It's a research laboratory for magic, so the door was built to be sturdy just in case.
It wasn't going to tear like a sheet of paper and blow away like that.
That could only mean one thing, the other mage was very good.
‘Yeah, if it’s the torso, then that’s quite possible.’
Glaring into the smoke of the explosion, Osian decided he had his chance.
“What? Did we get caught?”
Terence still didn't understand the situation.
As smart as he was, he wasn't good at dealing with sudden situations like this. He was inexperienced.
“Get a grip, anything can happen in real life.”
Osian grabbed Terence by the scruff of his neck and forcibly lifted him up.“......We got caught, that's one thing. But to use magic like this in public?”
“In case you forgot, I didn't see any of the usual guards on the way here. Besides, it’s uncharacteristically quiet today. Is it always like this?”
“......No, it's not. The lights don't usually go out in the research wing at night.”
“So they've been working ahead of us. If they've realized we've got a tail and dug a trap, it's going to be an uphill battle.”
You may wonder if it's okay to cause trouble in the middle of the night, but they probably know that.
I'm sure they'll pass this off as an incident of magical research.
Even if they intentionally bite people, you probably have the confidence to come up with a reasonable excuse.
“It's a good thing, actually.”
“Good?”
“It means we've gotten to the heart of the matter.”
If he had this much influence in the research wing, he was sure to be the body, no matter how bad he was.
The head would be a bonus, but rational thought told him that was unlikely.
“So we'll have to subdue him and then have a real talk. It doesn't change what we need to do.”
“......Yes. What we're going to do is still the same.”
Terence steadied himself and straightened his stance.
Just in time, the other realized he wasn't dead either.
Osian and Terence exchanged glances, then stepped through the broken doorway into the room.
“For a spell meant to kill once and for all, I'm surprised you're still alive.”
There were three people in the room.
One was a middle-aged wizard who had presumably just cast the spell, the other was a somewhat frivolous-looking man, presumably the contact from last night's conversation.
And the last was Slaine, who was now lying bleeding on the floor.
“......!”
Terrence's eyes widened.
He didn't understand why Slaine, the man he had come to trade with them, had collapsed like that.
Turning to Terence, the head of the research wing, a middle-aged mage, said.
“Did you really think I wouldn't notice your tracking spell?”
Terence placed the tracking spell on Slaine without his knowledge.
His opponent had noticed it, thought Slaine was a tracker targeting them, and had taken him down.
Osian checked Slaine's condition.
He was bleeding from the abdomen, but he was still alive, judging by the way he was twitching.
But he wouldn't last much longer if left to his own devices.
“Terence. Don't get worked up. Slaine's not dead yet.”
“I know, but he'll die if we don't give him first aid.”
However, the two criminals in front of them are not going to let them treat him.
“I'm surprised.”
The middle-aged wizard spoke up.
“Student Terence, I never thought you would do something so stupid. Are you greedy with pride because the world proclaims you a genius?”
“......Professor Albert Grumble. I'm surprised. I never thought you'd be a part of this.”
Albert Grumble.
Here at the Grand Cloister Academy, he teaches alchemy, the art of creating magical reagents, potions, and elixirs.
His vast knowledge and skill with magic has earned him a very high position in the research wing.
In fact, aside from the head of the lab, he was practically the second in command.
Terence bit his lip.
He'd vaguely expected someone like that but it was one thing to think about it in your head, quite another to actually see it.
His teeth chattered in surprise and his breathing quickened, but he desperately suppressed it.
‘Get a grip, Terence. If you lose your cool here, you're done for. A wizard must keep his cool until the end.’
He forced his heated brain into the cold water.
Slowly, reason returned to him as his anger sank to the bottom of the chilled depths.
“I'm not going to ask you why you did it, because you've already crossed the line, and that's something you can't take back, no matter what your excuses are.”
“Hehe. You're cocky. That makes it sound like you think you can overpower me.”
“What makes you think I can't?”
“Are you crazy because people around you keep calling you a genius? Anyway, this is why these days’ kids are no good. They have no manners.”
Albert's eyes were filled with jealousy as he looked at Terence.
Terence, who had mastered various types of magic at a young age and was ranked first in the academy where only the most talented students gathered, was quite the sight.
“It would have been different if you'd seen me two years later, or even a year later, but now you're here, and your luck has run out, because you've lost that talent before it has a chance to blossom.”
“Professor, no… … Don’t go around saying things like you won or lost without permission. You piece of trash who wastes sacred magic on things like this.”
“Ha ha. Sacred magic? Magic is only for the purpose of further exploration. For that, ethics and morality are just shackles that hold you back.”
Albert raised his hand.
Each of his fingers wore a ring.
The gems in each ring glowed, and magic unfolded around Albert's center.
At the same time, his partner stepped up to his side.
“May I be of assistance, Professor?”
“No need. I can organize this place by myself.”
“Well, I have every confidence in your abilities, Professor, but there's a what if, isn't there?”
“In that case, clean up that mess over there.”
The man's gaze turned to Osian and a sadistic grin formed on his face.
“Indeed.”
Osian, who had been listening in on the conversation, turned to Terence.
“I think you're going to have to fight that mage over there.”
“I know that.”
“Are you confident? He's a wizard who has lived twice as long as you have.”
“Ha. Confident? Who do you think you're talking to?”
Terence bared his teeth in a smile.
“I'll kill him in three minutes.”
“I see.”
Osian stared at his opponent.
In each of his hands were sharp daggers. Judging by the blood on them, this was the man who had stabbed Slaine.
“You don't belong here.”
“What, you're asking that out of the blue? You know it when you see it, don't you?”
“Yeah. I can tell when I see you, you’re an uneducated back alley bum and a low life.”
The mean-looking man's face contorted slightly at that.
“Oh, really, where did you get your noble upbringing? I bet you've never been in a fight before, and if there's a knife mark on your pretty face, how will you close your eyes in frustration?”
“Why did you do that?”
“What?”
“Why did you make Slaine look like that?”
Osian could see it.
He'd deliberately stabbed him with that sword, just off-center.
Because he didn't want to kill? No, it wasn't that. Rather, his intentions were far more blatant and cruel than mercy.
The man smirked.
“It's a shame, because he had the potential to be a great customer. But what can I do? He came in here with his tail between his legs, and I had to kill him for security.”
“But you didn't kill him. You intentionally hurt him, made him suffer.”
“Oh. You saw it right.”
The man chuckled, unable to contain his amusement.
“Because it's funny, isn't it, watching a drug-dependent wastrel writhing in pain, trying to cling to life somehow.”
“You've never thought about what it's like to be that desperate?”
“Why should I think about that? Shouldn't you be worried about you, whose life is about to be overturned?”
Osian muttered in response.
“I see. You're a bum after all.”
“What, a bum? I'll let you scream and beg for your life in front of him!”
The man lunged, daggers in both hands.
His movements were swift beyond that of a normal human, swift and stealthy, and reminded Osian of an assassin.
Moreover, the daggers he held in both hands were no ordinary weapons.
A faint bluish aura surrounded the blades. It was magic.
It was a magical weapon, not a pure-blooded weapon.
It was his favorite weapon, boasting a cutting power that could slice through ordinary steel as easily as it could cut through tofu.
The sharp twin daggers struck at Osian's thighs and abdomen at the same time.
He wanted to bring him to his knees first, then cause him to bleed out and suffer.
“You’ll beg for your life.”
It was at that moment that Osian's sword was drawn.
“No, you will.”
The sword was swung without any preparation.
It was so fast, the man who held the dagger didn't even see it.
What he saw instead were both of his wrists, sliced off while still holding the daggers.
“Huh?”
It was cut so cleanly that he didn't even feel the pain.
At that moment, Osian's kick lodged in his stomach.
“Kaboom!”
His stomach could have exploded if he wanted to, but Osian deliberately controlled the force.
Of course, even though he controlled his strength, the fact that he was seriously injured to the extent of being hit by a car did not change.
The man flew backwards, knocking over the seminar room's chairs and desks like bowling pins, and slammed into the wall.
“Three seconds. That's enough.”
One stab, then a kick, it was all too neat.
Had Terence been confident he could do it in three minutes?
Three seconds was enough for Osian.
Meanwhile, Terence and Albert's magical battle continued.
Spell after spell collided in the air, creating a spectacular explosion.
In a blinding feast of flashes and sparks, spells aimed at each other's lives sailed through gaps or were blocked and disappeared.
On the surface, it's hard to tell who has the upper hand but Osian sees it differently.
‘Terence will win.’
At first, Albert had the upper hand but then Terrence started to gain momentum, and they were evenly matched.
Albert was at his limit, but Terence was not yet at his limit.
He could come out stronger. He was just a little slower because he wasn't fully aware of his talent.
“You can't do this!”
Albert shouted in frustration.
He was feeling it, too. Terence's skill was above his own.
Yes, he acknowledged his talent. So he tried to beat him based on his actual experience.
The young prodigy was still inexperienced in many ways.
But Albert was overlooking something. Terence's talent far exceeded that of a mere genius.
As Terence adjusted to Albert's magic, he slowly began to analyze him.
It was like holding a bug in the palm of his hand and examining it in a dish.
“Three minutes.”
True to his word, Terence fired a bolt of pure magic at Albert's head at exactly three minutes.
Albert leaned back, drool dripping from his mouth.
“Ugh.”
As a mage, his body was inevitably weak, which was why a single attack like this was so dangerous.
Besides, he had never felt pain in his life.
He was high and mighty, bossing people around, and ironically, more inexperienced than Terence.
'We've got him under control.’
Now let the interrogation begin.
Just as Osian was thinking that, the man against the wall scrambled to his feet.
“Got up?”
He kicked, clearly intent on subduing him. The feel of his foot told him that it had gone in.
Still, he got up. His eyes were even more vicious than before.
“Kkrrrr!”
Blood sprouted from his neck. The color of the throbbing blood was purple.
Something trickled down his lips.
It was a purple liquid.
“You, what the hell did you eat?”
“Huuuuu.”
Whether Osian asked or not, the man cleared his throat.
The purple liquid ran down his throat, pierced his heart, and spread throughout his body.
The sections of both wrists that had been oozing blood gurgled, and the bones of his wrists popped out and turned into blades.
“That's some nasty stuff.”
The man chuckled as he walked.
By now, he was standing behind Osian's back, aiming for his throat with the blade-like bone.
At that moment, starlight erupted from Osian's sword.
The pure white light moved, illuminating the dark seminar room.
Immediately afterward Osian stomped his foot down on the man's head as he fell to the floor.
“I told you, three seconds.”
The man's leg was severed below the thigh as he went for Osian's neck, and his long bone sword was cut down in an instant.