Chapter 15: Before viewing ③

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

Even as the children’s eyes turned sharp, the boy only shrugged, as if to say, So what?

There was a confidence in him—one that made it clear he saw us as no threat.
That confidence was backed by the overwhelming mana he made no attempt to hide.

He was clearly a skilled fighter.
Besides Yu Hyesun, Crown, and Yureon, he was the first formidable peer we had encountered.

–What’s your identity?

I wrote the question on the ground, but the boy didn’t even try to look.
Instead, he lazily gestured with his hand.
Ariel, who had been pointed at, narrowed her eyes.

“You. Translate.”

He spoke as if it was only natural.

“…You could just read it yourself.”
“Turning my head each time is a hassle.”

‘What kind of person is this guy?’
Everyone looked stunned, as if asking the same thing: Is this guy for real?

“You won’t gain anything by irritating someone powerful.”

Sensing the mood, the boy tapped his sword against the ground.

[What a ridiculous brat.]

His arrogance was sky-high.
Even Durek pulling that act would be funny—coming from a kid, it was just pathetic.

Should I knock some sense into him?

An immature urge flared up—to show this smug little punk the harshness of reality.

[Resist the urge.]

It was just a fleeting thought.
It wasn’t the right time to show off.
I had to conserve mana in preparation for a fight with Yureon.

So I backed down.
Ariel, catching my signal, nodded and stepped forward.

She looked down at what I had written and voiced it out loud.

“What’s your identity?”
“Dark Black.”

The answer came coolly.
But his eyes carefully scanned our reactions.

And unfortunately, our class responded exactly as he’d hoped.

“Dark… wait, one of the Twelve Elites?!”

Everyone stared in shock.
The boy gave a small nod and kept glancing at me, who still looked unimpressed.

…Dark Black.
The name did sound familiar.
I thought the alias was edgy, but to think one of the Twelve Elites was actually this cringe-inducing kid.

“Why would someone from the Twelve want to recruit us?”

As I calmly wrote the question, Dark Black slightly furrowed his brow.

“Enough chit-chat. The only option you have is to submit, plain and simple.”

Hmm.

[Kek. So he can talk like a villain.]

“What if we refuse?”
“Then this Obsidian Blade shall punish those who reject its mercy.”

Ugh…

It was like watching my childhood embarrassment come to life in front of me.

Honestly, it was painful to witness.

As I stayed silent, the boy suddenly turned his back on us, cape fluttering dramatically.

“Follow me, Mask. I hereby appoint you as a Dark Heavenly General. Your title shall be…”

I quickly moved my arm.

“Sorry, but I’ll have to decline your offer.”
“…What?”

He froze in place, clearly not expecting us to reject him.

The Twelve Elites, huh?

A new plan formed in my head.

To be honest, the idea of just hiding and surviving for seven days was always a gamble.

The arena would only continue to shrink.
No matter how well we hid, we would eventually have to face enemies.

And among those enemies would be opponents far too strong for Class 8—like this boy here.

So instead… why not borrow the power of the Twelve?

Not as subordinates, but as equals.

I slowly began to stir my mana and amended his original proposal.

“Instead, how about an alliance?”

[“Surprisingly, Dark Black accepted the offer.”]
[“That was an unexpected choice. Perhaps he sensed something we couldn’t see through the video feed?”]

[“Ah, we’ve just received some information about that team! Huh. That girl named Ariel—turns out she’s ranked 6,218!”]
[“Six thousand range? That puts her in the top 10%, doesn’t it? A hidden gem, right under our noses!”]
[“I’m more curious about the masked girl Ariel follows. Could she be strong enough to threaten the remaining five seats of Team Nova?”]

[“Either way, a new party has formed with Dark Black at its center. We’ll be watching this alliance closely.”]
[“And switching over now… in the western sector, Yureon is still—”]

The moon rose above the forest canopy.
Most of the local flora and fauna had long since fallen asleep, leaving the area in stillness.
Let yourself relax in this silence, and you were bound to be caught off guard.

In situations like this, keeping watch wasn’t optional—it was a necessity.

On first watch, I sat quietly and stared into the campfire.

[It’s already been six days since the exam started.]

A quick check confirmed only about 200 participants remained.
That meant every student from Class 8 would now qualify for a Jo team, as planned.

[You really haven’t used even a speck of mana, have you?]
‘The kids did better than I expected. And Black was more capable than I imagined.’

Dark Black didn’t quite understand why I was holding back, but thanks to how hard the others worked, he didn’t openly complain.

In hindsight, not turning Class 8 away had been the best decision.

[That’s a little rude. The best decision of your life was choosing to save me!]
‘Yeah, yeah.’

I smiled and poked at the fire with a stick.

“Keeping a sharp eye out for enemies?”

An unexpected voice came from across the campfire.

Dark Black.
Real name: Owen.

Hard to believe it had already been four days since we started traveling with him.
Over that time, he had started shedding parts of his act and interacting with us more naturally.

“You remember my ultimate goal, right?”

He asked suddenly. I simply nodded.

He was a swordsman from Dorm 4.
And Dorm 4 was home to Kizel—the strongest swordsman of our generation.

Beating Kizel and becoming the best swordsman—that was Black’s goal.

“Tomorrow, I’ll take down Kizel and consume his core.”

…

As the match area continued to shrink each day, all participants would be forced into the forest center by Day 7.
And today was Day 6.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

That meant everything would come to a head tomorrow.
The surviving elites—Kizel, Crown, Yureon—would all clash in one final battle.

“It’s the last day anyway, so be honest.”
“…”
“That mana you showed briefly on the first day—what was that?”

What I’d shown back then wasn’t impressive—somewhere in the mid-4,000 range.
By comparison, Black was ranked 3,014, a top-tier fighter.

So why ask?

“Don’t pretend you don’t know.”
“…”
“It’s not about how much mana you have. I’m talking about how you controlled resonance like it was nothing.”
“Even Kizel can’t pull that off.”

Whereas Yureon was my benchmark for strength, Black measured everything against Kizel.

He firmly believed that either Kizel or himself would emerge as the victor of this evaluation.

“That level of control… only villains at the Hundred-level could manage that.”
“…”
“But that wouldn’t make any sense. So I figured—maybe it’s your familiar’s talent?”
“…”
“…Why aren’t you saying anything? You think I’m joking? Just because we’ve spent a few days together doesn’t mean—if you provoke this Obsidian Blade’s aura…”

He was sitting across the fire from me.
There was no way he could read anything I wrote from that distance.

But apparently, he took my silence as some kind of insult, and his expression twisted in annoyance.

‘…’
[You’ve got your hands full with this kid, huh, Master.]

Eventually, I stood and walked over to him.

“You want to test me…?”

Startled by the sudden movement, Black grabbed his sword—but I simply sat down beside him.

“…!”

He stiffened like a board.
Ignoring his reaction, I picked up a stick and began writing in the dirt.

–It’s my familiar’s ability.
“I-I see… I figured as much…”

“Why are you stuttering all of a sudden?”

Curious, I stared at him.
His eyes darted away—he couldn’t meet my gaze.

“T-That aside, we’re allies until the end of today, right?”

I watched him quietly, wondering what he was getting at.

“Then… show me your face.”
“……”

I flicked my gaze toward the crows.
At some point, their numbers had grown—seven of them were now following our party.

“You can just kill those things.”

At that, the spirit crows all turned to glare at Black.
Even I was caught off guard.

–Did you forget the rules?

Still, if he was that curious…

There was really no reason to hide it from a villain.

I picked up a nearby blanket.
As I approached with it, Black clutched his sword with wide, uncertain eyes.

“W-What are you doing?”

Just this once.
Whispering words too soft for him to hear, I quickly threw the blanket over him.

“Wh-What the—!”

Then I slipped inside with him.

He thrashed for a second before freezing in place.

“……”

Slowly, I took off my mask.

“……”
“……”

The moment our eyes met, his jaw dropped slightly.

“……”

Then he bolted from the blanket like he’d been shot, moving stiffly, like a broken robot.

As I calmly folded the blanket back up, he mumbled something under his breath.

“Ugly.”

…A wave of shock hit me so hard my mind went blank.
And then the realization that I was shocked by something like this doubled the impact.

While I sat there stunned, Black quietly returned to his sleeping spot.

Across both my past and current life, no one had ever said that to my face before.

And that first time… hit harder than I expected.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Dear god.

I thought I was at least passably good-looking wherever I went.
But that illusion had been shattered to dust.

‘D-Do you think I’m ugly too?’
[Heehee~ Who knows~]

She was practically glowing with amusement.
As I was still seriously reevaluating my face, Yu Hyesun offered a crumb of comfort.

[Master. He’s just a brat going through puberty.]

And so another day passed.

It was the final night of the evaluation match.

“What… are you doing…”

A darkened room.
A woman stared at the computer screen, gnawing her nails down to nothing.
On the screen, a boy and girl were sharing a blanket.

The boy’s face, turned away from the girl, was flushed red.

Snap!

Her fingernail broke—and blood welled up from the tear.

“…What am I even doing…”

Muttering bitterly, the woman reached out to the monitor.
Her finger touched the girl on the screen.

But all she felt was the slippery surface of the display.

Why did that strange girl remind her so much… of that child?

“Irani is dead…”

She must have been clinging to a final thread of hope—refusing to accept it.

“We’ll never see him again…”

Tears carved silent trails down her cheeks,
as Seoran stared blankly into the screen.