Metallurgy Department Instructor Hans Schmidt.
Art Department Lecturer Dorothy.
Statistics Department's Kam.
Architecture Department's Den.
History Department Professor Alain de Wagner.
Faculty members renowned even within the Academy, outstanding talents.
Or rather, some even stood among the ranks of masters.
Yet such people were in the extraterritorial [Parasitic Abyss], of all places.
A place where even elite soldiers hesitated to dare enter, yet they walked into such streets so confidently?
And heavyweights like them, no less?
This was proof that something was blatantly suspicious.
However.
"W-wait a moment! I-it's a misunderstanding! It seems there's a misunderstanding, so let's talk..."
"T-that's right, Sir Turtle! L-let's resolve this through conversation! Th-there is a huge misunderstanding between us!"
"Ahem, this man's temper is too hasty. We all have our reasons, too-"
Stab!
"Uh..."
Thud.
The architectural master, Den.
A large needle was embedded in his chest.
A hidden weapon frequently used among assassins.
And such a hidden weapon precisely pierced Den's chest, and he knelt as he vomited blood.
"I coated it with the goblin bastards' mixed poison. You know their poisons are mixed with so many random things that it's tricky to detoxify, right? It'll probably hurt a lot?"
"W-what in the world are you doing...!"
To hurl a hidden weapon without a word for conversation, how could there be such a lawless act!
They were genuinely furious...
"-Hah, how the hell did you know?"
Hum.
Along with a sneering laugh, he manifested 'magical power.'
A color like murky sewage, completely different from Irene Windler's beautiful wave-like hue.
But I know that this too is magical power.
...It was also the color seen from an 'Illegal Mage' who had abandoned human morality.
Blaze!
The hidden weapon melted and disappeared without a trace.
Den had burned the poison away with his magical power before they knew it.
"Keuk, it's vicious!"
However, the goblins' mixed poison was indeed vicious.
Though he detoxified it, the poisons of numerous filths were mixed in, making it strenuous to even support his own body.
If not for his magical power, it would have been hard to endure.
"You lowly knight bastard, how dare you...!"
Their good-natured smiles were gone, and now the five people only threw gazes full of contempt.
Even under their furious gazes, Lee Han remained impassive.
No, rather, he was so ruthless that it was chilling.
Flinch!
Hans felt a sense of unease and flinched, but gritted his teeth, trying hard not to show it.
"You bastard, how did you know?"
"About what."
"I'm asking how you knew our identities!"
"Is that what you're curious about in this situation?"
"It is a mage's academic zeal."
"What academic zeal, you pest bastards who only spread plagues."
"...."
Still without a hint of a smile, but with eyes somehow burning with fury, Lee Han glared at them as if they were ridiculous.
"You brainless pests, you were so obvious about trying to use people, did you really think you wouldn't get caught?"
"...."
"Odwal, was it fun having that fool move according to your will? Morons, you retarded bastards who think you're so smart. Ah, is this an insult too? The retards would be smarter and kinder than you. You're less helpful than maggots and dirtier than rapists, so nothing would serve as a fitting example for you, indeed."
"...I will absolutely not let you live."
"You're not goblins or kobolds, so why do you keep making dog-barking noises?"
"!!"
Whoosh!
Further conversation was meaningless, and they took out their staffs from their robes and raised them high.
To punish the insolent 'lesser creature' who had insulted them!
However.
Slash!
"Where do you think you're pointing that stick, you son of a bitch."
Squelch!
"Aaaargh!"
The wrist of Hans, a spellcaster who didn't even know basic etiquette, was severed by an axe.
* * *
If one were to ask when he noticed their awkwardness, he would answer like this.
'I knew from the start.'
That was how much of fools these guys were.
"[Blow, blood-wind of the north!]."
Dorothy, no, at the fingertips of this woman who had only stolen Dorothy's 'skin', there was no smell of paint or graphite unique to a painter.
Instead of the atelier smell that a famous painter should naturally have, only the stench of 'corpse odor' emanated from her.
And she wants me to believe she's a painter with this?
Not even close.
Whoosh!
Wind truly as sharp as a blade poured towards Lee Han, but he charged forward without caring in the least.
Though it was wind magic that could easily slice through human flesh.
Crack!
"Ugh!"
"Brush your teeth, they stink."
Crunch!
How could something like a blade leave a scratch on his body.
Without a single wound, he grabbed the mage's jaw and immediately crushed it.
Let alone casting spells, he would now have to live on nothing but porridge.
That is, assuming he survives.
"Re, Reni!"
"Was that bitch's name that? Then where is the real Dorothy?"
"You bastard! Let go of her!"
"There, I let go."
Whir, and the mage's body was thrown towards the others.
They tried to catch her body with psychokinesis, but unfortunately...
Stab!
"!!?"
"Y-you crazy bastard!"
Lee Han's sword pierced through her stomach, and his sword, having pierced her, accurately pierced the neck of another mage.
"Keugh...!?"
Splatter!
Architecture Department's Den.
For someone called a rumored master, the guy lacked the dignity of a master.
For an artisan, his hands were far too delicate.
If you're going to disguise yourself, you should do it properly.
"[Pierce! Sharper, more cruelly!]."
"[Fire, spread! Blazingly, burn! Like magma...!]."
Chanting that was virtually indistinguishable from screams.
But these guys are fools.
Where in the world is there a moron who uses magic while a knight is in such close proximity.
Whir!
Crack!
Lee Han's handaxe pierced right through the center of Kam's chest.
For a talent of the Statistics Department that even the royal family coveted, he was a hollow-eyed guy who reeked of nothing but drugs.
Meaning there was nothing in his skull.
"[Fire-."
After that, the remaining one tried somehow to finish the chant, but.
"━Shut up━!"
A reverberation greater than the roar of a lion, no, a great tiger, poured out, and the spell chant was immediately canceled.
Lion's Roar.
A loud shout containing Lee Han's massive aura echoed loudly throughout the entire street.
A shock spread that even caused cracks in the old buildings.
It was a roar that couldn't even be compared to the Lion's Roar he showed the cadets the day before.
And a roar mixed with such killing intent and aura was powerful in itself.
"M-my ears!? I-I can't hear...!"
"Aaaah...!"
It served as a blow in itself.
The mages' spells tangled during their chanting, and their bodies twisted in severe pain.
But the greatest damage and pain was delivered by Lee Han's roar.
Blood flowed from their ears, eyes, and noses, and some guys immediately fainted on the spot.
Alain.
Rather than a legendary historian, a 'lustful demon' who only reeked of women's perfume and the smell of blood suited him better.
"You're not even trying to hide it, you shitty bastards."
Parasitic Abyss.
They say this street is the kingdom's cancer cell and parasite, right?
Wrong.
The truly useless parasites are those things.
Things that wear other people's skins and parasitize even other people's lives.
That was Lee Han's sincere evaluation.
"H-how..."
Hans, the only unharmed mage, shivered.
In an instant, four of his comrades vomited blood and fainted or died.
Overwhelm.
Yes, it was overwhelming.
Truly, like crushing pests, he was pressing down on the race called mages like they were vermin.
"S-Sir Turtle..."
"How convenient. Earlier it was 'this guy, that guy,' and now it's an honorific again? Just pick one, will you."
Trudge, trudge.
His footsteps were getting closer.
Hans felt like he was going crazy with fear.
What kind of monster is this?
They said he was just a demoted knight, but that was definitely not a skill level that would be demoted.
"W-what the hell are you! W-why did you come to the Academy!"
"...."
"A-are you after this too!? D-did you infiltrate to get the 'Musket' blueprint left by the Grand Alchemist! I-I'll give it to you! So please, just spare my life-"
"You're disgusting, so please just shut your mouth."
Crack!
"Aaaargh!"
He stomped on his ankle.
A merciless hand.
Taking one step further, he viciously grabbed the guy's jaw.
Cruuunch!
"!!!"
He crushed his jaw just like that.
He shattered it with pure brute strength.
Furthermore.
Stab.
...He drove a large needle into his heart.
"Mages don't die easily even when their hearts are pierced. Maybe because it's the core organ of magical power, but it's definitely sturdier than a normal person. Instead, when the heart is suppressed like this, they can't even use their magical power."
"!!"
With his jaw broken and even his magical power sealed, Hans, no, the pest merely using Hans' name, struggled and writhed in pain, but it was a meaningless effort.
Escaping from Lee Han's hands was like a monkey consoling itself that it could escape after putting its hand in a crocodile's mouth.
"Haa."
Lee Han trampled on the guy just like that, then looked up at the sky.
Geez.
"These damn mosquito bastards, why do they keep coming out no matter how many I catch."
Lee Han grumbled like someone catching mosquitoes that kept appearing even after midsummer had ended.
As if what he caught weren't humans.
* * *
Meanwhile, as if to prove that there were unusually many visitors to the Parasitic Abyss today, there were those secretly watching the battle between the mages and Lee Han.
"I'm surprised. They weren't ordinary guys, but he beat them so easily."
"Is it not just raw strength but also experience? Something keeps showing up."
It was exactly as Jack said.
They were not clumsy amateurs like the mages the cadets defeated today.
They were Class-2 Illegal Mages, every one of them hesitating at neither murder nor crime.
And from Class-2 onwards, it was an issue that required an Upper Knight, or even a High Knight to step in directly.
Because from Class-2, their combat power and lethality were by no means easy to deal with.
Yet the time it took him to incapacitate such individuals didn't even take a minute.
It looked like he was playing with children, but anyone with a broad combat field of vision would know.
That his combat style was highly specialized in subduing and killing mages, and that it was also a very clever and seasoned tactic.
"He has truly grasped how to fight, no, 'how to kill' mages. He must have honed it through countless real battles."
"Did you do nothing but eat and kill mages?"
"That might be the case."
"...."
He truly might have gone around killing only mages.
Otherwise, his proficiency couldn't be explained.
Did he have some personal grudge?
At that moment.
"-How long are you going to just watch?"
"...."
"Come out, you insolent young master."
"...."
The youngest son of the North, Loen, smiled bitterly.
'He noticed after all.'
He had guessed that he couldn't fool his eyes, but it seemed he was caught so pathetically easily.
"My lord..."
"Let's go."
"If we go, it feels like we'll get beaten up?"
"At least for today, I probably should."
Loen readily admitted it, and decided that even if he beat him up, he would accept it just for today.
That was because.
"Did you come, you insolent bastard."
"...I'm sorry."
"Of course you should be. Because of you, I deliberately let them live."
Tap.
"...."
A crumpled piece of paper hit Loen's chest and fell.
The paper Lee Han found inside the scarecrow the day before.
He hadn't known who gave it, but the moment Loen was in front of him, Lee Han knew.
"Right, just as you said, I didn't kill them."
That this guy had seen right through him.
Loen nodded his head as if calmly acknowledging the fact, and surveyed his surroundings.
"It seems three are dead."
"I only killed exactly two. The woman, I pierced her stomach while avoiding her vitals. So she's still breathing. Though it wouldn't be strange if she died from blood loss at any moment. But that's not my problem."
"...I see."
But for someone who said that, he only left alive those who shouldn't die comfortably.
Does he have the ability to read the severity of their crimes?
...Well, whether it's an ability or whatever.
"You are magnificent."
It was nothing short of the desired result.
At such praise-filled remark, Lee Han said.
"I'm magnificent, right? Then, ─let's just take one light hit."
"....Ah."
Loen broke into a cold sweat when his prediction actually became reality.
It was something he had fully braced himself for, but looking around now, he felt it.
The street splattered with blood.
And even the brute strength that crushed a person's jaw like jelly.
If he were to take a 'light hit,' he wasn't sure if he would see tomorrow's sun.
'Should I have left a polite message?'
The regressor realized anew that regret, no matter how early, was always too late.