Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Chapter 9. VIP Room

There are reviews in this world that only Koreans can decipher.

[Tokyo Banana Mansion Review - Rating ★★★★★]

[I’ll write this so only Koreans can understand.

It’s less than thirty seconds from Tokyo Station, but the place is really run-down.

There’s no elevator and it’s on the fifth floor, so if you have lots of luggage you’re screwed.

There were cockroaches, and the bathroom reeks.

It’s ridiculously expensive too!

Never come here!]

They deliberately garble the Korean like a cipher so the accommodation owner cannot delete a bad review.

The reason this suddenly came to mind was,

‘It’s similar.’

The magic circle Valeria had created was remarkably similar.

To Kawin, who understood Braille—the foundation of the magic system—everything was obvious at a glance.

The fact that the Rune characters were a mess,

and how they had to be reverse-engineered.

‘Discard the sentences that don’t work at all and leave only the properly structured Runes.’

Before Valeria had even finished announcing the test,

Kawin had already found the answer.

For Kawin, who read Braille as naturally as breathing, this was child’s play.

[What is the condition that must be observed during a Challenge?]

Kawin walked calmly toward the platform.

Every gaze around him converged on one place.

Including Valeria’s, who had set the problem.

“No way...”

“He already solved it?”

“That’s impossible. No way.”

“Hmph. That dead-battery bastard is just showing off.”

Even Walther Franken, who had become his friend, had wavering eyes at that moment.

‘She said one wrong answer sends you to the very back of the order.’

Whether Kawin noticed the commotion around him or not,

he calmly walked through the crowd of students.

When he finally stepped onto the platform, Valeria asked in a dry voice,

“Coming up here means you’ve solved it?”

“Of course.”

“You understood the rules, didn’t you? If you give one wrong answer, you won’t get another chance until every student here has answered.”

“I won’t be wrong.”

Spin.

Valeria’s pupils rotated once.

‘I can’t read him.’

How long had it been since she last felt like this?

She remembered something from more than ten years ago.

When she had first met this Academy’s headmaster.

She hadn’t even felt this way when some miniature soldier had appeared and asked to shake her hand.

‘You’d better be wrong.’

‘Can he really have solved it?’

Two thoughts stormed through Valeria’s mind.

Illusions were her specialty, yet right now she felt as though she were the one trapped in one.

Kawin Anper.

The man who had stood out since the entrance examination.

Without realizing it, Valeria swallowed once before nodding.

“Then let’s hear your answer.”

She lowered her head toward Kawin.

The motion clearly exposed her pale neck.

Were it not for those endlessly rotating pupils, the sight would have stirred the heart of any man.

But Kawin merely answered in an indifferent voice.

“The answer is a witness. One is required when conducting a Challenge.”

“!”

He had solved it correctly.

He had even perfectly deciphered the sentence hidden within the magic circle.

For an instant, tremendous mana surged from Valeria’s body.

Whoosh!

Then, as if nothing had happened, the energy vanished without a trace.

‘That startled me.’

Kawin showed nothing outwardly, but his enhanced ‘Electro-Perception’ had blared a violent warning for an instant.

That was how powerful the impulse Valeria had felt was.

She wanted to cast an illusion on Kawin and dissect his mind.

But that was hardly something a professor should do to a student who had only just enrolled.

Exercising superhuman restraint without anyone realizing it,

Valeria announced to the students in a trembling voice,

“Kawin Anper. Correct.”

At that shocking declaration, most of the freshmen grabbed their heads.

“Huh?”

“No way!”

“I haven’t even deciphered the first character yet!”

“Was the problem leaked beforehand? Otherwise...!”

“You got a death wish? How dare you suspect the professors?”

“I lost the moment it started...”

“This is cheating!”

Valeria did nothing to quiet the students’ uproar.

Because at that moment, she was the most shaken person there.

She tried not to show it, but her voice trembled on its own.

“Do you know this wasn’t an ordinary magic circle?”

“Yes. You cleverly distorted the Rune characters before making them decipherable.”

“You saw through even that... This is a problem even most Academy professors couldn’t guarantee solving within thirty minutes. And yet...”

How did you do it?

Her spiral pupils stared straight through Kawin.

But Kawin’s answer was remarkably simple.

“House Anper’s magic is insignificant. So I had to find other methods.”

“...You studied other things diligently in place of your lacking mana? Rune language and magical theory, things like that?”

“Yes. More or less.”

Kawin shrugged, and Valeria sank into thought.

She had devised this problem entirely by herself.

She had not told the other professors, not even the headmaster.

So cheating was impossible.

‘Pointy-Ears is going to lose her mind when she hears about this.’

A faint smile appeared on Valeria’s lips.

Then she turned toward the students.

“First place in this test goes to Kawin Anper. As announced, he will receive the finest VIP room in the dormitory.”

“Whoa...”

“It’s real.”

“I’m so jealous.”

“Fuck, I can’t share a bathroom!”

“Damn, hearing that from someone who looks like he never bathes makes me even angrier.”

Valeria looked at the agitated students and asked,

“Do you really have time to complain?”

“...!”

The students immediately focused again and began deciphering the Rune characters.

And Kawin,

Flump!

threw himself onto a bed far too large for one person.

* * *

After arriving at the Academy, Kawin realized something.

This was the perfect time to legally laze around.

He had solved the exam problem first while the other students were stuck doing extra study(?).

With no particular obligation to do anything, he could simply relax and enjoy himself.

But there was one thing he wanted that wasn’t here.

‘I want to read.’

The room had everything necessary for daily life, but no books.

If he needed books, he could simply visit the Academy library.

There was no reason to keep magic books here.

Kawin had only recently discovered the joy of reading with his eyes, so he had developed a craving for books.

Especially the grimoire hidden in the Academy.

That was the book Kawin wanted to read most right now.

Pour.

An assortment of teas, including coffee, had been arranged beside an elegant teapot.

Kawin made himself coffee and took a sip while organizing his thoughts.

One of the reasons he had come to this Academy.

The ‘grimoire.’

-Where do I go if I want to see the grimoire?

Kawin had asked that, and Valeria had answered, ‘You’re already looking at it.’

Already looking at it.

It was true that countless magic books were displayed throughout the Academy’s main building.

Many had barriers around them to prevent people from touching them.

Could one of those be the grimoire?

‘No. That can’t be it.’

Kawin shook his head.

He had already experienced Archmage Dharma’s grimoire.

It had poured forth dazzling radiance for hundreds of years.

Compared to that, the displayed magic books felt almost trivial.

‘There was no lie in Valeria’s answer. The grimoire is in the main building. Which means...’

There was something he was overlooking.

That was the conclusion Kawin reached.

After taking another sip of coffee, Kawin looked around.

Compared to his room at the Anper estate, this place looked a hundred times larger, without much exaggeration.

The bed and furniture were so spotless they practically gleamed.

Seeing the huge, empty wardrobe almost made him feel guilty.

“Maybe I should tell Walther to store his bones in here.”

Kawin chuckled, then suddenly sat down on the floor and closed his eyes.

He began focusing inward.

One enormous ring situated within his body.

The Orbis.

Starting from the twelve o’clock position, he slowly rotated the Orbis’s energy clockwise.

Like a steam engine turning a massive wheel.

The Orbis gradually spun faster.

Whoooom!

When it was spinning as fast as the wheel of a sports car,

sweat poured down Kawin’s body like rain.

This was something he had repeated without missing a single day.

The more he rotated the Orbis like this, the thicker the ring became.

Which meant the amount of mana he could use increased.

“Phew...!”

Kawin lost himself so completely that he had no idea how much time had passed.

When he emerged after washing himself in the enormous shower room, a bell rang outside.

“Kawin! It’s me!”

The voice belonged to Walther.

He smiled brightly when he saw Kawin, then immediately looked as though his country had fallen.

“Holy shit. This place is huge. My room is the size of a rat’s asshole...”

“Really? I thought you would’ve solved it pretty early.”

“I was fast. Even roughly speaking, I’m probably in the top ten percent. It’s just... your VIP treatment is absurdly good.”

“Is that so.”

“You know what’s even crazier? It’s been ten hours since the problem was given, and there are still idiots solving it. Those guys whose brains have regressed along with everything else.”

Kawin chuckled.

Apparently, the ones Walther was talking about were druids.

Idiots whose bodies suffered because their brains were lacking.

After cursing them once more, Walther began looking around.

“Looking for something?”

“Ah. Just a habit. Whenever I enter a new place, I look for hard things first.”

“Don’t tell me... you’re looking for skeleton-soldier parts in my room?”

“Haha. I’m kidding, I’m kidding.”

Kawin quietly listened to Walther’s heartbeat.

His breathing and scent.

All steady.

Walther was serious.

‘Why is everyone around me abnormal?’

Walther’s eyes sparkled as he surveyed the room before asking Kawin,

“Aren’t you curious who came second after you?”

Kawin nodded.

He wasn’t particularly curious, but seeing Walther’s excited face, he didn’t want to disappoint him.

“Frasel Illuma.”

“Illuma? Then...”

Kawin, who had shown little interest until then, suddenly widened his eyes.

A surname connected to the magical empire of Illumina.

Only one group in the empire was permitted to use it.

“Royalty?”

“Yeah. More precisely, the seventh imperial princess.”

Frasel Illuma was the youngest daughter among the emperor’s seven children.

“Professor Valeria said that if a monster hadn’t appeared, she normally would’ve taken first place.”

That very monster asked Walther,

“I saw someone among the freshmen wearing a mask. That woman is Frasel?”

“Right. This Academy is famous for strict clothing and discipline, but I guess they made an exception because she’s royalty.”

“I don’t like it.”

Walther’s faint eyebrows twitched at the sudden statement.

“Why? Because she’s receiving privileges in an Academy where everyone is supposed to be equal?”

“No.”

Kawin’s answer was far simpler than that.

“I just hate things that cover things up.”

“Huh...? What kind of reason is that? Anyway, this has gotten interesting. Everyone assumed Frasel would take this VIP room. She had the top entrance score, and there’s her status too.”

But all of those public expectations had been devoured by a monster.

And the next day.

“Speak comfortably. We’re both students now, aren’t we?”

A huge cat mask covering her entire face.

A voice brimming with sacred energy came from behind it.

“Why did I come to Tesca? For the empire and His Majesty the Emperor, of course.”

Standing nearby, Kawin could sense everything.

Her irregular breathing.

The faint but unmistakable increase in the scent of her sweat.

‘Well, well?’

Frasel was lying.