Kwaaaaang-!!
With an eardrum-shredding roar, the left wall of my dorm room collapsed in a shower of white stone dust.
“……Cough! Wh-what the hell?!”
I had just barely been about to fall asleep under a top-quality duck-down blanket when I sprang upright in horror.
Through the thick cloud of dust, Ellara walked in calmly, a silver longsword resting on her shoulder.
Beneath her military boots came the crunch of the Academy’s finest marble bricks being crushed.
“My lord, be at ease. As promised, I have opened the shortest direct route to my lord’s bedchamber.”
“……Did you just use sword aura to smash through the wall of an Academy dormitory built with the imperial budget?”
“If it is to protect my lord’s august person, I would smash even the walls of the imperial palace.”
Ellara dropped to one knee and looked up at me with eyes full of fanatical devotion.
It was at that very moment, just as I was about to clutch the back of my neck and collapse.
Craaaack-! Crash!!
This time, the entire right wall froze over at terrifying speed, then shattered into pieces with a sharp, splitting sound and collapsed.
Amid the falling shards of ice stood Sylvia, dressed in a thin negligee, arms crossed as she exuded a frigid chill.
“When some bodyguard knight bitch breaks through the wall and ruins her master’s sleep, his fiancée can’t exactly just sit back and watch, can she?”
Sylvia clicked her way inside and plopped down on the right edge of my bed.
In an instant, what should have been my cozy single dorm room had turned into an “open-air arena” disguised as a suite, directly connected to the rooms on both sides.
“Get out.”
Clutching my throbbing chest, I suppressed the urge to weep blood and growled coldly.
“Both of you, get out of my room right now. And seal up the walls you broke through.”
“But Kylan, the curse on your heart might flare up again at any—”
“Do my words sound like a joke to you? If you disturb my rest one more time, I’ll drive you wenches out even if I have to cut off your heads.”
When I snapped at them with killing intent, only then did the two women flinch and rise from their places.
“……I will bear that in mind. I shall seal the wall with a massive block of ice. If anything happens, break the ice and call me.”
“I, too, shall form a guard formation atop the rubble and keep watch through the night, my lord.”
With a snap of Sylvia’s fingers, a translucent wall of ice rose between the broken walls, while Ellara simply sat cross-legged atop the collapsed heap of stone and began her overnight guard duty.
The physical walls had been sealed, but from the left came the blue aura of a Sword Master, and from the right came subzero cold, both pouring out in real time.
In the end, that night, I had to greet the morning with my eyes wide open, without getting even a single minute of sleep.
The next morning.
Academy Training Ground No. 1.
“Attention, all of you. I am Professor Balder, in charge of instructing the first-year special combat class.”
A muscular professor with scars all over his face stood at the podium and looked down at the students.
With dark circles hanging all the way down to my chin, I stood leaning crookedly in a corner of the training ground, looking utterly haggard.
Every breath made the wound in my shoulder throb, and because of my lack of sleep, even standing was torture.
But because Ellara and Sylvia stood firmly at either side of me as if guarding me, the surrounding students did not dare approach within a five-meter radius.
“Today’s first period will be the ‘Resonance Test,’ which measures the vessel of your mana and aura. Place your hand on the ‘Aether Mana Stone’ on this podium and infuse it with your energy.
The color and size of the light emitted by the mana stone will prove your potential.”
Mana measurement.
It was the most typical first episode in a fantasy academy story.
Usually, this was when the original protagonist would show off tremendous talent and shock everyone.
“Lumen. Top-ranking special admission commoner. Step forward.”
At Professor Balder’s summons, the red-haired boy who had clashed with me in the plaza yesterday, Lumen, climbed onto the podium with a stiff expression.
Before he ascended the platform, he shot me a glare filled with burning hostility.
‘Kylan del Rothschild, who manipulates the strong through despicable means. Today, I will prove my strength, and one day, I will definitely crush that arrogant nose of yours!’
That was what Lumen’s eyes were shouting.
Lumen placed his hand on the Aether Mana Stone.
At that moment.
Fwooooosh-!!
An intense, dazzling red light burst from the mana stone, so bright it was impossible to keep one’s eyes open.
The entire training ground filled with the warm energy of the sun, and above the mana stone, the image of a massive firebird rose like a shimmering heat haze.
“Ooooooh……!”
“He’s a commoner, but he has such incredibly pure fire attribute……!”
Exclamations erupted from the students, and even the strict Professor Balder nodded in satisfaction.
Lumen removed his hand from the mana stone and once again cast me a proud look.
‘Did you see that, villain? This is my power.’
I snorted.
‘Yeah, yeah, good for you, protagonist. Keep growing up all righteous like that and go beat the Demon King later.’
But unlike my relaxed thoughts, the mad dogs at my sides seemed thoroughly displeased.
“To think they would praise a mere scrap of kindling like that as talent. I can see the level of the Academy now.”
Sylvia snorted,
and Ellara, too, caressed the hilt of her sword while leaking killing intent.
“It is deeply unpleasant to see a rat that offended my lord receive attention.”
After that, Sylvia and Ellara stepped onto the podium in turn, and each of them plunged the students into shock by emitting, respectively, a massive blue light that froze the training ground solid (mana),
and a sharp silver light intense enough to crack the mana stone (aura).
And finally, the order from hell arrived.
“Next. Kylan del Rothschild. Step forward.”
At the professor’s summons, a silence fell over the training ground as if cold water had been poured over it.
Every gaze turned toward me. Whispering reached my ears.
“Wasn’t that piece of trash a mana deficiency patient?”
“I heard he was poisoned and left half-dead. Can he even measure properly?”
Leaning on my cane, I slowly walked up onto the podium.
Cold sweat poured down my spine like rain.
My mana was literally “0.” Even if I put my hand on this Aether Mana Stone, it would end with nothing but a faint gray light, too weak to chase off a single fly.
If it was revealed that the young lord of House Rothschild, a ducal family commanding two of the strongest people in the world, had zero mana?
The villainous charisma and arrogance I had built up so far would instantly be reduced to laughable bluffing.
‘What do I do? Should I say my hand slipped and just kick the mana stone to pieces?’
Just as I was thinking up insane excuses and about to place my trembling hand on the giant Aether Mana Stone—
[Warning! The body is making contact with the Aether Mana Stone.]
[The mana stone’s pure energy is stimulating the “Curse of Karma” coiled within the body!]
[Caution! The suppressed energy of the curse (black demonic energy) is leaking out of the body!]
“……Huh?”
The instant my palm touched the mana stone.
Ruuuuumble-!!
The system’s curse gripping my heart reacted against the power of the mana stone and began to rampage madly.
“Kgh, hck……!”
I bit my lip hard against the horrific pain that felt as if it were tearing its way out of my solar plexus. Black blood that had risen up my throat trickled down and drenched the mana stone.
And the air that filled the training ground began to freeze over in an instant, turning chillingly cold and viscous.
“Wh-what is that……?!”
Someone screamed in horror.
Centered on the Aether Mana Stone beneath my hand, a pitch-black “black fog” that seemed to devour every ray of sunlight began pouring out like a waterfall.
It was neither mana nor aura. It was the most vicious and pure energy of death the system had bestowed upon me in order to kill me—the “curse” itself!
“Th-the mana stone…… The mana stone is turning black!!”
“I can’t…… I can’t breathe!”
The black energy spread throughout the training ground, choking the students. Commoners and nobles alike collapsed to the floor and began retching.
Even Lumen, who had shown off that splendid firebird earlier, staggered backward before this overwhelming and ominous energy, his sword hand trembling violently.
“Th-that’s black magic?! No, how could such a terrifying and enormous energy come from a human body……!”
Even Professor Balder shouted, his face pale.
Craaaack! Crack!!
Unable to withstand my curse, cracks began splitting across the surface of the top-quality Aether Mana Stone.
I wanted to pull my hand away immediately, roll on the floor, and scream in pain. It felt like my heart was going to burst.
However.
[Warning! Due to the leakage of the curse, the “Dignity of a Villain” is being tested!]
[If you succumb to pain here, the penalty will be intensified and your heart will rupture!]
‘You goddamn insane systeeeeem!!’
Weeping blood on the inside, I forcibly put strength into the hand resting on the mana stone.
I braced my wobbling legs, left the black blood flowing from the corner of my mouth alone, and plastered the most arrogant and cruel smile in the world onto my face.
“……You think you can measure me with a worthless pebble like this?”
Craaaash-!!!
No sooner had I finished speaking than the enormous Aether Mana Stone failed to withstand the black energy and exploded, shattering into pieces.
Amid the fragments flying in every direction, I stood upright with my cane, looking down at everyone in the training ground.
The pitch-black energy wrapped around my body and rose like a heat haze, making me look like a descended Demon God.
“You should know your place before claiming you’ll measure my vessel.”
My cold, arrogant sneer rang through the breathless training ground like a death sentence.
Silence.
A perfect crucible of fear where not even the sound of breathing could be heard.
The original protagonist, Lumen, sat collapsed on the floor and muttered as he looked up at me with eyes steeped in despair.
“Th-that absurdly evil energy…… Has that villain been hiding it perfectly all this time? Just how deep a darkness has he been harboring……?”
(Lumen’s misconception)
‘The flames I showed earlier were less than fireflies before that bastard’s immense darkness! He is true, pure evil!
With that overwhelming power, it must be that even Senior Ellara and Lady Sylvia were forced to submit and brainwashed!’
And the eyes of the two heroines watching this scene from behind me were burning with a completely different meaning.
(Sylvia & Ellara’s interpretation)
‘Ah……! To actually disguise that horrifying, enormous curse gnawing away at his heart as his own mana and seize the initiative over the Academy!
So that no one notices his weakness (his terminal condition), he is acting like such an arrogant and imposing tyrant even amid the agony of coughing up blood!’
The two women were now looking at my back with something beyond admiration—a kind of religious awe.
I tapped away the shattered fragments of the mana stone with my cane and jerked my chin at the ashen-faced Professor Balder.
“Professor. I expect you to record this immeasurable result as the highest grade. My time is precious.”
With those words, I leisurely crossed through the trembling students and left the training ground.
Of course, while my steps appeared relaxed on the outside,
in truth, if Sylvia and Ellara had not been secretly supporting both my arms while walking at my sides as my ironclad guards, my legs would have given out and I would have collapsed long ago.
‘I survived…….’
Not only had I avoided revealing the fact that my mana was 0, I had instead ascended to the position of a mad boss who wielded the worst black magic (curse) in the world.
Day 1 at the Academy.
My survival con game had, once again, succeeded by the skin of its teeth—and perfectly at that.