The situation settled for the time being, and I returned to the dormitory.
‘Looks like he keeps his word.’
As if keeping his promise to stay quiet, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven showed no reaction at all.
No matter that he had promised, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven was still the Great Sage Equaling Heaven.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Because of that, I violently shook the arm wearing the Golden Headband.
“......Hmm.”
If the dorm room had been shared, someone might have looked at me strangely, but fortunately, it was a single room.
‘That’s one worry off my mind.’
Only after confirming that the Great Sage Equaling Heaven remained quiet to the very end did I feel relieved.
SHAAAAA!
While bathing and sorting through the day, I chewed over the Great Sage Equaling Heaven’s final words.
“He said he likes fighting. Does that mean he wants me to show him fights?”
Divine Beasts were always unkind, so there was no way for me to know what shape his vacation would take.
‘There’ll be plenty of chances to fight anyway.’
Fortunately, the Academy had a practical bent, so if what I expected was correct, I was not worried about this part.
And the most important point was that if it was Authority bestowed by the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, I did not care how long it took.
‘Not bad.’
Even after I finished bathing, the lingering scent of peach remained, so I had a feeling I would have good dreams tonight.
***
The next day, I was able to see a new side of the Academy.
‘Teacher Kwon Oseong does care about theory.’
Of course, most of that theory seemed directly connected to life and death.
THUD! THUD!
Even then, the high-concentration mana was pressing down on everyone.
“You left your book behind, did you? I do not reject challenges.”
It had clearly been an angle hidden by the back of the person in front, but Teacher Kwon did not miss it.
“No, sir. I definitely brought it, but......”
“Innate Magic.”
CLATTER!
“Aaaaargh!”
If someone showed an insincere attitude, chains surged without fail.
‘A red special ability......’
I kept my thoughts flexible, listening to class with one ear while using my mind to ponder the Authority the Great Sage Equaling Heaven had mentioned.
When it came to the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, something did come to mind, but that was not originally his, so my questions only followed one another.
‘I wonder what kind of class he’ll hold today.’
The next class was Instructor Wagner’s, so in one corner of my heart, I had finished preparing for the Great Sage Equaling Heaven’s vacation.
“That will conclude the class.”
“......?”
I felt somewhat disappointed. After all, he had not shot magic at me today.
‘Is this right?’
Something about me seemed to have become strange, but I ate a quick bite and headed for yesterday’s small mountain.
And unlike before, I was not alone today.
“Brother, have you acquired a new article?”
Jio was walking heavily beside me.
‘So he can see this?’
It was a question that drew my interest.
Was it visible to other people in this form because the Great Sage Equaling Heaven’s caliber was different?
‘Hmm, I’m sure of it.’
Or perhaps he was simply making himself visible as a joke. For now, I boldly cast my vote for the latter.
Still, if it looked like an ordinary article, that was a relief.
“I picked it up on the road.”
“Oho...... So you acquired not a bracelet, but romance.”
I said, what exactly is your standard for romance?
In any case, we reached the small mountain. It was the same place as yesterday, but it felt unfamiliar.
VMMMM!
‘All of a sudden?’
The Golden Headband, which had only been quiet until now, gave off a faint vibration for the first time. At some point, the entire small mountain had turned eerie.
“Doesn’t it feel kind of creepy?”
“Yeah, it feels a little cold too.”
I was not the only one who felt that way, and the sensitive students also reacted.
‘But where is the instructor?’
Instructor Wagner did not appear until the end. The students grew loose, and the formation naturally scattered.
“The instructor is at the summit.”
“......!”
“Uh, ah! Hello!”
Suddenly, a female assistant with her hair pulled tightly back into a ponytail appeared.
‘She’s unusual.’
She was a person with a strange atmosphere.
No emotion was reflected on her face. Overall, I thought she had a cold impression.
Slide.
The assistant walked leisurely, as if crossing thin ice, while focusing everyone’s gaze on the small object in her grasp.
‘It’s a symbol.’
It was the symbol of Dormitory A, a sword held in both hands and thrust through one’s own abdomen so that its tip faced the sky.
It carried the meaning of being prepared for death.
The female assistant snatched the symbol away as if giving it only to take it back, then explained.
“From now on, you are to take the symbols located throughout the school grounds and bring them to the instructor at the summit. He told me to tell those who fail to arrive within the time limit to bear it in mind.”
Her voice was calm, yet left a deep impression.
The instructor’s nature was evident in the sparse explanation. Soon, the female assistant’s entire body was dyed in shadow, and she disappeared just like that.
‘Like instructor, like assistant?’
Normally, when one was notified like this, one would stiffen psychologically. At such times, if one was not alone, one would look around at the people nearby.
“I’m going first!”
“I’m already going, though?”
However, such a thing could not be expected from these students. Everyone had already scattered and transformed into a bandit mob.
Jio spoke in a rather solemn tone.
“Brother, I look forward to meeting you again at the summit. Then.”
WHOOOSH!
He looked like a mountain lord roaring threats and issuing commands.
“Even if he looks like that, an heir is still an heir.”
In this way, several of the conspicuous ones were heirs to guilds that contended for the highest ranks, or children of prestigious families.
“Hmm......”
Unlike the other students, I did not move right away. Because there were quite a few things to think about.
Most of all, I judged that there would be no advantage in moving quickly.
‘She didn’t say we couldn’t steal what someone else found, and she didn’t say we couldn’t fight.’
The words that Instructor Wagner was at the summit lingered with me.
‘And she didn’t say he wouldn’t steal them himself either.’
The instructor was certainly the kind of person who would do that, and there were so many eccentrics in the Hero world that I had to keep every possibility in mind.
For a moment, as if borrowing the eyes of a third party, I looked over the entire mountain.
“There’s something here.”
In truth, this was the part that bothered me most. Even now, the Golden Headband was vibrating.
Tap!
And so, this time as well, I entered the school grounds as a late starter.
***
Finding the symbols was not difficult for the students of Dormitory A. That was because all of them had learned detection and search methods since childhood.
“Thanks.”
“You already have two, you son of a bitch!”
KABOOOM!
Thus, the stage called a small mountain transformed not into a search for symbols, but into a place to decide who would become the bandit king.
Perhaps it was only natural. After all, they had grown up considering themselves the best in their respective backgrounds.
As if eavesdropping on my parents’ conversation, I had slipped naturally into the forest. In that state, I used the Heavenly Hound’s special ability to examine the state of the battle.
‘So this is what they call a letdown?’
They were still students, but battles astonishing enough to watch were happening here and there. However, the Golden Headband was only giving off the same faint vibration as before.
I had been doing this because I thought it would help, so now that I realized it did not, there was no need to keep doing it.
“You, do you have a symbol...... Oh, it’s Wonwoo?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
As a member of this evaluation, I also intended to actively participate in the duel to become the bandit king.
However, at the unexpected reaction, a hollow laugh came out.
“......What are you doing?”
Because I was not given that opportunity.
“I really don’t have one. You can search me if you want.”
He actually emptied his pockets and then ran away so fast his soles must have sweated. Not long after, I encountered another student.
“Wonwoo?! Wait. I’ll give you mine.”
I truly could not understand what was going on.
“Just go. No, actually, give it to me and go.”
“......Huh?”
“I said give it to me and go.”
In a fight where people forcibly stole and were stolen from, I had ended the battle with a single sentence, so I was surely a true pacifist.
“You have to take responsibility for what you say.”
And if he had not said he would give it to me, I had not planned to take it, but I had been taught by a being called horse head.
So I had even more of an obligation to make him take responsibility for what came out of his own mouth.
‘But why are the kids acting like this?’
I had no idea why the kids were suddenly treating me this way.
‘All I did was break the barrier, endure class, and hold out until the end of the self-introduction with the instructor.’
It was hard to understand people’s hearts.
In any case, since I had obtained a symbol, I was heading toward the summit to become the bandit king when I stopped walking and stared into empty air.
The Golden Headband’s vibration had also grown stronger.
“This is demonic energy.”
The aura emitted by magical beasts or monsters was called demonic energy, and right now, that was drifting from the Academy’s school grounds.
Because I had inherited the Authority of Divine Beasts, I could not help but be familiar with the demonic energy that stood in opposition to it.
“This is the kind of fight you want, right?”
No answer came back, but the Golden Headband’s intense vibration indirectly told me I was correct.
‘It’ll be my first time, right?’
To be honest, I had never directly faced magical beasts or monsters before, so I was a little tense. However, the curiosity swelling in response began to drive that tension away.
‘I’m not alone.’
And the Great Sage Equaling Heaven held goodwill toward me. Not only that, I also had the safety device called the Thunderbird, so without hesitation, I moved using the demonic energy as a signpost.
***
The closer I came to the source of the demonic energy, the more a sticky aura grabbed at my steps. Negative thoughts and a gloom that sought out only the flaws of my life settled in my head.
‘Amazing.’
Once again, I understood how amazing my parents were, and why Heroes became eccentrics.
‘Everyone else does this.’
There was no problem. If I became negative, I only had to switch to positive thoughts. If it made me search for the flaws in my life, I only had to thoroughly dig through the gratitude and virtues I had taken for granted.
So I had no intention of stopping.
In that way, I was able to arrive at a place opposite the school grounds, like the far side of the moon.
This was the source of the demonic energy that had been pushing me away and charming me the entire time.
“Does it possess enough caliber to affect its surroundings?”
However, even though the sun was in the center of the sky, it was dark as the dead of dawn, and it was a place where one stepped carefully, as if entering an unknown domain.
As if my world were slowly narrowing, it began to grow even darker.
‘What’s wrong with this?’
Flash!
At that moment, the Golden Headband vibrated, then suddenly emitted a sharp light. The red light of the Golden Headband began to widen my narrowing world.
“......?”
But because it drove the darkness away ferociously, as if beating it down, it was a light soaked with the Great Sage Equaling Heaven’s hidden nature.
The Golden Headband’s strong ringing led me toward an even stronger demonic energy.
***
A gigantic cave large enough for an entire house to fit inside greeted me. It was also a place where I shouldered vague fear like a burden, because I could not gauge where it ended.
‘Hmm...... Where is it?’
The demonic energy had grown strong enough to make my skin tingle, but I was gradually adapting as well.
Step. Step.
While exploring the cave by relying on the light of the Golden Headband, I found something that was hard to call a clue.
“......This is unpleasant.”
It was a simple mural, and personally, if it had been a primitive person throwing a spear, I would have enjoyed looking at it.
However, the mural that greeted me showed a figure that looked like an evil spirit sitting on a throne, while a person before it bowed deeply.
‘How many people are on top?’
This was the unpleasant part. Hundreds of people were piled on top of the bowed human’s head.
At this point, even a thirsty deer would flee in fear before it could wet its throat.
‘There’s another one?’
Not far away, there was another mural in the same style.
This time, the evil spirit figure was dancing in the center, and the people surrounding it had both hands on their heads.
At a glance, one might think it was an incredible festival, but.
“......Wow.”
When I looked in detail, they all seemed to be writhing in pain, wringing their heads with both hands.
‘It’s sorcery.’
Sensing something strange, I activated the Heavenly Hound’s eyes and realized it was a kind of ancient sorcery.
In the silent cave, my low voice fluttered like a single strand of wind.
“Before the evil spirit, humans have their heads pressed down by hundreds while being seized by headaches. If I consider the evil spirit to be a magical beast......”
Following my voice as it struck the wall and returned, a magical beast from deep within my memory climbed up through the cracks.
“......Urgh!”
In that instant, a headache that squeezed my brain like a rag struck me like lightning. At the same time, my head, crushed by weight, sank downward.
“I should welcome my guest......!?”
Along with intense demonic energy, a bizarre female voice, combining the voices of a child, an adult, and an old woman, echoed through the cave.
SKRIIITCH!
The unpleasant sound of fingernails clawing across a chalkboard tormented my eardrums without mercy.
VMMMM!
In response, as if the Great Sage Equaling Heaven were indiscriminately throwing out fist strikes, the Golden Headband violently scattered brilliant clusters of light in every direction.
“......He’s got one hell of a personality.”
And so, beneath the lamp of the Golden Headband, I boldly raised my head and finished preparing to have an audience with the cave’s master.
Soon, the master, whose shadows were washed away by the hidden light of the magic stones scattered throughout the cave, entered my sight.
Hair twisted as if scorched by fire, blood-red eyes gleaming as if they held blood.
“I woke up not long ago and I was hungry, so I’m glad to see you!”
It was the Head-Pressing Spirit.