Chapter 15 - Midterm Exam (3)

It was dark.

Unlike before, when there was minimal light, now there was only pure darkness.

"Leaf? Rei?"

I called out their names.

The echo of my voice wasn't too strong, suggesting that the space hadn't completely collapsed and sealed off.

That was somewhat fortunate.

"I-I'm here!"

It was Leaf's voice.

"Stay right there. Rei?"

There was no answer.

It seems we’ve been separated.

The walls had moved, and it appeared the entire internal structure of the underground floor had changed.

In the process, Rei must have been cut off from the other two.

This wasn't "Night at the Museum".

More like "The Underground is Alive".

Bad luck.

No, perhaps it was intentional.

Maybe they were deliberately trying to scatter the people.

"For now... 'Light'."

I had learned enough simple basic magic to use it immediately.

At first, I had to calculate each mana formula, but now, after learning some tricks from Fiona, a simple activation word was enough.

Remembering the grace of Teacher Fiona, I summoned light.

And what he saw was...

"Le... af?"

"Yes?"

Perked up.

Pointy ear tips clearly different from my round ears.

Not long enough to turn and look at like Liu Bei, but obviously longer than normal ears.

Along with dirty blonde hair and forest-green eyes.

This was completely...

"...An elf?"

At my words, Leaf's already pale face turned even whiter as she hurriedly pulled her fallen hood back on.

Her two hands, gripping the hood tightly with a fearful look, trembled pitifully.

"N-no, I'm not...!"

Her voice shook unstably.

There was probably some kind of trauma.

Like my and Rei's experiences as slaves.

In this situation, was it best to pretend I hadn’t seen her?

"Have some water."

"Ah, t-thank you..."

Leaf took the water skin Roman offered and gulped down the water.

Normally, it would be best to conserve water in this situation, but it didn't matter.

With Leaf, the walking water purifier, there was nothing to worry about.

After drinking some water, Leaf took a deep breath and calmed herself.

Soon, Leaf's trembling stopped.

The shock of being suddenly exposed when she wasn't mentally prepared must have been great.

Considering how she had casually asked about taking off her hood before, she probably didn't intend to hide it forever.

Leaf, having quickly recovered from the shock, carefully opened her mouth.

"Um..."

"Yeah?"

"Y-you're not surprised?"

"I am surprised."

Sincerely.

I hadn't thought Leaf would be an elf.

While there was a common equation of Spirit Summoner = Elf, it wasn't the case in this world.

Elves were true to their setting as a race knowledgeable in magic, quickly cutting ties with spirit magic, which had become an outdated trend, and focusing entirely on elemental or nature magic.

Even now, the equation of Elf = Excellent Mage was still valid.

They had quickly ridden the wave of the times, so to speak.

After all, spirit magic was ultimately the loser of the past era.

"But I thought if I showed a surprised reaction, it might trigger you more."

"Ah... I'm sorry..."

Leaf hunched her shoulders, fidgeting with the fingers holding the water skin.

As expected, Leaf had strangely low self-esteem.

The ear length was ambiguous. Maybe she's a half-elf.

When I was with the merchant guild, I had briefly seen an elf.

The ears of that elf were really long.

Long enough to understand why there were theories about Liu Bei being an elf.

Compared to that, Leaf's ear length was closer to that of a human rather than an elf.

It was evidence that she wasn't a pure-blooded elf.

Perhaps...

I had some idea where Leaf's low self-esteem might stem from.

"Are you feeling a bit calmer now?"

"Ah, yes. Here..."

Leaf politely returned the water skin with both hands.

I took the water skin, securely fastened it back to his waist, and then took Leaf's hand to help her up.

"Let's move first. We should try breaking the walls, but... since Rei hasn't come over yet, it seems we either can't break them or we're completely separated."

"You're right. If it was Rei, she would have broken through the walls and come out by now."

"Exactly."

As they exchanged light conversation, Leaf's tension seemed to ease a bit, and her voice gradually brightened.

"But what happens to the bet in this situation?"

"Ah! That's right. There was a bet. But didn't you guess this would happen, Roman?"

"Honestly, half of what I said was just talk."

I had learned the hard way during my first two years here that there were no novel-like developments.

Coincidence? Hidden talent? A prophecy laid upon the world?

There was none of that.

One could only hold onto such hope for a day or two.

After about a week, all one could think about was how to survive tomorrow.

"Then what about the other half?"

"...It was sincere. Especially after I learned about the Grand Duchess."

If I was just by myself, I wouldn't have known, but this training center had too many unusual elements.

Not just Rei, who had escaped after being sold as a slave.

Alexandra, the daughter of the school head, and Arthur, the new star from a famous guild, were even more extraordinary.

And now there was even a Grand Duchess?

"This is too strange. It's like a situation perfect for some incident to occur."

"...Isn't it usually the opposite?"

That's true, I guess.

Normally, when important people came, security and protocol were tightened to prevent any mishaps.

But did things in the world always go as expected?

Even assassination attempts on the current and likely next Earth Federation President occurred.

And in the setting of another world on top of that?

This became a reasonable suspicion.

Moreover, we had directly experienced suspicious circumstances.

Wouldn't it be fair to call it a reasonable deduction beyond mere suspicion?

"Anyway, yes. Since we have the bet, for now, let's try to regroup with Rei as quickly as possible..."

Clatter.

"...It doesn't look like it'll be easy."

The floor bulged up, and from there, a skull...

"Undine!"

Splash!

It burst as it was coming up.

"Huh?"

"Q-quickly, catch them! We need to eliminate them before they come up!"

Leaf, you scary child…

Skipping even the appearance scene.

You're the type to mercilessly attack during a transformation sequence, aren't you?

But that's the right thing to do now!

"That's an excellent idea!"

Let's do it right away!

§

What am I doing right now?

Could this be called skull whack-a-mole?

When a skull poked its head out, I mercilessly smashed it.

Crack!

The moment I shattered another skull with a magic bullet.

"Roman! On the left!"

At Leaf's shout, I immediately turned left and fired a magic bullet.

In the limited light and restricted vision, Roman and Leaf were advancing while watching left and right.

Why is Leaf the only one speaking?

Because Leaf had assigned automatic interception to Undine.

Undine was busy smashing the skulls of those trying to come up after they passed.

She was a very reliable rear guard.

In contrast, I was dealing with them directly.

Isn't spirit magic actually overpowered?

The feeling he had when he realized that Rei, whom he thought was a lower-class Battle Mage, was actually a strong Battle Mage, resurfaced.

"Here comes another one!"

"There's no end to them!"

"Save your mana! One shot per skull!"

Even in this situation, Leaf had the composure to worry about my mana.

We ran frantically, shot, ran, and shot.

Without Rei to guide us, we just ran straight ahead aimlessly.

And finally, a cavern appeared.

But we couldn't let our guard down.

Unlike the corridor, more skeletons could appear here and surround us.

Leaf and I cautiously entered the cavern, maintaining a defensive posture in case something strange popped out.

Putting a bit more mana into the Light spell, I floated a ball of light above the cavern, and the interior began to come into view.

"Oh, you've come too."

Blood was splattered everywhere.

The blood covering the walls and floor was still flowing, not yet coagulated.

It wasn't old.

The strong smell of blood told them that this blood had been spilled not long ago.

The cause, you ask?

There wasn’t a need to look too closely.

That guy was speaking in a light tone in the middle of the cavern.

He was the one who had created this scene.

The bodies strewn on the floor resembled the training center entrants I had seen before.

No, they didn’t just resemble them; they were their corpses.

And now, with my mana vision activated, I could see it.

The mana swirling around that guy's body.

"What... are you...?"

"Me? Is that important?"

Right.

It isn't important.

This guy had killed entrants.

Despite the presence of instructors deployed to prevent casualties.

The possibility I had been holding onto shattered.

The drastic changes in the underground floor were not part of a planned test.

It was a conspiracy. A plot planned with malicious intent to kill the entrants.

Then I, too, was just a target to be killed in that guy's eyes.

I drew as much mana as I could, filling the pact seal to its limit.

"Heh... black hair... Well, I'll ask just to confirm."

The guy suddenly asked, "Where is your god?"

God?

What nonsense.

"I don't believe in gods. Devils, maybe."

No matter how much I prayed, the gods never answered.

His patron devil Seir answered just by calling.

Not only that, she even filled me with mana, telling me not to go around getting beaten up.

Why believe in gods? It made more sense for me to believe in the Devil who generously provided me with mana.

"Hmm, is that so? Well, fine. I'm just doing what I was told. Then..."

The guy who had been doing strange stretches suddenly stopped.

"You can just die too."

The moment the guy said that in a cheerful tone.

I saw it.

What did I see?

A blade.

What kind, you ask?

One flying right towards me, of course.

To whom?

To me, obviously.

In a straight line, filled with killing intent.

It was slow.

The blade approached.

Slowly.

I needed to dodge.

Contrary to my thoughts, my body didn’t budge.

My body was frozen.

Only my thoughts were free.

Ah, could this be...

My life flashing before my eyes?

Strangely, what flashed through my mind at that moment wasn't my entire life but a conversation from not long ago.

─Creating magic by borrowing a Devil's power can be seen as starting with which of your patron Devil’s authorities you want to imitate.

The first day.

My consciousness regressed to that time when I had talked with Fiona in the library.