“S-sorry, Princess... I really don’t know...”
“Shut your mouth.”
“Y-yes... I apologize...”
Whether she understood the situation or not, Rebecca didn’t ask. She only suppressed her irritation.
So I moved. Passing Elize, I stepped down the stairs and stood before Rebecca.
Elize was tall, Gray was rather short. Rebecca stood somewhere in between. All three were small before my frame, towering above 190 centimeters.
Even if Rebecca was called a tyrant, she was still a much younger and smaller cadet.
“The assassination war in Zone 2 is about to end. Have you considered what comes next?”
“......”
“In the era that follows, Hiaka will be in need of many professors. Especially those uninvolved in rebellion—neutral professors will have their own place.”
“...I no longer wish to hear your teachings.”
Rebecca spoke with her face still covered.
“...I only plan to kill the senior professor and be done with it.”
“Denied.”
I leaned in closer to her.
“If you truly mean to serve the state, then this is where you must stop. Do that, and I will not hold you accountable.”
Rebecca removed her hand from her face. Then stepped closer and looked up at me. Eyes red—almost uncomfortably so.
“What if you do hold me accountable?”
She was so furious her breathing was ragged. Her hand trembled, and the corners of her eyes twitched faintly. There was killing intent seeping out.
“If you do... what happens then?”
But I am an external force. I don’t yield.
“You’ll be shoved into hell by my own hand.”
It wasn’t an empty threat. I know a lot. Princess or not, I know several ways to destroy her.
“You think I’ll go alone?”
“Then we’ll fall together.”
In this situation, where she was already cornered, she must’ve realized I wasn’t joking.
“......”
“......”
A few seconds of silence passed.
Then, her expression tightly restrained, she spoke.
“Professor.”
“I’m listening.”
“Since the day I became a princess, there hasn’t been a single moment where I couldn’t do as I pleased. Not one.”
“......”
“I’ve had everything I wanted. Killed anyone I wanted, whenever I wanted. This is Hiaka, and I am its noble princess.”
Struggling to suppress her shaking breath, with a voice that scratched slightly, Rebecca spoke.
“You’re the first, Professor. The first person to dare humiliate me twice.”
The first was rejecting the offer to become the advisor at Dragon Hatchling Hall.
The second was this moment, now.
“What do I do? I think I’m starting to dislike you.”
If that’s what our relationship was, then I didn’t mind.
I, too, was beginning to dislike Rebecca.
“You’ll have to get used to it.”
“For how long?”
“For as long as you’re a cadet. In the coming era, Dragon Hatchling Hall will need me.”
Rebecca stared blankly at me.
Then responded indifferently.
“Don’t delude yourself. I don’t need you anymore.”
With those words, she turned and began walking down the stairs. Click-clack, her heels echoed. Elize, who’d been watching anxiously, ran after her with a teary face. “Let’s go together, Princess...” But what came back was a voice full of irritation.
“Don’t follow me.”
“P-Prin...”
“I don’t need you {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} either. You worthless trash.”
Elize froze on the spot.
That was the end of it. Rebecca’s assassination attempt was stopped.
But even hatred like this... still counted as a relationship.
┃ Relationship Increase: Rebecca [20] (▲17)
┃ Reward: Star Fragments ×17
It was a large sum. Not bad.
⋮
‘...Should I head back now?’
I turned and started toward the lab.
Along the way, a message came in.
— Assassination Department: The assassination war in Zone 2 has ended.
At last, the assassination war was over.
Hiaka claimed an overwhelming victory. Nearly all of Kreutz’s assassins were either killed or scattered.
Assassins’ battles always hinge on whether they get the drop or not.
There’s even a study showing that when an assassin successfully ambushes, their combat output can increase by up to 700%.
Conversely, when an assassination is perfectly anticipated, the assassin becomes powerless. That’s what happened to Kreutz’s assassins.
Hiaka saw it coming and prepared. As a result, the damage was minimal.
So, here we are. At the backbone of the main story.
“What is it? Why are you following me?”
At some point, someone had been silently trailing me.
It was Elize.
“I’m coming with you.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Well... I don’t accept that.”
After Rebecca left, Elize had become visibly uneasy.
To put it in perspective, she looked like a puppy who’d just broken its owner’s favorite porcelain.
I tried to send her away. But she refused to go back to Dragon Hatchling Hall, so for now, I brought her to the lab.
And then... she started acting up.
“Elize. What the hell are you doing?”
She suddenly opened the trash can... and climbed inside.
Even pulled the lid over her head.
“I’m depressed.”
“Depressed or not, why would you get into something that filthy?”
“I dunno...”
Then, still stuck inside the bin, Elize picked up an empty coffee can and a used cosmetics jar and murmured sadly.
“Because I’m trash...ㅠ”
What am I supposed to do with this?
Good thing the lab’s trash is clean, at least...
“When do you plan on leaving?”
“I’m not going.”
“Be back at the dorm before nightfall.”
“No.”
“......”
“Nooo.”
“...I didn’t even say anything.”
Is this... what do they call it, separation anxiety?
【 Elize: ｡°(´∩ω∩`)°｡ 】
I decided to just roll with it.
Eventually, the department contacted me, asking when I’d begin the solo strategy against Jinksythe.
I planned to arrive just in time.
Three hours remained until Jinksythe’s full summoning.
< Time Until Hotfix: 59 minutes 15 seconds... >
One hour left until the hotfix.
“Professor, I’ve arrived—oh my? What are you doing in there?”
Just in time, Adele arrived at the lab, and I left Elize in her care.
Then I stepped outside, toward the outdoor training grounds near the lab. They were completely empty at this hour.
I decided to use the spare time to test out my newly acquired weapon, Giant Soldier’s Sword○.
＊「Shadowless Star○」 Giant Soldier’s Sword [Legendary II, Stigma]
Even at second glance, it was an astounding weapon.
At last, I swapped my main weapon from Liberator⁺₊⋆ to Giant Soldier’s Sword○.
< Total Combat Power: 132,850 → 157,440 (▲24,550) >
Liberator⁺₊⋆ had a value of 18,000.
But Giant Soldier’s Sword○ boasted a staggering 42,550.
A national treasure-level weapon without a single enhancement or attached option—and yet, this powerful.
...Insane. A weapon the whole world covets, now in my hands.
First, I checked its options.
As I’d heard, its [Attack Power] was incredibly high...
Actually, not just high. Not just overwhelming. It was abnormally high.
If Liberator⁺₊⋆ was already cannon-level in output, this was like welding thirty cannons together and swinging them at once.
Of course, that was to be expected.
The Giant Soldier’s Sword○ was, originally, a siege weapon.
The stigma was Shadowless Star○, aligned with the Elise family—naturally, since this too was an invisible weapon.
Srrrng—
When I drew the sword from its sheath, what emerged was shockingly plain, unbefitting the name “national treasure.”
Even short for a longsword, with no imposing appearance.
But it mattered little. You could gather a million flashy, trashy weapons, and none would come close to this.
All Legendary weapons have an activation incantation.
And with it, I activated the sword.
“Raise thy blade, O Colossus—”
The moment I infused mana into the blade, the space around me began to tremble.
───.
In that moment, I felt something deeply strange—like my senses were expanding.
It felt as if the ‘me’ standing here was a puppet suspended by threads.
The current me was connected to a giant me standing behind.
This was the sensory realm of [Summon-Taming] types.
The core of that class is to have something other than yourself fight on your behalf. Among such abilities is the concept of a marionette.
That was the power of this sword.
I was currently controlling a puppet.
The invisible arm and sword of the Giant Soldier behind me.
The Giant Soldier mirrored my stance and held its own sword—but even as I controlled it, I had no sense of what it looked like.
The star Shadowless○ symbolizes secrecy, disappearance, concealment, and oblivion.
Elize, with just a fragment of her family’s stigma, could deceive even senior professors with her stealth. This Giant Soldier behind me was the same breed.
Just as expected—I cannot move while the Giant Soldier is in motion.
That was the weapon’s drawback.
If I moved, the Giant Soldier could not.
If the Giant Soldier moved, I could not.
Next, I decided to test its power.
I gave the mental command.
A slash.
In an instant, an enormous, invisible blade began to swing.
Calling it a “sword” felt inaccurate—judging by its size, it was as if seven or eight massive buses had been fused together.
Big things are slow. The Giant Soldier’s sword was far from agile.
But the weight—the sheer mass—became immediately clear.
The ground shook. Air blasted outward.
Unable to fully gauge the length, the sword’s tip struck a distant watchpost at the end of the training ground.
KWAANG ────!
The area was obliterated. Air was compressed. A shockwave erupted. The metal-framed watchpost was utterly crushed.
Like a giant from mythology striking down a beast, my single swing shattered the post and plunged into the earth, splitting the ground.
It was staggering power. From what I knew, even a grenade couldn’t leave more than a 10cm dent in this kind of terrain.
But this sword’s slash had cleaved at least 3 meters into the ground—and that was with the edge, not the point.
Huh...
Truly monstrous.
At this rate, I could potentially assassinate even massive entities that normally couldn’t be killed that way.
For example, the Empire has Swordmasters with a [Gigantification] technique. Some grow up to 25 meters tall. Their hide alone is 80cm thick. Killing one with conventional assassination methods is basically impossible.
But now... maybe I had a shot.
Weaknesses.
There were three major ones.
Weakness 1: I cannot move while the Giant Soldier is attacking.
Weakness 2: The strike, though hidden, is not fast.
Weakness 3: The sword itself is relatively fragile.
Tung, tung.
I tapped the blade against my knee. It was only slightly tougher than a regular sword.
In this world, weapons are consumables.
Direct combat should be avoided whenever possible.
Once broken, the sword’s power ends. The [Stigma] vanishes.
Then again... even without this weapon, wouldn’t I still die if I got into a direct fight?
A perfect fit for me.
I was very satisfied.
But still... just having a powerful weapon wasn’t cause for celebration.
Zzzing...
A sinister vibration pulsed from the tip of the blade.
True masterpieces choose their own wielder—and discard the unworthy without mercy.
This one was no different. Giant Soldier’s Sword○ would continue to test me.
And I would have to prove myself its rightful master.
Only after passing its trials would I be able to uncover the sword’s hidden secrets and true usage.
* * *
A hand covered in wounds lit a cigarette. A cheap one, utterly unfitting for the noble princess.
She struck a match several times. But her hands trembled with rage, and it took several tries to light it. Finally, she managed—and inhaled the smoke deeply into her lungs.
She still sat on the staircase of the infirmary building. But Rebecca didn’t care. She kept exhaling smoke. If she didn’t... if she didn’t suppress this impulse, she feared she’d do something truly vile.
It was the only way she could restrain herself.
Just then, the crystal orb rang. A communication request.
“What is it.”
< ...This is Cheongru. Princess, are you all right? >
It was the elderly knight-guardian Cheongru. Someone who’d known her long enough to read her mood from voice alone.
“Speak. Don’t mind my tone.”
< Ah, yes. >
< We investigated the professor who stopped the airship from crashing, as you requested. >
“Oh, that.”
A welcome report amidst her irritation.
The department had been desperately trying to cover it up for some reason—but he had finally found out.
The genius of [Illusion], who gave wings to that crashing airship.
Of all the professors she knew, none wielded illusion magic to that level. It had to be one of the newly hired professors.
Why hadn’t she known of such a figure until now?
He was extraordinary.
To Rebecca, who could perceive mana, his power was awe-inspiring—undeniably brilliant.
Which only further convinced her that Professor Dante was no longer necessary.
Dante. A disappointing professor.
She’d thought he was capable. Everyone praised him, and so she assumed as much. But in the end, only direct experience tells the truth.
Professor Dante couldn’t even see what he was holding in his own hands. He was blind.
No more of those pink eyes, thank you.
Bringing in the one from the airship as Dragon Hatchling Hall’s lead instructor would be better. Anyone who could control magic with such purity must be a genius of the highest order.
“So. Who was it?”
— Yes, Princess.
The reply that came stunned her.
She doubted her own ears.
— It was Professor Dante Hiakapo.
Her red lips parted in shock.
Her decadent gaze twitched.
And finally, in a daze, Rebecca muttered:
“...Why?”