Chapter 367

Chapter 367

There must have been a reason why Roan’s father, Delion, did not enter Acherandir.

For even if he had a false divinity, he would not have been able to escape the eyes of Harden and Diar.

And as long as it wasn’t at Acherandir, it was safe to assume he would have no reason to meet them until he had sufficiently built up his strength.

‘Which means that if only my family had been fine, I wouldn’t have had to enroll here either, right?’

Thinking of it this way made him feel a bit aggrieved, but in any case, he had learned quite an important fact.

“Well, you might be a little disappointed, but consider yourself lucky to have enrolled here. Otherwise, you would have definitely been caught.”

“Yes, of course.”

Although he answered meekly, Roan couldn’t quite agree.

‘But nobody else knows…?’

In fact, excluding Harden, there wasn’t really any reason for him to get caught, was there?

This was practically like a tiger in a tiger’s den saying, ‘No one will enter here, so rest easy.’

At any rate, Harden and Diar soon left the infirmary.

“Consider it the grace of Lord Hiloa that you did not die even after receiving His holy light!”

It would have been nice if he hadn’t left behind such an annoying farewell.

“……Yes.”

However, even Roan couldn’t particularly deny it this time.

Other ordinary clergymen, it would merely be a conventional expression.

But for the black mage Roan, it was certain that he would have surely died if not for Hiloa’s grace!

* * *

On the way to the playground where Alphard’s class was held.

Having heard that Bel had also woken up around the same time as Roan, he was fortunately able to head out for class without any issues.

‘Is your body feeling alright?’

[Phew, I really thought I was going to die, you know? Suddenly something went swoosh—! and my head spun!]

Kirik— Kirik—!

[Yes, yes, you mean you were worried about me too, right?]

Seeing how well she spoke, there seemed to be no particular issue.

Charlotte must have been quite worried as well, for her usual gentle demeanor was nowhere to be seen, and she was jumping up and down with both arms raised toward Bel.

After conducting a final check on Bel’s dark mana state, Roan asked his friends about what he was curious about.

“By the way, what happened to your test?”

He had certainly seen Sion release the holy light, but he didn’t know the results for his other friends.

Demona grinned and spoke.

“Professor Vicius passed all of us, saying today is a blessed day~”

“……Everyone passed?”

“Yes, because you manifested the holy light of Lord Hiloa, Roan. Though, of course, he said those who wanted to try more could stay behind and do so.”

Sion also explained to Roan with a gentle smile.

To think he had secured the grades of all his other friends at the cost of his own sacrifice.

‘As expected, he is a much more wonderful person than a lacking Saintess candidate like me!’

Sion’s respect for Roan was deepening day by day.

On the other hand, Roan grimaced.

“W-What is it, Roan?”

Rafia asked in confusion.

Wasn’t it a good thing if everyone passed?

Roan replied in a cold voice.

“Passing everyone over a trivial matter like that.”

“””Roan…!”””

It was merely a comment made out of irritation toward the students who had gotten scores without any effort, but for some reason, his friends wore expressions of deep emotion.

It seemed they thought Roan saying ‘a trivial matter like that’ was an expression of humility.

It was not that at all.

His friends praised him, giving him thumbs-up as if to say ‘as expected of Roan.’

“Such a humble fellow! What you did was plenty amazing, so such modesty is not good!”

“Right! When was the last time the holy light of Lord Hiloa was manifested? The Principal told us?”

At Rafia’s fussing question, Roan answered instead.

“The last time was 3,631 years ago, manifested by Saint Jirbudin.”

“Ah, right, for the first time in 3,631 years… Huh?”

Rafia nodded, about to fuss some more, when she suddenly tilted her head.

Roan asked.

“What is it?”

“Why do you say it’s no big deal when you know it’s the first time in 3,631 years?”

Because those words did not come from sincere humility, of course.

However, he could not tell the truth.

Not only because of his image, but it would also be troublesome if they somehow thought, ‘What? You were having such wicked thoughts? Are you by any chance a black mage?’

Wuuuung…

This fellow, even after passing out and waking up… still spouts nonsense…

At that moment, the false divinity, having finally regained consciousness, vibrated faintly.

‘You’re awake.’

Yes, you foolish, reckless child. What were you thinking, offering a prayer to Hiloa?

‘As if I did it because I wanted to.’

If the holy light was going to pop out just by calling a name, there would be no reason to have a pop quiz on it in the first place.

The false divinity could not understand just what kind of talent this fellow named Roan possessed for such a thing to happen.

Meanwhile.

“Isn’t it really no big deal?”

“But it’s 3,631 years?”

“Our Principal is over 5,300 years old, though?”

“Hmm…”

“Professor Diar also said he’s been around for over 10,000 years!”

His friends were sharing such conversations based on Roan’s words.

As they talked, it really seemed like three thousand years was no big deal.

Roan spoke up to prevent his friends’ concept of time from becoming muddled.

“Of course 3,631 years is a long time. I only said that…”

“””Only?”””

His friends focused their eyes on Roan’s mouth simultaneously.

Roan found their gazes burdensome, but decided to just speak.

“Because my parents emphasized humility and consideration in my dream…”

“””Ro… Roaaannn!!!!!”””

Sure enough, the eyes of his friends welled up with tears in an instant!

The atmosphere was such that they might toss him in the air in celebration at any moment, but fortunately, that did not happen.

“Let’s toss him in the air!”

“Great, fanatic!”

To be precise, Demona and Hector rushed at him immediately, but they were knocked back after getting hit by Roan’s curse magic.

“Gack!”

“P-Please like me…”

In truth, Delion and Charlotte had never even uttered the first letter of humility, but the meaning of a story was always up to interpretation.

‘Unless one is strong enough to defeat six demon kings and a hundred liches, one must always remain humble. As expected, I am still far from enough.’

Roan had interpreted the meaning of the dream in that way.

When even the mighty Delion had lived his entire life hiding his identity, who on earth was he to act carelessly!

In any case, it was a typical scene of his friends walking while praising Roan, followed by Demona and Hector who had stood up late.

“By the way, won’t the pop quiz for the Sacred Combat practice class also be conducted as a Sacred Combat?”

As Rafia asked, Hector snorted and spoke.

“Isn’t that obvious! It’s Sacred Combat practice, so of course it will be conducted as a Sacred Combat!”

“……”

“W-What is it?”

Hector was quite flustered by Rafia’s gaze staring intently at him.

“No, just because. Since you said so, Hector, I feel like we won’t be doing a Sacred Combat.”

“Such harsh words… Please trust me at least when it comes to Sacred Combat.”

“Trust you even less.”

“Fanatic, Riel is telling you to stay quiet and not talk useless nonsense.”

“I just said that because of that, I can’t trust you even more!”

“Oh, sharp~”

‘Aren’t those the same thing?’

Roan was a little puzzled, but decided to let it go.

However, Rafia’s thought was correct.

Because, unlike the class name, the pop quiz for Sacred Combat practice was not conducted as a Sacred Combat.

Rather, it was a test that was much more useful, meant for spiritual beasts, and nurtured fundamental abilities.

‘Well, otherwise, Nia wouldn’t have come down to help with the test.’

Watching his friends still bickering, Roan asked.

“But wasn’t Professor Vulcan’s class also Sacred Combat?”

Although the whole world knew that the people of the Empire loved Sacred Combat, hadn’t they done it in the morning as well?

However, Hector did not agree at all.

“What do you mean! That was only a pseudo-Sacred Combat, it cannot be called a Sacred Combat!”

“……I see.”

Since he called it a pseudo-Sacred Combat, Roan had nothing more to say.

“Hmph, if that’s the case, you should have joined the Sacred Combat Club~”

“Do you think I didn’t join because I didn’t want to?!”

“Ah, sorry. I forgot.”

“Argh! I can’t take it anymore!”

While they were conversing, Alphard’s playground soon came into view in the distance.

Numerous students had already gathered, but the problem was…

— Sacred Combat! Sacred Combat! Sacred Combat!

— Alphard! Professor! Alphard! Professor!

— The invincible Sacred Combat artificial intelligence!

It was that the students were still wildly enthusiastic, having only changed the name from the morning’s fever.

‘Those crazy Sacred Combat fanatics…’

Roan was deeply worried about the future of the Empire.

If the Empire were to fall, surely the biggest reason would be Sacred Combat!

Of course, that would be a good thing for Roan as a black mage.

…But he had even less desire to live in a world filled only with Sacred Combat.

Boom— Boom boom— Boom boom—!!

— Is everyone looking forward to Sacred Combat!

— We are!

— Then cry out!

— Shorts Girlll!

— Sherryyy!

“Saaaacreeeed Coooombaaaat!!!!”

— Uwooooh!

On one side of the playground, Sherry and her followers were holding a mad festival.

‘How on earth did they bring a drum that size?’

Roan looked pathetically at the followers who were holding and beating a drum as large as their own torsos.

Apparently, because Vulcan’s class was a ‘pseudo-Sacred Combat’ and hadn’t properly satisfied their desires, their frustration had built up heavily.

A dangerous atmosphere where anyone who so much as uttered the first letter of Sacred Combat would be instantly swept up!

Roan resolved never to even go near that area.

Just then, Sherry saw Roan and pointed a finger at him.

“Ah, over there!”

— Huh? What is it?

The followers’ gazes turned toward Roan in unison.

Sherry shouted with a broad grin.

“Sacred Combat!”

— Hm? Did she mispronounce Darc?

— Fool, Sacred Combat is Darc, and Darc is Sacred Combat, isn’t it?

— Ah, in that sense?

‘These #@#!!@#!…’

Roan was filled with grief upon seeing the Sacred Combat hooligans equating him with Sacred Combat.

If they were at that level, they were truly crazy hooligans even among hooligans.

What was the point of him showing so clearly how much he disliked Sacred Combat?

In their eyes, ‘Darc = Sacred Combat’!

“Roan, they are calling you Sacred Combat.”

“I heard.”

“H-Hieek—! Sorry…”

Demona had asked without thinking, but immediately apologized in horror after seeing Roan’s face.

No one mentioned what she had seen on Roan’s face.

— Hey, hey, avoid his eyes…

— I already did…

What was certain was that from then on, even Sherry’s followers did not try to come near Roan.

Chiiik— Chiik—

Just then, Alphard approached from afar, his gleaming body shining.

The students, whose excitement had been completely dampened because of Roan, began to go wild once again.

— Sacred Combat artificial intelligence!!!

— Professor Alphard! Let’s play a round of Sacred Combat!

Hearing the enthusiastic shouts of the students, Alphard replied like a professor, his eyes turning red.

“This week is—a pop quiz.”

— Aw, what.

— He says we’re not doing Sacred Combat.

…For reference, red eyes were a signal representing contempt.

In any case, the students drooped their shoulders with expressions that said their mood was dampened even further.

“Sacred Combat is merely—the result. Our class aims for—the most optimized process.”

The students were slightly flustered by Alphard’s words.

— W-What does that mean?

— Does he mean we end up doing Sacred Combat in the end?

“Uwooooh! The result is Sacred Combat!”

Hector shouted, raising both arms high.

“Roan, did the Professor mean that?”

Sion asked Roan with a bewildered expression.

Roan replied simply.

“Do you think it would mean that?”

“Ah, probably not…”

Truly disastrous, the literacy rate of the Empire’s people these days!