The Nobles Are the Most Barbaric When You Look Closely 5

It’s a peculiar thing about people: their sense of pain dulls when their attention is diverted elsewhere.

You might go about your day, feeling a slight prickling or discomfort.

But because you’re too busy to care for yourself, you only realize your finger is bleeding from a paper cut when you wash up at home. That’s when you finally register the pain.

Surprisingly, even when humans feel pain, they don’t notice small injuries if their minds are completely focused on something else.

In other words, Dehite wouldn’t realize he was seriously injured just because Alice scratched him with her fingernails.

What does this mean?

To put it delicately, it meant Alice could keep drawing blood from Dehite without stopping, all while appearing to hold back.

Dehite Arbentaine?

Sure, he’s from a wealthy, meritorious family, but frankly, Alice saw little difference between this spoiled young master and an orc from the Biological Factory.

Of course, Dehite might have a slight edge if you compared them closely, but from Alice’s perspective, she could kill an orc in one hit, and she could kill this spoiled brat in one hit, so she couldn’t see the difference.

“Kuh-uck…!”

“Oh dear, what a shame. You almost got me that time.”

At this point, not only Dehite but also his thug friends began exchanging glances.

The gang that had been sexually harassing and looking down on Alice and Marlang, snickering amongst themselves, had completely disappeared.

‘We’re screwed, aren’t we?’

‘Crazy. Where did that monster come from?’

‘Is she even a student?’

‘She looks young, so she must be, but where did she get that kind of power…!’

‘Damn it. We messed with the wrong person…’

Some were slowly backing away, trying to blend into the crowd of onlookers, while others watched Dehite, deciding to wait and see.

-Thwack!

“Keuh!?”

“Oh dear, if I make one or two more holes, will I really have to tear out your ribs again?”

Dehite gritted his teeth at Alice’s fingernails, now embedded in his side.

He couldn’t even see her stabbing him and pulling back in an instant.

Dehite Arbentaine, as the son of a meritorious family, had received all sorts of elixirs and enhancements.

Naturally, he had undergone procedures to improve his regenerative abilities and combat endurance, but having a rib torn out wasn’t a fatal blow that would make him surrender.

However, a smart and rational person would have realized something was wrong the moment a rib was torn out…

No, from the moment Alice dodged his attacks and Spatial Collapse magic by a hair’s breadth, toying with him, he should have realized something was amiss.

Ah ha!

This new face is much stronger than I thought.

I should forget about the Duel Trial and just bow my head to save my life!

That would be a normal person’s way of thinking.

Unfortunately, Dehite didn’t fall into the category of normal people.

“Kuh! You’ll regret this!”

Instead, Dehite, upon realizing his injuries, became even more enraged and began to attack more fiercely.

No, it was closer to scraping together the last of his pride.

“Oh my, how scary.”

The intangible spatial lances, imbued with mass, increased in size and number, falling toward Alice.

But again, it was the same.

Alice didn’t even look at Theresa’s predicted attack path; she simply tilted her head slightly, dodging all the intangible spatial lances.

To others, they were intangible spatial lances, but to Alice, she could clearly see the air being pushed away and the mana flow distorting, making it easy to avoid them.

Of course, even if Dehite was fast due to various enhancements and elixirs, he was only fast by Academy student standards, which was nothing compared to Alice.

“Why, why won’t they hit…!”

As things progressed, Dehite began to sweat.

Naturally, by this point, most Academy students would be begging for their lives or have lost a limb to a spatial lance.

But Alice kept dodging his attacks by a hair’s breadth, and he had a rib torn out, and now Alice was poking his other side with her fingernails, where the opposite rib was located, as if playing a game, making a ‘kok kok kok’ sound.

As if openly saying, ‘I’m going to tear out this rib next, okay?’ she poked him with her fingernails like a chef.

The annoying, painful, and stinging sensation pierced Dehite’s lungs.

‘Did I, did I really mess with the wrong person…?’

At this point, even though Dehite was a spoiled brat, he wasn’t stupid.

The situation was far too unfavorable.

He had two ribs torn out, while Alice had one hand in her pocket and was about to poke his ribs again with her fingernails with the other.

She would poke him a few more times like that and then tear out another rib.

But Dehite had several reasons why he couldn’t declare defeat right now.

First, Dehite had fallen in love with Alice.

At first sight, no less.

Objectively, Alice had an overwhelming beauty that easily surpassed that of most upper-class Academy girls.

Her bewitchingly sparkling blue and gold heterochromatic eyes.

A perfectly proportioned body that was clearly developing, with curves in all the right places, despite being in her growth spurt.

Her mysterious silver hair shone like jewels.

She was wearing nothing more than the Academy coat and uniform that he had seen countless times, but the voluptuous figure beneath and the smile that combined playfulness and sadism were more than enough to make Dehite, the thug-like young master, fall in love.

To put it mildly, Dehite was so deeply in love with Alice that he would have given her his liver and gall bladder.

Of course, Dehite recognized that his first meeting with Alice was terrible.

He had been trying to rape a pretty maid for fun before school started, as usual, but it turned out that the maid was Alice’s maid. Instead of apologizing like a coward, Dehite had made a ridiculous confession to Alice, telling her to ‘be my girlfriend!’

But if Alice seriously accepted Dehite’s confession and became his girlfriend, Dehite would immediately quit his thuggish ways and turn over a new leaf for the sake of his future with Alice, realizing the story of Princess Pyeonggang and the Fool Ondal… or in this case, the story of the Thug Ondal.

The reformed Dehite would diligently and without incident graduate from the Academy with Alice, disband his thug group, and live a righteous life.

And someday, Dehite would become the head and master of the Arbentaine family, leading the Ruincrest layer with Alice, and he had no doubt that he would establish a new order in the Ark, centered around this layer, with Alice.

That’s how much Dehite was in love with Alice right now.

Naturally, even when he was about to engage in a Duel Trial, he hesitated, thinking that he couldn’t hurt Alice. At the same time, the useless pride of a teenage boy, who couldn’t bear to declare defeat in front of the woman he loved, was bubbling up inside him.

But even without the above facts, it was impossible for Dehite to declare defeat in the current situation.

‘Too many, too many eyes…!’

Dehite was a member of the meritorious Arbentaine family.

The son of a family that managed the Ruincrest layer, where Duel Trials were prevalent, a family that was like a lord or king, losing a Duel Trial?

To a girl he had just met today…

In front of so many people?

If this were to be known to the elders of the family, to Dehite’s parents, the consequences would be nothing short of terrible for Dehite.

‘A draw…! I have to at least make it a draw!’

Dehite understood the situation without much difficulty.

Alice was strong.

So strong that he couldn’t even gauge her capabilities in his current state.

He had never seen anyone this strong in his life, except for the elders of his family and his parents.

But Alice had no intention of dragging things out.

‘Hmm, his capabilities are pretty decent for a student?’

【His average stats are quite good for Ruincrest Academy.】

The reason Alice was fighting so casually was solely to quantify the average capabilities of the Academy using Theresa’s analysis and interpretation skills.

Currently, this layer was a layer of potential rebels.

In the worst-case scenario, Alice might have to burn all life in this layer, so naturally, measuring the average capabilities of the Academy, which was called the center of subversive thought, was important.

‘The other students are below this?’

【Yes, there are very few students with similar mana distribution and physical stats to the ‘Dehite Arbentaine’ individual.】

‘If I were to wipe out the Academy right now, would it be possible?’

【It’s not impossible, but the capabilities of the faculty and the influential nobles of the Ruincrest layer have not yet been determined. Although the Academy students are called the top power of the layer, it is expected that the meritorious families and the upper class have hidden abilities.】

‘Hmm, is that so? Then I really have to play the role of a student at the Academy for the time being…’

Logically speaking, Alice, who had been given a covert mission, should have quietly and inconspicuously integrated into the Academy to gather information.

But the reason she had applied for a Duel Trial with the scion of a meritorious family less than 30 minutes after entering the Academy was to measure the average power and strength of this place.

‘Still, if the students are at this level, I have a good idea of what to expect.’

In fact, Alice no longer cared about Dehite.

Wasn’t she angry because Dehite and his thug gang had tried to sexually harass Marlang?

Of course, she was displeased.

Marlang was hers, so why were those Academy blonde thug gangs touching her?

It was true that she was angry. That’s why she applied for the Duel Trial.

But frankly, Alice was saving them.

Marlang was an immortal girl.

Moreover, she could freely infuse swords and bullets with energy, and her physical transformation abilities and regeneration levels were immortal.

Her martial arts skills were those of young Sohi, a former First-Class Overseer.

In the first place, Marlang was not someone who needed Alice’s protection.

She was merely a guide and companion for new experiences.

There was no way that Marlang, with these abilities, would have been sexually harassed by Dehite and his gang without knowing it.

On the surface, she was a ‘Marlang! Marlang!’ girl, but the immortal girl, who wielded a sword made of bones and flesh and fired some kind of black dragon magic cannon from one hand, loved to play ‘hunting games’.

She would really tear, cut, and carve flesh, and no ordinary human could play with the immortal girl; they would be turned into minced meat by her innocent purity in less than 30 seconds.

“Marlang…”

Look at her now.

The maid Marlang was constantly sending envious glances at Alice, who was engaged in a Duel Trial.

To Dehite and his thug gang, it looked like she was thinking, ‘Oh my, Alice-sama has accepted a dangerous Duel Trial for me! What should I do?! What should I do!?’ but to Alice, it looked like she was thinking, ‘Wow, a Duel Trial is so envious. I want to tear and kill too. I can do better…’

At that moment, Dehite’s attacks gradually decreased.

Alice switched her visual sensors to see mana, and she saw mana flowing through his entire body and meridians, greatly increasing his internal stability and recovery power.

He had switched from an all-out offensive to a defensive stance.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it…!”

The Academy’s regular mandatory classes started at 9 a.m.

Students had to return to the classroom by 8:55 a.m. at the latest, and the implicit time limit for the current Duel Trial was until then.

Dehite’s goal was to never lose.

He seemed to be trying to avoid defeat by dragging out the time, so his efforts were commendable.

Alice picked up the rib she had torn from Dehite.

‘What would happen if I injected Gaia’s Life Force into this?’

Gaia’s Life Force, which was close to infinite, was currently dwelling within Alice.

Alice decided to immediately carry out her sudden curiosity.

【”Commencing injection.”】

Gaia’s and Theresa’s voices overlapped simultaneously within Alice.

Not only Theresa but also Gaia, who had been dormant within Alice, sensed Alice’s will and began to endlessly pour her distorted yet infinite Life Force into Dehite’s rib.

“Wh, what is that!?”

“A familiar using a medium?”

“She wasn’t a direct combat infighter, but a familiar summoner?!”

“Wow, but how can she fight so well?”

The change was instantaneous.

With the exclamations of the onlookers, Dehite’s torn rib grew rapidly, encroaching on the surroundings.

“…!?”

Sharp bone spears.

A rib-shaped cocoon.

Thorns that grew from the rib were shot toward Dehite, and Dehite recoiled in horror.

Fortunately, the moment the bone grew, it wasn’t meant to attack Dehite.

It was merely a coincidence that it grew because it couldn’t handle the overflowing Life Force centered around the rib.

[“Hee, hee…!”]

And something appeared from the cocoon of hundreds of intertwined ribs.

A jade-colored woman.

Something that looked very much like Alice revealed its face, piercing through the rib cocoon.

A face and body that looked exactly like Alice.

However, because it was a body made of ribs, its flesh was generally gray and white.

Gaia had obtained a new body after a long time.

Even if the body made of ribs was destroyed, Gaia’s consciousness would automatically return to Alice.

“Y, you…! You’ve been toying with me all this time!? You were a familiar summoner!”

Dehite misunderstood that Alice was a summoner who mainly dealt with familiars.

He was very offended that she had been toying with him like this with her pure abilities without even summoning a familiar, and he made a grimace.

Now she was even being mistaken for someone who dealt with familiars.

“It seems that just because people speak the same language doesn’t mean they understand each other. I don’t think you’ll understand anything I say.”

Well, I can just answer vaguely here.

Well, since I have to infiltrate this Academy, this kind of misunderstanding might be quite good.

‘Alice~ It’s been a while~’

Gaia, who had come out to see the world after a long time, seemed to understand the situation Alice was in and said telepathically with a quick wit.

‘If you want to play with me, let’s play later. Not now.’

‘I’m just happy that I’m you and that we’re having this conversation in reality for the first time. But you’ll play with me later. I’m touched.’

Alice pointed at Dehite with her eyes.

‘Play with that one appropriately.’

‘Okay, I will.’

As soon as Alice’s command was given, Gaia moved as if she had been waiting for it.

Gaia, who had obtained a body through a man’s ribs, seemed to instinctively know how to use it, even though it was the first body she had obtained as the mother of twisted life.

“Kuh-hit…!”

-Kwa-ji-jik!

As Gaia lightly stomped her foot, bone thorns sprang up from the floor.

At a speed that broke the sound barrier.

-Thwack! Per-geo-geo-geok!

“Keo, keo-heok!?”

“Oops…?”

But the speed was so fast that it pierced Dehite’s entire body in the blink of an eye.

At a speed that even Alice hadn’t expected.

Three in the chest, four in the abdomen.

With a bone spear piercing each of his legs, arms, neck, and left eye, turning Dehite into a skewer hanging in the air, screams and exclamations erupted simultaneously from the students who were watching the Duel Trial.

“Kyaa!?”

“Wo, wo…”

“No, what is this? What kind of familiar is that?”

“A familiar I’ve never seen before did that to Dehite…”

“Amazing.”

“…”

Alice, who had told her to play with him but had ended it in 1 second, tried to hide her embarrassment and glared at Gaia.

“Ah, geez… Alice has gotten so strong lately, I guess I misjudged things. Sorry?”

Of course, that was a lie.

Gaia simply hadn’t liked the guy who was hitting on Alice.