Chapter 91

Chapter 91: Overestimation (1)

By the time Damon’s Grade 2 License review ended, the sun had long since set.

The review was finished, but the professors there were still busy analyzing the students’ battles from today’s tournament.

Levia took Damon, who had finished his review, and walked down the corridor with him.

They had only taken a few steps after leaving the building corridor when Headmaster Levia stopped.

“Damon, shall we have a short private meeting here?”

“A private meeting?”

“Yes. Just in case.......”

Levia looked around, then swept one hand through the air.

Swoooooosh.......

A cold chill rose for a brief moment, and a thin, domed curtain of ice spread out around Damon and Levia, surrounding them.

It was an ice barrier that completely blocked any sound coming from inside.

“No one will hear what we say in here, so let us speak comfortably.”

“You call this comfortable?”

Damon looked around at the ice barrier on all sides and frowned.

“...For a private meeting, the security is certainly thorough.”

“The student in front of me is hiding the fact that he is a direct-line scion of the Four Great Houses, you see. There are professors nearby as well, so if we do not want you found out, we need to be certain.”

Levia pressed him persistently.

“What were you thinking, going so far as to make an oath, Aron Bayonel?”

“...So that was it?”

Damon let out a deep sigh and shrugged.

“So what if I made an oath? I feel like it’s fine as long as I won.”

“What were you planning to do if you lost? Especially as a direct-line scion of the Four Great Houses of the Dark Empire.”

“In any case, I won, so it’s fine, right?”

“Do you not think there is a limit to irresponsibility?”

Levia still disliked his delinquent mannerisms, but judging by the results, what he said was not wrong.

Still, as the Headmaster who knew his true identity, she needed to give him at least a small lecture.

THOOM.......! Fwoooooosh.......

“......!”

Damon’s expression twisted sharply at the alien sensation, as though his heart had dropped.

In an instant, the mana density inside the ice barrier Levia had cast increased, and the temperature plummeted.

Crrrrrk.......!

The cold, heavy air pressed down on Damon’s entire body.

“Hoo... What are you doing all of a sudden?”

After taking a short breath, Damon glared upward and raised his head, which had briefly bowed under the pressure.

Levia was staring at him with her pupils narrowed sharply.

“I want to half-force one promise out of a student who acts without thinking ahead.”

“What is that supposed to.......”

“I would be troubled if you lost your temper and made another oath.”

With even the horns on her head fully revealed, Levia sharpened her gaze coldly.

“You, a direct-line child of the Four Great Houses, saying you would not defend Black Magic. If you had lost, were you planning not to return to the Four Great Houses at all?”

“...Pardon?”

Damon’s eyes went round for a moment.

A brief silence passed.

“Hahahah.......”

Then he let out a hollow laugh.

“Ah—right. Heh, so this ends up being interpreted that way too?”

“Let us not pretend otherwise, shall we? If you went so far as to make an oath, you must have been prepared for that much.”

Levia continued with a face that seemed to find him absurd.

“I am only keeping you here because of the Sacred Mark. I have no intention of leaving a direct-line child of the Four Great Houses as a runaway little bastard for the rest of his life.”

“It was just a verbal oath. Are you not overestimating me?”

“Judging by what you showed in this match, I do not think that is a leap.”

Levia answered coldly.

Since he had produced the result of obtaining a Grade 2 License using only Holy Magic rather than Black Magic in the match, there was no doubt he had not made the oath lightly.

However, as the Headmaster of the academy, she needed to prevent the student she had taken in from acting as he pleased like this.

“If you use that kind of stupid oath as you please again, you had better be prepared.”

The result Damon had achieved through the oath was more than good. It was satisfying.

But the risk had been far too great.

This time, he had made an oath, won, and escaped without issue, but a boy like this, an Acquired Awakener, would certainly have tried to keep the oath.

With Aron’s personality, he would clearly lose his temper and throw oaths around, so she had deliberately taken a hard line.

However, there was one fact she did not know.

Damon had long since grown utterly sick of oaths.

“Tsk, you can say that again.”

Damon grimaced.

“...Huh?”

“I don’t plan to make an oath like this ever again either.”

Levia blinked.

“Is that true?”

“Do you think I’d be insane enough to lie in front of you, Headmaster? I didn’t know things would get this big either.”

Damon grumbled furiously inside, and Headmaster Levia’s unique insight immediately saw through his inner thoughts.

‘...He is accepting it this easily?’

Question marks kept popping up across Levia’s face.

She continued using her insight on Damon, but the result was the same.

It was clear that Damon truly regretted making that bet down to the bone.

“It seems... you are not lying?”

“Of course I’m not. Do you think I’d keep making such foolish oaths?”

Levia’s cold momentum gradually subsided at Damon’s almost resigned inner state and behavior.

“This will never happen again. Unless someone forces me to.”

“Well, if that is the case, that is a relief.......”

Srrrk.......

Levia dispelled the ice barrier surrounding them with a dubious expression, and Damon straightened his body, which had been heavily pressed down by the pressure, then rolled his shoulders.

Feeling somehow awkward, Levia cleared her throat.

“Ah... um... ahem, the private meeting is over. You may go now.”

“Yes. Then, thanks for your trouble.”

Levia watched Damon’s back as he greeted her with a completely drained face and trudged away, then muttered sullenly.

“...What was that?”

Why do I feel like I lost?

***

After finishing my Spartan private meeting with Headmaster Levia.

I walked through the dim streets of Saengterminum and took out the License I had just received.

Multicolored light reflected off the License beneath the magestone lamps.

[Measured Grade: Grade 2]

‘A Grade 2 License.......’

Before I Returned to the Past, I had barely managed to obtain this Grade 2 License around the end of my first year.

Then again, even without using Black Magic, the combat sense I had acquired firsthand after being kicked around through the entire previous run had not gone anywhere.

And now that I could use the Sacred Mark on top of that, it went without saying.

‘Anyway, I’ve cleared one hurdle with this.’

Whatever else, I did feel relieved.

The teams I had marked as likely candidates for victory were Team 1 and Team 7. 

And Team 1 had won their match today.

Team 7, where Yulia was, still remained, but.

‘I’m sure Team 7 was on the far right side of the bracket.’

In other words, I did not need to worry about facing Team 7 until the finals.

They said the main tournament would continue for a week, so I had plenty of time, but.......

Tap, tap.......

“If you’ve got something to say, why don’t you say it? Stop tailing me like a creep.”

“...Calling it creepy is harsh.”

Yulia, who had been caught secretly following behind me, stopped walking and placed a hand on her waist with a pout.

“I don’t think Brother, who copied my technique without permission, is in a position to say that.”

“You noticed?”

“Do you think I wouldn’t recognize my own technique.......?”

Yulia seemed quite on edge.

Well, from the perspective of the person whose technique had been copied, it would be unpleasant.

“I asked Professor McDowell when it would end. You just took the Grade 2 review over there, right?”

Look at her. 

She was digging in persistently.

She had clearly come to complain that I had earned Grade 2 by copying her technique.

“How did the review go?”

Instead of answering, I held the newly updated License in front of Yulia’s eyes.

“...As expected.”

After seeing my License, a faint smile appeared on Yulia’s lips, and she soon nodded proudly.

“Hehe, of course. Since you showed off a technique modeled after mine, it would’ve been strange if you hadn’t passed the review.......”

“......?”

Yulia’s mood abruptly softened.

Hadn’t she come to complain?

“If you copied my technique and still failed the review, I would’ve hated that more.”

Huh, so that was what she’d been worried about?

When I looked closely, she had an oddly strong sense of self-love.

“You’re a tournament competitor, so I doubt you’re happy that I became Grade 2.”

When I asked back in disbelief, Yulia tilted her head instead.

“Is that so? We’re both Saengterminum students, aren’t we? If I hated that a classmate became more skilled, that would only make me small-minded.”

“Ah... is that right?”

“A Grade 2 License is quite a high grade, isn’t it? I waited so I could at least congratulate you.”

...It was probably just my imagination that there seemed to be a halo shining behind Yulia for some strange reason. Surely.

Had I been thinking too much like a delinquent?

“Should we go to a restaurant and have a little celebration? We could invite Viole too, while we’re at it.......”

“That’ll be hard.”

“...Pardon?”

“I’m meeting Elysia separately.”

Yulia’s eyes widened.

“With Elysia......?”

“Right. We decided to have dinner together.”

After the match ended, I had personally met Elysia in the waiting room and spoken to her.

There was something I wanted to confirm with her.

‘That works out, then. I also had something to ask you.’

‘You had something to ask me?’

‘I will tell you where my lodging is. Please come around dinnertime. I will buy dinner.’

To think Elysia actually had business with me.......

Hmm, what could it be? 

Nothing in particular came to mind.

I did not know what she would bring up, but if we both had business with each other, it seemed fine to meet over a meal.

“Is it the restaurant at the lodging where Elysia is staying?”

“That’s right.”

“Wow, I heard the food there is very expensive.......”

“How do you even know that?”

Yulia’s eyes sparkled, and after asking me to give her a moment, she took out her pouch.

Jingle.

When she opened it and looked inside, a shadow fell over her face.

“Ugh... this is cutting it a little close.......”

She looked quite depressed, but that was self-inflicted. 

Considering how much she had eaten until now.

After wavering for a few seconds like that, she finally made up her mind and clenched both fists.

“All right. I’ll make the splurge and go this once.”

“I won’t stop you if you want to come with me.”

Was this really something she had to steel herself for so solemnly?

“Originally, I was thinking of trying a restaurant you recommended, Brother. But this is not bad either.”

“A restaurant I recommend?”

“Didn’t you say you recommended some to Lloyd too?”

“I did recommend some, but.......”

...Huh?

Sensing something off, I trailed off.

Yulia also realized she had made a slip of the tongue, and her shoulders twitched.

“You. How did you know I recommended restaurants to Lloyd?”

“...Hahaha.”

“Come to think of it, that was strange too. How did you know when my review would end, enough to camp out here the whole time?”

At my interrogation, Yulia broke into a nervous sweat and avoided my eyes.

“Don’t tell me.......”

“I heard it from the others. They said that in exchange for teaming up together, Brother agreed to tell Lloyd ten good restaurants.......”

“Oh, is that so?”

“I-I mean, of course I was curious. You were the one who recommended the restaurant called ‘Wild Hunt’ to Lloyd, Brother, so I wondered if you knew other good places that could tempt Lloyd, a noble of the Four Great Houses.......”

So the point was this.

“The congratulations for my Grade 2 were just a pretext, and you waited for me because you wanted to know more good restaurants in Saengterminum?”

“No... it wasn’t exactly that.......”

At my interrogation, Yulia’s face crumpled as if she were about to cry.

“I-I taught you Condensation, and you earned Grade 2 by copying my technique, so you can at least tell me that much, can’t you?”

“......”

Yulia clasped both hands together with pleading eyes and looked up at me.

“You wouldn’t be so stingy as to not tell me, would you?”

Of course. 

I had overestimated that food goblin.