Absolutely Do Not Touch Eldmia Egga – Chapter 69

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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“You broke the magic!?”

“How on earth did you do it?!”

“I-Impossible! This can’t be happening!”

While the academy students were all surprised and shocked, and some warriors even burst into laughter as if they were dreaming, Lagnis had to make a tremendous effort to appear calm.

‘What kind of impossible feat have you pulled off again!’

It wasn’t magic countering magic.

Clearly, without any movement of mana, just by drawing the sword in the air, Siegfried’s magic that was being generated was dismantled within seconds.

And it wasn’t just dismantled, it was completely shattered.

Unlike the warriors, the mages could only freeze as if they had witnessed the sky and earth flipping upside down.

Just because it could be shortened, or used without incantation didn’t mean magic could be activated carelessly.

That’s why everyone was amazed by Lagnis’s single silent casting, and even Esselua, who was her sparring partner, couldn’t stop praising her with sparkling eyes.

The faster magic was cast, the more difficult it became.

Something already complex and difficult became doubly so.

The magic the hero activated by compressing it into words was the same.

In terms of scale, even Lagnis couldn’t activate such magic with just words.

To shatter that with a single sword strike, if they hadn’t seen it themselves, they would have dismissed it as a bad joke or as some nonsense spoken by someone ignorant of magic.

It was no different from seeing a dragon being stabbed to death by a wooden sword.

Nevertheless, Eldmia swung his sword, and shattered the magic as if she felt no difficulty at all.

As if it was natural.

As if he was certain of success.

Unlike the other mages, Lagnis wasn’t shocked by this sight.

Forcibly holding back the corners of her mouth that threatened to rise to her ears, with a feeling that her heart might burst from beating so hard, she could only gaze at Eldmia.

Even with the true hero before her eyes, she could only look with damp eyes at his own brilliance that was incomparably radiant.

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“As expected, the larger the scale of the magic, the better it bursts.”

Although this fact had already been proven by the demons’ orb bombs, seeing it with his own eyes made it feel different.

My magical knowledge was limited, so I had no idea what kind of magic was about to fly at me, but if it had been activated, it certainly wouldn’t have been comfortable.

I could instinctively tell that the wind blowing around the hero wasn’t just wind, but blades made of wind, so I focused my senses as much as possible to move my magical power.

With the sensation of wrapping magical power around the sword from beyond the gate, I slowly enveloped my sword and body with magical power.

I could feel the magical power being layered in a completely different way from usual.

And as I did so, my whole body’s senses sharpened, and once again, a scene full of insane colors began to unfold before my eyes.

It was truly a chaotic sight, but now I understood.

All the artificially moving magical power, mana, aura, and elemental energies were being distinguished by color.

“This is manageable.”

The blade-like wind flashed blue as it swirled around the hero.

And it wasn’t as intricate as it felt from the outside.

Literally, it was in the form of floating blades.

In this enhanced state, it wouldn’t be difficult to dodge, and even if I got cut, I could endure it.

“What a well-crafted illusion.”

It wasn’t changing non-existent things into existent ones or vice versa.

The core of the tactile sensation and the magic surrounding the arena was spatial magic.

Those blade-like winds were real.

If cut by them, flesh would really be sliced off.

Before that could happen, it caused distortions in space to prevent them from touching human bodies, and instead overlaid illusions to create pain and wounds.

In terms of technology, it was an absurd magic that could be called over-technology, without exaggeration.

The Empire was putting such great effort into nurturing talent.

“Kuhk! What kind of trick did you pull?!”

“Doesn’t everyone have a secret technique or two?”

Above all, at some point, one even forgets that all of this is an illusion.

Unless forcibly aware and recalled, it’s easy to keep forgetting, making it impossible to have complacent thoughts like ‘it’s just an illusion anyway’.

Despite having such outstanding individuals that they could pour this level of magical technology into education, the fact that beings like the Demon King and demons were still threatening made me freshly realize that there were endless mountains to overcome ahead.

With this in mind, I kicked off the ground and charged forward.

“Fine then! Let’s settle this with our bodies!”

Despite his magic being shattered, the hero suddenly seemed to be in a good mood for some reason, and charged at me with a different movement than before, baring his teeth in a grin once again.

Judging by the faint aura I could sense, it seemed he was about to employ all his techniques from elemental magic to regular magic.

It seemed like he thought he was going to engage in some serious fighting, but was I crazy?

“Would I engage in such a brutish contest against the hero?”

“What?”

“Humans are human because they use tools and techniques.”

I narrowly avoided the horizontal slash of the greatsword swung at full power by sliding on my knees. In that moment, two blade-winds grazed my abdomen with a paper-thin difference, but fortunately, there was no wound.

As the face of the huge blade grazed the tip of my nose, I reached out with my right hand, which was wrapped in as much magical power as possible, grabbed the blade, and kicked off the ground, swinging myself along with the sword towards the hero.

I didn’t know how strong he was, but in that brief moment, my body was flung as if riding a roller coaster.

It was a much faster speed than expected, so the palm of my hand gripping the blade was slightly cut and I felt pain, but it was within an acceptable level.

“Huh?”

The back of the hero’s head came into view, as he had naturally assumed I would use his sword as cover to aim for his side, given what I had shown earlier.

Didn’t he feel any difference in weight even though I was holding onto his sword and floating in the air?

What an incredibly brutish strength.

I was curious about when he would notice, but it would be unseemly to delay and lose.

I mounted the blade as if riding a skateboard and thrust my sword.

The hero’s head turned sharply, perhaps finally noticing the change in the sword’s weight, but it was already too late.

Having only anticipated a normal height, the blade-winds posed no restriction at this height.

There was no resistance.

Of course, because it was an illusion.

But my sword definitely pierced through the hero’s solar plexus.

“That’s enough! The winner is Eldmia!”

Along with Gidley’s shout, cheers erupted from among the students.

“He beat the hero!!”

“Yes! Swordsmanship! F**king swordsmanship wasn’t wrong!!”

“Wooah! Look, hero! The techniques humans have built up weren’t wrong!!”

Nearly 80% of the warriors were cheering as if they had lost their minds, regardless of gender, which was terribly frightening.

The problem was that even Gidley was joining in.

“This is ridiculous.”

The hero, looking down at my sword still stuck in his chest, soon burst into laughter. Surprisingly, there was no irritation or mockery in it.

The hero’s gaze, suddenly turning serious as if he had eaten something wrong, turned towards me.

“What did you become so strong for?”

It was a completely different look from what he had shown so far.

That calm gaze, as if he had become an entirely different person, was honestly quite appealing.

“When I was 8, my village was burned down and my family was killed in the demon army’s first monumental attack.”

That’s why, momentarily dropping the facade I had shown until now, I answered in a voice just loud enough to be covered by the cheers.

He would hear it all anyway, given how he seemed to control wind spirits or whatever.

“I didn’t want to experience such an unfair thing twice in my life. So I wanted to become at least strong enough to split the head of the demon bastard who ordered that.”

“You’re saying you’ll step up, leaving the hero aside?”

It felt like he was saying something irrelevant, either due to lack of comprehension or inability to understand. Why would I entrust my revenge to him?

“What do you mean leave aside? You’re the one who’s supposed to split the Demon King’s head, right? I’m only after the one who gave the order. I don’t have any particular grudge against demons themselves. It’s just that my target happens to be a demon.”

“…? I’m not sure I understand, but wouldn’t that order ultimately have come from the Demon King?”

“If the Demon King lacks military knowledge, the commander would give the order. The current Demon King is that type.”

This was a fact I had scraped together from every bit of information, existent or non-existent.

Each Demon King has different characteristics.

Some are incredibly strong.

Some are terribly weak but exceptionally smart.

Some rely solely on physical power, others only use magic, and so on.

The current Demon King had reached that position through individual combat prowess alone.

“So you and I have different tasks. You fight against demons. I simply seek revenge.”

As I approached the hero and extended my hand, I continued speaking.

“If I kill someone of that caliber, wouldn’t it deter anyone from messing with me easily?”

“…Ha. You bastard. You’ve been putting on airs, but you have an interesting idea.”

Grasping my extended hand, the hero grinned fiercely once again.

“Of all the male bastards I’ve met, you’re the one I like the most.”

My first impression was that he was a useless guy, but it seemed there might be more to observe about him.

“I thought the hero was suffering from some mental illness, but it seems part of it was an act.”

“It’s the hero’s profound intention, so just pretend you don’t know.”

“How profound can it be when you’re just womanizing during break time? It’s embarrassing just hearing about it. Are you a monkey or what?”

“You bastard, you were doing well and now you’re picking a fight? F**k, because of you, even the spirits keep siding with you to mock me.”

You’re clearly in the wrong here, yet you’re the one starting fights.

At least the spirits seem to have their heads on straight.

“You need to know how to separate public and private matters. If you’re not careful, you’ll be caught and manipulated by the Empire.”

“…Interesting. Let’s talk more about that later.”

I thought he was a Chūnibyō patient with no thoughts, but the hero was showing unexpectedly normal reactions.

This guy, his madness might actually be fake.

“Eldmia!!! Eldmiaaaa!!”

“Eldmia!! Take me!!”

“Wooah! Kingdom Knight! Kingdom Knight!”

Right.

That’s real madness.

It was really noisy.

Thanks to that, I didn’t have to worry about our conversation being overheard by someone, but the excitement showed no signs of dying down.

This was only the first day, and it was already like this.

My head started to throb as I couldn’t even imagine how things would unfold from here on.

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