The Demon's Silent Attack and the Shocking Partnership Assignment
Before long, her figure entered my vision. She simply stared at the sky, endlessly caressing the engagement ring on her finger.
—Crunch.
The sight made my teeth grind together without my realizing it. The first reason was that I had no idea who the man she was thinking of was.
And the second reason was that it stung unbearably to see the woman I loved standing right in front of me, cherishing memories of another man.
‘It’s fine… I’m still fine…’
I took a deep breath and steadied my slightly ragged breathing. It was my own breathing technique, learned from assassinations.
Surprisingly, even though the talent of the Sword Saint had seemed like boasting, my learning ability in battle situations had skyrocketed several times over, allowing me to master my own breathing technique in no time.
‘The problem is that the only breathing technique I can use right now is this one.’
I didn’t know what had caused it, but one thing was certain: I hadn’t been able to fully utilize more than half of Finn’s abilities.
To be precise, aside from the basic swordsmanship that formed the foundation of all sword techniques, I couldn’t use Finn’s unique swordsmanship at all.
Or maybe it was simply that the length of every sword’s path differed depending on the wielder’s number of people. Even though I had clearly acquired his experience, I kept unfolding a completely different sword path from him.
‘Or perhaps… it was the big impact of starting my activities as an assassin from a young age.’
It was said that a habit formed at three years old lasts until eighty. My first kill had also been an assassination, and after that, my sword path had become exactly like the assassins who hid in the darkness and unleashed attacks.
“Huu…”
Along with my sigh, the long-awaited appearance of the demon finally revealed itself.
…Right from the sky. Flapping its wings.
‘Wait, Chisel, I still can’t jump that high with mana?’
The demon immediately extended its hand toward her, about to fire a spell. At the same time, I felt an unfamiliar mana fluctuation and looked up at the sky.
The little girl was finally noticing something, it seemed, and the demon smiled faintly.
Without uttering a single word.
…Truly, an irredeemably vicious means.
In other works, when demons appear, they would start with something like “HAHAHA!” or “You’re dead now!!” roaring across the entire world, but in Record of Academy Demon God Subjugation, without any such development, the demons silently carried out surprise attacks. There wasn’t even the development of letting the protagonists’ party prepare their magic in time.
Moreover, there were demons who had hidden the protagonist’s sword beforehand so he couldn’t draw it, then launched their surprise attacks. The point was that such things had happened.
Look at that one now, even though it was facing her eyes directly.
‘Die!’
‘You damned humans!’
Or even the most obvious lines like ‘It was your fault for being alone’.
“…?”
But something felt off. Even the demon itself aside, Liliana wasn’t opening her mouth either and simply stared coldly and silently at the demon.
…Why wasn’t she running or screaming?
Before I could even come up with my own answer to that question,
—Ziiiii… zizi…
The mana gathered in the demon’s hand signaled that a spell was about to be fired. The dark sphere with popping red sparks was clearly a magic circle, undeniable to anyone who looked.
I moved my right hand to the sword hilt, intending to slice that sphere before it reached her.
“Huu…”
I exhaled all the air deeply into my lungs, filling my chest completely. My heart began to sink slowly.
Soon after, the demon smiled with that unfamiliar face. At the same time, the sphere flew rapidly toward her.
Just as I was about to draw my sword, stepping my right foot forward to match the unbearably slow heartbeat aimed at that sphere,
“How dare a demon… look down on the imperial princess of the Empire.”
She said that while opening her palm wide like a winter ice field, her eyes cold as ice, and swung it from top to bottom, from sky to ground.
At that moment, both the demon and the sphere began crashing toward the ground.
—Kwaaang!!!
A loud sound like an explosion echoed, but it wasn’t the sound of the demon being slammed into the ground. It was the explosion created when the sphere the demon had thrown hit the floor.
Still, it was obvious to anyone who looked that there was a massive difference in skill.
The spell that the demon had gathered mana to fire was simply suppressed by Liliana lightly swiping her hand in the air.
“Khhh…”
Nearly managing to expand a mana barrier beneath her feet to keep some distance from the ground, the demon.
Soon after, the demon began looking up at Liliana.
It was the exact opposite posture from the one where Liliana had been looking up and the demon had been looking down a moment ago. Liliana murmured with that still-cutting tone.
“It suits a demon to crawl on the ground… especially for a worm like you.”
Liliana began twisting and gripping her palm toward the demon.
Then, as if the space confining her was slowly shrinking, the demon’s joints twisted and crumpled one by one.
“Khhhhaaaaak!!!”
Even as a demon, the pain of her entire body being crumpled was too much to bear, so the demon immediately began writhing and screaming in a split voice.
“Kuh…”
It seemed the writhing had some effect, because Liliana’s hand gripping the demon—actually, her palm that had used magic to grip the demon—slowly opened, and she frowned.
“Annoying…”
Toward the demon desperately trying to free itself from the magic tightening around it, Liliana flicked her left hand.
—Paaaaang!!!
“Kiaaaak!!! Kuuuuaaaak!!”
At the same time, the demon’s body burst into red flames and vanished, and soon a foul burning stench pricked at the tip of my nose.
‘…At least it’s definitely not human.’
In the story it was expressed as ‘demon’, so I had thought maybe it wasn’t a human-like thing, but it turned out to be nothing more than my wishful thinking.
When a human body is burned, it doesn’t give off such a stench, and humans don’t vanish instantly in fire like that.
“…Trying to kill me, the imperial princess of the Empire. I can at least give you credit for that effort.”
Liliana said that while staring at the place where the demon had burned and disappeared.
“…”
Yeah, that wasn’t the problem. It wasn’t even a matter of a mere demon.
‘That thing just now… colorless magic… right?’
It wasn’t the flames that had burned the demon.
The spell that had smashed the demon and sphere into the ground and crumpled the demon like paper.
‘It must have been the main heroine’s colorless magic…’
Colorless magic. Unlike magic that contains any color or element, it is magic that has no form or color at all.
However, within the range I knew… that is, in the original story, the colorless magic was mainly used by the main heroine Celina. And I knew why the characters who had witnessed that colorless magic of Celina couldn’t stop their shock.
I couldn’t close my mouth in surprise that Liliana was also using colorless magic.
‘So this was the reason Liliana couldn’t use magic properly in the original story…’
Colorless magic basically acted on space and gravity… it was clearly a cheat-class magic type that anyone could see, yet it had an enormous downside.
The mana required to activate and maintain it was enough to use about three to four normal spells.
That was why, even though Liliana was a magician who could use magic, in the original story she hadn’t been able to use it.
Because she had far less innate mana than the main heroine.
But now, thanks to the Elixir I gave her, she had accumulated enough mana to rival that of ordinary magicians since she was a child.
‘The main heroine probably couldn’t even be second place… why couldn’t the user of colorless magic not become the top student…’
The answer I had been constantly pondering as to why the user of colorless magic couldn’t become the top student was right here.
Simply put, if it was the same colorless magic user, Liliana who had started with the cheat of the Elixir would naturally have the advantage.
“…!!!@#! …$!!@#!”
The sound of someone running and screaming while heading this way after hearing the explosion just now came from nearby.
Actually, I didn’t even need to think who it was. It had to be Ian, of course.
Did Liliana also hear that sound? She glanced toward the direction I was in, then immediately turned her gaze to the opposite side.
‘…She just looked around.’
For now, before too many people’s attention focused on me, I should take Ian and escape.
Because the plan I had originally thought of rescuing her from the trial given to her was now highly likely to be blocked from the start.
And because I couldn’t even properly predict what kind of trial would come to the her who had become so much stronger than the main heroine.
And from the appearance just now, it was clear that the shabby tricks like having zero romance experience that I had would never work on her.
‘I need to watch the situation a bit from a distance for now.’
I thought so.
* * *
But there was no way it could be that simple.
The very development that overturned my expectation immediately… no, rather than covering me, it covered Liliana and me together.
“Liliana Yekaterina, Berry. You two, go to B-04 Area.”
“Eh?!”
I couldn’t help but be shocked at the instructor’s words.
The reason was that the partners assigned for the joint practical training between the Knight Department and Magic Department the very next day had been chosen as me and Liliana.
And that it had been decided that Liliana and I would go to that so-called B-04 Area.
And…
‘That place is the joint event of the main heroine and the protagonist where they work like crazy to clear it while getting to know each other and rely on each other.’
It was because that place had originally been the event location for the protagonist and the main heroine.
But there was something even more than that.
“Teacher, I don’t have a partner today. Can I take a day off?”
“Ah, let me see… Knight Department, Ian Cedric? Partner is… Magic Department Second-Place, Selina. For now, wait.”
“Yes! Understood!”
It was because the main heroine hadn’t appeared on the first day, so Liliana and I had ended up going there.
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