Chapter 43
Chapter 43
‘Ah…….’
The difficulty breathing made it feel as though my broken ribs were piercing my lungs.
Each rise and fall of my chest brought agony that enveloped my entire body, drawing involuntary groans from me, but what tormented me even more was the loathing I felt toward my own arrogance and foolishness.
I had forgotten.
What was I? I was not the protagonist.
I was nothing more than a dullard borrowing Leios’s body, merely imitating the talent of a genius.
I had thought that by becoming Leios, I had become something.
Because I knew events that would happen in the future, I had believed myself to be the protagonist of some overpowered power-fantasy novel.
I thought everything would unfold exactly as I had planned.
Unforeseen variables were something I should always have been considering.
In this world, the irregular was my very existence.
That alone had replaced the protagonist and twisted the story off course.
And I was paying for the price of turning my eyes away from that and ignoring it, with my entire body.
“Sh… it…….”
What hidden-power overpowered protagonist, what mastermind in the shadows?
With trembling hands, I raised my arm, pulled off the Veil ring on my left ring finger, and threw it away.
Even clashing with everything I had at every single moment would not have been enough.
Pathetically, I had only just realized that now.
‘The potion…….’
As my breathing grew more ragged, I slowly fumbled at my waist.
Pop.
I opened the cap of a top-grade potion and drank it in one gulp.
Without giving me even a moment to breathe, it healed my broken bones and punctured lungs, burning away my wounds.
“Guhh…….”
Pain even worse than before swept through my entire body.
But thanks to that, my mind, which had been growing hazy, cleared, and my five senses, which had fallen silent, regained their awareness.
Bang-! Bang-!
‘Alice, huh.’
It seemed the fight was still in full swing.
Even with the Curse of the Veil equipped, the only one who could properly fight that bastard who had reduced me to this state in a single blow would be Alice.
Feeling that my injuries had recovered to some extent, I pushed away the debris of the wall that had been covering my body.
“Hoo…….”
A long sigh escaped me on its own.
When I raised my body, sticky clots—proof of how much blood I had coughed up—were smeared all around my mouth.
“She fights well.”
A spectacle of black demonic energy and golden aura.
The two clashed evenly, neither yielding an inch.
I wanted to rest a bit longer if I could, but that wasn’t exactly an option.
Swish.
Strands of hair that had slipped loose caught my eye.
Perhaps the shock from earlier had dispelled the artifact’s effect—my hair had returned to a dazzling golden blond.
‘Well, it shouldn’t matter.’
The only ones who still seemed to be in their right minds were Alice, Laysias, and Yuria.
The rest were collapsed on the ground, completely unmoving.
Boom!
With a violent impact, Alice’s body was sent flying.
Somehow managing to regain her balance midair, she twisted once before crashing back down onto the floor.
“Haa, haa…….”
Her uniform, which had been neat just moments ago, was slashed and torn in several places.
It seemed she had been fighting nonstop while I was down—the aura blooming along her sword looked dangerously close to flickering out.
And yet, the fighting spirit etched on her face remained undiminished.
She really did seem like the protagonist.
Clink.
I picked up my sword, which had been rolling around on the floor.
Then, as I slowly walked forward, I grabbed Alice by the shoulder.
“……!”
She had been so focused on Gaus’s movements that she hadn’t even noticed my presence.
Only when I placed my hand on her shoulder did she finally realize, staring up at me with wide eyes.
“…You’re late.”
“Sorry. I went and did some self-reflection.”
Alice let out a small sigh and tightened her grip on her sword.
But I stepped one pace ahead of her and spoke in a low voice.
“From here on out, I’ll take over. When the younger sibling makes a mistake, it’s the older brother’s job to fix it.”
“…After I’ve already exhausted myself, now you show up and start acting all high and mighty.”
She looked at me as if I were ridiculous, but then, as though her strength had finally given out, she plopped down onto the ground.
Waving her hand at me, she told me to hurry up and go.
‘…Not even a shred of hesitation.’
Was my defeat not even a consideration? She was already wearing a cheerful expression.
The fighting spirit from earlier seemed to have vanished entirely—she kicked my leg lightly with her foot, saying that when I got back, I’d better buy her a hundred cakes.
“I’ll buy you a hundred, or a thousand, so just wait quietly.”
With that, I slowly stepped forward.
The moment I reappeared, Gaus was watching us with an intrigued gaze.
“You…….”
To one side, Laysias, her face drained with exhaustion, was holding Yuria close.
For her to have endured this much—my evaluation of her rose slightly.
I offered a small apology in my heart for how harshly I had treated her until now.
“We’ll talk later.”
Not only Laysias, but Yuria as well looked like she had many questions for me.
It was probably because of my hair.
There were many people in the world with blond hair, but such a radiant color existed only in the bloodline of Ribera.
And since Gaus—or rather, that bastard August as well—had been engulfed by demonic energy and lost his artifact’s effect just like me, he shared the same appearance.
“So you’ve learned how to wait for others. You’ve grown, little brother.”
At the word “little brother,” one of August’s eyes twitched.
But with an expression that suggested he no longer cared about such things, he let demonic energy billow forth and opened his mouth.
“I want to savor this moment for a long time. The moment when you, the one who cast me into the abyss, fall into despair.”
“Such bad taste. But I don’t dislike that about you.”
Of the three brothers, he was the only one I felt any affection for.
Even with demonic energy pouring out right in front of me, I didn’t feel all that repulsed.
But.
“To block my path. You’re prepared for the Veil, aren’t you.”
“You’re merely the starting point. If I return with your head, Father and my elder brothers will acknowledge me again.”
A conversation that did not mesh passed between us.
Each of us merely voiced what we wanted from the other; it was not something that could properly be called a conversation.
Even so, what we wanted to say was the same.
-Benda.
We were not truly brothers who shared blood, but it seemed we had parts where we resembled one another.
“Hup!”
When I drew up all the strength I had, my entire body creaked and began screaming in protest.
I had recovered in one go with a top-grade potion, but it seemed the accumulated shock had not disappeared; my limbs felt heavy.
Still, if I collapsed here, how was I supposed to endure the trials that would come afterward?
‘It’s only, only the first episode.’
I had been stronger than the original protagonist and knew more.
If I were to count my advantages, they would be endless.
After going this far, wouldn’t it be fine to catch up to the protagonist just this once?
Screeeech-!
A vivid blue aura enveloped the tip of my sword.
As if he still wasn’t tired after fighting like that, August swung his sword at me with a madness-filled expression.
First strike, second strike, third strike…….
The level of mastery in swordsmanship was on my side.
After all, this body had been trained by a Sword Saint.
After going through all that, if I couldn’t even win at this level, I wouldn’t have the face to meet that old man.
However, the vicious demonic energy pouring out from August’s entire body made my brow knit on its own.
As if it were endless, he swung that immense power without the slightest restraint.
First strike, second strike, third strike…….
Each time our swords crossed, it was my side that forced in effective hits.
Yet for some reason, August’s body, cut by my blade, simply stood there upright without suffering any damage at all.
“Uahahahahaha!”
Perhaps intoxicated by his own power, the bastard’s madness reached its peak.
By now, his swordplay was so sloppy that neither swordsmanship nor form could be found, but before that crude, brute momentum, I gradually retreated.
‘I can’t back down like this.’
If I continued fighting by evading his attacks and letting the shock accumulate, I should be able to bring him down for sure, even if it took time.
That endlessly pouring demonic energy couldn’t be infinite.
At some point, it would reach its limit, and that would be the end of this fight.
But behind me were fallen students.
Laysias and Yuria, having barely recovered their strength, had formed a shield, but that would shatter with a single blow from August.
In other words, it was a dead end.
“…I hated you from the very beginning.”
“That’s a shame. I’d actually started to like you a bit lately.”
Perhaps sensing the end approaching, August’s demonic energy deepened even further.
It was so dense that one might believe it to be an aura blade, a privilege reserved for Sword Masters, and sweat naturally seeped into the hand gripping my sword.
How many hardships and trials would come crashing down on me in the future? Would I be able to overcome them each time?
‘There’s no time to entertain weak thoughts.’
I, too, focused my mind completely.
I discarded all thought except the single resolve to cut down my opponent at the sword’s tip, and erased my surroundings from my vision.
In my world now, only the two of us existed—him and me.
My thoughts accelerated, and the flow of time slowed.
A familiar sense of déjà vu I had felt countless times before.
I could feel the pulse of every single cell composing my body, and my opponent’s movements entered my sight.
In that eternal, momentary instant, I poured everything I had into swinging the sword I knew best.
Fiore Style Le Punte.
A swift, single-thrust strike.
From the sword tip burst a dazzling light so bright that even I frowned.
As if he had anticipated it, August drew in his sword and unleashed his own secret technique, but if I had thought it would be blocked to begin with, I wouldn’t have swung my blade at all.
Crack.
A minuscule fissure.
The slight gap where a bit of debris crumbled away would normally have had no effect on the outcome.
But in a world of ultra-high speed, it brought about a tremendous change.
Craaash-!
With a violent reverberation, my sword shattered the bastard’s demonic energy into pieces.
As if that weren’t enough, it pierced through the cold steel and viciously gouged into its owner’s chest.
“…Kuh-!”
The accelerated state of thought shattered, and the flow of time returned to normal.
August clutched his crushed chest and staggered backward, staring in disbelief.
“M-me, I…….”
“You really stuck with the most clichéd lines to the very end.”
Seeing him like that didn’t leave a good taste in my mouth.
He had been ambiguously cruel, ambiguously fallen, and even his ending was ambiguous to the extreme.
“Farewell, little brother. I won’t go far.”
Complex and subtle emotions welled up from the depths of my chest.
And so, swallowing my bitterness, I turned my body away.
“You made such a big show of yourself, yet the ending is pathetically dull.”
Alice shot a glance at the fallen August and shrugged her shoulders as if it were trivial.
Watch your mouth.
That’s the kind of cliché that always means something comes after.
“…Should I call you Your Highness?”
Laysias deactivated the mana shield with a weary face.
At that, Yuria, cradled in her arms, looked up at me with a puzzled expression.
“Y-Your Highness?”
As if she found Yuria’s dullness displeasing, Laysias frowned and said,
“If you can see that dazzling golden blond and still have no thoughts, then you have no right to be in this Empire.”
It was a bit harsh, but perhaps she finally realized it from those words; Yuria’s eyes filled with shock.
She hurriedly tried to kneel, but I waved my hand with an annoyed expression.
“Forget it. At the Academy, I’m just a student.”
“…I see. I’ve heard it before. That royalty must hide their status while attending the Academy. If that’s the case…….”
Laysias’s gaze turned toward the fallen August.
I gave a light nod in response.
“Yeah. He’s my younger brother.”
“Huh…….”
The third prince had killed the fourth prince.
Caught up in that massive scandal, Laysias let out a small sigh, and Yuria’s face turned pale.
“By the way, what happened? Why did he suddenly start using demonic energy…….”
She voiced her suspicion, wondering if it hadn’t been some kind of trap or conspiracy.
From the perspective of those who didn’t know the full details, it was a perfectly reasonable line of deduction.
I kept my mouth shut on the matter.
It involved the bloodline of Ribera—no, the direct line of the imperial family—so the high and mighty would surely take care of it themselves.
“Ah, I’m tired. So tired.”
When I got back, I felt like I could soak myself in a hot spring and sleep straight for two days.
But before that, I had to deal with the aftermath here.
Those collapsed on the floor still showed no sign of waking up.
With that in mind, I reached into my subspace pouch to take out potions.
“…Huh?”
At that moment, Alice looked behind me and let out a sound of doubt.
At the same time, a line of chilling cold swept down my spine.
…Ah, please don’t let it be that.
Sincerely hoping it wasn’t, I slowly turned my head toward my back.
“…….”
August’s body, which should have stopped breathing after being pierced through the chest, stood proudly in place, both feet firmly planted on the ground.