The Taste of Sleep
The next day.
"Hah! Hooah!"
Simon was climbing a mountain ridge with a heavy bundle of firewood slung across both shoulders. Sweat poured down like rain, and ragged breaths kept escaping his lips.
"Ngh!"
Finally, he couldn't hold out any longer and collapsed face-first onto the ground. The logs he'd been hauling so painstakingly tumbled and rolled back down the steep slope.
Thump— thump—
His heart pounded as if it would burst, and the veins across his entire body swelled furiously. His muscles twisted and knotted, threatening to tear themselves apart.
Simon pressed a trembling hand to his chest and activated dark magic.
Stay calm.
As he cast a dark spell built on the Rune of Calming, the shaking in his body began to subside, little by little.
-I've placed an activation-type curse on your body, junior.
Phantasos's voice echoed in his memory.
-The harder you work, the greater the strain will grow. Every time you hit your limit, you'll endure it by soothing your body and organs with calming-type curses! This too is a vital part of your training!
Slide.
With bloodshot eyes, Simon pulled a small pill from his pocket.
-If you truly can't bear it, take it. Though the day that happens will be the day your Sleep lessons end.
"……"
Simon stared at the pill for a long moment, then silently slipped it back into his pocket. And he let out a long, deep breath.
He really is a kind man—but a brutal teacher.
Had Phantasos never offered the pill in the first place, Simon wouldn't even have had this dilemma to wrestle with.
He staggered to his feet and headed back down the slope to gather the scattered logs, determination flickering in his eyes.
I will never give up!
"Young master! Thank you so much!"
"Not at all."
Simon said, setting down the firewood. He had carried it for an old woman who lived alone, far from the heart of the territory.
"Sorry about this, Simon. My legs are in this state, you see……"
The old woman's son, who normally did this work, was confined to bed. His legs were wrapped tightly in bandages.
"It's no trouble at all, sir. You just focus on getting better."
Simon wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve and smiled.
"If there's ever anything you need, don't hesitate to call on me!"
With that, Simon waved goodbye to the old woman and her son and set off again, casting a calming curse over himself as he crossed the mountain once more.
He was nearly home when a burst of children's laughter rang out—giggling and shrieking!
"Uncle Panta! Over here, over here!"
"Gotcha!"
With two village children riding on his broad shoulders, Phantasos caught the third child who was running away from him. He set them all down in the grass and set about tickling them mercilessly, until all three dissolved into riotous laughter.
Student Council President Phantasos?
As Simon moved to approach, a voice drifted over from across the road.
"Phantasos! Thanks for lending a hand with the work today!"
Charles, a village resident, waved at him.
"Of course I'd help! Hahahaha!"
Phantasos gave a hearty thumbs-up in return.
"You were helping out around the territory? And watching the children, too."
Simon stepped into view. The children clinging to Phantasos lit up the moment they saw him.
"It's Simon!"
"Big brother Simon!"
The children scrambled down from Phantasos like he was a climbing tree and dashed over to Simon, who ruffled their hair and smiled.
"Mm! I'm being looked after here in Leshill, so naturally I ought to give back, wouldn't you say!"
Phantasos laughed cheerfully.
"Now then—how was the calming training?"
Simon wordlessly pulled the pill from his pocket, shook it once, and tucked it away again.
Phantasos smiled with satisfaction and cast Cancellation, dispelling the curse from Simon's body.
After a brief rest, Simon climbed the mountain again with Phantasos—a remote spot, sparsely populated, where the surrounding mana concentration ran high.
"I finished the magic circle, too."
Simon spread his palm and drew up his concentration.
⟨ Sleep ⟩
The circle unfolded, and with the main rune—the Rune of Calming—at its heart, the magic circle was rapidly drawn to completion. Phantasos cupped his chin and studied it.
"You learn remarkably fast! You truly are my junior!"
"Thank you!"
"Mm. Then shall we move straight to the tasting?"
He sat down on the ground with a heavy thud.
"Tasting of what, exactly?"
"Sleep. I intend to sample the slumber you brew!"
Simon wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but he gathered it meant the man intended to take his curse head-on.
"Sleep's maximum is 5 stacks! Fill all five stacks and put me to sleep."
"Yes, sir."
Simon moved behind Phantasos. Following instructions, he formed the Sleep curse in his palm and pressed it to the man's back—once, twice, over and over.
And when he had applied it all five times—
Thud!
Phantasos's enormous frame toppled flat onto the ground. Before long he was snoring away—khhhooool—khhool—even down to the whistling nose-bubble at the end.
"……Oh."
Simon was uncertain, but he looked down at his own palm with a hopeful expression.
"Did it work?"
Just then, Phantasos—still snoring peacefully—began to thrash. His face contorted violently, and he rolled this way and that in a chaotic frenzy. He scratched his belly and even hugged a nearby tree.
And then, a mere five minutes later—
"HAH-HAHAH!"
Phantasos woke up. Simon rushed over, startled.
"H-how was it?"
"Hahahaha!"
The man covered his forehead and smiled wryly.
"Still has a bitter taste to it! I had a brief nightmare!"
"A nightmare?"
"Indeed! I dreamed of my second day after enrolling at Kizen!"
Phantasos dragged a palm down his face.
"In Curse Studies, I failed Exhaust all alone while every other student succeeded. In Magic Combat, I couldn't even do the Jet-Black Stomp and fell into the water all alone! I could hear my classmates snickering. And in dueling practice, I got utterly trounced by a girl I'd only been quietly pining after! She ground my head into the dirt and snarled—"
His mouth opened.
"'You're garbage.' That's what she said."
"……"
Simon's face twisted with emotion.
"Did that actually happen to you?"
"HAHAHAHAHA! All ancient history now!"
Phantasos dusted off his backside and rose to his feet.
"Every one of those trials became the nourishment that made me who I am!"
There was no trace of regret or wistfulness in his voice—none at all.
What an incredible man. Simon's eyes sparkled at the thought.
"Oh, and a fun fact!"
Phantasos flashed a mischievous smile.
"That girl who stomped me into the ground and cursed me out in practice? Two years later, she became my vice president!"
Pfft! Simon burst out laughing.
"That's hilarious! Your Kizen stories, President!"
"You think so? Hahahaha!"
Phantasos laughed too, shoulders bouncing, clearly in high spirits.
"Now! Next is your turn."
"Huh?"
Vmmmm!
A Sleep magic circle bloomed across Phantasos's palm. Not the intricate circle he'd shown at first, but the simple, fundamental one he'd taught Simon.
"This time, it's your turn to taste Sleep!"
"Wh-what? Why me, all of a sudden?"
"To cast a good curse, you must feel it and experience it with your own body! Of course—"
Whoosh!
Phantasos charged without warning.
"—feel free to resist!"
Whip!
Phantasos's right arm swept past Simon's shoulder.
A touch-activated curse. In an instant, Simon felt the effect of one stack of Sleep, his vision rippling like disturbed honey.
The drowsiness—!
Sleepiness flooded in as if it had never been a lie at all.
Woom!
Simon hastily backpedaled, dodging Phantasos's swinging left arm.
On his end, he tried to unfold a magic circle to counter—
'Ugh!'
His concentration wavered.
He felt as though he'd been awake for nearly a month straight. Forget casting a circle—he just wanted to sleep. A searing, overwhelming urge to sleep dominated every inch of his body.
"Your movements have slowed!"
Phantasos closed in in an instant—a strike to Simon's thigh for the second stack, a spinning touch to his arm for the third.
'Ngh!'
His eyelids weighed a thousand pounds.
He wanted to sleep.
To throw everything away and simply sleep.
Focus!
In the middle of it all, somehow, the fourth stack landed without him even registering how.
Combat was no longer possible.
Strength drained from his whole body, his flesh slipping free of his brain's control. The drowsiness washing over him was so achingly sweet that every other action faded into the background.
'Uuugh!'
To fall asleep mid-battle was death. Looked at that way—was his body this desperately begging for death?
It struck him as a truly terrifying curse.
"Now! Only the final fifth stack remains!"
Phantasos's arm came for him. Simon gritted through sheer willpower, ducked the strike, and unfurled his leg in a powerful rising kick.
Woom!
It aimed for the jaw, but Phantasos tilted his head back and evaded.
Simon immediately spun his body, preparing the next kick—
Grab!
The back of his head was seized. Simon's body plunged toward the dirt.
"Sweet dreams!"
Face buried in the soil, the smell of earth flooding in, Simon lost consciousness.
Chirp! Chirp-chirp!
Simon's eyes snapped open at the birdsong. He was sprawled flat on his back in the grass.
He pressed a hand to his forehead with a faint rasp of skin.
"Ah……"
"Well?"
He turned toward the voice to find Phantasos leaning against a tree, wearing a gentle smile.
"That was a fine sleep, wasn't it?"
"……"
He hadn't dreamed at all. No—had he?
More than anything, his head felt impossibly clear. Peak condition. Vitality coursed through his whole body, and simply lying still felt wonderful.
"Um……"
Simon answered in a dazed voice.
"That really was a deep, sweet sleep."
"And that is what we call delicious sleep!"
Phantasos spread both arms wide.
"You slept all of ten minutes, and yet doesn't the world look different when you wake?"
"It really does."
Simon rose to his feet. He had no intention of wasting a condition this good.
"Then let's continue with the next training, sir!"
"Hahahaha! That's the spirit! Junior!"
Lessons with the cheerful Phantasos were a joy, day after day.
Of course, his classes weren't the only ones on the schedule.
"Ready, Simon?"
Anna, who was usually found in the kitchen, had tied her hair back tightly and was overseeing Simon's Divine Beast Studies training. The skill of the former Saintess of Miracles had not dulled in the slightest—with a few simple gestures, she unfurled a mana barrier across a space the size of an entire training field.
It blocked both traces of presence and divinity. This was the Dark Alliance, after all—such measures were essential here.
"We're starting! Mom!"
-Nyaaang! Meow!
-Uwoooong!
Simon flung Whitey and Blackie into the air along with a burst of divinity, while infusing Akalion with holy power to swell him to his massive form.
He fitted Akalion with the divine-beast bridle gifted by Israfil, then climbed aboard the chariot that descended in a swirl of light.
"Let's go!"
The instant Simon pulled the reins, the chariot bounced aloft and soared skyward.
Divinity brilliant enough to evoke the sun itself traced a great circle, and the chariot and Akalion's body were cloaked in white sparks.
Staying in exactly this state—
"Run! Boys!"
Simon's body shot forward as a beam of light. His voice rang out—WAAAAAAAH—!—still impossibly, insanely fast.
"If you hit the barrier, you fail~ Simon!"
Anna shouted from below.
"Don't fear the speed—focus on your bond with the divine beasts!"
"YEEEEEEES!!"
Simon's body prowled within the barrier countless times, a streak of light given form. When enough time had passed, Anna spread a massive divinity barrier across the ground.
"The final lap—here!"
The motion of Simon and the chariot prowling through midair halted. Then, like a single bolt of lightning, they slammed into the divinity barrier.
BOOOOOM!
The same paralysis power that had once neutralized the Dungeon Lord Karissa in a single blow.
Before long, Simon was rolling on the ground, cradling the shrunken cats and Akalion.
"Simon! Are you all right?"
"……I-I'm fine, Mom!"
-Meow! Meow!
-Uwoong!
The divine beasts looked delighted too, having played so freely after so long. Simon scrambled up and smiled.
"I've got a rough feel for the speed now!"
"Good. Let's keep training until it becomes second nature."
And so the mornings were spent on Divine Beast Studies with Anna, the afternoons on Sleep training with Phantasos.
And in the evenings—
CLANG! KRAK!
Chaos training with Richard lay in wait.
Chaos Spear in hand, Simon rained down a ferocious offensive, while Richard whirled a spear of Jet-Black in dazzling arcs.
Ring! Chang! Clang-clang-clang-clang!
Every time father and son swung and crossed their spears, violet and black sparks scattered violently into the air.
"Simon! You are now the Student Council President of Kizen! Do you understand how weighty that position is?"
Richard parried Simon's Chaos attack and thrust out his spear tip.
"Of course I do!"
Simon snapped his head aside to evade, dropping his hand in the same motion. Richard lightly dodged a violet spear falling from above, retreated a single step, then shot forward in a straight line.
"You'll be facing countless challenges!"
KRAKAKAKAK!
As their spears locked in a contest of strength, the eyes of father and son met head-on.
"The third-years won't accept you. The second-years will be hunting for their chance! The adults will test each new student council president without end. Provocations and challenges without number will follow you all semester long! And what do you think you need most to overcome them all?"
Twang!
Simon's eyes sharpened as he twisted his body into a spin.
FWOOOOOOM!
The Chaos Reaper lurking in his shadow swept its scythe. A violet scar carved through the air, and the surrounding trees went flying with metallic shrieks.
"Strength."
Simon regripped his Chaos Spear and smiled.
"What's needed most is 'strength.'"
"Exactly right, Simon! The new term is nearly upon us."
Richard raised his fingers. From the ground, the ghouls under his control shambled upright.
"For the rest of this break—push yourself to the death, and become a man worthy of Kizen's Student Council President!"
"Yes, sir!"
Kicking off the ground, Simon hurled himself at the swarming ghouls.