Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 40
>Chapter Title: Do You Know the Wyvern That Became a Meal?
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Drip, drip.
Raindrops began falling to the ground one by one.
The training ground at midnight.
Amid the blanket of darkness, only the streetlamp's faint light flickered dimly.
And in the midst of it.
‘Damn.’
I tried moving my body this way and that. Or rather, I tried to.
But this body of mine couldn’t budge an inch. Not even a single finger.
It was as if I’d been locked in a prison tailored perfectly to my form.
‘This monster—’
Not some spell, just pure mana binding me—and yet this level of restraint.
That’s when a voice rang out.
“Professor Pelina told me. She said it seems like you’re hiding something.”
Just as I thought.
‘It’s because of the Crown of Trials.’
As I said, Professor Pelina had been watching me closely for more than a day or two.
A whole month, even.
And right at this timing, not Professor Pelina, but the Headmaster himself comes to see me?
There’s only one reason for that.
The Crown of Trials.
But the Headmaster didn’t mention it. Instead, a more general question.
“I’ll ask you.”
His mouth slowly opened.
“What are you hiding?”
His deep-set eyes stared at me.
Eyes that carried the weight of years. The Headmaster’s face I faced now was different from the one in the grand hall, and different from the one just moments ago.
Oppressive—
And violent.
Was that all?
“Don’t think too hard. Depending on what you do, this place could become your grave.”
In an instant, a terrifying killing intent dominated the surroundings!
Crack—!
Right after, a deep furrow gouged into the ground at my feet.
For example, that’s what it meant. Anytime now, he could tear me apart—so don’t entertain foolish thoughts and spit out whatever you’re hiding.
‘Whew.’
I let out a deep breath.
Was there ever a moment of such utter helplessness?
‘Plenty.’
There had been tons.
Back when I was No. 1, I flew high without knowing my place, but before that, I was mostly powerless.
This didn’t even qualify as powerless.
Even in a situation like this, there were things I could do.
For instance.
Boom—!
A wave of mana rippled outward.
The drizzling raindrops scattered powerlessly along its shockwave.
My body regained its freedom right after.
I swung my limbs a few times and looked at the Headmaster.
“Looks like you came because of the Crown of Trials. Yeah, I took care of those rats.”
To be honest, it wasn’t much of a secret worth hiding.
It’d be better if it didn’t come out, but it wasn’t so heavy that I’d take it to my grave.
Hearing that, the Headmaster stared at me with a blank look for a moment.
Soon, an exclamation slipped from his lips.
“Huh…….”
I couldn’t tell what it meant.
Maybe he hadn’t expected my mouth to open so easily, or maybe because I’d shaken off his pressure.
But from the Headmaster’s next words, I realized it was both.
“You’re not hiding it? Professor Pelina said you were even concealing that meager power of yours. No, it’s not meager at all. To shake off my Mana Prison…… Huh.”
Mana Prison.
It wasn’t magic.
Probably some technique using the properties of mana, like my Collision Formula.
Anyway.
I just stared at the Headmaster silently.
“Anything else you want to ask?”
“Anything else…… You’ll answer truthfully, right?”
The Headmaster’s tone had somehow softened.
The weight in his voice remained, but the distance I’d felt had somehow shrunk considerably.
I replied while looking at him.
“Depends on the question, doesn’t it?”
“What if I decide to pry your mouth open?”
The Headmaster’s mana subtly began dominating the area.
I stared straight into his eyes.
“Go ahead. But then you won’t get any answers.”
“Heh.”
The Headmaster burst into laughter right after.
His shoulders shook lightly at first, then the amplitude grew, and his laughter gained presence accordingly.
Rumble—
The light rain had turned into a downpour, completely engulfing the space.
Even amid that, the Headmaster’s laughter continued—until at some point.
Drip.
Everything stopped.
His laughter, and even the torrential rain pouring endlessly from the sky.
It felt like the world had frozen.
But I soon realized it hadn’t.
“Fine. Today, I’ll make you spill everything you’ve got.”
The raindrops suspended in midair.
The Headmaster’s eyes visible between them burned fiercely, almost savagely.
When I met those eyes, I understood what path this mage had walked.
‘War Mage.’
Different from the war mages of the current era.
The Headmaster’s era was a time of endless war, where blood never ceased for even a day.
The war mages who survived back then weren’t ones, tens, hundreds, thousands—mere numbers couldn’t capture them. They were weapons in human skin, slaughtering tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands.
Even I felt daunted by the weight of that blood.
But.
I met his gaze head-on.
Then slowly drew up my mana.
In the midst of it, a sudden thought crossed my mind.
‘Shouldn’t have eaten that wyvern.’
It was the same back with Pahren, but that wyvern I’d devoured back then was the problem.
My previous life wasn’t smooth, but this one was worse.
Maybe it was like a goblin from a low hill wandering into the great plains.
A hobgoblin gets shot first because goblins stand out on the plains.
Anyway.
‘If I get through this safely, I’ll snag a motherless wyvern and raise it.’
That’d probably put my mind at ease.
But did my wish come true or something?
“Ke, keh keh.”
The Headmaster suddenly started shaking his shoulders.
It was a laugh utterly different from the first one.
What should I call it.
If the first was from sheer disbelief, this one was from genuine amusement.
Like he couldn’t contain his excitement, a thick smile spread across his face.
He laughed toward the sky for a bit, then suddenly hardened his expression and looked at me.
I realized then.
The Headmaster was one of those rare mad ones.
He’d laugh hysterically, then turn serious, then serious again only to laugh, then serious while talking.
How many times had his face changed in this short time.
As I thought that far.
The Headmaster opened his mouth.
“That look in your eyes. Not bad.”
“……Ah, yes.”
“The one now looks like a rotten goblin’s peepers. But that earlier one was pretty decent. Not bad.”
“…….”
Ever seen a mad dog with heatstroke in midsummer? I have. And those eyes weren’t much different from the Headmaster’s now.
His words didn’t end there.
“You’re right.”
“About what…….”
“You won’t open your mouth. Guys like you, quietly mad, don’t come to their senses even if beaten. You’d just spout madness to the end.”
“…….”
Whatever the reason, him backing off was a relief, but the cause felt distinctly uncomfortable.
Anyway.
“Let’s do this.”
“How…….”
“I’ll just ask. You answer only up to what you can. Deal? Then you won’t have to spout madness.”
“……Ah, yes.”
He was the one spouting madness, not me, but I nodded readily.
Meanwhile, the Headmaster loosened his neatly tied necktie, took off his overcoat, laid it on the ground, and plopped down.
A ruggedness like a field war mage.
No more of the earlier solemnity or weight, but a feral intensity filled the void.
Probably, that was his true form, stripped of the Headmaster title.
Likely.
But then, a sudden question arose.
“Alright, first I’ll ask…….”
“Do you happen to know the wyvern that became a meal?”
“……?”
“Never mind. Please continue.”
The timing had been so perfect just now, so I’d asked on a whim.
The Headmaster looked at me pitifully, then continued.
“Junior.”
“I’m a student. You’re the Headmaster, sir.”
“Spout madness and I’ll beat you. If I’m your senior, you’re the junior, and I’m the senior. There are no teachers on the battlefield.”
This wasn’t a battlefield, and I never had a mentor or anything, so naturally no senior-junior.
But what a strong guy says is the law.
“Yes, Senior.”
I looked at the Headmaster with rare politeness.
Soon, he spoke.
“What kind of bastards were they? From the look of your handiwork, you’ve got bad blood with them. You know who they are, obviously.”
I stared straight into the Headmaster’s eyes.
The war mage’s eyes from earlier.
But this time, the hostility in them wasn’t aimed at me. At the unidentified intruders.
I asked cautiously.
“Wh-what will you do with them…….”
“Crush them, of course.”
“…….”
“His Majesty the Emperor will permit it too. Time to gather the old comrades.”
Old comrades would be war mages, or knights who survived that era.
A sign of the affection this Sen…… no, Senior, held for the academy.
So, I answered honestly, holding nothing back.
“Decullan.”
“Do you know the mage who became a wyvern’s meal?”
“……No.”
“You might end up as that.”
Damn, sharp old bastard.
Old war mages weren’t ordinary forces.
Beyond individual prowess, they specialized in mass slaughter. One alone might be manageable, but in a group, they could easily cause a catastrophe.
‘If I’d sent them straight to Decullan, it would’ve been a sight.’
Not a lie, really.
Bimarga had moved because of Decullan.
Anyway.
“Bimarga.”
“Both?”
“One’s Bimarga. The other’s Frizen, a magic engineer operating in the shadows.”
“Proof?”
“Want me to chew it up and shove it down your throat?”
“You cheeky little shit.”
That’s my line.
Anyway, the conversation continued like that.
Senior asked, I answered.
Some answers came easily, while others I wanted to give but couldn’t.
But I tried to answer most questions.
It wasn’t just because Senior was one of those rare mad ones.
What to say.
Senior seemed genuinely pissed.
After pulling out the demon seed this time, I realized holding back isn’t good.
Even if the person doesn’t realize they’re holding back, it builds up inside.
Above all.
‘He’s probably held back his whole life. Suppressed and suppressed until he snapped into that rare madness.’
In a way, a harsher life than mine.
I prided myself on living mostly satisfied, suited to my nature.
But those war mages of that era?
As soon as they learned mana, they were dragged off.
If they couldn’t use magic properly, they gripped spear and sword; if they could, they kept them at the waist and swung mana until depleted, then drew steel at the end.
That’s why.
But why.
“Junior.”
“Yes, Senior.”
“Do you know the mage who became a goblin’s meal? Why does your answer feel insolent?”
In the midst of the Q&A, Senior eyed me suspiciously.
I smiled broadly in response.
“Senility…… no, must be a mistake.”
Meant to build trust.
“Don’t grin with those rotten goblin peepers.”
“Ah, yes.”
Probably the kind of smile that invites a beating.
Anyway, we kept trading questions and answers.
From why I entered the academy to my future goal of opening a library.
Excluding sensitive stuff like regression, I spilled mostly everything.
While doing so, Senior snorted like a mad dog laughing at an ant, or nodded intriguingly.
Different from when he first came to see me, but I didn’t mind.
Didn’t care about the pouring rain either.
By the time the conversation wrapped up somewhat.
Senior brushed off his seat and stood.
“Junior, you said you need a pass to Rapiter Library?”
I nodded.
No way he’s giving it as a gift.
‘Connections rule the world—blood, region, school! Senior-junior counts as school ties.’
About to marvel anew at school connections.
Senior said.
“One favor from you. I don’t know why you need the Rapiter pass, but promise that, and I’ll give it.”
“…….”
Expectations high, disappointment hits hard.
I looked at Senior with cooled eyes.
Senior looked down at me with blazing eyes.
“Junior.”
“Yes.”
“One eye’s enough to see the world.”
“I’m really looking forward to your favor, Senior. Haha.”
I laughed.
‘Damn.’
Looked like he’d really pluck it out.