There Is No Hidden Villain in This Novel Chapter 16

For reference, our marriage-or-whatever scandal…….

About that, it blew up once more when we said we were sharing a room, but then it quieted down after both sides applied pressure to shut them up. Hmm. As expected, media suppression is a specialty of the aristocracy.

Anyway, after studying only theory for three weeks, I visited the training room for the first time in the fourth week.

Since Ryuseong spends his time here until dawn every day, the training room, which could almost be called Ryuseong’s living space, was structured like something out of a fantasy movie. It was like it was saying, ‘this is what happens when you overlay an Alice in Wonderland theme onto a modern fantasy setting.’ For one, there were doors on all sides.

‘The atmosphere feels like there might be a cake that makes your body shrink if you eat it wrong……’

The sizes and colors were all different. There were ones as large as an elephant and ones as small as a mouse hole.

And the senior cadets, with their worn-out and weary expressions, were squatting in front of the doors, waiting according to the <Occupied> signs hung on them, muttering things like, ‘Ah, so shameless,’ ‘When is he coming out,’ and ‘Is he using the training room all by himself.’

‘Ah, is this the spirit of K-cadets……’

Perhaps for safety, dozens of screens were hanging from a pillar in the center, broadcasting what was happening inside the training rooms in real-time, and Ryuseong was among them. The sight of him coolly slicing up a giant monster was truly befitting of a protagonist.

‘Oof. I should definitely not get on his bad side.’

As I was taking in this bizarrely modern yet fairytale-like scenery, the people around me slowly began to recognize me.

“It’s, it’s de Millang……”

It was still a time when the first-year training rooms were not officially open. A time when most of the first-year cadets were focused on social activities rather than honing their practical skills by joining the senior cadets’ training rooms.

All the cadets in the training room were in a position to be called ‘sunbae’ by the first-years, but I did not even spare them a glance.

That kind of courtesy is only necessary for the big-name professors; who are mere cadets for me to bother?

‘If I had to be precise, those sunbaes are the ones who should be groveling to me to make connections.’

Just as those ‘sunbaes’ were sizing each other up to see who would approach first, a staff member, who had no need to worry about saving face, quickly latched onto me.

“For which field of training have you come to visit?”

Seeing how he was squinting his eyes into a near-smile, it seemed he wanted to show, by any means necessary, that he was pro-de Millang.

But you cannot just be fond of anyone who shows their belly and lies down. As Cassis would say, there were far too many people who would crawl on their knees if told to. As such, I needed to carefully select those to whom I would distribute my affection.

“It seems the first-year training rooms are not open yet, is that correct?”

“Yes, but you can use the training rooms for other years flexibly, so if you tell us your desired field, we will clear a space for you……”

Oof. You want me to get cursed out?

The theory professors and cadets would not dare curse at me, but the practical combat professors were a little different. We were in a position where we had to look out for each other to some extent, and there was no need to get on the bad side of the instructor in charge of the training rooms by provoking him.

“That is unnecessary. I will enter an empty one, so please guide me.”

“Pardon? But the only vacant room right now is the blood magic training room……”

Bingo.

“I was just becoming interested, so let us give it a try.”

“Pardon? Um, well, surely, if this is your first time training in that field……”

Just then, I felt a wave of heat pour out from somewhere, and the sound of someone’s footsteps struck my ears. A gust of hot wind blew, smoke billowed out, and a man appeared.

‘I wonder how many days it has been since I last saw his face.’

I glared at my deadbeat roommate for a moment, then smiled sweetly.

“Do you think I, of all people, cannot do it?”

Normally, one would naturally fail on the first try. Blood magic is a particularly minor field, so there are few who have learned it and even fewer who are good at it. I, too, practiced secretly in my room before coming here.

What is important is to implant the impression in others that I am insanely good even at a field I am trying for the first time. And for the time being, I have to use this as my main magic.

‘That way, even if my clumsy parts are exposed, I will have an excuse to cover it up……!’

If you become clumsy in a field you have always practiced and slip from first place, you will hear people say, ‘He’s past his prime,’ but what if you maintain your spot in Class 1 with a field you are challenging for the first time?

This is a surefire way to prove I am a fucking genius.

‘How do you like my grand plan!’

I had a plan for everything. Ryuseong contorted his face for some reason, but that was not my problem. For the first time, I turned my back on him first.

‘Well, it is not like he would care anyway.’

One of the strengths of Araea Academy is the quality of its training rooms. You can choose a training room according to a cadet’s primary field, and once you enter, after setting the security level, a prompt appears asking you to choose between [Easy Mode] and [Hard Mode].

If you select [Easy Mode], an enemy that can be overcome with that field appears, and if you select [Hard Mode], an enemy that tries to overcome that field appears.

After choosing one of the two, another selection window pops up. It is about sensory synchronization.

‘Because the enemies in the training room are all illusions.’

When fighting against illusions, it is only natural not to feel pain even if you get injured. After all, the opponent you are fighting is an illusion. But this way, you cannot develop a feel for real combat. It cannot give you the sense of crisis that your life is truly on the line. There is no desperation.

Without desperation, the tip of the sword becomes dull. The system created to sharpen the cadets’ sword tips is sensory synchronization.

‘You come out without a single wound, but it is set up so you can feel pain every time you get hurt.’

Of course, if you are not careful, you might have to feel the pain of death, so sensory synchronization could only be set up to a maximum of 50 percent, and if you wanted to raise the synchronization percentage further, you had to train with a professor present. So I slammed [Hard Mode] and entered [50 percent].

In a word, I pushed all the bravado I could as a cadet to the maximum.

In the blood magic training room I entered for the first time.

‘……Hmm.’

Blood magic, which draws physical power by offering blood as a sacrifice, is closer to sorcery than modern magic, and it is a branch that split off from black magic, which is now almost obsolete, but it differs from black magic in that it only uses oneself as a sacrifice.

However, a practitioner of blood magic must exert extreme control so as not to be consumed by the physical power summoned by sacrificing themself. This means they must handle the blood they have drawn out of their body as if it were a newly grown limb, but usually, people fail at that and lose a limb or two.

If you meet a good teacher, they will reattach your limbs with a potion, but there were countless blood magic successors who ended up with disabilities after studying under some street riffraff as their master.

As such, my performance was an unconventional one.

But what can I do?

‘This is also labor to protect the powerful aura of the number one noble lord in this world’s hierarchy!’

Before long, the program activated, and a grotesquely shaped illusion stood before my eyes. It did not have a proper form and was sloshing like mud from a pond, repeatedly trickling down and then splattering apart with a flop.

The natural enemy of blood magic, which is activated through the medium of blood—a monster that swallows liquid—had been summoned. It was a difficulty befitting of [Hard Mode].

But it was exactly as I had expected.

And if you cannot subvert my predictions, you cannot defeat me.

Swoosh!

I squeezed out the medium for blood magic. My head spun for a moment from the excessive bleeding, but soon after, I wrapped myself in the swirling, whirling fresh blood, the ruby-like blood fluid, as a weapon, and glared at the enemy. The mud monster that appeared as my opponent would swallow my weapon to nullify its physical force.

‘So, before it gets swallowed, let us ‘transform’ its ‘form’.’

I drew a line under my eye with my blood-soaked fingertip. A red line, as if I had put on makeup, followed.

This is a kind of ritual. A declaration of transformation.

A spell to summon a physical force to interfere with the world, with myself as the sacrifice.

“I offer my blood as a sacrifice.”

Thus, I summoned the most destructive attribute among the Five Elements to this place.

“Become fire (火).”

The reason I had deliberately resolved to perform blood magic was because Cassis de Millang’s body already possessed the form of a completed Raider. This means it was preceded by the judgment that since his body’s rank was high, his blood could also be valued highly as a sacrifice.

And now, I offered every bit of rank I could squeeze from my own skin as a sacrifice for physical power. I used every last drop of spilled blood as the price for the fire I would summon.

‘This should be enough to deal with the mud monster, right?’

Before the thought was even finished,

—Crackle-crackle-crackle!

The moment the fire I shot out touched the mud monster, an explosion occurred. No, it was not an explosion, but a distortion. All the illusions that had unfolded before my eyes were swaying chaotically like a broken hologram.

The training room presents enemies as illusions and absorbs the cadets’ attacks. The training room is a room made on the premise that Raiders will use it. I thought it would be different from hotels that use the phrase ‘can withstand bombs’ for promotional purposes.

So I tried pouring out all the power I could muster at my current level.

“……Hmm, did I make a mistake?”

[Warning! The formation cannot absorb the impact! Security level adjustment is urgently required……!]

[Autonomous security system is paralyzed!]

[Evacuation is requested! Forcibly opening all entrances!]

Pshhhhhh……!

“Wha-what is it!”

“What happened! Is it an attack?!”

It seems I have broken the system that manages the entire training room.