Chapter 92

“Let’s head to class.”

As Roan said this and walked on, his friends naturally followed close behind him.

Led by Roan, who was drawing by far the most unique attention among the freshmen.

Demona of the Wechronon, one of the three great families.

Hector of the Pavilto, a prestigious family of heretic inquisitors.

Rafia and Riel, from holy knight families.

And finally, even the saint candidate Sion.

— Look at those guys…….

— An unbelievable lineup has gathered.

— Somehow, they look cool!

As the six, none of whom fell short, moved, the sea of students parted on both sides.

Roan didn’t like any of it, but in the eyes of others, they were no different from the most outstanding elite group.

‘……Clearly, my goal until admission was to graduate quietly without drawing attention.’

Roan, who had become walking news in just two weeks, was extremely uncomfortable with this situation.

When Roan scowled slightly, the speed at which the students stepped aside became even faster.

— Hieek!

— U-Uh, quickly move aside! You’ll die!

Just listening to the words, one couldn’t tell if this place was the Holy Academy Akerandir or the Empire’s worst crime street.

Just how were they viewing Roan to be saying that they would die if they didn’t get out of the way?

Of course—although Roan had not intended it—there were definitely students who felt displeased looking at Roan like that.

For some reason, they.

— Lesterol! Are you going to just watch that tyranny?

— I know a guy who won’t lose to those fellows. I’ll introduce you!

Flocked to Trian, who had been staying quiet.

Because excluding Roan and Sion, who were strong candidates for the top two spots in their year, the third-place Trian was the closest thing to a focal point.

Whenever that happened, Trian, the hippopotamus beastman, felt his skin dry up to the point where red sweat trickled down.

‘Darc is uselessly capable!’

How on earth was he supposed to deal with a guy who allegedly revived ancient holy arts to defeat an evil army of black mages and then went on to fight a grand duel with Harden the Holy Spirit!

Although Trian was a jealous and arrogant character, he was not a fool who couldn’t recognize a path to death.

Rather, he was on the smart side compared to other students.

……However, as a member of the prestigious Lesterol family, he couldn’t exactly push away those who followed him either.

“Hmm…… F-Fine. With my strength, I should be able to keep them in check……”

— As expected of Lesterol!

— Wait, I’ll go call the guys I know!

After Roan’s party went down and the followers scattered in all directions.

Trian had to struggle to control his trembling legs.

***

Having arrived like that at the Hetrona Hall, Professor Beleck’s classroom.

For some reason, Demona had not worn a very good expression ever since entering the Hetrona Hall.

“What’s wrong, Demona? Are you sick?”

Rafia asked with a slightly worried expression.

Hearing those words, Roan scoffed and said.

“You still don’t know her.”

“Huh?”

“It’s obviously because there was no class last week, but since it seems we’ll have class this week, she hates it. That must be the reason.”

“H-H-How did you know, Roan?!”

Demona said, opening her eyes wide.

“Have you mastered mind-reading holy arts now too?”

“……As if there is such a thing.”

A cheat-like holy art like mind-reading did not exist at all for the sake of balance.

Even Harden could only vaguely distinguish between truth and lies.

“Then how on earth did you know……”

As Demona muttered to herself in shock, her friends stared at her rather pitifully.

Although it was no longer surprising, they wondered how such a child could be born to Wechronon, the family of sages.

“Then what will we learn today? Since it’s a basic holy arts class, it’s quite vague.”

This time, Sion asked.

It was obvious that it contained a trace of strange expectation.

‘If I tell her the answer, she will go on again about the information network.’

Although he was annoyed, not sharing the setting details he knew was even more unacceptable to Roan.

“Professor Beleck’s specialty is ‘Borrowed-Name Holy Arts’. It is also another name for basic holy arts.”

“Indeed!”

Just as Roan expected, Sion nodded, smiling contentedly as if her thoughts were correct.

In God & Devil, ‘basic holy arts’ could mean simple holy arts, but it also referred to Borrowed-Name Holy Arts that directly borrowed and used the power of gods.

Unlike ordinary holy arts, which were developed at one’s own will by directly combining the Hylon language and patterns, Borrowed-Name Holy Arts could be considered the very source of holy arts.

Although the realm of talent was vast because basic resonance with the gods and the power exerted differed depending on how much one was loved by the respective god.

Essentially, since they allowed the use of various attributes and unique effects that one did not possess, they were widely favored among priests.

Furthermore, as they directly borrowed the power of the god, one could expect performance far more powerful than their own holy power depending on the situation.

There were numerous records of Borrowed-Name Holy Arts used in desperate moments showing power surpassing miracles.

‘There is also a Borrowed-Power lineage in black magic, so I can just use that.’

On the other hand, the Borrowed-Power lineage consisted of magic that summoned the power of devils instead.

Like Borrowed-Name Holy Arts used by humans by borrowing divine power, the Borrowed-Power lineage was a concept of directly summoning devilish power.

Though they looked somewhat similar, in black magic, the Borrowed-Power lineage belonged to extremely difficult and dangerous magic just by the act of summoning devilish power.

Since if the caster displeased the devil, it was common for it to attack the caster in reverse.

Still, his talent was what it was, and at this basic level, it wouldn’t be something to worry about much.

……Or so Roan struggled to think.

‘The Borrowed-Power black magic circles…….’

As Roan was recalling the magic circles of the Borrowed-Power black magic, Demona asked.

“Then Roan, can we learn the holy arts you use too?”

“What holy arts are you talking about?”

“You know, that thing where we collapse right away when you use it on us. Our bodies don’t move and it hurts like hell. The holy punishment art.”

What Demona was talking about seemed to be the paralysis.

Roan quietly scanned the reactions of his surroundings.

Because he hated to even imagine what would happen if the rumor spread that he used such a holy art on his friends.

Surprisingly, however, even after hearing Demona’s words, his friends had no particular reaction.

They simply thought, ‘She must have done something to deserve it, so Roan did that.’

Even Hector, who had been hit with paralysis along with Demona, looked ashamed as if he felt he had deserved it.

‘These guys make a fuss over minor things, yet……!’

Even if they made a huge fuss as if they were dying every time Roan glared at someone.

If they found out Roan was a black mage, wouldn’t they actually just gloss over it, saying ‘Hmm, he must have had a reason’?

Although he felt unjustly targeted for no reason, Roan replied nonchalantly.

“The holy punishment art? That doesn’t belong to Professor Beleck’s class, but regardless, it won’t be until the fifth week.”

Naturally, the class to learn the holy punishment art was under Professor Kaina.

Although it differed slightly depending on the students’ progress, they usually began to learn it around then.

Rafia tilted her head and asked.

“But how do you know all of that, Roan?”

No matter how capable Roan was, it was mysterious how he knew such detailed information in Akerandir, where even a curriculum was not provided.

……Then again, if one looked at it that way, there weren’t just one or two mysterious things.

“Ahem!”

Sion, looking as if her mouth was itching to speak, sent a signal to Roan.

When Roan looked at her, she mouthed the words, ‘I told you to be careful!’.

‘What do you expect me to do.’

Did she mean he shouldn’t answer even when his friends asked something?

When she herself asked whenever she was curious about something.

While Roan didn’t pay much attention, Demona abruptly threw words at Rafia.

“Rafia, are you a fool?”

“U-Uh…… how can you say such a harsh thing……!”

Rafia’s eyes instantly welled up with tears.

Hearing that she was a fool didn’t matter much, but hearing those words from Demona was extremely hurtful.

But Demona continued speaking without paying attention.

“Roan’s parents appear in his dreams and tell him everything! Do you really have to hear it spoken out loud?”

“U-Uh…… huh?”

The atmosphere instantly turned chilly.

Rafia was completely flustered, as if she had never imagined it to that extent.

In fact, she was the normal one.

Even if they suffered an unjust death, did it make sense for parents to appear in a dream and teach him, ‘Son, the holy punishment art was learned around the fifth week’?

But she couldn’t exactly snap back and say ‘What do you mean, parents?’.

Demona proudly asked Roan.

“I’m right, aren’t I, Roan?”

‘Are they your parents…….’

Roan somehow felt apologetic to the parents whose faces he didn’t even know.

“Well, it’s similar……”

“Sob……”

Sion, who had only been listening quietly, began to squeeze out a few tears.

Roan, the tragic protagonist who possessed a vast information network for some reason but couldn’t say he had it!

……She was undoubtedly thinking thoughts like that.

It was truly a total mess.

, .

“Ahem, Roan.”

“What is it with you now.”

“Um…… could you ask your parents later what divine beast I will get……?”

Roan’s mouth fell open at the completely unexpected request.

‘Just how far are these guys going to grow?’

Every time he wondered if there could be anything worse than this, they would unfailingly break their record next time.

Demona, Riel, Rafia, and Sion stared at Hector as if they were looking at trash crawling with maggots.

“Fanatic, you really…… are a terrible guy, aren’t you?”

It was to the extent that even Demona spoke like this.

What did he mean, asking a dead friend’s parents?

Sensing that public sentiment was unusual, Hector waved his hands and quickly made an excuse.

“Ah…… ahahaha! Of course it was a j-joke. The atmosphere felt too heavy, so I tried to lighten it up a bit.”

Naturally, it didn’t work at all.

Demona barked with a cold face.

“Hey! A joke is only a joke when the other party also finds it funny! Of course you would act like a 15,000 gold piece……”

Although they were extremely correct words, for some reason, hearing it from Demona made it sound strange.

Sion quietly approached Roan’s side and said.

“……Darc, will it be enough to master only holy punishment arts?”

“I agree.”

Rafia also nodded and agreed.

Even when he had used the holy punishment art on Pierbo, they had felt bad, wondering why he had already learned such a cruel holy art.

But thinking of sharing a room with fellows like that, they felt as if they would also immediately run to the library and pull out books on holy punishment arts.

“Thanks for the concern.”

Roan wore a bitter smile, thinking that indeed, it was Sion and Rafia.

***

“Now, what you all will learn starting today is Borrowed-Name Holy Arts. It is also a holy art that a priest must master.”

Professor Beleck’s class flowed exactly as Roan had said.

Daman, the students seemed slightly confused. (Note: “Daman” -> However / Still, let’s make sure: -> However / Still).

— But can Professor Beleck use Borrowed-Name Holy Arts too?

— You fool, the professor is a black mage.

— True, but…….

Although Beleck possessed a wonderful personality and was outstanding in theory, the fact that he couldn’t use the holy art he taught was that much of a major weakness.

Before long, however, the students accepted even that as a relief.

— Wake up, both of you. What if Professor Beleck could use Borrowed-Name Holy Arts? What else would he do besides launching holy arts at us?

— Wow, you’re smart.

‘Then again, it’s not a wrong statement.’

It was a persuasive guess to the point where even Roan thought it plausible.