The sight that greeted me when I rushed into <Ephevia of Glory> was utterly absurd.
Gess and Emma, who should have been training, were sitting collapsed with wounded bodies. An unidentified warrior had a sword pointed at the two of them, and Giltier, whom I had sent to teach them some swordsmanship, looked like a canary trapped in a birdcage.
At that absurd sight, I called the name of Emma, who had fallen before the warrior's sword.
“Emma?!”
Recklessly crying out while facing an unknown enemy with a drawn sword. The price was fatal.
—SHNK.
In the blink of an eye, the front panel of my robe was sliced away by sharp sword aura.
Before I could even register it, I felt steel force its way into my body.
SQUELCH.
“A useless trainee.”
The warrior, who had been looking down at Emma until just moments ago, was now stabbing my heart as though looking at an insect.
Faced with a catastrophe less than a few seconds after entering Ephevia, I tried to deny even the fact that I had been stabbed.
“……!!”
However, the sensation of steel tearing through my heart was so horrifyingly real that I let out a soundless scream and realized that the worst thing I had feared had arrived.
An overwhelmingly powerful person taking my life before I even had a moment to respond. It was precisely the situation I had tried to prevent, even by keeping Persona at my side or raising a private army through the Special Department.
“Chairman—!”
Emma's scream, laced with a shriek, came from not far away, but it faded as though it were coming from some impossibly distant place.
As the sword twisted through my heart again and again amid excruciating pain, my breath stopped....
[ Trait - Possessor’s Composure Activates. ]
...Wait, could I die in this training ground?
The question that suddenly arose forcibly roused my fading mind.
The sword that had pierced my heart had already been pulled out, but the open wound was still bleeding.
Even in that miserable state, I borrowed the Trait's power and continued thinking.
‘<Ephevia of Glory> is a space created to train trainees. Critical injuries suffered here never lead to death.’
No training ground would try to kill the trainees it had painstakingly raised.
Therefore, critical injuries in this space were only part of the process and could never lead to a conclusion.
Realizing that, I immediately reached into my robes and drank an unbroken recovery potion.
As the blood-red liquid slid down my throat, my mind, which had been flickering like a broken computer, returned. My vision, which had been cloudy like a rain-soaked window, brightened, and I saw the warrior who had stabbed my heart walking toward Emma.
At that moment, what I needed to do was clear.
“<Palakia>!”
[ Restricted by Trait - Possessor’s Composure. (Grade 6 -> Grade 4) ]
[ Time Limit - 00:02:59 ]
The golden sword I had not forgotten to bring even in my hurry began to shine at the activation word.
Unlike before, strange status windows such as ‘Restricted’ and ‘Time Limit’ appeared, but I had already confirmed Palakia's condition with the Appraiser's Eye. Instead of being flustered, I kicked off the ground and rushed forward.
My target was the warrior aiming for Emma, who was trying somehow to stand. Although Palakia's power was greatly restricted, it was not difficult to target the back of an enemy who had let down his guard.
“To think your hope would be such an underachiever. I am disappointed even in you for trusting someone who, at that age, has not surpassed the level of an apprentice warrior—?!”
CRUNCH!
To my surprise, the warrior instantly reversed his stance and caught Palakia with his bare hand.
Even with mana in use, anyone who could stop Palakia barehanded was truly a monster.
Naturally, for someone like me, who did not know the first thing about swordsmanship, having my first strike blocked meant the end. However... I had not been aiming for his life in the first place.
“Emma, Gess! Catch!”
There was no time to take the potions out one by one from my robes. I threw the entire robe, its front panel gone, to the two of them, and Emma fortunately understood my intention at once.
“Catch!”
Emma poured the potion straight down her throat, then immediately threw the bottle at Gess. The magically reinforced glass bottle could not withstand Emma's throw and shattered when it collided with Gess's body.
“Agh, agh! I got stabbed!”
Gess complained that he had been struck by the glass shards and exaggerated his pain, but the fact that he could exaggerate at all was proof that the potion was working properly.
Bolstered by the top-grade recovery potion, the two immediately raised their swords and surrounded the warrior. Still holding Palakia, the warrior spoke as though he found the situation absurd.
“What... Are you some sort of treasure goblin? With that much potion, these are things only royals would use.”
From his use of the word kingdom, I understood that he was a being belonging to <Ephevia of Glory>.
He was probably the Training Ground Master who had helped Medio in the original work.
‘I don't know why a minor helper character from the original work is doing this, but....’
[ Time Limit - 00:01:48 ]
After checking the time limit, I focused the power of Grade 4 circulating within me into the hand gripping Palakia.
Now that Emma and Gess had recovered their senses, I was worse than useless as a mere Grade 4 in name only. It would be better to deal even one blow before the enemy recovered his senses.
[ Time Limit - 00:00:01 ]
HUM—
Palakia's mana, which had been circling through my body, made the golden blade flash.
That flash soon became the best attack I could launch—the beam of mana that had turned a Lycanthrope into something that had once been a Lycanthrope in the Exam Forest.
CRASH—!
Had the extended duration reduced the amount of mana contained in the mana beam as well?
When the thick dust settled, the warrior was in far better condition than the Lycanthrope had been.
“Cough. Such cheap tricks...!”
Even while coughing, the warrior stood on both feet without serious injury and took one trembling step toward me.
The murderous sight was truly frightening, but... my turn had already ended.
“…….”
“Stay away from the Chairman, Training Ground Master!”
Emma had pressed her lips tightly together, while Gess—perhaps having recovered his energy in that brief moment—gave a bold shout.
The two had swiftly stepped between the warrior called the Training Ground Master and me.
Of course, the Training Ground Master seemed to find the situation absurd rather than confusing.
“It is amusing to hear those words from people who have done nothing but be beaten by me.”
“Even if you say that, the result will not change!”
“Ho, why is that?”
Honestly, I was curious this time as well.
I did not know what Gess trusted so much that he spoke as though victory were guaranteed, nor the source of his confidence.
With the attention of Emma, me, and the Training Ground Master all upon him, Gess shouted proudly.
“The Chairman never fights a battle he has no chance of winning. The professors will arrive before long and send you, bastard, back to the era where you belong!”
“You say that even after seeing that so-called professor trapped over there?”
“Hmph, if it's the Chairman, he would have seen through a situation like this without difficulty! He is surely finding a way outside to enter without restriction!”
For a moment, I could not understand what he was saying.
However, my mind, scoured by Possessor’s Composure, received his words cleanly and perfectly, then even produced an answer on its own.
‘He must have called the professors.’
The sudden appearance of the Quest, the limited time, and the warning of danger.
There had been no time to summon the professors and rush here. Even if there had been, I would not have called them.
Was I mad enough to reveal the identity of the training ground where I intended to raise a private army?
Above all, even if I had brought the professors, they would not have been able to enter this place.
- Chairman... no, Master. This barrier is rejecting me.
Unlike before, when anyone could enter, <Ephevia of Glory> had begun accepting only superhumans of Grade 3 or below, as befitted its purpose as a training ground.
That was why Persona, who had followed after me, could not enter.
“Ha ha, you are finished now!”
“Hmm....”
Fortunately, the Training Ground Master seemed to have fallen for those words. Instead of rushing in recklessly, his face hardened, and I had no choice but to nod along with Gess's words.
“...Yes, the professors will arrive soon. Before then, take these.”
I opened the bag I had not forgotten even in the emergency and threw its contents toward Gess and Emma.
Wary in case the Training Ground Master attacked, the two carefully picked up my gifts. Before the Training Ground Master could grasp the situation and rush in, I gave them a brief explanation.
“A shield enchanted with <Impact Release>, and a greatsword containing <Fatigue Recovery>. Both are mixed with Adamantium, so use them without worrying that they will break!”
Magical tools that had cost 1.5 billion and 1 billion gold, respectively.
<Fatigue Recovery> was simple, but in a battle that heavily drained stamina, it would let them endure even a few minutes longer. And <Impact Release> was naturally useful enough that it needed no explanation.
Above all, their greatest merit was that Adamantium had been mixed in to increase their durability.
‘...If only I had had more time, I would have tried to get relic-grade items.’
Considering the Chairman's ‘overwhelming’ wealth, there was no doubt that they were disappointing items.
However, unlike me, the two widened their eyes in shock, then their momentum rose.
“Th-thank you.”
“Such incredible magical tools...! Thank you!!”
Tsk.
“Do you think your skill will grow just because you rely on such trinkets? If you pursue true strength, it would be better to give up those items.”
Of course, the Training Ground Master's face twisted at the delighted sight of the two, but—
“That is sophistry.”
“For someone who calls himself a Training Ground Master, you do not seem to find it shameful to speak of breaking your trainees.”
Naturally, his words did not work on the two.
“...Even if you grow arrogant for a moment, nothing will change!”
FWOOSH—!
The Training Ground Master exploded with anger, and the flames burning along his blade grew.
The battle began again as Emma and Gess stepped in front of him.
“Emma! You block!”
“Don't call my name.”
Thanks to the magical tools and their renewed momentum, the battle seemed evenly matched. However, from where I stood a step away, I could still see that the Training Ground Master held the advantage.
‘At this rate, it'll only repeat the same situation. I need to create a variable.’
In the end, turning this situation around required not magical tools, but a proper variable.
I could hardly regret having rushed here without even a moment to call Persona more....
“Um... Chairman.”
“?”
At the sudden whisper that tickled my ear, I turned my head and saw the canary in the forgotten birdcage... no, Professor Giltier. He had pressed his face against the iron bars as he called to me.
Perhaps I had unconsciously frowned at his unsightly appearance. Professor Giltier whispered to me in a desperate voice.
“Do you perhaps have any more magical tools?”
“...I do not, but why do you ask?”
“These iron bars... are quite troublesome. I do not know the principle, but from the moment I was trapped, I have not been able to use mana at all.”
“You cannot use mana? At all?”
“Yes....”
‘Is that even possible?’
In this world, there was magic, an almost omnipotent discipline that turned the impossible into possible. Yet even magic ultimately ran on mana as fuel.
Naturally, if one's internal mana was completely blocked, it meant that magic could not be cast either.
‘It's impossible without magic, yet is this a situation where magic is impossible?’
It was a contradiction in itself.
However, knowing well that contradictions did not exist in this world, I immediately found a new answer.
“Then it has a separate power source.”
“You mean that mana is being sent remotely to operate the magic? My knowledge may be shallow, but as far as I know, that is impossible.”
“Just because you do not know does not make it impossible. Be quiet and wait.”
After silencing Professor Giltier, there was only one thing to do.
[ Trait - Appraiser’s Eye Reveals Item Information. ]
[ Opila's Iron Bars ]
[ Traits / Mana Absorption ]
[ Notes / Active ]
Mana.
It allowed a body that had limits no matter how much it was trained to transcend those limits, bringing into reality what would otherwise remain mere imagination.
A knight who split a mountain with a single stroke, or a mage who evaporated the sea with a single incantation—without mana, both would merely be ordinary people unable to exceed their limits.
Knowing that, I saw the Trait called ‘Mana Absorption’ within the shimmering hologram and my eyes lit up.
At a glance, it was the secret that had confined Professor Giltier, a Grade 5 Knight.
“Professor Giltier.”
“Yes? Yes.”
“Is it blocking mana?”
“Blocking... it is blocked.”
“I did not ask whether it was being blocked. I asked whether it was blocking it.”
Professor Giltier's face briefly filled with bewilderment, as though he thought I was playing a word game.
However, he was skilled enough to become a professor at a prestigious academy.
Understanding the difference between the two questions, Professor Giltier asked me in a hollow voice.
“Could these iron bars be operating on my mana?”
This time, empathizing with how he felt, I replied with a snickering laugh.
“Block the mana that is recovering. Even one second will do.”
Blocking naturally replenishing mana was difficult.
To block the mana that pulsed from the heart and spread through the body meant literally stopping the heart.
However, it was the only method. Professor Giltier nodded with a darkened expression, and as I watched the iron bars' status with Appraiser’s Eye, I swung Palakia the instant ‘Active’ became ‘Inactive.’
CRUNCH!
An awkward swing carrying Grade 2 mana.
That was enough to break iron bars that had confined Professor Giltier, a Grade 5 Knight.
“So easily....”
Professor Giltier wore a hollow expression, yet he smiled at the freedom he had gained after several weeks. In contrast, I had to let out a heavy sigh at the powerlessness that washed over me.
It was the natural price of drawing on mana immediately after using Palakia, even in its restricted state.
However, I was not yet at the point of collapsing, nor was it time to collapse. Enduring the powerlessness that washed over me like waves, I opened my mouth.
“Professor Giltier. It is time to do your job.”
The first thing a proud professor of Calyps Academy had to do was always clear.
[ Trait - Noble Bloodline Activates. ]
Holding up my faltering posture, I gave an order not as a Possessor, but as the Chairman.
“Protect the students.”