It had been about thirty minutes since Stella, Lulu, and I entered the Demon Forest.
“Two Orcs three hundred meters southwest. There seems to be a Goblin colony four hundred and fifty meters east. And eight hundred meters west....”
Lulu had already swept her fingers over the ground several times, but she still seemed unable to detect the monster I was searching for.
We continued deeper into the Demon Forest, avoiding only powerful groups at least as strong as an Orc colony.
So far, we had killed only two Goblins.
We had not deliberately sought them out either. They had merely gotten lost and become separated from their group.
It had taken Stella less than ten seconds to cut them both down with a single stroke each. Aside from that, we had continued toward the area where our target was likely to be without encountering any other battles.
“Let’s keep going north....”
“Wait. I can feel something from the north again.”
We had been about to move on, wondering whether it still had no intention of showing itself.
Then Lulu, who had one finger pressed to the ground and her ears perked up, suddenly turned serious.
“There’s something unidentified nine hundred meters north. Ah, no, wait—not nine hundred....”
“Hm?”
“Seven hundred... six hundred... five hundred....”
Seeing Lulu grow increasingly pale and flustered, I realized that we had finally entered its territory.
“I-It’s coming this way incredibly fast! What do we do?”
“What else? What we’ve been waiting for is finally here.”
Far from wanting to avoid it, this was a battle I had eagerly awaited.
Rustle....
The sound of something scraping over the ground grew closer and closer until even I could hear it.
“Stella, Lulu. Get away from me for now.”
“A-Are you certain? We do not even know what it is.”
“I can handle it alone. If you stay nearby, its attention might be divided, so put plenty of distance between us.”
“Ah, okay.”
“Understood.”
After confirming that Stella and Lulu had moved away, I prepared in earnest to face the approaching target monster.
I gathered mana into the staff in my right hand and held the Broadsword in my left with a reverse grip.
Only a few seconds later, the creature revealed itself before me in the form of a colossal snake.
It opened a massive mouth wide enough to swallow a person whole with ease.
“G-Giant Boa?!”
“Senior Conrad!”
Since I had evacuated Stella and Lulu beforehand, the Giant Boa naturally fixed its attention on me.
The instant its enormous jaws opened to swallow me, I thrust my left hand straight into its maw.
SQUELCH.
With the sound of the blade piercing the roof of its mouth, I drove the one-handed sword all the way into its brain in a single thrust.
At the same time, I pressed the staff against its neck and detonated the Mana Bullet I had charged with energy.
After a single explosion rang out,
Today’s target collapsed with its head completely separated from its body.
Its jaws remained stretched as wide as they could go around my left arm.
“It’s over. Let’s go back.”
“W-Wow....”
Perhaps she had never imagined I would kill it in only two attacks, because a vague exclamation of admiration escaped Stella’s mouth.
“You really did kill it alone.”
Lulu muttered as though she were not particularly surprised, but the tip of her tail swayed gently as if she had witnessed something fascinating.
“Now we only need to take the corpse back to the guild. I’m thinking we can divide the load between us. Can you help?”
“Yes, of course!”
The moment Stella heard me, she began tying rope around the creature’s body.
Meanwhile, I still had something else to take care of.
“Stop watching from hiding and come out.”
I had sensed a strange presence ever since we entered the guild.
I had never expected it to follow us this deep into the forest.
For a moment, I had wondered whether it might be another student training in the Demon Forest.
But anyone who followed me this far must have had another purpose.
Especially when the presence behind us belonged to someone I had fought only recently.
“Pardon?”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
Just as Stella and Lulu turned toward me without understanding why,
A man-sized shadow pushed through the undergrowth and walked toward us.
“Wh-What...?!”
“H-Hey, th-that’s the Mad Dog!”
It was the man I had defeated in the evaluation match only two days earlier.
The two-meter giant emerged after concealing himself in the forest’s shadows, and the moment our eyes met, an ominous smile spread across his face.
“Must be nice, you little bastard.”
His eyes held such unmistakable hostility that it would not have been strange for a fight to begin at any moment.
Given his personality, it would have been stranger if he had not resented me.
Even accounting for that, however, the atmosphere he gave off was far more vicious than I had expected.
Unlike last time, the edge of his greatsword had been sharpened keenly, and it gleamed coldly as though reflecting his state of mind.
He had probably come to settle things with me in the truest sense.
“Conrad, don’t tell me that man followed us all the way here because....”
“Probably exactly what you’re thinking.”
I had spent more than five years fighting for my life against humans and things similar to humans.
I knew perfectly well what kind of gaze Dike was giving me.
It was not merely in his eyes. His entire body radiated an enormous mass of murderous intent.
He had dragged himself out here even though the injuries from the evaluation match had yet to heal.
There was no doubt that he had followed us with the intention of killing me.
“Is he seriously fucking insane?!”
“Yeah, I’m a crazy bastard. Let’s see what happens when one bites you.”
As though he had nothing left to lose, Dike ran his mouth at Lulu in a threatening tone.
“Senior Conrad. Allow me to fight alongside—”
“Don’t talk nonsense. Stay back with Lulu. He’s mine to deal with.”
“Trying to act tough because you’re a man, huh?”
I had already shown him the difference between our abilities once, yet he had come at me again without knowing when to give up.
This time, I needed to overwhelm him so completely that he lost the will to fight.
Or, quite literally, render him physically incapable of ever coming at me again.
If I failed to deal with him decisively, he would continue bothering me again and again.
Even if I defeated him with Stella or another companion’s help, he would probably refuse to give up and come after me once more.
To break this tiresome chain, I had to handle everything myself from beginning to end.
“I really owed you one last time, huh?”
“Indeed. Your injuries were severe enough to trigger Death-Prevention Magic, so I imagine you memorized the faces of at least a few priests.”
“Yeah. Saw them enough to make me sick.”
His answer dripped with venom, but it inspired neither fear nor apprehension.
If anything, it confirmed that Dike had no real grounds for the confidence that had brought him here.
Had he possessed some hidden trump card, he probably would not have had the leisure to flap his mouth.
“Did you happen to ask the priests whether it is too late for you to walk the path of the clergy?”
“You’ve got the mouth of a first-rate priest yourself. Why don’t you quit being a mage and join the clergy, huh?”
“I prefer verses recited freestyle to prescribed prayers.”
Dike pulled the greatsword that had been half-buried in the ground and pointed its blade at me.
“Ever since I lost to you, the past few days have been fucking miserable, huh?”
“Then you should not have lost.”
“All sorts of worthless bastards keep coming up and picking fights with me, calling me the fucking idiot who lost to the Department of Magic. I’ve wasted a lot of time crushing every last one of them.”
“Then you should have won.”
“Meanwhile, you’re out on a hunting date with two girls. Living the good life, aren’t you, little bastard?”
“Well, it is only natural for any normal woman to be drawn to the more capable man, is it not?”
I felt bad for Stella and Lulu, but their presence was perfect material for provoking Dike’s inferiority complex.
I therefore made no effort to avoid the subject and calmly answered his taunt.
“One measly victory, and your arrogance is already touching the sky.”
Dike kept his gaze fixed on me.
Holding the greatsword before his body, he lowered his stance as far as it would go.
He was clearly prepared to attack me at any moment.
I adjusted my grip on the Broadsword and provoked him in return.
“That is why I suggested you change careers and become a priest. Who knows? You may be no match for me in martial strength, but perhaps you could defeat me in faith....”
SPLASH—!
His two boots kicked off the damp earth and sprang forward.
I had wondered why he had spent so long flapping that useless mouth of his.
Apparently, his plan from the beginning had been to distract me with words and charge while my guard was down.
When we first met, I had thought he possessed at least a minimum of pride as a man.
I could not help feeling rather disappointed that Dike had become this pathetic in only a few days.
Of course, he had crossed far beyond the line the moment he followed me this deep into the forest with murderous intent.
“Die, you damned little bastard!!”
The strike came directly toward the center of my body.
If I did nothing, the attack would divide me into Conrad and Ferdalos.
Yet even as he closed to within arm’s reach, my feet did not move a single step from the ground.
It was not because I had failed to react or because fear had frozen me in place.
I simply did not dodge because there was no need.
“With that tiny sword, you think you can block me ag—”
BOOM—!
An explosion erupted from the blade in my hand.
It was the combination of flame magic and wind magic that I had used to defeat Dike before.
I recreated a slightly smaller version of that explosion magic along my blade.
Unable to respond to the sudden detonation, Dike was blasted away before he could even touch me.
“Ghk!”
Dike flew backward with his greatsword, his stance collapsing as a hoarse cry escaped him.
Before he could regain his footing and begin a second attack, I reached him first and swung the Broadsword in his direction.
“Kgh!”
He hurriedly readjusted his grip and tried to parry my attack.
But he had failed to withstand it even with a proper stance before. There was no chance he could block it now with a makeshift posture.
Despite being the second strike, its power remained immense, and Dike’s body flew backward once more.
He even came close to losing the greatsword he held in both hands.
“Y-You crazy, crazy bastard!”
BOOM—! BOOM-BOOM—! BOOM—!
Each time my blade struck Dike’s, it set off another thunderous explosion.
As he endured one powerful shock and vibration after another, the strength in Dike’s grip gradually faded.
I finished by unleashing one final explosion against him with slightly greater force.
The greatest blast yet roared out, and Dike’s greatsword went flying into the sky.
“A swordsman losing his sword. Are you not ashamed?”
“Y-You cowardly bastard! Fighting with an Artifact is cheating, you bastard!”
“An Artifact? When did I use one?”
“That sword in your hand! It’s got to be an Artifact that explodes every time you attack! Otherwise, there’s no way you could cause that many explosions in such a short time!”
I had fought using nothing but my own strength and magic, so I did not particularly appreciate the misunderstanding.
“Sorry, but this is not an Artifact. I am simply using magic at the proper timing.”
Since the upperclassman from the Department of Swordsmanship had somehow gotten the matter completely wrong, I kindly explained the principles of the magic to him from beginning to end.
“It is explosion magic created by combining fire magic and wind magic. If the proper spells are activated simultaneously, the resulting explosive force is quite powerful.”
“It does not explode every time the blades touch. I am deliberately timing the spell myself. With explosion magic, adding even a slight physical force allows you to direct all of its power in a single direction.”
“And you said using powerful magic repeatedly in such a short time was impossible, but it is not particularly difficult once you understand the principle.”
As though proving that principle, I drew a large circle through the air with my sword and caused nine different spells to appear one after another wherever its tip passed.
“As long as you can cast several spells at once, it looks as though you are deploying them with only the slightest delay between each, like this.”
“You’re insane. You’re seriously fucking insane....”
Dike stared at me as though he were looking at something that was not human, leaving me both satisfied and faintly offended.
“Senior Dike.... No. Dike, you son of a bitch.”
Even calling this man my senior was more respect than he deserved.
It was a future that naturally could never have occurred, but what would have happened if he had succeeded in killing me?
He certainly would not have spared Stella and Lulu, the witnesses.
It was not exactly common for students to go missing while hunting in the Demon Forest.
But neither was it completely unheard of.
In other words, there was no better place to leave no evidence behind.
The tip of my Broadsword pierced Dike’s thigh as he lay sprawled on the ground.
“AAAAAGH!”
“You son of a bitch. If you’d killed me, what were you planning to do with Stella and Lulu?”
“GAAAGH! AAAAGH!”
“I asked what you were planning to do, you bastard!”
“AAAAAGH! S-Stop!!”
What a spectacle, screaming so loudly merely because I had stabbed his thigh a little.
He had probably never been beaten properly before and had no resistance to pain.
“Hey, Dike.”
“W-What?”
“You son of a bitch. Is that any way to speak to me?”
“S-Sorr—GAAAAH...!!”
The etiquette injector that had already been driven into his thigh several times proved remarkably effective.
Dike flattened himself against the ground and begged me for forgiveness.
“I-I’m sorry! I-I sincerely apologize for not knowing my place and offending the br—L-Lord Ferdalos.”
The fear that he might truly die was enough to make even Dike crawl on the ground.
He had clearly entered this forest intending to kill me and erase the evidence from the beginning.
Only now did he finally seem to understand that he could just as easily find himself in the opposite position.
“I’m far more merciful than you could ever imagine, so I’ll give you two choices.”
“T-Two choices?”
“I’ll say them only once, so choose carefully.”
“Yes, sir.... GAAAGH!”
I pulled the Broadsword from his thigh and held up two fingers before his eyes.
“One. Bid farewell to your life here, then return to nature as a meal for the monsters.”
“P-Please spare my life! P-Please!”
For Dike, who was begging so desperately that his palms might as well have become feet, I kindly explained the second choice that would naturally save his life.
“Two. Return to the Academy right now, file the paperwork to withdraw, and never appear before me again for the rest of your life.”
“W-Withdraw? I’ve only got one semester left until graduation!”
“Then we can simply end things here.”
I drove the sword straight into his other thigh.
Dike screamed and shook his head at once, thrashing as he begged me to spare him.
“AAAAAGH! I-I understand! I’ll leave right now and withdraw! I understand!”
“I told you to watch your tone.”
“Understood! I-I will never appear before Lord Ferdalos again.... GAAAGH!”
The moment I withdrew the Broadsword from his thigh, Dike scrambled to his feet.
He glanced at me as though checking my mood, then shot off in the direction of the guild.
His movements were perfectly efficient, as though not a trace of hesitation remained.
He was in such a hurry that he even forgot to retrieve the greatsword he had dropped.
Then again, he would be withdrawing the moment he returned, so a sword like this was nothing more than a luxury for him now.
Still, it seemed to have been forged from good material. If it were reforged, I might be able to make something useful from it.
“It’s over now. Let’s drag our quarry back.”
Once the matter with Dike had been settled, I turned toward the other two, and Lulu immediately asked me a question.
“Don’t tell me you were deliberately holding back during the evaluation match?”
“More or less. Since he was from the Department of Swordsmanship, I thought I should at least show him some swordplay.”
“This seriously makes no sense.... What the hell are you...?”
Lulu muttered to herself with a mixture of awe and hollow disbelief, as though what she had witnessed could not possibly have been real.
“Senior Conrad, I see that you possess not only unwavering conviction, but also enough strength to see it through.”
Stella’s gaze toward me had changed slightly, and all she did was offer praise that left me embarrassed.