Chapter 233

Roan clicked his tongue, sending them a pathetic look.

For some reason, he felt like he knew why Trian and Garland had left in such a hurry.

Since they had said they had urgent business, it must be.

‘They must be planning to prepare for the pop quiz!’

…It wasn’t that at all, but thinking of it that way made the pieces fit together.

Trian was a villain character who was constantly eyeing the position of top student of the year, trying to surpass Sion and Roan.

For a named character of that caliber, it was only natural to obtain information about the pop quiz beforehand and prepare for it.

“T-Trian, what are you planning to do!”

“How about we eat healthily on the back hill instead of the cafeteria today!”

“My thoughts exactly!”

Roan had no idea that Trian and Garland were having such a conversation.

Anyway.

‘The first-year pop quizzes are nothing special… but it’s good to see them working hard.’

Seeing Trian in person, Roan thought he wasn’t really a bad kid.

Unlike during the playthrough as Sion, he didn’t bully Roan much, and sometimes he even showed a decent side by leading other students.

Of course, he wouldn’t let his guard down until they had a perfectly friendly relationship.

…Naturally, Roan didn’t think at all that the problem lay with himself, who threw curse magic and attack magic at his fellow students.

Roan took Demona and Hector down to the cafeteria.

“Oh, Roan is here.”

“Over here!”

Rafia, Sion, and Riel were already down there.

Once Roan sat down, Rafia spoke with a serious expression as if delivering a report.

“I restored all the ground and cliffs from yesterday.”

“Confirmed…!”

Riel also nodded beside her with confidence.

In the eyes of the two students, the restoration was so flawless that no one would notice any damage.

Roan, wondering if this was really something to be so serious about, nodded slightly reluctantly.

“Y-Yes. Thanks.”

“Leave it to us in the future too!”

“No, I can’t make you do such chores.”

When Roan declined, Rafia and Riel seemed strangely touched.

*As expected, even if Roan looks like that on the outside, he is a kind kid who cares about his friends more than anyone else!*

…The two of them had not yet realized that if he were truly kind in the first place, he wouldn’t have torn up the ground and cliffs with offensive holy magic.

Listening to their conversation, Sion tilted her head and asked.

“What is that about? What did you make Rafia do, Roan?”

“Gasp, Sion! You call Roan by his name now!”

Rafia was surprised.

Until now, Sion had consistently addressed Roan as Darc, but the power of the off-campus volunteer work was indeed immense.

“It just happened…”

Sion stroked her hair awkwardly and trailed off.

*Sizzle—*

Demona and Hector glared at Sion with eyes full of intense jealousy and envy.

Roan looked at the two of them in bewilderment and asked.

“You guys already call me by my name anyway.”

“Ah?”

“That’s true!”

As expected of them.

For a moment, a thought crossed Roan’s mind: *Since I answer and solve everything for them, are these guys getting stupider?*

…It seemed highly possible.

In any case, this wasn’t the *Story of Hong Gildong*, and there was no reason she couldn’t call Roan by his name.

Considering their intimacy, Sion had actually been treating him too formally until now.

“It’s nothing… More importantly, did everyone have a good weekend?”

Roan asked the other friends, excluding Sion.

“Yes! That volunteer work you told us about was really good. The work wasn’t that hard, and the rewards were decent.”

There was no need to worry about Rafia and Riel.

“Training…”

“Yes, it’s desirable to do volunteer activities on weekends and focus on self-development in your spare time. Excellent, Riel.”

Roan quickly interpreted Riel’s words and shifted his gaze.

…It was the turn of the two people he didn’t particularly want to ask.

Of course, the two spoke up on their own even without Roan asking.

“Hmm, this interrogation was also very fruitful. I learned many techniques.”

Hector spoke with a somewhat serious expression.

Roan, who had a rough idea of why it was ‘very fruitful’ and what ‘many techniques’ he had learned, felt troubled.

“Next time, how about volunteering to clean Professor Vulcan’s breeding farm? If you do well, you might even obtain a spiritual beast.”

Hector shook his head.

“No, because she asked me to come next week as well. And isn’t a spiritual beast only meaningful if you obtain it through your own strength?”

‘Did this guy get his weakness caught by Professor Kaina or something?’

Since Hector spoke so seriously, Roan, who couldn’t adjust to it, even had such an absurd thought.

That couldn’t be it, and if he had to guess, maybe it was because he hadn’t taken Kaina’s elective class?

Of course, since it looked completely unlike Hector in the eyes of the other friends, Rafia praised him.

“Oh~ Hector, you’re kind of cool?”

“Hahaha, they say female students like men who are serious about their work.”

“…”

She then thought she shouldn’t have praised him after all.

Roan said to Hector.

“Riel is saying, ‘Good for you, obtaining Silsil-ie and Eongeongi through your own strength.'”

Suddenly summoned, Riel had a bewildered look on her face.

To others, she looked exactly as Roan had described.

“She didn’t say anything!”

However, Hector had also developed a basic level of tact from hanging out with Riel often.

Roan felt slightly disappointed that his method of indirectly criticizing Hector by using Riel was now blocked.

Instead, he changed the subject without batting an eye.

“Demona, what about you?”

“Me? I organized Professor Uli’s warehouse.”

Demona replied as if asking why he would even ask that.

However, there was a difference from before.

“I guess you’re not that scared of it anymore, Demona?”

Just as Sion pointed out, Demona spoke of Professor Uli’s warehouse with considerable ease.

Previously, she would have had a fit if anyone so much as mentioned the word ‘warehouse’.

Demona shrugged her shoulders and said.

“I don’t know, everyone in this warehouse was nice?”

“””???”””

Although they had heard it a few times, the friends still found it very awkward to judge whether the items in the warehouse were nice or bad.

‘There’s no way.’

On the other hand, Roan pondered why Demona hadn’t been attacked in the warehouse.

Unlike the small warehouse from last time, hadn’t she said she was entering a different warehouse this time?

“Did Senior Uldein teach you something?”

That was the only plausible guess for now.

…Since there was no way Uli would have taught her.

Demona brightened up and said.

“Oh, how did you know? Roan really knows everything~”

And the secret(?) she shared was quite shocking.

“Well, senior said it’s easier if you overpower the items first to establish dominance. So I went in using Light holy art from the very start, you know? And then, nobody touched me.”

“Light holy art?”

Roan tilted his head.

The method Uldein taught was certainly effective.

Because if one imprinted the fact that they were clearly the stronger one on the items in the warehouse, their aggressiveness or playfulness would usually subside a lot.

But Demona knew how to use a holy art that powerful?

“Even if it’s Light holy art… which holy art did you use?”

When Roan asked, Demona cast the holy art she had used as if showing off.

*Flasshhhhh—*

A dazzling, colorful light began to emanate from Demona’s body.

It was extremely bright, but it was a loose, noisy kind of light.

“Ugh, I can’t see!”

“It’s too bright, Demona!”

The friends shouted, each covering their eyes.

Demona turned off the light and asked triumphantly.

“How is it? Powerful, right?”

He didn’t know about powerful, but it was certainly intense.

Roan clicked his tongue and said.

“This isn’t even a holy art.”

Since she had called it a holy art, he had expected a little, but it was just her spreading light-attribute holy power all over her body.

“It is a holy art!”

“Then write down the Hilonian and glyphs you used.”

“…Is it not a holy art if it doesn’t have those?”

‘What on earth did this kid learn after coming to school?’

Roan had no words for Demona, who asked suspiciously.

Since they had learned Hilonian and glyphs starting from the very first class, for her to ask now if it wasn’t a holy art without them.

No matter how little was taught in Acherandir, in that regard, Demona had learned even less than that.

Of course, once one reached a certain level, they could use holy arts by utilizing their holy power even without those two elements.

At the very least, it wasn’t something Demona could do.

And Roan felt like he knew for sure why Demona hadn’t suffered in the warehouse.

“—Who is it? Who made this kind of relic?”

“—Disturbing my mind first thing in the morning… Uldein, you brought something weird out of the warehouse again, didn’t you!”

“—N-No, it’s not me! Someone must have raided Professor Uli’s warehouse!”

“—What crazy bastard did that?!”

Since the dormitory’s cafeteria was a public place, there were quite a few other freshmen and senior students.

…Among them was Uldein, who had been falsely accused.

They looked around, not knowing where the strange light had come from.

As could be seen from that reaction.

“…It seems they mistook you for one of the warehouse items.”

Demona had disguised herself rather than establishing dominance.

Indeed, from the perspective of the items in the warehouse, if they saw someone walking around scattering such multi-colored lights flamboyantly, they wouldn’t easily think of her as a human.

To be more precise, it was more accurate to say she hadn’t been treated as a human.

Demona smirked and asked.

“Disguise? Isn’t that harder than establishing dominance?”

“…It is harder.”

Although he hated to admit it, Roan had no choice but to nod.

Because it was indeed harder than establishing dominance.

The reason was simple.

While infiltrating Professor Uli’s warehouse by establishing dominance would trigger an alarm, disguising oneself enough to fool even the items would not trigger an alarm.

Again, though he hated to admit it, it was an extremely difficult method of infiltration.

‘I can use this usefully later.’

Roan nodded with a serious expression.

Thus, although the other friends were reluctant, they acknowledged Demona.

“I—I don’t really know, but that’s amazing, Demona…”

“Indeed…”

“Puhaha! From now on, call me the Ruler of the Warehouse!”

Demona, fully pumped up, bragged the entire time she ate bread.

“””I don’t think that’s it, though.”””

Thanks to that, the friends chose to eat their bread silently rather than having a conversation.

* * *

The Great Temple of Nerchiora, where Incarnation Anne’s basic attribute training class was held.

The freshmen gathered in small groups, talking about today’s class.

—What are we doing today?

—I hope we do Sacred Combat!

“…?”

Surprisingly, they were talking about today’s class.

“What are we really doing today?”

Fortunately, Roan’s friends weren’t at the level of expecting Sacred Combat in an attribute training class.

“From what I’ve heard, we are doing Sacred Combat!”

…Except for one person.

The friends ignored Hector, who was huffing, and turned their eyes to Roan.

Hector was also slightly dejected, but it was the same for him.

“Starting today, it’s the pop quiz.”

“A p-pop quiz?”

The friends were quite flustered by Roan’s words.

No student ever welcomed any kind of exam.

“Yes. Seeing them this morning, it seemed Trian and Garland were already preparing.”

Roan said, looking at the two sitting some distance away.

‘W-We?’

‘What is he up to?’

Trian and Garland, who faintly overheard him, trembled.

Because they had also realized, upon hearing Roan’s words, that the pop quiz week was starting today.

At that moment, Demona raised her hand.

“Just tell us. As frie… fellow freshmen.”

“Ah, is that allowed?”

“You’re saying something that would cause others to misunderstand.”

Even if it killed him, Roan refused to say the word ‘friend’ to Demona with his own mouth.