Ch.8383. Riding Aptitude Test (4)

Various long-range spells fly in one direction.

They have to defend against all types, but there’s no way they can resist multiple mages with magical armor when they don’t even have proper equipment themselves.

Except for the two who just manifested their magical armor.

“Why… why are you doing this to us?! What did we do wrong?!”

Noel shouted in frustration.

“Well, well. As expected of lowborns.”

“Perhaps they need more beating to understand what they did wrong?”

They speak of wrongdoing but never explain what it is. This was the most common oppression nobles inflicted upon the lower class and the weak.

And then they silently crush them with force. As if to say, whatever you did wrong, submit on your own.

Clang, clang-!

John and Noel take the lead, swinging their spears to protect the group that has neither magical armor nor equipment.

Their training wasn’t in vain—they managed to deflect the nobles’ magic despite the odds.

But even that couldn’t last forever.

“Wh-what… my legs…!”

“How is it? Better than those pathetic support-type restraints, right?”

“Wait, John. I’ll…!”

“Idiot! Forget about me and save yourself…”

“That’s right. You should have worried about yourself before your friend. Isn’t that right, boy?”

“D-damn it…!”

John and Noel, the only ones fighting back with magical armor, finally showed an opening due to the overwhelming numbers.

The nobles, seeing John and Noel bound hand and foot, designated them as examples.

“Well now. Both are nicely tied up. Let’s end this with a flourish. Fire mages over there!”

“We’re ready!”

Multiple fire magic circles converge their mana into a massive fireball that blazes before their eyes.

“It’s… impossible…”

“How can we possibly…”

Even if they tried to block it, there was no way to stop something like that.

With their feet bound, it was painfully obvious they would take a direct hit.

“A campfire in broad daylight, what a spectacle! Hahaha!!”

As the fireball engulfed John and Noel, some laughed like snakes while others closed their eyes in terror.

Until their encounter with the nobles, they had been making mana stones, hoping that with time they could create magical armor to fight back.

But when faced with such one-sided violence, their ingrained fear awakens and torments their minds.

Kneeling down.

Pressing their upper bodies to the ground, bowing their heads.

“We’re sorry. We were wrong. Please show mercy just this once.”

These words spill out like Pavlov’s dogs.

First stage: Unable to resist their trauma, they began to kneel one by one.

“Oh. Finally taking the posture of submission.”

“Weren’t they glaring at us earlier like they might attack? Like… this girl!”

“Aaaagh!!!”

The female student whose hair was grabbed immediately begged with a terrified face.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry… Please, just once more with your generosity…”

“You want mercy? Too bad. I don’t feel like it.”

Usually, once they showed submission, the nobles would torment them moderately and then let them go.

But this time, there was no sign of that. One by one.

Thorough violence under the name of magic. Using their power to cruelly trample the growing sprouts of the inferior students.

Thanks to this, the lower-class citizens don’t even think they can resist a group of nobles who possess magical armor.

They just want to escape this grip of pain, even if it means declaring complete submission.

“What’s taking you so long? I’m already on my fourth one.”

“Damn. The others are crying and groveling, but this girl won’t change her expression until the end. Hey, did you eat something wrong?”

“Urgh…!”

Hena still refuses to submit, firmly gripping the noble’s arm while staring defiantly into his eyes.

“Since Silvia was around, we didn’t touch her, but now she’s gotten lax. This won’t do.”

Swoosh-

“Huh? Why are you pouring water on her when it has no effect?”

“Ah, Cayden, that bastard seems to be planning something proper.”

Mana fills Cayden’s staff, his magical armor, and soon sparks fly with a crackling sound.

The threat of the sound intensifies the fear that’s already palpable just from looking.

Hena tried to break free from Cayden’s arm to avoid the electric shock, but it was futile.

Thinking she could no longer resist, Hena tightly closed her eyes.

“Urgh?! You…!”

“It’s not… over yet…”

The electric shock that should have been fired never came. No, it was blocked.

And then someone charged at Cayden like a wild boar, knocking him down. It was Noel, who had just been sprawled out after taking that massive fireball.

“Noel… you…!”

“How dare this lowborn grab my ankle? Let go, I said let go!”

Despite Cayden’s shouts and kicks, Noel clung tenaciously.

His uniform, completely burned to rags or charcoal, no longer functioned as clothing, and his body, which must have suffered tremendous recoil from activating a defensive circle, could only crawl pathetically on the ground.

His manifested magical armor had long since reverted to raw mana.

He must have tried his best to block with all his mana, but his body had clearly reached its limit against such overwhelming firepower.

Nevertheless, Noel refuses to submit. If he had no mana left, he was determined to hold on with his bare body.

“Huff, huff… This leech-like bastard…!”

After repeatedly kicking to remove Noel, Cayden found himself getting tired instead.

Seizing this opportunity, Noel began to shout at the top of his lungs.

“How long are you going to stay down?! Are we just going to take this?! You haven’t manifested anything yet, magical armor or otherwise! We still have potential… Gack…!”

Compressed air pierced Noel’s back. The strong pressure made his arms and legs lift momentarily, and Noel’s body, which had squeezed out every last bit of strength, went completely limp.

Did Noel’s will reach them? It did not.

The conditioned weaklings didn’t dare stand up in the face of the strong.

“Cayden? What are you doing?”

“Hey, if you do that, he might really die…”

“Shut up.”

Cayden was already furious at Noel for blocking his attack and charging at him.

With rage boiling to his head, Cayden deployed magic as if he didn’t care if one of Noel’s limbs flew off and left him crippled.

The onlookers’ eyes squeezed shut.

Their only thought was that this Noel fellow would have something broken or cut off, accompanied by blood. However,

Clang-!

With the sound of metal and a shock wave, a man appeared in front of Noel.

“You’re right. Since it hasn’t manifested yet, there is potential.”

“…Who…”

“You can rest now, Noel. I’ll take your share too, knock down all those bastards, and prove it.”

How could he possibly knock down all of them in these numbers and prove anything?

Noel forcibly lifted his drooping eyelids to secure even a slightly clearer view.

Soon after confirming the man’s face, he closed his eyes, realizing it was time to rest.

‘That’s right… Junon. If it’s you…’

A faint smile had settled on Noel’s lips as he quietly closed his eyes.

“I thought another lowborn had joined, but it’s the weakest vanguard himself.”

“Hey, what a curious fellow. I was wondering why I couldn’t see you well, thought you’d run away. What guts made you show your face again?”

“In the end, trash is trash. I’ll properly educate you this time, so just quietly take it.”

“Hey.”

The nobles, who had been murmuring at the arrival of one person, became strangely quiet as if they’d received a signal. It was Cayden.

‘Well, whatever. I’m already in a foul mood because of that.’

Junon has his back turned, supporting Noel. Should he even bother speaking? No.

Rather, isn’t this the perfect opportunity to deliver a proper blow?

Cayden draws a circle for lightning magic, the quietest kind. Soon, a crackling lightning spear cuts through the air.

Unlike the testimony from the duel held under the princess’s mediation, the thrown lightning spear reached its target normally.

And. At the electrocution sound indicating a direct hit, Cayden’s lips involuntarily twitched.

“Ah~ That’s satisfying. He must be writhing like a worm under foot.”

“Pfft. So that time was definitely a trick. Otherwise, the same thing wouldn’t happen again.”

“It’s your fault for fearlessly walking into a place with a sound barrier, Junon. Kuk kuk.”

Just as his group had reacted, Cayden’s thoughts were roughly similar.

He was so excited at the thought of looking down on and stepping on his opponent, who would be twitching after being hit by the lightning spear, that his mouth was about to reach his ears.

However.

“Are you done?”

Junon was fine.

Strangely, he was holding Cayden’s lightning spear with his bare hand, as if he had been waiting for it to be fired, showing a fierce gaze to the side.

The sight of him holding a spear with electric current flowing through it with his bare hand was confusing, even bizarre.

And then.

“The magic…”

“It disappeared…”

The lightning spear in his hand split in half as if broken, then made a hissing sound and completely lost its form.

The nobles, who should have been sneering at such a trivial thing, had their mouths tightly shut due to an inexplicable pressure.

In this brief moment when the form of the lightning spear disappeared, a silence more profound than the outside world flowed within the sound barrier.

Junon, who had entrusted Noel’s support to Hena who was closest, turns completely toward the nobles.

“Well, does he have eyes on his back? Such good luck.”

One of the group, displeased with the situation, fearlessly approaches him.

“Hey, don’t act rashly, wait…!”

“Try blocking this too!”

Maybe not at a distance, but he won’t be able to block a close-range attack like this.

Confident in this, the noble tried to freeze the ground at a distance of about three steps from Junon, attempting to bind his feet in the same way they had done to John and Noel.

Crash!

“Huh? What?”

With a sound like glass breaking, the ice wave approaching the ground vanished.

And the fate of the magician who had given up distance was predictable to most.

“That idiot…”

The result of not heeding the warning.

With a fist properly embedded in his solar plexus, he knelt without even making a sound and collapsed to the ground.

While Cayden was holding his forehead, the noble who had been hit by Junon flew to the end of an alley with his kick.

“I see you people just don’t get it.”

A chilling voice.

It was a voice so cold it seemed frost might form in midsummer.

Whether it was his imagination or not, a terrifying killing intent seemed to emanate from Junon.

But could a noble yield to a commoner? Especially a noble in the rear position who had manifested magical armor—they shouldn’t.

Though he had shown a flashy performance, only one person had fallen, and there was still only one opponent, so the tide hadn’t turned.

“That guy just let his guard down, but I don’t know what makes you think you can act like this?”

Cayden considers these points again and livens up the atmosphere in this place where silence flows.

“Come to think of it…”

“Right. Why are we intimidated?”

“The insult to our pride that day needs to be settled today.”

“Well, shouldn’t you see a campfire too?”

“I wonder if you’ll even be able to see it from your position.”

If the group’s leader speaks like that, why should the rest be intimidated? It was a hundred times right when you think about it.

The problem with the guy who got hit earlier was that he let his guard down and gave up distance.

If they maintained their distance and fired a series of spells to drain his strength, he would eventually succumb to the power of numbers.

“It’s your fault for climbing up here, Junon!”

Various elemental spells prepared in the nobles’ hands are fired and pour down on Junon all at once.

Billowing smoke.

The nobles’ expectations rise as much as the smoke. Wouldn’t you be curious about what kind of state he’s in this time?

After all, isn’t this Junon, who once flattened the nobles’ noses? The thought of inflicting even greater humiliation made their mouths stretch to their ears.

However, their expectations burst like balloons once again.

“Aaaaargh─!!!!”

One is the sound of a human body losing its proper form.

One is the rough voice of a human writhing in pain after falling.

Junon emerged from the smoke with an intact body and broke a noble’s arm like a taffy stick.

“Why? Is it okay for you or this guy to fire as if it doesn’t matter if one of Noel’s limbs flies off, but not okay for me to crush this bastard’s arm and yours?”

Now who is the strong one and who is the weak one?

The direction of fear began to spread elsewhere.

“You’re next. You’d better give up the idea of leaving this place with your limbs intact, Cayden.”

***

【 I will turn the fourth clock hand. 】

“Ugh, what is this…!”

With a headache that feels like it could shatter his skull, a telepathic message from an unknown source reverberates in his head.

【 I do not forget your choice to atone. However, the karma for your past still exists… 】

-‘────know?! ── was thanks to you!’

【 Your atonement is not yet complete. Remember. Do not hesitate. Do not waver. 】

-‘──! ──said!’

【 And change it. The same thing must not be repeated. 】

-‘The person you killed was this principality’s hope, damn it!!!!’

【 I wish you good fortune. Calyx of the Sirens. 】

The telepathic message stops, and the voice replaying with each sentence was undoubtedly his own.

And the scene reflected before his eyes was certainly the moment when the last flame that had defended the principality with all its might was extinguished.

“Junon… you…”