Chapter 138

There was a brief gap, but it was nothing more than an instant.

The Abyss flickered in the lower and upper jaws of the Abyss Dragon.

Snap—

The moment the two jaws met!

Boommmm────!!!

The Strike of Deeper Darkness plunged straight into the back of the Thunder Beak Bird.

Squeee…

The Thunder Beak Bird was rendered unable to fight just like that.

The Abyss Dragon roared confidently at the Heavenly Sword Peacock King.

Kwooooo───!

Though still a young dragon, it possessed a majesty that made the knees of listeners tremble.

[This is what a protagonist is!]

The Abyss Dragon seemed highly satisfied with the role it played.

─ …….

There was no longer any cheering or anxiety in the arena.

Just silence.

From driving back two medium-to-large holy beasts utilizing only the Heavenly Sword Peacock King after the match started.

To rendering the opponent’s attacker unable to fight in a single blow with the Abyss Dragon’s strike.

They could not even react to the overwhelming presence of the two divine beasts and the flow of the match that proceeded as if following a pre-written script.

“……Does this make any sense?”

Harden asked implicitly.

He had watched Holy War for five thousand years, but he had never seen anything like this.

No matter how good his talent and divine beasts were, a freshman who had just entered the academy took down the senior class captain?

And while completely ignoring the weight class difference?

No matter how outstanding the holy magic—which actually looked like black magic—of the Abyss Dragon and the ability of the Heavenly Sword Peacock King were, it would have surely been a losing fight without Roan’s tactics utilizing them.

For Harden, who knew Roan’s true identity all too well, it was even more baffling.

‘That rascal is doing Holy War on top of black magic?’

This level was not inferior to the youth of many past Holy War champions of the Darc family.

Why on earth did a fellow like that have to become a black mage!

It would have been fine if he had become a priest or a professional Holy War player, anything else!

Vulcan nodded and spoke.

“This is ‘Darc.’”

The words, ‘Looking at you, one would think the Professor is from the Darc family,’ rose to the tip of Harden’s throat, but he endured it with effort out of respect for Vulcan.

‘Is there really such a thing as instinct in Holy War?’

Harden found it absurd.

He did not want to believe Vulcan’s words, but otherwise, there was no way a battle of that manner—drawing out even the potential of a divine beast and utilizing it immediately—could be possible.

…Of course, as Harden thought, there was no such thing as instinct in Holy War.

Roan had simply used the skills he knew.

Buo—?

In any case, Denver had only one Giant Tree Elephant left.

The remaining Giant Tree Elephant, not yet fully recovered from the paralysis, blinked its large eyes and stepped back slowly.

‘Should I test the Black Sword too? Although I don’t know the activation word yet.’

Roan intended to try using the final remaining black feather form now.

In any case, the outcome of the match was already decided.

There was no better time than now to use a form he was unfamiliar with in actual combat.

However,

Rumble—!

“Stop! We’ll end it here!”

Vulcan’s lightning struck down between the divine and holy beasts.

Continuing the match further in this situation would only lead to a one-sided outcome.

“Uh… Roan Darc wins!”

Sherry looked slightly disappointed, but she could not ignore the Professor’s words and declared the end of the match.

Denver looked blankly back and forth between the fallen Thunder Beak Bird and the frightened Giant Tree Elephant, but soon regained his senses and trudged over to Roan.

“Senior Denver. Thank you for the match—”

Seeing Denver approaching him, Roan had intended to give a normal greeting.

Clank—

Denver pulled handcuffs out of his pocket and put them on his own wrists.

“Join.”

“…….”

Roan looked up at Denver with a bewildered expression.

It seemed he was completely serious.

Leap— Thud—!

“Denver. Keep it moderate.”

At that moment, Vulcan, who had leaped down from the spectator seats straight to the arena in one breath, approached.

‘Since Harden is watching after all, even Vulcan can’t do anything.’

Roan looked at Vulcan, thinking it was a relief.

…Handcuffs were already locked on his hands as well.

“You should recruit him with me with a moderate determination to die.”

“Those are extremely reasonable words, Professor.”

Thus, the advising professor and the captain stood side by side in handcuffs before Roan.

“What a bunch of immoderately crazy bastards.”

It was to the point that even Harden spoke like this.

“Principal, you spoke in a spoken voice. Not through the Gospel.”

Roan informed Harden while looking at him in bewilderment.

“Ah. Pardon me, Professor Vulcan.”

Only then did Harden realize his mistake and apologize.

─ If they go to that extent, shouldn’t he join out of conscience?

At that moment, someone’s comment slipped out unconsciously from the spectator seats.

Following the consecutive restraint performances of Vulcan and Denver, Roan also felt embarrassed to just feign ignorance anymore.

‘……Still, since I even received a divine beast.’

In any case, the Heavenly Sword Peacock King would surely be a great asset.

“……If it’s as a guest player, I will consider it once.”

““We did it!!!””

When Roan spoke like that, Vulcan and Denver broke their handcuffs just with that and hugged each other in joy.

‘If they were going to do that, why do they keep putting on handcuffs?’

Crackleee—

“Ugh… Pro… we did…”

Denver, who was electrocuted by Vulcan’s lightning, rejoiced even while convulsing.

Swish—

“Tsk, tsk. Pathetic.”

Harden clicked his tongue and separated the two with holy magic.

“Roan. I watched the match well.”

At that moment, Hector, who had been acting as the assistant referee, came to his side and spoke to Roan.

‘Why is this guy suddenly pretending to be normal?’

He had thought Hector would surely be wailing, ‘Why are those guys not banned, but only my holy beasts are!’ or ‘Crybaby, Sil-sil-ie, we are together forever!’

“However, there were a few flaws from a tactical standpoint. It was good that the Abyss Dragon stayed out of sight and waited, but it was sloppy. To strive for more perfection, you should have used stealth holy magic…”

But once Hector began babbling on, he realized it right away.

‘He’s actually crazier.’

Looking closely, his eyes had turned like those of a rotten pollack, indicating he had completely lost his sanity at some point.

“In the case of the Heavenly Sword Peacock King, if you had cast gigantification—Keehehrrrrkghhh!”

Hector, who was babbling increasingly ridiculous things, let out a strange shriek at some point and collapsed sideways.

‘It wasn’t me, though?’

Roan looked around, wondering who else besides himself had used such a wicked method on Hector.

Even so, to cast a punishing holy spell on a friend without permission!

…It was a sentiment akin to ‘If my friend was going to be knocked down, I should be the one to do it.’

“Pavilto has a lot of stiff muscles. I loosened them with holy magic.”

However, once he realized it was Harden’s doing, Roan decided to just stay quiet.

‘Was he referring to the muscles in his brain?’

Thinking about it, such actions could also be considered an aspect of a fine educator.

At any rate, having quieted the commotion, Harden wrapped up the situation with a principal’s skillfulness.

“Professor Vulcan, Denver. You two are arrested red-handed for illegal club promotion. Go cool your heads until the weekend.”

“Hahaha! I have no regrets!”

“Thank you, Darc! See you later!”

Vulcan and Denver were first-class individuals, not losing their smiles even as they were dragged away by the Paladins.

“The rest of the students, gather around again! I will end the class.”

The students in the spectator seats all came down to the arena.

“Uh? Why was I lying down?”

“……Do you really not remember, Hector?”

Hector, who had collapsed after being hit by Harden’s holy spell, also quickly got up and joined.

It was a bonus that Harden wore a bewildered expression at his immense recovery ability.

***

After the class on divine and holy beasts ended, the students flocked to the commercial district for lunch.

Roan’s group was no exception.

However, unlike usual, the commercial district was slightly noisier.

“There are so many more holy beasts now.”

Lafia spoke, looking around in wonder.

Not only the freshmen but also the enrolled students carried holy beasts with them in a significantly higher proportion.

─ Look, look over there. It’s a real Abyss Dragon.

─ They say those guys have three more divine beasts besides the Abyss Dragon…

Roan’s group, carrying all kinds of rare holy beasts as well as four divine beasts—including the Purgatory Penitence Beast—naturally drew attention, but thanks to the overall atmosphere, it was not to an excessive degree.

Roan explained.

“Before the freshmen obtain their first holy beasts, the enrolled students also tend to refrain from accompanying their holy beasts.”

“Oh~ Are the seniors being considerate of us?”

Demona looked at the seniors as if it were unexpected.

“No, because they might steal them.”

“???”

“Well, it isn’t that common an occurrence.”

“……I don’t think that’s the issue here.”

Regardless of whether it was common or not, wasn’t the fact that someone would steal a holy beast at school a problem in itself?

However, just as Roan said, such things did exist.

If freshmen whose eyes had rolled back due to Holy War secretly took ordinary holy beasts that were not very conspicuous, fed them lots of delicious food, and put them to sleep well, the master could change.

This was because ordinary holy beasts tended to have slightly lower recognition of the master-servant relationship.

Even if caught later, if they made excuses like ‘It’s not that holy beast’ or ‘I was suddenly chosen,’ it was difficult to prove.

…Of course, since this was the Holy Academy Acherandir, it was not a truly common occurrence.

“So we must absolutely never eye other people’s holy beasts.”

While giving that advice, Roan stared intently at Hector for no reason.

Realizing the meaning of that gaze, Hector flushed and raised his voice.

“What do you take me for! The Pavilto family does not commit illegal acts like stealing holy beasts!”

“I say this because the number of detection cases for the Pavilto family is quite high.”

“……Probably.”

Speechless, Hector’s face grew even redder.

Demona patted Hector on the shoulder and spoke.

“Brother Hector, don’t worry anyway. Even if you leave your Crybaby and Sil-sil-ie in the square, no one will steal them. ……Though they might report them.”

“Don’t look down on them!”

Hector hugged the Purgatory Penitence Beast and the Thousand-Eyed Hole Serpent tightly in his arms, as if he would never hand them over to anyone.

Seeing that, Demona looked as if she were about to gag.

Even a hedgehog thought its own pups were precious, and seeing him hold creatures like that in his arms, it seemed he was indeed a true owner.

At that moment, a few seniors walking from the opposite direction of Roan and his friends.

─ Eek! Look at that guy! He’s holding a magical beast!

─ Run awayyy! No, report himmm!

The moment they saw Hector, they fled in fright.

Having suddenly become a fellow who raised a magical beast, Hector was extremely disheartened.

[Crybaby and Sil-sil-ie are nice, so why do people dislike them so much?]

The Abyss Dragon asked Roan.

Roan shrugged his shoulders.

‘There are complicated reasons.’

For instance, they couldn’t participate in Holy War.

Or they were extremely disgusting.

‘You shouldn’t expect everyone to be as fair as I am, Bell.’

[Of course!]

Bell replied energetically.

…Completely unaware that Roan was embedding the perception that he was the best master in advance, just in case.

Meanwhile, Lafia tried to comfort Hector, perhaps feeling sorry for him.

“Cheer up, Hector. Still… uh… hmm… you see…”

But she had nothing appropriate to say.

This was because even in the kind Lafia’s mind, there was no part that could be considered a good point.

A habitual consolation blurted out without much thought!

“Just don’t say anything, Lafia.”

“Okay…”

Roan and his friends quietly headed toward a restaurant.

If they had only one or two holy beasts, it wouldn’t be a big problem, but if they accompanied more than one holy beast per person, they had to find a restaurant that allowed holy beasts.

‘With this many people, that place would be good.’