his face.
“The information?”
“Here it is.”
The baron took the paper his subordinate offered and began to read. The fury on his face slowly gave way to doubt.
“Swordsmanship?”
“Yes.”
“Is there any record of Aiden Starfive learning swordsmanship?”
“No. Until just a few days ago, he was attending magic classes.”
“…Hah.”
A sneer rose on the baron’s face.
“So he’s a collaborator.”
“…”
Learning magic and then suddenly wielding a sword like a master? Did that even make sense? Not unless he had become an entirely different person.
So the Starfive family had been collaborators too.
He didn’t know where their roots lay, but…
The baron spoke.
“I need to verify his skills. There are students inside the academy who take requests, right?”
“There are. Who should I call?”
“There’s that one who’s always working hard to earn money.”
The Crown Kingdom.
Recalling the name of a kingdom that no longer existed, the baron smiled.
“Offer a reward to the princess of the fallen kingdom. She gets the job done properly.”
“Understood.”
“And.”
The baron looked at his subordinate.
“What did the organization say?”
“They say they will move the plan forward slightly due to Benjamin’s death.”
“Got it.”
A son who was useless even in death.
The baron muttered as he gazed in the direction of the academy.
“How foolish.”
He murmured words whose meaning no one could guess.
*
Someone is watching you!
Your achievements grow even greater!
Awe: 27%
What is it this time? Why is my awe going up when I didn’t even do anything?
“Hiiik!”
“Huuik!”
“Kyaaaah!”
Groans and screams filled the air.
People backed away in terror.
All of this was simply because I was walking down the hallway.
I wasn’t doing anything. I was just walking.
Yet the miracle that occurred whenever I walked down the corridor was this: the crowd parted like the Red Sea before a certain religious figure, and I continued forward without any hindrance whatsoever.
Surprisingly, nothing major had happened afterward.
I had cut Benjamin in half and even restored that girl with the huge cone hat using some unknown power, yet no one had called me in for questioning or asked for an explanation.
The girl with the cone hat I had saved had been sent straight to the temple.
It almost felt like someone was watching my back.
Wait, who would watch my back? Even now, no one dares walk behind me out of fear.
Well, there was one person.
“H-h-h-hello!”
Lydia Straw greeted me from far behind, trembling violently.
She scares me. If she suddenly loses it and turns into a Variant, I’m the one who’s going to die.
“What did I tell you?”
“Y-yes! I will bow my head!”
At my words, Lydia immediately lowered her head.
Once again, all I could see was her round crown.
Whew. Not seeing her face makes me feel a little more alive.
Just looking at her face gives me goosebumps. Goosebumps.
Anyway, there was one thing I had learned for certain from this incident.
If I could prevent others from… well, how should I put it—if I could stop their negative traits from exploding, it might be okay to gather a few more teammates and travel together.
Of course, since I had no idea what kind of side effects this would bring me, I couldn’t take too many people.
And I should only bring those who cause fewer accidents.
A prime example was Lydia Straw, who was currently following behind me with her head bowed.
She was a no-go.
If she exploded, the difficulty would be so high that it would be better to just make a new character.
She was one of the few people in Dark Fantasy Saga that you must never touch.
You shouldn’t even keep her as an ally. That kind of crazy bitch.
Thinking that, I entered the classroom and sat down.
—Clink!
The sound of coins rang out.
You resisted with your mental strength!
Resisted what?
While I was staring at the status window that had suddenly appeared, a voice called out.
“…Is Aiden Starfive here?”
A blonde woman was looking at me.
A bold face and burning red eyes.
She clearly had a spirited appearance, yet an oddly overflowing grace blended with it in a unique way.
“I need to see that guy for a bit.”
I knew this woman.
I knew her so well she was one of my worst nightmares.
Laura Crown.
The princess of a fallen kingdom and a notorious miser.
And the boss who had gone mad in Chapter 2.
Why was a woman like her suddenly looking for me?
“Where is Aiden Starfive?”
“U-um, over there…”
She had been searching for me with a confident voice, but when she followed Lydia’s pointing finger and our eyes met, she froze.
Just looking at that face made my stomach churn again.
“Hic.”
I unconsciously frowned as I looked at her. The moment our eyes met, she stiffened completely.
“Get that face out of my sight.”
I answered curtly without thinking.
“Hiccup!”
At those words, Laura Crown let out a loud hiccup.