Chapter 93

Chapter 93: Overestimation (3)

As I walked along the roadside in Saengterminum, I frowned while listening to the murmuring voices behind me.

“Uh, just now.......”

“Isn’t that the student? The team member from the team that beat Team 1.”

“I heard he eliminated Grade 1 Elysia.......”

Fuck, how many times had I heard people say that while walking down the street?

There were quite a few times when the eyes of passersby subtly followed me.

It seemed the news related to today’s tournament had spread quite widely, not only among the students but among the visitors as well.

Then again, we had defeated Team 1, the likely winner, and I had personally eliminated Grade 1 Elysia, so it was certainly enough to become a topic of conversation.

Normally, I would not care one way or another about this kind of attention, but now that I was searching for a deserted place, it was quite troublesome.

Then, well, I just had to shake them all off.

Vwooom.......

Auto-Casting.

Grace of Agility, Grace of Strength.

Bang! Tap, tap-tap!

After reinforcing my body with Holy Power, I left the people’s gazes behind and dashed through the streets and between the buildings.

***

“Damn it, what is this? All of a sudden......!”

Yulia clenched her teeth and ran down the street.

Until just now, it had seemed to be moving slowly, but she had not expected the speed to suddenly increase.

‘It definitely noticed that I’m following it.’

Otherwise, there was no explaining how it had suddenly moved so far away.

She wanted to run faster, but because she had to keep checking the trembling of her Holy Power, she could not force herself to speed up.

After all, there would be nothing more foolish than growing impatient and losing the trail.

‘Whew... is it that way?’

She had almost lost it.

Yulia calmly caught the direction where her Holy Power was trembling once more and was about to resume tracking, but...

“Pretty damn quick. To think he’d go that fast.”

“Did he have something urgent?”

“......?”

Recognizing the people’s conversation, she reflexively turned her head.

She had been in a hurry and had not noticed right away, but now that she looked, a number of people were whispering.

Had something happened?

...Ah.

Something suddenly flashed through Yulia’s mind, and she grabbed one merchant there and asked.

“Excuse me, did someone just run through here very quickly?”

“Who’re you, miss?”

“Someone did pass by.”

“Please. Even their appearance is fine. What did they look like?”

Yulia asked again, paying no mind to it.

If the person had moved away quickly enough to create this much distance, they could not help but stand out.

Naturally, the attention of the people around them would have been drawn.

If she asked these people, she would at least be able to find out what the person she had been chasing looked like.

However, the people around her reacted strangely.

“Not much to describe, is there?”

“Well, judging by your look, you’re a student at this academy, right? A first-year?”

“That is true, but.......”

Why was he suddenly asking that?

“Huh, then you’ll know right away.”

“A student called ‘Damon David.’ The one they say won in today’s tournament.”

“That student suddenly took off running. Made me wonder if he had something urgent.”

“Pardon?”

Yulia’s mouth opened slightly.

“Damon?”

“Didn’t you come looking for your classmate?”

“Ah, that’s not it.......”

Yulia let out a deep sigh.

Damon was a fellow Holy Magic Department student. 

There was no way he could use Black Magic.

It seemed his path had simply overlapped with hers by coincidence.

“That student just hurried off that way.”

The merchant gestured with his chin toward a narrow path between the buildings, and Yulia could not hide her bewilderment when she confirmed the direction.

‘Huh?’

She could not help it.

The direction the merchant indicated was almost the same as the direction she was tracking.

Was that not too perfect to be a coincidence?

‘Why is Damon here......?’

Soon, she shook her head to clear away her thoughts, then hurried her steps once more.

She did not know whether it was a coincidence or not.

Right now, the priority was following the direction she could sense.

***

‘Let’s see... am I about there?’

After running for several minutes while deliberately choosing paths with no people.

Tap.

Before long, without being seen by anyone, I had gone from a busy main road where many people came and went deep into a secluded alley where the light of the Magestone Lamps did not reach.

Since the grounds of Saengterminum were the size of a large city, there were plenty of blind spots. 

I had checked several routes and places that did not get caught by Levia’s Security Formula by wandering around Saengterminum whenever I had the chance with ‘Reptile Ignorance’ cast.

This alley was one of them.

‘There’s no one around. Perfect.’

After confirming that there was no sign of anyone nearby, I checked the text string on the Artifact I was holding.

[Please activate the Artifact with the hour hand and minute hand set to twelve o’clock.]

As far as I remembered, even within Abyss, they did not use that effect for just anyone.......

It seemed Abyss also saw me, a Direct Line of the Four Great Houses, as quite a useful card.

Following the text string, I set the hour hand and minute hand to twelve o’clock, then closed and opened the lid.

Creeeeak... Crack!

Demonic Aura shot from the tip of the hand toward the wall in the form of a small beam, and the space touched by the Demonic Aura shattered along with the wall’s surface like pieces of glass.

Crackle.......

The gap, which had gradually grown in size, finally stopped only when it became large enough for one person to pass through.

The Artifact had twisted open the space between spaces with Demonic Aura and created a rift.

[A rift linked to the Artifact is opening.]

I glanced at the floating text string and let out a small sound of admiration.

‘Creating a Rift Entrance this way... really is surprising.’

There was an Artificial Rift at the center of Saengterminum as well, but that was the result of the Headmaster and the mages here devising a massive formula after much thought.

Even if this was smaller than the Artificial Rift at the center, creating a rift like this with a single Artifact was certainly interesting.

...Well, it must have been easier to open a rift because it used Demonic Aura, the power of demons.

‘Seeing as it’s this quiet even though a rift opened, they must have properly set up a Security Formula too.......’

I brought a hand to the nape of my neck.

Polymorph, release.

After putting the Pendant into my pocket, I took clothes out of my Subspace Bag, quickly changed, and hid my appearance with a Black Robe.

The space inside that rift had been made by Abyss to call me, Aron, out.

Abyss was treating me favorably, but they were the sort who had summoned even a demon inside Saengterminum in the previous run.

This was no different from walking into the heart of enemy territory, so I could not lower my guard.

After organizing my thoughts, I stepped into the rift.

***

Fwoooosh.......

As soon as I passed through the rift, I looked behind me.

‘The way back is open properly.’

Behind my back, the cluster of light I had just passed through was rippling white in the shape of a Portal.

If I passed through that, I would return to where I had been.

After confirming the entrance, I looked around.

The first thing I saw before me was a huge mansion.

A red full moon hung in the star-embroidered sky, and a broad, well-kept garden spread out in front of the mansion.

If anything was unusual, it was the suits of armor holding weapons placed throughout the garden.

No lights were on in the mansion’s windows, giving it a desolate air, but judging by the mansion itself, it would not have been lacking even if someone called it the estate of a high-ranking noble family.

Beyond the outer grounds of the mansion, an endless dark forest spread out. 

The area around that forest was surely the boundary of this rift, but.......

‘Wait... this place?’

After confirming the inside of the rift, I raised my eyes.

...To think I would enter this place so early.

{You have arrived.}

An alien yet familiar voice sounded for a moment.

Flutter.......

Soon, black fog gathered around me, and Smiling Mask, draped in a Black Robe, appeared.

I swept my gaze over Smiling Mask from head to toe and glared.

“The attitude of a bastard who says they want to make an offer is really something, huh? Is this an Illusion again?”

“My, my... you noticed that immediately again?”

“What’s there to notice? The entrance was just created in the first place.”

Every rift had only one Rift Entrance.

They said there were special methods for entering or leaving a rift without passing through the entrance, but most of those were high-rank spells with highly complex formulas and extreme mana consumption.

There was no way they would use such a troublesome method just to meet me alone.

Unless they appeared as an Illusion inside the rift like now.

“As expected of a Direct Line of the Four Great Houses.”

Smiling Mask pointed at the Pocket Watch I was holding.

“This rift is one of the rifts linked to that Artifact. We adjusted it so that when you open a rift with the Artifact, Artifact holders like you can appear in the form of an Illusion, like me.”

Even before I Returned to the Past, I had known Abyss could handle rifts fairly well, but had they been this capable even while operating beneath the surface?

As expected of a Demon Order serving the Seven Deadly Sins.

Smiling Mask turned toward the mansion.

“It would be rude to convey the offer here, so shall we go inside? Let us have a leisurely conversation there.”

“Putting aside hearing your offer, are you going to leave that as is?”

I cocked my head toward the open Portal behind me.

Even if Abyss had used Demonic Aura to prevent the rift from being detected, that was still an entrance. 

If someone discovered the rift opened outside, the one most inconvenienced would be me, you know?

“What are you planning to do if someone sees that?”

“Ah, please do not worry about that.”

Smiling Mask laughed quietly.

“I have made separate arrangements so that the Rift Entrance opened outside will close within one minute.”

***

Several dozen seconds after Aron entered the rift.

Tap.

‘Judging by the flow, it should be around here.......’

Yulia, who had followed the direction where her Holy Power was trembling and turned the final corner of the alley, stopped in her tracks and could not help but be shocked.

Groooan.......

One side of the wall had been strangely pierced open, as if glass had shattered.

This was.......

“A-A rift?”

This was Saengterminum.

If a rift had appeared, Saengterminum should have taken action, so how had no one come?

Sssss.......

“Demonic Aura.......”

Yulia’s eyes sharpened.

Not only had no one noticed despite a rift opening, but there was even Demonic Aura thinly spread around the rift.

‘It does not seem to be a rift made with mana.’

Whoever had opened that rift had clearly used some means to avoid being discovered.

The target she had been chasing must have opened the rift and gone inside.

She considered retreating and notifying others about this rift, but there was no time for that.

Crrrrrk.

“Huh?”

Because the open rift was closing rapidly.