Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Enrollment Under Disguise

“Are you saying I should keep my identity hidden even after the entrance exam is over?”

Originally, Levia had probably thought I would only need to hide my identity until the entrance exam ended.

But if I was going to learn how to handle Holy Power through the Sacred Mark, then the situation changed drastically.

“That is right. If the Sacred Mark that used to belong to someone in the Holy Empire has disappeared, and that Sacred Mark went to you instead… then the Holy Empire is going to try to secure you by any means the moment they confirm that you possess it. Even if you are at the academy under my protection.”

I knew that Yulia still bore the Sacred Mark, but there was no way Levia could know that.

Now that I had confirmed that Yulia still possessed the Sacred Mark even in this timeline, the situation was not actually that dire, but if one did not know the truth, then it only made sense to think that way.

“If you really intend to learn how to wield Holy Power through the Sacred Mark, then you should keep your identity concealed as much as possible even after enrolling. I hate anything that makes my life more troublesome.”

She opened the drawer of the desk in front of her and pulled something out.

It was a pendant made of a silver chain.

Hanging from it was a tiny oval-cut blue gemstone, no bigger than a fingernail, gleaming with a sky-blue hue.

“Take it.”

I caught the pendant Levia tossed to me.

“It is an artifact enchanted with ‘Polymorph.’ I made it myself.”

“…Pardon?”

“I adjusted it a little so that it transforms you into the face you are currently wearing under that curse. If you just pour mana into the gem and wear it around your neck, it should maintain that face continuously.”

Honestly, that surprised me a little.

I had not expected her to give me something like this.

As long as I wore this around my neck, I no longer had to worry about my disguise coming undone because I fell asleep or momentarily failed to control my mana.

Reading the expression on my face, she rested her chin on one hand and smiled faintly.

“Because it sounds entertaining, does it not? A Black Mage trying to learn Holy Power. You are the first oddball like that I have ever seen.”

As expected of a dragon. She really was generous.

Then again, even for Levia, there was no way she had ever seen a case like mine before in her life, so naturally it had piqued her curiosity.

“Thank you for the gift. I will make good use of it.”

At my unusually polite response, where I bowed at the waist like a proper nobleman and expressed my thanks, Levia’s expression stiffened for a moment, then soured slightly.

“…Why do I find this so hard to trust?”

“That is prejudice.”

Levia looked extremely unconvinced, but I was the one who felt wronged.

To begin with, destroying the Steel Golem and wrecking the testing ground had been unavoidable.

“I gave you an artifact, so you are not going to cause another incident, are you?”

“As if I would. I do have a conscience.”

I valued my life too much to go out of my way to touch Levia’s reverse scale.

…Probably.

***

The day after the entrance exam ended, the list of accepted applicants was made public.

Finding my name on the large acceptance list hanging in front of the academy gates, I frowned.

As long as I got in, that should have been enough, but even so, that ranking was a little too much, was it not?

On the list, which ranked the successful applicants by score, the alias I was using sat at the very bottom.

Last place.

That is right. 

Dead last.

That damned lizard woman had shoved my entrance score all the way down to the bottom.

I could practically feel the headmaster’s malice radiating from the page, her desire to get back at me for wrecking the testing ground.

‘Honestly, I cannot tell whether she is petty or broad-minded…….’

I looked down at the pendant hanging from my neck.

After testing it yesterday, I found that if I infused mana into the blue gemstone attached to the pendant and wore it, it would disguise me with the exact same face I had created using the Mask Curse.

Even if the pendant were somehow damaged, I could still cast the Mask Curse and disguise my face myself, so unless I wanted otherwise, there was almost no chance that my identity would be exposed.

“In a few minutes, the entrance ceremony will begin. All successful applicants, please gather in Saengterminum’s auditorium shortly.”

At the words of the professor waiting in front of the acceptance list, the successful applicants, myself included, began making our way toward Saengterminum’s auditorium.

***

Inside the auditorium, the newly admitted first-years, myself included, were seated in neat rows.

Because we had been arranged according to our desired departments, every person seated around me was a user of Holy Power.

It was our first time meeting, for both me and them.

“Hey, that guy……”

“Is that not the one who wrecked the testing ground?”

The moment the students around me saw my face, they flinched or shot me glances, showering me with endless interest.

I was practically a celebrity.

Somehow, it did not feel all that different from the way the cadets at Necropia used to treat me. 

It had to be my imagination.

Anyway, it was definitely my imagination.

“Congratulations to all of you for passing. From now on, you will follow Saengterminum Academy’s curriculum and learn how to deal with demons and monsters. Now that you are all students of Saengterminum, I hope you will get along well with one another……”

On the platform at the front of the auditorium, Headmaster Levia was reading from a sheet of paper containing her welcome speech and reciting the usual ceremonial greetings.

Lloyd stood to Levia’s left, and Yulia stood to her right.

‘Just like in the previous timeline, and again in this one, those two are the top entrants.’

Even if their desired departments were different, the entrance exam was still scored objectively to determine who passed and who failed.

Those two had once again tied for first place in entrance scores and were standing at the front because of it.

“You all already know that monsters emerge from rifts. But demons are different. These bastards cannot come out into the world on their own, so instead they make contracts with people and try to interfere with our efforts to eliminate monsters, or else destroy the world altogether. They really are complete trash, are they not?”

Levia alternated her gaze between the first-years in the Black Magic Department and Lloyd.

“There are those who think we should study such demons and even try to turn their power to our own advantage……”

Then she shifted her gaze to the first-years in the Holy Magic Department and Yulia.

“And there are also those who think demons should be eradicated without exception. In a way, that is only natural too.”

The students watching Levia had bright, shining eyes.

Saengterminum Academy was prestigious, so many of the new students were the cherished sons and daughters of noble families from various nations.

Even for them, this was probably their first time seeing a dragon in Polymorph, so their awe was understandable… but I alone watched the headmaster with complete indifference.

Once they saw what that lizard was about to do from here on out, whatever admiration they currently had would vanish in an instant.

“But you know, children?”

Before long, Levia’s eyes and smile curved like a drawn bow.

“In the end, did you not all enroll in Saengterminum Academy because you want to eliminate demons and monsters?”

She turned and glared in turn at Lloyd and Yulia.

“But if even the model students who ranked first in the entrance exam start fighting the moment they see each other, is that really acceptable? As fellow students of Saengterminum, should you not be setting an example?”

Both of their shoulders twitched, and their faces stiffened.

“Ah, do not worry. I am not scolding you. I know the two empires do not get along. I have no intention of forcing you to change the way you think right this moment.”

She was smiling, but the air around her had sharpened.

“But if you enrolled in Saengterminum, then should you not follow Saengterminum’s laws?”

CRACK!

White frost spread over the sheet of paper in her hand, and in an instant it froze solid.

“What is even the point of this? Words do not really leave much of an impression anyway.”

At Levia’s sudden violent gesture, all the students began whispering among themselves, but Levia was, in her own way, a broad-minded dragon.

That did not mean she refrained from punishing people, though.

“If the two of you manage to escape, go straight to the dormitory and get some rest.”

“…Pardon?”

“What exactly do you mean by that…….”

“It is nothing complicated.”

Levia walked up close to the two of them and placed one hand on Lloyd’s shoulder and the other on Yulia’s.

“All you have to do is reflect a little inside the rift, then get along and find the exit together. Simple, right?”

“……?”

The teachers held their heads or shook them, and the new students’ faces went stiff.

Of course they did.

What was a rift?

A crack that connected other dimensions, a hidden world that linked monsters and demons to this one.

And now she was calmly declaring that she would throw the two highest-ranked students into such a dangerous place as punishment.

Waves of mana surged from Yulia and Lloyd for a few seconds, but neither of them could break free from Levia’s grip.

FLASH!

The two who had been standing there vanished without a trace.

‘Forced Teleport.’

She had used a high-tier spell for the express purpose of punishing them.

‘Come on, even so. Forced Teleport is seriously messed up…….’

I recalled what had happened in the previous timeline.

Back then, Yulia had picked a fight with Lloyd and me at the registration desk, and because of that, Levia had dragged me up during the entrance ceremony and Forced Teleported all three of us together.

While Levia wore a deeply satisfied smile, the teachers behind her simply shook their heads with the expressions of those who had achieved enlightenment.

Hey, you are teachers, are you not?

How about stopping that headmaster of yours when she goes berserk?

“The entrance ceremony is over. Everyone, head to the dormitory.”

With brisk, cheerful motions, Levia dismissed the students, and the stunned first-years looked at me as if they had been possessed.

They said nothing, but I could read it on their faces.

‘How are you even alive after wrecking the testing ground when your headmaster is like that?’

I gave them a shrug in return, answering with my own expression.

‘That is what I would like to know too.’

Thank goodness Levia had understood my side of things because of the Sacred Mark. 

Otherwise, I might have been the first one to get hit with Forced Teleport yesterday.

I was glad I had avoided it this time around. 

When you get hit by that, your stomach turns, your head spins, and it feels absolutely awful.

So… in conclusion, there was only one thing to say.

Hallelujah… long live the Sacred Mark.

***

As everyone left the auditorium and headed toward the dormitory, I slung my Subspace Bag over my shoulder and walked in a different direction from the others.

I looked around, searching for a student heading the same way I was.

At this hour, very few people were going that way, so I found one easily enough.

“The dormitory is not in that direction, is it?”

When I walked up and spoke, she sensed my presence and turned her head toward me.

She had short hair cut just to the edge of her shoulders, emerald eyes, and a rather slender build.

The moment she saw me, the woman’s expression froze.

Were we not meeting for the first time in this timeline?

“Ah.”

It was too late for her to hurriedly slap her cheek and try to loosen her facial muscles.

I saw all of it, you know?

I saw that look you gave me, like you were staring at a bug.

Clearly, the karmic debt from smashing the Steel Golem in the testing ground had come back to haunt me.

The fact that I had managed to destroy my image this thoroughly before even a full day had passed since enrollment was almost a talent in itself.

“And why are you headed this way?”

“I was curious to see what an ‘Artificial Rift’ looks like, so I thought I would go take a look.”

An Artificial Rift.

A rift created artificially through magic rather than one formed naturally.

It was one of the reasons Saengterminum was considered prestigious. 

In order to improve their students’ training results, Levia and the teachers had created ‘Artificial Rifts’ within Saengterminum’s grounds, places designed to reproduce conditions similar to those of real rifts.

It was, in a sense, their way of putting the saying that the best training is real combat into practice.

‘In the previous timeline too, Levia used Forced Teleport to send me, Lloyd, and the Sword Radiance straight into an Artificial Rift.’

That said, the safety of those two was not actually in danger inside the Artificial Rift.

To begin with, they were the two top-ranked entrants.

Levia had not acted completely recklessly. 

Based on their entrance exam scores, she had set the Teleport coordinates at a depth they would be more than capable of handling.

I could personally vouch for that, having been Forced Teleported there alongside the two of them in the previous timeline.

It could be seen as a form of consideration on Levia’s part, her own way of hoping that the two of them might improve their relationship at least a little while escaping the Artificial Rift together.

The problem was simply that her methods were far too Spartan.

Then if I knew the two of them would not face any serious danger, why was I headed for the Artificial Rift anyway?

‘There is no downside to getting acquainted with the Sword Radiance ahead of time.’

After all, it was the Sword Radiance who had struck the final blow against the Hellfire Demon.

If I stayed close to her, supported her directly and indirectly, and learned how to handle the Sacred Mark, then I should be able to build a better future than the one from the previous timeline.

And if I could also recruit other talented people attending this academy while I was at it, then all the better.

In that sense, the woman standing next to me now was also one of those talents.

“To the Artificial Rift?”

She hesitated for a moment, gauging my reaction, then soon seemed to steel herself and continued.

“What a coincidence. I am going to the ‘Artificial Rift’ too.”