Chapter 152
Chapter 152
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 152
Chapter Title: Clue (3)
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Linmel gazed at Jamie, who stood motionless.
His magical imposition, Cognitive Dissonance, assaulted every sense of its target, conjuring powerful hallucinations.
Though Jamie's face remained serene now, a fierce battle must have been raging within his inner world.
Even knowing this, there was no countering it.
Unless one's abilities surpassed the opponent's, escaping a mental magical imposition was impossible.
Even then, it would take tremendous effort. So, this was the end.
"In a real battle, you'd be dead, Jamie Welton."
If one couldn't break free from the hallucination, they would die repeatedly, never even feeling the pain.
Linmel had already had time to kill Jamie hundreds of times over.
This was the magical imposition he had acquired to defeat a Sword Master—a forbidden technique to prove that mages, often dismissed as weaker than swordsmen, were anything but.
"I suppose that's enough torment."
Leaving him like this would cause Jamie immense mental anguish, no matter who he was. Ruining a treasure like him—one of Selden's prized possessions—in a mere sparring match would surely draw the world's ire.
He might even lose his head to Count Welton first.
"Your father still scares me."
Linmel smirked and raised his hand.
The moment he adjusted his mana to dispel the Cognitive Dissonance ritual...
—Boom!!
Jamie’s small body shuddered once, sending a shockwave across the cracked ground.
A cloud of pale dust rose into the air.
At that instant, the surrounding mana began flowing toward Jamie—or rather, toward the sword and staff gripped in his hands.
"What is that boy...?"
Linmel halted his attempt to dispel the ritual and watched.
Something was changing in Jamie. He didn't know what, but he'd find out soon enough just by observing.
Mana swirled in a vortex.
Mana that resisted being absorbed. Then, a black glow emerged over Jamie's skin.
It was Leviathan. But stripped of its black mana, it appeared to Linmel as nothing more than some bizarre power.
At that moment, Jamie raised both hands, crossing the staff and sword. Then, he swung the sword down in a straight line.
"...!!"
Linmel saw a massive fireball plummeting from above.
The ground split, lava erupting forth.
Lightning struck, and gale-force winds howled.
He let out a hollow laugh.
A barrage of disasters engulfed him.
Jamie was having a strange experience.
At first, he had planned to absorb the mana sustaining the hallucination with Leviathan and return to reality.
Not entirely sure it would work, he still danced the Sword Dance, following the form of White Sea to draw the mana toward himself.
That was when the strange experience began.
First came Scud. With faintly opened eyes, he traced the sword's trajectory. The tangled disasters began slicing apart like paper.
Next was Beyond Avalon. This top-tier staff channeled the absorbed mana into the reverse world. Suddenly, the illusions started being sucked into Jamie's mana.
He had intended only to absorb mana, but Linmel's magic came wholesale along with it.
'What in the world...'
Something unexpected had happened.
Scud's blade shimmered with rainbow hues.
The moment he saw it, he instinctively knew. This was Linmel's magical imposition, Cognitive Dissonance.
'But how is this possible?'
A grand mage's magical imposition had fused with his sword.
Jamie’s lips curved upward.
He wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but he raised both arms, crossing the sword and staff.
The two weapons resonated.
He slashed downward with Scud in a straight line.
All illusions shattered, revealing reality.
Linmel's stunned expression was perfectly visible. Every illusion transformed into slashing attacks, hurtling back toward their caster.
When he looked at the sword again, the rainbow glow was gone.
"What did you do?"
Linmel asked.
He had clearly returned the illusion that deceived all five senses, yet Linmel stood as if nothing had happened.
"I never imagined you'd reverse the sensory deception from my magical imposition."
He spoke calmly, but he couldn't hide the faint tremor in his voice.
Linmel was in a state of shock so profound he struggled to accept reality.
Jamie examined Scud and Beyond Avalon before sheathing the sword in its black scabbard and storing the staff in his subspace.
"I'm not entirely sure myself. I started by absorbing mana to break the hallucination, and at some point, Your Excellency's power merged into my weapons."
"...Merged, you say."
"I don't quite get the theory. I'll need to analyze it further later."
"Hah. So it was just coincidence?"
Coincidence.
Just as the word implied, what had happened was born of chance.
'But leaving a coincidence as mere coincidence is the mark of an amateur.'
Jamie had glimpsed a new path.
He didn't yet know how to walk it, but at least he had found the clue.
'Perhaps this is my new...'
He didn't commit to the thought.
One could never predict the future.
But the power he had just witnessed...
It wasn't really power, per se.
He had simply seized his opponent's strength wholesale and flung it back.
The issue was that it scaled with the opponent's might.
Jamie’s lips curved upward.
He was glad he had learned the sword. It had given him a new weapon.
That was Jamie's thought.
"Your Excellency. So, what do you think?"
At the question, Linmel gave a wry smile.
He had approached with a light heart, but the situation had grown anything but light.
Still, he had no intention of taking back his words.
"Sufficient. I shall grant you the right to learn the Full Body Breathing Method."
"Thank you."
Jamie bowed with a smile at Linmel's permission.
"Did you see all that?"
"...".
Linmel looked at the Fourth Elder, Raymond, who couldn't tear his eyes from the large crystal orb.
They were currently collaborating on war magic. Then Jamie had appeared, and Raymond had chosen to observe from here rather than intervene directly.
"I'd like to hear your impressions from watching it firsthand..."
Raymond turned only his head to look at Linmel.
With a gesture urging him to speak, Raymond let out a short sigh and opened his mouth.
"Astonishing. I never dreamed sword and magic could harmonize to that degree."
Jamie’s initial preemptive strike was no mere swordsman's gimmick.
Magic swordsmen treated their blades like magic tools—hurling fireballs or cloaking them in flames.
It was little more than substituting aura. Few actively blended magic while wielding the sword.
Even those who did often lacked mastery in both, rendering them useless in real combat.
But Jamie was different. His teleportation leap to Linmel's rear was a top-tier assassination technique.
Had the opponent not been a grand mage like Linmel, death would have been inevitable, vigilance or not. Yet Jamie had accounted for that.
He created clones and unleashed mana-infused strikes from all four directions. Not only did they shatter Linmel's barrier, they even scorched his robe.
What followed was even more shocking. Raymond knew Linmel's magical imposition well—an absolute hallucination nearly impossible to escape.
Jamie had made it his own. Temporarily, yes, but he even reflected it back at the caster.
"Jamie... what kind of being is that child?"
"The eldest son of the Welton family."
"That's not what I mean. Is that boy really human?"
To Raymond, Jamie wasn't human.
A dragon, perhaps. Or a high elf.
No other race at magic's pinnacle could explain such talent.
And the swordsmanship he'd glimpsed, brief as it was, was extraordinary.
"Do you think a single human can be born with so many gifts?"
"Hm."
"It's artificial."
"What is?"
"The existence of Jamie Welton himself is artificial. A superhuman crafted for something, that's what I'm saying!"
Raymond fixed Linmel with wide eyes.
"You must know what that something is without me spelling it out."
"Raymond."
"Yes. Jamie Welton is the being sent to save humanity—to save the humans crushed at the bottom of this world!"
"Watch your words. Eyes and ears are everywhere."
"To eradicate the Zenith Church. Yes, it starts with the Zenith Church. Jamie Welton has the power to destroy it. He'll grow to that point within ten years, mark my words."
"Calm down. The faithful of the Twelve Gods are everywhere, and Jamie himself is a saint of the Pyro Church."
"That's another thing I can't fathom. Why would the goddess make Jamie Welton a saint? What is she aiming for? Could she have noticed he's humanity's savior...?"
"Speculation. More importantly, calm yourself. Your face is beet red. Haven't you broken that habit yet?"
Linmel pointed it out with a frown, and Raymond exhaled sharply.
"Hoo—sorry. It was that shocking."
"Not as much as for me, the victim? My own magical imposition was reflected back."
He had held back its power. At full strength, even Jamie's mind would have collapsed.
Still, being rebuffed bruised his pride.
'On the other hand, it's quite promising.'
Raymond was right.
He too didn't see Jamie as an ordinary boy.
A being with absurd power, as if manifested for humanity's sake.
That was Jamie Welton.
"Let's keep watching. We have time."
"Those Zenith Church bastards. Let's see how long they can hide."
The two grand mages hardened their expressions, thinking of their common enemy.
He had received Linmel's permission to pass on the Full Body Breathing Method.
How far Ann could grow with it was unknown. If it proved ineffective, he planned to abandon it.
For those without talent, the Full Body Breathing Method was just a shiny paperweight.
Still, having boasted to Linmel, he intended to give it his all. Ann would have to do the same.
"This is a challenge for me too."
In his past life, Diablo Volpir had been an excellent teacher.
All his disciples had become remarkable mages. Happy days. He recalled when they brought their own students to introduce as his grand-disciples.
One taught child teaches another, who teaches yet another.
Thus, generations were built. Even without blood ties, education forged bonds between master and disciple as strong as family.
All of it had ended in ruin, but Jamie intended to repeat the process.
That was Jamie's—Diablo Volpir's—philosophy of education.
'I'll just ensure that ruin never comes.'
He would grow far stronger than in his previous life.
Strong enough to surpass the Twelve Gods, preventing a repeat.
Provided Ann performed well, of course.
As Jamie walked, devising a curriculum for her training...
"Hey."
"Hm?"
Turning, he saw the red-haired boy, Lennon, standing there.
Jamie frowned and strode toward him.
"Hey?"
"W-Why are you coming so close?"
"You little punk, talking to your teacher like that?!"
"Ack!"
Jamie closed the distance in an instant and flicked Lennon's forehead.
The mana-infused snap jerked Lennon's head back.
Clutching his reddened forehead, trembling, it must have hurt badly.
Jamie looked at him and said,
"I might've been just a peer before, but now I'm your class teacher. Hey??"
"S-Sorry."
"Sorry??"
Jamie raised his hand for another flick, and Lennon flinched, shielding his forehead.
His face twisted in humiliation, lips quivering as he apologized.
"I'm sorry..."
"Call your teacher like that again, and it won't end with a flick. Got it?"
At "Got it?", Lennon swallowed hard.
Memories of being plunged into the abyss by Jamie resurfaced.
Lennon nodded vigorously.
"So, why'd you call me?"
"Well... I heard you're teaching magic to Ann Meyer."
"I haven't told anyone."
"Overheard it passing by."
"Don't lie. Think I can't sense your presence?"
"...Overheard from a passing student."
More precisely, one of Lennon's self-proclaimed underlings.
The academy had plenty of Lennon's followers—opportunists eager to curry favor with the Simon family.
"Already building a faction? How long have you even been enrolled?"
"I-I didn't make it. They just come to me on their own, babbling stuff. I'm serious!"
Before, he might have stroked their egos for personal gain, but after Jamie humbled him, such thoughts vanished.
"Anyway, are you really teaching Ann real magic?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Teach me too!"
"What?"
Jamie squinted at Lennon's sudden plea.