Chapter 26

"As expected of Head Professor Deculein!"

A high-ranking police officer wearing a polished uniform approached me with a salute.

"Oh, I'm Superintendent Roppa! Waah~ The way you lowered your leg makes it look like you were in a photoshoot! This fucking killer! Should I hit him more?!"

"No, leave him alone."

"Oh, sure!"

His ability was lifted the moment he fainted. I scooped up some dirt on the road using psychokinesis and, mixing in two elements, lit a fire on top of it. The mushy soil quickly stretched thin, duplicating the properties of a metal. It was the effect of the [Foundation of Ductility] that I memorized a few days ago. Through it, I bound Rock Hark's wrists and ankles.

The polices' jaws dropped.

"Ohhhh…I've seen a lot of magic, but this is the first time I've seen such an elegant manifestation of it. It was as if it was dancing."

"Bring him to the station."

"Ah, yes! Thank you for your hard work!"

The Superintendent pulled out a band from his waist, which suppressed the wearer's magic.

"That's useless against him; he nullifies magic. Just leave him cuffed with the steel wire."

"Oh?! Is that so? I didn't know about that! No wonder he often escapes prison and has eluded magic radars!"

His questions didn't end there.

"But, how did you see through him so easily? No, more importantly, how did you even defeat someone who nullifies magic?"

"I'm leaving."

"Oh, sure! Hey! What are you lot doing standing there absent-mindedly?! Salute to the Head Professor!"

The dozens of police officers gathered in the middle of the cemetery and sharply saluted. A message from the system came up at that moment.

[Actual Verification: Linked Characteristics]

[Due to Mana Quality Reinforcement (Stage 1), your Characteristics have been partially raised.]

I was aware of that system feature. Essentially, it meant that the limit of one's Characteristics was overcome, and, more fundamentally, it meant its ceiling had been raised. It was like an engine only generating fifty horsepower due to the poor quality of its oil despite being capable of generating up to a hundred horsepower. However, now that it had been equipped with a better oil, it had pushed its limits to sixty horsepower.

Still, the engine had been stuck at fifty for so long that he had grown used to it, raising the need for an awakening process. That was what the actual verification just now was for. As expected, one real combat situation was better than a hundred training sessions.

"Professor."

A familiar voice called me, which I easily identified: Julie. She had a few strands of hair in her mouth, which made me think she was in a rush to come here.

"…Thank you for your hard work. I hope you have a nice rest."

I simply nodded and walked past her, looking at the sky and watching the crescent moon through the overgrown greenery as I walked away.

Rustle— Rustle—

From the overgrown woodland to the dark and scary path leading to the cemetery, this road where the leaves were pitifully trampled on looked like the path I walked with her…

…The day I lost my little sister.

She walked with me and cried with me as she was buried. Her beautiful face came to mind whenever I closed my eyes. I would only remember this today and forget about everything tomorrow, but…even so, I didn't want to kill anyone in this place where I kept finding traces of her.

*****

Late at night, at Sylvia's mansion in the system's golden dust land of Haylech.

Glitheon arrived as soon as he received the report. Sylvia remained calm as if nothing had happened, but her father wanted to set Rock Hark on fire and kill him.

"Deculein saved you then, child?"

In a subtle tone, he questioned her. She replied with a frown.

"You're baiting me, aren't you?"

"Hmm? No, no, child. Never. It's just your father's way of talking. Hahaha. Baiting?! Not."

"That's enough."

Sylvia pouted to show how upset she was at the end of the dining table, where a sumptuous feast was set.

"That's not what I meant—"

After making Glitheon feel restless with her nitpicking, Sylvia cut him off.

"I'm also going to the Bercht conference, father."

"…"

The Bercht conference. As head of the Iliade, Glitheon was summoned to the conference, which the families considered an honor to participate in, and was accompanied by one escort and one chauffeur.

"…Ahem."

He avoided his daughter's gaze. Bercht was too dangerous of a mountain range to bring her. He tried to avoid the topic as much as possible until then, but…

"I'm going."

"Haaaa…"

Glitheon sighed. On the brighter side of things, he thought it would be a great experience for her and that there would be no particular danger. In the first place, there was an unwritten rule that each of the Twelve Families had to be accompanied by their successor or their best student. Their relationships as Households also weren't nearly as bad as they were fifteen years ago.

If he didn't take Sylvia by claiming it was too dangerous, he might be teased not as a doting father but as an idiot of a ruler.

"…Okay, okay. Fine. If my child is coming with me, who should—"

"Oh, my lady, my lord! I shall be your escort!"

A man sitting and eating at the same table stood up boisterously. It was Syrio, the vice-captain of the Knights of Iliade. Sylvia's eyebrows twitched.

"No thanks. You're too noisy."

"Hey! Come on. I'm better than that guy Jayron!"

"Haha. That's right, Jayron takes everything too seriously. I'm also against taking him with us." Glitheon chuckled. "He'll stay at Bercht's third building anyway and can't come to the fourth building where we'll be staying at."

"That's unfortunate, but my lady, that means we won't be staying in the same place. It's the principle of behavior. If I'm too close to someone with similar blood, just like Lord Glitheon, our blood will clot together~."

"I know. Be quiet." Sylvia responded, clearly annoyed by Syrio's frivolous tone.

"We'll be leaving a bit earlier, though, child. Our trip will begin on Thursday, which is two days from now. Will that be okay?"

"That's four days earlier than initially planned."

Sylvia's eyes narrowed at her father.

"I received classified information."

"Classified information?"

"Yes, very expensive information at that."

Among the Twelve Families, only Glitheon probably held such knowledge right now. Deculein would've been the first one to know, but for some reason, his connection with the underworld had been cut off. He was still suspicious of its cause since the Yukline Head's obsession with safety was close to paranoia. Was he simply confident in his abilities, or did he trust the Assistant Professor that he chose that much?

"Can we go after 6 P.M.?"

"Hmm. It doesn't matter, but why?"

"Wednesday is a five-credit class, so I have to review it the next day."

Glitheon nodded.

"Are you talking about Deculein's lecture? I see. But how is his class, child? Is he good at teaching?"

"Yes, it's good."

"…Good?"

"Yes. I might even find it hard to register for his classes next semester."

The popularity of Deculein's lectures was explosive. Of course, his personality wasn't that admirable, and his assignments were extremely hard, but it was the duty of a wizard to learn. He was a professor who faithfully filled his students to the brim with knowledge, thus allowing them to fulfill their duty. Hence, starting next semester, she predicted people would stampede in an attempt to get into his classes.

"I see…haaa. That's right."

Glitheon snorted, almost as if he was sulking. A normal conversation and dinner soon followed.

"…"

As Sylvia ate, she remembered today's events; specifically, Deculein, whom she just found out had also lost someone. He, too, had a painful past. He was merely pretending to be calm and collected, but she thought he was a UP, the buzzword at the tower these days. That was the abbreviation for Unlucky Professor.

She saw him in a bit of a different light now. The image of his tears flowing down his cheeks popped up frequently in her mind.

*****

Understanding Elemental Properties Class — Week 4.

As soon as I arrived at the tower, I thought I was in the wrong place.

"Are those journalists?"

"Yes. That seems to be the case."

Crowds of reporters gathered at the entrance. I peeked through the window, and in the middle of it, saw the chairman. With her intense gestures, I first thought that she was driving them away. But I was proven wrong as soon as I opened the window a little bit.

"Head Professor Deculein was initially with a freshman wizard! Really! Our precious Head Professor! He's been in pursuit of the Wizard Killer since way before!"

He was enthusiastically conducting a press conference by himself.

"His effort is presumed to have paid off! Oh, yes! There's no question about Head Professor Deculein's combat abilities, even though they're not as great as mine! Are there any more questions?! Ah, the way he subdued the wizard killer?! I don't know about that either!"

I ordered the driver to turn around the back gate.

"Good work."

"Yes, thank you!"

As soon as I climbed out of the car, I went to the tower and stopped in front of Class A on the third floor. I straightened my jacket and opened the door. The debutantes, chatting excitedly, suddenly stopped as soon as I entered. I moved behind my desk.

"Nice to see you."

The classroom was as normal as usual; it was as if last night was just a dream. The world went on as if my memory of the past was nothing but ancient and impossibly distant.

"Before we start the fourth week of our class, I will announce the first and last place from last week's quiz. Sylvia is first with 100 points, and Epherene is in last with 0 points."

"Aaagh!"

A strange groan broke out from somewhere within the class, but I paid no attention to it and continued talking instead.

"The element for today's class is earth. Everything related to land, including sand and ore, belongs to this element. When mixed with fire, it turns into metal. When mixed with water, it creates mud, upon which…"

As soon as the class began, they began to look disappointed. Were they expecting me to tell them the tale of how I apprehended the Wizard Killer?

It's…not going to happen.

"…Okay. Before we start with the basics, let's do a warm-up."

Whoop—

I flicked my finger, and Allen came in carrying a bag. Using psychokinesis, I made the items inside it float. The wizards' eyes widened as a total of a hundred and fifty blue stones simultaneously rose out.

"These mana stones are each worth 3,000 Elnes."

I held onto them using [Basic – Beginner Psychokinesis].

"I'll leave them in that state. Interfere with my psychokinesis and try to take it. If you can, then it's yours."

Mana stones were a very important material for wizards with uses for magic research, production, or catalysts. Of course, it could also be used to enhance magic when held in one's hand and used as a temporary amplifier. Simply put, it was a wizard-exclusive jack of all trades item.

Epherene's eyes shone as she looked at one of the mana stones. Magic interference. The act of interfering with the magic implemented by a wizard while also obstructing the enemy's own attempts at disruption.

"If you can't interfere with your enemy's magic, then always be prepared to protect yourself from the same attacks coming again and again. Those defending against incoming magic interference are in a much more advantageous position, but it should at least be attempted at least once for offense anyway."

I was curious about this. How much could my [Basic – Beginner Psychokinesis] resist these debutantes? Psychokinesis was the foundation of the manipulation series. It was one of the many subjects taught in the tower, but some wizards instinctively learned it without looking at theory books.

Even a debutante should be proficient against Beginner Psychokinesis, so I set up [Basic – Beginner Psychokinesis] with a little bit more power. I specialized in [Control] and [Earth], but these debutantes were the best talents on the continent, so I might be humiliated if I was careless.

"…You may start."

I stood still and waited. At first, I expected I'd only last three minutes. I was controlling over a hundred items simultaneously, while the wizards only had to take one.

"…"

But three minutes had passed. Five minutes. Ten minutes. No matter how long I waited, my psychokinesis didn't falter.

"…"

I watched the clock. My mana was being used up little by little, but still, I was relaxed.

"Hmm…"

Were they not going to even try? Growing suspicious, I turned on [Vision].

Ziiiiing— Ziiiiiiiiiiiing—

The immense magic that my students poured out filled my view, allowing me to witness their mana attempting to disrupt my magic. The huge flow of mana was making me dizzy, so I immediately turned off Vision.

"Try harder."

Just like that, another five minutes passed. The wizards began to cry out and groan, unable to concentrate. Not long after, they started drooling as blood flowed from their noses, their eyes turning crimson. My [Psychokinesis] deflected all of their interferences.

Gggrrrr…

However, a mana stone in the third row on the right began to shake at that moment. It was clearly moving. Soon enough, I saw mana connect to it. Not surprisingly, it was Sylvia who accomplished it. Now done with her task, her head hung down as she panted.

"Good job, Sylvia. You're in the first place."

Sylvia nodded without answering. About three minutes later, the second mana stone trembled.

"Next, Epherene."

At that moment, while this week and last week's first-place remained the same, the second place was usurped by last week's last place. The other wizards looked at Epherene with no small amount of surprise.

"Hooo!"

Epherene breathed out loudly, her face now dyed red, and looked at Sylvia. She then smiled confidently with both her nostrils bleeding, though Sylvia made an effort to ignore it.

"It seems that there's no one else."

I was flustered. I didn't think they'd find it this difficult. No, it was more than just difficult for them, it seemed. They made an effort to the point that their noses bled, and one by one, the students hit their heads on their desks as they groaned. Based on their complexion and expressions, I concluded they had tried so hard that they were reaching the level of utter exhaustion.

"Stop."

I was wrong. They were wizards, but they were also debutantes. They might know more magic than me, but they couldn't win.

"Stop. Everybody stop."

I set the difficulty wrong. Admitting my mistake, I immediately returned the mana stones to the bag and canceled my Psychokinesis as the drained wizards groaned like zombies.

"…"

I was going to say something to them, but the classroom scene was worth watching quietly. Saliva and blood flowed freely, and a weird, thick smell reeked stealthily across the place. Feeling dizzy, I lost my rationality for a moment.

"Pathetic…"

Harsh comments slipped from my lips unknowingly, causing the already heavy atmosphere to fall even more. Whatever it was, I didn't want to be here anymore.

"…Time for a break. Clean up what you've slobbered."