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Chapter 40




Chapter 40. Do you know about the wyvern that became a meal?
Thud, thud.
Raindrops began to fall one by one onto the ground.
The training ground in the middle of the night.
Amidst the darkness, only the streetlights faintly illuminated the area.
In the midst of it all.
‘Paralysis.’
I tried to move my body, but in vain. I couldn’t budge an inch, not even a finger.
It felt as if I were trapped in a prison perfectly fitted to my body.
‘This monster-like—’
It wasn’t due to any spell, but simply the sheer force of magic that bound me so tightly.
At that moment, a voice echoed.
“Professor Felina said that you seem to be hiding something.”
Indeed, that’s it.
‘It must be because of the Ordeal’s Crown.’
As I mentioned, Professor Felina has been keeping a close eye on me for quite some time.
For a whole month.
Yet, at this particular time, it wasn’t Professor Felina but the principal who came to see me?
There could only be one reason: the Ordeal’s Crown.
However, the principal didn’t mention the Ordeal’s Crown. Instead, he asked a more general question.
“I will ask.”
His mouth slowly opened.
“What are you hiding?”
His deep, sunken eyes looked at me.
His eyes, which seemed to carry the weight of time, looked different from the ones I saw in the grand hall and even from a moment ago.
They were oppressive and—
violent.
Was that all?
“Don’t overthink it. Depending on your actions, this place could become your grave.”
An overwhelming killing intent suddenly enveloped the surroundings!
Crack!
A deep furrow appeared at my feet right after that.
For example, this meant: if you don’t speak the truth, I will tear you apart without hesitation.
‘Huff.’
I took a deep breath.
Could there be a moment more powerless than this?
‘There were many.’
There were many.
When I was in Class 1, I flew around without knowing the height of the world, but before that, I was generally powerless.
This level of powerlessness didn’t even make the list.
Even in such a situation, there were things I could still do.
For example.
Bang!
A wave of magical energy spread out around me.
The raindrops, which had been drizzling, were scattered by the shockwave.
My body regained its freedom right after that.
I moved my limbs a few times and looked at the principal.
“It seems you came because of the Ordeal’s Crown. I did handle the rats, as you said.”
To be honest, it wasn’t a secret worth hiding.
It would be better if it remained hidden, but it wasn’t a heavy secret that would lead to my grave.
Upon hearing my words, the principal looked at me with a dazed expression.
Soon, a sigh escaped his lips.
“Huh...”
I couldn’t tell what it meant.
It could have been a sigh of surprise because he didn’t expect me to speak so frankly, or because I had shaken off his pressure.
However, from what he said next, I realized it was both.
“You’re not hiding anything? According to Professor Felina, you were hiding even that meager power. No, it’s not meager. To shake off my magical prison... Huh.”
Magical prison.
It wasn’t a spell.
It was probably a technique that used the nature of magic, similar to the collision method I use.
Anyway.
I looked at the principal calmly.
“Do you have more questions?”
“More questions... Will you answer honestly?”
The principal’s tone had become more relaxed.
The weight in his voice remained, but the distance I felt had somehow diminished.
I replied, looking at him.
“It depends on the question.”
“What if I force you to speak?”
The principal’s magical energy subtly enveloped the surroundings.
I stared directly into his eyes.
“Anytime. However, you won’t get any answers if you do.”
“Haha.”
The principal burst into laughter right after that.
His shoulders, which had been trembling slightly, gradually increased in amplitude, and his laughter grew louder.
Swish!
The rain, which had been drizzling, turned into a downpour, completely enveloping the space.
Despite this, the principal’s laughter continued. Then, at some point—
It stopped.
Everything stopped.
The principal’s laughter, the rain pouring from the sky, everything.
It felt as if the world had paused.
However, I soon realized it wasn’t.
“Fine, I’ll make you spill everything you have today.”
The raindrops suspended in mid-air.
The principal’s eyes, visible between them, were not just sharp but vicious.
When I met his gaze, I understood the path he had walked as a magician.
‘A war mage.’
He was different from the war mages of the present era.
The principal’s era was a time of constant warfare, where not a single day passed without bloodshed.
The war mages who survived back then were not just a handful, a dozen, or a hundred. They were weapons that had massacred tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of lives.
The weight of that bloodshed was overwhelming, even to me.
However.
I met his gaze head-on.
Then, I slowly gathered my magical energy.
In the midst of this, a thought crossed my mind.
‘Should I not have eaten the wyvern?’
When I devoured it, I knew it was a problem.
My previous life was not smooth, but this one was even more so.
Perhaps, it was because the goblins from the shallow hills came out into the Great Plateau.
The goblins are the first to be hit by arrows, so they stand out on the Great Plateau.
Anyway.
‘If I can get through this safely, I’ll raise a motherless wyvern.’
It would make me feel better.
However, did my wish come true?
“Huh, huh.”
The principal’s shoulders suddenly trembled.
It was a different kind of laughter from the first.
How should I describe it?
If the first laughter was out of sheer surprise, this one was out of genuine amusement.
His face was filled with a deep smile, as if he couldn’t contain his joy.
He burst into laughter, looking at the sky, then suddenly stiffened and looked at me.
I soon realized.
The principal was a rare madman.
He would smile, then become serious, then smile again, and then become serious again, changing his expression several times in a short moment.
When I thought about it, the principal spoke.
“That gaze wasn’t bad.”
“...Ah, yes.”
“Your current gaze is like a rotten goblin’s eye. However, the gaze you had a moment ago was quite useful. It wasn’t bad.”
“...”
Have you ever seen a mad dog in the heat of summer? I have. And his eyes were not much different from the principal’s.
The principal’s words didn’t end there.
“You’re right.”
“About what...”
“You won’t be able to speak. Quiet madmen like you can’t come to their senses even when beaten. I’ll only hear mad ramblings until the end.”
“...”
While it was fortunate that he was retracting his words, it was a rather unsettling reason.
Anyway.
“Let’s do it this way.”
“How...”
“Just ask. You’ll only answer what you can. How about that? Then you won’t ramble, right?”
“...Ah, yes.”
It was the principal who was rambling, but I nodded readily.
The principal then untied his neatly tied tie, took off his coat, and laid it on the ground, then sat down.
He looked like a rough field mage.
He lacked the solemnity and weight from before, but a fierce aura filled the void.
Perhaps, this was the principal’s true self, stripped of his title.
Probably, it was.
However, a question suddenly came to mind.
“Then, let me ask first...”
“Do you know about the wyvern that became a meal?”
“...?”
“No, continue.”
I asked just in case, as the timing was perfect.
The principal looked at me with a pitying gaze, then continued.
“Junior.”
“I’m a student. You’re the principal.”
“I’ll beat you if you ramble. If I’m your senior, you’re my junior. There are no teachers on the battlefield.”
This isn’t a battlefield, and I don’t have a teacher, so there are no seniors or juniors.
However, the word of the stronger one is the law.
“Yes, senior.”
I looked at the principal with a rare polite attitude.
The principal then said.
“What kind of people were they? From the way you handled them, it seems you have a grudge. You must know their identities, right?”
I stared directly into the principal’s eyes.
The same eyes of a war mage as before.
However, this time, the hostility in his gaze was not directed at me but at the unknown intruders.
I asked cautiously.
“What... What will you do?”
“I’ll crush them.”
“...”
“The Emperor will also grant permission. I need to gather my old comrades.”
The old comrades were probably war mages or knights who survived that era.
This showed the principal’s, or rather, the senior’s affection for the academy.
So, I answered honestly without hiding anything.
“Deculan.”
“Do you know about the mage who became a meal for the wyvern?”
“...No.”
“You might be the one.”
‘Perceptive old man.’
The old war mages were not ordinary forces.
Regardless of individual strength, they were specialized in mass slaughter. One might be manageable, but a group could easily cause a terrible disaster.
‘If they were all sent to Deculan, it would have been a spectacle.’
It wasn’t a lie.
Bimarga moved because of Deculan.
Anyway.
“Bimarga.”
“Both?”
“One is Bimarga. The other is a shadowy alchemical engineer named Phryzen.”
“Evidence?”
“Do you want me to feed it to you?”
“Rude brat.”
That’s what I would say.
Anyway, the conversation continued like this.
The senior asked, and I answered.
Some questions were easy to answer, while others were difficult to answer even if I wanted to.
However, I tried to answer all the questions.
It wasn’t just because the senior was a rare madman.
How should I put it?
The senior seemed genuinely angry.
After removing the seed of malice once, I realized that holding back is not good.
Even if one doesn’t realize they are holding back, it accumulates inside.
Most importantly.
‘He must have endured for most of his life, and that’s why he rarely goes mad like this.’
In a way, he had a more challenging life than me.
I lived a generally satisfying life, proud of my aptitude, but what about the war mages of that era?
They were all dragged into the war once they mastered magic.
If they couldn’t use magic properly, they held a spear. If they could, they wielded a spear and sword, using magic until it was depleted, and then used the spear and sword.
That’s why.
However, why?
“Junior.”
“Yes, senior.”
“Do you know about the mage who became a meal for the goblins? Why do I sense a disrespectful intention in your answer?”
In the middle of the Q&A, the senior looked at me with suspicion.
I smiled, trying to appear trustworthy.
“It’s... It’s a mistake, senior.”
To build trust.
“Don’t smile with rotten goblin eyes.”
“Ah, yes.”
It was probably a smile that invited a beating.
Anyway, we continued the Q&A.
From why I entered the academy to my goal of setting up a library in the future.
I revealed everything, excluding sensitive topics like regression.
During this, the senior would sometimes sneer like a mad dog at an ant and sometimes nod with interest.
It was a different flow from when the senior first came to see me, but I didn’t mind.
I didn’t mind the rain either.
When the conversation was almost over, the senior got up.
“Junior, you said you needed a ticket to the Laphite Library?”
I nodded.
Could he be giving it to me as a gift?
‘Indeed, the world is about blood ties, regional ties, and school ties! Since we are seniors and juniors, it’s a school tie.’
Just as I was about to marvel at the greatness of school ties—
The senior said.
“I have one request. I don’t know why you need the ticket to Laph