Chapter 74 - Test Subjects (2)

I walked past the intact entrance ceremony hall and the infirmary beside it until the main gate and its adjoining visitors’ room came into view. I glanced inside, but no one was there. The staff member on duty told me no visitors had arrived yet, either. It looked as though Piar and Mirisa’s visitor wouldn’t come for a little while. This time, I wasn’t too late.

After thanking the staff member, I headed behind the visitors’ room. Thick trees and long, uncut brush grew beside the wall there. I didn’t know whether it was intentional landscaping or the staff’s laziness, but it suited me perfectly. I bent as though searching for something and made my way through the brush. Once I’d heightened my senses and confirmed no one was nearby, I slipped out of sight among the leaves.

I moved carefully toward the wall and retrieved the bag I’d hidden there the day before. It held a cloak and some ordinary clothes. After changing into them, I put my uniform in the bag and hid it in the same place again.

No one was around. Not even on the other side of the wall.

I vaulted over it in one quick motion, then checked my clothes. With a different outfit and my face hidden by the cloak, I had little reason to worry about being recognized. I set off briskly toward the shopping street.

I hadn’t gone far when I saw someone I knew. The man walking toward me was someone I’d seen in my last life: the bushy-bearded man who’d blocked my way on the first floor of the building where that so-called master of Piar’s had been.

‘He must be going to request a visit.’

At this hour, I couldn’t think of another reason for him to be heading to the academy. Luckily, we hadn’t missed each other. It also meant the so-called master was here now.

I glanced around. I was still within the academy district. A broad, stone-paved road stretched ahead beside the academy wall. Apart from the approaching man, there was no one on it—not a person or carriage in sight. We were some distance from the main gate, too, and the shopping street lay beyond a hill. If something happened here, it seemed unlikely anyone would know right away.

I kept my eyes off the approaching man. He walked on as though he had no interest in me, but my senses picked up his tension clearly. We passed each other, both pretending not to care. I felt him relax at once.

I turned slightly and put a hand to the ground. “I think you dropped some money here.”

“What?”

When he turned, I straightened and showed him the silver coin in my hand.

“Huh? That can’t be mine.”

His hand moved toward his side. I held out the hand with the coin and showed him a little magic trick—or perhaps sleight of hand. The silver coin became a mana-filled dagger in an instant.

THUNK.

His eyes widened as he looked at the blade buried in his chest. To him, it must have come out of nowhere. He was falling toward me, so I thought I ought to explain.

“That’s for the attack at the entrance ceremony.”

“Ah...”

Understanding dawned on his face as he collapsed.

I picked him up, carried him deep into the brush beside the road, and pushed his corpse into the undergrowth.

“Killing someone on a main road in broad daylight...”

I’d made sure no one was watching, but even I had to admit it was bold. In my previous life, CCTV would have caught me within days and I’d have been arrested. It wasn’t something I could do lightly here, either. Poor as public safety might be, no one would ignore a murder near the Royal Academy.

But I couldn’t let Piar and Mirisa leave for their overnight stay.

“I’ll have to make them bury the whole affair.”

I couldn’t spend time burying the body myself. A small incident would have to be covered by a bigger one, a small murder by a bigger murder. I searched the corpse but found nothing unusual, so I concealed it beneath the brush and hurried away.

The shopping street appeared as soon as I crossed the low hill. Classes at the academy hadn’t ended yet. Just as I’d seen no one on the way here, the street’s shops—whose customers were mostly academy students and teachers—were quiet.

“Come have a look!”

One merchant called out as I passed, but in most shops the owners just sat there sighing.

“Oh, there are hardly any customers this year.”

“I thought business would boom with the princess enrolling, but it feels like we have even fewer customers.”

“It’s because things have gotten so unsettled in the capital.”

“Shh. Don’t even talk about that.”

I channeled mana into my ears as I listened, and began to understand why the street was so quiet. Was the king really near death?

In my previous life, I’d heard that you could gauge the political climate from the state of the market. Judging by what these merchants were saying, it sounded as though the king might die and the princes would fight a civil war.

‘And there are those strange bastards carrying out attacks. Thinking back to what happened with House Hierro, the Tsar Empire was making moves too.’

To everyone else, I already appeared to have thrown my lot in with the princess to a considerable degree. I continued down the shopping street, listening.

There were all kinds of shops: stores selling everyday goods and class supplies, a weapons shop affiliated with a smithy, grocers, and restaurants. There was also a souvenir shop that had been all but deserted since the entrance ceremony. I went into that one, farther down the street.

It was an ordinary souvenir shop. Small, charming items lined its shelves and walls, while a bushy-bearded proprietor who looked out of place among them dozed in one corner.

I knew the sleeping man. When I’d come here before my last death, he’d been the second one to block my way.

‘He really is dozing?’

Last time, he’d swung a sword at me with a tense look on his face. Now he was genuinely nodding off. Whether he was exceptionally good at acting to suit the situation or had simply let down his guard, it worked in my favor.

I sharpened my mana senses and swept the building. The dozing man was the only one on the first floor. Two people were together upstairs, and one of them unmistakably had the mana of the man said to be Piar’s master.

I browsed the merchandise as I approached the sleeping man, then tapped him on the shoulder.

“Oh, a customer has—?”

He opened his eyes with a start, but they soon closed again. While tapping his shoulder, I’d disrupted his mana; then I’d pressed deep into the back of his neck with mana and knocked him unconscious.

I propped him against the wall. With mana planted inside him, someone else would have a hard time waking him. I hadn’t spared him out of some misplaced conscience. I’d have to kill him eventually, but it was difficult to do that while people were passing outside.

I returned to the entrance and quietly closed the shop door. There was still no unusual movement upstairs. I headed up at once.

* * *

The first-floor corridor where I’d fought in my last life was empty. I crossed it and climbed the stairs. By now, the people upstairs had surely noticed something was wrong.

I drew up as much mana as I could. It made my body faster and stronger, while the rest flowed into my dagger, sending red sword aura surging from the blade. Feeling the power fill me, I kicked the upstairs room’s door.

BANG!

It wasn’t locked, and it flew open as though it might break. I could see both people inside. One was the last of the men I’d fought on the first floor; the other was Piar’s so-called master. Both looked startled by my sudden entrance, but this time neither asked who I was.

The man who’d carried a crossbow in our first-floor fight came at me with a sword instead. The so-called master spread both hands toward me.

What was that about?

Puzzled by the unexpected gesture, I focused on dealing with the charging man first and swung my dagger at him. His sword looked exceptionally well made, but it couldn’t withstand a blade sheathed in sword aura. I meant to cut straight through it and him.

CLICK.

‘My mana stopped?’

I could suddenly feel neither the mana flowing through my body nor the red sword aura rising from my blade. It was as though the mana inside me had solidified. The power that had filled me vanished, leaving only the strength of my body in place of mana’s might.

I had no choice but to halt my answering swing. Seeing me stop so abruptly, the charging man bared his teeth in a grin and swung his sword.

THUNK!

“Damn. I didn’t even get to find out who that was.”

Louis, the master, lowered his arms with a troubled look.

“Well, when someone attacks us out of nowhere, what else can we do? This whole affair seems to have gone completely wrong. Should we move elsewhere first?”

Rubbing his chin, Louis spoke to the man who stood motionless, sword still extended.

“What are you doing? Is he not quite dead?”

An answer came at once—but not from the man with the sword. It came from me.

“No. He’s already dead.”

I pulled my dagger from his neck. The man who had folded against me spurted blood and crumpled to the floor.

“How? I stopped your mana!”

So it was his ability. A man who could use necklaces to make people explode could well have an ability like this too.

‘Still, it’s more terrifying than I expected...’

To stop the mana inside someone’s body. Inherited abilities, a knight’s sword, a priest’s healing arts—all of them were powers manifested through mana. To bring that mana to a halt...

Used properly, it would be devastating against nobles and knights. But an ability like that couldn’t be without limits. His face was drenched in sweat as he stared at me in shock. He’d looked fine when he sent mana to Piar and Mirisa. Was that because of the necklaces?

Once he lowered his hands, my mana flowed properly again. I checked that sword aura was streaming from my dagger, then walked toward him.

“It would be a waste of all that training if I lost just because I had no mana.”

I’d trained all this time to keep fighting a knight even without it.