Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Escape (3)

Kraaaah!

Murder flashed in the eyes of the undead as they noticed my movement.

They roared and tried to rush toward me, but it did not matter.

‘Come after me if you can.’

The undead here could not keep up with my speed while I had demonic armament wrapped around my entire body.

Only straight ahead.

I would break through the front and nothing else.

Krrraaaah!

Before the thought had even fully formed, one of the Undead Orcs in front of me raised a tree club as thick as its own forearm and swung it at me.

But I had no intention of stopping.

The moment the undead spotted me, the Black Mages would have realized I was here as well. 

And on top of that, I only had three minutes because of Full-Body Demonic Armament.

If I hesitated for even a moment, I would never cross the border.

Shadow Forging.

Shadow Dagger, double forging.

Two shadow daggers steeped in curses gleamed sharply in my left hand.

I flicked my wrist and released them, and both daggers buried themselves precisely in the orc’s eyes.

The attack posture of the blinded Undead Orc collapsed.

I drove my right fist straight into the falling orc’s abdomen.

Pashhk…….

Craaaack!

The undead body turned to ash from the Sacred Mark, and my body punched clean through the Undead Orc’s torso.

The rotten stench unique to corpses brushed the tip of my nose.

‘This can work.’

At this rate, I could get through the border within three minutes before my body stiffened.

No, was it down to two minutes now?

There was no time to rest.

I thrust my right hand, filled with holy power, forward, crossed both arms in an X, and lowered my stance.

Sshhhhh!

The sound of wind tore past my ears.

My field of vision flew backward so fast it felt as though I were riding in a crazed carriage.

Boom! Crack! Crunch!

I drove forward, smashing straight through every undead, tree, and thicket in sight with my whole body.

The barbed-wire border fence that had looked tiny through the binoculars was now right in front of me.

There was barely a minute left before Full-Body Demonic Armament wore off.

“That is Full-Body Demonic Armament!”

“He can already spread demonic armament like that?”

“How is he dealing with the undead like that……?”

The faces of the Black Mages, who recognized me charging at them with terrifying force, were dyed with shock.

There were roughly thirty Black Mages waiting in front of the border.

“Cast the curse!”

The one who looked like the captain of the unit shouted calmly.

About a third of the Black Mages placed both hands on the ground, and from their hands, violet lines spread like a spiderweb across the earth toward where I stood.

Kiiiiiii…….

In an instant, the ground beneath me turned purple.

As though my furious sprint a moment ago had been a lie, I could not even take five more steps before I came to a stop.

Crk!

Both my feet began digging into the ground.

“Kh!”

Gravity Curse.

A Black Magic spell that increased the gravity in the surrounding area to the point where a person could no longer move.

It was only because I had Full-Body Demonic Armament that I could even endure this much. 

An ordinary person would have been flattened like dried jerky the moment they stepped here.

Just how much curse energy had they poured into the ground?

“Get him!”

Believing they had stopped my movement, the Black Mages each began casting other Black Magic spells and prepared to fire them at me.

So this was how badly they intended to stop me.

I let my body sink into the oppressive weight of the curse pressing me downward.

KABOOM!

Then I bent low and slammed my right fist, the one bearing the Sacred Mark, into the ground.

The earth caved inward, and at the same time, the violet light consuming the ground began to fade outward from my fist.

The curse had weakened, limited to the point where it had made contact with the Sacred Mark.

My body, which had grown unbearably heavy, became light again.

“W-Why is this happening?”

“The curse is not working!”

The faces of the Black Mages casting the curse from the rear turned pale.

Rising from the center of the fractured curse, I clenched and unclenched both hands.

…Honestly, by this point, I was getting pissed off.

Just let me go already.

They were skilled enough, and their teamwork was good enough, that they probably would not die from this.

I swept my gaze quickly across the Black Mages on both sides and drew up the mana I had been saving.

Shadow Forging.

Shadow Greatsword, single forging.

Clench.

Gripping the pitch-black greatsword in both hands, I raised it over my head.

“Try to dodge.”

Shadow Forging.

Shadow Greatsword, Giantification.

Rrrrmmmmm……!

The shadow greatsword, laden with curses, swelled to a monstrous size.

The blade soon grew until it was nearly ten meters long.

“This is insane……”

“I thought you said he was a cadet? That is not a cadet’s level!”

Toward the ground, I brought the massive greatsword down from above.

KABOOOOOM!

The ground, weakened by the Durability Curse, exploded into dust in every direction, completely blocking the vision of everyone present.

***

The dust cleared.

The Black Mages straightened themselves and looked around, searching for Aron’s location, but— “…Ah.”

It did not take long for every last pair of eyes to stop in one place.

The barbed wire, shattered into powder by the Durability Curse.

And the footprints stamped into the piled snow stretched far beyond it into the forest on the other side.

“Damn it…….”

No one there failed to understand what that meant.

Aron Bayonel had crossed the border.

***

Step, step……

Staggering along, I soon leaned my back against a nearby tree.

Even after crossing the border, I had run for another thirty seconds just in case, trying to get out of the Black Mages’ sight.

My breath was already rasping at the edge of my throat, and even both my hands were trembling.

Babble, babble…….

The sound of a nearby stream soothed my overstretched nerves.

Now that I had come this far from the border, the Black Mages would not try to pursue me any farther.

This was the territory of Saengterminum Academy, where the Blue Dragon Hatchling served as headmaster.

If the Black Mages recklessly crossed the border and caused a commotion trying to find me, the Dark Empire might end up drawing the dragon’s wrath.

The Dark Empire would not want to go that far just to chase me down.

Full-Body Demonic Armament, released.

All the strength drained from my body, and I dropped to the ground where I stood.

It was the aftereffect of Full-Body Demonic Armament. I would probably need to rest for a full ten minutes before my body returned to normal.

It was only because I had returned to the past and was already used to handling demonic armament that I had managed it at all. 

If crossing the border had been delayed by even a day or two more, I would never have broken through the encirclement of Black Mages guarding the border so tightly, and I would have been dragged back to the Dark Empire.

In the end, I had put out the most urgent fire, but there were still problems left.

‘Even if I crossed the border, Saengterminum is not going to protect me so easily.’

I was not yet a student of Saengterminum.

Only after taking the entrance exam and passing it would I officially become a student there.

Saengterminum had no obligation to protect someone who was not yet one of its students.

‘And the deadline for applying to Saengterminum is one week away.’

If it became publicly known that I was in Saengterminum, the Dark Empire would demand that Saengterminum hand me over.

To avoid that kind of trouble while I was applying, I needed to hide my identity and submit my application quietly.

After ten minutes passed and sensation returned to my body, I stood and walked to the stream to wash myself, bending one knee by the water.

The reflection of my seventeen-year-old self shimmered in the flowing water.

Black hair, red eyes, sharp brows, and clearly defined features.

Being young really was nice. I had not washed properly in days and still looked decent enough.

After finishing, I pressed my palm to my face and cast a curse.

Mask Curse.

A Mid-Rank Black Magic spell that changed the face of the one placed under the curse.

Since it functioned by overlaying an illusion onto the face, its duration lasted at most three seconds.

If one cast the curse on oneself like I was doing now, then in theory it could last indefinitely so long as the flow of mana was not cut off.

But because it required a constant supply of mana, the Mask Curse would break the instant one’s mana wavered even slightly.

In other words, it was not a particularly practical Black Magic spell.

But with twenty-seven years of experience behind me, managing mana was laughably easy.

My technique in handling Black Magic was something I had kept honing long before I returned to the past.

Sshk…….

Lowering my hand from my face, I looked into the water again.

My hair had become lustrous platinum-blond, my eyes a clear blue, and even my sharp gaze had softened into something more ordinary.

This was not bad. 

Plain enough.

I could have used the Mask Curse while escaping the Dark Empire, but the entire empire had already been plastered with a manhunt for me.

Since Mask Curse was Black Magic, there was a high risk that a skilled Black Mage, like Rienna or one of the lords of the Four Houses, would see through it immediately, which was why I had not used it then.

On the contrary, since I had forced my way through the border without using Mask Curse, the Dark Empire would probably assume I could not use it at all.

It was better to hide as many of the cards in my hand as possible.

Especially when it came to a useful Black Magic spell like this.

‘That said…….’

I concentrated on the sounds around me and looked about.

Quiet.

I could not sense any human presence at all nearby.

Given the commotion I had caused at the border, people from Saengterminum ought to have searched the area to understand what had happened.

Had the searchers simply not reached my location yet?

‘…For now, I should recover first.’

It had not even been thirty minutes since I crossed the border.

I had succeeded in crossing it, so any decisions after that could wait.

***

Three hours later.

Once I had changed my face with the Mask Curse and finished all my preparations, I changed into clean clothes and descended the mountain.

‘How strange.’

Even though I had stayed in one place for quite some time after crossing the border, I had not seen a single search party.

One could say that was only natural because this was a sparsely traveled mountain, but even so, for there to be so little response after this much time had passed made no sense.

‘It is not as though I have no idea why.’

My eyes narrowed on their own.

After considering everything that had happened before and after, I reached a conclusion.

…The most likely answer was that I was already being watched without realizing it.

I could not feel a single presence, but intuition of this sort was usually right.

‘Fine. Let us see when they decide to show themselves.’

When I raised my head, I could see the grounds of Saengterminum drawing steadily closer.

For now, I should find lodging near Saengterminum where I could stay a few days.

My face had changed, so even if I went somewhere crowded, I would not stand out too much.

***

When I arrived at Saengterminum’s bustling district, the first thing I saw was carriages gliding along the smooth tiled streets.

There were also chattering applicants and people who seemed to be their parents.

The variety in the carriages, the clothing, and the atmosphere of the crowd made it clear once more that they had gathered from all across the continent.

With only a week left until the entrance examination, it was also the time when people would naturally begin crowding in.

As I wandered the nearby streets looking for a place to stay for a few days— “Oh dear, what should I do…….”

A woman with a troubled expression was looking around nervously right in front of me.

“…Hm? Ah!”

The moment her eyes met mine, her face lit up and she hurried toward me.

“E-excuse me, are you perhaps a student planning to apply to Saengterminum Academy? You looked to be in your late teens……”

“That I am.”

“Oh, thank goodness. I was appointed as a teacher at this academy this time, but the grounds are so large that I am having trouble finding the academy itself. Would you happen to know where the main building of Saengterminum is?”

“…….”

I held my tongue and looked her over.

Blue hair and sapphire-dark eyes.

She looked to be somewhere in her early to mid-twenties.

She was about my height, and the long braid hanging over one side stood out.

‘So here you are.’

It was her.

The one who had been tailing me from the moment I stepped into Saengterminum.