Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Chapter 16. Savior

“Ha-ha!”

The miniature soldier shrugged at Kawin.

“Judging by your expression, something came to mind!”

“Yes. Thank you, Headmaster.”

Kawin bowed toward the miniature soldier.

His head felt clear, as if thick fog had been sucked away by a vacuum.

It was a hint Dorothy would never have given without goodwill toward Kawin.

Even so, one question remained.

“I did catch Astallon’s spy, but is it really all right to give this information only to me?”

“Ha-ha! It’s hardly some grand advice. Any mage with enough imagination could have thought of it!”

As though deliberately changing the subject, the miniature soldier suddenly turned toward the window.

“No need to look so grateful, Kawin! My hint is only half of one.”

“Half...?”

“Astallon is Illumina’s eternal enemy! The fact that we uncovered one of their spies will certainly please the imperial family. I’ll personally report to them. I’ll say we caught the spy, but we don’t know who actually caught him.”

“Ah.”

Kawin blinked twice.

Tesca had allowed a spy to enroll.

Then eliminated that spy.

But didn’t know who had done it.

Would the imperial family reward Headmaster Dorothy?

Or punish her?

It was almost...

“Similar to my situation.”

“Ha-ha! This is why I enjoy talking to you, Student Kawin!”

Kawin had entered a forbidden area, but also earned merit.

In a sense, Kawin and Dorothy were in similar positions.

“If Student Kawin hadn’t intervened, Bain was scheduled to be captured next month.”

“What?”

Scheduled to be captured.

The certainty of those words widened Kawin’s eyes.

“It would have been better to catch his contact at the same time, but an unexpected situation occurred.”

“Then...”

Kawin recalled the previous night.

The grand hall of the Academy’s main building.

It was a restricted area carrying heavy penalties, yet the security magic itself had not been especially dense.

As long as one carefully crossed a few lines, there was little chance of being caught.

That was why both he and Astallon’s spy had been able to come and go so easily...

“Ah!”

Only then did Kawin understand.

There had been a reason the security was lax.

It was a trap meant to inflict even greater damage on Astallon!

They hadn’t failed to catch Bain.

They had deliberately allowed him to remain free.

“Then...”

Kawin asked with a slightly apologetic expression.

“Looking at it now, I ruined your plan?”

“Ha-ha! Don’t think of it that way. There was no guarantee our plan would successfully catch his contact anyway. Capturing him while we had the chance was also a good choice.”

Snap!

The miniature soldier turned back toward Kawin.

“The plan didn’t unfold perfectly. But I’m delighted! Tesca Academy’s rising star defeated a Swordmaster Expert! And as a freshman! It feels like we struck first in the battle between the promising talents of the next generation! Hahaha!”

The miniature soldier creaked as it clutched its stomach and laughed.

Kawin had no idea how to respond, so he simply stood there.

“Kawin. I gave you a hint, but I did not give you a method.”

“A method...”

“You’ll understand what I mean soon enough.”

The miniature soldier scampered forward and landed on Kawin’s shoulder.

Then whispered in a tiny voice.

“I cannot officially take a position. But in my heart, I’ll be rooting for you to obtain what you want.”

The miniature soldier winked playfully.

Kawin closed his eyes for a moment.

Then used his specialty.

But,

‘Pointless.’

The miniature soldier had neither breathing nor the distinctive scent of a person.

It had been a long time since Kawin met someone whose sincerity he could not read.

A short while later, the light in the miniature soldier’s eyes went out.

Dorothy’s puppetry had ended.

“...”

Kawin looked down at the miniature soldier for a moment.

Without mana, it was nothing more than a toy.

A very, very simple and childish toy.

Which meant manipulating such a toy like a person required mana far beyond normal standards.

‘What kind of person is Headmaster Dorothy?’

The original novel had never described the headmaster in detail.

Only that the puppets he displayed during the war were terrifyingly powerful.

Even his real name and appearance were never directly revealed.

Kawin had obtained one grimoire, but he still couldn’t imagine defeating Dorothy in a fight.

‘Doesn’t matter. Wasn’t I already living on borrowed time?’

If Dorothy wanted to kill him, he would already be dead.

Even if Dorothy merely intended to watch him for now, nothing changed.

If he failed to obtain the grimoire, then whether he died to the protagonist or some hidden force made no difference.

Therefore,

‘I’ll find and decipher the grimoire as soon as possible.’

Click.

Kawin carefully placed the miniature soldier on the table.

As Dorothy said, he already had the hint.

Now it was time to find the method.

* * *

“This is too much.”

Clear tears rolled across blotchy skin.

Frasel Illuma.

She stood before a mirror, crying endlessly.

“Why... why now of all times?”

This is too much.

This is just too cruel.

A flush had joined the mess already covering her face.

The inflammation and eruptions that were already there had turned even redder.

Her face had always been bad, but now it was impossible to show anyone.

“I finally met some decent people.”

A sigh heavier than iron slipped from her lips.

There was only one reason she could imagine for why her skin had worsened.

‘It’s because of that Challenge.’

During her Challenge with Kawin.

His Lightning magic had struck Frasel’s mask.

A blow powerful enough to briefly dislodge a mask firmly fixed by magic.

It hadn’t particularly hurt, but she had felt a tingling sensation across her entire face.

Then, after a day or two,

“My skin is actually peeling now...”

She didn’t understand the mechanism.

But the surface of her reddened skin was gradually peeling away.

There was still room for things to get even worse?

Even Frasel found it absurd.

But what devastated her most was not her skin.

‘Kawin Anper.’

The only person in the Academy who had seen her true face.

And who had continued treating her exactly the same afterward.

Kawin was the only person who had ever seen her face and then asked to do something together.

Even if that something was beating each other up, Frasel had always longed for such an invitation.

But,

‘If it gets any worse, I won’t be able to keep that promise.’

Forget doing Challenges.

She wasn’t sure she could even continue attending the Academy.

Heat steadily rising.

The flush deepening.

Her skin peeling away.

In the mirror, a ruined monster was crying.

“This is... too cruel!”

She had finally thought she’d made a friend.

When even that single ray of hope seemed ready to shatter, Frasel did something she should never have done.

She tore away the peeling skin with her fingers.

“Aaaah!”

A scream echoed through the Academy dormitory.

“W-what the fuck!”

“What happened?”

“Where did that come from?”

With everyone already on edge because of Astallon’s spy,

students resting in their rooms jumped up and looked outside.

But no further scream came.

“Who was that?”

“It was definitely a woman.”

“Scared the hell out of me...”

From the room where the scream had originated,

Frasel Illuma let out a thin moan.

But it wasn’t a sound of pain.

“H-how can this...!”

Frasel touched her face with trembling fingers.

Normally, doing so was absolutely forbidden.

The growths covering her face were not merely an illness, but the result of a curse.

The empire had used every method available to treat her skin.

Countless physicians, even shamans,

but their conclusion had been painfully unimpressive.

-The symptoms may worsen, so avoid irritating your face as much as possible.

Considering the time and effort spent, it was almost useless advice, yet Frasel followed it desperately.

Even while wearing her mask, she maintained airflow and moisture,

and applied everything said to be good for skin morning and night.

Yet her skin had literally resisted every medicine.

That had unquestionably been true.

And yet,

“Ca... ca... hic!”

She was so shocked that a hiccup escaped before words could.

After calming her rapid breathing, Frasel finally blurted out what she meant to say.

“It got better! It definitely did! Hic!”

A wish she had held all her life but had never once achieved.

The countless inflammations and eruptions on her skin had subsided.

The change was so tiny she had to press close to the mirror to notice it.

But Frasel could unmistakably feel the difference.

“How did this happen?”

Frasel exhaled deeply.

She calmed her pounding heart and began thinking rapidly.

And arrived at the same conclusion as before.

‘It’s the same. Nothing unusual happened except my Challenge with Kawin.’

The flush making the eruptions worse.

The skin peeling away while new skin grew beneath it.

Everything had begun after meeting Kawin.

“Not even imperial mages or healers could do this...”

How had Kawin managed such a miracle?

Frasel had no way of knowing that something similar existed as a treatment method in Kawin’s previous life.

Her normally gentle eyes suddenly sharpened like a wildcat’s as she looked toward the desk.

An Academy calendar sat there.

“W-when is the next Challenge?”

Just maybe.

If she fought Kawin often.

And these symptoms continued improving?

The longing accumulated over the years became fuel, setting her heart ablaze.

Kawin Anper.

Already special simply because he had reached out his hand.

But the Lightning magic Kawin wielded had become another kind of ‘salvation’ for her.

* * *

On the day every student happily enjoyed the unexpected cancellation of classes.

Deep at night, with the thin moon completely hidden by clouds, Kawin appeared inside the main building.

‘The headmaster was right.’

Headmaster Dorothy had said they deliberately allowed the spy to move freely.

That had clearly been true.

Unlike previous nights, hundreds of invisible strands of warning magic densely filled the corridors.

It almost resembled barrier magic rather than simple alarms.

Kawin’s ability,

Electro-Perception, flashed a red warning.

However,

‘Doesn’t matter. This is my specialty.’

Crossing invisible obstacles.

It was something he had done until he was sick of it in his previous life.

Even another mage with the same ‘Electro-Perception’ could never use it as skillfully as Kawin.

A strange feeling came over him.

Almost as though the grimoire’s abilities had some connection to Kawin’s previous life.

‘Focus. This isn’t the time for distractions.’

Kawin closed his eyes and surrendered himself to Electro-Perception.

When dealing with invisible magic, closing his eyes was actually better.

Carefully.

Sometimes he arched his back like a cat,

and sometimes rose onto his toes and hopped lightly.

He was glad nobody was watching.

If someone saw him twisting his entire body to avoid invisible lines, he might die of embarrassment before any Astallon blade could kill him.

“Easy.”

His confidence was justified.

Kawin avoided every alarm spell at once and entered the grand hall.

Every trace of his battle with Bain had vanished overnight as though it had never happened.

The magic-stone lighting and windows had all been replaced, and another sculpture stood where the destroyed statue had been.

“Let’s begin.”

With a strangely solemn expression, Kawin did one thing.

He removed both his shoes and socks.