That Person (2)
Kwang!
The crowd buzzed with murmurs.
"……! O-one hit?"
"I thought the commoner kid won when he shattered the shield…. What just happened?"
"He didn't even use that lightning like against Professor Cronia!"
"What did he do? Dia's that strong, and she went down in one hit…!"
"Did anyone see what happened in that split second?"
"No, I didn't. Magic? But he doesn't look like one of those physical fighters."
Dia's attack had been brilliant.
She drew his attention by striking the shield with her sword, then secretly coated it with water. Given her water affinity, that water was likely meant to probe the shield and find a way to break it.
Everything up to blasting the water jet to destroy the shield was flawless. The follow-up attack after the shield broke was a bit regrettable—she switched to gauntlets instead of keeping her weapon—but considering she was just an inexperienced freshman, it was understandable.
Compared to the other students he'd seen so far, her skill was top-tier. If she'd enrolled last year, she could've claimed top spot in her grade.
But then Perseino kid's foot stomp knocked her unconscious in one blow.
Luke. What the hell did you do? That kind of attack was a first.
Normal attacks had activation and execution phases. Even Siren’s strikes hadn’t evaded his eyes.
Yet this kid's attack—he couldn’t even grasp what it was.
Marcus… couldn’t properly read a student’s attack?
Magic? He’d never heard of magic like that.
What the….
He’d planned to analyze the duel and explain it to the freshmen to wrap up class, but now….
Damn. Guess I still have a ways to go.
Dia's use of "that person" had stuck in his mind too much.
That's why he'd ended the duel quickly and used it.
The problem was winning too easily because of it.
The other students might start looking down on Dia now. If that happened… he'd have to protect her.
With the duel ending so anticlimactically, Marcus just called class early. Nothing left to explain, after all.
By the time Simon mistook his avatar for Dragon Polymorph, "Combat Self-Defense" class was over.
Freed from class ahead of schedule, Luke headed straight back to his dorm room.
Sorry, Dia!
I'll apologize when we meet later!
Right now, I've got something important.
The door burst open.
"Huh? What're you doing back so soon? I thought you were coming back after dinner."
Io, who’d been cleaning, greeted him.
He’d planned to hit other class orientations after "Combat Self-Defense," but that wasn’t important now.
"Something came up. Get out of my room for a bit. I’ve got work to do."
"Right now? …Fine. You wouldn’t tell me even if I asked, right?"
She gave him a suspicious look but still opened the maid room door and went to her quarters.
Alone in the room, Luke pulled a direct-line communication orb for Lydia from his subspace and activated it.
"L-Lord? You called for me, Lord!"
"It's been a while, Lydia."
He’d avoided direct meetings or calls like this—only letters, to dodge her suspicions—but it was urgent now.
"I’m contacting you like this because I need a favor."
"A f-favor! Just say the word, Lord! Anything!"
"I need you to look into someone for me. That person is…."
The body he’d possessed was Luke Perseino’s. Unlike his sisters, it was a frail boy’s body with zero talent in anything.
No magic aptitude either—just pure incompetence.
At best, his handsome looks were passable? As the brother of popular characters like Siren and Meiru, his appearance was undeniably striking.
The problem was that this Deus ex Machina world was one where Gifts and mysteries abounded, ruled by raw power.
No matter how handsome or highborn you were, without strength, you could meet a sudden end any day.
Especially at the story’s starting point, with Chaos forces rampaging—with power, his priority was absolute.
Luckily, possessing him young gave over ten years to prepare, and he’d used that time wisely.
As a possessor, his edge—his asymmetric advantage—was information.
Not a total veteran, but knowing many hidden pieces in Deus ex Machina, he sought those opportunities and artifacts.
Finally getting his father’s permission, he roamed with Hanna, gathering them.
Inexperienced at first—mercenaries betraying him, trial and error—but once he built know-how, snagging hidden pieces was easy.
First up: elixirs in bulk. Buying with money from Lydia or excavating ruins for stat-boosting items from Deus ex Machina, he chugged them.
His physical stats hit knight-level, mana reserves grand mage-tier.
Next: artifacts as his mainstay. Even with boosted physique, his swordsmanship sucked, so melee was inefficient. His mana control was crap too, so his solution was special artifacts.
Modern artifacts differed hugely from ancient forgotten ones.
Modern ones were for powerless normals without Gifts, using embedded mana—so limited power and range.
Ancient ones from ruins weren’t made that way: they consumed user mana, enabling powerful, wide-ranging Gifts.
Ancient humans had mana but no sword or magic training, needing artifacts. Now, with mage towers and guilds teaching those, user-mana artifacts fell out of favor.
Anyone with mana for ancient artifacts already had top swordplay or magic.
Thus, most ancient artifacts lacked modern appeal—treated as junk, low profit vs. excavation costs, so ruins went undug. Normals didn’t know locations anyway.
That let him scoop them cheap. Mercs trying to rob him were outliers—ignorant fools who couldn’t tell modern from ancient.
Mage towers and guilds standardized magic and swordplay, burying countless spells and techniques.
Ancient artifacts often held those lost Gifts—a huge boon for him.
With only a vague, unusable Gift, ancient artifacts massively boosted his combat power.
That secret would spotlight in part 2, skyrocketing ancient artifact values continent-wide.
But now, they were dirt cheap.
Through journeys with Hanna, he mastered using them in real combat. Mismatched ones? Stored in his room corner or sold.
Dia’s sword, the Mermaid Haupt’s "Huffnis," was one such blade.
An ancient artifact needing user mana, but summoning and wielding water like that even in dry places. Great for swordsmen, so unlike others, it had demand.
Perfect for cash—he auctioned it off….
So why did Dia have it?
No way Lydia gave it to her.
This was beyond imagination.