Chapter 22
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: An Adventurer's Private Lessons for Her -7-
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Roman's worries proved unfounded. After he left, nothing happened at Lofty Academy.
The episode where Doran's head might actually fly off—Episode 1 of that—hadn't even begun.
Robert currently lacked the mental leisure to read the book he'd borrowed from the library.
'Rike... where the hell did she go?'
Robert scoured the Swordsmanship Department looking for Rike, but she was nowhere to be seen.
He even waited in front of the women's dormitory and asked around the girls nearby, but no one had sighted her.
It was too suspicious to dismiss as mere truancy from classes.
He even swallowed his pride and approached the girl who'd been hanging around with Rike.
'...I don't know either.'
Her flat tone and the cold stare she fixed on him radiated pure disgust.
It had been ages since he'd faced such treatment from a woman—enough to make him wonder if his skill had glitched.
This kind of experience dredged up memories of his horrific previous life. Stress without any tolerance crackled up like electricity, pounding at his skull.
"Robert~ Let's all go out for dinner tonight!"
"...Yeah, sounds good."
It was one of those days when booze sounded especially appealing.
Forcing the corners of his mouth up as a female student clung to his arm was the best he could manage right now.
Unable to shake the inexplicable foreboding and nagging unease, Robert left the academy.
"It's the incinerator, right?"
"Wh-what are you..."
Cribento couldn't hold his expression at the chilling laugh.
He rolled his eyes back to stare at the shadowy figure standing behind him.
A purple glow flashed from within the robe. An ominous instinct told him things had gone terribly wrong.
"Hold still. Pick up a sword."
The man nodded toward the blade on the table beside him.
"I... don't fight hopeless battles... Is there no way for me to live?"
"Hmm— you're no fun."
"Sorry. I've lived this way, so it can't be helped."
"No use for you, then... Ah!"
He spoke as if struck by a brilliant idea, pretending to offer a merciful option.
"How about becoming a teaching aid?"
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"You really mean you'll let me live if I endure?"
"So suspicious. Why not just let me go?"
"That was a slip. Give it your all..."
Clang!—!
Cribento drew his sword and assumed a defensive stance.
No will to attack, but a fierce desire to survive.
Cribento's role was as a teaching aid for Rike. Mana was something he'd planned to explain anyway.
Perfect timing with a suitable opponent.
My contract with Cribento was simple: endure until my explanation ended, and I'd let him live.
▷ Regenerates dull blades.
- Basilisk eyes are excellent materials.
What I held wasn't a metal sword, but a stone sword forged from rock.
Its edge wasn't dull, nor was its hardness lacking.
When the blade chipped, you just pressed scattered stones against it.
The fascinating thing would then consume them and repair the edge.
Its material gave it a unique cutting feel—almost as satisfying as a warhammer.
I approached Cribento, swinging the sword lightly to begin Rike's lesson.
Clang!Clang!!
True to his executive badge, Cribento easily parried and held his defensive position.
"Using mana is, simply put, the manifestation of will. Want to cleave an enemy in half, sever their neck, block an arrow—that's the means to achieve it."
Ting!—!
"So how do you efficiently harness the will to harm others? First is physical enhancement, something anyone can do after mastering a breathing technique."
Clang!!!
The stone sword's swings, honed by experience, grew faster and faster.
"Ngh..."
"If the first method leverages amplified physical prowess to wield heavy weapons easily, the second is 'visualization.'"
Whoosh!
Blue flames erupted from the stone sword.
At the same time, blue flames surged from Cribento's blade.
"Kaaagh—!!!"
A raw shout burst from the formerly composed Cribento.
From that moment, their blade exchanges reached speeds Rike's eyes couldn't follow.
"Once you've reached the stage of visualizing mana, you're rarely outmatched anywhere. Most swordsmen never advance beyond this and die."
"..."
Rike swallowed dryly, fixated on Roman.
The air around him began to shimmer like heat haze.
"The visualization of mana, commonly called aura, appears as uniform blue flames to everyone. Such generic power doesn't represent the individual."
"Hah... wait, hold on a moment! Sir!!"
Cribento shoved the stone sword back with a wide swing and leaped away, trying to halt Roman.
Roman didn't pursue, but Cribento didn't drop his guard.
He'd sensed something beyond his capacity was about to happen.
"Infuse your lifelong experiences, efforts, your very life into it. Project yourself distinctly onto the means."
"No two lives overlap perfectly, so this power is unique—a realm of unparalleled creation."
"No need to fixate on rigid, sharp forms. I'm capricious and free-spirited, unbound by frames."
Crackle—!!!!
Rock Breath trembled violently as cracks spiderwebbed across the stone blade.
Crimson-black lightning raced along the edge.
Dark, yet unlike black magic's malice.
A momentum that would incinerate the very notion of ominousness.
"Stop here!! I surrender!! Isn't the lesson done?!"
Cribento's fighting spirit had broken long ago; the mana on his sword had vanished.
'That's something only Empire's Five Knights or Platinum-ranks like Urus could wield...!'
The pinnacle of what a weapon master could achieve with mana.
True aura.
Even if he multiplied himself, he couldn't handle that monster. Numbers meant nothing against it.
To face a one-man army, you needed another transcendent individual.
'Huh?'
As Cribento dropped his sword to kneel, his vision spun and flipped.
-
Leaving Cribento's headless corpse, I stored Rock Breath in my Inventory.
"Yurgena di Venta—the Third Knight you saw that day. To kill him, you need at least this level."
"I..."
"You can do it."
The power Rike had just witnessed seemed utterly inhuman, transcendent.
Even with centuries, she couldn't be sure she'd reach it.
Yet Roman told her she could, without a hint of doubt.
Not 'you must,' but 'you can'...
Somehow unable to meet his gaze, Rike bowed her head slightly.
"How dare... these filthy scum!!!"
Duke Tristan's domain, Coven, was in an uproar.
Finding the orphanage director's corpse dumped in the street wasn't extraordinary in the duke's territory.
A trail of blood from the director's office.
Someone had deliberately dragged Gornec's body out and tossed it into the street.
Dead bodies in remote alleys were commonplace in Coven, so it might have been forgotten quickly.
Onlookers shrugged it off as inevitable near the sewers.
But guards investigating found a door in the director's office, flipping the incident's severity.
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"We'll start treating the children who haven't reached adulthood yet. All the kids from Gornec's orphanage will be under Church supervision."
Church personnel stormed in to rescue those left in vegetative states.
Destroying a person's mind was simple; repairing it demanded vast funds and endless time.
Yet the Church decided to heal them one by one.
This wasn't selfless charity before the goddess statue. They needed testimonies from those kidnapped by the black mage.
It might yield nothing.
Astronomical sums could vanish into thin air.
Still, if it offered a chance to track the black mage, the Church spared no expense.
"Was this the work of an individual?"
"Likely a highly skilled group."
A holy knight answered the nun's question.
She nodded in agreement.
Too inconsistent for one person—weapons varied, methods too.
Faces clueless to what hit them.
Most corpses died without resistance.
Perfectly honed killing hands, yet dismantling a black mage supply branch was holy work—beyond criticism.
"...These people show excessive ruthlessness."
The nun averted her eyes from wounds like wild dogs tearing throats.
Human-made? If so, what sadistic weapons?
"They must harbor grudges against black mages... Forgive me for saying this to you, Sister, but I get it..."
Come to think of it, his support for the holy knights was to exterminate black mages.
She didn't know details, but his deep-seated hatred was clear.
"I see... May happiness, not misfortune, await these souls' path. Let us pray for the merciful goddess's grace."