Fear Magic

After an intense battle...

Ariel had been utterly defeated, collapsed limply over the desk.

I called her two personal attendants for her, Elmoia Blue Wolf and Clini Elrond. They were the attendants closest to Ariel.

Even if Ariel married, they would marry over with her.

It was a bit like dowry maids in ancient China, except their birth was higher; both of them were daughters of nobles.

When they saw Ariel collapsed limply over the desk, they almost cried out.

But in the end, years of attendant work made both of them force it back, and they both clapped their hands over their mouths.

Then one went to fetch Ariel a change of clothes. The other went to help Ariel clean up.

I stood off to the side at a complete loss, unable to help at all, and whenever the two of them looked at me, they glared with eyes like tigers watching their prey.

I felt like a bully hated by the villagers.

I had wanted to just leave, but at a time like this, wouldn't dusting off my backside and walking away be kind of scummy?

Ariel was only very tired; she had not fallen asleep. After she saw me standing there in a daze like an idiot...

She said to me:

"What, are you still thinking of bathing with me?"

I laughed awkwardly.

"I was thinking of preparing hot water for you."

"That's enough. Go. Just don't let me down in the future."

Why did I feel like I had become a heartless man? It was clearly Ariel who had seduced me, which was why the mistake happened. How did it become as if I had forced myself on her?

Sigh, at a time like this, no matter how many mouths a man had, he could not explain himself clearly.

After that, I left Ariel's office.

Outside, I saw Luke again. It was a bit awkward. His attitude toward me was still that unfriendly, but this time, theoretically, I had stolen his person.

Since I was in the wrong, I did not go provoke him.

But there were plenty of rumors about him at Ranoa University of Magic too. I heard the female students he had taken down could no longer be counted on two hands.

And I heard from Doris that Luke had once gone to strike up a conversation with her too.

Thinking about that, I felt Luke was not so pitiful after all.

Hehe! I felt much better.

After leaving the student council, I went to find Doris, then went with her to the student dormitories to meet up with Rudeus and the others.

Their luggage was still at my house, so they definitely had to return to my house today to pick it up.

So we prepared to go home together.

But after we arrived at the dormitories, we only saw Aisha and Norn, as well as Roxy and Elinalise.

Rudeus was not here.

Aisha ran over, took my hand, and said:

"Master, Master, do you know who we met?"

"Who?"

"We met the older sister who lived next door when we were little, Sylphiette. She was also Big Brother's childhood friend. They went somewhere else to talk together."

I glanced at Roxy. Although I could not tell that she was in a bad mood, the hand that kept playing with her own hair let me sense that the thoughts in her heart were not calm.

"Then should we wait for your brother and go home together? Your luggage is still at my place, right?"

"No need, Master. Brother and Sister Sylph haven't seen each other in ages. Who knows how long they'll talk?

"We'll leave a note here saying we already went back. When Brother returns, he'll know."

"All right, then let's go back together."

After that, we returned home together. In the evening, Philip and Rudy came back too. What was surprising was that Rudy brought Sylphiette with him as well.

How intimate! But Student Rudy, your battlefield of love and blood will arrive soon too. While you still can, enjoy yourself happily!

That night, we celebrated our reunion together again. But this time, I was not the main character, so the ones being plied with alcohol became Rudy and Sylphiette.

The main force urging people to drink was actually Roxy. I did not know whether she wanted to get Rudy or Sylphiette drunk, or whether she wanted to get herself drunk.

That night, because dinner and drinking dragged on too late, Rudy and the others still stayed at my house for the night.

The next day, we went to school for class as usual.

Rudeus and Aisha and the others went to attend classes in the regular class.

As for me, I went to attend class in the special class.

After arriving at the classroom, I stepped into the room.

The special class really was prepared for people with power and influence. Although the entire class had only four people, the room was much larger than the rooms of the ordinary classes outside.

I carefully observed each of my classmates and did my best to match them with the characters in my memory.

First was the very front row. There was a young boy reading a book while writing, not very old, with extremely long hair. His bangs already covered an entire half of his face, leaving only one eye visible.

He looked a little chuunibyou, and when our eyes met, he rather timidly moved his gaze away.

With that appearance, and that small build, he should be Cliff Grimoire. In my impression, his research into counteracting curses was extremely impressive.

He was worth befriending. And I remembered that he should be Elinalise's lock-up man.

The moment I thought that I might become a fellow man of the same path as him someday, I shuddered. Sigh—better not think about it, better not think about it.

As for the two beast-eared girls sitting by the window, no introduction was needed.

Those two idiots had originally been lazing around with their feet propped up on the desks, using books to cover their faces.

From the look of it, ever since I taught the two of them a lesson that day, so much time had passed that they were already starting to slip back into their old ways. Maybe they thought I had already left Sharia.

Still, should I say, as expected of Beast-kin? Even with books blocking their faces while they slept like logs over there.

But after I came in, the two of them suddenly bristled as if reacting to an emergency.

Linia was like a cat seeing a predator. She sprang up, flipped once in midair, then landed on all fours, arched her back, and entered a combat stance.

Was I that scary? Speaking of which, how did they notice I had come in? Could they have already memorized my scent?

Seeing the fear in their eyes, I smiled faintly, winked at the two of them, then looked toward the tall man with glasses sitting in the very back.

That should be Zanoba Shirone, right? The blessed child born with divine strength.

The older brother of Pax Shirone, whom I had killed.

But come to think of it, how had he come to Ranoa University of Magic to study abroad? After all, without Rudy's farce of breaking into Shirone to stage a jailbreak, he should still have been in Shirone.

Could it be that he had made some kind of mistake again? Maybe! For someone like him, born with divine strength, it was very easy to cause some trouble.

Speaking of which, he probably wouldn't come looking for me for revenge, right? After all, he himself had killed a Shirone prince before, and he should only be loyal to the nation of Shirone.

In history, Pax killed all of his brothers and sisters, and I never saw Zanoba go take revenge for them.

Without trying to make contact with him, I walked toward Linia and Pursena's seats.

Before I even reached them, a strange smell drifted over. Were these two perhaps relatives of Ariel?

I really should teach them pelvic-floor muscle training. I should also go teach Ariel later, though she seemed to enjoy it very much, so she might not necessarily practice.

I did not carefully check which one of the two had failed to hold it in. I sat a little farther away.

I spoke to them kindly:

"Yo, long time no see. I wonder, have you two missed me?"

The one who spoke was Linia. She had already overcome the fear in her heart, returned to her seat, and moved her stool a little farther away from Pursena.

She said, stuttering slightly:

"G-g-g-good morning, boss, meow. We've been law-abiding lately and never robbed anyone on the road, meow."

I glanced at Zanoba. If what Linia said was true, then Zanoba's Roxy doll should still be intact.

When Linia saw me glance at Zanoba, she seemed to tremble even harder.

Sigh, I felt a little sorry for the two of them. Forget it, I should take a softer approach. After all, they were both Ghislaine's relatives.

Their figures were also quite nice. Just looking at them normally was easy on the eyes. If I accidentally scared the kids into dropping out of school, I would become a sinner.

Enduring the unpleasant smell, I walked to Pursena and Linia's side, patted the two of them on the shoulders, and then said:

"Starting today, I've also enrolled in the special class at Ranoa University of Magic. From now on, you two are my upperclassmen. Please take good care of me.

Don't worry. As long as you two don't come looking for trouble with me, I won't take you two flying again.

Actually, flying feels pretty good. Lots of girls like flying with me. Why are you so against it?"

Pursena seemed to feel a little more at ease after hearing what I said, and answered:

"We don't know either. When we're in the air, there's this feeling like our instincts are driving us, making us especially afraid. I don't know how to explain it. It's like we're naturally afraid of flying."

"Aren't you Beast-kin living in the Great Forest? Then do you live up in the trees or under them? You're that afraid of heights?"

"I don't know about that. When we walk on top of trees, we don't feel anything at all, but last time, when you took me into the air, my whole body really was trembling."

All right, I would not roast them anymore. Maybe the Beast-kin of this world had evolved from the animals of my previous life.

I wondered if there were bird-type Beast-kin. Oh! That should be the Skyfolk of the Heaven Continent.

I suddenly thought, could this groundless fear of theirs be related to Orsted's curse?

I did not mean that Orsted's curse caused Beast-kin to fear flying in the air. Rather, Orsted's curse might trigger this kind of fear hidden deep in living beings' hearts.

Every living being had this kind of fear hidden in their heart. If there was something you did not fear, it was only because you had not discovered what you feared yet.

If I could understand clearly the method for triggering this fear, wouldn't that be the fear magic that had appeared on TV before? Triggering the things opponents feared in their hearts, thereby affecting their fighting strength. Those whose will was not firm would be scared to death.

Once I thought of it, I did it. First, I had to know what the mechanism of fear was.

With a smile on my face, I said to Pursena, ""

"The best way to eliminate fear is to face fear. Persistence is victory! Do your best. During this period, I'll often take you flying with me. I'll help you overcome your fear."

Pursena's body was trembling even harder. I arranged to meet the two of them that afternoon at the place where they had flown last time. There were few people there, after all, which made it very suitable for experiments.

After briefly comforting the cat and dog psychologically, I chose a seat in the middle and sat down, waiting for the homeroom teacher to come and start the regular meeting.

I took out the pen I carried, my notebook, and a doll.

Yes, the Elinalise Dragonroad doll that Rudeus had brought over to my house last night. This doll was a little different from Rudeus's other dolls.

He had made it in a detachable style, but the inside did not use the hands to cover anything like Roxy's did. Instead, once the clothes were removed, it revealed tempting curves and a provocative pose.

Elinalise should have traveled from the Demon Continent to Sharia together with Rudeus this time, and they had traveled together for about three years. On the road, although Elinalise was constrained by the fact that Rudeus was Paul's son, she had never made a move on Rudeus.

But that might have made Rudeus itch all the more unbearably. And when Elinalise did that sort of thing, she did not avoid people. Rudeus had probably feasted his eyes the whole way.

When he handed me this doll yesterday, he told me about it. He had made this doll with Elinalise's consent. What a crazy woman.

When I took out the doll and placed it on the desk, I could feel a burning gaze from behind me, an existence even more terrifying than a fanatical idol chaser staring at my doll.

After that, the homeroom teacher entered the classroom and began the routine class meeting.

There really was not much to the class meeting. As a special class, there were no mandatory lesson requirements. So it was just some useless clichés, and the homeroom teacher also introduced me a little, since I was a new student.

After hearing that I had the strength of a King-ranked magician, the cat and dog beside me seemed to worship (fear) me even more.

So after the class meeting ended, I declined the cat and dog's invitation to have lunch together, because I knew someone had already been eyeing me for a long time.

After getting my food in the cafeteria, I found a random seat and sat down. In less than three seconds, Zanoba Shirone sat down across from me.

"Hello there. I am Zanoba Shirone, third prince of the Shirone Kingdom. We met today in the special class. I look forward to your guidance."

Zanoba extended his hand toward me.

I hesitated a little, but still shook it.

Sure enough, powerful strength squeezed down on my palm. I could only use the hand I had trained for so many years, the hand specifically tempered to grip a sword for advanced Water Saint Style swordsmanship, to forcibly endure the monster strength of a Blessed Child.

With a crack, the bones in my hand should have fractured.

Only then did Zanoba react, looking extremely nervous as he stared at my hand, which had already deformed.

"I am terribly sorry. I cannot control my strength very well. This is my fault, and I will compensate you. Let us hurry to the infirmary now and find a magician who can use healing magic to treat you. Rest assured, I will cover all medical expenses."

"There's no need for that.

The power of holiness is mellow grain. Grant strength to those who have lost their vigor to stand once more. (Healing)"

I healed the fracture in my hand with elementary healing magic. This time, I had shaken hands with him because I wanted to test just how great his strength was. It seemed I had still underestimated it. I wondered, if Orsted came and did not use battle aura, whether he could arm-wrestle him.

After seeing me heal my palm with healing magic, Zanoba also relaxed.

"I apologize. I did not mean to do it. My main purpose in coming this time was to buy that clay-made model you placed on your desk during class. I like it very much. Name your price; no matter how much it costs, I will not consider it too much."

Was he that loaded? If I were not short on money, I would really have wanted to quote him a million gold coins and leave him speechless. Forget it. No need to tease him.

"Sorry, but this model was made for me by my close friend. I won't sell it. To me, that is my bottom line as a person.

However, I can take you to meet that friend of mine who can make dolls. When the time comes, if you need any dolls made, you can commission him with gold coins. How does that sound?"

When Zanoba heard that the craftsman who made the dolls was actually at this school, it felt like his heart even started beating faster. No way, could this be the feeling of falling in love? Would Rudeus be in trouble?

In order to escape Zanoba sooner, after we finished eating, I brought Zanoba to find Rudeus.

After meeting Rudeus, Zanoba behaved with extraordinary respect, just like a commoner submitting to his king. He introduced himself to Rudeus in an extremely humble posture.

The two of them were like sworn brothers who shared the same stench in a previous life. They very quickly began chatting enthusiastically and agreed to research dolls together. Rudeus even accepted Zanoba as his disciple.

As for me, after finishing the introductions, I left their room. Although I also liked dolls very much, I only liked playing with them, not making them.

I would leave the process of making them to talented people! I only needed to be responsible for collecting dolls.

After leaving Rudeus's room, I arrived at the place where I had been extorted by the cat and dog last time.

After arriving, I unexpectedly discovered that there was no one there.

Could it be that, in their hearts, I had so little dignity? They actually dared to stand me up so openly?

I stood in the middle of the road and looked around. After circling once and seeing no one, I prepared to leave.

Next time I ran into the two of them, I would properly ask them how they dared to stand me up.

But when I turned back, a pair of cat ears appeared in the roadside grass.

"Boss, boss, over here, meow."

Linia stuck her head out from among the tall plants by the roadside and waved to me.

I was a little confused. Was this a trap? But I did not care too much. After raising my guard a little, I walked toward the plants by the roadside.

Passing through the broad plants, I saw two people sitting in the grass. What were Linia and Pursena doing hiding here?

Linia walked up, stood on tiptoe, and quietly said into my ear:

"Boss, I already talked it over with Pursena, meow. If she lets you touch her chest, you'll let her off, meow.

If you still want to go a step further, then that'll depend on your methods, meow."

To think they had actually assumed I was threatening them and wanted to sexually harass them. That made me a little embarrassed.

I looked at Pursena's assets, which were no less impressive than Ghislaine's. She had not studied Sword God Style, so her body probably was not that hard. It should be very soft, right?

My throat rolled unconsciously.