Ch.247247 – Sports Festival Debut

<247 – Sports Festival Debut>

The Heugmag princess couldn’t hide her envy as she observed Oknodie’s dark mana.

So dark mana was such an amazing power after all.

Though dangerous, if handled properly, it could become an extraordinary tonic unlike anything else.

Stability.

Adaptability.

Follow-up management.

Everything was unstable, but what if one supplemented it with the power of capital?

Adding medicinal ingredients to increase stability, instructing imperial mages to install magic circles to improve adaptability, and continuously managing the aftermath through artifact usage.

Even then, would dark mana still be difficult to obtain, difficult to handle, and life-threatening if one let their guard down?

“Amazing♡”

The princess embarked on an experiment to buy mastery with money, and the experiment ended successfully.

She achieved 99% pure dark mana—the pinnacle of mana control techniques, completely free of the drawbacks of impurity-laden, resentment-tainted dark mana.

This meant something significant.

Dark mana responds to the amount possessed—those with more can threaten the bodies of those with less and seize control over their life and death.

Without high-level mana control techniques or high-grade artifacts for defense, one could lose their life in an instant.

But purity became a variable.

Now, even if those with less than 10% purity possessed ten times more mana, they wouldn’t threaten her life—instead, she threatened theirs.

Dark mana users hiding throughout the continent, human traitors who became Mains, would become her unwilling servants the moment they appeared before her eyes.

“Everyone just stares at me like ‘Ehhh~? Why does the princess have dark mana~?’ Hehe. They don’t even care how well I handle this power. Weaklings♡ Cowards♡”

The princess, so captivated by dangerous dark mana, finally accepted that power into her body.

If human traitors who had long handled dark mana came into contact with the princess, her noble body, bloodline, and life would become theirs.

She could clearly see such greedy thoughts appearing in the minds of countless students.

But they only knew half the story.

Logically speaking, what fool would openly reveal their weakness before everyone?

At the very least, the Heugmag princess was not such a person.

“Indeed. Handling such ominous dark mana. Has the Empire’s Second Princess gone mad with greed and given up her right to succession? Do you plan to spend your life confined in a monastery?”

“Ahaha! Did you think this Heugmag princess would become a dark priest, offering morning prayers to evil gods and conducting weekend services like some stuffy cleric~?”

The Heugmag princess caught the ball flying toward her with “one hand” enhanced by dark mana.

It was an effortless guard that made the might of Roo, the sophomore Four Heavenly Kings’ White Paladin who had thrown the ball with all his might, seem insignificant.

Roo’s gaze shifted downward.

The Heugmag princess hadn’t even stepped back.

Fear of incomprehensible strength began to rise in the eyes of those who had been watching the immature princess.

“So a paladin is such a stupid class~? Hehe. I understand the desire to look down on the Empire’s gorgeous Second Princess as weak and want to possess her body and heart? But there’s no way I’d allow weaklings to have my body and heart so easily.”

The princess’s mana blazed even more intensely, with the darkness of dark mana rippling in double layers.

This wasn’t a change due to technique.

It was a change due to the absolute amount of pure mana.

It was an incredible amount that was hard to believe she had gathered in just over a month.

Ten years’ worth of dark mana in terms of time.

A concentration ten times denser than the average dark mana user.

It meant she had already obtained power that ordinary dark mana users would need 100 years of effort to achieve.

Avoiding paladins.

Avoiding priests of the good gods.

Avoiding the watchful eyes of the Adventurers’ Guild.

She had easily obtained with money and power what should have required desperate effort.

Roo realized it.

‘I didn’t expose the princess’s evil power. She wanted this to happen.’

For some, the inter-grade competition at the Grand Sports Festival becomes a debut stage to prove their strength.

The Heugmag princess had decided to become the protagonist of this sports festival.

“Sister! Why have you put your hand to such an ominous power…!”

“Shut up♡ I never gave you permission to butt in as you please just because you’re also a princess♡”

“Kyaak!”

The Third Princess Yayoi collapsed with a weak scream.

Yayoi, with her righteous character, had been looking at the princess from outside the court with eyes similar to Roo’s.

Unforgivable.

I will stop you.

I won’t forgive users of evil dark mana.

How ridiculous.

Who was going to stop whom?

Combat power was superior on this side.

Authority was superior on this side.

Now that all the weaknesses of dark mana had been turned into strengths, she was not in a position to fear being dominated by other followers or fear suppression by public institutions.

Rather, with that mighty power, she was an authority that made other followers tremble in fear and public institutions look away.

“While listening to the sophomore Four Heavenly Kings introduce themselves, there was just one thing I envied. Do you know what it is~?”

“I don’t know.”

“Cool titles♡ Fearsome Deadcat, Blue Fist Io, White Paladin Roo, Orthodox Noble Lady Mandela. Now I’ll have such a title instead of Empire’s Second Princess.”

The Heugmag princess, who couldn’t contain her excitement as she crossed her legs and grinned, placed both hands over her chest and said:

“Dark Princess Massgakki. I’m going to snatch all the power, title, and popularity that Oknodie had♡ When I’m superior in power, authority, and beauty, there’s no reason not to be called that~?”

The body of the Heugmag princess, who had been showing off enthusiastically, was transported outside the court with a swoosh sound.

“Ahh!? Who’s disqualifying me? I was properly inside the line and didn’t get hit by the ball!”

An instructor approached and told her:

“Holding the ball for more than 30 seconds is a violation of regulations to prevent interference with the game.”

“There was no such explanation before the game…”

“It’s the fault of participants who didn’t ask. Study the regulations yourself. Both strengths and weaknesses exist in rules that aren’t publicly announced and others don’t tell you about. Take it as a lesson.”

It was a pathetic elimination for Massgakki, one of the freshman Four Heavenly Kings.

In her eyes, which were even shedding tears from frustration, she saw other freshmen deliberately avoiding her gaze.

“Did she get disqualified for showing off?”

“Don’t laugh. The princess will be furious if she finds out.”

“Sigh. I think I’m going to laugh. This is driving me crazy…”

The Imperial faction students were gritting their teeth and groaning as if they were almost sobbing.

The Heugmag princess, with a face red from embarrassment, trembled for a moment before suddenly turning her head somewhere.

“I-I’m not the only one who lost! Oknodie must be struggling too~!?”

But reality was completely different.

Rather, the sophomores were screaming and desperately trying to avoid her.

The sports festival debut as a powerhouse that the Heugmag princess had wanted to show was unfolding by Oknodie’s hand.

* *

Deadcat had desperately focused solely on recovering her body for the past two days.

Fantasy Stack.

If she could just stack up the eight spare lives of Nine Lives again, she could pursue her strategy.

The more difficult the conditions for a technique, the stronger the attack.

By deceiving the world’s principles into treating the death of a clone as the death of the main body, she could unleash Deadcat’s powerful counterattack based on <Return to Sender>.

And not just once, but safely at least eight times.

The full display of an overpowered character’s capabilities, optimized for single-boss DPS with a complete damage setup that allows one-sided damage trading.

However, in the eyes of a veteran player, it was nothing but a burden.

“Senior~! You won’t run away this time, right? I can catch the rainbow ball, right?”

“There’s no turn for you. Only I throw, then only I throw again, and only I throw after that too.”

Deadcat had recovered three balls amid the confusion.

Oknodie, who thought it wouldn’t be strange if her opponent complained about unfairness or begged for just one chance like a child, unexpectedly responded with a relaxed “Hmm~?”

As if to say: You won’t have your way.

Will that go as planned?

“Then let me show you.”

Her Fantasy Stack doesn’t decrease only from enemy attacks.

Even if she takes her own life directly, the Fantasy Stack decreases.

It means an attack with extreme efficiency flies even if the opponent does nothing!

“The reason why I’m called the Fearsome Deadcat…?”

As she proudly declared this, intending to regain her senior’s dignity and apply pressure, her hand felt empty.

The ball in her hand had somehow rolled right into Oknodie’s possession.

That wasn’t all.

Her feet felt empty too.

The balls she had carefully placed at her feet were rolling toward Oknodie on their own.

<Magic Eye>

What kind of trick was this?

As she concentrated mana in her eyes to detect magical trickery, she saw something.

Buzz buzz

Transparent mosquitoes sticking to the dodgeballs, rolling them with their bodies.

One of them even had a faint red body.

Looking down at the hand that had dropped the ball, she saw her fingers were swollen.

Her fingers were so numb that she couldn’t even notice when she lost strength and dropped the ball.

In front of her dumbfounded face, Oknodie excitedly picked up the ball.

“Level 3 rainbow ball~~!”

Moreover, at her feet remained two more balls that Deadcat had carefully collected.