A stillness settled over the world.
A severed arm rolled on the ground, blood oozing out without any sign of stopping. The female student trembled, using her remaining hand to stifle the wound.
Blood flowed from the gaps in her fingers, and the pain brought tears to her eyes.
The female students had been confident while tormenting Emma, but it took only a moment for their faces to turn pale.
Sometimes, a single action could reveal more than a hundred words.
As the blood spouted into the air, filling the space with a warm, metallic scent, it was only natural that the female students had to acknowledge the truth.
Ian Percus was a madman.
He was no commoner; he was a noble. Yet, he had just severed an arm for the mere act of slapping a commoner.
It was an act that could only be performed by someone out of their mind.
Touching a noble was never just a matter of the academy; it could easily spiral into conflicts between families.
And what the female students were dealing with was just a single common girl.
The daughters of rural herbalists who wouldn’t have blinked an eye if she had died without entering the academy were precisely the nobles.
They couldn’t comprehend Ian’s mindset, who would go this far simply for the torment of a commoner.
But they soon had to remember a few facts they had been subconsciously overlooking.
First, Ian Percus had already touched an imperial princess. So, it was likely that he had no interest in the conflicts with noble families.
After all, once he provoked the imperial family, the downfall of the Percus family was practically inevitable.
Second, Emma was a girl whom Ian Percus had revived at the cost of over ten thousand gold. Claiming ownership over her wasn’t strange at all.
However, there were several points the female students couldn’t understand.
First of all, whether Ian cherished Emma or not, she was still a commoner. No one would sever a person’s arm over a mere slap from a noble just because of their interest in a commoner.
Typically, it was more common to try to resolve issues through communication.
Moreover, the female students had heard that Ian feared expulsion.
Didn’t he ask the princess directly to ensure he wouldn’t be expelled? This was news conveyed by reliable informants.
The female students had no doubt about that information.
Even if he touched the royal family, with just an academy diploma, he could still make a living within the Holy Kingdom or the kingdom of the Great Lords.
It was unlikely that the act of splashing water on royalty would lead to expulsion. They believed that Ian had moderated his provocations towards the princess for this reason.
But the reality laid before them surpassed all those judgments.
There was absolutely no hesitation.
One of their arms was pathetically rolling on the ground, and this would likely be the future of the remaining students as well.
A vivid sense of dread gripped the minds of the female students.
Ian Percus walked towards them with deliberate steps. His pace was neither slow nor fast, causing the female students’ faces to grow ever paler.
They didn’t even dare to think of resisting.
He was a monster who had slain a named monster, defeated a mage, and overpowered four knights guarding the princess. They were merely mid-tier students of the academy, not opponents he could be faced with.
So, they chose to rely on another force as they always had.
“…Stop!”
With a desperate shout, one of the female students cried out.
Ian halted in his tracks.
However, there was no emotion in his golden eyes as he looked at the female student. He merely wore an expression that seemed to signal he would listen to one last plea.
The student sensed it. This was her final opportunity.
If she couldn’t persuade Ian now, a blizzard of blood would follow. Could this even be justified for just slapping a common girl?
She was so furious and hurt that tears were about to spill.
Between girls like them, raised in nobility, and a mere common girl, there was a gap as vast as the sky and the ground. While it was possible to sever a commoner’s arm for striking her, the reverse should never be the case.
Because their values were different.
The fact that she had to make excuses over something so trivial felt like an unbearable humiliation.
The woman wanted to make this fact known to the barbarian dressed as a noble. Her words poured out fervently.
“A-are you crazy? We are nobles! That girl is a commoner! No matter how much you fancy a commoner, as a noble, you should at least have some sense of propriety…”
But her words didn’t even finish.
A silver flash sliced the air.
She didn’t even see how he approached. She only thought he had taken a couple of steps, and suddenly, her shoulder was pierced.
With widened eyes, the female student looked down at her shoulder.
Blood seeped through the silver cracks. That was merely a precursor.
With a burst of blood, the ground was soaked again.
The delayed pain ignited her mind in a fiery haze. A tearing scream rang through the air.
“Gah, AAAAAAAH!”
The female student couldn’t even think of sitting down. She could only stare in horror at the place where her arm had just been.
Ian had no intention of waiting for her.
With a brutal kick, his foot sank into the woman’s solar plexus.
It was an unrestrained kick. With a single stroke, the dark trajectory pierced her body, sending a shockwave of silence through the air. Her body crumpled around it.
The woman’s body was thrown away like a projectile. Even then, unable to release all the shock, her body bounced against the ground several times.
The blood pouring from her arm painted the scene in the air. A body missing one arm rolled on the earthen floor, leaving behind a trail of blood.
The woman, hit in the solar plexus, gasped, unable to even breathe properly. She seemed to want to clutch her solar plexus, but with only one arm left, it felt insufficient.
The remaining female students—three of them—had faces so pale they seemed ghostly. Their frozen gazes were fixed on Ian.
He spoke in a voice devoid of emotion.
“Next.”
Only then did the three women’s trembling eyes glance at one another.
The opponent was a madman with whom conversation was futile. Persuasion was impossible using ordinary logic.
Thus, there was only one answer.
They had no choice but to overpower him through force; the female students immediately nodded their heads.
Two of them charged forward.
One of them appeared to be a mage, murmuring words that seemed to be incantations.
Ian was still moving forward, as if the advancing figures didn’t matter, as if he had only one task at hand.
And in that moment, as he faced one of the female students—
With a swift slash, he severed her arm as she swung her weapon to strike him. Before blood could splatter, Ian turned with that recoil.
The second approaching female student’s eyes were filled with shock.
The man had surged towards her with unmatched speed. But because of that, Ian had turned his back, and she thought she had a chance.
That was until his elbow smashed into her solar plexus.
With a thud, thunder struck within the female student’s head.
The sudden pain caused her muscles to spasm. The stiffened body couldn’t obey the commands of her brain.
That brief moment was enough.
Ian’s form made another rotation, and the blade pierced the woman’s abdomen.
With a rush, blood gushed from between her lips. Ian pushed forward with great force. Before him lay the impaled body of the female student, like a human shield.
Confusion shrouded the mage’s eyes at a response beyond imagination.
She lacked combat experience, clearly. The result soon became apparent.
With a splat, blood splattered. The mage, still several paces away from Ian, went slack-jawed.
It was an axe. An axe that had been lodged in the ground suddenly slammed down on her shoulder.
In a scene that defied common sense, the mage forgot to scream.
Ian didn’t miss that chance.
“What is…” he began, before a scream erupted.
His blade severed the woman’s thigh.
The mage lost her balance in an instant. Her body, tilting dangerously, would never stand upright again.
With a splat, her body collapsed onto the ground, blood pouring out.
Soon, another female student, freed from the blade that pierced her abdomen, collapsed beside her.
Not even a few seconds passed. All that remained were pools of blood, screams, and limbs still twitching, unable to realize they had been severed.
“My, my arm… my arm!”
“Gah, ugh… ahhh!”
“I… I’ve lost my legs… it hurts….”
Ian strode over and pulled the axe out of the mage’s shoulder.
The late surge of blood stained the dirt a deep red. The woman’s body convulsed from the sudden pain, but that was of no interest to Ian.
There was still one female student left, who had yet to give up.
“Revenge, I’ll… I’ll get my revenge….”
Ian’s golden eyes flicked to his back.
There, the woman who had lost her arm sat where she had fallen, wearing a pale smile.
Her blue eyes, dripping with hatred and venom, fixated on Ian.
“I’ll have you expelled… I’ll end your life…! Are you listening?!”
He paused for a moment.
His body, which had remained still for some time, began to move immediately after. He walked back to stand before the woman.
The noble girl was still smiling. Her eyes burned with a fierce desire for revenge. Yet, the pain seemed to be overwhelming her; her half-grinned mouth trembled slightly.
Ian scratched his chin, arriving at a conclusion.
“…Lady Lupeisia.”
“Yes, yes!”
Golden hair, blue eyes.
She looked just like the archetype of a rude noble lady.
She seemed elated that he finally recognized her, and she gritted her teeth in delight.
“How dare you touch me? You don’t want to be expelled, right? Hehehe… I’ll have you expelled! I’ll summon the disciplinary committee and use all my connections and power to…!”
But Lupeisia’s words were cut short.
Her gaze turned blank. She felt a familiar sensation creeping in.
Time slowed, and hearing dulled. Only the uncanny feeling at her shoulder remained vivid.
Lupeisia’s blue eyes filled with fear.
There was no need to shift her gaze. The blood spouting forth hinted at the outcome.
Even her remaining arm fell away.
The feeling of a heated iron poker piercing her spine felt so unreal that Lupeisia couldn’t react for a moment.
Her voice was the first to respond.
“Ah, ah… AAAAAAAAH!”
Lupeisia hurriedly tried to cover the severed area, but she had no arm left.
The fear filled her blue eyes. The woman pulled her butt back, wanting desperately to escape from the man.
From those indifferent golden eyes.
But that attempt was soon thwarted.
With a sickening sound,
Now it was her thigh. Lupeisia’s right leg was severed, leaving behind a last gasp.
“Gah, huh… AAAAAAAH! Ugh, ugh, UGH…!”
She was hyperventilating, feeling a real threat to her life, indicating her rising panic. With her mind blank, Lupeisia couldn’t conceive of any thoughts.
She had messed up.
That obvious conclusion dominated Lupeisia’s thought process. Her trembling pupils gazed up at Ian.
The man’s golden eyes were horrifyingly indifferent.
He simply spat out a cool voice.
“…So be it.”
At that plain response, tears welled up in Lupeisia’s eyes.
She had messed up, truly.
For the first time in her life, she was filled with profound regret.
