─Die, pleeease….
“Not yet.”
Kail said that while looking at the demon rolling on the floor with wounds all over its body. However, as if those were its last words, the demon didn’t show any reaction after that.
Pulling out the Aura Blade from inside its body and poking its limbs elicited no response. Even if it had fainted or was pretending to faint, there was no way it could control its biological responses, so it was clear that it had completely lost it.
‘Was that a bit too much?’
Kail thought that as he got up. Even in the mental world, his body felt stiff. That was only natural.
It had been about ten days since he realized he could pull out the Aura Blade directly from inside someone’s body and began experimenting.
Even though time dilation could be freely adjusted in this dream world, that was an incredibly long period. Not to mention, Kail hadn’t rested or slept during that time, focusing solely on his research.
“Hey, are you really dead?”
Kicking the unresponsive demon lightly, Kail let out a deep sigh. Well, it’s good that it fell. But still…….
‘You should have told me how to get out before dying…….’
Kail scratched his head and looked around. He had defeated the demon, and the experiment was roughly over. Thinking that, the tension eased, and the accumulated fatigue started hitting him all at once.
Even he, a Master, couldn’t resist the overwhelming urge to sleep. Inevitably, Kail collapsed onto the ground and fell asleep.
* * *
“Huuuh-?”
Kail woke up with a gasp, realizing something weighing approximately 50kg was on top of him.
There was no need to ponder what it was. The weight was quite familiar, and recalling where he had last been made it clear what was on top of him.
“……Yuri.”
“Mmm…….”
Yuri, deeply asleep, was murmuring in her sleep on top of him. Feeling her chest, abdomen, and legs pressing down on him, Kail slowly closed his eyes.
He figured he could stay like this until she woke up. After all, she wasn’t the type to sleep in late, so she would probably wake up soon.
Thinking that, Kail placed his hands around Yuri’s waist and waited for her to wake up. She woke up six hours later.
“……Kail?”
“Oh, you’re finally awake.”
Kail, who had spent the past six hours with his eyes closed practicing Aura breathing, slowly opened his eyes upon hearing Yuri’s voice.
Close enough to touch noses, Yuri gazed down at Kail, who was just a few centimeters away, then carefully pressed her lips against his.
Smooch. Embarrassed after being the one to initiate the kiss, she quickly blushed, jumped off the bed, and locked herself in the bathroom.
The sound of water running lightly echoed as Kail examined the spot where she had been.
‘Thankfully, she’s fine.’
Where she had been lying, a single Demon Sword rested. Despite Yuri having fiddled with it all night, it appeared perfectly intact.
With slight concern, Kail picked up the sword and instinctively realized he could wield its power perfectly.
‘Why is that?’
He had mercilessly tortured the demon sealed within the Demon Sword, causing its mind to be utterly destroyed. He assumed he wouldn’t be able to use the sword’s abilities.
After all, the Demon Sword’s power stemmed from the demon’s own abilities. Without the demon as the source, how could he possibly use those powers?
However, surprisingly, even with the demon’s mind shattered, he could still use the abilities without issue.
‘Did it surrender instead of dying……?’
Though the reason eluded him, Kail didn’t dwell on it. Leaving it alone wouldn’t cause any major problems, and he wasn’t the kind of sorcerer who needed to understand everything.
As he was thinking this, Yuri emerged from the bathroom after a quick wash.
Seeing the Demon Sword in Kail’s hand, she seemed to recall something and spoke up.
“That thing, we don’t need it anymore.”
“Huh?”
“I figured out what magic was on it.”
“Oh…… really?”
That’s when Kail realized he had been pulled into the world created by the demon last night. It seemed Yuri had tampered with the seal Merlin had placed on the Demon Sword.
Of course, judging by her calm expression, she hadn’t fully removed the seal; it seemed the demon had slipped out through a small gap she inadvertently created.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Did you figure out what kind of magic was on it?”
“Yeah. It was a bit tricky…… but I’m a genius, after all.”
Yuri proudly flashed a thumbs-up to showcase her achievement, making Kail chuckle softly.
Seeing her puffing air, clearly seeking praise, Kail approached and patted her head before heading to the dining room with her.
And then he realized why Yuri had slept in so late.
“Oh.”
Today was the weekend.
* * *
“Merlin, Merlin, huh.”
Slurrrrp─.
Sera, sipping on a Special Fruit Drink, kept mumbling as if nothing came to mind, then suddenly smiled and spoke.
“No idea.”
“Then you gotta spit it out. Are you joking?”
“Agh, N-no! No take-backs!”
Sera, with her mouth clamped shut, writhed in pain, pleading to be released, but Kail mercilessly squeezed her cheeks.
After tormenting her cheeks for a while, Kail sighed deeply and let go. Sera gently rubbed her now bright red cheeks and glared at him.
“No! How dare you manhandle a woman like that!?”
“You don’t look like a woman to me, so it’s fine.”
“What the hell are you talking about, you psycho!”
Sera thrust her underdeveloped chest forward to assert her femininity, but to Kail, who had seen Arthur, Yuri, Ruby, and other well-endowed women, she was simply ‘underqualified’ as a woman.
Chuckling mockingly, Kail watched as Sera exploded in anger, screaming wildly. Ignoring her completely, he pressed for an explanation.
“So? What exactly is this Merlin thing?”
“Well…… I haven’t seen it in this game, but it’s actually a pretty common name.”
“Why?”
“It’s from the legends of King Arthur. You don’t know? Merlin the sorcerer.”
“First time hearing about it.”
“Well…… you were a muggle, after all.”
She explained the origins of Merlin’s name and how it had been used in countless works of fiction. Though apparently, it gained the most fame from some Japanese mobile game.
The name and concept of Merlin originally came from the 12th-century British chronicles of Britannia. Various games, anime, and novels borrowed that setting.
Therefore, according to Sera’s conjecture, there was no reason the original <Diaros Academy> of this world wouldn’t use that setting either.
“But why don’t you know about it?”
“Well, I don’t know. If I had to guess……”
“If you had to guess?”
“Maybe they made it to sell as DLC?”
“What kind of logic is that?”
One thing was certain: Sera herself didn’t know. Her failure to know everything was particularly disappointing given her usual claims of omniscience.
But that disappointment was short-lived. Upon reflection, she didn’t even know what Arthur’s identity was or why he was being kidnapped.
Sera was merely a single player, not the creator or programmer of this world, so it was only natural.
And that meant:
‘There are still many secrets in this world that neither I nor anyone else knows.’
His heart began to race slightly. How many more secrets and battles awaited him? How many enemies would stand in his way?
To overcome them all, he needed to grow stronger.
Stronger than anyone else.
He had to become an unparalleled, transcendent being all on his own.
The next day, after Kail made that resolution, news spread throughout the Academy that Kail was a Master.
* * *
[About the new Master, Kail Meyer of the Meyer Clan, the Empire’s Sword……]
[The Empire is ready to welcome a new Master!]
[Is it appropriate for a Master to remain just another Academy student─]
“This is today’s newspaper. Seems like everyone who’s going to see it already has.”
The headmaster spoke while looking at Kail. The event he had long foreseen had come to pass. Kail being revealed as a Master, and people not leaving the young teenage Master alone, just as he predicted.
However, Kail showed no hint of panic, casually sipping the tea in front of him. The headmaster sighed as he watched him.
“What do you plan to do now? If the Imperial Palace demands your presence─.”
“No need to worry about that, Headmaster.”
“……Why not?”
“I already took care of it when I visited the palace recently.”
Kail recalled his visit to the palace. After finishing discussions with the royal family, he had a private audience with the Emperor.
─Live as you wish. I will tolerate any action except betrayal of the Empire.
The Emperor promised Kail unlimited freedom. Whether he stayed at the Academy or left was entirely up to him.
“The important thing now isn’t that.”
“Then what is important? Kail, the student? No, Master Kail.”
“The ones who will come looking for me after seeing this.”
“People coming for you…?”
“Yes, well…… it’s a bit awkward to say, but……”
Kail chuckled sheepishly.
“I’ve made quite a few enemies everywhere I go.”
They would come looking for him at the Academy.
