episode_0070

After parting ways with Antikrea, Haimon arrived at Leone Academy, whistling a tune.

He easily entered after roughly ripping apart three apparent guards who were frozen stiff, standing guard at the main gate, until they couldn’t breathe. Haimon was on the verge of yawning.

As someone who loved to contend with strong opponents, Haimon’s expectations for Leone, supposedly the Empire’s best educational institution, were still in full bloom.

However, while fighting was one thing, his primary objective was to take Rosalie Berhart with him, so he constantly reminded himself of his mission to keep his priorities straight.

With the mindset that enjoying a suitable battle would be good, but if it hindered his mission, he would put it aside for now, he quietly strolled through the campus.

Soon, he saw a group of about ten students passing by.

‘Hmm… their attire… uniforms… so that’s a school uniform? It’s a sight I don’t see in Azuldar, so it’s quite fresh and novel.’

His impression upon seeing the young students, tense and gazing forward, taking a sort of battle stance. From Haimon’s perspective, who had endured battlefields through civil war, what was it like?

‘They’re even weaker than Antikrea. They’re nothing but greenhorns.’

Their dignified appearances, dressed in sophisticated academy uniforms, were plausible, but the auras he felt from them were all pathetically weak.

Well… of course, that didn’t mean all students at Leone were pathetic and weak. The problem was that the group of students Haimon encountered were still first-year novices.

“Wait! Stop. Who are you? How can an outsider…”

A blonde, blue-eyed woman, whom Haimon found somewhat attractive even by his own standards, spotted him and stopped him.

“Lizley! That man… on his hand…! It’s blood. Is he a demon?”

“Oh no, quickly contact any professor. Deploy the defensive formation.”

Haimon faced Lizley, who was commanding the situation with a somewhat calm voice, but in truth, from his perspective, he could kill these youngsters as easily as squashing a flea.

However, he was a demon who was quite gentlemanly towards pretty women.

“I don’t like getting unnecessarily bloody. Tell me where Rosalie Berhart is, and I’ll just leave.”

“Why are you looking for that… wretched woman?”

As soon as she heard the name ‘Rosalie,’ Lizley bristled, forgetting that her opponent was a high-ranking demon and sharpening her tone.

“It’s none of your business. Just obediently tell me her location. I’m telling you, I’ll spare you.”

Lizley wanted nothing more than to present Rosalie before the demon and beg him to tear her apart. Her inferiority complex about Marisa had been subtly shifting towards Rosalie recently.

But in the current situation, she couldn’t do such a thing to an ‘enemy.’ If there had been no one watching, she would have secretly committed an act beneficial to the enemy without a second’s hesitation, but with so many eyes on her, Lizley had to save face.

Haimon, observing her intently, suddenly began to snicker.

Demons are highly sensitive to killing intent, so Haimon could keenly feel the strong killing intent Lizley harbored towards Rosalie.

As a demon who enjoyed amusement, he decided to offer Lizley a tempting proposal. After all, as an overwhelmingly powerful individual, why would he bother sparing all these youngsters?

“Ah~ Is it because there are many eyes watching? If that’s why you’re hesitating… Fine. If you tell me, *you* will be spared. If all the witnesses die, then you’d have nothing to hold you back, wouldn’t you?”

Simultaneously, as he released the killing intent and magical power he had been holding back, the first-year novices began to stagger, unable to properly control their breathing.

This was Pressure, a high-ranking demon version of the Fear technique primarily used by dragons. A powerful and malicious mana intimidation technique that utterly crushes weak prey.

“…!!!!”

Lizley also felt her throat being squeezed by the immense mana, so she, too, gasped, barely managing to keep herself upright.

“Now. I, the merciful one, am giving you a choice. The person who reveals Rosalie Berhart’s location will be saved, first-come, first-served, just one. Her whereabouts, or where she’s staying. I’ll give you 10 seconds.”

The mercy of one first-served survivor. However, those present were students of Leone Academy, pure souls who had not yet been tarnished. From their perspective, though the threat of death loomed, they could not recklessly commit an act beneficial to the ‘enemy.’

Moreover, with the threat that everyone would be killed except for the one who revealed Rosalie’s location, there was no one who would choose to lie about the location and let their comrades die without a care.

Except for one person: Lizley. She didn’t really know Rosalie’s exact location anyway, but it was certain she had left the academy, and it would be enough to just roughly drive her away.

First-come, first-served survival? ‘Anyway… if only one person lives, it’s only right that someone as beautiful and noble as me survives, isn’t it? Don’t you think so?’

As a top-ranking student who had become the leader of one of the patrol teams, she quickly scanned the faces around her. No matter how she looked, in her eyes, there was no one as valuable as herself.

This wasn’t born from the attitude of ‘I am the most valuable person in the world,’ but rather from Lizley’s unique perspective of calculating the ‘rank’ of humans.

Ultimately, Lizley, having made up her wicked mind, began to fluently spill Rosalie’s location, unable to endure the pain she’d never felt before.

“Rosalie… Professor… that woman formed a pursuit team and went outside the academy earlier… her location is probably Delphi…”

“…!!!”

As Lizley opened her mouth, all the students beside her stared at her with eyes like startled rabbits. They hadn’t expected such a quick abandonment of comradeship.

Moreover, wasn’t Lizley their temporary leader, even for this short mission? The squad members, who couldn’t have imagined their strongest member acting this way, all froze up.

However, Lizley’s brazen betrayal was soon buried by a simple, pure voice that sounded like a loudspeaker blaring.

“-Don’t make me laugh! Villain. Swindler. We don’t know our Teacher’s location, and anyway, even if one of us betrayed, someone like you wouldn’t spare us. You’re just playing a trick!”

Irha, having shaken off Haimon’s Pressure on her own, was panting and arguing with him.

“Oh… you shook off Pressure on your own? A mere pup like you?”

“I’m not a pup! I’m a seagull! You can’t call me a pup unless it’s Ras!”

Haimon, with a very interested expression, turned his gaze to Irha, who was squawking like a feisty fool.

She was quite tall for a woman, with eyes that seemed foolishly pure yet conveyed resolve, and a surprisingly sturdy physique and spirit.

‘Her beauty is also splendid. What a shame… if this were a battlefield, she’s a woman I would have plundered without looking back.’

Unexpectedly, Irha was quite close to Haimon’s usual preference, but he was currently on a mission given by Kardmos, so he was holding back his greed as much as possible.

“Well… you’re not wrong. You look foolish but have good judgment. You’re right. Why would I keep my promise to you? Anyway, I’ll just kill everyone and leave the academy. I can just meet up with them outside.”

Haimon, who had quickly circulated the demon’s uniquely heavy and dense magical power from his mana heart to his veins, lightly lunged at Irha.

Since she was a woman he found likable, even if only for a moment, he decided to personally twist her neck and kill her. Killing her in an instant, so she wouldn’t even feel her own death, was the greatest mercy Haimon could bestow.

However,

“Squawk…!”

Although Haimon had adjusted his strength as if playing with a child, Irha, based on her considerably improved skills recently, defended against Haimon’s blow. She hadn’t unleashed it by seeing it, but rather instinctively caught the subtle change in the air and stabbed with her staff as if flailing. Still, considering the difference in their power, it was an amazing performance.

It was a bit undignified that she let out such a loud, seagull-like shriek, but who cared? The others couldn’t even properly pinpoint Haimon’s movements.

However, Irha, who had actually blocked the attack, was truly surprised.

“Huh…? I blocked it…? But this isn’t my skill… something helped…”

Regardless, Haimon became even more interested in Irha. So much so that he wanted to spare her instead of killing her right then and there.

“I really like her. Enough to want to take her to Azuldar and raise her. I’d like to play with her for a bit longer without using any mana… It wouldn’t be bad to kill everyone else and just spare her. You might become quite an interesting fighter when you grow up.”

Haimon’s interest was thoroughly piqued. He looked into Irha’s pure eyes and, as if amused, changed his plan, deciding to kill everyone else except Irha and then leave.

However, his grand plan of slaughter was once again interrupted by a newly arrived uninvited guest.

“Ugh… why did the request for help have to come to me? It’s scary…”

Tiria, known as the academy’s ‘Honey Bee,’ Ras and Irha’s homeroom professor, appeared, ambling along. A magic professor who usually searched for honey pots… giving off the vibe of a panda, a legendary lazy animal with droopy eyes.

In fact, some people inwardly thought, ‘This is a big problem!’ because the professor who arrived as their supposed savior happened to be Tiria.

“I do like honey pots… but a person still has to do what they have to do. And they shouldn’t do what they shouldn’t.”

Tiria, with languid eyes, scanned the scene, muttering softly. Her seemingly dull yet sharp gaze, for a brief moment, swept over those standing there as if piercing through them.

The foolish yet pure, brave and wise seagull, the blonde woman whose noble facade had been nicely shattered, and the rest of the novices who had frozen and couldn’t properly react.

She sighed deeply inwardly.

Excellent children can be polished and crafted into gems, befitting their excellence. Novices who haven’t grown yet can at least become chickens if they’re trained for a few years at the academy and fed well.

But… how on earth does one save someone whose temperament as a warrior is rotten?

Finally, her gaze landed on the high-ranking demon. A considerably burdensome presence even for Tiria, who rarely fell behind in skill.

However, despite enjoying easy living and being leisurely in her daily life, she possessed a strong sense of responsibility in such situations.

Fleeing from a demon or fluently revealing the location of her comrades was utterly out of the question for her, a human who ‘does what she has to do.’

Haimon soon gathered his customary heavy and oppressive mana. The sphere of black magical power, drawing its surroundings with immense attractive force, grew heavier and heavier. Haimon swiftly unleashed the massive sphere of magical power.

“Multi-Defense Magic Circle, Tripod.”

However, Tiria’s magic, already swiftly spell-selected and cast, also unfolded rapidly. Protecting the students beside her from dying was her most urgent mission and responsibility.

Three golden defensive magic circles connected by lines unfolded like rotating shields, deflecting the heavy sphere as if making it slide off.

The sphere, having lost its direction and swiftly bounced away, went straight into…

The main building…

Crash!

“Oh…! This is bad…!”

A hint of tears gathered in Professor Tiria’s eyes as she sensed a major disaster. The deflected magical sphere had pierced through the defensive magic circle on the main building and demolished its upper floors.

“Quite impressive. Will you block multiple now?”

Haimon, looking amused, began to conjure several smaller magical spheres.

“Hey… hey!! Don’t…!”

Tiria was quickly racking her brain for another strategy, knowing that deflecting them could lead to a major catastrophe.

But at that moment.

“…..!!!”

It was just one second, such a short moment, but everyone present felt a horrifying heat that felt as if it would melt their skin and bones.

Something unknown that, for a fleeting moment, showed everyone a vision of hellfire. Mana? No… something more primal yet simultaneously more advanced.

Like a mountain peak that seemed reachable but utterly untouchable. Those present didn’t know precisely because no one among them had ever reached that place, but it was a kind of afterglow that bursts forth when a mental realm is fully realized.

And Haimon, whose senses for detecting killing intent and immense power were developed incomparably to humans, found the situation amusing and began to laugh like a maniac.

“What is this? Ah… right, you said earlier that she went ‘outside,’ didn’t you? This is good. A more interesting opponent has appeared, and it’s even the target. It was somewhat fun, but I should go.”

Haimon, who had been leisurely playing around just a moment ago, grinned chillingly like an addict who had found drugs, then turned and began to run off.

“Ugh… what do I do…? Kids. I didn’t do that, okay? If anyone asks, you have to say you don’t know, right?”

Anyway, half relief that the terrifying demon had disappeared, and half worry about writing an incident report for damaging the main building… Our somewhat excellent educator, Tiria, plopped down in her spot.

It was a somewhat anticlimactic ending for such a magnificent entrance.