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Chapter 48

“You...”

Having never seen his exhausted appearance before, she was at a loss for words, wondering what had happened to him.

Ignoring her for now, Se-Hoon slowly scrutinized the room.

Is there... anything else...?

They would really be in danger if other traps had been set up as well. Confirming there were no other traps a few moments later, he sighed in relief and walked over to Luize.

Thud-

Now sitting on the floor, he looked at Luize, who was leaning against the wall.

“What are you doing?”

“What?”

“Are you trying to take a nap before the duel?”

“...Ugh!”

Finally realizing how she looked, she quickly sat up. Seeing her swift reaction, Se-Hoon chuckled and then asked, “There was a strange ringing in your ear earlier, right?”

“... How did you know?”

“I heard it too. It seems like those guys prepared it in advance, so I just smashed it on my way here.”

Her eyes widened at his explanation.

“It was a device that triggered the mana corrosion within the body, causing one to cast a mental curse on oneself by awakening their trauma. It gave me quite a hard time.”

“My trauma...”

Hearing his words, she realized why the bandage around her neck had been bothering her. So she had been experiencing seizures because she had been swept away by the curse.

The truth made her put on a bitter smile.

“So that was it...”

In the past, she would have been furious because of the interference, but right now, she didn’t feel much anger.

Her opponent’s scheme had forced her to face her trauma, but running away from it had been entirely her own choice.

“Do you think it’s pathetic?”

“What is?”

“To walk right into their tricks at such a crucial moment... and end up like this.”

Her hair was a mess from rolling on the ground, and the bandages around her neck were in disarray from her trying to strangle herself. Her left hand was also bleeding, likely because she had accidentally scratched herself.

She thought she had changed, but after seeing her own pathetic state, it turned out that she hadn’t changed at all. Her expression turned even more bitter.

“I know that this situation is exactly what they are aiming for... but I just can’t seem to get a grip on myself.”

The problem with confidence from self-suggestion was that once the built-up facade collapsed even once, the debris made it overwhelmingly difficult to stand up again.

Completely deflated, Luize sat there weakly, hugging her knees to her chest. Watching her from the side, Se-Hoon pondered for a moment before responding, “It does seem pathetic.”

“Right?”

“After all, getting so scared that you’re trembling before you even fight doesn’t exactly scream ‘impressive’, does it?”

“Yeah...”

“To be honest, it kind of breaks the illusion. You swore you wouldn’t cry until after you got your revenge, yet right now, you’re all deflated and gloomy.... Don’t you think your resolve is a bit shallow?”

“...”

“Well, you’re still young, so it’s understandable, but you should take responsibility for what you say, especially because you use Incantation Magic. Seeing you break so early on... sigh. Never mind. It must be tough on you too.”

Squeeze-

Listening to his harsh critique, Luize’s eyes twitched, and she bit her lower lip hard. Others would have stopped at the sight, but Se-Hoon just looked sympathetically at her and continued.

“But don’t be too disappointed. Unless you’re as physically and mentally developed as I am, it’s naturally going to be hard. Maybe that’s just the fate of a mediocre genius.”

“...Stop.”

“Don’t be upset about your efforts. No one’s going to criticize you for being unable to do something that impossible at the start, so just keep your chin up and—”

“Stop it, you annoying jerk!!!”

Whack!

Finally snapping from the endless nagging, she struck his forearm and charged at him.

“Who started all this genius talk in the first place?! Who was it that egged me on, saying a week would be enough for me to get prepared?! You were the one that set all of those expectations and pushed me forward, yet now you’re calling me pathetic??? I’m shallow??? I’m mediocre??? Are you playing with me?!!!”

She screamed out all the frustrations that arose because of the pressure she had been enduring.

“Do you even know how stressful it was every time you called me a genius? And that bizarre training too! If you just told me about Incantation Magic from the start, I would have worked hard from the beginning!!! Are you trying to humiliate me on purpose?! Huh?!”

“...”

“You always proceed without explaining, and then you look at me as if it’s obvious! Common sense dictates you explain things first, you clueless jerk!!!”

Thump! Whack!

Straddled on top of him, she hammered away at his chest and arms. And without a single sound, Se-Hoon just took the beating from her soft, noisy fists. Then, when her punches weakened to mere pats, Luize grabbed him by the collar with her trembling hands and exhaled roughly.

“Huff... huff... you damn... annoying jerk...”

Even in such a situation, he was simply looking up at her, his eyes questioning what the problem was. That infuriating look made her insides boil with rage. Every time she saw that expression, she always felt repulsed; it made her think that all this was her fault.

Why is it always me...

Why was she the only one feeling this way? Overwhelmed by the injustice, her emotions uncontrollable, she impulsively shouted, “If I lose... or if something goes wrong... it’s all your fault... all your fault!!”

Could she even say something more ungrateful to someone who had supported her in every way? Even now, as she screamed her feelings at him, she didn’t stop loathing herself. Her expression twisted.

“Yeah. It is my fault,” Se-Hoon said, agreeing readily.

“...What?”

“If you lose, it’s all my fault.”

Completely calm, he directly met Luize’s gaze and spoke matter-of-factly.

“After all, I’m the one who taught you Incantation Magic, forged your equipment, and sent you into this duel.”

“...”

“So, naturally, the responsibility lies with me. Why did you think it’s on you?”

Caught completely off guard by his question, she fumbled, trying to find words. A moment later, she barely managed to answer in a trembling voice.

“Because... this is the path I chose...”

“You’re wrong.” Se-Hoon cut off her words firmly.

“I made a promise, and all you did was accept it. There’s only one thing you need to be responsible for.”

Holding her hand, which was grabbing him by the collar, he looked up into her blue eyes.

“Just trust me to the end and do your best.”

“...”

“Anything else is my responsibility.”

With those words, the room became quiet and they simply stared at each other for quite some time.

Eventually, Luize’s trembling blue eyes slowly calmed down, and she slowly opened her tightly shut mouth.

“Don’t bullshit me. You would’ve made fun of me for losing to someone like him.”

“...Not really?”

“Talk is cheap.”

Seeing his shameless face, she smirked. Then, as if interrupting the moment, an announcement came from the waiting room’s speaker.

—The duel between Gerwin Kruger and Luize Valente will start in five minutes. We are requesting that both participants enter the arena and wait.

With the announcement indicating the duel was imminent, she let go of his collar and got off him.

“Where will you be watching from?”

“Me? I was planning to watch from the audience.”

“Don’t.”

“Why?”

Passing by him on her way out, she grabbed the doorknob and calmly said, “Because the duel will be over before then.”

As if she had never been disheartened, she was brimming with confidence. Seeing that familiar back, he unknowingly smiled and responded, “Alright. I’ll follow you soon.”

“I’m going, then.”

Leaving the waiting room behind, she headed straight for the arena with confident steps.

Before, the silence of the empty hallway might have been frightening, but with her focus now on the light beyond it, she would no longer be afraid.

Badump-!

Her heart was beating violently, and her body felt feverishly hot. Every sense was on edge, and the tightness around her neck had become unbearably uncomfortable.

“This is getting in the way.”

Why did she bother wearing the bandage around her neck if she wasn’t even bleeding? She quickly unwrapped it and then carelessly used it to bandage her wounded left hand.

Now exposed for the first time in a long time, she was able to gently caress her neck with her fingertips. The scar felt deeply engraved, like it would never fade. But, it was far smaller than she thought and there was no pain at all.

So, this is the scar.

It might look unsightly, but, that was all.

Moving her hand away from the scar that could no longer cause her any pain, she proudly walked out of the hallway and into the arena. In an instant, she was surrounded by the roaring cheers of the crowd and blinded by the spotlight pouring down on her.

The eyes of over a thousand students were watching her. Some among them may even be her enemy, their attacks uncertain and unknown to her.

They can come if they want.

No matter when or how they would attack, she just had to do her best to fight back. Ignoring the surrounding stares, she looked across the arena at the young man standing opposite her.

“It’s been a while.”

Gerwin, the idiot with brown hair and an arrogant expression, seemed to be lamenting with a black staff in his hand.

“I thought I taught you quite the lesson half a year ago, yet here you are, recklessly challenging me again. Your actions are quite shameful for someone who was once considered my rival.”

“...”

Luize just silently observed Gerwin as he talked.

In her memories, he was bigger and the pressure he emitted was immense. But now, seeing him up close, they were of similar height, and he seemed quite slender, which made it evident that he had only become stronger by spending money.

“I do feel sorry about the injury you suffered back then...”

“Just bring out your undead already.”

“What?”

“Otherwise, you’ll just be carried out embarrassingly after being unable to do anything.”

To summarize the situation in a nutshell, she didn’t feel like there was any chance she was going to lose.

“...”

Soft laughter arose from various places, as their conversation had been amplified and spread throughout the arena this entire time.

Amidst the laughs, Gerwin tightly gripped the Hero-tier black staff in his hand, Rest of the Dead.

Ssss-

Soon, a black mist spread around him, seemingly responding to his intent.

The staff not only enhanced his mana, but it also strengthened his undead and increased the control he had over them. It was a powerful piece of equipment that any necromancer would desperately desire just for its ability to boost the power of their undead.

“If you want me to use my full power, then I suppose I have to comply.”

Winning against an opponent who had been in rehabilitation for half a year with Hero equipment might not earn him any praise, but at this point, he couldn’t care less.

You asked for this.

With a ghastly look in his eyes, Gerwin forcefully planted the staff into the ground.

Screech-

Alongside the screech, the black mist spread across two-thirds of the arena like a swamp. The air then slightly parted, revealing Gerwin’s undead from the void space.

There were black skeletons, beastly chimeras that retained their flesh from their living days, and even a zombie golem that neared three meters tall. The appearance of the continuously emerging undead caused a stir in the arena.

“Thirty enhanced skeletons...?”

“Each of those chimeras is worth millions. He’s just fighting her with money...”

“That zombie golem seems to be made solely from element-attribute monsters. Can a mage really stand against that?”

The expensive undead, costing from thousands to billions, lined up in formation in front of Gerwin. Hearing the admiration of his legion, which was comparable to a fortress in terms of invested capital and durability, from various parts of the audience, Gerwin wore a satisfied expression.

“You see, I haven’t just been playing around for half a year.”

He nearly lost to her during the last duel because he couldn’t respond to her relentless barrages of magic. However, with the elemental resistance of the zombie golem and the buff from Rest of the Dead, he believed that this time, he would overwhelmingly trample her.

Seeing his confident look, Luize simply pressed summoned her weapon out of her void pocket without saying much.

Thud-

Vargr appeared in her hand.

Though it seemed insignificant compared to the vast army in front of her, just holding it released the last of her tension.

“Whew.”

She proudly placed Vargr, a black chocker, around her neck and locked it in place.

Click-

The choker had a sleek design that featured a silver buckle and black body. Looking over at the floating live broadcast to check her appearance, she unwittingly smirked when she saw how it obscured the scar on her neck.

He’s so unnecessarily thoughtful.

While she gently caressed the oddly comforting Vargr, Gerwin put on a dumbfounded expression on the other side.

“So that’s your trump card? Isn’t that just a dog collar...”

Though it radiated with mana, when compared to Rest of the Dead, even calling that a weapon seemed insulting.

Ignoring his openly mocking demeanor, she just looked back at him calmly and slowly started speaking.

“I’ve made a new friend recently.”

“...?”

“This friend of mine keeps saying that I can definitely win this duel.... At first, I thought it was just nonsense.”

The strength of Incantation Magic increased with the clarity of the caster’s intent.

Luize had heard it every day from Se-Hoon, but she could never truly grasp its meaning. It was difficult to transition from learning magic theoretically to suddenly embracing such emotional and abstract concepts.

“But now, I think I understand what he means.”

Mana began to surge around her. It was common to see mana respond to strong wills, but the scale of the phenomenon unfolding before Gerwin’s eyes was different.

Rumble-!

The mana in the arena of the Hall of Martial Arts, capable of accommodating up to thousands, vibrated violently in response to the will of a single person. The massive vibration of mana was felt directly on his skin, and the terrifying hostility contained within it widened Gerwin’s eyes in shock.

“What... how...”

How could a mere student, a patient who had been confined to a hospital for half a year, assimilate such a vast amount of mana? It felt like she had become one with the mana.

Feeling incredulous at the unbelievable sight, he clenched his teeth and glared at her.

“What trickery is this...!”

“Over the past half year, I’ve lived only for this moment.”

Whether it was when she had seizures caused by nightmares, when she felt excruciating pain in her throat during rehabilitation, or even when she just wanted to give everything up and leave, she had managed to persevere with just a single thought in mind.

She wanted to tear apart the necks of those who had ruined her life, just as they had done to her.

Reaffirming the synesthetic mindscape that was more vividly imprinted within her mind than any magic spell, she lightly pressed the buckle on Vargr.

Immediately, a thin metal plate rose from the black choker, swiftly covering her mouth and snapping shut forcefully.

Clang!

Like those of a hound, the metal plate formed black teeth. The sight of the metal mask that appeared in the blink of an eye stirred the audience. Besides the novelty of the item, the audience had stirred because of the way Luize’s aura increased in ferocity the moment she equipped it.

If the mana had only been responding to her will before, it was now directly manifesting hostility toward Gerwin.

“Th-this is... impossible...”

Feeling as if he were inside the mouth of a giant beast, the indescribable discomfort and fear made his eyes tremble faintly.

There was something horribly wrong, but it was too late to turn back.

—Three.

With both sides ready, the countdown began.

Stroking the black teeth that covered her mouth, she looked at him with scattered bits of blue luminescence in her eyes.

—Two.

“I beg you.”

And with sincerity, she conveyed her true feelings to him.

—One.

“Please hold out for a long time.”

She promised herself that she would inflict him with pain tens of times more terrible than what she had received.

—Start!

“Kill her now!!!!!!”

The moment the protective barrier dividing the center of the arena was lifted, Gerwin, as if convulsing, swung Rest of the Dead and screamed.

With his command, the undead, breaking their meticulously formed ranks, raised their weapons and rushed madly toward her.

To him, who had already summoned all of his forces, while she hadn’t even started preparing any spells in advance, it was clear who seemed to have the upper hand.

“Set-”

But to her, that was not the case at all.

The incantation resounded throughout the arena. Her will, formed purely of mana and not tainted by her vocalization, seized control of the mana within the arena and recreated her synesthetic mindscape.

In an instant, magic arrays, each glowing red like a collar, appeared around the necks of the skeletons charging at her, the chimera that followed behind, and even the lumbering zombie golem.

“What...”

But before Gerwin could finish—

“Death Bite.”

Invisible teeth tore through everything.

Clang-!

With the sound of clashing steel, dozens of heads soared into the air before plummeting to the ground.

Thud! Bang!

The undead legion, which lost its balance as it charged, was now sprawled across the arena floor. Its initial grandiose momentum was completely gone, leaving a pitiful sight that made Gerwin’s eyes widen in disbelief in its place.

This is... impossible.

With a single spell, every undead had fallen. There was no elaborate casting or magic array, they had all fallen with just two words.

The sight before him was nearly impossible to believe, and in a moment of shock, he found himself stepping back. Realizing what he had done, he bit down hard.

No, it’s not over yet!

Ordinary summons might not be recoverable, but undead could be reanimated with his mana as many times as needed. With that thought, he immediately used Rest of the Dead to gather his mana again.

However, before he could gather his mana, another red magic array encircled his neck.

Clang-!

“Ugh!”

As if his neck were being severed, an incredible pain erupted.

He fell to the ground, the pain making him unable to do anything, and looked at his neck with a pale face.

Craaack-

The barrier created by his equipment, which easily blocked magic attacks from the third-year top-ranking student of the Department of Elements, had been destroyed by more than half with a single strike.

It hurts this much even though the barrier blocked her attack...

With that thought, he naturally began wondering what would have happened if he had been hit without any protection. His gaze turned to the decapitated undead, and an intense tremble shot throughout his body.

Something’s... not right.... This is strange...

No matter how he thought about it, this level of power was abnormal. And why was she completely unaffected despite Vier’s claim that she would be weakened?

Maybe this was all his plan from the beginning...

Perhaps Vier hadn’t come to help him, but to cut him off. The multitude of doubts that started blooming in Gerwin’s mind bewildered him.

“That barrier.”

Unnoticed to Gerwin who had been occupied by the pain and his thoughts, Luize had managed to approach him.

“It looks pretty sturdy.”

“Wait... hold on...”

“Set-”

But before he could finish speaking, dozens of red magic arrays densely covered his entire body. The terrifying sight made his eyes widen in shock, and he turned pleadingly toward her.

“Revenge Bite.”

Ignoring him, she twisted her lips and unleashed the incantation from behind the mask.

Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch!!!

Dozens of invisible teeth savagely tore into him, shredding the barriers and equipment alike, only stopping when his entire body had been gruesomely chewed up.

Although his body was still intact, the tremendous amount of pressure had crushed his bones and pulverized his muscles and magic circuits.

Under normal circumstances, the duel would have been interrupted the moment he experienced such an impactful attack, but a “coincidental” malfunction in the power room had delayed the response by about a second.

Boom-!

When the arena’s protective system finally activated to block her magic—

“Cough... cough...”

There was only something barely alive lying in utter ruin atop the arena.

[Winner: Luize Valente]

The arena’s duel system declared the winner on the floating screen, but there wasn’t a single cheer. Everyone had been stunned speechless by the power and cruelty of her Incantation Magic, which was far beyond anything they knew.

Amidst that deafening silence, she silently faced the camera.

“If you want to pick a fight with me, just know that this is how you’re going to end up.”

It was a flawless comeback.