Book 1 Chapter 61
【61】60
Kwagagagagak-!
The Wind Chain, which had been flying towards Leo, missed in all directions.
Chelsea's eyes widened.
‘Wh-what is this! What on earth happened!’
The turbulent airflow around Leo caused the Wind Chain's attack trajectory to go awry.
Leo pointed his finger at Chelsea.
“Wind Bolt.”
“Wi-Wind Shi…!”
Pang-!
“Kyaak!”
Chelsea flew backward.
Leo quickly approached Chelsea.
“Wind Sword!”
Chelsea, who hurriedly used a close-range attack spell, swung a sword of wind towards Leo.
Whioooo-!
But the wind that rushed around Leo lifted his body into the air.
Leo, letting his body be carried by the flow of wind, was unaffected by Chelsea's wind magic.
Chelsea's eyes went wide.
‘This is Wind Magic?’
The idea of surrounding one's body with wind to deflect wind magic was something Chelsea could never have conceived.
It was too reckless a method in the first place.
“Wind Sword.”
In the meantime, Leo also completed his spell.
Leo's sword of wind touched Chelsea's neck.
Chelsea clenched her teeth.
Complete defeat.
All the students in the class wore incredulous expressions.
Leo, as a knight, did not use martial arts.
He subdued Chelsea purely with wind magic alone.
“Why do you think the outcome of the match was decided?”
Chelsea couldn't answer Harland's question and hung her head low.
“What do you all think?”
“……”
He asked the other students in the class, but no one could answer.
Everyone found the situation unbelievable.
“If we look at their capabilities as pure mages, Chelsea Ruwelin is by no means inferior to Leo Flov. In a duel using only wind magic, it would be normal for Leo Flov not to even be a match for Chelsea Ruwelin. If it had been a fight for their lives, Leo Flov would have lost.”
Harland crossed his arms.
“But in a contest of skill, Leo Flov won. The decisive factor in the victory and defeat was the difference in understanding and utilization of wind magic.”
Everyone focused on Harland's story.
“As students of Lumern, you always learn how to acquire more powerful techniques if you are a knight, higher-level spells if you are a mage, and summon high-ranking phantom beasts if you are a summoner.”
Harland looked at the students in the class.
“As a result, there's a tendency to focus on acquiring new powers. Even before properly utilizing the powers you've already learned.”
Harland threw a punch into the air.
“If we take a simple punch as an example, there's swinging it with pure force, and swinging it using only the necessary muscles according to the situation. Which one is more fatal to an opponent?”
“Using only the necessary muscles according to the situation is much more fatal.”
Harland nodded at Nella's answer.
“That's right. The same applies to special abilities. You tend to think that acquiring various techniques means technical development, but that's simply increasing your power. That's why the situation just now happened.”
The students, having seen Chelsea, the best in the class, subdued by Leo, could not refute.
“To move on to the next stage, increasing your skill is essential. Just that alone will drastically improve your abilities.”
“Yes! We understand.”
“Good. Then from now on, you will all begin individual training.”
***
“Ugh!”
“P-Please save me…”
“U-Uuugh!”
“Hey! If you're going to throw up, go to the bathroom!”
“We have to keep doing this for the entire school trip period!”
Afternoon passed.
The exhausted students of Class 5 were all sprawled on the dormitory floor.
“Hey, Leo. This training schedule, you made it, right?”
Leo nodded at Karl, who was lying stretched out on the floor.
“Yeah.”
“Aargh! No wonder!”
Karl, who had seen Celia and Chelsea training with Leo every weekend, screamed.
“Everyone, take a break during lunchtime. I will announce your practical mission.”
Harland posted the practical mission on the wall of the first floor.
Although exhausted, everyone struggled to check the bulletin board out of curiosity about the mission details.
“Gather herbs in Fairy Forest? What? You want us to just pick grass all day? Refuse!”
“Goblin subjugation? This sounds good?”
“Training with Elf soldiers. I'll do this one!”
Everyone chose the mission they liked.
“Leo, what are you going to do?”
At Karl's question, Leo picked up a mission in the corner.
“This one for me.”
“Hmm? Gather herbs? Are you really going to do that?”
“Yeah.”
‘It's perfect for investigating the Fairy Forest alone.’
It was a mission that other students had dismissed as boring, but for Leo, who needed to investigate the Fairy Forest, it was perfect.
“Well, if you like it… By the way, Chelsea. How long are you going to be down in the dumps?”
Karl sighed deeply, looking at Chelsea, who was crouched on a chair in the corner.
Chelsea was very devoted to Leo, but even so, losing in a field she was confident in was a shock.
Several students tried to console Chelsea, but she couldn't easily shake off the shock.
“Leo. Can't you talk to her?”
Nella said with a troubled expression, and Leo approached Chelsea.
“Chelsea.”
“Huh?”
“Shall I buy you something delicious tonight?”
‘Hey! Is she a child! That she'd get over it with food!’
‘Ugh! That guy, seriously! What is he good at besides studying and training!’
The boys in the class wore frustrated expressions.
Chelsea, being the youngest in the class, was someone the boys considered like a younger sister and subtly looked after.
“Something delicious?”
But Chelsea's eyes sparkled as if tempted.
“What will you buy me?”
“Anything you want.”
“Wow!”
“……”
“……”
Seeing Chelsea's bright smile, the boys in the class looked dumbfounded.
“Should we have tried to soothe her with food too?”
When Tade said, scratching his head, Karl gave him a look of pity.
“That fox won't be appeased if you try to soothe her with food… Kkyyaaaak?”
“Huh? Karl? What did you say? Do you want to say it again?”
Before anyone knew it, Chelsea was stomping hard on Karl's foot!
“Why do the guys in this class pamper her so much!”
Chelsea smiled faintly, watching Karl roll on the floor, clutching his foot.
“Because she's cute?”
“She's not cute at all!”
***
Leo entered the Fairy Forest.
[This is Fairy Forest… our fairy homeland in the past, isn't it?]
Kirian, floating in the air, muttered in a serious voice, then wrapped himself up.
[It's cold! I'm going back!]
Thwack-!
[Why did you hit me!]
“You see the fairies' sanctuary and that's all you have to say?”
[I don't like the cold!]
Leo clicked his tongue and stepped deeper into the Fairy Forest.
“Kirian. There's something I need you to do.”
[Something you need me to do?]
Kirian paused.
Then he put on an arrogant expression.
[Leo. You finally recognize my true worth, it seems. All right, as your contractor, I'll grant your wish. What is this task you're assigning to me, the noble Fairy Prince?]
Although he grumbled, Kirian was secretly excited about what Leo's first request as a contractor would be, since Leo was his first.
“Go pick some herbs in the forest and gather them.”
Leo threw a pouch for herbs to Kirian.
[I am the noble Fairy Prince! Are you telling me to do such trivial chores?]
“You won't do it?”
[Of course not!]
Kirian snorted, throwing the leather herb pouch to the ground.
A moment later.
Kirian, who had been hit by the leather pouch, flew erratically through the air, gathering herbs.
Leo, having passed the mission on to Kirian, investigated the forest, going deeper into the Fairy Forest.
‘They said the warm northern region became cold after the Age of Calamity, didn't they?’
Originally, the ice spirits, who had settled in the east, made a mass migration to the north and changed their abode.
The fairies, who disliked the cold, naturally had no choice but to leave their homeland to find a new dwelling.
‘And in this place abandoned by the fairies, monsters started appearing one day.’
And even now, they haven't been able to completely drive out the monsters.
‘Is there something generating monsters?’
Monsters occur naturally, but they can also be artificially generated by Tartaros.
What came to mind now was the latter.
[Leo! Look! I've gathered so much!]
“Oh? Ho-ho? That's amazing, isn't it? Well done.”
Leo was impressed.
True to his fairy nature, he had gathered a large quantity of top-grade herbs in a short amount of time.
[Hmph. It's nothing to me.]
Kirian, who was initially displeased, seemed pleased by the praise and put on an arrogant expression.
He put the herb pouch into his subspace.
Kirian sat on Leo's shoulder.
A moment later, Leo stopped walking at a certain point.
[Hm? Why stop?]
“It's illusion magic.”
Kirian was startled by Leo's words.
[Isn't this the Fairy King's magic? But it doesn't seem to be my father's magic?]
‘It's the magic of the previous Fairy King, Grawin.’
He was the Fairy King during the Age of Calamity.
It was the magic of a fairy who was Kirian's grandfather.
‘The magic was activated only about 100 years ago.’
Leo felt a question arise as he gauged the flow of magic.
Grawin's magic, from someone who passed away thousands of years ago at least, was activated 100 years ago.
He stroked his chin, slowly interpreting the type of magic.
‘Given that it's Fairy Forest, it wouldn't be strange for there to be one or two magic spells left behind by predecessors, but…’
“Kirian. When were you banished from Fairy Land?”
[100 years ago.]
‘Is Kirian's wing the power source that activated the magic? Why would a protective spell be activated using Kirian's power in this place where no fairies remain?’
While Kirian could be stripped of his power as a form of punishment, there's no reason to use his son's power to activate a barrier spell.
‘Does that mean there's something worth protecting inside?’
It was when Leo was contemplating, looking at the illusion magic.
Clang- clang- Swaaaaa-!
A sound of metal friction was heard.
Kirian pinched his nose with his finger.
[Ugh-! What a stench! What on earth is that?]
“It's an undead.”
Leo frowned at the appearance of an undead wearing a hood.
The undead looked at Leo and laughed lowly.
“Why is a human in the elven territory?”
“Isn't it less strange than having a wretch like you, an undead, here?”
“Heh heh! Insolent! This place has long been under the influence of us Tartaros.”
[This is our fairies' sanctuary, what nonsense are you spouting!]
“Fairies? Is there such a pathetic fairy with such weak power as you?”
[What did you say? You stinky rotten corpse!]
Pajijijik-!
Kirian, enveloped in silver magic, charged towards the undead.
“No!”
The undead hurriedly tried to defend against the sudden attack.
Pang-!
But Kirian was faster in ramming into the undead.
[Heh! Nothing but a nuisance trying to act tough!]
Kirian, who instantly shattered the undead, wore a triumphant expression.
“You, a fairy by name, are mindlessly ramming into things with your body?”
[As long as it's effective, that's all that matters!]
Indeed, as the source of a fairy's power is life force, they were like the natural enemy of undead, who possess the power of death.
[How's that! My power!]
Leo pointed behind him, looking at Kirian circling in the air as if showing off.
“Look behind you.”
[Huh? Behind?]
Gooooooo-!
“Indeed, even if it's low-grade, a fairy is still a fairy, it seems.”
[Ugh-! What a stinky, tenacious thing you are!]
Kirian scoffed, mimicking vomiting.
“What a vulgar fairy, even in speech!”
As a dark crimson gleam flashed from within the hood, a dark crimson greatsword materialized in the undead's hand.
Leo's expression changed at that sight.
“Kirian! Get back!”
[Huh? H-Huuuh!]
As the demon plunged the sword into the ground, dark crimson bone blades surged from the ground.
Hwarruru-!
Leo unleashed an aura of flames.
Leo narrowed his eyes, looking at the knight emitting a dark crimson aura.
“A Death Knight?”