episode_0020

“What the hell is that bastard doing?”

Michelini lowered his telescope with a bored expression.

The 14th yeti had died.

—Grrrr…

“Stay still. You’re being noisy.”

He muttered while stroking the nape of another yeti.

It didn’t matter much. The yetis were an infinite resource.

Behind him, including the ones that had just arrived, ten yetis were gnashing their teeth, waiting for their turn to attack.

Their bloodshot eyes and the ceaseless drool dripping from their mouths were grotesque enough for even someone who knew nothing about yetis to realize something was wrong.

—The secret art of the Creshil family, Bloodline Domination.

A simple but powerful ability—though it required preparation—that allowed the blood mage who used it to control any monster that had consumed their blood.

And Michelini had secretly been spreading his blood across every region of the Crovan Mountains for the past two months.

Thanks to meeting a generous sponsor, he had even learned the test location in advance.

‘I didn’t expect it to be something like this, though.’

Michelini smirked faintly and sent out two more yetis.

Honestly, the test’s content didn’t matter. The biggest issue—the blizzard—was being blocked by the yetis, and any obstacles along the way were being cleared. No matter what the test was, first place was guaranteed.

In fact, he might even leave a great impression on the spectators.

Since they wouldn’t know he had prepared in advance, they’d mistake his Bloodline Domination for an ability that allowed him to dominate monsters just by looking at them.

He had already taken a lot, but maybe he could squeeze out a little more. Lost in pleasant thoughts, he raised his binoculars again.

“…Tch.”

Then, he frowned as he watched the two yetis turn into cold corpses in an instant.

…What the hell?

No matter how he looked at it, this wasn’t the combat ability of an average examinee.

Of course, he had known it wouldn’t be easy.

After all, his sponsor had suddenly visited him yesterday with a grim expression and made a request.

Make sure the man in butler attire doesn’t pass the test. It shouldn’t be too hard…

“Bullshit.”

Not too hard?

Michelini spat in irritation.

He could guess the sponsor’s intentions.

It was probably a test. You’ve received this much investment, so of course you should be able to take down a retainer of a rival noble—something like that.

It should’ve been simple. If he wanted to milk his sponsor dry at the academy later, leaving the best possible impression this time was absolutely necessary.

That butler examinee had likely already realized someone was targeting him.

Was that why he was taking down the yetis with minimal movement, without revealing his hand?

Michelini scoffed, finding it pathetic.

How long could he keep up that level of performance in this extreme environment?

Meanwhile, Michelini’s yetis, which he had spread out in advance, were gradually gathering.

As long as he didn’t make the mistake of sending them all at once and instead dispatched them one by one, slowly wearing down the butler’s stamina and forcing him to reveal his hidden cards one by one—

The outcome was inevitable.

His escape from the revolting fate of being a noble treated like a commoner was almost within reach.

Lost in pleasant thoughts, Michelini lowered his binoculars and prepared to send the next yeti—when something suddenly struck him as odd.

‘…But why a butler outfit?’

A butler’s attire was so utterly unrelated to the Empire’s most grueling exam that it was hard to believe.

Usually, only butlers wore butler uniforms… but why would a butler even take this exam?

After a brief moment of contemplation, Michelini shrugged and readied the next yeti.

I can always interrogate him in detail after subduing him.

“Blood magic?”

I poked at the yeti’s corpse with my sword and confirmed its blood-reddened eyes.

In the Empire, blood magic was generally considered primitive, something only barbaric tribes used, and was shunned.

It wasn’t outright discrimination, but there was some truth to it—things associated with blood magic weren’t treated well.

Not even among nobles.

I’d heard of a few families whose secret arts involved blood magic.

I didn’t remember the details, but…

A lowly noble like that wouldn’t have been invited to the academy.

Not a true noble like Filneia, but more like a hollow noble—someone like me.

“Disgusting…”

I sighed and quickened my pace.

Blood magic was ultimately an inferior substitute for real magic, but depending on the situation, it could surpass magic.

If the blood mage had perfect control over the yetis, then honestly, there was no counter.

My stamina wasn’t infinite. If I kept fighting without sleep, I’d wither and die.

The only solutions were to find and subdue the blood mage or escape the area as quickly as possible—but in this blizzard, finding them was nearly impossible.

Meanwhile, the enemy could track my location unilaterally using the yetis’ sense of smell.

And it wasn’t like I could outrun them in the Crovan Mountains. If I could, I’d be the yeti.

Of course, there was a way.

The brute-force method: strip naked, smear myself with yeti blood, chop up the corpses and scatter them around, then run. That might work.

‘…I’d rather die.’

The spectators might be recording this.

What if Filnea saw it?

Suicide would be the only answer.

Even if I ignored my pride, as Seriratus’ butler, I couldn’t disgrace myself like that.

Let’s see, what to do…

“..!…!”

“…”

While I was lost in thought—

A strange noise mixed into the blizzard.

I immediately strained my ears.

Behind me, about 100 meters away.

The blizzard had completely blinded me, but I could roughly gauge the location.

Pretending not to hear, I kept walking forward—

—Boom!

I immediately detonated a fireball at my feet and leaped back.

“So, if we work together—!”

“W-what the hell is this bastard?!”

Cutting through the blizzard with my sword, I quickly scanned the three people standing there.

A fur-clad warrior.

A mage in a robe with fierce eyes.

And—

“…Arin?”

“Hi.”

Arin, dressed in ordinary clothes, stood among them.

How the hell isn’t she frozen? Looking closer, it wasn’t just that she wasn’t freezing—the snow around her was melting.

Unless my eyes were deceiving me, she was radiating heat from her entire body.

She was too much of an idiot to be the blood mage, so I scrutinized the other two, but their wary expressions didn’t give off any sense of danger.

If they were really blood mages, they should’ve started panicking and running the moment I got close.

I sheathed my sword and sighed. Guess things don’t work out that easily.

“My mistake. Carry on.”

“W-wait!”

The mage called out to stop me.

“Who are you? How are you surviving in just those thin clothes? What kind of magic are you using?”

“She’s dressed the same.”

“W-well, yeah, but… she’s not human.”

“…?”

Confused, I glanced at Arin, who lowered her head and avoided my gaze.

“What are you talking about? She’s an examinee like us.”

“Hah, you don’t know? She’s a witch!”

“A… what? A witch?”

“Yeah, a witch! You’re a mage too, right? Can’t you sense it?”

“Sense what?”

“Mana! She doesn’t have any mana at all!”

I looked at Arin again.

She still refused to meet my eyes, and sure enough, I couldn’t sense any mana from her—

But that was obvious. She wasn’t a mage.

“But she uses magic. Someone who can use magic without mana is a witch—a being who can harness a monster’s abilities…”

“Are you stupid?”

“W-what?”

“That’s not magic.”

I rubbed my throbbing temples and shook my head.

I’d heard the folk rumor that those who used magic without mana were called witches.

But Arin wasn’t using magic.

Did they think I hadn’t studied dwarven techniques enough to sense mana flow? I couldn’t detect any mana from Arin.

It wasn’t that she was casting magic without mana—

…It was closer to some bizarre act like boiling her blood to heat her body.

I had no idea how she did it. If anything, it wasn’t something as light and cute as the word “witch” could describe—it was something far stranger.

Not my problem, though. I had neither the time nor the inclination to explain.

As I turned to leave, the mage hurriedly tried to persuade me.

“…Hey, wait! You know it too, right? This exam was designed to make us fail.”

“So?”

“Instead of wasting energy on the impossible, we should try another approach.”

“Hmm…”

The warrior, who had been listening quietly, clenched his fist.

“I knew it’d be cold, but not like this. I’m in. Better than just collapsing.”

“Good thinking! If we keep going like this, we’ll have to return all our sponsors’ money!”

“What’s your plan?”

“Witch hunt.”

The mage pulled out a staff and began chanting something.

“If there’s a witch among the examinees, and we’re the ones who eliminate her…”

“It’ll make a great excuse. We might even get special consideration for our scores.”

“Haah…”

This was ridiculous.

They were so desperate to pass that they’d latched onto this nonsense.

Their brains must’ve frozen over. For one, Arin wasn’t a witch, and even if she were, “special consideration” only existed in their delusions.

What bothered me was Arin.

“Why aren’t you arguing back?”

“…”

Arin kept her mouth tightly shut.

If she’d just said, I’m not a witch, this isn’t magic, it’s something else, these idiots might not have gone this far.

But since she stayed silent, they took it as confirmation and ran with it.

…Or was she just enjoying this? Setting up a “self-defense” scenario to beat people up?

I studied her closely—

Her head was still bowed, and the hand gripping her sword trembled slightly.

Not from the cold. The snow melted before it could even touch her.

“Think about it! If that witch passes, we might—”

“Ah, you’re right.”

“…Huh? Y-yeah! Exactly. We’ll split the credit three ways!”

The mage beamed at his newfound ally.

“Perfect. I needed someone else to get blood on their hands for me.”

“?”

The mage was wearing a compass on his belt.

How considerate.

Made him so easy to target.