Book 1 Chapter 276
276
“I can't feel my arms and legs……”
Kael, collapsed on the floor, mumbled in a dying voice.
Kael wasn't the only one making such groans.
Most of the students who became targets in the Demian students' scramble were half-exhausted and collapsed.
“You're all pathetic!”
Chelsea, with her hands on her hips, lifted her chin and said.
“If you look this weak, the kids from other hero academies will look down on you!”
Growling, Chelsea grabbed the collapsed Kael and shook him wildly.
“Wake up! Kael!”
“Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Don't grab my arm and shake me!”
Kael screamed.
Leo saw this and asked.
“What happened? You seem more upset than usual?”
“Leo, you don't know this, but she's always this feisty.”
At Kael's words, Chelsea glared at him.
“She's just pretending in front of you…… *Cough*? H-Hand over! *Cough*! Hand over!”
Kael, who had been teasing, struggled and shouted as Chelsea throttled him.
Kael, barely freed, asked.
“By the way, why are you in a bad mood?”
“Those Azonia brats ignored me for being small.”
The reason for Chelsea's low spirits was none other than the Azonia students.
The Azonia students, who discovered Chelsea whom the dwarves were avoiding because she was troublesome, said:
“It seems even such a small fellow attends school in Lumerun. Who is it?”
“Looks like Chelsea Llewellyn?”
“Chelsea Llewellyn? Isn't she a fairly famous student? But it looks like she'd fly away if you poked her?”
“Hey! Who are you calling small, and who are you saying looks weak? Fight me!”
At her words, the Azonia students looked at each other and burst into laughter.
“Sorry, but it seems like it would be a big problem to fight a child like you.”
“If you're upset, I apologize. This is a token of apology.”
They said that, gave her candy, and left.
She said she was so choked up by their words that she tried to retaliate, but failed because the Demian students swarmed in.
“Treat me like a child? Hahaha, just you wait. You damn beasts.”
Chelsea clenched her fist, veins bulging on her forehead.
Seeing her menacing look, Kael whispered to Leo.
“Hey, calm her down a bit. If she's like this, I'll be miserable.”
At his words, Leo took something out of his pocket and gave it to Chelsea.
“I'll give you candy, so cheer up.”
What Leo handed over was none other than the candy Kael had made using a fatigue recovery potion.
Looking at Leo, Kael screamed inwardly.
‘What do you mean, you're treating her like a child too!’
“Thank you, Leo oppa!”
But Chelsea smiled brightly, put the candy Leo gave her into her mouth, and rolled it around.
Seeing this, Kael mumbled.
“She really is a child.”
“You and I are only one year apart, you know?”
Chelsea glared.
“Kael, there's something I want to ask.”
“What is it?”
“Why is that girl Driana so disliked by her Demian classmates?”
“Driana? You mean that cute-looking dwarf from earlier, right?”
Chelsea also made a curious expression.
At their reactions, Kael said.
“Oh, that? I was curious too, so even while being harassed by the Demian kids, I took some time to investigate.”
Kael, adept at gathering information, crossed his arms.
“Driana. She's the granddaughter of Demian's headmaster, Gerwin. And she entered Demian through a special recruitment, without even taking the entrance exam.”
“Then it's understandable why the Demian kids dislike her.”
Chelsea nodded as if she understood.
“No, that's not why they dislike her. Rather, not a single student protested about that.”
“Why?”
“Driana was a born genius smith. They say she already made an enchanted magic sword when she was five years old?”
“An enchanted magic sword at five years old?”
Chelsea's eyes widened.
There were broadly two ways to create a magic sword.
First, by using materials imbued with mana.
Second, by enchanting with mana.
“That's amazing, isn't it?”
Chelsea clicked her tongue.
Creating an enchanted magic sword was much harder than creating a magic sword with mana-imbued materials.
Enchantment magic itself wasn't a very difficult magic.
Chelsea, too, was called a so-called genius from a young age, so she learned enchantment magic at five.
However, general enchantment magic and the enchantment used for magic swords were completely different concepts.
The enchantment used for magic swords literally meant imbuing the object itself with mana.
It was an ability in a realm that would be impossible for a lifetime without talent, not just magical aptitude.
“With that level of ability, special admission would be natural. But why do the Demian students dislike her so much?”
Chelsea tilted her head.
Seeing Chelsea, Kael scratched his head.
“Driana made weapons diligently until the first semester of her first year. In fact, until then, the class representative was Driana. But in the second semester, from a certain day, she lost interest in making weapons.”
“What?”
“Even if she makes them, she's said to be imitating the weapons made by Lord Dweno.”
“Why on earth? Such a waste of talent!”
Chelsea was surprised.
A craftsman who could make an enchanted magic sword at five years old.
She was a person with the talent to create weapons that could write legends in the hands of future heroes.
But to let that ability rot!
“They don't know the reason. But they say she only makes strange objects, claiming to do art?”
“Art?”
“Yeah. She calls herself the greatest artist born of Dwelo. They say she even opened her own exhibition in the city?”
Chelsea made an incredulous expression.
Demian's blacksmith, who should be the proudest of anyone, only imitates instead of creating.
Moreover, the subject of imitation is the revered God of Blacksmiths, Dweno.
For the Demian students, they couldn't help but dislike such a Driana.
“It seems Demian students think Driana is defiling Dweno's name.”
At that, Leo raised his sword.
It was the Wolf Fang he had brought earlier.
‘But her skill is undeniable. She's followed Dweno's skill, even if imperfectly.’
She hadn't even learned from Dweno.
Yet, she had recreated a sword made by Dweno to this extent.
‘It wouldn't be possible without skill.’
Leo narrowed his eyes.
‘Then why did she stop making weapons?’
***
That evening.
Returning to the dormitory assigned in Seirun, Lunia came back to her room after dinner.
Normally, Lunia, who was considered a candidate for the next student council president, would have been surrounded by many people.
Lunia was Seirun's pride, and Seirun's pride soon symbolized the elves of their race.
Lower and middle-class elves somehow lingered around Lunia to make a good impression on her, who would grow into a hero representing the elves in the future.
But after the incident during the day, they were busy whispering while looking at Lunia.
“I never thought Lunia would be such a violent elf.”
“She's scary.”
Lunia scoffed, looking at her whispering classmates.
Lunia had fully expected such a reaction from her classmates.
‘There's no reason to suddenly care about such kids.’
The moment she decided not to pretend anymore, Lunia no longer cared about her surroundings at all.
“Oh, welcome back, Lunia.”
Inside the room, Eiran, who shared the room, hastily hid the book she was reading behind a pillow and greeted her.
Her hair was wet, as if she had just finished showering.
‘She was reading a novel written by a human author again. Is it interesting? She never shows it to me.’
If asked about the content, she would even hide the title like that.
Eiran watched Lunia close the door and sit on a chair, making a worried expression.
“Lunia, are you alright? Are other elves not looking at you unfavorably?”
“I expected this anyway. Rather, I feel relieved, actually? I don't have to pretend anymore, do I?”
Lunia smiled sweetly.
“Or do you also prefer the me from when I used to pretend?”
“No! I think your current self is much cooler, Lunia. Luka will definitely think so too.”
Eiran said, clenching her fist tightly.
“Thank you.”
Lunia, who smiled brightly at Eiran, said.
“Oh, more importantly, Eiran.”
“Yes.”
“Leo asked to see you.”
“Lord Leo?”
Eiran's ears perked up, and she made a bright expression.
“When! When did Lord Leo ask to see me?”
“He said to meet him in that main hall after midnight?”
“M-Midnight? Isn't that curfew?”
“That's right. He told me to sneak out.”
“A-At midnight, for what……?”
“He said he'd tutor you.”
“Tu-Tu-Tu-Tutoring?”
“Why are you so surprised? Of course, he's in the same grade and younger than us. But there's a lot to learn from Leo.”
“Y-Yes, that's right! There's a lot to learn from Lord Leo…… *Hoo!*”
Eiran covered her face, her face bright red.
‘She must have had some strange fantasies again. Eiran really has a rich imagination.’
Lunia shook her head, thinking Eiran was embarrassed after imagining something strange and then hearing it was for tutoring.
“Okay. So be prepared.”
Lunia left the room to shower, leaving the shy Eiran behind.
Meanwhile, Eiran, left alone, was red even to her ears.
‘L-Lord Leo and…… just the two of us…… late at night, tutoring……!’
As Lunia expected, Eiran's fantasies were running wild.
The problem was that this runaway fantasy was ongoing.
Eiran pulled out the novel she had hidden behind her pillow.
[The Male Tutor's Secret Tutoring.]
‘I-It was true. T-These humans…… tutoring in the middle of the night……’
The former recluse gulped dry saliva, smoothly misunderstanding the situation.
***
Mount Erdien.
The eastern edge of the continent.
A cursed land where monsters are born.
However, for the dwarves, this land was also another blessed land.
Countless magic stones and rare ores are buried here.
A very important place for dwarves who craft weapons.
Therefore, beyond the forest adjacent to Mount Erdien, there was the dwarven metropolis, Tarkam.
And Tarkam's city walls were high.
This was because, once every few decades, monsters would invade on a large scale, crossing Mount Erdien and the forest.
That day too, the guards on Tarkam's city walls were looking towards Mount Erdien.
Rumble-!
Then the ground shook.
“Is it an earthquake?”
“Earthquakes have been frequent lately, haven't they?”
Earthquakes were frequent around Mount Erdien.
Therefore, Tarkam was accustomed to earthquakes.
While they were talking to each other as if accustomed to it, the dwarf on watch at the very top of the city wall, in the watchtower, felt something strange.
Boom! Rumble!
It felt like the earth itself was shaking.
It was somehow different from an earthquake.
‘What is it?’
Then, a deep darkness fell upon a corner of Mount Erdien.
For a moment, it was as if the moonlight had vanished.
She rubbed her eyes for an instant.
In that fleeting moment, the moonlight was shining down again as if nothing had happened.
‘Did I…… see wrong?’
Feeling a strange sensation, the dwarf picked up her telescope.
And she carefully looked towards Mount Erdien.
Suddenly.
Flash-!
Her eyes met with jet-black eyes that glowed even in the darkness.
“E-Emergency! Emergency! A m-monster has appeared!”
Ding, ding, ding-
The dwarf, who saw the gigantic giant, panicked for a moment and rang the bell frantically.
All of Tarkam fell into utter chaos.
But the giant of darkness, which had flaunted its terrifying presence, vanished at some point.