After finishing the secret battle with Ive, in the morning lecture hall.
Amid the peaceful sound of Professor Raven’s lecture.
I could still see the students’ gazes flicking toward me, but the blatant hostility and curiosity from before had faded a great deal.
Their eyes soon shifted to the pale hand crawling across the blackboard.
Professor Raven’s corpse summon from the void.
Leaving its torso in another dimension, only its grotesquely severed wrist slid across the blackboard, taking notes.
That eerie scraping sound and Professor Raven’s dry voice filled the silence of the empty lecture hall.
“The principle of basic summoning is the resonance of mana. In this class, known as a half-baked detention center, it is the only survival formula you can salvage.”
Raven’s voice still carried contempt toward the students, but Justia continued writing his explanation in her notebook without the slightest reaction.
Her neat profile was like a sturdy breakwater, completely unmoved by the surrounding noise or the professor’s mockery.
I leaned back against the chair and closed my eyes.
The official battles challenging professors of each attribute every Friday.
And the provocation from Imperial.
There were still piles of fights I had to get through in the bleak daily life of this academy.
“That is all for today’s lecture. Whether you hang yourselves over your badges or not is your choice.”
Professor Raven’s dry voice echoed through the lecture hall one last time.
Amid the commotion of students rushing out, Justia set down her pen and let out a light sigh.
As always, she neatly organized her notebook, then rose from her seat.
I stood up after her and turned my gaze to one corner.
Evan, seated in his wheelchair, was struggling to gather his belongings.
As if he paid no mind to the cold stares that had been focused on him throughout Raven’s lecture, his expression remained indifferent.
“Let’s go, Evan.”
Justia approached first and took hold of the wheelchair handles.
Evan leaned back in the wheelchair without resistance, as if he was used to it.
“Thanks. Sorry every time.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’re going the same way anyway.”
On the way out into the corridor.
As we walked down the hallway, I could feel the students’ gazes stabbing openly toward us.
But it was different from a few days ago.
The day I crushed Lucian’s basilisk in a single blow.
And after Ive’s warning-laced provocation when we ran into her in the park, the swarms of flies hovering around us had disappeared to a strange degree.
“Come to think of it, those Imperial bastards have been quiet lately.”
Evan spoke indifferently as he rolled the wheels of his wheelchair.
“Ever since that bastard Lucian lost his basilisk and ran off whimpering, maybe the other seniors have lost interest too.”
“It probably isn’t just that they lost interest.”
I answered briefly, looking out the window.
“That person, Ive, is probably controlling things on her end so the other small fry don’t touch us carelessly.”
“I think so too.”
Justia nodded as she turned the wheelchair.
“That woman wants to trample us thoroughly on a board she arranged herself. Injecting poison and controlling the situation as if slowly drying someone to death is her method. She won’t want anyone acting rashly and ruining her plan.”
Evan shrugged.
“Well, thanks to that, isn’t it more convenient now that annoying bastards aren’t swarming us?”
“Yeah. Thanks to that, we can collect badges comfortably now.”
Just as he said, with the petty quarrels gone, an environment had been created where we could focus solely on battles.
The autonomous battles against professors held every Friday were a necessary gateway to advancing to the Grand Final.
The longer time dragged on, the more disadvantageous it became for our side.
“We don’t have a moment to waste if we want to advance to the Grand Final.”
There was firm determination in Justia’s calm voice.
Only by breaking through all of it and proving ourselves with overwhelming skill could we flatten their arrogant noses.
“Yeah. Let’s take advantage of this quiet lull and sweep up the badges for sure.”
I stretched lightly and quickened my pace. Beyond our shadows stretching long into the academy’s red sunset, Friday’s fierce battlefield was rapidly drawing closer.
“Taesan, you’re ready, right?”
At Justia’s calm voice, I nodded briefly.
“Huh? Then…”
That was when it happened.
Evan, who had been lightly tapping the wheelchair handle, wore a smile that was indifferent as usual, yet strangely out of place.
“Please help me a little too.”
“Huh?”
Justia’s and my eyes turned to him at the same time.
Evan slowly rolled the wheels of his wheelchair and blocked our path.
“I need training too. I’ve been improving more since the battle we had at the school shopping mall arena last time. I’d like to prove again just how terrible a matchup my elementalization ability is against your ignorant physical strength.”
The moment Evan finished speaking, faint waves of wind began to ripple over his pale skin.
He, who had relied on his wheelchair because his legs had no strength, was slowly rising from his seat with the power of an elemental.
The air circling through the void swirled beneath his feet, firmly supporting his unstable body.
“I also need to prove that Taesan’s attacks don’t work on me, and I need a sandbag to practice how to dodge destructive movements.”
In his dry tone was the conviction he had gained through our duel in the arena last time.
“How about we have a proper match again while we’re at it? Whether Taesan’s overwhelming physical ability can keep exerting its power to the end even in front of an elementalized summon like me. If I want to survive in my own way, I need to push myself to the limit too.”
Evan slowly took a step forward.
The strands of wind wrapped around his body sharpened further.
Justia’s eyes, filled with interest and tension, turned toward me.
Training against an opponent physical blows did not work on.
That was a new kind of wall I absolutely had to overcome in order to survive in this academy.
“Then, should we do it now?”
Justia suddenly suggested, her eyes sparkling.
“I was thinking of challenging the Elemental Studies professor this Friday.”
“What? Weren’t you going to the poison-attribute professor?”
At my question, Justia blinked lightly.
“Me? That was because I wanted to learn the countermeasures in advance while preparing for Senior Ive. We’re still severely lacking in our understanding of the elemental attribute, after all.”
She continued, rubbing her chin.
“Taesan’s overwhelming physical power is certainly a weapon, but against an elementalized summon like Evan, one that physical strikes don’t work on at all, it becomes a fatal weakness. In order to reach the Grand Final, we need to be able to control every possible variable.”
Evan quietly added as he refined the strands of wind.
“Right. I was pretty intimidated when I saw Taesan’s brute strength right in front of me at the shopping mall arena last time too. So now is the perfect time for us to cover each other’s weaknesses.”
Justia’s gaze turned to me.
“What do you think, Taesan? Practicing how to find a breakthrough in a situation where physical strength doesn’t work against Evan.”
“…All right.”
I exhaled briefly and nodded.
“Then let’s go straight to the arena.”
As if she had made up her mind, Justia turned on her heel.
Evan also lightly pushed his wheelchair and followed behind her.
I quietly followed after the two of them.
My thoughts began to grow complicated.
Even overwhelming muscular strength was useless against air drifting through the void.
As Justia said, if I couldn’t find a way to counter the elemental attribute, then forget the Grand Final—I couldn’t even be sure of next week’s battle.
“There’s no need to be too tense, Taesan.”
Perhaps reading my stiff expression, Evan glanced back and spoke quietly.
“Don’t worry too much. I did draw a water-attribute elemental in preparation for a battle against you, Taesan, but I don’t intend to rely only on that.”
A strange tension passed over Evan’s pale face.
“I’ll practice with the summon I originally used, so it’s fine if you come at me the same way as last time.”
“The same way as last time…”
That fierce attack, striking the empty air to generate a shockwave.
It had been a desperate measure I’d wrung out to destroy the main body of an elemental that physical strikes couldn’t reach.
Even after drawing a new summon capable of deploying a water-attribute field to block that, he was saying he wouldn’t rely solely on it.
There was a strange firmness in Evan’s words.
Evan was developing endlessly too.
He was making up for his fatal weakness with the ability of elementalization, finding new moves every time he hit his limits, and struggling to survive in this fierce academy.
We were not the only ones walking toward the Grand Final.
The other special class students were also gradually completing their own survival formulas in their own ways.
“Good. Then let’s push each other to the limit.”
“Then let’s go to the practice arena on the second basement floor. It was pretty useful last time too.”