READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 19 - Elysia (3)
✦ Chapter 19 – Elysia (3) ✦
「Translator – Creator」
𒋝𒋝𒋝𒋝𒋝
“What are you all waiting for? An invitation?”
I surveyed the classroom, my gaze sweeping over the stunned faces of my classmates. They seemed frozen in place, still reeling from my blatant lie.
“Hahaha, as expected, there are a lot of crazy people in the academy,” said Kuran Isar, the first to move.
With a loud laugh, the burly, bronze-skinned Kuran charged at Professor Elysia. The spot where he had stood was slightly indented from the force of his sudden movement. His speed was remarkable for someone with his massive build. He lunged at Professor Elysia with a powerful punch that carried the momentum of his weight and speed.
*Thud.*
To everyone’s astonishment, Professor Elysia caught Kuran’s punch with one hand, her expression remaining completely relaxed.
“Is that the best you can do?”
In stark contrast to the calm-looking Professor Elysia, Kuran seemed bewildered by how easily she had stopped his punch.
“What the…?”
“Now, let’s test your durability,” Elysia said calmly.
Before Kuran could react, she threw a punch, connecting squarely with his jaw. He flew backwards, crashing into the wall.
*Boom!*
Unlike me, who’d twisted my body to lessen the impact, Kuran’s head collided with the wall with the full force of her blow.
“Is he…dead?” a student whispered.
“Ugh, a warrior of the great Isar tribe doesn’t die from something like this,” Kuran groaned. Despite the force of the blow, he quickly regained his senses and charged again. It was the unique traits of the Isar tribe that allowed Kuran to recover and continue fighting so quickly.
“Even if you have the will to fight, if you’re knocked out, you can’t fight.”
Professor Elysia effortlessly moved behind the charging Kuran and struck the back of his neck, causing him to collapse unconscious. Seeing such a move in real life was like something out of a movie.
“Oh, right. I forgot to mention your objective,” Professor Elysia said, looking at the wide-eyed students who were clearly shocked by her display of power. “I will not use mana when fighting you. Your goal, by the end of the first semester, is to make me use my mana. That’s your target.”
It was a significant handicap, but none of us dared to question her decision.
Kuran had enhanced his physical strength with mana before charging at her, yet she’d effortlessly blocked his attack without using any mana herself.
If she unleashed her full power… well, it was safe to say that none of us would last a minute.
“Since Kuran is unconscious and likely didn’t hear that, I’ll relay it to him later,” I said, having taken a moment to rest while Kuran fought. I spoke to Professor Elysia while pulling on the string suspended in the air.
“Didn’t you learn your lesson the first time?”
Professor Elysia assumed I was attempting another thread-binding maneuver. This time, however, I had something…different in mind.
*Shwick*
A dagger materialized out of thin air, hurtling toward her.
To be precise, it was a cleverly placed trap, activated by a tug on an invisible thread. The dagger appeared from a perfect blind spot, aimed directly at her heart.
However, without even looking, she reached out and caught it between her fingers.
*Thud*
*Clap – Clap – Clap*
“Impressive!” I exclaimed, applauding her quick reflexes.
I’d known it wouldn’t be that easy to catch her off guard, but I hadn’t anticipated such a casual display of superhuman ability.
“Let’s see if you can catch this one.” My voice, laced with genuine curiosity, echoed through the classroom.
Elysia let out a sigh.
“Sigh… Loki, anyone would think you’re testing me.”
“What? Me? Never.”
“The reason you lied earlier was to set up these daggers and threads, wasn’t it?”
“Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! Sadly, there are no prizes to be won.”
My elaborate lie had served its purpose. While she’d been distracted by my performance, I’d transformed the classroom into a minefield of traps.
“It would’ve been better to set them up while the others were attacking me,” Professor Elysia suggested.
She had a point. It would have been far more efficient, and considerably safer, to utilize the chaos of a group assault to my advantage.
However, there was one problem with that.
“If I did nothing during their attacks, that would have been suspicious, wouldn’t it?”
“Fair enough.” A faint smile touched her lips. “Let’s see what you’ve come up with, then. Show me what you’ve got, Loki.”
“Brace yourself, Professor. This isn’t just a trap; it’s a whole theatrical production.”
I tugged on a thread, and another dagger materialized, this time directly behind her.
As before, Professor Elysia reached out to catch the dagger, but it vanished as soon as her hand touched it.
“Ha! A fake!”
The moment her hand extended, another dagger, the real one, shot out from a different angle, aimed at her outstretched hand; there was no way she could physically catch it.
“Tch.”
Knowing she couldn’t catch it, Professor Elysia jumped to dodge.
“Oh, I see. Your unique magic blends real and fake attacks. Creative,” she remarked.
As she said, I had used my unique magic to create an illusionary dagger that flew towards her when I pulled the threads. She tried to catch the illusion, leaving her vulnerable to the real dagger, forcing her to dodge.
“So, the first act of my grand production has failed. But fret not! There are many more surprises in store.”
“An impressive attack method. But why didn’t you use it against the golem?” Elysia asked.
“Do you know how expensive daggers are? I may have plenty of threads, but good daggers cost a lot.” A decent quality dagger commands a hefty price, and on the day of the entrance exam, I was almost broke. “If I hadn’t received that generous payment from you, I’d have been tempted to steal knives from the cafeteria and use those instead.”
“Change your mindset, Loki, unless you want another demerit point.”
“Of course, now that I have some money, there’s no need for that!”
Professor Elysia casually stretched as she spoke to me.
“Loki.”
“Yes, Professor Elysia!”
“The daggers fly when you pull the threads, correct?”
“That’s correct.”
“But what if, instead of giving you time to pull the threads, I just charged at you immediately?”
She said this while walking towards me. If I tried to pull the threads, she would undoubtedly rush at me.
As I expected, Professor Elysia took a step forward, and her leg got caught in a thread I had laid on the ground.
“The daggers might need me to pull the strings, but not everything does.”
*Creak*
A desk, far larger and heavier than any of the daggers I’d launched earlier, swung down from the ceiling, aiming for Elysia.
“Tch.”
She clicked her tongue in annoyance, her fist connecting with the desk’s surface; the desk shattered into a thousand pieces, raining splinters of wood across the classroom.
“The headmaster isn’t going to be happy about this,” she muttered.
Worried about the headmaster’s reaction, I asked her, “Is that desk expensive? I don’t have any money.”
“Don’t worry, you won’t need to pay for it.”
“Phew, that’s a relief. I was worried since the trap already went off.”
*Creak. Creak. Creak. Creak.*
The destruction of the first desk triggered a chain reaction; the threads, cleverly woven throughout the classroom, tightened, pulling on their connected objects.
“I’ve connected all the desks in the room with threads. I simply can’t afford to replace them.”
“All of them?”
“Yes, all of them.”
*Crash! Bang! Boom! Crash! Bang!*
As soon as I finished speaking, the remaining desks, pulled by the interconnected threads, hurtled towards Elysia. The place where she stood turned into a chaotic mess as dozens of desks collided into the area.
I glanced at Clara, the Archmage’s disciple, who was staring at the chaos in a daze.
“Clara?”
“…Huh?”
Clara responded while looking guardedly at me.
Why was she looking at me like that?
It didn’t seem like Clara was acting guarded because of my handsome face pushed suddenly close to hers. Anyway, that wasn’t important right now. Urgently, I addressed Clara.
“Launch a spell quickly before the professor recovers!”
“There’s no response. Maybe she’s already taken out?” Clara observed, noting that Professor Elysia’s figure wasn’t visible under the desks, and there had been no sign of movement.
“That can’t be.”
“Sigh… Fine, I’ll give it a shot,” Clara said, exhaling briefly before beginning her chant. Flames appeared on her staff and grew rapidly in size.
‘Her chanting has gotten much faster since last time.’
“Fireball.”
A massive ball of fire, resembling a miniature meteor, hurtled towards the pile of debris where Elysia had disappeared.
“Hopefully, that’s the end of it,” I murmured.
*Crash!*
As if to contradict my statement, a desk, propelled by an unseen force, shot out from the wreckage, sailing across the classroom and heading straight for me.
“Eek!”
I leaped to the side, narrowly avoiding a face full of splintered wood.
Elysia emerged from the dust cloud, her clothes and hair slightly singed but otherwise unharmed, and started walking towards me.
Clara, her eyes wide with fear, took a step back. “What is she?” she whispered, her voice trembling.
“I have no idea.”
That, of course, was a lie. I knew exactly what she was.
The reason Professor Elysia could be so powerful without using mana…,
and why she was unscathed even after those attacks…,
…was because she was a Dragon.
Her strength ranked among the top five within Croaka’s world.
As she approached, her expression unreadable, I decided to shift her attention away from myself.
“Just so you know, Clara was the one who launched that last attack.”
The look on Clara’s face was a mix of betrayal and disbelief.
— End of Chapter —
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