Chapter 273

Chapter 273

─ The professor has his own plan as well.

The assistant said only that and slipped away.

Since he had to watch over the other students as well, it was obvious that staying here would only disturb the students’ minds.

Demona muttered with a deeply worried expression.

“Oh no… It looks like the professor plans to give up his arm… Even if it’s for education, to go that far…”

“You dummy, Demona!”

Sion scolded Demona, slapping her shoulder.

But even as she said that, Sion was just as anxious.

Sion looked at Roan with worry in her large pink eyes.

‘What on earth is he planning?’

Even if it was Roan, would he know a way to resolve even this kind of situation?

‘There are likely two main methods Atoga is thinking of.’

Of course, he knew.

Roan roughly aligned the arm’s position and calmly guessed Atoga’s intentions.

The first was to aim for a sudden spike in skill, relying on the urgent situation and Roan’s talent.

In other words, aiming for an enlightenment, just like how Sion had learned the Priest’s Whip holy magic.

However, this was realistically impossible since Roan was a black mage, and Atoga was likely expecting this at this point as well.

“You are exceptionally calm. You really have great courage,”

Atoga said to Roan in a gentle voice.

Enlightenment belonged to the realm of the unconscious, unknown even to oneself.

Flashhhhh—!!!

“Eh? The Saintess candidate glowed?!”

“S-Sion, what did you just do?”

“Huh? I-I don’t know either…”

Sion, who, out of extreme nervousness and urgency, had unconsciously cast Basic Treatment with several times its normal efficacy, was a prime example.

‘That wouldn’t be intermediate, but she must have reached beginner level.’

A beginner level that had clearly surpassed the basic stage.

With that, her thigh wound would have healed in an instant.

─ Excellent, Student Beatrice receives a perfect score.

“Use it on me too, Sion!”

“Take care of your own exam!”

─ Since Student Wicronon attempted a proxy exam, please pay a fine of 10 talants.

“Gasp—!!!”

At any rate, since Roan was responding so calmly, the possibility of enlightenment finding him naturally decreased by that much.

Then, what remained was the second method.

“Then, as expected, we have no choice but to take it slow.”

“Yes.”

Just as Atoga said, it was to take it slow using only Basic Treatment.

‘The reason why a severed wound cannot normally be healed with just Basic Treatment is simple.’

It was because the wound was too large and complex to be resolved with Basic Treatment.

However.

‘What if that large wound could be divided in detail? And what if Basic Treatment could be applied to each of those divided parts?’

If such a method was used, even a severed wound could be healed with Basic Treatment.

In the empire, this approach was called ‘surgery.’

Although the concept of dividing the wound and treating it separately was simple, actually applying it through holy magic was extremely difficult.

As mentioned before, holy power possessed the property of spreading outward from a single point.

It was a power that did not align well with delicate control.

The pinnacle of a healing-specialized priest’s quality, which was only possible with unrivaled talent, holy power manipulation, and bold courage.

Therefore, Atoga was actually very pleased that Roan had chosen the second method, just as he had anticipated.

‘As expected, it is worthwhile putting effort into raising him.’

Judging by his unique use of nerve regeneration or cell regeneration from the very first class, Roan must definitely be interested in surgery!

……If Roan had heard this thought, his mouth would have been itching to tell the tearful details behind it.

Ssss—

Anyway, since he had not heard it, Roan drew up his dark mana to begin the treatment in earnest.

“I will begin.”

“Go right ahead.”

Atoga nodded with a comfortable smile to ease Roan’s mind.

‘If he wanted to ease my mind, shouldn’t he have refrained from cutting off his arm in front of me?’

It was, after all, a minor question.

‘Paralysis. As inconspicuously as possible.’

Wooong—!

Roan first cast paralysis magic to alleviate the patient’s pain.

Atoga also nodded, as if feeling the sensation in his arm dulling.

“Indeed. Starting with anesthesia first is……?”

But something was strange.

Even assuming he had self-taught the holy magic itself.

‘Does anesthesia holy magic normally contract muscles?’

Anesthesia was merely to temporarily dull the sense of pain.

So, although there was a slight difference from person to person, normally, it was standard to relax slightly.

‘At this level, it feels more like a weak black magic curse…’

Roan, who had noticed Atoga beginning to harbor dangerous thoughts with eerie precision, immediately spoke up.

“Since I haven’t learned anesthesia holy magic yet, I went to the library and self-taught it in my own way.”

“Ah, that might explain it then.”

Fortunately, Roan’s excuse fell well within the margin of error.

“Let’s see. In my opinion, the Hilonian is fine, but there seems to be a slight problem with the crest. Next time, try gently curving the upper diagonals on both sides.”

As expected of the healing professor, Atoga pointed out the problem with the holy magic right away!

Roan looked up at Atoga with a dumbfounded expression.

‘This is black magic, though.’

Hilonian or crests, he hadn’t used them in the first place.

Wooong—

Well, I should keep that in mind.

Instead, he accepted it as good advice for his fake divinity.

“Is there a problem?”

“……No. It’s just amazing that you identified the problem at once. I will keep it in mind.”

“Bwahaha! I am a professor, after all!”

Perhaps pleased by Roan’s compliment, Atoga laughed heartily, unlike his usual self.

Roan felt a strange sense of déjà vu watching him.

‘Giving advice while having his arm treated…’

Wasn’t there someone on Earth in the past who played Go while having the poison scraped from his arm bone?

Roan nodded for now and moved on to the next step.

‘Blood Flow Control.’

He slowed Atoga’s blood flow even further.

‘Let’s connect the blood vessels first. Path of Blood.’

Since he had already mastered beginner-level magic anyway, he went out of his way to use a blood magic category spell that he was using for the first time.

Although it might have been possible with Flesh Explosion somehow, a specialized magic would naturally be much cleaner.

The Path of Blood was originally a spell that black mages who used blood magic employed when decorating their hideouts.

The blood vessels that usually ran along the walls, ceilings, and floors of such places were made through this magic.

Grrrk—

However, as it was naturally black magic, it could not be completely without side effects.

Flinch—

While the major blood vessels were being connected one by one, Atoga flinched his shoulder unconsciously.

‘A pain that even I can feel?’

Atoga was dumbfounded.

After all, Atoga had a rough estimate of how well he could endure pain.

He had been indifferent even when cutting off his arm in the first place, so it was anew for him to show such a reaction just from having his blood vessels connected.

Why does it hurt so much?

“S-Student Darc? What are you doing right now…?”

“Ah, I connected the blood vessels. Fortunately, it seems to have gone well.”

“I understand that, but…”

“It’s a ‘Blood Vessel Regeneration’ holy magic that I practiced personally. I thought Basic Treatment would probably have its limits for blood vessels…”

Roan spoke with an intentionally sorrowful expression.

Naturally, this was a countermeasure he had planned from the moment he saw Atoga flinch.

The logic was that since he was using something self-taught, it was only natural for there to be some side effects!

─ That fellow Darc, they said he went to the library often, but just how hard is he studying?

─ Isn’t Blood Vessel Regeneration a pretty difficult holy magic even among the basics?

─ He does that much, so that’s why they call him the Great Demon King.

‘Why am I the Great Demon King when I’m studying holy magic so hard…?’

Of course, since Roan was studying black magic, not holy magic, it couldn’t be called entirely incorrect.

Anyway, the students who were still treating the wounds on their own thighs felt both jealousy and admiration toward Roan’s passion for study.

The teaching assistant, supervising the exam, also watched Roan with a deeply moved expression.

With the atmosphere like this, even Atoga couldn’t say much.

“I-I see.”

Atoga nodded and gestured for him to continue for now.

As Roan watched Atoga looking somewhat flustered for some reason…

‘……This is fun.’

He was tasting a happiness he had rarely felt since possessing Roan’s body!

How long could he just keep getting pushed around just because he was a black mage?

A revenge like this had to happen once in a while to make life worth living.

Ludiac, who had woken up from his faint before he knew it, asked.

Thump— Wooong—

“Brother, what on earth is wrong with Master’s personality?”

“Leave him be, he’s a black mage after all.”

“Ah, right, he was a black mage.”

The authorities clicked their tongues at Roan’s behavior, seeing how he enjoyed it rather than being tense or afraid in this situation.

Roan spoke in an aggrieved tone.

‘Isn’t the person who cut off his own arm the one in the wrong?’

…That’s true too.

Master is right~

While the atmosphere was gradually turning strange, the treatment continued.

‘Next is the bone. Hmm… Skeleton Regeneration would be better.’

Skeleton Regeneration was a black magic that restored destroyed skeleton-type familiars.

Of course, it wasn’t a magic meant to connect severed bones, but…

‘The spells I use in this class are all like that anyway.’

He had solved things in that manner up until now as well.

Fortunately, thanks to the magic circle lessons he had heard from Taedi, he could use it with the desired effect reasonably well.

……If Taedi had heard this, she would have said, ‘When did I ever give magic circle lessons?!’

Grrrk— Grrrk—

For some reason, a slightly suspicious sound was heard, far from what one would expect from bones joining via healing holy magic.

─ Hey, does it normally make that kind of sound when bones connect?

─ You’d only know if you’ve connected them before… This is my first time seeing a severed arm, too.

─ That’s true.

The students tilted their heads in confusion, yet none dared to speak up carelessly.

It seemed strange, but when they actually looked, wasn’t he steadily piecing it back together step by step?

Of course, Atoga knew very well that things were going a bit wrong.

“Ugh! Student Darc?”

A pain on a completely different level from when the blood vessels connected assailed Atoga.

“Yes.”

Roan replied calmly as always.

“What on earth kind of holy magic are you using?”

“Why do you ask?”

“No… It shouldn’t hurt this much…”

Since he had cut off his own arm, Atoga trailed off, worried he might look like he was whining in front of his student now.

Roan immediately seized upon his words.

With a deeply regretful expression.

“Ah… Since your arm was severed, it’s only natural that it would hurt. I didn’t think of that.”

Nod, nod—

The students, who had no way of knowing Atoga’s situation, nodded vigorously at Roan’s words.

─ Students! Stop paying attention to what’s in front of you and focus on treating your thighs quickly!

─ Ah! I forgot!

……A few students who had let their guard down had to clutch their wounds where blood was gushing out again and restart the treatment from the beginning, but.

Grrrk— Grk—

Unlike the previous spells, it took a considerable amount of time for the bone to connect.

Naturally, during that time, Atoga suffered greatly from the unfamiliar pain.

‘There’s no way healing holy magic is this painful. Is it because it’s been a while?’

Since Atoga was someone who knew a thing or two about pain even within Acherandir, he ended up flustered by the unexpected situation instead.

Roan poured more power into the bone regeneration magic to keep Atoga from regaining his senses.

Grk— Grk— Grk— Grk—!!!

The bone connected faster, but the pain grew that much greater!

“Uh-uh-uh?”

─ Professor Atoga seems to be in a lot of pain.

─ Naturally, since his arm was cut off. Just fix your own thigh quickly.

─ Oh, right.