episode_0098

Sepia used even the power of a spirit to calm her flushed face, then walked over to Loki.

Loki was tying up the unconscious Daron with a string.

There were many things she wanted to say, many things she needed to say, but for now, she asked what she was most curious about.

“How in the world can you get strong so fast, like you?”

The special class students realized their shortcomings after entering the academy and fighting against Professor Alicia, and they grew stronger quickly by correcting them.

Sepia also grew rapidly, to the point where she considered it lucky to have joined the special class.

However, among the special class students who were rapidly gaining strength, there was one who was abnormally fast: Loki.

Even Professor Alicia was surprised by Loki’s growth rate.

“……Huh?”

Perhaps not having expected such a question at all, a dumbfounded sound escaped Loki’s lips.

“Hmm. Sepia-ssi, what do you think is the reason I’m getting strong so fast?”

When Loki didn’t answer and instead asked back, Sepia thought seriously.

There were various ways to get stronger.

Elixirs, magic tools, artifacts.

But if it was about getting stronger so quickly and consistently, the answer was clear.

“……Talent and effort?”

Sepia hesitated, then said in an unconfident voice.

Even after saying it herself, she wondered, ‘Is this right?’

But that was the only thought that came to mind.

“…………….”

Loki, who had been frozen and silent for five seconds after hearing her words, then.

“Hahahahahahaha!!!!”

He began to roar with laughter, slapping his thigh.

It wasn’t the sneering or hollow laughter he’d shown while dealing with Daron’s subordinates earlier; it was genuine laughter.

“Ahaha hahah!!”

He was even holding his stomach now as he laughed, and from Sepia’s perspective, having just answered after serious thought, his behavior was quite annoying.

“You asked! Don’t laugh!”

An enraged Sepia shouted with a flushed face, but Loki didn’t stop laughing.

“Pfft! Talent and effort! It’s so unexpected! I can’t stop laughing. *Snorts*!”

“You jerk, I answered seriously.”

“Ahaha, I’m sorry. I never imagined I’d hear something like that from Sepia-ssi.”

“Be quiet! So, is it true? Or not? Stop laughing and just answer!”

“My talent is terribly low, incomparable to yours, Sepia-ssi. If my talent is 100, then Sepia-ssi’s talent is about 700?”

“Lies.”

Sepia said in a peevish voice, seemingly completely offended.

Loki was speaking nothing but the truth, without a single lie, but Sepia thought Loki was lying.

To be getting stronger so fast, and yet have no talent?

It clearly looked like a lie no matter how she looked at it.

“It’s not a lie; it’s true. The reason I can get strong this quickly isn’t because of talent, but because I have a special method.”

Loki fiddled with the mask he was wearing.

Undoubtedly, elixirs had a great influence on his rapid growth, but the biggest part was this mask.

‘Jester’s Mask.’

Simply put, it’s an overpowered item that allows the wearer to enjoy a multi-experience-point event by themselves while equipped.

A mythical sub-space that can even enhance other items, magic tools, and elixirs, is also something other kingdoms would covet.

But the Jester’s Mask was on a different dimension.

If word about this mask got out, there was a possibility of war.

Talent, predetermined from birth.

The only item that could catch up to it.

If a genius can accomplish in 6 months what an ordinary person takes a year to do, this mask allows an ordinary person to accomplish it in 6 months as well.

However, this mask truly shines when used by a genius, not a dullard.

With just this mask, a genius can become abnormally strong faster than anyone else.

Moreover, unlike elixirs, it doesn’t disappear no matter how much it’s used, so if its abilities become known, everyone will surely try to get their hands on it.

‘So, I originally vowed not to tell anyone.’

Promises are meant to be broken, and today was just that day. Besides, Sepia wasn’t someone who would carelessly spread secrets.

“I’ll tell you one of my secrets, which I haven’t told anyone, especially for Sepia-ssi.”

And honestly, my heart is pounding.

I get strong this fast even when I use it…

How fast would Sepia get strong if she used this?

Sepia, who had been muttering ‘especially for me,’ cautiously opened her mouth.

“If it’s a secret you haven’t told anyone… your face?”

“If it’s a secret to tell in this situation, isn’t it usually about how I get strong so fast?”

“……………”

Sepia, perhaps embarrassed, lowered her head with a flushed face.

“Besides, there’s already someone I’ve shown my face to.”

I already show my face to Johanna almost every day.

I even took off my mask and rested on Johanna’s lap at the training ground this morning.

“……………..”

Sepia was wearing her mask, but she could sense that Loki was thinking of someone.

And she felt like she knew who he was thinking of.

“Is the person you’ve already shown your face to Princess Freya?”

“Oh! How did you know? Are you two close?”

“No! We’re not close at all! Just tell me how you get strong so fast!”

Loki, though unsure why, noticed Sepia was angry and pointed a finger at their surroundings.

“It’s difficult to talk now with so many people around. I’ll tell you a bit later.”

Hearing Loki’s words, Sepia looked around.

She hadn’t noticed while talking with Loki, but many students were murmuring and staring.

“Hogu.”

“Yes, Sepia-ssi.”

“That secret you’re going to tell me… Princess Freya doesn’t know it either?”

She didn’t even know herself why she had asked such a question.

It wasn’t a suitable question for the current situation.

But she couldn’t hold it in.

“No, even Johanna Sunbae doesn’t know. I didn’t plan on telling anyone in the first place, but I’m telling it only to Sepia-ssi.”

“Hmm. I see.”

Just as the corners of Sepia’s lips curled up unconsciously.

“Untie me quickly!”

Daron, who had been unconscious, woke up and yelled.

The corners of Sepia’s lips, which had curled up, instantly dropped.

“Even if you don’t speak so loudly, I can hear everything.”

Loki said, covering his ears with both hands.

Anyone could tell he was teasing Daron.

“Aren’t you afraid of the Leviathan family!”

“Not really.”

-Thump.

“Because our Sepia-ssi promised to protect me.”

Loki naturally placed his hand on Sepia’s head and said.

“….. When did I ever say that?”

Sepia muttered in a small voice, without removing Loki’s hand from her head.

“Huh? So you won’t protect me? Am I going to be abandoned by Sepia-ssi like this?”

“Well, not exactly, but………”

“Hehe! So that’s how it was.”

Daron’s laughter reached Sepia, who was talking with Loki.

“I wondered why he’d go so far for that girl, but were you two in that kind of relationship?”

Daron, still tied up, said to Loki with a sneer.

“Hey, Jester, you know that girl was the only one who survived where she lived before, right? *Snickers*!”

“………………”

“Don’t you think it’s strange? Everyone living there died, but she survived alone. How do you think she survived?”

Sepia knew what Daron was going to say.

Harassment using the tragedy that happened in her village.

“Of course she spread her legs for the attackers!”

She had often heard that from Daron before coming to the academy.

She thought she had grown used to it.

But.

Even so.

For some reason, her chest felt constricted.

Her hands trembled.

‘Why, ah……’

Looking at Loki beside her, she realized the reason.

She had heard such talk from Daron many times, but never once in front of others.

Especially not in front of someone she liked.

“If she didn’t spread her legs, how else could that girl have survived there? That girl, a spirit user, hehe! Don’t you agree she’d be more fitting as a prostitute than a spirit user?”

More than the anger at him using the village’s tragedy in such a way,

the humiliation she felt from being harassed in front of Loki was greater.

She didn’t want to hear such nonsense, at least not in front of Loki.

Normally, she would have cursed him right then, but for some reason, she couldn’t open her mouth.

If she flared up here, it felt like she would be admitting his words were true.

She knew Loki wouldn’t believe those words.

She knew it in her head, but………

her mouth wouldn’t open.

As she stood there, unable to do anything.

“Are you done with your bullshit?”

A low voice, devoid of any emotion, was heard.

If the voice hadn’t come from where Loki was standing, she would never have believed it came from his mouth.

Daron instantly felt goosebumps all over his body.

But Daron, unwilling to admit he was afraid of Loki, opened his mouth, pretending to be as nonchalant as possible.

“You, you’re lowering your voice… *Gasp*!!”

Loki kicked Daron’s face as he lay there tied up.

“From now on, all you have to do is listen to me.”

And he spoke in the same low voice.

Suddenly, mist began to rise from under Loki’s feet.

Sepia realized that this mist was the same as the one that had appeared at the end of Loki’s spar with Ropri last time.

“From now on, I’ll tell you everything I’m going to do to you.”

Loki said, stomping on Daron’s head, who was coughing and spitting blood.

“I’m going to beat the living hell out of you.”

Daron realized why he had felt goosebumps all over his body earlier.

Killing intent. Killing intent he had never felt before in his life. His body was trembling uncontrollably.

“I’ll beat you even if you beg for your life. If you pass out, I’ll wake you up and beat you, and if you try to kill yourself, I’ll somehow heal you and beat you.”

Due to the thick killing intent seeping from every word, Daron forgot to even breathe, trembling uncontrollably.

Daron genuinely thought he might die here.

The growing mist completely engulfed Loki, Sepia, and Daron.

With this, no one outside would know what was happening inside.

Then Loki bent down and whispered into the ear of the trembling Daron, so Sepia couldn’t hear.

“And finally, I’ll show you a nightmare.”

He didn’t plan on using the same nightmare he had used on Mordor on this guy.

This guy couldn’t become a wreck yet.

He needed to feel what it was like to lose everything and plummet while fully conscious.

“Especially for you, I’ll tell you in advance the nightmare you’re about to experience.”

This bastard crossed a line he shouldn’t have.

So, it’s probably okay if I cross the line a little too.

“In a bit, you’re going to be raped by countless men.”