Test Subject (2)
Test Subject (2)
I passed the intact entrance hall and the clinic beside it, and soon came to the main gate and the visiting room next to it.
I glanced inside, but no one was in sight.
I asked the staff member in charge, but they told me no visitors had arrived yet.
It seemed Piar and Mirisa's visit would take a little longer.
This time, I wasn't late.
After thanking them, I walked around to the back of the visiting room.
Beside the wall behind the visiting room, lush trees and tall, untrimmed bushes grew thickly.
I didn't know whether that was due to the landscaping choices or the staff's laziness, but right now, it was more than enough help for me.
Bending over as if I were searching for something, I stepped into the bushes.
Then, after sharpening my senses to make sure no one was around, I quietly concealed myself in the thicket.
I carefully made my way to the wall and pulled out the bag I had hidden the day before.
Inside the bag were a cloak and plain clothes.
After changing into the prepared clothes and cloak, I put the academy uniform I'd been wearing back into the bag and hid it in its original spot.
There was no one around. Not even on the other side of the wall.
Swish.
I quickly leaped over the wall and checked my attire.
My clothes had been changed and my face was hidden by the cloak, so there was no chance of being recognized.
I hurried toward the commercial district.
Before I'd gone very far, I spotted a familiar face.
The man approaching me was someone I'd seen in my previous life.
He was the man who had blocked my path on the first floor of the building where that fellow claiming to be Piar's master was staying.
The bushy-bearded man who had stood right at the front to block me.
'He must be going to request a visit, right?'
At this hour, that seemed to be the only reason he'd be heading toward the academy.
Fortunately, it seemed we hadn't missed each other, which meant that the fellow claiming to be the master was here right now, too.
I glanced around discreetly.
I hadn't left the academy grounds yet.
A stone-paved main avenue ran alongside the academy wall.
No one was in sight. Apart from the man approaching me, there were no people or carriages to be seen.
What's more, this spot was far from the academy's main gate, and the commercial district lay beyond the hill. Even if something happened right now, it would be difficult for anyone to notice.
I didn't spare the approaching man a glance.
He walked as if he were indifferent, too, but my senses clearly picked up on his tension.
He and I brushed past each other, both pretending not to care.
I felt his tension dissipate immediately.
I turned discreetly and placed a hand on the ground.
"I think you dropped some money here?"
"Pardon?"
As he turned around, I stood up and showed him the silver coin in my hand.
"Huh? That can't be..."
His hand moved to his side, and...
I extended the hand holding the silver coin toward him.
Then I performed a little magic trick for him—or rather, a sleight of hand.
The silver coin instantly transformed into a mana-infused dagger.
Thunk.
His eyes widened at the sight of the blade embedded in his chest.
For him, it must have come out of the blue.
Thinking that an explanation was necessary after all, I spoke as he collapsed toward me.
"Consider it payback for the entrance ceremony terror attack."
"Ah..."
He collapsed with a look of immediate realization on his face.
I picked up my fallen opponent and carried him deep into the bushes beside the main avenue.
Then I shoved the corpse into the thicket.
"Killing someone on a main avenue in broad daylight..."
Though I'd made sure no one was watching before doing it, even I thought it was an audacious act.
In my past life, doing something like this would have gotten me caught on CCTV within a few days and arrested immediately. Even here, it wasn't something to take lightly.
No matter how poor public security was around here, there was no way they'd let a murder near the Royal Academy go unaddressed.
Even so, I couldn't let Piar and Mirisa go on an overnight leave.
"I have no choice but to force them to bury the matter."
I couldn't spend time burying this body, either.
A small matter had to be covered up by a larger matter, a small murder by a larger murder.
Ransacking the corpse turned up no special items, so after camouflaging the body with bushes, I quickly left the area.
As soon as I crossed a low hill, the commercial district came into view.
It was an hour when academy classes hadn't yet ended.
Just as there had been no one on my way here, with classes still in session, the commercial district—which catered mostly to academy students and teachers—was extremely quiet.
"Come take a look over here!"
A few vendors tried to drum up business as I passed through the street, but in most shops, the owners sat sighing.
"Sigh, business is terrible this year."
"I thought business would boom since the Princess enrolled, but it feels like there are even fewer customers."
"It's all because public order in the capital is so unsettled."
"Shh, don't even bring that up."
As I listened, funneling mana into my ears, I could roughly figure out why business was so slow.
Is it really time for the King to die?
In my past life, I'd heard that market trends could reveal the political situation.
If what the merchants in this market were saying was true, it seemed the King was about to die and trigger a civil war among the princes.
'On top of that, weird bastards are carrying out terror attacks. Considering what happened with the Marquisate, the Empire was up to something as well.'
And in the eyes of others, I was already deeply involved, with one foot firmly planted on the Princess's side.
Listening to such talk, I made my way through the commercial district.
There were all kinds of shops along the commercial district.
Shops selling daily necessities and class supplies, weapon shops connected to blacksmiths, as well as grocery stores and eateries.
There was also a souvenir shop where flies buzzed around, its business dead ever since the entrance ceremony ended.
I entered a souvenir shop farther down the street.
It was an ordinary souvenir shop.
Cute trinkets were displayed on the shelves and walls, while a bushy-bearded owner—unsuited to such a store—dozed in a corner.
I recognized the dozing man.
He was the second man who had blocked me when I visited this place before I died.
'He's actually dozing?'
Last time, he'd swung his sword at me with a tense expression, but now he was genuinely napping.
I didn't know whether he was putting on an exceptionally good act or simply relaxed, but right now, the situation worked in my favor.
I heightened my sensory perception and scanned the entire building.
There was only the dozing man on the first floor, while two people were gathered in one place on the second floor.
One of the people on the second floor definitely had the mana signature of the man claiming to be Piar's master.
I examined the items here and there as I approached the dozing man.
I patted him on the shoulder.
"Ah, a customer has com...?"
He opened his eyes in surprise, but they quickly closed again.
While patting his shoulder, I'd disrupted his mana, then pressed mana deep into the back of his neck, knocking him unconscious.
I leaned his unconscious body against the wall.
Since I'd planted mana inside his body, it wouldn't be easy for anyone else to wake him.
I hadn't left him alive out of some pointless sense of conscience.
I'd have to kill him eventually anyway, but committing murder while people outside were passing by would be difficult.
I walked back to the door and quietly closed it.
There was still no sign of movement on the second floor.
I immediately headed upstairs.
The first-floor hallway where I'd fought a fierce battle in my previous life was empty.
I passed through the hallway and immediately climbed the stairs to the second floor.
By now, the people on the second floor had surely realized something was off.
I drew up a surge of mana.
The mana made my body faster and stronger, while the rest flowed into my dagger, making red sword aura flare from the blade.
Feeling the power fill my body, I kicked open the door to the second-floor room.
Bang!
Since the door wasn't locked, it burst open as if it had been broken.
I could see two people inside the room with my own eyes.
One was the last man I'd fought on the first floor back then, and the other was the man claiming to be Piar's master.
Both seemed surprised to see me burst in, but this time, neither of them asked who I was.
The man who'd held a crossbow when we fought on the first floor rushed at me with a sword this time.
And the fellow called the master spread both hands toward me.
What is this?
I tilted my head at the unexpected move, but, intending to deal with the charging man first, swung my dagger at him.
The man's sword was a very fine blade, but it couldn't withstand a weapon clad in sword aura.
I intended to slice through his body along with his sword, but...
Clunk.
'My mana stopped?'
All at once, I could no longer feel the mana flowing through my body or the red sword aura flaring above the dagger.
It was as if the mana inside my body had frozen solid.
The power brimming inside me vanished, leaving me with nothing but raw physical strength in place of mana's formidable power.
I had no choice but to stop my swing.
At my abrupt halt, the charging man grinned, showing his teeth, and slashed his sword.
Thunk!
"Dear me, I didn't even get to confirm who he was."
The master, Louis, lowered his arms with a troubled expression.
"Well, getting attacked out of the blue like this leaves me no choice. It seems this matter has gone completely sideways, so should we move somewhere else first?"
Stroking his chin as he muttered, Louis spoke to the man standing frozen with his sword still raised.
"Why are you standing like that? Is he not completely dead yet?"
An immediate answer came, but it wasn't from the man who'd swung the sword. It was from me.
"No. He's already dead."
I pulled the dagger from his neck, and the man who had collapsed against me crumpled to the floor, spewing blood.
"How? I stopped your mana!"
So it really was his ability.
Since he was a man who used necklaces to detonate people, it was entirely plausible that he possessed an ability like this.
'Still, it's a terrifying ability, more so than I thought...'
To stop the mana inside someone's body.
Inherited abilities, a knight's sword skills, and a priest's healing magic were all powers manifested through mana. To stop mana like that...
If used properly, it would undoubtedly be a truly fatal ability against nobles or knights.
But there was no way an ability like that had no limitations.
His face was covered in sweat as he stared at me in astonishment.
When he'd sent mana to Piar and Mirisa, he'd looked fine. Was it because of the necklaces?
After he lowered his hands, my mana began moving properly again.
Confirming that my sword aura was flowing properly, I walked toward him.
"If I were to lose just because I didn't have mana, all my hard work up until now would be a waste."
I had been training all this time to be able to hold my own against a knight even without mana.