Chapter 20
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Honestly, Talion himself was a little surprised by his own state of mind.
Could murderous intent really form this easily?
‘That bastard...!’
Grinding his teeth, he looked around with bloodshot eyes.
The noble part of Talion’s mind understood the situation to some extent. If his opponent could toy with him and make a fool of him this thoroughly, then they were clearly far more skilled than he was.
He should apologize for sticking his nose into someone else’s business.
“...”
Lord Riverback would be disappointed if he saw this.
Remembering the name of the man who sponsored his family and had helped him in countless ways so he could enter the academy, Talion gave a bitter smile.
That generous man had spared no effort in supporting him, saying he had the potential to surpass Elijah, the Hero candidate. If he saw Talion acting this disgracefully, he would surely click his tongue.
But even so, there was no way Talion could let the twenty-five provocations slide without landing at least one punch.
“Talion?”
That was what he’d been thinking.
Until he heard the voice coming from right in front of him.
“...Elijah?”
Seeing Elijah approach with a beaming smile, Talion tilted his head.
What was she doing here all of a sudden?
“It’s been a while. This is the first time since the magical beast subjugation, isn’t it?”
Talion hesitated.
He and Elijah had both been recognized for their skills and had once joined a joint magical beast subjugation under the command of Margrave Kendrid as trainees. So she could say that, but...
‘...She remembered.’
Talion thought so, smiling faintly to himself.
‘I thought she wouldn’t remember after I got so thoroughly thrashed back then.’
They were around the same age and had similar levels of skill. It would’ve been stranger if the people around them hadn’t tried to pit them against each other.
Of course, Talion had suffered a crushing defeat.
Everyone said Elijah had only a ‘slight’ edge over him, but Talion understood better than anyone that even that slight difference was an insurmountable wall.
It was an honor just to be remembered by someone with such brilliant talent.
“Yeah, Elijah. It’s been a while for you, too.”
“What are you doing here?”
“...Nothing, really. I was just looking for someone.”
He cleared his throat and answered evasively.
At any rate, Elijah had been the driving force behind his training, the goal he’d set for himself ever since they first met.
He didn’t particularly want her to know that he’d been chasing someone in such an ugly state, furious enough to see red.
“Really? Who were you looking for?”
“Oh, just... some annoying guy...”
“And what were you going to do once you found him?”
“...”
It must have been around then that he first sensed something was off.
Elijah was still smiling, but there was a chilling coldness in her words.
‘Was she always like this?’
No, she wasn’t.
When they’d met before, she’d been a little rough around the edges, but she was definitely an exemplary person who walked the righteous path.
But the way she was acting now... What was the word for it?
There hadn’t been the slightest hint of anything ‘sinister’ about her before.
This wasn’t just anger. He could clearly feel her hostility toward him.
“Tell me. What were you going to do once you found him?”
“...”
“Were you going to hit him?”
Elijah took a step toward him.
All the while smiling brightly.
“...!”
But her eyes weren’t smiling at all.
Rather, they were filled with such hostility that just facing her made him feel as if his skin were being torn apart.
Realizing that, Talion instinctively took a step back.
She was smiling as she spoke, yet every sentence, every word, felt as though it were closing in around him.
It was like standing before a massive monster that was about to devour him.
“Were you going to hurt him? The teacher?”
She took another step.
Talion backed away again.
“N-no, Elijah. Wait...”
As he started to speak, Talion’s eyes caught Elijah’s hand gripping her sword hilt. Before he could even react, she drew the blade just a little.
Killing intent poured out in waves, so intense it felt as though the air itself were catching fire.
“...!”
The spear in his hand shot forward before he knew it. It must have been almost instinctive.
The tip of his spear lunged viciously. It was a full-force strike, so much so that even Talion himself was taken aback.
‘This is bad...!’
But.
Before he could even blink.
-!
-!!
His spear shattered and scattered in all directions.
‘What...!’
He gaped at the pieces of his spear dropping to the ground, neatly severed.
He hadn’t seen a thing.
She had clearly swung her sword several times, at the very least.
Anyone who’d trained in weapon techniques to Talion’s level would understand exactly what that meant.
He was at least several moves behind his opponent.
He had attacked first, yet hadn’t even seen the other person’s movements when they counterattacked?
‘She’s even stronger than before...!’
Back then, at least, they’d been close enough to compete with weapons in hand.
And since then, he’d trained until he bled, over and over. He’d reached a level where he was known as a standout even among the talented students of the renowned Elphante.
But this gap now...
Even if three Talions attacked her at once, it would probably take Elijah only a few seconds to slaughter them all.
In less than a year, the gap between them had grown this wide.
‘This can’t be.’
Talent.
An overwhelming gap in talent.
He’d heard that she hadn’t become a Hero candidate simply because she was strong, but because she possessed talent said to reach the heavens.
But to this extent...!
“You know...”
Even after displaying such skill, Elijah’s expression didn’t change. She slid her sword back into its sheath and spoke.
“Who are you to care who I’m friends with? If I want to get along with that person, who are you to interfere?”
“...”
“I’m sick of people sticking their noses into other people’s business as if they’re so important. I’ve never met anyone who did it for me with truly pure intentions...”
Elijah paused. Her expression shifted as if she’d remembered something, then she changed the subject.
“...Except for one person. Everyone else was only looking out for themselves, you know?”
“Elijah, I, I...”
As Talion tried to continue, Elijah snapped her fingers.
At that, the spear that had already been reduced to fragments crumbled into dust.
He couldn’t even tell what she’d done this time.
“I don’t really want to hear your excuses. Understand?”
Talion swallowed dryly.
Only an idiot wouldn’t understand.
Don’t touch Dowd Campbell. Don’t even go near him.
Unless you want to regret it.
“Good. You seem to get it, so don’t do that again.”
“...Um.”
“Do you still have something to say?”
Looking at Elijah’s chilly smile, Talion trembled slightly again. Even so, he steeled himself to ask this one question and opened his mouth.
He was dying of curiosity.
“That guy, Dowd Campbell... Who is he, exactly?”
What could make someone with talent like hers act this way, as though even her personality had completely changed?
Just what kind of person was Dowd Campbell?
At that, Elijah gave a small laugh and answered.
“Someone way, way stronger than me. He knocked me out with one hit.”
“...That wasn’t rigged?”
“The teacher isn’t the kind of person who’d do something like that. If you ever accuse him like that again, I really will kill you.”
“...”
The warning that followed was chilling, but Talion was too stunned to even respond.
Was it really true that Dowd had taken down this Hero candidate with a single strike?
‘...What kind of monster is he?’
Unlike Elijah, whose abilities he could at least begin to gauge, Dowd was beyond anything he could even imagine.
It was hard to understand why Dowd wasn’t better known.
“...Shouldn’t I be glad I’m still alive?”
“Yeah. Looks like you get it now. You could say I’m the one who spared you.”
Watching Elijah answer as she brushed back her hair, Talion shuddered.
Had he really picked a fight with such a monster without knowing what he was dealing with?
“What are you to him? How did you meet?”
At this point, he couldn’t hold back that question, either.
But unlike the previous questions, Elijah didn’t answer immediately. Her expression suddenly turned serious.
Then she went ‘Hmm’ and thought it over for quite a while.
“I mean, I guess we’re just friends, right? At least... yeah, probably.”
“...What?”
“Probably, for now. Yeah. That’s about right... I think? I’m not sure. For me, it’s a little more than that...”
“...What?”
“Ah, I don’t know! Anyway, we’re friends for now!”
Her sudden outburst looked exactly like the Elijah he’d known before.
Maybe she hadn’t completely changed after all.
‘...What does she mean, “friends for now”?’
His curiosity remained completely unsatisfied.
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“I’m sorry. I won’t approach him again.”
Watching Talion bow his head and apologize left me dumbfounded.
Seeing Elijah beside me, beaming as she said, “That’s right, that’s right,” made me twice as bewildered.
‘...What on earth did she do to him to make him this obedient?’
That’s the Hero candidate for you. Her talent for teaching people a lesson is something else.
After Talion left, I was heading over to have the things I’d gathered graded when Trisha approached me with a serious expression.
“Um, Mr. Dowd.”
“Yeah?”
“...Please be kind to Elijah. No, actually, don’t be too kind to her.”
“...”
What was that supposed to mean all of a sudden?
I stared at her blankly, and Trisha continued, trembling slightly.
“She might not know it herself yet, and I didn’t realize it until now, either... but there’s something a little off about Elijah. If things go wrong...”
“...What happens if things go wrong?”
“From what I saw, she was on the verge of crossing a line when she fought the eldest son of House Armand just now. Either one of them could’ve been badly hurt. The usual Elijah would probably have talked him down and sent him away. She wouldn’t have drawn her sword first like that.”
"..."
“I’m sure of it now. Whenever Mr. Dowd comes up, she gets completely... dark. No, I mean, she gets angry without any restraint. It feels like she loses all judgment.”
“...”
“It might get worse from here. If things go wrong, Mr. Dowd might not be able to get away from her at all.”
Thanks for that genuinely ominous warning.
‘...Why have there been so many dangerous things happening lately?’
Watching Trisha hurry off, I couldn’t help thinking that.
Lately, I almost felt like the whole world was moving against me out of spite.
I sighed and turned my gaze away.
For now, I figured I’d check the rewards that had popped up earlier.
▼ Elijah Crisanax
[ Interest Stage 1 ] >>> [ Interest Stage 2 ]
[ Rewards available to claim! ]
[ Negative Imprint: 1 stack ]
[ Rewards available to claim! ]
[ Her personality has changed somewhat under your influence! ]
[ This is an important character. If multiple stacks accumulate, something special will happen! ]
[ You can use Dominion of Evil once! ]
▼ Talion Armand
[ Negative Imprint: 1 stack ]
[ Rewards available to claim! ]
[ He has lost control of himself under your influence before! ]
[ You can use Dominion of Evil once! ]
“...”
Somehow, every time I opened this, it never failed to disappoint me.
The Negative Imprints were probably caused by the Near Ink, Turn Black Gift, but Talion aside, why was Elijah marked with one, too? That was the problem.
I sighed and tapped through the window.
[ Claiming Gift reward from ‘Elijah’. ]
[ Acquired 500 pt! ][ Current Points: 2,500 pt ]
[ Acquired 1 ‘Seed of Evil’! ]
[ Claiming Gift reward from ‘Talion’. ]
[ Acquired 1 ‘Seed of Evil’! ]
A Seed of Evil?
What was that supposed to be?
[ Seed of Evil ]
[ Currency: Special ]
[ Can be exchanged for special skills in the Point Shop. ]
[ Skills available for purchase in the shop have been updated! ]
My eyes widened.
‘Special skills?’
Special skills were skills that could be purchased from the shop and used once by anyone, regardless of class.
Since they were skills you ‘purchased and used,’ you could basically think of them as items.
But there was a reason they were called ‘special.’ In certain situations, they were more effective than any item.
‘Let’s see, the Point Shop...’
Seeing the message, I quickly opened the Point Shop.
Sure enough, all sorts of things that hadn’t been there before had appeared.
Every one of them boasted a powerful effect.
‘...Maybe I should think about ways to get more Seeds of Evil later.’
Given the nature of the Negative Imprint system, getting one from just anyone would be difficult both ethically and practically.
I’d probably have to look for suitable candidates who wouldn’t be a problem either way.
There were people who would fall to corruption later, like Talion, and some people with a Good alignment were worse than most people with an Evil alignment. You could call it a loophole in the system.
As I came out carrying a huge bundle of materials, I saw Conrad sprawled on the ground, drenched in sweat.
“...”
What was he doing?
“...What are you doing?”
“Man, why’d you bring so much stuff...”
His drawn-out reply trailed off.
“How did you end up like this?”
“That damn student council president kept picking a fight, saying they had to go into the forest, too. So I told them they’d have to take me down first if they wanted to go in.”
“...”
I had a bad feeling about this.
“So you fought them?”
“They attacked me.”
This school really was insane.
The student council president and the dean were fighting each other.
Crater-like holes were scattered all around us, as if several bombs had gone off. They must’ve been the aftermath of that fight—the traces left by two monsters battling it out.
“So I subdued the student council president, knocked them out, and handed them over to the student council. They’ve gotten a little better than before...”
Why was he saying that so proudly?
He should be thinking about disciplining them.
‘...So they can still be subdued by the dean.’
Even as the final boss, they were still growing. It seemed they hadn’t even reached half their peak strength yet.
“What about my grade?”
I asked with a wry smile, and Conrad glanced into the sack I’d brought.
“Perfect score. Just looking at the quantity, you’re in first place.”
“...”
He really was doing this halfheartedly.
As I thought that, Conrad snorted and said,
“You picked out high-grade materials. They’re practically the kind you’d send an expert out to gather.”
“...Yeah, well.”
It was all thanks to the results I’d gotten from needling Talion, but it was true that all of them were high-grade materials.
“Take those straight to Persi. She’ll be happy.”
“Pardon?”
“You’ve got a wish ticket for her anyway, don’t you? Better earn a few points with her in advance before you ask her to do something.”
Conrad said with a small laugh.
“...Can I earn her favor with this?”
“She was just complaining to me that she was short on most of the stuff you brought. If you take those over, you’ll probably look like a savior to her.”
Hmm.
Is that so?
“Then, while I’m earning her favor, can I use my wish ticket to ask for something a little difficult?”
“What is it? She’ll probably do just about anything for you.”
“Well, I was thinking...”
I took a moment to organize my thoughts.
The ‘Purifier’ strategy required several different conditions, but the first thing that came to mind was...
“I’d like you to make a bomb powerful enough to blow up the entire academy.”
“...”
Conrad immediately fell silent.
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