Chapter 8

Chapter 8

‘Of all people, to be roommates with these two…….’

It wasn’t that Roan had ever intended to get involved with those two.

He also wanted to hang out with ordinary students who knew how to be scared when looking at a cliff and make a fuss.

“Didn’t Darc tell you to move?”

At that moment, Hector spoke to the students, putting his sturdy body forward.

Only then did the crowd split to both sides, and a path toward the cliff was made.

“Let’s pass.”

Hector looked back at Roan and said.

That face looked strangely proud, which made Roan even angrier.

At this rate, wouldn’t Hector really look like his right-hand man?

“……Thanks.”

Roan nodded and walked forward quickly.

The seniors who were reassuring the freshmen at the cliff asked.

“Darc? You’re going down this cliff? Really?”

‘You guys were the ones who told us to climb down.’

They had said it was fine, but seeing them talk like that, it seemed even they felt how absurd this cliff path to school was.

Indeed, they were also freshmen a year ago.

“Yes. Since we shouldn’t be late for class.”

“As expected……!”

What do you mean, ‘as expected.’

Roan stood at the edge of the cliff, leaving behind those who were nodding with proud expressions.

The knack was the same as yesterday.

Hwaaaak—

The black mana emitting a brilliant radiance through False Divinity dwelled in Roan’s hands and feet.

Tat—

Roan began to climb down the cliff without hesitation.

Seeing that, the seniors smiled brightly and spoke to the juniors.

“Now, see? If you guys use holy power like that too, you’ll be able to climb down much easier than you think.”

“B-But we haven’t learned something like that.”

“Huh? Ah…… right.”

Then how is he doing it?

Conversations like that went back and forth, but Roan didn’t care.

He had decided to bear this level of attention for now.

And because not being late for class was more important.

At any rate, once there was a first start, the rest was easy.

Hector and Demona followed behind Roan, and hesitantly, the other freshmen also began to climb down the cliff.

Tak—

Before long, Roan was able to safely arrive at the bottom of the cliff.

Of course, not everyone could.

—Huh? Uh? U-U-Uh!

—Uaaaaah!

Most arrived safely even if slightly delayed, but inevitably a few fell after losing their footing or grip midway.

‘At that level…… it’s roughly similar to the newbie failure rate.’

And Roan, at a strange point, admired the excellent balance of God & Devil and headed toward Hetrona Hall.

***

—What did they say the first class is?

—They said it’s basic healing class.

A lecture room large enough to accommodate all the freshmen.

Since everyone had to take common classes in the first semester of the first year, they all had to attend class together unless there were special circumstances.

Freshmen were each conversing with their roommates with fluttering hearts.

—……But what is this knife?

—I don’t know either.

Except for the talk about the sharp daggers placed at each of their seats.

‘It is only natural that they don’t know right now.’

Who could possibly guess the truth.

Slide—

At that moment, the lecture room door opened and a tall, handsome professor entered.

He was a mixed-blood with the blood of a wolf spirit beast, a Royal Wolf.

With blonde fur, hair slicked back, and a monocle on his left eye, his name was Atoga Julian.

With a handsome design where human and wolf traits were mixed in a golden ratio, he was a character popular among the few female users of God & Devil.

‘Of course, until they learn the content of the first class.’

The classes he was in charge of were mainly the freshmen’s basic healing, and the seniors’…….

While low gasps flowed from here and there, Roan alone frowned slightly.

Atoga offered a greeting in a pleasant, clear voice.

“Nice to meet you all, freshmen. How is it? Do you like Acherandir?”

—Yes!—

—It’s really great!—

Freshmen replied energetically.

‘Must be nice, liking it.’

Roan felt slightly twisted inside.

“Now, as you all know, this class is basic healing class, and I am Atoga Julian in charge of this class. I look forward to working with you for a term.”

Atoga introduced himself by writing his name and the subject name largely on the blackboard.

The students already had eyes full of anticipation.

Indeed, as long as they intended to become clergymen, healing and curative holy spells were the basics of basics.

Because it would be a class that satisfied what they had expected.

The assistant accompanying Atoga distributed scrolls to the students one by one.

“Professor, what is this?”

“It is a scroll recording a very simple holy spell, basic treatment, which we will learn in this class.”

Oooh—

Students examined the scrolls with curious eyes.

Although holy magic scrolls can be activated by infusing holy power and tearing them, they can basically be utilized as textbooks since holy spells are recorded on them.

On the scroll, a pattern combining one circle and five lines, along with six letters, was engraved.

“Now, I believe you all know how to read and interpret Hilon. Although exerting holy power will still be awkward, you’ll get used to it quickly after practicing a few times.”

Unlike the common language of the Empire, Hilon was a special language used for holy magic.

If they were at a level to enter Acherandir, they already had no problem reading and writing this much.

‘Hilon was the movement of holy power, and the pattern was the detailed conversion of the holy power’s properties.’

And it was a format where combining the two resulted in holy magic.

Roan stealthily pushed the scroll to one side of the desk.

‘But it is of no use to me.’

Naturally, he had already awakened black magic.

Because knowing the holy magic patterns and the driving Hilon script wouldn’t let him use holy magic.

It was better to spend that time calculating how to secretly utilize black magic that had similar effects to curative holy spells without getting caught.

On the other hand, the students focused on Atoga with expectant eyes.

They must be expecting the elegant sight of the professor personally demonstrating the curative holy spell now.

However, Atoga was a professor completely different from their imaginations.

“Now, then, everyone pick up the daggers placed on your desks.”

—?

Though slightly suspicious, the students gathered and picked up the daggers.

Confirming that, Atoga said with a refreshing smile.

“Did everyone pick them up? Then use it to stab your arms. Personally.”

—???

The students’ mouths fell wide open.

Stab their own arms with a knife?

What kind of nonsense was that.

—Professor, how could we stab our own arms ourselves……

A brave student raised a hand and objected.

This was a healing class, not a self-harm class.

However, Atoga simple-mindedly shut that student’s mouth.

Puk—

—!!!???

“Now, see? It is not that difficult.”

He had stabbed his own forearm with a sword much longer than the students’ daggers, to the point of piercing through.

Still wearing that refreshing smile.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a difficult task for Atoga.

‘It must be a piece of cake for the authority on penance.’

Since he was the basic healing professor, and also the professor for high-level advanced penance classes.

There was a rumor that the reason he became a healing professor in the first place was because he took care of wounds caused by penance.

‘I’m glad I brought herbs indeed.’

Roan nodded while watching the scene.

Although he already knew, seeing it in reality was far more grotesque and insane.

He had thought of how to utilize black magic, but since he didn’t know what would happen in practice, packing herbs was a good choice.

—……

The students fell silent.

Atoga reassured the students as if he was already used to it.

“Do not worry. Since those daggers have already been thoroughly sterilized. You may stab to your heart’s content without worrying about infection or inflammation.”

—No, that’s not what we meant……

Not to mention the student who asked as representative.

The other students also made tearful faces, looking back and forth between the dagger in their hands and their forearms.

At that moment.

Puuuk──

A chilling sound cut through the silent lecture room.

—Gasp!

—That guy, he stabbed himself?

It was Roan.

Students turned to look at Roan with shocked eyes.

But when Roan glared at them terrifyingly with a heavily contorted face, they quickly turned their heads away.

‘This is just because it hurts, though.’

Roan was slightly aggrieved.

Since he was human too, he had no choice but to feel pain.

Even more so, having stabbed the knife so deeply, he could naturally frown.

Meanwhile, Atoga didn’t express it in words, but watched Roan with a strange glint in his eyes.

‘Is he indeed the descendant of the Darc family? To think he would stab in one go.’

It wasn’t that Atoga was a psychopath unaware of pain and forced students to self-harm without concern.

First of all, this was also penance, so it naturally helped the development of holy power greatly.

Because through long experience, he had learned that pretending it was nothing caused less resistance than worrying and making a fuss together.

……Though causing less resistance and making them have no time to feel resistance were a bit different.

At any rate, there had not been a single freshman who stabbed his own forearm in one go like Roan.

‘Well, his life must have been incomparable to a mere dagger like this…….’

“D…… Darc, are you okay?”

However, the one who was most startled was Demona, who watched that scene directly from beside him.

He asked, his face pale with shock.

Roan replied, still frowning.

“It’ll be easier for you to stab yours early too.”

“?”

Demona and Hector did not properly understand the meaning of Roan’s words.

However, Acherandir was not a soft place that would wait for them leisurely.

—I, I can’t do it, Professor!

A student immediately stood up from his seat.

It was an extremely reasonable point that even if it was part of class, stabbing one’s own arm was a crazy act.

At that, Atoga nodded as if he had already expected even that, and said.

“That can be, student. Then there is no choice.”

The students’ expressions brightened.

Although it was unfortunate that Roan had stabbed first, indeed a more common-sensical and moderate method to conduct class—

Puuuk—

—U-Uaaah!

—?!??!?!?

Atoga personally stabbed the arm of the student who had stood up.

As he winked at the assistant, the assistant also immediately went into action.

Puk— puk—

“Stabbing your own forearm is also part of penance. Although it will help you greatly, since you are freshmen, I won’t force you. For those who can’t, the assistant and I will personally help you.”

A chilling sound and a split-second delayed scream repeated.

“For students who will stab personally, be careful not to hurt the bone! That part hurts especially more!”

—Uaaaah, Professor!—

Even while doing so, Atoga did not spare useful advice for the students.

Roan looked back and forth between Hector and Demona on his sides.

Conveying the meaning of ‘Do you get it now?’

Hector nodded meaningfully.

Puk—

He stabbed his own forearm before long.

Roan was honestly impressed.

He hadn’t expected him to actually stab it himself.

“As expected of the Pavilto family.”

“……Thanks.”

Seeing that, Demona also drove down his dagger, as if he couldn’t lose.

Then he said to Roan, on the verge of tears.

“I did it too, Darc.”

“Y-Yeah. As expected of Wycronon.”

When Roan nodded for him, Demona wore a proud expression.

Did he stab his own arm just because he couldn’t lose to Hector?

‘His settings were unusual from the start, but seeing him in reality, he was even crazier.’

At this moment, even Roan was slightly dumbfounded.

From the beginning, there was a bit of a rival-like feeling between the two.

However, since they had no intersection, they mostly just avoided each other.

Somehow, since Roan was caught in the middle and they became roommates, it felt like the fire was fueled even more.

Thus, after most students ended up with a dagger stuck in their forearms, whether by choice or with help(?).

From then on, the healing class began in earnest.

“Treatment and healing are entirely matter of experience and sensation. If you use holy spells blindly, the wound might only heal on the surface. Even if you waste a bit of holy power, in the beginning you must cast from a place far deeper than you think.”

Atoga explained the know-how of curative holy spells easily and kindly.

—Ugh…… what is he saying?

—I don’t know…….

If it were not for the situation where students were already bleeding profusely from their forearms, it would have been a pretty good class.

‘Holy magic has a simple healing mechanism, but black magic is not like that.’

In holy magic healing, the flesh fills in and the wound heals on its own.

Since the design was made that way in the first place, and it was a field that matched well with holy power.

On the other hand, Roan’s black magic was a bit different.

To heal with black magic, one had to approach it like a surgical operation.

Although it consumed relatively more mana and required modifying spells from their original purposes, what choice did he have?

He couldn’t confess that he was a black mage now, so he had to try.

He had briefly experimented with the spells to use beforehand.

They were very basic black magic spells that posed no difficulty to use with his talent even without learning them separately, and indeed they were.

‘It’s best to finish while the kids are distracted.’

There was no good in letting them notice that only his healing was strangely different.

Roan gathered black mana and focused entirely on his inner self just like during practice.

While the circuits smoothly sent mana like a well-paved road, he felt only the stabbed spot cleanly cut.

What remained was the task of repairing that spot like the other circuits.

Now, Roan utilized mana in earnest.

‘Huh?’

However, the feeling was strangely different from when climbing the cliff or even during practice.

So to speak, it became a bit more intense and smooth.

And that feeling grew increasingly certain.

‘……Is it because of the talent stat?’

Roan decided to think so for now.

That was because it was the first time he had attempted something worthy of being called proper black magic, and.

he had not yet properly estimated the performance of a talent stat of 100 himself.

However, he failed to realize.

Wriggle—

The fact that the Authority, False Divinity, which had been no different from sleeping until now, was gradually starting to awaken.

‘First, blood flow control.’

Although originally used for offensive purposes, using it for a short time in a limited range was no different from stopping bleeding.

Once Roan activated the black magic to stop the bleeding.

Hwaaa──!

Almost simultaneously, his forearm began to radiate a brilliant light, making its presence known.

An overwhelming majesty that everyone in the lecture room couldn’t take their eyes off.

‘What on earth is that……!’

Atoga, who was checking the students’ conditions in case of an emergency, was also shocked.

The only one who didn’t notice the current situation was Roan himself, who was solely concentrated on the black magic.