Chapter 74

Chapter 74. Test Subject (2)

I continued walking past the intact entrance ceremony hall and the infirmary beside it, and soon saw the main gate and the visiting room beside it.

I glanced inside, but I did not see anyone.

When I asked the faculty member in charge, I was told that no visitors had arrived yet.

It seemed Piar and Mirisa’s visit would take a little more time.

This time, I was not late.

After thanking him, I walked toward the back of the visiting room.

Beside the wall behind the visiting room, thick trees and long, uncut grass were growing.

I did not know whether it was because of landscaping or the staff’s laziness, but right now, it was helpful enough for me.

I bent down as if I were looking for something and stepped into the grass.

Then, after sharpening my senses and confirming that no one was around, I quietly hid myself inside the grass.

I carefully moved toward the wall and took out the bag I had hidden there the day before.

Inside the bag were a cloak and ordinary clothes.

I changed into the prepared clothes and cloak, then put the academy uniform I had been wearing into the bag and hid it back in its original place.

There was no one around. Not even beyond the wall.

Whoosh.

I quickly leaped over the wall and checked my clothes.

My outfit had changed, and my face was covered by the cloak, so there was no need to worry about being discovered.

I moved quickly toward the shopping street.

Before I had walked far, I saw someone I recognized.

The man walking toward me from ahead was someone I had seen in my previous life.

He was the man who had blocked me on the first floor of the building where Piar’s so-called master had been.

The bearded man who had blocked me at the very front.

‘He must be going to request the visit.’

At this time, that seemed to be the only reason he would be going to the academy.

Fortunately, it seemed we had not missed each other, which meant that the so-called master had also arrived by now.

I quietly looked around.

I had not yet left the academy district.

A paved main road stretched on with the academy wall to one side.

There was no one on the road. Aside from the man approaching me, there were no people and no carriages.

Moreover, this place was some distance away from the academy’s main gate, and the shopping street was also beyond the hill, so it seemed difficult for anyone to know right away even if something happened here.

I did not look at the approaching man.

The other party also walked as if he had no interest in me, but through my senses, I could clearly feel that he was tense.

He and I passed each other while pretending not to be interested.

I felt his tension immediately loosen.

I quietly turned and placed my hand on the ground.

“I think you dropped some money here.”

“Pardon?”

When he turned around, I rose and showed him the silver coin held in my hand.

“Huh? That should not be possible.”

He moved his hand toward his side.

I extended the hand holding the silver coin toward him.

Then I showed him a small magic trick, or perhaps sleight of hand.

The trick of a silver coin turning instantly into a dagger filled with mana.

Stab.

His eyes widened as he looked at the sword embedded in his chest.

To him, it must have been like a bolt from the blue.

It seemed an explanation was necessary, so I explained to him as he collapsed toward me.

“This is repayment for the entrance ceremony terror attack.”

“Ah…….”

He collapsed with an expression that said he understood immediately.

I lifted the fallen man and walked deep into the grass beside the main road.

Then I pushed the corpse into the grass.

“To think I killed someone on a main road in broad daylight…….”

I had done it after confirming that no one was watching, but even in my own eyes, it was an extremely bold act.

If this had been my previous life, there was no doubt that I would have been caught on CCTV within a few days and arrested immediately. Even in this place, it was not something one could do recklessly.

No matter how poor public order was here, there was no way they would simply ignore a murder near the Royal Academy.

Even so, I could not allow Piar and Mirisa to go out overnight.

“I have no choice but to make them bury the matter.”

I could not spend time burying this corpse either.

A small incident could only be covered by a larger incident, and a small murder by a larger murder.

Even after searching the corpse, I found nothing special, so I camouflaged the corpse with the grass and quickly left the area.

As soon as I crossed the low hill, the shopping street appeared.

It was still before academy classes had ended.

Just as I had seen no people on the way here, the shopping street, which mainly dealt with academy students and teachers, was extremely quiet because academy classes had not yet ended.

“Come and take a look!”

There were merchants calling out to me as I passed through the street, but most shopkeepers were simply sitting in their stores and sighing.

“Good grief, there really are no customers this year.”

“I thought it would be a peak season since the princess enrolled, but there seem to be even fewer customers instead.”

“This is all because public order in the capital is unsettled.”

“Shh, do not even bring up such things.”

As I pushed mana into my ears and listened, I could roughly understand why things were this quiet.

Was the king truly nearing his death?

In my previous life, I had once heard that one could understand the political situation through the market economy.

According to the people doing business in this market, it seemed as though the king would die and the princes would start a civil war.

‘On top of that, strange people are carrying out terror attacks. Considering what happened with the marquess’s house, the Empire was also making moves.’

Moreover, in other people’s eyes, I had one foot deep in the princess’s side.

I listened to those conversations as I passed through the shopping street.

There were many shops on the shopping street.

There were shops selling daily necessities and items used in classes, a weapon shop connected to a blacksmith, shops selling groceries, and restaurants.

There was also a souvenir shop that had been empty ever since the entrance ceremony ended.

I entered the souvenir shop located deeper inside the street.

It was an ordinary souvenir shop.

Inside the store, where cute little items were displayed on shelves and walls, an owner with a thick beard that did not match the shop was dozing off in one corner.

I knew the man who was dozing off.

He was the second man who had blocked me when I came to this house before I died.

‘He is really dozing?’

Last time, he had swung his sword at me with a tense expression, but now he was truly dozing.

I did not know whether he was acting very well according to the situation, or whether his tension had loosened, but it was a helpful situation for me right now.

I heightened my energy sense and swept through the building.

On the first floor, there was only the dozing man. On the second floor, two people were gathered in one place.

One of the people on the second floor definitely had the mana of the man who called himself Piar’s master.

I examined the items here and there while approaching the dozing man.

I tapped the dozing man on the shoulder.

“Ah, a customer has come……?”

He opened his eyes in surprise, but those eyes soon closed again.

That was because while tapping his shoulder, I had disrupted his mana, and at the end, I deeply pressed the back of his neck with mana and knocked him unconscious.

I leaned the unconscious man against the wall.

Since I had planted mana inside his body, it would be difficult for anyone else to wake him easily.

It was not because of needless conscience that I left him alive.

I would have to kill him anyway, but it was difficult to commit murder while people outside were passing by.

I approached the door again and quietly closed the shop door.

There was still no special movement on the second floor.

I immediately moved toward the second floor.

---

There was no one in the first-floor corridor where I had fought fiercely in my previous life.

I passed through the corridor and went straight up the stairs to the second floor.

By now, the people on the second floor must have noticed that something was strange.

I raised my mana fully.

Mana made my body faster and stronger, and the remaining mana flowed into the dagger, causing red sword aura to surge from the blade.

Feeling the strength filling my body, I kicked open the door to the room on the second floor.

Bang!

Because the door was not locked, it opened as if it would break.

I could see the two people inside the room with my own eyes.

One was the last man I had fought on the first floor, and the other was the man who called himself Piar’s master.

Both of them seemed startled to see me suddenly enter, but this time, neither of them asked who I was.

The man who had held a crossbow when we fought on the first floor now held a sword and charged at me.

And the one who called himself their master spread both hands toward me.

What is this?

I tilted my head at the unexpected action, but I first intended to deal with the man charging toward me, so I swung my dagger at him.

The sword the man swung looked like a blade of extremely fine quality, but it could not withstand a sword wrapped in sword aura.

I had intended to cut through both the sword and the opponent’s body.

Clunk.

‘My mana stopped?’

The mana flowing through my body, as well as the red sword aura rising over my blade, suddenly vanished from my senses.

It felt as though the mana inside my body had hardened.

The strength that had filled my body disappeared, and instead of the power of powerful mana, I could feel only the strength of my flesh.

I had no choice but to stop the sword I had been swinging to meet his.

At my movement, which seemed to halt abruptly, the charging man bared his teeth in a grin and swung his sword.

Stab!

“Oh dear, I could not even confirm who you were.”

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

“Well, if we are attacked so suddenly, it cannot be helped. It seems this matter has become completely tangled, so should I move locations first?”

Louis, who had been muttering while stroking his chin, spoke to the man who had stopped with his sword swung out.

“Why are you standing like that? Is he not dead yet?”

An answer came immediately, but the person who answered was not the man who had swung the sword. It was me.

“No. He is already dead.”

I pulled the dagger out of his neck, and the man who had embraced me collapsed downward, spraying blood.

“How? I stopped your mana.”

So it was his ability after all.

He was a man who used necklaces to make people explode, so it made sense that he could possess an ability like this too.

‘But this ability is more terrifying than I expected…….’

To stop the mana inside someone’s body.

Inherited abilities, knights’ swords, and priests’ healing arts were all powers manifested through mana. And yet he could make that mana stop.

If used properly, it was clearly an ability that would be truly fatal to nobles and knights.

However, there was no way such an ability would have no limits.

His face, staring at me in shock, was covered in sweat.

He had seemed fine when he sent mana to Piar and Mirisa, but was that because of the necklaces?

After he lowered his hands, mana began moving properly again.

I confirmed that sword aura was flowing out properly, then walked toward him.

“If I lost just because I had no mana, all the hardship I have gone through would be a waste.”

All this time, I had trained so that I could continue fighting against knights even without mana.