163. Final Exams
163. Final Exams
Reaching Tier 6 and opening the Upper Dantian changes a great many things. Some say the world itself becomes different before and after opening the Upper Dantian.
You become able to see Mana intuitively, to seize and scatter the flow of Mana with your hands. Some say it's as if your skin has grown eyes, and others claim they can even smell Mana.
Well, all of that is secondary. The biggest change is, of course, that a new Dantian opens.
The Upper Dantian, said to connect a human living on the earth to the heavens.
It does not hold Mana. It holds the mental image and mental force that can form Intent.
That is why it operates on a completely different plane from the existing Dantians.
To put it all together: Intent.
The mental image that forms it.
The mental force that can handle that mental image.
It's all incomprehensible nonsense.
There's no need to understand it. You can just think of it as gaining more tools to use in combat and becoming overwhelmingly stronger than before.
In the first place, if you've reached the Realm where you can open the Upper Dantian, you can understand it with your body even if you toss all those concepts aside.
Of course, there are people who understand it with their heads, too.
Paulo and Kaloso were that type.
Those people do handle Intent a bit better in the beginning, but... after going through all sorts of things and fighting my ass off, I've found that kind of understanding is utterly useless.
Humans get used to things one way or another.
And in the first place, I don't need to worry about any of that right now. I've got the experience from my Past Life.
What matters now is the fact that I've opened my Upper Dantian and can finally interfere with an opponent's Intent.
Samaella's Ideal Manifestation from before, the Eight-Headed Serpent.
Back then, all I could do was dodge the Eight-Headed Serpent's attacks and shove its body away.
But now, I could tear through that giant snake bastard's scales.
Of course... I'd have to use Purgatory.
Likewise, I could now do more than just seize and hurl the weapons produced by Ashtar's Intent. I could smash them apart too.
I probably couldn't do much about Fabiana's spatial movement, but I should at least have been able to interrupt its flow midway.
And so.
"Let's have a match."
In the middle of the celebration party, I challenged Leona to a spar.
"No."
I was immediately rejected.
"What the hell are you talking about in the middle of a party?"
Stella said right after, munching on a chicken leg.
"We've had good food and the night's gotten late, so wouldn't we sleep like babies if we had a quick match before bed?"
"I promised myself I wouldn't do anything this week and just play. Right, Pina? I even made plans to go out and have fun with Pina."
[That's right...! (A squirrel face glancing around nervously)]
"Is my teacher going to refuse the request of her one and only, very, very precious disciple?"
"Yep."
"Ha, now you don't even hesitate."
I clicked my tongue and looked away.
"Let's have a match."
"Hmm. This Flame Emperor cannot spar with you."
"Why not?"
Because you're scared of my teacher?
I was about to ask that, but I didn't.
"That is because... the moment this Flame Emperor brings her Intent out into the world... one of us must surely die."
"Ugh."
"Ooh..."
At the Flame Emperor's dreadful remark, delivered after a long pause, Leona narrowed her eyes, and Stella let out a sound of admiration.
People really did favor their own. Apparently that horrifying, cringe-inducing line sounded cool to Stella.
She really shouldn't be copying that sort of thing...
"My lady! Then spar with me!"
"I spar with Eurasia all the time. No."
"Hic... How can you refuse so instantly...? Are you tired of me now?!"
Eurasia gave me the pitiful look of a tragic heroine abandoned by a trashy male lead.
"So I'm someone you can enjoy and throw away whenever you please... Yes. But it's fine. I'll wait for you, my lady. Because my body has become unable to live without you..."
"Good heavens... Eurasia. Why are you saying things like that? You've been reading some strange novel lately—did you learn it from there?"
"Sniff..."
"...Stella. I told you not to show Eurasia weird books. Don't tell me you've been showing them to Pina too?"
"Wh-wh-wh-wh... What are you talking about?! Where would there be weird books?! I-I-I-I-I don't know what you mean?!"
Stella blushed furiously while carefully watching the Flame Emperor's reaction.
Weird books. Last time I went to Stella's room, I found one under her bed. It was called [A Midsummer Lily Garden], and it was about two girls attending an academy who... formed a very, very... indecent relationship and did this and that...
I didn't ask why she was reading that kind of book.
While thinking that kids these days all read stuff like that... I just stared at her with complicated eyes.
At the time, Stella's explanation was that it was simple curiosity, and I decided to believe that for now.
After all... she's at an age with all sorts of interests.
"So neither my teacher nor the Flame Emperor will spar with me?"
"I won't."
"This Flame Emperor would like to, but... Eliarnes, I am concerned you might get hurt. This Flame Emperor's Intent is extremely dangerous."
I looked at Leona with a face that said, Really? And Leona nodded with a sour expression.
If Leona—who smiles without a care every time she breaks her disciple's legs during sparring—agrees, then it really is dangerous.
"Then it can't be helped."
So, having no choice, I sat down and picked up a fork.
"So, my lady, my lady."
"Hm?"
Eurasia, who had skillfully sliced the steak into easy-to-eat pieces with her knife, pressed her hip against mine as she sat down beside me.
"How is it? Does the world really look different, like people say?"
"Everyone experiences it differently, so I can't say for sure, but it hasn't changed that much for me."
I nom-nommed the steak Eurasia had cut for me.
"Hmm... really?"
"Yeah. But Eurasia, you'll probably feel a big difference."
"Oh, really? Why?"
"Because your mind and energy can't keep up with your body's performance."
At my words, Leona and the Flame Emperor nodded.
"Mm... certainly. As Eliarnes says, Eurasia's balance is... to put it kindly, her growth potential is high, and to put it unkindly... it's utterly atrocious."
The Flame Emperor, who had become an academy history professor and subtly flaunted her authority as a professor, put emphasis on the word "student."
"As Eliarnes and the Flame Emperor say, Eurasia, your mind-energy-body balance really is atrocious."
Leona, chewing on meat that looked so tough I wondered how she could possibly chew it, also agreed with me.
"It's unnaturally unbalanced. As if the growth of your mind and energy had been forcibly bound."
Then, crack—Leona's pupils split vertically, and her amber eyes blazed with golden light.
"And even my 'eyes' can't see it."
Her murderous gaze seemed to pierce through Eurasia's body. The atmosphere instantly turned sharp, but Leona didn't drag it out and instead laughed, "Nyahaha!"
"Still, it's true that your growth potential is high. You might even become stronger than my pathetic disciple!"
"Never. I'll definitely be stronger than Eurasia."
"Ah, ahaha... Yes. Thank you."
I saw Eurasia's hands trembling under Leona's gaze.
Leona's Aura was menacing, but not enough to justify that kind of fear. Eurasia wasn't timid either.
Why was she like that? I had my doubts, but I didn't press the issue and instead popped a cherry tomato into Eurasia's mouth.
"Mmph?"
"I hate cherry tomatoes."
Then I giggled.
Only then did Eurasia seem to calm down a bit, and she put on her usual smile.
"Then I'll eat all of my lady's cherry tomatoes for you!"
"What? Eliarnes, you eat ketchup just fine."
And beside her, Stella held out a ketchup-dipped french fry to me.
I snatched it up and ate it.
"Ketchup and tomatoes are different."
"That picky eating is why you're not growing taller."
"Maybe if it were Eurasia or the Flame Emperor saying that. What's the point of nagging about height when you're barely any different from me?"
"Ha, I'm way taller than you. You're in the 140s, but I'm in the 150s. I'm at least six centimeters taller."
"A 5th Circle loser going on about numbers is pretty funny."
"Wh-what?! You chim... chim... hmph."
Stella, who had been about to shout "You chimpanzee!", glanced at Leona and covered her own mouth with both hands.
I giggled at her.
"What. Why. Say it."
"...H-hmph. Forget it. I don't talk to someone ranked 43rd from the back. It's beneath me."
"Yeah, oh..."
My words—I had been about to say "bed-wetter"—caught in my throat.
And I slowly turned my gaze to look at Leona.
I could see Leona grinning.
Her eyes curved slyly. Her philtrum stretched long. Her lips crooked at the corner... It was a face mocking me.
My lips pressed firmly shut.
Someday... someday, if the day comes when I become stronger than Leona... I firmly resolved to force her to undergo that memory seal or whatever it is.
That takes priority over killing the Demon King. Seriously...
"No... Huh? What? Why'd you stop talking?"
Stella, who had been preparing to retort as usual, tilted her head while watching me and Leona.
"Just eat..."
"...You're a little weird today. You know that?"
"What's weird now?"
"It's weird... Hmm..."
Her face plainly asked, Why aren't you teasing me about being a bed-wetter? She couldn't quite bring herself to say it aloud and kept hesitating, but the suspicion had already taken firm root.
But I didn't respond any further.
Leona kept looking like she wanted to say something.
I can't give her any more ammunition.
And worse... worse, Pina, who knows about my Past Life, is here. If I... if she ever found out that I... that I committed such a... such a horrible mistake...
Fuck, Demon King or not, I'd kill myself.
Poke poke—Leona jabbed me in the side from next to me.
"...What?"
"What do you want for dessert?"
"A mint chocolate latte."
"Oh yeah? I'm going to have lemonade."
"...Don't."
"Hmph, whadever you say."
For the first time, I felt murderous intent toward Leona.
*****
"Everyone, are you all ready?"
Answers half excited and half anxious burst out from all over the lecture hall.
"The luggage you've all brought is so varied, it's fun just to look at."
Adelia giggled at the students, then spun around and spoke cheerfully.
"Now then, let's depart for the final exam site!"