—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Clarice Academy.
During the festival, parts of Clarice Academy were open to the public, drawing crowds eager to witness the wonders of Imperial magic engineering.
The academy had ramped up the festive atmosphere, while the remaining guilds engaged in a fierce recruitment competition, vying for promising new talent.
-Edwin, I saw your match! Are you interested in our guild?!
-Haha, well…
-Edwin! Great match! You were amazing!
In this context…
Edwin, the C-rank who had defeated an S-rank, was a hot commodity, the talk of the academy.
What a sensational story…
While the major guilds observed cautiously, the smaller guilds were eager to gamble on his potential.
Aria watched Edwin, who had spent so long training in solitude, now seemingly enjoying the attention. She felt a pang of… annoyance.
‘Where did he disappear to again…?’
Lev Denec was gone.
It wasn’t unusual for him to disappear, but this time, he was so far away that even her surveillance magic, which had worked even when he was with the war heroes, couldn’t locate him.
‘Not that I’m using it anymore…’
Aria had decided to stop using surveillance magic on him.
His actions so far hadn’t been particularly alarming,
and prying into someone’s personal life felt wrong.
To be honest, she was also a little afraid of what she might discover.
‘Andras…’
She feared finding traces of her sworn enemy, the target of her revenge, on him.
“Aria…! Hello…!”
Yeriel, the pure-white girl, approached Aria.
“Lady Yeriel?”
Yeriel gently adjusted Aria’s beret.
Aria didn’t mind her warm touch.
“How have you been?”
“I’m doing well! You too, Aria?”
“Yes.”
After exchanging greetings, Yeriel glanced around, a puzzled expression on her face.
“…Are you looking for something?”
“Oh, I thought you might be with Lev…!”
“…He hasn’t been around since yesterday. He missed dinner, and he’s not in the dining hall either.”
“Oh, I see…?”
“Yes?… Yes.”
Yeriel felt a sense of relief.
‘Stop those thoughts…!’
She felt her heart clench whenever Lev was involved.
Like a child throwing a tantrum.
The fact that they hadn’t seen each other all weekend brought Yeriel an unexpected sense of comfort.
Suppressing those unsettling emotions, she congratulated Aria.
“Congratulations on your promotion!”
“Thank you. I was lucky.”
During the ranking matches, Aria’s skills had shone brightly.
Thanks to a recommendation from the Healing Studies professor, she had been promoted to Rank S.
Yeriel smiled warmly, and Aria returned a quiet smile.
-…
They hadn’t interacted much outside of official settings, and an awkward silence hung in the air.
It had always been Lev Denec who facilitated their conversations.
Yeriel hesitated.
‘Should I ask her… now?’
Lev had claimed it was a misunderstanding, but she couldn’t shake the question of how Aria had become his girlfriend, or almost become his girlfriend.
It bothered her.
It might be rude, but it was best to clarify their relationship…
Just as she resolved to ask,
“Hey! You two, there you are!”
Edwin approached, waving from afar.
A handsome young man with lime-green hair,
he was followed by the admiring gazes of the female students, a testament to the impact of his victory against Kaelan.
“What were you two talking about without me?”
“Oh, Edwin…! It’s been a while.”
“Hello.”
Edwin, blushing at their warm greetings, scratched the back of his head.
“Don’t tell me you were talking about me… haha.”
Even at his playful remark,
“…Uh, yeah? Congratulations on your promotion, Edwin…!”
“Congratulations.”
Yeriel responded with a smile.
“Haha, thanks! I’ll keep working hard!”
‘……’
But behind Edwin’s boisterous laughter…
the two girls’ attention…
remained fixed on the one who wasn’t there.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Rumble.
Facing the [Pleasure Lord],
a young man with dark blond hair trembled, his legs shaking uncontrollably.
-“That girl, Emma, keeps sending me letters… It’s a bit concerning… Raymond, why don’t you look into it?”
-“Yes, sir!”
Raymond Logans, a graduating second-year student from Clarice Academy, had finally become a provisional member of [Divine Valhalla].
[Divine Valhalla], a prominent guild led by the master swordsman of House Ballantyne.
It was a guild admired and revered by paladins across the Empire.
While technically ranked lower than the Imperial Paladin Order,
its influence was undeniable.
Its reputation had soared recently after addressing numerous public concerns.
Therefore, Raymond’s first assignment was a public relations task.
He was to investigate the mercenary collusion in Ebenbahu, as detailed in the letters from a young girl named Emma.
It was supposed to be a simple investigation, but…
Stab!
“Eek!”
– S-save me!
– What the…?!
– Run!!
– I-I was just following the raid leader’s orders…!
Stab! Stab! Stab!!!
He watched in horror as people died before his very eyes.
Splatter…
“Aaaaagh!”
The remains of what were once people landed near him.
Though his curse resistance protected him from the Pleasure Curse,
he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was next.
-Protecting others… drawing your sword requires no other thought.
-Focus only on the battle. And survive.
As War Hero Dustin had taught him.
He should draw his sword.
He should intervene!
But as he watched, paralyzed by fear, as people were killed one by one, Raymond froze.
Stab! Stab!!
Ugh… thud.
“I… I’m… useless…”
He couldn’t move.
Then, he noticed a man.
The mysterious man who had mercilessly slapped Ronald…
-…
He wasn’t running.
“…?”
As if… he knew the order of their deaths.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
I had time, a brief window before the evolved [Pleasure Lord] unleashed its full arsenal of tentacles.
The boss’s threat assessment, in this form, prioritized
those who had drawn the most aggro in its larval stage.
-S-save…
Stab!
Ronald’s group would be the first to die.
I took the opportunity to retrieve the curse-removing potions from my bag and distribute them to those who weren’t part of Ronald’s group.
“One each. Drink this. And run.”
The mercenaries exchanged glances, then,
“Th-thank you. Then…!”
Dash!
they fled, one by one, without looking back.
It was understandable.
This wasn’t a guild;
it was a hastily assembled raid of street mercenaries, strangers who didn’t owe each other anything.
As they disappeared, only the girl, Emma, remained.
“…What about you?”
“Someone has to clean up this mess.”
“Clean… it up? Alone?”
“Unless… you want to help?”
“…”
“You’re not entirely useless, but… if you don’t want to die, just leave.”
She seemed capable of using some healing magic.
If she had been born into a noble family, she could have attended the academy.
What a shame.
Emma, undeterred, said,
“Actually… I sent a request to Divine Valhalla. So, if we run… someone will come and help us…!”
Divine Valhalla.
The massive guild run by Aveline’s family, House Ballantyne.
This gave me a clue as to how the Ring of Inscription ended up at the auction.
But I needed to monopolize the rewards…
Tremble!
I noticed a blond, clearly inexperienced mercenary.
He was dressed in dirty, worn-out clothes, as if trying to disguise himself,
but his sword was clean.
He was probably a knight in hiding.
Looking at Emma, who still clung to hope, I wanted to tell her,
‘That guy from Divine Valhalla is trembling over there,’
but I decided against it. No point in crushing her dreams.
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“B-but…!”
Stab!
“Aaaaagh!”
Thud.
Only after the fifth person died
“E-even if I die… I won’t tell!”
did Emma finally flee into the forest.
I turned back to the grotesque moth, the Pleasure Lord, and thought,
‘Details.’
-Ding!
“Good.”
It was a B+ rank, same as the Blaze Fiend, but already in its evolved form due to the Super Hell difficulty.
But,
“It’s easy if you know the patterns.”
Its skills were exactly as I remembered them.
-Bwahaha! Bwahahaha!
-Stab!!!
“That’s… seven… dead.”
The Pleasure Tentacle Show, or the ‘Disillusionment’ pattern, continued.
First, Ronald, then Biketz, the lead archer.
Next, the guy with the mole on his forehead,
then the curly-haired man with bad breath…
Ronald’s group was being picked off, one by one.
Instead of a Berserk mode, the Pleasure Lord, true to its insect nature, had an evolution phase.
And all its skills, except for its passive, were only usable in its evolved form.
Its most troublesome skill was ‘Disillusionment’.
It inflicted Level 6 ‘Pleasure’ on the 12 individuals with the highest aggro, which was impossible to resist, even with my current resistance levels.
And since it was designed as a raid boss, enduring 12 activations alone was also out of the question.
I needed meat shields,
and Crow’s Fey’s lackeys had fulfilled that role perfectly.
-Hehe… hehehe…
Stab.
They walked towards the Pleasure Lord, entranced by the ‘Pleasure’ curse, willingly impaling themselves on its tentacles.
“Horrific…”
It was the first time I had witnessed people dying before my eyes in this world, but
it was a necessary sacrifice for my survival.
-Ding!
I checked my status once more, then activated my ultimate skill.
‘Demonization.’
Screech!!
The Ash Grey Scatter Shot transformed,
Pshewwwww!!!
and my Afterimage Strike pierced the Pleasure Lord’s tentacles.
Crack!
“N-no way…”
Emma, watching Lev from a distance, covered her mouth in shock.
The man who had told her to run wasn’t bluffing.
Ping!
Shhhk!
With each bolt from his crossbow, the Pleasure Lord recoiled.
He seemed to know something.
The Pleasure Lord’s desires, its targets, its weaknesses…
Calmly, methodically, he severed the tentacles, one by one.
“Is he really going to take it down alone…?”
-Someone has to clean up this mess.
She had assumed it was bravado, typical male posturing.
But he was actually attempting…
to solo a raid meant for nearly thirty people.
Emma suddenly remembered what she had said earlier.
-I sent a request to Divine Valhalla.
She had been sending letters to [Divine Valhalla] ever since Crow’s Fey’s tyranny began.
She believed those honorable knights would surely help.
“They… they really came…!”
She wasn’t sure if any of the knights used crossbows, but it didn’t matter.
Ronald and his greedy piglets had all been eliminated.
‘Thank you! Thank you!’
Emma offered a prayer of gratitude to the gods she had never truly believed in.
Just how strong were these guild members?
How amazing was the guild itself?!
She felt a surge of admiration.
If this man succeeded in subjugating the [Pleasure Lord], she would visit [Divine Valhalla] personally to express her gratitude!
And she would definitely ask for his name.
‘Someone like him deserves to be recognized!’
And so… Emma became a fan.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Oh poor Emma……you might actually die once Aria and Yeriel get their jealousy 100% going.
Also Erwin should be careful not to get ahead of himself cause “happy” accidents might happen again
Sheesh, I hate this misunderstanding stuff. Unless it gets funny tbh.