The Unexpected Aftermath
The silence in the spectator stands lingered long after the survival treasure hunt match had concluded. It was an outcome no one had anticipated.
“……Insane.”
In the seat beside the now-empty spot where Kain had been sitting, the scout from the Dennis Company—the trading firm that could be said to dominate the southern half of the Ellemental Kingdom—finally broke the long silence with a low, awed murmur.
The pleasant shock was enough to completely erase the disappointment he had felt toward Arina after her poor performance that morning, which had followed yesterday’s destruction of the Mana Restriction Cuffs.
That kid was the real deal.
Togun Masao. The strongest incompetent who had fought on equal footing with a 4-star mage. But what truly astonished the scout was something else.
He sliced apart the virtual world in a single instant.
The virtual reality system painstakingly created by the Mage Tower. A solid world crafted by countless expert-level mages had been cut down by a single student. When one considered that the owner of the Mage Tower himself had personally overseen its creation from the very top, it became immediately clear just how absurd the feat was.
An incompetent who can cut through magic woven by an 8-star transcendent?!
It was madness. No—calling it madness wasn’t even enough.
Like the scout, the majority of mages who had witnessed Togun’s potential now sat forward in their seats, eyes sparkling as they stared down at him.
“S-Senior? Did I really just see what I think I saw?”
The junior sitting beside him tugged at his collar, stuttering.
“I definitely heard that kid was an incompetent. Don’t tell me he fooled the stars themselves?”
“No, that’s not it. The Masao family has always been famous for their constitution that prevents them from gathering mana.”
But that boy was special. His talent was an anomaly even within the Masao family.
“He’s probably the next candidate for family head.”
As a scout for one of the major trading companies that ruled the south of the Ellemental Kingdom, he had a rough understanding of the deeper, lesser-known details about the Masao family.
“Huh? Then doesn’t that mean we can’t scout him?”
The junior’s question was perfectly reasonable. A candidate for family head meant he would be off-limits for scouting even after graduating from the academy.
“No, that’s not the point. What we should be focusing on is why a candidate for the Masao family head would enroll in a magic academy in the first place.”
The Masao family. A clan that sustained itself through the support of the Mage Tower, which researched the Mana Rejecter curse. In cruder terms, they were a pack of hunting dogs raised by the Mage Tower. With no political influence whatsoever, they were simply one of those families that never left much of an impression on people’s minds.
And because of the memory of being abandoned by the emperor of the Fan Empire in the past, they themselves were deeply reclusive. They suffered from a kind of social phobia and strongly resisted revealing their name to the world, content with their current reality.
Yet the successor of such a family had entered a magic academy to become a mage. Not just any academy, but Benedict Academy, the most prestigious institution in the Ellemental Kingdom, after cutting through fierce competition.
Something must have happened.
There was no other way to see it. Something had to have occurred inside that closed-off Masao family.
This needs investigating.
If there was a rift between that boy and his family, they might be able to exploit the gap and scout him for Dennis.
The scout’s heart pounded fiercely at the hopeful prospect as he tried to calm it down.
“But… will that kid be okay?”
While the scout was filled with excitement, his junior looked down at the arena with nothing but worry on his face.
“Huk!”
Inside the Mendelstone Indoor Gymnasium arena, Togun, who had been ejected from the virtual world by the AI, gasped for air. His breath caught in his throat. Excruciating pain squeezed his lungs. A crushing pain in his chest, as if his heart were stopping, tightened around him.
“Kuaaak!”
No matter how much the virtual world’s spells mitigated pain, suffering such a serious injury inevitably built up mental fatigue. Especially in Togun’s case, since he had possessed a strong innate resistance to mental magic from birth, that fatigue would have doubled.
Though it was fake, the aftermath of the damage rushed toward him all at once like an illusion.
“Togun!”
The children rushed toward him, shouting his name as he teetered on the brink of shock from the rebound. But the emergency responders, who had been on standby just in case, reached him first and poured recovery magic over him.
“His constitution is what it is, so don’t hold back—pour in as much mana as you can! And you, go get every potion we have!”
Fatigue had piled up rapidly in his brain, and the adrenaline that had surged from it carried the shock straight to his heart. At this rate, he could suffer acute cardiac arrest. It was an extremely dangerous situation.
That was why the man was quickly barking orders and rolling up his sleeves to prepare for CPR—right at that moment.
“I-I’m fine.”
Togun Masao. The boy who had been writhing in pain just moments ago grabbed the man’s hand and shook his head.
“I’ll be okay if I rest for a bit.”
Pain was familiar to him. It had been the same back at the family estate, and during training under his master (temporary), he had been beaten until his body nearly broke. He had even suffered worse injuries than this back in the Vivaldi Territory.
“……”
The emergency responder stared intently into his eyes. Checking focus. Was the pain so severe that his brain was mistaking it for being okay, or was he truly fine?
About five seconds of hesitation. Then the man nodded and shouted to the people behind him.
“Bring the stretcher! We need to move him to the recovery room!”
He’s just a kid, but his endurance is incredible. To actually endure that kind of pain…
The responder looked at him with a hint of admiration, confirming that Togun had endured the heart-stopping agony through sheer willpower.
“Excuse me~ Could you step aside for a moment~”
Then came a soft, gentle voice from behind. Yet it carried an inexplicable weight that made it impossible to refuse. Without realizing it, the man stepped aside.
“Thank you~”
A woman passed by him. Voluminous, wavy pink hair that instantly caught the eye. Enormous breasts that swayed with every step, unconsciously drawing the gaze of every man around her.
Who is she?
Why had he naturally stepped back at her words? He wasn’t the only one. Every emergency responder nearby had cleared a path for her.
In this chaotic scene where shouts flew back and forth so loudly that even the person right next to you was hard to hear, that single gentle phrase had somehow rung out with unnatural clarity.
Huh? When did she…?
Marily, who had been blocked by the responders and unable to reach Togun, widened her eyes at the sight. When she turned her head, Arina, who had been right beside her just moments ago, had vanished without a trace.
She changed disguises that quickly?
Fast. She turned her gaze back toward Jealousy, who had already seamlessly returned to the appearance of Professor Clara without anyone noticing.
In the brief moment she had looked away to search for Arina, Professor Clara had already slipped past all the emergency responders and was now kneeling in front of Togun.
“Togun, dear student~ Are you feeling a little better now~?”
“Professor Clara?”
Watching Togun pant heavily as he spoke her name, Professor Clara smiled sweetly. Her languid voice naturally put anyone who heard it at ease. Perhaps that was why. Even though she hadn’t performed any treatment yet and he had simply heard her voice, his body already felt much more comfortable than before.
“Could you extend your hand for a moment~?”
At her words, Togun obediently held out his right hand. Professor Clara gently took it with her slender fingers. The emergency responders forgot all about loading him onto the stretcher and simply watched the scene in a daze. For some reason, they instinctively felt they shouldn’t interrupt the process.
Whoosh!
A massive amount of mana surged into his body from the tips of Professor Clara’s fingers. A violent quantity of mana that completely overpowered the very nature of a Mana Rejecter. It circulated through his entire body like a great heavenly cycle, calmly soothing every part of him that had been ravaged by the rebound.
I feel like I might actually live.
The chaotic war that had been raging inside his body had been replaced by peace. A refreshing sensation, as if he had just gargled with clean water. As his body relaxed, Togun’s mind began to wander somewhere inappropriate.
Professor’s hands are really soft.
Does she take care of them regularly? Her skin felt as smooth as if he were touching flour. At that thought, Togun unconsciously felt a flutter of excitement toward Professor Clara, who was healing him—
“Get those filthy eyes off me right now. Before I gouge them out.”
“Eh?”
“And stop sneakily running your fingers over my skin, you bastard. It’s fucking disgusting.”
A cynical, thuggish tone that was the complete opposite of the gentle voice she had used until now. At the sudden yet strangely familiar male voice, Togun flinched violently and jerked his head up toward Professor Clara.
And there it was. The gaze of Professor Clara looking at him as if he were a bug.
M-Master?!
There was no way he could forget those eyes. They were the exact same eyes that had stared down at him relentlessly for the past month while he was beaten senseless in Raymond National Park.
What the…?
Is Master pretending to be Professor Clara? Or is this just some fake disguised as her? Is this a dream? Or a real nightmare?
It was truly a butterfly dream. As Togun fell into confusion, unable to tell whether the Clara disguised by his master was real or fake, Jealousy used the Sound Transmission technique to speak directly into his mind so no one else could hear.
“This is only for today. Once the young lady returns in the afternoon, she’ll have to participate in the next match. If you lose again next time, I won’t give a damn whether you live or die, so keep that in mind.”
The indifferent, blunt way of speaking. At that, Togun had no choice but to acknowledge that while he wasn’t sure if this was really Professor Clara or not, it was definitely his master.
“Thank you.”
“Hmph. Still, thanks to the Marrow Cleansing I gave you, the mana is flowing in much smoother than before.”
Though in reality, it had only gone from the difficulty of punching a hole through steel with a finger to punching a hole through wood.
“That little trick you used earlier probably won’t work anymore.”
The tournament management team wasn’t stupid. They wouldn’t just sit by and allow an action that could lead to a major accident. They would likely treat slicing the virtual world with that sword as a foul and impose restrictions on Togun through the rules. Even if the organizers didn’t use the rules to restrict him, it was highly unlikely to work on Chris anymore.
Unlike the past when he had never experienced Togun’s power, Chris had now faced it once.
“I’ll generously call this a draw and let it slide for now, but if you lose in the afternoon match, you’re really dead.”
A draw. Jealousy had packaged the result rather nicely, but Togun knew the truth. If the AI hadn’t stopped the match, he would have been the one to lose.
I lost.
He had wanted to win no matter what. He had wanted to show that even against a 4-star mage, there was a chance of victory. He had wanted to lift the trauma weighing on Brother Jeon’s heart…!
I won’t lose next time.
Even without Jealousy’s threat, he had no intention of losing in the afternoon match. A blazing competitive spirit burned hot inside him. Togun clenched his fists so tightly they trembled, lifted his lowered head, and answered with vigor.
“Yes!”
Jealousy, who had been staring intently at Togun’s passionate reply, eventually let out a small chuckle.
“You’ve got spirit. Enough to hurt my ears.”
“Ah, sorry. Please don’t hit me.”
“Whatever. I’ll get you a new sword before the afternoon match. Your answer just now wasn’t half bad.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. It means if I give you a present and you still lose, I’ll beat you even harder.”
Give and take. As he watched the smile on Professor Clara’s face—grinning like someone who always made sure to collect what was owed—the fear in Togun’s heart only fueled the flames of his determination to win next time even brighter than before.