CH 25
I naturally assumed my connection to the spirits had been severed.
But the spirits before me…
-Shya-a-a~.
-Pwoo-oo.
Clearly existed.
‘What?’
Could it be that he went this far to give me the same feeling as reality?
If the spirits weren’t summoned, I’d immediately feel it wasn’t an illusion, so he’s using this kind of fake to deceive me.
He was a thorough man, as expected.
“A frightening man.”
But Helen wasn’t fooled that easily.
After all, I experienced it firsthand.
In illusions, no matter how hard I tried, my abilities wouldn’t manifest properly.
Besides, didn’t that man himself lecture on this?
-In illusions, mana flows backward, so your abilities often don’t manifest properly.
It was a brief lecture, a passing comment during class, but Helen didn’t miss it.
Even if I didn’t like the instructor, his skills were undeniable.
“He wants to deceive me this much?”
She gritted her teeth.
She resolved to somehow find the discrepancy Max hid within this illusion and break it.
“As long as I have the power of the spirits, I will absolutely not lose.”
Those nerds who tormented me in the previous illusion.
Those punks who picked fights with me for no reason.
The professor who looked down on me.
I was able to defeat them all.
“Alright. Then let’s find it.”
This was a showdown.
A showdown I absolutely had to win.
And before her, the punks from before appeared.
“What, Helen? Ignoring us and going somewhere… now you’re…”
“Wait a minute, those guys…”
“Huh? What, could it be…?”
The swaggering group of punks turned pale at the sight of her.
“You can summon spirits again…?”
“You can see them too. This.”
Then things will speed up.
Helen, famed for her superior skill in handling spirits, could of course contract high-ranking spirits.
Even in an illusion, if she had spirits, no one could stop her.
“Guys, punish those friends.”
-Shya-a-a.
-Pwoo-oo.
A wind spirit in the form of a lynx bit the punk’s leg, and an earth spirit in the form of an ape grabbed another punk’s shoulder and pinned him down.
“Ugh!”
“It hurts!”
The punks were instantly captured by her spirits, unable to move.
“Even in an illusion, you have to pay for messing with the heiress of the Silvesta family.”
Helen, finally reclaiming her position, looked down at the punks coldly.
The sting of that slap still lingered.
And the resulting anger was incomparable to that of others.
“Breaking a few limbs won’t kill you. So reflect properly. Learn what happens when you dare touch Helen De Silvesta.”
“W-wait a minute…”
Crack!
“Aaack!”
The two spirits mercilessly punished the punks.
Finally, she felt a little relieved.
‘This is just the beginning.’
Max, you made a mistake.
It seems you gave me spirits to pretend it wasn’t an illusion.
Instead, I’ll use that power to wreak havoc on this illusion.
And in doing so, I’ll find that discrepancy you hid.
Gritting her teeth, she looked down at the punks.
Of course, she didn’t subdue and break them simply for revenge.
The ‘discrepancy’ Max mentioned.
The thing that, unlike reality, allows one to sense the illusion. This was also part of her actions to find it.
‘These aren’t the discrepancy.’
If not them, the likely candidate for the discrepancy was…
‘That nerd…’
The man who humiliated her.
A nerd she hadn’t paid any attention to except for knowing his family name was Propad.
The fact that this guy, whom she couldn’t even make eye contact with in reality, had humiliated her still made her blood boil.
Even if he was an illusion.
‘That man is definitely the discrepancy.’
She believed that by somehow ruining that nerd, she could escape the illusion and return to reality.
If that happened, it would be Helen’s victory.
So she would find Propad Youngsik as quickly as possible.
At that moment, the screams of the punks caused the classroom door to open, and everyone poked their heads out.
Seeing the broken arms and legs of the punks, they gasped and rushed over.
“Helen! What on earth…”
Professor Simond, within the illusion, called her by her name, not her family name.
Still trying to deceive me?
You still intend to keep the setting that I was abandoned by my family.
“Only my father, the family head, and my family can dare call me Helen. So don’t dare utter my name.”
“You, what…”
Professor Simond stepped back.
“How did you regain it?”
“Saying I regained what was originally mine is troublesome. The spirits were with me from the beginning until now. So…”
-Sha-a-a-a!
Whoooooosh!
A high-ranking wind spirit swept the central hallway with a powerful gust of wind.
Numerous decorations in the hallway were ruined.
The academy’s symbols were shattered, and cracks appeared in the marble floor of the hallway.
“Propad Youngsik, tell me where that nerd is.”
“…”
Professor Simond, seeing the state of the punks, asked her.
“Do you intend to make Propad Youngsik look like that as well?”
“Yes. Since you’re going to expel him anyway. So I’ll show you properly and make him leave on his own.”
This was an illusion.
A space where she could do as she pleased.
A space where she could destroy and ruin anything she disliked.
It has nothing to do with reality, anyway.
“That’s impossible. You’re hurting other students…”
“You’re unnecessarily rigid. Typical of Professor Simond.”
It’s more detailed than I thought.
Professor Simond wasn’t the discrepancy either.
Rigid and overbearing, but someone who would do anything to protect students in an emergency – that was Professor Simond.
“Okay. Then pretend you didn’t see me. I’ll let you tend to those friends’ injuries if you move aside.”
“…Very well.”
She passed Professor Simond.
The students’ gazes turned to her.
Helen looked around for Propad Youngsik.
But Propad Youngsik wasn’t there.
‘I didn’t think it would be easy.’
All the students’ faces were familiar.
Thorough down to the last detail.
It felt like the students’ faces weren’t this clear before.
I don’t remember well.
To begin with, she hadn’t met that many students back then.
Besides, Helen had no interest in other students who were inferior to her.
Why would I care?
They were all the same, beneath her feet.
Like that nerd.
‘Did he come to see the other students?’
To make the illusion more realistic and polished?
For such a reason?
No.
Distancing herself from them, Helen walked down the hallway.
She headed towards the rarely used old classroom where she had been dragged by the nerd.
That nerd would definitely be there.
“How did you know where to find me?”
As she opened the door, the nerd sitting in the center of the classroom looked at her.
His mocking expression was one he could never make in reality.
That’s right.
That man is the discrepancy.
“I’m here for a little revenge.”
The nerd before her was merely an illusion created by Max, but she glared at him with intense anger, her heart filled with resentment.
Because what she had suffered hadn’t disappeared.
“Revenge? Ah, that? Seeing you come here for revenge right after finding a little spirit power, you’re definitely a Silvesta.”
Chuckling, the nerd twisted one corner of his lips and glared at her.
“You won’t be able to carry out that great revenge. So give up and just go back to the classroom. Who knows? That great Silvesta family might take you back as their daughter.”
“Don’t insult my family.”
“Tsk, you still think you’re a Silvesta.”
She gritted her teeth and shouted.
“Kill that man.”
At her words, the high-ranking wind and earth spirits lunged at Propad Youngsik.
Now those two will tear that nerd apart.
And then, naturally, the illusion will…
“Sit.”
-Kaegang!
-Kkuwo!
And at that moment, at the nerd’s single word, the two high-ranking spirits sat down obediently.
“W-what?”
Why are the high-ranking spirits listening to that man?
This can’t be.
Spirit contracts are soul-binding contracts that can’t be broken by simple magic.
Why are you betraying me and listening to that man…?
“Remember? Instructor Max said he would recommend me to the Meister School. While you were studying here, I studied hard at both the Meister School and the Imperial Academy. I was such a fool back then. I couldn’t even look people in the eye. U-u-um, s-sorry. I was wrong…”
The nerd, feigning fear and trembling, chuckled and looked at her.
“Of course, that nerdy appearance didn’t completely disappear. Even now, if someone yells at me, I tremble and get scared. But…”
He walked steadily towards her.
It was exactly the same as before.
Her spirits, her power, didn’t listen to her.
The nerd before her was getting closer and closer.
“At least, I don’t tremble in front of a woman who’s inferior to me.”
“You bastard…”
“I thought you’d come here once you found the power of the spirits. So I kindly inscribed enchantments throughout this old classroom and waited.”
“What?”
“I told you. I learned Meister School magic. I have quite the talent, so binding high-ranking spirits like this is a piece of cake.”
“That’s impossible… A nerd like you.”
“Nerd, nerd. Stop calling me a nerd!”
At the nerd’s outburst, Helen involuntarily took a step back.
“Y-y-you, wh-what…”
“Do you know my name?”
“Why would I need to know the name of someone like you?”
“That’s right. You were that kind of woman. Always wanting to be treated well, but never respecting others.”
The nerd approached.
Shrugging his shoulders, the nerd glared at her, walking past the high-ranking spirits who remained seated, and approached her face.
“You overestimated yourself. That arrogance drove you here. You probably thought you could get away with it without any preparation.”
Slightly taller than her.
And a gaze that looked down on her, unlike before.
With an expression that the nerd in reality would never make, the man glared at her fiercely.
“Absolutely not. That’s your fatal flaw.”
This man was definitely the discrepancy.
This man could never exist in reality.
So the nerd was the discrepancy.
But she couldn’t think of a way to deal with this nerd right now.
She had only recklessly chased him after finding the power of the spirits.
“Aeson Propad Youngsik. Remember that. That’s my name. Your boyfriend, and your instructor who will train you here.”
“You bastard, once I get out of this room…”
But it wasn’t easy for Helen, who had lost the power of the spirits, to leave.
“Grab her.”
The spirits, who should have obeyed Helen, obeyed Aeson’s words and blocked her path.
“What, why are you doing this? Snap out of it.”
-Sha-a-a-a.
-Kreung!
“You know better than anyone the power of high-ranking spirits, so you better think carefully.”
Damn it.
Another failure.
I lost to Max again.
Damn it.
“Take it off. Show me your breasts. You know, what we always do.”
“Disgusting. Is all you can do with newfound power is to toy with women?”
“Aren’t you the same? Just a different method, but you toyed with people. Isn’t what you did to those punks in the hallway the same?”
“…”
“Hurry up and take it off. Do you want the spirits to forcibly take it off?”
She endured the humiliation and took off her academy uniform.
And when she took off her bra, her soft, white breasts swayed under gravity.
“Damn, they’re big.”
He sucked on her pink nipples.
“Mmph!”
A soft moan escaped her lips.