Chapter 259

Chapter 259

“Anyway, that is my plan, so keep it in mind.”

Zorv waved his hand at Roan, telling him not to act modest and that he could go back to his seat.

“Yes, thank you.”

Roan, although suspicious, accepted and tucked away the money since it was essentially free cash for now.

However, a moment later, Zorv, who was grading his section, whispered with Yusina and called Roan again.

“……Roan, could you come over here again.”

“What is it this time?”

Roan walked back, wondering what it was this time.

Swish—

……This time, it was 100 gold.

“Just hand over all the copyrights to this test paper. I think I’ll have a use for them soon.”

“I still won’t take charge of the Dragon Street.”

“I told you it’s not because of that… well, let’s talk about that later.”

Judging by his tone as if the Dragon Street didn’t matter at all, it seemed he really only gave him the copyright fee.

Roan accepted and tucked away the 100-gold check as well, then returned next to Sion.

‘110 gold is definitely worth taking an exam!’

Sion asked Roan with a dumbfounded expression.

“Roan, what on earth did you write on the test paper?”

“Well, I just briefly wrote my thoughts, but the seniors are making a bit of a fuss.”

‘You wrote briefly and they suddenly gave you money…?’

Sion thought, ‘Even so, does that make any sense?’

Indeed, it made no sense.

And hadn’t Sion also written her thoughts diligently?

Hearing Roan’s peaceful words, Yusina and Zorv whipped their heads around and glared at him.

‘That’s not it!’

However, the two of them tightly held back, fearing that saying anything more here would make it a fuss just as Roan said.

Meanwhile, Nia, who was quietly grading her own section.

She portioned Roan’s grading, she quietly put down the test paper.

“Oh, Nia. Did you finish grading?”

“…….”

Yusina asked with a smile, but Nia did not answer.

Yusina grew somewhat anxious at that sight.

Nia turned her head silently and stared at Roan.

Stare—

She simply stared.

With an extremely intense gaze.

“Nia, don’t tell me you…”

Yusina had seen that look of Nia’s a few times before.

It was the same for Roan.

The gaze of a hound that had spotted its prey!

‘Crazy!’

Roan quickly raised his dark mana after checking Nia’s posture.

Rumble—

“Kyaah! Roan, what is this—”

Before Sion could even grasp the situation, Nia shouted loudly.

“Let’s go to nature with me!”

And then.

Crash—!

With just a single step, she rushed right under Roan’s nose in an instant.

Judging by the way she opened her arms wide like a wild beast, she intended to kidnap (?) Roan just like that and escape the club room.

[M-Master is getting kidnapped again!]

Chirp—!!

Bell and Charlotte were also startled, but Nia was already on the verge of achieving her goal.

“If I only kidnap you… Bell and Charlotte are a bonus!”

Drip, drip—

Seeing Nia salivating while speaking like that, Roan was somehow reminded of a certain professor.

‘Shield of the Dead! Rotten Hand of the Dead!’

Roan used a defensive spell and a curse spell as emergency measures.

Hands rising from the ground grabbed Nia’s legs, and a shield manifested between the two.

“Ugh—”

Nia’s expression also contorted as if the Rotten Hand of the Dead was quite painful, but that was all.

“Into the embrace of nature!”

Snap— Crash—!

‘Is she a druid or a berserker?’

Nia shook off the Rotten Hand of the Dead and lunged at Roan.

Of course, the significance of using the magic was sufficient just by delaying her for a brief moment.

That was because…

Swish—

“Nia! No kidnapping!”

Yusina, who had arrived next to Roan using spatial holy magic, unfolded her holy power as if protecting him.

Hummm—

“Take just one more step from there, barbaric junior.”

It was because Zorv had already converted all kinds of holy relics into their combat forms and aimed them at Nia.

Realizing the situation had turned out like this, Nia also found it burdensome to rush further, so she hopped backward to widen the distance.

Crackle—

‘Ugh, Yusina is a bit burdensome.’

Meanwhile, having confirmed that Yusina’s holy power and his own dark mana collided faintly, Roan stealthily calmed down his energy.

At this rate, it was not protection but restraint.

Fortunately, perhaps because the situation was so urgent, nobody noticed.

In any case, the clash of Acherandir’s top named figures generated an immense sense of pressure in itself.

Whoosh—

“Smack, smack…”

Nia, overcoming the threat of Yusina and Zorv with only her physically powerful body, smacked her lips between them.

Flutter, flutter—

Since such powerful energies collided with each other, a few of the feathers Nia had attached to her body were on the verge of falling off.

“Kyaah!”

…Sion seemed to find that even more shocking than the fact that a senior had lunged at a junior.

‘Well, she does need to be careful.’

Roan also agreed in some respects.

Fortunately, reserve scales were densely packed beneath them, so no major disaster (?) occurred.

Meanwhile, Yusina spoke firmly.

“Roan cannot return to nature! Do you know how much work he has to do after graduating!”

Hearing that, Roan felt slightly displeased inwardly.

‘Actually, I am planning to return to nature.’

Although it wouldn’t be with Nia, Roan was filled with thoughts of escaping the Empire once he graduated anyway!

In any case, Nia also raised her hands as if she had given up.

“I understand, I get it. If you say so, Senior…”

“If you try to kidnap him later too, I won’t let you off, got it?”

“Th-Then what about persuading him and taking him?”

“That is not allowed either!”

“You are too much…”

‘If she persuades me, isn’t it fine?’

Not that he would fall for it.

Nia was completely dejected, drooping her shoulders.

She then fluttered Roan’s test paper, which was filled with nothing but circles, and spoke.

“It is a perfect score. There had been no one who passed my questions with a perfect score.”

“…Is this not the first time you’ve set test questions?”

“You could look at it that way.”

“?”

Nia spoke in a tone as if she didn’t care about such minor details.

In any case, since the written exam was completely finished, it was now time to take the practical test.

“Now~ There was a bit of a commotion, but anyway!”

Snap—

When Yusina infused a bit of holy power into the barrier, the barrier transformed once again.

From the simple black that blocked the sunlight, an eerie graveyard background appeared like a horror game.

And standing in the middle of it was a single figure clad in a mysterious robe.

He let black energy billow around as if advertising that he was a black mage.

“W-What is this?”

Sion was startled by the sudden change and asked.

She had thought it was a simple barrier, but it turned out its purposes were endless.

Yusina explained about the practical test.

“For the practical test, you just stand on that platform and choose the most effective way to deal with the black magic used by the bad black mage! The options will appear on the barrier, and there’s plenty of time, so it’s very easy~”

In short, it was not just *like* a horror game, it was actually a horror game!

Although they did not call it that since the concept of a game did not exist in this world yet.

Sion also seemed to have most of her curiosity resolved by Yusina’s explanation, but one thing remained.

“By the way, why is the practical test suddenly about black magic?”

“Oing? You didn’t know? Sanctuary is originally a secret club that deals with black mages!”

“?”

Sion tilted her head.

She really did not know.

Nobody had explained it to her until now.

Roan thought it was natural for Sion not to know.

‘She would only know if someone explained it to her.’

What did she expect when she called it a ‘secret club’ with her own mouth just now.

‘So it wasn’t a club with nothing to do…’

Meanwhile, Sion had a thought that the club seniors would find quite sad if they heard it.

Then again, just looking at the three seniors right now, their combat power looked immense.

Not to mention Roan who stood next to her.

…In fact, Roan was a black mage, but since nobody knew, it didn’t matter.

“Hmm… then I’ll go first.”

“Huh? Will you be okay?”

Yusina seemed worried about whether Sion, who was taking the practical test for the first time, could properly demonstrate her skills.

Of course, in that regard, it was also Roan’s first time, but somehow he felt like he would be completely fine.

“Because I think it will be more burdensome if I go after Roan.”

“Th-That is true, indeed.”

However, hearing Sion’s reason, she nodded in agreement in spite of herself.

Sion stood on the platform Yusina had told her about—which she had thought was just a floor tile decoration until now.

Then, as described, the black mage began to cast magic.

‘Is that Black Arrow?’

At first, the most basic offensive magic, Black Arrow.

Sion chose ‘Strike the bottom with the Shepherd’s Club’ among the three choices.

The second question was the simple curse magic, Paralysis.

The answer was ‘Use Resistance Blessing Holy Spell.’

When Sion chose the answers smoothly without much deliberation, the seniors, including Yusina, cheered her on from the side.

“Our Sion is doing great~”

“Mmh, if it’s the first time, one could certainly be flustered.”

‘It’s still manageable!’

Sion was also excited by the cheering and solved the questions even faster.

Had she solved about eight questions like that?

The given time gradually grew shorter, and the magic used by the black mage became more difficult.

Rumble—

The black mage fired three Abyss Blood Spears simultaneously.

Flinch—

For some reason, Roan’s body trembled slightly as he watched that.

‘Uh? That is…’

Sion, who was about to choose the answer, suddenly felt a sense of familiarity in the magic flying toward her.

I think I’ve seen it somewhere?

Where did I see it?

That split second of hesitation was decisive.

“Ah!”

In fact, Sion had insufficient time even to read all the options, failing to choose the answer.

Crash—

Along with a realistic sound effect, the words ‘Exam Over’ appeared.

The result came out immediately.

─ Seven questions, average time of 1.1 seconds, passed the skill verification! ─

“Wow~ That was close, Sion! But you still did great!”

Yusina clapped her hands and offered her congratulations.

However, Sion, stepping down from the platform, simply tilted her head this way and that and did not look particularly pleased.

“What is it, Sion?”

Yusina asked, wondering if there was some problem.

“It’s just that…”

Sion simply glanced back at Roan repeatedly, unsure if her thought was correct.

‘No matter how much I think about it, it seems similar to the holy spell Roan used… is it an illusion?’

Indeed, there was a reason Sion was puzzled.

Only its shape was roughly similar, while the color was completely different in the first place.

If the blood spear fired by the black mage felt like a spear simply flying over and piercing…

The blood spear used by Roan felt like some decisive weapon flying with a whoosh— and exploding with a rumble-crash!!

…A modern person would have likely described it as a missile.

Furthermore, had Roan’s blood spear not looked clearly made of holy power, to the point that expressing it as similar to black magic felt sinful!

“Hmm?”

“Ah, I think it’s nothing.”

“What, how anti-climactic~ Anyway, congratulations!”

“Hehe, thank you.”

Sion pondered for a long time and eventually glossed it over like this.

Roan also caught the hint from Sion repeatedly looking at him.

‘Of all things, why did the Abyss Blood Spear have to appear in a question!’

The magic used by the black mage in the practical test was a random choice matching each level.

That a blood spear appeared of all those numerous offensive magics was extremely unlucky.

Roan quickly stepped forward to prevent Sion from having more time to think.

“Now I will do it.”

“Huh? Ah, sure, sure.”

“Roan, do your best!”

Sion, whose heart was lightened after already passing, also cheered Roan on.