Chapter 88

【 Midterm Exam 】

The weekend passed, and before I knew it, it was Monday.

It felt as though it had been a very long time since I last attended classes at the Academy.

‘Well, I did go almost a week without any.’

I listened to the morning classes as usual, and before long, the afternoon classes began.

Afternoon class—meaning Luke’s Swordsmanship Class.

“Now, Dave. The Bonscora Family’s swordsmanship basically used fury. But because of that, it was dangerous, so you needed to know how to control it as well. Relying solely on that will never…….”

Luke was guiding the students one by one as he always did.

He was looking after Dave now, and I had to wait a bit longer for my turn.

Normally, I would have been swinging my sword to practice, but today I wanted to try something other than swordsmanship.

‘Roughly… this was how it went, right?’

A sensation rising from deep inside my chest.

It felt as though water flowed through my body.

It was something I had newly acquired, but I had already grasped to some extent how I should handle it.

‘…It was easier to manage than I thought.’

I nodded as I looked at the shield that appeared around my body.

This shield made of water was one of the most basic abilities granted by the ‘Blessing of Water.’

Yes, a basic ability.

The core ability of this rune lay elsewhere.

“Let’s see…….”

After withdrawing the shield, I brought over a water bottle that was nearby.

Then I lifted my sword and cut my own palm.

‘…I’ve really gotten used to being injured.’

I let out a hollow laugh as I looked at the sliced palm.

When I first transmigrated here, I had feared even the tiniest wound.

But after being cut, stabbed, poisoned, and having my whole body shattered in several ways, I seemed to have grown somewhat accustomed to pain.

‘Well, that aside. Let’s check it.’

A large gash formed on my palm.

I slowly poured some water from the bottle over that wound.

Then the injury on my palm slowly healed, and soon it was perfectly restored without even a scar.

‘This was the core ability of the Blessing of Water.’

Thanks to the Blessing of Water, now even letting my wounds touch water allowed them to be healed instantly.

Of course, it wasn’t as though it could heal every kind of wound.

It wasn’t some super-regeneration ability, so the Blessing of Water had limits to the injuries it could treat.

‘It probably wouldn’t heal fatal wounds that threatened my life.’

In other words, I shouldn’t place blind faith in this power.

But for most injuries, I could rely on the rune’s healing.

‘And if my memory was right, runes grew stronger over time.’

Runes that found a suitable owner grew together with them—that was the setting.

If a rune grew, its abilities became stronger than before…

‘If this rune grew, its healing would be several times stronger than now.’

I knew well because I had raised runes almost to their limit in the game.

If the setting matched the game, then once it grew, this rune would somehow even heal a fatal wound or two.

‘It was the reason I chose this rune.’

Leaving everything else aside, my priority was to not die and survive.

And this rune was the item that maximized my survivability.

My defensive swordsmanship already made my attacks ineffective, and even if I took damage, I healed easily?

From the enemy’s perspective, it must have been infuriating.

“…Hmm?”

While I was thinking about the Water Rune, a red dot suddenly appeared beside me.

Instinctively, I raised my sword toward the red dot…

“…A rune is still a rune.”

Luke snickered as he looked at his own sword.

The one who had attacked me while I was zoning out was Luke.

But before his sword reached me, the water shield around my body appeared and blocked the attack in my stead.

“It’s impressive. It even blocks attacks on its own like this.”

“I didn’t go all the way to Muktaba to retrieve it for nothing.”

“It didn’t seem like a bad rune defensively… and from what I just saw, it seems to have healing abilities too?”

“Ah, you saw that?”

“I saw while I was sneaking up earlier. Hm…….”

Luke touched his chin as he looked at me.

“This is strange… It seems to suit you, yet not suit you. You already block most attacks, so would you really need another means to protect your body?”

“I can’t block every attack. It’ll be useful depending on the situation.”

“That’s true. But that shield—doesn’t look particularly sturdy.”

“Yes, honestly this shield is practically meaningless.”

This, too, I learned well from playing the game.

At first glance, the Blessing of Water seemed to focus on providing a water-made shield.

But that was the trap.

Because this shield was far too easy to pierce.

‘Luke only swung lightly just now, so it blocked it. If he had swung even a little properly, it would’ve gone straight through.’

That was why I said the core of the Blessing of Water lay not in the shield but in its healing ability.

Well, the shield wasn’t completely useless, but I shouldn’t rely on it too much……

“Couldn’t you use that rune for offense?”

“Pardon?”

“The shield is too weak, so instead of relying on it, how about using the water itself— the water forming that shield— and find a way to use it offensively?”

“That… I’m not too sure.”

Using the Blessing of Water for offense.

At Luke’s words, I paused and thought.

‘When I played the game, it was only healing and shielding. Those two were everything.’

Even in the description window that appeared when absorbing the Water Rune, that was all it said.

But this wasn’t the game—this was reality.

There were no fixed constraints or rules, so just as Luke said, there might be room to use it offensively.

‘It wasn’t impossible… but still only a possibility.’

Well, if I could grow the rune, there might be new ways to use it.

Ways I never discovered even in the game.

“Think about it. Just my intuition, but the rune you obtained definitely isn’t limited to only healing and shielding.”

“Yes, Instructor. I’ll think about it.”

“Good. We’ll leave that for later. Now—Imperial Standard Swordsmanship. You’ve gotten used to it by now, right? Then use only that sword style and try fighting me once…….”

“They said they’ll call someone to fix the Observatory stairs by tomorrow.”

“Okay, then that’s something we don’t need to worry about anymore. Anything else?”

“…There is one thing, but I can handle it on my side…….”

“What is it?”

“Over the weekend, a 3rd-year tried to flirt with a 1st-year, and the 1st-year got scared and started crying. Someone saw that and reported it as school violence……”

“That was Nia-unni, wasn’t it?”

“…Yes.”

“…Pfft.”

Even Lisa, usually expressionless, let out a small laugh at that.

“That unni, seriously……. I heard a bit too. Some noble tried to flirt with a commoner, but the commoner kid cried and ran away. And I heard the one in the rumor was Nia-unni.”

“Still, since a report came in, I was going to look into it separately……”

“No need. You don’t have to step in. That report was probably just Nia-unni’s friends messing around and filing it as a joke.”

With that, Lisa took the documents I had been holding.

“I’ll handle this myself. Tomorrow I’ll check on the commoner student and then meet with Nia-unni to talk.”

“You’re not going to talk with Lady Nia… you’re going to tease her, aren’t you?”

“With such a funny story? I have to tease her at least a little, don’t I?”

Lisa smiled faintly while flipping through the documents.

“But really, what did she even do to make a 1st-year run away crying?”

“She might not have done much. From the commoner’s perspective, just having a noble approach them is probably terrifying enough.”

“True. I’ve had similar experiences. Since I’m the Lady of a ducal family, not only commoners but even nobles get scared when I approach them first.”

“The difference in status is something we can’t help.”

“But you weren’t afraid of me.”

Lisa asked as though she genuinely wondered.

“You approached me so confidently. Any particular reason?”

“Nothing much. I simply had the certainty that Lady Lisa would be a good person.”

“…Hmm. You say such pretty things in such a calm way. Makes people’s hearts flutter.”

“That wasn’t my intention. I was simply being honest……”

“I know it isn’t a lie. That makes it even prettier, you know?”

“…Ahem.”

Before the atmosphere got strange, I quickly changed the subject.

“Anyway, that’s everything we had to review today.”

“Really? We finished early.”

“Yes. So since we finished early……”

“Since we finished? Do you want to do something? I’m always willing to do whatever you……”

“I wanted to study together. If that’s alright.”

“…Study?”

Lisa tilted her head.

“Yes, well… since midterms are in two weeks, I thought it’d be good to start little by little……”

Lisa looked slightly disappointed, but she eventually nodded, dragged her chair, and sat beside me.

“You’re right. It’s better to study consistently. Is there anything I can help with?”

“Not yet, but I’ll probably run into something I don’t know.”

“Ask me if anything comes up. I do study a bit, so I can explain most things.”

“Thank you. But… Lady Lisa, you’re a bit too close……”

“Hm? Why?”

“…No reason.”

I took out my textbook from my bag, and Lisa followed by taking out her own.

But… she really was too close.

Even if I tried not to notice, I kept noticing.

Still, pretending to be unfazed, I opened my textbook and began to study……

“Hmm? Oh? Gideon, your scent changed a little, didn’t it?”

“Ah—r-really?”

“How should I put it…… Ah, is it because of this?”

Lisa lightly touched the scar on my neck—the mark she had left when she bit me.

Then she nodded as she spoke.

“Gideon.”

“Yes, Lady Lisa.”

“By any chance, have you used our family’s power lately—meaning Blood Energy?”

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