“Umm…?”
The first thing Selene saw as she opened her eyes was a bright light so intense it made her squint.
As time passed, the blurry scenery pressed under the weight of the light around her eyes slowly began to come into focus.
A room? A ceiling light? White wallpaper? A bed? …The chimera!!
Selene who was briefly dazed as she tried to make sense of the scene being fed to her through her eyes suddenly sprang up the moment she remembered the chimera. The monster that she had failed to defeat surfaced in her mind.
“The chimera! The chimera—huh…?”
But as if everything that had just happened was merely a dream, the place she found herself in was oddly familiar.
“My room?”
When she realized it was her own room, the one she had gone in and out of dozens of times since attending the academy, Selene pinched her own cheek. She was worried this might all be an illusion.
“Ow! …If it hurts, then it must be real, right?”
She was still dumbfounded, but the sharp pain in her cheek confirmed her reality. Just then, a maid entered the room to check on her condition.
“Oh my, young lady! You’re awake!”
“Betty! Why am I here? What about that monster? Oh, and that guy!?”
“For now, please lie back down. You only just woke up after fainting. If you walk around like this, you might collapse again.”
The maid named Betty calmed Selene, who was bombarding her with questions, and gently guided her back to the bed.
Although she had a million things she wanted to ask, Selene, unable to resist the familiar care of the maid who had looked after her for so long, decided to lie down quietly for the time being.
“Betty. First of all, why am I here? What happened to the practical training?”
“You must have a lot of questions… Anyway, the training was halted quickly. You were the last in line, but the situation took a strange turn, so they stopped the other students from observing and went to rescue you.”
According to Betty, as soon as Selene entered the illusion space, the observation tool started malfunctioning. Upon inspection, it was discovered that what should have been an illusion entry had instead become a spatial transfer, and because of that, she had been transported to a location that couldn’t be monitored.
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, the academy urgently dispatched professors, and when they arrived, they found Selene unconscious after having apparently defeated the chimera with all her strength.
“Wait, wait!”
“Yes? Do you have something to say?”
“No, I mean….what are you talking about? I defeated that chimera?”
Selene was dumbfounded.
It was clearly a monster that hadn’t taken any damage from her attacks. Why were people saying she was the one who brought it down?
“Huh? But you were the only one there capable of defeating the chimera. They say there was even testimony from the young man who was with you.”
“Young man? No way…”
Mars Noctus. The insolent man who had the audacity to knock her out.
Selene couldn’t hide her confusion at the fact that he had testified she had defeated the chimera.
He testified that I defeated the chimera? What is he thinking?!
She knew it herself; she could tell. Even if she were to fight the creature again at full strength, she wouldn’t be able to beat it.
Which could only mean the one who defeated the monster in her place… was that man.
Selene had considered the possibility that the man was the one who had brought down the monster, one that had endured her most all-out magic twice without so much as flinching. But the more she thought about it, the more her curiosity grew.
From what she had assessed, Mars’s strength was clearly nothing special. She simply couldn’t understand how someone like that could have defeated such a creature.
“By any chance, that man….Mars. Was he badly hurt? Like, on the verge of death?”
“No, not at all. I heard he was perfectly fine, just staying by your side while you were unconscious. He’s hospitalized just in case, but he’ll probably be discharged soon.”
“…That makes no sense.”
If he had fought in her place and somehow won, there might be the slightest chance of it being possible.
But to have defeated that thing without a single injury was beyond anything she could comprehend.
At the very least, he should have had broken bones or been in a vegetative state with his life hanging by a thread on a respirator…. yet hearing that he was perfectly fine made her head spin.
“The Academy says they’ll be sending an apology and a plaque of appreciation to the young lady who defeated the chimera! You really are amazing, young lady!”
“No, I…”
“Oh, and the Duke waited by your side all night. He just went to get some rest, but I’ll go tell him right away that you’re awake~”
“B-Betty? Wait—!”
Before she had a chance to stop her, Betty had already darted out of the room.
“Haah… What is going on? There’s no way I defeated the chimera. I saw with my own eyes that thing wasn’t dead. Which means there’s only one possible conclusion…”
The conclusion she reached was that Mars had defeated the chimera….and for some reason, he had pinned the credit on her.
However, for this to be proven, there needed to be a premise that Mars’s level was at least at the late stage of Aura Expert or even at the level of an Aura Master.
If that’s the case, then it means he’s been deliberately hiding this kind of power… but why?
Even just reaching the Aura Expert level would cause high-ranking nobles to scramble to scout him.
Not to mention, if someone his age had already reached Expert level, becoming a Master wouldn’t even be a dream. The imperial family would create a special title for him or even raise his family’s rank by two or three levels just to show their immense appreciation.
His popularity among the people would go without saying, and countless women would undoubtedly try to court him.
Or could it be that he’s in a situation where he has no choice but to hide his skills?
While Selene was lost in a spiral of never-ending questions—
“Selene!!!”
“D-Dad?!”
A man with the same brown hair as Selene burst into the room, crying his eyes out.
“My daughter! Do you have any idea how terrified I was when I heard you almost died?! I’m not joking….my heart literally stopped for three seconds!”
“Stop making a scene; you’re embarrassing me! And it’s hot—get off!”
Seeing her grown, middle-aged father clinging to her in tears, Selene recoiled in horror and tried to push him off. But the duke’s persistence was stronger than she’d expected.
“If you don’t back off, I’m not talking to you anymore, okay?”
“Still, I’m just so relieved you woke up early.”
Before his sentence even ended, the duke sat upright in the chair beside her.
To a man who was a serious doting father, the threat of his daughter refusing to speak to him was more terrifying than any other kind of threat.
Having lost his frail wife at a young age, the duke had raised his two remaining daughters like precious treasures, and the idea of falling out with them was more frightening than anything else in the world.
“What about my sister?”
“Your sister is working as my proxy. Both the head of the family and the heir can’t be absent at the same time, so I came to check on you. She wanted to come too, but given the importance of the matter to the family, we decided it was best that I be the one to visit.”
“Always so dramatic… It was just mana exhaustion in the first place. You didn’t have to worry that much. More importantly, what happened to the monster and the arena? Has the investigation found anything?”
Embarrassed by the mention that both her father and sister had been worried about her, Selene quickly changed the subject.
“Ah… you mean that? Since you were directly involved, you have the right to hear the details. Given the gravity of the incident, the Imperial Family launched a full-scale investigation in support of the Academy. They started by looking into the individuals involved in preparing the magic circle.”
There were too many suspicious elements for it to be dismissed as a simple accident, so even the Imperial Family, who had been generously supporting the Academy, expressed concern over a future talent being caught up in such an event and provided investigators.
However, despite all the suspicious circumstances, not a single piece of decisive evidence had been found.
Everyone involved in the construction of the illusionary circle had solid alibis, and since a spell of this magnitude couldn’t have been performed by a single person, it would have taken a team to create it. However, none of the people involved had shown any suspicious behavior during its preparation.
To make matters more complicated, the arena where the chimera had been kept turned out to be an ancient ruin built long ago. There were no research records, nor was there any trace of anyone connected to the incident.
Judging by the pile of corpses in the large enclosure where the chimera had been confined, which had not yet completely dried out, it was clear that the creature had been imprisoned there quite recently. But beyond that, no further clues could be found.
“I don’t know whether you were targeted intentionally or if you just happened to get caught in a trap by chance, but one thing’s clear. The culprit harbored ill feelings toward the Academy.”
“I see…”
“Right now, we suspect it wasn’t someone involved in the practical training but rather an outsider. Still, identifying the perpetrator will be difficult.”
Given how hard it was to even catch a hint of the culprit, a new opinion began to emerge. That it would be better to cover it up as a simple accident rather than breed suspicion among everyone nearby.
Officially, the incident would be explained as a magical error that caused an unintended teleportation and that the young lady defeated a real monster at that location. Selene understood the reasoning, but she couldn’t shake off the uncomfortable feeling it left her with.
“Anyway, I went to see the scene of the incident. That was one incredible strike; you did well! You really are my daughter!”
“Dad, about that…”
“Hmm?”
“Well… did you feel anything from the man who was with me?”
Duke Eus, a seventh-star mage.
Considering that the hierarchy of magic went up to 10 stars, with the tenth being the realm of the divine and the ninth considered the ultimate level a human mage could reach, it was clear just how powerful the Duke truly was.
If anyone could see through that man’s true identity, it would be her father. He was one of the most famous mages on the continent.
Selene, who was full of curiosity, asked her father about the hidden power Mars might possess.
“Oh, you mean that Mers or Moss or whatever his name was? Since he was the one you saved, I thought I’d at least check him out, so I paid him a visit. But he seemed ordinary. Both in looks and in talent. He did praise you quite a bit, saying you were the one who saved him, so he didn’t come off as a bad guy… but why do you ask? Did something happen with him?”
“Oh, no. It’s nothing…”
Was it just her imagination?
If even her father hadn’t sensed anything, then perhaps his abilities truly were average.
Still, something about it kept nagging at the back of her mind.
I can’t let this go. Once I’m discharged, I need to go find him and ask directly. If he really is hiding his skills… then it might be worth trying to bring him over to our side!
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