“What, looking for us?”
Eric Grettoon, the skinny one, smiled through a frown.
He was already annoying as hell, but this was a good one.
“Dude, don't you get the point? You found us? Yes, you did, and what are you going to do with us?”
Eric stepped closer to Osian. The two friends giggled at his bossy demeanor.
“Hey, you're scaring the janitor.”
“Easy, man. Don't get out of line again and make me call the administration.”
Eric laughed at Raymond and Victor's comment.
“Hey, look at me. I'll do it in moderation. Moderation.”
Eric pondered. ‘How can I bully this cocky janitor to the point of tears?’As he stood in front of Osian, Eric felt a strange sense of discomfort.
'What is this guy? He's bigger than I thought.......'
Big?
Eric was not short, even though he was skinny. But standing in front of Osian, he felt small.
It was hard to tell from a distance, but even more so up close.
Even his oversized janitor's clothes couldn't hide the strength of his body.
'No, I must be mistaken.’
What's the point of being big?
I'm a mage.
With such confidence, Eric pushed Osian's shoulder with his hand.
“Hey, talk to me. You said you found us. Did you?”
Tsk. Tsk.
“What are you going to do about it?”
Usually, when you yell at someone here, they're usually backed into a corner and scared.
Eric's specialty was to bite like a hyena at the first sign of weakness.
“You want to die? It's not like I can't sneak up on one of you!”
As Eric continued to shout at Osian, his vision suddenly went white.
Huh?
Eric didn't understand what was happening to him.
His head was spinning and his mind was going blank.
When he came to, he found himself on the ground, with a stabbing, intense pain running down his shin.
“Ah, ouch. Ah.......”
The pain was too intense to scream; instead, his eyes turned red and tears streamed down his cheeks.
His body reacted on its own, even if his mind didn't understand.
“Do you want to die?”
Osian, who had kicked Eric lightly in the shin, looked down at him on the floor and said coldly.
“Have you ever killed a man before?”
“Uh-huh.”
“And have you ever sneakily disposed of someone?”
The chill in Osian's voice crushed Eric's body.
Eric couldn't think straight. The atmosphere made it hard to breathe, and he felt overwhelmed and terrified.
“That asshole!”
Victor Stonewell, the big man who had seen Eric fall, lunged at Osian.
In a frenzy of excitement, he wrapped himself in mana. It was an enhancement spell that temporarily boosted his physical abilities.
For the moment, Victor was empowered with the ability to seriously injure a person if he mismanaged it.
Still, he didn't hesitate to bring his fist down on Osian.
His fist was blocked too easily by Osian's hand.
“Uh, uh?”
It couldn't be, how could a magically enhanced body be blocked so easily?
Victor's questions were cut short by the intense pain that shot through his shin.
“Ow!”
“Looks like you still have strength to scream.”
Osian lifted Victor's head, which hadn't completely collapsed, and forced his bent torso upright.
As Victor ducked defenselessly, his fist slammed lightly into Victor's abdomen.
“Uhhhhhh!”
Victor crumpled to the ground, spilling his lunch all over the floor.
Osian nudged him with his toe and looked at the last of Raymond.
“You, what are you, are you fucking crazy?!”
Raymond glared.
“How dare you, a janitor, touch an Academy student? You think you can handle this? You think it's going to end with you getting fired?”
“So.”
“That, so what? I'll report you!”
Osian smirked at the threat.
“Okay. You may.”
“What?”
“Just how are you going to do it? I'm this close, and you'd have to move around quite a bit to alert the faculty.”
Raymond's eyebrows shot upward.
He understood Osian's point. He was asking how he was going to get away when he was right in front of him.
Raymond's lips curled up into a pout.
“Yeah. I guess you learned how to fight somewhere, but how did you think you could go against a mage with just that? Do you think I look foolish?”
Raymond tried to push Osian away with a burst of magic but Osian stood as steadfast as a pillar of steel driven into the ground.
Raymond felt a strange sense of urgency as he watched him stand there, unmoving.
He sighed and removed the glasses from his face.
He took them off and put them in his breast pocket, while his hand coolly swept his bangs, which covered his eyes, upward.
That alone changed his mood. Raymond felt his breath catch in his throat as he met the piercing eyes behind the glasses.
“Hey, you son of a bitch......!”
Just as Raymond was about to use his magic, Osian moved.
With a single step, he closed the distance and slashed at Raymond's cheek.
Thwack!
A loud noise rang out, so loud that it sounded like flesh was being torn apart.
Raymond's head snapped to the side. His pupils fluttered as if there had been an earthquake.
“What. Is that your first time?”
“You, you son of a bitch!”
Boom!
Just as Raymond was about to lash out, Osian slapped him again, this time on the other cheek.
Raymond's head snapped back. His cheek was instantly red and swollen from how hard he'd been hit.
But the gleam in his eye was still there. Seeing his eyes burning with defiance and rage, Osian swung his hand with an expressionless face.
-Boom! Clack! Snap, snap, snap!
Raymond's head snapped back in a relentless fashion. As he continued to be hit, he raised his arms and tried to guard, but Osian thought it was a cute defiance.
Like the previous two, he kicked him lightly in the shin with his toe, and Raymond's hands dropped.
A slap followed.
“Stop it. Stop it.......”
“You still haven't gotten your shit together.”
Osian held up his hands, making Raymond squirm and beg urgently.
“That, please stop.”
Osian looked at him and kicked him in the ankle.
Raymond's body slumped to the ground, and Osian leaned down in front of him, his face close.
“It seems like it’s still not enough.”
“Oh, no, no, no, I-I was wrong, please forgive me!”
Raymond begged, bowing his head.
Both Eric and Victor shuddered as they watched the scene on the floor.
Never in their wildest dreams had they imagined Raymond, with his proud, unyielding temper, begging so pitifully.
And yet here he was, at the hands of a janitor.
“You two.”
Osian pointed out, and Eric and Victor flinched.
“I know you're awake. Come here and stand.”
The two men considered feigning illness until the end. There was nothing they could do now that Raymond was defeated.
“The first one to arrive gets a pass.”
They both jumped to their feet at the same time and scrambled toward Osian.
*
“You really don't know anything?”
“Yes, yes. We really don’t.”
Osian looked at the reactions of the three students, including Raymond.
They didn’t know anything about the drug trade going on inside the Academy and the magical runaway that was happening because of it.
Still, they're a bunch of assholes, so I figured they'd know something, but I was wrong.
'I wasn't expecting much.’
With the errands done, Osian had to go back. He said he'd finish as soon as possible, but it took a long time.
The three students felt it and breathed a sigh of relief.
Relieved that everything was okay now, anger surged through them.
‘Damn you. You asshole, I will kill you!’
Raymond gritted his teeth. I'm keeping my head down now, but as soon as Osian leaves, he was going to tell the professors about this.
While Raymond was thinking to himself, Osian put his glasses back on and ruffled his hair, making it unkempt.
“Oh, and.”
Osian slowly approached the wall of the building.
“If you ever try to find me later and retaliate, or if you try to bully other weaker students.”
Osian placed his palm on the outside wall of the lab building.
He pressed down lightly, and the wall began to crack with a crackling sound centered on his palm.
“Then it won't end like today.”
The three of them paled and froze in place.
Is that human strength? The lab building is made of specially treated materials to resist external impacts.
Moreover, it's also magically processed, so its strength is even greater than it seems.
Osian pressed his palm against it, and with just a bit of force, he made it crack, like a spider's web.
“Do you understand?”
The three nodded like their heads were falling off.
They realized they were insignificant children and were helpless in the face of a real monster.
“It's your fault that the outer wall here is broken.”
Osian walked away, seeing the complete lack of intent in their eyes.
The impact from the outer wall caused the people inside the lab to stir, asking what was going on, but they pretended not to notice.
The three who remained would probably have a hard time for a while as prime suspects.
“Hey, guys. You're a little late.”
“Oh, that's okay, but there's a bit of a commotion in the lab. Is there something going on?”
“Well, I don't know. Maybe a couple of delinquents got a little out of hand.”
“What?”
“Something like that.”
*
Night had fallen.
The bustle of the Grand Cloister campus has died down and everyone has gone home.
Students and teachers returned to their dorms, while workers and staff went to their homes.
Of course, there are still some who wander around after dark. The night watchmen did, as did the wizards who lingered in some of the labs.
But their eyesight is not even a tenth of what it is during the day.
Moreover, the grounds after dark were dotted with darkness that could not be seen through.
The dirty, filthy places were the perfect place to hide.
Slaine walked silently down the dark hallway.
His clenched fists were sweaty with nervousness because he knows he's about to do something dangerous.
‘But I can't help it.’
He didn't want to live like a loser forever.
He's annoyed with Raymond for picking on him, and with his father for being such an idiot who can't keep up with him and laughs at him every time.
Or the teacher's sneering look when he didn't understand something or the fact that he failed a lab evaluation with a lower-than-expected amount of mana.
Those were things that can't be changed by simple effort.
In order to get rid of such a harsh burden at once, he had to make an unconventional choice.
'A secret rumor circulates within the academy that there is a potion that can amplify magic.’
Slaine decided to bet on it.
So he made a move, found a contact, and was on his way to meet him.
He was scared, to be honest. For the hundredth time, he wondered if he should turn back now.
‘I can't do that.’
Slaine steeled himself. The thought of being helpless and powerless to do anything was far more terrifying than the fear of what he was about to face.
There was no turning back now.
Slaine sped up his steps, fueled by his greater fear but didn't realize that a man had been silently treading behind him.
‘He's moving.’
The look in Slaine's eyes as he turned to face Baxton was haunting and Osian was sure he'd make a move at some point, but not today.
‘Perhaps he's meeting an internal contact.’
Ossian pondered. 'Should we attack and capture him alive, or wait and see what happens?’
'Even if I get him straight away, he's just a tail, one that can be cut off and replaced at any time. I think I should wait until I reach the main body.’
What was surprising, though, was that the transactions took place inside the building.
'I would have thought it would be outside, somewhere quiet. No, maybe that's why I didn't notice.’
Slaine was walking down the corridor of a research center for magical research.
Even for a research center, it was very large. And since they were researching all kinds of magic, there were quite a few areas that were lit up even at night.
Slaine looked around and entered one of the rooms.
‘I can’t just go in.’
Osian decided to try the next room.
The door was locked, but he gave the doorknob a little more force with his hand and it swung open.
‘Hmm. The door is too weak.’
Looking at the rattling doorknob, Osian frowned a little.
Actually, the door wasn't weak, it was just that he was too strong.
Well, it happened while doing a good job, so they'll understand.
With that thought, he entered the room but a wand was pointed at his back.
“Don't move.”