“Tch. I was hoping not to use this if I could help it.”
I gently laid the unconscious noble lady down after striking her on the back of the neck and turned to the chimera.
Seeing me, who had done nothing until now, finally step forward, the creature wore an even more delighted expression than before, as if it was eagerly ready to take my attack.
Come to think of it, the fact that it hadn’t attacked first from the start suggested that it took pride in its own strength and enjoyed watching the despair on the faces of enemies who couldn’t do any damage to it.
“Does that mean it has intelligence? Aren’t most chimeras said to go berserk without any sense of self?”
It was unexpected, but not something that particularly mattered.
If anything, it’s actually easier to deal with one that has reason.
“Originally, I would’ve just kept running with her.”
At first, I really had planned to run away.
Whether I could win or not aside, dealing with an incident like this was a hassle, and the academy would eventually come to rescue us anyway. If I just ran around a bit, everything would be resolved.
On top of that, if the duke’s daughter found out that I had this kind of power, her people would pull every trick in the book to recruit me, and that would ruin the peaceful life I wanted.
But the noble lady’s sudden actions were truly unexpected.
When her attacks had failed twice, I thought she would give up.
There was no way she could believe I could defeat a monster that had shrugged off her full-power spells. And knowing her fragile nature beneath the surface, I thought she would choose to stay alive and meet with Pollo somehow.
– I’ll buy us some time. You run.
She made an impulsive act and tried to save me by using herself as bait.
Selene’s attempt to save me, claiming it was her duty and pride as a noble, came as a fresh shock.
Until now, the version of her I knew would’ve either ordered me to protect her from the chimera or, in the worst case, used me as bait after hurting me.
Her declaration that she would save me in the face of death shattered the world I thought I knew.
Up to this point, the heroines had been no different from NPCs to me.
I knew this world was just the backdrop of a game, and through the game system, I already had access to information about them.
Having seen the heroines through scripts that listed their names, ages, personalities, and hobbies, I believed that even in this reality, they were nothing more than NPCs operating based on the data I knew.
I was supposed to quickly pair each heroine with Pollo, help them reach their happy endings, and then quietly live out a peaceful life in the background.
I had thought of them as nothing more than tools for that purpose…
She’s different.
A proud, arrogant, and jealous noble lady.
But also a self-sacrificing noble who never forgot her pride as a noble.
I’m curious.
I had grown curious.
About the possibility that they might not be the versions I thought I knew.
It sparked a deep and overwhelming curiosity in me.
So I can’t just let them die.
They had become a new source of joy in my otherwise dull life.
I couldn’t let them die.
And while I was at it, I might as well help my friend with his romance too.
“Nocturne Style, Third Form.”
Shling—
The sword slid out in silence.
Along with that, the thick killing intent that filled the arena caused the chimera’s atmosphere to shift in an instant.
“U-Uwoooaaah!!”
Perhaps overwhelmed by the wave of killing intent that pierced through its entire body, the creature lost its mind out of fear.
Now seeing me as a complete enemy, the terror that had been weighing it down ultimately drove it to make a disastrous decision.
Kwaang—!
“Uoooh!!! Uwoooaaahhhhhh!!”
With an explosive thrust of its legs, the chimera let out a grotesque howl and began charging at me like a mad beast.
“Too late.”
[Heaven and Earth Creation]
Shukwaaaahhh!!!
With the draw of my sword, the condensed aura erupted all at once.
A single swing.
But the immense aura infused in the blade became a huge slash that engulfed the chimera head-on.
“Uooh……”
Chwaaaahhh!!!
The chimera’s skin, which no spell had been able to pierce, could not withstand the cascade of aura and collapsed instantly.
The overwhelming mass of aura struck before it could even react, splitting the chimera’s body in one swift motion.
Whooooooooosh!!
Booooom!!
Not only was the chimera cleaved in half, but the slash went on to tear through the opposite side of the arena, carving through nearly 500 meters before its power was spent.
“Haa… I really did it now.”
A huge scar was etched vertically across the ground.
It was a breathtaking sight. Like a god had descended from the heavens and drawn a straight line with a finger, leaving a scar on the earth.
The chimera with its head and torso severed by the slash was left in pieces with only its limbs sprawled about, and the already old arena began to crumble in other places as well from the aftermath of the strike.
“…If anyone asks, I’ll just say the lady did it.”
If I claimed, “The lady took down the monster with a final blow and collapsed from exhaustion~,” those who knew her magical talent would surely nod in agreement.
I looked back, worried she might have noticed something, but thankfully, the fainting had worked well. She was peacefully sleeping and breathing softly.
“As much as I’d like to check what this place really is… I can’t just leave her here alone. Who knows what might happen? I’d better wait.”
As I sat blankly beside the unconscious lady, killing time, we were rescued a few minutes later by professors who popped out of thin air.
Having analyzed the teleportation spell, the professors tracked the circuit in reverse and estimated where we might have ended up. They rushed here immediately, and fortunately, the noble lady and I were rescued without a scratch.
Although the professors were horrified upon seeing the chimera’s corpse, I managed to deceive them by saying, “The young lady used all her mana to deliver the final blow~.” Thankfully, they seemed to know her skills well, so the credit was quickly shifted to her.
The chimera’s corpse looked more like it had been killed by a blade than by magic, but since I was hiding the fact that I could use aura, and I claimed a massive blade of wind magic had done it, they seemed to buy it.
Whether I should be relieved or saddened that no one suspected me… I still wasn’t sure.
And so, we returned to the academy and were hospitalized just in case we had sustained any unnoticed injuries.
There was even an incident where Pollo heard I had been in danger and came crying to see me. But once I showed him I was completely unharmed and told him I’d been saved thanks to the noble lady, he finally seemed relieved.
Enjoying the situation, I decided to take advantage of being hospitalized to skip class and rest comfortably for a while.
I didn’t know who had created the chimera, but they weren’t even in the game, and the imperial family would probably take care of it eventually anyway, so I didn’t worry too much.
I planned to savor this rare, sweet moment of rest with my whole body.
***
“…Huh?”
“What’s going on?”
A dark, shadowy place lined with various experimental tools.
In what appeared to be a laboratory, a man deeply immersed in his research was pulled out of his concentration by the words of a woman who seemed to be his guard.
Though he was displeased at having his focus broken, it was rare for his secretary to react this way, so he decided to confirm the details.
“The connection with Behemoth was just lost.”
“Hmm. Have the professors arrived already? They’re moving faster than I expected.”
“No. It wasn’t the professors. Behemoth was killed before they got there.”
“What?”
Behemoth, a chimera born of experiments.
It was a creature that couldn’t even be scratched by ordinary magic or aura.
Only someone of professor-level skill would have been capable of taking it down.
“Are you certain the signal is lost? Could it be a mistake?”
“I’ve tried several times….it’s the same. The unique frequency that used to resonate from its brain has completely vanished. In other words, it’s incapacitated.”
“…Even if it was a failure, its physical capabilities weren’t inferior to the other Numbers.”
The man stroked his chin with interest, seemingly intrigued.
The plan had been to dispose of the food meant for Behemoth and, at the same time, declare war on the academy.
However, with the creature’s defeat, the situation had completely shifted. But the man still chuckled as if even that turn of events was entertaining.
“Who were the people transferred to the disposal site again?”
“An unnamed baron’s child… and the second daughter of House Eus.”
“Ah, I see. So she’s the noble lady of House Eus. That makes sense.”
The Eus Duchy. They were the founders of the country and a prestigious family of mages.
The second daughter of that house had once been famously known as a prodigy, and realizing that she was already old enough to attend the academy made the man bitterly aware of how old he had become.
“The original plan was to provoke the anger of the academy’s nobles… but it seems we’ll have to revise that plan.”
“In what way?”
“I’d heard of her, but it seems the noble lady’s talent is greater than expected. We can’t afford to waste such a valuable test subject.”
“…Should we kidnap her?”
“Kidnap? Now, what a dreadful word… We’re simply…”
– Giving her the opportunity to become a part of a new world.
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