episode_0085

“Huh? Loki isn’t visible?”

“He probably used his unique magic to conceal himself.”

“Ah, I see. I knew about it, but it truly is a fascinating unique magic.”

To see Loki, the professors looked at the screen showing the student with the injured arm, whom Loki had been targeting earlier.

This was because Loki would have to reveal himself there to catch the student with the injured arm.

“If we leave things as they are, the exam will clearly go awry. Is there no way to prevent Loki from entering the control room?”

“””Sigh…….”””

The other professors, who had heard the new professor’s words, let out deep sighs.

The other professors knew it too. They knew that if things continued this way, the exam would go awry—no, that the exam was already going strangely.

The barrier was not like a physical shield that prevented intrusion, but rather a barrier that made one invisible from the outside.

“Look at the floor over there.”

In the direction the professor pointed, the drink Loki had been consuming earlier and a location-tracking magic tool lay on the floor.

“As long as that location-tracking magic tool is there, that crazy person—no, Loki—can freely come and go from this place.”

“Then if we remove that magic tool……….”

“”””That’s even more impossible.””””

The other professors interrupted the new professor and spoke simultaneously.

The new professor, who had voiced his opinion, flinched as the other professors simultaneously and firmly rejected his suggestion.

“Unfortunately, as Loki said earlier, Loki has never broken a single rule. But if we remove that magic tool, it would mean we are interfering with Loki’s exam.”

“B-but……..”

“Do you know why professors now gather in one place to grade written exams, even though they didn’t used to?”

A middle-aged professor interrupted the new professor and blurted out something unexpected.

The new professor was momentarily flustered but quickly answered.

“Wasn’t it because a professor once took money to raise a student’s grades?”

“Half right, half wrong. It’s true that a student paid money and grades were manipulated, but the grades were lowered, not raised.”

“Huh? Why would they deliberately lower……… No way?”

“Yes, a student paid a professor to lower the grades of a student they disliked, and the professor accepted.”

The new professor realized why the professors had simultaneously opposed it earlier.

“Do you understand what I said earlier now? If we touch that magic tool, it would mean a ‘professor’ is interfering with a ‘student’s’ exam.”

While the other professors were chattering, Alicia, who had been quietly watching the screen, opened her mouth.

“He’s arrived.”

At Alicia’s words, the professors looked at the screen, but Loki’s figure was still nowhere to be seen.

Alicia silently pointed at the screen with her finger, but Loki was still not visible there.

“Squad Leader-nim, what exactly is there?”

“Tsk. Look at the grass there. It’s pressed down as if someone stepped on it.”

Only after reinforcing their eyes with mana were the professors able to see the grass Alicia had mentioned.

The professors wanted to say, ‘You can see that?’, but they didn’t voice it.

The student who had caught a magic beast earlier and injured his arm was resting under a tree, seemingly completely oblivious to Loki’s presence nearby, even after Loki had dispelled his illusion and revealed himself.

“Oh? Now he’s visible.”

“But that student still doesn’t seem to have noticed.”

“It’s proof of his excellent ability to hide his presence.”

Loki quickly ran towards the resting student, swung his sword, and the student collapsed without even reacting.

[Taylor Bitur out.]

A professor announced the elimination over the microphone, and the voice spread throughout the entire forest.

“Even if his arm hadn’t been injured, it seems he still wouldn’t have been able to react.”

“With that level of skill, he’d be at the top even without doing something like this.”

“But what is Loki-student doing right now?”

After knocking the student down, Loki looked around as if searching for something.

“There shouldn’t be anything around there.”

Loki, who had been looking around, stopped. The professors felt as if they had made eye contact with Loki, because Loki was staring directly in their direction.

“Surely he’s not looking at us, is he?”

“Sigh….. It seems he is.”

Loki seemed to know exactly where the magic tool transmitting the screen was, as he stared directly in their direction and wildly waved both hands in the air.

He even jumped in place while doing so.

“……Should we wave back?”

A professor spoke in an incredulous voice, but since the other professors were equally dumbfounded, no one could respond to the joke.

Loki stopped waving his hand and took out a paper and pen from his spatial pocket, beginning to write something.

“……….What is he doing now?”

“He seems to be writing something on the paper?”

A moment later, Loki raised the paper high so the professors could see it clearly.

[I’ll play a little longer. I’ll be back before dinner~.]

“””…………….”””

The professors read what Loki had written and were speechless.

What on earth was that crazy guy saying?

* * *

After that, Loki began to wander around the forest.

The professors couldn’t understand Loki’s behavior.

More precisely, they didn’t want to understand.

This was because they knew that trying to understand would only give them a headache.

Unlike before, Loki ran through the forest without concealing himself with his unique magic.

He encountered artificial magic beasts along the way but ignored them and kept running.

“What on earth is he doing?”

“I’m not sure. It doesn’t seem like he has a specific destination in mind.”

At first, the professors thought Loki was running towards somewhere.

But as if to mock that idea, Loki wandered all over the forest.

“Huh? If he keeps going like this, Loki and Sepia will run into each other.”

At one professor’s words, the other professors who had been looking elsewhere also turned to the screen showing Loki.

Loki was currently running in a straight line, and Sepia was there.

And a moment later, Loki and Sepia encountered each other.

The professors watched Loki and Sepia with intrigued eyes.

-Gulp.

One had insane talent for spirits.

The other was just a crazy person.

Sepia saw Loki, quickly summoned her spirit, and just as the professors were watching with intrigued eyes,

Loki turned around and ran away.

“……………..”

Sepia, who had summoned her spirit, and the professors who had been watching, were both speechless.

It took less than two seconds from Loki meeting Sepia to turning around and running away.

After that, Loki continued to wander around the forest without fighting anyone, then returned to the control room.

* * *

Loki, having gone out once and returned, sat in a chair and watched the students on the screen, as if he had no intention of going out again.

“It’s fortunate that no special class students have been eliminated yet. Right, Professor Alicia?”

All the special class students were still active, maintaining their high ranks without being eliminated.

“Sepia-ssi and Clara-ssi have the most overwhelming scores.”

Sepia, who could track artificial magic beasts and students’ locations through her spirits, and Clara, who kept casting spells tirelessly, were competing for first and second place.

“Loki, you’re not in a position to be concerned about the other kids right now.”

Unlike the other special class students who were maintaining high ranks, Loki was in the lower ranks.

After catching the first student who had caught a magic beast, Loki hadn’t gained any points since.

“Professor-nim, do you know the saying, ‘The cheetah is laughing’?”

Loki said this while taking out a grilled skewer from his spatial pocket and eating it.

Alicia ignored Loki’s nonsense and continued grading other students.

She knew the skills of the special class students because they fought every morning, but this was the first time she was properly seeing the skills of the other first-year students.

‘Pathetic.’

The other first-year students were pathetic compared to the special class students.

Indeed, creating a special class with a select few students she favored was still a good choice, even now.

-A glance.

And among those special class students, Loki, her favorite, casually munched on his skewer as he wandered around the control room.

[Jasmine Gesti out.]

Loki approached the professor who announced students’ eliminations throughout the forest and spoke to him.

“If I speak through this microphone, will it spread throughout the entire forest?”

“Yes.”

“Oh! That’s amazing. Can I try using it once?”

“Of course not.”

They couldn’t stop Loki from watching the screen that showed the entire forest, as the professors were watching it anyway, and Loki was just watching alongside them.

But operating the microphone directly and speaking into it was another matter.

“Is that so? Then there’s nothing I can do.”

The professors looked at Loki, who readily agreed and stepped back, with surprise.

Yes, he was a good student who listened if you talked to him nicely.

The professor sincerely thought so.

That is, until they saw what Loki would do next.

“Heave-ho!”

Loki took something out of his spatial pocket.

In Loki’s hand was a small doll that resembled Loki.

Earlier, as Loki wandered around the forest, he had scattered magic tools throughout the entire forest.

The magic tools Loki had scattered were like Bluetooth speakers: if you spoke into the doll, the sound would spread through those magic tools.

Loki recalled a voice and used his illusion magic.

[Loki out.]

The words Loki had created spread throughout the entire forest.

What did that crazy guy just say?

The professors who had been watching Loki stared blankly at him, their eyes wide.

All the other professors, who had been doing something else, were startled by the sound of Loki’s elimination and looked at Loki.

But he’s perfectly fine right here?

“Although I fall here, I firmly believe that the other students will protect this world!!”

What kind of nonsense was that now?

“”””………….””””

Of course, Loki wasn’t eliminated just because he said he was.

The problem, however, was that this would make the other students think Loki had been eliminated.

The voice that had just announced Loki’s elimination was perfectly identical to the professor’s voice that had been delivering elimination news to other students until now, so no student would doubt it.

A professor who usually valued dignity found himself muttering to himself as he looked at Loki.

“Crazy bastard.”