I’m Just an Ordinary Clown at the Academy

98 – Sephia Reviaden 8

After calming her heated face using the power of the spirit, Sephia walked towards Loki.

Loki had securely bound the unconscious Dara with a rope.

There were so many things he wanted to say, so many things he had to say, but he started with the question that intrigued him the most.

“How on earth can I become as strong and fast as you?”

Special class students realized their shortcomings while fighting with Professor Elysia at the Academy and quickly grew stronger by fixing them.

Sephia, too, grew rapidly after entering the special class, considering it a stroke of luck.

However, among the special class students who grew stronger quickly, there was one who did so abnormally fast, and that was Loki.

Even Professor Elysia was astonished by Loki’s growth rate.

“…Huh?”

Loki’s mouth let out an unexpected sound, as if he hadn’t anticipated such a question.

“Hmm. In your opinion, Sephia, what do you think is the reason I became strong so quickly?”

Instead of answering, Loki asked in return, making Sephia think seriously.

There were various ways to become stronger.

Medicine, magic equipment, artifacts.

But if it was about becoming strong quickly and steadily like that, there was only one answer.

“…Talent and effort?”

Sephia hesitated and spoke in an uncertain voice.

She even questioned herself after saying it. Was this really correct?

But there was no other word that came to mind.

“…………….”

After hearing her own words, Loki, who had remained silent for five seconds as if frozen, continued.

“hahahaha!!!!”

Slapping his thigh, he burst into laughter.

It wasn’t a mocking or fake laughter he had shown while dealing with Dallun’s subordinates, but a genuine laughter.

“Ahahahahahahehehehe!!”

He even held his belly now as he laughed, which was quite amusing from Sepia’s perspective, considering the seriousness with which he had pondered before speaking.

“You asked me! Don’t laugh!”

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

“Huff! Talent and effort, huh! It’s so unexpected! I can’t stop laughing. Hmph!”

“You jerk, I gave you a serious answer.”

“Ahahahaha, sorry. I couldn’t have imagined hearing such words from you, Sepia.”

“So noisy! That’s right! No, don’t laugh, just answer!”

“My talent is so miserable compared to Sepia’s. If I call my talent 100, then Sepia’s talent would be around 700?”

“Liar.”

Sepia said with a clearly annoyed voice.

Loki only spoke the truth without a trace of lies, but Sepia believed that Loki was lying.

To become stronger at such a fast pace and yet have no talent.

It was clearly a lie, no matter how you looked at it.

“It’s not a lie, it’s the truth. The reason I was able to become strong so quickly is not because of talent, but because of a special method.”

Loki fiddled with the mask he was wearing.

The effect of the elixir must have played a significant role in his rapid increase in strength, but the biggest factor was this mask.

‘The Mask of the Jester.’

In simple terms, it’s a deceptive item that allows you to enjoy several times the experience points alone while wearing it.

While other items, magical tools, and potions may be coveted by different kingdoms as mythical-level artifacts that can enhance various things.

The Mask of the Jester was different.

If information about this mask were to be revealed, there might be a possibility of war.

A talent predetermined since birth.

The only item that allows one to grasp that talent.

What an ordinary person accomplishes in a year, a genius can achieve within six months with this mask.

However, the true value of this mask is revealed when it is used by a genius, not a dullard.

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

Moreover, unlike potions, it never disappears no matter how much you use it, so once the ability of this mask is known, anyone would try to get their hands on it.

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

The promise was broken, and that’s just today. Sepia is not someone who would casually reveal it to anyone.

“I’ll tell you one secret that I haven’t told anyone, especially not to Miss Sepia.”

And honestly, my heart is pounding.

I become this strong this quickly when I use it.

If Sepia uses this, how quickly will she become stronger?

Especially for me, she cautiously opened her mouth, muttering, “If it’s a secret that hasn’t been told to anyone… my face?”

“If it’s a secret to talk about in this situation, it’s not usually a way for me to become stronger quickly, right?”

“……………”

Sephia, seemingly embarrassed, lowered her head with a reddened face.

“Moreover, someone has already seen my face.”

Her face has been exposed to Johanna almost every day.

Even this morning, she took off her mask at the training ground and rested on Johanna’s lap.

“……………..”

Although Sephia was wearing a mask, she could sense that Loki was thinking about someone.

And it seemed she knew who he was thinking about.

“Could it be Lady Freyja, the one who has already seen my face?”

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

“No! Not at all! Just quickly tell me how to get stronger or speak faster.”

For some reason, Loki sensed that Sephia was upset and gestured with his fingers, pointing around.

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

Upon hearing Loki’s words, Sephia looked around.

During the conversation with Loki, she hadn’t noticed, but many students were murmuring and staring.

“Simpleton.”

“Yes, Lady Sephia.”

“The secret you said you would tell me… Does Lady Freyja know about it too?”

Even she couldn’t understand why she asked such a question.

It wasn’t the right question for the current situation.

However, I couldn’t endure it any longer.

“Yes, even Johanna senior doesn’t know. I never intended to tell anyone in the first place, but I only tell Sepia.”

“Hmm, I see.”

When Sepia’s mouth corners unknowingly lifted.

“Hurry up and untie this!”

Dallun, who had been unconscious, woke up and shouted.

Sepia’s lifted mouth corners quickly went down.

“You don’t have to say it so loudly; I can hear everything.”

Loki said, covering his ears with both hands.

It was obvious to anyone that he was teasing Dallun.

“Aren’t you afraid of the Reviden family?”

“Not really.”

-Thump.

“Why? Because Sepia promised to protect me.”

Loki casually raised his hand to Sepia’s head and said.

“….. When did I promise that?”

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

“What? So you won’t protect me? Am I being abandoned by Sepia like this?”

“Well, it’s not like that……”

“hehehe! So that’s how it is.”

Sepia, who was having a conversation with Loki, heard Daerun’s laughter.

“Why did you go so far for that woman? Were you two in that kind of relationship?”

Daerun, still tied up, smirked and said to Loki.

“Hey, clown, you know that woman survived alone in the place she used to live, right? hehehe!”

“………………”

“Don’t you find it strange? Everyone who lived there died, but she survived alone. How do you think she managed to survive?”

Sepia knew what Daerun was going to say.

Mockery using the tragedy that happened in the village.

“It’s obvious that she spread her legs for the ones who attacked her!”

Daerun often heard that from Sepia before coming to the Academy.

So he thought he had gotten used to it.

But.

Even so.

For some reason, his heart felt suffocated.

His hands trembled.

“Why, ah…”

He looked at Loki beside him and realized the reason.

He had heard many stories like that from Daerun, but he had never heard them in front of others.

Especially not in front of someone he liked.

“If it wasn’t spreading her legs, how do you think she survived there? She’s a spirit mage, for god’s sake! Don’t you think you’re more suited to being a prostitute than a spirit mage?”

The anger towards exploiting the tragedy that occurred in the village was greater than the mockery faced in front of Loki.

The sense of shame felt when ridiculed in front of Loki was more significant.

At least in front of Loki, such nonsense was not something one wanted to hear.

Normally, profanity would have been unleashed here, but for some reason, the words didn’t come out.

Getting worked up here would have meant acknowledging those words.

I knew Loki wouldn’t believe those words.

I knew it in my head…

But the words wouldn’t come out.

When I couldn’t do anything.

“Have you finished talking nonsense?”

A voice, devoid of any emotion, low and resonant, reached us.

If the voice hadn’t come from where Loki was, I wouldn’t have believed it came from Loki’s mouth.

Duran felt a shiver run down his entire body in that moment.

But unwilling to admit being intimidated by Loki, Duran tried to nonchalantly open his mouth.

“T-that’s how you speak… cough!!”

Loki, lying down, lifted Duran’s bound face.

“From now on, you just have to listen to me.”

And he continued speaking in the same low voice.

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

Sepia noticed that this mist was the same as the one that appeared when Loki sparred with Rofri last time. It was identical to the mist that formed at the end.

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

Loki said, grinding his teeth, stepping on Joden’s head, who was coughing up blood.

“I’m going to mess you up real bad.”

Duran realized the reason he shivered all over his body earlier.

Living. The sensation of living for the first time, his body trembling involuntarily.

“Even if you beg for mercy, I’ll mess you up. If you faint, I’ll wake you up and mess you up, and if you try to commit suicide, I’ll heal you somehow and mess you up.”

Due to the thick, creepy aura emanating with each word, Duran forgot to breathe and trembled uncontrollably.

Duran genuinely thought he might die here.

The growing fog completely swallowed Loki, Sepia, and Duran.

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

And Loki, lowering his head to Duran, who was trembling, making sure Sepia couldn’t hear, whispered in his ear.

“And, in the end, I’ll show you a nightmare.”

He had no intention of using the same nightmare he used on Mordor for this guy.

This guy shouldn’t become a beggar yet.

He needed to feel the sensation of losing everything and falling while still sober.

“Especially, I’ll let you know the nightmare you’ll experience later.”

This guy had crossed a line that shouldn’t be crossed.

So maybe it’s okay for me to cross the line a little too.

“Later, you’ll be raped by countless men.”