Chapter 347: The One – Ultimate!?

Speaking of Tharen, yes, he was alive. And as one of the greatest talents of our generation and a member of a noble family, a great effort was made to find him.

In fact, he was found at a clandestine slave auction in a city near the capital. He was slightly poisoned, but a powerful priest managed to cure him.

From what I could gather—from what he said and from my source of information, my father, who was traveling on the same ship—he apparently remembered that during the party we were talking about who would be the most expensive if sold as a slave…

and somehow we ended up finding a clandestine slave trader. Alexander won the bet, as he was the most handsome among us.

He narrowly beat Ban, who had the second-best price because he was half-elf, but apparently they weren’t in high demand this season, so you could say he won because of the trend.

For a moment I thought it was me, but apparently, the winner was the one who decided who would be sold. I honestly want to remember who came up with that bet and why everyone went along with it, but in the end, you could say that Alexander sold Tharen.

When the instructors and Tharen’s family found out, it was a bit of a problem. But it was sorted out, since we were all friends.

Now he’s on a different ship on his way here.

’Well, putting that crazy night aside, the important thing now is that Silvia doesn’t suffer from that canonical event caused by William.’

It really seemed like it would be different, since we came months earlier, and instead of fifty, there were three hundred of us.

Although we won’t explore the middle world as soon as we cross over as originally planned, we will instead finish the academy there during the remaining three months.

The reason is the demons. As always, they are annoying and persistent. Although they failed in their attack during the banquet, they continued, and more demon kingdoms began to attack humans.

Of course, there was a contract at the continental and kingdom level, so a full-scale war did not break out, but the sabotage behind the scenes continued.

Things went from bad to worse. Apparently, there was one really close by, in a neighboring kingdom, that killed three students.

Luckily, I didn’t know any of them. In the end, after discussions between nobles, kingdoms, and their respective academies—or whatever they use to train the new generation—it was abruptly decided to continue everything in the middle world, where the bigwigs and demonic interference are more difficult.

It was also because the kingdom of Avaloria discovered magical technology to prevent and counteract the annoying and constant intrusions with spatial magic that the demons used.

Yes, the same one I gave my father-in-law that night. And well, from what I heard, the kingdom didn’t have enough resources and ended up joining the other kingdoms.

Together, they installed those defensive measures in the first city after crossing the rift in the middle world, making it now totally impenetrable to demons.

And that’s where we’re headed, and we’ll finish the rest of the academy together with the other kingdoms.

The middle world itself is difficult to enter, and concentrating everything in one place that is important to the five kingdoms… is a very smart move. I no longer had to worry.

At least, not about the demons. But damn it, I’m sure the older generation – those who are like little kings of the middle world – will interfere, I’m sure they won’t let us have quiet classes; my days of peace are definitely over.

Anyway, as we descended from the port, I could see that four other giant ships were also arriving with their students. Apparently, they had synchronized their arrival to avoid problems, and we all arrived at almost the same time.

I noticed that one of the ships had some parts that were half destroyed. It seems we weren’t the only ones attacked along the way. At least they arrived.

Which makes me realize that they did this abruptly to prevent the information from reaching the demons in advance and allowing them to prepare something. Even so, there were incidents. A sign of how screwed up things were getting.

It was no longer fifty per kingdom. Although it wasn’t the same for everyone, they all brought at least more than 150 students.

Well, our kingdom is a little above the other four, and we brought the most, with three hundred.

Under the guidance of the instructors and some royal knights—the ship’s guard—they led us to what looked like a huge castle in the center of the city.

This city is the first one after the rift, and the one that will protect this continent if the demons take over the middle world. Well, there’s no military confrontation, so it’s not armed to the teeth like the one I saw when I was on that continent.

Anyway, it’s not that I don’t understand why Silvia is calm, since everything is different now, but I feel that this specific event will definitely happen.

..

“Well, I don’t want to draw attention to myself because I’ll be the eminence in the shadows, so I won’t help you. You have to face it yourself.”

Along the way, I kept talking to Silvia, discreetly, of course. Everything was under a magical veil that only allowed her and me to hear each other, since the rest of the group wasn’t far away.

“Haaah~ putting aside that weird title you seem obsessed with, I understand why you don’t want to draw attention to yourself, but you know, black hair with a black bandage covering your eyes draws a lot of attention.”

“Oh, that’s true. You know, sometimes I forget because in my previous world, black predominates, and curiously, in our group, it’s the most predominant color, even though it’s supposed to be rare. But it’s also good that Elena won’t attract attention now. Wait, but I’ll also attract attention. Hmm…”

“Yes, you definitely will. Besides, why do you wear those blindfolds? Oh!, wait, that’s why, right? That ability from your blessing, which you learned from Eve.”

“Ugh!, don’t say that name, it makes my skin crawl. Besides, remember that we don’t know her, so when you interact with her, because I won’t, call her by her full name.”

“Oh, that’s true, but why are you so hostile towards her? We weren’t friends.”

“Well, yes, but, you know… now that I’m a man, if she comes to ughh!…., let’s not talk about it, I don’t even want to think about her.”

“You’re already starting with your prejudices, based on that alternate future.”

“Yes, but since it happened, it’s possible it will happen again, like your yandere tendencies you want to hide… wait, I didn’t say anything, stop hoarding mana, violence is bad.”

I stopped Silvia, who wanted to start with violence and was accumulating mana in her leg, her kicks hurt a lot.

On the other hand it is better to stop this conversation, I really didn’t even want to think about that woman who is now in my personal list of people I don’t want to get involved with.

’Hmm, what was I saying? Oh, yes.’

“As I was saying, besides the matter of my blessing, I use it as training to sharpen my other senses. And as a bonus, I don’t have to worry about that annoying princess’s ability. Killing three birds with one stone.”

“Ah!, that’s right… that princess has that Skill, like mine, which requires looking into the eyes and not lying to her, haahh~ I really don’t want to meet her. She’s someone difficult to deal with.”

“Hey you just criticized me for prejudice and now you’re doing the same thing, but you’re so right, I don’t want to either, but it’s inevitable. Although… now that you mention it, you can’t read my intentions right now, can you?”.

“No. I have to look at least at the corner of your eyes if I want to read anything.”

“I wonder why. Maybe the saying ’the eyes are the window to the heart’ is truer than we think. The same goes for that blonde princess’s ability… who, by the way, is your biggest competition, since she’s neither shy nor tsundere.”

“Don’t bring that up again.”

“Okay, okay. Let’s focus on the next one. That supposed brother of yours is a speed-oriented warrior with only six metamorphoses. If I’m not mistaken, he has maybe three in strength, or maybe less. He’s at the bottom of the previous generation.”

“But I’m only a five-metamorphosis mage…”

“There you go again with your pusillanimous attitude. You know he has no talent. I don’t remember him well, because at some point he stopped being relevant, but I’m sure in this life he won’t make it past eight metamorphoseseven with powerful art.”

“Even so, he’s more powerful now.”

“That’s my point. You’re very talented. You have five metamorphoses, you have a lot of skills, a blessing, and an EX skill. Honestly, you can beat up guys with up to seven metamorphoses. Of course, I’m talking about untalented guys like him. We’re not on the alternate line, where we had barely reached the fourth. We’re much stronger now.”

There was a huge difference between our ranks when the alternate timeline happened and now.

The problem was that Silvia was still acting like a coward, despite acting violently towards me, who I’m sure is stronger than her brother right now, which is why I…

“Listen, everyone. From this moment on, you are no longer plants in a greenhouse. You must know that from this moment on, your life may be in danger at any moment. And there may or may not be an instructor to protect you. You never know what to expect, so you must never let your guard down or act arrogantly.”

’Oh, we’re here.’

I had been so engrossed in my conversation with Silvia, and since I was blindfolded, I hadn’t paid attention to my surroundings. It seems I need to improve on that.

We were in what looked like a giant army training ground next to the castle. The speaker was Instructor Graham, who, as always, had a naturally loud voice that could easily reach all the students.

As I thought, they would give us a little lesson to bring us down a peg and supposedly show us how big the world is, showing the difference between those fresh out of the academy and those who have been in the middle world for five years, fighting for resources.

The speech was a little different from what I remembered, but maybe that’s because we haven’t finished the academy yet.

“Even the safest place may not be so safe.”

I was 100% sure that I would pass the hazing, and just then, I felt it. First came the bad intentions, the moment Instructor Graham finished speaking.

Bang!

’Damn it! This is really personal.’

Just then, as I began to extend my senses to see where they would appear, the guy was already on his way and threw a direct punch at Silvia’s face, which I reflexively stopped, even though I said I wouldn’t intervene.

She didn’t seem to be holding back. Now I understand why Silvia ended up bedridden for a few days even though there were healing magicians attending her.

That made me angry… but I didn’t hit her back. I looked at Silvia, who still didn’t seem to understand anything despite my previous warnings, and I had no choice but to give her words of encouragement.

“Damn it, Silvia! Don’t just stand there like an idiot, throw something! Throw a The One – Ultimate or something. Do it, or I’ll give you intensive anti-surprise attack training again.”

“Huh?! Ahh! This… The One – Ultimate!?”

BOOOMM!

“…”

“…”

This… let’s see, yes, I told her to cast a spell. I may have pressured her. I may have said something stupid, since I now remember that “The One” wasn’t even an attack in itself…

And it’s true that, with the right affinity, enough mana, imagination, and proper stimulation—even if you don’t say anything coherent, or sometimes even non-existent—powerful auto-completed magic can come out, depending on the level of affinity…

Yes, Silvia attacked under my pressure, and she effectively repelled her brother with an improvised attack, mostly due to affinity. I think it was just a very concentrated fireball that exploded, but the problem was the result.

“…”

“…”

She and I remained silent, looking at each other without understanding.

Then we looked again at the result of that spell.

And then we looked at each other again. Actually, I wasn’t even looking, but I felt I had to. Just to be sure, I looked back at that piece of charcoal lying motionless and came to a verdict.

“Silvia… I think you killed him.”

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