276
“My arms and legs are numb…”
Kal, who had collapsed on the ground, mumbled with a dying voice.
Kal wasn’t the only one making such groaning sounds.
Most of the students who were the targets of the Demian students’ scramble contest had collapsed, half-exhausted.
“Everyone is pathetic!”
Chelsea, who had her hands on her hips, said while lifting her chin.
“If you show such a weak appearance, students from other hero academies will look down on you!”
Chelsea growled as she grabbed and violently shook Kal, who had collapsed.
“Get up! Kal!”
“Hey! Hey hey hey! Don’t grab my arm and shake it like thataaaah!”
Kal screamed in pain.
Seeing this, Leo asked.
“What happened? You seem more irritable than usual.”
“Leo, you don’t know, but this guy’s always cranky like this.”
Kal’s words made Chelsea give him a sharp glare.
“You’re just putting on airs in front of him… Keh? Ha, surrender! Keh! Surrender!”
As Kal was chatting, Chelsea grabbed him by the neck, and he struggled to yell.
Kal finally asked after barely being let go.
“Anyway, why are you in such a bad mood?”
“The Azonia guys called me small and disrespected me.”
Chelsea was upset for an entirely different reason—because of the Azonia students.
When the dwarves, who found Chelsea bothersome and avoided her, saw her, the Azonia students said:
“Rumenn has small students attending school too, huh? Who is this?”
“Isn’t it Chelsea LeWalyn?”
“Chelsea LeWalyn? Isn’t she a somewhat famous student? But she looks like she’ll fly away if you just bump her…”
“Hey! Who are you calling small, and who are you calling weak? Let’s fight!”
At that, the Azonia students looked at each other and burst out laughing.
“Sorry, but fighting with someone like you might cause big trouble.”
“To make amends, consider this as an apology.”
So they said, gave her a candy, and left.
It’s said that Chelsea, who felt insulted, tried to punish them but failed because the Demian students approached.
“To think they’d treat me like a little kid… Hmph, prepare yourselves. You despicable beasts.”
Chelsea clenched her fists as veins popped on her forehead.
Seeing that frightening expression, Kal whispered to Leo.
“Hey, try to calm her down. It’ll be troublesome if she’s this depressed.”
At his words, Leo took something out from his pocket and gave it to Chelsea.
“I’ll give you candy, so cheer up.”
What Leo handed over was none other than a candy made by Kal using fatigue recovery potion.
Seeing this, Kal inwardly screamed.
‘If you start treating her like a child too, what am I supposed to do!’
“Thank you, Brother Leo!”
However, Chelsea smiled brightly as she popped the candy Leo gave her into her mouth and savored it.
Seeing this, Kal mumbled.
“She really is a kid.”
“I’m only one year younger than you, you know?”
Chelsea rolled her eyes.
“Kal, I have something I want to ask.”
“What is it?”
“Why does that Driana girl not get along with the Demian classmates?”
“Driana? Isn’t she that cute dwarf we were talking about earlier?”
Chelsea also showed a curious expression.
Seeing the reactions of the two, Kal spoke.
“Ah, about that? I was curious myself, so while being harassed by the Demian students, I somehow managed to dig up some information.”
The information-savvy Kal crossed his arms.
“Driana. She’s the granddaughter of Demian’s principal, Gerwin. And she was specially admitted to Demian without taking the entrance exam.”
“So that’s why the students at Demian hate her, I see.”
Chelsea nodded, as if understanding.
“No, they don’t dislike her because of that. In fact, not a single student protested regarding that part.”
“Why?”
“Driana is said to be a naturally gifted blacksmith. She supposedly made an enchanted magic sword at the age of five?”
“Made an enchanted magic sword at five?”
Chelsea widened her eyes in astonishment.
There are two major ways to create a magic sword.
The first way is to use materials imbued with mana to make one.
The second way is to enchant mana to create one.
“Amazing. That’s quite something.”
Chelsea whistled.
It was far more difficult to create an enchanted magic sword using mana than to create one using mana-infused materials.
Although the enchantment magic itself isn’t particularly difficult, Chelsea, who had been called a prodigy since childhood, had learned the enchantment magic around the same age.
However, the enchantment used in magic swords was a completely different concept from normal enchantment magic.
The enchantment used in magic swords essentially imbues objects with mana.
It was an area of skill that required more than just magical proficiency; without talent, it was impossible for someone to accomplish this in a lifetime.
“Someone with that kind of ability should have been specially admitted, naturally. Still, why do the Demian students dislike her so much?”
Chelsea tilted her head in wonder.
Seeing this, Kal scratched his head.
“Driana was actively forging weapons and tools until the first semester of her first year. In fact, until then, she was the representative of her grade. But starting from the second semester, she supposedly lost interest in creating weapons and tools.”
“Huh?”
“Whenever she made anything, it was just copying what Lord Dwenno had already forged.”
“Seriously? What a waste of talent!”
Chelsea was shocked.
A master craftsman who could create an enchanted magic sword at five.
Someone who possessed the talent to make legendary weapons in the hands of heroes.
And yet, she was letting that talent go to waste!
“The reason is unknown, but it’s said that she wanted to pursue art, so now she’s making all sorts of strange stuff.”
“Art?”
“Yes. She supposedly calls herself the greatest artist born in Dweronia. I heard she even held her own exhibition in the city.”
Chelsea’s expression showed disbelief.
The pride of Demian’s blacksmith, who shouldn’t have anything less than high self-esteem, was not creating original works but copies.
And that too, of works created by the highly respected God’s Blacksmith Dwenno.
It was understandable why the Demian students disliked someone like Driana.
“The students at Demian probably think Driana is disgracing the name of Dwenno.”
At his words, Leo raised his sword.
It was the Wolf Fang he had brought with him earlier.
‘But his skills are certainly genuine. He somewhat successfully replicated Dwenno’s style.’
Though he hadn’t learned from Dwenno himself,
‘Yet he managed to replicate one of Dwenno’s swords to such an extent.’
‘It would be impossible without skill.’
Leo narrowed his eyes.
‘So, why did she stop making weapons?’
That evening.
After returning to the dormitory assigned by Seirun, Lunia came back to her room after having dinner.
Lunia, who was often mentioned as a potential candidate for the next Student Council President, usually had many people around her.
Lunia represented Seirun’s pride, and the pride of Seirun was also a symbol of their race—the elves.
The junior and intermediate elf students tried to get closer to Lunia in any way they could, hoping to make a good impression on her—the future elf representative.
However, after the incident earlier that day, the people who had gathered around Lunia were now gossiping about her.
“I never thought Lunia would turn out to be such a violent elf.”
“She’s scary.”
Lunia smirked as she looked at her classmates whispering.
Her classmates reacting this way was something Lunia had fully expected.
‘Once again, there’s no reason to care about such people.’
Since she decided not to play the part of a saint anymore, Lunia stopped caring about her surroundings altogether.
“Oh, welcome back, Lunia.”
In the room, Eiran, her roommate, hastily hid the book she was reading behind her pillow as Lunia entered.
Her hair was damp, indicating she had just finished showering.
‘She’s reading another novel written by humans again. Is it interesting? Although she absolutely refuses to show it to me.’
Whenever she asked about the contents, Eiran would hide the title from her like this.
Eiran looked worried as she watched Lunia sit on her chair after closing the door.
“Lunia, are you okay? Are the other elves looking down on you?”
“It’s something I expected anyway. On the contrary, it’s refreshing. I don’t have to pretend anymore, right?”
Lunia smiled faintly.
“Or do you prefer the me who used to pretend?”
“No! I think the present you, Lunia, is much cooler. Luca will surely think so too.”
Eiran clenched her fists and said.
“Thank you.”
Lunia smiled brightly at Eiran and spoke.
“Ah, speaking of which, Eiran.”
“Yes?”
“Leo said he wants to see you.”
“Leo-sama?”
Eiran’s ears perked up, and her face lit up.
“When? When exactly did Leo-sama say he wanted to see me?”
“Late, after midnight. He said to meet at that grand hall from earlier.”
“Midnight? Isn’t that curfew time?”
“Yes. He said to sneak out.”
“Midnight? For what?”
“He said he’ll give you private tutoring.”
“Wha, tutoring?”
“Why are you so surprised? Even though we’re in the same year and he’s younger than us, there’s much to learn from Leo.”
“Y-Yes! There’s definitely a lot to learn from Leo-sama…”
Eiran’s face turned bright red, and she covered it with her hands.
‘Guess she was indulging in strange fantasies again. She’s quite imaginative.’
Thinking that Eiran must have been lost in some wild fantasy about tutoring and blushed upon realizing it was just tutoring, Lunia shook her head.
“Right. So, prepare yourself.”
Lunia left the blushing Eiran alone and stepped out of the room to shower.
On her own, Eiran’s face was red all the way to her ears.
‘Alone… with Leo-sama… at night… for private tutoring…!’
As Lunia had guessed, Eiran’s fantasies were spiraling out of control.
The problem was that they were still accelerating.
Eiran pulled out the book she had hidden behind her pillow.
[Secret Night Tutoring by a Male Teacher.]
‘S, so it’s true. H, humans really do have night-time… tutoring sessions…’
The former recluse swallowed hard and was misunderstanding the situation without a hitch.
Erdien Mountain.
The eastern edge of the continent.
A cursed land where demons are born.
However, to the dwarves, this place was also a blessed land.
Here, countless magic stones and rare ores are buried.
An extremely important place for the dwarves, who craft weapons and armor.
That’s why close to the Erdien Mountains, beyond the nearby forest, lies the great city of dwarves, Tarkam.
The castle walls of Tarkam were tall.
This was because every few decades, demons invade in large numbers from the Erdien Mountains and the forest.
That day too, the guards on Tarkam’s castle wall were watching the Erdien Mountains.
Cuhuhuhuun-!
At that moment, the ground trembled.
“An earthquake?”
“Aren’t earthquakes happening often lately?”
Earthquakes were frequent around the Erdien Mountains.
Thus, the people of Tarkam were used to them.
While conversing as if it was normal,
Kuhuhuhun!
The dwarf on watch in the highest tower of the castle wall felt the ground shudder.
It felt different from an earthquake.
‘What is this?’
At that moment, a dark shadow fell over a corner of the Erdien Mountains.
For a moment, it was as if the moonlight had disappeared.
He rubbed his eyes in disbelief.
And in the blink of an eye, the moonlight was shining down again as if nothing had happened.
‘W, was I mistaken?’
Feeling something unusual, the dwarf held up his telescope and carefully observed the Erdien Mountains.
In an instant,
Flash!
His gaze met an intense, jet-black pair of eyes glowing amidst the darkness.
“Emergency! Emergency! A, a monster has appeared!”
Clenchclenchclen—
Having seen that colossal giant, the dwarf panicked and started ringing the bell like mad.
The entire Tarkam fell into chaos.
However, the ominous presence of the shadow that had momentarily terrified everyone vanished without a trace.
![[TS] The Protagonist is Conquered](https://i3.wp.com/novelhitam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/1743806812-5548-TS-The-Protagonist-is-Conquered.png?resize=85,105 "[TS] The Protagonist is Conquered")
