ALL NOVEL Chapter 8
Chapter 8
—–CROW—–
A character who first appeared in Chapter 12, where Tia died.
[Successor of Will] Spina could be considered a newly hatched dragon.
Since dragons were the strongest creatures in the setting, she was designated as SSR-rank despite her young age.
She was popular.
She was inherently cute, and the melancholic atmosphere that belied her age suited her quite well.
Her cute skill effects were a bonus.
[Petit Breath]
See, even the name was “petit.”
In the game, it was just a small girl with a cold demeanor breathing fire.
The effects included things like stars and hearts.
“Hey, Oz. Is this a challenge to me?”
“…No, Headmaster.”
Yes, so it was natural that I couldn’t have imagined that this ‘petit’ breath would have this much power.
Considering its high attack coefficient, it made sense, but visually, it was jarring.
I could no longer look at the character Spina with the same fondness.
The ground melted.
The magical protective devices within the testing grounds were all shattered in one blow.
The scarecrow was no longer visible.
Yes, if the standard for ‘petit’ was a small nuclear bomb, then I could understand.
“So, what is this? Did you want to show off by causing this much destruction? Are you insane?”
“No, this just happened…”
“Just… hap… pened…?”
It was annoying to see a grown woman drawling like a child, but since I was in the wrong, I quietly lowered my head.
If I met Tia’s gaze now, I might collapse in fear.
“You, if Prudence and I hadn’t stopped this, everyone here… no, everyone would have died. Do you understand? I stopped it. Me.”
The way she omitted Professor Prudence Loa’s name at the end showed how strong her self-love was.
“…As expected of the Headmaster. You never disappoint. Truly amazing.”
Clap clap clap clap──
“Do you really want to die? Prudence, restrain him. I need to open up his head and take a look.”
I quickly covered my mouth. This damn mouth was causing trouble.
No, it wasn’t just my mouth, but this entire body called Oz that was the problem.
“Please calm down, Tiamat…”
I wanted to apologize, but it wasn’t easy. I didn’t even want to imagine what would have happened if Professor Prudence hadn’t intervened.
[Erosion Rate 17%]
Oz’s arrogance, amplified since the incident with Eleanor, continued to surface.
It would be better to keep my mouth shut in times like these, but…
“Are you ignoring me?”
Even that wasn’t easy.
“What is going on? Huh? Are there only weirdos this year? Speaking of which, where did that Alexios bastard go?”
“…”
I silently pointed my finger at the hole, and Tia stood on tiptoe, looking down into the hole that was larger than herself.
“…Oh, there he is, that crazy bastard.”
“As expected of the Headmaster. You quickly realized that this hole was created by the magic I used…”
“If you don’t want to die, shut your mouth and write a letter of apology.”
“Yes…”
“Twenty pages. We’ll decide on the disciplinary action later in a meeting. Just write the apology first. Even if I want to consider extenuating circumstances, this is too much. Don’t you think so too?”
“Understood. I’ll do that.”
“Why do you sound so agreeable? No, forget it. I don’t even care anymore.”
I hadn’t even officially enrolled in
Letting it slide like this was already merciful.
“The interview… surely you won’t cause any trouble there, will you?”
“Of course not.”
If I hadn’t used [Master of Mana], this wouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Yes, there was no way a problem would arise in a simple interview that consisted of just questions and answers.
“Don’t worry, Headmaster. It’s just a simple interview, isn’t it?”
* * *
After sending Oz away, Tia was still dealing with the aftermath of the exam.
[Dragon Language]
A dragon’s will becomes magic.
Restoring the devastated testing grounds to its original state was no problem for her.
『Begone.』
Yes, that should have been it.
“Huh…?”
But her will couldn’t interfere. The testing grounds were still burning with embers.
It was absurd.
She was a being capable of extinguishing a city-wide fire in an instant.
For her to be unable to extinguish mere embers of magic was impossible.
“That crazy bastard, could it be…?”
Tia, who had been staring blankly at the embers for a while, finally realized the implication and shuddered.
It was the first time.
300 years had passed since she founded
She had seen countless talented humans, but she had never seen anyone this special.
Humans were amazing beings.
They were inherently weak.
There were many races, but humans could be considered the weakest among them.
But they also held the greatest potential.
Despite living less than 100 years, they were beings who broke through countless limitations and grew within their short lifespans.
Tia loved human lives. Not humans themselves, but their lives.
She loved the flames they ignited, not the individuals themselves.
Weren’t they like burning flames?
She liked fire.
It was partly because she was a fire dragon, but also because she liked the violent nature of fire, which provided warmth.
That’s why she loved the fiery lives of humans.
But fire didn’t burn without a price. No matter how much humans burned their potential, they couldn’t reach her realm.
They would burn out before that.
Hundreds of years. Yes, hundreds of years.
The entire human race had been burning their potential for hundreds of years, taking one step at a time, but they were still far from reaching her realm.
Even if she shared her knowledge and guided them, humans still couldn’t overcome that wall.
“Ha… Hahahahahahaha!”
But there was one.
A being who had overcome the wall.
It wasn’t an old sage who had burned through everything in life.
It wasn’t someone who had received direct teachings from her.
It wasn’t even the culmination of a race, built upon the sacrifices of countless people, with all their resources concentrated in one place, passed down through generations.
“That madman!”
It was a human who had achieved everything alone.
The embers remaining everywhere were imbued with the will of a dragon.
It was natural that they couldn’t be extinguished easily.
Willpower was something to be confronted and broken, not something that could be bent with mere words.
Those small embers, seemingly extinguishable with a stomp of a foot, signified that the human Oz had stepped into the realm of dragons.
“…W-Where is that bastard now?”
Tia started to慌乱.
Like a child anticipating a picnic, she fidgeted restlessly.
It was only natural.
There was a fearless human who had brazenly stepped into the realm she thought would take hundreds of years for others to reach.
“Hmm…”
Tia could distinguish the mana of everyone within the academy. Of course, there were a few exceptions.
One was the Saintess of the Church.
[SSR Saintess of Hope]
Arietta Domine.
She was practically the embodiment of pure, 100% divine power, with no mana.
It wasn’t easy for Tia, who was practically a layman when it came to divine power, to detect her.
And the other one was Oz Quabadis.
He was simply exceptionally skilled at concealing his mana. Even she, a dragon, had difficulty grasping it.
At first, Tia thought it was some kind of ability, but the moment she saw Oz, she understood.
He simply wasn’t leaking a single drop of mana.
That didn’t mean she couldn’t find them. Mana permeated every place in the world.
So, if she traced the voids in space, she could find them.
“Hmm…”
Tia began to trace the voids.
“Hmm… Hmmm! That’s right! Right, right, right, right! I sent him for the interview, didn’t I?”
Tia, finally locating Oz, smacked her forehead in self-reproach. There was no need to waste time searching.
Unable to contain her excitement, Tia flew towards the interview room.
‘What should I say?’
As the door to the interview room came into view, Tia pondered with a wicked smile.
‘Congratulate him? Scold him for being arrogant?’
Either was fine.
Feeling her heart pounding with anticipation and excitement, Tia flung open the door to the interview room.
“Hey! Oz, are you…?”
“Sob… sniffle… waah…”
And the moment she opened the door, her burning heart froze.
* * *
-Don’t worry, Headmaster. It’s just a simple interview, isn’t it?
There was a time when I thought that way too.
“Sob! Sniffle… waah…”
“…”
The woman clinging to the Headmaster and crying was the interviewer in charge of aspiring mages and a professor who taught basic and intermediate magic.
I remembered her because she was an NPC who frequently appeared in the game.
Her name was probably ‘Aira Merlin.’ A character with sky-blue hair and eyes, and a mystical aura.
“Oz, you…”
Headmaster Tia, who had suddenly barged into the interview room, fixed a cold glare on me.
It hurt to be so blatantly treated as the culprit. Why did they assume it was me without a second thought?
There were five other students being interviewed here besides me. It was too much.
But I was, in fact, the culprit.
“Headmaster, this was all a misunderstanding.”
“Why don’t you turn off the lights in your eyes first and then explain?”
[Contemplation – Deactivated]
As the Headmaster instructed, I deactivated [Contemplation].
Yes, all misunderstandings stemmed from this [Contemplation].
I had done nothing wrong.
“…Those actually turn off?”
“Yes, well, they deactivate.”
To be precise, they didn’t turn off, but deactivated.
And while my demeanor changed slightly when it was activated, it didn’t actually emit light.
Perhaps the biggest weakness of [Contemplation] was that Oz’s arrogance was revealed unfiltered through his gaze.
“Headmaster, I might also be a victim in this.”
“Haha! Go ahead and tell your story.”
“I intended to approach the interview with a serious attitude.”
“Why…?”
Tia’s eyes went blank, like a fish out of water.
She rubbed her eyes as if she had witnessed something incomprehensible, trying to regain her composure.
“Why in the world would you…?”
Now that she asked why, I didn’t know how to answer.
Come to think of it, why did I try to be serious? I was guaranteed to pass thanks to her pulling strings.
Never mind. Proving my innocence was more important right now.
“Ahem! Anyway, I displayed an attitude befitting an interview.”
“You can say that after seeing this?”
“Just listen for a moment. So…”
I began to defend myself.
* * *
Yes, it happened when the interview began.
Fortunately, the interview wasn’t much different from modern-day interviews.
“I see, you’re interested in fire-attribute magic? Then I’ll ask, why fire attribute?”
“Yes! The person I respect the most…”
There were five interviewers, but only Professor Aira asked questions about magic.
“Looking at your transcript, you scored quite low in Phenomenal Magic. Is there a reason for that?”
“Yes? Th-That’s simply because I’m not good at Phenomenal Magic…”
“You are aware that the line between Phenomenal Magic and Elemental Magic blurs as you delve into higher-level magic, right?”
“Yes? Ah, yes…”
“Yes, I understand. Then…”
It was a typical stress interview. Just listening to it gave me goosebumps.
I prepared myself mentally and waited for the questions.
“Well, I think this is enough. Then, going back, examinee number 127? In Application of Modern Magic…”
But I wasn’t asked any questions. I was being completely ignored, to the point of feeling alienated.
Well, I could understand.
I was the [Successor of the Demon King], wasn’t I? This wasn’t just a title, but my rank.
It was as if I held a position far superior to Professor Aira, so how could she ask me stressful questions?
It was probably like a company commander giving training while a division commander suddenly barged in.
I thought the interview was about to end like that.
“Then, lastly, do you have any questions? Although this is an interview, if you pass, we’ll become teacher and student. It wouldn’t be good to leave only a stiff impression, right?”
──Until Professor Aira made that suggestion.
[Contemplation] had the ability to see through principles.
That wouldn’t exclude magic cast by others.
My guess was that I might be able to analyze someone’s magic formula just by looking at it.
I was able to analyze the [Mana Bullet] from the test paper just by looking at it once, wasn’t I?
But I couldn’t analyze the magic used by the mages who chased me.
Why?
Even though they were considered small fry, they were skilled enough to handle at least intermediate-level magic.
Considering the situation, and jumping straight to analyzing intermediate magic, something felt lacking.
What was I missing?
Yes, it was only then that I realized.
I had never had the opportunity to observe basic, beginner-level magic, the foundation of all magic.
“May I ask a question?”
“Oz? Ah, no, student Oz? A-A question? For me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Excuse me?”
“N-Nothing. Ahem! So, what’s your question?”
Come to think of it, Professor Aira was a professor who taught basic and intermediate magic.
Yes, I was a man who knew how to seize an opportunity.
“Professor Aira, could you show me the basic magic spells that will be covered in class in advance?”
“Yes…? B-Basic magic? Why suddenly…? W-Wouldn’t it be a problem to use magic here?”
“Ah, my question was a bit off. Just showing me the formulas would be enough.”
“D-Do I really have to?”
“Is it not possible?”
“N-No! I’ll do it. I can do it?!”
[Contemplation – Activated]
I activated [Contemplation], leaned forward, and rested my chin on my hand.
With this, I was ready to dissect each and every magic spell that would be deployed from Professor Aira’s hand.
“Th-Then I’ll begin!”
“Yes, please show me.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the formulas of various basic magic spells began to appear and disappear from her hand. I felt like I was getting somewhere.
“Could you show me again, a bit slower?”
“Yes? Yes…”
Professor Aira, with a tearful face for some reason, slowly deployed the formulas of basic magic at my request.
I felt like I could understand if I just saw it one more time.
“Again.”
“O-Okay…”
Something was lacking. Something…
Could there be meaning in every single line of the formula?
“One more time, please.”
“Ugh… A-Alright.”
Finally, I succeeded.
It took some time, but as expected, [Contemplation] could analyze magic formulas just by looking at them.
Another secret of [Contemplation] was revealed.
“Hmm…”
“Um… are you alright?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Phew…”
It was a good result.
Although it was only basic magic for now, I learned that I could analyze magic just by looking at it.
Later, if I could perfectly integrate Oz’s knowledge, I might be able to use even the highest-level magic at will, not through skills.
“Then, could you show me intermediate magic next?”
“Yes…?”
“Just like you did just now.”
As I focused intently, widening my eyes to carefully observe the intermediate magic that followed, Professor Aira began to sob quietly.
* * *
After hearing the whole story from Oz, Tia quietly nodded.
She understood perfectly what had happened.
She sent him for an interview, and he was busy conducting his own.
Tia’s conclusion was simple.
“Are you insane?”
Oz was a madman.
—–CROW—–