Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: The Loser's Domain
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She naturally thought the connection with the spirits had been severed.
But the spirits right in front of her...
-Syaaah~.
-Puuu.
Were clearly there.
'What is this?'
To make it feel exactly like reality, did he go this far?
If the spirits didn't appear, she'd immediately know it was an illusion, so he was throwing in this fake to fool her.
He truly was meticulous down to the last detail.
"A scary man."
But Helen wasn't fooled by something like this.
After all, she had experienced it firsthand.
No matter how hard she tried in the illusion, her abilities never manifested properly.
And that man had even lectured about it directly.
-In illusions, mana flows backward, so your abilities often don't manifest properly.
It was a brief comment made in passing during class, but Helen hadn't missed even that short lecture.
No matter how much she disliked the instructor, his skills were undeniably solid.
"You really want to deceive me this badly?"
She gritted her teeth.
No matter what, she vowed to find the discrepancy Max had hidden in this illusion and shatter it.
"Whatever your intent, with the spirits' power, I won't lose."
The losers who tormented her in the previous illusion.
The punks who picked pointless fights with her.
Even the professor who looked down on her.
She had been able to overpower them all.
"Alright. Let's find it, then."
This was a bet.
A bet she had to win no matter what.
And right then, the punks from before appeared in front of her.
"What the hell, Helen. Ignoring us and wandering off, now you finally..."
"Wait a second, those things..."
"Eh? What? No way..."
The rowdy group of punks turned pale the moment they saw her.
"You can summon spirits again...?"
"You can see them too, huh."
That made things quicker.
Not only could she contract high-level spirits, but Helen was famous for handling them better than anyone.
Even in an illusion, if she had spirits at her command, no one could stop her.
"Kids, teach these guys a lesson."
-Syaaah.
-Puuu.
The wind spirit in the form of a lynx bit one punk's leg.
The earth spirit in the form of an ape grabbed another punk's shoulder and crushed it down.
"Kugh!"
"It hurts!"
In an instant, the punks were seized by her spirits and couldn't move a muscle.
"Even if it's an illusion, those who touch a lady of the Silvesta Family must pay the price."
Helen, finally reclaiming her place, looked down coldly at the punks.
Her cheek from that slap still stung.
And the scale of her rage was incomparable to anyone else's.
"Breaking a limb or two won't kill you. So reflect properly on what happens when you dare touch Helen de Silvesta."
"W-Wait a second..."
Crack!
"Argh!"
The two spirits mercilessly punished the punks.
Finally, she felt a bit relieved.
'This is just the beginning.'
Max, you made a mistake.
You gave me spirits to make me think it wasn't an illusion.
But I'll use that power to tear this illusion to shreds.
And in doing so, I'll find that discrepancy you hid.
Gritting her teeth, she looked down at the punks.
Of course, it wasn't just revenge that made her subdue and break them.
It was also to find that 'discrepancy' Max mentioned.
The thing that felt different from reality, proving it was fake.
'These guys aren't it.'
If not them, then it had to be...
'The loser...'
The man who humiliated her.
That loser whose family name was Prophard, whom she hadn't spared a single glance otherwise.
The fact that a guy who couldn't even meet her eyes in reality had insulted her still made her blood boil.
Even if he was just an illusion.
'That guy's definitely the discrepancy.'
If she could destroy that loser somehow, she could escape the illusion and return to reality.
That would be Helen's victory.
So she needed to find Prophard as quickly as possible.
At that moment, the classroom door opened amid the punks' screams, and everyone poked their heads out.
Seeing the punks' broken arms and legs, they came running in shock.
"Helen! What in the world..."
Even Professor Simond in the illusion called her by her first name, not her family name.
Still trying to trick me?
You're sticking to that setting where my family abandoned me, huh.
"Only my father the family head and my family can call me Helen. So don't utter my name so carelessly."
"You... exactly..."
Professor Simond stepped back.
"How did you regain it?"
"If I say I reclaimed what was mine from the start, would that be a problem? The spirits have been with me from the beginning until now. So..."
-Shaaaah!
Whoosh!
The high-level wind spirit whipped up a powerful gust through the central corridor.
The numerous decorations in the corridor were thrown into chaos.
Academy symbols shattered, and cracks formed in the marble floor.
"Where's Prophard, that loser?"
"..."
Professor Simond glanced at the punks' conditions and asked her.
"You plan to do the same to Prophard Youngsik?"
"Yeah. You're expelling me anyway, right? So I'm showing you properly before I leave."
This was an illusion.
A space where she could do as she pleased.
She could smash and destroy whatever she didn't like.
It had nothing to do with reality anyway, right?
"We can't allow that. You hurting other students..."
"You're so needlessly rigid. Just like Professor Simond."
He even nailed the details.
Professor Simond wasn't the discrepancy either.
He was rigid and overbearing, but in emergencies, he'd do anything to protect students—that was Professor Simond.
"Fine. Pretend you didn't see me, then. I'll let you give those guys emergency treatment if you get out of the way."
"...Very well."
She passed by Professor Simond.
The students' gazes turned to her.
Helen scanned for Prophard among them.
But he wasn't there.
'I didn't think it'd be easy.'
All the students' faces were familiar.
Thorough from one to ten.
In the previous illusion, the students' faces hadn't been this clear.
She couldn't remember well.
She hadn't met that many students back then anyway.
And Helen had zero interest in inferior students.
Why would she? They were all the same, beneath her feet.
Losers, just like that one.
'Maybe he came to see other students?'
To make the illusion more convincing and seamless?
For something that trivial?
No way.
Helen walked down the corridor, away from them.
Her destination was the deserted old classroom where the loser had dragged her before.
He had to be there.
"How'd you know to come here?"
Opening the door, the loser sitting in the center of the classroom looked at her.
His sneering expression was one he could never make in reality.
Yes.
That guy was the discrepancy.
"Came for some payback."
The loser in front of her was just Max's illusion, but she glared at him with seething rage anyway.
Because what happened to her didn't vanish.
"Payback? Oh, that? Seeing you rush in for revenge the moment you regain a bit of spirit power—yep, you're definitely a Silvesta."
The loser snickered, twisting one side of his mouth as he glared at her.
"That fancy payback won't happen. Give up and go back to class. Who knows? Maybe the great Silvestas will take you back as their daughter."
"Don't insult my family."
"Tch, still think you're a Silvesta, huh."
She ground her teeth and shouted.
"Kill that man."
At her words, the high-level wind and earth spirits lunged at Prophard.
Now those two would tear the loser apart.
And then the illusion would naturally...
"Sit."
-Yelp!
-Kwuun!
In that instant, the two high-level spirits collapsed at the loser's command.
"W-What?"
Why were the high-level spirits obeying that man?
This couldn't happen.
Spirit contracts were soul-bound bonds unbreakable by mere magic.
Why were you betraying me now and obeying that man...
"Remember? Back then, Instructor Max said he'd recommend me to the Meister School. While you were studying here, I was grinding away at both Meister School and the Imperial Academy. I was such an idiot back then. Couldn't even look people in the eye. U-uh, s-sorry. I w-was wrong..."
The loser pretended to tremble in fear, then smirked and looked at her.
"Of course, that loser side didn't completely vanish. Even now, if someone yells in my face, I shake and get scared. But still."
He approached her step by step.
It was just like that time again.
Her power, the spirits, not listening to her.
The loser in front of her drawing closer and closer.
"At least, I don't tremble in front of a pathetic girl like you."
"You bastard..."
"I figured you'd come here once you regained your spirit power. So I kindly engraved spells all over this old classroom and waited."
"What?"
"I told you. I learned Meister School magic. Turns out I had talent, so binding high-level spirits like this is a piece of cake."
"No way... a loser like you."
"Loser, loser. Cut it with that loser crap already!"
At the loser's sudden yell, Helen involuntarily stepped back.
"Y-You, w-what..."
"Do you even know my name?"
"Why would I bother remembering a nobody like you."
"Exactly. That's the kind of bitch you are. Always expecting respect while giving none to others."
The loser approached.
Shoulders heaving as he glared at her, he passed the motionless high-level spirits and came right up to her face.
"You overestimated yourself. That arrogance brought you here. Thought you'd be fine charging in without any preparation?"
A bit taller than her.
And a gaze looking down on her, unlike before.
With an expression no real loser would ever make, the man snarled at her.
"Absolutely not. That's your fatal mistake, bitch."
This man was definitely the discrepancy.
He was an existence that could never exist in reality.
So he was the discrepancy, but...
She couldn't think of any way to deal with this loser now.
She had just recklessly chased after him, thinking she'd regained her spirit power.
"Aisen Prophard. Remember it well. That's my name. Your boyfriend and the trainer who's gonna break you in here."
"You bastard, if I get out of this room..."
But with her spirits' power gone, escaping wasn't easy for Helen.
"Grab her."
The spirits who should obey Helen instead blocked her path at Aisen's—no, the loser's—command.
"Y-You guys, why? Snap out of it."
-Shaaaah.
-Grr!
"You know better than anyone the power of high-level spirits, so think carefully."
Damn it.
Failed again.
Lost to Max again.
Shit.
"Strip. Show me your tits first. Like we always do."
"Disgusting. Is that all you do with power? Toy with women?"
"You're the same, aren't you? Just a different method, playing with people. Wasn't tormenting those punks in the hall the same?"
"..."
"Strip quick. Want the spirits to force you?"
Swallowing her humiliation, she took off her academy uniform.
Once she removed her bra too, her soft white breasts jiggled with gravity.
"Fucking huge."
He sucked on her pink nipples with his mouth.
"Hnngh!"
A frail moan escaped her.