LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 77 - …Are They Not Leaving?
Chapter 77 – …Are They Not Leaving?
The youngest of the four siblings, Igor, was sitting in the waiting room.
His huge body was easily noticeable, even though he was just breathing quietly.
“It’s nothing by my standards.”
Igor muttered softly.
“What are your standards?”
The third one, Cassel, who was leaning against the wall and standing at an angle, responded to his mumbling.
“I could just beat them up if I met them. They have no manners. They look like they would snap in half if I folded them.”
“When did you ever fight a mage while covering for me?”
“What would you do if I didn’t cover for you?”
Igor’s voice rose sharply like a thorn. Cassel also narrowed his eyes a bit.
“…Igor, why are you angry with me?”
“Are you kidding me? You saw how he acted in the press room. I should have cut his throat right there…”
As he grumbled, a vein popped out on Igor’s forehead.
He was in a great mood when he heard the news that he could participate in the preliminary round as a condition for a special pardon, but his mood changed as soon as he saw Flan’s attitude in the press room.
He was now walking a tightrope between reason and instinct.
That’s when it happened.
“I don’t like it.”
Ella, who had been sitting quietly until then, opened her mouth. Igor looked at her with surprise and asked.
“Right? You think so too, Ella?”
“I’m talking about you. Just calm down.”
“…”
The four siblings of the Knight Department gathered together.
They had been excluded from the original plan due to disciplinary action, but they were able to participate in the preliminaries as planned, so it seemed like a perfect situation at first glance.
…But that only scratched Ella’s nerves.
“What kind of confidence is that?”
Three of the representatives had been urgently replaced.
It would have been a joyous occasion for the Magic Department.
But Flan rejected that ‘luck’.
He was confident enough to win that he acted like that.
The two sides were different grades to begin with.
And yet he had that kind of attitude, he did that kind of thing. It was extremely unpleasant for Ella.
Cassel opened his mouth, looking at Ella’s mood.
“Ella, don’t worry too much.”
“What?”
“In the end, the result is what matters. No matter how flashy they are, they’ll be ridiculed more if they lose.”
Shrugging his shoulders, Cassel continued.
“We just have to win, right?”
“That’s not wrong. But.”
Ella slowly got up from her seat.
“We can’t just win normally.”
Even though she closed her eyes, the siblings felt like she was looking at them.
“He’s a bit smart, you know.”
“…?”
The rest of the siblings tilted their heads. Smart… Was he talking about that guy?
Cassel opened his mouth.
“Smart, you mean that guy Flan?”
“Yeah.”
Finally, Igor slammed the wall and interrupted.
“Give him to me. I’ll smash his head.”
One of the walls in the waiting room collapsed, but Ella didn’t care and said.
“You guys are so naive. Like kids.”
“…?”
The other three had questions on their faces.
“Flan rang the bell quickly. You must have seen it.”
“Yeah.”
“He cut off all the benefits we could get. Why he disappeared for three days, what he did with Yvonne, why he made that kind of statement… He made sure none of those questions and answers were recorded.”
Ella fiddled with her sword and said.
“And when I saw the dean’s face, he seemed to trust him a lot. But it’s not just the dean, you saw how many mages were wandering around in the morning, right?”
“Yeah. They annoyed me, so I beat up a few.”
As if it were an honorable medal, Cassel raised his hand with the handcuffs on it.
Ella asked him.
“If you saw, do you know why I said he was smart?”
“…I don’t know. Maybe because he’s the most rude ever?”
“He knows how to get people’s attention. That’s what makes him smart.”
Igor, who had been grinning, grimaced even more.
“So what? He’s just a rat. We can catch him anytime…”
“…Igor.”
Ella uttered Igor’s name.
Her hand, which was holding the sword, was clenched tightly. She was also desperately trying to restrain herself.
“Haaah.”
Igor finally turned his head slightly.
“Looking at the results of the magic department’s hunting competition, they shouldn’t be interested in the sword magic competition. But look how hot they are now.”
“…Hmm.”
Cassel tilted his head.
“But isn’t Igor right in the end? If we win, their interest will cool down anyway, right?”
“It’s dangerous, you idiot, to have interest in the first place.”
Ella stabbed Cassel’s chest with the hilt of her sword.
“It’s unacceptable that they watch with interest and have the possibility of having hope. We have to cut them off completely. Got it?”
“Ah, yeah, I get it now.”
Cassel nodded.
“Then why don’t you tell me. How do we cut them off… How much do we have to step on them?”
“No, I’m the one who asks questions.”
Ella’s body emitted a cold aura.
She asked quietly, looking at the three of them.
“Is there anyone among us who is afraid of punishment…?”
◈
I didn’t just spend time teaching the three of them in the World of Painting. I wanted to solve the problem of mana quantity, and I worked hard for it.
[ Master, don’t you think we’ve gotten closer? ]
The result was this.
The amount of mana increased honestly, and the response with Hera also increased greatly.
Thus, many of the factors that I felt frustrated with were recently being resolved at a rapid pace.
And finally, we stood in the knight department’s arena.
The preliminary round had begun.
But then.
“Ouch!”
With a thud, Becky bit her hip.
It looked like the knight department’s representative had pushed her.
“What, did you have it? You’re so small.”
Igor.
That’s what was written on the knight student’s badge.
I deliberately didn’t interfere with the situation.
Becky needed to get used to this kind of psychological warfare.
But Louis stepped forward angrily. He blocked Igor’s front.
“Hey, you pushed her on purpose just now.”
“If it was on purpose, she would be dead. Why? Does it look like a joke?”
“You…”
“Attention, everyone.”
In the midst of the two men’s tense confrontation, a firm voice separated them.
It was the regular knight who was in charge of the progress.
“…Stop fighting until the match starts. Especially you, Igor.”
He naturally inserted himself in the middle and made the distance between the two representatives widen naturally.
While Louis and Igor’s eyes were still locked, the regular knight opened his mouth again.
“I’ll check the safety. You all got the return stones, right?”
He started to check the safety of the representatives, and I examined the arena closely.
I was interested in that.
First of all, the height difference between the arena and the audience seats was huge.
The size was about three times that of the arena where I had fought in the combat event, and the audience could see the two teams’ appearance at a glance from a very high place.
It was a place designed only for the audience’s fun.
The noise was constantly pouring down from above, but I didn’t bother to look up.
I don’t allow myself to look up at someone.
‘Did they put a lot of effort into it?’
Rather, my interest was directed to the ground.
The countless spells that were alive and breathing deep under the dirt floor… This arena must have various effects.
“…Why don’t they put this in the magic department?”
As I was about to dissect some of the spells.
“Hey. You.”
The regular knight who was checking me glared at me.
I frowned with regret as I came out of my thoughts.
“Return stone. Did you bring it?”
The eyes of our representatives, as well as the knight department’s representatives, turned to me.
I answered calmly.
“I don’t need it. That kind of thing.”
I presented the oath paper that I had in my pocket.
It was a rather shocking piece of paper that said I was okay with losing my life in the preliminaries.
It was possible, but no one ever chose this option. I went out of my way to find and adopt it.
It was not only a matter of faith in myself, but also a matter of these small details that would turn the tables on each department later.
“You’re quite arrogant.”
The regular knight smirked and accepted the oath paper as if it was nothing.
After my inspection was over, the ceiling of the arena covered the spectators’ seats like a mirror, making them invisible.
‘One-way transparency.’
The spectators would still be able to see us.
I wondered if this was a consideration for the players or an element for the viewers’ enjoyment.
At the same time, several papers folded like sparrows flew in the air.
When I looked at them, they turned out to be record sheets.
They would deliver the situation to those who were waiting outside the arena.
I felt the difference in scale from the first event.
“I’ll explain the preliminary round.”
The regular knight opened his mouth solemnly.
“In ten minutes, the arena will be divided into two areas.”
Random.
At his words, Becky, who was next to me, swallowed her saliva.
“The test method is simple. Monsters will appear in stages, and killing them will earn points according to their rank.”
His explanation continued for a while.
It was a lot of information, but the gist was simple.
We would add up the hunting scores and rank each team, and the monsters would get stronger and appear in each other’s areas in stages.
Of course, the battles between the representatives were also allowed in this process.
“From the fifth stage, the battles between the representatives are allowed, but… be moderate. Got it? Moderate.”
The regular knight’s gaze turned to the four siblings.
The knight with ‘Cassel’ written on his badge shrugged and answered.
“I got it. Why do you keep looking at us like that?”
“I’m asking because I don’t know. Remember that you guys are special pardons. Don’t do anything that would disgrace the knights.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
This clause was emphasized twice more to the four siblings. It was not hard to guess what kind of behavior they had shown before.
The regular knight handed me a bracelet. And to Ella.
“Now I’ll explain the exception clause. If you take off the bracelet of the opposite leader without causing any injury, you’ll get 300 points.”
It was an absurd level of scoring, but everyone just listened with one ear and let it go with the other.
To take off the bracelet without causing any injury.
That part seemed impossible. But I was rather interested.
“Finally, giving up is not allowed. Either hide well until the end of the game, or get your head smashed by a monster and be sent back.”
The explanation ended like that.
We parted ways with the other representatives without exchanging any words and went to the east and west sides of the arena.
“Are we really doing this? Why am I standing in the arena? Huh?”
As we walked, I heard a restless voice. It was Becky’s.
“Stop talking nonsense.”
“Trixie… Aren’t you nervous?”
Then, blue eyes turned to Becky.
Trixie asked in a low voice.
“You. When are you going to tell us?”
“Uh? Oh. I misspoke, okay?”
“You won’t admit you don’t know. Agora board.”
“…Eh.”
Becky started to sweat profusely.
She couldn’t meet Trixie’s eyes.
“Fi-fine. I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you~”
“Tell me.”
“If we pass the preliminaries as the first place, then I’ll tell you for real. Okay?”
“….”
Trixie looked at Becky as if she was out of her mind.
She soon sighed deeply.
“Whatever.”
The two girls walked ahead, exchanging incomprehensible chatter.
I asked calmly.
“What are you… so noisy about?”
Becky turned around and waved her hand hastily.
“Uh, uh? No! It’s because we’re nervous about the preliminaries!”
“Nervous, huh.”
─The preliminaries will begin now.
There was no time to say anything else as the preliminaries started.
I silently watched the rapidly changing scenery of the arena.
Shaping, harmonizing, manipulating… It was an interesting change. I didn’t miss a single movement.
Lively flowers and trees sprouted and formed a forest, and a very thick line divided the arena into two sections.
Even the weather was reversed.
As if to cheer on the representative players, clusters of light gently descended from the mirror ceiling.
The concept of ‘arena’ had long been transcended, and it was almost like moving to a different place.
Meanwhile, I felt the strong presence of the dean of the magic department, Conette.
─The first stage will begin.
“Flan.”
After the landscape was fixed, Louis called my name.
The other two also fixed their eyes on me.
“Give us instructions. What should we do first?”
I quietly took one of the nearby saplings as a material.
I manipulated its stem at will and made a chair.
I sat down quietly and took out a paper and a pen.
“Start hunting. You must have memorized the rules of the preliminaries.”
“Hmm, we need more specific instructions. How do we divide the roles? You’re the leader, right?”
“Do as you please. I’ll grade you from here.”
I also added one more thing.
“You’d better drop any half-hearted attitude. If we don’t advance to the main round as the first place… I’ll gladly forfeit.”
There was a brief silence.
“….”
The three looked at me blankly.
They exchanged glances.
They stared at me again.
I made a face and said.
“…Aren’t you going?”