Chapter 18: Group Practice (4)

Van Beonar.
He is the Crown Prince of the Belkin Empire.

The only one among the three princes officially appointed as the successor.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that he is practically the next emperor of the Belkin Empire.

Generally, when people think of a crown prince, they imagine the halo of prestige that follows the title.
However, despite that aura, the inner nature of Van Beonar is utterly rotten.

It’s not his personality that’s the problem.
It’s just that the environment he grew up in and the people around him killed his sense of self.

Van Beonar’s birth mother, the Empress, was poisoned to death due to the schemes of the concubine.
He has faced so many assassination attempts that it’s impossible to count how many times he has barely escaped death.

The first assassination attempt occurred when Van Beonar was just nine years old.
Yet, even then, he didn’t flinch.

In the hell of survival of the fittest, where one cannot survive without becoming a monster of the same kind.

That’s why Van Beonar’s inner self is as calm as a still lake.
His emotions have grown so dull that they hardly waver anymore.

“……”

But today.
For the first time in years, a ripple appeared on the tranquil surface of Van Beonar’s mind.

“What the hell, when did this get cleared out again?”
“Judging by the traces, it doesn’t seem to have been long.”

Ignoring the murmurs of his group members, Van Beonar retraced the situation.

He had prepared quite a bit for this exam.

He had recruited a professor from the Belkin Empire in advance, learned about the exam content, and even mapped out the locations of the magical creatures.
So, the start went smoothly.

Although he initially lagged behind Luke Richter by 8 points, it wasn’t an insurmountable gap if he followed the predetermined plan.

However, at some point, Van Beonar’s plan started to fall apart entirely.

‘Luke Richter… that guy.’

Van Beonar first became aware of Luke Richter during the sparring practice.

At first, he was simply offended.
After all, as a mere commoner, Luke had taken the sparring partner he had designated.

But after watching the spar itself, that thought vanished completely.

He had been surprised by the unexpected strength of Odette, who he had initially dismissed as a worthless commoner girl.
And then he was even more shocked by how Luke Richter skillfully subdued Odette with just basic magic.

“Your Highness, what should we do with this?”

Drixion, successor to the Tower of Mist, pointed at the corpses of magical creatures strewn on the ground.

“What else? Skip this spot.”

This was the third time they had come up empty-handed.
At first, he thought it was just a coincidence and didn’t think much of it, but something seemed off.

Before long, that suspicion turned into certainty.

“……Again?”

The fourth failure.
An intense sense of incongruity enveloped Van Beonar.

What on earth was going on?
If something happens too many times, it stops being a coincidence. Could someone be deliberately sabotaging him?

‘That makes no sense.’

Van Beonar was taken aback.
Unless someone could see the future, how could they predict his every move and disrupt him like this?

‘Calm down.’

It’s still fine.
There’s plenty of time left, and there are still many more habitats with magical creatures.

Van Beonar took a deep breath, controlling his emotions.
But that calm didn’t last long.

“Ugh, what’s going on!!”
“This is so frustrating…”

The complaints of his group members burst out.
Their grumbling was justified.

The fifth, sixth, seventh…
By the time they had failed ten times, Van Beonar’s patience had reached its limit.

Every place they went, the magical creatures had already been wiped out.
Eventually, Van Beonar’s endurance also hit its breaking point.

“Luke Richter…!”

His gaze fell to the bracelet on his wrist.

————————————————————

[Points]
— 1st: Luke Richter and 3 others (+78 points)
— 2nd: Van Beonar and 3 others (+32 points)
— 3rd: Eileen Rouge and 3 others (+22 points)
————————————————————–

Grit—
For the first time, Van Beonar’s face, which had been thoroughly maintaining a poker face, twisted with anger.

Van Beonar has a strong competitive spirit.
He will do anything to win.
Because without victory, survival was impossible.

And this was his first taste of defeat.

Contrary to his worries, he did not feel any inferiority.
Instead, he just felt unbearably furious.

“You f**ing bstard…!”

As Van Beonar gritted his teeth, his group members approached him, seeking his opinion as the team leader.

“What should we do?”
“…Let’s change the priority for now.”

At this rate, they wouldn’t even get to see any magical creatures.
The only way to break through this situation is…

“We’ll catch up to Luke Richter first.”

“Ah, is someone bad-mouthing me?”

I lightly rubbed my ear with a finger.
A subtle pleasant feeling spread from the spot I scratched.

[3-star Magic: Fire Arrow]

Boom—!
The last remaining monster was roasted and the battle ended.

How many hours has it been now?
Honestly, it feels like I’ve been hunting monsters all day without a break.

The Crown Prince had even recruited a professor for this practical exam.
As expected from the embodiment of competitiveness, he wouldn’t be satisfied unless he was number one.

But so what?
I’ve already mapped out his entire plan, arranged in chronological order inside my head.
This kind of practical event is just a joke to someone like me who has 15 years of experience in the game.

But I can’t keep doing this anymore.
My stamina is starting to hit its limit.

“I can’t go on.”
“Me neither. I’m almost out of mana.”

Even Odette, who had been following without complaint, declared she couldn’t continue.
Aisha also plopped down, catching her breath.

Only two people were still fine.

Arteo, who had been quietly snickering from behind while barely participating,
And…

[Yaaawn~ I’m getting tired too!]
The little white one that had been chattering away on Aisha’s shoulder.

“78 points, huh…”

The total points accumulated so far were 78.
That’s double the score of the Crown Prince’s team in second place.

At this point, first place is pretty much guaranteed.
The minimum cut-off for securing first place is 65 points, after all.

Of course, I pushed a bit harder to gather 78 points.

‘Might as well manage the Crown Prince’s inferiority complex while I’m at it.’

The Crown Prince of the Belkin Empire, Van Beonar.
If his inferiority complex reaches a certain threshold, he undergoes a dark transformation and becomes a villain.

The problem is that the difficulty varies drastically depending on when his transformation occurs.
While it’s technically possible to completely eliminate his inferiority by controlling it to the extreme…

‘That’s just inefficient.’

Yes, it’s the worst cost-to-benefit ratio imaginable.

Even if you spend time and resources to fully eliminate his inferiority, the rewards given to the player are not worth it.
More importantly, it doesn’t significantly help in clearing the episode.

Therefore, players have to make a choice:
Either manage his inferiority complex carefully and make it explode at the right moment,
Or completely align with him and see the ending as his subordinate.

My choice is obviously the former.
Like I said, it’s all about efficiency.

‘By now, he must be so angry he’s losing his mind.’

The reason I went out of my way to sabotage the Crown Prince’s practical evaluation.
His inferiority complex stems from being overwhelmingly defeated.

However, there’s a special exception here.
If you maximize his anger during the process of defeat, his inferiority score doesn’t increase.

The side effect is that it only stirs up the Crown Prince’s competitive spirit, making him annoyingly persistent at every opportunity.

“Let’s just give up halfway.”

By now, the Crown Prince must be furious, desperately searching for me with his eyes burning.

With this score, first place is guaranteed.
Now all that’s left is to return to the dorm and rest.

“I’m exhausted.”
“I’ve been waiting to hear that…”
“Haha, that was fun.”

Since everyone on the team agreed, there’s nothing left to worry about.

“Let’s head back.”

Just as we were about to leave the forest path—

“Found you.”

A cold voice from Van Beonar struck my ears.

“Are those the guys?”
“Hey! Isn’t this way too much?!”

It seemed his group members were also fed up.
After spending the whole day running around in vain, it’s no wonder they’re pissed.

“Is something the matter?”

Of course, I pretended not to know.
That would only make the Crown Prince even more frustrated.

“…What do you mean?”

Van Beonar’s voice trembled with anger.
Just as expected.

“Are you so desperate to win that you resort to such dirty tricks?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

You know the saying—”You can’t spit on a smiling face.”
I imitated Arteo’s usual smirk, keeping my expression as pleasant as possible.

“Hah, I must have misjudged you.”
“I’m not sure who you think you’ve misjudged, but that’s unfortunate.”
“Are you sure you won’t regret this?”

Regret? What for?
I need to maximize his rage here to make sure I don’t regret it later.

Besides, fights between students are prohibited.
If he’s even slightly sane and wants to secure second place, he wouldn’t dare pick a fight with me.

I threw out a few more random words to provoke him.

“Regret? Not at all. I just took the test, fair and square.”
“……”
“With utmost honesty.”
“Ha…”

That should do it.
Once I turn around and leave, it’s over.

“Let’s go.”

Just as I turned away with my teammates—

[Hmmm?]

Zelus climbed onto Aisha’s head.

[What’s with that weak human?]

Scratching his ear with a paw, Zelus spat out blunt words.
And those words sent the Crown Prince’s rage meter soaring to the max.

“Did you just… call me weak?”
“A fox can talk…?”
“Could it be a spirit?”
“How dare a spirit speak to His Highness like that…!”

The Crown Prince and his team members each reacted differently.
But Zelus remained unfazed.

[How pathetic! Are you really of the same race as these weaklings?]

Van Beonar’s face turned bright red, looking ready to explode.

Looks like the performance is a bit too good.