A soft breeze grazed my skin, and the beautiful delicate strange crystalized blue leaves from the trees above gently fell down, as if snowflakes were fluttering across my face. "What a pleasant feeling." I thought to myself. Then I wiped away the fallen leaves that's been resting on top of my face for quite so ti now.
I heave a sigh. "The breath of fresh air feels nice for once in a while. So, how's Master Irene?"
"Ms. Irene returned yesterday from her mission, and said, to expect a call from her," Clara responded.
"Roger that."
Lately, the pope has been dumping a lot of tasks on Master Irene's shoulders. From what I recall, her recent mission involves demons in the southern part of the continent—called Yorsa. I don't recognize the kingdom, but Master Irene said it's a kingdom inside a mountain. As for the actual mission, Master Irene didn't say anything to as usual.
"What do you think of it? Could it be one of Master Irene's affairs?"
"Possibly."
"Keris... His na doesn't ring a bell nor does his family na. Does the organization ring a bell?"
"No."
"So, it might be connected to them. The major factions of the academy. They've been monitoring every single day." Then I looked at Clara. "Polias faction is also one of them, right?" I muttered to myself.
"Yes."
"Blueforge, Helix, and Antiola, then now, Polias, that's like four out of six major factions on my ass then so other factions too. How complinting to know that. I wonder if Ivory and the Paragon will also join in the rally?
They must be viewing as a pushover." I leisurely rest my head on Clara's shoulder.
"Extract information?"
"Humanely?" I added.
Clara didn't respond.
"Thought so." I slouched on the bench.
"Young Master."
"Hm?"
"Ms. Irene also ntioned that her mark activated."
"The succubus mark?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"Yesterday."
"Yesterday... Was it from the fight? No, the mark is for..." After realizing it, my face grimaced, then I looked at the sky above and laughed. "...Sly woman."
(It's that lady from yesterday... No wonder I felt prickly around her.) Diana remarked sternly.
"Ugh! I thought school life would be peaceful and filled with enjoynt, but I can't even lower my guard for a second here. Mmm!" I grunted and stretched my arms out.
"Let's go, Clara. We'll be visiting soone."
Clara slightly tilts her head.
"Obviously, Cytheria Karut. Isn't it a basic courtesy to reciprocate her greetings? We'll play her ga." I grinned.
"Where's Polias faction at?"
"Are you sure, young master?"
"I'm bored, so why not? It's a visit to get to know her better."
Clara nodded.
Magic that controls the mind of an individual is considered forbidden and iniquitous in the contemporary world of magic.
The charm magic of succubuses that Clara or Master Irene possesses, rather than controlling the mind like a puppet, the charm magic seduces or manipulates the mind of the individual by inciting their lust. It has different varieties, if not through lust, greed can be used or any type of emotion. One of the most dangerous magic in existence.
In order to fight against mind magic, one must have an unyielding mind which sounds simple. However, as soone who experienced it many tis through rigid training from Master Irene to train my mind. I would rather be stabbed a thousand tis than withstand the ntal torture of resisting my own lust.
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The territory was miles away in the far northeast. As we headed for the entrance, I was taken back by surprise. Today, the nostalgia that I had long forgotten returned. The faint sweet charming scent of spring tickled my nose. Looking from afar, pink clouds of petals embedded in pure white were dancing in the air. The pink-white flowers are clustered in a way that made reminisce about the soft clouds in the sky that never seemingly spread out; all clustered on the twisted yet slender and smooth branches of the trees as they blossom all over the sky.
"Young master?" Clara asked.
Rather than responding, I stood there frozen as my mind and body felt the weather's an intoxicating and warm presence all over . Tears welled in each corner of my eyes, then a single tear rolled down my cheeks, and soon after, countless tears stread down as I reminisced my childhood mories.
"Nothing," I said as I wiped the tears off.
Clara hands a handkerchief.
"Thank you."
'Aki, look! The sky is raining pink flowers! This ans the spring has blossod.'
'Whoa, it does! They're so beautiful!'
Reminiscing old mories really does bring tears to soone. "Well, sorry about that. I got caught up in the beautiful scenery right in front of ."
Suddenly, Clara caressed my head gently which took by surprise. She's having a hard ti reaching into my head because of the difference in height, so I rest my forehead on her delicate shoulder. I snorted and rubbed off the excess tears in my eyes.
"This should be the place. Let's head in."
Clara nodded.
As we strolled through the field of cherry blossoms, I recalled the words of my father from my past life. “Cherry blossoms remind of our transient life, short yet beautiful...”
"The evanescence nature of life. They bloom beautifully in a short period of ti, beautiful yet fleeting." I smiled softly while recalling the past.
"Young master?" Clara asked again out of worry.
"Noth—"
Suddenly, the air beca prickly, and soon after, I heard explosions erupting and clashes of tal nearby. Then above the sky, two different colors of mana clashed against each other. Analyzing it from afar, it might have been a brawl between two high-class students.
Clara and I followed the sound but on our way there, we saw an unconscious male dark elf wearing a butler suit beneath the blossoming tree. I pondered why a dark elf would be here. Beads of sweat are dripping down his forehead, his lips are dry, and from the look on his face, it looks like he's agonizing in pain. I didn't hesitate to touch his forehead and once I made contact, sothing stung .
"Ouch! What the heck was that?" I exclaid, shaking my hand profusely.
Then I narrowed my eyes. "I got electrocuted, what the heck?!"
Then I noticed a magic symbol embedded in his forehead, it's not an ordinary magic symbol because it's slave magic. Upon sighting it, it left with disdain, whoever the owner must be a rich rchant or a noble. "Slave magic, huh...? A high-tier magic one too..."
anwhile, at the far distance, the battle continued on, unyielding to lose to one another. I completely ignored it as the person in front of was far more interesting than the fierce battle itself. Strangely enough, there's also magic on top of his slave mage that's implanted in the dark elf that seems to be a seal of so sort.
The slave magic that's on him was different. I've seen them countless tis, as I encountered many of them back when I was working as an adventurer. Unlike in the world where I ca from, there are certain places that allow slavery. It's sickening, but that's the reality of this world. What's more sickening, is the fact that the temple allows this to exist.
Slaves are not cheap as the only people who can buy one is the rich rchants and nobles.
I touched his forehead again but coated my hand. "Tch. He's burning hot. This is not a simple fever."
"Young master." Clara walked in front of , putting behind her.
"Hm?" Heeding my attention toward the sound of footsteps, I saw a woman leading a group of people behind her, approaching at an alarming rate. She's not happy, to say the least. Above anything else, she's not human, given that she has purple skin and massive horns with an odd tattoo symbol on her forehead. Then, the slave mark resonated with the woman in front which led to believe that she was the master.
Clara and I took a few steps back.
Instead of us, she kicked the living hell out of the poor dark elf's face then she looked at us. "Fancy eting a visitor here. I would like to apologize for the unsightly display of my Alfonso. However, right now, we're not welcoming any visitors. As you can see from my right, a duel is transpiring between our faction and another group."
'Bullshit, there are only two people fighting over there.'
Unexpectedly, they all prepared their weapon and their spirits.
"What?" I raised an eyebrow.
"We'll kindly escort you out. Trespasser." She said with a cold grin.
"This bitch..."
In response to the imminent fight that will transpire as of right now, I distanced myself away from them by leaping in the branches and dragging Clara with . I hurriedly coated my body with quintessence. "She's bad news."
Clara slightly nodded.
"Let—Boom!"
On our left, a massive eruption of mana ensued and we almost got caught by it, but luckily enough, Clara and I leaped back through the branches in order to dodge it. The woman and her group also scattered away to evade it. As a consequence of the explosions, the entire field of pinkness was covered in smoke, making it difficult to navigate. Then through the smoke, I saw a man holding two katanas in each hand, imbued with white mana, as he cut through the thick smoke.
The thick smoke made it difficult for to identify the man, but I can see him fighting another man that's equipped with two crescented blade weapons in each hand. Both of them are relentlessly exchanging attacks against each other. Then, the wielder of two katanas whirled around, and a white dragon manifested from within his blade that lunged into his opponent, but the other guy cut through it effortlessly with his strange crescent blade weapon. Shortly after, their weapons clashed and their mana erupted yet again, clearing the thick smoke.
"What an intense fight," I muttered.
A while later, once the smoke subsided, I finally saw the two monsters fighting and I recognized one of them. The one with two katanas was none other than... "Geh! Shin?! Why is Shin Morino here? Out of all places, I t him again here."
Then out of the blue, the tree that Clara and I were standing on was sliced in half by Shin, and because of it, Clara and I got separated. When I landed on the ground, surprisingly, the protagonist's girlfriend Ami had her back against the tree clutching her abdon in pain. She took notice of and said, "You? What are you doing here?"
"I was about to ask the sa. Why are you fighting in the first place?"
"None of your business."
"It does. I'm caught between it."
Ami clicked her tongue in disdain. "... Just so disagreent."
"Which led to a fight? Wow."
"Look who's the one to talk to, I recently heard what you did yesterday."
"Wow, words go fast."
"I work for the Student Council, it's normal."
"Really? That's surprising. But still, there's a difference between this and that. My fight is not just so sort of conflict of interest. I'm pretty sure your man also experienced the sa, getting ganged up by your girlfriend's admirers. I did what I needed to do. They instigated a fight, so I accepted it wholeheartedly. They literally begged to get beaten up. You won't understand since males like us are stubborn creatures."
Ami fell into silence. "... I wouldn't say the sa about the females too. They're also stubborn. And, about you dealing with that stuff, it's rather the opposite, I'm on the sa boat because I'm the one dealing with his myriad of admirers."
"Seriously?! Don't tell he also has a fan club built for him?!"
Ami nodded.
"Damn! Lucky bastard! Where's mine?! Where's the flock of girls screaming my na?!"
Ami looks dead in the eye.
"Co on, can't I crack a joke?" I smiled ear to ear.
"Uh—"Ami paused for a brief mont and averted her gaze away. "... I... you al..."
"Hm?"
"So, why are you here?"
"Well... Once you tell why you're here then I'll tell you."
"This guy... Okay, you're persistent. Just so discussion."
"Oh! Spicy~! What is it about?"
"I won't disclose that to you." Ami frowned.
Then I pulled her by the collar to save her from the vines that rose from the ground. "Be careful," I said.
The caster of the magic had a condescending smile on her face as she approached us at a snail's pace. The first thing I noticed was her height, she's tall as a giraffe. I admit, I was a bit intimidated because of her height and also because it was my first ti eting a woman that's taller than . Then I noticed a glowing wooden stick in her right hand.
"Tch! Get away from here..." Ami glared at . "... We're in a duel, so don't interrupt!"
"You should've said that in the first place—"
"Little Ami, we're not done yet." The tall woman said in a completely high-pitched tone which was unexpected for . I don't know the reason for it, but it was really unexpected.
As she said that, her eyes slowly drifted to and her eyes widened. "You!"
"Yes, ?" I pointed to myself.
"Weakling!" She raised her voice.
"Huh? Excuse ?"
Editor: Zenon.
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