***
“I’m sure someone was here.”
Besaha muttered, unable to shake off his anxiety.
Even though all the students had definitely entered the secret realm, he felt as if someone was watching him.
However, there was no concrete evidence.
The surroundings were silent as if to prove that no one was there.
There was no sign of anyone, and there were no traces of anyone having been there.
“Am I just imagining things?”
Besaha scratched the side of his head and concluded that there was no one around him.
The reason for this was that he couldn’t sense Adel’s presence.
Part of the reason was that Adel had used Position Exchange to create some distance at the right time, but the main reason was Besaha’s specialized field.
‘If he had been a battle mage, he would have noticed Adel’s presence.’
No, even if he hadn’t noticed him, he wouldn’t have acted so carelessly, given the feeling that someone was watching him.
Ignoring one’s instincts in battle was akin to suicide.
However, Besaha was a theory-specialized mage, so he tended to ignore his instincts.
Mages didn't become stronger through combat and practical experience like swordsmen; they became stronger solely based on their magical achievements.
That was why Besaha, despite being a 5th Circle mage, could not wield his power like other battle-mages.
“Teaching young students is not an easy task……”
Besaha muttered weakly as he walked.
Originally, he would not have been the one to take charge of the field training alone.
If a battle-mage instructor or a martial arts instructor had accompanied him, he could have left the students to the instructor and wandered around freely.
However.
“What the hell are the demons doing, suddenly causing a terrorist attack? All they do is make things difficult for people. I should have killed them all. Tsk, tsk.”
Suddenly, a spy had sent a warning that the demons would attack the third-year dormitory of the Imperial Academy.
Naturally, the Imperial Academy…… did not panic.
The Imperial Academy had plenty of powerful individuals who could defend against even the Seven Deadly Sins of the Demon World or the instructors of Sytan.
Moreover, the Lords of the Seven Deadly Sins were currently focusing all their efforts on rebuilding their clans, which had been destroyed during the Human-Demon War.
Therefore,
The Imperial Academy judged that no real powerhouses would come even if the Demons really did carry out a terrorist attack.
The fact that they were not targeting important figures of the Imperial Academy but rather specific students gave credibility to that opinion.
However, it was impossible for them to not strengthen their defenses at all.
More than half of the instructors were stationed near the third-year dormitory.
"Sending this precious body here alone is such a bother."
Therefore, Besaha came here without any other instructors who would have normally accompanied him.
As someone who enjoyed being cooped up in a room conducting experiments, he couldn't help but feel disappointed.
He could have entrusted his work to another instructor and leisurely visited the laboratory.
In fact, even in the original story, Besaha insisted on coming alone due to his desire to experiment.
But Besaha had no way of knowing that.
"Well, it's all good."
Besaha, who had been complaining about the Imperial Academy’s management, shrugged.
It was true that the Demons were very annoying, but Besaha could not think of it as completely bad.
He would be able to use the Demons who had come crawling to terrorize the Imperial Academy as his own experimental subjects.
In the first place, he had accepted the position of instructor on the condition that the Imperial Academy would allow him to experiment on the Demons.
He was also able to pocket research funds and fame.
Besaha smiled sinisterly.
“……If that happens, I’ll be able to complete that soon as well.”
Some research that he was doing.
It was closer to the realm of ‘creation’ than research.
If the result of this research were to be completed and revealed to the world…….
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he would leave his name in history as a scholar.
In fact, it was reasonable for Besaha to have such confidence.
Besaha’s laboratory.
His ‘masterpiece’ existed there.
“With this, humans will be one step closer to God. The Demons should be grateful for this.”
After all, it was something that had been developed by spending time on magic that was ahead of its time.
How glorious was that?
Even though he had used countless Demons as experimental subjects, not even a shred of guilt could be found in Besaha.
Rather, he was simply burning with a pure passion for learning that could be felt as a slimy madness.
It was then.
Clack-.
Besaha’s footsteps stopped in front of a certain tree.
He stopped walking and scanned the tree from side to side.
'Fortunately, the security device didn't activate.'
If he had touched this tree, the entire forest would have been engulfed in a violent storm.
As expected, the feeling that someone was watching him must have been a mistake.
Besaha felt pathetic for being so frightened by such an intuition.
Swish-.
Besaha deactivated the laboratory’s security device with ease.
Then, the small tree transformed into something enormous.
It was a type of magical device that Besaha had set up to prevent his laboratory from being discovered from the outside.
Originally, it was a tree with a diameter of dozens of meters, but Besaha’s magic had reduced it to the size of an ordinary tree in the forest.
Besaha muttered to himself as he entered the laboratory inside the tree.
"Just a check-up, just a check-up."
He had to return before the students finished conquering the secret realm.
The only fortunate thing was that there was a shortcut that the students didn't know about.
Therefore, Besaha planned to check the experiment with a little more leisure.
“There are no signs of anyone else in the laboratory, so I just need to check the progress of the experiment and leave.”
The interior of the laboratory was unchanged.
It seemed that no one had touched it since Besaha had used it.
Hmm.
Just as Besaha was about to enter the laboratory, humming a tune.
“………?”
A question mark appeared on Besaha’s face.
Clearly, Besaha was the only one in the laboratory.
But.
Buzz-.
The mana shield that Besaha had cast on his body was rippling.
“Wh, what?”
An indescribable question escaped his lips.
He looked down at himself in terror. At the end of his gaze, he could see a black dagger piercing his neck.
Besaha turned his head again.
However,
“What the, there’s no one here…….”
Even though he had turned his head to check, he couldn’t find the owner of the dagger.
Did that mean the dagger had flown through the air on its own and stabbed him in the neck?
As Besaha blinked his eyes at this absurd situation.
“……!!”
A man wearing a black uniform and a white mask that contrasted sharply with it appeared before Besaha’s eyes.
His face was blurred as if surrounded by fog, so it was impossible to see his overall features.
However, he could tell that he had narrow, curved eyes and a long, thin mouth.
The man smiled sinisterly and stared at Besaha, opening his mouth.
Right in front of Besaha,
"That's a shame."
The man said.
"I could have killed you."
At that, goosebumps began to rise on Besaha's spine.
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What a shame indeed
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chapters!
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