episode_0078

Hours before Loki infiltrated the mansion disguised as Phantom Thief Cardinal.

-Knock knock.

Alicia, resting in the room assigned to her, heard a knock from outside the door.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Loki!”

“Haa…”

A sigh automatically escaped her at the playful voice from outside the door. Her head already ached, wondering what kind of trouble this troublemaker had come to cause today.

“Ah! You just sighed, didn’t you? Do you think I can’t hear you just because I’m outside the door?”

“I intended for you to hear it. Come in for now.”

Alicia pressed and rubbed her brow with her hand.

Becoming an academy professor was, from the start, part of her leisurely life.

Before becoming an academy professor, she enjoyed leisure as an adventurer, but after a little while, adventurer life grew tiresome.

Knowing that Karsten’s son would be entering the academy this time, and that Idra, one of her former party members from her adventurer days, was a professor, she used Karsten’s influence to become an academy professor herself.

“Well then, excuse me~.”

Loki, wearing a mysterious and peculiar mask whose identity was unknown every time she saw him, entered the room.

“Right, what trouble have you caused this time?”

“I’m about to cause trouble now!”

Watching Loki speak in a bright, cheerful voice, another sigh automatically escaped her.

“Right, thank you very much for telling me in advance. So, what kind of trouble are you planning?”

Loki explained his plan as if he were discussing what he had for lunch.

Alicia, who had listened silently to Loki’s plan with her eyes closed, slowly opened her eyes and spoke.

“You know my true identity.”

The plan Loki had devised was based on his certainty that she was a dragon.

Loki’s requests were largely three-fold.

Powerful physical enhancement magic, interference to prevent Clara from using magic, and finally, Dragon Fear.

This was the second time her identity had been discovered without her revealing it first.

“Of course I know. Professor Alicia’s identity is… a professor, isn’t it?”

Alicia looked at Loki, who gave a brazen, feigned ignorant answer, and thought.

‘Did Karsten tell him?’

The day before the academy’s first class began.

Karsten contacted her via communication orb.

‘It’s been a long time, Ruska-nim.’

‘It’s Alicia now. So, why did you contact me?’

Karsten asked her to look after Lucas and Loki, who were in the special class.

‘Lucas is his son, so that makes sense, but what’s his connection with Loki?’

Karsten seemed to have thought of something amusing, speaking with a raised corner of his mouth.

He spoke of how Loki had found out Karsten was Cardinal, and how Karsten had taken Loki as his disciple.

However, Karsten’s request was pointless; there was no particular need to look after him.

Loki himself might not be aware of it, but currently, the center of the special class is Loki.

This was easily evident when observing the class without Loki while he was fighting the Necromancer.

When Loki is present, all the special class students talk a little, whether before or after fighting him.

But without Loki, Sepia only talked to spirits, and Clara quietly read her book.

Among the special class students, Loki was the only one who had grown close to those two.

Loki was the only one who would boldly approach Sepia, who was talking to spirits, and Clara, who exuded an ‘don’t come near me’ aura, and strike up a conversation.

His skill was beyond doubt.

When she first saw him, his stamina was severely lacking compared to his other abilities, but he had somehow resolved his stamina issues in a short period of time.

“Then, I’ll go see Mr. Frederic.”

“Why?”

“When Cardinal appears. Wouldn’t it be suspicious if only the two of us were missing? So, I’m telling him in advance.”

.

.

Recalling the conversation she had with Loki earlier, Alicia watched the situation from the rooftop.

The knights who had rushed into the mansion all collapsed after being hit by two black lights from Loki’s fingers.

“Is that Karsten’s shadow?”

She created an illusion to match the movements of Karsten’s shadow.

To an unaware observer, it would look as if Loki’s black light was knocking out the knights.

Seeing the aura surrounding Loki, the students were trembling.

In fact, the reason the students were trembling was because Alicia was emitting Dragon Fear from the rooftop.

The ash-colored aura surrounding Loki was a fake, an illusion with no actual effect.

Dragon Fear and the aura emitted by humans are distinctly different.

However, none of them had ever experienced Dragon Fear.

“By the way, its versatility is incredible.”

He uses it for combat and for disguise.

As long as that child doesn’t stop imagining, there’s nothing he can’t create.

Even the loud commotion about Cardinal appearing in the Baron’s estate earlier was an illusion created by Loki.

Joden’s unique magic, another unique magic user in the academy, is also quite remarkable.

Magic that instantly freezes space—to others, Joden’s unique magic would likely seem better than Loki’s.

But for Alicia, Joden’s unique magic could be easily blocked.

However, Loki’s unique magic cannot be blocked.

Regardless of whether the opponent is strong or weak, Loki’s unique magic works equally well.

Even a dragon, sensitive to mana as they are, would find it impossible to immediately realize that what Loki created was fake.

If one doesn’t know Loki’s unique magic, they are bound to be fooled. If one does know his unique magic, they might be able to prepare for it, but…

“If you don’t know your opponent is Loki, like now, you can’t prepare at all.”

* * *

-Thud.

As Cardinal instantly knocked down the Baron’s knights, Baron Ashro trembled and collapsed to the ground.

“I’ll ask you again. Did you really think such a small force could stop me?”

-Footsteps echoed.

Cardinal walked very slowly towards Baron Ashro.

Baron Ashro couldn’t even think of standing up. Still sitting, he pushed the ground with his hands, moving backward little by little, but Cardinal’s pace was faster, reaching right in front of the Baron’s nose.

“Wh-What are you going to steal this time?!”

Baron Ashro’s body and voice trembled like a rabbit exposed to the cold winter outside.

Seeing Cardinal, the stomach he had been hit in last time throbbed.

‘It wasn’t this bad last time!’

Last time, Cardinal hadn’t attacked him at all, except for planting a foot into his stomach.

So he thought the special class students would be able to catch him.

“On the contrary. I haven’t come to steal this time, but to return what was stolen.”

Cardinal took a bottle containing drugs from his pocket and placed it on the floor.

‘Why is this here?’

“By the way, I’m surprised. I never thought an imperial noble would possess ‘drugs’.”

He should deny it immediately, but his lips wouldn’t move.

The fear that if he lied, that man might sever his neck.

“Then, I shall take my leave.”

Cardinal walked out of the mansion with very slow steps, as if his task was complete.

No one inside the mansion could stop or call out to Cardinal as he slowly departed.

Everyone knew.

That if Cardinal had truly intended to, he could have killed everyone present.

Just as everyone, relieved that Cardinal had left, was catching their breath.

“Is everyone alright?!”

Loki ran in from outside the mansion, shouting.

His attire was the opposite of Cardinal’s appearance just moments ago, radiating comfort.

“Wh-Where were you?”

Sepia, still trembling, grabbed Loki’s hand and stood up.

“Ah! Be careful!”

However, the strength had long since left her legs, and Loki caught Sepia, who was about to fall, supporting her.

“Well… I heard information that Cardinal was hiding in the village, so I quietly went with Professor Alicia so Cardinal wouldn’t notice, but I never imagined it would be a trick!”

Alicia stared at the brazen Loki with a cold, disgusted gaze.

It was so natural that for a moment, she almost mistook it for the truth.

“Tsk.”

Perhaps due to the influence of Dragon Fear, the students were still trembling like Sepia.

“Everyone’s terrified. Pull yourselves together.”

Alicia used her hand to calm the students.

As time passed, the students seemed to recover and lay down comfortably.

However, Baron Ashro was still trembling, because Alicia hadn’t done anything specifically for him.

“By the way, there’s a peculiar bottle here.”

Loki picked up the bottle lying on the floor, pretending he had just coincidentally found it.

“That’s—!”

“Let me have a look.”

Before Baron Ashro could say anything, Alicia took the bottle.

Alicia, after examining the bottle a few times, furrowed her brow.

“This is a drug. Quite a potent one too. Just in case, Loki, keep it in your subspace.”

“Understood.”

Loki took the bottle back from Alicia and pretended to put it into his subspace.

In reality, this wasn’t a drug.

It was merely an illusion of a drug created in the bottle.

Contrary to expectations, the Necromancer’s subordinate did not appear when he was disguised as Cardinal.

This allowed them to deduce that the combat power of the Necromancer’s subordinate hiding near the Baron was not high.

“But why is there a drug here?”

Alicia looked at Loki, who spoke as if he genuinely didn’t know why the drug was there.

She wondered if the reason Loki was so good at using his unique magic was because of that brazenness.