Chapter 85

Roan smirked and explained.

“Until just a few years ago, he looked exactly like that rumored appearance.”

“Then?”

“Back then was before he fully stepped into the Oath branch, but now is different.”

“……But even in recent materials, his appearance hasn’t changed, has it?”

Sion, who had been listening quietly, asked.

In the case of famous celebrities, portraits were often published in magazines or newspapers.

The latest portrait Sion had seen before admission was certainly not like that.

Roan retorted as if it were obvious.

“Because there’s nothing good to gain by letting it be known that the Miracle Worker Bogdin has become like that.”

“Ah……”

The moment they heard it, everyone was convinced by the very, very reasonable explanation.

***

After having a simple dinner in the commercial district again.

“Are you heading back to the dormitory now, Roan?”

Rafia, who stepped out onto the street and stretched refreshingly, asked Roan.

‘……I was planning to move alone.’

Roan, who had to move as quickly as possible, thought it was a setback.

Had he just quietly gone to the dormitory, it would have been easier to move alone, but now that the topic was brought up like this, he couldn’t avoid revealing his destination.

Stare─

Just as his friends’ gazes converged on Roan right away.

“I’m thinking of heading to the mountain for a bit.”

Before the ‘Six Punks’ event started, he had to obtain what he needed along the event route.

“Is that true?!”

However, for some reason, Hector stuck close to Roan, eyes flashing.

Roan pulled his body back slightly and asked.

“……Why are you happy?”

“Take me to the mountain as well!”

“Why?”

“Whenever that heretic went somewhere with you, didn’t you pick up rare spiritual beasts left and right! This time it’s my turn!”

Sure enough, it was that damn spiritual beast, that damn Holy Battle.

Roan let out a deep sigh.

Demona, seeing this, mocked Hector.

“Hey, fanatic. What does that have to do with Roan? You were there too when he got the Black Knight~”

Before they knew it, the name of the Fanatic Rabbit King had been decided as ‘Black Knight’.

‘Whether Death Knight or Black Knight…….’

In Roan’s opinion, it was a name that wouldn’t be surprising if he got arrested immediately, but surprisingly, even Hector had acknowledged it.

……Or perhaps Hector thought the same as Roan but purposefully acknowledged it.

Regardless.

“Grr…… Anyway, this time is my turn!”

Hector was acting ready to tag along with Roan persistently, despite being very angry.

At that, Rafia also chimed in.

“Then can I go with you too?”

“Why you?”

“Well…… somehow, I feel like hanging out with you will be good training?”

Roan’s expression darkened.

‘What about me…….’

He wasn’t some adventurer searching for crises.

What did she mean, wanting to hang out for training?

“Ah, no! I mean, if we just go to the mountain, it naturally becomes training, right?”

Rafia quickly made an excuse, but it was not enough to restore Roan’s sour mood.

“W-What about you guys? Do you want to go with us?”

Rafia turned to the other friends and asked.

Fortunately for Roan, no one else stepped forward to join them.

“I should go to the library.”

Sion glared at Demona for some reason and left alone.

“I have plans……”

Riel said she had plans with other friends.

If anyone were to leave this party, he had thought Rafia would be the first, but Riel was actually faster.

‘Then again, it also feels like Rafia is becoming a bit stranger…….’

At any rate, seeing Riel getting along so well was somehow touching for Roan.

“What about me? Why aren’t you asking me?”

Meanwhile, Demona jumped around, waving her hands wildly as if to say ‘Look at me’.

“Tsk…… What about you, Demona?”

“I’m tired, so I’ll go back to the dormitory and rest~ I can’t hang out with you today, Roan~”

When Roan asked reluctantly, Demona answered with a bright smile.

Fwoooosh──!

“R-Roan, endure it!”

“Right! Murder is not allowed!”

“Aack! It’s a mountain climbing ghost!”

When Roan couldn’t hold back and flared his black mana, Hector and Rafia on his left and right desperately held him back.

Demona fled in an instant, vanishing from the street before they knew it.

Perhaps because she had been subjected to Roan’s discipline so much, her escape skills were truly improving by leaps and bounds.

***

Anyway, the mountain climb began.

Hector could not hide his excitement, snorting hot air ever since they entered the forest.

“Spiritual beast! Spiritual beast!”

“……Hector, can’t you be a bit quiet?”

In any case, unlike a certain someone, the physical stamina of the two was very decent, so Roan climbed the mountain without needing to adjust his pace.

Roan turned back to look at the two following him and said.

“Let’s speed up more. It’ll be troublesome once the sun sets. There’s still quite a distance left to our destination.”

“Got it. But Roan, why did you tell us to pack weapons when we’re just climbing the mountain behind the school? Though it serves as good training……”

Rafia asked Roan as she quickened her steps.

Indeed, Rafia was equipped with leather armor she had brought from her family and a training iron sword that could easily serve as a weapon.

Hector’s gear was also even heavier than when they had gone to the dungeon last time.

It was certainly an excessive preparation for a light trip.

It was because Roan had stopped by the dormitory before coming to the mountain and firmly instructed the two of them to prepare.

However, Roan shook his head as if she was mistaken and replied.

“Don’t let your guard down. After all, the mountain behind Akerandir is a place where it wouldn’t be strange no matter what happens.”

Especially right now.

His demeanor was so serious that Rafia smiled slightly and made a joke.

“Ehhh? You make it sound like a black mage or something is going to appear. You’re good at joking, Roan.”

“That might be the case.”

“……”

Rafia could no longer laugh.

Encountering a black mage within the grounds of Akerandir, which was counted among the empire’s four major holy lands?

Had other friends said it, she would have regarded it like a light school rumor, but with Roan saying it, there was a weight of a completely different level.

On the other hand, Hector, who still hadn’t grasped the atmosphere, laughed out loud.

“Hahaha! At most, only wild spiritual beasts like last time will appear. And don’t worry, Roan. If a black mage does appear, I, a Pavilto, will capture them on my honor!”

That appearance was indeed the confidence fitting of a member of Pavilto, a prestigious family of heretic inquisitors.

However, Roan narrowed his eyes and glared at the Pavilto.

‘Who is capturing whom?’

How could he speak of capturing a black mage right in front of a black mage?

Regardless, Hector was also on the side of fighting fairly well, but that was strictly among average classmates.

Objectively or subjectively, he was no match for Roan.

“Why are you looking at me with those eyes?”

“……No. I’m just saying, I count on you if we really run into a black mage.”

“Kuhahaha! Of course! Just trust in Pavilto!”

As if he would count on him.

Roan pondered what curse magic to use on Hector if things went south.

At any rate, Hector’s confidence pierced the sky as if it were his specialty area.

Since he had been suffering terribly lately, it was also necessary to boost his spirits once.

“Anyway, do you see that high mountain peak over there? That is the ‘Ephyrim Basin’. It is also our destination.”

“What is there?”

“There might be rare spiritual beasts.”

“Good!”

“There are also spiritual elixirs that help with training.”

“Oh yeah!”

As Roan spoke while looking at the two of them, Hector and Rafia’s morale soared in an instant.

……The two did not question much how Roan knew that the place was called ‘Ephyrim Basin’, or even how he knew what was there.

The time to be surprised and curious about such things had already passed.

Ephyrim Basin was a remote area among remote areas, with sheer cliffs blocking all four sides of a peak that wasn’t very wide.

Due to its geographical characteristics, rare spiritual beasts would occasionally nest there.

Not to mention that all sorts of spiritual elixirs grew on the cliffs.

And one could randomly obtain rare fruits from the ‘Fruit Tree of Eternity’ in the middle of the basin.

What Roan was targeting was precisely that ‘Fruit Tree of Eternity’.

‘Since I am raising a divine beast anyway, I must raise it to be the best.’

A greed that any gamer possessed.

My child must be the best!

‘A Lightning Apple must appear.’

The Lightning Apple had the effect of significantly increasing the rarity probability when used on a divine beast’s egg.

Although it was extremely difficult to obtain outside of Akerandir, it appeared with a fairly high probability from the Fruit Tree of Eternity, so it was worth pinning his hopes on it.

In addition, since one could also obtain Amethyst Balloon Flower, which generally boosted the stats of divine and spiritual beasts, and Spirit Potato, which increased affinity to other attributes, in the Ephyrim Basin, he absolutely had to drop by for both purposes.

Roan gritted his teeth as he looked at the distant Ephyrim Basin.

‘But of all times, the ‘Six Punks’ event has to happen now…….’

Since he planned to hatch it tomorrow on Wednesday, he had originally intended to leisurely go and obtain it today.

However, because Pierbo had appeared much earlier than usual, every second had become urgent.

Once Pierbo was arrested and began to be used as a teaching aid, the ‘Six Punks’ event would proceed shortly.

The content involved Pierbo’s six subordinates infiltrating Akerandir to rescue him, and they would definitely pass through the Ephyrim Basin.

‘The bastards themselves aren’t the problem…….’

Although the difficulty was easy since it was a first-year first-semester event.

The problem was that those punks would pick and eat the fruit of the Fruit Tree of Eternity when passing through the Ephyrim Basin.

To harvest the next fruit from the Fruit Tree of Eternity, one would helplessly have to wait until the second semester.

For that reason, Roan was hurrying Rafia and Hector this much.

Even with such rapid movement, it was uncertain whether they could arrive at the Ephyrim Basin before the punks.

Roan braced himself as he looked at the Ephyrim Basin lying some distance away.

‘Even if those guys arrived first, if there is a Lightning Apple, I will seize it by any means necessary. No, even if it isn’t a Lightning Apple, I can’t let them have it.’

Black mage punks?

As long as there were no watching eyes, burying them all would do.

Even considering that he had to suppress his skills because Rafia and Hector were present, there was no way Roan would lose to the punks.

‘If they happen to eat it first…….’

A terrifying aura swirled in Roan’s eyes.

If they expected even a shred of mercy like during Pierbo’s case, they were grandly mistaken.

……Though it was doubtful whether Pierbo considered that to be mercy.

Fwoooosh─

Anyway, as Roan’s mood became unusual like that, Rafia and Hector following behind got slightly frightened.

“Why is Roan acting like that?”

“Is it not because of that black mage bastard earlier?”

“To say that, he is too……”

While the two were whispering to each other, Roan turned back with fierce eyes.

“Hurry up.”

“Ah! Y-Yes!”

“Understood!”

The two hurriedly stuck close to Roan.

‘It’s because you were showing off earlier, Hector!’

‘How do you know that!’

And then they bickered with their eyes.

***

Meanwhile, in the peaceful Akerandir, surprisingly, a few uninvited guests had secretly infiltrated.

Naturally, they were the six black mage punks who had come to rescue Pierbo.

“Whew, whew…… Why on earth did they build the school in a mountain valley like this!”

The black mage Deadlock voiced his complaint.

After living near Revondi where transportation was decent, trying to pass through the mountain range surrounding Akerandir was no ordinary struggle.

What kind of sin did the students who had to spend their school days in such a school commit?