◈ Mistaken for a Masked Monster
──────
Absolute Balloon Sword
Silence.
The raucous crowd went dead quiet all at once.
Laughing mouths snapped shut. Eyes that had been wide with mockery fixed onto a single point.
At the end of every gaze stood a boy with dark hair. A masked boy.
The air inside the training hall turned cold.
"What... what was that just now?"
"What just happened?"Murmurs seeped from the stands, slow and uncertain.
Shariel's attack had vanished without a trace. The inferno blazing furiously just a moment before was simply gone, as though it had never existed at all, as though it had always been nothing but a dying ember.
"No way..."
"She was blocked? Elisha-nim's attack was...?"
Eyes converged. The overwhelming firepower Shariel had put on display.
-Ha... the top student really is something. You could feel the force all the way up in the stands.
-Isn't that dangerous? That's not something some E-Class nobody can just take head-on.
-He's going to get hurt.
The ones who'd been muttering those things were now completely silent. Mockery. Contempt. Concern. Even those expressions shattered. Every pair of eyes in the stands had fixed on the same thing.
The boy.
And the grinning mask on his face.
"What, what just happened? Did anyone actually see it clearly?"
"It disappeared. Shariel-nim's magic, without any warning at all."
"What? Is that even possible?"
"Did Shariel-nim make a mistake?"
"That doesn't make any sense. That kind of basic mistake? From the top student of Class C?"
Voices rippled through the crowd. The scattered opinions quickly settled into a single answer.
"Then... he blocked it? He actually blocked Shariel-nim's flames?"
"That's impossible. That wasn't the kind of firepower an E-Class student could handle."
"And he's supposedly an overall E-grade, right? How could someone like that even..."
"It wasn't luck and he didn't just tank it either. He outright countered it. He back-calculated Shariel-nim's attack perfectly and tore apart the mana structure itself."
"What the hell, that's actually possible?"
The commotion wasn't limited to the waiting area. Students from other classes, faculty members overseeing the exam,everyone who had come to watch was caught in the same current.
"Oh my."
A low murmur of admiration from a white-haired old man.
The headmaster of Grandia Academy. He stroked his neat beard with the look of a man who had just stumbled onto something genuinely curious. Around him, the other professors had gathered as well.
"Just as the report described, quite a remarkable child. Truly a perfect Dispel. Though what's even more astonishing is that through all of it, not a trace of energy could be felt."
Silence among the professors.
"Not magic, not body arts, not sorcery, not even dark magic..."
Decades of teaching, countless students, and this was still a first for him. A power that activated without forewarning, without presence. No way to identify where it came from.
If anything, it was like the authority of a god.
"Certainly... assigning Javert to keep watch was the right call."
A quiet murmur, turned inward. The headmaster said nothing more after that. He simply turned his attention back to the match, watching a little more closely than before.
'The authority of a god...'
A thought with no clear answer.
***
Whoosh.
One attack from her. One block from me.
A brief exchange, but the atmosphere inside the arena had shifted.
I just stood there and smiled.
Ting!
[Item 'Evil God's Mask' has activated.]
A mechanical chime lingered at the edge of my hearing. A blue screen floated up in front of me.
[Evil God's Mask]
-Effect: Negates attacks directed at the wearer three times. Activates only while equipped.
-Remaining charges: 2/3
-Time until next charge: 47 hours 59 minutes 13 seconds
I kept it off my face.
What needed my attention right now was the sparring match in front of me.
My eyes settled on the sweep of red hair.
"......"
Had she sensed something was off?
Shariel's expression had changed entirely. Those crimson eyes had settled into something else, the mockery gone.
"What did you just do?"
"I'm sorry?"
"You're too obvious about playing dumb. That last attack was not the kind of force an E-Class top student could handle. Whatever you did, explain it. How did my magic just fall apart like that, without leaving a scratch on you?"
"I got lucky."
"Nonsense! Give me a real answer!"
"Well... there isn't much to explain, really..."
I smiled.
Gave her a smile.
My mask, too, had split into that grotesque wide grin of its own.
"Maybe the magic was just weak, don't you think?"
A sneer. The same one she'd been wearing until moments ago. The same one everyone else had been aiming at Class E.
"Given that a single finger was enough to block it."
"......What did you just say?"
Shariel stared, blank.
I smiled back, as though in answer.
The top student of the lowest-ranked class. Every stat at E-grade except theory. A worthless spec by any measure, the kind anyone would laugh at. And now that worthless thing was laughing at her,at the top student of Class C.
"How dare..."
It's not easy to stay composed when someone you've been looking down on turns around and looks down on you right back. That cuts at your pride, chips away at something harder to name. For someone with as high a nose as Shariel, the effect doubled.
"How dare, how dare, how dare! An E-Class piece of trash, looking at me like that...!"
Shariel's eyes went wild. Pupils flooding red, bloodshot and furious.
Whoosh.
She raised the bow again and set a flame to the string. The blazing arrow was stronger than the one before.
'Did I push too hard?'
But you scratched me first. You were bullying my errand boys.
Half a thought, and I was already rummaging through my robe's inventory.
'Where did I put it? I definitely stockpiled a whole pile of them...'
Taking the first attack head-on had been for impact, but I couldn't keep doing that. The charges on the Evil God's Mask were too precious to waste.
Well... they do refill on their own over time.
Still, burning through all of them was a situation I wanted to avoid. Forty-eight hours per charge, and you never knew what might come up. On top of that, I was physically as fragile as they came. One surprise hit from anywhere and I'd drop like a stone.
'Always keep at least two charges on hand.'
That settled, I reached into the inventory and pulled something out.
A colorful little stick slid free from the robe. Light, with a satisfying rounded grip.
Across the arena, Shariel murmured as she watched.
"......A balloon?"
"Correct."
That's right.
A balloon sword. One I'd made in bulk some time before.
I leveled the springy tip toward her.
"The weapon my soul lives in. I'll be facing you with the Absolute Balloon Sword."
"......"
Well, it wasn't like I had anything better on hand yet. The weapon I'd originally planned to carry was still being forged. Today, this would have to serve as a stand-in.
Soft and bouncy. Nice in the hand, too. Getting hit with it probably wouldn't feel as bad either.
"You...! I'll make you regret this!"
She didn't seem to appreciate the consideration. Over there, she'd taken it as pure provocation.
"I'll make you cry and beg, I'll tear you apart...!"
Twang.
Slender fingers released the string and the arrow flew. A fierce burst of flame tore through the air toward me.
I raised the sword tip quietly.
'Let's try this.'
From the inventory, I drew a clock. The kind of item the original game handed out by default.
[Ordinary Clock]
-Can be used to check the time.
Since some time back, I'd been cycling this thing in and out. Inventory, hand, inventory, hand. Over and over, working up the ignition sequence for a specific bug. That warm-up was already done.
'Now.'
Click.
I pressed the button on the clock.
The next moment, the flow of time slowed.
Not some abstract figure of speech.
"......"
The world slowed down. Somewhere around 0.2x speed, to be precise. The charging arrow, the crowd's reactions, every other movement in the arena drifted past like frames from a slow-motion reel, and only I knew it was happening.
'Slowdown Bug.'
A bug that dragged the entire game's pace down to a crawl. Characters, monsters, effects, even sound,all of it slowed together. By cycling the clock the way I had, I could trigger it for about five seconds at a time.
I opened my eyes wide.
'There it is.'
Everything was visible. Every scene, crisp and clear. My body had slowed too, but perception cut straight through to the moment. The arc of the loosed arrow, the furious girl's expression, the heat, even a single mote of dust drifting through the air.
'This will work.'
I raised the sword tip gently. Even my slow exhale was just a passing beat in the stillness. Through the hazy, colorful blur of the balloon sword, I watched the world.
Swish.
The most basic combo layered onto this bug. I swung the sword toward the arrow as it crept toward my face. Exact timing, exact position, exact angle. With perception this slowed, I had more than enough time.
'Got it.'
Crackle, crackle.
A faint static flickered across the surface of the balloon sword. The blade shimmered like heat haze off summer asphalt, and with that shimmer I swept it in a grazing arc through the arrow.
'Parrying.'
The colorful blade skimmed the flame.
Fwip.
The arrow's trajectory shifted. Just barely, just enough. It grazed past without touching me, going wide into nothing. Not a smudge of soot anywhere on my body.
'Good.'
Parrying. A technique for intercepting the opponent's attack and deflecting it off-course. Less a bug and more of a trick, really, but when pulled off in reality it apparently registered as one. The flickering effect around it looked just like what showed up whenever a bug triggered.
"W-what just..."
Shaking out my hand, I heard a rattled murmur.
Shariel. Her red eyes were wavering. The shock on her face was plain as anything.
"She deflected it? My arrow, with, with that balloon thing...?"
"A balloon thing? Clearly it's a sword."
"That can't be right... how, how did...!"
This was the combination. Parrying pushed to its absolute limit with the Slowdown.
I let myself smirk at her, deliberate.
"Well, well... our esteemed Class C top student can't even pop a single balloon?"
"N-no, that's not..."
"This is just an ordinary balloon. Held by the E-Class top student, the unprecedented figure with overall E-grade stats. Not even a scratch on it. Surely that says something about your abilities?"
"Shut up! Shut up...!"
Teeth clenched, she drew the bowstring taut again. I'd only turned her own words back on her. What she was getting so worked up about, I genuinely had no idea.
Seething mana heated the air above the sparring floor.
Ping. Whoooosh!
Another arrow. This time not just one,a spread of more than a dozen, fanning out across the arena.
"You're trash, so act like it! Stay down like you should...!"
A blaze of crimson fire swallowed my field of view. A brutal sight.
I didn't step back.
If anything, I walked forward.
The clock was already in my palm. Without hesitation, I pressed the button again.
Click.
The world slowed.
One step, then another. With every stride I swung the sword.
Fwip, fwip, fwip.
Arrows deflecting off one after another with hollow, limp pops. Each one in turn, trajectories tilting off-course. Behind me, the wayward flames burst apart.
"Hm."
Boom! Crash, crack!
Shockwaves rolled in from behind. I didn't turn around. The grinning mask faced forward, start to finish, watching only the girl across from me.
By the time the last arrow was knocked aside, the distance between us had been cut in half.
"That can't be the end of it?"
I asked, lightly. The same mockery she had used, resting now on the tip of my tongue.
"If it is, that would be awfully disappointing."
"......"
I smiled.
Shariel's eyes were tinged, just a little, with fear.