Chapter 53

Chapter 53

The Heroine of the 1st Playthrough Remembers My Training.

Episode 53: Mesugaki + Training = M’sugaki (2).

“…Huff… huff…”

Tristan bent over, gasping for breath.

His body was covered in wounds, not a single spot unscathed.

Especially his shoulder, where a chunk of flesh had been torn off, bleeding profusely.

…It was just a slight scratch from the ogre’s claws, yet it ended up like this.

‘Good thing I brought herbs.’

Normally, he was stingy with herbs, but this time he remembered Gigmind’s advice and brought a minimum amount.

Rip-

Tristan tore his ragged cloak to make a bandage, then put some herbs in his mouth and chewed.

When the bitter taste filled his mouth, he spat out the herbs onto the bandage and pressed it to his shoulder.

“….”

The bandage on the wound caused excruciating pain, but Tristan didn’t let out a single groan as he finished stopping the bleeding.

Looking around, the mountainside, which was covered in white snow, was now stained red with blood, and the bodies of the blue-skinned ogres were strewn about.

Tristan slowly walked towards the corpses.

「Wind─Blade」

As he placed the cut ogre horns into a sack, Tristan thought.

‘…Something is wrong.’

It was true that Tristan often took dangerous risks for money.

But that didn’t mean he was a suicidal volunteer.

His skills as a wizard were unquestionably top-notch.

He couldn’t be a professor at Carnea Academy if he weren’t objectively first-class.

Therefore, while hunting ogres was tough, he judged that being a bit careful would be enough to avoid major issues…

He was wrong.

Even an ogre, known as the tyrant of the mountains, was still a living creature.

Usually, if you hit them with high-level magic from the start, showing the difference in power, they would get scared and create openings, but this time was different.

No matter how much he showed his power, none of them were afraid or tried to run; they all charged at Tristan to kill him.

‘…That’s not all.’

These ogres were not only violent but also seemed to be moving under someone’s command, pressing Tristan relentlessly….

Thud—

At that moment.

Thud—

With a ground-shaking rumble, it appeared.

─Growl.

A blood-red ogre, with ominously writhing black veins covering its body like a spiderweb.

“….”

The blood-red ogre had an overwhelming presence compared to the other ogres he had faced.

It was twice as large as the others, wore a bear pelt over its split horns, and wielded a massive club that looked like an uprooted tree in its right hand.

─Roar!

The blood-red ogre roared, furious at the death of its subordinates, shaking the mountain with its cry.

‘Hah…’

Tristan chuckled helplessly.

Anyone would tell him to give up in this hopeless situation.

But thinking of his daughter who would be left alone if he died, Tristan tightened the bandage on his shoulder with his teeth.

“…I’ll be a bit late for tomorrow’s lecture.”

As Tristan muttered, the blood-red ogre swung its club at him.

‘Today is the last day.’

The last day of training before the inter-year competition.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

—‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for being born.’

A few days ago, as soon as Vivian came to her senses, she apologized to me frantically.

─’It’s okay.’

Although Vivian’s magic was painful, it was because of what I had instructed.

So I had no intention of punishing her…

-‘Hic…Sorry for being such…trash…that I can’t even be punished properly…’

Seeing Vivian start to self-harm, I freaked out and decided to punish her.

-‘Ack…Y…Yujin…please…do it…harder…’

…Even then, I tried to adjust the punishment to avoid leaving scars on her body…

In the end, it wasn’t until I choked her until she foamed at the mouth that Vivian finally calmed down.

-‘Ugh…th-thank…you…ugh..very…much..!’

Thinking back to that time, I couldn’t help but sigh again.

If Lucia lowered herself out of excessive affection for me, Vivian seemed to lower herself to avoid being abandoned by me.

…To be honest, if she didn’t get any worse, Vivian’s personality would be convenient for a harem ending.

She’d be grateful just to have me around.

But if she went astray even a little…?

…A slight mistake and she’d become a self-harming lunatic.

‘I can’t let that happen…’

To manage Vivian’s mentality, I needed to quickly target Bianca.

“…You’ve got guts.”

From the other side, my sparring partner Loreos spoke.

Despite the freezing weather, Loreos was wearing only a thin shirt that revealed his silhouette.

“How dare you lose focus in front of me.”

Loreos flexed, his muscles swelling, making his shirt strain as if it would tear.

‘…How is he a wizard?’

Loreos’s physique was far too trained to be called a wizard’s body.

Even most knights wouldn’t have a body like that.

“…I wasn’t losing focus; I was planning how to deal with you, Professor.”

It was nonsense, but Loreos seemed pleased with my answer, curling his lips into a smile.

“Alright, let’s hear your plan….”

「Wind─Blade」

「Wind─Blade」

Damn.

The best defense was a good offense.

Before Loreos could finish speaking, I casted two high-speed Wind Blades.

The first Wind Blade came from my fingertips…

The second blade was summoned next to Loreos’s head.

Swish─

Despite the sudden summoning of the Wind Blade next to his head, Loreos evaded it with a simple lean.

‘…Unbelievable.’

It was a perfect surprise attack, yet his wizard’s body reacted to it.

“…Definitely worth calling a plan… I didn’t expect you to learn spatial designation in just a week.”

Despite the ambush, Loreos smiled with satisfaction instead of getting angry.

“It wasn’t easy.”

I wasn’t being modest; it really wasn’t.

If Lucia hadn’t drunk mana potions like water and helped me with ‘mana resonance’ over the weekend, I wouldn’t have mastered it.

“I’d like to praise you more, but… the mana flow is too noticeable. The fact that mana is so easily felt when creating magic means there’s a lot of mana loss. In other words, the efficiency is quite poor.”

“…”

I knew that even without Loreos telling me.

‘Spatial designation’ was only brought to a usable level, but its efficiency in real combat was lacking.

Even with Lucia’s miraculous help, my talent wasn’t enough to fully master ‘spatial designation.’

‘…Hearing that makes me lose confidence.’

I lowered my head.

And then… twisted my lips into a smile.

I wasn’t confident.

Confident about losing to Bianca, that was.

The power of my magic was fixed due to my ‘Trainer’ trait.

Moreover, Bianca’s match would end in an ‘ultra-short-term battle,’ so a bit more mana consumption wasn’t a problem.

In fact, the greater mana consumption would make Bianca react better to my magic, so it wasn’t a bad thing.

“So… is that the end of your plan? It’s impressive enough, but a bit lacking.”

“Of course not.”

I smiled and chanted at Loreos’s words.

「Wind─Blade」

「Cut─Wind─Blade」

Magic unfolded almost simultaneously in front and behind Loreos.

But as Loreos mentioned, the significant mana flow in my spatial designation magic made it hard to tell which one was the mid-level spell.

「Flame─Arrow」

Boom-!

For the first time, Loreos used magic to block it.

“…You learned mid-level magic too? And you’re using mana flow as a decoy?”

This time, Loreos looked genuinely surprised.

In terms of difficulty, learning spatial designation for low-level magic was harder than for mid-level magic, but Loreos, being a practical wizard, was naturally more interested in mid-level magic.

“…You seriously plan to beat the second years.”

I nodded.

I had to win this inter-year competition to at least get into Class 2 by the second year.

‘It would be great to get into Class 1, but…’

That seemed like an excessive hope.

Even in ‘Academy Trainer,’ to get into Class 1 in the second year, you had to give up all women training routes and just keep training and training.

…Of course, training like that would lead to a bad ending without participating in the main events.

‘Still, if I complete the second main event and get the ‘Tentacle’ over the break, and then play some politics with the Calliope family to get a decent item…’

If things went as planned, I’d rise to the top ranks of Class 2 by the midterm exam of the second year.

“Alright, if that’s your plan, I’ll take you seriously.”

Zzzzz—

Loreos flexed, and his shirt couldn’t contain his muscles, tearing apart.

Whoosh—

Steam rose from Loreos’s bare upper body.

‘…What the hell?’

How could anyone see him as a wizard?

No matter how I looked at it, Professor Loreos should have pursued a career as a knight.

“Then, come at me, Yujin.”

Loreos flexed his pectoral muscles as he spoke to me.