Chapter 84

Chapter 84: Preparing for the Main Tournament (2)

Elysia furrowed her brow.

“An Acquired Holy Power Awakener......?”

“Hm... Elysia, I suppose you might not know.”

“To awaken Holy Power through Acquired means, one must pray to God with a desperate Earnest Wish in an extreme situation.”

“If there were no devout heart when making that Earnest Wish, they would not have awakened Holy Power in the first place.”

“Does that devout heart have something to do with this?”

“Rather than having something to do with it, I should say it is a trait that arises because of that devotion.”

“By trait, you mean......”

“They try to keep any vow they speak to another person, no matter what. If that vow is framed like something akin to a wager, all the more so.”

“Of course, there may be differences in degree, but he made a wager in front of all these people. There is no way an Acquired Awakener would break a vow formed in this way.”

Franz and Bella gazed steadily at me.

‘...What kind of bullshit is that? That was a thing?’

I nearly let my mouth fall open.

Were Acquired Awakeners really people that pure and spotless? 

As a Black Mage, I found it so absurd it left me dumbfounded.

As even the people around us who heard the two of them explain began to stir, Elysia turned back to me with wavering eyes.

“So your resolve was not half-hearted......?”

No, guys, I didn’t make that wager with such deep meaning, you know?

As I was wondering how to speak in this unexpected situation—

“What are you doing in front of everyone, Lady Elysia?”

Karin, who had appeared from the crowd before I knew it, blocked the space between Elysia and me.

“Damon only made the suggestion. If you were going to say something like that, shouldn’t you have come to me and argued with me? In the end, I was the one who agreed.”

“Karin......”

At the sight of Karin, Elysia let the end of her sentence trail off, then continued.

“No matter that you are a Dark Elf, I think teaming up with a Black Mage goes too far. What would our other kin think?”

“What does that have to do with you, Lady Elysia?”

“Do you think Elves who earn Grade 2 at your age are common? Even if you were exiled, in terms of ability, you are more than enough to serve as a model for the Elves. Please be more aware of your position.”

“That is what you think, Lady Elysia. You know better than anyone how the other Elves see me.”

“…….”

“I don’t think doing this will change much.”

At Karin’s curtly decisive words, Elysia’s mouth pressed shut.

Karin gave a small nod in greeting, then cast her gaze toward me.

“Then I’ll be going with my teammate. Both you and we need to prepare for the tournament, Lady Elysia, don’t we?”

***

As I walked with Karin, I looked back on Elysia’s behavior from a moment ago.

‘It is strange.’

For her to care that much about a Dark Elf, I found myself wondering whether she was really the same person as the Elysia I had seen before my Return to the Past.

“Damon.”

Karin called my name as if tossing it out.

“I heard everything earlier. You said if you lose to Lady Elysia, you’ll stop defending Black Magic......”

“Since I said that in front of everyone, if we win, she shouldn’t bother bringing up annoying things about you again. That’s why I made the wager.”

“Even if Lady Elysia accepted the wager, aren’t the terms too unfair to you?”

“...Unfair?”

Feeling that something was off, I glanced at Karin’s face, and sure enough, worry was written across her expression.

“How should I put it? It’s just a verbal wager, isn’t it?”

“You’re an Acquired Holy Power Awakener, aren’t you?”

“…….”

Left with nothing to say, I looked up at the sky with an enlightened expression.

This is driving me insane.

How was I supposed to know Acquired Awakeners valued this sort of thing?

But it was not as if I had awakened Innately either, so I could not explain myself.

Tch. 

Well, it did not matter much.

It was not a particularly serious matter to me.

“We just have to win anyway.”

Karin looked at me worriedly, but I had no reason to be cowed.

“That too, but I also didn’t like how the Elves openly hated Black Magic.”

“I guess you forgot I’m an Elf too?”

“You’re better than the stuffy lot whose minds got all closed off living in the Great Forest. At least you’re willing to be on a team with Lloyd.”

“That was a compliment, right?”

“Of course it was a compliment. Did you think it was an insult?”

“You never lose a single exchange, do you?”

Karin replied in a tone of disbelief, but soon she let out an empty breath.

“By the way, Lady Elysia really did change her team because of me......”

After staring off into the distance for a moment, she looked at me with a pouty face.

“Still, wasn’t it too much to run your mouth like that in front of everyone? What was it, pointy-ear? I’m a pointy-ear too, you know?”

“Elysia was the one who pissed me off first. When it was obvious she was playing dirty, did you expect me to speak nicely?”

In the first place, I was not that good-natured.

Where would the temperament that once got me called Mad Dog have gone?

“Anyway, after class, let’s meet Lloyd and figure out how to beat Team 1. The first round of the main tournament starts tomorrow.”

I had become curious about what event had caused Elysia’s personality to change, but.

Right now, it was best to focus only on how to beat Team 1.

***

There is a saying that words once spoken cannot be gathered back up.

As a Black Mage, it was not something I particularly agreed with. 

The fool who was deceived was at fault.

However, as of today, I found myself reconsidering the meaning of that saying.

When lunch ended and I returned to the Holy Magic Department lecture hall.

“...You guys heard too, right?”

“How could we not have heard?”

“An Acquired Awakener making a wager like that in front of everyone......”

It began with my Holy Magic Department classmates whispering among themselves while glancing sideways at me.

“I heard the news. To think you would make such a wager with Elysia......”

“I didn’t think you’d come out that strongly......”

Yulia and Viole approaching me and offering words I could not tell were encouragement or concern was still cute by comparison.

“If anything, this is good. If we win, she won’t be able to say anything about Black Magic anymore, right?”

“I did not expect we would be able to bring him to repentance this easily.”

When I saw those Inquisitor bastards sitting in their seats and looking at me as they steeled themselves hard for tomorrow’s tournament, I seriously considered whether to inquire after their parents’ well-being.

And that was not all. 

Once class began, it was even more ridiculous.

Professor Noel was continuing the theory class from the morning, but as soon as our eyes met, she cleared her throat and pushed up the frame of her glasses.

“Ahem... However tomorrow’s tournament ends, I think it was admirable that you made such a wager. Whatever the result, the mere fact that you engaged in fair competition has value......”

No, is a wager between teenagers really that grand, Professor?

No joke, most of the Holy Magic Department Professors who taught classes that day adopted an attitude similar to Professor Noel’s the moment they saw me.

And it reached its peak when Professor McDowell held his first class.

“Hohoho, I am ‘McDowell Bacchus,’ and I will be taking charge of this class starting today.”

As the Holy Magic Department students looked up with gazes close to admiration at the appearance of Professor McDowell, a former Inquisitor, he swept his gaze across the students.

“I have come as a temporary Professor until Aron is caught, but I do not intend to do this half-heartedly. As you all attend my class, I ask that each of you prepare yourselves in your own way.”

Since it was his first class, McDowell did not proceed with a full lesson and instead explained the direction of his class, but soon he spotted me and laughed heartily.

“That was quite something, Damon. Since lunchtime, the Holy Magic Department Professors have been talking of nothing but you.”

“Is that so?”

“It cannot be helped, since you are an Acquired Awakener. You are an Acquired Awakener yourself, so you must have known your own position very well.”

No, not really. 

I’m using Holy Power because I inherited the Sacred Mark from Yulia sitting over there.

“Which means you must have known all of that when you openly made the wager, yes?”

McDowell looked at me and stroked his beard meaningfully.

“I am curious how you intend to win in the tournament. Hohoho.”

“Haha, of course.”

Looking at McDowell’s benevolent smile, I also laughed emptily.

Hahaha... It seemed this whole situation had swollen to an absurd scale far beyond what I had expected.

They said words once spoken could not be gathered back up, did they?

At least for me, hiding my identity as a Holy Magic Department student named ‘Damon David,’ a wager of this sort was practically a contract I could not break.

‘Fucking hell, even a demon contract would be better than this.’

***

After class that day.

After meeting Jaeger separately, I moved to the Training Hall where I had agreed to meet my teammates.

“You’re here.”

“You’re late.”

Karin and Lloyd, who had arrived first, were waiting in the Training Hall.

Normally, at this hour, the Training Hall was bursting with students waiting, but priority for using the Training Hall was granted only to those participating in the tournament.

Thanks to that, I had been able to go meet Jaeger without any particular worries.

“There was something I needed to pick up separately.”

When I drew the Dagger fastened at my waist, the corner of Karin’s mouth twisted.

“...I guess that’s the Dagger Jaeger made for you instead of my bow?”

“You’re still holding on to that?”

The leather-bandage Handle, which had not felt quite right in my grip, had been newly tanned to make it easier to hold.

Whish, whoosh.

Even after spinning it around a few times, nothing caught.

The Blade Edge, which had previously been roughly finished with dull Steel, now gleamed with a silver luster, and the edge had also been sharpened keenly.

“I did ask Jaeger to finish it quickly before the main tournament, but I was worried......”

‘I had some trouble with the Blade Edge, but I refined and fused it with decent ore, so at the very least, the edge will not dull during this tournament.’

Recalling what Jaeger had said, I smiled in satisfaction.

“...This is usable enough.”

Click.

After finishing my inspection, I put the Mana Crystal Dagger into its sheath.

“By the way, I heard what happened at the campus front gate. You made a wager with Elysia, the princess of the Elves?”

Lloyd looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“Did you truly make a wager to the point of staking your own convictions?”

“Ah, enough already. I’m sick of it......”

“Well, as a Black Mage, it does not particularly resonate with me. Rather, I found Elysia’s act of teaming up with Inquisitors to shut me out, a Direct Line of the Four Great Houses, quite displeasing.”

“Tell me about it.”

Though I was hiding my identity, I was still a Direct Line of the Four Great Houses.

There was no way I would look kindly on the sight of someone looking down on Black Mages.

Lloyd and I, neither of us needing to go first, raised the corners of our mouths wickedly.

“We need to crush that arrogance, don’t we?”

“Of course. This is a challenge to the Four Great Houses of the Dark Empire. We must show Elysia the greatness of Black Magic clearly.”

Heh heh heh.

Keh keh keh.

Karin narrowed her eyes as she looked at us letting out sneers.

“...Anyone watching would think both of you were Black Mages.”