Chapter 73

Chapter 73. Test Subject (1)

He looked at me, who stood there blankly, and sneered.

“It is already too late. Heh. Running away is useless. The only reason they are not exploding right now is because I am not dead yet…… Or perhaps you should…… try running away happily even n……ow.”

I did not particularly intend to run away either. Instead, I asked him a question.

“The two of them seem to have trusted you. Is it really all right to betray them like this?”

Perhaps because of my calm expression, he frowned.

He seemed to hate my peaceful expression more than the fact that he himself was dying.

Still, unlike before, he answered my words.

He should have done this earlier.

“Th-They foolishly called me Master, but in the end, they were nothing more than test subjects. Me, and these children too. Well, since these children were used without even knowing the reason, perhaps they are more pitiful than I am……. Ugh. B-But still, I gave them abilities and allowed them to dream of a future, so both of them will forgive me.”

“As if they would forgive you.”

At my words, he looked surprised.

“Ah, that feels refreshing. Now that I think about it, I do not need to grumble only in my head right now.”

Thanks to half-killing him, I had obtained more information than expected.

It seemed difficult for him to answer much longer, so it would be hard to draw out more information now.

Still, I asked one last time.

“Where do you belong? The First Prince? The Second Prince? The grand duchy? Or the Empire? Is there anything else you can tell me?”

At my question, he only looked bewildered.

“Y-You are…….”

As expected, it was impossible for him to say more.

Should I have cut off only one arm?

I had pierced him while barely avoiding the heart, but too much blood was flowing from both arms.

Even for an awakened noble, lasting this long in such a state was impressive.

Cough. Cough.

He tried to say something one last time, but all that burst from his mouth was blood.

“See you again.”

I waved at him as he was about to breathe his last.

With an expression that seemed unable to understand, his breath stopped.

Snap.

At that moment, the mana connecting him to the children was severed.

And the children’s bodies shone brightly.

It was the same phenomenon as during the entrance ceremony.

He had not lied.

At the entrance ceremony, there had been only one. The building had been sturdy too. If there were two, it felt like this entire street would be blown away.

That thought briefly crossed my mind, but since I was being caught up in it too, it was meaningless.

Was it because this was the moment of death? The light seemed to spread slowly.

Plan B.

A truly sigh-inducing plan that began by dying and starting over.

I clenched my teeth against the pain that was to come.

FLASH!

The entire world filled with light.

The next moment, my whole body shattered, and pain struck my head hard.

Then darkness.

[You have died. Restarting from the autosave point.]

---

“With this, the entrance ceremony will conclude.”

When I opened my eyes, I was inside the entrance ceremony hall.

It was the moment the entrance ceremony was just ending.

‘Still, this time is bearable.’

Unlike when I had repeated death inside the entrance ceremony hall, perhaps because I had been given an interval of several days, I was able to regain my senses before long.

Still, the pain remained the same.

When I leaned against the wall and panted, the adults around me even asked one by one whether I was all right as they passed by.

In the novels I had read in my previous life, characters died hundreds or thousands of times so easily. But dying even once was this difficult.

Seeing how death visited me every time I tried to do something, my life was indeed so wretched that it made me sigh on its own.

After that, time flowed the same way as in my previous life.

The female lecturer lying in the infirmary had already killed herself, and this time as well, her suicide was quietly buried.

The entrance ceremony ended normally, and the meeting with Katrine and the senior knight passed without anything particularly different.

However, my final request was different from before.

“I would like to be given a private room. One at the end of the hallway, please.”

Unlike when I asked for the same room as Piar, I did not need to ramble on with explanations.

That was because they also thought I needed to use a room alone.

That night, when I arrived in front of my dormitory room in the evening, there was a student coming out of the room next door.

I greeted that student.

“So you were in the room next door?”

“Ah……. Yes…….”

At my words, Piar flinched as he answered.

Unlike my greeting, I had already known that he was next door.

In my previous life, I had seen that the room next to Piar’s was empty, so I had requested this room.

After only a brief greeting, I entered my room.

Just like when I had shared a room with Piar, my luggage had already arrived.

Before organizing my luggage, I sat at the desk.

I opened a drawer, took out a pen and paper, and organized my plan.

The few days before my death this time were not very satisfying.

Perhaps because of the chaotic movements of the new students, I had also been rather flustered.

Because of Piar’s sudden outing, I had faced the enemy without preparation and ultimately met death.

“Honestly, this time I might have been able to get through it without dying…….”

Once I realized things had gone wrong, perhaps it would have been fine even if I had simply run away.

Well, if I put it that way, there was no need to attend this school either.

I could withdraw from school, return home, prostrate myself before His Grace the Duke, and then take my mother and flee far into the countryside.

Tsk. Thinking about it again, that side would not be easy either. It did not seem as though my brothers or the nobles attached to the ducal house would simply leave me alone.

In any case, during that time I did not particularly like, I had obtained several pieces of information.

First, that so-called master.

If what he said while dying was true, it meant there were people who could create inherited abilities.

Was that possible?

In my previous life, it sounded like something that would have been featured in huge headlines as the invention of the century and swept the Nobel Prizes.

Mm. He had called them test subjects, so were they still in clinical trials?

Well, looking at the state of this neighborhood, where human rights were a complete mess, conducting clinical trials on people did not seem particularly special.

However, considering the destruction of the entrance ceremony hall and looking at that so-called master, it did not seem like something plotted by scholarly people.

If so, that meant some truly impressive people were maneuvering in the background.

They were terrifying people who carried out a terror attack inside the Royal Academy that would blow away a princess and nobles, while also creating the inherited abilities that upheld the hierarchy of this world.

If I carelessly got involved, it felt like I alone would end up dying very enthusiastically.

No, had I already gotten involved?

The princess and Katrine appeared in my mind.

A sigh escaped on its own.

I erased the princess and Katrine from my mind and continued thinking.

Piar and Mirisa’s necklaces.

Piar’s explosion was not his unique inherited ability, but something that occurred through the necklaces as mediums.

“Are they items that make mana overload? I will have to confirm this too.”

After roughly writing down the schedule and the people I needed to meet on paper and committing them to memory, I burned the paper.

Then I roughly organized my luggage and lay down on the bed.

Tomorrow would certainly be extremely busy.

“More than that, I hope I do not have to organize my luggage again.”

Hoping that I would not have to experience today again, I hurriedly went to sleep.

---

The next day’s two morning liberal arts classes.

History and Fundamentals of Inherited Abilities passed no differently from my previous life.

The situation in which I had roughly become something like an outcast was the same, and the professors’ dull classes were no different.

Naturally, I ate lunch alone as well.

In the end, the afternoon class also proceeded the same way.

Sparring with the knights began as the Knight Department’s major class, and I was called over by Katrine and ended up sparring with her.

CLANG!

Sword clashed against sword.

THUNK!

A sword bounced off a shield.

“Goodness, surely they are not sparring without mana, are they?”

“That is ridiculous. There is no way movements like that are possible without mana!”

“Is that so…….”

“Still, he is impressive. He seems to be at the level of a decent apprentice knight.”

The students who had already finished their spars whispered as they watched my spar with Katrine.

The knights who had finished their spars and one or two students seemed to know that Katrine and I were fighting without mana.

“As expected, you have not neglected your training.”

“There is no way I would.”

As our swords met, Katrine and I exchanged words. Since we were not using mana, I had mental strength to spare, and it was entirely possible to show this much composure.

Unlike in my previous life, we did not do anything like fighting while relying on imagined ranges in this spar.

Since it would be difficult to properly confirm my ability anyway, it seemed better to change the way people looked at me, even if only slightly.

That said, it was not as though this was a situation where I should fight using mana, so I had no choice but to cross swords with Katrine while sweating like this.

“Tsk. But with a spar like this, it seems difficult to confirm your ability.”

Katrine stepped back with a regretful expression.

Unlike the others, we had crossed swords for quite some time, but in the end, it was difficult for either of us to show our true ability through a spar like this.

I also stepped back and lowered my sword.

“We should make time separately and spar later. That is all right, is it not?”

“Yes.”

As for me, I could only be grateful.

Among those who knew me, she was someone who properly understood my ability, and she was also a comrade who had fought back-to-back with me.

If I wanted to keep building my ability, I absolutely needed proper sparring in addition to real combat. There was no sparring partner better suited for that than her.

After finishing our closing greetings, I looked around and saw reactions that were clearly different from my previous life.

There were various expressions: envy, jealousy, admiration, contempt. Still, it seemed no one could look down on my ability anymore.

I had not truly shown my ability, but this was a decent beginning.

Now, they would continue with a little more basic instruction, and then the afternoon class would end.

First, I asked Katrine for permission.

“I think I was slightly cut. May I stop by the infirmary and return first?”

I showed her my arm, where blood was steadily leaking out.

“Huh? When did you get hurt like that?”

“I made a mistake because it has been a while since I sparred without mana.”

“Oh dear, you should have been careful.”

In the spar between the two of us just now, we had not used mana, but it had still been a spar close to real combat.

Since we had not protected our bodies with mana, it was a situation where we could certainly be wounded.

Of course, neither Katrine nor I was at a level where we would be injured in this kind of spar.

Still, I said I had been wounded because of a mistake, so there was nothing she could say.

“Did you injure the muscle?”

“No. It is only the skin that split. I only need to go to the infirmary and receive healing arts.”

A priest’s healing arts were the best for simple wounds. They could not even be compared to bandages or surgical procedures from my previous life.

“In that case, you may return first.”

As expected, Katrine gave her permission.

I greeted her and the knights, then left the drill ground.

The students seemed a little relieved when they saw the wound on my arm.

After leaving the drill ground and disappearing from everyone’s sight, I wiped my arm with my hand.

Unlike the blood that had flowed down, the wound was barely visible.

The bleeding also stopped immediately.

That was because I had blocked the blood vessels around the wound with mana.

This level of injury was so minor that it could hardly be treated as a wound.

It was not something worth showing a priest either, and to put it simply, it was an injury that would heal if I simply licked it.

It had to be that way.

It was not a wound I had received from her.

It was a wound I had made myself, and I had squeezed that wound to draw out blood.