Chapter 112

Of course, Roan had no intention of retracting it.

If it wasn’t heard, so be it, and isn’t it the fault of the one who didn’t come out quickly?

Shooo—

Finally, all the holy power of the ruins was discharged.

“Now, everyone gather. We will conclude today’s class here.”

He wondered if there was by any chance any remaining holy power, but if Joy said this, it had to be seen as completely over.

‘This seedless… I even fed it a Lightning Apple!’

Just as Roan, in immense betrayal and anger, reached out to throw the egg away.

Shake— Shake—

Finally, Roan’s egg also began to shake.

‘…As expected, the protagonist appears at the very end.’

Roan instantly changed his posture from reaching out fiercely, opening the simple incubator as if handling a treasure.

Inside, there should have been a pitch-black divine beast egg… but.

Fwooooosh────!!!!!!

“””!??!?!?!!!!!?!?!?!”””

The moment he opened the incubator, a massive pillar, no less than the previous holy power discharge of the ruins, shot up from the simple incubator.

However, the reason everyone watching was shocked lay elsewhere.

It was because the pillar was an ominous black, the kind one would only see at the end of the world.

The students, unaware that the pillar originated from Roan’s egg, asked Joy.

— Assistant Joy! Does the world normally end when all holy power is discharged?

— As expected, Pavilto’s divine beast from earlier brought disaster!

“Of course not!”

If the world ended over that, it would have ended tens of thousands of times already.

‘Just what is coming out for the divine beast egg to act like this…!’

Roan was equally unable to understand the current situation.

The hatching of a divine beast was never this noisy.

Normally it was simple, like Sion’s and Hector’s.

Or when an extremely rare creature came out, there would be a single flash of light, and that was it.

But Roan’s egg didn’t stop at just the pillar.

Rrrrrumble—

Dark clouds gathered heavily in the clear sky, centering around where the pitch-black pillar shot up.

Rumble— Boom—

— Aaack! Lightning!

The area darkened in an instant, and thunderbolts began to strike near the ruins.

Most struck the tall dolmens, but that alone was more than enough to send the students into a panic.

“Students, gather around me! Hurry!”

Joy immediately gathered the students and activated a capsule-shaped relic.

It was the ‘Holy Cradle,’ a relic exclusive to Akerandir faculty that blocked most attacks and natural disasters.

Using it meant Joy perceived this situation as highly threatening.

For instance, a raid by a great black mage that the school had failed to prevent.

“A-Ah, no… not to that extent.”

Roan awkwardly tried to stop Joy.

Although the commotion was a bit excessive, this was merely the process of a divine beast hatching.

There was no way a newborn divine beast would go wild and attack people.

Crash— Boom—!

‘Well, even in my opinion, this is ridiculous.’

But as a thunderbolt began to strike right before his feet, Roan could not remain completely calm either.

The friends who had been by Roan’s side were already inside Joy’s cradle.

Roan felt a slight sense of betrayal.

‘To think I’ve taken care of kids like that until now!’

If they were going to run, they could have taken him along; did they have to sneak out by themselves so disloyally?

“Ah, Darc! Hurry and come here!”

Sion, who realized belatedly that Roan was still standing there, gestured to him.

It was already too late.

In fact, he had no intention of entering anyway.

Wouldn’t it be strange for Roan, a black mage, to enter the cradle, which was a holy power protective device?

Roan looked up at the sky where the pillar was shooting up.

Even the dark clouds gathering from all directions could not properly approach that black pillar.

Like the eye of a storm.

Or an ominous shape, as if a portal to another dimension or the demon realm had opened.

— Assistant Joy, aren’t we all going to die?

— What do we do!

“Everyone, do not panic and pray. Whatever happens, the Principal will resolve it.”

In this situation, telling them to pray might sound rather irresponsible, but it was actually an effective response.

The power of the cradle reacted with the prayers inside to grow stronger.

The students praying somehow beneath the pure white dome, strengthening the cradle.

And before the black pillar, Roan watching them, completely indifferent to the striking lightning and the howling wind.

…It was a sight that made Roan look like the Great Demon King of the demon realm raiding this world.

‘Seriously, there is not a single thing I can do in peace!’

Now, even the divine beast egg was being excessively dramatic.

Just then, a change occurred in the divine beast egg.

Stop—

The soaring pillar suddenly vanished.

But the dark clouds in the sky and the black hole in the center were still there.

The students, looking up at the sky because they couldn’t suppress their foreboding even while praying, pointed at the hole.

— A-Assistant Joy! Over there!

A shadow large enough to fill the massive hole wavered.

That shadow was gradually drawing closer to the ground.

By this point, Roan was also slightly anxious.

‘…Is something that really shouldn’t appear actually coming out?’

Looking at the pressure alone, it felt as if the top tier of the demon realm’s food chain was descending, rather than a mere divine beast.

Could it be because I fed it too much Lightning Apple solution…?

Roan debated whether he should quietly enter Joy’s cradle even now.

Although passing through the wall of holy power would hurt a bit, it would be better than dying.

Finally, the moment the massive shadow was about to emerge through the clouds!

— Aaack!

— Uwahak!

The students let out loud screams.

However.

Flutter-flutter-flutter—!

— ??????????

The students, who had acted as if the world were ending, soon could not hide their dumbfoundedness.

For all that massive shadow, what emerged from the clouds was none other than.

— …A lizard?

It was a black lizard fluttering its cute wings noisily.

In fact, it couldn’t even fly properly yet, so its appearance was closer to falling than flying.

And in this world, a lizard with wings was called:

“A dragon!”

Roan also shouted in surprise.

If it was truly a dragon, a mere fuss was not the issue.

No, rather, hadn’t it appeared far too quietly?

Moreover, upon confirming that the divine beast was a dragon, the puzzle in Roan’s mind was completed.

‘An Abyssal Dragon?’

The so-called Abyssal Dragon.

Even among dragon-type divine beasts that occasionally appeared once every 500 to 1,000 years, it was the rarest.

Unlike common black dragons—if a dragon could be called ‘common’ to begin with—the Abyssal Dragon, along with the Elemental Dragon, was the king of dragons.

The closest record was about 5,000 years ago.

All it was was that during the Age of Gods and Humans, Harden chased away a newly born Abyssal Dragon because it was blocking the mountain.

Since then, the Abyssal Dragon had never been spotted by human eyes.

And the birth legend of that ancient dragon was extremely similar to the scene he had just thought of as dramatic.

He just hadn’t recalled it earlier because he didn’t think a dragon could possibly hatch.

In any case, Roan caught the fast-approaching—or rather, falling—Abyssal Dragon just in time.

Flutter— Flutter—

The Abyssal Dragon flapped its wings continuously, seemingly quite surprised even after being held in his arms.

“If it was going to be like this, you should have been born a bit more quietly.”

Roan scolded the Abyssal Dragon as naturally as breathing.

If it hadn’t caused that commotion, he would have received the blessing fully.

And the moment the Abyssal Dragon entered Roan’s arms, the sky that had looked like the end of the world returned to normal like magic.

Only then did Joy deactivate the cradle, and the students swarmed around Roan.

— Is, is that really a divine beast?

— Didn’t Darc summon it with black magic?

— Hey! How could Darc use black magic?

— …Right…

The students still seemed to find the current situation hard to believe.

“Student Darc, just how did this…?”

Joy was equally unable to grasp it properly.

In the first place, not to mention the Abyssal Dragon, the birth of a dragon itself was from a past so distant that those who hadn’t majored in it wouldn’t know well.

“I don’t know well either, but it seems a black dragon was born as my divine beast.”

Roan quickly checked Joy’s reaction and deliberately tried to hide the Abyssal Dragon’s identity.

Perhaps because of the Elemental Dragon, the Abyssal Dragon had a strong image as an evil dragon among people.

…Though that was the case for black dragons too.

At any rate, its rarity was one thing, and there was no benefit in having it known as an Abyssal Dragon for no reason.

Besides, when young, both black dragons and Abyssal dragons were equally black anyway.

Just then, Demona asked Joy.

“Assistant Joy, do dragons normally hatch so noisily?”

“Uh… I don’t know well either. Dragons are so rare…”

Joy shook her head.

Her major was strictly general history.

There was a separate academic discipline called the History of Divine and Spirit Beasts.

“As expected of Roan~ you flustered Assistant Joy again, didn’t you?”

“…The one who flustered her was you, though.”

Roan scolded Demona, asking whom she was blaming.

“R-Roan. Can I touch it just once?”

“M-Me too!”

Just then, Rafia and Sion approached Roan with trembling eyes.

A dragon, a legendary divine beast, was that special of a being.

Roan nodded readily.

“Go ahead. The chance to see a ‘black dragon’ won’t be very common.”

Roan putting special emphasis on ‘black dragon’!

It was a detail to plant the perception in the students’ minds in advance that this dragon was a black dragon.

“Cold…”

Unlike normal divine beasts, the Abyssal Dragon’s skin was extremely cold.

Sion and Rafia felt awe as they carefully stroked the dragon.

The Abyssal Dragon made a “kyahat—” sound, showing wariness, but soon grew docile.

— Darc, m-me too, just once…

— Me too…

A few brave students approached after that.

Roan nodded every time.

“Sure, just be careful not to stress the ‘black dragon’.”

— Of course. A black dragon shouldn’t be stressed already…

Just as the rumor that ‘Roan’s divine beast was a black dragon’ was about to spread widely among the students.

Vrooooom───!!!

From far away, toward the school, something flew rapidly while making a noisy sound.

“Assissssstant Jooooooy!!!”

It was Professor Timothy.

Timothy approached furiously while wearing a hat with a propeller on top.

“Oh, the professor has arrived.”

Joy let out a sigh of relief and prepared to greet Timothy.

For a term assistant to handle, the events that transpired in this class were far too numerous and massive.

‘It should be hard for that hat to generate that much power, though.’

Meanwhile, Roan wondered if Timothy was speeding.

Putt-putt-putt— Bang!

Sure enough, the hat, which had been emitting ominous black smoke, soon exploded with a loud bang.

“Keheok!”

Although Timothy plunged toward the ground, like a veteran archaeologist, he rolled along the dirt floor to reach the ruins.

…Though it still seemed like it would hurt quite a bit.

Joy, as if accustomed to it, did not mind the crash and tried to report.

“Professor, what do you mean by just activating the ruins and disappearing? In any case, the ruins this time…”

“That doesn’t matter anyway! I knew all about it!”

The students looked at Professor Timothy with dumbfounded faces.

‘He knew and just went anyway?’