Chapter 45

Josephine was the most astounded she had ever been in her thousands of years as an administrator.

No, even the word ‘astounded’ was not enough.

As the administrator, she not only watched the trial but also knew all the contents and strategy guides for it.

Of the hundreds of trials she had witnessed so far, the difficulty of this particular trial was truly the worst of the worst.

Putting aside that human named Demona, whose status as a member of the Wicronon family was questionable to begin with.

‘Why on earth did he hand over that treasure to a demon so willingly?’

The Eternal Faestal Amulet was a treasure so grand that even the watching Josephine was startled by it.

Yet, a route where he handed it over to a demon just to learn black magic.

He had actually figured out that route?

‘Did the Holy Empire fall by any chance? I haven’t heard that it fell…’

Unless that had happened, she could not understand this extreme situation.

No, in the first place, wasn’t the trial to take the Eye of the Prophet only playable by students of Akerandir, where the ruins of the Watchman’s Nest lay!

“What are you talking about?”

Meanwhile, Roan asked, barely holding back his anger.

He looked highly inclined to catch anyone and beat them up if he could find an excuse.

…It wasn’t just his impression; he actually felt that way.

He was already in a foul mood, so he didn’t care whether she was the administrator of the dimension or not.

“Hieek… N-No… I was just asking what your relationship is… with the person you possessed in the trial…”

Sensing that something was seriously wrong, Josephine spoke in a shrinking voice.

Roan gritted his teeth and replied.

“We are strangers from now on.”

“?”

Josephine tilted her head.

If they were strangers, how could he have known how to behave like that?

‘No, more than that, only those close to the person appear in the trial?’

Hesitate—

Josephine took a step back from Roan.

She had recalled the famous proverb that birds of a feather flock together.

“Rather than that, aren’t you going to give me the Eye of the Prophet?”

“Ah… Ah!”

At Roan’s prompting, Josephine hurriedly chanted a spell.

‘It is best to send such a dangerous person away quickly!’

Soon, the fountain bubbled up, and the silver water floated into the air, slowly taking shape.

Ultimately, it became a water plate about the size of a face.

“T-This is the Eye of the Prophet…”

Josephine hesitantly handed the plate to Roan.

Grab—!

Roan immediately stuffed it into the lucky pouch.

“Then, excuse me.”

He looked ready to escape the Garden of Dawn without even looking back.

Josephine cried out in surprise.

“V-Visitor! The feather statue at the entrance—”

But Roan could no longer be found in the garden.

“What on earth was that…”

At Roan’s visit, which had passed like a storm, Josephine stood still for quite a while afterward.

***

Pluck—

Although he hadn’t heard it from Josephine, Roan plucked a feather from the feather statue.

The plucked feather was quickly replaced by a new one.

The Watchman’s Feather.

It was an essential item to safely escape the Watchman’s Hill.

‘It’s a pity that it’s a one-time-use item and I can only take one.’

As Roan approached the gate, the tower’s voice opened it on its own.

“Farewell, polite visitor!”

“Whatever.”

“?”

Since he had no reason to return anyway, he threw out a blunt farewell!

The tower’s voice seemed slightly flustered, but Roan had already left the dimension.

Upon exiting the dimension.

Whooooosh───

‘To think I’d be skydiving in a place like this…’

He was in a state of free fall in the sky, with the Watchman’s Tower looking tiny far below.

A situation always encountered when escaping the Watchman’s Hill.

Just as he had entered at the same time as the sunset, he had to see the sunset when leaving as well.

However, since that much time had passed, he was bound to be high up in the air.

Roan could still see the brief moment of sunset in his eyes, but it would already be pitch black by the time he reached the ground.

Roan calmly infused mana into the feather he was holding.

The Watchman’s Feather reacts to the user’s soul and creates wings.

Because it was an ancient item, its shape varied wildly depending on the user’s soul, rather than their mana or divine power.

‘I am a bit worried… well, there’s no way people will be around here.’

Soon, large wings matching the item’s effect unfolded behind Roan.

Roan’s falling speed decreased dramatically.

First of all, it was a bright gray that did not look like black magic.

Still, because it was of a dark gray line, it didn’t seem like it would stand out too much even from the school’s direction.

However, the problem was.

‘…What kind of hybrid is this?’

Its shape consisted of a membrane stretched over thin bones, like a demon’s wings!

Hummmm—

The False Divinity vibrated lightly.

Since this was a structure that reacted to the soul, there was nothing he could do about it!

‘What a useless authority indeed.’

Hummm…

Roan ignored the False Divinity vibrating mournfully and fell slowly.

The location was the wall of the second floor of the Watchman’s Tower.

Thud—

Stepping onto the brick, Roan scanned his surroundings.

He was checking if there were any people around.

“Fortunately, no one…?”

“…”

And Roan’s eyes met with a monk who was staring blankly up at him from below the tower.

To be precise, he couldn’t see the eyes because of the black robe the monk was wearing, but judging by the angle, they had locked eyes.

Swoosh—

The gray demon wings wrapping around Roan’s body slowly turned into powder and disappeared.

As if they had completed their task!

‘They did complete their task, indeed…’

Sweating coldly, Roan pondered.

For the first time, he had been caught in a scene he shouldn’t have.

Not by Harden, but by an ordinary student.

‘T-The more this happens, the more confidently I must act!’

Roan thought this and jumped down to the ground as if nothing was wrong.

He then walked slowly toward the monk and spoke.

“…Did you see?”

However, the monk said nothing.

“Did you not see?”

Roan spoke once more.

After showing no action for a moment, the monk opened his mouth wide instead of answering.

It was the signal of the monks undergoing a vow of silence.

He wanted to check the face just in case, but he did not demand that much.

Not only because it would be evidence that he had done something suspicious.

But also because demanding too much from a monk would backfire.

“Understood. Then…”

Roan nodded and descended the mountain confidently.

‘Fortunately, it was a monk under a vow of silence!’

Since the vow of silence was not just about not speaking but also about refraining from communicating with others, he didn’t need to worry about rumors spreading.

Meanwhile, the monk who stood still in that spot even after Roan had completely descended the mountain.

“Oh, Hiloa, Harden, Saint Panuroa, Saint Hetrona! That was scary as hell!”

Muttering words that were quite vulgar for a monk, he collapsed as if his legs had lost their strength.

“I was so scared I couldn’t even see his face properly. What on earth was that? A professor? But he was wearing a school uniform… H-Heck, no way!”

The name of this monk was Donli Gebosh.

He was a figure who had been enrolled in Akerandir simply because he was too noisy in the monastery.

***

The next day.

Roan entered the Panuroa Hall dining room for breakfast a little later than Demona and Hector.

Immediately, Demona rushed over to Roan in a fuss.

“Roan, Roan! Did you hear that?!?!”

“Hear what.”

Because the Eternal Faestal Amulet still came to mind whenever he saw Demona’s face, Roan’s tone was extremely cold.

But Demona didn’t care.

Indeed, if he were the type to care about such things, he would have distanced himself when Roan randomly scolded him after returning to the room yesterday.

The content of the rumor was spoken by Hector instead.

“They say a fallen angel appeared on the western mountain last night.”

“…What?”

Roan asked as if it were absurd.

How indeed did that rumor spread?

Sure enough, the dormitory dining hall was much noisier than usual.

He had thought it was because it was the weekend, but all the students were talking about a single rumor.

— Is it really a fallen angel?

— I’m telling you it is! What else would white bat wings be?

— Aren’t fallen angels’ wings black bird wings?

— Did you see it?!

— Well, no…

Starting from the shape of the unique wings Roan had created.

— They said it was wearing a school uniform too!

— Wow, it must have infiltrated!

— Scary, scary… Akerandir is going to ruin at this rate.

Even such sacrilegious rumors.

However, there was one saving grace.

— Did they see… did they see the face?

— Well… they said it was a harsh-looking face covered in black tattoos.

— No, they said it had goat horns twisted once.

— I heard they couldn’t see it because they were too scared!

While the rumors about the fallen angel were rampant, information that could specify Roan as the culprit had not been released yet.

Roan pretended not to know, picked up a piece of bread, and sat down.

Demona chattered endlessly from the seat next to him.

“Isn’t it really scary? A 3-meter-tall being with six arms—”

Rip—!

But when Roan savagely tore the bread, he stopped talking.

Roan glared at Demona with a murderous look and spoke.

“It’s all because of you, Demona.”

“W-What did I do…”

Perhaps recalling yesterday’s terror (?), Demona shrank back.

Roan focused on eating his bread again and thought.

‘Still, it should die down after a few days.’

Judging by the vague details, it seemed quite a few people had witnessed it from afar last night.

But rumors without an active distributor were bound to fade quickly.

Since the face wasn’t even known properly, a false rumor about a fallen angel appearing in Akerandir couldn’t possibly last long.

As he comforted himself with that thought.

Suddenly, a commotion began outside the dining hall.

— Whoa, it’s him, him!

— What? He’s the eyewitness?

Not only was the hallway noisy, but several people in the dining room also rushed outside.

Soon, the center of the commotion entered the dining hall.

— Donli! Tell us about yesterday!

— Did you really see a fallen angel?

Donli, dressed in the black robe of a monk with only his hood thrown back, entered the dining hall, almost squeezed in the middle of the students.

Seeing him, Roan went ‘ah’.

‘It was Donli Gebosh!’

Of all the numerous monks in Akerandir, it had to be the guy notorious for being talkative!

‘I should have stripped his hood off…’

If he had known the opponent was Donli, he would have silenced him (?) instead.

Meanwhile, Donli enjoyed the focused attention and gestured to keep the students back.

“Whoa, whoa, friends. Calm down. That’s right, this Donli right here saw the fallen angel!”

— Ohhhh!

— Donli! Donli!

The students went wild at his flashy showmanship.

“Senior Donli!”

…Hector was also squeezed among them before he knew it.

“I was climbing the western mountain to find a place to meditate, when suddenly the sky brightened and a guy with white bat wings appeared. He also didn’t expect to meet me, so he cried out in surprise.”

— What did he say?

— I’m getting dizzy! Tell us quickly!

“Ah! What bad luck, to think I have descended after thousands of years only to meet such a strong monk!”

— Ohhh!

— Boo, don’t lie!

The students’ reactions were split, but everyone was enjoying the story.

Donli was a born entertainer who had once earned 1,000 talents doing stand-up in the commercial district despite being a monk!

Drawing people’s attention was child’s play to him.

“A fallen angel with six eyes, eight arms, and two pairs of horns! I said, ‘How dare a fallen being enter this holy land! Be gone!'”

— Whoaaa!

Donli continued his passionate speech.

It was roughly a story about the fallen angel throwing ten trials at Donli, but he easily defeated them and sent him back to the sky.

“…But I also used quite a lot of power. I rested there until night fell and then returned to Panuroa Hall.”

— Guardian of Akerandir, Donli Gebosh!

— The one who overcame the fallen angel’s trials!

While everyone was cheering and chanting Donli’s name.

Grrrit──

Roan glared at Donli, pouring mana into the bread in his hand until it turned into powder.

The students who were cheering even felt a slight sense of mismatch from that ominous energy and looked around!

Donli also naturally locked eyes with Roan.

“Hi-Hieeeek!”

Thud!

He then fell backward in sheer terror.

— Eh? What’s wrong, Donli? Did you see a fallen angel— Gasp!

— Hey, that’s not a fallen angel, that’s Darc…

The other students were also startled, but soon realized it was Roan and seemed to accept it.

Roan’s foul expression was already famous among the seniors.

“…I should bring new bread.”

Meanwhile, seeing the bread turned to powder in his hand, Roan naturally stood up and picked a bread from the basket.

He then spoke to Donli in a low voice.

“I was simply deeply moved by your heroic tale.”

It was a normal greeting from a junior, but all the listeners fell into a misunderstanding.

— Is that a murder warning?

In particular, Donli almost wet his pants.

‘I-I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere…’

He couldn’t possibly imagine that they had crossed paths yesterday.

In any case, only after Roan stepped forward did the dining hall return to its original atmosphere.

Although stories about the fallen angel could be heard here and there, Roan didn’t intend to stop them to that extent.

Demona also seemed to grow tired of the fallen angel and brought up a different topic.

“Roan, did you hear that rumor?”

“…What is it this time?”

Demona listed a few trivial rumors, but Roan let them go in one ear and out the other.