Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Chapter 7. Never Stop Challenging

‘What?’

Kawin stared at the cube in his hand for a long while.

Quite some time had passed since his test began, yet nothing had happened.

“Pass.”

“Pass.”

The other students’ magic activated only seconds after they grabbed their cubes.

Naturally, only Kawin’s line remained backed up.

“What’s going on? How long do we have to wait?”

“Can’t you just fail him?”

“I want to go inside already!”

The surrounding complaints might have shaken anyone else.

Instead, Kawin calmed himself.

‘Something’s strange.’

Gripping the cube should activate one’s innate magic.

Since Kawin belonged to the Lightning branch, sparks should have appeared in front of his chest.

Yet no matter how much time passed, nothing changed.

‘But they’re not failing me either. What’s happening?’

As Kawin pondered, a shadow fell across his face.

Not because his expression darkened.

An actual shadow was spreading over him.

“...!”

Kawin slowly looked toward the sky, deep in thought.

Then a tiny spark suddenly flickered in front of him.

Crackle!

“Pass!”

Kawin barely received a passing judgment.

As he walked toward the main building, the sun that had been hidden above his head cautiously peeked back out.

* * *

“Huh?”

Spiral-shaped eyes that seemed capable of sucking someone in.

A woman dressed neatly in a two-piece suit hurriedly adjusted her horn-rimmed glasses.

“Headmaster. Just now...”

“Ha-ha! I’m watching too.”

Her gaze moved toward a tiny table.

A miniature soldier no larger than a paring knife.

Its mouth moved exactly like a human’s.

“The cube didn’t activate, yet a spark appeared?”

“Yes. Logically speaking... that shouldn’t be possible.”

The two were located at the highest point of the building.

Her gaze followed Kawin as he approached the main building.

“He didn’t create a magic circle or recite an incantation. So how did he construct a spell?”

“Hmm. Who knows? Perhaps he rubbed his palms together furiously before taking the test.”

“Headmaster!”

“Ha-ha! Don’t glare at me like that. You might shatter my precious puppet.”

“Stop teasing me and tell me. What exactly did that platinum-blond young man do?”

The miniature soldier rotated its body exactly ninety degrees like a soldier performing a drill.

Its gaze naturally turned toward the window.

“Oh my! The weather cleared up quickly.”

“...Are you changing the subject again?”

“When that handsome young man was holding the cube, storm clouds were gathering.”

“...!”

Her spiral pupils rotated once.

The cubes reacted to their users’ mana.

Mana at the First-Circle level triggered one almost the instant it was held.

Conversely, the greater the mana, the longer it took to ‘verify’ it.

‘Don’t tell me, just by holding the cube...’

He had summoned clouds capable of producing lightning?

Making sparks and calling forth nature itself were things on completely different levels.

The illusion mage stood frozen with a bewildered expression.

Valeria vigorously shook her head.

“That’s absurd. Summoning clouds just by holding a cube, that would require...”

Someone at the level of a Magic Tower Master.

At that ridiculous conclusion, Valeria shut her own mouth.

“Ha-ha! For now, I too intend to call it a coincidence. However...”

Creak. Creak.

The miniature soldier turned back toward Valeria.

Goosebumps covered the back of Valeria’s hand.

Because the tiny soldier’s lips had curled into a grotesque grin.

“There is a saying I rather like. A coincidence that repeats is no coincidence at all.”

Wouldn’t you agree?

Kawin Anper.

Heir to Lightning.

Purple haze rose from the miniature soldier’s tiny eyes.

* * *

Kawin slowly entered the main building.

He recalled the contents of the grimoire Dharma had left behind.

[Fucking bastards. Weak as they are, all they know how to do is scheme together.]

[Were you truly so afraid of our power that you would corrupt the very truth itself?]

[The moment this book is completed, I will vanish from the world.]

Those words had clearly been written in the grimoire.

The final message of Archmage Dharma, almost like his stream of consciousness had been preserved exactly as it was.

A history of the past that had never appeared even in the original [Swordmaster of the Heavenly Slaughter Star].

One thing was clear.

‘I can’t reveal all the power I have.’

It had happened unimaginably long ago.

But could he really say with certainty that the ‘conspiracy’ Dharma mentioned had completely ended?

The gradual decline of Lightning magic over time was suspicious as well.

And so Kawin reached a conclusion.

‘Hide my claws until I’m certain.’

Kawin had passed the entrance test.

But the small spark that appeared before his chest had not come from the cube. Kawin had created it himself.

When a sudden shadow fell over him and he looked up at the sky,

his heart had nearly dropped into his stomach.

Storm clouds powerful enough to unleash a tempest were approaching.

It seemed the cube had reacted wildly to Kawin’s mana.

What if the forces that had opposed Dharma still remained within the Academy?

And what if word of this test reached them?

Crackle!

That was why Kawin created the spark.

A simple deception.

No one would imagine that a First-Circle mage had cast magic without a magic circle or incantation.

Braille, the true language unique to magic.

Only Kawin, who could wield it freely, could pull off such a thing.

‘I think I fooled the students well enough, but what about the professors?’

There was no way to know.

Still, Kawin decided to keep it simple.

If a time came when he had no choice but to reveal his claws, he would gladly swing them.

* * *

“Everyone, welcome to Tesca Academy! We sincerely welcome you!”

Unlike the clean white exterior of the building, the interior was decorated rather lavishly.

Colorful magic stones filled the ceiling, while the weapons and grimoires of past heroes were displayed endlessly along the walls.

The red carpet stretching from the entrance to the auditorium was impressive as well.

Whatever magic had been placed upon it, not even the slightest stain remained after three hundred students had walked over it.

[FIGHT!FIGHT!FIGHT!]

Beneath the enormous banner displaying the Academy rules.

Rows of professors stood across the platform.

Normally, students would have looked upon them with admiration.

But every freshman found themselves swallowing nervously instead.

“Gulp.”

“Why does there not seem to be a single normal person among them?”

“Of course not. They say Tesca Academy is packed with lunatic warmongers.”

“Fuck. Just looking at the professors makes my future feel hopeless.”

“Just watch. I’m graduating no matter what.”

Some clenched their fists and stoked their fighting spirit.

An Academy where graduating was brutally difficult.

That was Tesca.

Out of three hundred new students, barely ten would graduate in one piece.

A mad Academy that deliberately encouraged students to fight each other and, when necessary, sent them out to battle monsters as cadet soldiers.

Yet there was a reason students continued to seek out Tesca Academy despite all that.

“Once I graduate, I’ll become an Initiate too.”

Normally, graduating from an Academy did not immediately grant one official certification as a mage.

Only after accumulating a certain amount of achievement as a mage did one earn the rank of Initiate.

But there were exactly two places in the empire.

Places where graduation itself automatically granted Initiate status.

The Imperial Academy and Tesca Academy.

“It’s going to be fucking brutal from here on out, isn’t it?”

“Obviously. Why else would they certify us the moment we graduate?”

Perhaps to shake off their nerves, the students chatted noisily among themselves.

Kawin simply stared silently at the professors standing on the platform.

More precisely, he was ‘sensing’ them.

[Passive: Electro-Perception]

So professors really were different.

Even though they were keeping their mana contained within their bodies, the amount leaking out was anything but ordinary.

Especially the female professor acting as master of ceremonies.

‘Valeria, was it?’

Kawin had already seen those spiral-shaped eyes once before.

The gaze that had watched him from the highest floor of the main building.

Those eyes seemed to pierce straight through him, sharper than the midday sun.

Looking into those endlessly rotating pupils almost made him feel as if he were already trapped in an illusion.

Perhaps that was why.

Every student except Kawin had difficulty even meeting Valeria’s eyes.

“I assume all of you know our Academy rules.”

Her voice was wet and heavy, like stepping into mud on a rainy day.

Dreamlike, yet never pleasant, it wrapped around the auditorium.

“Students may initiate a Challenge anywhere and at any time, provided both sides agree.”

“A Challenge requires at least one witness. Any Challenge conducted without a witness is invalid.”

“Afterward, the witness must report the outcome to the supervising professor.”

“Seniors and juniors may Challenge each other with mutual consent.”

“Students and professors may also Challenge one another with mutual consent.”

The freshmen’s faces turned pale.

Students could actually fight professors?

Naturally, no professor was likely to agree, but the fact that such a rule existed at all was insane.

“So if any student has a complaint about me, feel free to issue a Challenge at any time.”

For the first time, Valeria gave them an alluring smile.

But only the sound of nervous swallowing filled the auditorium.

“When both parties declare a Challenge, magical safety measures activate. That is why your uniforms are imbued with mana.”

You won’t die, but the pain will still feel as though you are dying.

If you’re unlucky, you might end up half-crippled.

With those final words, Valeria stepped away from the front of the auditorium.

‘No wonder everyone starts beating the hell out of each other from the moment they enroll.’

Winning Challenges earned points.

Those points accumulated and were reflected in the end-of-semester ranking.

No matter how well someone scored on exams, they could never rank first without Challenge points.

One way or another, the students would end up roaming around like wild dogs.

“I have a question.”

A heated voice came from one side.

Clearly someone descended from a fire-attribute bloodline.

A red-haired young man asked boldly,

“If a freshman defeats a senior or a professor, we get more points, right?”

Some students grimaced, apparently thinking he was showing off.

Most, however, simply watched silently.

The top two students had taken the oath during the entrance ceremony moments earlier.

The one asking the question was Chiron Valkar, this year’s second-ranked freshman.

“Of course.”

Valeria answered the freshman’s mild provocation with a smile.

“Defeat a senior and you receive ten times the points. Defeat a professor and you receive a hundred times as many. You may skip grades or even graduate early.”

“Thank you for the answer.”

As though he fully expected that to happen soon.

Chiron Valkar bowed politely.

Then someone else raised a hand.

Valeria’s eyes widened a little further.

“What are you curious about?”

The one raising his hand was none other than Kawin Anper.

“Where do I go if I want to see the grimoire?”

“If you mean the empire’s treasure, I would say you are already looking at it.”

Valeria closed her mouth after giving that cryptic answer.

Kawin asked nothing further and fell into thought.

“Then, until the very moment you graduate, I hope you never stop issuing Challenges.”

* * *

After the entrance ceremony, students were given the supplies they needed.

Uniforms imbued with magic and various books.

Aside from basic daily necessities, everything was provided by the Academy.

‘Not that they’re being generous, considering how much admission costs.’

There was no ordinary way Kawin could have afforded the fee.

Especially not as a member of the fallen House Anper.

Then the Prios Merchant Company had conveniently visited that very viscount’s house while holding an admission application.

It was like a ripe pumpkin rolling straight into his lap.

Kawin bowed politely three times in the direction of the Prios Merchant Company.

And just as he was about to raise his head,

something hard came flying toward him.

Thwack!

Kawin reflexively caught the object and looked down at what he held.

“This is...”

A long white object.

Both ends were rounded.

“A bone?”

It looked considerably harder than ordinary bone, but that was certainly its shape.

Kawin turned toward the direction it had come from.

“Give it back! You crazy bastards!”

Three freshmen were surrounding and harassing another student.

The victim wore a black mask, and the pouch in his hand bore the mark of a skull.

‘A necromancer?’

One had snatched away the skull pouch,

another restrained him around the waist,

and the third stood behind him, covering his eyes with both hands.

Kawin’s face twisted sharply at the sight.

“Hey.”

“...?”

“What do you want?”

Kawin pronounced each word slowly and clearly.

“Don’t cover someone else’s eyes.”

The three sneered at him.

“What the hell are you saying, retard?”

“Keep walking while I’m still asking nicely.”

“Want us to do the same thing to you?”

That was enough conversation.

Kawin hurled the bone in his hand.

Whoosh!

The rapidly flying bone struck the forehead of the one covering the victim’s eyes with perfect accuracy.

CRACK!

“Aaagh!”

The remaining two jumped in surprise.

“Y-you! You bastard!”

“You with this guy?”

Kawin shook his head.

“No.”

Since he had already moved his neck, he rolled his head once as though stretching.

“I just hate seeing someone’s eyes covered.”