Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Not long after returning to the dormitory and trying to sleep, Roan opened his eyes again.

It was already time for the sun to rise.

Roan looked out the window, feeling a strange sensation.

‘It has already been a few days since I possessed this body.’

Since waking up with black magic awakened and immediately entering Acherandir, up until now.

He felt as if he had run mindlessly without even being able to set a proper plan.

— …!!!

— …?? …!!

The noisy commotion outside his private room could no longer distract Roan in the slightest.

‘It seems Demona is picking a fight with Hector again.’

It was a normal morning.

‘First, let’s organize what I need to do.’

In fact, since he had entered the Holy Academy with a black magic talent value of 100, there was one black magic spell that he absolutely had to use to take care of his body.

‘I need to make a Life Vessel.’

The ultimate black magic, and the eternal dream of black mages who dreamed of immortality.

However, strictly speaking, a Life Vessel was actually closer to the opposite of immortality.

‘To turn myself into an undead, there’s no way I can do such a thing.’

Instead, the Life Vessel would absorb all of the caster’s remaining life force without exception and trap it permanently, turning the caster into a lich.

Roan had no intention of roaming around Acherandir as a gaunt skeleton.

Not only did he already have one, but becoming such a thing was absolutely out of the question.

‘…With False Divinity, I might be able to make myself look like a holy skeleton.’

But what would be the point?

The fact that he was undead would not change.

Anyway, for that reason, he immediately gave up on making a normal Life Vessel.

Instead, what Roan was looking at was the ancient black magic, ‘Shackle of Grey Life.’

It was similar to a Life Vessel, but without the need to become an undead, the caster’s life was fixed at the moment of its creation, and upon death, they would return to the body they had at that time while retaining their mana.

Furthermore, the fact that it could not be destroyed unless by divinity of a specialized authority level was also one of this spell’s cheat-like elements.

However, the disadvantage was that once made, it was fixed in the space most closely related to the caster’s fate at the time of creation, making it impossible to recreate or move the vessel.

Since it was on a completely different level from the basic black magic spells he had used so far, the first priority was to obtain the magic book to find out the exact magic circle and the necessary reagents.

‘Above all, to get that magic book, I need to obtain the authority of the ‘Administrator of the Forbidden Library’…’

The fact that the prerequisite was an authority was a bit of a pressure.

‘Since I can also obtain other black magic, I must get it no matter what.’

But Roan had no other choices.

In other words, the Forbidden Library was a place overflowing with the black magic knowledge Roan needed!

Just like how he obtained False Divinity, authority did not discriminate against the user’s type of mana, so there was no better place for self-study.

Since he could not use holy magic, he had to delve into black magic, but he could not exactly go to Professor Belec and ask him to teach him black magic, could he?

Fortunately, this authority was unique in that it did not have to be searched for somewhere, but was rather summoned by gathering the ingredients.

And if it was Acherandir, he could obtain all the necessary ingredients.

‘For now, the hardest ingredient to obtain has already been secured.’

Roan took out a small glass bottle hidden in the desk drawer.

Inside it, a single drop of sparkling silver liquid was contained.

Tears of Harden.

He had remembered the spot where the tears fell when Harden was laughing his head off, and collected them on his way back.

‘I went through so much trouble gathering it directly, fearing I would get caught if I used holy magic!’

Considering Harden’s actions so far, there was a possibility he would have said, ‘Tears? Here, take it, you pervert,’ but Roan could not bring himself to be that shameless.

He was not Demona, after all.

“I’ll look for the rest of the ingredients slowly… I should head out for now.”

Even though it was early morning, the commotion heard from outside was unusual.

It was too heated to be called a normal fight between Hector and Demona.

“Bring that egg here right now! I’m going to roast and eat it! How dare you insult our club!”

“Sure~ You can’t even touch it~ Take it if you can~”

“Grr…!”

Hector, whose anger reached the top of his head, and Demona, who was teasing him while holding the egg out towards him.

Hector huffed and puffed, but shrank back hesitantly as if he was afraid to touch the egg.

“You heretical bastard!”

“Huh? Isn’t someone who doesn’t even have a common spiritual beast egg the real heretic?”

Snap—

A snapping sound was heard, and then,

Hector could no longer hold back and roared like a wild bear.

“My axe! Where is my axe?!”

“Guys, guys, stop! We have to get ready for class now!”

Caught in the middle, Beanin was waving his hands, not knowing what to do.

Roan calmly thought as he watched the scene.

‘Hmm. Never mind the Administrator of the Forbidden Library, I just want to go back first.’

If he ever went back to Earth, he would start by beating those two guys to a pulp!

***

Saint Percivalun Hall.

This was one of the largest buildings in Acherandir, closer to a stadium built for holy war-related classes.

In the first place, Percivalun was also a legendary holy warrior who achieved the status of a saint 4,000 years ago solely based on his records in the holy war.

The freshmen gathered in the main arena of Percivalun Hall were all excited and buzzing.

— Are we getting our spiritual beast eggs now?

— What kind of egg will we get?

— I heard that if we are lucky, we can even aim for a divine beast egg!

Like excellent imperial nobles who would die for the holy war, they seemed more interested in the eggs that would allow them to participate in the holy war than in the class itself.

At that moment, Roan, Hector, and Demona appeared in the main arena.

Normally, Roan would have received the most attention by far, but this time was an exception.

“Hahaha! Hahahaha!”

Demona, who entered first while laughing loudly.

He made a triumphant entrance, holding the Fanatic Rabbit King’s egg high above his head.

‘Who would be envious when everyone else will get their eggs next week anyway?’

Roan looked at Demona with pitiful eyes.

Surely, there would be very few people who could recognize the Fanatic Rabbit King’s egg…

— Look at that! It’s the Fanatic Rabbit King’s egg!

— What? The legend of the speedster?

— Did that Wycrnon bastard borrow his family’s power?

However, contrary to Roan’s expectations, the students recognized the identity of the egg Demona was holding at once.

Roan was astonished.

‘Why on earth did these bastards enter Acherandir?’

If they were going to be like that, they might as well have joined a Holy War club’s youth team!

Anyone would think so seeing how kids who struggled to even use basic healing holy spells could identify a rare spiritual beast egg in an instant.

“Hmph, a rabbit that uses black magic wouldn’t even be accepted into the Holy War League.”

“Oh, Hector.”

Roan was impressed by Hector’s words, which sounded like a relatively normal reaction.

He also seemed overly obsessed with the Holy War, but compared to those guys…

“It must definitely be a fellow that uses black magic. No, it has to be.”

‘He was more envious than anyone else.’

However, he was soon disappointed and abandoned his expectations.

He realized he should have known better than to expect anything from Hector.

Just then, Hector looked at Roan and spoke.

“Roan, I will also receive an egg today, right? It will surely be incomparable to something like the Fanatic Rabbit King.”

However, Roan shook his head.

“Too bad. It probably won’t happen today.”

“?”

Hector wore a puzzled expression, wondering what that meant.

However, just as Roan said, the challenge and contract the students were looking forward to would be pushed to the second week.

Because it had always been that way.

Thud—!

At that moment, a large, whitish figure seemed to leap from the spectator stands and landed in the arena with a heavy sound.

— What is it? What’s going on?

The sound of students buzzing.

The one who appeared after the dust cleared was a half-beastman of the medium-sized spiritual beast, ‘Lightning Bear,’ Professor Vulcan Brazdok.

Although smaller than a real Lightning Bear, his height easily exceeded two meters, and his overwhelming presence, filled with muscles and yellowish-white fur, was tremendous.

“Nice to meet you. I am Professor Vulcan Brazdok.”

Most students reacted with, ‘Huh? He was a professor?’

“Wow, he must be a professor who personally fought in the Holy War!”

And Demona far exceeded the scope of a normal reaction.

The surrounding students turned to look at Demona with expressions saying, ‘That’s not it.’

It was the same for Roan.

‘In the first place, it’s a class on divine beasts and spiritual beasts, not a Holy War class.’

He doubted whether these guys even knew the proper name of the class.

“Actually, I did submit an application, but they said no.”

Meanwhile, Professor Vulcan smacked his lips with a face dripping with lingering regret.

Roan more or less knew this, but it was quite shocking to the other students.

— W-Well, I guess it would be even stranger if they allowed it.

— No, but still, does anyone normally think about personally participating in the Holy War?

Ignoring the students’ buzzing, Vulcan created a podium using holy magic and stood on top of it.

He then looked at the egg Demona was holding with intrigued eyes.

“Is that the Fanatic Rabbit King’s egg?”

“Yes!”

“I’ll give you 500 talents right now. Hand it over to me.”

“…?”

Not only the other students who heard those words, but even Demona looked up at Professor Vulcan with bewildered eyes.

Setting aside buying a spiritual beast egg with talents.

Was that something a professor should say?

‘Isn’t it human trafficking when a hybrid spiritual beast professor acts like that?’

Roan even had such thoughts.

“I don’t want to!”

Demona, who had contemplated for a moment, shook his head.

As he glanced at Hector, it seemed less about having grown attached to the egg, and more about not wanting to lose the ultimate tool to tease Hector.

Of course, Hector, who noticed this fact, ground his teeth.

“If you had said you’d sell it immediately, I would have fined you 500 talents.”

“???”

Vulcan nodded, smiling with satisfaction.

Demona let out a sigh of relief and whispered to Roan.

“Whew. If it had been 1,000 talents, I would have struggled to decide. Thank goodness. I did well, right, Roan?”

Roan nodded with a lukewarm expression.

It was indeed a relief.

“I assume you all like the Holy War?”

— Yes!

— Of course!

The students answered Professor Vulcan’s question almost with a cheer.

It was by far the most enthusiastic response among all the classes so far.

“I will dedicate my life, Professor!”

‘…How did this guy have a route of becoming an inquisitor more than 50% of the time?’

Roan was left speechless by Hector’s extremely passionate display.

At this rate, wasn’t he a 100% professional Holy War player?

Anyway, Vulcan nodded heavily and threw the next question.

“And you probably think you should take good care of spiritual beasts and divine beasts with love!”

— That’s right!

— They’re family!

“Shut up! Throw away all such thoughts!”

— …

The students, who had also been cheering in response, shut their mouths instantly.

They felt that if they failed to read the room, the terrifying Lightning Bear beastman’s front paws would tear them to pieces.

“Affection without reward and superficial consideration are rather hypocritical! Did you intend to face the Holy War with such weak-minded thoughts!”

‘No, I told you, this isn’t a Holy War class…’

Roan corrected his thoughts.

It seemed that not only the students, but even the professor did not know the proper name of this class.

Well, it was already an expected situation.

The basic divine beast and spiritual beast class taught by Vulcan was also the first reason Roan had grown sick of the Holy War.

“Spiritual beasts and divine beasts are not princesses for whom you should offer your liver and gall bladder! Always give precise commands and set clear rewards!”

Every time Vulcan shouted, lightning crackled around his mouth.

“Otherwise, those precious friends will only grow weak! What is the point of raising them like royalty and sending them to the Holy War? They will just get beaten to a pulp and come back crying! Is that the result you bastards want?”

Heated by Vulcan’s passionate speech, the students began to grow more and more swayed.

— No!

— We cannot tolerate that!

“What is it that you want!”

— Victory!

— Only victory!

The students shouted, each raising one hand high in the air.

‘Crazy professor and crazy students. They are still the same.’

Roan shook his head in disbelief at the absurd scene.

“…”

Then, Roan’s eyes met Sion’s, who had also backed away to the very rear before he knew it.

Although the two had somehow only grown more distant since admission, at this moment, they felt a deep sense of camaraderie.

Nod!

Roan and Sion nodded at the same time as if they had made a promise.

‘These people are definitely crazy!’

‘This class is definitely crazy!’

Sion, who was not from the empire, was also set up to be unfamiliar with the empire’s excessive love for the Holy War, just like Roan.

People of the kingdoms surrounding the empire liked the Holy War, but they still had some common sense.

‘As expected, the only normal person here is Sion.’

In this way, Roan recharged his affection for the character he had nurtured last.

“Good! That’s the spirit! Look! I will show you the basics of spiritual beast training!”

Meanwhile, as Vulcan roughly swung his paw to cast holy magic, the entrance gate on one side of the arena opened, and a medium-sized spiritual beast entered.

It was a Holy Light Wild Boar, flashing with light whenever it ran.

‘It looks even more out of its mind in person.’

Drooling from its mouth, it stamped its front hooves on the ground, ready to charge at any moment.

Vulcan spread his arms wide toward the Holy Light Wild Boar.

Then he let out a battle cry.

“Now, come on—!”

To be precise, he tried to let it out.

Before the battle cry could even finish, the Holy Light Wild Boar dashed forward and rushed toward Vulcan.

‘It’s Shattering Charge.’

Roan nodded.

It seemed like a simply incredibly fast charge.

But seeing a faint light envelop its fur and fine cracks form along its path, it was definitely the creature’s ultimate skill, Shattering Charge.

‘Is it okay to use that kind of skill on your master?’

By the time Roan felt such doubt, a huge flash of light slammed into Vulcan’s chest.

Crash—!

However, Vulcan’s massive body did not budge in the slightest.

“Still light!”

The eyes of the Holy Light Wild Boar, which had seemed slightly out of its mind, trembled a bit.

It already knew what would happen next.

Vulcan stopped the Holy Light Wild Boar’s charge and instead slammed it with his own shoulder.

Squeeek—!

The Holy Light Wild Boar was blown away with a shriek.

However, after landing magnificently, it used Shattering Charge toward Vulcan once more.

Crash—!

This time, the impact was enough to force even Vulcan half a step back!

“Yes, this is it! Hit me harder with your anger!”

Someone might think it was hearty, but most of the students were…

— Hey, is that okay?

— Isn’t that animal abuse?

— W-Well, they’re both beasts, so…

Forgetting that this was the class they had looked forward to, they could only buzz in worry.

Squeeek—!

In the meantime, the Holy Light Wild Boar was blown away once more.

Perhaps it was hit harder this time, as it could not get back up and panted, collapsed on the floor.

Whew— whew—

Vulcan strode toward the Holy Light Wild Boar with a cold expression.

— Hey, call another professor!

— But even if we call a professor, can they stop him? He’s a Lightning Bear!

The students looked extremely flustered because they had seen how Vulcan treated the Holy Light Wild Boar.

Step—

However, once Vulcan actually reached the Holy Light Wild Boar, he knelt on one knee.

He then tended to its wounds with a high-level healing holy spell and even fed it a snack he pulled out from his pocket.

“Pudungi, try a bit harder next time.”

“Squee.”

He even stroked the boar’s bristles with his rough hands!

‘Pudungi with that massive size…’

Roan found the name of the Holy Light Wild Boar, which was even larger than Vulcan, absurd once again.

Vulcan spoke to the students in a loud voice.

“Did you see? This is how you train spiritual beasts.”

Just then, a student raised their hand and asked a question.

— Professor! Didn’t you just say that affection and consideration make spiritual beasts weak?

“Who is it! Who just said such nonsense! Is it you?!”

Then Vulcan rushed toward the students, sparks flying from his eyes.

The student who had raised their hand was caught before they could even think of putting it down.

— B-But the Professor said…

“Do you not even know a warrior’s pride! How is this unrewarded kindness?!”

Roan nodded.

‘Since they are clergymen, they wouldn’t normally know a warrior’s pride, but that is the point.’

Vulcan did not stop there and continued to intimidate him.

“You bloodless, tearless bastard! Are you some evil black mage? No, even a black mage wouldn’t say such cruel things!”

— Y-Yes?

The student, who had suddenly become worse than a black mage, even had tears welling up in his eyes.

“If training is a sturdy skeleton, then balanced nutrition! Proper physical recovery! These two are the muscles that support the bones! Do you understand, you skeleton-like fellow!”

However, the other students who were listening instead shed tears of emotion.

— P-Professor…!

— Ah, I underestimated a warrior’s pride too much…

As if they had failed to realize Vulcan’s deep intentions earlier.

Of course, Roan and Sion, who absolutely did not think of Vulcan beating the beast as a sacred duel, were dumbfounded.

Moreover, Roan clenched his fists in indignation.

‘I mean, what did black mages even do for everyone to go on like this everywhere…!’

Did black mages capture spiritual beasts and conduct cruel experiments on them?

Did they launch terrorist attacks on the Holy War League?

‘Ah, actually, they did.’

Of course, he couldn’t say it had never happened, but the majority of black mages lived peacefully in the mountains for their entire lives, getting along well with divine beasts and spiritual beasts without causing trouble.

Meanwhile, after instructing the student who asked the rude question to stroke Pudungi for ten minutes, Vulcan informed them of today’s class content.

“Now, today each of you will take charge of one trained spiritual beast and spend time educating it, and then we will form temporary groups to conduct individual matches.”

— Ohhh!!

Although they did not receive the eggs they had expected, the students cheered at the mention of a mock Holy War.

“Holy War, Holy War!”

Hector was also puffing hard, looking extremely excited.

“You won’t receive the egg, is that fine?”

“That kind of thing can be delayed a bit! Didn’t he say we get to play in the Holy War?!”

Hector nodded repeatedly at Roan’s question.

Roan clicked his tongue.

‘What hypocrites!’

Talking about family and whatnot on the outside, while having the hypocrisy of only caring about playing in the Holy War on the inside!

Roan thought that if it weren’t for the clauses in the imperial law prohibiting gambling, he could make a fortune by betting on the Holy War League.

‘…I’m a black mage, so shouldn’t it be fine for me?’

…Surprisingly, it seemed worth researching seriously.

In any case, while Vulcan opened the gates to let the spiritual beasts in, he pointed at Demona and spoke.

“You rest, as the egg you contracted with might get jealous.”

At that, Demona grinned brightly.

“Still, can’t I participate in the Holy War with the egg? It’s good at electric attacks too!”

Vulcan growled, wearing an expression of genuine disgust despite having a bear’s face.

“I. Said. To. Rest.”

Judging by his expression and tone, if Demona did not rest, Vulcan had plenty of intention to make him rest in peace forever.

“Yes, sir.”

Demona nodded immediately and headed to the spectator stands, holding the egg tightly in his arms.