Kail, who had let the two into the mansion, gulped down the health drink the butler brought him and let out a groan of admiration.
“Phew─ this is the taste of getting healthier.”
“Doesn’t it taste bad?”
“Of course, it doesn’t taste good. If I weren’t a patient, would I even be drinking this stuff?”
Whoosh – Kail safely caught the cup he tossed with Aura and placed it on the table just as the gloomy butler, upset by his own creation’s poor review, passed by.
Watching the butler leave the room, Kail leaned back in his chair.
“So? What’s up?”
“Visiting you because you’re sick.”
“Visiting me? I’m all better now.”
“Then why aren’t you going to school?”
“I don’t feel like attending class.”
Yuri couldn’t help but nod in agreement at a reason that any student could relate to. After all, hadn’t Kail already surpassed most academy professors in skill?
No one could possibly reprimand him for not attending classes.
“And─ lately, the kids’ eyes have changed, you know.”
“Their eyes?”
“If before they looked at me like I was some kind of remarkable genius, now it’s more like… ”
It feels like they’re looking at a monster.
Kail clenched his mouth shut, unable to say those words. It was a bit awkward to say in front of his fiancée.
Even if he did open his mouth, another problem was that he didn’t have any proper solutions. Even if he were the Emperor, he couldn’t exactly tell people to walk around with kind eyes, could he?
‘Or maybe the Emperor could?’
Lost in thought for a moment, Kail turned his head after feeling Yuri’s gaze on him.
As their eyes met, she frowned slightly, wondering why he stopped mid-sentence. Kail waved his hand dismissively at her.
“Aah, never mind. I just don’t feel like attending class, and I don’t see the need to go to the Academy anymore.”
“But I─ I liked it!”
“Huh?”
“Ah, no. I meant I liked going to the Academy with you, Kail… sorry, forget I said anything.”
“Yeah, I liked it too. Arthur.”
Grinning, Kail repeated her words verbatim, then turned his head as he felt Yuri pulling on his hand.
“What about me?”
Yuri tilted her head cutely as she spoke. Her jealousy over trivial matters was quite adorable, so Kail reassured her by saying she was great too.
After some playful banter, the two finally asked what they had been meaning to ask.
“By the way, Kail, who did you fight that got you like that?”
“Aah, this? I was just a bit careless.”
“…How many people do you think can turn a Master into mush just because you were careless?”
“Hey hey, mush? That’s harsh. It wasn’t that bad.”
In reality, when Kail was brought in, his condition was worse than mush. It was as if he’d been stepped on by a giant, his insides completely crushed.
The fact that he survived was thanks to him being an Aura Master with durability surpassing normal humans after his transformation, and the Saintess’s power that could heal any injury as long as he was still alive.
If it weren’t for the Saintess, Kail might still be unable to open his eyes or still be recuperating.
“Master.”
“Hmm?”
“The person I fought, they were a Master.”
Arthur’s eyes widened in shock at the news that a hostile Master had come near the Academy and left.
The mere existence of such a Master was surprising enough, let alone how Kail ended up meeting and fighting them.
But Kail just shrugged as if it were nothing.
“The Saintess said something about me having a fate of getting unnecessarily involved in fights.”
“The Saintess…?”
“Yeah. Something about the fate of a Hero or whatever.”
Even now, it made him uncomfortable. Kail knew he wasn’t hero material.
But if the Saintess called him that, it meant he would eventually become one. No matter his personality or past actions, some great achievement would overshadow everything.
‘What is coming, I wonder.’
Having become a Master on the battlefield where lives were at stake, he neither feared nor avoided fights.
Rather, the opposite. He actively sought out dangerous battles that could cost him his life.
He firmly believed that through such battles and training, he would eventually break through his limits.
But there were limits to everything. Suicidal acts like fighting opponents he absolutely couldn’t win against were something he declined.
‘When I fought that Chatal Cain guy or whatever, the Duke was there, so I fought. If no one had been there, I wouldn’t have even tried.’
He was afraid.
That an enemy he couldn’t possibly handle might appear.
That the fight might not end with just his life but could lead to the death of everyone in the world.
And that he might lose his life without being able to protect the important people…
Thud.
“Kail.”
“…Yuri?”
“It’s okay.”
Yuri’s hand gently covered the back of his hand. Despite being a master of ice magic, her touch was surprisingly warm.
“I don’t know what you’re thinking about… but it’ll be okay. I’m here.”
So he didn’t need to bear everything alone.
If it was tough, he could lean on her.
Looking at Yuri speaking these words, Kail felt slightly moved as he gazed at her.
“…Yuri.”
“Kail.”
“─Well then, shall we talk after reaching Master level first? Can you do it?”
“…I’ll try my best.”
“Thank you.”
“Wait, Kail!? Suddenly talking about becoming a Master, what… And you too, Yuri, it’s not something that can be achieved so easily…”
Seeing Arthur surprised by his words, Kail relayed the same message he gave Yuri.
“Arthur, this applies to you too. Can you reach Master level as quickly as possible?”
At his words, Arthur tightly closed her mouth. Reaching Master level as quickly as possible wasn’t something that could be achieved just by wanting it.
If it were that easy, countless knights wouldn’t be shedding tears after hitting the Expert wall.
It was something that couldn’t be guaranteed… But at this moment, Arthur instinctively realized that if she didn’t reach Master level, she wouldn’t be able to keep up with Kail in the future.
“…Is there something?”
“There’s nothing. But… we’ll need Masters.”
The era where he could solve everything alone was ending. Just like in the game, he, this mutant, was bringing about a massive upheaval.
If that was the case, then he just needed to stop trying to solve everything alone.
Wasn’t that why he had broken all those events from the original story? Giving Yuri an affinity, saving Arthur.
“The era of Masters is coming.”
The era of great upheaval.
* * *
Millions of ghosts moved at the beck and call of a single woman, sweeping away the enemies before her.
Seeing the wave of spirits rushing toward him, the green-haired man casually moved his staff, transferring his corporeal form into an alternate dimension.
An ideal realm where neither matter nor spirit could interfere. Watching millions of evil spirits pass through him harmlessly, the green-haired man smirked as he looked at the woman before him.
“How about giving up already?”
“─Shut up.”
Rizelotte, irritated by the sudden appearance and attack of the green-haired man, waved her hand dismissively. The black magic rose according to her will, striking the man with dozens of curses that would cause lifelong suffering if touched by ordinary people.
However, her attacks didn’t reach the man who existed in an entirely different ‘dimension.’ Of course, in this situation, he couldn’t attack her either, but he could strike whenever he wanted, couldn’t he?
The situation was overwhelmingly disadvantageous for her. Rizelotte frowned slightly as she glared at the man.
“You perverted bastard.”
“Pervert? Isn’t that a bit harsh? I was just asking to borrow your abilities for a moment.”
“Don’t twist your words. Planning to make a child while only interested in lower parts?”
“Well─ erection is necessary for pregnancy, so that’s why it happened.”
The man let out a deep sigh as if disappointed, then opened his mouth again while glaring at her.
“…Let me ask one last time, are you really not interested? I’ve never met a magician like you in my life. If you don’t want to get pregnant, you can take the male role instead.”
“─Go die.”
As Rizelotte’s black magic surged forth, a great curse that would terrify a city of millions descended upon him. The man spread his hands and unleashed the magic he had prepared thus far.
“Fantasy Manifestation.”
The evil spirits attacking him instantly transformed into beautiful flowers. As Rizelotte stood dumbfounded by the sudden change of her spirits, the man’s staff moved once again.
The next moment, Rizelotte realized she had dropped into an unknown place. Startled, she turned her head and saw the face of the man she had been fighting, now enormous in the sky above her.
─If you change your mind, I’ll let you out. Stay there for now.
Creeeak- After finishing his words, the man closed the birdcage door and sealed it within the alternate dimension. Trapped inside like a princess in a birdcage, Rizelotte tried to escape but found that not even a speck of magic power could move in this place.
“This is…”
She had become a captured princess.
