episode_0096

Daron’s subordinate was continuously swinging his axe at Loki. Ei saw Loki standing on the axe stuck in the ground and shouted.

“Where do you think you’re standing so impertinently?!”

Ei, who prided himself on being a second-year, had long since lost his composure due to Loki, who kept dodging attacks with his hands in his pockets, provoking him.

“Fine, just stay there!”

Seeing this, Ei decided to lift the entire axe Loki was standing on and throw Loki off.

“A grunt of effort!”

Ei was confident in his strength, so he reinforced his body with mana and tried to lift the axe, but…

No matter how much he reinforced his body with mana, the axe didn’t budge.

“Is there a problem?”

A mocking voice came from atop the axe.

Loki was still standing comfortably with his hands in his pockets.

“Uwaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!”

Enraged, Ei put all his strength into trying to move the axe, but it still didn’t budge.

“Yawn~. It’s noisy now, can’t you be quiet?”

“Pant… pant…”

At the sound of the yawn, Ei panted heavily and stared at Loki.

For some reason, the smiling eyes and upturned mouth pattern on the mask felt eerie.

“Tch. That useless bastard.”

Daron, seeing Ei being toyed with by Loki, clicked his tongue once and nodded his chin to signal the other students.

-Shing.

More than ten students behind Daron saw his signal, drew their swords, and rushed at Loki.

‘No matter how strong Loki is, that many people…’

Sepia, having drawn her sword, saw the people rushing at Loki and tried to help him.

Even if Loki was overwhelming them right now.

If that many people attacked at once, he could get hurt.

Imagining Loki getting hurt brought back the tragedy that occurred in the village, making her anxious.

Just as Sepia was about to summon a spirit to help Loki.

-Tap.

Someone placed a hand on her head.

Sepia, turning her head in annoyance, was startled.

‘How on earth did he get here?’

Because Loki, who had just been standing on the axe, was right next to her.

The unpleasant feeling she had from someone placing a hand on her head vanished as if by magic once she realized it was Loki.

“Ah, I’ve taken care of the noisy barking person.”

Unaware of Loki’s strangely rougher tone, she turned her head to where Loki had been just moments ago.

“Ugh!”

The man who had been swinging his axe at Loki was now tied up with string and sprawled on the floor.

The man struggled, straining to untie the string, but the string showed no sign of breaking.

“Sepia, don’t worry and just wait here while drinking your beverage. I’ll show you something fun now.”

Loki, taking out a beverage from his subspace, handing it to her, and then rushing towards the sword-wielding people, seemed to be enjoying himself.

.

.

Sepia stared blankly at Loki, who was moving with his hands in his pockets.

Just as Loki had said, there was no need to worry at all.

-Swish!

-Whoosh!

-Whizz!

More than ten students swung their weapons or unleashed magic with all their might, but they couldn’t even graze Loki.

That sight reminded her of Loki during the entrance exam, when he was slaughtering artificial magical beasts.

The only difference from then was that what was attacking Loki now wasn’t unintelligent magical beasts, but people.

Just like before, no one could land an attack on Loki.

He toyed with the students without taking his hands out of his pockets, as if an adult were playing with children.

“Surround him!!!!!!!”

One of them, realizing they couldn’t do anything in their current state, gave an order, and the other students, hearing the command, surrounded Loki.

Daron’s subordinate thought Loki would move a bit more seriously now, but Loki still spoke without taking his hands out of his pockets.

“Hmm. I didn’t feel anything particular when surrounded by women, but being surrounded by men makes my stomach churn.”

As Sepia thought, Loki was quite enjoying himself right now.

If [Poker Face] had been active, he wouldn’t have even considered fighting.

It wasn’t a particularly necessary fight, but thinking about how Daron, that guy, would be shaken by this, he started to get excited.

He wasn’t particularly afraid of the current situation, being surrounded by students wielding swords.

“Why are you just standing there after going through the trouble of surrounding me? Like the dogs of that person whose name I can’t even remember, over there, you should bite me.”

“No matter how strong you are, you won’t withstand this. Attack, everyone!!!!!!”

The students swung their swords or attacked Loki from all directions.

They had a certain pride in their coordinated attacks.

Therefore, they thought their attacks would succeed, even against Loki, who had calmly dodged attacks until now.

-Swish.

-Whoosh.

But tragically, the result was the same as before.

Their attacks couldn’t reach Loki.

-Swish.

They swung their swords at Loki simultaneously from front and back, but Loki easily dodged the attacks by ducking his head.

“Surely, after striking all those poses, this isn’t the end, is it?”

Even Ascal, the youngest Imperial Knight, had trouble attacking Loki.

He couldn’t be caught by weaklings like these, not even Johanna.

Just by looking at their gaze, shoulders, and foot movements, it was obvious how they would move and how they would swing their swords.

“Come on, come on. Try harder. I still haven’t even taken my hands out of my pockets, you know. If you keep this up and your master abandons you, don’t blame me.”

Sepia hadn’t noticed yet, but Loki’s personality and way of speaking were a little different from usual.

The way Loki had been acting towards the students until now was influenced by two traits.

[Poker Face], [Clown]

[Poker Face] suppressed Loki’s personality and emotions.

If he only had [Poker Face], Loki would have seemed like a cold-blooded person with no discernible emotions.

But [Clown] overlaid it.

However, with [Poker Face] not active now.

Loki was only influenced by the [Clown] trait, using polite language, but his own personality was subtly mixed in.

“Pant… Clearly, you said he was weak if he didn’t use magic tools.”

Loki chuckled upon hearing a student, panting and muttering to himself, seemingly exhausted from attacking.

‘Surely they don’t think I got first place in the practical exam just because of magic tools?’

The reason he used magic tools in the practical exam was simply because it was the most efficient and sure way to get first place.

.

.

Daron was flustered when they all attacked together but couldn’t even graze Loki’s collar.

‘What should I do? Should I stop them now?’

He thought they’d catch him quickly if they all attacked together and didn’t give Loki a chance to use magic tools, but they were no match at all.

-Crunch.

Daron, anxious, was biting his fingernails and pondering what to do.

“Surely, you didn’t think I’d allow that, did you?”

Of course, Loki wasn’t someone who couldn’t read Daron’s expression.

He had no intention of letting it end so blandly.

“Take a look around. If it ends like this now, what will happen? Try to use that dimwit brain of yours to think about it.”

Loki lightly slipped through the students surrounding him, approached Daron, and whispered in his ear.

Daron, hearing Loki’s words, looked around.

All the passing students had stopped and were murmuring.

It was already a problem that all the second-years were attacking one first-year, but a bigger problem was that they were being unilaterally toyed with.

Attacking together and losing would be the biggest public humiliation imaginable.

-Murmur murmur.

He couldn’t hear what the spectating students were saying, but for some reason, Daron’s face turned red, thinking they were laughing at him.

“Everyone, use your artifacts!!!!!!”

At Daron’s loud shout, his subordinates began to pull out different artifacts from their pockets.

Artifacts.

This was why they had become Daron’s subordinates.

Such as magic tools that enhanced the body or magic tools that accelerated spellcasting speed.

Students who had once become stronger with artifacts couldn’t forget the feeling, or they became Daron’s subordinates to maintain their grades.

-Clap clap clap clap!!

As Daron’s subordinates all took out their artifacts, Loki began to clap exaggeratedly.

“That’s right! This is how it should be! Seeing you all attack together, get defeated, and then pettily try to catch me, a single first-year, with artifacts… it just makes me want to applaud.”

The students’ faces turned beet red at Loki’s sarcastic remarks, but they had no intention of stopping the use of artifacts.

Already agitated by Loki’s provocation, their minds were dominated by the desire to defeat Loki.

Therefore, Daron and his subordinates didn’t notice the camera already recording in the corner.

“Oh dear. I didn’t particularly want to fight you seniors, you know. To avoid getting hurt, I ‘unavoidably’ have to take out my weapon.”

“This is strictly self-defense, after all,” Loki said, taking out his weapon from his subspace.

No one knew of the upturned corners of Loki’s mouth behind the mask.

“Yay! Now I can beat them up like crazy.”